A thin layer of snow covered the bluestone path, taking on a soft silvery-white hue in the moonlight. Snowflakes fell continuously onto the ground and the eaves, wrapping all the sharp and rough edges.
The vines coiling between the walls and the roof ridges were also piled with a fluffy layer of white. The rime looked like condensed powdered sugar, outlining the silhouettes of the branches and leaves.
The dim yellow streetlights were split into thousands of beams, and the swirling, falling snow was like a curtain, half-concealing the rugged old street of ancient mansions.
"..."
Su Cheng looked at this scene in stunning amazement.
In this remote corner of the Upper City, surrounded mostly by mansions long in disrepair, it was originally not an ideal environment for a date with a great atmosphere.
However, at this moment—
Light, shadows, and snow reached a certain harmony, and the world in her eyes was like a dynamic painting.
Su Cheng reached out her hand, watching the snowflakes fall into her palm, feeling the moisture as they melted.
She could also smell the clean and fresh scent in the air, mixed with the breath of dirt and stone.
"If this is an illusion," she said in shock, "then you must be at the master level."
Although she had experienced even more outrageous things with the God of Carnal Lust, that was a deity after all, and that guy's power was exercised within the scope of his authority.
"It isn't," Ian's voice came from behind. "This is just an ordinary snowfall spell, with a little modification made on the basis of the original spell."
That was a second-tier ice magic.
It could be said that any random ice mage could accomplish it.
But in terms of coverage area, duration, and the speed of the falling snow, it depended on the mage's own level of control.
Su Cheng turned her head back.
The blond young man stood on the steps, looking up at the snowy sky, as the heavy bronze doors slowly closed behind him.
The braid hanging behind him swayed slightly. The strands of hair, as if condensed from extracted moonlight, shimmered with a hazy soft gold in the curtain of snow.
And his porcelain-white skin appeared even more delicate and smooth, like a jade sculpture.
Snowflakes brushed past his bangs and straight nose bridge, gathering like stars among his eyelashes, and then rustled down in the blink of an eye.
Su Cheng heard her own heartbeat once again.
Su Cheng: "I remember that casting magic here in the imperial capital isn't supposed to extend into public areas...?"
Ian raised an eyebrow slightly. "Hmm, how dangerous. I've broken the law in front of His Highness the God of Magic's favored one."
"Ha," Su Cheng couldn't help but laugh. "I'm just saying. There are many violations in this regard, and it seems they only pursue it if someone gets hurt. By the way, if the neighbors want to hold someone accountable, I can take responsibility for paying the compensation. Anyway, this kind of behavior only requires paying money. Wait, am I ruining the atmosphere too much?"
"No, in fact," the blond young man tilted his head slightly and looked at her, "I really like your method and angle of considering problems. But it doesn't matter, they have no evidence to prove that this is man-made. Even though it is summer now, the climate in the imperial capital has never been that stable, especially under the influence of too many giant protective magic arrays. Some are deep underground in the city, and some are in the sky. They naturally interfere with the activities of the elemental spirits."
His tone and expression were very serious, as if he were really just explaining this matter.
But—
Su Cheng knew very well that this guy was not a serious person at all.
She couldn't help taking two steps forward and patting away the not-yet-fully-melted snowflakes staining his vest.
"..."
In this unnatural landscape created by magic, his handsome, otherworldly face looked increasingly beautiful, like a phantom.
Su Cheng couldn't resist raising her hand to touch it.
The blond young man stood quietly in the falling snow, remaining perfectly still when the girl's fingertips landed on his cheek.
She must have been dazzled by the snow's glare.
Su Cheng thought in a daze.
She looked at the snow particles clinging to his eyelashes, about to fall, and suddenly really wanted to brush them away for him.
So she stretched out her arm, her fingers gently tracing across the man's cheekbone.
His jade-like skin faced the wind and snow, uninvaded by the low temperature, without a hint of the blush caused by expanding and contracting blood vessels.
Su Cheng carefully wiped his eyelashes, feeling the feathery tips brush past the pads of her fingers. It was like a butterfly fluttering its scaly wings, or like touching a trembling flower.
His skin still maintained its warmth, a temperature that was burning through the sensitive texture of her fingertips, then seeping into her bones and blood thread by thread.
Her senses became sharp in the quiet snowy scenery.
The sound of her heartbeat grew louder and louder, squeezing the entire silent world.
"...But you are interested in him."
A distant, ethereal voice filled with infinite joy sounded by her ear.
Her other hand, hanging by her side, also seemed to be pressed by some invisible force.
It seemed as if someone was gently embracing her from behind, interlocking fingers with hers, as if giving her strength.
"Then get him—"
That voice said.
Su Cheng felt the change in temperature.
A flush, like a wine glass brimming with rich fruit, quietly surfaced on her cheeks.
Ian: "..."
His gaze darkened slightly.
Yet he also looked as if he had been tempted, thus freezing slightly in place.
Su Cheng, however, did not immediately make the next move.
"No, there's no need for this—"
She said to that voice in her heart, "I don't just want to obtain a body, Your Highness."
Su Cheng began to recall every one of their interactions.
In fact, they had only met three times so far, yet every time he managed to leave her with a profound impression and all sorts of strange feelings.
Each time he displayed a strong sense of uncertainty, like a thick, impenetrable book where reading the beginning made it hard to guess the ending.
She had originally lost her passion for mundane romance; the things she had experienced were no longer fresh, and a soulmate was too hard to find.
