Chapter 18
Chapter 18
In the middle of the night, the entire city had shaken as if the earth itself were moving. Naturally, it caused an uproar.
Outside, lights blazed everywhere and people hurried to and fro. The common folk, unable to make sense of what had happened, grew even more panicked in the fearful atmosphere. Fortunately, before long, Zhao Zhiyi led the people of Zhao Manor through the streets, doing what they could to calm everyone down.
The livelier it was outside, the quieter the old, worn room seemed by contrast.
Qiao Ying had gone home, taken a hot bath, and changed into clean clothes. Once she curled back under the covers, she did feel much better. But now she was tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep. In the end, she could only give up on forcing herself and open her eyes in frustration.
“How much longer do you plan on sitting on my bed?”
The young man had also changed into a thin, loose white robe. His long hair was unbound, falling in pale, moonlit strands over his shoulders. With the slightest movement, it brushed past the side of his neck, set against his plain white clothes, making him look like a figure formed from frost and snow beneath the moon.
Only his eyes, covered by the white silk blindfold, showed no hint of a gaze. And yet, for some reason, it made her feel as though he could see every move she made through that thin layer of fabric, with a secretive scrutiny and faint amusement.
He called her name. “Qiao Ying.”
Qiao Ying snapped irritably, “What?”
He laughed softly. “You’re so strange.”
After they had returned safely, Shen Qingyu had sat there beside her bed for a full hour. He did not speak or move. Dressed all in white, with his hair hanging loose, he looked like a Ghost come to claim a life, merely waiting until she fell asleep so he could devour her soul.
Qiao Ying felt that he was the stranger one. With him keeping watch here, she probably would not be sleeping at all tonight.
“Shen Qingyu, aren’t you tired?”
Shen Qingyu shook his head. “No.”
“How could you not be tired?” Qiao Ying sat up in bed and said with complete seriousness, “Look, not only did you come all that way to save me, you also killed so many Yaoguai, and then you almost got swept away by the water afterward. You must be tired. Shen Qingyu, when people are tired, they need sleep to replenish the energy their bodies have lost. If you’re tired and you don’t rest, your body definitely won’t be able to take it.”
She said a whole string of words, but Shen Qingyu seemed to have only heard the last part. He smiled. “Are you worried about my body?”
Qiao Ying fell silent for a brief moment. “If you want to understand it that way, I suppose that’s not wrong.”
Shen Qingyu leaned forward slightly. A lock of white hair fell onto Qiao Ying. Faced at such close range with that clean, jade-like face, she unconsciously held her breath, braced a hand against the bed, and edged back a little.
He murmured her name again. “Qiao Ying.”
Qiao Ying sensed his breath and, for some reason, felt a little nervous. “What is it?”
“When we were in the water, what were you trying to do to me?”
Qiao Ying thought back to how stupid it had been for her to consider giving him air mouth-to-mouth. Naturally, she did not want to say it aloud. Relying on the fact that he could not see, she stubbornly denied it. “I wasn’t trying to do anything.”
In any case, he was muddleheaded when it came to matters between men and women. She could just bluff her way through.
“You wanted to kiss me.”
Hearing that so suddenly, Qiao Ying nearly choked on her own saliva. She coughed, then thought water must have gotten into her brain and made her hallucinate. Hurriedly clearing her throat, she asked, “What did you just say?”
With laughter in his voice, he said again, “I know. You wanted to kiss me.”
The young man seemed rather pleased that he had seen through her intentions. The delight revealed in the slight press of his lips made the beautiful line of his jaw beneath the white silk blindfold seem even more ethereal and striking.
He added, “I also know that the first time you saw me, you liked my body.”
Qiao Ying’s face flushed red. Hugging the quilt, she shrank into the corner. “D-d-d-don’t talk nonsense!”
“Everyone says I look like an evil ghost, a calamity, an aberration. But you like this skin of mine.” His fingers shifted lightly and brushed against the corner of her clothes. He lowered his head with a faint smile. “How strange, Qiao Ying.”
