Ji Yuluo hadn’t fully woken up yet. Her drowsy eyes, like the slow opening and closing of butterfly wings, seemed to be looking at Huo Xian, yet seemed to see nothing at all. Only when Huo Xian pressed down again did she defenselessly part her lips.
She was like this in her dream.
She let her lips and tongue be drawn and sucked until numb, her breath in her chest completely plundered, their heavy breathing intertwining.
Just when she was about to run out of breath, he would switch from a storm to a gentle breeze, leisurely teasing and tracing her lips and teeth.
And as soon as she regained her breath, he would start his assault again.
This cycle repeated seamlessly. Ji Yuluo even thought that the Huo Xian in this dream was even more relentless than the ones in previous nights.
His hand slid under the quilt, pressing down on Ji Yuluo. He whispered against her lips, “Where is it?”
Ji Yuluo’s mind was a mess, as if she had been dreaming countless dreams. She didn’t think deeply about the meaning of his words until his hand fished out the two golden beads from her belt.
He stopped kissing her, raised his head, and said smugly, “You carried them close to your body, missing me so much?”
Ji Yuluo didn’t move, just looked up at him.
She blinked twice, the haze in her eyes gradually clearing away, as if waking up from a long dream. Still a bit dazed, she instinctively reached for the beads in Huo Xian’s hand, but he held her fingertips and rubbed them against his lips.
Ji Yuluo stroked his face, finally fully awake. She asked in surprise, “Why are you here?”
Huo Xian stood up and took off his rain-soaked robe, then removed the miscellaneous trinkets from his body and threw aside the ring. When he turned around, Ji Yuluo was already sitting up, raising her neck to look at him.
It was as if she still couldn’t believe he appeared here in the middle of the night.
This dazed expression was so adorable, a look the clear-headed Ji Yuluo during the day would never show.
He took a few more glances and said, “Taiyuan Prefecture is temporarily safe. I came over to check on things—why did you go to sleep without changing your clothes?”
“I need to get up later,” Ji Yuluo said as she tried to find the beads in Huo Xian’s palm, but they were nowhere to be found.
Huo Xian chuckled briefly and leaned in closer to look at her, “What are you searching for? Sleeping with my things, why not sleep with me? Were you still dreaming just now, thinking you were dreaming? Am I always like this in your dreams?”
He was so close that his hot breath sprayed on her face.
Ji Yuluo felt the reality brought by his heat, a sense of restlessness rising in her heart. She touched the new stubble on his chin and said, “Not just that, you do everything in my dreams.”
She lazily looked at him, her eyes full of allure that Huo Xian could not resist.
His breathing grew heavier. He propped one hand beside her, the other cupping her face, his nose lightly brushing and sniffing her, like a beast rediscovering its mate after a long separation.
He finally stopped at her ear, gave it a light kiss, and whispered, “In the dream, did you also give everything?”
Ji Yuluo lightly replied, “Mm-hmm.”
Huo Xian raised his head to look at her, their eyes meeting in what seemed like a signal.
Ji Yuluo was pushed back into the bedding.
She couldn’t understand what that sudden passionate encounter on the eve of departure meant to Huo Xian. He was like a wolf that had never tasted such delicacies before, and once he had a taste, how could he be easily satisfied? Especially since that piece of meat had run away on its own, leaving its taste to tantalize Huo Xian, pulling him from the capital to Taiyuan, and from Taiyuan to Shunde. Day and night, it felt like a slow torture by a blunt knife.
Huo Xian was nearly driven to madness.
His steel-like endurance crumbled completely in front of Ji Yuluo, transforming into an endless force of conquest.
Ji Yuluo felt like she was going to die.
Her heart, which had been hovering outside the city gate, was thrown into the clouds and sunk into the water. She forgot Xiao Cheng, forgot Zhou Baihu, forgot everything and everyone. She was pierced through and through, shattered into a heap of broken pieces, unable to stir even the slightest ripple.
She lay there, barely breathing, her eyes half-closed.
The storm had stopped, and the rain had ceased.
The room quieted down, leaving only the gradually steadying breaths.
Huo Xian didn’t speak, still buried against her. After a long time, he finally said, “You said earlier that you needed to get up later. What for?”
Ji Yuluo’s voice was barely there. She murmured, “To check for news from outside the city.”
Huo Xian stroked her and said, “I just circled back from there. Don’t wait, there won’t be any news tonight.”
She weakly responded, her eyelids heavy.
