Yi Wulan finally came to her senses. Looking at Mu Yanxi’s bewitchingly beautiful face, so close to her own, she snatched away the lock of hair Mu Yanxi was carelessly twirling and tried to push her away. “Get away from me.”
Mu Yanxi had no real leverage to begin with. Although her hands were draped around Yi Wulan’s neck, her weight was supported by her lower body; she wasn’t fully pressing down on Yi Wulan.
When Yi Wulan suddenly pushed her, Mu Yanxi was caught off guard and fell backward.
She had pounced onto the bed so abruptly that half of her lower legs were hanging off the edge. With that push, she nearly tumbled off.
Fortunately, Yi Wulan had no intention of letting her fall and promptly reached out an arm to pull her back.
Yi Wulan had always known that Mu Yanxi was thick-skinned and audacious, often leaving her defenseless with a mouth full of suggestive words.
But she never could have imagined that after being pushed away and then caught, the person would shamelessly press close again.
Even her arms wound back around her neck, not missing a beat.
Yi Wulan: …
Yi Wulan frowned, her voice tinged with a hint of urgency. “Get off.”
This time, as if she had learned her lesson, Mu Yanxi closed her eyes and buried her head in Yi Wulan’s shoulder, muttering, “Ah, don’t move, my head is so dizzy. Oh, I’m dizzy, so dizzy.”
Yi Wulan had been fooled several times before. This time, she refused coldly and heartlessly. “If you feel unwell, go sleep on your own side. I’ll call a doctor for you.”
Mu Yanxi paid no heed to Yi Wulan’s words. She even let the upper half of her body, which she had been hesitant to press down earlier, go limp, audaciously pressing her entire self against her.
She seemed very confident that Yi Wulan wouldn’t let her fall now.
Yi Wulan’s body was stiff. Her hand hesitated for several seconds before finally gripping Mu Yanxi’s waist, intending to pull her away.
But just then, Mu Yanxi let out a low laugh. “It’s the middle of the night, and this room is so soundproof. Even if I screamed my lungs out, no one would come to save me.”
Mu Yanxi lifted her head slightly. The light reflected in her pupils like tiny stars as she spoke slowly, “Yi Wulan, are you gripping my waist like this because you want to pin me down and have your way with me?”
Yi Wulan hastily let go of her hands to prove her innocence. “I wasn’t trying to touch you.”
Mu Yanxi gave Yi Wulan’s hands a strange look, then sighed. “Actually, I’m so weak, young, and helpless. Even if you don’t pin me down, I’m doomed either way.”
After speaking, she blinked with a hint of deeper meaning, as if suggesting something.
Yi Wulan: …
Yi Wulan was clearly quite frightened by Mu Yanxi. It took her several seconds to find her voice. “You…”
However, after half a day of “you,” she couldn’t form a complete sentence.
In the end, she could only manage a strained reminder, “Didn’t you say you were unwell and dizzy?”
At this, Mu Yanxi burst out laughing against Yi Wulan’s shoulder. It took her a while to stop, and then she resumed her exaggerated and clumsy acting, which only ever appeared when she was with Yi Wulan. “What should I do, Yi Wulan? I don’t think my fever has gone down, and my head is a little dizzy again.”
Yi Wulan took a deep breath. Unable to shake the person off her, she had no choice but to play along. “Then what do you want?”
“This, ah.” Mu Yanxi smiled at her, twirling a strand of Yi Wulan’s hair. She said slyly, “That depends on whether President Yi is willing, doesn’t it?”
The moment Yi Wulan saw that smile and heard that flippant title, she knew Mu Yanxi’s next words would be utter nonsense.
She refused directly. “I’m not. Pretend I never asked.”
Mu Yanxi: …
Yi Wulan had actually improved?
She even knew how to make a preemptive refusal?
But seeing Yi Wulan so resistant only made Mu Yanxi more eager to see her reaction.
