“You’ve been left out in the cold at Jiaoyue Peak for seven years, watched by those female cultivators with their half-smiles, hearing people talk behind your back about that virtuous Lord. You think I don’t know what that feels like?”
Her fingers climbed up his face, softly stroking the corners of his eyes.
“Now someone is willing to want you, willing to protect you, and willing to give you a life ten thousand times better than before — don’t you feel happy in your heart?”
Shen Mo looked into her eyes.
In those eyes, there was fire, heat, and something else he couldn’t read.
It wasn’t contempt.
It wasn’t disdain.
It was something else.
Like she was confirming something.
“I don’t…” he started, his voice dry.
“You don’t?” She smiled slightly. The smile was faint, but it made his heart tighten. “Then why are you trembling?”
Shen Mo was speechless.
He was indeed trembling.
His whole body was shaking.
It wasn’t because of the cold.
It was something else.
He couldn’t put into words what it was.
“Leave Su Wan’er,” she said again. This time she leaned closer, so close the tip of her nose almost touched his face. “Be with me. From now on, you are my person. No one will dare touch even a single finger of yours.”
Her hand slid down from his face to his neck, landing on the toggle button of his collar.
Her fingertips were very cold.
So cold that he shivered.
“Peak Master Qin — “
“Call me by my name.”
She interrupted him, her finger hooking lightly.
The button came undone.
His inner garment fell open, and a cold draft rushed in, making his entire body shudder.
He instinctively raised his hand to cover himself, but she grabbed his wrist and pinned it against the wall of the cage.
“Don’t hide.”
She lowered her head, moving close to his neck.
Her breath was cool as it fell on his skin, provoking a fine layer of tremors.
“Do you know,” her voice was low, carrying an indescribable meaning, “how long I have waited to find someone worth a second look?”
Shen Mo’s throat tightened.
He didn’t know.
He didn’t know anything at all.
“300 years,” she said. “From the day I began my cultivation, from the day I started walking this path alone, I have waited for 300 years.”
Her lips fell upon his neck.
It was very light.
Light as a snowflake.
But when that snowflake landed, Shen Mo’s body stiffened violently.
“Don’t…”
That single word squeezed out of his throat, raspy and sounding nothing like his own voice.
Qin Shuying looked up at him.
Her gaze fell on his face, seeing the redness at the corners of his eyes, his trembling lips, and the thin layer of watery mist in his eyes.
Something flashed in the depths of her eyes.
Like fire, yet like something else.
“Don’t?” she repeated softly, the corners of her lips curving slightly. “Is it that you truly don’t want to, or that you don’t dare to think about it?”
Shen Mo opened his mouth, but no words came out.
She was right.
He indeed didn’t dare to think about it.
It had been seven years.
For seven years, no one had ever asked him what he wanted.
He had learned how to read account books, how to distribute elixirs, and how to bow with neither servility nor arrogance under the mocking gazes of those female cultivators before withdrawing as if nothing were wrong.
He thought this was just what life was.
He thought his life would be like this forever.
But now, someone was pinning him against the wall of a cage and saying — be with me.
She wasn’t asking if he was willing.
She was telling him that she wanted him.
The feeling was too foreign.
So foreign that he didn’t know how to react.
“You… let go…”
He struggled, but his struggle was weak. When it landed on her, it was like a tickle.
Watching him like this, the twin flames in Qin Shuying’s eyes burned even brighter.
When her hand reached into his robe, Shen Mo’s blood ran cold.
He leaned against the wall, his whole body limp and devoid of strength.
Saving the Spirit Crane just now had exhausted all his spiritual power. At this moment, he didn’t even have the strength to lift his hand.
But Qin Shuying’s hand was very powerful.
That hand was long and elegant like jade, with the thin calluses of a sword cultivator on the pads of her fingers.
It reached into his open robe, pressing against his skin as it slid downward slowly. Everywhere it passed, it stirred a wave of fine tremors.
Shen Mo’s breathing grew ragged.
“Stop…” his voice trembled.
“I won’t.” Qin Shuying’s voice came from above. It wasn’t loud, but it carried an unquestionable weight. “Unless you call me Master.”
She looked down at him, her eyes as deep as an abyss, cold flames burning within them.
Shen Mo opened his mouth, but he couldn’t bring himself to say those two words.
Qin Shuying was in no hurry.
Her hand continued downward, sliding past his collarbone and chest. It paused for a moment over the slight rise of his chest before —
Continuing further down.
Shen Mo’s entire body went rigid.
He wanted to push her away, but his arms fell back down weakly halfway through.
He wanted to hide, but there was a wall behind him and nowhere to go. He could only lie there, letting that hand wander like a fish pressed onto a chopping block.
“Ma… Master!” he finally cried out, his voice incredibly hoarse.
The hand stopped.
Qin Shuying looked at him, the flames in her eyes flickering.
“You’re finally willing to say it?” she said softly, her tone carrying a hint of satisfaction. “Say it again.”
Shen Mo grit his teeth and remained silent.
Qin Shuying waited for a moment, but nothing came.
Her hand moved again.
This time, it was faster and more direct than before.
Shen Mo’s breath hitched violently.
His clothes had been completely pulled open, revealing a large expanse of pale skin.
There was no fire in the small hut of the Spirit Beast Garden, and the late winter chill was bone-piercing, yet his whole body was burning hot — he didn’t know if her hand was too hot or if he was burning up himself.
“Qin… Master…” his voice shook with a hint of pleading. “Please don’t…”
Qin Shuying leaned down.
Her face was inches away, her eyes reflecting his disheveled state.
Strands of hair were stuck to his forehead with sweat, the corners of his eyes were red, and his lips were bitten pale.
Looking at him like this, the flames in her eyes burned even more intensely.
