ATLAS TRANSLATES

“Sister, why haven’t you opened the door yet?” The female voice outside was low and slightly husky. Yet it was so alluring, stirring one’s heart, making one’s pulse race.

“As expected of a fox spirit!” The young lady Luo gritted her teeth inside the room. This made her even more unwilling to open the door easily.

She anxiously tidied her appearance but couldn’t find a bronze mirror. Luo Lingyu wanted to cry but had no tears. She couldn’t even find a washbasin. She could only hastily fix her hair by feel, doing her best to make herself presentable.

Meanwhile, the room was full of pottery she had smashed earlier, along with the table that Lu Yun had kicked in half before leaving. Luo Lingyu’s face flushed red – how could she let Xuechen laugh at her? Let Xuechen see at a glance that Lu Yun had kicked over the table during their argument?

So Luo Lingyu worked hard, frantically, to clean up the ceramic shards on the ground and hide the broken table. She was sweating profusely from the effort.

The door knocked twice more. Hearing the continuous rustling sounds from inside, Xuechen smiled ambiguously: “Sister, you’re not getting dressed up, are you? Do you want me to wait two hours?”

Based on Lu Yun’s understanding of Luo Lingyu, when had she ever spent less than two hours getting ready before going out to see people? He didn’t want to make Xuechen wait that long.

Xuechen hadn’t complained for long before the door opened, with Luo Lingyu coming to open it herself.

Luo Lingyu was both suppressing extreme jealousy and worried that her makeup looked terrible – she didn’t want Xuechen to see her like this. When opening the door, she only quickly glanced up once before lowering her gaze again, putting on the elegant and noble bearing of a noble lady.

The young lady Luo had slender shoulders and a narrow waist, with a graceful figure in her green silk dress, moving with such refined charm.

Luo Lingyu smiled and invited her in: “Please enter, Lady Chen.”

In that casual glance at Xuechen, she was shocked in her heart – how could this woman be so tall? Being just a qin player by birth, how could she carry herself with such elegance in her long dress and silk ribbons? Her appearance and temperament were so aloof and otherworldly, even more noble than herself who came from an aristocratic family?

But Luo Lingyu secretly rejoiced: her figure was better than Xuechen’s. Didn’t Lu Xuechen like her chest? Xuechen had a flat figure with barely any chest to speak of.

Luo Lingyu didn’t recognize him at first. Xuechen’s eyebrow twitched as she removed her shoes to enter, finding it somewhat amusing. Upon entering the room, her cold eyes casually swept over the room’s arrangement, seeing it neat and tidy – the chaos from Lu Yun’s earlier departure was now completely gone. Xuechen’s lips curved up in what seemed like a subtle smile.

This smile, caught in Luo Lingyu’s peripheral vision, felt like a provocation.

Luo Lingyu specially served tea for this woman. While pouring tea, she brushed her cloudy temples. She didn’t look at Xuechen, but turned her face down, letting her most beautiful features fall into view of this woman.

Luo Lingyu sighed, showing off: “I must seem amusing to elder sister. The room is crude because earlier during an argument, brother Xuechen broke some things, and then said he would buy new ones for me. Who asked him to buy them? Yet he insists, ah.”

Xuechen laughed softly, drawling: “Oh… is that so? He’s not here?”

Luo Lingyu believed this woman was here looking for Lu Yun, and all her hackles rose. She knelt down opposite the lady, pretending to be extremely shy as she covered her face with her sleeve, complaining coyly: “Brother Xuechen told me to wait for him ‘in his room’, but he didn’t tell me sister Xuechen would be coming!”

Luo Lingyu put on airs as the hostess with fake sincerity: “Shall I have a servant inform him?”

Xuechen seemed surprised: “Wasn’t it little sister who wanted to see me?”

Luo Lingyu lowered her eyelids, cursing Lu Yun in her heart for even telling Xuechen about this. On the surface she smiled gently: “Not at all. Brother Xuechen just talks nonsense. Please drink the tea, sister. I brewed it myself.”

Xuechen took a sip, suddenly smiling: “Little sister brewed this? Wasn’t it actually brewed by Lu Yun?”

