Chapter 563: Don’t Drop Me

    Gu Luoxin gawked at him, utterly baffled. A-A good place? What kind of place could be considered good to such an aloof man like Noir?

    Alas, before he could delve deeper into that line of thoughts, Noir made a move.

    He wrapped an arm around Gu Luoxin’s shoulders and bent down, while his other arm hooked beneath the young man’s knees. And the next thing Gu Luoxin knew, his feet were swept off the ground and he found himself cradled securely in Noir’s arms!

    "S–Senior...?!" Shocked, Gu Luoxin instinctively clung to the man’s shoulder for purchase. He stared wide-eyed in fluster at the gorgeous face which was now so close to him, close enough that he only needed to tilt his head to brush his lips against Noir’s chin...

    No, snap out of it, Gu Luoxin! Don’t you dare get your mind down the gutter!

    "W-W-What are you..." he stammered, struggling to form a coherent sentence with his clumsy tongue to no avail. He was so nervous that he almost forgot how to breathe properly. His entire body tensed like a piece of rock and his heart pounded so frantically he was afraid it would leap out of his throat the very next second. He did not even need to look at a mirror to know that his face must be as red as a ripe tomato right now.

    Oh God, this... could someone tell him what was going on? Why would Senior... all of a sudden?!

    He held his breath sharply when their eyes locked in mid-air.

    Gu Luoxin had always known how weak he was toward Noir’s eyes. Those mesmerizing emerald orbs seemed to carry a magical allure capable of holding him captive— every single time without fail. And now, being pinned under this soul-stirring gaze, his mind nearly broke down and ceased all logical operations.

    His shoulders tingled from where Noir’s large hand had grasped it, and he couldn’t quite tell whether the wave of searing heat that swept through him like a tidal wave was due to embarrassment or the man’s body temperature which traveled over through several layers of thick clothing, or the faint scent of refreshing grass and sunshine which he later identified as the other person’s natural scent...

    He only knew that he was hot, so unbearably hot, like he was being grilled under the scorching midday sun.

    Then he saw Noir’s lips parted, and his muddled mind faintly registered a sentence laced with warning,

    "Don’t scream, or I will drop you."

    Gu Luoxin stared at him blankly, his mind lagging a beat.

    In the next second, Noir pushed open the door and walked out. The sudden drop of temperature and the bone-chilling gust of winter night sent a shiver through Gu Luoxin, returning a semblance of clarity to his overheated mind. The words Noir had just said spun around his head twice before he snapped his gaze to the man, his expression morphing into one of horror.

    He had a very, very bad feeling about this.

    "Don’t tell me you— AHHHH!"

    Along with a series of eerie creaking sounds, a pair of huge bone wings sprouted out of Noir’s back as he shot off toward the sky!

    Noir was rendered speechless as he glanced at the screaming Gu Luoxin, who was clinging to his neck for dear life, almost suffocating him to death. The high decibel shriek pierced through his eardrums, causing the veins on his forehead to throb.

    "Do you want me to drop you?" he gritted out.

    He made a move to drop Gu Luoxin, his arms loosening ever so slightly, giving poor Gu Luoxin such a big fright that his scream was cut off short in an instant, hiccuping. His round eyes glimmered with a faint sheen of moisture as he gazed at Noir with such an aggrieved and pitiful look, like a small helpless animal that had just been bullied mercilessly.

    "D-Don’t..." he choked out, glancing fearfully at the distant city beneath his feet only to squeeze his eyes shut in the very next second. He unwittingly leaned closer to Noir to seek a little sense of safety, his voice carrying a vulnerable tremor, "Please don’t drop me, Senior..."

    His warm and moist breath fanned Noir’s neck, giving rise to a ticklish sensation. Noir’s expression turned odd in an instant. During that split second lapse of attention, he nearly collided with a passing bird, but fortunately his quick reflexes kicked in and saved them from any tragic accident that could have happened.

    "Clack clack!

    " The startled bird squawked at him furiously before flapping its wings away, leaving behind a thick air of contempt.

    Noir: "..."

    Great, this had never happened to him before.

    Gu Luoxin noticed none of this blunder, however. He was still overwhelmed with sheer terror over the threat Noir had just thrown out, his hands clutching the fabric on Noir’s shoulders until his knuckles whitened, head tucked deeply into the crook of Noir’s neck like a hiding ostrich. He was desperately clinging on and pressing his body as close as possible to his only anchor amidst the boundless night sky— the embarrassment, reservation, and any decorum be damned!

    As much as he wanted to believe that Noir wouldn’t be so cruel to drop him from this high altitude, he suddenly recalled an instance in the City of Atlantis, when Noir picked him up by the collar when their cruise ship capsized, only to toss him into a massive oceanic whirlpool like a bowling ball.

    He had done it once, who said he couldn’t do it for the second time? Dropping someone in midair did sound like something his sadistic and black-hearted senior would do!

    For the sake of his little fragile life, Gu Luoxin chose to keep his mouth sealed and his eyes squeezed shut. Heavens, he absolutely could not afford to provoke this Great God!

    The howl of the wind echoed loudly past his ears, whipping his hair into a mess. Gu Luoxin finally realized why Noir had taken off his woolen hat earlier. So this was what the man had been planning all along!

    Suspended in the vast expanse of the sky, time seemed to lose all meaning. Gu Luoxin couldn’t tell how long they had been flying, but he slowly found himself getting used to the thrilling sensation of his legs dangling in midair, his body supported only by Noir’s strong and powerful arms.

    Judging from the intensity of the wind, he could more or less perceive that they were going at quite a high speed right now. Yet Noir’s arms remained stable throughout, never budging or faltering, and somehow it gave Gu Luoxin an enormous sense of... security.

    His tense body gradually relaxed, his clenched fingers loosening. From where his head had been leaning on, he could faintly make out a steady and soothing rhythm, and it took him a while to realize that— oh, it was his senior’s heartbeat.

    Ba-thump. Ba-thump. Ba-thump.

    How beautiful...

    Gu Luoxin swore he had never heard anything as beautiful as this.

    A sudden wave of longing seized his heart, leaving him aching with want and turning his breath slightly disordered. Held in Noir’s arms, surrounded by the warmth Noir radiated, sensing Noir’s breath and scent closeby... oh how dangerously easy could he get addicted to this. To the special feeling as if they were the only ones left in this boundless world.

    Gu Luoxin had been frightened out of his wits earlier, but now he found himself wishing... with every fiber of his being, he wished that this moment could last a little longer, even if it’s just for a minute or a second more. He wished to engrave this once-in-a-lifetime instance into his mind, body, and soul and turn it into a keepsake to visit and savor whenever he started to miss Noir in the future. He wished for it so damn badly.

    Driven by an inexplicable surge of impulse, he was about to nuzzle closer to Noir, when he heard the man say above him,

    "Open your eyes."