Edited—

The moment the door opened, Zhou Jiayu felt a wave of hot wind blow directly into his face.

The temperature of this wind was extremely high. When it blew against a person, it produced a scorching sensation. An ordinary person probably really wouldn’t be able to endure it. But Zhou Jiayu’s constitution was special; he didn’t find it too uncomfortable. He slowly entered the room and clearly felt that the temperature inside was somewhat excessively high. To the point where the surrounding air was distorting because of the high temperature.

“Sir?” Zhou Jiayu softly called out to Lin Zhushui. This wasn’t his first time coming to Lin Zhushui’s residence, but he wasn’t too clear on its layout. He only knew that this building had several floors; he didn’t know what each floor was specifically used for.

“Sir…” Zhou Jiayu called for Lin Zhushui as he walked toward the direction of the stairs. He remembered that the third floor seemed to be Lin Zhushui’s bedroom. He had gone up once before when getting the tattoo, but he didn’t know which room Lin Zhushui was staying in.

“Sir!” Zhou Jiayu shouted as he walked, but noticed that the furnishings in the room had changed greatly. Almost every corner of the walls had small talisman arrays drawn on them. The centers of these arrays all held jade stones, with bright yellow cinnabar talisman papers stuck beside them. Getting slightly closer to these arrays, one could feel waves of cold qi emanating from within.

But this cold qi was a drop in the bucket compared to the temperature in the room. Zhou Jiayu was anxious in his heart. With heavy deng deng deng steps, he directly ran up to the third floor, continuously calling out.

But no one in the room responded. The entire building had fallen into a strange silence. Only the continuously rising temperature told Zhou Jiayu that Lin Zhushui’s condition was extremely bad.

Fortunately, Zhou Jiayu’s constitution played a major role at this time. He could clearly see that the higher he went, the denser the flame qi became. By the time he reached the third floor, this red, flame-like smoke covered the entire corridor. Zhou Jiayu could barely see the path beneath his feet.

“Sir, Sir!” Knowing that Lin Zhushui was definitely on this floor, Zhou Jiayu groped his way forward, carefully checking every room, afraid that he might have missed Lin Zhushui.

Finally, in a master bedroom near the end of the corridor, he found his target.

“Sir!” The door to the master bedroom was half-open. Zhou Jiayu pushed open the door and saw Lin Zhushui leaning against the window. Fiery red mist surrounded him. The temperature of this mist was extremely high, as if it would transform into substantive flames in the next moment. At this time, his eyes were half-closed, as if he had already lost consciousness. Even though Zhou Jiayu’s voice was so loud, he gave no response.

Zhou Jiayu’s heart was instantly gripped tight. He hurriedly entered the room, ran to Lin Zhushui’s side, and supported him: “Sir, Sir, what’s wrong with you?”

Lin Zhushui’s body was soft. Supported by Zhou Jiayu, he only moved slightly. He seemed to have been called back to a bit of consciousness by Zhou Jiayu’s voice. His long eyelashes trembled, and he softly uttered one word from his mouth: “Hot…”

Seeing Lin Zhushui in such a fragile state, Zhou Jiayu felt he was about to go crazy with worry. Perhaps out of desperation, he suddenly remembered that time on Mount She when he was terribly cold, and Lin Zhushui cut open his finger to let him drink his blood.

Since he had an extremely yin constitution, then his blood should also be useful for Lin Zhushui, right? Zhou Jiayu thought this, looked around, and immediately found what he wanted. He gently laid Lin Zhushui down, stood up, ran to the corner of the room, smashed a decorative porcelain vase in the corner, and picked up a fragment of the vase.

“Sir.” Zhou Jiayu climbed onto the bed, pulled Lin Zhushui into his embrace, pinched the porcelain fragment, and slashed down on his own arm.

The sharp porcelain piece cut open his skin. Red fresh blood directly welled up. Zhou Jiayu supported Lin Zhushui with one hand and poured the blood into his mouth with the other.

A person who had lost consciousness shouldn’t easily be able to swallow things in their mouth. But perhaps Zhou Jiayu’s blood had a natural attraction for Lin Zhushui. He slightly parted his lips and began swallowing unconsciously.

“Mm…” Zhou Jiayu felt Lin Zhushui’s burning lips sucking on his arm, his tongue occasionally lightly licking his wound. So amid this pain, he felt a discordant itchy sensation. Zhou Jiayu couldn’t help but let out soft hums from his mouth.

Zhou Jiayu’s blood indeed seemed to have a very strong effect. After Lin Zhushui swallowed it, the flame qi around him clearly lessened by quite a bit, and the temperature also began to drop.

