"But for today, I don't like you anymore."
Just after saying those affectionate words, the next second, Chai Xiaomi changed her expression as fast as a Sichuan Opera face-changer.
Her soft and sweet voice suddenly became a bit stiff.
Even though she was trapped sitting on his lap and couldn't get down, she twisted her waist and turned her back to him, puffing her cheeks in anger.
"Why?"
Unable to see her expression, Wu Li anxiously tried to turn her shoulders around to ask her face-to-face. But the moment his fingers touched her thin shoulder line, his strength seemed to be instantly drained.
He was afraid that even a little force would hurt her again.
He didn't know whether to hold on or let go.
His hands just hovered in mid-air, hesitating to fall.
The weather in Qianwu Town had been unusually muggy lately. To go learn archery, she had specifically worn a light, sheer pale-pink gauze outer robe.
The sedan chair was spacious and luxurious, with a ring of glazed lanterns adorning the roof.
Under the soft light, her round, fair shoulders were faintly visible through the light gauze. Her shoulder bones were hidden beneath delicate skin, looking like top-quality mutton-fat jade exuding a warm halo in the soft light.
From his angle, he could see the stray hairs at her temples brushing against the snow-white skin of her neck.
Her shoulder line sloped down gracefully, tracing a beautiful curve. Through her hair, two slender ties at the back of her neck faintly showed, hidden beneath the sheer gauze. It seemed to be her innermost garment, the one he had casually helped her wash once...
Only that time, she had frantically snatched it back, and he had never touched it since.
It was such a tiny piece of fabric, adorned with four thin straps on the top and sides. It always felt like it would tear with a single pull, so he hadn't even dared to scrub it hard. He found it troublesome to wash anyway; if she didn't want him to wash it, so be it.
But right now, as his gaze fell upon those two thin straps, his Adam's apple bobbed involuntarily.
It took a lot of effort for him to look away.
He sighed softly, crossed his arms to embrace her, and helplessly lowered his head.
Since he couldn't turn her around, he would just lean in to look for himself.
"Why don't you like me today?"
Wu Li's voice was slightly hoarse. His hot breath spread from the crook of her neck all the way to her chin, like an invisible feather brushing past ever so lightly, leaving no trace but a lingering numbness.
He leaned in from behind, turned his face sideways, raised his eyelashes slightly, and rested his chin gently on her shoulder. He examined her profile from such a close distance, refusing to miss even the slightest change in her expression.
Chai Xiaomi froze entirely.
She felt like a boiled shrimp, blushing furiously from the roots of her ears to her fingertips.
Seeing her stay silent, he urged in a low voice, "Hmm?"
His voice was husky and deep, like a murmur escaping from his nasal cavity.
It sounded like a coquettish plea, yet also like gentle coaxing.
Incubus!!!
He is definitely an incubus!
Where on earth did he learn these seductive tricks? The courtesans at the Phantom Sound Pavilion couldn't even compare to a ten-thousandth of him!
She cursed fiercely in her heart.
Holding back a face that was growing increasingly hot and red, she stiffened her neck and turned her head to the side in a feisty manner: "We are cutting ties for one day! Who told you to bully me? Wait until the sun rises tomorrow, then I'll continue to like you."
She spoke extremely fast, but her voice grew lower and lower.
This ambiguous posture made her soul drift and flutter with every passing second.
But Wu Li simply refused to give her a chance to dodge. When she turned her face to the right, he chased after her, resting his chin gently on her right shoulder; when she turned to the left, he moved to her left shoulder.
In short, he wouldn't give up until he saw her expression.
Chai Xiaomi was exasperated: "My head is spinning from all this turning, what exactly do you want?"
Wu Li continued to press: "What did you say? Say it again, I didn't hear it clearly."
Is he deaf? He can't hear clearly from this close?
His ears are usually so sharp!
Chai Xiaomi desperately suppressed the urge to lose her temper. After all, it would be somewhat impolite to yell right after confessing her feelings. "I said! I'm cutting ties with you for a day, and when the sun rises tomorrow, I'll continue to like you."
He blinked, still unrelenting, "The last few words, I still didn't hear them."
"Continue to like you!" She couldn't help rolling her eyes and shouted in annoyance.
The young man's eyes suddenly curved into a smile, and he fondly poked the girl's puffed cheek, "Okay."
