Thunder rumbled, and raindrops hammered against the carriage roof, sounding like a cascade of scattered pearls.
A silvery-white lightning bolt split into the night sky. The intense flash illuminated the carriage interior for a moment, revealing two silent figures.
The carriage wasn’t particularly spacious. The two of them sat in the middle, wrapped in a cotton quilt, hemmed in by the surrounding seats with little room to move. However, it was undeniably warm.
Even though Li Ruoshui’s hands and feet were still icy, it was a vast improvement over the bone-deep chill from before.
Despite leaning against Lu Zhiyao’s chest, she couldn’t fall asleep. Surrounded by darkness and feeling utterly bored, she spoke up.
“When you were poisoned, was it the same for you? Did you also huddle under a quilt?”
Lu Zhiyao held her quietly, a smile playing on his lips, his voice ethereal in the darkness.
“The sky was my quilt; Water was my bed.”
“What does that mean?”
Lu Zhiyao chuckled softly but didn’t answer directly. Instead, he continued stroking her hair and asked a question of his own. “Do you know how to alleviate this Cold Poison?”
“Isn’t it like this? Using internal energy?”
Li Ruoshui started to lift her head, but he gently pressed it back down, his voice calm as he began his story.
“If the poisoned person uses their internal energy to resist, it can sever their tendons and meridians. The only way to ease your suffering is to draw warmth from the outside. My master was a cripple, she had no internal energy. But even if she did, she wouldn’t have helped me.”
Li Ruoshui sighed softly and reached up to pat his shoulder in comfort.
“I was young then. I didn’t yet understand that pain could also be a source of joy. So, I huddled among the reeds, trying to get warm.”
Hearing this, Li Ruoshui’s patting hand stilled.
“But reeds are just reeds; they don’t generate heat. I tried to find my way out, but because I couldn’t see, I stumbled and fell into a lake.”
“It was the shore, the water only came up to my waist. If it had been any deeper, I would have sunk to the bottom and fed my body to the fish. But precisely because of that, I discovered the best way to relieve the Cold Poison is to immerse yourself in water.”
As he finished, Lu Zhiyao laughed softly, as if recalling a fond childhood memory.
In that short story, Li Ruoshui found a multitude of things to balk at. Feelings of pity, speechlessness, and horror tangled together, finally coalescing into one sentence.
“Maybe I should find some time to teach you how to swim?”
Raindrops pattered down, thunder roared, and the fierce wind made the tightly shut carriage door creak and groan, as if it might burst open any second.
An eerie silence fell inside the dark carriage. Li Ruoshui’s mind raced, wondering if she had said something wrong.
“I mean… just in case you fall into the water again… so you won’t sink and feed the fishies…soo”
After attempting to explain a few times, it only seemed to make things stranger. Li Ruoshui simply closed her mouth and started counting sheep in her head, hoping to fall asleep immediately and escape this awkward atmosphere she made.
Just as she reached the eighteenth sheep, Lu Zhiyao’s gentle voice sounded again in the darkness.
“Is this our second agreement?”
“Not really,” Li Ruoshui thought about it carefully. “This is more of a discussion.”
“Are you seeking my consent?”
As if hearing something novel, his tone lifted slightly, losing some of its previous casual indifference.
“You couldn’t possibly force me? Throw me into the water?”
Li Ruoshui pictured herself trying to force him and couldn’t help but laugh. “Now I’m just imagining you being forced to swim, but still having to smile like you usually do.”
She was originally leaning against the left side of his chest. As she laughed, the vibrations traveled to his heart, creating a strange sensation.
Mid-laugh, Li Ruoshui suddenly remembered their boat ride in the cave.
“You can’t swim? Then how come you weren’t scared at all in the cave when we were on the boat? You even let go of the side!”
“I can’t swim, but that doesn’t mean I’m afraid of falling into the water.”
Right. Someone who isn’t afraid of death wouldn’t fear falling into water.
Li Ruoshui yawned, her eyes growing misty. “I’m sleepy.”
She was always a punctual sleeper. Once it was time, she got drowsy. It was the same in the carriage before; she’d listen to Lu Feiyue and Jiang Nian talk, and the next time she opened her eyes, it was already dawn.