Zhou Jiayu was a bit worried it wasn’t enough, so he cut another gash on his arm and fed Lin Zhushui again.

After drinking this fresh blood, Lin Zhushui finally slowly opened his eyes. Zhou Jiayu clearly saw that his eyes at this moment revealed a gorgeous red color. Compared to his usual abstinent self, this strange red color gave his entire person’s temperament an extra degree of seductive allure.

“Sir!” Seeing Lin Zhushui open his eyes, Zhou Jiayu thought he had regained consciousness and said happily, “Are you feeling better? If it’s not enough, I’ll feed you more.”

Lin Zhushui’s eyes were half-lowered, his gaze carrying a cold indifference. He had originally been leaning in Zhou Jiayu’s embrace, but now he used his hand to support his body and slowly sat up.

Zhou Jiayu watched Lin Zhushui’s movements, not understanding what was happening.

Lin Zhushui didn’t speak. He suddenly reached out his hand toward Zhou Jiayu. Before Zhou Jiayu could react, he felt Lin Zhushui’s fingers press against his lips, his thumb heavily rubbing his lips.

“Sir?” Zhou Jiayu was startled by Lin Zhushui’s action and reflexively shrank back.

But this fearful action seemed to anger Lin Zhushui. Lin Zhushui’s other hand actually heavily pressed against the back of Zhou Jiayu’s head, not allowing him to retreat a single inch.

Zhou Jiayu was truly somewhat frightened. Lin Zhushui’s gaze carried a cold cruelty, devoid of the usual gentleness when the corners of his mouth hooked up. The person before him emanated the aura of a beast. Reason seemed to have been stripped from his body, leaving only primitive instinct.

“Sir…” Zhou Jiayu called out tremblingly.

Lin Zhushui didn’t speak. He stared at Zhou Jiayu’s slightly parted lips. In the next moment, he actually pressed his face over.

“Mm!” The two suddenly connected lip to tongue. Zhou Jiayu stared with disbelieving wide eyes. His first reaction was to push Lin Zhushui away, but Lin Zhushui seemed to have anticipated this and easily restrained both his hands with one hand.

It was a somewhat rough kiss. No, it might not even be called a kiss. Rather, it was like an unconscious taking. Zhou Jiayu felt his oxygen being continuously consumed, his head beginning to grow dizzy, even somewhat unable to comprehend what was happening at this moment.

He and Lin Zhushui… were kissing. To be precise, Lin Zhushui was kissing him.

When Zhou Jiayu finally clearly realized this fact, the fear born from instinct gradually receded. He felt the blood in his heart rushing toward his head. His hands, which had originally been resisting, began to lightly support Lin Zhushui’s shoulders.

So… so happy, Zhou Jiayu thought muddleheadedly. He felt Lin Zhushui lightly nibbling on his lower lip. The movement was very light and very gentle, carrying some carefulness.

Was he too happy? Zhou Jiayu felt strength gradually fading from his body. At first he thought this was the feeling of happiness. Who knew that Jiba’s voice would ring out: “Breathe, Zhou Jiayu, breathe—you’re going to suffocate yourself to death!” Jiba’s speech was extremely fast, and he involuntarily cursed, showing that he was also quite anxious.

Only then did Zhou Jiayu suddenly realize. He gasped for large breaths. Oxygen finally entered his body again, and that feeling of weakness was relieved.

So this wasn’t the taste of happiness; it was the taste of nearly dying from lack of oxygen. Zhou Jiayu thought painfully. As someone who had never kissed before, his first kiss performance was truly too terrible. Because of the lack of oxygen, a watery light floated in Zhou Jiayu’s eyes, and physiological tears overflowed from the corners of his eyes.

Lin Zhushui lowered his eyes to look at him and used his thumb to gently wipe away the tears from the corner of his eyes.

“Sir.” Zhou Jiayu softly called.

Lin Zhushui still didn’t speak. The frenzy in his eyes had settled down. The crimson color in his pupils also gradually faded, once again becoming the pure black that Zhou Jiayu had seen before.

“Sir?” Zhou Jiayu thought this was a sign that Lin Zhushui had recovered his senses. But he didn’t expect that after a moment, Lin Zhushui’s eyes slightly closed, and he actually fell asleep just like that, leaning against his shoulder. His breathing was very steady, his face carrying some fatigue. It seemed that the previous heat had indeed consumed too much of his strength.