She smiled and shifted her body upward, leaning in and whispering something softly against the shell of Yi Wulan’s ear.
Yi Wulan stiffened all over, staring at Mu Yanxi in disbelief, looking as if she was enduring some great shock.
Seeing this, Mu Yanxi blinked, distractedly taking Yi Wulan’s fingers to play with. “Is that okay?”
Yi Wulan looked at Mu Yanxi as if she were insane. “You’re shameless.”
Mu Yanxi: …
Seeing Yi Wulan’s reaction, Mu Yanxi felt that she might have misunderstood something.
Thinking back on what she had just said, it did seem a bit ambiguous.
“Th-that… Yi Wulan, listen to me.” This misunderstanding wasn’t Mu Yanxi’s intention, and it seemed to have gotten a little out of hand.
To avoid being misunderstood by Yi Wulan, Mu Yanxi quickly explained, “I was asking you to blow-dry my hair for me, not… hmm? Why can’t you look at me again?”
Yi Wulan hastily turned her gaze back. “I’m not.”
“Are you avoiding me again?”
Yi Wulan repeated, “I’m not.”
Mu Yanxi poked Yi Wulan’s shoulder. “Ah, then don’t be so tense. Are you really that nervous?”
Yi Wulan was silent for a long moment before saying in a somewhat impatient tone, “If you want me to blow-dry your hair, then go get the hairdryer.”
Her objective achieved, Mu Yanxi’s eyes lit up. She gave Yi Wulan a hug and said with a beaming smile, “Then wait for me.”
To make it easier for Yi Wulan to dry her hair, Mu Yanxi deliberately moved a low stool to sit by the bed, then handed the hairdryer to Yi Wulan.
Yi Wulan’s face was full of impatience, but her movements as she dried the hair were surprisingly gentle.
Her long, slender fingers moved through the soft strands of hair. When her fingertips occasionally brushed lightly against her scalp, a tiny electric current would travel outwards, causing a subtle yet unignorable shiver.
The hairdryer’s heat was warm but not hot enough to damage the hair. The strands by her cheeks needed to be blown in a specific direction. Mu Yanxi held a small mirror to check, but was surprised to find that Yi Wulan could style her hair perfectly without any guidance.
She smiled at Yi Wulan through the mirror.
Yi Wulan’s peripheral vision caught it. “What are you smiling at? Did the fever last night make you stupid?”
Mu Yanxi shook her head. After admiring her own stunning beauty for long enough, with the hairdryer still working diligently behind her, she felt as if she were soaking in comfortable warm water, making her a little drowsy.
She still needed to test her newly upgraded powers later, so Mu Yanxi had to find a way to distract herself.
Just then, her back brushed against Yi Wulan’s dangling legs.
Mu Yanxi was suddenly overcome with the curiosity to touch them.
It wasn’t to tease Yi Wulan like before, but simply to know if her injured calf felt different from a normal person’s.
Since she thought it, she might as well do it.
Her cool fingertips lightly touched Yi Wulan’s calf. Finding the muscle tissue still quite firm, she couldn’t resist placing her whole hand on it to test it out.
Unlike her thigh, Yi Wulan’s calf had lost all feeling after the car accident. When Mu Yanxi first touched it, she didn’t notice.
But when Mu Yanxi grew bolder and even turned her head slightly to touch it, Yi Wulan finally saw the mischievous hand on her calf.
Her calf, which had long been numb, felt as if it had been suddenly awakened, as if scalded. Yi Wulan’s hand holding the hairdryer immediately stopped, and she warned in a low voice, “Don’t move.”
Mu Yanxi turned her head, thinking that after her powers had upgraded, even a simple touch could have an immediate effect on Yi Wulan. Her face was full of pleasant surprise. “You can feel it?”
Before Yi Wulan could reply, she placed both hands on the calf, mischievously working on it. “How about this? Is it better?”
