Chapter 49 Punishment: Love Gu, the Perfect Tool to Restrain Her.

Chapter 49 Punishment: Love Gu (a love charm), the best tool to restrain her.

They stayed at the hot spring villa for several days, and the weather visibly warmed. Sunlight tore through the snow and dark clouds; spring grass sprouted by the steps, insects chirped from all corners, and clusters of blossoms burst open tree by tree. The early spring scene grew richer, and the Beginning of Spring, as marked on the lunar calendar, was imminent.

The Yu family was no more. Tian Qin had no husband’s family and lived under the roof of her elder sister and brother-in-law. She was cautious in her meals and speech, on the surface, the beloved younger sister of the pair, but in truth, she was constrained in many ways, putting up with a bitter life no one else knew about.

Xian Qiu had soaked in the hot spring and taken her medicine. As spring approached, her health got a lot better, and she was itching to ride a horse on the meadow and enjoy the evening breeze.

Xie Tanwei couldn’t refuse her request. He told the stable hands to pick out a fine horse and hired the best riding instructor.

He sat in a rattan chair out in the breeze, sipping tea with a smile while he waited. His robes fluttered, elegant and refined.

The sky was clear and azure, like a mirror, with scattered white clouds and a cool breeze that created a sense of endless depth and vastness—the prettiest glow just before sunset.

Tian Qin sat in the rattan chair, her hands hanging limp, like they were nailed down, stuck in her sister and brother-in-law's line of sight. She watched Xian Qiu’s gallant figure riding in the distance, like it was some slow, drawn-out torture.

Xie Tanwei occasionally turned his head to glance at her. She lowered her head, uncomfortable, staring at the dark patterns on her dress, silently avoiding him.

After a while, Xian Qiu got off the horse to rest.

Xian Qiu was physically weaker, not as timid as Tian Qin was, but inherently clever and quick to learn.

Xie Tanwei stepped up to wipe Xian Qiu's sweat, his movements gentle. Xian Qiu took the chance to grab his hand as he wiped and kissed his palm.

Xie Tanwei shook his head helplessly and pulled it back. A servant quickly handed over some freshly brewed Pu'er light tea, and Xian Qiu gulped down several big mouthfuls.

Xian Qiu, who was rarely this excited, pointed at the blood-red sunset on the horizon, her whole body bathed in the sunset glow. Xie Tanwei listened beside her, occasionally murmuring a reply.

Their shadows stretched across the grass, faintly coated in a hazy rainbow sheen, picturesque.

When they were together, it was a picture of harmony.

Tian Qin, off to the side, felt like a forgotten little shadow, not wanting to stick around and be in the way. Seeing the surroundings quiet, she tiptoed away from the rattan chair and slipped off for a bit.

From the bonfires the other day, the tenant farmers had set up a bunch of tents on the meadow, providing good cover.

She quickened her pace and got completely off the meadow before letting out a deep breath, feeling like the shackles around her neck had loosened.

Tian Qin wandered aimlessly on the early spring grass, without direction, with no family to lean on, her mind filled with fog. She had always been adrift like this, even before in the Yu family.

Staring at the dragonflies flitting about, she let out a blank sigh, crouched down, and hid in the shadow of an old locust tree, spacing out. Nanny Chen and Zhaolu weren't there, and she had no one to talk to.

She didn't know why she'd run off; it was as if being out of that couple’s sight was good enough. Now she felt utterly empty, a puppet with its soul sucked out.

Only when the sun had completely set and darkness engulfed everything did Tian Qin rub her legs, numb from crouching, and slowly headed back. The spring chill was sharp, and the night was cold, leaving her covered in grass frost.

Her heart full of the misery of living off someone else's charity, she trudged back to her room, where the candles were unlit and the silence was terrifying.

She lit a candle and was shocked to find Xie Tanwei there.

His clothes were like snow on a pale mountain peak, his demeanor aloof, his chin slender and lips thin, like moonlight spilling down from the clouds. He tapped the table with his finger, his voice like cracking ice and shattering jade, tinged with a hint of danger:

“Back?”

Tian Qin's scalp crawled. He had been waiting here, and it seemed for a long time.

“Brother-in-law.”

A cold ray of moonlight streamed in through the window. Xie Tanwei, in the chilly spring night air, said softly:

“Not bad. You still know to come back.”

One sentence sent her heart racing with fear.

Tian Qin's pupils shrank, at a complete loss. Yet he made no move, not even a rebuke, but the weight of a thousand stones crushed every bit of her courage, and cold sweat poured down.

“I didn’t leave the villa, I didn’t go far. I just stayed by the lake for a while. The sunset was beautiful, and I was lost in it. I came back as soon as it got dark to find you and sister. I didn’t talk to any strange guys, I didn’t do anything improper. You have to believe me.”

Maybe driven by a bad feeling, she explained frantically, only to suddenly remember a fatal mistake—she had left quietly, without reporting to him.

That was the heart of the issue.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t go to the lake, but that she had gone without his permission, leaving his sight.

Tian Qin babbled on for a bit, trembling from the core, a desperate chill creeping into her palms, as if pushed from a cliff into an abyss, unable to escape another harsh punishment.

The dead silence of the atmosphere only heightened the ominous omen.

Seeing his silence, she cautiously tested the waters, adding in a hoarse voice: “If you don’t believe me, you can ask Zhao Ning. I just crouched behind a tree and watched ants for a while. I didn’t go near the dangerous parts of the lake. I knew you and sister would worry, so I didn’t dare come back late.”

Xie Tanwei finally said, “I know.”

A light, definitive statement. Tian Qin was stunned. He knew. Yes, she was foolish. He monitored the entire villa, especially her movements. Why would he need her explanation?

