While feeling drowsy, my body felt like it was immersed in warm water.
I groggily opened my eyes, and right in front of me was a mass of dark hair floating on the water’s surface, with the pale chest of a man beneath it.
I looked down at the situation beneath me and suddenly jumped up, but my legs felt weak and numb, causing me to fall back into the water.
“Ran…”
The buzzing tinnitus continued, and I could only vaguely hear a trace of sound, that trace of sound was like the devil’s call to me. I didn’t dare look up at him, I was shaking all over. I leaned my head against his icy chest as he started to clean me. My body trembled even harder, and when I tried to resist in his arms, he shoved me back into the water.
During that time, I vaguely heard him calling my name and forcing me to call him “Fujun[mfn]Fujun means husband. I forget if I have ever put footnotes for this, so I’ll put this again[/mfn]“, but I couldn’t respond. So when the water had become cold, he let me go and carried me out of the bathtub.
The room was still dark, and the curtains were closed. I couldn’t tell whether it was day or night outside.
Tunshe Nalin held me and sat me down on the bed, put me on his lap, rubbed my hair dry, and wrapped me with his clothes. I glanced at the bed, it was in complete disarray, strewn with torn clothes and bedding that was wrinkled and soaked with urine. It was unbearable to look at, just like a nightmare.
But this is not a nightmare, it is a reality that’s more real than anything.
“Ran…” He called out to me again, but his I couldn’t hear clearly, and part of me was too afraid to hear it clearly as well.
His cold fingers stroked my cheek, lifted my chin, and forced me to make eye contact with him. I curled up, burying my head in the robes. The hand gripping the back of my neck tightened and tightened, and after a long while, it finally loosened and moved to my ankle, helping me put on my shoes and socks.
After doing all of this, he picked me up horizontally and carried me to the window, then reached out to lift the curtain.
Outside, it was daylight, and the world was covered in white, with snow scattered across the ground and the eaves. Sunlight glistened on the narrow street outside the alley. I froze for a moment, and the buzzing in my ears lessened slightly. When I reached out to touch the glass, it was immediately covered by a pale, large hand.
Cold lips pressed against my ear, and I finally heard what he was saying.
“By nightfall, you and I… will return to… your city together.”
The reflection in the glass showed his blood-red eyes. I shivered, too scared to shake my head or nod. My ear throbbed with pain, he had bitten me.
“Ranran, speak. Am I not your muse anymore? You don’t want to paint me anymore?”
Realizing his tone was off, I feared he might do something to me in anger again: “I… want to…”
My voice was so hoarse it was barely audible.
“You want to? You don’t even dare look at me.”
His voice sank, and he forcefully turned my chin towards him so that I could look him in the eye. The nose, high and sharp like the peak of a snow mountain, was not home to the proud snow eagle I had imagined but to the vulture of death. His pupils, redder and more intense than the color of the hibiscus flower, were the shade of blood that had been soaked in human essence. His eyes, shaped like those of a cold-blooded predator, had vertical slits, and with just one glance, I felt as though my soul was being drawn in. A wave of indescribable terror surged within me.
I hurriedly lowered my head, but he held the back of my neck, forcing me to lift my face.
“Ranran, if you ever want to paint me in the future, go ahead, you can do it anytime you like. Paint as much as you want, just… don’t be scared of me, alright?”
I didn’t dare to nod or shake my head.
His eye color darkened, and the diamond-shaped pupils in his eyes turned into a pair of thin lines.
“Ranran, do you still remember what you said to me the night before?”
The tinnitus came again. I didn’t dare to look at him, my neck was stiff, and I nodded.
Can I still regard a terrifying existence that feeds on humans and violated me for a whole night as my muse? I dare not say no, but the hand holding my neck gradually tightened, as if seeing through me, and the high nose bridge brushed across my cheek: “Little fox, you’re full of lies. But even if you deceive me, I’ll still believe you. After all, I’m your husband, aren’t I?”
