Lu Xiao slowly opened his eyes, vision hazy and found Qian Jinye’s anxious gaze fixed on him. Those naturally seductive eyes were now brimming with tears, shimmering, beautiful. He looked so pretty. Lu Xiao suddenly had the absurd urge to lean forward and lick those tears away…
His head was resting against something soft. It should be Qian Jinye’s thigh, Lu Xiao just knew, because Qian Jinye’s face was right above him, staring straight at him. Lu Xiao rolled his eyes twice before his consciousness finally caught up.
“Lu Xiao, you’re awake! Yue’er, quick, feed him the rest of the pearl powder, it works!”
“Don’t rush, don’t rush. If you give it too fast, Brother Lu Xiao will choke. Let him take it with water. He can’t swallow it dry.”
Something cool and smooth pressed against his lips, probably a bowl and a sweet, refreshing liquid slipped into his mouth. Lu Xiao had never tasted water so good in his life. He drank greedily, clamping down hard on the bowl’s rim, refusing to let go until the very last drop slid into his mouth. Even then, he kept biting the bowl stubbornly.
The bottom of the bowl tasted the sweetest. Lu Xiao stuck out his tongue, ready to lick the bowl clean but Qian Jinye stopped him. Before anyone could react, Lu Xiao simply latched onto Qian Jinye instead, catching his hand and shoving his fingers straight into his mouth.
He licked them, slowly, deliberately, leaving nothing untouched.
Every inch of skin Qian Jinye’s hand had was meticulously licked over. His palm burned under the warm, deliberate strokes. When he tried to pull back, Lu Xiao grabbed hold instead and followed up, licking higher and higher.
His half lidded, hazy eyes stared up at Qian Jinye with a vague, dreamlike focus that seemed to pierce straight through him. Qian Jinye’s entire face went crimson. If he’d had a wound, the blood in it would have boiled over from the rush.
For someone normally so strong, Qian Jinye suddenly felt his knees soften. He couldn’t break free of Lu Xiao’s grip at all.
It felt intentional, like seduction, pure and simple. Qian Jinye felt the heat from Lu Xiao’s tongue follow the nerves in his fingertips and spread through his entire body. And Lu Xiao’s eyes… they frightened him. That was the look of a predator staring down prey already in its grasp, confident and unrestrained.
Far too blatant.
Chen Yue’er freed a hand and knocked Lu Xiao on the head. Lu Xiao let out a muffled “mmph”, instantly releasing Qian Jinye’s hand. He rubbed his head pitifully, eyes drooping like a wronged puppy, completely innocent, as if the one who had just harassed someone wasn’t him at all.
“Brother Jinye, wipe your hand. There’s pearl powder on it. When this guy isn’t fully conscious, he can’t control himself.”
Only then did Qian Jinye realize what had happened, he’d gotten pearl powder on his hand. There had been a little left at the bottom of the bowl; Lu Xiao must have been trying to lick that but instead followed the trail and ended up licking his hand.
“Oh. Oh, right. I should wipe… yes, I’ll wipe it.”
His face was still hot, burning, even and the heat didn’t fade. He awkwardly grabbed a handkerchief and wiped the places Lu Xiao had licked again and again and again. That was close… the little brat had almost gotten away with too much. Good thing Chen Yue’er reacted fast.
Lu Xiao finally started to regain clarity. From the looks of it, he had absolutely no idea what sort of mischief he had just caused. Still dazed, he glanced at Chen Yue’er, then at Qian Jinye.
He touched the soft thing under his head, Qian Jinye’s thigh.
“So soft. Feels so comfy.”
Qian Jinye couldn’t hold it back anymore, this brat must be doing it on purpose. He shoved Lu Xiao off his leg, sending him rolling across the floor a few times. Lu Xiao fainted again on impact.
It took a long moment before he finally opened his eyes once more, staring blankly at Qian Jinye.
