Chapter 63

Chapter 63

Exhausted, Qiao Ying fell asleep early that night. She dreamed of nothing and rested wonderfully.

The next morning, the cries of street vendors outside woke her.

Qiao Ying opened her eyes to complete darkness. She had gone “blind.”

Soft cloth appeared to be tied around her eyes. It blocked the light so completely that not a glimmer penetrated. She instinctively raised a hand to remove it, only to hear the clinking of metal.

Belatedly, she realized that chains bound her wrists and ankles.

No matter how long her shackled hands fumbled, she could not untie the blindfold. Instead, she made the chains clang incessantly.

Her clumsy attempts seemed to delight the prankster.

The young man’s laughter was bright and pleasant, like a warm spring breeze passing her ear, gentle enough to make her heart itch.

Qiao Ying abandoned the struggle and lay flat. With a sigh, she asked, “Shen Qingyu, what are you doing?”

Once she lost her sight, her other senses sharpened.

She felt the person beside her move. He seemed to be lying on his side with his head propped on one hand while the other stroked her cheek. He was so close that his warm breath kissed her skin.

“Yingying, you’re so strange.”

Qiao Ying remained perfectly calm. “What’s strange about me this time?”

“You wake to find your paws bound and your eyes unable to see, yet you aren’t afraid.”

“Because I know you’re still beside me.”

Shen Qingyu moved even closer. His breath reached the corner of her lips, and his gentle voice carried a clinging smile. “Why does my presence mean you need not be afraid?”

Rather than answer, Qiao Ying stretched out her hands with a rattle of chains. “Shen Qingyu, I want a hug.”

Before long, the young man covered her. His familiar presence enveloped her completely, though he supported his own weight to avoid crushing her.

His chin rested on her shoulder. When he turned his head, his face seemed buried in the curve of her neck, every breath filled with her scent. His hand did not remain idle. It rested upon her waist, stroking her intermittently and making her itch.

Still burning with curiosity, he murmured against her ear, “Yingying, why are you not afraid when I am here?”

Qiao Ying ignored the question again. “Shen Qingyu, my wrists hurt a little. Could you loosen the chains?”

A moment later, his fingers touched the restraints around her wrists. She did not know what he did, but their grip immediately eased, leaving her hands much more comfortable.

“Do they still hurt?” he asked.

She answered honestly, “Much better. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

The entire scene was exceedingly peculiar.

Qiao Ying seemed unaware that she was a prisoner, while Shen Qingyu had likewise forgotten that he was her captor.

They conversed normally, touched one another normally, and even maintained excellent manners.

But Shen Qingyu’s thirst for an answer was exceptionally strong. He lifted Qiao Ying, setting the chains clattering noisily. The sound gradually subsided as he sat up and settled her in his lap.

He asked once more, “Yingying, why does having me beside you make you unafraid?”
Qiao Ying asked, “What would you do if I were angry?”

He hooked a lock of black hair over her chest and wound it playfully around his finger. “I am the person you like. Naturally, I would find a way to make you happy.”

“And if I were hurting?”

He considered before answering truthfully, “Then I would destroy every single thing in this world that hurt you.”

After all, he was the person she liked.

Qiao Ying asked another question. “What if the person hurting me was you?”

Shen Qingyu fell silent for an instant. Resting his chin atop her head, he gently rocked the small figure in his arms. “Then I would destroy half of myself and keep the other half to comfort you properly.”

He smiled carelessly, as though discussing the most ordinary matter imaginable.

And to him, it was. Destroying half his body was hardly anything important.

With her limbs bound and her sight gone, Qiao Ying was forced to nestle in his arms and sway with his playful rocking. She ought to have felt like a prisoner. She ought to have been afraid and hysterical, perhaps even cursed him viciously. Like an ordinary person, she should have regarded him as a madman and a monster.

Instead, she adapted effortlessly. She did not scream. She relaxed as though surrendering to laziness and allowed him to confine her securely in his embrace. Resting her cheek against his chest, she listened to his heartbeat.

At a time like this, she even had the leisure to think that a pervert’s heart sounded no different from anyone else’s.

“Shen Qingyu, I’m afraid of pain.”

“Mm. I know,” he answered beside her ear.

“So as long as you don’t hurt me, I won’t be afraid of you.”

Shen Qingyu stilled. He released the lock of black hair and slowly, tentatively brushed her fingertips with his own.

He did not know why he had become so cautious when touching her. He was the most powerful person beneath the heavens. Without even lifting a hand, he could render the fatally vulnerable Qiao Ying incapable of resistance.

He could not unravel it.

He could not comprehend it.

He could not understand it.

And so he reached the only possible conclusion: it was Qiao Ying’s fault for being so strange. From head to toe, inside and out, even every single strand of her hair radiated strangeness.

As he lightly touched her hand, she caught his. There was no need for caution. Her small hand simply wrapped around his fingers as completely as it could.

“Is the cloth over my eyes the one you usually wear?” she asked.

He nodded. “Yes.”

Qiao Ying could no longer restrain herself. “Shen Qingyu.”

“Mm?”

“May I touch your eyes?”

“You may.”

She had long been curious about what lay beneath the white silk blindfold. Her imagination had wandered toward horrors. Perhaps there were only empty sockets beneath it, filled with nothing but darkness. Or perhaps his eyes were covered in hideous scars, crossing one another like twisted centipedes and leaking an eerie chill.

Whatever the truth, his eyes had to be extraordinary. Perhaps someone had cruelly destroyed them long ago.

But the instant Qiao Ying’s fingertips touched the corner of his eye, every dreadful suspicion she had ever entertained was overturned.