When Gu Zhao began to take off his inner garments, alarm bells rang loudly in Zhu Qingyu's head. She realized that things had derailed from their set course, and the immense danger she had just foreseen was surging toward her with a force that threatened to destroy everything.
At this moment, she clearly understood that monstrous anger had swallowed up the pity Gu Zhao held for her in his heart. The small, enclosed space under the quilt could no longer offer her protection; instead, it was about to become the cage that trapped her.
Words were no longer enough to defuse the current crisis. Zhu Qingyu threw off the quilt, jumped out of bed, and ran.
Gu Zhao, his lean and muscular upper body bare, stepped forward in a few strides and intercepted her. He grabbed her around the waist, barely needing to exert any effort, and tossed her back onto the bed with just one hand before walking toward her.
Despite the cushioning of the mattress, Zhu Qingyu was still knocked dizzy, feeling as though her body was about to fall apart. Before she could even recover her senses, Gu Zhao had already pressed down on her and torn her clothes open.
Because it was already early autumn, and the continuous autumn rain made the river surface damp, Zhu Qingyu had changed out of her gauze-like nightgown into a long-sleeved inner garment of plain brocade with a front opening.
Brocade was naturally much denser and thicker than gauze, but against the furious Gu Zhao, it did not even last a single second. With the sound of tearing silk, the inner garment, along with her undergarment, was ripped into pieces by Gu Zhao and discarded on the floor.
Their sudden, complete exposure to each other came far too abruptly. The sight of her soft, jade-like skin was too alluring, dealing a massive blow to Lord Gu, who had never experienced matters of the flesh. For a moment, his mind went completely blank, and he even briefly forgot his anger.
Taking advantage of Gu Zhao's momentary daze, Zhu Qingyu dragged the quilt over to wrap herself and retreated to the inner corner of the bed.
The clothes people wear serve many functions, and one extremely important function is to distinguish humans from animals.
When a person wears various clothes fitting their status, they might remain rational due to the constraints of the social roles they play. But once stripped of clothing, primal animalistic impulses and desires will naturally gain the upper hand.
Things had already derailed, but Zhu Qingyu still tried hard to stay calm, hoping to use words to awaken Gu Zhao's crumbling rationality:
"Shouming, my monthly time hasn't passed yet. Not today. In a few days, when I am well..."
Gu Zhao stepped onto the bed, leaned over, and pinched her chin. His thumb pressed against her lips, stopping her sweet talk, and he chuckled:
"You calculated this too, didn't you? You figured I couldn't touch you right now? Zhu Qingyu, I am very unhappy at the moment, and I cannot wait for your 'few days.' Tell me, how should I treat you? How about I treat you in the most degrading ways, soil you, make you afraid, and make you cry and beg me, hm?"
His movements were forceful and rough, originally intended to stop her from sprouting more sweet words.
But the other day, when his attendant had just moved those boxes of books into the study, he had hastily flipped through the storybooks. Now, some extremely erotic and lewd scenes from them suddenly rushed into his mind.
The popular folk storybooks had no taboos and were exceptionally explicit. Naturally, the tricks and variations in them were far more numerous than those in the spring books his grandmother had once sent someone to deliver.
Zhu Qingyu was pinned to the deepest part of the bed by one of his hands, with absolutely no room left to escape in any direction.
The gaze he directed at her lips gradually deepened, and his explicit desire became increasingly unbridled. His stare seemed to materialize, piercing through the quilt she had hastily wrapped around herself, almost tangling around her body.
Gu Zhao half-knelt and approached her, his eyes never leaving her lips, which were slightly parted due to his punishment.
Through his undisguised gaze, Zhu Qingyu caught a glimpse of a terrifying thought.
No, this far exceeded her imagination and was beyond what she could endure. She couldn't do it!
Gu Zhao looked at her eyes, which were finally tainted with panic, and his smile deepened:
"Oh? Starting to fear me now? You know what I'm thinking, don't you, Qingyu? You understand very well. What, have you done it for him? It's fine for him, but not for me? Then you are going to suffer tonight, Qingyu. I am truly very unhappy right now, and 'no' is not an option for you. Of course, you can try running again. I don't have the patience to catch you and bring you back again. If you want to do this in front of everyone, that works too. Try it and see if anyone will come out to save you."
Zhu Qingyu wasn't sure if Gu Zhao's increasingly terrifying words would come true, nor did she dare to gamble on whether a furious Gu Zhao would truly be so reckless and crazed.
And running was impossible. This boat was full of his people. No matter where she ran, no one would try to stop him or anger him, and she couldn't possibly escape for real.
There was no escape, no possibility of avoidance.
Then, right now, there was only one way.
The only way was to control the derailed situation as much as possible and minimize the harm.
Zhu Qingyu gave up verbal persuasion, physical resistance, and even fearless escape. She reached a hand out from the quilt and grabbed Gu Zhao's other hand.
This fleeting revelation of her skin once again drained Gu Zhao's strength and dazzled his eyes. He was actually pulled right into the quilt by this soft, boneless, and completely non-threatening arm.
Who was it that placed a hand on his waist and abdomen, slowly moving downward, and who was it that buried her face in the crook of his neck, whispering seductively:
"Shouming, don't be angry anymore."
One moment he was burning with rage because she had manipulated and trampled on his heart, and the next moment he lost his mind and soul, completely captivated by her manipulation and trampling.
Gu Zhao flipped over and mounted her, trapping her beneath him. In a chaotic and haphazard manner, he left scattered, plum-blossom-like red marks on her soft, jade-like skin.
Outside the window, the moonlight was bright. A sudden gust of river wind pushed open the loosely shut window and fluttered a book on the desk nearby. The pages read:
"Seeing the two with necks entwined like mandarin ducks playing in the water, their heads together like mythical birds flying through flowers."
"Joyfully the intertwined branches grow, sweetly the lover's knot is tied."
"One presses red lips tightly, the other leans a powdered cheek sideways..."
The river wind, oblivious to romance, blew wildly from all sides, ruthlessly scattering those erotic pages to the floor, covering up this scene of wind and moon.
