Chapter 43

After walking for an unknown amount of time, the clouds in the sky grew thicker and thicker, and the towering trees completely blocked out the sparse sunlight, making the light even darker. There was even a muffled rumble of thunder coming from the horizon.

It's really going to rain.

Lin Langyi brought nothing with her and quickly traversed the woods, trying to get back to Laoshan Temple before the rain started.

But fate had other plans; within five or six minutes, a torrential downpour began.

She clicked her tongue, turned around, and retreated to the nearest huge ancient banyan tree, intending to wait until the heaviest part of the rain before leaving.

Yuan Chuyu stopped five or six meters away, and their eyes met unexpectedly in mid-air.

He knew she was still angry. His eyelashes fluttered, and he stopped aggrievedly outside the tree canopy, with no intention of going under the tree to take shelter from the rain.

The rain was so heavy that it would soon soak people to the bone.

His dark gray shirt, soaked by the rain, turned an even deeper shade, clinging to his body and subtly revealing the outline of his firm and superior physique beneath.

His hair was also wet, hanging softly down and clinging to his forehead. He looked somewhat docile and disheveled, almost completely lacking the nitpicking demeanor he usually displayed as an elite.

The rainwater flowed quickly down his brow bone from his flattened hair, some of it disappearing into his collar, which he had just buttoned up as if to hide his embarrassment, and it was unclear whether it would flow over the messy marks. Most of it gathered at his chin and dripped precariously onto the soil, only to disappear again quickly.

I've never seen him look so disheveled.

Lin Langyi frowned. Although their relationship was currently as fragile as a thin sheet of paper, it didn't matter whether she poked it or not. If he was willing to turn back, she could continue to pretend nothing had happened.

It's just that she slept with the wrong person.

"What are you standing there for? Come in." She took a step to the side and bluntly ordered him to come over.

He looked up and gazed at her, raindrops clinging to his eyelashes, falling softly with a blink, like lotus flowers glistening with morning dew on a high mountain.

He hadn't moved until he received permission, then he silently went under the canopy and stood beside her.

This banyan tree is lush and leafy, but it's not an impenetrable fortress. Rainwater still seeps through the gaps in the leaves, but it's still better than having no shelter at all.

Lin Langyi was unwilling to give up so easily and still made a last-ditch effort to gloss over what had happened before, continuing to persuade: "If there's still thunder, we'll both be struck dead under the tree. This shows that even the heavens can't stand seeing incompatible people together."

Yuan Chuyu turned his head slightly and saw that her cheeks were covered with wet hair. He wanted to reach out and tuck it behind her ear, but his hand fell into her wary eyes as soon as he raised it.

He paused, then silently lowered his hand that had been hovering in the air, and said softly, "No, it won't happen."

He paused briefly, then added, "That's called sharing the same bed in life and the same lungs in death."

This guy is completely unreasonable!

Lin Langyi wiped her face, smoothed her hair back, and held his handkerchief in her hand. After a slight hesitation, she pretended not to know anything and used it to twist her hair.

His gaze swept over her again, focusing intently on her profile.

The two were about half a step apart, and the heat emanating from Lin Langyi's side made his presence undeniable.

She was starting to regret it, wondering how far it was from Laoshan Temple. Damn it, why did she have to find herself sheltering from the rain under a tree with her one-night stand?

Thunder rumbled, and she gradually got soaked, her clothes sticking to her body uncomfortably.

A figure suddenly flashed before her eyes. Yuan Chuyu walked around to her side, opened one hand to shield her head, and asked in a low voice, "Can I lean on you and keep you out of the rain?"

He quickly gestured for her to lean closer to him, while he placed his hands on either side of her and bent over her.

Lin Langyi resolutely refused: "No—"

“Here,” he glanced at her quickly, then turned his face away, leaving only a reddened ear facing her, and said sincerely, “I’m sorry, it’s my fault.”

Lin Langyi lowered her head to examine herself, puzzled. Her light beige ultra-thin sun-protective clothing, after being soaked in water, was completely transparent to her skin, like a sheet of paper. She immediately noticed the large, shimmering marks on her sternum, left by someone's kisses, like flowers spreading across her body.