However—
Su Cheng took a gentle breath. The chill flooded her lungs but failed to cool the rising heat on her cheeks.
The snow water that had melted among his eyelashes was smeared onto his eyelids, and those eyes, like flowing morning clouds, reflected her image.
Su Cheng's gaze shifted downward.
It traced over his tall, straight, and sharply contoured nose bridge, landing on his elegantly shaped thin lips, looking at the slightly upturned lip tubercle.
"...Mr. Ian."
Su Cheng spoke softly, "What do you want to get from me now?"
The blond young man raised an eyebrow slightly.
"I mean," she continued before he could speak, "since you met Zane through his teacher's introduction, and you also hold some sort of secret position, then when you first came to teach me spiritual power, perhaps there was his guidance, but more importantly, you were willing yourself. Otherwise, he probably couldn't force you. You were curious at the time, right? Because of reasons like 'it's been many years since someone was jointly chosen as a favored one by two major gods,' you agreed to be my temporary teacher. But you probably didn't have much affection for me either, otherwise when I said we'd meet again in the imperial capital, you wouldn't have been so ambiguous. And the second time we met, you—"
"I thought of you from time to time," Ian interrupted her. "Before our reunion in the imperial capital, I wanted to figure out what other meaning this feeling holds."
"Really?" Su Cheng said, sounding a bit unsure. "You must have met a lot of people, right? I don't think I could be considered that special to someone with such rich life experience."
"...Before I acquired my current identity, my time in human society was mostly spent learning. I didn't have much time to truly experience the people around me. I completed a lot of research during those years, but it was all related to magic."
He paused for a moment. "Of course, I do know a lot of people now. Even so, you... are still a strange person, from a certain perspective."
Su Cheng tilted her head and looked at him for a few seconds. She found the expression on his face quite amusing; it seemed like he was trying to psychoanalyze his own emotions and failing.
She couldn't help but laugh out loud. "Alright."
Su Cheng reached out and grabbed his fitted vest, giving it a gentle tug.
Ian understood her cue and leaned down, his curly hair almost brushing against her cheek.
She knew that there was plenty of unconditional love and goodwill in the world, but she never expected such things to fall upon her.
"At least for me, I will no longer demand absolute purity in interpersonal relationships. To me, everything can be exchanged, and everything is an exchange."
Su Cheng turned her head and gave him a peck, kissing the corner of his lips.
"Even though you have a weird temper, I have to say, I quite enjoy spending time with you. Besides, you are so good-looking, and you provide all sorts of value in every aspect—"
At that moment, she felt the man's steady breathing suddenly stop, as if a dormant switch had been flipped.
His long, downcast eyelashes fluttered violently, like the flapping wings of a startled bird.
The next second, a pair of long, powerful arms suddenly wrapped around her lower back.
A scorching heat seeped through the fabric of her clothes and into her flesh.
She was embraced with an irresistible force, then lifted up and pulled closer, pressed tightly into his broad, strong chest.
The blonde young man leaned in slightly, his nose brushing past her temple as he planted a soft kiss on the tip of the girl's eyebrow.
Su Cheng looked at him with a smile.
Then, he kissed her deeply.
The last bit of distance between them completely vanished.
Sight, touch, and even taste.
She was entirely submerged in a torrent of sensations.
Soft and burning hot, carrying a stubborn sense of exploration, he forcefully pried open her lips that were slightly parted in surprise. The moment their tongues touched, it felt as if a warm current seeped into her mouth and spread throughout her entire body. A refreshing, cleansing sensation erupted once again through her limbs and bones.
Su Cheng couldn't help but raise her arms to wrap around the back of the man's neck, her fingertips sinking into his slightly damp blonde hair, dotted with melted snow.
His curly hair, like golden threads spun from the morning light, felt smooth and soft to the touch, flowing through her fingers like the most perfect silk.
She soon had no time to focus on that feeling.
The kiss constantly shifted between fierce passion and tender affection. The battle aura within her body almost completely isolated the cold air, allowing her to focus entirely on their interaction.
In the courtyard where the snow drifted down, within the intimate space constructed by his firm and warm body, they plundered the air from each other's mouths, drinking in every inch of each other's breath.
"How typical," Ian pressed the back of her head. "You sound just like a darling of the Double-Tongued."
As he spoke, his teeth lightly grazed over the girl's lower lip.
Su Cheng suppressed the spreading numbness and bit him back.
"How bold," she chuckled. "I thought only heretics would refer to His Highness the God of Pacts like that."
Ian looked as if he had heard a joke. "Alright, then go ahead and report me—"
He kissed her again, carrying a certain provocative undertone.
His tongue swept through every corner, carefully licking the sensitive roots of her teeth and the inner walls of her mouth, as if trying to trace the shape of every blood vessel.
Every tangle felt like igniting a new flame, and the air in her lungs seemed to be squeezed completely dry.
Yet, the feeling remained incredibly wonderful.
That sensation of being purified from the inside out radiated once again between their joined lips.
She felt as if she were kissing a burning star.
The wall lamps outside the door flickered dimly, casting a faint light through the swirling curtain of snow, illuminating the closely embracing figures of the two.
They kissed passionately amidst the falling snow, and the pale courtyard and ancient streets seemed to fade away within this dreamlike scene.
It was as if the entire world had been reduced to the demands and responses between their lips, and the beating of their hearts pounding in their chests.
