Chapter 35: Purpose
So Gu Qing was abducted home by Ji Yueling.
Honestly, Gu Qing preferred Lu Qianqian’s house because Ji Yueling’s place was too big, and the decor was as cold and minimalist as her personality, looking completely devoid of any signs of life. Everything was arranged very neatly—everything was so orderly.
A person’s living environment can reveal part of their inner self. After entering, Ji Yueling bent slightly to remove her high heels, then brought Gu Qing a pair of slippers and said flatly, “Go take a shower.”
“Do you have clothes I can change into?”
“No.”
“Then what should I do?” Gu Qing looked into her eyes.
Ji Yueling tilted her head. “Would not wearing clothes make you shy in front of me?”
Her eyes seemed to contain a trace of contemptuous mockery, like a mischievous older sister teasing a little boy. Gu Qing angrily poked her soft, full chest with his finger and stomped off to the bathroom.
Five minutes later, Gu Qing emerged from the bathroom completely naked.
……………………………………
“Your butt is quite pale.” Ji Yueling commented flatly.
At this moment, she was leaning against the sofa, still wearing her elegant light purple dress, her slender legs crossed beneath the hem. Her eyes regarded him with playful laziness. She wasn’t embarrassed—at most there was a small blush on her cheeks, though it was unclear whether it was from drinking too much.
“…” Gu Qing didn’t know where to begin complaining. At this moment, little Qing was being observed by her, but he showed no embarrassment, instead casually walking over to sit beside Ji Yueling.
The moment he moved closer to Ji Yueling, she couldn’t help but scoot away a few inches.
Gu Qing chuckled. “Where am I sleeping tonight?”
“Did you think there were any options other than sleeping with me?” Ji Yueling looked toward the rain outside the glass window, took out her phone to use the smart home system to close the curtains, then finally stood up and walked to her room. After a while, she came out with a bathrobe and tossed it to Gu Qing, then went to the bathroom.
Gu Qing leaned against the sofa, full of anticipation.
What kind of scene would unfold next? Would she emerge naked from the bathroom and then approach him with passionate kisses? Or would she shyly put her hands behind her back and eventually make him close his eyes because she couldn’t bear the embarrassment? Gu Qing fantasized like this, then gradually noticed a crystal bottle on the table.
The crystal bottle was transparent, containing a rotten apple.
The sound of rushing water came from the bathroom. Gu Qing’s heartbeat seemed to quicken—he apparently had to admit that even at times like this, his heart would race with anticipation, because Ji Yueling was too beautiful.
But women always take so long to shower. After half an hour, Gu Qing was nearly falling asleep on the sofa when Ji Yueling finally emerged. But the moment he saw her, Gu Qing showed a disappointed expression.
She had changed into a purple slip nightgown. The nightgown wasn’t long, revealing much of her slender, pale thighs. The hem had lace trim, and it was a low-cut design that exposed her collarbones and some crystalline, full curves. She seemed to have deliberately not dried the water droplets on her body—the nightgown was slightly damp, clinging to her form and outlining every graceful curve.
“I thought you’d come out completely naked to seduce me.”
“Psychologically speaking, wearing clothes is more alluring than not wearing them.” Ji Yueling said flatly, turning sideways. Gu Qing saw her smooth, snow-white back—the nightgown was also backless. Her back was bathed in warm light, lustrous and bright like warm jade under moonlight, with water droplets slowly rolling down her skin.
Gu Qing suddenly felt she made a very good point.
“Why is there an apple here?” Gu Qing pointed to the rotten apple on the table.
“I used to use it to practice my abilities. Later I didn’t need to practice with apples anymore, so I left it there, wanting to see what a completely rotten apple would look like.” Ji Yueling answered flatly.
“It suits you well.”
Perhaps Gu Qing was right—Ji Yueling was also an apple gradually rotting away.
Ji Yueling finally came to sit beside him, carrying the pleasant scent of body wash. Gu Qing greedily leaned close to her neck and took a serious sniff. His breath on Ji Yueling’s neck made her feel slightly ticklish, and unease finally made her press her legs together under her skirt. But her voice remained cold: “Want to do it, touch legs, or… kiss?”
She looked at Gu Qing coldly like this, her eyes seeming to reveal a trace of disgust, as if the Gu Qing before her wasn’t human but a little poodle.
“I’m thirsty. Do you have water?”
“Want to kiss down there? If you do it seriously, there might be plenty?” Ji Yueling tilted her head, the corner of her mouth curving upward.
“Pfft.” Instead, Gu Qing looked at her with surprise, then stood up as if escaping from a succubus and went to the refrigerator. Opening it, he found frozen mineral water and some prepared mulled wine—though it was cold now.
He brought out the entire pot of mulled wine and also grabbed a bottle of water for Ji Yueling, then found glasses. But just as he was about to pour, Ji Yueling said flatly, “That’s my glass.”
“Can’t I use it?”
“I have a cleanliness obsession.” Ji Yueling answered flatly.