I'll kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!

She clutched the fabric to keep it from touching her skin, turning her face to the side. Fragments of memories flashed through her mind. She vaguely remembered strong arms wrapping around her waist and lifting her up slightly, while he buried his face completely in hers, his breath hot.

She felt her face burning up.

He silently moved closer to her, and the two seemed to be playing a riddle, yet they were remarkably in sync. One of them leaned against the banyan tree, bending slightly to hide her body in the space created by his shoulders and back, while the other bent his arm and pressed it over her head, then buried his head in his arm, completely hiding her underneath.

During the humid rainy season, the scent was more invasive than expected; her nostrils were filled with the ylang-ylang fragrance of the person in front of her, densely enveloping her.

His clothes, soaked with rainwater, slid down as he bent over, occasionally clinging to her like another layer of skin, cool and refreshing.

She held back for a while, but couldn't resist any longer. She roughly pulled the hem of his shirt out of his pants and lifted it up, revealing the bluish-purple veins on his abs that bulged against his fair skin like the exposed roots of a banyan tree, making him look especially sexy.

There were also scratch marks from fingernails on it. He had mentioned that he had dermatographia, so each of those tiny, red scratch marks was slightly raised, as if someone had drawn and left marks on his waist and abdomen with a red pen, making it exceptionally beautiful.

He seemed to glance at her, but didn't move. He lowered his head even further and closer to her, lowering his eyes to follow her gaze to his abdomen.

She clearly saw him slightly curve the corners of his lips, seemingly very moved by the marks left on his body.

Lin Langyi forced himself to remain calm and wrung out the rainwater from the clothes with both hands, like wringing out a towel. He shook them, but didn't smooth out the wrinkles. He just haphazardly pressed a few corners down and stuffed them into his waistband.

"It's all wet and sticky, and it's uncomfortable against my skin."

"Mmm," he responded softly, his nose hovering just short of touching her hair.

The rain showed no sign of stopping, and he kept covering her. Lin Langyi herself was fine, but his back was completely soaked.

The excess rainwater inevitably spread in front of him, and he would always glance at her with restraint, without saying a word, quietly maintaining his prone position to shield himself from the rain.

Lin Langyi couldn't stand his lingering gaze, so she twisted his clothes several times with a stern face.

In the end, she probably got used to it after a couple of tries and had no more worries. In order to make sure the clothes were completely wrung out and kept for a longer time, she even unbuttoned his clothes one by one, opened the front of the garment, and twisted each side several times to make sure it was as dry as possible.

He hadn't been able to see her figure clearly last night, but now he had it all. He remained silent as she moved, his gaze following her like a snake coiled around her arm, never blinking.

Her clothes were crumpled and rumpled from being twisted in front of him, and she had to button them back up one by one to cover up his good figure. When she got to the second button, he suddenly reminded her in a deep voice, "Someone is coming."

These words were like a thunderclap out of nowhere. Lin Langyi's hand trembled, and the buttons he was about to fasten slipped off, leaving his clothes open again.

He straightened up and naturally pulled her into his arms, glancing into the distance: "She seems to be one of our own."

Lin Langyi's eyelids twitched wildly. Looking down, she saw the satiated marks that even her semi-transparent sun-protective clothing couldn't hide. Looking up, she saw Yuan Chuyu's disheveled and wrinkled appearance. She felt that it wouldn't be bad if a bolt of lightning struck down from the sky right now.

"One of our own?" How is that any different from a horror story?

Yuan Chuyu didn't need to look any further; she could hear Miss Zhuang's voice, which was breaking off and continuing to curse, "Can't you check the weather before organizing this event?"

My shoes!

Lin Xiangshuo also asked, "Where is my sister?"

"Did she come to the shade of the tree just now?" He and Zhuang Lan also temporarily stopped under the lush banyan tree. He wiped the rain off his face and took out his phone worriedly. "No, I have to call my sister, in case she is still on the mountain."

