Chu Shao approached Xiao Jin while speaking softly.
Her sleeves fluttered and the ornaments on her waist jingled.
Although it was only a slight sound of jade and stone collision, Xiao Jin could clearly imagine the silver-white tassels hanging from the ornaments and the transparent glass beads.
The physician who was applying medicine had just left not long ago, but the faint scent of herbs still lingered in the room.
The mild and slightly bitter fragrance existed not only in the medicine jar but also in Chu Shao’s breath.
Chu Shao’s hair, which fell on her shoulders, was damp with the moisture after the rain.
Even her slightly curved eyes looked exceptionally clear and bright, like moonlight shining on a lake.
Even the wise would likely be lost in her gaze, let alone an ordinary person like Xiao Jin.
Especially when Chu Shao leaned closer to her ear and spoke with a smile and a coaxing tone, “Your Highness, have you ever thought of me even a little?”
If she said she had no thoughts, it would definitely be a lie.
In fact, after leaving the Yanyu Building that night, Xiao Jin dreamed of Chu Shao all night.
Although it was not a good dream, it was thrilling and breathtaking enough.
In the dream, Chu Shao reached out and grabbed her throat. The intermittent touch and kiss of her lips, along with the feeling of suffocation, were almost unavoidable.
However, at this moment, Chu Shao did not hold her neck, but Xiao Jin still felt a little suffocated because she was too close.
Close enough that she could even see the trembling of her eyelashes and the shallow shadows under her lower eyelids when she lifted her eyes.
Xiao Jin quietly watched Chu Shao, and many moments flashed through her mind.
After a long time, she raised her hand, intending to gently hold Chu Shao’s face.
But just as she was about to touch her, she wiped away the water droplets that had not fallen from the tip of her hair.
The water droplets moistened her palm, and Xiao Jin looked at Chu Shao and replied, “No.”
Chu Shao smiled, waiting for her to say the next sentence.
After a moment, Xiao Jin said in a slow voice, “My thoughts towards the Princess are more than just a little.”
….
The night rain continued to patter.
Indoors fell into silence, like a silent spring rain that moistens everything.
Chu Shao listened to the sound of rain outside the window and smiled slightly, “Since it’s not just a half, why do you never cross it?”
At this point, she looked gently into Xiao Jin’s eyes and asked again, “And why do you always avoid my gaze?”
Xiao Jin remained silent for a long time.
After a while, she responded, “Princess, it’s not that I deliberately avoid you, it’s just…”
“Just what?” Chu Shao asked with a smile.
Just that she didn’t know what to do.
In the end, Xiao Jin swallowed the words.
Because it was always like this.
Since coming to this world, she had many moments where she didn’t know what to do.
She knew she was only forcibly enrolled in a game by the system.
But this game was so real.
So much so that when Xiao Jin experienced it in person, she would sometimes forget that it was a dream that she could wake up from at any time.
Even Chu Shao was just a partial outline in the dream, a fleeting illusion.
Xiao Jin had always been aware of this.
However, when Chu Shao’s warm fingertips touched her wrist, lips, and the skin of her palm, she would still forget.
It wasn’t self-hypnosis.
It was because Xiao Jin didn’t feel that this Chu Shao was just a paragraph in a story, a phantom that would eventually disappear.
But there was one thing that couldn’t be avoided.
She had her own family and friends.
She had to go back to her home.
Although it was far away on the other side, that was her true hometown.
Not this world in the book.
For Chu Shao, because she had nothing to worry about, all the lands were like a foreign country.
For Xiao Jin, wasn’t it the same?
They were both outsiders.
Both unable to return to their hometowns.
Thinking of this, Xiao Jin calmed her emotions and continued, “It’s just that my home is not in the capital.”
“Then where is it?”
Chu Shao asked with a warm candlelight in her eyes, as if she had seen through something.
After a moment, she still smiled, “Your Highness can start the journey back to the capital tomorrow and return to the Yan Mansion.”
Xiao Jin remained silent for a long time before answering, “Princess, my home is not in the capital.”
“Then where is it?”
Xiao Jin looked at the flickering candlelight in Chu Shao’s eyes and whispered, “It’s in a faraway place.”
Chu Shao’s smile did not diminish as she asked again, “How far is it?”
“Very far. Even if you spread out the map of the Nine Provinces and search for it place by place, you won’t find it,” Xiao Jin described.
At this moment, Chu Shao vaguely realized that Xiao Jin’s destination could not be found here.
Her home was in a very distant place, a place that no one, including herself, could reach.
So Chu Shao’s heartbeat suddenly accelerated because Xiao Jin said she was going to a very faraway place, a place where she wasn’t.
But Chu Shao didn’t show any of her emotions and continued to smile gently, asking, “What kind of place is it?”
Xiao Jin found it difficult to describe modern society to Chu Shao and only gave a simple description, then concluded, “Actually, my home is the same as here.”
After listening to Xiao Jin’s description, Chu Shao frowned slightly and asked, “What do you mean by the same?”
After all, in her opinion, no two places are the same.
Xiao Jin replied, “Both have people.”
Chu Shao was slightly surprised and smiled innocently, “So am I the same as everyone else?”
Xiao Jin thought to herself, what kind of question is this?
In modern society, everyone is different, except maybe for those who fly on rooftops, who are probably more numerous than those who walk on the ground.
But she wouldn’t say that.
Xiao Jin just smiled helplessly and said, “Of course not.”
