After Infusing Love Poison to the Cold Sword Sovereign - Chapter 27.1

“Huh? Luo Qingyi, what’s wrong with you?”

Luo Qingyi didn’t answer. Her gaze was unusually pure, yet also seemed to understand nothing, like a child unfamiliar with the world, staring at Wu Ruo with dark, inky eyes.

Lonely, and somewhat pitiful.

“Uh!” Wu Ruo scratched her head. Looking into those dewy eyes, she inexplicably thought of a little dog at the foot of the Miao village mountains, one that had lost its owner. It would always gaze at passing travelers with hopeful eyes, silently waiting for someone who had already abandoned it.

Unable to resist, she secretly tapped Luo Qingyi’s head. Seeing that Luo Qingyi still didn’t move and continued to look at her with that expression, Wu Ruo’s heart suddenly softened, and she reached out to touch the other’s face.

“Ah Ruo?”

As if some switch had suddenly been flipped, Luo Qingyi spoke up, sniffling slightly. The expression on her face seemed flustered, aggrieved, and…

Like a child who had never seen candy before, her eyes fixed on it the moment she laid eyes on it, filled with an unshakable determination to possess it. She grabbed Wu Ruo’s wrist, clutching it tightly in her palm, as if she never wanted to let go for the rest of her life.

“Eh? Qingyi, what are you?”

The next second, the woman who had always been composed and restrained suddenly released her grip. Without a word, she pulled Wu Ruo into a tight embrace. Burying her face in the crook of Wu Ruo’s neck, her arms wrapped around her back, trembling faintly.

“…”

The alcohol she had consumed earlier seemed to evaporate in that moment. Wu Ruo was now completely sober.

She looked at the face of the woman before her, so close she could almost touch it. Luo Qingyi’s long lashes drooped, fluttering occasionally like the wings of an injured dragonfly skimming low over the water’s surface.

Luo Qingyi’s heartbeat pulsed against her ear, separated only by two layers of clothing and thin skin. The rhythm from the other’s chest felt contagious, as if burning fiercely in a pot of boiling water thumping so intensely that it made Wu Ruo’s own chest grow hot and restless.

“Ah Ruo.”

Luo Qingyi clung to her desperately, like a willful and obsessive child.

Despite her trembling hands, her grip was unyielding, as if she wanted to meld Wu Ruo into her very bones and blood. Or perhaps, she was simply a woman teetering on the edge of despair, unable to distinguish past from present, clinging with hysterical tenacity.

“Ah Ruo!”

The other woman seemed to have been completely intoxicated by alcohol, her speech slurred, the syllables barely discernible.

“Is it really you? Is this real?”

“Luo Qingyi? What’s wrong with you? If you’re drunk, you should go to sleep. This is a bit.”

Wu Ruo awkwardly supported the other’s body, acutely aware that her waist and back were trapped in a vice-like grip, squeezing her so tightly she could barely breathe. Luo Qingyi, for some reason, had suddenly reacted like this, holding onto her as if.

As if she were a fanatical believer, stubbornly and desperately clinging to her last lifeline.

How could this be?

Someone like Luo Qingyi a renowned, lofty immortal elder, how could she act like a helpless child? How could she harbor such agonizing obsession?

How could she wear such an expression of utter despair?

In that instant, Wu Ruo’s heart abruptly stuttered, as if something deep within her soul had quietly shattered. Yet she remained unaware, unable to comprehend it.

She simply held the other person quietly, her heart aching for a moment, throbbing in irregular beats, but she paid it no mind.

“Qingyi, don’t be sad. Did something happen to you? If there’s anything, you can tell me. Maybe I can help share the burden.”

“…” Luo Qingyi didn’t speak, only nuzzled into her embrace like a child, holding her tighter and tighter.

Within the limited range of her arm, Wu Ruo gently stroked the other’s back, soothing her, “Mmm, but I might not be able to help much. Still, I can definitely offer you some emotional comfort.”

Perhaps her voice had an effect, or perhaps the other’s pain was slowly fading, but Luo Qingyi’s embrace loosened slightly, no longer suffocating, allowing Wu Ruo to breathe again.

A faint sniffle sounded, and Luo Qingyi’s tense state finally eased a little: “Wuu.”

“There, there,” Wu Ruo’s heart softened as she continued, “Tell me what’s troubling you. You!”

Her words were interrupted by a warm dampness on her shoulder first a few scalding trails of moisture, then quickly cooled by the frigid air into small tear stains.

The fabric there remained soft, soaked and dampened by tears, then purified by the falling snow into darker watermarks. In that instant, only one thought crossed Wu Ruo’s mind.

So even someone with such a cold body temperature could shed tears this hot?

Luo Qingyi just what had happened to her? What kind of past did she carry?

“…” Luo Qingyi still seemed dazed, “I’m sorry! I lost you, I’m sorry!”

“It’s alright, Qingyi.”