“L-let go.” Yi Wulan quickly brushed Mu Yanxi’s hands away, but because of her limited mobility, she couldn’t retreat in time and was forced to fall back onto the bed. Even the hairdryer in her hand let out a muffled ‘thud’.
Only then did Mu Yanxi realize she had been daydreaming. She hurriedly went to help Yi Wulan up, looking completely at a loss. “Are you okay? I didn’t mean to.”
Yi Wulan froze for a moment, her lowered eyes deep and dark, her emotions unreadable.
This time, she neither refused nor said anything more.
It wasn’t until Mu Yanxi had moved her back to the head of the bed that she pointed at the hairdryer on the floor.
Mu Yanxi picked it up and placed it on the nightstand. When she looked at Yi Wulan again, she felt as if the air around them had frozen.
Mu Yanxi fidgeted with the corner of her clothes, realizing that Yi Wulan seemed to be in a bad mood.
…Was it because of what she just did?
It did seem a bit rude.
Or maybe Yi Wulan thought that by touching her leg, she was deliberately pointing out her weakness?
After thinking it over, Mu Yanxi decided to defend herself. “You said before that your leg was showing signs of improvement, so I just wanted to test your calf. If you don’t like it, I won’t touch it again next time, okay?”
“Mm,” Yi Wulan responded, her brow furrowing even tighter.
Then she turned her back.
And didn’t move.
Mu Yanxi licked her lips and tentatively called out, “Yi Wulan?”
No answer.
Mu Yanxi crouched down, gripping the edge of the bed and leaning forward slightly, her voice rising a little. “Yi Wulan, please don’t ignore me.”
“If you can’t stand it, then you can leave.” Yi Wulan’s voice was somewhat low, carrying a long-absent distance.
For some reason, though the tone of this sentence was flat, it seemed to hold complex emotions.
It was as if she had drawn a circle around herself, actively shutting everyone out.
Mu Yanxi was stunned for a moment. Gazing at Yi Wulan’s back, a strange emotion inexplicably welled up in her chest.
The smile had long since faded from her face. She frowned, feeling that crumpled sensation in her heart.
Mu Yanxi didn’t move either, continuing to stare at Yi Wulan’s back.
After a long while, she finally stood up, bent down close, and poked the back of Yi Wulan’s neck. “Yi Wulan, please talk to me.”
Her voice was very soft, with a hint of a wheedling tone, like a cat’s paw scratching one’s palm.
Her warm breath exhaled, landing by her ear.
But Yi Wulan still didn’t speak.
“Then I’ll just stay here beside you and not bother you, okay?” Mu Yanxi could vaguely sense that what had just happened had made Yi Wulan focus on her physical condition again.
Even though her leg was improving, Yi Wulan was still very sensitive about it.
So sensitive that she wanted to draw a line between them again.
After waiting quietly for half a minute without a reply from Yi Wulan, Mu Yanxi announced of her own accord, “Then I’m coming up?”
Still no sound.
Mu Yanxi puffed out her cheeks and slowly climbed onto the bed, moving as lightly as possible to avoid aggravating Yi Wulan’s unhealed body and stirring her anger.
She carefully lay on her side behind Yi Wulan. She reached one hand back with difficulty to grip the edge of the bed, as if she were sleeping on the edge of a cliff, where the slightest misstep would send her falling.
Mu Yanxi pulled the blanket over, helping to pull it over Yi Wulan as well, and then finally didn’t know what to do.
Looking at such a lonely back, Mu Yanxi felt an inexplicable ache in her heart.
Actually, after the car accident, Yi Wulan must have been lonely for a long time, right?
Mu Yanxi hesitated for a few seconds, then slowly reached out an arm and wrapped it around Yi Wulan’s waist, not with any flirtatiousness, but more like a comforting gesture of solidarity.
With this thought, the pent-up emotions in Mu Yanxi’s heart dissipated a little. She spoke slowly, “Yi Wulan, you don’t have to avoid me. The next time you go for treatment, let me go with you, okay?”
