My Enemy Became My Cultivation Companion

Chen Yi couldn’t help letting out a soft sigh, then felt he was being too greedy; clearly, both women were already in love with him, their relationships with him already set, so there was no real need to pursue that last shred of perfection—two brides taken and wedded on the same day.

.........

"If it’s not perfect ten out of ten, then I’m going to give him eleven out of eleven."

Yin Weiyin’s lips curved slightly, her smile brimming; she walked around the screen and swept a glance over Lin Wanxiao, whose expression held a touch of hesitation.

Miss Lin lifted her eyes only to drop them down again in a flash, her thoughts in utter disarray.

Moonlight filtered through the thin gauze and fell across the young lady’s face; that slender, pale throat trembled faintly, as if it could not bear the slightest breaking. Lin Wanxiao bit her lip and spoke: "How did you come to think of this, how did you come to think of me..."

Yin Weiyin turned her head back and glanced at her, a deeper meaning in her gaze, and said slowly:

"How else would I think? You’re the most suitable, so I thought of you. The time has come to repay your Sister Yin."

Lin Wanxiao’s eyes flickered with instinctive resistance. For Yin Weiyin to come this time, she actually meant to have her do something so utterly absurd; what woman in this world would willingly agree?

She... she was actually asking her to...

Go and share that great quilt, go be the bed companion!

If Lin Wanxiao were not at least somewhat learned and sensible, and if she did not understand this female crown’s temperament, she would never have endured such humiliation; she would have been driven to threaten death.

"Lin Zhenlan, do you think I’m being excessive?"

Yin Weiyin’s voice remained gentle, as though discussing the refreshments of the day, yet in those long autumn-water eyes there was not a trace of warmth, only a chill that saw straight through the human heart.

At that form of address, Lin Wanxiao’s heart gave a sudden tremor, as if the two characters "Zhenlan" had become a mockery.

She clenched her sleeves so tightly that her fingertips turned white, her voice carrying a slight tremor: "Is this... is this not excessive? Immortal Lady Yin, I respect your noble background and your profound Taoist Skill, but you... how can you propose such... such a shameless thing!"

"Shameless?"

Yin Weiyin tilted her head a little, the smile at the corner of her lips deepening; she walked slowly closer, her white robes flowing with a cold luster in the moonlight,

"Aren’t you always resenting that he doesn’t care about you?"

Lin Wanxiao immediately refuted her: "When have I ever!"

Once she said it, her gaze flashed with startled anger, then dimmed again, and she said, "I am a widow who keeps to my widowhood..."

"You don’t even wear mourning clothes; what’s the point of deceiving yourself now?" Yin Weiyin scoffed. Seeing the complex shifts in Lin Wanxiao’s expression, she went on slowly, "Wanxiao, little sister, tell me, what is chastity and shame? Is it clinging to those empty, illusory rites, watching with eyes wide open as the one you care for grows more and more distant, and in the end you’re left with nothing, condemned to keeping a living widow’s chastity? Or is it... seizing every possible chance, even if your means aren’t exactly clean, to secure yourself a place in his heart?"

She stopped in front of Lin Wanxiao and looked down at her from on high, so that Lin Wanxiao had to tilt her head up slightly to meet her gaze; this posture made the pressure on her double.

Miss Lin’s breathing was quick and shallow.

Yin Weiyin smiled faintly, guiding her step by step: "Lin Wanxiao, you’ve already given your body to him; why not go one step further? Can you really bear to let all your efforts so far go to waste?"

"I... I can’t do it..." Lin Wanxiao shook her head, the rims of her eyes turning slightly red. "That’s their marriage bed on the wedding night! What am I? Some muddled, unclear... widow barging in? How am I supposed to live with myself afterward? How will others see me?"

"Others?" Yin Weiyin laughed softly, with a touch of disdain. "Wanxiao, you still care about other people’s eyes? When you followed me up Dragon and Tiger Mountain, when you buckled under pressure and crawled onto his bed, you should have known you were already his mistress."

Yin Weiyin’s words chilled Lin Wanxiao to the bone. She wanted to argue, but found herself speechless; Yin Weiyin’s words were like a blunt knife, slowly cutting open the reality she had never wanted to face.

Yin Weiyin bent down, her breath brushing almost against Lin Wanxiao’s ear, her voice pressed even lower,

"Do you think Min Ning lingers in his thoughts just because of the bond of knowing him when he was poor and obscure? No. It’s because she is special—special enough to make him break with convention, special enough to stir his pity and also his awe. Do you think Qin Qingluo can marry him with a formal ceremony only because of her power? No. It’s because she is forceful—forceful enough to compel him to truly face her, forceful enough to stand equal to him and contend.

And now, by such a coincidence, these two women he cannot fully grasp have come to a point where they are about to be like fire and water."

"...And what... what does that have to do with me..."

"What does it have to do?" Yin Weiyin smiled, then said, "Tonight is an opportunity. It is not for you to go compete for favor, nor to fawn on him. When these two women meet again, they will inevitably come close to open conflict. Chen Yi just happens to be caught in the middle, unable to handle it well; that is why he needs you. With you as the bed companion, it will be easy to go with the flow, to borrow the slope to get off the donkey.

They see each other as mutually exclusive, and in that moment they forget all about Chen Yi’s philandering, want him to choose one over the other; if you go, then he can have them both."

The more Lin Wanxiao listened, the more absurd it seemed; her silver teeth clenched tighter, yet she still could not force out a single word of refusal.

Watching the violent struggle in Lin Wanxiao’s eyes, Yin Weiyin knew the timing was ripe; her tone eased a little, tinged with a sigh that was almost sympathetic:

"Wanxiao, I know this is hard. But think it through: will you cling to this useless lofty purity, and in days to come watch the women at his side change one after another, while you can’t even leave a trace? Or... will you stake everything, so that from this night on, whenever he thinks of tonight, whenever he thinks of Qin Qingluo, even of Min Ning, he cannot help but think of you as well?

Believe me, he has always been soft-hearted toward women. In the future, the one he marries openly and properly—there’s no saying it won’t be you."

Lin Wanxiao’s breathing grew hurried; every word Yin Weiyin spoke was like a heavy hammer, striking at the crumbling defenses of her heart.