Chapter 3 What exactly is she disgusted by when she kisses her?!
The burning candle wick sparked, while outside, the lights shone brightly. Guests at the banquet clinked glasses, their laughter echoing through the air. A crimson bed curtain swayed quietly on the floor, concealing two intertwined figures.
When their eyes met, everything stood still, save for the deafening pounding of their hearts. The only thing they could feel was the soft, warm touch of each other's lips.
We were so close that we could clearly see our reflection in each other's pupils.
The girl's long eyelashes, like butterfly wings, rose and fell with her breath, inadvertently brushing against the boy's eyelids, causing a tingling sensation.
In the long silence, a longan rolled off the bedside with a crisp sound.
Xiao Qiyu was jolted awake, his pupils dilating in terror. He reached out his already stiff hand and pried Cui Ying's face up.
With a "pop," a clear, silvery thread was pulled between their lips.
Cui Ying had never had such a blank expression in her life. Not only did her eyes not blink, but her breathing seemed to stop as well. Her rosy lips were moist and glistening, full and tempting.
Xiao Qiyu's gaze involuntarily shifted from her eyes to her slightly swollen red lips.
His Adam's apple bobbed, and he raised his phoenix eyes again, his dark pupils brimming with thunderous anger. His lips trembled as he forced out a strained sentence: "Miss Cui, have you kissed enough?"
A silent sound seemed to echo in the air as the silver thread snapped.
Cui Ying felt as if she had been struck by lightning, leaving her scorched and blank.
She stared at Xiao Qiyu, whose cheeks were flushed and whose breathing was rapid, opened her mouth, and then, uttering a single, slurred word, uttered in disbelief, "We just—"
"Did they exchange saliva?"
Xiao Qiyu: "..."
A scorching, bright red color burned from the boy's cheeks to his neck.
Cui Ying screamed and sprang up from Xiao Qiyu's body, turning her head to gag.
Xiao Qiyu originally wished he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into, but seeing Cui Ying's reaction, he was filled with nothing but anger.
Is he something dirty?
What is she disgusting about?!
As if deliberately trying to prove a point, Xiao Qiyu stuck his fingers into his throat and started gagging, but immediately felt nauseous and began to gag as well.
The two were competing to see who could make the other feel disgusted, their gagging sounds rising and falling, as if whoever stopped first would lose.
After what seemed like an eternity, Cui Ying finally stopped. Her almond-shaped eyes were watery and red, her small, fair hand rested on her chest, and her other hand pointed at Xiao Qiyu. She said weakly yet aggressively, "I know, you did it on purpose!"
Xiao Qiyu was taken aback: "What did I do on purpose?"
Cui Ying said in a serious tone, "It must be that you asked the Empress Dowager to grant you a marriage decree, begging her with tears in your eyes to make her issue the decree to marry me to you. That's why the Empress Dowager is forcing me to marry you in such a hurry!"
Cui Ying twitched her lips, her expression both confident and helpless, and her eyes even held a hint of pity as she looked at Xiao Qiyu: "No wonder you used to target me at every turn. It turns out you were deliberately trying to get my attention. I never imagined that the dignified Captain of the Vermilion Bird Gate would be such a pitiful little thing who can't have what he wants."
"Xiao Qiyu, you really don't need to do this. I really don't have those kinds of feelings for you."
Cui Ying sighed, rubbing her forehead: "But I've rejected so many men, one more won't make a difference."
Xiao Qiyu's expression gradually changed from bewilderment at not understanding to utter terror as if he had seen a ghost. He endured it for a while, but finally couldn't bear it any longer and asked, "Cui Ying, are you possessed? What nonsense are you spouting?"
"Stop pretending, I know everything."
Cui Ying's lips curled up uncontrollably, and she shook her head helplessly, "You like me, you like me so much you're almost going crazy."
Xiao Qiyu: "..."
