Chapter 162 Chapter 162 "Should I call you Lan Qi or uncle...
The scene before him made Jiu Zhao feel incredible.
From Wujiu taking out the key to unlock the chains, to her being brought to the demon army camp, to this moment when Zhu Yan applied medicine to her.
Everything seemed like a dream she had imagined to deceive herself because she had been imprisoned for too long and was about to go crazy.
But soon, Jiu Zhao calmed down again.
Because she knew that no matter what, Zhu Yan would never appear in her dreams.
Even if it appears, the picture cannot be filled with warmth.
Jiu Zhao opened his eyes and looked at the top of the tent without saying a word.
Her long and light breathing gave the young man immersed in the medicine the illusion that she had not yet woken up.
There were too many wounds visible to the naked eye. After applying the cream on his knees, Zhu Yan raised his hand slightly, hesitating whether to go up or down. The thin silk wrapped around the body of an adult woman. If he distracted his attention and took a closer look, he would feel an extremely abnormal rhythm at his pulse.
Zhu Yan didn't want to challenge his own willpower, and immediately lowered his long eyelashes.
Fingers covered with ointment stroked the delicate skin of the calf near the bones.
In the past years when they were close to each other, he had personally worshipped and measured every part of Jiuzhao.
The treasure he cherished turned into a piece of cracked porcelain.
As he applied the cream, Zhu Yan couldn't suppress his heartache and pity. He unconsciously bent down his neck and kissed Jiu Zhao's instep, which still had fresh scabs.
The kiss was very gentle, like a dragonfly touching the water or a white feather brushing against it.
Jiu Zhao has always been sensitive and ticklish.
This time, the body's conditioned reflex came first. The arch of the foot that was kissed trembled, and the small toes curled inward tightly.
Unable to continue pretending to be unconscious, Jiu Zhao glanced sideways.
Zhu Yan, who immediately caught this, reacted faster than her - he half raised his beautiful face like a spring flower, and the look he cast over first revealed his surprise at Jiu Zhao's awakening, and then, followed by the uneasiness of a child who had done something wrong.
"Zhao Niang..."
Her eyelashes fluttered nervously.
Zhu Yan opened his lips and whispered out the old nickname.
In response, Jiu Zhao looked at him without saying anything.
That look had nothing to do with love or hate, but it could hardly hide his weariness.
During the three thousand years of separation, Zhu Yan had imagined countless scenes of reunion, accusations, insults, questions, tears... Even if Jiu Zhao didn't give him any chance to explain and wanted to kill him when they met, he thought it was normal - but he never thought that she would look at him like this, as if looking at a stranger.
My heart felt a silent, needle-like pain.
Zhu Yan's eyes, filled with love and longing, suddenly came to his senses. He reached out and grasped Jiu Zhao's left wrist, which was only a bony mass, and pleaded, "Zhao Niang, Zhao Niang, can you please stop looking at me like that? I was wrong about what happened in the past. I swear, from now on, I will protect you well—"
The young man's thin lips kept opening and closing, his words still carrying unexpressed emotion.
Having acknowledged the mistake and repented, the next step should be to explain in detail the cause of the betrayal.
However, he swallowed it back after barely uttering a syllable that sounded ambiguous, and simply changed the subject: "Zhao Niang, you don't have to worry about anything. The Three Pure Heavens won't bother you. Just rest well here and eat whatever you want. There are maids outside, and you can ring the golden bell beside the bed."
Following the direction he pointed, Jiu Zhao saw a small bell hanging under a bronze frame.
It is indeed within half an arm's length, and you can shake it just by reaching out your hand, which is very convenient.
Zhu Yan has a considerate personality and is considerate in everything.
This was also the important reason why Jiu Zhao chose him as the second king.
The little tricks that once impressed her are now reappearing, but with an added touch of irony.
Jiu Zhao's eyes lingered on the golden bell for a brief moment before quickly turning away. Ignoring Zhu Yan's ever-following gaze, she tilted her head, her gaze moving from his tightly clenched wrist to his face—his red pupils, aside from a hint of doubt, remained calm.
Without the support of words, every change in a person's reaction becomes a difficult puzzle to solve.
Zhu Yan only felt that her expression seemed to be wondering why the demons, who were his enemy, would provide him with shelter. It also seemed like she was wondering why he was so tactless when he was holding her hand and talking so much to her when they clearly had no relationship.
The more he thought about it, the more Zhu Yan's mind became out of control, and many bad thoughts popped up.
Hate is the dark side of love.
If hatred is gone, how much love will be left?
He had been thinking about her for a thousand years, and had also regretted it for a thousand years. After much hard work, he finally achieved the current situation.
Are we forced to accept that we will become strangers from now on?
No, no—
The thought stops here.
He was afraid that if he stayed any longer, he would reveal a hideous and distorted expression and scare Jiu Zhao.
Zhu Yan used his clothes to cover his face and pinched her thigh hard. Creating pain became the best way for him to calm down.
He forced a smile: "Zhao Niang, are you too tired to talk to me? It's okay, I'll come to see you later."
After saying that, he rubbed the back of Jiu Zhao's hand with his fingertips reluctantly.
He stood up, looking back every few steps until his figure disappeared behind the curtain.
…
He remained lying flat, only moving his eyes around.
It turns out to be very tiring.
Jiu Zhao, who was keen on lying down like a corpse, looked up at the sky again.
Zhu Yan's sudden visit did not cause any ripples in her heart.
