Today, The Villain Couple is Settling Scores Again

The storage room was located at the back of the first floor.

Shen Jizhi carried a heavy wooden box with one hand, pushed the door open, and stepped aside.

Jian Huan had never been here before. With her hands behind her back, she walked in like an inspecting elder, curiously looking around.

After she entered, Shen Jizhi followed, closing the door behind him and placing the wooden box to the side.

Some spirit tool materials needed to be stored away from light, so the storage room had no windows, just four solid walls.

For illumination, night spirit pearls were embedded in the walls, emitting a soft glow.

Shen Jizhi took the talisman brush Jian Huan handed him and infused a trace of spiritual energy into the surface of a nearby cabinet shelf.

The shelf, responding to his energy, slowly opened.

He retrieved a piece of spirit ink and leaned against the table to replace it for her. As he worked, he asked, "Would you like to have dinner together at home for the Mid-Autumn Festival?"

"Mid-Autumn Festival dinner?"

Jian Huan, who had been standing on her tiptoes to examine the night spirit pearls, turned around, her delicate brows arching slightly.

It was four days until the Mid-Autumn Festival, and he was asking her out for dinner.

Jian Huan pondered for a moment, unable to suppress a small smile. She lifted her chin and replied generously, "Fine, I’ll give you the honor."

The young man glanced at her briefly before looking back at the talisman brush in his hand. A faint smile flickered in his eyes as he thought for a moment and said, "I had some business in Approaching Immortal City this morning and stopped by Medicine Granny's place."

No wonder she noticed he had already left when she went out earlier.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Jian Huan walked over and leaned against the other side of the table. With a light push, she hopped up to sit on the table and asked, "How is Ran Mu'er doing?"

Shen Jizhi replied, "Still unconscious."

"Oh." Jian Huan didn’t say anything more, her feet swinging lightly in the air as she stared at the talisman brush in his hand.

Neither of them had brought up the matter of the talisman brush since the incident.

When Shen Jizhi had seen that the outer layer of the brush had been wiped clean, he hadn’t reacted at all, not saying a single word about it.

Jian Huan pursed her lips slightly and suddenly called out softly, "Hey, Shen Jizhi."

Shen Jizhi tilted his head toward her, "Hmm?"

Jian Huan met his deep, ocean-like gaze and asked, "You were the one who invited the sect leader back then, right?"

The young man’s dark lashes fluttered as he nodded, "You’ve figured it out?"

Jian Huan nodded and pressed further, "How much did it cost?" Inviting the sect leader couldn’t have been cheap.

Shen Jizhi lowered his gaze, his tone indifferent, "Is it important?"

Jian Huan looked at him with her bright black eyes, answering earnestly, "Yes, it’s important."

Shen Jizhi didn’t hide it, "Ten thousand."

"Oh." Jian Huan looked down at her shoes, lost in thought.

"Done." Shen Jizhi straightened up, cast a cleansing spell to clean his hands and the brush, and then walked over to hand it to her.

Jian Huan reached out to take it, inspecting it closely. A hint of delight appeared in her eyes as she tucked it away, satisfied. "Thanks!"

"How much spirit—" She was about to jump off the table when a flash of white robes blocked her path. The word "stones" got caught in her throat, and she widened her eyes in surprise. "What are you doing?"

The young man placed his hands on either side of her, trapping her.

He was taller than her, and while standing, their eyes were level as she sat on the table.

"I’ve been wanting to ask since I saw you," Shen Jizhi said, his voice low, like the gentle flutter of a dragonfly’s wings over a pond. "Did you come here to... kiss me?"

Jian Huan: "???"

For a moment, she thought she had misheard. Her eyes widened in disbelief, and she nearly bit her tongue. "What are you talking about?"

"Otherwise, why did you come?" Shen Jizhi tilted his head slightly, as if pondering, and continued slowly, "There are only a few people from the Talisman Hall who deliver spirit tools, and it’s not usually you."

Jian Huan: "..."

Even so, damn, how could he ask something like that so shamelessly?

They’d only kissed twice, and now he had no sense of shame left.

Jian Huan couldn’t help but raise her voice, "I was helping my senior brother, alright?!"

