The kiss was too long, too tender. Li Shuang had no idea when or how to end it, but before she could worry about that, Jin An released her first.
His warm palm slowly slid from her cheek as he fell asleep.
This was Li Shuang’s first time pinning a man against a wall for a kiss, and he just… fell asleep?
As she felt his body temperature gradually return to normal and his body relaxed, Li Shuang didn’t know how to process the situation.
But at least… she could breathe now.
Li Shuang propped Jin An’s completely limp body against the wall corner, one hand steadying his waist, the other around his shoulders, using her shoulder to support his drooping head. “Wu Yin!” she called outside, “If you haven’t left, come help carry him.”
“Oh, ah… alright.”
At her call, the two outside seemed to snap out of their daze. Unlike Wu Yin, who walked in with a smile, Qin Lan stood outside, his expression unreadable as he looked through the shabby door and windows of the small house.
Wu Yin entered and went to Jin An’s side, taking his weight together with Li Shuang as they moved him to the bed. “General Li,” Wu Yin smiled at Li Shuang as she sat by the bed wiping Jin An’s sweat. His smile never wavered, as if they hadn’t just experienced the entire sect’s emergency evacuation. “You military folks are certainly forceful.”
Li Shuang glanced at him. “Instead of idle chatter, why not call your disciples back?”
“No need,” Wu Yin waved his hand. “Who knows what state he’ll be in when he wakes? Running back and forth would be troublesome. Wu Ling Gate has lived on South Long Mountain for generations; they have their places to stay.” As he spoke, his eyes narrowed in amusement. “It’s getting late. Perhaps I should send away that wooden fellow outside too. With just the two of you in Wu Ling Gate, General, you can do whatever you like.”
“…”
Li Shuang felt annoyed, yet following Wu Yin’s words, her gaze involuntarily flickered to Jin An’s bare chest and the area around his waist—
His belt was somewhat torn, barely holding on. With her strength, one finger could tear it away…
Focus! What was she thinking?
Li Shuang used her rationality to suppress these outrageous thoughts. Had no one been present, she might have slapped herself to regain clarity.
Though her mind was in turmoil, Li Shuang managed to contain these emotions. She merely gave Wu Yin a cold glance. “Go fetch some hot water.”
Wu Yin pouted, clearly finding it no longer entertaining, and left. Seeing Qin Lan still standing outside, he patted his shoulder. “Let them have some time alone. Come with me.”
Qin Lan didn’t move. “Why did he become like this?” Though Qin Lan had rarely seen Jin An in the Northern Border, from their few encounters, he knew that while this man in black had mysterious origins and great power, he was rational and would protect Li Shuang. Yet now he had completely transformed into a monster.
“Wait for your General to tell you later.” Wu Yin pulled him along. Qin Lan walked away reluctantly, constantly looking back. Before the room’s interior completely disappeared from view, what Qin Lan saw was Li Shuang’s profile as she wiped the sweat from that man’s brow.
Like any ordinary woman gazing at her beloved, treating him as a precious treasure, gentle and devoted.
Perhaps the General… didn’t even realize herself that one day, she would look at someone with such an expression.
Li Shuang had asked Wu Yin to fetch water, but he seemed to have truly left with Qin Lan with no intention of returning. With her wrist still chained to Jin An’s, she couldn’t go anywhere. She simply sat on the bed as before, cradling Jin An’s head in her lap, letting him sleep peacefully against her.
She studied his features carefully.
It was somewhat different from usual. Having spent time with Jin An, Li Shuang could generally tell the differences now. At night, perhaps because Jin An’s fusion with the Jade Silkworm Gu was more complete, his power would be stronger, and simultaneously, the flame markings on his chest would spread to the corners of his eyes. When he opened his eyes then, his pupils would appear stained red by those flame markings, a bloody color.
During the day when he was a child, his face was particularly clean, his eyes black like ordinary people’s, with only the red mark on his chest distinguishing him from other children.
But today Jin An’s body was somewhat different.
He remained an adult, yet the flame markings hadn’t spread from his chest, instead staying rounded in a cluster like when he was a child. His eyes were closed, so Li Shuang couldn’t see their color, but as she held him, she could feel his body wasn’t as scorching hot as usual.
If not for that cluster of flame markings, his body seemed to have returned to that of a normal person.
Li Shuang was curious and extended her index finger, gently tracing circles over the flame markings on his chest.
Perhaps it tickled—she saw his chest muscles quiver slightly. Li Shuang withdrew her hand, but when her gaze moved from his chest back to his face, she found Jin An’s eyes were already open.
Pitch-black pupils, like the darkest night of the year.
Moonlight had scattered through the window, and in its light, his pupils seemed to glow in the darkness. And in those eyes was her reflection.
“Awake?”