“Next time I’ll feed you saliva when we kiss.” Gu Qing showed no intention of backing down, picking up her glass and taking a satisfied gulp of the mulled wine. The scents of apple and cinnamon mixed with the wine’s aroma, swirling slightly in his mouth.
“Then I’ll feed you too.” Ji Yueling crossed her legs under her skirt again.
“I’ll obediently swallow it all.”
When it came to being disgusting, Ji Yueling ultimately couldn’t compete with Gu Qing. She leaned back against the sofa, slightly narrowing her eyes and turning her head to look at Gu Qing beside her.
Gradually her gaze moved to the apple on the table.
How strange—she always felt that after getting to know Gu Qing, the last bit of order in her heart had completely collapsed because of him. She seemed to gradually become like him, indifferent to many things—indifferent to being taken advantage of by him, indifferent to kissing him, indifferent to being touched and teased by him.
Ji Yueling suddenly moved to sit sideways, untying his bathrobe, then placed her hand on the scars on his chest. Touching those scars, she slowly asked, “How did you get these scars?”
“Mm, I cut myself when I was manic before.” Gu Qing thought for a moment. “You should understand, right? Physical pain stimulates the will to live, so you don’t suffer as much mentally or want to die. The only downside is that pain gradually becomes addictive and becomes a way to escape from the world.”
“Would someone like you want to escape from the world?”
“Yeah… the world is boring.” Gu Qing’s voice suddenly dropped, no longer sounding as proud and bright as before, seeming to reveal a trace of dejection.
After speaking, he picked up the wine glass and took another large gulp. There are many ways to change the world—getting drunk is one of them.
Ji Yueling didn’t stop him. She just got another glass and poured herself some. The two leaned against the sofa and silently finished their wine. Ji Yueling said flatly, “Let’s go. Time to sleep.”
“Oh…” Gu Qing stood up and followed behind her. All the lights in the living room were turned off, and the lights in Ji Yueling’s room came on. Her bed was really big, but her room was also quite desolate—black bedding and sheets, black curtains, with only black and white decorations that were extremely minimalist and monotonous, giving off a sense of barrenness and coldness.
Then Ji Yueling lay down on the bed in one motion. She lay on her side, looking at Gu Qing standing by the bed. Gu Qing thought for a moment, then took off his bathrobe and slipped in beside her.
Ji Yueling shifted over, moving slightly away from him.
Fortunately, this time Gu Qing didn’t move closer, so Ji Yueling pulled the bedding over both of them. There was a gap in the middle of the bedding, but the room wasn’t really cold anyway. The two lay on their sides like this, looking into each other’s eyes. Only then did Gu Qing mutter with some disappointment, “I thought you called me here to do bad things.”
“Do you really want to?”
“Seems like you have no confidence in your own charm.”
Ji Yueling’s hand explored downward along his lower abdomen. The moment her ice-cold little hand sensed the burning heat, she pulled back as if electrocuted. She looked into Gu Qing’s eyes, hesitated silently for a moment, then shook her head. “But I don’t want to.”
“Then let’s sleep.” Gu Qing turned away, his back to Ji Yueling, but said nothing more.
“I heard that when men are in heat, they’ll say any lie. Why don’t you say something I’d like to hear?”
“What you’d like to hear probably isn’t ‘I love you,’ but something like me saying I’ll find a way to let you see Old Tao and guarantee you can kill him with your own hands…”
“So you really can do it?”
“Don’t have too many expectations of me just because I’m mysterious. Besides, even if it were really possible, treating this kind of thing as a transaction would be disgusting.”
“Disgusting?” Ji Yueling suddenly moved closer, gently embracing him from behind. Her body pressed lightly against his back, and her fragrant scent quietly reached Gu Qing’s nose. Her body was so soft and had gradually warmed up. At this moment, her fingers were drawing circles on his chest, and her voice grew softer: “So… what kind of secrets do you have?”
Ji Yueling wasn’t a fool. After calming down, she could naturally see that Gu Qing was definitely not as simple as he appeared. If he were that simple, he wouldn’t make the demons in the boxing club willing to defy royalty for him, wouldn’t truly be so casual every time he picked up that gun and pointed it at his head, and his so-called “demon language” ability was now showing far more than just translation capabilities.
“I won’t tell you. If you want to know my secrets, you’ll have to discover them yourself!”
“But you always seem to dislike me.”
“You’re too goal-oriented. Isn’t being disliked natural?”
“All relationships inherently carry their purposes. You dislike me perhaps only because you don’t like the bargaining chips I’m offering, but I think I’ve discovered your weakness…”
To be precise, what she discovered was just a weakness every man has.
Ji Yueling’s fingertips slowly moved down his lower abdomen and grasped little Qing. Gu Qing angrily grabbed her wrist. “Let go!”
“I’ll try not to hurt you.” Ji Yueling moved close to Gu Qing’s ear, her voice becoming tender and gentle, as if coaxing a child.