Chapter 377: You Must Scheme Against a Love Rival
The drawn curtains blocked out the light, leaving only a faint glimmer wavering from the gap at the bottom.
In the dim room, the senses grew sharper.
Warm breath traveled up the back of her neck. Then, her earlobe was taken into a mouth and gently teased.
Jiang Qingli tried to turn, but long, slender fingers covered her eyes from behind, forbidding her from looking.
Meanwhile, another hand pressed against her slender waist, pulling her closer.
"Stop it," Jiang Qingli whispered, a little unsteady on her feet. "Nian..."
His movements paused.
A soft chuckle sounded by her ear. "You’re amazing, Sister. You guessed it was me right away."
’Everyone wants to be special to the one they love, to be known intimately.’
Gu Nian had hidden his presence and stayed silent, not letting Jiang Qingli turn to look, precisely because he hoped she would guess it was him.
Her answer was all the confirmation he needed. Satisfied, he hugged her and nuzzled his face into the crook of her neck.
CLICK.
Jiang Qingli fumbled for the switch on the wall and flipped on the lights.
In the bright light, the aggressive beast of a moment ago transformed into a clingy little rabbit. He scooped her up and called her "Sister" in a soft voice.
Jiang Qingli patted his head. Her gaze swept around the room before she asked, "Where’s the other one?"
’She’d pushed both Xie Youchen and Gu Nian inside just a moment ago. How could one of them have disappeared?’
Hearing another man’s name from her lips, a flicker of resentment crossed Gu Nian’s eyes.
But then he remembered what had just happened, and an eyebrow arched in amusement.
After they’d entered, Gu Nian had sighed and said, "We can’t make things difficult for her. Now that we know she’s safe, we should go."
With that said, he’d swiped a hand through the air, opening a portal to an office in the East District, miles away.
The moment Marshal Xie stepped through, Gu Nian had closed the portal.
Jiang Qingli pinched his cheek. "Well?" she asked.
"Oh, Marshal Xie?" Gu Nian put on a serious expression. "He was worried about his official duties, so he left ahead of me."
’With his meddlesome rival gone,’ Gu Nian’s eyes crinkled into a smile. He kissed Jiang Qingli’s lips again and emphasized happily, "Now it’s just us, Sister."
"Not so fast." Jiang Qingli pushed him back a bit and asked the question that was on her mind. "Why did you two come looking for me together? And why did you show up so suddenly?"
’She couldn’t recall Gu Nian and Xie Youchen ever crossing paths.’
"How about we talk while you take a bath?" Gu Nian suggested, plucking a dry blade of grass from her hair and tossing it away.
Only then did Jiang Qingli remember she’d been up nearly all night, fighting some bird in that decrepit cave.
’Who knew how much grass was still tangled in her hair?’ Jiang Qingli felt a little embarrassed. "I can wash it myself."
Gu Nian acted as if he hadn’t heard her at all. He leaned in, his lips brushing against her cheek as he murmured in a conspiratorial whisper, "So cute."
’Everything about her is just ridiculously cute.’
’I just want to eat her all up.’
...
In the end, they bathed together.
Jiang Qingli was exhausted from the day and had no energy to spare. Gu Nian carefully washed her body and hair before seating her on the bathroom counter to blow-dry it for her.
The warm air of the dryer was gentle. "I messaged you yesterday, Sister," Gu Nian explained, "but you didn’t reply. I figured you were busy."
"When I woke up this morning and still hadn’t heard back, I started to get a little worried."
"And then..." Gu Nian paused. "Someone told me you might be in danger, so I came here."
Jiang Qingli leaned against him. "The ’someone’ you mentioned... was it Jing?"
"You sound so close," Gu Nian huffed. "You two aren’t even the same age."
"What, should I call him ’Old Man’ like you do?" Jiang Qingli pinched Gu Nian’s waist, amused. "Be honest. No hiding things from me."
"Alright, fine..."
Gu Nian finished with the roots and focused on the ends of her hair. He reported obediently, "He said he felt a fluctuation in your Barrier, so he thought you might be in danger."