But since he knew, there was even less reason for him to make a big deal out of it, setting up this terrifying scene to wait for her. What she said was the truth.

Her so-called “escape” was merely leaving his and Xian Qiu’s immediate vicinity. She hadn’t even dared to think of truly fleeing the villa.

Tian Qin’s hands dropped, her gaze vacant.

Xie Tanwei called out calmly, “Come here.” He turned and left, carrying a terrifying command, a tone of reprimand.

Tian Qin had no choice but to follow.

Through the night, they arrived at the hot spring cave, filled with white mist, where the underground spring bubbled tirelessly day and night.

Xian Qiu wasn’t there. No one was. This was his private bath. At the deepest pool, where the water reached waist level, Xie Tanwei mercilessly pushed her in.

Tian Qin was caught off guard. She floundered, choked on water, and reached the brink of suffocation—but not quite, just enough to leave her dazed and unable to resist.

She was drenched.

Her lotus-colored gauze dress weighed on her like heavy shackles, making her struggles painfully slow.

“Brother-in-law…” she called out, dejected and pitiful, like a bedraggled kitten fallen into water.

Xie Tanwei crouched down, grabbing her slender neck. His five fingers, like ice needles, pressed against the pulse of her neck, gradually tightening, moving up to her jaw, making it hard for her even to cough. The shadow of death loomed faintly, and she couldn’t move an inch.

His eyes, like the vast, pitch-black night sky itself, held no emotion, only calm, as still as dead water, with a near-cruel certainty—the knot was set, and he had anticipated she would make a mistake. When she did, he could rightfully tighten the knot. Punishing her, he never tired of it.

Tian Qin was half-submerged in the water, her cheeks indistinguishable from tears or water, trembling all over, her teeth chattering.

Weakly, she grasped his lean, bony forearm, patting it, her voice broken and hoarse, nearly collapsing as she demanded, “Why? Can’t you even give me this little freedom?”

Xie Tanwei pulled her neck close, his lips pressing against her ear, so close there was no gap.

“Freedom is built on rules, little sister. You’ve never understood rules. Tonight, we’ll settle old and new scores together.”

His rule was simple: never leave his sight. But even such a simple request, she repeatedly tested the limits, treating it like wind passing her ears.

Making eyes at the Manor Lord's son, disappearing behind his back without permission—one transgression after another, he had endured too long and given her too many chances; he had run out of patience.

"No."

Tian Qin stubbornly uttered childish words, as water streamed down her beautiful, fan-shaped eyelashes, blurring her vision. At times she was defiant, at other times she begged for mercy, completely disoriented.

"Brother-in-law, how can you do this to Second Sister? To me? You already have Second Sister, your life is fine, and you are a revered Imperial Official among the people. What more could you want? Spare me, I won't do it again, Brother-in-law..."

She screamed hysterically, uttering unpleasant words, but abruptly, she stopped.

The Love Gu within her erupted with an unprecedented, powerful constraint, like invisible chains wrapping around her body layer by layer, covered in barbs, swallowing the rest of her words in her throat.

Xie Tanwei grabbed her arm firmly but gently, always keeping her head above water, so she couldn't even drown herself.

This lesson was extraordinarily prolonged and intense, unlike the superficial punishments of the past. It shook her soul, burning his cruel punishment and his rules into her soul with searing heat, killing her courage.

The Love Gu, the best tool to restrain her.

"Little sister, reflect on this."

The Love Gu was ultimately not a crude tool like an axe or knife; it was soft yet firm, firm yet soft, adept at controlling one's spirit.

What Tian Qin felt was not just pain, but an uncontrollable, raw, primal need that made her see Xie Tanwei not as her brother-in-law, but as a man.

When the Love Gu ceased, her mind had already gone off the rails. Her gray lips trembling, she curled up pitifully in his arms.

Xie Tanwei promptly immersed himself in the hot spring, sinking with her, and pierced through her in the dual world of ice and fire.

Tian Qin's eyes widened until they lost focus.

In the murmuring spring water, they were each other's only lifeline. In a daze, she wrapped her arms around his neck, clinging tightly, biting his shoulder with all her might, sharing both pain and pleasure, as if addicted and unable to let go.

"Xie Tanwei... I hate you..."

Her cheeks were as red as a cooked crab, tasting the bitterness of grinding her teeth. Plunging off a ten-thousand-foot cliff with her enemy was painful, yet perishing together was deeply satisfying.

Just once.

Xie Tanwei took a deep breath, still unsatisfied, his eyes blurry with water, without feeling fully relieved.

Bound by their identities as brother-in-law and sister-in-law, it had been too long since he had taken her.

He glanced at the blood on his shoulder, leaned close to her ear, indifferent amid the vortex of passion, and said, "Now, have you learned your lesson?"

Before she could answer, he abruptly commanded in a cold voice: "Yu Tianqin, bite me, bite harder."

Tian Qin shuddered, sinking her sharp teeth into his flesh, venting all the hatred embedded in her very bones from this life and past lives on him.

Xie Tanwei breathed lightly, carrying the chill of the water, gripping her waist, pushing her back to the brink of suffocation, a second peak.

The sound of Tian Qin's weeping filled the entire cave.

These tears were not a sign of sorrow; to some extent, they were an inexpressible relief after the Love Gu's release. The pair of Love Gu bound their souls together.

In this state, she had no time even for hatred.

Her limit was merely his starting point.

"I don't want this, I don't want this..." She turned to leave, but there was no escape. He dragged her, plunging them into the endless hell of water sounds and darkness. With Xie Tanwei's patient guidance and the constraint of the Love Gu, she involuntarily fell into it, her mind eroded, doing things that were not her own will.