Liu Yinuo’s mind went blank for a moment, but she quickly snapped back.
“Had a nightmare? Ah, of course you can come in. I’ll push you.”
The girl shook her head and slowly wheeled herself into the room without help.
“No… it’s fine…”
Liu Yinuo briefly regretted not buying her an electric wheelchair. With her own thin arms and legs, even moving was a struggle.
Watching her frail back, Liu Yinuo sighed. She turned on the light, wanting to talk to Ye Xingmian.
“Uh… could you turn the light off?”
“Hm?” At Ye Xingmian’s request, Liu Yinuo frowned in confusion.
But Ye Xingmian didn’t explain. She just turned her head and looked at her with pleading eyes.
“Please…”
Liu Yinuo was silent for a moment. Something felt off. Ye Xingmian’s state was wrong.
Yet she couldn’t quite put her finger on what exactly.
So she had no choice but to follow Ye Xingmian’s wish and turn off the light.
The dim nightlight gave off a faint glow, barely enough to see. From outside came the occasional bang of firecrackers or the distant boom of fireworks bursting in the sky.
When Liu Yinuo came back to her senses, she was stunned to see Ye Xingmian climbing onto her bed.
Her movements were labored. With no feeling in her legs, she had to rely on her arms and waist. The painfully awkward motions made you wonder if she’d fall off at any second.
“Hey?! Wait!”
Liu Yinuo panicked for a moment. She rushed over, instinctively trying to stop her.
But even though the action was difficult, after years of being paralyzed and repeating it several times a day, Ye Xingmian was already used to it. She had made it onto the bed.
Liu Yinuo’s forward steps came to an involuntary halt.
Ye Xingmian lay on her back facing away from her, then barely managed to turn over using her arms.
She looked at Liu Yinuo and tilted her head.
“I already took a shower earlier… can we sleep together tonight?”
She actually thought I was worried about her dirtying my sheets?
Liu Yinuo found it both ridiculous and adorable. As a response, she nodded helplessly.
Of course, but why did she suddenly want to sleep in my room? We’ve lived together for five years, and this is the first time…
“Because before, you were always in college, and before the New Year you were busy with work…” Ye Xingmian lowered her head, looking a little dejected.
After the incident with Qin Haiyue imprisoning her, followed by the blow of her mother’s death, Ye Xingmian’s dream of going to college had crumbled to nothing. Now she could only rely on Liu Yinuo to survive, trying her best to do what little she could.
Like a blood-sucking parasite living off someone else’s home.
Luckily, she didn’t eat much and could handle simple chores—washing dishes, doing laundry. She hoped Liu Yinuo wouldn’t see her as a burden.
The reason was simple: burdens always end up abandoned. She didn’t know when that day would come, but she wanted to delay it as much as possible.
If only it could come as late as possible.
Liu Yinuo chuckled, a slightly teasing smile.
So tonight, she had come to Liu Yinuo’s room.
“Oh? So you actually want to sleep with me?”
“Mm… having you by my side feels safe…” Ye Xingmian’s voice was very soft.
She crawled out from under the covers, wearing only her pajamas. The weather during the New Year wasn’t warm either.
The curtains hadn’t been drawn, revealing the black night sky and fireworks streaking across it from time to time.
Just as Liu Yinuo was about to get into bed, Ye Xingmian scooted to the corner on her own.
Liu Yinuo wasn’t planning to say much more anyway. She had just finished showering.
Seeing Ye Xingmian’s behavior, Liu Yinuo sighed for some reason, then lay down on the bed. The blanket pressed lightly against her chest, feeling a bit stifling.
She reached out her right hand to adjust it, but halfway, it suddenly froze.
Her left arm was being held. Something soft pressed against it.
Liu Yinuo’s heart skipped a beat. She turned her head to look. The girl with cherry-pink eyes was hugging her arm, pressing her entire body against it.
As for the softness she felt… that was the girl’s chest.
