The small kitchen fell silent once more, leaving only a sweltering stillness.
Holding a spoon, Su Zhenzhen stood there and watched as Lu Hexu stared at her for a moment before suddenly turning and leaving.
Was he angry?
He seemed angry.
Su Zhenzhen was baffled.
Should she make him some smashed cucumber salad?
Before Su Zhenzhen could even open her mouth, the tall, long-legged man had already vanished from sight.
Never mind, then.
Su Zhenzhen finished the bowl of black sesame stewed milk herself, then took the remaining grilled rice cake to Little Persimmon.
Little Persimmon was hiding in his room holding her small herb-gathering sickle, looking warily at the courtyard.
"What's wrong with you?"
Little Persimmon's gaze fell on Su Zhenzhen, and he began to gesture.
Su Zhenzhen shook her head and said, "We can't escape."
Little Persimmon continued to gesture.
Su Zhenzhen continued to shake her head, "You can't beat them."
Little Persimmon held his breath in frustration, lowered his head, and dropped the small sickle on the ground. He squatted down, wrapping his arms around himself, looking extremely sulky.
Su Zhenzhen reached out and patted Little Persimmon's shoulder. "Adults' matters don't need a child to worry about them. Hurry up and eat, or it will get cold." She paused, then added, "Don't look at him like that, actually he is... quite cute."
Little Persimmon subconsciously looked up at Su Zhenzhen, looking as if he had just seen a ghost.
It was even more terrifying than seeing Lu Hexu just now.
Su Zhenzhen: ...
"He used to be very cute."
Little Persimmon's expression had gone from "Let's run away together quickly" to "I'm going to kill both of you lunatics."
Su Zhenzhen: ...This rice cake is really sticky.
Su Zhenzhen silently stuffed the grilled rice cake into Little Persimmon's mouth.
Little Persimmon was finally not so terrified.
He stood up, sat by the table, and began to eat the grilled rice cake.
The weather was hot, and the grilled rice cake was still warm. When he took a bite and pulled the bamboo skewer outward, it stretched into long, gooey strings.
Little Persimmon quietly ate the grilled rice cake.
"Let me check your pulse."
Little Persimmon extended his hand for Su Zhenzhen to check his pulse.
His body was quite healthy.
"Still haven't remembered anything?"
Little Persimmon shook his head.
Amnesia is very difficult to treat; they could only wait for a flash of inspiration for him to recover on his own.
As for his muteness.
It was not due to physiological reasons, but psychological ones.
Su Zhenzhen had observed that there was nothing wrong with Little Persimmon's vocal cords and such; he simply didn't want to speak.
This reluctance to speak was likely psychogenic aphonia caused by a massive shock or profound grief.
"Go to bed early after you finish eating."
Little Persimmon nodded.
Su Zhenzhen came out of Little Persimmon's room. She glanced at the sky and went to sleep first. When the sky was just getting light the next day, she got up and went to Wenjin Hall.
Jiang Yunshu had also just gotten up, wearing a sheer gauze dress.
The summer days were simply too hot; even before the sun came out, it felt like it could melt a person.
Su Zhenzhen rested her head on one hand on the desk, lost in thought.
In such hot weather, could his body handle it?
"Su Zhenzhen? Su Zhenzhen!" Jiang Yunshu reached out and patted the table.
"Ah."
Su Zhenzhen snapped out of her daze and looked at Jiang Yunshu sitting across from her. "What did you say?"
Jiang Yunshu took a deep breath. "I said, not only did I send the storybook you gave me to all parts of the Great Zhou, but I also had merchant ships take it overseas."
This way, the wave of public opinion was fully stirred up.
Su Zhenzhen nodded, "Mm."
Jiang Yunshu frowned. "But Jiang Xun is rigid, strict, and clings to the old laws. Will your method work?"
Su Zhenzhen said, "Jiang Xun is not important. What is important is the person who ultimately decides whether to change the laws. Those in high positions have both power and wealth; naturally, what they seek in the end is reputation."
Jiang Yunshu quickly realized, "You mean that tyrant? But does this tyrant care about his reputation?"
Su Zhenzhen: ...He doesn't care.
-
When Liaochen woke up in the female prison, she knew that Su Zhenzhen's plan had failed.
