A bad guy? What kind of bad guy would treat her this well?
Feeling her warmth and heartbeat, Lingmiao felt the terror drain away. She stayed submissively wrapped in the quilt, a faint smile gracing her lips.
She didn’t utter a single word, yet the reliance radiating from her softened Su Yu’s demeanor. Her playful teasing over, Su Yu patted the girl’s head. “How are you feeling? Is your body alright?”
Her head was patted. If falling ill could win her this kind of intimacy, Xue Lingmiao would gladly stay sickly and bedridden for three whole days. Her expression filled with delight: “Much better. Thank you, Ayu.”
“Thank me for what?”
“Thank you for not leaving me behind when I needed you.”
Listening to her responses, the look in Su Yu’s eyes softened with a tenderness she hadn’t even noticed herself. “Lingmiao, you’re far too weak—a true, certified little trouble.”
The girl’s face shifted slightly, but her inner composure and cleverness quickly won out. She nuzzled her face against her fiancée’s chest, her crimson lips parting slightly: “Even if I am trouble, Ayu will solve it perfectly, won’t you?”
As if to validate her own words, she added with firm conviction, “You’re not someone who fears trouble. You are my best sanctuary.”
Sweet words wrapped in profound trust and reliance—Su Yu could no longer harden her heart to tease her. She chuckled softly, a sense of lighthearted ease spilling from the corners of her eyes, accompanied by an indescribable sense of relief. Since she was burdened with this trouble and couldn’t bring herself to discard it, she might as well keep a close eye on her to avoid any further accidents.
“So, it’s settled—you’ll abide by my rules?”
“Of course.” The blind girl clutched Su Yu’s collar tightly, her breathing turning uneven, perhaps out of sheer excitement. Or perhaps, because Ayu was far too close, so close that the warmth of her breath felt almost scorching.
“Not afraid of me?” Su Yu’s forehead suddenly pressed right against hers.
Having spent time together, Su Yu had been prepared for the girl’s departure at any moment, which was why her actions had remained within the bounds of propriety. Now that she had no intention of letting her go so easily, a spark ignited, unleashing the true nature she had kept suppressed.
Her reputation as a playgirl hadn’t been earned for nothing. While Su Yu wasn’t overly obsessed with romance, that didn’t mean she wouldn’t tease someone on a whim, pick on them, or indulge in wildly brazen acts.
For instance, in the span of a single breath, she wanted to see the girl’s face flush pinker than a blooming peach—and so, she simply went ahead and did it.
Not just anyone had the right to stay by her side. To stay, one had to possess a reason worth keeping.
Su Yu raised an eyebrow, looking almost like a completely different person. “Can you make me happy?”
This was, in another sense, sharing a bed together.
With warm breath fluttering against her face and lips, Xue Lingmiao’s heart skipped several beats. She had always acted on instinct, yet the moment Ayu leaned in, all her instincts descended into chaos.
Her lips trembled, unable to utter a sound. Her limbs turned weak, a fine sheen of sweat broke out across her back, and her heart felt as if it were being held in someone’s palm and toyed with again and again. She had never been this close to anyone in her life—even if this was the woman she recognized as her fiancée.
Amidst the tangled quiet and panic, Su Yu steadied the girl’s waist through the quilt, preventing her from slipping onto the floor.
The floral fragrance lingering on the girl drifted to the tip of Su Yu’s nose. Exercising restraint, she pulled back a small distance, giving the girl room to breathe. Inwardly, Su Yu wondered what she was even anticipating.
“I, I’m not afraid,” the young girl murmured weakly against her chest, shaking her head. “As long as you’re willing to be good to me, I wouldn’t even be afraid if you were a bad guy.”
Su Yu stared at her intently, her eyes unblinking.
“I can make you happy.” Her chest rose and fell, the quilt making her body uncomfortably hot as her small face flushed a deeper red. Waiting in vain for Ayu’s next words, her brows knitted together in uncertainty: “Only, what kind of coaxing does Ayu want? Or rather, what kind of happiness?”
She didn’t understand, and because she didn’t understand, she feared doing the wrong thing.
Su Yu laughed at her innocence, feeling a pang of affection for it. “Just keep me company and play with me. I’m not interested in anything else. You play with me, and I’ll protect you.”
The young girl lowered her head, secretly criticizing her fiancée’s odd disposition. Would Ayu really refrain from protecting her if she didn’t play with her? She was her fiancée, after all.
“Do you agree?” Su Yu asked.
Xue Lingmiao, her eyes rimmed red, reached up to hook her arms around Su Yu’s neck, her voice slightly raspy: “Why wouldn’t I agree?”
With her agreement, Su Yu felt an even deeper sense of fond affection for her.
Though the girl was blind, she was the best playmate Su Yu had encountered in over a decade.
Even the Ning siblings, who had grown up with her, couldn’t fully appreciate her fun-loving nature. Children of noble and distinguished families were taught from youth never to let play ruin their ambitions.
In their eyes—and in the eyes of most people in this border town—the daughter of the Su family was cynicism personified, a rare, extravagant flower blooming in a nest of wealth.
Nobles and elites befriended her while taking her as a cautionary tale; profligate playboys viewed her as a peer and treated her like kin.
When her father passed away and she plummeted from the clouds, witnessing the cruelty, malice, and treacherous deceit of the world, she had grabbed hold of two words in her confusion: hedonistic freedom.
Coming and going as she pleased, like a drunken rogue, unbothered by the noise of the worldly realm. In a mere three years, she squandered her family fortune, stepped out from the nest of riches, and leaped to become the most unburdened playgirl in the entire border town.
