Twice My Love - Chapter 3

In what felt like a blink, Shen Yanbai shot up.

After two hundred years of tireless effort, I’d finally raised him into a sweet, obedient young man with an immortal’s beauty.

My only headache was that he had no concept of boundaries between men and women.

Just as he’d done as a child, he remained devoted to farming points off his master.

After I kicked him out of bed yet again, he clutched a corner of the quilt and shed pitiful little tears.

“Master, don’t you like A-Yan anymore? I only wanted to warm your bed like I used to. I’m doing what you told me—helping you. Aren’t you happy?”

The system detected the key phrase and echoed him inside my head.

[Host, aren’t you happy? If you aren’t, the point doesn’t count.]

I ground my teeth. “Master likes you so much she’s going mad. Master is positively dying of happiness.”

At that, the man on the floor stripped off his outer robe and scrambled into bed.

An arm slipped affectionately around my waist. His hot body pressed close.

“Master, we’ll warm up faster together.”

I choked, but said nothing more.

I’d already collected ninety-nine thousand red flowers.

Ji Ning! You can do this!

The system gloated. [You certainly can. All those cold baths every day—having a rough time, aren’t you?]

I still had the leisure to squabble with it then. I thought success was almost within reach.

Who could have imagined that one trip to see an old friend would change everything?

Shen Yanbai was a bottomless vat of jealousy.

When we’d punished the Sixth Elder, we’d rescued six or seven exceptionally gifted children.

My master wanted me to raise them too. The moment Shen Yanbai heard, his tears fell in great fat drops.

“Master, am I not enough for you? Don’t you want me anymore? Didn’t you promise you’d only ever stay with me?”

When had I promised this little brat anything of the sort?

But he was my precious lifeline. What could I do?

I politely declined my master’s request. It remained just the two of us on Qiwu Peak, depending on each other.

Even when my master occasionally returned from his travels, he wouldn’t stay there. He said his little grand-disciple’s tears might flood the entire peak.

So when an old friend wrote inviting me to meet him, I didn’t dare tell Shen Yanbai. I claimed I was going down the mountain to shop.

“Master, I’ll come with you.”

“Master is a grown woman. She doesn’t need an escort. Stay on the mountain, do your good deed for the day, and I’ll bring you a present.”

I slipped away quickly.

Quickly enough to miss him reaching out to stop me—and the flash of darkness in his eyes.

The person I was meeting was Shen Ziqing, a friend from childhood.

He needed my help with something important, so I stayed a little longer than planned.

He also loved to drink. I joined him for a few cups.

After so long under Shen Yanbai’s watch, it really did feel like a mother finally escaping her child for a rare night out with friends.

By the time I returned to Qiwu Peak, the darkness felt oppressively heavy.

Everything was terribly quiet, broken only by a few insects and the wind.

No lamp burned in my sleeping quarters. Shen Yanbai must already be asleep.

I eased open the door and tiptoed inside.

Rounding the screen, I jumped at a dark figure beside the bed.

The lamp in his hand suddenly flared to life.

In its dim yellow light, his handsome face was difficult to read.

Shen Yanbai’s voice was impossibly cold, as though he held a piece of cold jade in his mouth.

“Master, where’s my present?”

The wine had gone to my head. Along with my guilty conscience, I felt irritated at being frightened.

“There’s no present. Go back to your room and sleep.”

I reached for the lamp in his hand.

As soon as I came close, his long arm swept around me.

Like a puppy, he buried his face in my neck and sniffed.

Whatever he smelled turned his voice colder still.

“Master, did you go to see another man?”

“That tickles. Get off…”

The hand I tried to push him away with was caught and pinned behind my back.

Cool fingers rubbed and pressed against my lips.

His dark gaze made it hard to breathe.

“And you drank behind my back.”

My head felt fuzzy. Something seemed wrong.

Who was the master here, and who was the disciple? Since when did he get to lecture me?

I shook my overheated head. All my muddled attention settled on his jade-pale fingers.

For some inexplicable reason, I opened my mouth and bit them.

Then I spat twice and demanded, “Did you do what I told you?”

Shen Yanbai froze, rubbing his damp fingertips together.

Far from crying out in pain, he looked positively pleased. His eyes shone with a startling brightness.

“I helped Fifth Senior Martial Uncle transplant his bamboo, and went down the mountain to buy pastries for Seventh Junior Martial Uncle.”

He lowered his eyes pitifully. “I warmed your bed too. But you didn’t come back, and it’s gone cold.”

Even foggier now, I gave him a silly smile.

“Good boy. It’s not too late to warm it again.”

I’d only meant to soothe him. Unexpectedly, Shen Yanbai lost his temper.

Half coaxing, half threatening, he bit my earlobe.

“Wash that scent off first, Master. Then A-Yan will warm you.”

The slight sting cleared my head for a moment.

Huh? What had just happened?

The next morning, I woke with a splitting headache and the nagging feeling that I’d forgotten something important.

Shen Yanbai opened the door at just the right moment, bringing a roomful of spring breeze with him.

As obedient as ever, he guided me to the bronze mirror.

“Master, let me do your hair.”

I didn’t refuse. His long, nimble fingers had done this for me often enough.

He lifted the stray hairs beside my neck, then gasped.

“Master, your neck…”

I looked closely into the mirror.

A large stretch of the right side of my neck was red, marked in shades dark and light. It looked alarming.

“Did insects bite you? I’ll put some salve on it. I’m sorry, Master. A-Yan forgot to close your window last night.”

He put particular emphasis on “last night.” I didn’t notice. I was too busy enjoying my disciple’s attentions.

His touch was gentle. His fingers fluttered like butterflies, and soon my hair was in its usual knot.

As he slid in the jade hairpin, though, he was uncharacteristically clumsy. The back of his hand brushed my earlobe.

Only then did I notice how red and swollen that was too.

There was even a little mark on it.

Before I could think further, something cool touched the side of my neck.

His fingertips rubbed along it, spreading the salve little by little.

It tingled and tickled. I tried to turn away, but his other hand held me in place.

Even as slow as I was to catch on, this felt a little too intimate.

“That’s enough.”

“Master, I’m not finished,” Shen Yanbai protested. “There’s here, too.”

His eyes were clear and perfectly focused on the task. It made me look like the one reading too much into things.

Coolness spread over my ear, then turned hot beneath his rubbing fingers.

He sighed beside it.

“Master, what a vicious insect. It didn’t even spare your earlobe.”

The system, silent for days, suddenly gave two cold laughs in my head.

[Ha. Ha.]

I ignored it, busy agreeing with Shen Yanbai.

“An insect bit my mouth before, too. It really hurt!”