Her body felt very heavy. Although the sensation of the drug coursing through her body had disappeared, the drug had not been completely expelled. According to what Su Zhenzhen told Xiaoyuan, it would take three months for the drug to be fully flushed out.
Although it wasn't life-threatening, she still needed to rest and recover properly.
Liaochen looked at the damp and gloomy female prison, thinking that it seemed she could hardly escape death now. Whether she rested or not wasn't really that important anymore.
Liaochen took a moment to recover, then moved her stiff body. She found that she had two more sets of shackles on her.
The dungeon was very narrow. After Liaochen managed to sit up against the wall, she raised her eyes to look outside through that tiny window.
The summer was scorching, the moonlight was faint, and the sultry summer wind blew in through the window. Liaochen slightly closed her eyes, feeling this heat.
"Time to eat."
An official matchmaker knocked on the prison bars and threw in two steamed buns.
Liaochen turned her head to glance at her.
The official matchmaker's gaze swept up and down her body. "How bizarre, this person died and came back to life."
"Excuse me, how did I get back here?" Liaochen spoke with a hoarse voice. She hadn't drunk water for a long time, and she could taste the metallic tang of blood in her throat when she spoke.
The official matchmaker frowned. "Someone brought you back, how else could you have come back."
"Was it just me alone?"
"Could there have been anyone else?"
Liaochen felt relieved.
Su Zhenzhen and Xiaoyuan must not have been implicated by her.
Liaochen struggled to move her body to reach the steamed buns on the ground.
The steamed buns were covered in dust. After Liaochen picked one up with her mouth, her shackled hands could finally hold it, and then she ate slowly.
The steamed bun was cold and hard, dry in the mouth, and extremely difficult to swallow.
Liaochen stood up again to find water on the table.
Her legs felt somewhat heavy and weak. Wearing the heavy shackles, Liaochen sat by the table, staring blankly at the kerosene lamp on the table for a while before leaning over to pour herself a cup of tea.
The tea was full of tea dregs, and the taste was extremely bitter. Liaochen ate the two steamed buns with this little bit of tea, and the bitterness in her mouth deepened.
Liaochen closed her eyes, her thoughts drifting back to twenty years ago.
It was late winter and early spring, the earth was dry, making it suitable for building embankments.
Her name was Yang Chunhua, and she had been married to her husband for three years.
When her father gave her this name, he had spent silver to consult a fortune-teller.
The fortune-teller said that Chunhua was a good name. The flower of spring, surviving the harsh winter to bloom in the spring, signifying rebirth.
She would be a person of great accomplishments in the future.
Unfortunately, the fortune-teller's words didn't seem to be accurate.
When they first met, her husband seemed like an excellent person—honest and of few words.
After they married, her husband changed. It was as if he had become a completely different person.
To outsiders, he was quiet and cowardly, but at home, he would beat and scold her at the drop of a hat, as if taking out a lifetime of cowardly frustration on her.
Later, she didn't know where he picked up the vicious habit of gambling, squandering all the family's money.
Thinking of this, Liaochen remembered how five years ago, that notorious tyrant had actually issued an edict ordering the prefects of all provinces to eradicate those gambling dens in one fell swoop.
Liaochen was extremely gratified by this matter, and she even specially burned a stick of incense for this tyrant.
Gambling was the sort of thing that, once tainted by it, would inevitably ruin a family. Yet Yang Chunhua never expected her husband to become so deranged that he would try to sell her to pay off his gambling debts.
Naturally, she refused, and was nearly hacked to death.
It was on that very day that she fought back and killed her husband instead.
The moonlight that night was brighter than it was today.
At that time, Yang Chunhua was very thin, but she was used to doing farm work, so her strength was no less than her husband's.
Even though she was exhausted, looking at the bright moon in the sky, she didn't know where she found another burst of strength. She forcibly dragged her husband's body and threw it into the riverbank.
The moon was so beautiful; why should she lose her life for such a rotten man?
The one who deserved to die was her husband.
She thought, this was probably the instinct for survival at work.
Later, she hid the truth from everyone, claiming her husband had gone out to do business.
The villagers knew her husband was addicted to gambling, often not returning home for three to five days. Once, to hide from gambling debts, he didn't come back for half a year, leaving his wife to be hounded by debt collectors.
Doing business was just a cover. The crowd either pitied her or watched her as a joke, but no one exposed the lie.
But lies are like paper that cannot wrap up fire.
