Chapter 23 A cool, soft touch landed on Qimeng's forehead, a fleeting moment...
Shu Qing returned with the equipment, and with the blessing of the auspicious bird feathers along the way, everything went smoothly and nothing happened.
Considering she might have to stay at the photo studio for quite some time, she packed a bag with a few clothes, a digital tablet, and her newly bought fish tank.
Bringing that little fish tank was indeed very necessary. When she returned to the photo studio and added water, the little snake demon crawled inside, coiled itself on a branch at the bottom of the water, rested its head on the branch, and fell asleep soon after.
It seemed a bit energetic when I checked on it in the morning, but by evening it was listless and sleepy again. It's so frustrating.
Shu Qing gently stroked the little snake demon's head with her finger and quietly walked out.
She asked Qi Yun for a temporary bedroom, tidied up a place where she could live, and lay down early, but couldn't fall asleep. She stared at the ceiling in the dark.
The "bedroom" that Qi Yunyun gave her was originally a dressing room in the photo studio. It had no windows, and with the lights off, it was pitch black. She couldn't see anything, so she could only vaguely make out Jiu Su's light sandalwood eyes.
She took a nap in the afternoon, and when she opened her eyes... she happened to meet those eyes.
His eyes were a lighter color than most people's, so his thoughts seemed less deep. She could clearly see the tenderness flowing in his eyes, and her reflection reflected in them. Even though Shu Qing's romantic experience was extremely limited, she could tell that his gaze wasn't even directed at someone he "liked".
Long-awaited reunion, loss and recovery, nervousness upon returning home... With Shu Qing's limited experience, she could not accurately discern the various emotions involved. She could only vaguely sense that Jiu Su must have regarded her as extremely precious and unique.
It was as if, before she even knew it, she was already a very important person to him.
Perhaps it was because she had been thinking about it all day that she dreamt about it at night. Shu Qing finally drifted off to sleep, but in her dream, she still saw Jiu Su's eyes.
This time, however, what was reflected in his eyes was not just her; she saw an endless peach blossom forest in his eyes.
"Hey," she heard herself teasing him with a laugh, "with such a storm last night, the flowers here couldn't possibly still be blooming so well. Are you trying to fool me with some kind of illusion?"
Jiu Su turned to look at her, a hint of amusement in her clear voice: "Illusions can only change appearances, not create something from nothing. Shouldn't you take some lessons?"
"So, they really are flowers?" She didn't bother arguing with his sharp tongue, and excitedly ran into the peach blossom grove, taking a deep breath of the fresh, sweet fragrance after the rain. "I smell white chalcedony. Did you use white chalcedony to set up the array and repair it?"
Jiu Su stood beside her, nodding with a smile, and teased her, "You have a really good nose."
It was a genuine, heartfelt smile, like an east wind blowing through the forest, permeating the voice and the eyes, unlike the cold and distant smiles in the world that only linger on the corners of the lips.
"Why did you spend so much money and make such a big fuss?" she teased with a smile. "Do you like me?"
A hint of embarrassment finally appeared on Jiu Su's face. "You're a young lady, why are you asking me this?"
"What can I do if I don't ask?" she said, dissatisfied. "If I expect you to take the initiative, I'm afraid I'll have to wait until my next life?"
He turned his head away, not daring to look at her. His silver hair couldn't hide his color, and one ear was so red it looked like it was about to bleed—he had truly surrendered.
She was overjoyed, skipped and hopped around to face him, bent down, and looked up at him with her round eyes: "Why don't you say something?"
She even tugged at his snow-white sleeve, "Say something." Then she tugged at his hem, "Say something?"
Unable to bear her harassment any longer, Jiu Su grabbed the woman's mischievous hand and retorted through gritted teeth, "What do you think?"
She smiled broadly, blinked innocently, and looked at him triumphantly.
As if bewitched, Jiu Su's red eyes flickered, and she leaned closer to her.
She thought he was about to do something bad, and instinctively closed her eyes, her heart pounding deafeningly. The next moment, she felt a cool, soft touch on her forehead, a fleeting moment.
He quickly released her; the kiss was fleeting, almost like an illusion.
I seemed to hear him mutter, "Fool."
"..." In the darkness, she muttered, half-laughing and half-crying, "You're the idiot."
When Shu Qing woke up in the morning, she still felt the fragrance of peach blossoms filling her lungs, and the cool, soft touch on her forehead seemed to linger. She hugged the quilt and stared blankly for a while, suppressing the bittersweet feeling brought from her dream, before reluctantly climbing off the cot.
She went to check on her snake in the small fish tank. The little snake demon was still asleep. When she scooped it up, it was still not awake. Instinctively, it wrapped its head and tail around her wrist and rubbed against her in a daze.
Shu Qing tentatively tried to touch its tail, but the little snake instantly shuddered, retracted its tail, and bared its teeth at her.
