Chapter 179: Chapter 179: Who Wouldn’t Like You?
The light was mostly blocked by the boy’s tall frame and wide robes, and her vision grew dim.
In the cramped space, their breaths met, forced to mingle.
The girl froze for a few seconds before looking away and huffing, "As if I’d let you eat me."
Jiang Qingli had an excellent memory. Gu Nian had just quoted a line from Sindel.
In the story, he used that exact tone to flirt with a female on the roadside. After being rejected, he simply ate her.
Seeing the awkward look on her face, Gu Nian’s eyebrows drooped. He gently nuzzled her cheek, his voice soft and full of apology, as if he were trying to coax her.
"I’m sorry, okay? Don’t be mad at me. I could never bear to eat you."
"I’m your pet. Only you get to eat me."
"Really, you can eat me however you want. I’m willing..."
The boy spoke words of chilling horror in an intimate yet excited tone. His warm breath fell against the shell of her ear, sending a shiver through her.
Jiang Qingli’s heart skipped a beat, and she raised a hand to cover his mouth.
The moment her eyes flashed a warning for him to stop talking nonsense, Gu Nian immediately became docile. He blinked his long, curly lashes and gently nudged his lips against her palm, as if the previous moment had been nothing but an illusion.
Jiang Qingli glanced at her palm. "Good thing I’m not wearing any makeup, or I would’ve smudged yours."
Gu Nian replied matter-of-factly, "I would’ve licked your hand clean for you."
Jiang Qingli: "..."
’This obedient little rabbit always has a way of blurting out things that leave you speechless...’
She straightened up and walked over to the mirror, letting Gu Nian adjust her costume.
In the mirror, the boy in the black robe was carefully adjusting her pure white one.
His fingers barely brushed against her skin, yet Jiang Qingli could still feel their scorching heat.
And... a strange sense of agitation.
Halfway through, Gu Nian stopped and said, a little sheepishly, "Can I have some candy?"
"Sure," Jiang Qingli said.
Gu Nian fished a piece of candy out from his robes, tore off the wrapper, and popped it into his mouth. After a pause, he unwrapped three more, tossed them in as well, and began CRUNCHING loudly as he continued to straighten the back of her costume.
’This kid really does love his sweets,’ Jiang Qingli mused once again. ’But won’t eating them that fast be cloying?’
Gu Nian suddenly spoke, interrupting her thoughts. "How was my acting just now?"
Jiang Qingli looked at the boy’s once-again docile face in the mirror and smiled. "Not at all. You didn’t look like you wanted to kill me in the slightest."
’Instead... how should I put it? It was more like you were trying to coax me, or... flirt.’
Jiang Qingli stroked his hair, the corners of her lips curling slightly. It was the smile of someone who knew they were favored and took it for granted.
Just like in the past.
An intense, obsessive look surged into Gu Nian’s eyes.
He loved seeing that expression on Jiang Qingli’s face.
Gu Nian straightened up and pressed a light kiss to her cheek, his breath carrying the rich scent of sweet orange.
"I, too, look forward to the day I am blessed by a god."
He tilted his head slightly, gently brushing against the skin at the corner of Jiang Qingli’s mouth.
He hadn’t touched her lips, yet they tingled, as if the sweetness of his candy still lingered there.
She remembered that night when Gu Nian had called her his savior.
Jiang Qingli didn’t want to give him a platitude, so she said in earnest, "To be honest, I’m not sure if I can bear such a heavy responsibility."
Gu Nian understood her meaning, and his eyes filled with delighted surprise. "Does this mean you’re... a little bit willing to see where things go with me?"
Jiang Qingli squeezed his cheek. "Who wouldn’t like you?"
The boy took the opportunity to press his cheek into her palm, his eyes fixed on her. "It doesn’t matter if no one else likes me. As long as you do, that’s all that matters."
By putting on the mantle of "Sindel," he seemed to have shed a part of his docile disguise, revealing a primitive and fanatical part of his true self.
He didn’t shy away from Jiang Qingli’s gaze, as if he were testing her reaction.
Jiang Qingli wasn’t repulsed by it.
Gu Nian always gave Jiang Qingli a sense of familiarity.
’It was like having once raised a wicked yet fiercely protective and clingy little rabbit. If you met it again years later, you wouldn’t reject its affection and intimacy; sometimes, you might even find it amusing and rather cute.’
But Jiang Qingli couldn’t make any promises about where things would go.
Jiang Qingli could sense that Gu Nian had an intense need for affection. But rather than the "confess today, madly in love tomorrow" type of whirlwind romance, she much preferred to let things develop naturally.
Her heart had fluttered just a moment ago. After a brief hesitation, Jiang Qingli chose to speak her mind honestly. To her, this was a response that carried the same weight as his own heartfelt confession.
Gu Nian understood her feelings. He smiled and kissed her palm, his gaze earnest and reverent.
"For some people, the process might be important," he said, "but for me, as long as the final outcome is the right one, nothing in between matters."
He was a stubborn, foolish rabbit. As long as he saw the dawn, he would forget the long, long darkness he had walked through.
-
Onstage, the drama club president was running through blocking. Baili Jing sat in the audience, chin propped on one hand, his expression serious and focused as he occasionally made notes on a screen.
When Jiang Qingli and Gu Nian returned to the auditorium, one after the other, it was just in time for the end of the second act.
The president saw Gu Nian dawdling behind and, already annoyed with the specially admitted student, raised his voice. "Sindel, hurry up! We’re all waiting on you! With this many people, you being one minute late costs us hours!"
"Right away, sir," Gu Nian said, jogging to his position on the stage.
In the audience, Baili Jing raised an eyebrow, his expression darkening.
Perhaps the others hadn’t noticed, but Baili Jing had seen it clearly: as Gu Nian passed by Jiang Qingli, he had hooked his finger around hers.
’Pulling a stunt like that right under my nose.’
Baili Jing scoffed, but when his gaze fell on Jiang Qingli’s face, his heart lurched.
The girl shot Gu Nian a helpless glance, but it wasn’t one of annoyance. It was tinged with indulgence.
In the past, she’d often had that same look whenever Qin Muye was acting up.
’No, if I think about it, she’s been remarkably tolerant ever since Gu Nian first came to live with them...’
In that instant, a sense of crisis gripped his heart.
Baili Jing had expected this day would come, but he never thought it would be so soon.
He pinched the bridge of his nose when a cool, detached voice suddenly spoke from behind him. "Mr. Baili, may we begin?"
Baili Jing looked up and realized that everyone on stage was ready. The club president was turned toward him, looking like he wanted to ask but didn’t dare.
He ignored Yuan Shiyao, who was sitting behind him, and spoke in a normal tone. "Yes, let’s begin."
Now that the producer had given the word, the group quickly took their positions, their eyes on the teleprompter as they began to recite their lines.
Bai Yiyi’s part came much later, and her character only exchanged a few lines with Gu Nian’s. That meant Jiang Qingli wouldn’t have any on-stage interaction with Gu Nian, either.
Sacred music drifted slowly through the auditorium as the actors performed with heartfelt emotion.
But for some inexplicable reason, Baili Jing felt a long-forgotten anxiety creeping in.
It wasn’t just about Gu Nian.
There was also an indescribable premonition, as if an invisible dagger were approaching him.
Casting a huge shadow over him.
His terminal vibrated a few times.
Baili Jing’s sense of unease intensified.
After a moment, he picked up his terminal.
A message from an unknown number displayed a single line of text.
His unease had found its source—
"Jiang Youchen is expected to arrive in the First District at 5:00 AM next Saturday."