Zhou Jiayu hadn’t expected Lin Zhushui to fall asleep just like this. He thought about it, slowly laid Lin Zhushui down on the bed, then ran downstairs like mad, rushed out, and found Lin Jue and the others anxiously waiting outside.

Lin Po had also come and was standing beside Lin Jue. Seeing Zhou Jiayu rush out, he hurriedly asked, “How is it?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “The yang energy has been temporarily suppressed. Sir fell asleep, but I don’t know where the problem is with the formation.”

Lin Jue said, “I’ll go in with you to take a look!”

Zhou Jiayu nodded.

Lin Po also wanted to go, but Lin Jue stopped him and had him guard outside, saying it would be good to handle any situation in time. Lin Po had no choice but to agree reluctantly.

Lin Jue pulled Zhou Jiayu and walked inside. Zhou Jiayu was afraid she would see the wound on his hand, so he kept his right hand hidden behind him. He hadn’t expected that the moment they entered, Lin Jue would discover it. She didn’t say anything, directly pulling up Zhou Jiayu’s arm. After carefully observing and confirming it wasn’t too serious, she said, “I’ll help you treat the wound when we get out.” She let out a light sigh, then solemnly thanked him, “Jiayu, thank you. The Lin family owes you this.”

Zhou Jiayu shook his head: “Shibo, you’re too polite. If it weren’t for Sir… I might have been in trouble long ago.”

Lin Jue shook her head, seeming to want to say something, but in the end she skipped this topic. After asking about Lin Zhushui’s condition, she took Zhou Jiayu straight to the back of the house.

Following Lin Jue forward, Zhou Jiayu learned that this house actually had a backyard. And the backyard was designed very beautifully—mountain rocks, flowing water, pavilions and towers. It was like a miniature Jiangnan courtyard.

In the middle of the backyard was an open space. On the open space was drawn a huge formation. In the center of this formation was placed a jade stone.

This jade stone should be the core driving the formation. But when Lin Jue and Zhou Jiayu arrived beside the formation, they saw that a huge crack had appeared on the jade stone. This crack ran through the entire jade stone. The fine cracks spreading out from the side even extended deep inside. Even Zhou Jiayu, who didn’t understand jade, knew that this stone was definitely ruined.

“How could this happen?!” Lin Jue’s expression changed greatly upon seeing this scene. She immediately took out her phone and called Lin Po: “Where are the backup jade stones? Transport them over immediately. Yes, hurry!”

Zhou Jiayu stepped forward and touched the jade stone, discovering that its temperature was very high to the touch, even a bit burning hot. He said in surprise, “This jade stone is hot.”

Lin Jue said, “There might be a problem with the stone’s quality…” She said this very uncertainly, because although the jade stones were bought by Shen Musi, every piece would go through Lin Zhushui’s inspection. Inferior quality jade stones fundamentally couldn’t be placed into the formation. But these matters were currently uncertain; Lin Jue was only guessing.

Lin Po’s speed was extremely fast. In less than five or six minutes, he had people push the jade stones here. Seeing the damaged jade stone in the formation, he also showed surprise: “How could this happen—”

“I don’t know either.” Lin Jue said, “Let’s restore the formation first. We’ll talk about the rest later.”

Lin Po nodded.

Shen Yiqiong and a few others also came in with him. They worked together to replace the jade stone into the formation. Then Lin Jue restarted the formation.

After the formation restarted, Zhou Jiayu clearly felt cold qi rising from within.

“Let’s go, let’s go, hurry out.” Lin Jue called out. The group took advantage of the fact that the formation hadn’t fully activated yet and left this small building.

After the jade stone was replaced, the effect seemed much better. Zhou Jiayu saw that the flame qi surrounding the house dissipated quite a bit, and that refreshing cool air began emanating from the house again.

Lin Jue breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing this and said, “Come, Jiayu, I’ll bandage your wound.”

When she said this, the people beside them noticed that Zhou Jiayu’s hand was injured. Because it was cut by a porcelain shard, the wound looked somewhat ferocious at first glance. The skin was turned open, and the red flesh inside could still be seen. Shen Yiqiong hurriedly went to get medical supplies and watched as Lin Jue disinfected Zhou Jiayu’s wound.

“Stop the bleeding temporarily. Go to the hospital immediately for stitches.” Lin Jue said, “You cut it with a porcelain shard?”

Zhou Jiayu nodded: “That one in the corner of Sir’s room…”

Lin Jue sighed: “Actually…”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Hmm?”

Lin Jue said, “That… you…” She seemed somewhat unable to speak, and finally softly said, “Actually, any liquid would have worked.”