Being both female, she didn’t find this posture particularly strange.
But under the dim light, she noticed the girl’s cheeks were a deeper shade…
Was she blushing?
“Class Monitor~” Ye Xingmian looked up at her, her voice light and gentle.
For some reason, Liu Yinuo sensed a hint of… allure in it?
Frowning, she decided she must be imagining things.
“What is it? Calling me Class Monitor again. It’s been years since we graduated.”
“I just like calling you that. It rolls off the tongue~” Ye Xingmian grinned.
“Hah, if only you had that kind of enthusiasm for eating. Look how skinny you are.”
“But I’m not small where it counts, am I?”
As if showing off, she pressed her chest even closer.
Feeling the soft pressure, Liu Yinuo raised an eyebrow.
“Hah, just some useless fat. Say that again and I’ll hit you.”
She pursed her lips.
“Mm… Class Monitor…”
“What? Hey, you’re a grown woman. Don’t tell me you need me to hold you to sleep?”
“Class Monitor~”
“Just calling my name won’t tell me what you want. I don’t have mind reading.”
“I like you.”
Thump.
Liu Yinuo thought she heard her own heartbeat.
Her eyes went wide. Her body uncontrollably scooted back, and she started stammering.
“You-you-you… what did you say?”
Maybe the fear from Liu Yinuo’s shocked retreat drained the girl’s courage. Her expression went blank, and she lowered her head dejectedly.
Seeing this, Liu Yinuo didn’t know what to do. Finally, she hesitated and moved closer to the girl.
“You said… you like me?”
Her tone was full of uncertainty and hesitation. Liu Yinuo didn’t know what she felt. Surprise? Shocked? Panic? Hesitation?
She touched her own heart and thought, maybe… she also liked this timid, disabled girl she had lived with for so long—someone withdrawn and pitiful.
Not out of pity, as if dragging an extra burden, but like an inseparable family member who held an important place in her heart.
She gently stroked the girl’s hair, then her cheeks that were gradually warming up.
Until the girl finally nodded, blushing, as if betting everything on the table of fate, hoping for that long-cherished desire.
“Mm… I’m sorry… I have no money, no education, not even a single relative or a healthy body. I’m a freak that’s neither male nor female. A person like me liking you… it’s disgusting, right?”
“I’m sorry… if you reject me, just throw me out. Sob… I’m sorry for causing you so much trouble…”
Her words were cut off by a finger pressed against her lips, along with the tears that were about to fall.
Her eyes flew wide open, because Liu Yinuo had sat down on her waist.
Her hands were pinned to the bed. She could only look up at Liu Yinuo, as if gazing at a goddess.
“Don’t blame yourself. How can you blame yourself for feelings like this? Was this why you crawled into my bed in the middle of the night, Little Cripple?”
Liu Yinuo smiled a bewitching smile. It was the first time Ye Xingmian had seen such an expression on her face—like the legendary succubus about to have her scheme succeed.
“Trembling with fear, coming to confess to me in exchange for some vague sense of belonging and security? So you can be at ease as my lover?”
Liu Yinuo leaned down, her tea-colored eyes filling Ye Xingmian’s entire field of view.
What made Ye Xingmian even more flustered was that she belatedly noticed that Liu Yinuo had somehow unbuttoned her pajama top.
Ye Xingmian’s eyes widened. She was terrified, at a loss. She tried to push herself back with her arms, but she didn’t succeed. Liu Yinuo easily pressed down on her again.
“Fine. I accept. So—”
Her mind went completely blank. In that emptiness, only the next words, filled with possessiveness, remained.
The soft voice seemed to echo directly inside her head.
Ye Xingmian felt—
“You’re mine now, okay?”
Everything felt like a dream, as unreal as a fairy tale.
A drifting boat slowly docking. Before being enveloped by the harbor, the open gate had already radiated warmth, dispelling all the resistance that shouldn’t have been there.
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