Ji Xing lifted his head with difficulty. The person standing before him was very tall and slender, standing as straight as an upright bamboo stalk. His uniform was quite well-fitted, accentuating his broad shoulders and long legs.
There was still a youthful greenness about his brows and eyes, carrying the sharp, eager spirit unique to a teenager, but the dark, fierce look in his eyes added a hard-to-read complexity to him.
Ji Xing had not seen this person among the players.
Could he be a dungeon NPC?
As he was thinking this, the game system’s voice rang out.
[Congratulations to the player for triggering a key NPC]
[Ling Xiye, nineteen years old, son of the mayor of Longxi Town, a university student in the provincial capital who works as a scenic spot guide during his holiday]
He had stumbled into triggering a key NPC. As a minor cannon fodder character, he really did not want to have too much contact with someone possessing such high presence.
Ling Xiye watched as Ji Xing drooped his head listlessly, stopping his gaze on him. The fallen strands of dark hair covered half of his face, revealing only a small, sharp chin.
The hands and feet exposed to the air were slender and delicate, frail and lonely-looking, as if lacking much strength. Bound up by him, the youth did not even have the ability to struggle or push away.
His entire body was full of flaws and suspicious points, and he was in such a disheveled state, appearing in the dead of night within the deep mountains that had long been sealed off. If he had not been patrolling the mountain tonight, this little ghost, so frail and completely incapable of self-preservation, would have already been dragged away by wild beasts.
He was dressed in exquisite craftsmanship, and his skin was delicately and smoothly nurtured. His appearance was also uniquely pure and beautiful, completely out of place in the small town, suggesting he was an outside tourist visiting for a tour.
Yet why was he left all alone, isolated in the danger-fraught mountains? Had he been abandoned?
Ling Xiye’s ink-black eyes stared fixedly at Ji Xing on the ground, his sharp gaze as if trying to burn a hole through Ji Xing’s body.
He looked young too, just a newly adult boy spoiled and kept like a lover by some wealthy person. With the finest food and clothing used on him, he must have been raised to have that kind of warm, jade-like, smooth, and fair flesh.
The little lover had a pure appearance, but in private, he was a restless sort who used his good looks everywhere to seduce people and cuckold his wealthy benefactor.
Later, the wealthy man discovered his little trick and brought him deep into the secluded mountains of Longxi Town to teach him a lesson, planning to toy with him before casting him aside ruthlessly.
Just like this, left behind in the gloomy, cold mountain forest to fend for himself.
He must have been discarded after being played with. There were even red hickeys on his neck sucked out by someone; the person who left the marks had been too eager, making the hickeys deep and heavy, branded against his glowing white skin.
The clothes in front of his chest were also torn open, as if someone had yanked them apart forcefully, hiding the scenery across his chest almost inadequately. Through the half-parted collar, hints of it could vaguely be glimpsed.
Pinkish, slightly swelling curves.
Was he really a boy? How could even that part grow so distinctly?
The person on the ground still seemed oblivious, letting his clothes gape open with his hair damply clinging to him. He did not know how he had gotten wet, but a small patch of his collar was soaked through, sticking tightly against his neck and making it appear even more slender.
The corners of his eyes were wet and red, as if he had cried tears of bitter grievance, with water droplets hanging on his curly eyelashes. They half-shaded a trace of jade-green beneath the curtains, his green eyes also pooling with water, looking across a layer of mist at him with a timid, delicate air.
He had stared with almost offensive rudeness for so long, yet the person before him still did not utter a single word.
Ling Xiye inexplicably felt a surge of irritation. A person of unclean background, covered in marks, discarded cruelly after being played with.
Yet he looked at him with such innocence. Why was he looking at him? Was he expecting him to pick up the pieces?
Using the usual methods of seducing men, expecting him to take the bait, it was sheer wishful thinking.
Ji Xing did not understand why the young man had suddenly halted his actions. That oppressive, probing gaze laden with an uncomfortable scrutiny swept over him inch by inch, finally resting on the red marks around his neck.
Ling Xiye’s expression suddenly turned foul.
“091, is he disgusted that I am not speaking?”
