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I was too embarrassed to bear it, turning to climb the wall, but before I could even get halfway up, my waist was tightly embraced, and I was pulled back down. His hands formed a cage, trapping me between the wall and his chest. “Are you going to leave again? Leave without a word again? That day, in front of everyone, I couldn’t acknowledge you… Are you angry?”
I shook my head. “No, not at all. Am I the type of person to hold grudges? How could I bring myself to be angry with you? I can barely even keep up with how much I like you…”
His arm trembled, and his blue eyes locked onto mine. “Say it again.”
“I could never bring myself to…”
“The latter half of the sentence.”
My face burned with embarrassment. Having kissed and held each other, I couldn’t bring myself to admit I was just a coward. Taking a deep breath, I lifted my gaze to meet his deep blue eyes, as if looking into the ocean. “I… I like you, Nalin. Not just as a friend, but… I want to be with you in that way. Would you… be willing?”
His face turned crimson, and he lowered his lashes. “En.”
I was so delighted that I jumped three feet into the air, planting a kiss on his lips with a soft “pop” sound. Taking advantage of his stunned, blushing silence, I climbed up the wall, perched on the edge, and extended my hand to him. “Come with me.”
The moment he jumped down from the wall, I grabbed his hand, pulling him toward the riverbank.
Behind the mountains to the east, where the river’s source lay, the first light of dawn began to break. A beam of golden light pierced through the night, casting a rosy hue over the morning sky. Meanwhile, to the west, the river’s end still held the lingering shadow of a half-moon, shrouded in mist.
Taking advantage of the moment when both the sun and moon were present, I asked again, “Say it once more, that you’re willing.”
He gazed at me, his eyes reflecting the morning glow and the moonlight. “I… am willing.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck. “Then… from now on, you’re my wife.”
He paused, his brows furrowing. “But I’m a man, how could I be… the wife?”
I grinned playfully. “Well, I’m a man too.” I laughed, “I don’t care. You’re still my wife. The morning glow is the wedding dress, the sun and moon are the high hall, and the mountains and rivers bear witness. Today, we’re married.”
He stared at me, his blue eyes shining, deeply captivating. I pulled him under the tree by the riverbank, urging him to kneel with me. Together, we bowed to the mountains, rivers, and the sun and moon, then turned to face each other.
Just as he was about to bow like I had taught him, I tilted my head back and kissed his lips.
This beautiful fool… he’s just too cute.
I pressed him into the grass, held his face, and kissed him wildly as if in the dream, kissing his lips, his eyebrows, his ears, and his adam apple. I kissed him until his face turned red and he was panting. He bent his legs to lift up my body, sat cross-legged, put his hands on his knees, took a deep breath, adjusted his disordered breathing, closed his eyes, and stopped looking at me.
“It won’t work… If this continues, my Qi and blood will be disrupted, which will hinder my cultivation. Mother will find out.”
“What cultivation?” The more ascetic he looked, the more restless and itchy I became. I pecked his lips, and when he ignored me, I pecked him again. He still ignored me, so I simply sat down on his crossed legs.
For the whole day, I kept doing all kinds of things to him, but I only knew a few things. When it was dark, I still hadn’t figured out how to have fun with Nalin, and at the same time, I even ended up hurting myself. Nalin was also sweating profusely because of me, and there was a lot of wetness between his legs when he was sitting cross-legged. The originally pure Qi on his body was also polluted by me and became ambiguous.
“Nailin, are you happy?”
“Mi Jia, why are you bleeding?”
I looked down and realized I had gone too far. I panicked and didn’t know what the consequences would be if I saw blood. I was scared and wanted to cry. He didn’t dare to continue. He immediately got up and went to the river, tore off his sleeves, and soaked them in water, then came back and wiped them carefully for me.
“I’m sorry, it’s my fault. I should have stopped just now.”
“I don’t blame you.” I hugged his neck. “It’s me who wanted to be happy…”
He leaned over me and kissed the corner of my eye: “You are really a fox.”
“Then you are the big white goose, the big white goose that the fox likes to eat the most.” I laughed but still not satisfied. I sniffed and bit his clothes like a puppy marking its territory, wanting to leave more marks on him. When I was tired, I fell asleep in his arms.
At dawn the next day, Nalin hugged me tightly and asked me when I woke up.
“Mi Jia, come and be my attendant, come to my side. Is that alright?”
He asked the question again.
I remembered the old painter’s words, and an idea jumped to my mind: “Leave here and go with me? Nalin, I will take you to travel through the mountains and rivers and see the sea in the distance, alright?”
He was startled and looked at me: “What if… I can’t leave? Will you leave here by yourself?”
“I…” I naturally wanted to go out with my master to collect folk songs, but now that I have just begun to fall in love with him, how could I bear to leave him? Before I could open my mouth, he seemed to be afraid that I would give him an answer he didn’t want to hear and covered my lips and said, “Alright.”
“Really?” I opened my eyes wide. “You are willing to leave with me?”
“En.” He nodded. “Last night, you had bleeding. Although you are not a woman, what we did was considered physical intimacy, and we were husband and wife.”
I was filled with excitement. “Do you know where to find flamestone? My future master said that it can be found in places with geothermal hot springs. If I pass his test, we can leave together.”
“Hot springs… There are some on the mountain peak of the palace,” he said thoughtfully, pausing for a moment before continuing, “Three days from now, at sunset, we’ll meet under this tree. I’ll bring the flamestone for you.”
On the way home, I hummed songs and couldn’t help jumping around. The cloth he put in my crotch fell out of my trouser legs.
When I picked it up and saw a few bloodstains on it, my ears were burning. I couldn’t bear to throw it away, so I stuffed it into my sleeve. Thinking of his words “married husband and wife”, I felt sweet in my heart.
—Nalin and I consummated our marriage last night, right?
