I was startled and subconsciously reached out my hand. For the first time, I took the initiative to hug him back.
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Tunshe Nalin’s body shook slightly.
She was his own mother. That woman was probably no ordinary human… but no matter whether she was a demon, a monster, or something else, even a tiger doesn’t eat its own cubs. Yet, she treated me as bait, personally setting a trap to hurt, or perhaps even kill, her own flesh and blood. Although Tunshe Nalin seemed to harbor a deep hatred for that white-haired woman, how could his heart not be the least bit saddened?
I held him tightly, gently stroking his back, lost in thought.
That white-haired woman was Ming Luo’s stepmother. She turned Ming Luo into the Evil Water Demon and kidnapped me from Tunshe Nalin’s side, leading Tunshe Nalin into a trap to ambush him… all of this proves that the Ming family’s goal was never to bring Ming Luo back to life but to target Tunshe Nalin.
Was all of this, from beginning to end, just a carefully planned trap?
Scenes from the past few days flashed through my mind like a sudden burst of lightning, and confusion began to grow. My thoughts inevitably started to wander. If Ming Luo had been a pawn in a carefully orchestrated game from the start, then my meeting with him, the entanglement between us, and even his death, were they all part of the plan?
But even if she learned about my personality through Ming Luo and predicted that I would want to travel to Southern Jiangsu to clear my mind and anticipated that I would intercept the cargo truck on my way to the forest and cross paths with Tunshe Nalin’s substitute puppet, how could she have foreseen that I would pursue him relentlessly because I wanted to paint him? How could she have known that Tunshe Nalin would come to like me and risk his life for me?
Could it be that she has some kind of extraordinary ability, able to glimpse the secrets of fate?
Tunshe Nalin was so powerful that he had no weaknesses, so she created one for him.
“Tunshe Nalin,” I murmured, “I’ve figured it out. I’m a pawn, a pawn your mother set up to deal with you. All of this was part of her plan…”
“I know.” He said softly, lowering his head to kiss my forehead. A cold tear of blood fell onto my lips.
My heart jolted. “You… when did you know?”
He remained silent, but another tear of blood fell onto my heart.
It was as if a heavy stone had been dropped into the lake of my heart, disturbing the ripples and stirring up an indescribable pain. I couldn’t help but follow that stone, wanting to unravel the sealed riverbed.
“Why would she do this? Why hurt her own flesh and blood?” I cupped his face, unable to stop the questions from pouring out. “What have you really been through? Tun…”
His lips suddenly sealed mine, clearly trying to stop my relentless questioning. He held the back of my neck tightly, his lips and tongue fitting perfectly with mine. The more he avoided my questions, the more I wanted to know. I pushed against his chest, trying to force him to pull away, but his large hand, which had been resting on my waist, suddenly slid downward, lifting my hips and pulling me onto his lap, even though we were already facing each other.
He kissed me until I was breathless, my head spinning, before finally pulling his lips away.
“You said earlier that you needed to think about how to get along with me in the future. Have you figured it out?”
—This guy is changing the subject. I’m not falling for it!
I gasped for breath, shaking my head in frustration, deliberately provoking him. “I haven’t figured it out. You refuse to tell me anything, won’t let me understand you, yet you force me into bed with you, make me live with you, restrict my freedom, and pressure me to be your wife, treating me like some kind of s*x slave! How am I supposed to figure out how to get along with you in the future? If you were any kind of decent person, it would be considered as if you had committed crimes! I’d definitely report you and have you locked up!”
His eyes, still tinged with blood, narrowed, and a slight smile curled on his lips, as if I had amused him. He lifted my chin and asked, “A few days ago, when you were so angry, was it because I let someone else draw me, or was it something else?”
I knew what answer he wanted to hear, but I pressed my lips together, torn between wanting to compete with him and the fact that I couldn’t fully understand my own feelings. I had never experienced the emotions I felt because of him before, so I had no way to compare or discern them. Perhaps in the past, I was so absorbed in my obsession with art that I never learned how to love someone, nor did I know what loving someone felt like. In matters of the heart, I had always been ignorant, like a larva in an unbroken cocoon. But before I could grow wings to explore on my own, Tunshe Nalin took a shortcut and stripped me out of it. I never had the chance to grow into a complete form, and now I’m trapped in the web he wove. How could I ever figure out what love really is?
“I don’t know,” I mumbled. “Anyway, since you won’t answer me, I don’t need to answer you either. We’re even, neither of us has lost anything. If you want to have anyone draw you in the future, go ahead, it’s none of my business.”
Before I could finish speaking, I felt his five fingers grip my lower back, and my waistband loosened as my pants were unexpectedly pulled down. I was startled, my body tensing. “What are you doing?!”
“Are we even?” Tunshe Nalin’s eyes were dark, and the soft, slightly textured touch went down my spine, like a big child, he gave me a playful spank on the butt. I shuddered and grabbed his vine, but I couldn’t stop it from sliding into my butt crack and wrapping around the front end. When the tip of the vine passed over my urethra, I trembled and screamed, grabbed his shoulders, and bit his neck hard: “Stop it, you bastard!”
“I didn’t use my hands[mfn]住手 means stop it and TSNL replied with 我没用手. It’s a kind of wordplay or misdirection where he subtly avoids the literal meaning of the command.[/mfn].”