Ji Xing felt somewhat aggrieved from being stared at like that. He muttered complaints to 091, “Why did he suddenly get mad?”
091 was thankful its host baby could not read minds, never expecting that this seemingly proper male college student would have a head full of raw, trashy delusions about its baby the very first time meeting him.
Arrogant and full of himself; the queue of people fighting to pick up its host’s scraps didn’t even have a turn for someone like him.
“Hehe, he is pretty unhinged.”
“091, what are you saying?”
091 fell silent. Better not to say it; a bunch of restricted scenarios voiced aloud would only frighten its innocent baby.
“What is your name?”
Ling Xiye’s expression returned to normal, carrying that same flat, indifferent voice as he half-crouched down to ask Ji Xing.
Ji Xing reached out to search for the notebook on his body, but groped into empty air. It must have dropped to the ground when the monster was dragging him along while running.
That notebook had been given by Ning Jue. If Ning Jue found out the notebook was lost, he would surely ask about it, leaving him to scramble for excuses to handle Ning Jue.
The inconvenience of communication brought distress, leaving Ji Xing extremely frustrated. He dropped his head listlessly, lacking any energy.
He had no other choice.
Ling Xiye wasn’t far from him, so Ji Xing endured the pain in his ankle, straightened his upper body, and inched closer.
That indescribable, rich fragrance arrived first. Ling Xiye’s brain exploded with a roar; he could not figure out what Ji Xing was trying to do.
The fragrance paralyzed his brain, and before he could make any defensive or evasive movements, Ji Xing had already leaned over.
Close, far too close for Ling Xiye, breaking safe social boundaries completely.
He could even smell the fragrance drifting wave after wave from Ji Xing’s parted collar.
His palm was gently lifted by a soft, tiny hand. Bewitched, he followed the movement and unfolded his palm.
The soft fingertips were light as feathers, dotting against his palm, tickling him with an indescribable, tingling numbness that scratched at his hand.
Ling Xiye didn’t bother to decipher the characters Ji Xing traced, keeping his gaze fixed solely on the pink, petal-like fingertips moving across his palm.
His mind wandered. Would fingertips this tender also trace across someone else’s body? Across the body of the person who left those kiss marks just now?
The petite body knelt beside him, looking even fairer than from afar. His skin emitted a lustrous glow, and his eyelashes were curled and thick, his eyelids lowered as he concentrated on writing characters in his palm.
Ji Xing wrote the character for wine, feeling it was perhaps easier to recognize than his surname. Once he finished writing, he wanted to pull his hand back, but his wrist was pinned down by a large hand.
Ling Xiye’s palm firmly circled Ji Xing’s wrist. The man’s palm was scorching, while Ji Xing’s body temperature tended to be cool. Upon contact, both of them froze.
Ji Xing was somewhat startled; he didn’t understand why Ling Xiye was pinning him down. He had written very slowly, trying hard to make the characters clear. Raising his head, he found Ling Xiye staring at the slender fingertips that had just been in contact with his palm.
He spoke indifferently, though his voice was somewhat low and husky, as if he were suppressing his tone.
“Write it again.”
Ji Xing gave up trying to reason with him. Looking at Ling Xiye’s much taller and sturdier physique, he obediently wrote it out a second time.
“Ji?”
Ling Xiye repeated the character Ji Xing had written. “You cannot speak?”
Ji Xing nodded.
Unable to speak, a mute. The person who left him alone here truly had calculated well; encountering danger, he couldn’t even let out a cry for help, left to hide in the dark all alone, biting back his tears while praying wild beasts wouldn’t find him.
If someone bullied him, he couldn’t even make a sound, pushing away the hands of the person bullying him that clamped around his waist, yet that person would still press heavy and vicious kisses onto his neck. A light touch against his skin would leave a mark, and beneath his clothes where the eye couldn’t reach, his body was likely covered in interwoven marks.
There were probably palm prints left behind by others on his waist as well.
Ling Xiye stood up, no longer looking at the kneeling Ji Xing on the ground, treating it as a momentary lapse in judgment. He had no need to let his heart be thrown into chaos for someone who had already been toyed with by others.
“Can you still walk?”