That person’s speed was extremely fast. Almost the moment Jiang Yin heard footsteps, he was already behind her.
She did not even have time to turn her head before the man’s hand wrapped around her waist and pinned her against the door.
Jiang Yin trembled, instinctively shrinking her neck.
So cold.
Whether it was his hands or the body pressed tightly against her back, both were unnaturally cold.
In the blazing heat of summer, even if ice had been placed in the room, it should not have lowered a person’s body temperature to such a degree, as if he were wrapped in frost and snow.
“You…”
Jiang Yin had just spoken when a sudden chill brushed behind her ear. Damp, cool lips fell at the base of her ear, rubbing and nibbling their way along, as if expressing dissatisfaction at her shrinking away.
A wet trail was left in the wake of his lips and teeth. Because his temperature was so low, it felt as though he held ice in his mouth, melting it with her body heat.
It was far too cold, so cold that she could clearly feel the dampened skin heating up in contrast. She shrank her shoulders again and let out a muffled whimper, pleading, “Wait… no…”
Perhaps her plea had some effect, as the man behind her suddenly paused.
But before Jiang Yin could feel any joy, he immediately pressed the tips of his teeth into the soft flesh at her neck. The hand around her waist had already undone her sash, and her loosened outer garment was tugged off, hanging halfway from her arms.
Her round, fair shoulders were left uncovered. He bit down on them without restraint, and as if that was still not enough, his hand continued to undo the ties of her inner garment.
Jiang Yin was nearly scared out of her wits. If this went any further, even if Xie Huaian did not mind, there would be no possibility left between the male and female leads!
“Come to your senses. We can’t do this.” She tried her best to keep her voice steady amidst his biting, but it still trembled badly. “Stop…!”
He gave no response, yet his fingers had already grasped the ties of her inner garment.
Once untied, the violently rising and falling curves of her chest would no longer be concealed.
Through the thin layer of gauze, Jiang Yin could even feel the chill of his fingers only a few centimeters from her chest. If her breathing grew even slightly heavier, the tips would brush against his fingers.
That made her feel both ashamed and furious. Xiao Lingchuan seemed to have gone mad, and he would not listen to reason. She had to do something to stop him from continuing.
She struggled with all her strength, but the difference in power was far too great. The extent of her movements was completely controlled by him, making it seem instead as if she were rubbing herself against him.
The man let out a muffled groan, the force of his biting increasing. He stepped forward, pressing her back against the door once more.
Now their bodies were even closer. Jiang Yin felt something pressing against her waist, and her face instantly turned pale, not daring to move at all.
Yet he seemed to have discovered a new kind of amusement from her earlier movements. Pressing against her, he began to move slowly, again and again, each motion making Jiang Yin’s heart sink lower and lower.
She bit her bloodless lips, her fingers trembling as she reached for the storage pouch at her waist and summoned the dagger she had previously bought for self-defense.
But it was her first time using such a mystical item, and she was not yet skilled with it. The person behind her suddenly thrust forward again, and she failed to hold steady. The other items in her storage pouch spilled out as well.
All kinds of miscellaneous objects scattered across the floor. Jiang Yin had no time to care. Gripping the dagger, she stabbed it backward into the thigh of the person behind her.
Perhaps the pain and the sight of blood brought back a sliver of his reason, because he finally stopped moving.
Seizing the chance, Jiang Yin shoved him away and turned around angrily. “You’re really insane…”
All her words caught in her throat.
Her pupils trembled as she stared at the man’s face in disbelief. “…Ah Ting?!”
The person behind her had gentle brows and eyes like a spring landscape, peach blossom eyes filled with tender affection. How could he be Xiao Lingchuan?
Jiang Yin was both flustered and anxious. “Why are you here? And your hair… what’s going on? What happened?”
At this moment, the young man’s hair was completely silver. If not for that, she would not have mistaken him for Xiao Lingchuan.
Chu Nanci pressed his lips together. The taste lingering in his mouth was the fragrance left by her delicate skin.
The agitation within his body surged like a tidal wave, overwhelming and chaotic, throwing his blood and qi into complete disorder. A faint redness flickered in the depths of his eyes.