I was already scared enough even without him mentioning it. When I thought about the fact that I had a ghost marriage with him and that he wanted to follow me back to the city, I felt like I was going to collapse. I subconsciously pressed my hands against his chest, trying to stop him from kissing me, but it was no use. He pressed me against the glass and forced a deep kiss on me.
He kissed me until I almost fainted, then he let go of my lips and teeth.
“If you want to lie to me, you must lie to me again for the rest of my life.”
My heart trembled. What does “again” mean?
“Qin Ran!”
Suddenly, a familiar voice came from far behind.
I was startled and turned my head and saw several people standing at the entrance of the narrow alley. I recognized at a glance that the tall woman among them was Irene, and I immediately waved my hands and shouted.
Tunshe Nalin whispered in my ear, “Be good, have them… wait till nightfall.”
My heart skipped a beat as I realized that during the day, he couldn’t move freely, possibly not just because his eyes were sensitive to light, but perhaps, like the vampires in legends, he feared the sunlight.
Irene came with my family’s bodyguards. Are the police here too?
As long as, as long as I run into the sunlight…
A glimmer of hope flashed through my heart, and the tinnitus in my ears suddenly dissipated a lot. I nodded: “I… I will go out and tell them now; otherwise, they will think that I am controlled by… by you, and they will tell my parents, and we will not be able to live together in the future.”
My hands were grabbed, and my body was turned to face him. The curtains were drawn again, and his bloodshot eyes stared at me. I shrank back in fear: “Tun, Tunshe Nalin, I’m hungry, my stomach hurts, and I have anxiety. I need to take medicine immediately. They must have brought medicine.”
The hand gripping the back of my neck lingered tightly for a while before sliding to my ear, gently kneading it. Then he pulled me into another embrace, rubbing my temples softly, he said in a low voice, “Ranran, I will let you out, but you must come back obediently and wait for me, to go together. Otherwise…”
I nodded hurriedly.
He fastened my belt and put on my boots, and my feet finally touched the ground. As soon as I stood up straight, I felt a dull pain in my tailbone.
He half-supported, half-held me as we made our way to the door. I opened it, my heart pounding, and I couldn’t stop biting my lip. I looked outside the door. Irene and my family’s bodyguards were standing not far away. The sound of propellers came closer and closer, and the vortex rolled up the corners of their clothes.
“Young Master!”
“Ah Ran!”
She walked towards me quickly, followed by a man, it was Xiang Nan.
I glanced back at Tunshe Nalin. He gave me his outer robe. He was shirtless and barefoot. Hope swelled in my heart, and I quickly took a step outside: “You… don’t let them see us two men like this. My family is very strict.”
The hand that was clasped around my waist loosened little by little, and he took a step back towards the door.
I immediately closed the door.
I took one step, then another, on the fresh snow.
Seeing that they were about to walk into the shadows in the narrow alley, I bit the dead skin on my lips, took a deep breath, and ran towards the helicopter on the sunlit street.
“Irene, Xiang Nan, run quickly! Go up first, then talk!” I yelled.
Irene was stunned for a moment and seemed to realize something: “Hurry up and protect the Young Master!”
The bodyguards around me rushed over and protected me onto the helicopter.
Only when I was high in the sky did I dare to look down. In the deep and narrow alley below, there was a lone figure standing, seemingly looking up at me as I went away.
“What’s wrong, Young Master? Who is that? Have you been held hostage by him during this period?” Her eyes fell on my neck, and Irene’s face suddenly changed. She pulled off her scarf and wrapped it around my neck and took out her cell phone. “I’ll notify the police now…”
“Don’t!” My heart trembled. I held her hand and shook my head. “No, tell the police that I’m fine now. He has no ill intentions; he’s just, he’s just mentally ill.”
I couldn’t bear to hurt Tunshe Nalin. Even though I knew he fed on humans, I still hoped he could safely return to the snow-capped mountains and forests that belonged to him.
But, my fate with him ends here.
T/N: This is actually kinda sad after I’ve read everything, because that forest was never really where he belonged, let alone somewhere he wanted to be…