Constables investigated her home, but because they couldn't find her husband's body, there was no physical evidence.
Liaochen knew she could no longer stay there.
She couldn't go back to her maiden home either, as it would implicate them.
She changed into men's clothing and began to wander outside.
She was not good-looking, thin and small, so no one paid attention to her.
She found a job doing chores at a martial arts academy, secretly learned some martial arts, and only then did she realize she had some talent for it.
The master of the academy was a good person. Seeing her talent, he carefully taught her.
Her body was also growing taller and developing.
It was hard to hide her identity as a woman. When she married that man, she was only fifteen, eating poorly and dressing poorly.
It wasn't until she was eighteen and her nutrition caught up that she began to grow stronger and taller.
The martial arts academy did not accept female disciples, so she left again.
After wandering around, she found a ruined temple.
She shaved her own head to become a nun, naming herself Liaochen, meaning to leave the mortal dust behind.
But in reality, her heart had never let go of this old matter.
Every night, what she recalled was not her husband's face when he died, but the image of herself being pinned to the ground and beaten.
She didn't regret her choice; she only felt angry.
She had fought back too late.
Later, Liaochen went to many other places. She saw many landscapes and met many people.
That academy master said women shouldn't practice martial arts; she felt he was wrong.
Women were the ones who should practice martial arts.
She used her martial arts to save several people.
The first person she saved was Xiaoyuan.
The child was very young when she was sold to be a child bride for another family. Tied up in the yard, sleeping with the pigs, she lived like a dog.
Liaochen stole the girl away in the middle of the night and was chased and beaten by the whole village.
Fortunately, she knew some martial arts.
Amidst the barking of dogs and shouting of people, Liaochen looked at the child tucked under her arm as they fled, as thin as a little monkey, and gave her a name: Xiaoyuan.
It meant to grow round and chubby.
Unfortunately, the child Xiaoyuan was naturally thin and couldn't gain weight no matter how much she ate, but the muscles on her body were no joke.
Thinking of this, Liaochen thought of her own body, which remained quite plump despite eating a vegetarian diet, and felt a bit envious.
She taught Xiaoyuan martial arts. This child had a big ego, always causing trouble outside, and frequently came back injured. Later, as she grew older, she became much calmer, which put Liaochen's mind at ease.
As Liaochen fell into her memories, an official matchmaker came outside to change shifts. Another official matchmaker talked to her about the storytelling that had been sweeping Yangzhou city these past two days.
These official matchmakers were illiterate; what they did most was go to listen to storytelling.
"It's called 'The Legend of Weiliao' or something. It's about this woman named Weiliao who killed her husband because he beat her."
"What a sin. This is an unforgivable 'heinous crime.' After death, she will go to hell and have boiling oil poured over her in the raging fires! Tell me, how can there be such a woman in this world?"
"Yes, the husband is heaven, and the wife is earth. The husband is the wife's heaven. A wife killing her husband is like slaying heaven, intolerable by the laws of nature. Men are naturally more capable than women; we women just have to rely on men."
"But you don't know, when I went home yesterday, I saw a storybook on my daughter's bedside. I can't read, but she told me it was the story of 'The Legend of Weiliao.' My daughter said this Weiliao was innocent, and it was her husband who was guilty."
"Isn't that rebelling against heaven?"
"Yes, who on earth wrote this thing?"
Listening to the two official matchmakers, the expression on Liaochen's face shifted.
She thought they had already given up.
Liaochen lowered her head and chuckled softly.
This Su Zhenzhen really... had her ways.
However... Liaochen thought of the man she had seen before.
The moment the carriage suddenly stopped, Liaochen knew something had happened.
"Xiaoyuan?"
The carriage curtain moved slightly, but the face revealed was not Xiaoyuan's.
The man's pale fingers lifted the carriage curtain. A black hood covered his face, as if he thoroughly detested the sunlight. He looked listless yet carried an unconcealable hostility. With a low, hoarse voice, he only asked her this one sentence.
"Do you want to live?"
Liaochen looked at the constrained Xiaoyuan and nodded.
-
The Prefect of Yangzhou, Jiang Xun, had just gotten up in the morning when he heard that something had happened.
A group of women and children were kneeling in front of the government office, weeping and presenting their case, asking the Prefect of Yangzhou to seek justice for them and leave them a way out to live.