Qiao Ying had to admit that the first time she saw him, she really had been bewitched by his appearance. She simply had not expected that even though he clearly could not see, he would still know she had been dazzled by his beauty back then.
Since he had seen right through her, she might as well stop pretending. Throwing caution to the wind, she said openly, “Anyone who sees someone as pure and unsullied as ice and snow would find it hard not to feel fondness, wouldn’t they? I’m not killing people or setting fires, and I’m not committing crimes. I just like to look a little longer at beautiful people and beautiful things. What exactly is wrong with that?”
Who knew what part of her words had struck this strange boy’s sense of humor this time? He let out a low laugh, his shoulders trembling faintly. His loose white hair slipped down with the movement, rustling over his plain white collar before the ends gently fell into her lap.
The night wind brushed past. Outside the window, tree shadows swayed like demons baring their claws and fangs. There was no lamp lit in the room either; only the cold moonlight crept silently in, offering a little illumination.
Qiao Ying looked at the pure-white boy bathed in moonlight and hugged the quilt wrapped around her a little tighter. “Shen Qingyu, stop laughing like that. I’m getting a little scared.”
The blunt way she said the word “scared” somehow ruined the sick, terrifying atmosphere instead. The eerie mood that had only just begun to form dissipated by several degrees.
Sure enough, Shen Qingyu could no longer laugh. A moment later, he leaned forward again, bending down to bring his face even closer to hers.
Qiao Ying felt as if she had been trapped in the corner by his body. She could sense his presence pressing in around her more clearly now, carrying an aggression that contradicted its cool, crisp quality.
She curled in on herself, utterly at a loss.
“Qiao Ying, continue.”
Qiao Ying was bewildered. “Continue what?”
“What you wanted to do to me in the water, but didn’t have time to do.”
“You mean how you played dead, made me go back for you, and nearly caused me to suffocate, so I wanted to curse you out, but didn’t get the chance?”
Shen Qingyu: “…”
“All right, all right. We’re depending on each other for survival, so what’s the point of holding a grudge overnight? The fact that you have the intention is enough. I won’t curse at you anymore. There, I’m going to sleep now. You should go back and sleep too.”
Qiao Ying lay down on the bed, pulled the quilt over her head, and shrank entirely beneath it, motionless.
After a long while, a corner of the quilt was lifted.
The boy who seemed to have been made of frost and snow had, at some point, sprawled on the bed. His jade-like face met hers where she was hiding under the quilt.
He said, “Kiss me.”
Qiao Ying instantly looked as though she had swallowed a fly. Her expression turned strange. She wanted to kick him off the bed, and both her feet were itching to move, but in the end she really did not have the courage to do it.
“…What happens if I don’t?”
He curved his lips. “You can try.”
Qiao Ying took several deep breaths and finally made up her mind. In any case, she was only satisfying his curiosity.
She edged forward slightly, cupped his face, and quickly kissed him on the lips. It was as light as a dragonfly touching water, so fast that there was almost no sensation at all. Then she immediately shrank back again.
Shen Qingyu touched the corner of his mouth and said nothing. It was impossible to tell whether he was satisfied or not.
The next moment, his fingertips fell on Qiao Ying’s face again. “Why is your face so hot?”
She held it in for a long while before saying, “Because in my limited memory, this is the first time I’ve ever kissed someone.”
Shen Qingyu’s fair, slightly cool fingertips shifted lightly until they reached the corner of her lips. As if he found the sensation pleasant, the pad of his finger rubbed there faintly.
“Qiao Ying.”
“What?”
“In all of my memories, you’re the first as well.”
For some reason, Qiao Ying’s heartbeat began to speed up.
Not long after, Shen Qingyu felt her hand touch his ear. It tickled a little. He smiled and asked, “Why are you touching me?”
“This part of you is hot and red too.”
Only then did Shen Qingyu seem to realize it belatedly. After his false smile faded, a trace of bewilderment appeared on his pale, exquisitely beautiful face.