Huo Xian held her tightly, kissing her on the forehead, then covering her eyes with his hand. “Sleep, I’ll keep watch for you.”
That night, they had good dreams.
The next day at noon, after the heavy rain, the sun shone brightly.
The glaring sunlight pierced through the window paper, dancing on Ji Yuluo’s eyelids. She pressed her hand against her eyes as she opened them. Just a slight movement made her feel sore all over.
She paused, looking at the neatly arranged clothes folded at the head of the bed. There was no one beside her.
If it weren’t for the red marks on her body, she might have thought it was another absurd dream.
Hiss.
Ji Yuluo swung her feet off the bed, and the tearing pain made her stifle a groan. The fierce scenes from last night flooded her mind. She paused, pulled open her collar, and sure enough…
It was full of bite marks.
She finally understood that he had been quite restrained that night, mindful that she had to ride a horse the next day.
Lost in thought, Ji Yuluo vaguely heard noisy voices outside the window. The soundproofing of this temporary lodging was terrible, and she could hear the commotion from the next room clearly.
She couldn’t help but think about last night, thankful for the heavy rain.
Ji Yuluo closed her eyes and sighed softly.
After changing her clothes, she pushed open the door.
A maid named Pingxi was guarding the door, her expression strange. She called out, “Miss,” and then quickly lowered her head.
Ji Yuluo ignored her and went straight to the dining hall.
The voices were coming from there.
Chaolu was holding a bowl, speaking angrily and with grievance, “Why can’t I go?”
She was glaring at Huo Xian as she spoke.
Huo Xian was unmoved, picking up chopsticks and saying, “Your mistress is asleep. Why are you making noise?”
“Nonsense,” Chaolu snapped at him, “Our mistress never sleeps until noon. She always gets up before dawn!”
“That’s when she’s not worn out,” Huo Xian said, grabbing a large shrimp from Chaolu’s bowl. She tried to protect her bowl with her hand, but he continued, “She eats well enough, so why is she still so thin?”
He weighed her in his mind, noting that she had less flesh on her than when she was at the Huo residence, where she had a rosier complexion.
Chaolu, hearing this, angrily retorted, “Why would she be worn out? You’re always bullying her. You keep bullying her.”
Huo Xian smiled meaningfully, “Yes, I bully her. Are you going to eat or not? If you keep arguing, you won’t get to eat. I’ll take it all.”
Chaolu was furious but couldn’t fight Huo Xian. She buried her face in her bowl, thinking that one day, when her martial skills improved, she would take his head off and kick it around like a ball for her mistress.
As Chaolu sulked, she looked up and saw Ji Yuluo walking in.
She hurriedly put down her bowl and chopsticks, exclaiming, “Mistress!”
Ji Yuluo nodded at her, moving slowly. She even held onto the doorframe as she stepped over the threshold.
She ignored Huo Xian’s gaze and asked Chaolu, “Is there any news from outside the city?”
Indeed, there was. Chaolu pulled a letter from her chest, muttering, “It’s a letter from the capital. It arrived early this morning, but someone wouldn’t let me into the room.”
Indeed, there was. Chaolu took out a letter from her chest, muttering, “It’s a letter from the capital. It arrived early this morning, but someone wouldn’t let me into the room.”
This subtle tattling was not at all clever, and Huo Xian sneered coldly.
Ji Yuluo pretended not to hear any of it and opened the letter, skimming through it. It was mostly about what Xiao Yuanjing had said. After reading it, she handed it to Huo Xian.
Huo Xian read it and looked at her, saying, “I heard you caught his servant. Is he really…”
Ji Yuluo nodded at him.
Huo Xian raised an eyebrow, his expression revealing sudden understanding. No wonder he was so indifferent to women and even showed great disgust when seeing men and women together.
He had actually thought he was some kind of righteous gentleman.
Huo Xian set the letter aside and served her some soup, saying, “You must be hungry. Eat something first, and we’ll talk about the rest later.”
He turned to Chaolu, “What are you standing there for? Get the bowls and chopsticks.”
Chaolu, still sulking, went to get them.
Huo Xian had noticed her unusual movements when she walked in. Now, looking at the red marks behind her ears, he asked, “Does it hurt?”
Ji Yuluo didn’t reply, turning her head to glance at Huo Xian before silently drinking her soup. Her expression was almost one of rolling her eyes at him.
Huo Xian chuckled softly, reaching out to smooth her hair at the back, “Who’s the one provoking me and then refusing to beg for mercy?”
He added, half-jokingly, “You’re going to be the death of me, Ji Yuluo.”
