ji qingzhou felt shen rongyu invaded her lips and tongue in her muddled state between sleep and wakefulness. she slightly opened her lips, and some of the cool air of the night wind seeped inside, accompanied by the faint soul scent of shen rongyu.

    the red qi lacked such a faint fragrance, but she forgot.

    shen rongyu gently bit her lips and felt his heart beating more and more rapidly. the tip of his tongue brushed over her teeth and penetrated further in.

    ji qingzhou hugged his neck tightly and instinctively responded to him. she thought in a daze, ‘shen rongyu is really bad today.’

    shen rongyu kissed for a long time. he hugged her and confined her to a tree in front of the small courtyard. with one arm around her waist, he moved almost exactly as he did in the cultivation space.

    that red qi was the truest manifestation of his thoughts. he had never been a good person.

    when he revealed his true self, faint red phantoms of vital energy appeared on his wrists and behind his ears. behind him, a huge round silhouette vaguely emerged. it swooped down heavily, with an oppressive and smooth aura.

    ji qingzhou was so out of breath from his kisses that she parted her lips. it was not until shen rongyu withdrew that she let out a long, sweet breath.

    she closed her eyes and leaned against shen rongyu’s neck, and then fell asleep completely.

    shen rongyu’s lips brushed past her ears. his panting was muted, and when he called her in a low voice, his voice had a slightly suppressed huskiness to it.

    “wood,” he called her.

    however, ji qingzhou was already asleep and could no longer respond to him.

    this made shen rongyu realize that she was not sober when she had kissed him just now.

    he might not be awake either.

    shen rongyu raised his head and a drop of sweat fell from the corner of his forehead. it slipped down his delicate jawline and landed on ji qingzhou’s lapel.

    he tightened his arms around her waist, then carried her up. next, he pushed her courtyard door open with his feet.

    ji qingzhou’s small courtyard was quiet. the water in the small pond in the courtyard was much colder in autumn, and the fish that were swimming happily hid at the bottom of the water to rest.

    maomao was sleeping in a corner of the small courtyard. hearing the sound of the door being pushed, he raised his head vigilantly. when he saw shen rongyu and ji qingzhou, he lowered his head again, buried his head, and continued to sleep.

    shen rongyu carried ji qingzhou onto the bed. she felt that she had returned to her own bed, so she turned over on the bed, rolled a few times, and moved to the innermost side.

    she yanked the quilt beside the bed and skillfully covered her head.

    shen rongyu hadn’t observed her closely before, and only now did he realize that ji qingzhou’s sleeping posture was quite odd. she was so afraid of the outside world that she wrapped herself up tightly even while sleeping.

    he leaned forward, and the jade pendant on his waist dangled on the bed. he lifted ji qingzhou’s quilt covering her head a bit, at least so she wouldn’t be smothered.

    but as soon as he pulled the quilt away, ji qingzhou yanked the quilt back and shrank inside.

    shen rongyu continued to open a bit of space while ji qingzhou worked tirelessly to yank it back until shen rongyu put his hand to the corner where the quilt originally was.

    ji qingzhou was fast asleep. all her actions were subconscious, and so when she tried to pull the quilt once more, what she got was shen rongyu’s hand.

    regardless of the object, as long as it could cover her, ji qingzhou wasn’t picky, so she took shen rongyu’s hand and covered her head.

    shen rongyu spread his palm just enough to cover her head and then stared at ji qingzhou motionlessly.

    ji qingzhou didn’t realize that her new quilt was leaking air. she let his hand rest on her and went back to sleep.

    of course, in the end, shen rongyu didn’t stay with her the whole night. after confirming that she was completely asleep, he put the quilt back on her and walked out of her room.

    after closing the door behind him, shen rongyu raised his head, looked at the crescent moon in the sky, and lightly touched his lips with his bent fingers…the feeling of kissing her was very familiar and comforting, but even the familiar touch still stimulated his nerves every time their lips and tongues tangled.

    unfamiliar yet familiar, what remained unchanged was the fiery heat. shen rongyu lowered his eyes and brooded over it for a long time.

    he was trying to figure out the reason why ji qingzhou kissed him — some time ago, he had just told her the meaning of kissing, it was a way of expressing love.

    express love…

    as soon as shen rongyu’s thoughts touched this point, he stopped. this was an utterly unfamiliar field to him.

    he stopped thinking about it any further. he just walked to the small pavilion in the courtyard, leaned on the seat along the water, drew out his burial snow sword, and slowly cleaned his long sword that never left his side.

    shen rongyu didn’t leave because he promised ji qingzhou to stay with her.

    of course, when ji qingzhou woke up the next day, she had already forgotten the kiss last night. after all, she had kissed him many times in the cultivation space, so one more time wasn’t worth remembering.

    after ji qingzhou got up, she scratched her head. she opened the door, intending to take a breath of fresh air in the courtyard first.

    however, she saw shen rongyu leaning against the small pavilion in the courtyard. she was startled. she tapped her toes on the ground, not knowing whether to step out or not.

    memories of last night suddenly flooded into her mind. it seemed that after she got tired from cultivating, shen rongyu carried her and sent her back.

    d-did she actually put forward such an excessive demand on him? ji qingzhou was overwhelmed. she stared blankly at shen rongyu until he opened his eyes and glanced at her.

    ji qingzhou’s eyes immediately shot somewhere else uneasily as she greeted him, “xiao yu-shixiong…”

    shen rongyu only saw the pinkish blush on her cheeks when she turned sideways, she wasn’t as terribly shy as he’d thought she would be… it seemed that she had completely forgotten what happened last night.

    this piece of wood was quite forgetful.