I Need To Find A Way To Make Her Love Me Again - Chapter 48

Looking at the silver snake biting its tail pattern emerging on her wrist, Yan Xingyu smiled and raised her hand, pressing it against the other woman’s cheek and rubbing it gently. “Just playing with Little Silver,” she murmured.

“Oh~”

Yi Rong pressed her face into Yan Xingyu’s hand, tilting her head to follow the direction of the rubbing and pressure. Seeing that Yi Rong only offered a brief “oh” without further comment, Yan Xingyu reached out to steady the tilted head and asked teasingly, “My little quiet gourd, aren’t you curious about what I said?”

Yi Rong lowered her eyes to look at the person beside her. “What did you say?”

“I said…” Yan Xingyu paused, cleared her throat, and said, “I told it the hour is late and to go to sleep quickly.”

She looked up into Yi Rong’s eyes and added with a smile, “After all, we should be sleeping too.”

The flush that Yan Xingyu had rubbed into Yi Rong’s palm somehow spread to the other cheek. On her fair skin, this splash of color was like a pearl gaining luster, adding a sudden, breathtaking beauty to her face.

Yi Rong knew the other was putting on an act, yet it dissolved the gloomy aura that had gathered between her brows. She smiled faintly and said, “The hour is indeed late.”

Yan Xingyu turned over and hooked her arms around the woman’s neck. Looking at the woman smiling softly before her, she somehow remembered when she first arrived in this world, back when she was in a fog, she had mistakenly thought this woman was her enemy.

She had tried to avoid her time and time again.

But the real Yi Rong was a gentle, wooden, and taciturn woman.

Thinking about how Yi Rong’s lack of eloquence had brought her so much injustice and misfortune, yet she still maintained a heart of pure sincerity. Yan Xingyu felt an increasing ache in her heart. She leaned in close against the other’s forehead and said, “Have a good rest. You must be very tired.”

Yi Rong leaned her body into the embrace. The room was exceptionally quiet, to the point where they could hear their heartbeats echoing one another. The tightly wound strings in her heart finally relaxed slightly at this moment.

Nuzzling the fine hair at Yan Xingyu’s temple, she whispered, “I am fine. On the contrary, you suddenly accepted so much spiritual power, it would be better for you to circulate it a few more times.”

Hearing this, Yan Xingyu looked up and stared at her. “Yi Rong, are you the reincarnation of a Holy Mother?”

“Holy Mother?”

Yan Xingyu thought for a moment that this world might not have that specific term, so she switched words. “I mean, are you the reincarnation of a Bodhisattva? How can you be so kind-hearted, good tempered, and easy-going, only ever thinking of sacrificing yourself?”

Yi Rong sensed that something was slightly off in the other’s tone. She blinked in confusion as a thought flashed through her mind. She asked, “Are you angry?”

Having her small emotion discovered so quickly, Yan Xingyu choked for a moment before laughing helplessly. “How come you aren’t a blockhead at a time like this?”

Yi Rong didn’t reply. Silently, she let the tip of her nose trace down through the other’s hair. Her breathing had always been very light, when it drifted over someone’s body, it was usually imperceptible, but in Yan Xingyu’s mind, she could already imagine the other’s breath hooking onto her.

It caused Yan Xingyu’s own breathing to deepen involuntarily.

Looking at the woman who was being so intimate with her, long eyelashes lowered, half-concealing the soft light in her eyes. Yan Xingyu couldn’t help but tilt her head and kiss her first. She grumbled flirtatiously, “You only know how to use your beauty to coax me.”

Just as Yi Rong could quickly detect her emotions, Yan Xingyu could quickly perceive Yi Rong’s little schemes. But Yi Rong wasn’t surprised at being caught, nor did she stop what she was doing. She lowered her head and deepened the “dragonfly skimming the water” kiss.

The two lingered together for a long time, slowly smoothing away the knots in their hearts and grinding down the sharp edges until a warm current calmly settled into their souls.

Much of the exhaustion from the past few days was smoothed over. Yan Xingyu opened her eyes, hugged the woman close, and said, “In the future, don’t carry things alone. You still have me.”

