"So he did see it, right?"
Wu Li ignored her jumbled barrage of explanations, latching onto the only sentence that mattered.
With the conclusion settled, the last trace of warmth in his eyes froze over.
Without another word, he stepped forward and picked up the jade dangling hairpin from the ground. Its pointed tip was as sharp as a deadly weapon.
At the same time, the bone bow that had fallen outside the temple seemed to be pulled by invisible threads, flying swiftly back into his grasp.
Everything happened so fast it caught her off guard.
Before Chai Xiaomi could even react, she saw Wu Li nock the hairpin onto the bowstring, its sharp tip aimed steadily at the unconscious man on the ground.
The bowstring drew taut into a dangerous arc between his fingers.
What a pity.
He hadn't wanted to kill in front of her.
But this creature who didn't know where to look couldn't be allowed to live another moment.
Since using the Gu power on Ouyang Rui was useless, he would send him to the afterlife in the most simple and direct way.
The jade pendant swayed gently at his fingertips.
Wu Li's lips curled up, his voice very low. "Truly, I'm letting you off too easy."
"Wait!"
Chai Xiaomi lunged forward and hugged his arm, her hands tightly gripping the fingers he used to draw the string. "Don't just kill people so casually. His crime doesn't warrant death."
She looked up at him. "Slaughter isn't the only way to resolve anger and hatred. There are other ways, look—"
Saying this, she let go, quickly ran over to Ouyang Rui, lifted her skirt, and gave him a moderate kick on the butt. "That's for looking where you shouldn't! You filthy pervert!"
Then she ran back like an agile little sparrow, grabbing Wu Li's arm with both hands and shaking it gently. "I've vented your anger for you. Lili isn't mad anymore, right? Please?"
She was the one who had been ogled, so why did it feel like she was coaxing a wronged little wife right now?
Wu Li remained silent for a moment. Feeling the coquettish touch of her kneading his pinky finger, his breathing suddenly hitched, and he was forced to compromise. "No problem. I'll spare his life for now. After all, everyone makes mistakes."
Chai Xiaomi nodded repeatedly, just about to sigh in relief.
"Since he can't control his eyes, shooting them blind will do."
The bowstring slowly drew taut once again.
His tone was calm, even carrying a hint of magnanimity.
"..." Chai Xiaomi choked.
The hairpin was nocked on a bowstring. With his strength, how could it only take out the eyes without claiming a life?
She didn't want his sins of killing to pile up until they were out of control.
Chai Xiaomi flashed forward, standing directly in the path of the drawn bow.
Staring straight at the coldly gleaming hairpin, she said, "You can't do this, Lili."
Seeing this, Wu Li's fingers trembled violently. He hurriedly lowered the bow, his tense voice suppressing a lingering fear and anger, trembling slightly. "Do you have a death wish?"
That was too close... He almost couldn't stop it in time.
Watching her defend Ouyang Rui time and time again.
Wu Li's eyes turned grim, his expression growing ever more gloomy.
Not killing him was already his final concession.
"Do you know," he gritted his teeth, "what he was trying to do to that banana spirit disguised as you just now?!"
The banana spirit was fake, but Ouyang's intentions were real. He even wanted to slip his hand into that light green gauze dress.
Wu Li suddenly remembered the scene of the two of them whispering intimately into each other's ears under the sky full of fireworks.
To this day, he still didn't know what they had talked about that night, what could make her eyes fill with tears yet still hold a smile.
Smiling through tears, just like when she called his name a moment ago.
"What was he trying to do?" Chai Xiaomi blinked, completely bewildered.
"He..." The words reached his lips, but it felt as if his throat was blocked by salty seawater. Looking into her clear, innocent eyes, he suddenly found it hard to breathe.
He suddenly picked her up, pressed her against the high platform, and gripped her waist somewhat roughly.
He looked up at her, his gaze taut.
"I told you to stay on the street and wander around for a bit. Why couldn't you just listen? It was the same last time, you just had to fool around with this Ouyang Rui."
Wu Li's lips were pressed into a thin line; he looked absolutely furious.
"What do you mean 'fool around'? Could you not use such awful words!" Chai Xiaomi furrowed her brows, her index finger poking his chest forcefully with every word, her voice tinged with anger. "I came in here to find you! To find you, Wu Li!"
He grabbed her finger, subconsciously rubbing her slightly reddened fingertip.
Hearing that she had come looking for him, his tone immediately softened a bit. "I told you I'd be right out. I told you I would win the Ice Bow and Black Arrows for you. Couldn't you just wait for me a little?"
Chai Xiaomi really couldn't understand.
In this beautiful moment of having just survived a disaster.
Yet they were arguing over an irrelevant person.
"No! I couldn't wait even a single second!" Her voice trembled with anger, grievances welling up in the corners of her eyes. "I came in to find you because I was worried about you! I wasn't even afraid of monsters just so I could hold onto you... I've told you so many times that I like you, but you don't believe me, and you even make up these stories about me and someone else."
She choked on a sob, her eyes turning red. "What do you take me for?!"
"I hate you to death, Wu Li!"
Wu Li closed his eyes, but the hands gripping her waist didn't loosen in the slightest.
The second time.
This was the second time today she had called him by his full name.
It seemed... she truly hated him enough.
The word "hate" was like a fuse, instantly igniting the backlash of the Love Gu.
He tried his hardest to swallow the coppery sweetness surging in his throat, enduring the bone-corroding, heart-burning agony. Jealousy had clouded his reason, and he suddenly understood why he was so out of control.
He had used the Love Gu, but Ouyang Rui hadn't.
Ouyang Rui had merely entertained a delusion over an illusion.
And his own methods... were even more despicable.
"You keep saying you like me..." The young man's eyelashes fluttered slightly, a bitter curve forming at the corners of his mouth. A hint of moisture actually flashed in his heterochromatic eyes, so fast it was impossible to catch. "It's just... empty words after all."
Seeing the fleeting wetness in his eyes.
Chai Xiaomi suddenly froze.
Her little pearls of tears were wholesale; she had as many as she needed.
But how could Wu Li...
Even if he had gone through countless hardships and suffered so much pain, he had never shed a single tear. She had even suspected that his mismatched eyes simply couldn't produce such things.
This shocking scene, comparable to Mars crashing into Earth, made her almost think she was hallucinating.
The air stagnated like glue.
Suddenly—
"Achoo! Achoo—!"
A series of consecutive sneezes broke the suffocating silence.
Wu Li panicked for a moment.
He scooped her down from the high platform and wrapped her securely in his arms.
Jealousy and anger had eroded his reason, making him almost forget that she was still wearing soaked clothes, even her hair was wet. This delicate body of hers would catch a fever from just a slight chill in the wind.
All of his inexplicable temper vanished in an instant.
Right now, her small face was flushed with two patches of crimson.
He didn't know if it was from anger or a fever.
He pressed the back of his hand against her forehead. Her body temperature was normal, and only then did he secretly breathe a sigh of relief.
But he didn't withdraw his hand. Instead, he cupped her face, gently wiping away the moisture at the corners of her eyes. Only then did he notice her teeth were chattering slightly.
He immediately tightened his embrace around her shoulders.
He needed to get her into a hot bath as soon as possible.
