Scratches
After Jiu Che left, the side hall was not entirely quiet. The lingering heat of last night still flowed beneath his skin, intertwined with a nameless unease. His sudden return after disappearing for more than ten days, his out-of-control state, the new wound on his back... all shrouded Qi Yuan's heart like a mystery.
As evening fell, he arrived as scheduled. He had changed his clothes and regained his usual cool and neat appearance, but there was a trace of weariness between his brows and eyes, and deep in his clear eyes, it seemed that there was an undercurrent flowing silently.
He put down the food box, but instead of checking on the orchids or leaving quickly as usual, he walked to the window, stood beside Qi Yuan, and together they watched the setting sun outside. The twilight gilded his snow-white figure with a lonely golden edge.
A silence spread between the two, unlike the usual confrontations or awkwardness, but a heavy stillness filled with unspoken words.
After a long silence, Jiu Che suddenly spoke, his voice low and deep, breaking the stillness, and asked a question that made Qi Yuan's heart stop:
“Qi Yuan,” he said, looking out the window, his profile blurred in the twilight, “If one day… I die.”
Qi Yuan suddenly turned to look at him, his pupils shrinking slightly.
He slowly turned his head, his gaze like the deepest night, locking onto her, surging with a frenzy and vulnerability she had never seen before:
Will you forget me?
"..." Qi Yuan's throat tightened, and he couldn't speak for a moment. How could he have asked such a question? He was the powerful Nine-Headed Immortal Lord, who cultivated the Path of Ruthlessness and lived as long as heaven and earth...
Before she could answer, Jiu Che suddenly took a step closer, cupping her face in his hands. His fingertips trembled slightly, but the force was undeniable. He gazed into the depths of her eyes, as if trying to imprint his own image into them, his voice hoarse and persistent:
"I don't want you to forget me."
"Whether I am alive or dead, immortal or demon..."
His thumb gently caressed her chin, his eyes filled with a destructive possessiveness:
"I want you to always have only me in your heart."
"Only I can exist."
His words, like the hottest lava and the coldest curse, struck Qi Yuan's heart hard. There were no sweet words, no vows of eternal love, only this almost barbaric declaration filled with despair.
Looking into his eyes, at the undisguised obsession and deep-seated fear, she suddenly understood. She understood why he had lost control last night, what he had experienced over the past ten days, and the source of his current unease. The path of ruthlessness might sever emotional ties, but it could not sever the instinctive possessiveness and fear of loss that had long been ingrained in his bones.
She once thought that she had fallen in love first and revealed her weakness first.
Only now did she truly see what a turbulent and desperate deep sea lay hidden within this seemingly cold and ruthless immortal lord.
She didn't struggle, simply letting him cup her face, her gaze locked with his. After a long while, she finally raised her hand and gently placed it on the back of his slightly cool hand, her voice soft yet carrying a resolute strength:
"Won't."
The madness and vulnerability in Jiu Che's eyes froze simultaneously.
Qi Yuan looked at him and said clearly, word by word:
I will never forget you.
“Jiu Che,” she called his name, as if making an eternal vow, or as if simply stating the simplest truth, “whether you are alive or dead, immortal or demon…”
"There is no room for anyone else in my heart."
Long, long ago, perhaps from that night of the Starfire Festival, or perhaps even earlier, before she even realized it, her heart, which had been frozen for a thousand years, had quietly changed hands.
She simply refused to admit it, concealing it layer by layer with hatred and scheming.
Until this moment, his obsessive and desperate declaration completely shattered all pretense.
Jiu Che stared intently at her, at the unwavering seriousness and resolve in her eyes, mirroring his own. The turbulent undercurrent in his eyes gradually subsided, transforming into a bottomless tranquility, tinged with both pain and ecstasy.
He lowered his head, forehead to forehead, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath, as if trying to etch her scent into his soul.
There was no kiss, no further intimacy.
They simply nestled together quietly in the deepening twilight, like two trapped beasts finally finding each other in a blizzard, confirming each other's presence with their body heat.
He won't let go.
She will not forget either.
This ill-fated relationship that has lasted for a century,
They had already become part of each other's souls.
The deepest engraving.
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