“Mm.”

Yi Rong’s fingers rested on the other’s waist, stroking the strands of hair that fell there. Outside the window, the moon was as bright as ever; its light filtered through the window screen, illuminating the room and casting light on her corner.

Suddenly, the shadow of a pair of ears appeared on the ground. Yi Rong turned her head back alertly, her eyes narrowing as she saw a creature with rabbit ears and a monkey face standing at the door.

Seeing the movement, Yan Xingyu looked over as well and was startled by the creature at the door.

Wasn’t that the Chen Ear Monkey?!

Why was it appearing here?

She whispered, “Yi Rong, be careful. This thing can steal people’s memories and make them fall into a deep sleep.”

“Okay, I understand,” Yi Rong replied. However, the Chen-Ear Monkey just stood at the door with its eyes wide, watching them without making any other move.

But because Yan Xingyu had suffered at its hands before, she remained extra cautious.

She watched it twitch its head and ears at the doorway before turning to walk back outside, as if it were just passing through.

Yan Xingyu couldn’t just assume it was passing by. she followed it cautiously, watching the Chen Ear Monkey walk slowly across the bluestone slabs with a leisurely, strolling gait. She was even more surprised by how familiar the creature seemed with the place.

She wondered, in her previous haste, she hadn’t asked who had captured the thing. It seemed Liu Ruoni had dealt with it, why had that woman brought it home to keep as a pet? That woman truly did things differently from ordinary people.

She saw the Chen Ear Monkey walk a bit further, then turn and slip into a large hall ahead. She noticed that the lights were still burning inside, yet she couldn’t hear any sound of people.

Yan Xingyu’s footsteps faltered. Yi Rong, following behind her, asked, “What’s wrong?”

“The room ahead is lit, but there’s no one there. It’s very strange.”

Yi Rong glanced ahead and said, “There should be something enshrined in that room. The villagers are likely helping to look after it.”

“Oh, then I have to go see what it is.”

As Yan Xingyu spoke, she took large strides forward, yet her footsteps landed lightly. She still didn’t want to attract the Chen Ear Monkey’s attention, lest she face it again and be knocked unconscious.

Watching that single spark of light in the night, it gradually expanded as the amber glow poured down like a waterfall. Suspended in the center was a massive pearl lantern, an inner octagonal main lamp hung from a hexagonal palace style roof, adorned with small jade beads strung into various patterns of flowers and birds. It was exquisite and opulent to the extreme.

Connected to the outer layer of pearl strands were rows of small glazed lamps, painted with hundreds of flowers and colorful birds in a thousand different poses, charming and full of character.

Even before the lamps were fully lit, the jewel-like brilliance was already more than the eye could take in.

Yan Xingyu was dazed by the sheer beauty of this masterful giant lantern. Meanwhile, Yi Rong noticed the Chen Ear Monkey on the roof beams. She watched as it approached the pearl lantern, holding a ball of white substance in its paws.

She spoke up to warn her: “Xingyu, that monkey is up there.”

Yan Xingyu looked up and, seeing the Chen Ear Monkey’s movements, grew alert. She watched as the ball of white fluff slid down the pearl strands and into the outer layer of glazed lamps.

As the small glazed lamps ignited, the flowers and colorful birds painted upon them began to move. A bird blinked its eyes, tilted its head, turned once or twice, and then reached down to peck at a budding flower branch.

Right before their eyes, these birds flew out from the glazed lamps; they had come to life.

Yi Rong was the first to realize something was wrong. Seeing the giant lantern begin to rotate, she sensed impending trouble. She grabbed Yan Xingyu’s hand, attempting to lead her away, but the colorful birds flying from the lamps quickly surrounded them, cutting off their retreat.

Flowers dropped from the birds’ beaks like falling snow, aiming for the two women. Yi Rong instinctively felt they shouldn’t touch these flowers, she waved her hand to scatter the falling blossoms and pulled Yan Xingyu into her embrace to protect her from contact.

The birds quickly snatched the scattered flowers back into their beaks and continuously pelted the pair with them.