"I sent her a WeChat message, but she didn't reply." Zhuang Lan's shoes were completely soaked, and she kept stomping her feet in discomfort. "She probably went back first and didn't check her phone on the way."

Behind the enormous banyan tree, Lin Langyi leaned tightly against the trunk, clutching the loose hem of the clothes of the person in front of her, holding her breath and quietly hiding behind the tree.

Yuan Chuyu wrapped one arm around her, resting his chin on her head, the two pressed tightly together to prevent taking up too much space and being accidentally seen by others if they separated.

Lin Langyi was startled by Ke Lin Xiangshuo's words about making a phone call. She hurriedly took out her phone from her pocket, but her hands were slippery, and she accidentally dropped the phone as soon as it came out of her pocket.

The scream that was stuck in her throat was about to burst out when, in the next second, another slender arm suddenly darted in and caught the phone with perfect precision.

His hands were completely soaked, rainwater was streaming down his arms, and a few water droplets were flicked from his fingertips as he swung his hand to catch the phone.

A few drops splashed onto the back of her hand; they were icy cold.

He flipped the phone over in his hand, pressed and held the power button with his thumb, and turned it off before the three large characters "Lin Xiangshuo" appeared on the screen.

Lin Langyi's heart was pounding. He waved his black-screened phone in front of her and silently patted her back with the hand that was holding her to comfort her.

Lin Xiangshuo, who was standing a tree behind him, lowered his arm and asked in confusion, "It's off."

Zhuang Lan: "They're probably on their way back too, probably worried about their phones getting wet."

Lin Langyi dared not utter a sound, while the hand holding the phone slowly slipped into her shirt pocket and put it back. After putting it away, he didn't intend to pull it back, but rather naturally placed it on her side and quietly hugged her.

A warm, tingling sensation spreads like ripples, reaching the lower back and bringing a hidden yet dangerous stimulation.

Lin Langyi recalled that night in Shajiang Community, when she was pushing her motorcycle, and at that time, this hand was also nestled against her waist, as if it had been planned in advance.

She looked up at him in the rain.

He seemed to sense something, his jaw tightened slightly, and he lowered his eyelids to meet her gaze.

There were intermittent voices behind them; they had not escaped their predicament at all.

She frowned as she looked at him, hoping he could understand that times had changed and that once they left this banyan tree, they were no longer on the same path.

Fine raindrops seeped through the gaps in the leaves like a beaded curtain, sliding down his and her faces, leaving wet streaks, some long, some short, fine and varied. A light sniff revealed the scent of tender green grass.

Water droplets clung to his eyelashes, and she watched as those glistening droplets gradually merged and grew larger, finally falling with a "plop" to the corner of her eye and quickly trickling down her temple.

She slowly shook her head again, silently telling him her position.

His arms around her waist didn't loosen even slightly; he held her steadily and calmly, as if it were a matter of course, or as if he were resolutely telling her his position:

Even if he were discovered by someone on the other side of the tree, even if others could see through the look in his eyes—

No--

A raindrop suddenly fell onto Lin Langyi's eyelid, causing her pupils to shrink and her eyes to snap shut, but the rain still managed to get into her eyes.

Her eyes stung, and she tried to force out the rain mixed with her natural tears.

Someone gently stroked her eyelids, wiping away the raindrops with their fingertips, repeating this several times patiently until she could barely open her eyes.

But the hand didn't leave; instead, it gently opened and covered her eyes, completely blocking out her light.

Her breath hitched slightly, and her eyelashes trembled a few times. Memories and reality overlapped and intertwined, making her instantly understand his meaning.

He blindfolded her again... exactly the same...

In the distance, the deep, resonant sound of ancient temple bells echoed through the mountains and forests, as if the earth beneath one's feet was trembling in unison. Ancient trees reached for the sky, the sun and moon shone brightly, and the spirit of integrity, shame, purity of heart, and purification of karma was awakened.

Bodhi arises, one leaves hell, escapes the fire pit, and saves all sentient beings.

He covered her eyes, lowered his head, and kissed her tenderly amidst the continuous chanting of Buddhist hymns.