QT: Don't fall in love with the Male Lead

Su Xueyi doesn't elaborate further on what the 'Soul Summoning Technique' entails, but Xi Zirui can make an educated guess.

The worst part of the whole thing is that instead of the evil-villain monologue Xi Zirui mentally prepared himself for, Su Xueyi just smiles cryptically in the face of Xi Zirui's questioning look.

"Shidi must be tired," he says, getting up from the table with a graceful flurry of robes. "I'll have rooms prepared."

"That's not necessary, I'll retire to my own quarters," Xi Zirui says, getting up from the table as well.

Su Xueyi stops him with a hand on his shoulder. "That wouldn't be a good idea." His smile grows jagged at the edges. "Considering Shidi's recent indiscretion, I believe it would be best if he stayed here. Where I can ensure he won't shame himself and our sect again."

His flippant words only fuel the rage growing inside Xi Zirui. It's one thing to play nice while he looks for a way to get rid of Su Xueyi, it's another to hear him hurl abuse and imply there's anything wrong about his relationship with Han Yu.

"My conscience is clean," he says, gaze unwavering. "Can Shixiong say the same?"

He doesn't wait for Su Xueyi's answer before making his way to the sliding doors leading into the courtyard, and out of Su Xueyi's pavilion.

Su Xueyi hurls out a bolt of energy towards the door that sends Xi Zirui flying down to the floor.

"Shidi won't be leaving this pavilion until the summoning is complete." He looks down at Xi Zirui, glaring murderously up at him, and grins. "For his own safety of course."

---

Xi Zirui is dragged to an empty room and locked inside it. No matter how much he tries to wrench the doors open or climb down the open windows, he keeps meeting resistance from an invisible barrier. 

He has no trouble imagining Su Xueyi gluing barrier talismans to the outside of the room as soon as he locked Xi Zirui inside.

Ni Ni chimes. "Twelve talismans, to be precise, three of them noise-cancelling, to prevent anyone from hearing Host scream for help."

Xi Zirui thumps his head against the wall panel and lets himself slide to the ground, his socked feet slipping in the smooth wooden floor.

He pulls up his knees to his chest and wraps his arms around them. "What's he going to do, Ni Ni?"

"Ni Ni doesn't know."

Xi Zirui expects nothing and still ends up disappointed.

"Ni Ni is being honest, there wasn't supposed to be anything about Huan Xuan and Xi Ming in this world. Su Xueyi was just supposed to be a power hungry sect master. Ni Ni doesn't understand Huan Xuan's and Xi Ming's roles..." She sounds genuinely confused, which does nothing to reassure Xi Zirui.

Softly, almost as an afterthought, she adds, "Why are they here? They weren't sucked into the Fate-"

Abruptly she cuts herself off.

Xi Zirui's suspicion that she isn't an AI at all grows tenfold. What kind of AI speaks out of turn?

There's clearly more to the situation he finds himself in, and the Transmigrator 4000, than meets the eye.

"What's going on Ni Ni?" he asks, sighing tiredly.

"Ni Ni just said she doesn't know," she says, not particularly convincing, but Xi Zirui doesn't have it in himself to argue right now.

Finding a way out of Su Xueyi's grasp takes precedence over whatever Ni Ni is hiding from him.

"Is there anything in the system shop that can help me get out of here?"

The holo screen springs up from the silver bracelet on his wrist as items begin to slide in front of his eyes.

"Unfortunately the 'Shy Lover' Host used in the previous world was valid only for a single use, that would have been an ideal way to communicate with Han Yu," Ni Ni says, pausing over a certain item before discarding it and showing Xi Zirui the next one.

Yes, but everything about the system shop conspires to test Xi Zirui's patience, so he's not surprised the one useful item can only be used once.

"What about this," Xi Zirui says, his fingers hovering over an item and freezing it on the holo screen. "Flying paper plane: Deliver your message to whoever, whenever, as long as it doesn't rain!"

Ugh, who comes up with these descriptions? 

Ni Ni chimes. "Uhm, Host, but how is the paper plane going to leave the room? The barrier doesn't let anything go through it."

She's right of course, but Xi Zirui is confident that Su Xueyi will need him to leave the room at some point. 

He tells Ni Ni to go forward with the transaction, and she exchanges his experience points for the paper plane.

It materializes in front of Xi Zirui as an average A4 white printer sheet, vastly different from the paper used in this time, but Han Yu will have to deal with it.

Xi Zirui finds a brush and ink in one of the room's cupboards and writes a very direct message:

"Contact Bai Mi, tell her about Su Xueyi's betrayal. Danger to her disciples. Hurry. Shizun"

After he's done writing, the paper automatically folds itself into a plan -- yet another thing Han Yu isn't likely to have never seen. Xi Zirui will just tell him it's an ugly crane, if he asks.

