Lou Yue could barely hold on to Xiao Rangchen.
Her fingernails dug deeply into the flesh at his shoulder and neck, yet she still could not slow him down.
She had never imagined that when the clear, icy frost and snow swept across the heavens, it could bind everything so completely, leaving nowhere to hide.
She struggled instinctively, breaking through the blanket of snow and bringing with her the damp, cool breath of water. She had barely revealed a trace of life before the frost and snow swept over her again, covering her without leaving the slightest gap.
She was trapped within the frost and snow. Each time she was on the verge of suffocating, the layer of snow would loosen just enough to let her breathe.
Lou Yue was unwilling to give in, yet deep down, she could not bear to truly break free.
She loved the crisp, icy scent of that frost and snow—loved it so much that she could no longer separate herself from it.
Never before had she been so intoxicated by a single scent.
Her reason told her that she should not sink into it completely, yet her boiling blood and restless heart rejoiced and trembled beneath that fragrance, from the inside out.
She cast reason aside and followed the desires of her heart, embracing the surging snow, sinking into the frost and snow as she surrendered herself.
Xiao Rangchen released Lou Yue’s lips, listening as the faint sounds spilling from her throat lingered by his ear.
He straightened his back and restrained himself, carrying Lou Yue to the reclining chair beneath the Chunhua tree and sitting down with her sprawled in his arms.
Lou Yue’s still-trembling leg brushed against the cool surface of the chair, and she flinched.
Xiao Rangchen stroked over it. His burning palm soon warmed the place she had touched, after which he drew her a little farther forward.
“Mm…”
The corner of Xiao Rangchen’s lips lifted slightly. One hand pressed against the small of Lou Yue’s back, holding her firmly against him, while the other rubbed the crown of her soft hair, feeling the rapid beat of her heart beneath her chest.
Moonlight spilled gently through the branches and leaves, breaking into scattered points of starlight. The courtyard was quiet and still, filled only with the mingled sounds of their breathing.
Lou Yue gradually calmed. Resting her cheek against Xiao Rangchen’s shoulder, she gazed at his white hair, which shimmered faintly with silver beneath the night sky.
She curled a strand of white hair around her fingertip and asked softly, “There’s no way to turn it back?”
Only after leaving the Chaotic Abyss had Qinglin told her that Xiao Rangchen’s hair had turned white because he had used the Life Seal to replenish her dwindling vitality and extend her life.
“If you dislike it, I can change it.”
His low, magnetic voice resonated from his chest and fell against her ear.
Lou Yue shook her head slightly. There was merely a faint ache in her heart.
Xiao Rangchen lowered his head and kissed her smooth forehead, then gently pressed another kiss to the golden ornament at her brow.
Lou Yue buried her face in the loose collar of his robe, wrapped her arms around his neck, and said in a muffled voice, “Next time, don’t do something like that without saying a word. At least let me know.”
Xiao Rangchen answered with a quiet hum.
Lou Yue still felt discontented and wanted to vent it. Looking at the prominent throat so close to her, she turned her head and bit down.
Xiao Rangchen stiffened. A low, hoarse groan escaped his throat, and the rest of him reacted as well.
Lou Yue trembled, but she continued biting his Adam’s apple without letting go.
Xiao Rangchen did not stop her, allowing her to gnaw at him as she pleased.
His throat moved, and his breathing grew heavier. After enduring it for a while, he saw that she had regained some of her strength and placed both hands around her waist.
In the night wind, white petals rustled down from the branches, trembling as they landed upon them.
The reclining chair groaned beneath the force, its creaking especially clear in the silent courtyard. Each sound was heavier than the last, as though the chair could no longer bear the strain and was about to fall apart.
Xiao Rangchen suddenly lifted Lou Yue and strode toward the house.
Lou Yue released his throat, tightening her legs around him and gripping his shoulders. Then, unable to restrain herself, she bit down again at his shoulder and neck.
Xiao Rangchen carried her straight onto the soft bed.
The string of ice-crystal beads hanging from Lou Yue’s waist snapped apart at once. The translucent crystals scattered across the white fox-fur coverlet, while several fell to the floor, striking one another with a series of dull, hurried sounds.
Some remained on Lou Yue’s body, but before long they slipped to the floor together with her violet-blue dress, soon covered completely by the dark robes.
The ice-crystal beads that had originally lain neatly across the bed also began to sway back and forth. Before long, amid the tender, winding sounds of her murmurs, they rolled onto the floor one after another.
Bright silver moonlight streamed through the window lattice.
