He Sui’an’s shoulders trembled, her long hair cascading down to her waist, half-concealing her figure. The black and white blended perfectly, like a simple yet beautiful ink painting.
In the treehouse, only one candle was lit. The light was dim, somewhat gloomy.
The sound of rain persisted, drip-drop, penetrating the tree walls and slowly drifting in, making the treehouse exceptionally quiet. He Sui’an could almost hear her own heartbeat, unusually rapid.
She turned to look at the person standing on the other side of the treehouse. Qi Buyan had his back to her as well. The young man’s indigo clothing, wet, lay on the ground, his long hair tied with silver ornaments occasionally dripping water.
Her gaze fell downward.
The butterfly silver chains around his feet were rarely seen by others, usually hidden by clothing and boots. He Sui’an had only seen them a few times.
The butterfly silver chain, like a strand of silvery moonlight, circled lightly around his protruding, jade-like white ankles. Seven small bells hung in different directions, clinging to his skin.
After being soaked by the rain, his boots were naturally wet too.
Qi Buyan stood barefoot in the treehouse, as if he had just been born into this world, with almost nothing covering him. He was calm and unashamed, completely indifferent to modesty.
Qi Buyan often gave the impression of being exceptionally pure, but in reality, he straddled the line between purity and evil.
His purity lay in his ignorance of human emotions.
His evil was evident in his complete lack of reverence for life, killing without hesitation.
He Sui’an unconsciously watched him for a while.
With his keen sense of hearing, Qi Buyan seemed to catch the faint sound of He Sui’an turning around. He turned to face her, looking directly at her.
This caught He Sui’an off guard. Her eyes flickered; it was their first time being so honest with each other. Most importantly, she didn’t know how to explain why she had been staring at him.
Qi Buyan didn’t ask. He walked toward her, the silver ornaments in his hair moving with him.
The sound of the silver ornaments grew closer.
He Sui’an, in a panic, tried to reach for her clothes, but Qi Buyan gently held her hand.
She was a step too late.
They stood facing each other in this manner.
He Sui’an’s gaze only dared to linger above Qi Buyan’s shoulders. His face, just washed by the rain, was like a porcelain doll’s, flawless, meticulously sculpted from the start.
The dim light cast shadows on them, vaguely floating. Qi Buyan raised his hand, and He Sui’an tensed. His fingertips touched her cheek, brushing over a few red marks.
These were the sleep marks on He Sui’an’s face from leaning against the tree door and falling asleep during the day. They might take all night to fade away.
He Sui’an let him stroke her face.
They had done more intimate things before, so a simple touch on the face seemed ordinary now. It turns out that people’s acceptance levels can deepen easily.
But she was very aware of their current state; it was not as light as just a touch on the face.
She could see all of him, and he could see all of her. At this moment, they left no space between them.
As Qi Buyan stroked He Sui’an’s face, the butterfly silver chain on his wrist was right in front of her eyes.
She glanced at it unintentionally.
And then she froze.
There was a gap in the butterfly silver chain, an abrupt gap that wasn’t there before they left the treehouse. She had carefully examined Qi Buyan’s butterfly silver chain on his wrist at that time.
She grabbed his wrist: “How did the butterfly silver chain become like this?”
“Did it become uglier?” Qi Buyan rarely frowned as he also glanced at it, “Maybe it’s not as beautiful as it used to be.”
He Sui’an wasn’t concerned about its beauty: “There’s a gap now. If it gets pulled, it could easily break. Can we find those silversmiths to fix the gap?”
“We can’t.”
Qi Buyan said: “Butterfly silver chains from the Tianshui Village in Miaojiang cannot be repaired.”
If the butterfly silver chains from Tianshui Village in Miaojiang could be repaired, they wouldn’t be such a fatal weakness for the people of Tianshui Village.
He Sui’an forgot about their current state of undress, her attention fixated on the gap in the butterfly silver chain: “Who did this?”
“Why?” Qi Buyan smiled pleasantly, “Are you going to kill him for me?”
She raised her neck.
She didn’t speak.
Qi Buyan knew that He Sui’an couldn’t kill anyone. He lowered his head and kissed her earlobe, a natural kiss, as light as a dragonfly touching the water, to ease his desire to be close to her.
Desire.
It was a foreign word. Qi Buyan roughly understood its meaning but had never experienced it before.
It turned out that desiring someone felt like this: constantly wanting to be in the same place with her, constantly wanting to do things that signified closeness, and he really enjoyed kissing her.
He also liked being kissed by He Sui’an.
Perhaps it was because of the recent rain, but He Sui’an’s earlobes were cool, as were her cheeks, and her entire body felt cool to the touch, which was very comfortable.
The fire attribute of the Heavenly Silkworm Gu within Qi Buyan made him unafraid of the cold, but it would cause him to sleep in extreme cold. However, he sometimes enjoyed the mild coolness that wasn’t enough to make him fall asleep.
Qi Buyan bent down.
The long hair on his back hung down in front of him, and the silver ornaments still wet with rain brushed against He Sui’an. Her skin became slightly wet, with a few streaks of water from his hair and silver ornaments.
As Qi Buyan was about to lower his head further to kiss He Sui’an’s heart, she happened to lift her head.
