This kiss was different from all their previous kisses.
The emotions contained in it were complicated and tempestuous. There was less tenderness and it was more like the avarice of a bitterly starved person; the struggle of a fish in a dried up pond.
The force on his body was a little crushing and carried with it some discomfort. But what made Su Yang even more scared was that beneath the kiss, a slightly controlled mass of fire was about to burst forth and he could only watch on helplessly.
Gu Feidi’s lips quickly moved away from Su Yang’s. They travelled along the edge of his ear, sucking, biting and licking his skin.
His palms were wet from the warm water and they impatiently caressed Su Yang’s skin. Earlier, when they had applied the needles, Su Yang’s clothing had been shed to his waist. Gu Feidi’s wandering hands located them and pulled them off.
Su Yang couldn’t help trembling.
In a flash, he realised what Gu Feidi wanted to do.
But this situation was somewhat out of control, there were some things… he was not prepared for yet. Moreover, Gu Feidi’s current mood was obviously wrong.
“Gu Feidi!” Su Yang exhaled in a low voice as he tried pushing him away.
Gu Feidi moved with the strength of Su Yang’s palm to prop himself up. His deep, dark eyes stared fixedly on Su Yang’s face. His assaulting gaze was too strong and Su Yang was so frightened that his throat began to dry up.
While he was looking at Su Yang this way, Gu Feidi raised his hand to pull off his own inner shirt——he’d only taken off his coat when he’d entered the water. The inner shirt that was still on his body was already soaked through at this time. Cloth that had been immersed in water wasn’t easy to remove, so Gu Feidi simply manoeuvred his internal force to rip it off directly. He took off his inner shirt together with his pants.
Su Yang swallowed. He turned around to brace his hands on the edge of the hot spring pool. He wanted to get out and escape to the shore.
He was stopped by Gu Feidi who held him by the waist and pulled him back into the water, hugging him tightly from behind.
They were skin-on-skin without any gaps between them.
Beneath the warm spring water, there was something with a more dangerous heat resting on Su Yang’s tailbone. He stiffened on the spot and didn’t dare move.
Gu Feidi’s palm slowly opened and the thin layer of calluses gently stroked the skin at Su Yang’s waist before gradually descending downwards…
Su Yang grabbed hold of Gu Feidi’s wrist.
“Don’t be like this…” His voice trembled uncontrollably, “…I’m scared.”
Gu Feidi opened his eyes and lifted his head from Su Yang’s neck. He dropped a soft kiss on the side of his ear.
“Now you know what it’s like to be scared?” He asked in a low voice, “Then you know… how scared I was just now?”
Su Yang was at a loss for words.
Gu Feidi continued to hold Su Yang in the hot spring pool. Their temperatures melted into each other’s.
The dark clouds that had been gathering in the sky since dusk finally moved slowly up the mountain.
The wind blew and a fine snow floated down from the sky. Before it reached the ground, it was melted by the heat from the hot spring and turned into tiny drops of rain which drizzled down onto both of them in the pool.
The raindrops were slightly cool, not cold. Still, they caused Su Yang to tremble and Gu Feidi finally became a little clear-headed.
Sensing the shivering person in his arms, Gu Feidi released a sigh. He tightened his arms to pull Su Yang even closer and mumbled, “Su Yang… what should I do with you?”
“I fear I’ll lose you. I desire to… completely possess you.” He nestled his cheek against Su Yang’s ear and closed his eyes. “But, what I want isn’t just… even if I completely possess you, I still think that you… will vanish from my side one day.”
“Su Yang.” He called out huskily, “Su Yang, Su Yang…”
Being tormented by him like this made Su Yang feel like his insides were ablaze.
He bit his lip in confusion for a long while, his heart was turbulent. He moved his arm behind him and looped it over Gu Feidi’s neck, then turned his head to find his lips and kissed them lightly.
“Then you…” he hesitated, “…be gentle.”
Gu Feidi didn’t continue.
He stared at Su Yang for a long time. Su Yang avoided his gaze. Gu Feidi sighed softly, moved a little away from Su Yang and smiled bitterly. He shook his head: “…Never mind, this place… the timing is wrong.”