She thought for a moment and tried asking, "Does anything hurt?"
The little snake immediately shook its head.
Shu Qing had no choice but to stop, placing the little snake on her pillow to let it continue sleeping, silently observing it. Its entire body was smooth and beautiful, and there was indeed no trace of injury. If it weren't for the trace of blood on the branch at the bottom of the fish tank, she might have believed it.
She sighed sadly, picked up her phone, and without paying attention to plot design, lighting, or set design, she simply took a few photos of the sleeping snake and posted them on her short video account, treating it as a casual sharing activity.
Jiu Su didn't show up until after lunch. When he arrived, he still appeared mysteriously at the entrance of the photo studio. After a night's rest, his complexion was much better than yesterday.
Shu Qing closed the search page that displayed "snake demon illusion," stood up, greeted him with a smile, and told him, "Miss went to the hospital. There's no other way; her foot needs to be checked again."
Jiu Su didn't care where Qi Yun went; he just wanted Shu Qing to stay in a safe place and not wander off. He asked, "Where's her little monster?"
This was to use Nian Nian's ability to get to the bottom of things. Shu Qing took him into another photography studio, prepared a series of equipment for him, and then sat down to the side, resting her chin on her hand and watching him.
Jiu Su was setting up an array, but she was distracted by the look in her eyes. Although there was no flaw in her hands, she couldn't concentrate. She could only sigh and ask, "What do you want to ask?"
"I want to ask some questions that you absolutely will not answer truthfully."
“Oh,” he said coolly, “hold it in.”
"..."
Shu Qing pursed her lips, not pressing the matter further, and focused intently on the image in the "small mirror"—the spiritual energy manifestation device. The image showed a man and a furry thing, but the signal seemed weak, constantly fluctuating.
Shu Qing asked in confusion, "Why is this happening?"
“A method to interfere with surveillance,” Jiu Su explained succinctly. He quickly added two more array lines, and Nian Nian screamed, causing the image in the mirror to violently shake. After several attempts, it finally stabilized, but it still seemed to have a Gaussian blur applied, making it difficult to see clearly.
Niannian was almost collapsing, trembling as she lay on the table, as if she could no longer bear the burden.
Jiu Su frowned slightly, about to continue activating the formation, but Shu Qing stopped him: "Hey, hey, don't!"
"If you keep going on like this, I'm afraid Nian Nian might faint on her own. How are we going to explain this to the young lady then?" She waved her phone at him. Having learned from her previous experience, she had been recording from the beginning this time, and the video was now perfectly saved on her phone. "That's fine. I'll take care of the rest."
Jiu Su stopped as instructed, watched Shu Qing import the video into the computer, and asked, "What do you want?"
"Heh heh," Shu Qing said with a mysterious smile, "Have you heard of the Photoshop magic? It's one of the three great evil arts of Asia. Let me show you."
Jiu Su raised an eyebrow slightly. This joke was obviously a bit old-fashioned for Shu Qing, but too trendy for him; he'd never heard of it before. He sat next to Shu Qing, watching with great interest as she took screenshots frame by frame and then dragged them into the photo editing software to fix them. Her silver hair inadvertently fell onto her arm, gently brushing against it with their breath, causing a slight tickle.
Shu Qing instinctively held her breath, even slowing down her movements. This wasn't normal social distancing; she could even feel Jiu Su's body temperature was slightly cooler than usual...
She couldn't help but recall the fragrant dream she had last night, and the fleeting kiss on her forehead in the dream.
Shu Qing rationally thought that there was a reason she had this dream—although she had no romantic experience, she had read a lot of romance novels and watched a lot of TV dramas. Compared to passionate, fiery kisses, kisses on the forehead and the back of the hand carried a kind of tenderness and restraint that transcended desire, which suited her aesthetic more.
Although she and Jiu Su had agreed to "only be friends," there was still some ambiguity between them, for example, things weren't entirely innocent right now. The scenario she envisioned in her mind was perfectly logical.
Yes, that's it. It's entirely a projection of aesthetics; there aren't that many things that can't be explained by reason and science!
Just then, someone rang the doorbell. Shu Qing thought it was Qi Yun returning, so she subconsciously replied, "Coming," and ran to open the door.
However, the person standing outside the door was not Qi Yun, but another acquaintance.
“No, I can’t say we’re acquaintances.” Shu Qing’s hand, which was about to open the door, froze in mid-air. She thought, “We’ve only met twice, so we’re not close, and he’s not even a person.”
It's that monster who tried to steal Xiao Hong, a level 9.2 supernormal creature, Jin Wanli.
Jin Wanli didn't even look at her. He stared intently at Jiu Su, who was following behind her, his eyes filled with complex emotions. He opened his mouth, as if a thousand thoughts were swirling in his mind, and he didn't know where to begin. Finally, he forced out a harsh, "What, can't I come?"
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