Qin Shuying’s fingers traced his cheek, jaw, and neck.
Wherever they passed, she silently erased with her spiritual power all the feminine disguises used to soften his contours and modify his features.
She tore off the Moon-white Immortal’s Skirt, revealing underneath the thin yet clearly defined chest and narrow waist of a man.
Inside the small hut, the candlelight stretched their shadows long, casting them onto the cold, mottled wall—twisted, entangled.
Under her fierce assault, Chen Mo trembled and responded uncontrollably.
But deep within those perpetually moist eyes, there was always an enduring, lingering resistance and separation.
Even in moments of passion, his body remained tense, as if he were merely completing a task—a stiffness like ice water, dousing the burning heat in Qin Shuying’s heart time and again.
She could force the unripe melon to be eaten.
With her cultivation level, status, and methods, she could take him by force and make him a plaything who could only cling to her.
In fact, she had been doing just that.
But… it wasn’t enough.
Far from enough.
When she felt Chen Mo consciously turn his head to avoid her too-deep kiss, his body stiffly enduring her advance, she suddenly stopped.
She propped herself up and looked down at Chen Mo beneath her.
His tear tracks were still fresh, his eyes dazed with shock, the corner of his mouth slightly swollen.
“Chen Mo,” she said, her voice carrying a hint of pain. “In your heart, what exactly am I to you?”
Chen Mo was stunned by her unfamiliar emotion.
For a moment, he just stared blankly at her.
Qin Shuying tugged at the corner of her mouth in self-mockery. The smile was bitter.
“‘Zhong Wuyan when there’s trouble, Xia Yingchun when there’s none’? Only when you’re at your wit’s end, when you need someone to clean up your mess, when you need that bottle of Dragon Spine Essence to save your beloved Su Wan’er—only then do you think of me, bow your head to me, and… barely tolerate my touch, right?”
Her fingertip traced his flushed cheek, the motion carrying a tremor.
“But what about me? I help you time and again—from Yunyin Mountain to the Ten Thousand Flower Pavilion, I negotiate with Chu Yi for you, I bear the immense risks for you, and even… even knowing that someone else occupies your heart, I still, despite everything, love you.”
The word “love,” spoken from her mouth, carried a brutal frankness.
She watched Chen Mo’s eyes fly wide open, and bitterness and anger intertwined, rising.
“Even if it were a stone, wouldn’t it have warmed up after being held for so long?”
“But what about you? Chen Mo, look at me! Facing me, you’re always like this! Reserved, resistant, afraid—as if I were some kind of flood or beast, some filthy, disgusting thing! The look in your eyes when you see me… what is it like?!”
She suddenly grabbed his wrist and forced his ice-cold hand against her own chest, where her heart thundered like a drum, burning like fire.
“I know! I know you’re Su Wan’er’s husband! You have your Male Virtue, your responsibilities, your guilt!”
Her eyes were actually faintly reddening, but the light in them grew even sharper.
“But do I disgust you that much? So much that… you won’t even use me once for my sake? Won’t even betray that damn virtue of yours once? Won’t even… in your heart… lean just a little, a tiny bit, toward me?!”
Her voice nearly broke into a sob at the end, but she forced it down, turning it into an even colder accusation: “Even if it means defying morality, I want you to choose me—firmly, just once!”
These words detonated in Chen Mo’s mind.
He had never seen her so out of control, so nakedly desiring.
He had always thought Qin Shuying’s obsession with him was a preference for beauty, a paranoid possessiveness, a twisted desire to control—mixed with revenge against Su Wan’er and the pleasure of a stronger person dominating a weaker one…
He never dared to think, dared to believe, that there might actually be… love mixed in.
He felt the violent, burning heartbeat beneath his palm, and the wall of morality in his heart seemed to be struck violently again and again, developing fine cracks.
His feelings for Qin Shuying… were complicated.
When he had no way out, it was she who appeared time and again, holding up a sky for him.
He relied on her strength, even got used to her existence.
But he was Su Wan’er’s husband.
He carried an unrepayable debt of guilt and responsibility toward Su Wan’er.
The shackle of Male Virtue, instilled in him for over twenty years, almost etched into his bones, was not so easy to break.
Blame it only on… meeting Su Wan’er first.
If he had met Qin Shuying first…
No sooner had this thought arisen than he ruthlessly crushed it.
There was no “if.”
Qin Shuying watched his expression—on the verge of speaking, emotions surging, but ultimately returning to silence.
The hope in her heart, like spent ashes, gradually cooled.
But she had never been one to soften.
What she liked, even if she had to smash it to pieces, had to be hers.
That paranoid flame, amidst the ashes, kindled an even more twisted fire.
“Not speaking?” Her voice returned to icy cold.
Her tone carried the finality of burning one’s bridges. “Fine, then I’ll ask differently.”
She leaned down again, pressing close to Chen Mo, their breaths mingling.
Her gaze locked onto his eyes, not allowing him to look away.
