Chapter 54: It has been a long time since the General smiled like this.

However, the subsequent plot seemed to prove that Wu Xuan had simply been overthinking things.

——Jiang Hexuan and Su Qishan were still getting along very well.

Needless to say, Jiang Hexuan's passionate and sincere affection was something anyone would praise as a pure, devoted, and righteous heart.

Perhaps Su Qishan truly had mental health issues, as Jiang Hexuan had suggested. Deep down, she possessed a certain paranoia, and her obsession with Jiang Hexuan had reached an alarming level. Every couple of hours or so, she would ask the servants about Jiang Hexuan's whereabouts.

Whenever she suddenly couldn't find him, Su Qishan would fly into a rage.

As a result, later on, Jiang Hexuan would practically inform her wherever he went. Sometimes, if his destination was far away, she would even follow him closely without leaving his side.

She refused to let Jiang Hexuan spare even a glance at other women, and even made him wear a veiled hat every time he went out to keep others from seeing his face.

Any other man in his position would likely have lost his temper long ago. However, Jiang Hexuan was endlessly indulgent toward Su Qishan. Besides, the borderlands were prone to harsh winds and flying sand, and men wearing veiled hats were by no means rare, so he simply complied.

There were countless such instances.

Watching all this, Wu Xuan was so thrilled that goosebumps broke out all over her skin.

She knew such behavior wasn't entirely normal, yet she couldn't quite articulate what was wrong with it; moreover, watching it brought a thrilling sensation.

A mixture of panic and exhilaration made her want to scream.

——Their bond deepened day by day, and Su Qishan, whose face usually bore very few expressions, would actually smile when facing Jiang Hexuan, occasionally even laughing heartily, throwing all poise to the wind.

The once gloomy Su Qishan grew cheerful.

The steward of the Su estate was deeply gratified; it seemed the General's original decision to bring Jiang Hexuan back had been the right one.

When Su Qishan was not around, the steward even remarked privately to Jiang Hexuan, "The General hasn't smiled like this in a very long time."

Jiang Hexuan was pleasantly surprised, a sweet sensation blooming in his heart. So, in her eyes, he was actually this special.

Wu Xuan squealed aloud, her face flushed and her heart pounding as she said to Hongtang, "Oh wow, did you see that? She feels happy because of him, and she only smiles at him. Mutual affection is truly the most wonderful thing in the world."

She merely wanted to vent her feelings and, without waiting for Hongtang's reply, turned her head back to continue reading the book.

——Because of the change in the steward's attitude, the servants all began to fawn over Jiang Hexuan as if he were another master of the estate.

Yet in a remote corner of the Su estate stood a courtyard. Who lived inside was unknown to Jiang Hexuan, for Su Qishan never allowed him to approach that area.

However, when he questioned the servants, he could tell from their evasive and stuttering attitudes that the courtyard was likely far from ordinary and perhaps harbored some secret, which thoroughly aroused his curiosity.

Perhaps it was the attitude of everyone, including Su Qishan, who treated him with such importance that emboldened him; behind the backs of the household, he secretly made his way to that courtyard.

The courtyard was indeed inhabited, and not by just one person—there were about four or five of them, gathered together and chatting idly.

To Jiang Hexuan's astonishment, those people all bore a striking resemblance to him. Immediately afterward, the topic of their conversation terrified him out of his wits.

Right at that very moment, Su Qishan, having been alerted to Jiang Hexuan's movements by a servant, rushed over in a hurry, only to meet Jiang Hexuan's ice-cold gaze, devoid of life, like ashes after the fire had died out entirely.

With this, the volume ended.

"Ahhhhhhh!" The desire to roar up at the heavens that Wu Xuan had felt earlier was merely a way to describe her mood; this time, she screamed out loud in earnest.

She struck the bed in anger, shouting, "What did he hear? Why won't he write it out clearly? Is there anything here that I am not allowed to read?!"

Yet pounding the bed all she liked wouldn't make the author write the continuation immediately.

After venting her fury, she lay flat on her back on the bed, listless and blank-eyed.

"Why must there be such a cruel tragedy in this world? To let someone read a book yet deny them the ending, what is the meaning of such a fragmented release? Who is the author? Do they have any idea how many people are suffering because of them?"

As Wu Xuan's number one sycophant—no, her personal maid—Hongtang immediately hurried over to support Wu Xuan, fed her a sip of water to moisten her lips, and comforted her, saying, "The author always cuts off at such moments; it is truly detestable. Why doesn't the young mistress write a continuation herself and finish the story on your own?"

Wu Xuan's eyes lit up, a hint of uncertainty in her tone as she asked, "Can I do that?"

"Of course you can! Even this maid can understand it, and the poetry the young mistress writes in ordinary days has far better literary grace than this vernacular tale."

"But I only know how to write poetry, not stories." In truth, her poetry wasn't all that remarkable either, and she knew full well that Hongtang was simply flattering her intentionally.

"As for stories, aren't they just made up out of thin air? The young mistress can use her own imagination and write however she pleases. Who could possibly say it's no good?" Hongtang continued to coax her.

Persuaded by these words, Wu Xuan felt her heart leap with temptation. Writing her own continuation meant she could write whatever she wanted, steering the plot in any direction she desired.

Well then, let her ponder why Jiang Hexuan would be angry.

