Chapter 27
Chapter 27
Who knew what had gotten into Shen Qingyu? He had actually extended Qiao Ying a warm invitation to take liberties with him.
Qiao Ying had no intention of doing anything, yet he smiled and pressed her, “Don’t you like my looks? Why don’t you want to take liberties with me?”
The young man had developed an inexplicable thirst for knowledge. He was terribly curious what Qiao Ying would feel when she touched him.
Would it feel good?
Would she be disgusted?
Or perhaps she would feel nothing at all.
But that was impossible, wasn’t it? After all, she was always staring at him. Any passerby on the street could tell she liked him very much.
Holding the umbrella, Qiao Ying kept her eyes ahead and said flatly, “Then when you take liberties with me, is it because you like my looks?”
The smile at the corners of Shen Qingyu’s lips faded a little, and a faint blankness appeared on his face.
Qiao Ying stole a glance at him. Good. It seemed he wouldn’t be making trouble for the time being.
By the time they returned home, the sky had already gone dark. After washing up, it was time to go to bed.
Only, in the middle of the night, Qiao Ying suddenly felt a sinister chill. She opened her eyes from sleep and was startled by the figure sitting motionless before her.
“What are you doing!?”
She sat up clutching the quilt and, with practiced ease, curled into the corner of the bed.
Shen Qingyu’s long white hair spilled down like moonlight, his blue-green robes seeming steeped in silver. He sat quietly on the edge of the bed, his eyes covered by the white silk blindfold. It should have given him an austere, lonely air, but because he sat as still as a stone statue, it instead made him seem all the more eerie.
Who knew when he had come in, or how long he had been staring at her? Even after hearing Qiao Ying wake in fright, his mood remained as mild and detached as ever.
“Qiao Ying, I can’t understand it.”
Qiao Ying only felt that there was something seriously wrong with him, yet she still had to ask in a pleasant tone, “What can’t you understand?”
“I don’t like your looks. Why would I take liberties with you?”
Shen Qingyu was bewildered. At this moment, he was no longer the fiend who could turn everything around him into a river of blood while laughing and chatting. He was simply an ordinary young man.
Qiao Ying was speechless for a long while. “Ever since we came back, you haven’t said a single word. You’ve been thinking about this question until now?”
He nodded.
“If you can’t figure something out, then just don’t think about it. Isn’t it better to let yourself off the hook?”
He tilted his head slightly, and a lock of white hair slid from his shoulder, making his pale, jade-like face look all the more unconsciously innocent.
Qiao Ying cleared her throat. “What I mean is, if you can’t figure something out, you don’t have to keep thinking about it. If you keep dwelling on a question you don’t understand, you’re only torturing yourself. Look, aren’t you being tortured so badly you can’t even sleep?”
Shen Qingyu said, “But I can’t stop myself from thinking about it. What should I do?”
Qiao Ying had no answer.
His body slowly leaned forward, inch by inch, drawing closer to her where she was curled in the corner. Qiao Ying’s back was already pressed against the wall; there was nowhere left to retreat. Her whole body tensed as she watched him get closer and closer, until they could feel each other’s breath.
The white-haired young man in blue-green robes smiled. His voice was soft and gentle, like a whisper between lovers. “Qiao Ying, will you kill me?”
Qiao Ying: “Huh?”
“Otherwise, I’ll have no choice but to kill you instead.”
“…Huh?”
Shen Qingyu’s fingers moved lightly, hooking around a strand of her hair and winding it about his fingertip, as if it were an amusing game. The curve of his lips lifted, and his smile grew even more delighted.
“As long as you’re gone, or I’m gone, the question I can’t answer won’t torture me anymore.”
“Unfortunately, you can’t kill me.”
“So I can only have you die by my hand.”
His logic could not have been more simple and brutal. Since he could not solve the problem, he would solve the person who had caused it.
Although Shen Qingyu was smiling, and even his frivolous tone made it sound as though he were joking, he was serious. His hand slowly moved upward along her body. The hand that touched her still carried the same lingering tenderness as when he had wrapped an arm around her waist during the day, but now there was a chill beneath it.
His fingertips reached her neck, touching her carotid artery, feeling the rapid, powerful pulse beneath that fragile skin.
Unlike when he had killed in the past, this pulse, thrown out of rhythm, was very interesting.
“Wait, wait, wait-” Goose bumps rose all over Qiao Ying’s body. The hand on her neck felt like a cold venomous snake, ready at any moment to bite through her skin and inject its poison. “Actually, I can figure out the answer to the question you can’t understand!”
Shen Qingyu smiled. “Oh?”
“Think carefully. When we first met in the dungeon, didn’t you think I was interesting?”
He thought for a while. “I suppose so.”
“You often say I’m so strange. That means you became curious about me, right?”
Shen Qingyu said, “Perhaps.”