Xi Zirui carefully hides the paper plane inside the pocket of his wide sleeve. "Now we wait for the perfect opportunity."

---

The perfect opportunity doesn't present itself that day. Or the next one. 

Xi Zirui grows restless. 

Su Xueyi has disciples delivering Xi Zirui's meals, and a bathtub and water brought in for him to wash. Xi Zirui hasn't seen Su Xueyi since the day he was first locked up. 

He needs to be able to throw the paper plane into the open air for it to be able to fly to its destination, otherwise he would have already slipped it inside a random disciple's pocket.

And maybe even that is wishful thinking, because they barely look at him. Xi Zirui doesn't know what Su Xueyi has told them about why he's being locked up in the sect leader's pavilion, but it can't have been anything good.

It comes as a surprise then, when Su Xueyi strides into the room and tells Xi Zirui to come with him.

Xi Zirui follows after him at a distance, his fingers curled around the paper plane, looking for the perfect opportunity to send it soaring out of the pavilion.

Su Xueyi takes him somewhere deeper into the pavilion, but on the way there they pass two open sliding doors overlooking the courtyard. Xi Zirui takes his chance and flings the paper plane into the open doorway.

He watches it pick up height and soar above the magnolia trees, thankfully unseen by Su Xueyi or any pavilion servants.

Su Xueyi stops in front of a solid oak door, and does a complicated hand seal before opening it.

He ushers Xi Zirui inside, who has no choice but to follow him in, and then closes the door behind their backs with a loud thud.

Xi Zirui can't help letting out and involuntary gasp as soon as he sees the pale figure lying on top a stone altar, surrounded by flickering candles and floating talismans.

Su Xueyi delights in his shock, walking towards Xi Ming's body and brushing the hair away from his pale temples. "Even in death, he's a beauty beyond words."

Xi Zirui's stomach twists at the grisly sight, he doesn't trust himself to speak without vomiting.

Xi Ming's body has been perfectly preserved, other than the unnatural pallor it's as if he has fallen into a deep sleep, but Xi Zirui can't overcome his disgust at the desecration.

Made more garish by the redness of the open wound on Xi Ming's neck.

"What have you done?" Xi Zirui asks, once he's capable of speech again.

Su Xueyi casts him an amused glance over the shoulder, and resumes his tender brushing of Xi Ming's hair. "Nothing, besides continue Huan Xuan's work."

He's lying, Huan Xuan wouldn't do something like that to Xi Ming. He wouldn't disrespect him by preserving his body with unnatural means instead of burying him. Xi Zirui doesn't believe Su Xueyi's words.

"You've seen him take Xi Ming's body into his river yourself," Su Xueyi says, after the long pause of Xi Zirui's incredulity. "How could I have gotten his body back in such a pristine state if not for Huan Xuan's own efforts?"

"Why would he do that, it doesn't make sense?" Xi Zirui says, his hands tightening into fists as he plasters himself to the wall and tries to put as much distance between himself and Su Xueyi as possible.

Su Xueyi finally turns around to face him, his fingers trailing down Xi Ming's cheek. "Isn't it obvious? To bring him back."

"He's an immortal dragon, why couldn't he wait for Xi Ming to reincarnate?"

"And he would be back in a different body, maybe with only a passing resemblance to himself, how would Huan Xuan find him? After drinking Meng Po's soup, he'd have no memories of Huan Xuan and their relationship." Su Xueyi shakes his head, looking deeply into Xi Ming's closed eyes. "He couldn't risk that." He looks up towards Xi Zirui. " But I'm more patient."

He slides his hand into his sleeve's pocket and pulls out the red hairpin with the dangling sapphire.

"I should thank Shidi, if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have found the key, both to the box and to call back Xi Ming's soul." 

"If you have his body, why do you need me?" Xi Zirui asks, hoping that this grisly discovery at least means he has bought himself more time.

His hopes are dashed when Su Xueyi rises to his feet and advances towards him.

"Shidi, I scarcely recognize you, lately," Su Xueyi says, looking down into Xi Zirui's eyes with a frown. "We've studied why the demonic cultivator's corpse reanimation techniques are a disgrace to the natural order, taught those same principles to our disciples."

"A dead body, no matter how well preserved, can never live again," Su Xueyi says, folding his hands behind his back as if he's about to deliver a lecture. "Drawing a soul back to its body is easy, but it will produce nothing more than a mindless reanimated corpse."

"Which is why you needed the 'Soul Summoning Technique'," Xi Zirui says, as Su Xueyi's demented plan starts taking shape in his mind.

"'Soul Summoning' is able to bind the returned soul to a living body." The light glints off Su Xueyi's white teeth like the shine of honed dagger. "Yours."