The palace lamps in the room had already been lit at nightfall, casting a warm glow. Together with the moonlight, they illuminated every inch of the figures within with remarkable clarity.
The moon sank gradually. Dawn spread across the window lattice, and after a long day had passed, another night descended.
Tangled black hair spilled over the edge of the bed. The golden ornament at Lou Yue’s brow had long since vanished to who knew where.
Xiao Rangchen bent over her, lingering over her upturned neck and collarbones, one hand slipping behind her shoulder and holding her close.
Lou Yue kept her eyes closed. Only her swollen lips moved slightly, letting out a hoarse, feeble voice.
“Xiao Rangchen… don’t you know… how to conserve your resources? Too much of a good thing is still too much…”
Xiao Rangchen did not answer. He merely left mark after mark on her slender, delicate neck, covering each of the traces he had left before.
“You were actually… drunk, weren’t you…?”
At first, Xiao Rangchen would still answer her in a low voice a few times. Later, however, it was as though he had thrown all restraint aside and simply did as he pleased.
In the beginning, she could still keep pace with him, even deliberately provoking and teasing him. In the end, she had paid a price that she still had not finished repaying.
Unlike her exhausted weakness, the depths of his eyes grew darker and brighter.
Lou Yue could no longer say anything more.
After a long while, Xiao Rangchen finally stopped. Summoning all the strength she had left, she slapped him away.
“If you do that again, you’re banned from entering the ruins!” she said fiercely.
Xiao Rangchen lay down beside her, drew her into his arms, and closed his eyes, breathing in the sweet floral warmth that now carried his scent completely.
Lou Yue gave his collarbone a light bite. “Can you show some restraint?”
“From now on, don’t drink so much wine.”
“I wasn’t drunk.” Xiao Rangchen’s magnetic voice, still threaded with desire, sounded above her head. “It’s just that later on, I truly couldn’t control myself.”
He paused, then softened his voice. “Are you tired? I’ll carry you to soak in the hot spring for a while.”
Lou Yue answered with a lazy hum.
Xiao Rangchen rose and casually draped an outer robe over himself. Then he took a clean inner garment and covered her with it before lifting her horizontally into his arms.
When Lou Yue was sitting in Xiao Rangchen’s embrace, soaking in the comfortable hot spring pool, she suddenly looked up. Belatedly, she glared at him.
“When you said you would build a hot spring behind the house so we could soak in it whenever we were tired, this is what you meant?!”
Looking at Lou Yue’s round, indignant eyes, a faint smile flickered through Xiao Rangchen’s gaze.
He pressed her back against his chest, one palm resting against her shoulder. “Weren’t you tired? Sleep for a while.”
“Xiao Rangchen, you’re so devious.” Lou Yue was still deeply indignant.
Xiao Rangchen’s hand moved slowly to the butterfly-shaped bone at her back and pressed lightly. Both his movements and his tone carried a hint of suggestion.
“If you aren’t tired…”
The corners of Lou Yue’s eyes immediately drooped. “I’m tired. Very tired.”
With that, she shut her eyes and pretended to sleep.
This time, she truly fell asleep.
Xiao Rangchen held the sleeping woman and soaked for nearly another hour before carefully carrying her back inside. He lay down facing her and let her rest against the crook of his arm, then retrieved the thin blanket that had been pushed into the innermost corner of the bed and covered her with it.
Her light, warm breathing brushed against his neck again and again.
He lowered his eyes. His gaze lingered on her, tender and deep, passing over her peacefully lowered brows, her straight, delicate nose, and her small, full lips.
After gently brushing the loose strands of hair from her face, his fingertips unconsciously moved to touch her fair, rosy cheek.
The next moment, her hand was caught.
Lou Yue murmured sleepily, “Don’t fuss… You should sleep too…”
Xiao Rangchen let her hold on to his hand. As he watched her sink into a deeper sleep, his gaze remained fixed on her face, lingering there for a long, long while, unwilling to move away even for a moment.
The three years he had spent in the Chaos Abyss without her had been almost unbearable.
The ghost wraith’s final struggle before its death had stained his soul with strands of its essence, and it had taken him a full year to purge them completely.
During that year, he couldn’t meditate in peace or improve his cultivation. Under the influence of those soul strands, he was constantly restless and violent.
He slaughtered every remaining ghost wraith and burned every inch of land outside the stone cave where she had once stayed.
But when he stood alone amid that desolate world, the desolation in his heart nearly swallowed him whole.
Again and again, he called her name, as if simply doing so could keep her by his side.
