“Time to eat.”
Jiang Huai reached out and knocked on Luo Yueguan’s door, receiving no response.
“Eat,” he repeated.
Still, there was no response from inside. Luo Yueguan seemed to be asleep, but as soon as Jiang huai said, “I’m coming in,” a response came from the room.
“I’m not eating,” her voice was small.
“No, you must eat.” Jiang Huai pushed open the room door and entered. At this moment, Luo Yueguan was curled up on the bed, tightly wrapped in the quilt, not even revealing her head. It seemed she was ashamed to the extreme and was trying to escape the whole world.
“We’ve already talked things through, what are you afraid of now?” Jiang Huai sat by the bedside, trying to pull at Luo Yueguan’s quilt, but she held onto it tightly. “I won’t eat, you guys eat.”
“No, you must eat.”
“You just want to see me make a fool of myself!”
“Yes,” Jiang Huai replied with utmost honesty.
Luo Yueguan lifted the quilt. Her hair was messy, and her snow-white cheeks were flushed. Her eyes were filled with both grievance and shyness. “Can’t you guys just eat?”
“No,” Jiang Huai shook his head. “I feel a bit embarrassed when I see Qingyu now, so I need someone to share it with me.”
Luo Yueguan looked at him, then lifted the quilt. The next second, her white and tender little legs kicked towards him. Fortunately, Jiang Huai had anticipated this, grabbed her ankle, and lifted her leg high. Because he lifted it so high, her skirt hem fell down again.
“I made stir-fried beef, chili pickled taro, Sichuan pepper jumping fish, and explosively spicy hand-torn chicken. Are you sure you don’t want to eat?”
Luo Yueguan turned her face away. After a few seconds, she mumbled softly, “I’ll eat.”
***
This lunch was more harmonious than Jiang Huai had imagined.
Luo Yueguan directly activated her mask mode, appearing calm and lazy, looking elegant and composed. Luo Qingyu did not deliberately expose her shortcomings, but sat obediently opposite Jiang Huai, eating. It was a harmonious and friendly scene of motherly love and filial piety, until…
Jiang Huai suddenly felt something was wrong under the table.
He didn’t need to look down to know that it was Luo Qingyu’s white and tender little feet under the table, rubbing against his calf, and it seemed to be climbing upwards. Jiang Huai quietly glared at Luo Qingyu, but she maintained her innocent eating posture as if those white and tender little feet weren’t hers.
What was this? Was it his turn for the shame challenge?
Qingyu’s little feet had become incredibly agile through countless practices. They were like cunning silver fish now. Jiang Huai tried to press his legs together several times to catch them, but as she had anticipated, they slipped away. They were silently battling under the table, while Luo Yueguan, feeling guilty, kept her head down eating, completely unaware of any of this.
It ended with Jiang Huai successfully subduing Luo Qingyu’s white and tender little feet, holding her legs tightly. Luo Qingyu’s cheeks puffed out slightly, and she reluctantly retracted her white and tender little feet.
***
Now Jiang Huai understood what “talking things through is good” meant.
For the past two days, Luo Yueguan had been as well-behaved as could be. There were no more so-called provocations towards him. Whether they were eating or basking in the sun in the courtyard, she was more proper than proper. She hadn’t even mentioned the massage and painting that Jiang Huai had promised her when he apologized last time. She was acting like a dependable mother-in-law.
Luo Yueguan was too dependable. Jiang Huai was even a little unfamiliar with her.
It was then that he suddenly realized something interesting. Luo Yueguan could be shameless in front of him, but it seemed she couldn’t in front of Luo Qingyu. Perhaps Luo Qingyu’s words that day had been too harsh, directly turning Luo Yueguan into a shrinking turtle. She would probably be well-behaved for a while.
Until…
On the fifth day at Qingxuan Sect, early in the morning, Luo Qingyu leaned in and kissed Jiang Huai’s cheek, saying gently, “Qingyu will go to Bixue Hantan to cultivate for a day. She is about to reach the perfection of the sixth level of Nascent Soul. She will be back at Xushi.”
Bixue Hantan was within Qingxuan Sect. Jiang Huai escorted her there and then returned to the courtyard. In the courtyard, Luo Yueguan was wearing a purple dress that barely exposed any skin, concealing her body completely. Yet, she looked exceptionally beautiful. Seeing Jiang Huai return, Luo Yueguan looked at him suspiciously. “How long did Qingyu say she would cultivate?”
“She’ll be back at Xushi,” Jiang Huai said helplessly, giving her a look. Luo Yueguan immediately let out a sigh of relief. The previous laziness and calmness vanished instantly. She tilted her head back, her eyes becoming incredibly bright, and her snow-white legs swayed slightly. “Give me a massage, humph, come quickly, you promised me.”
“You’ve changed so much as soon as Qingyu leaves,” Jiang Huai said with a mournful look.
“What else can I do? Should I, as a mother, not care about my reputation?”
“As if you cared about it before.” Jiang Huai walked to Luo Yueguan’s side, placed his hand on her shoulder, and began to gently massage her. Luo Yueguan squinted her eyes, and her body instantly became incredibly relaxed. After massaging her shoulders, Jiang Huai’s hands moved to her arms. Luo Yueguan tilted her head up, looking at him, “Massage my chest too?”
