Jian Shichu’s injury wasn’t serious. After the check-up, the doctor let her go home to rest and observe. On the day of discharge, Wang Yun was afraid Wen Zhixu would get too tired, so she decided to stay over that night. That evening, Wen Zhixu helped Wang Yun cook dinner together.
As soon as Jian Shichu got home, she darted into the bathroom and didn’t emerge until after washing for over an hour. Before bed that night, she washed again, insisting all along that she still carried a fishy smell.
Wang Yun went back to her room early. Around nine, Wen Zhixu returned to her own room too. This time, she came back in a rush, without any luggage.
Seeing the Jiuqu magazines in the room again this time stirred different feelings; before, she hadn’t really understood what they signified.
Wen Zhixu leaned her lower back against the desk, placing the magazine back in its original spot as she stepped away.
They were wedged right in the middle of the desk’s edge when Jian Shichu walked in and asked, “Ready to sleep?”
“Oh, okay.” Wen Zhixu lay down on her usual side of the bed.
Out of habit, she left the bedside lamp on for Jian Shichu. Just as her hand moved away from the switch, a voice came from behind her: “Turn it off.”
“Aren’t you scared?” Wen Zhixu furrowed her brows.
A smile glinted in Jian Shichu’s eyes. “Not anymore.”
Wen Zhixu switched off the light, plunging the room into darkness. In that instant of brief blindness all around, faint white light seeped from the edges of the curtains. The moment Wen Zhixu lay down, Jian Shichu pulled her into her arms.
After the short darkness, she could make out the other’s silhouette. Wen Zhixu’s shoulder shifted, the ends of her hair pricking against the arm.
Jian Shichu sucked in a sharp breath. “You’re pressing on my hair.”
“Sorry.” Wen Zhixu lifted her shoulder a bit and used her fingers to smooth Jian Shichu’s hair out.
Jian Shichu suddenly laughed. “I wasn’t blaming you. What were you looking at just now?”
“Hm?” Wen Zhixu lifted her gaze to meet hers. “Did you first learn about me from that first magazine?”
“The first one,” Jian Shichu said. “After that, I bought every issue featuring you, all the way until the second semester of junior high. That’s when I submitted a manuscript to the publisher, and our names ended up side by side.”
Wen Zhixu thought for a moment. “Then you followed me on Weibo and added me.”
“Yeah, exactly.” Jian Shichu gazed at her without moving, her breaths laced with memories. She still remembered just how nervous she’d been back then.
Their later meetings had come at perfectly timed “coincidences”—ones she’d meticulously plotted for ages. She would deliberately show up at places Wen Zhixu frequented.
What Wen Zhixu didn’t know was that the first time she greeted her, Jian Shichu had been even more nervous than she let on.
Wen Zhixu looked up and asked, “So you never had a crush on anyone in high school?”
Jian Shichu smiled and rolled over, pinning her down. “I crushed on you.”
“But you’d never met me.”
“Crushing without meeting is secret love. Once we met, it turned into open pursuit.” Jian Shichu’s fingers slid the hair from Wen Zhixu’s face.
Truth be told, she’d never liked anyone else. That was just how she was—if she took a liking to someone, it was hard to develop feelings for anyone else.
“What if I’d turned out ugly?” Wen Zhixu said in surprise.
Jian Shichu peered at her in the dim light, pondered, and replied, “What then? Think I could still chase you if I played blind?”
Wen Zhixu burst out laughing at her. “When are you going to get serious?”
“How serious?” Jian Shichu kissed her lips, giving a light peck. “Like this?”
Wen Zhixu’s breaths quickened, her face flushing. Only after a moment did she murmur, “About what happened before… After I saw that wedding dress, I snapped a photo. I wanted to buy it for you.”
“Buy me a wedding dress?” Jian Shichu was surprised yet amused. Seeing Wen Zhixu’s expression, she began regretting her own impulsiveness that had made her cry like that.
