His coworkers couldn’t help but notice that Lu Yan had undergone a massive transformation lately. This was most directly reflected by the fact that he now washed himself until he smelled like flowers every single night before skipping out the door in high spirits.
He practically strutted around like a peacock in full display, practically stamping the words “looking to mate” right across his forehead. It was utterly blinding to look at.
Lu Yan couldn’t care less about the conjoined brothers’ judgmental glares. The more jealous they were of him, the smuggler he felt. After all, nobody else in the entire world was lucky enough to be cherished exclusively by his one-and-only Miaomiao!
“She only has one game left before she can walk out of here, doesn’t she?”
As the old gardener dropped those words while kicking back to catch the evening breeze, Lu Yan’s light, bouncy steps abruptly ground to a halt.
The golden rule of the fog-drenched world was simple: anyone who managed to survive five distinct games would earn the right to walk out of this horrifying Red Moon academy for good.
And Xia Miao had precisely one game remaining before she was free to leave.
No matter what, Lu Yan could never bear the thought of Xia Miao dying. He certainly wouldn’t allow anyone else to kill her either. Since her survival was a guaranteed certainty, it naturally meant that her eventual departure from this world was an inescapable, inevitable conclusion.
The old gardener let out a soft sigh.
“Lu Yan, the two of you were never meant to walk the same path.”
As night fell, Xia Miao hurried to push open the window, quickly tidying up her appearance before perching on the edge of the bed. Her eyes fixed expectantly on the sill, trying to guess which acrobatic posture he would use to crawl inside tonight.
Yet tonight, she waited for a long, agonizingly long time, without catching even a glimpse of the boy’s shadow.
Xia Miao wondered if he had gone off to work again, but that didn’t make sense; usually, he always gave her a heads-up before taking off for a shift.
Sitting on the bed for a while longer, she finally found herself unable to sit still any longer. Climbing to her feet, she rushed over to the window and craned her neck to peer out into the deep night. It was an impenetrable sea of black—with her mortal eyesight, she couldn’t make out a single thing.
Losing her patience entirely, Xia Miao snapped:
“Lu Yan, get your ass over here right now!”
The only response that greeted her was the lonely howl of the wind sweeping through the night.
Pressing her lips into a tight, frustrated line, she spun around and stalked back into the room. Rummaging through her nightstand drawer, she fished out several unopened little boxes packed with condoms, marched angrily back to the window, and thrust her hand holding them out into the open air.
“If you don’t show your face right this second, I’m tossing all your stashed supplies straight into the trash! Don’t ever expect me to play along with you ever again!”
“Don’t!”
A figure dropped into a crouch right up in the tree branches. It was the boy, dressed entirely in black, who had been lurking among the foliage to spy on her for ages. The moment she deployed that specific threat, he panicked and hastily exposed himself.
Pulling her hand back inside, Xia Miao ordered:
“Get in here.”
Turning on her heel, she tossed the little boxes casually onto the study desk and plopped down onto the bed.
Lu Yan scrambled in through the window. The second he landed steadily on his feet, he was greeted by the sight of his beloved girl sitting there with her arms crossed and a completely expressionless face. A sudden wave of intense pressure crashed over him. Cowering instantly, he forgot how to walk normally, resorting to a clumsy, synchronized march as he shuffled slowly toward her.
Lacking any patience for his pathetic, cowardly act, Xia Miao delivered a swift kick to his shin.
“What’s your deal? Are you trying to dump me or something?”
“No, I don’t want to break up!”
Fuming, Xia Miao demanded:
“Then why were you planning on dodging me and hiding away all day today? Lu Yan, if you don’t give me a proper explanation right now, I’m never forgiving you!”
Lu Yan had never been chewed out this viciously before, leaving him completely unequipped to handle it. Staring at her with big, pleading eyes, his deadpan pupils shimmered with gathering moisture.
The moment Xia Miao caught sight of that expression, her scalp went completely numb. In an instant, all her aggressive momentum evaporated, reducing her to a paper tiger putting on a tough front.
“I’m the one who should be feeling wronged here, what the hell are you looking so pathetic for?!”
Lowering his voice, Lu Yan mumbled:
“You never used to yell at me like this before. They say that once someone takes your virginity, they get bored of you real quick and stop liking you anymore.”
