Chapter 168: He Might Truly Want to Tear Her Apart...
Xiao Li slept deeply this time, likely due to sheer exhaustion, as he didn't even dream.
Upon waking, he gazed at the unfamiliar bed curtains bathed in dim candlelight, his nostrils still faintly filled with a scent that was both familiar and strange.
His mind remained muddled for a moment before he turned his head to look beside him.
Wen Yu was leaning against the soft pillow and bedpost, her head tilted outward as she slept.
From his angle, he could only see the slender curve of her snow-white neck and half of her jade-like cheek.
Her eyelashes rested gently on her eyelids, the ends slightly upturned like tiny black butterflies perched beneath her eyes.
The slender silver tassel earrings, due to her tilted posture, draped against her neck, while a few strands of ink-black hair fell loosely behind her ear, clinging tenderly to her warm, porcelain-like skin.
Xiao Li suddenly held his breath, afraid that all of this was just a dream.
He stared fixedly at Wen Yu for a long time. When he tried to prop himself up on his elbow to rise, he realized he was still clutching something in his hand.
This slight movement roused the lightly sleeping Wen Yu.
Her eyes still clouded with drowsiness, she instinctively reached out and placed her hand on his forehead. Finding that his fever had subsided, she murmured, "The fever has broken..."
As her thoughts cleared, she realized she had fallen asleep leaning against the bedpost after being exhausted from watching over him, and immediately felt it was improper.
Just as she tried to get up, her right arm and most of her shoulder suddenly tingled with a sharp, electric numbness, and her feet, half on the edge of the bed and half on the footstool, also went numb.
Wen Yu let out a muffled groan, furrowing her brows, and for a moment, she dared not move.
The quilt had slipped slightly due to Xiao Li's earlier movement to sit up. He glanced down and saw that his left arm, clad only in an undergarment, was pressing down on Wen Yu's entire forearm, his fingers tightly gripping hers.
The hourglass on the table showed it was past midnight.
Her right arm had been pinned like this for over three hours—it must have gone completely numb.
Realizing this, he quickly released his grip on Wen Yu's hand and saw that the back of her hand was marked with a circle of finger imprints, as if branded.
"Sorry," he said, sitting up fully. The collar of his robe, which had been loosened earlier when Wen Yu wiped his neck with a cloth while tending to his fever, gaped open slightly, revealing a glimpse of his sturdy physique and the shallow scar left by Zhao Bai's sword.
Seeing Wen Yu's pained expression from the stiffness and numbness, his long, scarred fingers began to massage the acupoints at her elbow and wrist through her clothing, applying just the right amount of pressure.
His already loose collar gaped even wider from the movement, and his unbound hair fell forward slightly. With the weariness gone from his face, his brows slightly lowered, and his lips habitually pressed together, he still looked fierce, yet undeniably handsome.
Perhaps because they were on a bed and the distance between them was not far, even though neither had crossed any boundaries, under the veil of the gauzy curtains, their breaths were clearly audible to each other. With his fingertips still massaging the acupoints on her arm, an indescribable intimacy lingered in the air.
Wen Yu tried to change the subject, not daring to keep staring at Xiao Li's face. Her gaze, too, shouldn't linger lower, so it settled on the fresh, unhealed wound at the side of his neck. She asked, "What happened to the wound on your neck?"
She had noticed it earlier when she was wiping him down.
It didn't look like an ordinary cut.
The cut was deeper in the middle and shallower on the sides—clearly made by a sharp blade.But given his skills and current status, someone who could hold a sharp object to his neck yet clearly had no real intention to harm him—Wen Yu couldn't figure out who it might be.
Xiao Li seemed to recall something and fell silent. He continued massaging her leg for a while before speaking: "May I interpret this as Your Highness showing concern for me?"
Wen Yu averted her gaze. "Just asking casually."
The electric numbness in her leg had faded. She tried to withdraw her hand and rise. "It's fine now."
But Xiao Li pressed down on the silk shawl draped over her arm.
Feeling the tug from behind, Wen Yu frowned slightly and turned to look at him.
The dim candlelight filtered through the sheer bed curtains, casting shadows across Xiao Li's face that accentuated his handsome, sharp features. The fierceness in his brow seemed softened by the darkness, replaced by a restrained aggression.
His grip on her shawl showed no sign of loosening.
Pressing his lips together, he asked: "When you said you liked me before—was it true?"
Wen Yu hadn't expected this question. Her eyes, reflecting the candlelight, appeared unusually pale. "If you believe it's true, then it is. If you believe it's false, then it is false."
Xiao Li raised his eyes to meet hers, his gaze dark and sharp. "What if I took it seriously?"
This time it was Wen Yu's turn to fall silent after a slight pause.
After a moment, she said: "What happened in the past is over for me. Telling you the truth is my way of acknowledging that I shouldn't have trampled on your feelings back then."
Xiao Li's grip on her shawl tightened, wrinkling the silk. The intensity around him grew sharper as a thin smile touched his lips. "What do you mean?"
He stared fixedly at Wen Yu: "Because you feel guilty about what you did? So you casually offer an apology and think everything can be brushed aside?"
Wen Yu's voice remained calm: "I've said that within my capabilities, you may demand any compensation."
