Chapter 280: I Liked My Answer Better
Apparently, as God-like as Rouxi was, reading his mind was not on the list of her awesome powers. Which was probably good for Lingyun.
Instead of setting his mind at ease about his ideas for his new tattoos, she ignored him and reached for the thermometer on the table.
Oh well.
That was probably for the best.
Lingyun opened his mouth when she pushed it between his lips, although the look she gave him made it clear that biting down, complaining, or finding some way to make the situation more fun would end with the thermometer lodged somewhere less convenient.
Not that he would mind if it was something that she wanted. She owed him, body, mind and soul, and now that he had survived certain death, he wasn’t holding back any punches.
And Rouxi was just going to have to accept that.
He was about to open his mouth before the timer went off to ask her if that was what she wanted when a heavy crash came from below, followed by a man insisting that the pipe had already been cracked before he touched it.
Someone else immediately accused him of being full of shit, and the argument travelled through the floor clearly enough that Lingyun could almost follow it without taking his eyes off Rouxi.
That last one was much more important.
He glanced down as if the floor might explain itself, before the need to see her again pulled his attention back to where it was supposed to be. "What the hell is happening downstairs?"
"The people you brought home are repairing the mansion," Rouxi answered while watching the numbers climb on the thermometer. Apparently she cared more about the numbers than the fact that he wasn’t actually doing it right.
"All of them?" hummed Lingyun. Honestly, he had no idea how many they had ended up bringing back with them. Zhenlan said that they needed all of them and Lingyun didn’t really care one way or another.
But now that he was having to listen to them, he was beginning to regret that move. There were clearly too many people in Rouxi’s house.
"As far as I can tell," continued Rouxi like Lingyun’s mind hadn’t already taken a left at the one way street going straight when a squirrel crossed in front of him. "I’ve barely seen anyone, but they’re somehow inside the walls, on the roof, beneath the sinks, and crawling through every room I don’t want them in."
Ooh... Rouxi was talking. She was so pretty when she talked. The way her mouth moved, her tongue. His tongue wanted to play with her tongue in a way that was reserved for big boys and girls.
"I think the zombie managed to poison you or something," muttered Rouxi, taking out the thermometer only to shake it into behaving and then sticking it back in his mouth. "You are clearly not paying attention to what is important."
Lingyun drew in a long breath, clearly offended. "I beg your pardon, good Lady," he gasped, moving his uninjured hand to his chest like he was grabbing a set of pearls. "I will have you know that what is going on in my mind is of the most upmost importance that it is so high in the sky worth of importance."
Rouxi blinked at him for a second before checking his IV. "I think Yuche gave you too much of the good stuff," she muttered under her breath. But Lingyun didn’t care. He liked the way she was looking at him like he was the most important thing in her world.
He really needed to get bitten by zombies more often if this was the result. The pain was definitely worth the reward.
Before he could open his mouth to say something more about her beauty and how he wanted to have her kids, a drill started before the lights flickered twice.
Somewhere outside the bedroom, a woman shouted that whoever had connected the line should be banned from touching electricity, tools, or anything more complicated than a spoon.
Lingyun listened to the argument for several seconds as his brows furrowed. "They sound like useful Oompa Loompas. Did we raid a chocolate factory while I was out of it?"
Rouxi pulled the thermometer from his mouth and frowned at the result. "They are not Oompa Loompas," she hissed at him. "I could probably tolerate Oompa Loompas. They probably come with chocolate, and snacks, and candy. No, these are completely human. Unfortunately."
"I can hear them working, but I can’t see them. They’re fixing the house while slowly driving you toward murder. I believe the evidence supports me," nodded Lingyun. "It’s either that or you have ghosts or Christmas elves living in the mansion."
The corner of her mouth twitched before she forced it flat again, and Lingyun felt absurdly pleased with himself. There she was. He had been awake for only a few minutes, felt as though death had chewed him up and spat him back onto the bed, and he had still managed to drag a nearly-smile out of her.
Unfortunately, his own smile pulled at the wound in his shoulder. Pain sliced down his arm and wrapped around his chest so sharply that his vision darkened at the edges. He breathed through his nose and waited for it to pass, hoping Rouxi was distracted by the thermometer.
She wasn’t.
Of course she wasn’t. Her attention dropped to the bandage, and her hand hovered above his shoulder as if she wanted to touch him but was afraid she would make it worse. "What happened?"
"Nothing."
"You almost passed out."
"I already passed out once," Lingyun pointed out. "Doing it again this soon would make me look needy."
"Lingyun."
He considered lying properly, but the dark circles beneath her eyes ruined most of the entertainment. "I have been thinking of kissing you since I left this house days ago, and the fact that I haven’t yet is causing me pain."
Rouxi rolled her eyes like she thought he was joking, but he really wasn’t.
For just a moment, she leaned forward, her eyes searching his to see just how far he was willing to take this joke that wasn’t a joke when the bedroom door opened behind her.
Whoever that fucking cockblocker was, they needed to die. And fast.
Lingyun moved before he recognized who was entering. His left hand tore free of the blanket as he reached for his fire, while the baby vine snapped toward the doorway with its teeth exposed. A spark flared over his fingertips, sputtered weakly, and vanished before it could become useful.
Yuche stopped with a bowl in one hand and a glass of water in the other.
Lingyun recognized him a second later and lowered his hand, deeply offended by the pathetic puff of smoke curling from his fingers. He had been aiming for threatening. What he produced looked more like a birthday candle giving up.
Yuche’s gaze moved from the dead spark to Lingyun’s face. "Good. You’re awake."
"And now that you know, you can turn around and go back the way you came," Lingyun muttered. His head was pounding, his stomach was rolling, and his own fire had just humiliated him in front of witnesses. Being awake had not impressed him so far.
Rouxi took the bowl from Yuche and placed it on the table. "He just woke up."
"I noticed," the other man snorted. This wasn’t the first time Lingyun ever toyed with the idea of killing Yuche, but this was the closest that the Dragon Head ever got to death.
Even if he didn’t have his flame, Lingyun had a hundred ways to kill a man.
Especially a man who stopped Rouxi from kissing him.
Rouxi adjusted the blankets around his hand while Yuche leaned closer to inspect the IV line. Neither of them acknowledged him.
Fucking rude.
"How do you feel?" Yuche asked as he studied the monitor.
"Like I was bitten by a zombie."
Rouxi turned her head and gave him a look that promised a second injury if he continued being difficult.
Lingyun sighed. "My head feels like someone cracked it open with a shovel, my shoulder is trying to detach itself from the rest of my body, I’m going to throw up if anyone moves the bed, and my fire has apparently decided to embarrass me before dying."
"See?" Yuche smirked at Lingyun. "Was that really too hard?"
"I liked my answer better."
