His Demoness

26 ⚔️ The Bait

The gist of the story was that the owner of the courtesan house had covered up the mysterious deaths of the courtesans, thereby ensuring that her business would remain unaffected. Afterwards, she employed her close acquaintance, Dukai, to assist in solving this matter.

And the Elder suggested bringing in a new courtesan to rouse attention and bait the demon. Since Xiaoyu was the Demoness, he deduced that she would be the perfect fit to play the role.

If only he knew how much she wanted to hit him and run away.

After introducing her to the madam – whose looks were as beautiful as one would say – they were shown to a private bedroom. Now that she was going to pretend to be a courtesan for a night, the madam had instructed the maids to dress her in glamorous clothes made of expensive silk. Brownish-coloured powder and lip rogue were applied on her face.

When Xiaoyu stared at herself in the mirror, she couldn't recognise herself — a beautiful maiden. Her pallid skin was fair, the shadows under her eyes had disappeared and her pale lips were now rosy red.

This was not how she had visualised herself to be. This wasn't her, she had never looked this...pretty.

Returning to the main task on hand, her first customer was Dukai. There was no telling what was going through the mind of a womaniser. She took her seat at the other end of the long table, making sure to stay as far away from him as possible.

"Beautiful," he marvelled at her new appearance. "It's such a pity that I can't put a finger on you unless I'm courting death."

With a book in his hand, he took a sip of his tea and would sneak glances at her in the midst of his reading. "When we first met, you weren't as frightening as what people are saying," he mused. "Even now, I don't sense any malice coming from you. What exactly are you?"

His burning curiosity didn't allow him to wait for her response and he kept rambling on. "When I did what the little kid requested, I honestly wasn't expecting the soulmate summoning to work. What were the odds of Zhijian waking a sleeping princess?"

It took a few seconds for his confession to sink in. When she finally grasped what he was telling her, Dukai placed a finger on his lips. "Shh... This little secret is supposed to be between me and Zhixuan, but now you're in on this too. If you tell his older brother, he would definitely slaughter me alive." His eyes twinkled with amusement and he leaned back in his seat.

"So," he drawled, raising his eyebrows questioningly. "How do you feel about Zhijian? Do you like him? As soulmates, is it a love at first sight?"

His abrupt questions took her off guard and Xiaoyu felt her cheeks flaming in embarrassment. Growing flustered, she shook her head repeatedly but he didn't seem to buy her answer.

"You poor thing, it must be hard getting along with that boy. He is a tough one, isn't he? He would always tell me off for slacking in my duties but here he is — having a woman by his side," he chuckled. "I wonder what he thinks about you."

What did Zhijian think about her? She absolutely didn't know, but one thing was for certain — he seemed to detest her less now, seeing how he was speaking to her a lot more often.

But love? That was entirely impossible, regardless of them being soulmates or not.

Given her dark and complicated past, who would want her?

When Dukai opened his mouth to ask another question, the sudden sound of the door being wrenched open interrupted him. The moment when Zhijian stormed into the room, they knew they were in deep trouble.

"Crap," Dukai muttered under his breath. "How did this boy get here so fast?! Did he keep tabs on me, or on you? Oh! It must be that little fox!"

They could feel Zhijian's anger radiating off him in waves and filling up the whole room, weighing the air down. When his blazing eyes landed on Xiaoyu, he heaved a sigh of relief but he was still looking pissed. He advanced towards Dukai and grabbed him by the collars.