Nonsense mutterings echoed in her mind, and in the blink of an eye, a witch with a human face and a dragon body appeared before her.
"Would you like me to disinfect the place where that slutty fox kissed you?"
He raised the corners of his lips towards Jiu Zhao, cursing Zhu Yan in dirty words, and his dragon body stretched infinitely, floating to the instep of her feet to "look at" her carefully.
The eyes of that face were still covered with the silk ribbons she had tied with her own hands.
Although he couldn't see anything, Jiu Zhao had the inexplicable feeling that there were a pair of sharp eyes behind the white silk that could see through everything.
She moved, carefully avoiding the wound, and turned her body half sideways.
With lips pursed tightly together, they spoke in a voice that only they could hear: "No, you know you can't touch me at all."
After a thousand years of companionship, Wu Zhu had long been accustomed to Jiu Zhao's discouraging and cold-water way of speaking.
He circled around her feet and then retracted his gaze: "Now that you're out, don't you have any other plans?"
Jiu Zhao asked back: "What's your plan?"
"That vixen deceived you. Given your past personality, wouldn't you have skinned him alive?"
"You said that was in the past. What am I now? In the Sunless Abyss, if you hadn't for forcing yourself to take over my body every time the thunder punishment came, transferring most of your strength to the cold iron chains, I would have died long ago. Now that I'm alive, I'm just a cripple who can't even walk steadily."
Wu Zhu turned a deaf ear to Jiu Zhao's self-deprecation, only thinking, "Don't you want to see what the Three Pure Heavens have become after three thousand years? Also, what conspiracy are the demons planning after they rescued you from the Sunless Abyss?"
Jiu Zhao yawned. "Why should I go and see? I'm neither a demon nor an immortal. The grudges between the two worlds have nothing to do with me. The demons came to capture me, just to make a plan with the Three Pure Ones. They think the Phoenix Blood in me is still useful.
"Whatever, death doesn't matter whose hands it is. The demons can kill me if they want."
When she once again expressed her wish not to live, the smile on Wu Zhu's lips disappeared.
He suddenly leaned closer, his face magnified exponentially, hovering just between his eyebrows, and asked abruptly, "Do you really want to die?"
Jiu Zhao nodded.
"You might as well think about it carefully. If you were determined to die, how could I have been born?"
After asking this, without waiting for Jiu Zhao to answer, he changed his expression with a flick of his fingers, sneered mischievously, and when Jiu Zhao wasn't paying attention, he kissed her lips, "Well, well, I'm dead, why should I hope you live? When you give up the constraints of the flesh, we will be a pair of happy ghost mandarin ducks."
Just as Jiu Zhao said, Wu Zhu couldn't touch her at all.
When the kiss fell, the corresponding part of the skin had no feeling at all.
But the sudden attack is still annoying.
Jiu Zhao weakly raised her hand and waved it in front of her eyes. The witch who was still laughing at her suddenly disintegrated when it touched her palm and turned back into a wisp of dark demonic energy.
She was accustomed to such scenes.
However, after a few words of bickering, I lost my sleepiness.
She felt that the silk wrapping was a little inappropriate to wear, so she picked up the new clothes hanging at the end of the bed and put them on slowly.
He lay back down and continued to stare at the top, letting his mind go blank.
…
At night, Zhu Yan still did not fulfill his promise to come visit later.
The fire outside the tent gradually lit up, and Jiu Zhao heard a commotion.
It looked as if some important figure had returned, and the demons were surrounding him, vying with each other to flatter and curry favor.
She is not interested in who comes and goes, she just wants to sleep.
He fumbled around for a few moments, grabbed the piece of silk that had been replaced, and tore it into two pieces, each half the length of a finger. He was panting heavily and had spent a lot of effort.
Stuffing a piece of cloth into the ear hole acts as a plug, which reduces the noise a lot.
Jiu Zhao breathed a sigh of relief—
She had been in prison for three thousand years, either being struck to death by the Nine Heavens Thunder, or often suffering from wounds that were so painful that she could do nothing and just wanted to kill herself. It was a rare opportunity for her to lie on a soft bed and rest peacefully. Even if Wu Jiu regretted his decision and wanted to send her back the next morning, she would still get enough sleep.
Jiu Zhao closed his eyes deeply, listening to the lively and flashy singing and dancing in the main tent.
I didn't sleep until dawn.
Late in the night, the maids came in one after another and woke her up softly.
"Fairy, the Lord has summoned you."
The entire Burning Sea belongs to Karma Master Lan Qi, so Zhu Yan’s order not to disturb them naturally loses its effect.
Considering Jiu Zhao's serious injuries and her unsteady walking, two maids supported and carried her to the main tent in front.
When they arrived at their destination, the considerate girls refused to step in.
There was no other way, Jiu Zhao had to hold on to the tent wall and pull open the thick curtain with his other hand.
The banquet was over and all the seats, wine and food were cleared away.
The sound of gurgling water in the spacious space came from behind the screen several feet away.
The candlelight flickered, and a tall figure was reflected on the screen. Judging from the shape, it seemed that the figure was naked.
Jiu Zhao moved over, found a chair and sat down, staring at the screen intently.
After a while, the figure stopped bathing.
He wore hakama and pants, with his clothes wide open, and walked out leisurely in the garden.
Jiu Zhao raised his head, calm and composed: "Should I call you Lan Qi, or uncle?"
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