Shen Jizhi smiled faintly, the light from the night spirit pearls casting a moonlit glow on his face, making him look like a bewitching figure.

"Alright," he said softly, leaning closer to her. His murmured words were like melted sugar, impossible to resist. "But you don’t come here often. It wouldn’t be right to let you leave empty-handed..."

The kiss was soft and lingering, like someone gently wiping her lips with a dandelion-soft cloth.

It tickled Jian Huan so much that she melted into him, leaning forward as her hands unconsciously rested on his shoulders. Her lips parted slightly, as if inviting him to savor her.

With a soft chuckle, Shen Jizhi didn’t decline, deepening the kiss.

His hands, which had been resting on the edge of the table, now wrapped around her, tightening little by little. He wrinkled the fabric of her dress at her back, then smoothed it out, over and over again.

The walls of the storage room were thick, and with the door closed, no sound from outside could be heard.

Time drifted by in the gentle afternoon breeze, amidst the swirling of fallen leaves and the entangling of their lips.

...

After a while, the door to the storage room opened.

Jian Huan covered her mouth and walked away quickly, not looking back.

It seemed like someone was calling her, but she was too dazed to care, her lips still tingling from the kiss.

"Junior Sister Jian..." A woman in white robes called out several times, but Jian Huan didn’t stop. The woman frowned in concern, "What’s wrong with her? She’s not responding. And is she... crying?"

As soon as she finished speaking, the door to the storage room opened again.

Shen Jizhi walked out, as aloof and detached as ever. Without a glance at anyone, he headed back to the third floor, leaving only a fleeting glimpse of his profile.

"Senior Sister, I told you so. They’re definitely breaking up," a skinny man said confidently, crossing his arms. "Look at them. They must have had a fight, and Junior Sister got scolded so badly she’s crying."

In a secluded grove, Jian Huan pulled out a mirror from her storage pouch and checked her appearance.

Her lips were still red...

It wouldn’t be appropriate to return to the Talisman Hall like this.

Jian Huan squatted in the grass, contemplating her life for a moment, and decided to head to Approaching Immortal City instead.

Since he had invited her to dinner for the Mid-Autumn Festival, she wanted to give him a gift in return, as a way to thank him for the talisman brush he had given her years ago and for inviting the sect leader on her behalf.

When he had been affected by the aphrodisiac incense, she had gone to him partly out of a sense of obligation to repay a debt.

But in the end, nothing had happened, and she was grateful for that. She hadn’t been ready at all back then, acting purely on impulse.

Now, however, Jian Huan was willing to take things more seriously and give their relationship a proper try.

Jian Huan went to the Immortal Storage Tower’s Immortal Storage Pavilion.

The items at the Treasure Pavilion were all crafted by the Artifact Hall, and if he found out, the surprise would be ruined.

The stalls at the Immortal Storage Tower were cheaper, but for her first gift, she wanted to get something a bit nicer.

The Immortal Storage Pavilion was a good choice, with prices just below the Treasure Pavilion. There, Jian Huan ordered a Xuantian Mirror.

Honestly, she couldn’t understand why he still didn’t have a Xuantian Mirror. It wasn’t like she had forbidden him from buying one just because he hadn’t repaid his debt.

Three days later, on the afternoon before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Jian Huan went to the Immortal Storage Pavilion at the agreed-upon time to pick up the Xuantian Mirror.

She wore a black robe to conceal her face and waited idly.

With the Mid-Autumn Festival approaching, many people were buying gifts, and there were several customers ahead of her.

The shopkeeper was busy retrieving their orders.

"Hey, have you heard? The Frugal Man is back. Someone saw him in the tower a few days ago!" one customer chatted.

At the mention of "Frugal Man," Jian Huan’s eyes beneath the black robe flickered, and she listened intently.

"That’s right," the shopkeeper chimed in as he packed a spirit tool into an exquisite wooden box. "He even came to my shop to buy something. Wow, he spent forty thousand! That’s the Frugal Man for you—earns a lot, spends a lot!"

After a pause, he added, "But he only spent thirty-six thousand. As the top-ranked person on the tower’s mission board, he gets a ten percent discount."