The rain outside showed no sign of letting up. The nearby leaves rustled loudly under its assault, and thunder rumbled intermittently. To Li Ruoshui’s ears, however, it all became a lullaby. New chapters come out on novelping(.)com first.
The warm quilt and his slightly elevated body temperature gave her a great sense of security. Before she could even wait for Lu Zhiyao’s reply, her head tilted to the side, and she fell asleep.
The cramped space within the carriage went silent once again.
Lu Zhiyao was blind from birth, and his senses were naturally exceptionally sharp. What was just a rainy night to ordinary people was excessively noisy to him.
Rain hitting leaves, beads falling on the carriage canopy, the churning of clouds and thunder—every sound reached his ears. The smell of damp earth, churned up by the rain, invaded his nostrils, inescapable.
“Rain really is so unpleasant.”
He let out a sigh to that effect, his hands unconsciously continuing to stroke Li Ruoshui’s black hair. Then he twitched his nose, as if catching a scent.
That faint fragrance again.
He brought his nose closer to Li Ruoshui. The delicate, soft scent drifted around him, masking most of the earthy smell. Her light, even breathing also helped cover the sound of the rain.
Lu Zhiyao tilted his head and listened carefully for a while. Surprisingly, he began to feel a bit drowsy himself. He couldn’t help but let out a low chuckle.
“How remarkable.”
He shifted slightly, letting her rest more comfortably in the crook of his neck, her breath now warming his ear. Listening to this steady, rhythmic sound, Lu Zhiyao tilted his own head and fell asleep.
He slept dreamlessly through the night.
The sun sat high in the sky. Dew drops from plants, not yet fully dried, refracted the sunlight, creating a dazzling scene.
The land, washed by a night of rain, was clean. The leaves looked brand new. A faint scent of damp soil hung in the air, and the moist wind blew past the carriage and into the dilapidated temple.
Lu Feiyue woke in the temple, looking drowsily at Jiang Nian, who was already packed and ready. Her cheeks flushed, and she averted her gaze uncomfortably, trying to regain her cool and elegant demeanor.
“You’re up quite early today.”
Jiang Nian smiled as he put out the fire, playing along.
“If I didn’t wake up early, the wind might have blown the door right off.”
Lu Feiyue nodded stiffly, stood up, picked up her sword, and casually straightened her clothes.
“Thank you.”
Jiang Nian was long accustomed to her serious manner. He picked up his bundle and stood, shaking his head with a smile.
“Let’s go see how the two in the carriage are doing.”
They walked to the carriage. The horse sheltering under the eaves snorted, then lowered its head to nibble on the grass in front of the temple.
Lu Feiyue opened the carriage door and froze at the sight inside, not taking another step.
Nothing was wrong, she was just surprised at how harmonious the scene before her looked.
The carriage window had been opened at some point, allowing the sunlight to peek inside, warmly enveloping the two sleeping figures embraced together.
Li Ruoshui had her back to them, so her expression wasn’t visible. Lu Zhiyao sat with his knees bent and head tilted, his black hair covering half his face, his left hand still holding the ends of Li Ruoshui’s hair.
Tiny dust motes danced incessantly in the beam of light around them, making the atmosphere peaceful and serene.
Everything seemed to blend together, like fish and water, like light and trees.
Lu Zhiyao shifted slightly. The black hair covering his face slipped down his cheek, revealing his jade-like features.
“Is it dawn already?”
His voice was clear, without a trace of hoarseness, making it hard to tell if he had just woken up.
Jiang Nian was stunned for a moment, then nodded. Remembering Lu Zhiyao couldn’t see, he mumbled an affirmation. “Yeah, yeah… it’s light out.”
The morning air was fresh and cool. Sparrows chirped noisily in the branches. A slightly cool breeze blew into the carriage, rousing Li Ruoshui, who was hovering between sleep and consciousness.
The sunlight shone directly on her. Frowning, she faced away from the light and opened her eyes. Seeing the two standing outside the carriage, she was dazed for a moment before a wave of embarrassment washed over her. She immediately scrambled up, gathering the quilt to clear space in the carriage.
“Sorry, Sister Lu. Didn’t mean to make you stand outside for so long.”
Her hair slipped from his palm. Lu Zhiyao rubbed his fingertips together a few times before rising and moving to sit to the side.
Lu Feiyue took the quilt and stored it in the bottom compartment, her demeanor natural, without a hint of awkwardness.
