Chapter 346: Fucking Cockblockers
Lingyun had behaved for almost three hours, which was more than any reasonable person should have expected from him.
He had burned what Rouxi pointed at. He had waited when Zhenlan needed the fire kept back. He had stood near pipes, valves, tanks, filters, and enough damp metal to make the entire utility room smell like rust and old water. He had listened to people use words like pressure, seal, residue, intake, and contamination while pretending those words deserved a place in his mind.
They didn’t.
There were parasites in the ground. Some of them might have reached the water. That mattered. He understood that it mattered.
But everyone seemed to have forgotten that Rouxi also mattered, and she had been standing on the other side of the room for far too long with soot in her hair, ash on her cheek, and that awful flat expression she wore whenever she was forcing herself not to feel something.
Lingyun hated that expression.
He hated it more than the parasites.
Parasites could be burned, but that expression had to be broken carefully, usually with food, warmth, or enough deliberate stupidity to make her angry instead of quiet.
So he behaved. Mostly.
He only threatened one pressure gauge.
He didn’t set fire to the pipe that had kept Rouxi’s attention for twenty minutes.
He didn’t drag her out of the utility room when Zhenlan asked her a third question about isolating the outer tanks, though he considered it with the seriousness of a man weighing military options.
By the time Zhenlan finally stepped back from the last valve and announced that nothing was moving inside the main line, Lingyun had decided that the house owed him compensation.
Rouxi exhaled, short and tired. "Then the outer system stays closed until tomorrow. No one uses that water. Not workers, not us, not anyone."
Zhenlan nodded. "We’ll test it again after the ground settles."
"Fine." Rouxi rubbed the side of her neck, leaving a faint streak of ash behind. "Good enough."
It wasn’t good enough. Lingyun could see that in the way her eyes moved toward the wall, as if she could stare through stone and soil and find every invisible thing threatening her home. But she had reached the end of her rope, and none of the others seemed to notice fast enough.
But that was fine.
Lingyun noticed... and he was more than enough.
He crossed the room before anyone could trap her in another conversation. Rouxi looked up at his approach, and her eyes narrowed immediately because she had excellent instincts and terrible self-preservation when those instincts involved him.
"Lingyun," she warned.
"Mm," he hummed, lifting a single eyebrow in an amused challenge. He had spent more than a few hours perfecting the look in a mirror when he was a teenager. Girls fell over themselves and into his bed because of that look.
But if Rouxi would smile at him just once because of it then all those hours would have been worth it.
"That sound means you’re about to do something annoying," she sighed, but there was a hint of a smile tugging at her lips.
Mission accomplished.
Lingyun studied her face for a long moment, cocking his head to the side and giving her a half smile. "Probably," he agreed as he moved even closer.
She took one step back, but he was faster. He caught her wrist, gentle enough that she could pull free if she truly wanted to, then tugged her toward the living room. "You’re done."
"I decide when I’m done," she hissed, but Lingyun noticed that she wasn’t actually putting up any kind of fight.
He loved it when he was right. "You already did," he purred. "You sighed."
"A sigh isn’t legally binding." Rouxi was starting to sound like a tiny kitten, trying to show off just how hard it could scratch, but that was one of the things that had made Lingyun fall head over heels for her in the first place.
"It is in my heart," he smiled in reply, but he never stopped moving. Rouxi needed him to say that lines were fine, so, he was saying it now.
Rouxi stared at him. "Your heart has stupid laws."
"Meh," he shrugged. "They work for me."
He didn’t give her time to argue. Instead, he reached the couch first, and the smile on his face became that much bigger.
Rouxi saw his intention one second too late. "No," she yelled, looking around for someone to stop him from what he was about to do next.
"Oh, yes," Lingyun replied. "You are mine, and I’m claiming my Rouxi time right now."
He sat down, pulled her sideways, and settled her into his lap before she could plant her feet properly. She made a sharp sound of outrage, one hand landing against his chest while the other caught his shoulder for balance.
He wrapped both arms around her and leaned back.
Suddenly, the entire world got better. The sun was warmer, the air smelled cleaner, and all he could hear was the sound of Rouxi throwing curses at him without actually moving.
Rouxi’s shoulders stayed stiff for all of three seconds before she sank against him with the offended resignation of someone choosing comfort against her better judgment.
Lingyun’s grin widened even as, from where he was standing by the front window, Yuche clicked his tongue. "Disgusting."
Lingyun lifted one hand without loosening his hold around Rouxi. "You only think it’s disgusting because you didn’t think of it yourself. Right now, you wish you were me. Now, go get the pretty princess some snacks."
The room went silent as Chenghai started snickering behind his hand. Zhenlan’s face went blank like a wall had come down in front of it, but even he was slowly nodding his approval over the new nickname.
Too bad Lingyun was the only one who could call her that.
Ever so slowly, Rouxi turned her head to look at him, her eyes flashing in a way that dumped him firmly into the gutter, trying to get out. Ah, who was he kidding? He lived in that gutter. Especially when her ass was pressing down against his cock like it owned it.
Truth be told, it did. She did.
"The what?" hissed Rouxi, pulling Lingyun’s thoughts about her naked ass to her mouth. Nope, that wasn’t much better if he was trying to think unsexy thoughts.
Grandmas. Pipes.... no pipes made him think about his cock which was the complete opposite direction from where he wanted to be.
Then again, he had nothing to be ashamed about. Maybe he could get Rouxi to take a look and give him her opinion.
Yeah, that was what he would do.
Tonight. When the other three cockblockers went to bed.
"The pretty princess," Lingyun repeated, nodding his head already finalizing his plans. While he was thinking about the expression on her face when she saw his cock for the first time, he couldn’t see the one that was currently on her face.
"I’m going to kill you," Rouxi hissed, squirming on his lap like that was going to make him let her go. If she wasn’t careful, he wasn’t going to be able to wait until tonight to show her what he was made of.
"After snacks," he muttered to himself.
Yuche’s smile sharpened as he pushed away from the window. "What tribute does Her Highness require?"
Rouxi reached for the nearest cushion, but before she could launch it at anyone’s head, a loud bang came from the front door.
Fucking cockblockers.
Lingyun was seriously going to kill everyone in this entire fucking country if they didn’t leave him alone when Rouxi was on his lap.
Seriously.
He would do it, too.
"What was that?" Rouxi demanded as Lingyun tightened his arms around her even more.
"Zombies," replied Yuche, looking out the window he was standing beside. A half rotted face was looking back at him, a double paned glass the only barrier between him and the creature. "Apparently, they’ve learned to knock."