“Gege? Why did you kick me?”
He looked absolutely pitiful, his face was worn with exhaustion and a lingering sickly pallor. No one would have imagined that just moments ago he had so shamelessly taken advantage of Qian Jinye.
He was still putting on that pathetic act. Qian Jinye might fall for it but Qian Shengke definitely didn’t. Striding over with a dark expression, he gave Lu Xiao another kick. He held back, of course but it was still enough to make Lu Xiao truly feel it.
This was a kick from someone who had trained since childhood, there wasn’t the slightest trace of the playful teasing Qian Jinye used. It was simply a merciless “kick where it hurts most.” He struck with perfect control, ensuring Lu Xiao didn’t pass out but forcing him to feel every bit of pain with utmost clarity.
“You little brat, lapdog of the emperor, are you awake now? You shove things into your mouth without checking what they are. Good thing it didn’t kill you.”
Qian Shengke’s expression was terrible. Even after Qian Jinye spent half the day calming him down, he still glared furiously at Lu Xiao. Lu Xiao, now fully awake from the pain, shrank back at the look.
This brother in law of his was seriously fierce. No wonder he was so talented in both civil and martial fields yet remained single, who would dare approach someone like this? His own Jinye was much better; he even offered him his lap to rest on. Even when he pushed Lu Xiao away, he did it so gently.
Those slender fingers dusted with pearl powder, sweet and soft, tasted wonderful… Yes, Lu Xiao remembered. He remembered it perfectly. When he first licked them, he had been half dazed but later it had absolutely been on purpose. A bit of pearl powder on the fingers could still be explained but anything higher than that was just plain indecent.
“So, did you knock open that giant clam earlier, get a whiff of the smell inside and faint on the spot? Hahahahaha, Xiao, you’re a little too weak, aren’t you?”
Li Xianguan had recovered by now. His head still felt a little heavy but the wound on his arm had long vanished. This pearl powder was downright strange, it could even speed up a person’s healing. The Qian brothers had grown up surrounded by it; there was no avoiding constant, unintended intake.
Their stamina and physical strength were nothing like ordinary people’s and their recovery was extraordinary as well. Li Xianguan had had a large gash on his arm just earlier yet now it was completely gone, as if it had never existed. Truly terrifying.
“What are you talking about? You got sprayed head to toe and collapsed yourself and you still have the nerve to mock me? Aren’t you embarrassed? Yue’er is watching you, you know.”
The two men exchanged a knowing look before bursting into unrestrained laughter. They teased each other’s shortcomings mercilessly but it somehow only strengthened their bond.
Li Xianguan smacked Lu Xiao’s back several times, each slap heavy enough to make all his internal organs tremble. “Hey, your big brother here is back to full HP now. You can’t be slacking. That thing still needs you and Qian family big brother to take a look.”
Lu Xiao pushed his hand away with a grimace. Honestly, Li Xianguan wasn’t much older than Qian Shengke, he was simply giving respect to the host. Compared to Lu Xiao, he understood courtesy far better.
Since the clam had been brought up, Lu Xiao instantly perked up like he had been injected with pure adrenaline. He had fainted right after prying it open. The clam was clearly formidable; there was absolutely no way he would admit the issue was his own carelessness.
Impossible. Absolutely impossible.
Back in university, Lu Xiao had studied diligently in his proper classes and learned quite a lot of improper things as well. Lock picking had been one of his hobbies. In tabletop games he always used that skill and in real life he had actually mastered it.
Of course he knew about “door traps.” He had simply underestimated himself this time, he acted before thinking, pried it open and inhaled everything in one go. It shouldn’t have caused much harm, maybe a bit of dizziness but he had taken the entire blast straight into his lungs and passed out immediately.
“Where’s the clam? None of you breathed in the gas, right? It’s pretty toxic.”