“And you’re always insisting on staying by my side. Just like last time, when I was taken by the Water Yaoguai, you came to save me right away. That’s because you didn’t want to be separated from me.”
He said, “It is merely time for dinner.”
“That amounts to the same thing. Otherwise, why wouldn’t you go find someone else to eat with? Why come to me? And my cooking is awful. You’ve always been so disgusted by it, but every time, you still eat it all. It’s not as if you’re some kind of masochist, so the only explanation is that compared to everyone else’s cooking, mine has a more special meaning to you.”
Shen Qingyu fell silent for a moment. A trace of doubt seemed to enter his voice. “Is that so?”
Qiao Ying’s expression was grave. “It definitely is. Absolutely is. Must be!”
Shen Qingyu said nothing, as though weighing the truth of her words. After a while, he asked, “And what does any of that have to do with my question?”
“Of course it does. Think about it. You’re interested in me, curious about me, and you insist on sticking to me day and night. You touch me and hug me, and you want to take liberties with me. There’s only one reason for that-”
Qiao Ying caught the hand clasped around her neck in both of hers and held it as though it were a priceless treasure. She gazed at the young man before her with deep affection, sincere and heartfelt as she declared, “Shen Qingyu, you like me!”
A deathly silence spread through the small room.
The young man’s face was expressionless, like a jade statue steeped in frost. His blue robes hung around him like solidified night, and even his breathing was so light it was nearly soundless. The white silk blindfold over his eyes set off his pale face, revealing not the slightest ripple of emotion.
A moment later, he laughed. “I like you?”
Qiao Ying spoke as if it were all perfectly reasonable. “That’s right. Otherwise, why wouldn’t you want to take liberties with other girls? Why only me?”
Shen Qingyu said, “Who said I only want to take liberties with you?”
“…Then which other girl do you want to take liberties with?”
Shen Qingyu straightened up. He said nothing, and the atmosphere in the room grew much heavier with his silence.
Just as Qiao Ying was feeling anxious, his figure suddenly vanished. The danger had finally passed. She flopped back onto the bed and let out a long sigh of relief.
The night watchman had been drinking tonight and was a little tipsy, but he still remembered his duties. He struck three times and called, “Third watch-”
All of a sudden, a gorgeous, bewitching figure appeared before his eyes.
The watchman jumped in fright, sobering up halfway on the spot. He cried out, “G-Ghost… It’s the White-Haired Ghost!”
He collapsed to the ground. When he opened his eyes again, that “ghostly figure” was already right in front of him.
The white-haired young man wore blue robes and a white silk blindfold over his eyes. Smiling, he asked, “Where are there girls?”
The watchman did not understand, but he wanted to live. Trembling, he stammered, “Qi… Qihong Building… There are lots of girls there.”
Another gust of wind swept by, and the blue-robed, white-haired figure had disappeared.
In the distance, the sky was turning faintly pale, but the sun had not yet risen. The heavens were still gray and dim, tinged with a chill.
Qiao Ying was once again forced awake by that familiar, icy presence. When she opened her eyes, she once again saw the young man sitting there in silence. She clutched the quilt and covered half her face with it, on the verge of tears.
“Shen Qingyu, what do you want this time?”
“Four hours ago, I went to Qihong Building.”
Qiao Ying’s expression turned very strange.
When she had worked at Zhao Manor, she had heard the name Qihong Building before. If she remembered correctly, it was a brothel.
“You went to Qihong Building… and then?”
“There were many girls there.”
“Mm… so?”
“I asked them which one was willing to let me take liberties with her.”
Qiao Ying stared blankly.
“But someone said I was a penniless wretch and unworthy of coming to a place like that.”
Qiao Ying said, “Mm…”
“So I broke his legs.” Shen Qingyu smiled. “The girls were so enthusiastic. They cried and knelt on the floor, begging me to take liberties with them.”
Qiao Ying said nothing.
“But their crying annoyed me, and the smell of rouge and powder inside only made me sick, so I came back.”
Shen Qingyu reached out and poked Qiao Ying’s cheek with one fingertip. Knowing she did not dare resist, he poked harder and harder. Each time her flesh dimpled inward, he laughed aloud.
“How strange, Qiao Ying,” he said. “You also shriek and squawk, but you only make me laugh. You also put on rouge and powder, dawdling away like a monkey in the mountains scratching for fleas, and that makes me laugh too.”
Qiao Ying clenched her back teeth and endured it.
“So I thought, perhaps there is some sense in what you said.” Shen Qingyu nodded slightly. “It seems I really do like you.”
Qiao Ying gave an “oh.”
The young man leaned down, his long hair spilling beside her. He hovered over her like that, and through the white silk blindfold covering his eyes, it was as though he were staring fixedly at her.
Qiao Ying could not help holding her breath.
He laughed softly. “So, Qiao Ying, when shall we get married?”
Qiao Ying’s eyelid twitched.