Volume One, Chapter 26: Zhao Wujiang, You Wouldn’t Be Afraid to Touch Me, Would You?
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“Put away that cutesy voice.”
Zhao Wujiang poured hot water into the bathing tub.
Li Yunrui pouted, a sly glint in her eyes.
Slowly, she untied her outer robe, wrapped in a fragrant breeze, and flung it at Zhao Wujiang’s forehead.
He caught it in one hand and placed it on a chair. “Could you stop throwing your trash everywhere?”
Li Yunrui had removed her inner garment, leaving her upper body clad only in a pink-and-white apron.
Seeing that Zhao Wujiang still had not taken the bait, she stamped her foot in irritation and hurled another piece of clothing at him. It landed over his head.
Zhao Wujiang yanked it off and discovered that it was her apron.
With great solemnity, he flung it aside again, though his eyes secretly shifted toward her.
Li Yunrui stood inside the bathing tub, seemingly kneeling, both hands playing with the splashing water.
“Zhao Wujiang, my shoulders are so sore. I can’t reach them to massage them...” Li Yunrui spoke in a soft, delicate voice, biting her lower lip. A rosy flush colored her cheeks. She did not look at him, merely staring fixedly at the surface of the water.
“Could you massage them for me?”
“I’m busy.”
Zhao Wujiang rejected her without hesitation.
One must not be too kindhearted. The kind were always taken advantage of—especially someone as saintly as him.
“Pleeease...”
Seeing that Zhao Wujiang remained unmoved, Li Yunrui let out another coquettish whine.
“Do you really dislike me that much? Then I’ll run outside right now.”
She rose and appeared ready to climb out of the tub.
“All right, all right...”
Zhao Wujiang waved helplessly.
If she were seen like this by someone else, not only would her fiancé be forced to wear a green hat, but the emperor would also have his head cut off.
He walked to the edge of the tub and placed his large hands on Li Yunrui’s fragrant shoulders.
As she enjoyed Zhao Wujiang’s massage, Li Yunrui secretly gloated.
This fellow knew nothing but how to talk tough.
When it mattered, he still ended up falling into her hands.
Zhao Wujiang massaged her shoulders while glancing down from above.
Yet he saw that Li Yunrui kept both hands crossed over her chest.
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[How infuriating! He even guards himself against a proper gentleman!]
Li Yunrui sensed the force of Zhao Wujiang’s hands increase and knew that he was annoyed because he could not see anything.
“Zhao Wujiang, what do you think we’ll be like after we’re married?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you think we’ll stay in our room every day, doing wicked things?”
“...I don’t know.”
“How many children do you think we’ll have in the future?”
“...I don’t know.”
“Don’t you want to try it right now?”
[Woman, don’t play with fire!]
[Don’t force me to become a beast!]
Heat slowly spread through Zhao Wujiang’s entire body.
Hearing his inner thoughts, Li Yunrui gave a coquettish hum.
“Zhao Wujiang, you wouldn’t happen to be afraid to touch me, would you?”
The next moment, water splashed loudly as she rose to her feet in the tub. Her eyes brimmed with springlike allure as she stared straight at him.
Zhao Wujiang could endure no longer and lunged forward.
But one of her legs swiftly lifted, pressing against his chest and stopping him.
Li Yunrui discarded her former seductive manner and suddenly became stern and aloof.
“I was only teasing you. I’ll only do what husband and wife do after you truly marry me and bring me home!”
Zhao Wujiang finally understood.
She had lured him onto the shore, only to set him free again.
He had fallen into this woman’s trap. He was about to become a hooked fish!
Zhao Wujiang scrambled out of the tub, dropped onto the floor, and began meditating to calm his mind and drive away the flames of desire.
Seeing this, Li Yunrui gave a smug little snort.
Mother had been right. If one wanted to keep a man firmly in hand, one had to remain neither too distant nor too close...
Just as she had done moments ago: she had seemed ready to give herself to him, but when Zhao Wujiang grew impatient, she had deliberately withdrawn.
It looked coy, but in truth, she had him completely under control!
Zhao Wujiang had pretended to be aloof all this time, yet had he not been unable to withstand her seduction just now?
Now that Zhao Wujiang was calming down, she could try seducing him again later...
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Midnight.
After her bath, Li Yunrui smelled sweet and nestled against Zhao Wujiang as she slept. Whenever Zhao Wujiang shifted an inch away in annoyance, Li Yunrui moved an inch closer. When he moved a foot away, she simply wrapped her arms around him.
Li Yunrui could sleep, but Zhao Wujiang had to remain constantly alert to any movement from the Sword-Casting Bureau.
Suddenly, the inn attendant shut the inn’s doors tight.
“They’ve started fighting outside!”
Zhao Wujiang descended from the inn and hid behind the door. From there, he saw a large crowd of martial artists gathered outside the Sword-Casting Bureau.
It turned out that news of the Heavenly Sword emerging from the Sword-Casting Bureau had long since spread throughout the martial world, attracting far too many heroes.
However, the Sword-Casting Bureau had only limited space for them.
To restrict the number of people entering, the bureau had distributed invitations. Only those carrying one were qualified to enter and witness the spectacular emergence of the Heavenly Sword.
Thus, the martial artists had begun slaughtering one another to seize the invitations.
“This is so thrilling! Is this the legendary clash of blades, with flashes of steel everywhere? Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!”
Li Yunrui had somehow climbed onto Zhao Wujiang’s shoulder. Her large eyes were filled with curiosity and excitement. She had never seen anything like this within the palace.
“Move back! What’s thrilling about it? One careless moment and you’ll be struck by one of those blades, swords, staffs, axes, halberds, hooks, or forks.”
He had no interest whatsoever in watching the Heavenly Sword emerge.
Zhao Wujiang and Li Yunrui remained hidden inside the inn as more and more people fought to the death outside the Sword-Casting Bureau.
Strangely, however, the bureau’s guards merely watched the carnage. They made no attempt to stop it.
Amid shrieks and furious roars, the fighting grew increasingly savage. Then, as cries of anguish and despair continued to ring out, ninety-nine percent of the people battling at the bureau’s entrance had been killed.
When the final two contenders for the invitation slew each other, corpses lay piled before the bureau like a small mountain.
The invitation was actually a token forged by the Sword-Casting Bureau. Stained with blood, it rolled across the ground and came to a stop outside the door where Zhao Wujiang was hiding.
Before Zhao Wujiang could react, Li Yunrui opened the door. Like an endlessly curious child, she wrapped the invitation in a handkerchief and picked it up.
“Don’t pick that up. It’s not a good thing.”
Zhao Wujiang’s brows furrowed. He pulled Li Yunrui back into the inn and kept both of them concealed.
“Why?”
Li Yunrui asked in confusion.
Zhao Wujiang had pinned her against the wall, leaving them pressed close together. Once again, she could smell his rich masculine scent.
“Shh.”
Zhao Wujiang covered her mouth with one hand, his expression wary.
The next moment, just as he knew from the original story, the guards of the Sword-Casting Bureau dragged all the accumulated corpses onto donkey carts and hauled them inside the bureau...
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