Her clothes…
Ji Li’s hand went instinctively to the wound on his back.
But the moment his fingers touched the strips of cloth binding it, he jerked his hand away as if he’d been suddenly stung, and then slowly curled it into a fist.
The first thing Su Hui noticed, too, was Jiang Wangyue’s striking get-up. His gaze slid across that bare sliver of slender, fair waist, and his throat bobbed without his meaning it to.
Jiang Wangyue didn’t catch the way Su Hui’s eyes had abruptly gone deep and dark, most of her attention was fixed on Ji Li, who’d been hurt because of her.
“Ji Li’s wounds are pretty serious. We need to get back fast,” Jiang Wangyue said, her expression anxious.
Su Hui looked away and sized Ji Li up and down. “Can you retract your wings? My aircraft isn’t big, those huge things of yours won’t fit.”
Ji Li was silent for a moment, then shook his head and said calmly, “No. You two go on ahead.”
Before Su Hui could even respond, Jiang Wangyue’s voice shot up sharply.
“What nonsense are you talking?! We just leave first and strand you, an injured man, out here?!”
Yelled at like that, Ji Li froze. “I…”
Face cold, Jiang Wangyue clamped a hand around his wrist and tugged him toward her, and before Ji Li could react, the two of them were already forehead to forehead.
A faintly familiar mental power flowed in through the place where their skin touched, sinking into his mental sea. The ear-feathers at Ji Li’s ears couldn’t help giving a light tremble before folding obediently down.
Standing off to the side with his arms crossed, Su Hui watched the scene before him and couldn’t help raising an eyebrow, a moment later the corner of his mouth curved up into an intrigued little arc.
Two days of mental soothing back to back, and Jiang Wangyue was starting to feel the strain.
Having burned through every scrap of mental power she’d stored up, she shut her eyes and panted faintly, with no strength left to talk. So she just gave Ji Li’s shoulder a light pat, signaling him to try and see whether he could pull his wings back in this time.
Ji Li slowly worked his still searing, aching wings, and this time they retracted smoothly into his body.
“It’s fine now, Female master.”
Jiang Wangyue nodded and, with sluggish movements, straightened up.
She didn’t take back the hand resting on Ji Li’s shoulder, for no other reason than that her legs had gone weak, and she didn’t want to pitch face-first into the dirt.
Ji Li reflexively reached out to wrap an arm around Jiang Wangyue’s waist, meaning to walk her outside.
But the instant his warm palm touched that smooth, ice-cold skin, both of them couldn’t help giving a little shudder.
Ji Li’s hand was different from Lan Xue’s, his palm had hard, rough calluses that were impossible to ignore, and Jiang Wangyue broke out in goosebumps from head to toe in an instant.
Just as she was wavering over whether to let go and walk on her own, a big hand suddenly appeared in front of her.
Su Hui spoke. “Want me to carry you?”
Jiang Wangyue choked. “…That won’t be necessary.”
I’m afraid you’d just chuck me straight over the edge.
Still, with Su Hui throwing a wrench into things like that, Jiang Wangyue took the opening to draw her own hand back and walked at a slow pace toward the window.
Ji Li stood where he was, eyes lowered, the tingling at his fingertips still there, leaving his thoughts in a tangle. [1] 心亂如麻, heart in a snarl like a knotted skein, mind in turmoil jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2723738_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2723738_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
He’d taken countless injuries, but this was the first time he’d ever woken from being hurt to find his wound already bound up.
Jiang Wangyue didn’t hear any footsteps behind her, and turned back, puzzled.
“Ji Li, what are you still standing there in a daze for? Come on.”
Snapping back to himself, Ji Li’s expression jolted, and then he quickly hurried after her.
It wasn’t until they were on the way home that Jiang Wangyue received a call from Lan Xue.
He sounded extremely anxious, asking where she was right now and what her condition was.
Jiang Wangyue was a little drained, but she forced herself to give him a brief rundown of the situation, telling him that she and Ji Li had already met up with Su Hui and were safe now.
“You’re saying the message Tinar sent you and the one you actually received look like they were completely different?” Lan Xue asked, his expression grave.
“Mm. And from the look of her, she didn’t seem to know about it either.”
“Then it can only have been Isaac’s doing.”
Isaac?
Jiang Wangyue’s muddled brain didn’t catch on right away, but Su Hui raised an eyebrow.
Lan Xue drew a deep breath and gentled his voice. “As long as you’re all right. I’ll be waiting at home for you to come back.”
“Okay…”
The pitch-black aircraft cut across the sky, all but spanning the entire Central Star, before finally settling slowly down into the courtyard.
Drowsy and half-asleep, Jiang Wangyue heard someone calling her, and the moment she turned her head she saw Lan Xue.
He was wearing an off-white long trench coat that made him look even gentler all over.
Jiang Wangyue wobbled to her feet and then flung herself straight into Lan Xue’s arms.
Lan Xue spread his arms and held her firmly, asking softly, “Are you all right?”
“Sleepy—”
“I’ll take you back up.”
Lan Xue bent slightly at the waist, one arm around her shoulders and the other slipping into the crook of her knees, and easily scooped her up sideways.
Jiang Wangyue instinctively reached up to loop her arms around Lan Xue’s neck and buried her face against him.
The soft white strands of hair tickled her face, and Jiang Wangyue shifted a little, uncomfortable.
Lan Xue quickened his steps, ignoring the probing look from Su Hui and the unsettled Ji Li, and headed straight up the stairs.
Maybe it was that Lan Xue’s embrace was too warm, or maybe it was that the last few star-hours had been too harrowing, whatever the reason, Jiang Wangyue just fell asleep like that.
Lan Xue nudged the door open with his shoulder without a sound, then laid her gently down on the bed.
He didn’t leave. Instead he turned and went to the bathroom, fetched a dampened towel, and gently wiped away the grime smudged on Jiang Wangyue’s face.
He drew the soft quilt up over her, bent down and carefully tucked in the corners, and only then closed the door and left.
The instant the door shut, his face turned cold with a snap.
When Lan Xue reappeared on the ground floor, he found that Ji Li was already gone.
Su Hui, who’d just finished replying to a message, raised a hand and pointed toward the basement, indicating that Ji Li had gone off on his own to find a treatment pod.
“When I found the two of them, that guy couldn’t even pull his wings back in.”
Lan Xue walked over and sat down across from Su Hui, his voice full of ice.
“Isaac reacted too fast.”
Su Hui shrugged. “Well, what do you expect, when the few Rodriguez family members who are left are all useless. His mother’s bound to drag him back home, and once she steps in, even Isaac’s Female master will give a bit of face, not much, granted.”
That said, Su Hui sized up Lan Xue with a sneer. “You, on the other hand, don’t you think there’s something seriously off about your attitude toward Jiang Wangyue? This time, teaming up with me to try and take down District 13, that’s to avenge her too, isn’t it?”
Lan Xue raised his eyes and said mildly, “And what if it is?”
The smile drained bit by bit from Su Hui’s face. He leaned forward, his expression darkening. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten the things she’s done?”
Remembering the mental soothing Jiang Wangyue had given Ji Li, he scoffed again. “Or is it that you’d turn an enemy into family [2] 認仇作親, to take the one who wronged you and treat them as kin jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2723738_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2723738_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); over that one tiny, trifling bit of mental soothing?”
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