His gaze fell back onto the scorpion tattoo on the back of her hand, and a barely noticeable bitterness gradually seeped into his smile.
It didn't matter.
Even if these repeated declarations of like were merely illusions spurred by the love gu parasite, it didn't matter.
As long as they came from her mouth, he was willing to take them as the truth.
If he could be deceived for a lifetime, wasn't that also a kind of sincerity?
He was willing to drown in this woven dream and never wake up, as long as she stayed by his side forever, murmuring her affection in his ear every day.
No matter what price he had to pay,
it would be worth it.
After returning to the Phantom Sound Pavilion.
Chai Xiaomi rushed ahead to monopolize the bathtub, fighting to bathe first.
For some reason, Wu Li didn't fight her over it this time.
Usually, whether it was food or daily items, if she so much as took a second glance at something, he would always jump out to fight over it until he was satisfied.
The method they used most often was rock-paper-scissors.
Except for when they fought over the bed, which he lost, he won almost every single time.
So most of the time, when taking turns washing up, Chai Xiaomi was always the one waiting.
She looked suspiciously at the young man's retreating back.
He closed the door and yielded the inner room to her, but he didn't go far. She only heard a soft sound outside the door, and the faintly translucent carved paper door reflected the silhouette of a tall, slender figure. He just leaned his back against the door, quietly guarding outside, waiting for her to finish washing.
Chai Xiaomi was a bit baffled. It seemed that after saying I like you a few times, Wu Li had unexpectedly become much easier to talk to.
But when she first said it, it clearly didn't have this effect.
Or was it because he felt guilty for biting her and his conscience had kicked in?
His guilt was quite obvious. On the way back, he kept rubbing her wrist the whole time, checking from time to time to see if the red marks had faded. Not even an old doctor of traditional medicine taking a pulse would be as meticulous as he was.
Although she didn't know what sparked his anger tonight, fortunately, she had managed to coax him out of it in the end.
They had been busy running around outside all day today.
When Chai Xiaomi soaked in the hot water, her eyelids had already begun to droop uncontrollably, but the moment she thought of the kiss in the sedan chair, she suddenly jolted awake, her whole body burning hot.
She finished washing in a hurry, opened the door, and called Wu Li, asking the servants in the pavilion to bring fresh hot water to change it.
Wu Li responded in a low voice. Looking up, he saw the heavy exhaustion in her eyes and simply said, "I'll wash up later. Let me change this for you first."
Only then did Chai Xiaomi notice that he was carrying a roll of silk sleeping mat in the crook of his arm, probably obtained from the pavilion's servants while she was bathing. He walked to the bed, put away the bedding that had been dirtied by her shoes earlier, and then laid down that silk ice mat, which looked cool and soft.
She was instantly overjoyed. The weather in Qianwu Town was getting hotter by the day. In ancient times without fans or air conditioning, the Phantom Sound Pavilion wouldn't even spare a bamboo mat for the rooms. She guessed it was probably because they were afraid it would be too hard and uncomfortable for the patrons when they were being intimate.
She had been worrying about not sleeping comfortably tonight, but this cool silk mat right now was exactly what she needed.
Once Wu Li finished laying it out, she excitedly threw herself onto it and rolled around twice.
"For the sake of this sleeping mat, I'll let bygones be bygones regarding you biting me."
After her bath, she wore only a thin, chest-high ruqun dress. The ends of her hair were still damp and dripping with moisture. The hem of her skirt had slipped down to her calves, revealing her fair, smooth feet swinging back and forth in front of the young man.
His gaze caught for a moment, his eyes darkening. Suddenly, he leaned over and gently grasped one of her slender ankles.
Chai Xiaomi blinked in surprise. Looking up, she saw Wu Li taking the string of silver bells off his own wrist before solemnly fastening it around her ankle.
That string of bells had originally belonged to her, but he had snatched it away long ago.
"Why the sudden kindness? You are actually willing to give it back?" she teased with a smile. She wiggled her toes slightly, and the silver bells let out a crisp, delicate chime. "But I am not wearing traditional Miao clothing right now. Will these bells not look a bit out of place?"
Despite her words, deep down she was actually incredibly fond of the silver bells.
Whenever she heard the crisp, clear chimes of the silver ornaments in Wu Li's hair and the bells on his wrist clinking together as he walked, it felt like a mountain spring flowing right through her heart, inexplicably causing her soul to gently flutter.