The crying was mournful and sorrowful, seemingly able to pierce through the city walls of Yangzhou Prefecture.
Those were professional wailing women specially hired by Su Zhenzhen.
The intensity of this crying not only pierced the city walls of Yangzhou Prefecture but also penetrated the walls of the Prefect's own residence.
Jiang Xun listening to the crying outside, reached out to rub his forehead with a headache.
He didn't go out, but merely inquired about the situation.
The Sub-Prefect who came to report the news said, "I heard they all came for the husband-killing case. Aren't we holding a woman in our prison who killed her own husband?"
Jiang Xun thought for a moment and recalled the official he had met a few days ago—dressed in a black robe, handsome in appearance, with an imposing aura.
He had brought back the husband-killing criminal, Liaochen, but told him not to interrogate her just yet, to keep her locked up securely, and not let her die.
Therefore, Jiang Xun hadn't thoroughly investigated the matter of Liaochen faking her death and suddenly passing away; he merely locked her up temporarily in the women's prison.
Although he didn't know the background of this official, he saw the jade ornament worn at his waist, which was an item of the royal family.
However, the laws of the Great Zhou Dynasty were higher than imperial power. They were inscribed in the Imperial Ancestral Temple; even the Emperor had no right to modify or abolish them, and could only act in accordance with the law.
"Aren't we only holding one? Who are all those people outside?"
"Even though we're only holding one now, we've imprisoned quite a few in the past. Those outside are the sisters, mothers, grandmothers, and other relatives of the imprisoned women."
"My Lord, what should we do about this?" The Sub-Prefect was also terribly worried. "It's not just these women; there's also a storybook circulating outside." As he spoke, the Sub-Prefect took out the storybook hidden in his sleeve and placed it on Jiang Xun's desk.
Jiang Xun looked down and saw the three words, "The Legend of Weiliao."
"What is this?"
"A story about a woman killing her husband."
Jiang Xun opened the scriptbook and glanced through it briefly, a profound look appearing on his face.
-
It was so hot.
Even though the room was filled with ice blocks, on such a sweltering summer day, Lu Hexu still felt his body burning as if it were on fire.
He lay on the floor. His once slender, boyish body had grown, but he still retained the habit of curling up.
There were many ice blocks placed in the room. The melting ice created a layer of condensation on the copper basins.
Lu Hexu tilted his head to look at the condensation. After a moment of silence, he stood up, picked up a block of ice, walked out into the courtyard, and threw it into the spring water.
The ice shattered, scattering in the spring. Lu Hexu stepped in, submerging himself halfway.
He half-closed his eyes, spreading his arms along the edge of the spring pool.
Yet, the stifling heat and heaviness in his heart still could not be dispelled.
From not far away came the sound of a door opening, followed by soft, light footsteps.
Lu Hexu shifted his body. He stood up, dripping wet, and walked up to the two-story pavilion that spanned the rockery.
He reached out, pushing the window open just a crack.
Through the window polished with seashells, Lu Hexu saw that in the small courtyard not far ahead, a woman had returned carrying a wind lantern.
Sushan ran over from the corner of the courtyard, tilting its head to rub against her feet.
Su Zhenzhen bent down to pick up Sushan and kissed its face.
"Meow..."
The distance was too great to hear what the person and the cat were saying. He could only see the woman's lips moving, and then a faint smile rippled across her face.
Baby.
Baby.
Baby.
It seemed she was calling it that.
Lu Hexu stood there quietly. The restless, bone-burning heat from earlier was slowly fading away little by little.
All his will and mind were lightly tethered to the figure in front of him.
That empty, unmoored feeling of a wandering soul and restless spirit seemed to melt away in the heat, suddenly vanishing at this moment.
Lu Hexu suddenly felt that this heat wasn't so unbearable after all.
Even after the woman entered the main house, Lu Hexu did not leave. He continued to stand there, looking at that window. Through the green gauze, the bamboo-framed lamp inside was still lit.
The woman's silhouette moved back and forth inside, and finally, she blew out the bamboo-framed lamp.
The small courtyard fell into complete silence.
Lu Hexu stood there for a long while more before turning to leave.
Upon returning to the main room, Wei Heng had already delivered the day's memorials.
"Your Majesty, these are the memorials delivered from Jinling City today."
Jinling was not far from Yangzhou; it took only a day to arrive.
