Chapter 92 Love "I will kill you."
Shi Wan suddenly turned her head to dodge, her chest heaving violently from lack of oxygen and anger. Jiang Xu missed kissing her, so he simply leaned down to the back of Shi Wan's neck, his lips, still stained with blood, brushing against her cheek and earlobe, before suddenly biting down.
"Hiss..." Shi Wan gasped in pain, the sudden pang of heartache she had felt moments before vanishing instantly. She cursed, "You...!"
The tip of his teeth pierced the woman's soft skin, bringing with it a metallic taste similar to that of their lips touching. Tiny beads of blood were still seeping out. Shi Wan forgot the fear in her heart and simply raised her hand, ready to slap him to vent her anger.
To everyone's surprise, Jiang Xu reacted extremely quickly. He was a martial artist, and his skills had improved significantly in recent years. Shi Wan was no match for him at all, and in a single move, she was firmly gripped.
The man gripped her wrist with tremendous force, almost breaking it. Shi Wan resisted, refusing to back down an inch, and sneered, "Are you angry because you're embarrassed?"
Having known each other for a while, Jiang Xu is now even more unpredictable, and his imperial majesty is fully displayed. Shi Wan should have been somewhat afraid, but whether it was Jiang Xu's questioning just now, or the subtle sense of indulgence that had been awakened between them over time, everything drove her to continue: "I'm just telling you to go your separate ways."
"Where does this talk of being heartless come from?"
"What do you mean by being heartless...?" Jiang Xu stared at her with his unfathomable eyes, a storm brewing. As a result, the strength with which he gripped her wrist... strangely eased a little, no longer a pure restraint, but carrying an indescribable guidance.
Then, he guided her hand, forcing her to open her palm and slowly, irresistibly, press it against his cheek.
Her palms were icy cold, still damp with the cold sweat from her struggle. His cheeks, however, still held the warmth of their passionate kiss, and... he could even feel the faint throbbing of veins beneath his skin.
"A bridge is a bridge, a road is a road..."
Under Shi Wan's bewildered gaze, Jiang Xu gently rubbed his face with her palm. The muscles in his face twitched slightly due to the intense emotional turmoil. His words were piercing: "You wish."
This gesture is both too intimate and too bizarre.
The stark contrast with the menacing aura emanating from him left Shi Wan stiff and her mind blank.
On the back of his neck, teeth marks were deeply embedded in his skin, strangely overlapping with the bites from the past, like branding marks. Jiang Xu's fingertips caressed that spot, his voice hoarse, before returning to calm.
"It records how we met, fell in love, hated each other, and were entangled for a long time."
His calm demeanor completely masked his initial hysteria. Shi Wan, observing this, became even more cautious in her speech. After a long while, she simply said, "Now that you possess the world, I naturally cannot contend with you."
Her words suggested weakness, but she had lowered her eyes without anyone noticing, her thick eyelashes concealing all the emotions and unspoken thoughts in them.
In the past, he had been deceived in this way.
But now, he certainly won't make that mistake again.
As he gazed at him closely, Jiang Xu's tone gradually became more certain, "You're still thinking about something else."
Thinking of avoiding, thinking of escaping.
But Shi Wan's repeated avoidance and rejection carved a huge hole in his heart, telling him time and time again.
Shi Wan... perhaps it really is as she herself said.
She didn't love him.
Jiang Xu once thought he had accepted the answer, so, unable to keep her heart, he tried to keep her body, but in the end, he lost both.
Thinking of this, the resentment in his eyes had not yet faded, but gradually transformed into another more primal and ardent emotion, "You shouldn't... be thinking about those things at this time."
But this time, he was unusually cautious, even his threats sounded like a plea: "You should think of me."
Shi Wan stared coldly at him, noticing the subtle changes in his expression and body. Fortunately, Jiang Xu didn't act recklessly like he had a moment ago, which relieved her.
Before she could feel completely at ease, she saw the other person start to undress her. The moment the man's hot, rough fingertips touched her skin, Shi Wan reflexively bit them.
However, Jiang Xu showed no sign of struggling.
He simply looked at her, his expression even more indulgent, and for a moment, it seemed to carry a sense of pleasure and satisfaction.
Realizing this, Shi Wan took a hard bite, then coldly raised her eyes and asked, "Doesn't it hurt?"
"You care about me." There was a hint of pleasure in his voice.
If she didn't care about him at all, she wouldn't act this way; she would rather he be in unbearable pain and die.
Instead of asking him if it hurts, as we do now.
Jiang Xu's mood improved a bit. He opened the food box on the side table. Shi Wan heard the noise and turned her head to look. She found that a bowl of ginger soup had been prepared in the food box and was steaming.