Jiang Huai knew she was deliberately trying to provoke him again, because she knew he would refuse.
He lowered his head and looked at Luo Yueguan. “You’ve become so radiant the moment Qingyu left.”
“I’ve been repressed,” Luo Yueguan’s eyes became playful and charming again. “Massage me… I’ve been feeling a bit stuffy in my chest lately.”
“Alright,” Jiang Huai nodded at her with a smile, and Luo Yueguan also smiled, looking fearless. She even puffed out her chest slightly, looking into his eyes. “Massage me.”
In the end, Jiang Huai’s hand did not land on her. Luo Yueguan snorted lightly, her legs swaying gently, and she muttered, “I know you don’t dare, you coward. Heh, coward.”
Jiang Huai couldn’t refute her. He could only forcefully press down when massaging her thighs, causing her to instinctively press her legs together tightly, trapping Jiang Huai’s hand. She looked at him with a grumbling expression. “Massaging like this… is strange.”
“It’s a normal technique,” Jiang Huai said with an innocent look. “There will be a foot massage session later.”
“Uh-huh? You want to massage my feet but not my chest?” Luo Yueguan’s fingertips lightly grasped her collar, pulling it down slightly, revealing a large area of fair skin in Jiang Huai’s sight.
“You’re asking for it.”
“What? Do you want to slap my buttocks like you bully Qingyu?” The moment she said this, Luo Yueguan herself suddenly felt a surge of electricity run through her body. Her legs pressed together slightly, and her toes curled up. She recalled the scene of peeping at Jiang Huai and Luo Qingyu that day…
Jiang Huai glared at her impatiently. “If you keep talking nonsense, I won’t massage you anymore.”
“What does talking nonsense to me have to do with it? You have to do what you promised me, humph.”
Jiang Huai moved a chair to the side, took her white and tender little feet into his hands. Luo Yueguan’s feet were delicate and tender, as crystal clear as ice cream. Jiang Huai’s fingertips merely brushed her soles, and her toes all curled up, delicate pink like crystal grapes, alluring.
“Every time you say these provocative things to me, you don’t genuinely want me to bully you as you say. You just want to see me suppress my rising desire and refuse, right?”
Jiang Huai felt he had seen through Luo Yueguan’s thoughts.
Exposed, Luo Yueguan was not afraid at all. She tilted her small face up, smiling more and more happily. “Yes, yes.”
“Is it fun?”
“Fun.”
“I haven’t provoked you in any way, have I?”
“Yes.”
“Tell me what it is,” Jiang Huai questioned with dissatisfaction, but his hands obediently massaged her little feet. Luo Yueguan looked down at him. “Because no matter how I provoked you before, you didn’t like me.”
“And that counts as provoking me?”
“Yes, that’s a humiliation to me.”
“Haha,” Jiang Huai chuckled with a fake smile, and pressed hard on her sole. Instantly, Luo Yueguan’s waist arched like a jade bridge, her snow-white cheeks flushed slightly, and her eyes looked at Jiang Huai with resentment. After a moment, she looked at him more charmingly. “Do it again.”
“What do I need to do for you to be obedient?” Jiang Huai felt an inexplicable annoyance in his heart.
He was bantering with Luo Yueguan now, but he felt that after so many times, he would start to get agitated again. It was the same last time. His mood was fine, but Luo Yueguan made him increasingly agitated. A cruel fact, a depressed person would always unconsciously infect their friends around them.
“You want me to be obedient, but I refuse.” Luo Yueguan snorted. “If you have no desire for me, then no matter how I provoke you, you won’t have the slightest bit of trouble. Humph, it’s your own impure heart.”
In this world, there are few ways to defeat a lunatic. If there are any, it must be that you are crazier than her.
Jiang Huai felt his reason being worn away by Luo Yueguan, and his anger rising within him. But this seemed to be the result Luo Yueguan wanted. No, to be precise, she wasn’t expecting any particular outcome; she was simply having fun and filling the emptiness in her heart.
“Must you treat people who are good to you like this?”
“Stop being so self-righteous. What do you think is being good to me? Do you think I don’t understand the principles you talk about? But even if I understand, so what? Even if I tell myself a thousand times, ten thousand times, I still can’t do anything right.”
“So… you’d rather have someone who would go crazy with you?”
Jiang Huai looked up into Luo Yueguan’s eyes. “How about we play a game?”
“What game?” Luo Yueguan tilted her head.
“First, you seal all your spiritual energy. You can only unseal it yourself after at least three hours.”
“Humph, you want to…”
“You’re scared,” Jiang Huai stared directly into her eyes.
Such a simple, inferior taunt, yet Luo Yueguan fell for it. In an instant, various Daoist magic imprints appeared on her body. Her spiritual energy was sealed by herself, and she could only unseal it three hours later.
Jiang Huai reached out and pinched her chin, tilting her face up slightly.
“Do you know?” he suddenly asked.
“What?”
“People have two sides. The more proper a person appears on the surface, the more their dark and despicable desires are hidden. But when they can show their dark side without restraint… they will have much, much more than ordinary people.”
“So what do you want to do now? Hmm? Tie me up and tickle me? Ugh, do you think I’ll be scared?”
But after Luo Yueguan said this, she suddenly realized that Jiang Huai’s eyes were dark and gloomy.
“My resentment has been building up for a very, very long time, Luo Yueguan.”
