Only the sound of their intermingled, unsteady breathing remained.
Song Qingzhi trapped her between the door panel and his body.
The grip on her wrist did not loosen in the slightest if anything, it tightened with the violent surge of his emotions.
His knuckles had gone white from the force.
Su Tiantian gasped sharply in pain, feeling as though the bones in her wrist were about to shatter.
Uncontrollable tears welled at the corners of her eyes.
She tried to struggle, but couldn’t budge him at all.
“It hurts…”
She finally couldn’t hold it in any longer and whimpered softly, her voice trembling with tears.
That single word was like a fine needle, piercing through Song Qingzhi’s rage-filled mind without warning.
He jolted violently, as if burned and released her hand at once.
Su Tiantian immediately pulled her wrist back and looked down.
A clear red ring had already formed on her fair skin, faintly turning blue.
She gently rubbed the injured spot, tears dropping one after another.
This time she wasn’t pretending it really hurt. And she was scared, too.
Song Qingzhi stared at the glaring red mark on her wrist and the tears falling drop by drop.
The searing anger in his chest was doused instantly, as if by a bucket of ice water.
In its place surged a feeling he had never known before panic, and… heartache.
He had… hurt her.
That realization tightened something in his chest.
An emotion called “regret” quietly spread.
He looked at her lowered head, her shoulders trembling as she sobbed softly.
She was completely different from the girl by the herb garden earlier, chatting and laughing so easily with others.
A powerful impulse to pull her into his arms and comfort her swept over him without warning.
But he restrained himself.
He only reached out, his fingertips trembling almost imperceptibly, and gently touched the red mark on her wrist.
A stream of gentle, pure spiritual energy flowed from his fingers, like the softest current of water, slowly washing over the bruise.
A cool, soothing sensation instantly drove away the pain, and the frightening red mark faded and disappeared before her eyes.
Su Tiantian froze.
She lifted her tear-blurred face to look at him.
Song Qingzhi withdrew his hand, his gaze still fixed on her.
The raging waves in his eyes seemed to have calmed somewhat, leaving behind only unfathomable darkness and a complex, unreadable emotion.
“Answer me.”
His voice was much lower than before still hoarse, but with less hostility, replaced by a stubborn insistence.
There was even a trace of something he himself hadn’t noticed… almost like pleading.
“Why?”
Su Tiantian looked into those eyes no longer icy and terrifying, but even deeper now, as if they might draw her soul in.
Her heart began to pound erratically.
She opened her mouth, her mind a complete mess.
All the lines and psychological tactics the system had taught her flew straight out of her head.
Faced with such raw questioning, any technique felt pale and useless.
“I… I didn’t…”
She denied it instinctively.
Her voice still carried the nasal tone of crying, sounding weak and guilty.
“I just… just thought…”
What was she supposed to say?
That it was a system mission? That it was to make you love me more?!
Seeing her evasive gaze and hesitant words, the dark currents in Song Qingzhi’s eyes surged again.
He stepped closer.
The distance between them shrank instantly, until their noses were almost touching.
“Thought what?”
He pressed, his warm breath brushing her lips, sending a shiver through her.
Su Tiantian could smell the clean, cool scent on him, mixed with a suppressed, dangerous edge.
Her brain completely shut down.
Staring at his lips so close to hers, a ridiculous thought flashed through her mind.
Is he… trying to kiss me? (Self-absorbed version, hehe.)
The thought made her cheeks instantly explode with heat, blood rushing straight to her head.
(System: Warning! Strong intimate intent detected from target individual! Host’s physiological indicators abnormal! Please.)
The system’s warning grew indistinct.
In the moment when Su Tiantian’s heartbeat spiraled out of control and her eyes went hazy from the closeness and that fleeting thought Song Qingzhi stared at her glistening lips.
That softness the place that had once uttered words that threw his heart into chaos.
The final string of his reason snapped.
He suddenly lowered his head.
Yet at the very last instant, just before their lips could touch, he forced himself to turn aside.
His scorching, rapid breath pressed heavily against the sensitive skin of her neck.
Su Tiantian shuddered violently, as if struck by electricity.
Her legs went weak, nearly unable to support her.
Song Qingzhi rested his forehead in the hollow of her neck, breathing heavily, his body tense like a slab of stone.
He could feel her warmth, her equally frantic heartbeat, smell the faint fragrance in her hair.
An unprecedented sense of satisfaction intertwined with an even deeper desire, nearly swallowing him whole.
He stayed like that, leaning against her.
Only after a long while did he speak, his voice hoarse to the extreme, carrying a do-or-die resolve, whispering in her ear, word by word:
“Su Yao, don’t avoid me.”
“And don’t… look at anyone else.”
This was no longer the cold interrogation from before.
It was an unquestionable, unmistakable declaration of possession.
After saying that, as if he had exhausted all his strength, he abruptly straightened.
He looked at her deeply so deeply that her heart trembled then turned around and, almost hastily, pulled open the door and strode away.
The door closed softly behind him, cutting off his figure from sight.
Su Tiantian slid slowly down the door panel and sat on the floor.
One hand unconsciously rose to the side of her neck, where his breath had scorched her skin.
It felt as though the heat still lingered there.
Her other wrist, healed by his spiritual energy, was smooth as ever, as if the pain and conflict earlier had all been nothing but a dream.
Only her wildly pounding heart and burning cheeks proved how real everything that had just happened was.
(System: Strategic retreat mission complete. Target individual emotional confirmation: 100%. Possessiveness: 100%. Intimate intent: 100%. Host, the phase objective has been… exceeded.)
Su Tiantian buried her burning face into her knees, feeling like she was about to combust.
Did we… kiss?
It seemed like no.
But also… somehow even more intense than a kiss?