Shu Bai withdrew her hand, turned her back to Li Yuheng, and pulled the blanket up: "Then let's continue reading, I'm going to sleep."
Li Yuheng looked at the back of the head that turned to him without hesitation, and choked on his breath.
He's reciting? What is he reciting?
What's the difference between reciting poetry to the back of someone's head and playing the lute to a cow?
I feel no sense of accomplishment at all!
He floated to the other side of the bed, his gaze unwavering as he stared at the pale face: "Hey!"
Shu Bai closed his eyes and breathed steadily.
"Really asleep?" Li Yuheng reached out, his fingertips lightly brushing against Shu Bai's closed eyelashes. "So fast?"
Shu Bai remained unresponsive, as if he had fallen into a deep sleep.
Li Yuheng squinted and stared at that peaceful and serene sleeping face for a few seconds.
Suddenly, he curled his lips into a wicked smile.
“Okay, you go to sleep.” He lowered his voice, as if talking to himself, but making sure Shu Bai could hear him, “I’ll just watch from here. Once you’re sound asleep, I’ll… hehehehe.”
He deliberately let out a few low, ambiguous laughs, full of suggestive meaning.
"Where should I start? These ears look quite soft..."
Li Yuheng's fingertips hovered above Shu Bai's earlobes, touching them almost imperceptibly.
"Still on the neck? The mark left today seems a bit faded, should I get it reapplied?"
He spoke slowly, his gaze sweeping over Shu Bai's face, not missing a single subtle change in expression.
Her sparse, white eyelashes trembled almost imperceptibly, and the frequency increased slightly.
Li Yuheng was pleased with himself and continued his harassment.
"How about I braid your hair? I'll use this red string..." He pulled out a thin red string from somewhere and held it up to his sparse, white hair that was scattered on the pillow. "I guarantee it will look good. I'll let Shu Huaijin and the others see it tomorrow."
His sparse, white eyebrows furrowed almost imperceptibly with a small knot.
Li Yuheng pressed on, his entire being looming over Shu Bai, and spoke in a sinister tone:
"Or, shall I tell you a ghost story? Like... that painting in the quiet room, which actually sheds blood tears in the middle of the night..."
Before he could finish speaking, Shu Bai suddenly opened his eyes.
"Li Yuheng, are you going to sleep or not?"
Li Yuheng immediately dropped his perverted harasser persona and put on a serious face: "Guardians don't need sleep. I'm fulfilling my duty to protect you and ensure your safety."
"To protect them by braiding their hair and telling ghost stories?"
"The methods can be flexible and varied. The main purpose is to keep you alert and prevent you from encountering unforeseen events while you are in a deep sleep."
Shu Bai rolled her eyes, closed them, took a deep breath, and rolled over to cover her head with the blanket.
Li Yuheng immediately rushed over and shook her: "Wife! What's wrong, wife! Wife, don't die!"
The ball remained completely still.
"Where's your heartbeat? Let me hear your heartbeat!" He reached out to check his pulse, but Shu Bai slapped his hand away.
"No pulse! It's all over, all over, gone at such a young age—"
Shu Bai sat up abruptly: "If I really die, it'll be because you bothered me to death."
Li Yuheng clutched his heart and collapsed to the ground: "You actually yelled at me! It turns out you don't cherish what you've got..."
"...Li Yuheng, where did your guardian angel aura go? Where did that profound air of 'ran' you had when we first met go?
"Where did your initial respectfulness go? You used 'you' all the time and 'Guardian God' all the time. Now, you just call me 'Li Yuheng' as if it's a natural thing to do."
"Didn't you say it yourself? That you told me not to be so polite, to be normal, and to just call you by your name?"
"I told you to call me by my name, not that you're going to take advantage of me!" Li Yuheng crossed his arms. "One day you were saying 'Guardian Deity is a righteous god, and a promise is a promise,' and now you dare to say I'm 'disrespectful to elders'?"
"..."
Shu Bai suddenly fell backward, raising her hand to cover her face, her voice muffled as she said, "...I can't take it anymore, Li Yuheng, I really can't..."
Li Yuheng instantly dropped his playful expression: "What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"
He reached out to touch Shu Bai's forehead, his tone carrying a barely perceptible urgency.
Just as he bent down, Shu Bai suddenly opened her arms and hugged him tightly.
Li Yuheng was taken aback.
"?" Li Yuheng was taken aback by his sudden embrace, then raised an eyebrow triumphantly, "What? Finally conquered by my charm, unable to resist?"
Shu Bai buried her face in the crook of his neck, her voice still muffled, but with a strange solemnity: "You really have to thank me today."