Xiao Qiyu's brows furrowed so deeply they could trap a passing fly. He suppressed the urge to bang his head against a wall and stared intently into Cui Ying's eyes, gritting his teeth as he said, "I don't know what caused this misunderstanding, but Cui Ying, let me tell you—"
"In my past, present, and future, in this life, in all my previous lives, I will never love you. If I ever love you, I will write my name Xiao backwards and serve you like a slave for the rest of my life. I will even have no children to raise!"
Cui Ying's eyes widened as Xiao Qiyu spoke, and the stray hairs on her head seemed to stand on end, making her look like a cat with its fur standing on end. She shouted righteously, "If you don't like me, why did you kiss me!"
Xiao Qiyu was even more self-righteous than her, "Are you being unreasonable? You were the one who kissed me, and you even bit my lip until it bled!"
As she spoke, she turned her lips inside out, showing Cui Ying the bright red wounds caused by her teeth.
Cui Ying's face flushed red as she recalled the broken strand of saliva from earlier. With her eyes closed, she retorted, "You're the one who dragged me down!"
Xiao Qiyu: "When did I pull you?"
"You just clearly—"
Cui Ying was about to demonstrate when he realized he had difficulty getting up.
At the same time, Xiao Qiyu also felt a pulling sensation around his waist.
The two looked down simultaneously and discovered that the jingling jade pendants on their waists had somehow become tangled together, twisted into a tight knot.
Xiao Qiyu's tense shoulders and neck finally relaxed. He scoffed lightly, his eyes full of mockery. He looked down at that fair and delicate face and said disdainfully, "Now you believe in my innocence? How could I possibly like you?"
Cui Ying lowered her head to untie the mandarin duck pendant and casually replied, "I've always known you don't like me."
Based on the fact that she pushed Xiao Qiyu into a stinking ditch when she was thirteen, believing that Xiao Qiyu would like her is like believing that pigs can fly.
Xiao Qiyu was taken aback, his eyes suddenly becoming complicated. He said urgently yet pretending to be calm, "Oh? Then what about all that crazy stuff you just said?"
Cui Ying: "It's nothing, I just wanted to annoy you."
Xiao Qiyu: "..."
He'd had enough. He couldn't bear to share a room with Cui Ying any longer; he'd surely lose ten years of his lifespan—no, twenty.
Xiao Qiyu ripped off the mandarin duck pendant from his waist, turned around, and strode toward the door.
Cui Ying hadn't expected him to give up the jade pendant so decisively, so he didn't even bother to reach out and catch it. He could only watch helplessly as the jade pendant fell to the ground with a thud.
She quickly squatted down to pick up the jade pendant, and after confirming that it was not broken, she secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
While getting ready, she heard her mother say that the Empress Dowager valued her marriage to Xiao Qiyu highly, and even bestowed upon the two of them the mandarin duck jade pendants given to her by the late emperor as a token of their betrothal.
Making a scene to annul the engagement might only get you a few scoldings, but breaking this thing would be a great disrespect to the Empress Dowager.
"Xiao Qiyu, have you gone mad?"
Cui Ying carefully put away the jade pendant, muttering, "If you're angry, just fart a few more times. What kind of man takes it out on objects?"
"I'm talking to you, did you hear me?"
"Xiao Qiyu, you—"
Cui Ying, unable to bear it any longer, turned her head and immediately stopped talking.
Xiao Qiyu stood in front of the door, eyes focused on his nose and mind, his breath concentrated in his dantian, his arms moving with fluid grace, exuding an air of nobility.
Then, with all his might, he delivered a powerful blow—
With a "bang".
The door didn't move.
Xiao Qiyu frowned.
Then repeat the action, two strikes, three strikes, and finally a direct kick.
The lamplight flickered, but the door remained closed, as if it were not under any pressure.
In the desolate bridal chamber, the only sound could be the young man's heavy breathing after exerting himself too much.
Cui Ying got tired of watching, so she poured herself a cup of tea, grabbed a handful of candied fruit, sat down on the edge of the bed, and slowly drank and chewed it. She said in a sarcastic tone, "I remember you were very strong when you grabbed me just now. How come you can't even open a door now?"
