Chu Chu's tear-filled eyes were swollen and dull as she stared straight at him, bloodshot with dark circles beneath them. Her small face seemed covered in a layer of gray, sallow and pale. Her once petal-like rosy lips were now dry and darkened, and even her expression appeared dazed. Xiao Jin Yu took it all in, his heart aching so fiercely he could barely breathe.
Xiao Jin Yu gently turned his head and kissed her palm resting on his cheek, then kissed it again. "Is this a dream...?"
Chu Chu stood frozen in a daze, momentarily unresponsive. Xiao Jin Yu lightly nipped the tip of her thumb, and she suddenly snapped back to reality, throwing herself entirely into his embrace and clutching him tightly. "Wang Ye! You're really awake! You're awake!"
Xiao Jin Yu weakly raised his hand and gently patted her back. "You've suffered..."
Chu Chu simply wept uncontrollably, crying for a long while until she exhausted herself, her sobs gradually quieting.
When her crying had subsided somewhat, Xiao Jin Yu stroked her slightly disheveled hair. "I'm fine now. Go rest for a while..."
Chu Chu shook her head like a rattle drum, holding him tightly and refusing to let go.
Xiao Jin Yu sighed silently. Her appearance clearly showed she hadn't slept for a long time—how could a young girl endure this? His heart tightened as he gently caressed her small body trembling with sobs. "If you don't mind me, lie down beside me and sleep for a while..."
Chu Chu still shook her head, holding Xiao Jin Yu even tighter.
Xiao Jin Yu sighed softly. "Then lie here with me... hold me, alright..."
Only then did Chu Chu nod, wiping her tears as she climbed onto the bed. Without removing her clothes, she slipped under Xiao Jin Yu's blanket, pressing against his chest and tightly wrapping her arms around his waist. Her small face pressed closely to his chest, listening to his steady heartbeat as she continued to sob intermittently. Suddenly, through her tears, she said, "Wang Ye, throw away that Amulet..."
Xiao Jin Yu was taken aback. "Why...?"
"Just throw it away... It's completely useless!"
Xiao Jin Yu smiled wryly. Of course he knew the thing was useless, but she had knelt and chanted scriptures for an hour to obtain it. "How do you know...? If not for your Talisman, perhaps I would have died..."
"Don't say that! You won't die!"
"Mm..."
"You'll live a thousand years! Ten thousand years!"
"Mm..."
"No matter who dies, you won't die..."
"Mm..."
"You have to live longer than the immortals..."
"Mm..."
Chu Chu mumbled something else, but Xiao Jin Yu couldn't make it out. Looking down, he realized she had already fallen asleep, her small face still wet with tears, still holding him tightly.
Xiao Jin Yu sighed softly. How could he have frightened this little girl—who dared to hold a dead person's head—so badly...?
Just as he pulled the blanket over her, he heard two deliberately exaggerated dry coughs in the room.
"A thousand-year turtle, ten-thousand-year tortoise—Wang Ye, you're practically a divine creature now."
There was no need to look to know who it was. Xiao Jin Yu shot an unamused glare. "Keep your voice down..."
Jing Yi flipped down from the roof beam, crossed his arms, and walked smiling to the bedside, glancing at the small head resting against Xiao Jin Yu's chest. "Don't worry, she hasn't slept for three days watching over you. Even if the sky fell, it wouldn't wake her."Xiao Jinyu gently embraced the soft little figure, gazing at the exhausted face with tender concern in his eyes. He furrowed his brow tightly. "Why didn’t you persuade her…"
"Whatever I say, she listens—except for this. These past few days, she’s been the one tending to you from head to toe. Anyone who tries to get close to you, she’d fight them tooth and nail. She’s utterly unreasonable!"
That does sound like something she would do…
Xiao Jinyu softened his voice. "When did you arrive?"
Jing Yi dragged a stool over and sat by the bed, twisting his waist and rubbing his sore elbows from crouching on the beam. "Your guard took nearly ten hours to reach the capital. Then I had to wrangle with Ye Qianqiu at the Royal Mansion for ages. That old man still refuses to leave Prince An Manor unless he’s dead. No matter how much I pleaded, he just tore two pages from his journal, shoved them at me, and then kicked me out… If they’d delayed me another hour or two, this year’s Dali Temple case files would’ve truly been burned as offerings to you."
Xiao Jinyu nodded. When Ye Qianqiu first saved him years ago, he had set one condition: to reside in Prince An Manor and never leave unless he was dead. Xiao Jinyu had agreed to it personally.
"I arrived the next afternoon. I told the people here I came to discuss some confidential matters from the capital with you and wouldn’t be seeing anyone for a few days. Only the governor of Shengzhou showed up once, asking for instructions on how to deal with that waiter who beat you up. He knelt, cried, and made a scene before leaving. No one else has entered this courtyard."
Xiao Jinyu frowned slightly. "You arrived the next day… How could I have been unconscious for three days?"
Jing Yi rubbed his famously handsome face that made every man in the capital want to punch him. "Wang Ye, I know I have a face that makes all men want to teach me a lesson, but you can’t blame me for you oversleeping… If you want to blame anyone, blame the one who laid a funeral garment under your sheets. That person genuinely wanted you dead. The funeral garment was likely stripped from a decaying corpse, soaked through with corpse fluids…" Jing Yi glanced at the bed. "Or blame your Imperial Concubine. She’s fearless when handling corpses, but when it comes to the living, she turns timid."
As if hearing something, Chu Chu nuzzled her face against Xiao Jinyu’s chest, mumbling drowsily with a slight pout. Xiao Jinyu patted her back gently, and she soon fell back into deep, even breathing.
Jing Yi raised an eyebrow. To climb onto Xiao Jinyu’s bed, burrow under his covers, nestle in his embrace, and be lulled to sleep by him—previously, only a cat Xiao Jinyu had raised years ago had enjoyed such treatment.
With Xiao Jinyu’s level of cultivation in such matters, he couldn’t hide this from Jing Yi.
Only after Chu Chu had settled back into peaceful sleep did Xiao Jinyu knit his brows and ask gravely, "Was it her acupuncture?"
Jing Yi wore an expression halfway between a laugh and a cry, pointing at the tip of his own nose. "If not her, then who? Me? If I had that skill, would I have gone all the way to Old Man Ye just to get kicked out?"
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