On a rainy night with thunder, a cold light suddenly flashed across the sky.
Ji Yuluo abruptly opened her eyes, her breathing irregular. However, she lay perfectly still, without making a sound of waking from a nightmare. Yet, the person beside her seemed to notice, and a large hand pressed on her waist and abdomen, pulling her over completely.
The man’s voice, tinged with the tone of someone half-awake, asked, “What’s wrong?”
Ji Yuluo turned her head to look at him. Borrowing the silver-white moonlight from outside the window, she could just see his deep-set eyes and high nose bridge.
She raised her hand to touch his lips, feeling the soft warmth with her fingertip, and finally felt reassured.
Before Huo Xian could ask again, she lifted her neck and kissed him.
The force was so strong that it shook Huo Xian fully awake.
The chaotic gnawing seemed to be an emotional release. At first, Huo Xian cooperated, opening his mouth to give and take, until the hand gripping his collar became restless and moved downward, hooking his waistband. Only then did he grab her hand.
Ji Yuluo struggled but couldn’t break free, angrily biting his lip.
Huo Xian propped himself up on his elbow, slightly lifting himself, and leaned over to trace her lips with his tongue, gradually taking control.
Hitting the snake at its vital point, he skillfully found the back of Ji Yuluo’s neck, massaging the small area of her vertebrae. It was like an on-off switch, and as his thumb rubbed up and down, the person in his arms gradually calmed down.
She remained motionless, her index finger lightly resting on his shoulder and back, allowing him to kiss and nibble at her.
After a long time, Huo Xian released her.
Their breaths intertwined as they each calmed down.
He didn’t ask much, just lowered his eyes to look at her.
Ji Yuluo was someone who kept her thoughts deeply hidden. Even as a person beside her pillow, she wouldn’t necessarily lay out all her thoughts in front of you.
If she didn’t want to talk, asking was useless.
Huo Xian stroked her spine, thinking that she seemed more sullen than usual when she returned earlier. Ping Xi had mentioned that she encountered Ji Chongwang on the way…
As if knowing what he was thinking, Ji Yuluo said, “It’s not because of Ji Chongwang.”
She paused before saying, “I dreamed of You Daiyue.”
Huo Xian responded with a soft “hmm,” gently brushing the hair from her face, as if afraid to disturb her, “What did you dream about her?”
“She hugged me.”
“Said she wanted to thank me.”
Ji Yuluo frowned slightly and said, “She’s sick, she’s a lunatic.”
Huo Xian responded with another “hmm,” waiting for her to continue.
Ji Yuluo remained silent for a long time, staring at the drifting canopy. Suddenly, she spoke coldly and bluntly, “She was someone who lived in this world fueled by hatred, torturing herself and others. In reality, she was just a coward, wanting to die but not daring to. She used the pretext of revenge to justify her wretched existence.”
When Ji Yuluo was young, she had asked, if living was so meaningless, why continue living?
At that time, You Daiyue was already on her deathbed, having said all her last words without any reservations. She replied lifelessly, “How can I be willing to die while your wretched father still lives?”
Ji Yuluo had then retorted sarcastically, “Why not kill him and die together?”
This seemed to touch You Daiyue’s raw nerve. She had dragged her frail body up from the bed, choking the girl and roaring, “What do you know? What could you possibly know! You are just like your father, ungrateful!”
Ji Yuluo said, “I was extremely disgusted by her cowardice, madness, and hypocrisy. But it seems, she and I are not so different. Ji Chongwang to You Daiyue is like Zhao Yong to me. He lives bearing You Daiyue’s hatred, and his death would drain her will to live.”
As she spoke, she frowned, showing a moment of confusion before calmly sighing, “When Qiao Xun sacrificed his life to save me, I left him and ran away… Huo Xian, in truth, I didn’t love the Qiao family that much.”
She paused.
Such a straightforward confession revealed to him that she was a very bad person, yet she did not await the judgment of this good man.
