Cute

Anxiety, unease, and anticipation churned endlessly within Tianyan's heart. She was somewhat afraid of receiving a negative answer from him. Yet the golden glints that flickered from time to time within his slender eyes gave her a glimmer of confidence. The Heavenly Pupils unique to the Heaven-Deducing Art proved that this fellow truly possessed the Heavenly Yan divine soul. This time, he ought to be able to remember. Without realizing it, she gently clenched her hands, yet her bright, radiant eyes remained fixed unblinkingly on the man before her. Time slipped quietly away between their gazes, accompanied by the patter of falling rain and the howling of the chill wind. "Mm..." His pensive murmur was very soft, yet it plucked at her heartstrings like a resonant chord. Suddenly, he reached out and gently took her slender shoulders into an embrace. Tianyan's body went taut. Only when the moment arrived to confirm the answer did she realize her heart was racing abnormally fast. She was a little frightened. Yet deeply expectant. Because if even this failed, she truly had no other options left. Instinctively, she began to circulate her cultivation method to enter the state of Emptiness, seeking to await this answer with cold-blooded, divine detachment—yet in the end, she chose not to flee. And then... "Not telling you." "..." The trembling in Tianyan's delicate frame ceased. The eyes fixed on Xu Yuan darkened bit by bit, until she was finally looking at him as though at a dead man. In the silence... Xu Yuan suddenly realized he probably shouldn't have joked at a moment like this. He withdrew his hand and opened his mouth, but before he could make a sound, a formidable repulsive force surged outward from the girl beside him! The air froze for a fraction of a second. *Thud!* *Boom!* "*Cough*—*gah!*" Three dull thuds sounded. Xu Yuan was slammed straight into the carved decorative woodwork of the headboard, crafted from premium jintan wood. *Damn, that hurts...* Jintan wood was exceptionally tough, surpassing even iron and stone. Having smashed a hole clean through it, Xu Yuan sat half-propped on the bed, feeling as if his bones were about to fall apart. Before he could pull himself free, a pair of translucent, bare feet drifted into his line of sight. "..." After staring for two seconds, Xu Yuan looked up past those small, flawless feet. Tianyan floated in midair, gazing down at him with golden pupils. Her gaze was chillingly cold, as though bathing him naked in a blizzard of the Northern Border. She hated this cynical, flippant demeanor of his—she had hated it from the very beginning. Always like this. It was always like this. Every time she wanted a definitive answer from this bastard, he would brush it off with this nonchalant attitude. The world twenty thousand years ago had been vast. She and he had traveled to so many places, yet he had never changed. He had been like this when teasing her with playful words, like this when making ambiguous advances, and even after taking her body, he was still like this! She knew he treasured her. Yet compared to a steadfast, mountain-like reassurance, that devotion felt more like a pavilion suspended in midair, poised to collapse at any moment. Because of this, she had never been able to see through what he truly thought inside. Even at the very end of the illusion realm, his heart had remained the same... Staring at Xu Yuan's familiar, handsome face, Tianyan forcefully suppressed the urge to punch this bastard's head straight into his stomach. "Don't make jokes about this kind of thing, okay?" Her voice was very soft and cold, yet it carried an unmistakable sense of gnashing teeth. "..." Pulling an arm free from the splintered wood behind him, Xu Yuan rubbed between his brows as he watched Tianyan's sudden outburst. He could actually guess a thing or two about why she had lost her composure. When a long-nursed hope shattered, disappointment made a person fragile and sensitive. Moreover, she must have remembered certain things from the illusion realm. For example... A sense of security. Xu Yuan knew his own character well. Whether in his past life or this one, he was an emotionally guarded, fragile boy. Gentle companionship and scholar-like warmth might well have moved Tianyan's heart and caused her to fall for him. Yet unfortunately, toward Tianyan, he would inevitably maintain an elusive, push-pull distance—one that kept her uneasy, made her crave moments of joy, and proved as intoxicatingly addictive as opium. Still, now was not the time to be dwelling on that. At the moment, this washboard Saintess seemed to have completely lost her cool. What to do? Meeting her gaze, Xu Yuan showed not the slightest trace of remorse; instead, the smile at the corners of his lips grew even more pronounced. "Oh? And if I refuse... are you going to beat me?" "You bastard!" Tianyan dropped onto the bed, straddling either side of Xu Yuan's body. Her hands grabbed his collar, and with immense strength, she hauled him straight out from the splintered wood. "..." Gazing at each other at close quarters, Xu Yuan's eyes brimmed with amused laughter. Tianyan's golden pupils swirled, the whites slightly bloodshot. Biting her lip, she stared at him for two seconds, then shoved him back down onto the splinter-strewn bed. Xu Yuan didn't resist, his body bouncing twice upon the soft mattress. A few wood splinters that had fallen from the headboard pricked into his half-bare upper torso, and tiny specks of blood seeped into the snow-white sheets. Seeing that blood, Tianyan's willow brows knitted slightly. "Why didn't you circulate your cultivation?" "How is a Soul Condensation cultivator like me supposed to resist an Origin Realm powerhouse like you?" "Did I even use force?!" "I figured you probably wouldn't want to be widowed just yet, so..." *Bang!!* Before he could finish his sentence, Tianyan leaned down and punched a hole straight through the mattress beside Xu Yuan's head. A blast of wind whipped through, sending snow-white down feathers swirling into the air. The corner of Xu Yuan's eye twitched slightly. Why did these ice blocks, big and small, both love wrecking beds? Though it seemed the little ice block showed a bit more restraint—she only wrecked the bed, whereas the big ice block had almost wrecked him along with it last time. While his mind drifted with such random thoughts, Xu Yuan suddenly noticed that the girl over him was trembling faintly. Her fist was embedded in the mattress as she knelt over his waist. The two were very close. On her face, silhouetted against the light, only those reddened golden eyes remained clearly visible. Her smooth, long straight black hair fell across his cheeks, fluttering gently in the breeze and rain that drifted in, tickling him. Silence abruptly descended upon the chamber. In that quiet, Xu Yuan, lying flat on the bed, suddenly reached out and held the girl's slender, supple waist. Even through her court gown, her delicate skin could hardly be concealed. Yet his sudden, intimate touch did not provoke any drastic reaction from her; it was as though she had long grown used to it. They gazed at each other in silence, her soft breath brushing against his face. Xu Yuan didn't speak. His fingertips stroked her waist gently, seemingly seeking an opening to slip beneath the fabric. She still made no move, watching his eyes, her voice as faint as a mosquito's hum, trembling slightly: "Xu Yuan... even if you haven't remembered, you're not allowed to tease me anymore." "All right." Xu Yuan gave a gentle, quiet chuckle, his hand gliding behind her back to softly guide her head down to rest upon his shoulder. Tianyan offered no resistance, nestling her cheek against that familiar neck. Xu Yuan's voice drifted softly, still tinged with a faint, elusive smile: "Though, I think you were cuter in the illusion realm." "Wh-what?" "In the illusion realm, if we were this close, you wouldn't have been able to hold yourself back."