Chapter 55 - 2#

In the eyes of anyone who cared.

So why did Jingzhe’s simple hope make Rong Jiu unhappy again?

Jingzhe lowered his eyebrows, feeling a strange conflict.

“Rong Jiu, are there any… friends that you particularly like?” Jingzhe licked his lips, not knowing if this sentence would make Rong Jiu’s mood even worse. “If there are, I’d like to…”

“No.”

Jingzhe was silent for a moment, but still insisted on finishing, “I’d like to meet them.”

Rong Jiu’s large hand forcefully turned Jingzhe’s head around. Two pairs of black eyes met, and the man lowered his head: “You want to meet my friends?”

Jingzhe said with a stiff upper lip: “You’ve already met my few friends, so I’d like to meet your friends too… Of course, if you don’t have any friends in the palace, then… just pretend I didn’t say anything.”

As for those outside the palace, he definitely wouldn’t be able to meet them.

Rong Jiu’s quick answer just now indeed made Jingzhe feel a little disappointed, but not for himself, but for Rong Jiu.

Did Rong Jiu really not have a single friend by his side?

In the past, Rong Jiu had occasionally mentioned it, passing it off as nothing. At that time, although Jingzhe remembered, he was never willing to believe that a person could have not a single friend.

“Are you pitying me?”

Cold fingers pinched Jingzhe’s cheek, the force not great, like a silent warning.

“I’m not pitying you.” Jingzhe shook his head. “If you feel at ease, then there’s nothing to pity.”

Not to mention, Rong Jiu now seemed to lack nothing in terms of power, wealth, and status. Why would he need others’ pity?

It’s just that occasionally, it felt a bit lonely.

“If you want to meet one, next time, I’ll bring one.” Rong Jiu said coldly.

Mao Zishi didn’t count as a friend, but he was at least presentable.

Most importantly, he was better at judging the situation than Ning Hongru and wouldn’t do stupid things.

Jingzhe looked up in surprise under Rong Jiu’s hand, then his eyes curved slightly, and he looked at the man with a smile.

Rong Jiu’s voice was thin and cool, even sounding a bit gloomy and harsh: “Don’t think that this will make me feel that that group of yours, friends, have anything…”

Before he could finish his words, Jingzhe stood on tiptoe and gave him a peck.

Rong Jiu raised his eyebrows, looking down at Jingzhe from above.

Jingzhe said unhurriedly: “I don’t want to hear you speak ill of them. If you continue, I’ll just keep kissing, kissing, kissing, kissing you.”

This sounded a bit childish.

Jingzhe was also just retaliating.

He had so few friends, and Rong Jiu wanted to get rid of them every day. How could that be allowed?

They weren’t like weeds that could grow back after being pulled.

Rong Jiu was silent for a moment, his thin lips moved slightly, and his cold words were like venomous juice, full of terrible curses: “They attract your attention, Jingzhe. As long as anyone gets close to you and shows you kindness, they will easily become your friend, be remembered by you, be cared for by you. Even the most incompetent and cowardly thing can receive your pity… Your affection is easily divided into countless pieces, anyone can have you.”

The darkness in the man’s eyes could almost condense into a solid entity, as if it were a completely burning flame. That angry flame could burn everything, but it also completely froze Jingzhe’s blood.

He felt that chilling killing intent.

Jingzhe’s body moved faster than his consciousness. He kissed that terrible mouth of Rong Jiu’s. How on earth did such terrible venom flow from it?

Peck.

It was an improper, very messy peck.

Rong Jiu was angry, that anger was so obvious, but he didn’t move. When Jingzhe kissed him, the man’s breathing became a little longer.

Jingzhe didn’t know how many times he had pecked, probably as long as the words Rong Jiu had said. Then, he took two steps back and looked up at Rong Jiu.

“…I feel that I may not be able to accept your ideas.” Jingzhe originally wanted to describe this matter in a gentler tone, but in the end, he gave up on himself. “I like them and don’t want anything to happen to them. But there are many kinds of liking. You can’t monopolize all of them.”

“Why not?” Rong Jiu said coldly, not caring at all how terrible the thing he was saying was. “As long as you are willing, I will remove all obstacles for you.”

Obstacles?

How could he so easily call those people obstacles?

Even if Jingzhe was calm, he was undoubtedly moved by Rong Jiu’s indifferent words. He tried hard to suppress his anger. “They are not obstacles. Rong Jiu, those are living human lives.”

“They all deserve to die, just like those gu worms, easily attracted to you, but then mercilessly abandoned by you.” Rong Jiu smiled, a perfect, rare smile, but it revealed an unfounded madness and paranoia. “Jingzhe, you should do this, it will make you safer.”

