“Still… let go.”
Xu Qing’s cheeks were already so hot they felt like they were about to steam. At this moment, her snow-white calf was still resting on Jiang Huai’s leg, and her tender white jade feet were held in Jiang Huai’s palm. Her voice was soft and timid, tinged with a hint of unconvincingness.
It was because she had been naughty first, stretching her legs out due to her intoxication and then placing them on his leg as if by accident. This was why her eyes were filled with guilt now.
Jiang Huai’s grip loosened.
As he let go, Xu Qing’s tender white calf quickly retracted. But after a moment, Xu Qing suddenly felt a sense of emptiness in her heart. When she looked into Jiang Huai’s eyes, she caught a hint of amusement in them.
Her cheeks puffed out slightly, and she stared at him without blinking for several seconds.
Jiang Huai’s face was growing thicker by the day. Even so, he just looked at her innocently. After a few more seconds of eye contact, Jiang Huai finally asked, “Have you read the books written by A Mumu?”
Xu Qing was about to agree, but then she suddenly remembered what A Mumu’s books were about. She shook her head and nodded, then shook her head again after a moment. But then she realized that Jiang Huai would likely see through her attempt to hide it, so she lowered her head and mumbled, “I have.”
“Hey, hey, why do you look like reading A Mumu’s books is something to be ashamed of?” Jiang Huai scratched his head.
“Because A Mumu… is not proper.”
“Heh, that’s true.” Jiang Huai frankly admitted this and then said innocently, “As long as Jiang Xiaohu is proper, that’s enough.”
Xu Qing was speechless for a moment. She slightly pouted her lips and refilled both of their wine cups.
This suited Jiang Huai perfectly. He always preferred to either get drunk or not drink at all, rather than the state of being slightly tipsy. After they drank another cup, Xu Qing said softly, “A Mumu is famous even in the Guanxue Sect.”
“Famous?”
“Yes, many Junior Sisters like her.”
“What about you?”
“For the first two books, I generally liked them… For the last one, I really liked it… I read the first two books after reading the last one, but the protagonists in the first two books were too wicked, always bullying women.”
Xu Qing was referring to the last book, a pure love story between a scholar and a fox demon. Although it was still suggestive, it was at least a pure love story between the two of them. Jiang Huai refilled her cup, “You have taste, I like the last one too.”
After another two cups of wine, Xu Qing propped her elbow on the table, her slender jade hand supporting her fragrant cheek. Her eyes looked at Jiang Huai, whose head was already swaying slightly, his eyes no longer as clear as before.
She looked at Jiang Huai very seriously, but it seemed she could still only see his face, unable to penetrate those eyes. What was he thinking at this moment? When his fingertips had touched her skin earlier, what had he been thinking in his heart? Did he think she was a frivolous woman? Or was he completely unfazed, merely thinking she was drunk and acting out?
But she dared to meet his gaze now. Xu Qing felt this was a great improvement, so she giggled.
“What are you laughing at?” Jiang Huai looked at her curiously.
“It’s nothing, nothing.” Xu Qing shook her head nervously. She suddenly said softly, “You know so many things.”
“Huh?” Jiang Huai looked at her, confused.
“You can play the zither, play chess, cook, write stories, and also write poetry…”
Jiang Huai wanted to argue that he couldn’t write poetry, but after thinking about it, he didn’t know how to explain. He couldn’t exactly say that the poems he recited in Ziyun Pavilion were from his dreams, could he? That would feel like deceiving a child, intentionally appearing humble.
“What else can you do?” Xu Qing blinked at him.
Jiang Huai was stunned for a moment, then thought and replied, “Alchemy, treating people, and I also know a little about talismans and formations, but not much.”
“Treating people? Oh, right… You can also treat people.”
“Why?”
“Lately, I’ve been tossing and turning at night and cannot sleep. Can you take a look?”
Jiang Huai nodded gently. Xu Qing then extended her snow-white wrist towards him. Jiang Huai placed his fingertips on it and began to sense her pulse. But her pulse was completely normal, so he could only look at Xu Qing innocently, “Perhaps it’s just a heartache.”
“How can a heartache be cured?”
“That can only be up to yourself. Heartache is not something a healer can do.” Jiang Huai said this, but then took out a box of incense and gently placed it on the table. “This incense has the effect of calming the mind. You can try placing it in your room at night.”
Xu Qing nodded gently.
She suddenly realized she didn’t know what to say. Perhaps it was the courage she borrowed from the alcohol. Under the table, her tender white calf was restlessly rubbing against Jiang Huai’s leg again. But every time Jiang Huai tried to grab it, her calf would quickly dodge away. After a few rounds like this, her ankle was caught in Jiang Huai’s palm.
As Jiang Huai’s fingertips gently pressed on her soft, snow-white sole, Xu Qing’s waist straightened instantly, and she leaned back. Her snow-white toes, like silver fish, began to writhe restlessly. He looked at Xu Qing’s face and innocently said, “You were rubbing against me without permission, and now you’ve been caught?”
“What do you want then…?” Xu Qing’s voice was flustered and uneasy, but she could hear her heart pounding.
“A punishment.” Jiang Huai’s fingertips began to press down again.
He had learned a special acupoint massage technique a long time ago, stimulating various acupoints on the body. He was intimately familiar with every acupoint on his tender white feet. Xu Qing instinctively wanted to escape due to the itching sensation, but remembering his earlier words of ‘a punishment,’ she forced herself to suppress her body’s reaction. This caused her slender waist to twist uncontrollably. Perhaps feeling too embarrassed to laugh, she covered her cheeks with her hands, but laughter still escaped between her fingers.