Because of Jiang Yunshu's deliberate hype, "The Tale of the Unfinished" had already garnered the attention of some literati, scholar-officials, and censors in the court.
However, the late Emperor's ancestral injunction still remained in the Imperial Ancestral Temple: "If the Son of Heaven breaks the law, he is guilty of the same crime as the commoners; if an imperial decree violates the law, the law can invalidate the decree."
These censors believed, "Those who protect the law are the pillars of the state; those who pervert the law are forsaken by the world."
Lu Hexu sat behind the desk, resting his jaw on one hand. He tossed aside the memorial in his hand and frowned, saying, "Wei Heng."
"Your Majesty."
"Bring that person here."
Wei Heng bowed and withdrew. A moment later, he brought Xiaoyuan over.
"Corrupt official, I won't say a word."
Xiaoyuan was bound with thick hemp rope. She rolled on the floor, glaring fiercely at Lu Hexu sitting behind the desk.
Then, upon meeting the man's gloomy eyes, she subconsciously fluttered her eyelashes and glanced away.
Lu Hexu flipped open the file on Xiaoyuan sent by the Embroidered Uniform Guard and said impatiently, "A third-rate assassin."
Xiaoyuan: ...
Although she was a bottom-tier assassin, she was determined to become a top-tier one, to kill all the corrupt officials in the world, and finally assassinate that tyrant dog emperor.
Thinking of this, Xiaoyuan glared fiercely at Shadow Two.
I hate you naturally gifted fighters, especially when you aid a tyrant.
Shadow Two lowered his eyes and looked toward Xiaoyuan, silver threads faintly visible on the back of his hand.
Xiaoyuan immediately lowered her head.
The room fell quiet, leaving only the sound of fingers tapping on the desk.
As the man's tapping on the desk accelerated, Xiaoyuan's heart leaped to her throat.
"Have you eaten her black sesame paste with stewed milk?"
Huh?
Xiaoyuan subconsciously looked up, then quickly lowered her head again.
Could she answer this?
Lu Hexu's impatience reached its peak. "Kill her."
Shadow Two began to move.
"Wait a minute," Xiaoyuan's desire to survive maxed out. "Who is she?"
Lu Hexu slightly parted his thin lips and uttered three words, "Su Zhenzhen."
"...I have."
After answering this question, Xiaoyuan was sent back.
She was locked in the wing room. Although she couldn't move freely, she wasn't mistreated.
It wasn't that those people didn't seem ruthless enough, but rather that they seemed to have no interest in her.
-
Su Zhenzhen had finished brewing today's medicine, but she had yet to see that familiar carriage arrive.
She watched the gradually cooling medicinal liquid and got up to close the courtyard gate.
Just as the courtyard gate shut, the sound of a carriage came from outside.
Su Zhenzhen immediately opened the courtyard gate again.
That familiar green silk carriage appeared in her line of sight, and Su Zhenzhen's eyes brightened under the glow of the wind lantern at the front of the courtyard.
Then, a person stepped down from the carriage.
Wei Heng, dressed in bamboo green, bowed formally to Su Zhenzhen.
Su Zhenzhen's expression paused, her eyes darkening slightly, and she returned the bow.
"Miss Su, my master invites you over."
Over there?
Su Zhenzhen nodded, poured the medicinal liquid into a porcelain cup, and placed it in a food box.
Just as she was about to leave, she thought of something. Su Zhenzhen said to Wei Heng, who was standing at the door of the small kitchen, "Godfather, please wait for me a moment."
Su Zhenzhen rolled up her sleeves, went into the small kitchen, and quickly made a bowl of black sesame paste with stewed milk. She placed it in another food box and handed it to Wei Heng. "Godfather, I made this for Xiaoyuan. The child is still young; I'll have to trouble you to look after her."
After saying that, Su Zhenzhen went back inside to busy herself, making a smashed cucumber salad and placing it in the food box with the medicine.
Wei Heng's gaze fell on Su Zhenzhen's face. He seemed to sigh, then reached out and took the food box. "Let's go."
Su Zhenzhen closed the courtyard gate and got into the carriage with Wei Heng.
The carriage was not large; Su Zhenzhen and Wei Heng sat facing each other.
"Has Godfather's leg healed?"
Wei Heng nodded. "Your prescription was very effective. I used it for over half a year, and with the imperial physicians from the Imperial Academy of Medicine performing acupuncture according to your method, it is now fully recovered."
