The Cold, Aloof Dominatrix After Parasitically Entering a Rich Family - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Sister, Shall We Watch a Movie? The Truest Form of Speechless…

The Spirit World’s Advice

When Tu Si found she could no longer send messages, the Rabbit Spirit looked at her with an expression of pity for the intellectually disabled. It shook its head and called over the Fox Spirit.

“I remember you have some kind of manual. Lend it to this silly Wisteria Flower,” the Rabbit Spirit exhaled a smoke ring.

The Fox Spirit squinted and scanned the Rabbit Spirit. “How come I don’t remember having any manual I could lend her?”

The Rabbit Spirit dramatically groaned, “Aiya, just help Hu Die out.”

Hu Die (Butterfly Spirit) walked over with a plate of wild mulberries. “I hear someone wants to help me?”

The Rabbit Spirit: “Just A-Li’s Human Usage Manual. I think the little flower could use it.”

Hu Die delicately pinched the largest mulberry with a curled finger and offered it to the Fox Spirit. “Try one, it’s good for beauty.”

The Fox Spirit cautiously turned its head away. “That manual can only be used by my kin, and every use drains a lot of spiritual energy. The Wisteria Flower hasn’t even found her host yet; how can she afford it?”

“Don’t worry, our Tu Si won’t need it. She’s already hooked a rich husband on her first outing, hasn’t she?” Hu Die’s tone was very proud.

The Rabbit Spirit couldn’t hold it in and burst into laughter. It picked up Tu Si’s phone, read the messages, and sighed, “It looks like she can’t even tell the difference between male and female. Sister Hu Die has a lot to teach her.”

Tu Si didn’t know why they were laughing or why she suddenly couldn’t send messages. All she knew was that if she didn’t find a host soon, her roots would quickly wither.

…

The Uninvited Date

On Friday afternoon, Gong Shayu received a message from her mother. This time, it wasn’t a subtle probe but a very direct line: 【Mom’s waiting for you next month, you know】 accompanied by a heart-hands emoji.

“…” Gong Shayu looked up and saw someone standing by her car.

The person was leaning bonelessly against the driver’s side door. They looked like they had been waiting for a long time, impatiently kicking the tire. As if hearing the click of Gong Shayu’s heels, the person immediately straightened up and looked in her direction.

Tu Si was wearing two high braided pigtails, a green crop top, and hot pants. Her long, straight legs were blindingly white. Gong Shayu took a moment to realize the two wide straps matching her shirt were the straps of a backpack.

Childish, but full of youthful energy.

Seeing Gong Shayu approach, Tu Si quickly moved, and in the few steps it took to rush towards her, she casually slapped two mosquitoes dead on her thigh.

“Sister,” Tu Si called out affectionately. Gong Shayu swore that in her twenty-six years of life, she had never encountered anyone so naturally brazen.

“Stop.” Gong Shayu held out her right hand, maintaining an arm’s length distance from Tu Si.

Tu Si’s lips drooped slightly, her eyes moist, showing just the right amount of pitiful grievance. “Sister, why are you avoiding me, and why did you delete my WeChat? I was just—”

“You can shut up now.” The Human Usage Manual in Tu Si’s mind interrupted her.

At the Fox Spirit’s request, the manual had become an audiobook, implanted in Tu Si’s consciousness, while also absorbing her limited spiritual energy.

Gong Shayu recalled the screen full of “Sister.” This girl had somehow managed to get Assistant Fang’s WeChat, found her car, and—most importantly—happened to appear at the restaurant at that precise moment?

She didn’t question Tu Si directly, but she could sense the determination of the person behind the scenes who wanted to push this girl into her bed. Who would be so sure that she would be swayed by a woman (and a mere girl at that)?

Gong Shayu’s mind was flooded with faces. Too many suspects made it difficult to judge. Honestly, aside from her looks, this girl had nothing to compare to her previous pursuers. And this kind of cheap, crude trick was utterly beneath Gong Shayu’s notice.

But, a person’s energy is limited. Even the deified Third Miss Gong was no exception. Her battlefield wasn’t just the company; it was also her father’s house. Even visiting her mother required putting on a mask. The pervasive masquerade had long made her forget which self was real and which was merely an act.

“Sister, let’s go see a movie.” Tu Si pulled two movie tickets from her pocket. “I heard this movie is really interesting.”

“Not interested.” Gong Shayu was expressionless, her tone icy, carrying a natural aloofness that kept people a thousand miles away.

Although Tu Si’s thought process was different from ordinary people, her ability to read subtle cues had recently advanced in leaps and bounds.

She remembered that she had spent the entire afternoon getting ready, searched the parking garage for nearly half an hour, and waited for two hours, getting bitten by over a dozen mosquitoes.

Tu Si took a deep breath, forced a smile, and moved closer to Gong Shayu, gently saying, “Sister, let’s just go see it. I’ve never seen a movie before.”

The girl’s intentions were completely written on her face. To come up with such a ridiculous excuse! Gong Shayu found herself half-smiling with exasperation. “What’s so good about an ancient mythological story?”

Besides, she hated watching so-called romance stories; they were so fake they made her sick.

…

The Cinema Incident

When they rushed to the cinema, the movie had already been playing for five minutes. Judging by how much trouble Tu Si had finding the screen, the child truly was seeing a movie for the first time.

Tu Si stared intently at the screen. A dark and eerie atmosphere enveloped the entire theater, and you could hear a pin drop.

