Chapter 33 A Kiss on the Palm: "Would you like to give it a try?"
"Mr. Chen Minghui, Chairman of Huiyao Group, was found dead in the suburbs of S City at 7:00 AM on June 13th. The fatal wound was located on his throat, resembling a snake bite. The specific cause of death is under further investigation. This comes shortly after Huiyao Group was exposed for imprisoning and abusing unconventional creatures..."
Shu Qing angrily cut off the news video playing on her phone and glared at Jiu Su expressionlessly.
Jiu Su sat on the bed, hugging her blanket, and looked back with an innocent expression.
Early yesterday morning, when they were all drowsy and half asleep, Jin Wanli returned with his team, his face dark, and announced that the alert was over and everyone could go home. Shu Qing didn't see Jiu Su and was worried, so she specifically asked Jin Wanli about her, only to be rebuffed with the words, "It's none of his business if anything happens to anyone else..." Fortunately, this rebuff was quite telling.
Qi Yun yawned and woke up the driver to take the people away. Shu Qing went back to the apartment first, while Shu Tong and Zhao Yuqing stayed at the hotel next to the apartment.
It wasn't until almost six in the morning, when Shu Qing was still half asleep, that she vaguely heard the sound of water coming from the bathroom. A little while later, sure enough, Jiu Su came out quietly.
Shu Qing called out, "Xiao Hong?"
She wasn't fully awake yet, and her voice had a strong nasal tone.
Jiu Su walked over and sat down beside her bed. The scent of his shower gel couldn't mask the smell of blood at all, and Shu Qing instantly woke up, sitting up to examine his face closely.
He looked paler than usual. Although his expression remained unchanged, there was an inescapable weariness in his eyes and brows. Even his light sandalwood eyes appeared dull, as if they had lost their color.
"What have you been doing?" Shu Qing rolled out of bed and looked for bandages and medicine in the cabinet. "Are you hurt?"
Jiu Su hummed in agreement, took the bandage, paused for a moment, and then glanced at Shu Qing with her eyelashes raised.
"Uh... my mom forced me to always keep a first-aid kit, and I'm actually not very good at it." Shu Qing misunderstood the meaning of his glance, realizing that it wasn't good to let the injured person do it themselves. Unfortunately, she had no idea how to do it, so she could only rub her nose and say, "As for treating external injuries, I can only help you out. Or should I take you to the hospital?"
“…That’s not what I meant,” Jiu Su said weakly. “I meant, could you turn around?”
"..."
Shu Qing silently turned her back to Jiu Su, stared at the snow-white wall, and went to face the wall.
Actually, it's better to just look. Sometimes hearing and smell are more sensitive than sight. She could smell the stench of blood, hear the rustling of fabric behind her, and even hear Jiu Su's occasional heavier breathing... Her mood became even more chaotic.
She couldn't help but ask, "Where are you hurt? Is it serious? Should I take you to the hospital?"
"It's just a minor injury, I can handle it myself," Jiu Su said with a smile. "Where are the scissors?"
In her haste, Shu Qing forgot to grab the scissors, so she quickly jumped out of bed to get them. She handed them to him with her back turned, taking the opportunity to peek at them discreetly.
With just one glance, Jiu Su noticed her little action and met her eyes with a half-smile.
Shu Qing simply turned around and faced him directly, because at this point, it didn't matter whether she avoided him or not—he had already treated his wounds, and the left half of his body was wrapped in bandages, so there was no danger of her seeing him. His shoulders and waist were stained with blood, and it was unknown whether there were any other wounds, but judging from the current situation, they were clearly not "minor injuries" in the eyes of ordinary people.
Jiu Su simply refused to take the scissors, instead pushing the bandage forward right under her nose.
Shu Qing cut the bandage for him. She originally wanted to tie a bow for him, but with those eyes staring at her, she didn't dare to be cheeky and tied it for him with great regret.
She asked again, "Are you sure we don't need to go to the hospital?"
"No need." Jiu Su casually draped his shirt over his shoulders, covering the exposed right side of his body. His skin was unusually pale, not the kind of luminous white, but a faint, cold white, almost the same color as the bandage. He comforted her, "Monsters are different from humans. This is nothing to a monster. It'll be fine in a couple of days. Don't worry."
"Oh..." Shu Qing really knew very little about the constitution of demons. Since Jiu Su said so, she chose to believe him. She reached out and carefully touched the bloodstain on his shoulder through the bandage.