The first year passed with him repeating her name, speaking to the empty air as though she were there, and counting the hours night after night just to endure it.
In the second year, after completely purging the soul strands, he began cultivating desperately. In the blink of an eye, he reached the peak of the Deity Transformation Realm.
After that, he made no further progress.
In the cultivation world’s thousands of years of history, there had been tens of millions of cultivators, yet only two had ever reached the Heavenly God Realm. It was a threshold that could not be crossed through effort or mindless cultivation alone.
He began to doubt himself.
He was afraid he wouldn’t be able to do it.
Afraid he would never escape and never see her again.
He seemed to have fallen into madness. He no longer remembered what he had done during that time.
Until a month ago, when he found himself standing atop the ruins of the stone cave—he didn’t even know when it had been destroyed. A message butterfly she had given him fluttered before his eyes, and he heard her voice.
“Xiao Rangchen, congratulations on unlocking a hidden bonus.”
“These words were sealed inside the glass. They could only be activated after you held it close to your heart day and night and called my name again and again.”
“I hesitated a little over whether I should tell you. But then I thought, if you could cherish something I gave you to this extent, you must already like me very much. So I suppose it’s all right to tell you.”
She seemed to pause before continuing.
“Xiao Rangchen, the truth is, I’m not from this world.”
“I come from a distant place. Perhaps I’ll return there after I die—or perhaps I’ll never be able to go back.”
“That place has a story about this world. You are the main character in that story, and there’s someone in it who shares my name. I became her.”
“In the original story, she opposed you at every turn and eventually died by your hand. But I think I’ve already changed that ending.”
She let out a soft laugh.
“I’m telling you this because I want you to know the real me.”
“And the real Lou Yue likes you.”
“I want to spend every day of the rest of my life with you. I want to open my eyes every morning and see you right beside me. No matter what hardships or dangers we encounter, I want us to face them hand in hand and walk on together.”
“Xiao Rangchen, this world has wind, rain, sunshine—and you. I love it very much.”
“For the rest of our lives, shall we share every dawn and dusk together?”
In that moment, his clouded mind finally cleared completely.
He had to get out.
He had to leave.
He had to find her.
He went to the core of the sealing array and devoted himself to cultivation there for a month. After breaking through to the Heavenly God Realm, he used the force of the heavenly tribulation—which ignored the barrier—to tear apart the seal and escape the Chaos Abyss.
Xiao Rangchen gazed at Lou Yue, who was now curled peacefully in his arms. Unable to resist, he lowered his head and pressed a gentle kiss to her smooth forehead, then another to her long, curled lashes.
Lou Yue slowly opened her eyes, which were still heavy with sleep.
She pursed her lips unhappily, her voice soft and husky. “Xiao Rangchen, do you never let anyone rest?”
His gaze fell to her lips. He leaned over and kissed her, his restrained longing lingering against her mouth. The tips of his teeth brushed her lower lip before he gave it a light bite.
Lou Yue was helpless against his persistence. She responded perfunctorily twice, then raised a hand to push him away by the shoulder. She couldn’t even be bothered to open her eyes fully.
“Be quiet now. Don’t wake me again.”
Xiao Rangchen continued to stare at her. Deep within his eyes, there was room for no one but her. His words came slowly, each one tender and unwavering.
“Lou Yue, for the rest of our lives, I want to share every dawn and dusk with you.”
Her eyes, which had just closed, flew open. The last trace of sleep vanished instantly.
“You…”
“I heard what you left for me.” Xiao Rangchen’s fingertip caressed her cheek, his gaze solemn. “Lou Yue, no matter where you came from, I only recognize the you standing before me now.”
“Wherever you are, I will be there.”
He gazed deeply into her eyes and said in a low voice, almost possessive in its intensity, “In this life, the next, and every life after that, I will be with you.”
Lou Yue stared at him blankly. The shock in her eyes faded, replaced by dazzling light that slowly spread through them, brighter than the stars.
She lifted the corner of her eye, hooked a finger beneath his chin, and raised it. With her usual bold and carefree confidence, she pronounced each word distinctly:
“Your wish is granted.”
From then on, no mountains or seas could stand between them, and the years were free of sorrow.
Spring brought blossoms; winter brought frost and snow. Every morning was hers, and every evening was his.
They shared every dawn and dusk, remained together year after year, and would never be parted again.
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Don’t worry, this one is guaranteed sweet!
Here’s a little push for my upcoming novel. If it sounds interesting, darlings, please add it to your collections!
