He is Lovestruck in the Revenge

"May I remove your glasses?"

Wen Changling hesitated for a moment, then nodded, "Yes."

Then, she felt Xie Shang's fingers touch her ears, gentle and slightly cool. It seemed he had washed his hands; she smelled the scent of hand soap.

After the glasses were removed, they were carefully placed on the stone table.

Wen Changling couldn't see anything, and at that moment, her sense of smell became unusually sensitive. All around her was the fragrance of Xie Shang, warm and pleasant yet imbued with his unique, intensely invasive quality.

She felt the cool liquid at the corner of her eyes, slowly seeping in.

"Eye drops?"

"Yes."

Xie Shang was very gentle, patiently applying the eye drops bit by bit. Since she dared not open her eyes, more liquid flowed out than in, making the process lengthy. He remained patient, bending over her.

Once the burning around her eyes lessened, Wen Changling tried, with effort, to relax her squinted eyes. Only then did the eye drops successfully trickle in. There must have been menthol in them; they were cool and relieved the sting in her eyes gradually.

Xie Shang screwed the cap back on the eye drops, "It's done, open your eyes."

Wen Changling slowly opened her eyes, and as her lashes fluttered, the tears mixed with the eye drops fell in strings.

She looked up, and without the obstruction of glasses, her entire face was exposed. Xie Shang was momentarily spellbound. When their gazes met, the magnetic fields collided at close range, and he felt an inexplicable discomfort, as if ants were biting him.

No wonder she wore glasses. Her eyes seemed to house an enchantress, an impish creature innocent of the world yet following its sinister nature unabashedly, luring you in with a direct, pure yet lustful gaze.

"Your eyes are very beautiful."

So beautiful they felt like they could cast a spell.

Xie Shang remembered the story told by the VIP customer.

"Fragrant City has a beautiful nickname, Flower City. In Wind Town of Flower City, there lives a family with the surname Wen. All the daughters in that family take their mother's surname, Wen. They have been recluses from their ancestors' times, rarely interacting with outsiders. It is said that they can cast spells, the kind that would make a man lose his senses. Men under such spells never end well; they either die untimely deaths or become obsessed to the point of taking vows or being buried alive. So far, there have been no exceptions."

"I only take dead pawns here."

The VIP customer came prepared, "I know."

Xie Shang accepted the jade bracelet, "What pawn gold do you want?"

She mentioned a name, "Wen Changling." Hatred blazed in her eyes as she said, "I want her to beg for death, to live in agony."

The rules of Ruyi Pawnshop were just that, anything could be pawned, living or inanimate, without any restrictions. Sometimes they abetted wrongdoers, sometimes they punished the wicked and promoted the righteous; good or evil deeds all depended on Xie Shang's whims.

Xie Shang took on this pawn transaction and even personally executed it. He wanted to see if the Wen family's girl could really cast a spell. If not, he wondered what sort of witchcraft had afflicted his uncle, Xie Qingze.

When Xie Qingze was alive, he had the best relationship with Xie Shang. Uncle and nephew were close in age; they were like mentors, friends, and fathers to one another. Xie Shang did not like the Xie Family, but he was very fond of Xie Qingze.

Fragrant City was known as Flower City. Seven years prior, attracted by its name, Xie Qingze went there and fell for Wen Yuan, a tea picker from Wind Town, head over heels. At the time, Wen Yuan already had a son and a daughter. Xie Jingxian, of course, did not approve and repeatedly urged Xie Qingze to return home. However, he was wholly devoted to his lover. On a stormy day, he went out to look for Wen Yuan's daughter who had returned late, and then he never came back.

That year, Xie Qingze was only thirty-three, with neither wife nor child. He died with incomplete remains, his soul forever trapped in Wind Town of Flower City. It was said that the Wen family's girls could cast spells, and none of the men who fell in love with them ever met a good end, all dying early and miserably.

Wen Yuan loved her daughter deeply, named her Changling, hoping she would have a long life.

Could she cast a spell?

Bewitched, enamored, agitated, deeply in love, love unattainable, agony too profound to bear.

This was the script Xie Shang had prepared for Wen Changling.