Yi Wulan’s fingertips trembled slightly.
She hadn’t spoken, thinking that someone with a self-centered and loss-averse personality like Mu Yanxi would stop bothering her.
They would then be able to maintain a good distance.
But she never expected Mu Yanxi to press close again.
That feeling of wanting to push her away from the bottom of her heart, yet holding a sliver of hope, and then finally having it fulfilled, made the sensation of being held even clearer.
Yi Wulan’s fingertips clenched, but she used as calm a tone as possible. “If something goes wrong with my treatment in the future…”
Mu Yanxi cut her off, threatening fiercely, “Then I’ll take your inheritance and squander it, and I won’t even stay at your funeral for a second longer.”
Yi Wulan: …
Some people could be comforting you with soft words one moment, and then infuriate you to death with a single sentence the next.
She was talking about a little high-maintenance person like Mu Yanxi.
But it had to be said, Mu Yanxi’s words also successfully diverted Yi Wulan’s attention.
Yi Wulan couldn’t help but find it a bit absurd. “If I died, you wouldn’t even be a little sad?”
Mu Yanxi hummed, as if seriously weighing the options.
But the next second, she asked in disbelief, “Yi Wulan, you don’t actually want me to be buried with you, do you?”
“…What nonsense are you talking about.” Yi Wulan was about to be laughed into exasperation by Mu Yanxi. The reservations in her heart seemed to dissipate quite a bit at that moment.
Yi Wulan turned over. Seeing Mu Yanxi’s body teetering on the verge of falling off the bed, she frowned and asked, “Aren’t you afraid of falling off lying like that?”
Mu Yanxi looked at Yi Wulan with justification. “Of course I am.”
Her eyes were full of accusation, as if to say: Who was it that made me lie so precariously?
Yi Wulan was at a loss. Her tone softened. “Hurry up and move over to lie down properly. You’re so delicate, what if you get a fever again?”
Mu Yanxi moved over, not forgetting to correct Yi Wulan’s words. “I’m not delicate at all. The fever was just an accident.”
Yi Wulan sized Mu Yanxi up, clearly not agreeing with that statement. “Alright, turn off the light and go to sleep.”
Mu Yanxi obediently lay down on the spacious other side, then turned off the light.
The moonlight was blocked by the blackout curtains, and the bedroom was very quiet.
Mu Yanxi had spent the day scrolling through Weibo and sleeping, so she wasn’t the least bit sleepy now. She planned to test her newly upgraded powers after Yi Wulan fell asleep.
But just as this thought popped into her head, she heard the rustling of the blanket behind her. Then, a hand rested on her waist, and a warm body pressed against her back.
The distance between them closed, bit by bit.
Their hair intertwined before their bodies did, brushing softly against Mu Yanxi’s back.
Then, there was the warm, fleeting touch of skin, perhaps a cheek, perhaps lips brushing past.
Warm, radiating heat, it gently grazed the skin on the back of her neck, yet it was as if nothing had happened.
All that remained was the unignorable sound of their heartbeats as they lay close.
Mu Yanxi was taken aback. The sensation of Yi Wulan’s breath tickled her, and she turned her head to ask, “What’s wrong?”
Mu Yanxi seemed to have a casual personality, but she was inherently a bit dominant. This was evident from their interactions since they got married; she was accustomed to holding the reins of control.
But she had never thought that when she was held in the arms of the injured Yi Wulan, she would be unable to resist.
Or perhaps, she had no thought of struggling.
She lowered her gaze slightly, sensing Yi Wulan in the darkness behind her, her initial teasing bravado having vanished somewhere.
She was forced to feel the tips of her ears grow hotter, bit by bit.
Yi Wulan didn’t speak, only shifted her upper body to adjust their position, letting Mu Yanxi nestle more comfortably in her embrace.
Mu Yanxi’s fingers, which had been clutching the corner of the blanket, relaxed.
She seemed to feel Yi Wulan saying
—I’m sorry.
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