The arm Xiao Li braced against the bed began to show protruding veins. Through his open collar, the tension in his muscles was visibly coiling. As if unable to bear it any longer, he demanded coldly: "Weren't you supposed to like me? Then keep liking me."
Wen Yu merely frowned slightly while watching him. "Are you sure?"
Xiao Li's eyes burned crimson as he stared at her, his breathing heavy with suppressed emotion. "Isn't this about compensation? I liked you so much back then—repay me."
Wen Yu studied him for a moment before leaning down. Her pale, slender fingers cupped his jaw as her soft, cool lips met his.
Xiao Li's entire body stiffened like iron. The veins on both hands at his sides bulged prominently, even the tendons in his neck standing out. When Wen Yu's scattered kisses continued across his cheek, he abruptly pulled her hand away, growling viciously: "This isn't what I want!"
His body had grown feverish, his exhales scalding. Not daring to touch her further, his grip on her forearm through the fabric became uncontrollably rough.
He panted: "Dare you give me your heart? I want your heart."
Wen Yu simply gazed back calmly, the corners of her eyes slightly lifted. For someone so aloof, she exuded an indescribable aura in that moment.
Her coldness no longer felt like pushing others away, but more like an enigmatic mist—making it clear she couldn't be restrained, yet indulging this outsider's pursuit.Her tone remained cool and clear, tinged with confusion as she asked, "With a blade? That won't do."
Xiao Li could feel all the blood in his body rushing violently through his veins, pounding against his chest with a dull ache while his entire being seemed about to combust.
How could she be like this?
Had she treated King Chen and Jiang Yu this way before too?
The last shreds of reason in his mind were slowly incinerated in this secret yet all-consuming blaze of jealousy.
By the time he realized what he was doing, he had already dragged her into his embrace, clasping the back of her head as he pressed his lips to hers in a punishing, venting kiss.
The kiss was ferocious, no less savage than a starving wolf devouring its prey.
It was as if he were urgently trying to erase some mark left on her by another man.
Wen Yu gradually found it unbearable. Her lips and teeth had been thoroughly ravaged, yet he continued probing deeper—this was a true invasion.
Only then did Wen Yu realize that his previous two kisses had actually been remarkably restrained.
She soon struggled to breathe, saliva she couldn't swallow spilling from the corner of her lips. Her hands pushed forcefully against his shoulders, but he captured them and pressed her down toward the bed.
Wen Yu thrashed until her hair was disheveled, a faint blush rising on her porcelain-like face, yet she still couldn't escape his restraint.
She vaguely sensed she might have made another mistake.
Everything that followed was chaotic. Due to lack of oxygen, Wen Yu's consciousness grew hazy.
When Xiao Li finally released her, allowing her to gasp for air, the skin around her lips was already reddened.
One of the golden hairpins had fallen from her dark hair, while the others hung loosely.
Xiao Li soon descended upon her again. He didn't touch her clothing but seized one of her hands, guiding it through his own loose collar and down along the sharply defined contours of his chest, over the firm musculature of his waist and abdomen.
Wen Yu's body was already feverish, but the muscles beneath her palm were startlingly hot. She curled her fingers, trying to withdraw her hand, but Xiao Li forcefully held it in place.
He loved kissing her—always kissing her until she was breathless, then mercifully allowing her a moment to recover before pressing down on her again.
Wen Yu felt she might die tonight from his relentless, suffocating kisses.
Her collar had been rubbed open. He finally released her swollen lips, trailing light kisses along her cheek to her temple, then to the shell of her ear. When he bit her earlobe along with its tasseled earring, Wen Yu's eyes reddened.
She felt he truly wanted to devour her whole.
She couldn't break free, nor could she escape.
Xiao Li saw the glistening moisture welling in Wen Yu's faintly flushed eyes.
Not an ounce of pity rose in his heart; instead, something more violent stirred restlessly in his blood.
Why couldn't he just swallow her whole?
If he swallowed her, she would be his alone.
An unprecedented sensation surged within him. He was like parched, cracked earth—though thoroughly drenched by this sweet downpour, it still wasn't enough.
Was there some vast ocean, some colossal wave, that could submerge him all at once and drown him?
Every part of her seemed fatally alluring to him. Releasing the pitifully bitten earlobe, he continued kissing downward, unable to restrain himself from sucking and biting red marks into her slender, snow-white neck and delicate shoulders.
Mine.
He stared at those marks, thinking exactly that.Wen Yu’s hand, which had pushed against his jaw in unbearable resistance, was pressed down by him as he sucked and nibbled delicately on her slender, pale fingers. The fading red marks left by his earlier grip were now branded back in a different way.
As he bit her, Wen Yu gasped, her body tingling with a numbing pain as if electrified.
Her faintly red eyes glistened with unshed tears, and only one thought crossed her mind:
He truly seemed intent on tearing her apart.
Author’s Note: Bowing deeply to the moderators—thank you for your hard work!
There are still 2,000 words of content, dear readers—please check the comments section! It’s not purely explicit; the focus is more on the emotional dynamics between the two characters. Reading it may help you better understand the emotional direction of the later plot~
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Updating the synopsis doesn’t mean the plot has changed—I just felt it unnecessary to reveal too much and wanted to keep it concise. Those two sentences are enough to summarize the general emotional journey of Badger and Fish~
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