Chapter 109: Elder Brother

Chapter 109: Chapter 109: Elder Brother

Xi Yunxui was beginning to fear that she would no longer be able to contain the spiritual power surging within her consciousness when a familiar voice suddenly broke through the oppressive silence.

"Huo Jinyan."

The voice came from the opposite end of the garden, calm and unmistakably cold.

Xi Yunxui’s entire body stiffened.

She could never forget that voice. Even if someone woke her from a deep sleep and asked her to identify its owner, she was certain she would recognize it without hesitation. There was something about it that had etched itself into her memory, a familiarity that went beyond the simple fact that she had heard it countless times before.

She lifted her head.

Huo Jingchen was approaching from the opposite direction, his tall figure cutting through the greenery as he made his way toward them. His expression remained as composed as ever, giving away little of what he might be thinking, but the moment his gaze swept over Xi Yunxui, his footsteps slowed almost imperceptibly.

The beads of sweat gathering along her forehead immediately caught his attention.

His brows drew together.

Xi Yunxui had always struck him as someone who could remain composed even in uncomfortable situations. Seeing her standing there with a strained expression and sweat beading on her face, despite the mild weather, was enough to make him suspect that something was wrong.

His gaze shifted to Huo Jinyan.

"What are you doing here?"

Huo Jinyan had been looking at Xi Yunxui when his elder brother’s voice reached him. For the briefest moment, something dark and unpleasant flashed through his eyes, so fleeting that anyone who blinked might have missed it. By the time he turned toward Huo Jingchen, his usual charming expression had returned.

"Elder Brother?" he called, raising his brows with apparent surprise. "What brings you home at this hour? Aren’t you supposed to be at work?"

Huo Jingchen did not answer his question.

Instead, he glanced at Xi Yunxui once more before returning his attention to his younger brother.

"I need to speak with Xi Yunxui. Give us some privacy."

The words were delivered without hesitation, leaving little room for misunderstanding. Huo Jingchen had neither explained himself nor bothered to soften his request, and for a moment, the pleasant smile on Huo Jinyan’s face faltered.

It was a small change, no more than a slight tightening at the corners of his lips, but the air around him seemed to grow colder.

He had been speaking with Xi Yunxui. More importantly, he had been the one to seek her out.

Yet his elder brother had arrived, dismissed him with a few words, and claimed her attention as though the matter had already been settled.

Huo Jinyan stared at Huo Jingchen for a moment, his eyes lingering on the hand his elder brother had extended toward Xi Yunxui. Then, as if nothing had happened, he let out a soft laugh.

"Of course. If Elder Brother has something to discuss with her, I won’t interrupt."

He stepped aside, his expression once again pleasant and untroubled.

However, before leaving, he turned his gaze toward Xi Yunxui.

Their eyes met for a brief moment.

Huo Jinyan smiled at her, but there was something difficult to decipher beneath that familiar warmth, something that made Xi Yunxui instinctively uneasy. She couldn’t quite explain it, and with Jianshan’s spiritual power still threatening to spiral out of control inside her, she had no intention of wasting her attention trying to understand him.

She merely watched as Huo Jinyan turned and walked away.

He had barely taken a few steps when Huo Jingchen crossed the remaining distance between them.

"Xi Yunxui."

Before she could respond, he reached for her hands.

"Are you all right?"

His voice carried an unmistakable note of concern, and the moment his fingers closed around hers, Xi Yunxui felt something extraordinary happen.

The violent surge of spiritual power inside her consciousness stopped.

It was so abrupt that she almost wondered whether she had imagined the entire ordeal. Only moments earlier, Jianshan’s spiritual energy had been pressing against the boundaries of her consciousness with such ferocity that she had struggled to keep herself standing. She had been genuinely afraid that she might lose control, and she had no idea what would happen if that power spilled into the outside world.

Yet now, with Huo Jingchen holding her hands, the turbulent energy settled as though an invisible force had swept through her consciousness and soothed a raging storm.

The oppressive pressure vanished.

Xi Yunxui stood frozen, staring at their joined hands.

’What in the world...’

She slowly raised her eyes to Huo Jingchen’s face, her mind struggling to make sense of what had just happened.

It couldn’t be a coincidence.

Jianshan’s spiritual power had begun acting strangely the moment Huo Jinyan approached her, and it had grown increasingly violent as he drew closer. But the instant Huo Jingchen touched her, that same power had calmed down as though it had been waiting for him all along.

A ridiculous thought suddenly surfaced in her mind.

’Wait a minute. If Jianshan were a woman, I would seriously suspect that Huo Jingchen was someone important to her in his previous life. Perhaps her lover, even.’

The thought was absurd, but she couldn’t help entertaining it.

After all, how else was she supposed to explain this?

Jianshan had lived for thousands of years, or at least he claimed to have existed for an unimaginably long time. His origins remained a mystery, and even his own memories were incomplete. It wasn’t entirely impossible that he had once known Huo Jingchen—or someone who looked exactly like him.

Of course, she knew she was getting ahead of herself. There was no evidence to support such a ridiculous theory, and she certainly wasn’t going to accuse an ancient, terrifyingly powerful creature of having a secret love affair with the man standing in front of her.