Zhou Jiayu stared blankly at Lin Jue, not reacting for a moment to what Lin Jue’s words meant.

Seeing Zhou Jiayu’s dull expression, Lin Jue said somewhat painfully and directly, “In the end, you two kissed, right?”

Fortunately, at this moment there were only the two of them in the room. The rest had either gone to watch Lin Zhushui or gone to do other things. Otherwise, Zhou Jiayu would definitely have exploded instantly. But even so, hearing Lin Jue’s words, Zhou Jiayu’s face flushed red. He wanted to argue something, but saw Lin Jue pointing at his lips: “Swollen.”

Zhou Jiayu: “…” He reached out and touched his lips, discovering that they really were swollen, and his lower lip seemed to have a damaged area too. It was also fortunate that just now everyone had focused their attention entirely on the wound on his hand. Otherwise, they would definitely have noticed the abnormality of his lips.

“I…” Zhou Jiayu’s entire person was somewhat confused. After a long while, he squeezed out a sentence: “I-I didn’t mean to take advantage of Sir. Really didn’t mean to.”

Lin Jue looked at Zhou Jiayu’s appearance and thought to herself, I know you didn’t mean to. You’ve been cowardly to this extent. Only others take advantage of you; where would you have the guts to take advantage of others?

“But Sir was a bit out of it, and his strength was too great, so I couldn’t push him away.” Zhou Jiayu’s little thoughts were exposed, and he panicked terribly: “Shibo, please don’t tell Sir, okay? I’m afraid he’ll be angry.”

The look in Lin Jue’s eyes as she gazed at Zhou Jiayu was full of affection, simply like a mother-in-law looking at her silly little child bride. She said, “Okay, I won’t say. But Guan’er, have you ever thought about why, among all the disciples Zhushui has taken in, he treats you so specially?”

Zhou Jiayu answered this quickly: “Because it’s especially cool being near me?”

Lin Jue: “…” This answer actually sounded so much like the correct answer. She said helplessly, “You’ve never been in a relationship, have you?”

Zhou Jiayu looked left and right, avoiding the question.

Lin Jue softly said, “Zhushui hasn’t either.”

Zhou Jiayu froze.

Looking at Zhou Jiayu’s appearance, Lin Jue suddenly felt that puppy love was a good thing. It was like grinding some experience before fighting the BOSS, so that when you finally encountered the BOSS, you wouldn’t be in a panic, not even knowing what equipment to use… Of course, this sentence also applied to Lin Zhushui. Observing Zhou Jiayu’s expression, Lin Jue finally decided not to force her cute little child bride. The child bride was still injured; she couldn’t bear to. After this summer passed, she would still have a good talk with her silly son.

But even so, Lin Jue didn’t give up. She took another approach, indicating that Lin Zhushui should need care and hoped Zhou Jiayu could take on this responsibility.

“Then after the formation is repaired, can I enter Sir’s courtyard?” Zhou Jiayu asked.

Lin Jue nodded: “Yes. The repaired formation’s effect isn’t as good as before. It can only barely let Zhushui get through this summer. I’ll give you some talisman papers to carry on your person; there should be no problem.”

Zhou Jiayu nodded, quite happy that he could take care of Lin Zhushui.

“Let’s go, we’ll go to the hospital first.” Lin Jue finished simply bandaging Zhou Jiayu and spoke.

Only then did Zhou Jiayu remember that his arm had a wound. He had completely not felt this wound while talking with Lin Jue just now. Only now did he feel a burning pain.

Two wounds, both stitched with four needles at the hospital. Zhou Jiayu had always felt it was no big deal, just a small injury.

But after returning, the people at home still stripped Zhou Jiayu of his right to enter the kitchen. Shen Yiqiong rolled up his sleeves claiming he wanted to stew chicken soup for Zhou Jiayu to drink, but was ruthlessly stopped by Lin Jue.

“I’ll order takeout.” Lin Jue said this. “I’m afraid if Guan’er drinks your chicken soup, he’ll never get up again.”

Shen Yiqiong said, is it that serious?

Shen Musi beside him had an expression of begging him to shut up. Later, Zhou Jiayu learned that Shen Yiqiong had stewed chicken soup before. It was just that when stewing, he put an entire chicken in without removing the internal organs. Of course, the chicken shit inside the internal organs was also in there. The taste of chicken soup stewed like this was imaginable…

Bringing up the matter of the chicken soup, the faces of the three people in the room all showed expressions of not wanting to recall. Only Shen Yiqiong was still arguing, saying that he already knew where the problem lay and could carry out comprehensive improvements.