Jiang Xu tested the temperature and handed it to her, saying, "Drink it while it's hot; it's just the right temperature to drink."
Shi Wan glanced at the dark brown soup but didn't reach out. She looked at him warily. "Drink it while it's hot? I can't possibly enjoy soup that you served yourself."
"Who knows if there are other things inside?"
Jiang Xu remained calm, but thinking of her health, he patiently explained, "Don't worry, there was no poison."
Shi Wan raised her eyes, her tone once again filled with sarcasm, "There was no poison, but who knows if I drank it and the next moment I would be unconscious, and then..." As she spoke, her gaze slowly swept around the room, finally settling on the tightly closed door, "and then I would be unable to step out of this room."
Jiang Xu was taken aback by her words, then gave an almost frank, somewhat reckless smile, "This soup is just ginger soup to ward off the cold."
"Furthermore, whether you drink or not, now that I've found you, I can't let you leave."
His eyes turned icy again as he stared at her. "You know that perfectly well."
Upon hearing this, Shi Wan couldn't help but sigh, "But you also know what I'm doing this for."
"If I were to stay in this inn, or somewhere else, as a walking corpse, without any will of my own and unable to make any decisions for myself, I would definitely go crazy."
"In that case... rather than being slowly boiled like a frog in water by you, I'd rather end it all myself first."
More than two years have passed, nearly a thousand days and nights, but Jiang Xu has not changed. He remains as uncommunicative and unreasonable as ever.
His bluntness and lack of pretense left her feeling powerless for a moment. What was the point of arguing with him and wasting her breath? Thinking of this, and seeing that he remained unmoved, Shi Wan simply shut her mouth and turned her head to the side.
The woman's eyes held the stubbornness that Jiang Xu was familiar with and hated, along with a hint of arrogance that refused to admit defeat. As if aware of his gaze, Shi Wan's eyelashes trembled slightly. The next moment, she adopted an even more defiant stance, while her other free hand rubbed something against her body.
Jiang Xu remained silent for a few moments, as many unpleasant memories of the past flooded his mind. After a while, his tone softened slightly, "...I'm worried about your health." His words carried a rare, almost clumsy, compromise, "Putting everything else aside, this ginger soup was made by the imperial chef according to a common recipe."
As he spoke, he briefly shifted his gaze to the window frame, as if trying to escape. Outside, the snow was falling softly; the tiny snowflakes that had fallen just half an hour earlier were now drifting down in large flakes, like a huge veil covering the sky and dimming the bright moonlight.
Shi Wan followed his gaze and looked over. The next moment, she suddenly heard a noise. She turned around and saw Jiang Xu holding the soup, as if he wanted her to take a sip first.
She spoke first, "Give it to me."
Jiang Xu was stunned, staring at her, frozen in place.
Shi Wan did not look at him again, but reached out and took the warm celadon bowl. Her fingertips inevitably touched his briefly before quickly separating.
With a hint of weary compromise in her voice, she said, "...Thank you." After speaking, she lowered her head and sipped the ginger soup slowly. The rising steam blurred Shi Wan's lowered eyes, and for a moment, she appeared docile and gentle, a stark contrast to her previous sarcasm and aggression.
The room fell silent again, with only the woman's soft swallowing sounds remaining.
Jiang Xu stared at the scene before him. Seeing that Shi Wan was finally willing to accept his little bit of "goodwill," his tense body relaxed slightly for a moment, but that extremely clear understanding still burned his whole heart every moment.
Shi Wan did not love him.
Can......
But he loved Shiwan.
Countless possibilities swirled in his mind, but after a final, heart-pounding struggle, only one remained.
His heart ached, and his gums hurt from being pressed against hers. Even though he had already guessed her answer, he still couldn't help but ask, "...Can we wipe the slate clean of everything from the past?"
Jiang Xu's tone was bittersweet, "Let's start over."
Starting over? Shi Wan put down her bowl and drank a bowl of ginger soup. Her complexion did look much better, no longer as pale and pitiful as it had been a moment before.
She scoffed, "To start a new round of tormenting me?" As she spoke, perhaps recalling something extremely amusing from the past, she chuckled softly, then addressed him seriously, "Your Majesty."
Jiang Xu's pupils unconsciously contracted as he stared at her, but the words that reached his ears were even more cruel and decisive than they had been a few years ago.
"I... will kill you."
“If I had a dagger right now,” Shi Wan stared at him, speaking each word clearly, “I would plunge it into your heart, just as I did back then.”
"This time, it won't deviate by even an inch."
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Author's Note: There will be another update later tonight! [Sprinkling flowers]
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