Jingzhe finally couldn’t suppress the anger in his heart and kicked Rong Jiu’s calf in anger. “What kind of madness are you having? You can be my friend, my lover, my future family, but my liking for you is not the liking for a friend or a relative. You can be them, but you can’t replace them.”

He felt like he was going to be driven mad by Rong Jiu.

These were completely different things. How could he be so domineering as to want to monopolize even such things?

Jingzhe couldn’t give him what he wanted.

…Also, why would this make him safer?

Jingzhe closed his eyes and suppressed the outburst of emotion. He grasped that momentary flash of inspiration.

“You don’t like them because you think they will endanger me?”

This was a recurring topic for the two of them.

At least, it wasn’t the first time.

Jingzhe could feel that Rong Jiu didn’t like his friends that much, but he had never thought that this malice had become so ferocious that he wished they were dead.

He simply couldn’t accept it.

Some things he could tolerate, but some were boundaries that could never be crossed.

It was as if if given a chance, Rong Jiu would use his personal sword to pierce through each of their hearts without mercy, killing them with a single blow.

He would do it.

A bone-chilling coldness gripped Jingzhe.

He could do it.

A heavy pressure fell on Jingzhe’s lower abdomen.

He couldn’t… couldn’t let Rong Jiu really do this, treating everyone who approached Jingzhe as an enemy. This was an extremely vicious and emotionless cruel idea.

“Isn’t it?”

A soft, silky voice, like a bewitchment, with a coaxing tone, as if Jingzhe was some ignorant child.

“Jingzhe, you are too fragile, but you don’t know how to protect yourself at all. You could die easily.” Rong Jiu’s voice became more and more tense as he spoke, like a tightened bowstring that could snap at any time. “You don’t understand what it means to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages at all. You go wherever there is danger!”

For Rong Jiu, this cold and stern tone was already close to an intense expression of emotion.

Jingzhe raised his hand, feeling that he was a bit unable to keep up with Rong Jiu’s rhythm. “You say I go wherever there is danger? Where have I…”

Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by Rong Jiu’s cold voice.

“Kangman.”

This was just a recent event, not to mention the time with the sky full of gu worms, yet he came out alone. There were so many similar instances in the past, too many to count.

Jingzhe paused. This, this was indeed an accident.

Who knew that the mission released by the system happened to be related to him?

“Weren’t you investigating that?” Jingzhe pursed his lips. “Later, I didn’t have any more contact.”

“Later? You shouldn’t have had any contact from the beginning.” Rong Jiu said gloomily. “Letting you wander outside is still too dangerous. you have no idea…”

A ball of shining light wandering in the decaying and dark imperial court was originally an extremely dangerous thing.

Yes, this was indeed not Jingzhe’s problem.

It was his problem.

How could he let Jingzhe, who couldn’t even judge danger, think about this problem?

This was wrong and unfair in the first place.

He should have taken over all of Jingzhe’s affairs completely.

Rong Jiu seemed to have restrained all his emotions, as if the gloomy paranoia just now was an illusion, but at this moment, Rong Jiu looked even more terrifying than before.

Jingzhe subconsciously took half a step back. Just this momentary hesitation, and Rong Jiu’s sudden gaze was as terrifying as a monster’s.

The horror that almost made his scalp explode made Jingzhe’s body a little stiff.

But he still approached step by step.

He could feel that Rong Jiu was thinking about something extremely terrible, something that he would not be happy to see, something he did not want to see.

Rong Jiu pressed on Jingzhe’s shoulder and said coldly: “Not every problem can be escaped with it.”

He obviously knew what Jingzhe wanted to do.

Jingzhe’s fingers hidden in his sleeves curled up, as if to clench into a fist, but he quickly forced himself to relax.

He looked up pitifully, his wet black eyes misty. With a light blink, his eyes seemed to carry a shallow layer of water. “Rong Jiu, don’t you want to kiss me?”

Rong Jiu was so serious it was a bit scary, which made the atmosphere a bit awkward.

…Could it be that it didn’t work?

Was it really that unreliable… Just as this thought flashed through Jingzhe’s mind, a huge force swept him away.

This embrace was hard enough to shatter bones, and the kiss was so brutal that it didn’t feel like a warm touch, but more like a real plunder with swords and guns.

Anger, violence, and all kinds of vicious thoughts seemed to flow in the rough entanglement of the kiss. Jingzhe felt as if his breath was about to be taken away.

He wanted to gasp for air, but was even more invaded.

Rong Jiu was a crazy attacker who didn’t know when to stop, not to mention that this fire was lit by Jingzhe himself.

Jingzhe whimpered, begging for mercy.

But the cruel hunter simply couldn’t hear, or, didn’t want to hear.