But he was just talking. When the takeout Lin Jue ordered arrived, this guy ran faster than anyone with a happy bounce.

Because she was worried about the wound on Zhou Jiayu’s hand, Lin Jue specially ordered a black fish soup. Zhou Jiayu was drinking it when the phone in his pocket suddenly rang. He picked it up and discovered it was actually Lin Zhushui’s number.

“It’s Sir’s.” This was almost the first time Lin Zhushui had called him. Zhou Jiayu felt somewhat overwhelmed by the favor. “Is Sir awake?”

“Answer first.” Lin Jue said, “Ask what the matter is.”

Zhou Jiayu nodded and pressed the answer button.

“Zhou Jiayu.” Lin Zhushui’s low voice came from the other end of the phone. He seemed to have just woken up. His tone still carried some low sleepiness, his voice hoarse, sounding especially sexy.

“Sir.” Zhou Jiayu responded.

“Where are you?” Lin Zhushui asked.

Zhou Jiayu was a bit confused: “I’m eating. Sir, are you hungry? Shall I make some porridge and bring it over?”

There was silence on Lin Zhushui’s end for a moment. Then he said something Zhou Jiayu hadn’t expected. He said, “I don’t want porridge. I want you.” He paused. “Come over.”

Hearing these words, Zhou Jiayu’s ear tips began turning red. He pretended to be calm and gave an “mm.” After hanging up the phone, he stood up: “Sir is awake and asked me to go over.”

Lin Jue looked at Zhou Jiayu affectionately and told him to go with peace of mind.

Zhou Jiayu was startled by Lin Jue’s gaze. “Shibo, are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” Lin Jue said, “Shibo is too happy.”

Zhou Jiayu: “????”

Lin Jue said, “Wait, I’ll find you some talisman papers first. Carry them on you.”

Zhou Jiayu nodded.

Besides Lin Jue, everyone else in the room was baffled, clearly not understanding what Lin Jue meant. But they all tactfully didn’t ask. Even Shen Yiqiong with his thick nerves opened his mouth and then closed it again.

A moment later, Zhou Jiayu, with talisman papers on his body, hurriedly rushed toward Lin Zhushui’s residence, so happy that he was practically bouncing as he walked.

After entering, he went straight to the third floor. Sure enough, he discovered Lin Zhushui sitting by the bed in the previous room. Lin Zhushui’s eyes were closed, but he had already heard his voice and softly called out, “Zhou Jiayu.”

Zhou Jiayu began getting nervous again. He took a deep breath, barely managed to calm himself down, and slowly walked into Lin Zhushui’s room, saying, “Sir.”

Lin Zhushui said, “Come here.” He beckoned to Zhou Jiayu.

Zhou Jiayu walked to Lin Zhushui’s bedside and sat down.

Lin Zhushui directly reached out and grasped Zhou Jiayu’s wrist. He said, “I drank your blood?”

Zhou Jiayu still had wounds on his arm. This matter probably couldn’t be hidden from Lin Zhushui either. Helplessly, Zhou Jiayu nodded.

Lin Zhushui said, “Does it hurt?”

He was made of flesh too; how could it not hurt? But with Lin Zhushui’s hand holding his, it seemed like it really didn’t hurt anymore. Zhou Jiayu had previously heard a saying that love makes a person very, very low, low into the dust, but the heart is happy, and flowers bloom from the dust. At this moment, he deeply resonated with this. He felt that he would be willing to do anything Lin Zhushui asked him to do. Even if Lin Zhushui said he wanted him to give up this life right now, he would also happily say yes.

“What’s wrong?” Zhou Jiayu’s silence caused Lin Zhushui to show a rare hint of small panic. He said, “Does it hurt especially badly? Was it properly bandaged? Is it serious?”

Zhou Jiayu shook his head and softly said, “Sir, it doesn’t hurt.”

Lin Zhushui’s expression softened. He said, “How could it not hurt.” He also touched the bandaged area, but of course his movements were very light. There were two wounds. The moment Zhou Jiayu entered the room, he smelled the scent of medicine and blood.

“Zhou Jiayu.” Lin Zhushui said, “Thank you.”

Zhou Jiayu curved the corners of his eyes, revealing a brilliant smile: “Sir, you’re too polite. I’m willing to do anything for you.”

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Author’s Note:

The quote about being low into the dust is originally by Eileen Chang.

The car will come when both sides are in mutual love. First, here’s a tricycle to quench everyone’s thirst. The author happily rides the tricycle around in a circle and slips away.