[A coy, teasing little devil on the surface x a devoted, scheming black-bellied man]
[Senior Brother x Senior Sister | Childhood friend rises to the top on looks alone | Making it work without a mirror]
*The Heartless Dao had two students enrolled, but none showed up.
Pei Sheng, the Heartless Dao's Senior Brother, was perfect in every way: exceptionally talented, cool and self-possessed, and the heir apparent to become the next sect leader.
The elders liked him, his junior brothers and sisters looked up to him, and even the silly dog at the foot of the mountain wagged its tail at him.
Only Senior Sister Luo Qingyi hated him.
When Luo Qingyi opened her eyes again, she found that a failed retreat had sent her soul into the body of a junior sister from the Joyous Union Sect.
Pei Sheng lay beside her, bound hand and foot, his cultivation gone.
Outside the door, the senior sisters spoke in suggestive tones: "Junior Sister, this is a top-grade cultivation furnace we went to so much trouble to capture. Hurry and use him to nourish yourself!"
They'd both ended up in the Joyous Union Sect, and her sworn enemy had become her cultivation furnace. What was she supposed to do?
Naturally, seize the chance to mock, deceive, and humiliate him.
/
For the first time, Luo Qingyi learned that even her Senior Brother, who always seemed so effortlessly in control, could let a crack show in his expression.
His long hair in disarray, brows tightly furrowed, collar hanging loose to reveal the collarbone beneath, wrists marked with crisscrossing red grooves from the ropes... He looked so beautiful when he lost his composure.
She couldn't help wanting to see more.
Luo Qingyi leisurely gripped his chin and turned his face back toward her. Just then, she saw a tear clinging to his long lashes, ready to fall.
That tear was crushed, along with his pride, and the eloquent mouth that had always been so good with words gradually managed only soft gasps.
"Pei Sheng, look at you now."
/
After Luo Qingyi left, fully satisfied, Pei Sheng remained seated alone.
That false tear had long since dried. He gave a slight tug, and the ropes around his wrists and ankles came loose.
He casually rubbed the bloody marks on his wrists, opened his palm, and let a piece of red paper slip out.
The paper was crumpled, but the childish handwriting was still clear:
"If I, Luo Qingyi, ever bully Brother Pei Sheng again, I'll let you do whatever you want with me, and I'll obey you in everything."
Why didn't she come a little closer? All that effort, wasted.
[Bonus Scene 1]
Luo Qingyi watched Pei Sheng for several days and realized that life had truly been treating him rather badly lately.
Sometimes the front of his shirt was torn, revealing a pale mole beneath his collarbone; sometimes there was a huge rip in his sleeve, leaving his toned forearm exposed; once, even his entire shirt was torn open, leaving his jade-like chest bare and impossible to cover up.
She was deeply sympathetic: Her Senior Brother had fallen so low that he couldn't even get a decent set of clothes. How pitiful.
[Bonus Scene 2]
Of course, the Joyous Union Sect had exams too.
On the day the results were posted, Luo Qingyi stared at her Senior Brother near the top of the list and her own name at the bottom, hardly able to believe it. "Aren't you from the Heartless Dao? You can even use seduction arts?"
She hadn't understood a single word in class!
"All the world's arts are connected," Pei Sheng replied modestly.
Reader's Guide:
1. This novel may include all kinds of gazes!!!
2. The Heartless Dao includes first love, and it's one-on-one throughout.
3. The plot goes all over the place, all in service of the romance.
Theme: A gentleman is judged by his actions, not his thoughts.