Jiang Nian drove the horse from outside. The other three sat inside the carriage. A strange, quiet atmosphere lingered in the air.
However, it seemed only Li Ruoshui could feel it—a faint, almost imperceptible thread of awkwardness woven into the silence.
Last night, the physical pain had been too severe to think about anything else. But now that she was fine, all the thoughts she should and shouldn’t be overthinking came flooding in like a tide.
She had always thought of him as a madman who only cared about his own amusement. She never expected him to be willing to expend his internal energy to help her, and for the entire night at that.
Li Ruoshui’s feelings were very complicated right now.
On one hand, she knew his character. He definitely didn’t do this because he was developing feelings for her. But she had no idea what his real reason was.
On the other hand, there was herself. While Li Ruoshui was generally easy-going, she couldn’t just sleep soundly and obliviously, especially when alone with a man like that.
Even though it was probably because of the poison last night, she shouldn’t have been so relaxed as to fall asleep instantly.
There was only one explanation:
She was starting to trust Lu Zhiyao.
This thought shocked Li Ruoshui even more than discovering he was a lunatic.
If things continued at this rate, there was a high chance she would end up getting herself entangled. That would be a classic case of “going for wool and coming back shorn.”
Li Ruoshui felt like she was sitting on pins and needles, looking at the other two. Lu Feiyue wore her usual cool expression but was actually spacing out. Lu Zhiyao seemed to act as he usually did, leaning against the carriage wall with a smile on his lips.
Then, his slightly pale fingertips began tapping on the seat, emitting a soft thump, thump. The rhythm gradually quickened, it seemed obvious that he was syncing with her own heartbeat—
“I heard the scenery near Cangzhou is quite nice. I’m going to go take a look.”
Before the other two could react, Li Ruoshui had already rushed out of the carriage and onto the driver’s seat.
Hearing a laugh he couldn’t suppress, Lu Feiyue seemed startled out of her reverie. She looked blankly at Lu Zhiyao, who was covering the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.
Had she missed something?
The cool breeze hit her face, finally dispelling the inexplicable restlessness. Li Ruoshui breathed a sigh of relief, then turned to see Jiang Nian holding the reins, looking at her with envy.
Li Ruoshui: “?”
“Different fates for different people,” Jiang Nian sighed with melancholy. “I’ve known Feiyue for two years, and our relationship hasn’t progressed half as fast as yours.”
“You can say that again,” Li Ruoshui muttered internally, thinking of how in the original novel, it took them over two hundred chapters to confess their feelings.
With such a long story, they couldn’t spare a bit more background for a supporting male character like Lu Zhiyao? Her brows drew low, a clear sign of her displeasure at the evident gap in the story..
Although it was March, many flowers had bloomed along the way. Hoping to anchor her mind away from her chaotic thoughts, Li Ruoshui idly reached out to pick a handful, casually weaving a flower crown.
Jiang Nian watched the flower crown taking shape in her hands and couldn’t help but marvel. “You’re an expert at this! Why didn’t I think of that!”
Before he finished speaking, he used his Qinggong to leap and pick flowers from along the road. The horse, no longer restrained, headed for a patch of lush grass.
“Ah! The horse!”
Li Ruoshui reached for the reins, but the carriage suddenly jolted. She lost her balance and was about to fall when a slightly cool hand caught her.
She looked over. Lu Zhiyao had emerged from the carriage and sat in the driver’s seat. His hand slid from her wrist to her palm, taking the reins from her.
“You tell me the direction.”
Hearing his voice and the lingering coolness on her wrist, Li Ruoshui’s heart suddenly calmed.
“A bit to the left, back onto the main road.”
Her fingers sped up, and she finished the flower crown. Her voice was no different from usual. At least, she hoped it was. “For you. I made it. “
The flexible flower stems intertwined with one another were folded into a simple wreath. A rich floral scent wafted up to his nose as she placed it in his lap.
Lu Zhiyao was silent for a moment. Then the familiar curve returned to his lips, but he simply placed the flower crown aside and replied gently,
“Thank you.”
Li Ruoshui gave a soft sound of acknowledgment and fell silent beside him.
What had she been thinking before? Her goal had always been to succeed in her mission and go home. She couldn’t afford to be delayed by these wild unnecessary thoughts.