When Jiang Huai released his hand, she was already slumped over the table, too weak even to retract her leg. Her snow-white feet trembled with her shoulders. Jiang Huai bent down and leaned closer, gently poking her snow-white cheek.
Xu Qing’s eyes were hazy. Jiang Huai poked her once with no reaction, so he poked her again. The next second, Xu Qing bit his finger.
“You’re too much,” her cheeks puffed out, her voice trembling slightly, full of weakness.
“If you don’t struggle, I always want to see how far I have to go before you can’t take it and want to struggle.”
Xu Qing’s eyes widened. She gathered all her strength to extend her tender white leg under the table a little further and gently stepped on Jiang Huai’s lower abdomen. Then she looked at him with a grievance, “How can you be so excessive?”
“A drunk Jiang Xiaohu is when he’s at his most improper,” Jiang Huai shrugged his hands.
Xu Qing looked at him aggrievedly for a few seconds, but with Jiang Huai’s current shamelessness, he wouldn’t feel the slightest bit of guilt.
“Do you want to go for a walk?” Xu Qing tilted her head up again.
“Okay.” Jiang Huai nodded.
“Then wait for me for a moment.” Xu Qing stood up and walked towards the room. Then she added, “I’ll go change my clothes.”
“Okay.”
Jiang Huai stood in the courtyard and waited quietly. After a while, Xu Qing walked out of the room again. She was still wearing that gorgeous white and purple interwoven fishtail dress, still wearing those slender high heels. Jiang Huai looked her up and down, “What clothes did you change into?”
Xu Qing turned her face away guiltily, but replied, “I thought about it and decided not to change. I’ll just wear this.”
She walked to Jiang Huai’s side. Passing the table, Xu Qing grabbed the remaining half pot of wine on the table. She continued to walk with the wine pot in her arms. Jiang Huai leaned beside her, the distance between them not too far, not too close.
It was already dark. The firefly stones lit up beside the trees in the Qingmu Immortal Palace. Perhaps because she was drunk, with every few steps she took, her body would inadvertently bump into Jiang Huai. Jiang Huai simply took the opportunity to embrace her shoulder. It was smooth and tender. Xu Qing’s body trembled violently.
“You, you, you, you…”
“Hmm?”
“You, you, you like this, like this… Your Dao Companion will be angry if she knows!”
“You’re the one who keeps bumping into me for no reason,” Jiang Huai’s fingertips pinched her shoulder. “This way, you won’t be able to bump into me.”
Xu Qing didn’t break free from his hand, but her walking posture became slightly awkward. Her cheeks, which had just calmed down, flushed red again. After walking a few more steps, she stopped, picked up the wine pot, tilted her head back and took a big gulp of wine, her cheeks puffing out.
Then she handed the wine pot to Jiang Huai. Jiang Huai also took a big gulp. After returning the wine pot to Xu Qing, she accidentally bumped into Jiang Huai again, and then he embraced her waist.
“You, you, you, you…”
“Hmm?”
“How, how can you…”
“Can what?”
“How can you suddenly embrace my waist…”
“Then I’ll embrace your shoulder.” Jiang Huai’s hand rested on her shoulder again. This time, Xu Qing felt like it was okay again, but there was a hint of inexplicable disappointment in her heart. A moment later, she suddenly reached out and gently pinched Jiang Huai’s waist.
“Hmm?”
“You’re so bad.”
“…Am I?”
“Yes.” Xu Qing nodded heavily.
“Oh…” Jiang Huai’s palm lifted and gently pinched her ear again.
“Hey, hey, hey!”
Xu Qing’s steps became unsteady. She turned her head and looked at Jiang Huai with innocent and aggrieved eyes, “Why are you pinching my ear?”
“Because I’m very bad,” Jiang Huai replied righteously.
Xu Qing was immediately speechless, her eyes widening. She had probably never seen someone so shameless before.
But the more righteous Jiang Huai appeared, the more inexplicably guilty she felt. She turned her head, and they continued to walk. Her shoulder was gently held by Jiang Huai, so her body could only lean towards him. She started to push Jiang Huai as they walked, like a childish little girl. After they walked a bit further, Jiang Huai finally released his hand from her waist.
Xu Qing tilted her head up slightly, and they continued to walk forward. However, as they walked, Xu Qing accidentally bumped into Jiang Huai again. But this time, as if Jiang Huai had expected it, he grabbed her shoulder and turned her body. Xu Qing lost her balance and was directly pulled into his arms and gently embraced.
She raised her head in panic and unease. Jiang Huai’s face was right in front of her. Her anxious heart made her instinctively close her eyes, but then she reached out and gently embraced Jiang Huai.
But Jiang Huai just innocently held her waist gently, doing nothing, letting the evening breeze blow past them.
After a long while, the courage from the alcohol made Xu Qing ask that sentence, “You don’t plan to kiss me…”
“I suppose not.”
“Then why did you suddenly hug me?”
“You bumped into me first, so the hug is a repayment.”
Xu Qing’s arms had already wrapped around Jiang Huai’s back. Her slender waist was held straight, her soft body pressed against him. Her lips were not far from Jiang Huai’s neck, and the hot breath she exhaled fell on his neck. Her voice was timid, “Then can you…”
Jiang Huai waited for her to finish her sentence for several seconds, but Xu Qing didn’t say it. So he continued to ask, “Can what?”
“Hold me tighter.”
As soon as Xu Qing finished speaking, she seemed to see something and suddenly spoke in a panic, “Ah, Sect Master Luo…”
The smile at the corner of Jiang Huai’s mouth instantly disappeared.
He turned his head stiffly. Behind him stood Luo Yueguan in a purple dress, her eyes looking at him innocently and playfully. Seeing his flustered expression, the corner of her lips slowly curved upwards, as if she had discovered something incredibly amusing.