This was the way Su Yu chose to live. There was nothing wrong with it; being happy was what mattered most.
There was no need to live for the sake of others’ vanity. After her father passed, she was simply herself—Su Yu, Su Zibi, the notorious playgirl of Xiushui Town.
“It’s hot.”
“Hmm?” Su Yu’s eyes carried a silent question.
The girl squirmed uncomfortably in her arms. “Wrapped in the quilt, it’s so hot.”
She wanted to add that Ayu’s body was far too hot as well. The warmth radiated through her clothes onto her skin, so hot it gave her an urge to bleed from her nose.
Su Yu laughed and released her, resolving to treat this playmate a little better from now on. Pulling a silk handkerchief from her sleeve, she said, “Lingmiao, hold still.”
“I won’t move.” She stood obediently, her delicate frame wrapped in a thin inner garment embroidered with elegant orchids and small white blossoms. The collar dipped open slightly, revealing a small patch of scented skin.
The moment Su Yu raised her hand, she was momentarily dazzled by the girl’s pure, unadorned face. “Bend down. And stop smiling.”
“Is my smile ugly?” The girl’s sensitive heart felt a tiny sting, her lips pouting as she leaned forward.
Su Yu swallowed hard. Following the line of the open collar, her eyes caught a glimpse of an embroidered carp—crafted with shimmering gold thread, lifelike and vivid. Only a single corner was visible, yet that mere corner gave the fearless playgirl her very first taste of feminine allure.
“Ayu?” The sweat from her forehead trickled down her cheek, itching slightly. She waited patiently for her fiancée to wipe it away.
Her father had once said that unless love was at first sight, it was built over time through daily company. A slow, steady stream was lovely too, leaving room for both parties to draw closer day by day until separating became impossible. She held onto this intention, planning it thousands of times yet it still required Ayu’s cooperation.
Coming all the way from the South was meant to settle the rest of her life. Ayu was a good person—as she had said, her best sanctuary. There were countless men and women in this world, yet Ayu was the only one she knew, trusted, and truly desired.
As a bead of sweat slid to her chin, the girl knit her brows in quiet tolerance. “Ayu, I.”
The soft handkerchief swept across her jawline. Su Yu thoughtfully rubbed the spot a little to soothe the annoying itch. “Is that better?”
“Mhm.” Her eyes curved into soft crescents, her mind clear and pure as a fawn resting by a stream.
Su Yu put on a serious front as she carefully pulled the girl’s collar closed to cover her exposed skin. “The little carp is quite pretty.”
“Little carp?” Lingmiao recalled her earlier movements and let out a soft gasp: “Ah! You—” You peeked at me!
“Me? What about me?” Su Yu’s earlobes flushed crimson. “A little carp that tiny? I’m not interested at all.”
“Ah.” The innocent girl didn’t know whether to be shocked that her fiancée had peeked at her or saddened that her fiancée wasn’t interested. Like a marionette in Su Yu’s hands, all her emotions were entirely out of her own control as she offered a soft, weak rebuttal: “You just praised it for being pretty a moment ago.”
Looking at her flushed, porcelain face, Su Yu didn’t have the nerve to deny it.
“It’s wrong of you to peek at me. We’re not married yet,” the girl said, her expression growing slightly solemn, her restrained sharpness unexpectedly endearing.
A light laugh flickered in Su Yu’s eyes. She was just about to pat the girl’s head when the next sentence choked the words right back down her throat:
“If you’re not interested because it’s small, what if it grows bigger?”
The undefeated playgirl lost her advantage instantly. She rubbed her nose, tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, and adopted her usual nonchalant attitude toward play to discuss the matter: “These things, bigger isn’t necessarily better either. Just a tiny bit bigger? No, two tiny bits? Maybe, just maybe, I might have a teeny bit of interest.”
The girl remained completely silent. Su Yu pressed a hand to her forehead, quickly wrapping up the topic: “Ah, who can really say for sure anyway?”
Su Yu assumed this baffling conversation had ended in a haze of confusion. Yet three days later, the girl, dressed up impeccably, mysteriously called her fiancée into her bedchamber: “Ayu, I have a gift for you.”
Su Yu was in a hurry to go horse racing in the North Market. Lifting her chin slightly, she urged, “Hurry up, we need to head out soon.”
At this crucial moment, the girl didn’t dare tease her any further. Overcoming her shyness, she reached under her pillow, pulled out an object with trembling hands, and offered it up: “I paid the finest embroiderer in town to custom-make this. Just as you said—neither too big nor too small. Ayu should be interested in this, right?”
“What?” Su Yu unfolded the item, dumbfounded by the sight of an embroidered carp undershirt—neither too thick nor too thin, neither too large nor too small. “Why, why are you giving me this?”
“To make you happy.” Unable to see her expression, Lingmiao grew anxious, her explanation becoming a frantic jumble: “I, I’m not shameless! It’s just, since it’s an intimate garment, I thought if Ayu had one of her own, she wouldn’t peek at mine anymore.”
Ha! Su Yu felt faint with exasperation. Was it the carp on the undershirt she was peeking at? Was the size of the carp what she cared about? What she was clearly interested in was—
Forget it.
She tucked the meticulously customized “little carp” into her coat, rolling her eyes. “You, you’re still miles away from being shameless.”
“Ayu, do you like it?”
Seeing her anxious, uneasy expression once more, Su Yu smiled inwardly. With wild, carefree charm, she scooped the girl right up into her arms.
“I like it! Come on, I’m taking you horse racing!”