Caught off guard, Xia Miao fell slightly silent.
“When on earth did I ever say I was bored of you, or that I didn’t like you anymore?”
Having apparently entered a hyper-sensitive emotional phase, Lu Yan projected a thoroughly depressed, low-energy aura. Hanging his head, he hooked his fingers into his own hemline, absentmindedly picking at his nails bit by bit.
“You’re going to throw me away sooner or later.”
Completely baffled as to how he had managed to arrive at such a conclusion, Xia Miao hopped off the bed and closed the distance between them, tilting her head at an angle to deliberately peer up into his downcast face.
“No way, did you actually start crying over this?”
Turning his face away, Lu Yan muttered,
“I’m not.”
The cowlick on top of his head was drooping miserably, looking anything but unbothered.
Reaching out, Xia Miao wrapped her arms around him, pressing her cheek flush against his chest. Being enveloped by his familiar scent gave her an immense sense of security.
“You dummy, you’re the very first guy to ever score a full hundred points with me. Can’t you have just a little bit of confidence in yourself?”
Lu Yan’s lashes fluttered as his gaze finally drifted back to her.
Xia Miao pressed on:
“You’re my first love, too. Do you even know what a first love means? You’re the very first person I’ve ever truly liked, which makes you incredibly important to me. I’d never throw you away.”
Lu Yan’s heart hammered frantically against his ribs, its chaotic, drumming rhythm echoing straight into her ears.
The words “first love” held a devastatingly powerful charm, even for a creature of the dark.
“Miaomiao, you won’t leave me behind?”
“Of course I won’t!”
Gently stroking her face, Lu Yan allowed a hint of a smile to surface within his otherwise dead eyes a moment later. He didn’t voice whether he believed her or not; he simply figured that even if she were just spinning a tale to pacify him, the fact that Xia Miao was willing to tell a sweet lie just to comfort him proved he held a truly irreplaceable place in her heart.
And that alone made him profoundly happy.
Picking up one of the small boxes with a flicker of hidden excitement, Xia Miao asked:
“Are we doing this or what?”
Like dry kindling catching a sudden spark, the boy’s body flared with heat. Though shyness still painted his features, his hands moved with lightning speed to strip away his clothes:
“Let’s do it!”
Lu Yan could clearly tell that Xia Miao was coddling him tonight, treating him to a whole array of brand-new experiences that left him utterly defenseless. Using both hands and feet, she coaxed him into a state of sheer bliss multiple times before finally welcoming him fully into her embrace.
Though no literal flames burned around them, Lu Yan felt as though the air itself was saturated with red-hot, fiery sparks. His body felt as if it were beginning to melt away once more, yet right at the precipice of oblivion, she would pull him back from the edge, using waves of intoxicating pleasure to remind him that his body was still intact and whole.
More than once, Lu Yan cried out:
“No… Miaomiao, I can’t take any more.”
“Nonsense,” she giggled, apparently hitting just the right spot to make his entire frame tense up. “Look at you, you’ve still got plenty of energy left, don’t you?”
Lifting both hands, he buried his face in his palms to block out any more of his own shameful, unmanly sounds.
By the deep hours of the night, the two of them finally came to a standstill.
Having eaten her fill and quenched her thirst, Xia Miao sprawled out across the mattress and fell into a deep, snoring sleep.
Meanwhile, looking like a miserable, thoroughly worn-out bride, the boy curled up right beside her, his damp, dewy gaze glued to her profile without moving an inch.
Being with her truly brought an intoxicating kind of joy.
Lu Yan found himself wondering once again if she possessed some kind of magical sorcery; otherwise, how else could she have rendered him so utterly helpless with zero capacity to fight back?
Every single heartbeat thrumming inside the boy’s chest seemed to spell out her name. Leaning in close, he pressed a gentle, lingering kiss to her cheek.
Suddenly, a gust of midnight wind swept through the room, fluttering the curtains.
Xia Miao was gone.
Lu Yan sat up in bed, hanging his head so low that his expression remained hidden in the shadows. The bed, which had felt delightfully snug and crowded with the two of them sharing it, suddenly felt desperately empty and cavernous with only him left all alone.
A creeping blanket of black fog rolled in to remind him that tonight’s game was destined to be his home turf.
And for Xia Miao, tonight’s game marked her very final trial.