Chapter 61 Smile
Qian Deng was silent: "No, it was used on several killers before."
"Okay, the county lady has lived up to my expectations." Ling Tianshui's gaze fell on the pair of armlets, and also on her wrists which looked even whiter after being stained with blood.
He was used to running around and intercepting people in the dark night, but he didn't expect that because the target of the action was her, his mind could not calm down during the action and seemed to be in a lot of chaos.
And at this moment, under the flickering firelight, she was intact, wearing the gifts he carefully selected for her on her wrists, and also using it to protect herself. This feeling made him feel happy and comfortable for the first time after the intense killing.
His gaze slowly moved up from her arm, paused on her face, which was disheveled and bloodstained but still looked more charming, and fixed on her damaged eyebrow.
Almost imperceptibly, the corners of his lips lifted up, revealing a hint of a smile, which was fleeting in the firelight, but was captured by Qiandeng.
This man who always had a sullen face, when he smiled, had a pair of shallow dimples on his cheeks, like the clouds and mist clearing away, which instantly dispelled most of the solemn and murderous aura on him.
No wonder he never smiles. Is he worried that his power will be diminished by this charming smile, and that people will lose their fear of him?
As Qiandeng thought this, the dimples had disappeared, but she still couldn't help but look at him, trying to find the strange feeling in her heart at that moment.
His usual stern expression returned to Ling Tianshui's face. Seeing that she was still staring at him, he asked in a deep voice, "What's wrong?"
Qiandeng avoided his gaze and whispered, "Nothing..."
However, although it was short, her smile—or rather, her dimples—always felt familiar to her, as if she had seen them somewhere before.
Ling Tianshui signaled the soldiers accompanying him to carry the sedan chair first. For fear of disturbing Cui Fufeng, the two of them stood outside the cave with a torch, waiting for them to come back.
In the cold and dark night, Qiandeng's clothes had been torn by the tossing and turning along the way. He shivered unconsciously in the night wind.
Ling Tianshui took off his cloak and handed it to her.
To his surprise, Qiandeng took it without hesitation and wrapped his body with it.
However, this cloak not only carried his body temperature, but also a strong smell of blood, and carried traces of his charge along the way.
Seeing her stretch out her slender white fingertips and touch the blood that had not yet coagulated, Ling Tianshui asked, "Do you mind?"
Qiandeng shook his head, looked up at him in the firelight, with a trance-like smile on his face: "It seems..."
Ling Tianshui raised his eyebrows slightly, not understanding what he meant.
But Qian Deng sighed and whispered, "When I was a child... my grandfather and father held me in their arms, they also had this aura."
The smell of blood and sweat that comes from galloping on the battlefield.
This scent clearly represented instability, as if she didn't know whether killing and pain would come tomorrow, but miraculously it made her feel more at ease than the fragrance carefully blended by Meng Lanxi, making her feel as if she was sinking into the familiar and peaceful time in the past, returning to the time she had always dreamed of.
Ling Tianshui said calmly, "Maybe it's because we're all on the battlefield."
Qiandeng nodded and brushed off the ordinary cloak on his body: "He looks very similar to Prince Linhuai."
His long eyelashes trembled slightly, and he glanced at her calmly in the firelight.
"In fact, Prince Linhuai once saved me from the brink of death, in a situation very similar to the one I'm in now. He took off his cloak and gave it to me—perhaps you don't know, but his clothes are very similar to yours..."
"That's truly unexpected," Ling Tianshui said. "He's a prince, and I'm just a mere officer of the Northern Yamen Imperial Guard. The things we use are worlds apart."
"It's not that kind of resemblance, but the length of the clothes, the smell on them, somehow, it's as if..."
It was as if she was back to that moment by the cold pond, as if she saw the man who broke the nightmare and saved her, as if she heard him say again, Li Yingshang, I will definitely help you.
But she has come this far relying on her reluctance to relax and her determination to give up. Why should she pin her hopes on a man she has only met a few times and expect him to save her?