…

Jingzhe woke up with a start, gasping for breath as if he had had a terrible nightmare.

And indeed he had.

He dreamed of a terrible scene almost identical to the last time. The people around him died one after another. In the dream, there was almost a river of blood.

It’s just that last time, in the dream, Jingzhe couldn’t see who the executioner was, but now, he could see him clearly, with Rong Jiu’s face.

After seeing Rong Jiu’s face clearly, Jingzhe woke up immediately, as if struck by lightning.

He hugged his knees and panted for a moment.

Suddenly thinking of something, Jingzhe hurriedly looked to his side. On the outside of the bed, the man who should have been asleep was gone.

This was not Jingzhe’s residence in the Zhidian Si, but Rong Jiu’s resting place in the guardhouse.

In the afternoon, the argument between Rong Jiu and Jingzhe didn’t reach any so-called answer.

But the crooked way Jingzhe figured out—the great kissing method—to some extent could indeed stop the man’s brutal thoughts. Although it had only a negligible effect, Jingzhe still almost sacrificed his mouth.

It hurts so much.

When he went back to work in the afternoon, he was almost covering his mouth. It was too embarrassing.

At that time, Rong Jiu and he had been pulling and tugging for too long. If Jingzhe didn’t go back to work, it would be too late… But after this dispute, which was not over, came to a slight end, Jingzhe couldn’t move his feet.

First, strangely, he didn’t want to leave Rong Jiu at this time; second, under Rong Jiu’s violent thoughts, Jingzhe couldn’t feel at ease at all.

…Although he felt that Rong Jiu probably wouldn’t really touch his friends when he knew about it, who could guarantee it?

The more he knew Rong Jiu, the more he felt his terror.

He simply couldn’t be judged by common sense.

“I have to go back.” At that time, Jingzhe heard himself say, “At night… can I go to the guardhouse to find you?”

He said in a small voice.

Rong Jiu raised his eyebrows and said slowly: “You want to spend the night at the guardhouse?”

Jingzhe gritted his teeth: “It’s enough that you heard it, don’t ask me back!”

But his ears still turned a little red against his will.

…Jingzhe, you’re done for. If you blush at this time, you lose!

Sure enough, Rong Jiu’s voice seemed to carry a little smile, rising carelessly.

“I’ll go pick you up.”

So, after finishing his work, Jingzhe hurriedly took a shower and, under the cover of the setting sun in the evening, secretly followed Rong Jiu away.

This was the first time he had actively snuck away.

Jingzhe made full preparations for this. Not only did he tell others about his sleepiness and go into the room early, but he also arranged things on the bed to make it look like someone was sleeping, and then asked Huiping to help cover for him, so that he could leave smoothly.

Most importantly, after hearing Jingzhe’s arrangements, the man said lazily: “If you are still discovered, just say you were called to the guardhouse to help with an investigation.”

Jingzhe looked at him suspiciously: “What can this help with?”

This reason seemed very perfunctory.

It was obvious at a glance that it was an excuse.

Rong Jiu said gloomily: “Isn’t it good to let them know that you have someone backing you up?”

Jingzhe immediately thought of Rong Jiu’s irritability in the afternoon, and the refusal that almost came out of his mouth was swallowed back: “…Makes sense, makes a lot of sense. Why don’t you give me a guard uniform when I go back, and I’ll parade through the streets.”

Rong Jiu looked at Jingzhe thoughtfully.

Jingzhe didn’t hear Rong Jiu’s answer and subconsciously turned his head to look at him. Noticing the interest on his face, he immediately turned pale with fright: “I was talking nonsense!”

“It doesn’t have to be.”

“It has to be.”

Jingzhe cursed his own mouth again.

All in all, in short, Jingzhe slept at the guardhouse that night.

Before going to bed, Rong Jiu was by his side.

Jingzhe originally thought that after the fierce argument in the afternoon, he might not be able to sleep. Who would have thought that as soon as his head hit the pillow, he fell asleep as if he had been knocked out, until he was just woken up by a nightmare.

He sat on the bed in a daze for a while, then slowly got up.

The weather was already very cold. Even though there was a charcoal basin in the guardhouse, the inner clothes soaked with cold sweat sticking to his body were not comfortable, making Jingzhe shiver from time to in time.

When he came, he hadn’t expected this and didn’t bring any extra clothes.

Jingzhe vaguely remembered that besides being able to live in, there weren’t many things in Rong Jiu’s room. Even in the wardrobe, there were only two changes of guard uniforms.

He didn’t know if there were any clean clothes hidden underneath.

Jingzhe got out of bed. The cold feeling made him shiver, but he still put on his shoes in the dark.

The charcoal basin in the room seemed to have gone out, so the temperature was so low.

“Rong Jiu?”