Yan Xingyu unleashed blades of qi, hoping to kill the birds, only to see a bird’s body sliced in two merge back together in the blink of an eye. They were impossible to kill.

Entangled by their persistence and unable to escape, Yi Rong momentarily faltered, allowing a single flower to land on her. Upon seeing the flower land on its target, the birds flew back into the glazed lamps.

She then allowed all the flowers, one after another, a multicolored cluster of blossoms to fall upon her.

As the birds dispersed, Yan Xingyu watched the blooming cluster of flowers on Yi Rong’s body. As if they had found a place to take root, they sank into her flesh.

Yan Xingyu pulled away from the embrace and lifted Yi Rong’s arm. Seeing the seductive peonies blooming upon it, she tried to tear them away, but her effort only caused Yi Rong to jerk slightly.

A sharp intake of breath made Yan Xingyu look up. Seeing the other’s furrowed brows, she asked, “Does it hurt a lot?”

Yi Rong knit her brows and whispered, “I’m alright.”

However, her face was contorted in pain, forming a sharp contrast to her words.

Heartbroken at the sight, Yan Xingyu tried to use her magic to remove the flowers. After several attempts failed to damage them in the slightest, she turned in a rage, intending to destroy the hanging pearl lantern behind them.

Sensing her intent, Yi Rong held her back. “Don’t go, Xingyu. I’m fine. I know what this thing is now.”

Yan Xingyu had been thinking that if she destroyed the source of the flowers, it would surely have an effect. Hearing Yi Rong speak, her movements hesitated. “What is it?”

“It’s a barrier protecting this place. These flowers are only meant to trap me, making me unable to move, but they won’t actually harm me.”

“Important ancestral halls often have barriers like this. They aren’t meant to injure, but we cannot break them either. We can only wait for the master of this place to come and let us out.”

Hearing this, the tension in Yan Xingyu’s heart eased slightly. She turned to watch the petals on Yi Rong’s body unfurl and sway in a rhythmic, rising and falling motion.

It was as if some sound was emerging from them.

Yi Rong discovered the problem even faster than Yan Xingyu. She immediately reached out and covered Yan Xingyu’s ears.

Looking at the girl’s confused and lost expression, Yi Rong forced a smile. Without moving her lips, her voice traveled directly into Yan Xingyu’s mind through a private transmission.

“Please, don’t listen to the sounds outside right now, okay?”

Yan Xingyu didn’t know what was happening, but seeing the other woman forcing a smile and pretending everything was fine just to keep her from worrying, she struggled internally before finally nodding.

Seeing her agreement, Yi Rong pulled Yan Xingyu closer, still using her voice transmission: “Xingyu, let’s just rest here for a moment.”

As she spoke, she led them to sit down on the spot.

Yan Xingyu followed her lead and sat nestled in her lap. The hands pressed firmly against her ears did not budge an inch.

She caught a glimpse of the rotating pearl lantern; its beauty was dizzying, yet it carried an inexplicable sense of suffocation.

Outside the covered ears, the clusters of flowers on Yi Rong’s body began to chatter and clamor like a flock of noisy birds.

Accusations and insults from her memories emerged vividly from the mouths of these flowers. She didn’t want the person beside her to hear them, so she could only maintain a facade of calm and endure the agony.

As time ticked by, Yan Xingyu also sensed Yi Rong’s abnormality. She felt uneasy, and then she realized: Yi Rong had secretly sealed her sense of hearing.

Though Yi Rong was still pretending to cover her ears with her hands, the sensation was different. Yan Xingyu scanned their surroundings, but there was nothing else there.

That meant the problem lay with Yi Rong herself.

Deducing this, Yan Xingyu felt both angry and helpless, it seemed everything she had said earlier about sharing burdens had gone in one ear and out the other.

But seeing the constant furrow in Yi Rong’s brow and the endurance in her eyes, Yan Xingyu sighed. She leaned her head closer to Yi Rong’s left chest, pressing herself even tighter against her.

Noticing the movement, Yi Rong asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I want to be closer,” Yan Xingyu murmured, “closer to your heart.”

“And you?”