Suddenly, with a ripping sound, the Fox Demon dug out a soldier’s heart and slowly chewed it. Tu Si shrieked, clutching Gong Shayu’s arm and trying to burrow into her embrace.

The sudden soft touch on her arm was like a burn.

Gong Shayu: “…”

Manual: “…You.”

Gong Shayu caught a faint floral scent from Tu Si, a fragrance she had never smelled before. Underneath the sweet perfume, it smelled like a forest washed by rain, with a clear, wild aroma.

Third Miss Gong frowned, extended her hand, and placed her palm on Tu Si’s forehead. “Get away from me.”

Tu Si glanced at Gong Shayu’s face. As the screen colors changed, that flawless face shifted hues, the only constant being the hint of anger in her eyes.

She reluctantly released her arm and retreated half a meter. Still, she couldn’t help but say, “Actually, Fox Spirits don’t eat human hearts. They only like to eat mice or chicks.”

Gong Shayu: “…So?”

Tu Si: “So… demons aren’t that bad.”

The commotion was perhaps too loud, as a nearby moviegoer let out a technical-sounding cough. Tu Si thought Gong Shayu hadn’t heard and scooted closer again. “So, I was scared by that bloody scene.”

“…” Gong Shayu felt like her brain had short-circuited. Why did I even ask her?

Tu Si, thinking she was interested in the Fox Spirit, offered triumphantly, “Once our relationship improves, I’ll introduce you to Sister Fox, and you’ll…”

“Shut up.”

“Oh.”

The chatter in her ear finally ceased. Gong Shayu leaned back in the black seat, staring at the screen’s display of romance she never believed in. This was just a show for naïve young girls, designed to emotionally trick them into tears. She, Gong Shayu, never needed any superfluous feelings.

Tu Si, having been commanded to shut up, quickly retreated into her own emotions like a clocking-out worker. She followed the movie’s emotional arc, sometimes bursting into loud laughter, sometimes silent, sometimes quietly sobbing, and sometimes weeping loudly.

Gong Shayu suspected she was a paid professional audience member.

Whenever there was a slightly profound line of dialogue, Tu Si would stop crying and look utterly confused.

“She is a demon; I should kill her, but as her husband, how can I abandon her?” (1)

Tu Si cried along with the actor, her unrestrained emotion making it impossible for Gong Shayu, who hated movies, not to notice her.

Gong Shayu looked down, her gaze sweeping from the curled, dense lashes on Tu Si’s profile to her high nose bridge.

Her skin was too pale, gleaming white in the dim cinema light. The black eyes, which seemed able to pierce past and present, were now misty, tears gathering into crystal droplets that slid down her cheek, finally stopping near her full, plump lips.

They looked very kissable.

Gong Shayu was startled by her own thought and quickly looked away, but that damned woodsy, floral scent refused to leave her, stinging her nose and making her ears burn.

She didn’t want to judge Tu Si’s looks, and outside of her looks, she didn’t want to judge anything else about her.

Tu Si, immersed in the film, had no idea her face had been scrutinized by the person next to her multiple times.

Before coming to the movie, Hu Die had told her that movies were all lies and that many of the actors were actually spirits.

Of course, with Tu Si’s level of cultivation, she couldn’t tell who was who. The Butterfly Spirit had repeatedly emphasized that she must never tell any human her identity. At the time, she hadn’t wondered why.

But now, she thought she knew why.

“The human and demon paths diverge.”

The movie ended, and the cinema lights suddenly came on. Tu Si was crying with a rain-drenched pear blossom look, tears mixing with black mascara to form two winding black streams down her face.

“Tu Si? Tu Si! Wake up!” The Manual was practically screaming. “Your makeup is ruined!”

Gong Shayu took a handkerchief from her bag and placed it in Tu Si’s palm, letting out a cold snort. “You could pursue acting.”

The silky touch and the Manual’s shouting made Tu Si abruptly sit straight. She offered Gong Shayu an apologetic smile. “Sorry, I just got so emotional.”

Gong Shayu saw the black streaks on her face. She pointed to her own face, gesturing for Tu Si to wipe up. Although the mess on her face had nothing to do with her, seeing it made Gong Shayu uncomfortable. Third Miss Gong was already exercising immense patience by not wiping it herself.

Seeing the gesture toward the face, Tu Si immediately thought of a short drama she watched last night and didn’t hesitate to kiss Gong Shayu on the side of her cheek.

Gong Shayu: “!!!!!!!!!”

Gong Shayu, twice assaulted by sudden softness, felt like she had kicked a beehive. A swarm wrapped in sunlight exploded in her ears, the buzzing wings leaving her mind blank, and an electric current creeping up her spine.

At the same time, Tu Si confirmed something again: contact with Gong Shayu created a very comfortable feeling, just like when she was wrapped around the old Banyan tree. She could actually absorb the other party’s nutrients!

In that case, until she found her bl00d-contract host, Gong Shayu could serve as a temporary host.

Gong Shayu pinched her brow, suddenly feeling like laughing.

The girl’s intentions were so transparent, and her eyes were so honest. She looked so earnest, clumsy, and completely undisguised about her goal of finding a sponsor. Gong Shayu didn’t need to waste a single brain cell to see through her poor performance.

To be treated as prey by such a person…

The truest form of speechlessness is when you really want to laugh.

(1) Paraphrased from the movie Painted Skin (画皮) dialogue. (2) The values of the characters in the text do not represent the author’s own values.