“Don’t?” she repeated softly, her thumb brushing against his burning cheek. “Then why are you so excited?”
Shen Mo couldn’t answer.
He didn’t know why his body was so wretched.
It always rhythmically trembled in cooperation.
Qin Shuying looked at the complex emotions in his eyes, and the corners of her lips curved slightly.
“Shen Mo,” she lowered her head and leaned toward his ear, her voice as low as a lover’s whisper.
“From the first moment I saw you in the Marketplace,” her breath hit his ear, making him shake, “you were standing in a pool of blood, covered in it, yet you stood perfectly straight. From that single look, I knew — “
Her lips lightly brushed against his earlobe.
“I want you.”
Shen Mo’s mind buzzed.
He wanted to struggle, to resist, and to push the person on top of him away.
But he couldn’t move.
His hands gripped the straw beneath him so tightly his knuckles turned white.
Qin Shuying’s lips slid from his ear to his neck, landing on his pulsing pulse point. Her tongue flicked out for a light lick —
Shen Mo’s whole body jolted violently.
It was a sensation he had never experienced before.
Like an electric current surging through his body, like a fire, like drowning, like something exploding deep within him.
He almost cried out.
But he bit his lip, suppressing the sound deep in his throat.
Qin Shuying looked up at his state.
She saw his tightly bitten lips, his reddened eyes, and his body trembling slightly from endurance.
She smiled.
The smile was deeper than before, carrying a sense of sated satisfaction.
She had never seen someone like this.
Clearly terrified to death, clearly dying of shame, yet gritting his teeth without making a sound.
Even though his whole body was shaking, he didn’t beg for mercy again.
He was as stubborn as a small beast.
It made one want to —
Crush him completely.
She leaned down, wanting to kiss his lips.
Shen Mo’s breath hitched, and he turned his head away.
“I love her.”
Qin Shuying’s movements stopped.
She looked up at him.
Shen Mo met her gaze.
The panic and helplessness in his eyes were gone. Something in them had changed.
“I love Wan’er,” he said word by word. His voice was hoarse, but it had steadied. “I love my wife.”
Qin Shuying looked at him and said nothing.
But her hand stopped.
“Seven years,” Shen Mo continued, his gaze never wavering. “She was in seclusion for seven years, and I waited for seven years. I know she doesn’t treat me well, I know she doesn’t care about me, and I know that in the eyes of all of you, I am just a husband who manages her affairs, someone who is dispensable — “
His voice trembled slightly, but he took a deep breath and steadied it.
“But I love her.”
Qin Shuying’s brow twitched slightly.
It was a very subtle change, so subtle it was almost imperceptible.
But Shen Mo saw it.
He saw the flames in her eyes flicker.
“From the first day I married into Jiaoyue Peak,” he said, “she has been the only person I will ever love in this life.”
The small hut was silent.
It was so quiet that the rustling of the wind blowing through the dead branches outside could be heard.
Qin Shuying laughed.
The laughter was different from before.
There was no coldness, no playfulness, and none of the predatory satisfaction from earlier.
She just laughed.
Because she saw through his desire, she didn’t believe his words.
Shen Mo’s expression turned solemn.
He said word for word, “If you continue, I will trigger a core self-detonation.”
Qin Shuying’s pupils constricted violently.
“You — “
“My cultivation may be low,” Shen Mo interrupted, his voice as calm as if he were talking about someone else, “and my self-detonation won’t hurt you in the slightest. But I will die.”
He looked into her eyes.
“You don’t believe me?”
His hand slowly rose, pressing against the location of his Dantian.
There, a faint light was beginning to surge.
Looking at that light, the expression on Qin Shuying’s face finally changed.
It was real.
He really would self-detonate.
He really would die.
She had seen countless people die before her; some she had killed, others had been killed by someone else. She had never so much as blinked.
But at this moment, looking at this man, looking at his calm eyes and his hand pressed against his Dantian —
Her chest suddenly felt as if it were being squeezed by something.
“You’re crazy.”
She heard her own voice, and it was a bit raspy.
Shen Mo didn’t answer.
He just looked at her, his gaze as calm as water.
Beneath that calm was something she couldn’t understand.
It wasn’t fear.
It wasn’t hate.
It was simply —
Finality.
Qin Shuying looked at him for a long time.
So long that the moonlight outside shifted by one inch, and the Spirit Crane in the corner rolled over, making a slight rustling sound.
“Tonight, I won’t touch you.”
Shen Mo’s breath hitched.
The wariness in his eyes had not yet faded, but a hint of daze was added to it.
Qin Shuying leaned close to him, her breath hitting his ear, making him shiver.
“But you must give me some compensation.”
The word compensation was spoken very softly.
As light as a dead leaf falling on snow.
As light as the tide quietly rising in the night.
But it was precisely this lightness that made Shen Mo’s heart tighten.
His fingertips gripped the straw beneath him so hard his knuckles turned white.
He wanted to say something, to refuse, to push her away, but his throat felt as if it were blocked by something, and he couldn’t squeeze out a single word.
“What?” she asked. “Unwilling?”
Shen Mo looked at her.
He looked at the fire in those eyes.
He couldn’t escape.
He knew he couldn’t escape.
His hands gripped the straw tightly, his knuckles white.
The watery mist in his eyes was almost overflowing.
Looking at him like that, Qin Shuying’s heart ached again.
But this time, she didn’t soften.
Because in that instant, she saw in his eyes —
It wasn’t just fear.
There was something else.
Something he didn’t dare admit.
“Shen Mo,” she whispered his name.
“Open your mouth.”
Those words were as light as a feather.
Shen Mo’s face instantly flushed red.
The redness spread from his cheeks to the tips of his ears, clearly visible under the moonlight.
Watching that flush, Qin Shuying felt as if something had lightly scratched her heart.