Su Zhenzhen nodded. "That's good."
After they finished speaking, they fell into silence again.
Wei Heng looked at Su Zhenzhen. "Miss Su, how have you been these past five years?"
Su Zhenzhen forced a small smile. "Quite well."
It was just that she always felt an emptiness in her heart.
But the moment she saw Lu Hexu suddenly appear in front of her, what she felt wasn't fear. Instead, her heart was instantly filled by something, and it settled solidly back into her chest.
The drifting panic that she didn't belong to this world, which had always permeated her body, was suddenly steadied. Her loneliness found an outlet. The moment she hugged Lu Hexu, it was as if even her soul had found its home.
The carriage soon stopped. It turned out that the place where Lu Hexu lived was extremely close to her shop, separated by only a single street.
Only after Su Zhenzhen entered the residence did she realize there was a wall at the back with a small door set into it. The door was open, and at a glance, she recognized it—it led straight to the back alley of her own home.
She actually hadn't noticed this when she came over last time.
No, wait. She didn't seem to have taken this path last time.
Wei Heng was leading her down a different route today.
After what felt like a slight detour, they finally arrived at the door of the main house.
"Miss Su, please."
Wei Heng stood at the door of the main house, gesturing for Su Zhenzhen to enter.
Carrying the food box in her hand, Su Zhenzhen nodded.
There was no one in the room, but she could hear the sound of water coming from behind the folding screen.
Was he taking a bath?
Su Zhenzhen gently set down the food box and cast her gaze around the room.
It had only been two days since her last visit.
The room was still filled with many blocks of ice, making it much cooler than outside.
This room was much larger than the one she lived in herself.
Su Zhenzhen couldn't help but look toward the head of the man's bed.
The corner of a box was faintly visible there. Judging by its color and pattern, it was clearly the box containing the silver needles.
Su Zhenzhen subconsciously reached up to touch her own throat.
Don't look, don't look.
She sat back down, then stood up again, and opened the door that Wei Heng had closed.
It was too stuffy.
The room was filled with Lu Hexu's scent.
From behind the screen came the light fragrance of soap locust, carrying the crisp freshness of spring water. Yet, Su Zhenzhen could faintly detect the distinct scent that belonged solely to him.
It was very faint, piercing through the soapy fragrance like an incredibly fine and light thread, silently wrapping around the tip of her nose.
After opening the door, the hot summer wind poured in, and that scent finally became less pronounced.
Su Zhenzhen sat for a while, then stood up again. She noticed some official memorials placed on the desk by the window.
She tilted her head and glanced toward the folding screen; Lu Hexu was still bathing.
She cautiously reached out and flipped open a memorial.
Not this one.
Not this one either.
Had those imperial censors actually submitted their petitions or not?
Suddenly, a hand reached out from behind her. Damp with moisture, the hand pressed down on the hand Su Zhenzhen was using to pinch the memorial. Then, it forcibly spread her palm open and pinned it beneath his own.
[Caught red-handed. Is there any point in making excuses now?]
Su Zhenzhen swallowed hard. "I saw some dust on it. It was dirty, so I was wiping it for you."
[How does he walk without making a single sound?]
"How dirty?" The man leaned down, his lips hovering right next to her ear.
Her fair ears turned a slight shade of red. She subtly leaned away to the side and answered in a very soft voice, "Just a little bit."
"What are you looking for?"
[The censors' petitions.]
"Nothing," Su Zhenzhen said, her eyelashes fluttering. Her fingertips subconsciously tried to retract, only to be held down even more firmly.
"Su Zhenzhen, you are quite bold."
The man's lingering scent in the room had not yet dissipated, and Su Zhenzhen could feel the scorching heat of his body pressed against her back.
Even though he had bathed in cold water, his skin still radiated a boiling heat.
They were pressed extremely close together, and Su Zhenzhen's every breath was filled entirely with Lu Hexu's scent.
Her heart was beating very fast.
Su Zhenzhen's breathing began to grow erratic.
Her fingertips trembled. She could feel the man's fingers pressing against the back of her hand; the damp moisture steeped into her skin like dew-soaked tulle, silently seeping in and traveling all the way down her veins straight to her heart.
Her thoughts began to turn into a jumbled mess.
[I am not bold at all, want to feel for yourself?]
Let me feel it