“My breathing… is in disorder.” He spoke concisely, his voice hoarse as if it had been ground over sand and stone.
But as for why his breathing had gone awry, he did not mention a single word.
How could he explain it?
That he had originally been regulating his breath smoothly, tending to the wounds on his tail, when he suddenly heard passersby outside the cave mention a name.
Xie Huaian.
That person had said, “I’m not entirely sure either, I just saw him carrying Xie Huaian’s jade pendant… how could I recognize him by his face? I’m not familiar with him to begin with… it seems he went to the fifth level below the Flower Tower… there was a woman by his side… a marriage arrangement…”
The speaker had still been some distance from the cave entrance, so he had not heard everything clearly. But at least he knew that Xie Huaian was in Lin’an City, and that there was a woman by his side.
A marriage arrangement? Who else could have a marriage arrangement with Xie Huaian?
Just hearing those words had immediately thrown his meridians into chaos. Not only had his injured tail failed to heal, he had also suffered backlash, worsening his condition.
At a time like this, he should have continued regulating his breath and minimized the backlash as much as possible. But the moment he thought that the real Xie Huaian might have already met Jiang Yin, how could he possibly calm his mind to regulate his breathing?
He hurried back to the inn. Seeing the note Jiang Yin had left behind, he used a secret technique to track her whereabouts. When he sensed that she was at the pleasure house, the qi within his body grew even more chaotic.
By the time he arrived at the pleasure house, his hair had already turned white, and even circulating his qi caused his meridians to ache as if they were about to split apart.
If not for Huaying, his true demonic form would have already been exposed.
Huaying said that he was already in his heat period, and on top of that, he had suffered backlash from the disruption of his breathing regulation. His pulse was in grave danger, already showing signs of cultivation deviation, and he needed to release it as soon as possible.
Fortunately, Jiang Yin was in the pleasure house.
When he sensed her presence appear beside him, he could not resist his primal instincts. He wanted to draw close to her, to possess her.
But her disgust and resistance nearly drove him mad.
When she injured him with the dagger, his tail had nearly tightened around her waist with the urge to crush it.
But when she turned around, her eyes were filled with confusion and shock.
She did not know it was him.
And she had not seen Xie Huaian either. Otherwise, she would not have reacted this way.
“…Ah Yin.” Chu Nanci lowered his gaze to the thigh soaked with blood, his voice low. “It hurts.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t know it was you.” Jiang Yin helped him back to sit by the bed, worried. As she apologized, she pulled the dagger out of his leg. Afraid that he was in pain, she wanted to fetch the Life-Extending Pill that had fallen by the door, but he grabbed her hand and refused to let go.
“I’ll go get the medicine. Once you take it, it won’t hurt anymore.”
Chu Nanci’s five fingers tightened slightly, clasping her wrist. “Why did you come here?”
There was nothing about this that she could not say.
Jiang Yin told him about the bounty board and the rules of the fifth level below the Flower Tower. “Right now, this is the only place in Lin’an City where I can avoid being tracked by bounty hunters.”
The young man kept his eyes lowered, his lips moist and slightly red. The hand gripping her wrist was as cold as ice, and the tightening force was especially noticeable.
Thinking of what Lin Yueying had said earlier, she coughed lightly and added an explanation, “The fifth level below the Flower Tower doesn’t require you to find a companion to stay there. If needed, you can stay alone. I planned to hide in the room by myself for a few days. I definitely didn’t intend to find anyone.”
Chu Nanci’s gaze fell on the items that had dropped from her storage pouch onto the floor. He remained silent for a long time, only his brows gradually knitting together.
Jiang Yin followed his line of sight, her heart tightening. “No, I really didn’t plan to find anyone! I… I… those things…”
Her cheeks flushed bright red. By the end, her voice had become so soft it was almost a whisper. “…I bought them to use with you.”
It was just that she had been startled by what she had felt before, so she had gone to buy those lubricating ointments and thin sheaths as a precaution. Who would have thought that in just a single day, the person concerned would discover them.