She could even tell Lu Yun’s tea?! Just how intimate was Lu Yun’s relationship with her?

Luo Lingyu’s eyelid twitched again as she watched Xuechen’s elegant and noble bearing as she raised the tea. She gazed over resentfully to see the lady opposite using her sleeve to cover her face, only revealing a pair of eyes. Noticing Luo Lingyu’s stare, Xuechen’s eyes – as alluring as peach petals – gazed back…Luo Lingyu felt a slight sense of familiarity, but blinded by jealousy, she had no mind to think about what felt familiar.

Luo Lingyu deliberately asked: “I hear sister is from Luoyang, a qin player. Do people in Luoyang drink tea? I must be narrow-minded, I thought qin players wouldn’t know about tea.”

She intentionally mocked the other’s humble origins.

Xuechen humbly said: “It’s all… Lu Yun’s ability. I originally should only know how to play the qin, but actually, my family has ten thousand books – you could say I’m quite learned.”

Her words hinted at her true identity, but to Luo Lingyu’s ears, this was blatant showing off. Why should Xuechen be impressive just because Lu Yun was? Luo Lingyu held in this anger, her eyes about to turn red again, feeling extremely bitter.

When Luo Lingyu spoke to her again, Xuechen responded unhurriedly.

Luo Lingyu’s words were full of self-importance, showing off her relationship with Lu Yun, hinting that the other should know better and withdraw. But Xuechen acted as if she didn’t understand, no matter what Luo Lingyu said, Xuechen would lightly continue the conversation, taking the opportunity to show off her special relationship with Lu Yun.

Shameless! Even more shameless than her! It angered Luo Lingyu so much she wanted to throw hot tea in Xuechen’s face!

Luo Lingyu had grown up among ladies, and she herself was calculating and two-faced. Usually when socializing, she always emerged victorious. But tonight she met her match – this lady was practically her mirror image, extremely two-faced, with a naturally noble and otherworldly temperament on the surface, speaking with cultured grace, yet like her, beating around the bush and never getting to the point.

…Luo Lingyu felt sick to her stomach.

She had never met such an evenly matched fox spirit to duel with!

Being just a fifteen-year-old lady putting on airs, having already been angered by Lu Yun earlier and then provoked by Xuechen for so long, she really felt both wronged and jealous, unable to keep up the act. She mentally prepared herself, warning herself that even if she looked unbearably ugly, she had to see clearly what Xuechen looked like. She suddenly raised her eyes to look directly at Xuechen opposite her.

At first glance, she was stunned by the beauty.

However, that strange sense of familiarity hit her again.

Seeing her looking again, Xuechen curved her lips in an ambiguous smile.

Luo Lingyu stared blankly at the person. The dignified Xuechen had none of a young lady’s delicate beauty – her bone structure was proper, her lip lines sharp and upturned. The lady’s features weren’t soft, yet she had the grace of a noble family’s daughter, while also being as sharp as an ice blade or snow sword. She was very magnificent and beautiful. Sitting properly, casually glancing over, composed and calm. Such a piercing beauty easily overshadowed others, making people look up to her…

Even without speaking or smiling, she was unforgettable.

Luo Lingyu’s eyes turned red with jealousy.

Until Xuechen stared steadily at her.

Xuechen sighed softly. She suddenly leaned forward across the table, raising her hand to hook Luo Lingyu’s chin. Luo Lingyu’s eyes widened as she heard Xuechen’s voice suddenly change: “Silly girl, will staring at me make flowers bloom?”

Luo Lingyu shuddered: This this this masculine voice, it it it was exactly like someone’s…

She stared rigidly, not yet having reacted, when this Lady Xuechen leaned across the table and kissed her soft lips.

Rolling, grinding. Hooking her tongue, twisting hundreds of times. Fingers loosely rubbing her hair, the lady’s thick long eyelashes like brushes falling on her face. Still kissing while laughing.

Luo Lingyu: “…!”

She was forcefully kissed by a lady! Actually forcefully kissed by a woman!

Why did Xuechen kiss her? Wasn’t Xuechen supposed to be Lu Xuechen’s lover? Why… mmm, Xuechen’s lips, the taste of her kiss… her incomparably beautiful face pressed against her own, her breathing rhythm…

Xuechen held the back of her head, sighing between kisses: “Silly little sister, you still haven’t recognized me?”