“I know, when we do this kind of thing,” she said, her fingertip slowly gliding over his slightly flushed skin, reddened by passion, “you actually feel happy and comfortable too, right? Your body is far more honest than your mouth.”
Chen Mo’s face instantly turned scarlet; shame made him wish he could disappear.
He wanted to deny it, but under her all-seeing gaze, he couldn’t speak.
The body’s reactions did not lie.
Even if his heart resisted, under her superb techniques and intense stimulation, his body betrayed his will again and again, reaching peaks of ecstasy.
“But why is it always me taking the initiative?” Her fingertip paused at his chest, feeling his suddenly racing heartbeat.
The cold in her eyes deepened. “Do you think, no matter what, I will always want you and help you, so all you need to do is passively endure?”
“In your heart… you’ve already taken me for granted, haven’t you?”
“I haven’t…” Chen Mo refuted weakly, his voice faint as a mosquito’s whine.
“Then prove it to me.” Qin Shuying cut him off, her tone an unquestionable command, carrying an ultimatum-like threat.
“I want you to take the initiative now. Not passive endurance, not a perfunctory act. This time, I want you on top.”
Chen Mo’s eyes flew wide.
On top?
Him… take the initiative?
This… was simply…
“Otherwise,” there was no hint of a joke in her eyes, “from now on, Chu Yi’s situation, the competition matters, the Dragon Spine Essence… you’ll figure it out yourself. I, Qin Shuying, won’t be your doormat anymore.”
It was both a threat and a test.
She wanted to see if, when pushed to the brink, under her forced demand, this always reserved and shrinking man would take that step forward?
Even if it was forced initiative, she wanted to taste what it was like to be led by him.
Chen Mo was frozen.
His mind went completely blank.
Have him take the initiative?
And be on top?
This completely overturned the male-female dynamic he had internalized in this Female-dominated World.
Qin Shuying slowly released her grip on him, adjusted her position, and yielded the space above.
She lay there on the rumpled silk brocade, her ink-black hair spread out, her Dark Robe half-undone, revealing large expanses of skin like ice and snow, crystalline.
She lifted her eyes and quietly looked at him.
Her gaze was no longer a forceful plundering, but a calm waiting to be conquered.
Chen Mo stiffly propped himself up.
Sunlight streamed through the cracks in the window lattice, falling on his thin yet elegantly lined back and shoulders.
He recalled the vague images of “tough guys” and “hard men” from storybooks, from occasional conversations, and from his past life’s memories.
He tried to imitate the hazy impressions in his memory, straightening his back, attempting to make his expression look more forceful.
But to her, he still looked like a kitten trying to puff up—adorable.
He reached out a hand to touch her shoulder.
The moment his hand touched the fabric at her shoulder, he flinched as if burned.
Qin Shuying encouraged him with her eyes.
He gritted his teeth, gathered his courage again, and used force with his hand, imagining he should press her down assertively.
But the force was more clumsy than dominant.
He leaned down and kissed her with no technique, even clacking his teeth against hers from nervousness.
Then the next step…
But when he saw those eyes reflecting all his embarrassment, the little pathetic momentum he had mustered instantly collapsed.
His face flushed crimson, and his movements froze midair.
He looked exactly like a small beast backed into a corner, forced to bare its claws but utterly lacking in intimidation—pitiful and adorable instead, clumsily mimicking a predator’s posture.
Sure enough… this was it.
Watching his clumsy, stiff attempt, she felt both exasperated and amused.
He couldn’t even pretend convincingly.
Deep down, he was nothing but a gentle, virtuous husband.
Asking him to take the initiative was like asking a sheep to learn a wolf’s hunt—all show, no substance.
“Enough…”
“Just forget it.”
“You’re useless. What else can you do besides getting me all covered in your spit?”
Chen Mo was stunned.
He hadn’t expected her to say that about him.
Those words stabbed into his pride like a thorn.
If it were usual, he would have long been accustomed to bowing his head and apologizing, to being the virtuous backdrop.
But at this moment, an unprecedented rebellious feeling exploded in his heart.
Why?
Why did he have to be treated like this?
Why did he have to be toyed with by woman after woman, and then called useless?
He wasn’t useless!
He had blood and fire too!
Since you call me useless, then I’ll show you that even a useless man has a temper!
Chen Mo’s eyes changed.
Those peach blossom eyes, usually gentle and downturned with a hint of timidity, now burned with a wild flame.
Qin Shuying’s posture—fully in control, tolerating his attempt as if granting a favor—looked especially grating in his eyes.
No, this wasn’t right.
The anger of defiance crashed in his chest.
He recalled a vague image from an ancient book he had glimpsed as a child—the northern nomadic knights, images of strength, speed, and wildness.
Action came before thought.
He suddenly grabbed Qin Shuying’s wrists and pinned her arms above her head.
Qin Shuying froze for a moment, then sneered. “What? Are you going to…”
“Shut up!” Chen Mo growled.
Qin Shuying’s eyes snapped open, surprise flashing in their depths.
She felt the change in the man’s aura above her.
Before she could react, he had lowered his head and attacked with a force close to biting.