It was simply too embarrassing.
Chu Nanci was stunned for a few breaths.
To use with him?
He had originally been looking at the jade pendant she had dropped, thinking about how to prevent her from recognizing Xie Huaian. Hearing this, he glanced at the items beside it.
He had never seen them before.
But since Jiang Yin said they were to be used with him, he humbly asked, “How are they used?”
“….” Jiang Yin’s gaze drifted outward. “You still haven’t said how you ended up at the Flower Tower. Did you become a companion here? I didn’t see a jade token. Earlier, the madam even said you specifically requested for me to enter the room. How did you know I was at the Flower Tower? And just now… what was going on?”
Chu Nanci had long known that Jiang Yin was not as ignorant and simple as she appeared.
On the contrary, she was very perceptive. Even though she was trying to change the subject at this moment, the questions she raised were not ones he could answer carelessly.
Moreover, the real Xie Huaian was currently in the Flower Tower. That alone made it impossible for Chu Nanci to brush things off as he had before.
His gaze shifted slightly as he spoke slowly, “I was originally regulating my breath, but the Flower Tower captured me and brought me here. If I hadn’t seen you, I wouldn’t have known you were here either.”
In short, this matter had nothing to do with him.
Even if Jiang Yin felt suspicious, she would only think about the reason the Flower Tower had done this.
Sure enough, upon hearing his words, Jiang Yin said angrily, “It seems the master of the Flower Tower already knows my identity and deliberately brought you here to trap me. How despicable.”
She took the Life-Extending Pill and fed it to Chu Nanci. However, the pill could only relieve pain, not stop bleeding. The wound on his leg still needed to be treated.
Without any wound medicine, Jiang Yin tore off a strip of gauze to bandage him. But the location of his injury was far too close to a certain place. Even though he had not removed his inner trousers, the imposing outline still made her heart race. Her fingers trembled for a long while, unable to secure the cloth.
The young man’s hoarse voice only added fuel to the fire. “My breathing regulation failed. The power of the curse was already impossible to suppress. Now that I am injured as well, the qi within my body is completely in chaos. If it is not soothed as soon as possible, I fear I will fall into cultivation deviation.”
“….”
Jiang Yin could not help but curse the author in her heart.
She had always felt that the main responsibility for the female lead falling in love with the male supporting character lay with the author.
Aside from their differing personalities, the various settings of the male lead and the male supporting character were practically identical, just described in different ways.
The male lead practiced a demonic beast cultivation method, suffered backlash, and when his breathing regulation became disordered, he needed to be soothed.
The male supporting character had been afflicted with a demonic curse. When his breathing fell into disorder, he would also suffer backlash and needed to be soothed.
Even the method of soothing was exactly the same.
Using blood. Or using the body.
The dagger that had been pulled out lay by the bedside, stained with blood, enough to show how sharp it was.
After bandaging the young man’s wound, Jiang Yin looked at the dagger and let out a long breath.
A silvery light flickered in Chu Nanci’s eyes, his voice extremely low. “Ah Yin, look at me.”
Jiang Yin pressed her lips together and shook her head, extending one hand.
Chu Nanci frowned slightly. Just as he was about to force her to lift her head, he saw that she was not reaching for the dagger, but instead raised her hand to remove the mask from her face.
In the next moment, she placed the mask over his face, her slender fingers tying the straps behind his head.
“Don’t look.”
Her voice trembled, clearly tense, carrying a heavy breathiness.
“…If I look, I won’t dare.”
She tilted her head up, the tip of her nose brushing against the edge of the mask, and lightly kissed his lips, separating the moment they touched.
“So cold.”
Chu Nanci lowered his gaze to look at her. Without the mask to conceal her, the flush covering her face had nowhere to hide, and her eyelashes trembled intensely.
His throat bobbed as he withdrew the charm technique, letting out a soft “Mm.”
Jiang Yin could hear nothing but the violent pounding of her own heartbeat in her ears, almost unable to find her own voice.
“Here… here is also so cold.”
She pressed closer to him, her hands filling with icy chill.
“I… I’ll warm you up.”