I gritted my teeth and glared at this shameless guy, but I held him tightly in my arms.
“Who are you to me?”
He tortured me so much that I tilted my neck back, gasping for breath, and looked at his face, my vision blurred by the tears.
“Wife… wife… ugh… don’t do it… I can’t bear it…”
“Call Fu Lang.”
“Fu-Fu Lang… ah!!!”
He grabbed my waist and let the wolf run wildly in the forest. The wolf’s back rose and fell like a raging storm, and I was like a small boat rocking violently in his arms.
When the wolf’s speed slowed down, I was dizzy and was carried off the wolf’s back by Tunshe Nalin. He took me under a big tree. He lay down, stroked my face, and stared into my eyes, breathing with me passionately. Vines spread out around him, and countless flowers bloomed under our entangled fingers and bodies.
While I was half conscious, a gentle warm breeze blew over my body, like the sound of tinkling bells from a distant and misty place, mixed with laughter.
“My name is Mi Jia, remember that.”
The surrounding scene changed, the shadows of the trees swayed, and the branches were bent by the red flowers.
“Get up.”
The boy’s hoarse and cold voice sounded from below.
I was stunned for a moment, lowering my gaze. Following the scattered black hair among the grass, I saw a face that could captivate people. His snow-like skin was tinted with a faint red, and his pair of deep blue eyes were clearer and more transparent than the sea. A pair of thick black eyebrows were furrowed, and his lips were tightly pressed, as if containing anger.
This is Tunshe Nalin, the young Tunshe Nalin, looking only in his teens.
“Has anyone ever told you that your eyes are bluer than the sea? They’re really beautiful…”
“Your flute sounds so lonely. Do you not have any friends? How about, from now on, I come here often to keep you company? I’ll paint for you, paint the outside world for you. How does that sound?”
“Bang,” a heavy and resonant bell toll echoed in my ears, reverberating endlessly.
I opened my eyes, and before me was a wisp of white smoke rising. The air was filled with the scent of burning paper, much like the smell in a temple. On the opposite side, through an ancient Chinese wooden window, finely cut rays of sunlight filtered in, illuminating a small black dog lying asleep beneath the window.
Where’s this place?
Where is Tunshe Nalin? Weren’t we in the primeval forest of Thailand?
I sat up and looked around. This was a small wooden house, and based on the furnishings, it didn’t look like Thailand. On the wall was a small shrine, and the deity enshrined inside looked like a Daoist immortal.
A sense of unease rose in my heart.
“Tunshe Nalin!” I called out as I walked to the door. The little black dog lying nearby was startled awake, barking and running to my feet, circling around me, biting at my pant legs. It reminded me of the little black cat that was picked up with Tunshe Nalin.
I picked it up and opened the door. At a glance, I saw two people dressed as Taoist priests standing outside. One was older and thin, with a long beard, while the other was young and strong, with sharp brows and bright eyes. I recognized him immediately, it was Mo Wei’s young Taoist Master I had seen last time at the City God Temple.
“Master, this place is…”
“This is the City God Temple of Bincheng. This is my master, Taoist name Qingjue.”
“Hello, Daozhang… Qingjue.” I surveyed the surroundings. This was a Taoist temple located halfway up a mountain. Though it was almost dark, I could still see the sea of Bincheng in the distance.
Bincheng is close to Southeast Asia, and it’s very near Thailand. Did Tunshe Nalin bring me across the border and send me here? But why would he bring me to the City God Temple? Where is he? My unease grew stronger. “Daozhang, Master, how did I get here?”
Seemingly understanding what I was thinking, that Daozhang raised his hand and pointed towards the sea. “He’s by the seaside.”
Huh? I walked a few steps to the stone railing of the high platform and looked down. Sure enough, I saw Tunshe Nalin’s silhouette on the beach below. He had changed into a white Taoist robe, his black hair like ink spreading in the wind. Against the backdrop of the sea and sky, he looked like a fallen immortal about to gracefully depart. If this were the first time I had seen him, I would have been entranced by his otherworldly appearance… but today, I would never be fooled again. This guy is no immortal; he is clearly…
Thinking of the situation in the rainforest, my ears suddenly burned with embarrassment.
“Possessing demonic bones, yet still carrying divine nature. I’ve lived most of my life and still can’t tell whether he’s a god or a demon. Young one, getting involved with him is both your tribulation and your fate.”
I turned my gaze in confusion and saw the old Daozhang had come up behind me. “What did you say?”
He stroked his beard and chuckled, “I said, you two are fated.”
I froze for a moment, feeling a little embarrassed as I scratched my head. “Why did he send me to the City God Temple? Are you guys, perhaps, old acquaintances?”
An evil god and a Taoist?
Seeing the old Taoist nod, I could hardly believe it. So it’s true?
“How did you two meet? When did you meet?”
The old Taoist, with eyes deepened by years of experience, gazed toward the sea, as if memories from the distant past stirred waves in his mind. “That was hundreds of years ago. Back then, he was just a young man, his eyes bluer than the sea, devoid of sadness or joy, almost like a Buddha on a shrine. When I first saw him, I knew he was born with a spiritual gift, able to understand the language of all beasts. He was destined for immortality. Who would have thought that now, when I see him again, he’s walked the path of darkness, full of evil power? What a pity.”