The fishy sweetness spread in her mouth, and the pain kept Jiang Manru temporarily sober, allowing her to continue suppressing that wave of impending white peach pheromones.
Bai Yue also noticed the abnormality. Her movements suddenly stopped, and she slowly raised her head.
The moonlight leaked through the gap in the curtains, falling upon her face. The previous sharpness of a sure victory was gone, and the playful smile had vanished as well. Replaced by them was a look Jiang Manru had never seen on her face before: panic and loss of composure.
“Did I hurt you?” Her voice was very earnest, so soft as if she were afraid of startling something, but soon she returned to normal. “Why bite yourself? Bite me instead.”
Jiang Manru looked at her changing expressions, her eyelashes trembling lightly.
She was acting.
Clearly, she had been so aggressive and pressing just moments ago, with every action as precise as completing a meticulously designed interrogation. Yet right now, she could instantly put on this “I know nothing” face.
Jiang Manru suddenly wanted to laugh, but she only shook her head with a very light movement, like a small animal that had truly been hurt.
“No.” Her voice was a bit muffled, carrying a slight nasal tone, making her sound even more innocent instead. “I am fine.”
Bai Yue’s gaze lingered on her face for a long time, and then she raised her hand. Her slender and warm fingers, with pads carrying a hint of light calluses, gently brushed across the wound on her lips.
The movement was too light, feeling like a feather brushing past.
Jiang Manru’s body trembled involuntarily. For a moment, she actually could not tell whether this action held tenderness, testing, or genuine sincerity.
“It is bitten open.” Bai Yue’s voice was low, carrying a hint of a sigh. “And you say you are fine.”
Suddenly, the atmosphere between them grew quiet, so quiet that they could hear each other’s breathing, the faint sound of the wind outside the window, and the distant nighttime noises of the city.
“Wife,” Bai Yue called her, tone as natural as casual night chatter between spouses. “Can I mark you? Last time I was not ready, but this time will definitely be fine.”
She paused, her gaze landing on Jiang Manru’s face as if observing her reaction.
Jiang Manru raised her eyes slightly, meeting the other’s gaze, and asked in return: “Are you sure you want to be bound to me for life?”
After this question was thrown out, the air suddenly fell dead silent. If Jiang Manru were simply an obedient girl, Bai Yue could naturally and logically claim it as a legal obligation, because she had the confidence to conceal things from an omega who disliked socializing.
But she was White Peach, the exact same kind as Bai Yue. Everything in the flashy world could not possibly escape the other’s eyes. Marking meant self-constraint, and she had no reason to put shackles on herself.
Bai Yue’s hands were still propped on both sides of Jiang Manru’s body, and she found herself not knowing what to do.
In her world, lovers were meant for play, for enjoyment, and for indulgence in the dead of night; the object could be anyone. Meanwhile, a wife was a permanent partner meant to appease the family, the one and only, unchangeable.
Yet the person beneath her had twisted those two lines together.
Bai Yue suddenly felt as if she were seeing this face clearly for the very first time.
She propped herself up and climbed off Jiang Manru, moving very slowly as if leaving a shred of dignity for herself. The moment her feet touched the floorboards, a chill crept up from the soles of her feet, crawling up her calves and helping her sober up a bit.
Whatever. If she refused to admit it, then she would not admit it.
If the other wanted to keep acting, she would play along.
Anyway, she had no room to talk herself.
Bai Yue suddenly felt a bit tired. It was the kind of tiredness you feel when searching for something for a long time, thinking it is right in front of your eyes, only to reach out and find nothing there at all.
Let us just leave it at this for tonight.
She intended to go take a cold shower in the bathroom.
The moment her hand touched the doorknob, a familiar scent of white peach suddenly drifted into the air, very light, delicate and weak, like wind squeezing through a crack in the door, hooking onto her in wisps and threads.
Bai Yue’s hand stopped on the doorknob, unmoving.
That trace of white peach pheromones seemed to have a life of its own, wandering about in the air. It circled around the back of her neck, crept into her collar, and climbed up her earlobe. It felt itchy, like fingertips gently tracing across her skin.
Bai Yue closed her eyes.
She recalled the scene when this scent first appeared. Lost Bar, the dim lighting, the other person sitting by the bar counter holding a pink drink.
That had been a wonderful night.
