Outside, light snow had begun to fall again without anyone noticing. Tiny snowflakes drifted down gently, and a few were blown through the window into the room, landing on Meng Qitang’s wrist.
The woman’s skin was as fair as jade, indistinguishable from the snow itself.
Even the lustrous white Peacock Mark coiled around her wrist seemed to pale in comparison.
The person washing her tattoo was a young woman who, despite wearing a mask, stared at Meng Qitang with a pair of starry eyes fixed intently on her.
Meng Qitang blinked. Through the girl’s eyes, she could see something transmitted along nerve fibers in the form of electrical signals.
It was called excitement.
Seeing that the tattoo artist had been frozen in place for quite some time, Lin Linlin looked up and was about to urge her on.
Suddenly, the shop door was blown open by the wind, sending papers flying through the air. Before anyone could even gasp, everyone was frozen in place.
In an instant, the papers hung suspended mid-air, and the glass that the tattoo artist had knocked over also hovered in the air.
Outside the window, the scattered snow continued to fall with a soft rustle, but time inside the room had come to a standstill.
…
Yun Xubai walked in through the wind and snow. His ink-black eyes caught the light, his brows carrying a gentle warmth. A white sweater paired with black trousers, narrow waist and long legs—he exuded a refined and noble bearing.
The man stepped closer to Meng Qitang, plucking the glass that was about to fall on her from mid-air and setting it down properly.
Only then did he bend down before her.
At such close distance, the impact of the woman’s beauty was even more striking.
He glanced sideways, noticing the butterfly mark at the corner of her left eye.
With jade-white skin and a faint red accent forming the mark, she was as beautiful as a celestial being, captivating to the heart.
A barely perceptible smile tugged at the corner of Yun Xubai’s lips before his gaze fell on her wrist.
“Don’t want it?”
He lifted his eyes, asking her even though he knew she couldn’t hear him.
“Fine,” Yun Xubai licked his lips, a faint silver light flickering at his fingertips. “Then I’ll take it away.”
The silver light coiled around the woman’s wrist, circle after circle, as if trying to forcibly extract the Peacock Plume that had merged into her skin.
What Yun Xubai hadn’t expected was that he would have to endure pain akin to having his heart carved out and his bones ground down.
The man furrowed his brows, his slender fingers gripping the corner of the table. He couldn’t help but raise a hand to press against his chest, trying to ease the agony.
The silver Peacock Mark on his brow began to flush with a bloody hue.
In the end, Yun Xubai forced out a mouthful of blood…
Sure enough,
Without harming her, forcibly extracting it with spiritual power simply wouldn’t work?
He was at a loss, about to raise his hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth, when unexpectedly, a fair, delicate hand holding a handkerchief was thoughtfully offered to him.
Yun Xubai: “Thank you…”
“You’re welcome.”
The woman’s voice rang out, and he suddenly snapped back to his senses, meeting Meng Qitang’s eyes.
Yun Xubai: ??
“Depression and pent-up anger can both cause vomiting blood. It’s bad for your health. Calm down and try to see things more openly.” Meng Qitang spoke earnestly, seriously trying to counsel him.
The man laughed out loud, finding it absurd. “What if I can’t see things openly?”
She hadn’t been frozen in time…
That surprised him greatly.
Meng Qitang: “What do you have to be so upset about? I’m the one who ran into a ghost today—I should be the one who can’t see things openly.”
“Who? A ghost?” Yun Xubai pointed at himself, his face full of disbelief. “Me?”
Then, as if amused into laughter, he said, “So you’re not afraid of ghosts anymore?”
The woman looked at the man’s face, feeling a sense of familiarity, as if she had seen him somewhere before.
“Are you… that… movie star?”
Her words came out haltingly, but the man simply waved his hand lightly before her eyes, and she froze again.
Yun Xubai rose, looking down at her from his full height, his voice cold and magnetic. “Peacock Plume. I’ll come to collect it next time.”
“Until we meet again…” He recalled the days he’d spent at the research institute, remembered the name tag he’d seen on the woman, and said slowly, “Miss Meng…”
The moment the man stepped out, Meng Qitang couldn’t hold her breath any longer. She gasped for air, catching sight of the glass he had righted.
She turned back to stare at the snow flying outside the window. What was the point of that wave of his hand, anyway?
It hadn’t even frozen her =_=
Meng Qitang spent three minutes processing the bizarre event she’d just witnessed before turning back to look at Lin Linlin.
And what she saw made her jump.
What kind of expression was Lin Linlin wearing?
Her eyes were all crossed and dazed.
She reached out, resetting Lin Linlin’s face before she was satisfied.
Within two seconds, time snapped back into place, and everything returned to normal.
As if nothing had happened at all.
On the drive back, Lin Linlin couldn’t help but ask, “Tangtang, why did you suddenly change your mind about getting rid of this thing?”
Meng Qitang’s voice was calm. “Afraid of the pain. And afraid of scarring.”
“That’s true,” she didn’t push further, stopping at a red light and noticing that the snow on the roads had mostly been cleared. “If anyone sees you back at the research center this afternoon, just say it’s a new tattoo.”
“Mm,” Meng Qitang nodded, her attention caught by the billboard lighting up on a commercial building outside the window.
It was a poster of Yun Xubai, the top celebrity in the entertainment industry. The man wore a white stage outfit, radiant and dazzling, like an immortal descending to the mortal world—mysterious and otherworldly.
“00…” Meng Qitang gazed at the poster, lost in thought. “Do you believe gods exist in this world?”
Lin Linlin thought for a moment before speaking. “Hmm, that’s hard to say. My silver-tongued ancestor was a firm believer that gods exist.”
“I used to be a staunch materialist,” Meng Qitang pulled her sleeve down to cover her wrist. “Maybe… I should believe that gods really do exist…”
She murmured to herself, and before long, they arrived at the KM Biological Research Center.
“Oh, I thought we’d be the first ones here, but He Muchen beat us to it.” Lin Linlin spotted He Muchen’s car already parked in the underground garage as she pulled in.
Meng Qitang was changing in the locker room. “He Muchen’s research subject went missing—all his work this month went down the drain. He’s probably anxious too…”
“True,” Lin Linlin put on her white lab coat and picked up the record sheet beside her. “I’ll head to Zone A first to check on the hatching of the white-headed snakes, then I’ll come find you.”
“Okay…”
Meng Qitang returned to her own research lab. Her and He Muchen’s research focus was on the Phasianidae peafowl family.
“In feng shui, peacock plumes ward off evil and dispel negative energy, symbolizing nobility and good fortune…” She pulled a feng shui encyclopedia off the bookshelf and flipped through it, but after checking several books, she found no cases of peacock plumes clinging to people.
Well, she was the exception then.
Meng Qitang slumped over her desk, her eyes landing on the data records of the white peacock she’d compiled over the past few months.
She remembered that when she’d found the white peacock in Mist City, its entire body was snow-white, and one of its wings had been broken by a lightning strike.
Just now at the tattoo shop, Meng Qitang had made a point of glancing at Yun Xubai’s arm, but she hadn’t noticed anything unusual.
If that white peacock was actually the top celebrity Yun Xubai, then…
The idol Lin Linlin was a fan of was actually a white peacock!
“Impressive…” Meng Qitang couldn’t help but marvel, “So it turns out a husband is just a feeling, regardless of species.”
Just as she was lost in thought, a figure appeared before her eyes…