Jin Se

Chapter 77

Shi Wuduan flipped over unconsciously, feeling something dripping on the back of his hand. When he woke, he opened his eyes to find himself lying on an unfamiliar bed. He realized that he wasn't in his own room.

Then, without looking to the side, he somewhat awkwardly retracted the arm that he'd been carelessly resting across the other person, but Bai Li caught his hand.

Judging from the light that was shining through the windows, it was already nearly noon. Bai Li wasn't drunk, so naturally, he was already awake. Yet instead of getting up, he merely laid on his side, pillowing his head on his arm as he peacefully watched Shi Wuduan for who knew how long, barely even blinking.

Shi Wuduan lightly shoved him, wanting his arm back, but Bai Li didn't let go.

"Stop fooling around," he said.

Yet Bai Li's grip suddenly tightened as he pressed closer. His other hand looped around Shi Wuduan's waist and he buried his face into the crook of his neck. After a moment, he asked sulkily, "How did you know that 'Never Part' existed?"

Shi Wuduan paused, then said, "The Yao King's wife is a kind of Hehuan tree. 'Never Part' is one of the Hehuan clan's closely kept secrets. Even though the yao race has long kept to the Amu Grasslands, it was only a matter of time before Yan Zhen dragged them into this mess. Of course I had to know my enemy."

Bai Li's arms tightened around him as he asked, "You knew about what happened last night?"

Shi Wuduan chuckled, "There were dozens of eyes watching the Yao King's every move the moment he left his seat. I knew he wanted to find a way to curb me somehow... but the yao have been isolated for a long time; they're simple, unlike humans. There were only so many things he could think of to use against me."

"Then why did you drink it?"

Shi Wuduan sighed. Bai Li's arms were digging into him uncomfortably, but all he did was silently stroke the hair that flowed down Bai Li's back.

As if Bai Li himself couldn't figure out an answer to his question, he mumbled under his breath, "If you knew, then why did you drink it? Did... did you do it willingly?"

Shi Wuduan heard an oddness in his tone and turned his face towards him. He gently lifted his chin, only to see that Bai Li's face was streaked with tears.

Shi Wuduan suddenly froze, at a loss. He had no clue what to do. A while later, he said, "Why... are you crying? Of course 'Never Part' has another purpose, I was merely using Zhao Rong..."

His words abruptly stopped because Bai Li suddenly flipped him over, gently parted the disheveled collar of his robes, then bent down and reverently kissed the mark of 'Never Part' on his chest.

The teardrops that landed on his chest contrasted magnificently with the mark of 'Never Part.'

Entanglements... probably only ever had three kinds of outcomes. Either their love was enough to move skies and shake mountains, heaven took pity on them, and their entanglement turned into attachment, or they became disillusioned with romance, let go of their relationship, and never met again; or they'd both suffer for it and become irreversibly entrapped, ending up as nothing more than an unsightly pair of doomed lovers.

Perhaps, even though their fate was deep already, emotion was always deeper by three inches.

When the year passed, Gu Huaiyang's troops finally reached the walls of Pingyang City.