Could it be that these people were actually kept men whom Su Qishan secretly harbored, all of them fitting her preferred type, which was why they looked so much alike? Every day, she acted all romantic and affectionate with Jiang Hexuan, while secretly lingering in entanglements with these other men.

Therefore, upon hearing this, Jiang Hexuan became extremely furious and flew into a rage?

Ah, that was entirely possible.

Wu Xuan nodded inwardly at her own logical deduction.

And what about afterward? What would happen next?

Exercising her imagination, Wu Xuan racked her brains to think.

Learning that Su Qishan was secretly keeping other men, Jiang Hexuan flew into a rage, returned home, and stayed angry.

Feeling somewhat guilty, Su Qishan eagerly went to coax Jiang Hexuan, promising him that she would definitely dismiss those men and never have anything to do with them again.

Yet Jiang Hexuan still refused to forgive her, prompting Su Qishan to launch a monetary offensive, buying off people's hearts, such as Jiang's father and their neighbors.

Both Jiang's father and the neighbors were deeply moved, feeling that among all the waters in the world, Su Qishan only scooped a single ladle to drink, and that despite her noble birth, she was willing to humble herself here before them.

And so, under everyone's persuasion, driven by the proverb that a prodigal who returns is more precious than gold, Jiang Hexuan half-heartedly agreed. The two reconciled as before and lived happily ever after from then on.

Look at this logic, this plotline—simply peerless!

It was absolutely no different from what the author himself would write, and perhaps even better than his version.

Wasn't it just writing a story? Who couldn't do that?

Ideas surged into her mind wave after wave, and Wu Xuan called out loudly, "Hongtang, prepare the brush and ink!"

With a flurry of brushstrokes, she recorded the main points of the plot outline.

Wu Xuan's self-confidence swelled to unprecedented proportions, and in her pride, she developed a desire to show off.

She decided to finish writing these drafts before the next publication and mail them to the author. This way, she would prevent the author from plagiarizing her, while also keeping the author from turning around and accusing her of plagiarism.

.

When writing this volume, Xu Chengyue had pondered for a very long time over how to make the male protagonist fall in love with the female protagonist.

In the end, she decided to have the male lead believe the female lead was ill—specifically, suffering from a malady of the mind.

Having read quite a few books and possessing a broad-minded sense of justice, he would not bicker excessively with the female lead, given how much she had sacrificed for the borderlands.

Coupled with the female lead's innate aura of cool competence, stemming from a prestigious family background, profound erudition, and prowess in both literature and martial arts, it was only natural for him to develop favorable feelings toward her.

As for the character description from the female lead's perspective within the novel, in order to preserve her aura and maintain a certain sense of mystery, her internal monologues were kept extremely sparse, and even her dialogue was relatively brief. Readers had no clear understanding of her inner thoughts and simply assumed she had genuinely fallen in love with the male lead.

Yet if anyone were to ask Xu Chengyue this question, her answer would be, "Yes and no."

Su Qishan had a childhood sweetheart who was her white moonlight; the two had been betrothed, and the sudden, accidental death of this childhood sweetheart dealt a fatal blow to the female lead, stripping away even her desire to survive.

Initially, she had merely treated Jiang Hexuan as a substitute, for he possessed many traits similar to those of her childhood sweetheart.

Yet through their subsequent interactions, as Jiang Hexuan revealed traits that belonged exclusively to him rather than matching the childhood sweetheart, Su Qishan gradually realized that Jiang Hexuan was a distinct individual, entirely separate from the other.

And she found herself irresistibly drawn to these unique traits.

She did not understand her own heart and had not realized that she had already fallen in love with Jiang Hexuan.

Thus, upon seeing a scene that mirrored her memories with almost deceptive realism—longing as she did for Jiang Hexuan to resemble the childhood sweetheart even more closely—she flew into a towering rage, throwing a tantrum because she felt her cherished white moonlight had been violated.

After venting her anger, she felt wretched inside, yet remained completely unaware of where this agony stemmed from.

Later, after Jiang Hexuan suffered an accident, she was consumed by fury, completely forgetting their previous quarrel as she went to back him up and seek justice for him, whereupon the two resumed their usual manner of getting along.

From this, it could be seen that Su Qishan was, in truth, entirely driven by romance. Despite her sharp, rational clarity in affairs of state, where she had achieved remarkable feats and risen to become a female general, she possessed not an ounce of rationality when facing matters of the heart, constantly governed by her inner emotions.

Whether it was her agonizing grief after the "death" of her childhood sweetheart or her forcible abduction of Jiang Hexuan, both demonstrated just how utterly emotional she was when confronting romance.

All in all, her childhood sweetheart still occupied a place in her heart, but people are invariably forgetful; the scales within her heart were tipping toward Jiang Hexuan, though she herself remained oblivious to it.

.

As it happened, because Xu Chengyue was a master of ending chapters on agonizing cliffhangers, she had already been complained about by her readers numerous times. Yet she remained unrepentant, persisting in cutting off her narrative at crucial plot nodes.

Early on, the readers hadn't caught on, simply assuming the story had naturally reached that point, and besides, they were still eagerly awaiting her next installments, so none of them dared to denounce her over the practice.

However, as this happened time and time again, the readers finally reached the limit of their tolerance—especially since she had once again cut off at a juncture that provoked intense emotional waves among the crowd.

And so, as expected, she crashed and burned.