Wen Zhixu nodded. “Yeah, I wanted to get it for you.”
“My tone that day was all wrong. I promise I won’t talk like that again.” Jian Shichu pulled her into a hug, her movements brimming with tender affection.
Her words that day had stung, but they’d come from fear—fear of Wen Zhixu leaving, terror of gaining only to lose again, that maddening push-pull.
Jian Shichu kissed her softly, sucking gently at the sweet nectar between her lips. After losing and regaining, everything felt precious; she was extra careful. As her tongue delved deeper, it was all tender entanglement.
Wen Zhixu’s chest rose and fell as she wrapped her arms around the other’s waist, responding to the kiss without thinking, matching her with exquisite care. Their breaths swelled, filling the room with intimate sounds.
Soft tongues tangled relentlessly, unwilling to part. Jian Shichu gripped her shoulders, tightening slowly, kneading the brewing ambiguity like dough.
When they broke apart, she trailed kisses to her ear, tongue tip teasing the lobe wickedly. Wen Zhixu squirmed involuntarily, a tide of heat surging through her, spreading to her scalp.
As Jian Shichu teased her in earnest, Wen Zhixu suddenly remembered something and pushed at her in a panic. “Director Wang is right next door.”
“Can’t hear us.” Jian Shichu’s position didn’t shift an inch as she breathed the words into her ear. “Soundproofing’s excellent.”
Even so, Wen Zhixu stayed tense. But Jian Shichu could tell. After a scorching kiss grazed her ear, she returned to her lips, devouring her sanity.
Tongue slipping into her mouth to hook her nerves, fingers seeking out the buttons and undoing them with skill. Her shoulders chilled as the blanket slipped away, clothes tossed to the bed’s foot.
Wen Zhixu held back, her muffled moans even softer than before. Yet every kiss brought waves of delight.
This way of showing love was utterly satisfying. Breathless, Wen Zhixu turned her head aside, her hands limp with no strength.
“Don’t be nervous. She can’t hear.” Jian Shichu saw her stifled breaths and smiled faintly, fingertips gliding down the curve of her waist.
Her tone was coaxing, laced with extra gentleness, lighter than usual. Kiss marks trailed slowly from her jawline downward; in the quiet, the wet sounds of kissing bloomed through the space.
A master climber knows the easiest path up the peak, never forcing the snowy slopes head-on. Each step brimmed with possession, yet feather-light as it caressed the terrain.
Wen Zhixu wasn’t sure if it was nerves or what, but she heard noises outside. She whispered urgently, “Get up quick.”
Jian Shichu complied—sort of. She rose only to claim Wen Zhixu’s lips again, silencing her. The kiss was fiercer now, eyes heavy with novel, smoldering desire that scorched the thin haze over her gaze.
Her hand tugged Wen Zhixu along; the sleeve cuff brushed scorching skin, sensing the body beneath soften further.
Jian Shichu propped herself up, eyes swirling with unspoken urges. In the dark, she couldn’t clearly see Wen Zhixu’s reddened eye corners, only feel and imagine her veiled restraint.
“Noises outside.” Wen Zhixu’s heart drummed wildly, scared yet trapped in the mood.
Jian Shichu murmured softly, “I don’t hear anything. Scared? I’ll get you earplugs.”
“You’re too much. Last time you blindfolded me, now…”
Before Wen Zhixu finished, Jian Shichu silenced her again, leaning in to swallow the words. Her fair hand landed on the softness, stirring Wen Zhixu’s sensitivities.
Like ants lost on a flower pistil, circling aimlessly in place. Electricity coursed through Wen Zhixu’s veins, mind blanking as she melted fully into Jian Shichu’s embrace.
Sensations trailed from lips to neck; her breaths grew heavier with each pass, soft whimpers slipping from her throat.
A gust shifted the ants, claiming all territory but lingering at the core. Wet heat enveloped her, numbness flooding her body; Wen Zhixu tilted her chin, gasping.
