Chapter 281: Things I Was Good At
Lingyun waited until I was halfway to the door before trying to climb out of bed.
He moved so slowly that I figured he was hoping that I wouldn’t notice what he was doing. Too bad for him, I wasn’t nearly as blind as he thought. With a wave of my fingers and a smirk on my lips, I proved to him just how wrong he was.
The baby vine that had been hanging around the bed post staring at Lingyun snapped around his ankle and pulled him back before his foot touched the floor. It then grew just enough to be able to wrap firmly around the bedpost again, its tail still around his ankle and literally tied him to the bed.
If that wasn’t my baby doing it, the possibilities were endless. Humming in approval I walked back to the bed and tucked him back in.
Lingyun stared up at the vine and then at me. "Did your plant just put me back in bed?" he asked, blinking stupidly, with an even dumber grin on his face.
"Yes."
"Huh," was all he said in reply. Then he pulled a bit on the vine, only to find that he wasn’t going anywhere. The grin on his face turned a lot darker as something flashed in his eyes. "Is this just for me or can we try it on you? I mean, I don’t kink shame at all. I’m all for doing whatever you want me to do."
"Does that include shutting up and letting me deal with what is going on downstairs?" I grumbled. Dear God. Between him and Yuche I was never going to be able to stop blushing.
"I’m pretty sure that you could find wonderful uses for my mouth," agreed Lingyun, nodding his head. "But I don’t like the idea of you going downstairs by yourself." The amused look was completely gone from his face as he stared at me. "If I can’t be by your side. Take Yuche. If he can’t go, take the vine. At least that thing can kill anyone who looks at you sideways."
Yuche made a choking sound near the IV stand, and I didn’t know if he was trying to die by laughter or if he was reminding everyone that he was there.
Lingyun pointed at him with his good hand. "He’s not doing anything important. He can watch your back."
Yuche looked at Lingyun’s finger, then at me. "I am standing right here. I don’t know why I was dragged into this fight." But he did pause for a second, his eyes never leaving mine. "But he does have a point."
Great. Two against one. That seemed to be how my life was going to be from now on.
"See? Even he thinks that I have a point. That’s how you should know that there is something fucked up going on in the universe. No one ever thinks that I have a point." Lingyun shifted against the pillows and immediately regretted it when pain flashed across his face. He covered it quickly with another grin, but I saw it. Of course I saw it. "Go with her."
"I don’t need a babysitter," I muttered, narrowing my eyes on the man who was becoming paler and paler with every word that was coming out of his mouth.
"No, you need someone to stop you from killing the useful people before they finish fixing the house," he replied.
"That sounds more like their problem than mine," I snapped back.
But then again, he had risked his life to bring these people back so that I could keep living in this house. I wouldn’t do anything that would make his sacrifice meaningless.
Not that I would tell him that.
Lingyun’s eyes narrowed as the teasing slipped away again. "Take him, Rouxi."
There were a dozen things I could have said to that, most of them involving where he could shove his orders, but the dark look in his eyes told me this was not one of his jokes. He had woken up surrounded by strangers, unable to use his power, and now I was planning to walk into the middle of all those people without him.
Fine.
I could let him have this one.
"Yuche can come," I agreed, mostly because it was easier than arguing with a half-dead man who had already decided he was in charge. "But you aren’t allowed to try and take so much as a single toe outside of the bed."
Lingyun pulled against the vine again. "A toe?"
I shrugged. "A foot seemed to be too much. So I settled on a toe."
"Fine," he agreed, and I knew it was just to end the pointless argument. Leaning forward, I kissed his forehead as I tucked the blankets around him one more time before stepping away.
The baby vine tightened its tail around his ankle and settled against the bedpost with its mouth open just enough to show teeth.
"If he tries to leave, bite him."
Lingyun looked horrified. "You cannot tell it to bite me."
"I just did."
"What if it enjoys it too much?" he gasped, pulling the covers up so that only his eyes and the top of his head were showing. "My poor virtue."
Yuche snorted. "I’m pretty sure you haven’t had virtue since you turned 13."
"Rude," hissed Lingyun. "I was saving myself for Rouxi all this time. My virtue is completely intact."
I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. "I’m leaving now," I announced, not touching that subject with a ten-foot pole.
Yuche coughed into his hand again while Lingyun stared at me with the kind of look that promised this conversation was going to come back later in a much more private setting.
But that was a problem for future Rouxi.
Present Rouxi had an entire house full of strangers to threaten.
Spinning around, I walked out the door with Yuche following quietly behind me. I let out a long sigh and closed my eyes for just a second.
The Rouxi that I was when it came to dealing with Lingyun wasn’t the one that I was going to show to the outsiders inside my house. For now, I had to lock her away.
If I wanted to protect what belonged to me, I needed my house perfect.
I might not be able to heal Lingyun any faster, but I could threaten people until they understood that their very lives depended on just how well they could obey orders.
That I was very, very good at