Wu Ruo stroked Luo Qingyi’s hair as if cradling a three-year-old child, her voice gentle.

She didn’t know why she was speaking in such a coaxing tone, nor why she was treating Luo Qingyi like a weeping child. But in this moment, she suddenly wanted nothing more than to hold her and comfort her.

Perhaps numbed by alcohol, Luo Qingyi’s words were the complete opposite of the stern, icy Immortal Master Luo of the past. Instead, she seemed reduced to the mind of a child, repeating over and over, “Don’t leave me!”

So fragile. It made her unable to resist pity.

“Mmm, mmm, alright. I won’t leave you.”

The damp stain on her shoulder grew larger as Luo Qingyi’s quiet sobs turned into uneven sniffles.

“You promised forever.”

Luo Qingyi’s voice grew fainter, the last syllables barely audible. Wu Ruo continued stroking her hair and noticed that Luo Qingyi’s body had stopped trembling, now resting steadily against her.

She had fallen asleep.

Wu Ruo was surprised. She carefully extricated herself from the embrace and gazed at Luo Qingyi’s sleeping face. Unable to resist, she used her sleeve to wipe away the tear stains.

Ignoring the faint redness at the corners of her eyes from the fabric’s friction, Luo Qingyi had quieted down, her sleeping expression as composed and elegant as ever.

As if the woman who had just clung to her, crying uncontrollably, wasn’t Luo Qingyi at all. As if, from inside out, she had always been unshakably poised unchanged through time.

As if that embrace, lasting no longer than the time it took for an incense stick to burn, had merely been an illusion.

She reached out and touched the other’s face she didn’t know why she did this, but a certain emotion always rose in her heart, as if it had become an obsession during this time.

The touch was still cold, the skin still jade-like. Tears had trailed across the other’s face but left nothing behind or perhaps the only thing that had truly passed was the inadvertent flutter of her own heart as an onlooker.

She gently withdrew her hand, unsure why she had done it. Or perhaps she was simply accustomed to answering every question she still hadn’t responded to Luo Qingyi’s last words, even if they had been spoken unintentionally.

Softly, she said, “Alright, forever.”

The next day, Luo Qingyi had returned to normal. Her eyes were once again their deep, ink-black hue, her expression as calm and gentle as still water. The only sign of the previous night was the way she cradled her head in the morning, likely suffering from a hangover-induced headache.

Wu Ruo felt a little guilty. “I won’t let you drink anymore. Last time Yue Qinglan had a little, and she threw up so badly. I didn’t realize you couldn’t handle alcohol either.”

“It’s fine,” Luo Qingyi replied with a wry smile, still massaging the Baihui point on her head. “By the way, yesterday, I don’t quite remember what happened. Did I do anything inappropriate?”

So she really didn’t remember.

Wu Ruo studied her, a mix of concern and awkwardness in her gaze or perhaps it was a kind of unease, the subtle panic of someone in a high position.

Was she worried her past would be discovered? Or was she anxious about her image?

Wu Ruo pressed her lips together. The little boat in her heart seemed to capsize in an instant, ripples surging violently, water splashing everywhere.

The Luo Qingyi from last night no longer belonged to her.

She paused, then slowly said, “No, you passed out after just a little. You didn’t say anything.”

Luo Qingyi exhaled in relief and quickly dressed. Her cloud-patterned Daoist robe was immaculate, her hair perfectly arranged, her waist sash neat and elegant, adorned with a slender sword sheath. She looked every bit the transcendent immortal, unchanged from before.

Almost the same as yesterday, yet not quite.

Wu Ruo couldn’t help but recall the first day she woke up, when Luo Qingyi told her: that she was the senior sister responsible for her daily care, and that after her arrival, the two had developed feelings and became Daoist partners.

Luo Qingyi belonged to her, right?

But according to Luo Qingyi’s account, the two of them had spent eighteen years together day and night.

Apart from Wu Ruo’s recent injury, they should have been hand in hand all this time. So why was Luo Qingyi so fixated, so despairing so infatuated?

She didn’t want to think about it. She wanted to know the truth, yet she didn’t want to uncover it herself.

Perhaps she just wanted to hear Luo Qingyi’s explanation, to hear her say there had been no deception, no lies.

The sundial on the table indicated it was time for their usual sword practice. Wu Ruo adjusted her collar and followed Luo Qingyi out the door.

The scattered light bathed the mountaintop scenery evenly. The wine jars from their snowy drinking session had already been cleared away. At first glance, the greenhouse seemed empty, but Yue Qinglan, clad in Daoist robes, was slowly making her way up the mountain path.

“Senior Sister, Wu Ruo.”

Without approaching, the girl clasped her hands in greeting and bowed. “Senior Sister, today is the day our Falling Snow Peak disciples take shifts at the Lingyun Pavilion. I’ve already arranged the duty roster, please take a look.”

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