Yet at this moment, Bai Yue did not dare to turn back.
She could not quite tell. Was she afraid that Jiang Manru, who smelled of jasmine, would drift out the scent of white peach, or was she afraid that the white peach omega happened to share Jiang Manru’s face?
“Long time no see,” Jiang Manru spoke up, her voice bewitching and alluring, completely lacking the usual fragility of an obedient girl.
Entranced by that voice, Bai Yue slowly turned around. Her movements were so slow as if giving herself some leeway to confirm whether that hint of white peach scent was merely her own hallucination.
The scent was still there.
Wispy and intertwined, like an invisible thread pulled over from that bed and tied around her heart.
She turned around and saw that the woman on the bed had changed her posture. Lying on her side, propping her head up with one hand, her waistline dipped down while her hips slightly bulged, resembling a new crescent moon or a fully drawn bow.
Her long hair scattered across the pillow, winding like flowing water. The shoulder strap of her nightgown had slipped halfway down, exposing a rounded shoulder and a delicate expanse of collarbone. Below the collarbone remained the red mark left just moments before.
That face had not changed; her features were still those same features.
Yet her expression was different.
Gone was the gentle and obedient look. The corners of her eyes held an unfathomable playfulness, slowly spreading, washing across her cheeks, and finally resting at the corners of her lips.
Those eyes were looking right at her. From top to bottom, from bottom to top, her gaze filled with appraisal and amusement.
“What, do you not recognize me?” Jiang Manru’s voice was low and husky, carrying a hint of languidness.
Bai Yue did not speak, only staring at her. This face that she saw every morning upon waking up, this face she held in her arms every night to fall asleep, had completely transformed into a different person at this moment.
Seeing her standing there stupidly, Jiang Manru’s smile widened a bit more.
She slowly sat up, her movements resembling a performance. Her long hair slipped from her shoulder, hanging down before her chest. The neckline of her nightgown was already low to begin with, and sitting up like this exposed an even greater expanse of skin.
Bai Yue’s gaze landed upon her. The next second, she looked as though her soul had been hooked away, taking two or three steps over to the bedside without any hesitation or pause.
She lowered her gaze to look at the woman sitting on the bed, inhaling the scent of white peach radiating from her. Without the mask of jasmine, it was so dense it seemed capable of filling the entire room.
Jiang Manru tilted her head up to look at her with a smile at the corner of her lips. Then she extended her hand, palm facing upward, as if waiting for something.
Bai Yue glanced at that hand, grasped it, and slowly bent down. Her knees pressed onto the mattress, and her other hand propped against the side of the other person, caging her between herself and the bed.
“I recognize you,” Bai Yue said in a very low voice. “Of course I do.”
Jiang Manru’s smile was within arm’s reach. She raised her other hand, hooked it around Bai Yue’s neck, and pulled her down.
And kissed her.
Unlike before, the kiss now was a reunion.
Bai Yue’s hand cupped her waist, pressing her back down into the mattress. Her movements carried a hint of fierce intensity, as if she wanted to knead all of her searching, all of her waiting, and all of her unwillingness into this single kiss.
Jiang Manru responded to her, passionately and unreservedly, as if she too had been waiting for this exact moment.
The kiss shifted from her lips to her jaw, to her earlobe, and down to the side of her neck. Bai Yue’s lips pressed against that patch of skin, feeling the rhythmic pulse beneath and sensing that wave of white peach scent continuously surging out from the scent gland.
“You know what?” she mumbled indistinctly, her lips still pressed against that stretch of neck. “I looked everywhere for you.”
Jiang Manru tilted her head back, exposing more of her skin to her.
“I know,” her voice sounded a bit hoarse.
“You knew and still hid from me?” Bai Yue lowered her head and bit down on that stretch of neck. It was not a gentle kiss, but a slightly forceful bite carrying a punishing intent.
Jiang Manru let out a soft gasp, but she did not dodge.
“Bai Yue,” she said with a smile, “you are so easy to fool.”
Bai Yue raised her head and stared at her. Then she smiled as well, her expression brimming with the implication that you are in for it now.
She pulled Jiang Manru closer, rolled over, and pinned her beneath her. Pinned underneath, Jiang Manru turned her head to look at her. “What are you doing?”
Bai Yue lowered her head, her lips nearly brushing against the other’s.
“Settling scores,” she said.