Still, the coincidence was too strange to ignore.

Xi Yunxui let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding and tried to relax her shoulders.

"I’m fine," she assured him.

Unfortunately, the words came out in a small, hoarse voice that sounded nothing like her usual tone.

Huo Jingchen’s expression grew more serious.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I just..." She hesitated, searching for a convincing explanation. "I was feeling a little unwell, that’s all."

Even to her own ears, the excuse sounded unconvincing.

Huo Jingchen did not immediately challenge it, but his gaze remained fixed on her face, taking in the sweat on her forehead and the faint tension still lingering around her eyes.

"You don’t look well."

Before she could come up with another excuse, he adjusted his hold on her hands and guided her away from where they stood.

"Come with me."

"Where are we going?"

"The greenhouse."

Xi Yunxui glanced in the direction he was leading her, recognizing the path almost immediately. It was the same greenhouse she had visited before, a quiet place where they could speak without being interrupted by passing servants.

Ordinarily, she might have wondered why he was taking her there without explaining himself properly. At that moment, however, she had far more pressing concerns.

She allowed him to lead her, keeping her hands in his.

Not because she particularly wanted to hold them, of course.

Rather, she wasn’t foolish enough to risk provoking another outburst from Jianshan’s spiritual power.

’I need to have a serious conversation with that fellow.’

Her thoughts grew increasingly exasperated as she followed Huo Jingchen along the garden path.

’What exactly is going on with him? His emotions are affecting me directly, and if his spiritual power keeps reacting like this whenever someone approaches, I’m going to end up explaining things I can’t possibly explain.’

She had no idea why Jianshan had reacted so violently to Huo Jinyan. She didn’t even know whether the anger belonged entirely to Jianshan or whether some forgotten memory had been stirred by the younger Huo brother’s presence.

Whatever the reason, she needed answers.

And she needed Jianshan to understand that she couldn’t afford to have him lose control whenever he felt like it.

As for why Huo Jingchen’s touch had calmed everything down, that was an entirely different mystery—one she intended to investigate as soon as she could think clearly enough to do so.

For now, she would simply accept the unexpected assistance.

After all, if holding Huo Jingchen’s hands was enough to keep an ancient creature’s spiritual power from tearing through her consciousness, she would be an absolute fool to complain about it.

---

Huo Jinyan had not gone far.

After leaving the two of them behind, he continued along the garden path for a short distance before stopping beneath the shade of a tree. From where he stood, Huo Jingchen and Xi Yunxui were no longer visible, and they had disappeared from his line of sight.

Nevertheless, his gaze remained fixed in their direction.

The pleasant smile he had worn earlier was gone.

For several moments, he stood perfectly still, his handsome face stripped of its usual warmth. The fingers hanging at his side curled inward, tightening until his knuckles grew pale.

His elder brother had always been like that.

Calm. Decisive. Accustomed to getting whatever he wanted without needing to explain himself to anyone.

But that wasn’t what bothered Huo Jinyan the most.

It was the way Xi Yunxui had allowed Huo Jingchen to take her away.

She had been standing with him only moments earlier, looking as though she could barely remain upright. Yet when Huo Jingchen appeared, she had offered no resistance at all. She had simply let him take her hands and lead her away, as though his presence alone had been enough to settle whatever was troubling her.

Huo Jinyan’s eyes narrowed.

A low, irritated sound escaped his throat before he could stop it.

Then he smiled.

It was not the warm, effortless smile he showed the world. It was thinner, quieter, and utterly devoid of warmth. His gaze remained fixed on the empty path where Xi Yunxui had disappeared, as though he could still see her through the walls and trees.

"Elder Brother," he murmured.

The words sounded almost affectionate.

Almost.

His fingers slowly relaxed, though the pale marks left by his nails remained in his palm. He tilted his head, listening to the silence behind him. No servants were nearby. No one had witnessed the change in his expression.

That was good.

There was no reason for anyone else to know how much he disliked being left behind.

No reason for Xi Yunxui to know how carefully he had been watching her.

He had noticed the way her breathing changed when he approached. He had noticed the fear she tried to hide, the way her body had stiffened before Huo Jingchen arrived. More importantly, he had noticed that she had not looked at Huo Jingchen with fear.

She had looked at him with relief.

Something inside Huo Jinyan shifted.

The thought should have angered him. Instead, it left him strangely calm.

If Huo Jingchen was the reason she had stopped resisting, then perhaps he only needed to remove the reason.

His smile widened by the slightest degree.

Then he turned and walked away.

His steps remained measured, his posture relaxed, and by the time he reached the end of the path, his expression had returned to normal.

Anyone who encountered him would have seen nothing unusual.

They would have seen the same charming young man as always—pleasant, courteous, and impossible to distrust.

Only the faint red marks in his palm remained as evidence that anything had happened at all.

But beneath that carefully maintained composure, an unpleasant thought continued to linger.

Something about Xi Yunxui had changed.

And Huo Jinyan had a feeling that his elder brother had noticed it, too.

That could not be allowed.