Strangely, she actually wanted to hear him say something.
So, Ji Yuluo looked up at him, “Aren’t you going to say something?”
Huo Xian merely lowered his eyes to look at her, his lips set in a straight line, his expression seemingly serious.
The Qiao family was just a pretext, an excuse for her to kill and seek revenge, allowing her to break free from a muddled existence, don a flesh-and-blood facade, and walk through the world like a slightly more normal person.
Because she didn’t want to die, but living felt meaningless.
People need many things to cling to, many hopes to keep going.
Those without attachments are the hardest to live. Without ties, life and death hinge on a whim. When those who killed the Qiao family died one by one at her hands, and she exacted her revenge, her obsession would suddenly dissipate, and she would lose her will to live.
That was why she became more sullen after leaving Dongxiang County.
Huo Xian once thought Ji Yuluo was a tenacious wildflower growing in the cracks of stones, capable of living well without anyone. But in reality, it was the opposite.
She had previously been sustained by hatred and would later be sustained by love.
She needed something to hold on to in order to live half a decent life.
She had pulled Huo Xian back from the edge of the cliff multiple times, putting in so much effort, but it was just to save herself. He was the driftwood in the sea that she needed to cling to for her own survival.
Yet, he had easily delivered himself into the enemy’s blade, cutting off Ji Yuluo’s path to life.
So, she held onto him, imprisoned him, not out of anger, but because he might have…
…frightened her.
And he, so confident in his cleverness, only now grasped everything.
Seeing him in a daze, Ji Yuluo waved her hand in front of his eyes.
Huo Xian grabbed her hand and pressed it onto the bed, looking at her, his throat somewhat dry. Taking a deep breath in the dark to steady his emotions, he nestled against her and sighed softly, “What should I say? That you’re heartless and devoid of conscience?”
Then, he murmured very softly, “But what can be done about it…”
Ji Yuluo was curious to hear what he planned to do, but before she could ask, the person propped above her suddenly leaned down. She was still talking to him and didn’t expect him to come so close, inevitably startled, “What?”
Huo Xian looked at her, leaned in, and kissed her lips. “Didn’t you say I’m a good person? A good person will redeem you.”
Ji Yuluo immediately laughed, “Will that work?”
Huo Xian said, “Redemption takes time. So, Miss Yuluo, when will you take me away?”
Hearing this, Ji Yuluo paused for a moment.
Huo Xian’s current situation in the capital was awkward. Some said he was corrupt, others defended him; everyone had their own opinions. He hadn’t truly cleared his name.
However, the Marquis of Xuanping no longer cared. He argued with his colleagues daily, from the streets to the Hall of Supreme Harmony, defending Huo Xian. His eloquence, honed by Huo Xian himself, was reminiscent of Huo Xian’s past debates with the ministers. It was clear to everyone that the Marquis of Xuanping intended to bring Huo Xian back to the Huo family for recuperation.
This son was someone he wanted.
And to this, Huo Xian had not said a word.
Ji Yuluo had been worried he might want to return to the Huo family, which was why she saw the Marquis of Xuanping as such a formidable enemy.
She hesitated and asked, “You don’t want to go back to the Huo family?”
Huo Xian smiled slightly, “I still have to go back eventually. Another day, you can accompany me.”
Their eyes met, and Ji Yuluo blinked. The anxiety she had felt for days finally settled, though she didn’t show it. She nonchalantly replied with a simple “Hmm,” forgetting even the nightmare that had awakened her. Those things seemed less important now. She said, “Let’s sleep.”
Huo Xian looked at her, a chuckle escaping his nose.
He leaned in, pressing his thumb against her fluttering eyelashes. Ji Yuluo immediately opened her eyes, asking what he was doing.
Huo Xian opened her inner robe, solemnly saying, “Performing a ritual, exorcising demons, to prevent nightmares from haunting you.”