"Forget it. I've already cleaned that cloak a long time ago, but I never had the chance to meet him again. Let's talk about it later." She shook her head self-deprecatingly and wrapped Ling Tianshui's cloak tightly around her. "I might as well think about the emerald feather cloak in Qujiang Pond."
Ling Tianshui was naturally pleased to see her attention shift elsewhere. "Indeed, the discovery of a cloak of unknown origin in Princess Gao's mansion is worthy of further investigation."
Qiandeng nodded. Standing in the windswept forest, he reached out his hand from the front of his cloak and unconsciously stroked it from top to bottom. "Why? The places where the emerald feather fur coat is worn, the collar, the chest, the abdomen..."
These were all places that her hands could reach out and touch, that is, places that the person wearing them would touch.
Is it something on the wearer's hands that causes excessive wear and tear on the garment? Or is there some other reason...
She was lost in thought, her eyes were a little dazed, and her slender body seemed to be swallowed up by the darkness.
Ling Tianshui couldn't help but raise his hand to help her tighten her cloak, whispering, "You can think about it later when you get home. The most important thing for you right now is to get home safely."
His hands were so powerful that they could easily control life and death, but as he leaned over to look at her, his hands landed on her clothes with such gentle control that even the wind passing by them seemed to slow down.
Qian Deng looked at him, smiled unconsciously, and said softly: "Ling Tianshui, you are different from before."
Ling Tianshui raised his eyebrows, not understanding what he meant.
"When you first arrived, you were quite imposing and intimidating. I even regretted it then, wondering if it was a good idea to bring someone like you into my already chaotic backyard." Qian Deng said, inevitably recalling the things that had been hidden in his heart. "And I still remember, when we were searching for clues at Meng Lanxi's residence together, I was drugged and dazed, and you pushed me directly into the water. Tell me, is it appropriate for you to treat a girl like that?"
Ling Tianshui naturally knew it was inappropriate. He had never bowed his head to anyone in his life, but he lowered his eyes in front of her and frankly admitted his mistake: "It's my fault. I thought you were unconscious at the time, and maybe the cold water would make you conscious, but I forgot you were a girl, and I didn't expect it to work at all..."
When he said this, he suddenly paused, raised his eyes thoughtfully, and looked into Qiandeng's eyes.
Under the flickering orange-red firelight, his sharp eyes were filled with complex thoughts, hesitation, and even a hint of an unconcealable smile.
Qiandeng suddenly remembered something important, and her face turned red, even redder than the light of the torch at that moment.
She recalled the night when she was dazed and hugged Ling Tianshui tightly, entangled with him and their skin touched.
At that time, she fell into a trance, holding the person in front of her as if he were her own family, and in her confusion, she only cared about whispering and clinging to him. So after the poison was released, she was so ashamed that she could only pretend to have forgotten the matter, performing a show of forgetfulness in front of him.
But now... she accidentally said something and revealed what happened that night, exposing the fact that she actually had memories.
She turned away in shame, hastily avoiding his gaze. She wished she could crawl into the ground, and even her voice began to stutter: "I... I don't really remember anything, but when I woke up, I was soaked. I thought... it should be you, right?"
"It's me. The county lady is so smart, even if she doesn't remember, she won't be wrong."
However, although Qian Deng didn't see his expression, she could tell that these words were spoken with a raised corner of his lips, which made her even more unable to raise her head.
In the dark night forest, there was only the silence and the sound of the wind. The torch swaying in the wind burned a ball of light that was neither big nor small, covering her and him.
Even though she had her back to him and didn't dare look back, she could still see their shadows cast on the mountain wall, pressed together in the flickering firelight, just like that night when she had hugged him tightly, refusing to let go, and nestled against his broad, firm chest...
She pulled his cloak tightly around her, looked at his figure cast on her by the firelight, and felt his silent yet reliable presence as deep as a mountain standing behind her. For a moment, she felt her heart tremble slightly.
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