"Are you not very capable?"
Not really...
Xiao Qiyu stopped panting, his ear tips suddenly turned red, the flame that had been extinguished in his eyes was rekindled, and his voice was hoarse: "My third brother gave me muscle-relaxing powder."
The last three words were enunciated with extreme emphasis, as if someone wanted to find some muscle relaxant and smash it in Cui Ying's face.
"Muscle-relaxing powder?"
Cui Ying chewed on a candied fruit, blinked her almond-shaped eyes, and said leisurely, "Your third brother is such a good person, would he really do something like this?"
Xiao Qiyu's brow twitched, and out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at Cui Ying's delicate feet swinging back and forth, and subconsciously retorted, "What's so good about him?"
"I don't know, but I'm definitely better than you."
After finishing the candied fruit and drinking the last sip of tea, Cui Ying patted the sugar powder off her hands. Seeing that she couldn't get out anyway, she simply lay down and prepared to sleep.
Xiao Qiyu walked over silently and said coldly, "This is my bed."
The implication is: Get out of here, if anyone's going to lie down, it'll be me.
The two of them had not yet completed the transition from mortal enemies to "husband and wife," so when Cui Ying heard this, she did not feel that there was anything wrong with what he said, and obediently sat up.
"Oh dear, my nose suddenly feels so itchy."
Cui Ying deliberately didn't cover her mouth and nose, and sneezed dramatically onto the bed. Then, full of guilt, she said, "Although this bed is covered in my saliva, I don't think you'll mind. You can sleep on it."
Xiao Qiyu: "You!"
He quickly came up with a clever idea and, imitating Cui Ying, faked a sneeze onto the bedding, his delicate features revealing an undisguised smugness: "Alright, now neither of us can sleep."
Cui Ying rolled around on the blanket with a smile: "It's okay, I'm not a germaphobe."
Xiao Qiyu: "..."
I'm so angry!
He turned back to the door and knocked on it twice more. Seeing that there was still no hope of getting out, he finally gave up, slumped against the door, sat down on the floor, closed his eyes to rest, and calmed his breathing.
Cui Ying couldn't hear any movement. When she opened her eyes, she saw Xiao Qiyu looking pitiful, as if she had been bullied badly. Although she felt a sense of satisfaction, she couldn't help but say, "You can sleep on the table or the chair, what are you doing sitting there?"
Xiao Qiyu: "Shut up, go to sleep."
He wanted to run out the moment the door opened, and never have anything to do with Cui Ying again for the rest of his life.
"Tch, as if I care about you a lot." Cui Ying turned over and went to sleep comfortably.
After a moment, Chao Li's body rolled out again, and the girl's gentle voice drifted through the bright red bed curtains as she cautiously called out, "Xiao Qiyu."
Ignored, Cui Ying called out a second time: "Xiao Qiyu?"
Xiao Qiyu's eyes were closed, and the lamplight cast a soft glow on his handsome profile, highlighting his straight nose, beautiful thin lips, and thick, long eyelashes like raven feathers.
Cui Ying knew he wasn't asleep, but instead of getting angry, she smiled and said in a soft, ingratiating tone, "Why don't you sleep on the bed? My sneeze just now was fake. There was no saliva on the bed at all. It's all clean."
Xiao Qiyu still didn't open his eyes.
Cui Ying gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, and forced a sound in her throat that made her want to die:
"Brother Qilang, please open your eyes and look at me!"
Xiao Qiyu shuddered, opened his eyes instantly, and looked at Cui Ying as if he had seen a ghost.
"Do you need something from me?" he asked coldly.
Inside the red tent, the usually audacious young girl blushed, even the tip of her snow-white nose was tinged with red. She unconsciously bit her red lips, her long, curled eyelashes trembled slightly, and her eyes were like water.
"I……"
"I need to use the restroom."
A note from the author:
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