Jiu Su dodged for a moment, seemingly unconcerned.
Shu Qing thought she had hit her too hard, so she quickly pulled her hand away and asked, "Does it hurt?"
"I just have a strong self-healing ability, not that I don't feel anything."
Shu Qing then pulled out a box of ibuprofen. "Want one?"
Jiu Su shook his head somewhat awkwardly. Even if he didn't have a habit of using painkillers, just the fact that he had personally witnessed Shu Qing taking this medicine meant he had to stick to his policy of avoiding medical treatment to the very end.
He knew that Shu Qing wanted to do something for his injury, so he said, "I remember there was some wine in the refrigerator."
"You can't drink," Shu Qing refused. "You can't drink when you're injured."
Jiu Su laughed, "I'm a monster."
Shu Qing looked at him suspiciously. Logically speaking, Jiu Su was always a reliable person and shouldn't be so unaware of his own injuries, but sometimes he would do things she couldn't understand—for example, refusing to accept a mutual attraction and insisting on playing the tragic male supporting role, which made her trust in him somewhat diminished.
Jiu Su looked back at her without any guilt.
Shu Qing couldn't refuse him, so she went to get him a can of beer and thoughtfully opened the can for him. She sat down next to him and this time got to the point: "What did you go there for?"
Jiu Su gently shook the beer can in her hand, took a sip, and said lazily, "Kill Chen Minghui."
Shu Qing was startled and almost jumped up. "What the hell?" After saying that, she realized that her tone was too high. It was only six o'clock, and such a shout might disturb the neighbors. She lowered her voice and stammered, "Kill...no...successful or unsuccessful? I mean...is he dead?"
"certainly."
Shu Qing stood frozen in place, a sentence that Jiu Su had said seemingly unintentionally flashed through her mind in an instant—"Since someone has murderous intent, I have no choice but to fight to the death."
She had a vague feeling that he wasn't just making empty threats, but she never expected that he would actually keep his word today!
The words Shu Tong had said to her last night also flashed through her mind at this inopportune moment: "Even if he kills someone, he doesn't necessarily have to pay with his life!"
It's true. She thought in a daze, he killed a well-known entrepreneur, her former boss, and maybe more than one. He could also get away almost unscathed, returning to her place quietly, without even a hint of fleeing.
However, her current fear was the opposite of Shu Tong's. Shu Qing stared at Jiu Su in panic, not knowing whether this was "a high-level superhuman being intentionally killing someone" or "a suspect being shot dead by police accomplices for resisting arrest."
Jiu Su guessed what she was thinking and reassured her, "It's okay, Wanli will handle it."
No wonder Jin Wanli had that expression when he came back in the early morning, no wonder he said something like "It's none of his business."
The Supermarket Management Bureau has most likely already taken over the cleanup work and may have even reached an agreement with Jiu Su, which is why he returned a step later than her...
How does the Supermarket Management Bureau plan to handle the aftermath, and how well will it be handled? The deceased was, after all, a public figure, and no matter what, they must be given a reasonable explanation.
Also, why was he acting so impulsively? She really needs to give him a good lesson in the law!
A flurry of anxious thoughts raced through her mind, taking a full three minutes to settle. Shu Qing sighed helplessly, "Why did you have to take things so extremely?"
Jiu Su chuckled lightly, her expression matter-of-fact, as if she didn't even bother to explain to her.
Shu Qing was speechless. Years of civilized education had taught her to respect the judgment of the law, but the fear and anger hidden in her heart could not be faked.
Chen Minghui is a well-known entrepreneur with a net worth of hundreds of millions, a good reputation, and a significant contribution to GDP. Even if he is arrested, he will most likely not be sentenced to death. However, one can only be a thief for a thousand days, not a thief for a thousand days. Who knows how many tricks he has up his sleeve? Who knows if he will seek revenge on her after he gets out?
Now that he's dead, judging from the news that's been circulating so far, the Super Registry clearly intends to frame this as "abusing a monster and suffering a backlash," while she disappears completely, forever remaining just an innocent victim, effectively eliminating any future trouble.
Jiu Su suddenly asked, "Are you scared?"
In modern society, human life is paramount. No one would dare associate with someone who dares to kill… or a monster. And now she's sitting on the same bed with him, covered in blood—shouldn't that be terrifying?
