Ouyang Manor, inside the study.
The butler bowed as he entered, presenting a secret letter to the man seated at the head: "Master, there is another message from the barbarians. They say they will come to the manor tomorrow to discuss the subsequent transport of the Red Fire Sand."
Ouyang Huai snorted softly, "They are keeping a close watch. Grand Tutor Yin's people have just left, and they are already coming to our door."
Pausing, he asked, "Have you found out why that group of guards left in such a hurry?"
The butler shook his head: "I haven't found out yet. However, two of the guards sent by Grand Tutor Yin entered Falling Star Plateau to participate in the New Moon Archery Competition. Immediately after coming out, they packed up and set off back to the capital, not even bothering to look for Young Master Luo."
The butler pondered for a moment and guessed, "Could it be that they encountered something more important than Young Master Luo in Falling Star Plateau?"
That Young Master Luo was the elixir primer for immortality that Grand Tutor Yin found for their lord. Since they even gave up on this primer, there must have been some more important discovery, perhaps also related to immortality.
"Never mind." Ouyang Huai waved his hand, his tone revealing exhaustion. "It's good that they are willing to leave, saving me from living in fear all day with them in the manor, guarding against them discovering my dealings with the barbarians."
Mentioning Falling Star Plateau, he subconsciously pressed his brow.
As long as Rui'er remained unconscious, his heart would hang in suspense.
Thinking of having to deal with those barbarians tomorrow, Ouyang Huai felt even more frustrated: "Did they say what time they are coming?"
"Midnight."
Ouyang Huai's face suddenly sank: "They sure know how to pick a time."
Midnight was precisely the time Alchemist Ji was going to summon Rui'er's soul.
He had originally wanted to watch over him, even if he couldn't help, just for peace of mind.
Now, he had to serve those difficult lords first.
However, it was a shady transaction to begin with, so it was understandable to come at midnight to avoid people's eyes and ears.
*
Since returning from the Ouyang Manor, Chai Xiaomi's chest had been feeling tight.
Whenever she quieted down, that red figure would float into her mind.
Those tear-filled eyes.
It worried her more than ten thousand taels of gold.
Her sixth sense told her that the relationship between Hongxiao and Xiaoman was definitely not simple. The way she looked at Xiaoman was exactly like...
Exactly like Wu Li.
Cautious, timid, yet full of deep affection.
Her gaze involuntarily drifted to the window diagonally across.
On the chaise lounge, the young man lay with his back straight, resting properly, and she didn't know if he was asleep.
His head and feet pressed against the armrests at both ends. The narrow soft couch still had some room for her, but for him, it was clearly tight even to turn over.
For some reason, after leaving the Ouyang Manor, he spoke less, enveloped in a gloomy and sad aura.
When she wanted to look into it, he returned to his lazy and casual appearance, as if it was all an illusion.
She lay on the bed for a while, sighing that this person was really stubborn. He must be a stubborn donkey reincarnated. With such a large bed, she asked him to sleep over, but he refused, repeatedly insisting that she must marry him first.
The car speed had already soared, yet he changed rides and got on a car to kindergarten.
Chai Xiaomi quietly slid out of bed, stepped barefoot on the carpet, and sneaked over to the chaise lounge in the dark.
First, she leaned in and checked Wu Li's breathing.
Long and shallow.
He was asleep.
The corners of her lips curled up secretly, and then she slowly climbed up. The chaise lounge was so narrow that there was no extra space at all. She rightfully used him as a human cushion and climbed on.
With her hands folded and her chin resting on the back of her hands, she obediently lay on his chest.
Feeling the rise and fall of his chest, supporting her head, going up and down with it.
Like floating in a very light wave.
In a moment, the wave suddenly became urgent.
The frequency of his chest rising and falling became faster and deeper, making Chai Xiaomi's head a bit dizzy.
She was just about to get up, but a pair of hands grabbed her waist and pulled her forward forcefully.
Thus, her face met his.
In the deep darkness, Wu Li's deep eyes could not be distinguished by color, but they gleamed with a clear, faint light.
"Not sleeping in the middle of the night, what are you sneaking around doing?"
His voice was hoarse, suppressing a trembling and chaotic breath.
As early as the moment she drifted over, he had noticed it. The sweet fragrance that hit his face was hard to ignore.
He wanted to pretend to be asleep, but he really couldn't keep it up.
The soft body just pressed against him. She was clearly lying quietly, but he felt like tens of thousands of ants were crawling all over him.