“I apologise for earlier.” He said. “I’m not in a good state of mind and I took it out on you.”
As he spoke, he removed his hands from Su Yang’s waist and placed them on his shoulders. He cast his eyes down at the flaming red Queen of the Night flower tattoo on Su Yang’s back. It was so close, he could touch it.
Seeing that Gu Feidi didn’t intend to take things further, Su Yang internally calmed down.
He was about to turn around and sit down when Gu Feidi squeezed his shoulders and steered him so that Su Yang’s back was still facing him.
“What, what is it?” Su Yang said apprehensively.
Gu Feidi didn’t reply.
He held up Su Yang’s hair that was hanging down behind him and hooked it over his shoulder. Then he slid his fingers down and softly caressed the tattoo on his back.
Being touched made Su Yang feel tingly from head to toe. He turned his head to look at Gu Feidi and couldn’t help asking, “What are you touching my back for?”
Seeing Gu Feidi not answering, he tried to find a subject to talk about: “Are you thinking that this design looks good and want to get one?”
Gu Feidi shook his head, “Previously, in the Wasteland underground river, I discovered that there were some old injury scars hidden beneath your Queen of the Night tattoo.”
Hearing this, Su Yang was stunned: “Scars? My body wouldn’t have any scars?”
Gu Feidi said: “It should be a really old injury. Now it’s covered by the tattoo’s colours and can’t be clearly seen. I can only feel that there’s something unusual.”
As he spoke, his fingertips stroked along the tattoo on Su Yang’s back, carefully skimming it. It wasn’t long before he assessed the pile of old marks: “…they’re words.”
“Words?” Su Yang was even more astonished, “How did words come to be on my back?”
Gu Feidi’s fingers paused slightly and he pressed down on Su Yang’s shoulder, “Don’t move, I’ll try to see if I can feel out what the words are.”
When he heard the words, Su Yang lay obediently by the side pool and let Gu Feidi’s fingers gently stroke his back.
For a moment, Gu Feidi hesitated and said: “Sin lineage…”
Su Yang blinked, then turned around and asked, “Sin lineage?”
Gu Feidi closed his eyes slightly and continued to fumble downwards. Not long after, he became a little more certain and said, “Sin lineage becomes… disaster…?”
Sin lineage becomes disaster?
Su Yang didn’t understand those few words, but the unprovoked restlessness that he felt in his heart still made him believe that these weren’t anything positive.
Gu Feidi frowned slightly and hastened to touch the other row of characters next to this sentence.
“Heaven will…” he hurriedly whispered, “—serve justice.”
Su Yang heard these words and became even more confused.
He decided not to ask again. Instead, he waited silently for Gu Feidi to speak first.
Gu Feidi’s fingers moved about, slowly stroking over the third row of words.
After some time, he said in a hoarse voice: “Su…Yang…”
“Ng?” Su Yang turned his head, “What?”
Gu Feidi said: “…The beginning of the third sentence is your name.”
Su Yang raised his eyebrows, “The origins of my name wouldn’t be scored onto my back, right? This is too bizarre…”
Gu Feidi didn’t say anything and continued to feel along below the “Yang” word.
In an instant, the third word was identified: “short…”
“Short?” Su Yang was baffled. “After that?”
But Gu Feidi did not move for a while.
His fingers skimmed the skin of Su Yang’s back and he lightly caressed the last word of the third sentence. He couldn’t help himself from trembling a little.
The lagged breathing rhythm fell into Su Yang’s ears. Su Yang turned around in surprise to look at Gu Feidi and asked, “What’s going on?”
Gu Feidi’s complexion wasn’t very good and there was a touch of alarm in his eyes. He looked at Su Yang and opened his mouth to speak but stopped himself.
Just then, he said: “…There’s one more sentence, you… turn around.”
“Are you really alright?” Su Yang frowned, “What’s with that sentence just now? What’s the last word?”
“It’s nothing.” The corners of Gu Feidi’s mouth tugged up and he gave a smile. He turned Su Yang around, paused for a moment and at last, gently touched Su Yang’s back.