Li Yuheng lightly hugged him back: "Thank you for what? Thank you for complaining that I was noisy earlier?"
"Thanks for saving you from a beating. I was planning to beat you up when you weren't looking, but after thinking about it, I decided to let you go in the end."
When Shu Bai said those words, it was as if he had let go of all his obsessions.
All the entanglements of love and hate, the joys, worries and sorrows of the past, settled gently like dust at this moment.
He calmly accepted everything before him, as if drinking a bowl of warm soup on a winter night.
There were no five-nut mooncakes in the soup, but there were warm lotus seeds. He and the person next to him slowly scooped them up one by one, not in a hurry to eat, but just quietly watching the steam spread in the air.
This winter seems to have passed gently just like that.
Li Yuheng: "..."
He stared at Shu Bai for two seconds, then suddenly curled the corners of his mouth into a smile.
"Thank you so much."
Li Yuheng recalled the time when his father, the King of Hell, had thrown him into the Quick Transmigration Bureau without explanation.
This pampered prince of the underworld never imagined that he would be forced to take on a task because of the reason, "So what if I'm single? I'm a widowed king with a master's degree, building a beautiful China."
Even his mother, who always doted on him, didn't plead for him this time.
After all, his cousin was already in a relationship, while he, the crown prince, spent his days either sleeping soundly in the underworld or causing trouble everywhere.
Although he did not neglect any of his official duties and handled each matter properly and thoughtfully, he won the hearts of the people.
But this passive attitude towards such a crucial matter in life eventually became too much for the King of Hell to bear.
And so, Li Yuheng began his first quick transmigration mission in complete bewilderment.
To play the role of a tool in someone else's love life.
As for why it's a BL (Boys' Love) category... you'd have to ask Li Yuheng's mother, who has always doubted his sexual orientation.
Upon arriving, Li Yuheng found fault with everyone, including Shu Bai.
Strangely, Shu Bai always carried a certain inexplicable sense of familiarity, which made him involuntarily think of his best buddy from his childhood days when he was a dog.
A cow-cat demon who hits dogs hard.
Over the years, he has never taken the initiative to look for that cat.
It's not so much that I forgot, but rather that I didn't know what reason to use to look for it.
Even if we do find it, what should we say?
Should I just ask, "Hey bro, can you be my sleeping pillow? Price's negotiable?"
Li Yuheng, who was leaning on Shu Bai's shoulder, suddenly burst out laughing.
The laughter was low, with a vibration in the chest, and was particularly clear in the quiet room.
"What are you laughing at?" Shu Bai tried to push him away to see his expression, but he hugged her even tighter.
"I'm laughing at you." Li Yuheng looked up, his eyes still brimming with laughter. "You said you were going to beat me up, but all you did was give me a hug? Little Shubai, your threat is just too... cute."
"...Physical contact can cause serious injury. A verbal warning is enough to make you understand."
"I know it, I know it very well."
Li Yuheng suddenly sat up and stared into Shu Bai's eyes in the dim light.
"Shubai." His voice was unusually serious. "I love you very much, the most in the universe."
He paused, his eyes, which always held a flamboyant smile, now as calm as a deep pool, and asked, "And you? Do you also love me the most?"
Shu Bai met his gaze but did not answer immediately.
He raised his hand, his fingertips gently brushing against the strands of hair that fell across Li Yuheng's forehead. "Love is love. Love is not a competition; there is no first place, and no second place."
He shook his head slightly, his earrings tracing subtle arcs in the night.
"Love is everything. Giving is everything."
Li Yuheng was stunned.
He looked into the clear, unwavering eyes of the person beneath him, eyes devoid of any weighing of options or comparisons, filled only with a serene and complete surrender.
After several seconds, the stubborn questioning in his eyes melted away like ice being melted by the spring breeze, gradually transforming into a soft halo.
He chuckled softly, his forehead gently touching the pale forehead.
“Yes.” Li Yuheng’s voice carried a sense of relief and satisfaction after being completely convinced, and even a hint of barely perceptible admiration. “You’re right.”
He stopped dwelling on being number one, simply lay down on his side, his arm naturally encircling Shu Bai's waist, pulling her closer to him.
"Let's go to sleep." He closed his eyes, rubbed his chin against the top of his sparse white hair, and spoke with an unprecedented calmness.
The night was deep, and only the sound of their intertwined breathing could be heard in the room.
In the moments before falling into a deep sleep, Li Yuheng vaguely thought:
He lost.
They lost convincingly.
His sparse white "little old child" sees things more clearly than this "old lad" who has lived for countless years.
This "all" that we have won is a million times more precious than any "first place".
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