He still remembered to worry about the others, trying to look reliable. Lu Xiao straightened his back a little, posing like a team captain. He had always silently assumed he was the captain, after all, everyone else was either a fighter or a healer. Someone had to be the brains.
People like Qian Shengke didn’t count, someone who could fight, write, strategize and heal was basically a bugged character. He’d definitely be banned next patch.
“Here. Take a look yourself. My brother said it was too disgusting and didn’t want to touch it. You take a look. We’re fine; it released so little gas and you inhaled all of it anyway.”
Now that Qian Shengke was cold with Lu Xiao, Qian Jinye also grew noticeably cooler. Instead of letting his brother inspect the clam, he insisted that Lu Xiao do it and even brought up Lu Xiao’s embarrassing moment on purpose. Lu Xiao felt a bit dejected but he had no choice but to trudge over and examine the shell.
This time he was wiser. He had Chen Yue’er fetch him a cloth to wrap around his nose and mouth and he borrowed Li Xianguan’s tongs to pry the shell open. Inside, the little mouse was already unconscious, fused with the clam’s flesh, like a pitiful creature devoured by a monster.
Or perhaps like a creature that had devoured the monster and taken control of it, turning into something monstrous itself. It still breathed. It still held emotions. It was technically alive, just an odd, distorted lifeform.
The sight struck his mind with the same overwhelming force as before. Lu Xiao steadied himself, afraid that one careless glance would show him something he really shouldn’t see. Silently reciting the Core Socialist Values, he tried separating the mouse from the clam flesh.
There were clearly two people more suited for this but Li Xianguan would never let Chen Yue’er handle such work and Qian Shengke simply refused to get involved. Lu Xiao couldn’t beat him anyway. Qian Jinye was completely useless here, a pure martial artist who only knew how to make money.
The mouse seemed tied to the clam as if they lived and died together. With the force Lu Xiao applied, he could have stripped meat clean off bone yet he couldn’t separate those two soft looking tissues at all. They were soft, yes but unbelievably tough, he couldn’t cut through them.
“Try this.”
Qian Jinye handed him a sword, the very sword he had used earlier when they confronted the clam head on. Lu Xiao was thrilled. For it to withstand the impact of that enormous shell, the sword had to be extraordinary.
He ran his fingers along the blade. Its white, shimmering surface didn’t look like forged metal. If anything… it looked like clam shell.
“It is clam shell. Our family has no shortage of clam shells. You saw how sturdy they are. Making a sword out of one is perfectly normal.”
Seeing Lu Xiao’s confusion, Qian Shengke answered before he even asked. Lu Xiao gazed at the clam shell with mixed feelings. It was about to be used to cut apart something made of its own kind, rather pitiful. He took a deep breath and, with a swift motion, severed the connection between mouse and shell. The moment the sword fell, the mouse peeled off and flopped onto the ground, limp, just like when Lu Xiao first entered the room.
At the instant of separation, the clam shell turned to dust. It seemed the true body was the mouse; the shell was only a vessel. Without the mouse supporting it, it crumbled into nothing, as if it had never existed.
“What do we do now? This little mouse, I have no idea how to deal with it.”
Lu Xiao had never planned on handling the mouse himself but he couldn’t just release it either, not with it staring at them like that. He truly had no clue what to do. Losing a potential clue would be disastrous. Qian Shengke finally clicked his tongue, put on gloves and began dissecting it.
“Hm? What’s this?”
Lu Xiao leaned in. Qian Shengke had barely made the first incision when something immediately rolled out of the mouse’s belly.
✦ ✧ ✦
Nycreth
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
This is your completely normal and non-suspicious request to buy coffee.