Stroking all the way along the border of the Queen of the Night tattoo, the four characters in the last row gradually emerged in Gu Feidi’s heart.
But he kept his mouth shut and the alarm in his eyes was gradually replaced by another more profound and dire feeling.
The fingers slid down, his hand dropped on the pool surface with a splash.
Su Yang became very anxious.
He turned around and drew nearer to Gu Feidi. He reached out to hold his fingertips and asked softly, “What’s wrong?”
Gu Feidi’s gaze fell on the striking contours of Su Yang’s face and he did not move away for a long while.
Being stared at by his complex gaze made Su Yang slightly edgy. He raised his hand to bite his nails and then asked, “What’s written on my back?”
Gu Feidi didn’t say anything.
Su Yang bit his lower lip, “You said we should be frank and open, don’t hold anything back. You have to tell me if there’s something.”
“You…” Gu Feidi’s throat quivered. He’d only uttered one word and his voice had become stuck again.
He pursed his mouth, took a step forward and tenderly pulled Su Yang into his arms.
There was still a light snowfall. The slightly chilly water droplets rained on their skin and hair, turning into vapour in the hot spring water.
Out of Su Yang’s sight, the rims of Gu Feidi’s eyes reddened again, but he carefully controlled his breathing so that Su Yang wouldn’t hear or suspect anything.
After embracing for a while, he slowly took a step backwards: “Rest in the hot spring for a while. I’ll go fetch Elder Luo.”
After speaking, he didn’t wait for Su Yang to reply. He gathered up the clothes floating in the pool, casually draped them on and rose out onto the shore of the pool.
Su Yang remained alone in the hot spring pool. He cast his eyes down as he pondered for a moment, then he reached behind to touch the scars on his back.
However, the scars were rather jumbled and he couldn’t discern the words for a while.
“Sin lineage becomes disaster…” He could only murmur out the first two sentences, “Heaven will serve justice…?”
Gu Feidi quickly followed behind Luo Yu to return to the hot spring pool.
Seeing that Su Yang’s complexion was pretty good and his skin finally showed a healthy rosy colour, Luo Yu breathed a sigh of relief and displayed a scowl on his face. He cast Su Yang a sidelong glance and said, “I shouldn’t bother with you! Since you have a death wish, I should just leave you to die outside and be done with it!”
Su Yang was initially muddling with the words on his back when he was unexpectedly admonished by an unknown older man pointing at his nose. He became stupefied.
But he noticed that this person looked decent and Gu Feidi had followed him over, so Su Yang immediately reacted. The middle-aged man in front of him should be Yuqiong’s Divine Doctor Luo Yu himself.
In that instant, a disciple appeared next to him bearing some clothes. Luo Yu lifted the thick cotton robe on the tray and curled his lips at Su Yang, “You still don’t want to hurry up and come out of there? You want me to come down there and invite you up?”
Su Yang saw that the garment he’d shook open looked like a bathrobe. He immediately propped himself on the bank and came ashore. Sure enough, in the next moment, his body was wrapped in a dry and warm cotton robe.
Luo Yu held up one robe’s sleeves so that Su Yang could conveniently stretch his hand in.
Su Yang felt extremely overwhelmed… No, he was really terrified. While he reluctantly allowed Luo Yu to personally assist him to put on the bathrobe, Su Yang looked at Gu Feidi with a shocked expression on his face and tried to get some indication from him——was this Yuqiong Divine Doctor literally going so far as to do everything personally like this?
Gu Feidi merely stared silently at Su Yang without giving him any response.
Luo Yu said to Su Yang: “Follow me.”
As he finished speaking, he turned around and left. After two steps, he suddenly paused and addressed Gu Feidi: “You can follow my disciple to go rest in the guest house first. I wish to talk with Su Yang alone.”
Gu Feidi frowned and opened his mouth, as if he was thinking of a reason to follow, but Luo Yu cut him off: “While you’re here, you must follow my rules. If not, both of you can hurry down the mountain. Don’t be a hindrance before me.”
Gu Feidi had no choice but to nod, “Yes.”
He stood motionless for a long time in the midst of the thick, cool snowfall, staring at Su Yang’s departing figure.