Even her hair brushing over the back of his hand seemed to carry a trace of electric current, hot and prickly, making him tremble.
He had originally wanted to wait for her to fall asleep and then move to the floor under her bed.
But she came to make trouble.
"Lili, aren't you afraid of the dark? Why don't you come over and stick with me?" Chai Xiaomi's fingertips reached his chin and scratched it lightly twice. The skin was delicate and felt comfortable, so she simply played with his chin.
"Insisting on squeezing on this small chaise lounge alone, do you dislike my sleeping posture?"
Wu Li was slightly startled: "Of course not, how could I dislike you?"
He couldn't love it enough.
Every night, lying on the floor under her bed, watching her hand pop out one moment and her foot the next, he always hoped she would fall down, fall into his arms, so he could rightfully hold her.
"Is that so? Then who said I was hard to raise before?"
"What picky eater but eats a lot, sleeps like a log but loves to roll all over the bed, every word was said by you personally, don't try to deny it."
Wu Li: "..."
The boomerang thrown in the past suddenly pierced his own artery.
He felt like a fishbone was stuck in his throat, like thorns on his back.
In the darkness, she slightly pouted her lips, her smiling eyes full of sly and mischievous expressions, which he saw clearly.
He saw that she was deliberately teasing him.
But he still answered seriously: "I was talking nonsense before."
His voice suddenly lowered, carrying the unique greenness of a youth, yet still certain.
"Every strange and quirky look of yours, I like it very much."
Chai Xiaomi knew how rare it was for someone like Wu Li, a dwarf in words but a giant in action, to say such a frank and sincere sentence.
But what the hell is strange and quirky, does he know how to use words?
She couldn't be bothered to nitpick with him, still relentlessly asking: "Then why do you still refuse to sleep in the big bed with me?"
"I said it, we have to get married first, only husband and wife can truly sleep in the same bed."
"You've already eaten me clean, and you're still talking about these nonsensical things." Chai Xiaomi snorted lightly, her cheeks slightly hot: "You, have you forgotten what happened by the mountain stream hot spring?"
How could he forget?
Every night he closed his eyes, those images would float up, over and over again.
He would not forget it for lifetimes.
"That day..." He paused for a moment, his Adam's apple rolling slightly, his breath a bit heavy, "That day I went crazy."
Crazy completely.
Crazy out of control.
Crazy... satiated.
The warm sun in his arms, to him, even if it enticed him to the bone, was still the person he wanted to hold dear in his heart.
He could not repeatedly desecrate his god before truly marrying her.
She could be willful, she could be mischievous, she could disdain the secular world, she could approach him presumptuously.
But he couldn't keep acting foolishly.
"Oh?" Chai Xiaomi deliberately dragged out the syllable, her fingers lightly scraping across the hard, taut lines of his waist and abdomen. The young man beneath her suddenly trembled violently. "Then how did you go crazy? Go crazy again and let me see."
"Mimi... you know I'm not a good person. If I really go crazy, I'm afraid you won't be able to take it." Wu Li involuntarily tensed his nerves, his breathing erratic and trembling, his voice carrying an almost begging tone.
That mischievous little hand had already slipped into his collar, lingering in the grooves of his abdomen. She seemed to particularly enjoy touching him there.
"...So could you please stop torturing me."
Wu Li was in absolute agony, yet he didn't do anything to stop her, his clothes left messy and wide open.
He let her hands wander back and forth between the muscles of his chest and lower abdomen, even making a point to steady her waist with his hands to prevent her from falling off in her excitement.
Having satisfied her craving to touch him, Chai Xiaomi paused for a moment and looked down at him.
"If you're not a good person, then you're even better than Liuxia Hui."
Her voice was soft, carrying a hint of helplessness and a touch of pity she didn't even realize she felt. "I've never seen anyone stick to their principles as blindly as you do."
She knew in her heart that Wu Li was reaching his absolute limit.
Usually, he wouldn't miss a single chance to kiss her, but right now, despite the perfect time, place, and atmosphere, he didn't even initiate a kiss.
That was because he was afraid, afraid that a single kiss would spiral out of control.
It seemed that to satisfy this young man's wish and stubborn temper, the wedding ceremony needed to be put on the agenda as soon as possible.
Not to mention that it was hard for him to hold back; she wasn't faring much better herself.
Once you've experienced the charm of a perfectly sculpted waist, it's not so easy to forget.