He remained silent, not answering immediately. Instead, he moved his hand, causing the chains to rattle. He raised his hand, his gaze dropping to see the steel chains connecting his wrist to Li Shuang’s.
“Earlier…” Li Shuang began, carefully choosing her words, but Jin An sat up from her embrace. He stared intently at Li Shuang’s wrist.
Li Shuang looked too, only now noticing her wrist was bleeding where the skin had broken. Under the chain’s grinding, it was a mess of blood and flesh, looking quite frightening.
Jin An’s gaze flickered.
“It’s nothing,” Li Shuang quickly said, fearing he would blame himself. “Just a flesh wound.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Jin An gently gripped her arm. Before she could react, he extended his tongue and firmly licked her injured wrist.
Li Shuang was startled.
She could only stare at Jin An, momentarily unable to process anything, feeling only the gentleness of his lips and tongue. Though the pressure of his licking wasn’t light, this friction with its slight pain and tickle sent tingles from her spine to her brain.
Her mind went blank.
What was he doing…
What was he doing?
After he’d licked around her wrist wound once, Li Shuang finally snapped back to awareness and tried to pull her hand away, but Jin An wouldn’t let go. His lips pressed against her wrist wound as if savoring a rare delicacy, his movements terrifyingly ambiguous and alluring.
“I want you…” he said, taking her wrist into his mouth.
The sound of chains, the slight pain of the wound, and the moonlight filtering through the window all made this night feel particularly dangerous and… intimate.
Li Shuang could hear her heart pounding, her blood burning uncomfortably.
But simultaneously, like a curse repeating in her mind, she suddenly remembered what Sima Yang had said that day in the Imperial Study while writing the imperial edict: “Shuang’er, I only hope that one day, you won’t regret this.”
Like a blow to the head, it instantly sobered Li Shuang, all intimacy transforming into danger, sending a chill down her spine.
She violently pushed Jin An away, with such force that the chain pulled her onto him, but Li Shuang quickly stood up, keeping the maximum distance the chain would allow.
She couldn’t forget what she had to do when she returned.
After being pushed away, Jin An simply stood and walked toward her, his eyes showing no emotion. Li Shuang finally noticed something was wrong with him. She almost immediately composed all her hidden emotions.
“Jin An,” she tried to wake him with his name, but Jin An stepped forward and lifted her, silencing her mouth without warning.
Li Shuang froze, turning her elbow to press against Jin An’s chest, but his hands had already encircled her waist, gripping her belt. Like tearing paper, with a “swish” sound, Li Shuang felt her waist loosen.
It was truly karmic retribution—earlier she had thought about how one finger could tear his belt, but before she could act, this man who had been lying down did it to her instead.
But now was no time for jokes. Li Shuang knew something must have gone wrong with Jin An during his sleep.
If his earlier constantly changing body had resembled the state when the Jade Silkworm Gu first entered a body, then was his current state what happened when the Gu had stabilized in the body and was seeking its master’s comfort?
But she didn’t intend to comfort him this way!
Touching and kissing were already the limit—this body of hers wasn’t hers alone to do with as she pleased anymore!
“Calm down!” Li Shuang finally turned her head away, caught her breath, and shouted these words, but Jin An had already pushed her onto the bed.
Quickly, after the belt, her collar was almost immediately torn open. Li Shuang’s shoulders felt cool as her skin contacted the air, and in the next instant, Jin An’s lips kissed a trail of fire along her shoulder, collarbone, and down the center of her chest.
Li Shuang’s heart leaped in alarm. She quickly hugged his head, not immediately using force but caressing his cheeks, making him look up. Thinking she wanted to kiss him, when their lips met, Li Shuang’s free hand pressed against his neck, gathering her internal energy and striking hard at the back of his neck. She felt Jin An’s whole body stiffen. He looked at her as his eyes slowly closed.
Li Shuang immediately checked his pulse, because she hadn’t held back her strength. She knew that force enough to make ordinary people faint might not be enough to knock out Jin An, but using too much force could be dangerous—she worried she might have killed him.
But fortunately.
As expected of Jin An, he had merely fainted.
Li Shuang quickly pushed him away, got off the bed, and hurriedly adjusted her clothes. She wanted to leave but was still bound by the chain.
She had to search the room for the key, but after several fights, the key was long lost. She could only wait for Wu Yin and the others to return with a spare.
Li Shuang heaved a long sigh, sitting with her knees hugged to her chest below the bed, glancing back at the unconscious Jin An on the bed. She smiled bitterly.
If it had been anyone else, she would have killed them many times over by now. But with him particularly, no matter how excessive his actions, Li Shuang found herself unable to truly blame him.
Li Shuang knew that when he regained consciousness and remembered what he had done, he would probably hate himself more than anyone else in the world.
Thinking of this, she found herself feeling more heartache for him than for herself.