"Why didn’t he come along?" Jiang Qingli asked.
Gu Nian faltered, looking a little guilty. "Him? Oh... I think he had work or something."
’But he was too embarrassed to admit to Jiang Qingli that he simply hadn’t wanted to bring Baili Jing along.’
’That vixen is full of tricks and is the best at seducing their female master.’
’If he’d tagged along, there would be two Beast Husbands here right now.’
’And if that vixen were here, he would undoubtedly steal all of Jiang Qingli’s attention.’
’And he was not having that.’
Jiang Qingli didn’t notice his little scheme and simply gestured for him to continue.
Gu Nian said, "I came here but couldn’t find you, so I went to the East District to find Marshal Xie. He made a call over here, and that’s when we found out you’d gone on a mission."
"Sorry for making you worry. I’ll let you know in advance next time."
Jiang Qingli wrapped her arms around his waist, her hand sliding down his back.
Gu Nian tensed, his breath trembling slightly. "Sister, your hair... let’s finish drying it..."
"You keep drying."
As she spoke, Jiang Qingli pulled the terminal from his pocket, used his iris to unlock it, opened his social app, found Baili Jing, and sent a quick message to say she was safe. Then she stuffed the device back into his pocket.
Out of her line of sight, Gu Nian silently breathed a sigh of relief.
’Good thing he’d considered the possibility of Jiang Qingli looking at his terminal before he came. He’d changed all the contact names for his fellow Beast Husbands back to their real names.’
’Otherwise, instead of their real names, she would have seen: "Ugliest Old Geezer Snake," "Impotent Old Vixen," "Stupid Old Phosphorus Leopard," and "Pretentious Old Cat"...’
After her hair was dry, Gu Nian meticulously applied conditioning oil, gently tied it up, and then the two of them settled into the bathtub for a soak.
The young man looked slender, but as she leaned against his chest, she realized his shoulders were broad enough for his shadow to completely envelop her.
Gu Nian’s hands roamed, touching here and there, before he suddenly let out a long sigh.
Soaking in the hot water, Jiang Qingli had been starting to feel drowsy. At his sigh, she opened her eyes halfway and asked, "What are you sighing about?"
"You’ve lost weight, Sister."
He said, then seemed to weigh her in his arms, observing her carefully.
"But you still feel so good to hold... and you still smell so sweet..."
’This guy... he had absolutely no sense of shame. Did he not realize how embarrassing this was? Or did he know and was just doing it on purpose, enjoying how her ears flushed red while she pretended to be calm? This seemingly pure, innocent, snow-white rabbit... if you cut him open, he’d be filled with a molten core of black sesame. And a perverted egg yolk, to boot.’
Seeing that he was about to say even more, Jiang Qingli slapped his hand away and cut him off. "Are we going to finish this bath or not?"
"We are."
Duly warned, Gu Nian behaved himself. He just held her waist and made idle chit-chat.
The water was the perfect temperature, and Jiang Qingli soon grew drowsy, falling asleep in Gu Nian’s arms.
Gu Nian carried her out of the bathroom, changed her into a nightgown, and then blissfully snuggled into her arms.
It was early in the morning, and Gu Nian wasn’t actually sleepy. He simply wanted to cuddle with Jiang Qingli.
’He loved these quiet, warm moments.’
But he hadn’t been enjoying it for long when Jiang Qingli’s terminal buzzed.
Gu Nian wasn’t going to pay it any mind, but he caught a glimpse of the default profile picture and figured it was spam. He picked it up to check and couldn’t help but click his tongue in annoyance.
Unknown Number: [Video.]
’Who the hell was this? So rude. How dare they order my Sister around?’
Gu Nian opened the message, ready to teach the sender some manners, when he saw the previous chat history.
A cold sneer escaped him.
’Oh, so it was that uncivilized, uncultured, ugly old geezer of a snake.’
The message status updated to "Read," but no reply came.
On the other end of the screen, Ye Linyuan’s brow furrowed slightly.
He was about to initiate a video call when a new message arrived:
[Ah Li is in my arms. She’s busy.]