“Why am I different?” Chu Shao had a lot of questions today, obviously wanting to confirm something.
Xiao Jin said, “Whether it’s here or my hometown, there’s no one like the princess.”
“No one drinks the Heqin wine with me, and no one plays a tune of Chang Xiang Si on a pleasure boat”
Chu Shao smiled innocently.
“Then, am I unique to you?”
“Yes.” Xiao Jin was very sure about this.
She believed that in the years to come, every fleeting moment would not leave a deeper impression than the traces left by Chu Shao.
Whether it was Chu Shao standing in the courtyard, looking up at the blazing lights with a certain expression, or holding a sword and playing the jade flute, standing quietly in the misty rain.
All of these were enough for her to remember for a very long time.
Xiao Jin recalled many moments about Chu Shao, but when she came back to her senses, she was still shocked by the other person’s actions.
Looking at the outer robe that had slipped to Chu Shao’s shoulders and then at the woman who was so close, Xiao Jin slowly typed out a question mark in her heart.
?  
What the hell.  
What are they doing?  
After several fights, Xiao Jin’s previous clothes had already been soaked in blood, so Yin Zhu had replaced them with clean clothes.  
As it was nighttime and she was about to go to bed, the dressing of this garment was not complicated, but rather extremely simple.  
Hmm, it was easy to put on.  So it shouldn’t be hard to take off either.  
Seeing Chu Shao’s smile deepen at the corner of her lips, Xiao Jin finally came to her senses, furrowed her eyebrows slightly, grabbed Chu Shao’s wrist, and said seriously, “Princess.”  
“I’m here.” Chu Shao’s movements did not stop.
After gently unfastening the outer garment with one hand, she even wanted to reach for the snow-white undergarment inside.  
“……”  
Xiao Jin looked at the smile on Chu Shao’s lips and always felt that things were starting to unfold beyond the world of literature.  
This is not right.
Chu Shao didn’t understand the rules of the website, but as a transmigrator, Xiao Jin understood them too well.
So before breaking the heavenly rules, she struggled for a while, looking into Chu Shao’s eyes and said, “Princess, I already told you…”
“Your Highness, I know,” Chu Shao interrupted with a smile, the first time she had interrupted Xiao Jin’s words. “I know you want to go home.”
Xiao Jin was stunned.
Chu Shao reached out and took off the jade hairpin that Xiao Jin wore at night.
Looking at the blue silk hair flowing over the slender body, she smiled and said, “But what does that have to do with what I’m going to do next? I won’t stop tending to the wisteria in the courtyard just because it will wither someday.”
“Even dying prisoners want to look up at the sun before they are executed. Moreover, Your Highness and I are still alive, so why worry about what’s behind us?”
Chu Shao didn’t say one thing: she wanted what she wanted, and she would get it no matter what. So she would keep Xiao Jin.
Xiao Jin wouldn’t leave.
However, Xiao Jin realized another layer of meaning.
Yes.
Before the apocalypse arrived, people might have already known about the disaster.
But that didn’t stop lovers from holding each other tightly.
After realizing this, Xiao Jin smiled gently and said, “Princess, even if that’s the case, do you really know what to do next?”
Chu Shao shook her head honestly. “I don’t know.”
Xiao Jin looked at her legs that couldn’t move and her injured arm, and sighed.
She could only extend her hand and say to Chu Shao, “Please help me onto the wheelchair.”
 ….
It’s already late at night, and the mountain villa is still raining.
Raindrops are falling on the white locust flower petals, even the water droplets emit a refreshing fragrance.
Xiao Jin is sitting in a wheelchair, gently holding Chu Shao in her arms.
Although her legs cannot feel anything, the sensation of her skin against the fabric is soft and warm, like a piece of silk brushed open from a blue lake.
Her black hair pours down like a waterfall, covering a large area of white skin on Chu Shao’s back, but the outline of her collarbone is still clearly visible, along with her slender fingers that rest on the wheelchair.
They are gradually becoming weak and pale as the rain outside gets heavier.
One of Xiao Jin’s hands is injured, so she can only use her wounded hand to hold Chu Shao’s waist to prevent her from slipping away.
The drumbeats become louder, and the night darkens.
The wind and rain blow open the tightly closed windows, and raindrops and locust flowers are blown in, falling on the damp floor.
The lingering soft hum in her ear is like the notes played by a muted jade flute, even more distant and ethereal than the fine rain.
Xiao Jin cannot see the face of the person in her arms, but she holds Chu Shao, caressing her slightly open lips and teeth, and holding her slowly falling body.
The white locust flower on the floor is also swaying with the wind.
When the night becomes even darker, Xiao Jin forgets whether she was softly calling her as a princess or by her name, Chu Shao.
She only knows that the night wind blows the locust flowers everywhere.
Her body is also swept into the vortex and gradually becomes hot as the rain pours down heavily.
Listening to Chu Shao’s trembling and hoarse voice, Xiao Jin thinks that if a natural disaster is about to occur at this moment, she would not bother to hide.
With this thought in mind, Xiao Jin reaches out her hand and brushes away the rain-soaked hair from Chu Shao’s face.Â
She gazes at the same wet eyes and gently kisses her forehead while softly calling her, “Shao’er.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Translator’s note: Ah! It’s too sweet! Sigh… It’s sweet until Xiao Jin doesn’t have a choice. You know, as the story description says, Xiao Jin must be killed by Chu Shao to end her life countdown. I just don’t know if Chu Shao can really do that.
TO BE CONTINUE…
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