The jade butterfly probed endlessly, brushing the chill full moon in the mirror lake, ripples spreading in waves with every touch. Jian Shichu’s hair swept her skin like silk.
As the blanket parted slightly, Wen Zhixu touched the hair tie on Jian Shichu’s wrist. She hooked it free and slowly gathered the dark locks behind her ear with her thumb.
Grip tightening, the jade butterfly plunged deeper into the mirror lake. Warm fingers on the soft mound dialed up the pressure; Wen Zhixu’s wrists went slack. Amid breaths, she tied Jian Shichu’s hair, but each motion only made her hungrier to devour her whole.
The process dragged slow and torturous. As the tie looped its final circle, the half-submerged jade butterfly sank fully into the lake. Her breath hitched; she clutched Jian Shichu on instinct.
The drowned butterfly fluttered weakly; a stray whimper escaped Wen Zhixu. Jian Shichu tilted her head, pressing a kiss to her cheek.
These feather-light kisses shamed her more than deep ones. She buried her face aside, breaths mewling like a wronged kitten.
“Look at me, hm?” Jian Shichu’s voice bewitched, eyes ablaze with spectral fire—like a snow fox consuming all her reserve.
Watery glimmers in Wen Zhixu’s eyes dissolved drop by drop. She turned to look but averted after a second, the teasing intensifying.
Nestled in Jian Shichu’s arms, she loved this—zero aggression, pure tender entanglement.
Jian Shichu smiled softly, voice coaxing with peak gentleness: “Good wife.”
Wen Zhixu grew even shyer from this tease. She half-closed her eyes and turned her face aside, her features brimming with an indescribable flush of embarrassment, the playful caresses scattered and shallow without rhythm.
The white butterfly submerged in the lake slowed its movements, a hot, humid breath swirling as it blew across the full moon, stirring the night into unrest once more.
As her senses were devoured by numbness, Wen Zhixu’s murmurs were stifled by the footsteps outside. Her nerves gradually dulled amid the tension.
This time, the footsteps drew slowly nearer. Her hand brushed Jian Shichu’s hair in warning, drawing Jian Shichu’s attention to the door.
Suddenly, three sharp knocks: dong dong dong.
Jian Shichu didn’t rise, continuing to listen.
“Xiao Xu, are you asleep?” Wang Yun’s voice called from outside.
Wen Zhixu cleared her throat. “No, not yet.” Her voice still carried traces of that lingering coquettishness.
No sooner had her words fallen than another wave of tingling surged through her. She hurriedly clamped a hand over her lips, not daring to move, the quilt twitching upward now and then.
“You…” she whispered, her voice low. Her knees were pinned firmly in place as the garden was meticulously swept clean, fraying her nerves thinner with every stroke.
Wang Yun said, “Want something to eat? Xu Ting dragged me out for barbecue. You hungry? Come along.”
Wen Zhixu steadied her breathing. “No, I’m not… “
Just then, that electric current paired with a deep suction twisted her expression.
“Alright, then. I’m heading out—you get some rest.”
“Okay.”
Wen Zhixu heard the footsteps recede, but she could only endure. Her nerves pulled ever tighter until a faint click of the door closing in the living room echoed through. A sheen of fine sweat broke across her skin as her stifled sounds finally spilled over.
The full moon, lashed by fierce winds through the forest, lay in disarray like a ravaged scene. Mountain clouds cloaked the firmament, and all fell quiet only when a gentle drizzle began to patter down.
Jian Shichu pushed herself up to gaze at her, a smile curling her lips, glistening with watery sheen.
Wen Zhixu’s breaths came hot and ragged, her dazed expression slowly clearing as all strength drained from her body.
“I’ll hold you,” Jian Shichu murmured, drawing her into her arms.
Without even looking, Jian Shichu knew Wen Zhixu was glaring at her.