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
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ChaptersChapter 1 · The beginning of the tragedyChapter 2 · Don’t forgetChapter 3 · Look at it directlyChapter 4 · Whom are you trying to seduce?Chapter 5 · TeaseChapter 6 · Sleeping in the same bedChapter 7 · Internal locksChapter 8 · Tampering The rules…Chapter 9 · Black LotusChapter 10 · FledglingChapter 11 · There are no horses in the stable.Chapter 12 · Water-oil separationChapter 13 · The cost of backtrackingChapter 14 · It got biggerChapter 15 · Was it a mouse?Chapter 16 · Too fieryChapter 17 · Administer medicineChapter 18 · Tracing the PearlChapter 19 · A KissChapter 20 · Ge, Kiss meChapter 21 · Ten Thousand Deaths Without RegretChapter 22 · Endless CorridorChapter 23 · CowardChapter 24 · GoodbyeChapter 25 · Back toChapter 26 · It’s is me, Not MeChapter 27 · VictimChapter 28 · Crossed CupsChapter 29 · IntuitionChapter 30 · ChangeChapter 31 · DifferentChapter 32 · ErrorChapter 33 · Mind Your Own BusinessChapter 34 · WanderingChapter 35 · EmbraceChapter 36 · LoveChapter 37 · UnrestrainedChapter 38 · Asking Over a DrinkChapter 39 · As BeforeChapter 40 · SatiatedChapter 41 · A Change in the WindsChapter 42 · A’SuChapter 43 · Welcoming the BrideChapter 44 · GossipChapter 45 · WeaknessChapter 46 · Wedding NightChapter 47 · Brother QingChapter 48 · FadingChapter 49 · Lying LowChapter 50 · CaressChapter 51 · OnceChapter 52 · The Hidden PassageChapter 53 · MotherChapter 54 · FlawlessChapter 55 · ProphecyChapter 56 · EtherealChapter 57 · DecipheringChapter 58 · The TrapChapter 59 · Stone StatueChapter 60 · ChessChapter 61 · AssassinsChapter 62 · The National Preceptor?Chapter 63 · Please return my belongings to me.Chapter 64 · I’m not that desperate.Chapter 65 · No wayChapter 66 · No turning backChapter 67 · I told you, get out of the wayChapter 68 · Still became a monsterChapter 69 · Let’s end thisChapter 70 · Why do you look so much like him?Chapter 71 · One wanted to kill, two stopped himChapter 72 · Unless, the people at Mingzhu Academy are keeping it from himChapter 73 · FraudChapter 74 · Don’t look back, Lu XiaoChapter 75 · It’s coldChapter 76 · Kill MeChapter 77 · We are even marriedChapter 78 · Gege… I Love YouChapter 79 · “It” had arrivedChapter 80 · Wake Up!Chapter 81 · How Nostalgic….Chapter 82 · You already Promised meChapter 83 · Their TerritoryChapter 84 · Jokes were JokesChapter 85 · What you dream was realChapter 86 · Did you cry?Chapter 87 · What’s wrong, young Master?Chapter 88 · No, I only ever said it to youChapter 89 · Honey, Please let me go.Chapter 90 · What are you pretending to be, a gentleman?Chapter 91 · It’s just a shoddy trick to fool people, but I like it anywayChapter 92 · Ge, I did it voluntarily, it’s no useChapter 93 · You little BratChapter 94 · Gege~ please have mercyChapter 95 · Hearing Lu Xiao come in, he patted the seat next to himChapter 96 · Stop fooling around, let me kiss youChapter 97 · “I want…” “Want what?”Chapter 98 · Gege, watch closely how I get youChapter 99 · Little Eleven, how about we talk to ‘it’ first?Chapter 100 · Had it gone mad?Chapter 101 · I will make my decisionChapter 102 · Tsk, how indecentChapter 103 · You are the creator of my original worldChapter 104 · The world is not your toy, go back to where you came fromChapter 105 · He was a boy with snow-white hair and a handsome faceChapter 106 · Haven’t seen you for a long timeChapter 107 · TYRBL Extra: 1Chapter 108 · TYRBL Extra: 2Chapter 109 · TYRBL Extra: 3Chapter 110 · TYRBL Extra: 4