Luo Lingyu suddenly pushed her away, hitting this lady’s shoulders hard. Her tongue was numbed from the kissing, and being kissed by a lady felt incredibly strange. The woman opposite had such great strength that she couldn’t break free from the grip on her wrists. After pushing away this lady who had kissed her, Luo Lingyu covered her reddened lips that had been sucked moist. With the back of her hand covering her mouth, Luo Lingyu gasped and jumped up, raising her voice: “Lu Xuechen?!”

Luo Lingyu broke down: “How can it be you?!”

Lu Yun was pushed to the ground by the collapsed Luo Lingyu, his clothes disheveled as he wiped the lip rouge from his mouth. His face stiffened slightly, and when he looked up at her, Lu Yun still raised his eyebrows nonchalantly: “…Good sister, it’s been me all along.”

“Who else did you think it was?”

Luo Lingyu: “…”

…

The soldiers’ ambiguous attitude, Lu Yun’s reluctance to discuss Xuechen.

And Xuechen’s hints throughout their conversation.

Lu Yun’s familiarity with Xuechen.

Why Xuechen’s handkerchief was with Lu Yun, why Lu Yun could guarantee Xuechen would never appear before her.

All at once, everything became clear.

…

Luo Lingyu collapsed to the ground, staring dumbly at her lover dressed as a lady opposite her, her expression incredibly complex. That magnificently beautiful Xuechen came over, embraced her waist, held her in his arms, letting her face rest in the crook of Xuechen’s neck.

But it was Lu Yun’s male voice: “…I told you not to overthink things, but you wouldn’t believe me, so I had no choice but to do this.”

Luo Lingyu clutched his sleeve, trembling: “It was you, it was you… Brother Xuechen, Sister Xuechen, actually the same person… Yes, I was so stupid, Xuechen is just Xuechen reversed, I didn’t even realize, and I got angry with you…”

What utterly pointless anger!

In an instant she understood Lu Yun’s resistant reaction whenever Xuechen was mentioned – not because he was having an affair, but because he didn’t want her to see his embarrassing side. He had no intention of letting “Xuechen” appear again, he tiredly asked “why can’t you just forget”… but for the sake of his dear sister Yuer not crying anymore, to remove this thorn from Luo Lingyu’s heart, Lu Yun steeled himself to let “Xuechen” appear again.

He loved her so much that he sacrificed his own pride to comfort her.

Luo Lingyu trembled, her voice muffled: “Why, why didn’t you tell me earlier, letting me misunderstand you…”

Lu Yun stroked her hair, patted the back of her neck, comforting her not to cry. But she hugged his neck, face buried in the crook of his neck, her whole body shaking terribly, something wasn’t right.

Lu Yun: “…”

He expressionlessly grabbed her neck, pulling this little woman buried in his embrace away slightly, staring at her face. Luo Lingyu’s face was serious and proper, but after making eye contact with Lu Yun twice, seeing how beautifully magnificent Xuechen was… Luo Lingyu couldn’t help it, trembling as she burst into wild laughter, laughing as she fell into Lu Yun’s embrace.

She mocked him greatly: “Hahaha, you actually dressed as a woman! Sister Xuechen you’re so beautiful… From now on I don’t want ‘Brother Xuechen’ anymore, I just want ‘Sister Xuechen’ okay? Sister Xuechen, I really like you. You’re so pretty, I’ll teach you new makeup techniques in the future okay? Look, your flower ornament isn’t placed properly, sister…”

Lu Yun’s face darkened: “Luo Lingyu, don’t go too far.”

Luo Lingyu was about to laugh herself to death: “Sister, what can you do… Ah! Rogue!”

Because he was holding her, suddenly through their clothes, thread by thread, a hard force hit against her waist. Luo Lingyu’s face immediately turned red, as Lu Yun captured her lips, then pushed her to the ground. Their clothes mixed together, he was actually wearing women’s clothing as he hooked her leg, cupping her face to kiss her deeply…

The room became chaotic and sensual.