He Sui’an’s lips accidentally pressed against Qi Buyan’s throat, that extremely fragile and sensitive spot, often used for killing or being killed, yet it was presented to her without any defense.
The girl’s lips were cool and moist.
Butterflies blossomed on the boy’s body.
Blue butterflies appeared on his neck, gradually spreading to his shoulders, wrists, waist, and extending towards his limbs. The color wasn’t very vivid yet, but the spread was rapid.
The wrists and ankles adorned with butterfly silver chains also had the presence of blue butterflies. Qi Buyan’s body became vibrant, blue butterflies seemingly everywhere, making his face even more beautiful.
He Sui’an had seen such a scene before, but this time, there were more butterflies.
She hadn’t moved away from him.
Moreover, since there were butterflies on Qi Buyan’s neck, as she kissed him, it felt as if she was kissing the blue butterflies on his body.
The butterfly under He Sui’an’s kiss had the brightest color, blue shimmering on the snow-white skin. She couldn’t help but swallow. Were these butterflies born because of her?
The answer seemed to be yes.
Because these butterflies appeared only after her lips accidentally touched Qi Buyan’s throat.
It seemed that this spot was particularly sensitive to touch.
Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many blue butterflies appearing. He Sui’an stared at Qi Buyan without blinking, not changing her position. She looked up to see his smoothly contoured jawline.
His Adam’s apple was moving, Qi Buyan’s neck involuntarily bent slightly.
His long, wet hair fell to one side.
A portion of his neck was exposed even more completely.
The blue veins were faintly visible under the skin, with blue butterflies passing through, intertwined. He Sui’an’s breath fell on Qi Buyan’s body, making the butterflies even more vivid with her presence.
The blue butterflies looked so vivid, as if they wanted to fly into He Sui’an’s body.
He Sui’an nervously bit her lip.
Qi Buyan gazed at He Sui’an inch by inch, his eyelashes still damp from the rain, a few strands sticking together, appearing longer and darker, like a fan.
He had always been an observer of others’ emotions and desires, and today was no different. Qi Buyan seemed to detach himself, observing his own interaction with He Sui’an as if from the outside, because he had never experienced anything like this before.
This feeling seemed like emotion.
But also not.
It reminded him of something Qi Shu had once said.
In Qi Buyan’s memory, Qi Shu rarely spoke to him, and only initiated a conversation once.
At that time, the sky was dark and gloomy, it was also a day of heavy rain.
Thunder roared, deafening.
They both wore the indigo clothes of Tianshui Village in Miaojiang, sitting at the door of the wooden house, gazing at the curtain of rain. The wind blew past the silver ornaments and bells on their foreheads and wrists, making Qi Shu appear very gentle.
Bian Yichen was not present, so only the two of them were in the wooden house. During such times, Qi Shu would become somewhat peaceful. Although she still treated Qi Buyan as if he were invisible, she would softly hum beautiful Miaojiang ballads.
Since childhood, Qi Buyan had liked being around insects and treated Qi Shu as if she were invisible too.
He sat not far away.
A golden insect crawled along Qi Buyan’s small, white hand, moving up his wrist, climbing over his clothing, reaching his face, and attempting to enter his body through his ear, seeking to lodge inside.
Qi Shu, immersed in humming the Miaojiang ballad, seemed not to notice this.
Just as the insect was about to crawl in, Qi Buyan raised his hand, grabbed it, crushed it between his fingers, and then extended his hand outside the eaves to let the rain wash it away, the water flowing through his fingers and dripping down.
The Miaojiang ballad stopped.
Qi Shu suddenly yanked Qi Buyan over, holding an insect similar in shape to the one before. She forcefully pinched the young Qi Buyan’s chin, making him open his mouth, and stuffed it inside.
After ensuring Qi Buyan had swallowed the insect, Qi Shu let go of him.
He retched, falling to the ground, trying to vomit.
Unable to, Qi Buyan looked up at Qi Shu, his eyes devoid of sadness, joy, panic, or fear, only pure confusion about why she made him eat the insect when she had always ignored him before.
Today, she had personally fed him the insect.
The silver bells on Qi Shu’s forehead swayed violently. Her skin, which had not seen sunlight for years, was pale as if she had been seriously ill, her delicate face carrying an unyielding pride.
Her naturally enchanting eyes lowered, gazing at Qi Buyan.
The mother and son looked at each other.
Their eyes held no extra emotion.
In some ways, they were very similar, but Qi Shu also felt that Qi Buyan was different from her. His body carried the blood of Bian Yichen, which made her wary and fearful.
“Qi Buyan, remember this, it’s called the Heavenly Silkworm Gu.” Qi Shu took a few steps away from him.
“If you kill someone, it will cause you pain; if you kill too many, it will kill you. I know you can never be a good person, but I will not allow you to kill indiscriminately.”
Qi Buyan blinked slowly.
His small face was red and purple from the pinching.
Qi Shu looked at him, involuntarily raising her hand, but then letting it drop halfway. She turned her head, the butterfly silver ornaments on her wrist jingling, “I will find a way to ask someone to take you back to Tianshui Village in Miaojiang.”
“Tianshui Village in Miaojiang.” Qi Buyan lay still on the ground, his small braid hanging over his shoulder, “What kind of place is that?”
It was a place she longed to return to but could not.
Qi Shu’s eyes darkened.