Jian Huan, hearing this, couldn’t help but chuckle and tease, "Really? What did he buy?"

She didn’t believe it at all, thinking the shopkeeper was just making things up, like modern shop owners who love to boast about which celebrity had visited their store.

Shen ​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌‌​​​​‌‌​​​​‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​​‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​​‌​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌‌​​​‌​​​‌‌​​​​​​‌‌​‌​‌​‌‌​​​‌​​‌‌​​​‌‌‍Jizhi spending thirty-six thousand spirit stones at the Immortal Storage Pavilion? That seemed highly unlikely.

He only had eighty thousand on him, and she knew his spending habits well. Like her, he wouldn’t splurge like that unless it was a matter of life and death.

And if it were a life-or-death situation, he’d spend it at Medicine Granny’s place, not the Immortal Storage Pavilion.

Besides, he still owed her a hundred thousand.

Though she often joked about fearing he wouldn’t repay her, deep down, Jian Huan knew that someone who had repaid two million for his master wouldn’t default on her hundred thousand.

If he hadn’t paid off that debt, he wouldn’t have been able to spend so lavishly. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have lived such a frugal life before just to repay his master’s debt.

“Of course, it’s true,” the shopkeeper said with great enthusiasm, as if afraid Jian Huan wouldn’t believe him. “I remember it clearly. It was three days ago, early in the morning, when he came to my shop! And this wasn’t the first time he’s spent money here either. He’s been here several times, spending hundreds of thousands of spirit stones in total.”

Jian Huan was slightly stunned.

Three days ago, in the morning? That was the day he had invited her to have dinner on Mid-Autumn Festival. He had indeed mentioned that he had come to Approaching Immortal City that morning.

Jian Huan instinctively furrowed her brows. “What did he buy?”

“What a guest buys is their secret. I can’t reveal that,” the shopkeeper said cheerfully, his spirits high due to the booming Mid-Autumn Festival business.

A customer nearby, eager to share, chimed in, “That’s right. I also ran into Frugal Man at the pavilion over four months ago. I even greeted him, but he wasn’t very sociable.”

He’s been here several times… and spent hundreds of thousands?

Four months ago?

At that time, she had been in seclusion…

The situation was so unexpected that Jian Huan’s brows, hidden beneath her black hood, furrowed tightly. She fell silent, her gaze fixed on the ground, her eyes filled with deep suspicion.

What on earth is going on?

If what the shopkeeper and the others said was true, and Shen Jizhi had indeed spent hundreds of thousands of spirit stones here, then he must have had that much money all along.

So… he could have repaid her 100,000 spirit stones long ago, but instead, he left her a note saying “it’s her turn,” making her think he was about to repay her and leading her to excitedly follow the clues he deliberately left in his room to Ningzhang City?

Is that what happened?

Of course, it’s also possible that the shopkeeper was just boasting about Shen Jizhi.

Or perhaps he had some hidden reason.

“Knock, knock, knock.” The shopkeeper rapped loudly on the table three times.

Jian Huan finally snapped out of her thoughts, feeling a bit dazed. She asked instinctively, “What is it?”

The shopkeeper pushed a wooden box toward her, looking puzzled. “Your Xuantian Mirror is ready. What’s wrong? I’ve been calling you, but you didn’t respond.”

Jian Huan let out a light sigh, staring at the wooden box, her expression under the hood wavering. She tentatively asked, “Can I not take this for now?”

She needed to get to the bottom of this “100,000 spirit stones” matter first.

The shopkeeper quickly replied, “You can’t! The engraving on this mirror is custom-made. Unless there’s an issue with the mirror itself, it can’t be returned! I warned you about this earlier when you placed the order…”

This particular Xuantian Mirror was expensive, costing 12,000 spirit stones, and the engraving could be customized according to the customer’s request.

Three days ago, Jian Huan had given the shopkeeper a design she had created herself.

Jian Huan took a deep breath and said nothing more. She grabbed the Xuantian Mirror, tossed down the remaining 6,000 spirit stones she owed, and turned to leave.

Damn it, Shen Jizhi better have a good explanation.

Otherwise, next year’s Mid-Autumn Festival will be his Qingming Festival!