Shu Qing shook her head without even thinking.
She herself was quite surprised. She knew she had always been bold; she had managed to handle the situation when the housekeeper broke in illegally, she hadn't been scared out of her wits when Jin Wanli confronted her, and she had only been angry when she was criticized online. But she never expected that she would become this bold now.
She thought, in a desperate way, "Maybe he and I are just similar people. Besides, Xiao Hong was protecting me."
She readily accepted the assertion that "we are the same kind of people," as if it were an intuition etched into her soul by years of life and death. The various thoughts that had arisen upon hearing the legal news finally receded like a tide.
Then, she realized the thought she couldn't let go of, hidden deep in her heart.
She rejected that request that she "not like me" that day. And now, it's all over.
Jiu Su killed Chen Minghui, choosing to eliminate any potential threats to her life. What does that mean? It means he planned to leave her, so he came to ensure her safety one last time before leaving?
Jiu Su understood what she was thinking from her eyes. He hesitated for a moment and then said, "I will stay at the Supermarket Management Bureau for a while."
Although Shu Qing was not paying attention, she still quickly realized, "The price of cleaning up the mess?"
Jiu Su hummed in agreement.
Even if it's labor reform, the Super Management Bureau is still a formal position. This is the price he paid for cleaning up the mess; truly worthy of being a rare, high-level supernatural being.
Shu Qing gave a wry smile and muttered, "My mom was right."
"What?"
“My mom said, ‘Even if you kill someone, you don’t necessarily have to pay with your life,’” Shu Qing recounted. As it turned out, Shu Tong’s worries were indeed correct, except that he killed someone who intended to harm her. “Last night, she also told me a lot of other things… basically that you and I are very different, and advised me to release you as soon as possible.”
Jiu Su lowered her eyelashes and said calmly, "She's right. I always was—"
Shu Qing's next words fell as lightly as a feather, but to him they were like a thunderclap: "But I still want to try."
“I know my mom is right,” she said. “You’re a monster I can’t control—dangerous, mysterious, and fierce. I still don’t fully understand your origins, and we might encounter even more problems in the future. But we might also have a lot of fun, making videos together, eating delicious food together, and doing many other interesting things. So I thought, why not give it a try?”
"Life is inherently unpredictable; you can't control everything. When you travel, you might get hit by a car; when you stay at home, you might encounter an earthquake or fire; you might have a bad boss at work, or food safety issues when you eat. But no one says they'd give up on life because of these uncontrollable risks. Isn't the joy of life in trying all sorts of things?"
She turned to look at his face and asked, "Would you like to give it a try?"
Jiu Su silently raised her head and looked up into her eyes.
Last night was cloudy, but this morning the clouds have all dispersed, and the morning sun shines unhindered into the window, making her eyes brighter than the sunlight. She had just woken up and had been busy bandaging him, finding medicine, and checking on his condition. She hadn't even had time to wash up yet, and a tuft of hair on her head was still sticking up, swaying back and forth.
He himself was half-injured, disheveled, and his shirt was only half-on. Both of them relied solely on their natural good looks to maintain their appearance, making it hardly a ceremonial start.
Want to give it a try?
Or to put it more deeply, is it to become her person again, or to leave forever and never look back?
Jiu Su felt slightly dizzy. He couldn't tell if it was a side effect of blood loss or the effects of alcohol. His vision was blurry and chaotic, but her face was clear. He had been away from this upside-down world for a long time, and now someone was reaching out to him, trying to pull him back into the world of sensual pleasures.
His long-suppressed love and obsession converged in her palm.
Monsters are inherently more capricious, more driven by their nature, and less concerned with rationality and restraint.
Moreover, he was now covered in wounds, his brain was being induced by alcohol, and his heartbeat was in sync with the person in front of him, both determined to break through his isolated fortress of reason.
Jiu Su grasped the hand Shu Qing extended to him, spreading her fingers. He lowered his head and kissed her palm tenderly. With this gesture, she could easily hold him, without worrying about him slipping out of her control.
The kiss was gentle, solemn, cool and soft, yet all-or-nothing.
"Then I'll give it a try," he thought.
Who says the outcome this time will be the same as last time?
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Author's note: Happy Qixi Festival!
My boyfriend and I decided to start dating again on Qixi Festival, while I tragically lost a wisdom tooth on the same day...
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