After Luo Qinghan climbed off her body, the first thing Zhe Huo did was re-light the lamp that had run out of oil. It was time for a stern lecture.
When she turned back around with the lamp in hand, she found the boy standing meekly upon the bed, like a child who knows he’s done something bad and is about to be punished. His tail swayed limply behind him. His ears drooped, pushing his soft, messy hair down over his forehead. From beneath shone two blue eyes like sparkling stars, radiating purest innocence.
His nose was tinged with red, his little lips pursed together. He was sniffling faintly, his face flushed, for all the world as though he was the one who’d been wronged.
Zhe Huo felt her heart waver at this forlorn sight, but the burning pain on her neck was a constant reminder. Her lips drew tight. She wouldn’t forgive the little thing just yet. She set the lamp down with a bang on the dresser beside the bed, then fetched a stool and a mirror.
She sat down and opened her mouth to speak, but then looked up and realized that Qinghan was actually standing taller than her, on the bed. It didn’t seem favorable for her to have to look up at him while speaking, so she immediately got to her feet again, and pointed at him. “Get down from there. Sit here.”
The boy sniffled again, then replied, “Zhe Huo… help me get down…”
Zhe Huo hadn’t expected the boy to have the gall to play coy with her now, but she nevertheless complied, picking him up and then setting him down upon the bench. She immediately felt like she’d made a mistake here—she was always spoiling him like this.
Well, too late for regrets now. She sat down on the bed herself, looked him in the eye, and asked, “You’ve done something bad. Do you know that?”
Luo Qinghan nodded timidly, his ears waggling with the movement.
A convincing show of sincerity. Zhe Huo pushed onwards, “Do you know what exactly it is you did wrong?”
Now Qinghan shook his head, baffled.
This threw her for a loop. “Then what were you nodding for, just now?”
Quietly, the boy replied, “If Zhe Huo says I was wrong, then I was wrong.”
Hearing this miserable concession, the scathing lecture she’d been about to deliver was swallowed back down her throat. With a little ‘hmph’, she picked up the mirror and had another look at herself in the lamplight. There, two rows of red bite marks upon her neck. When they went out tomorrow, she’d have to wrap a scarf or something around it, or else all eyes would be on her.
That thought re-ignited her fury. She set down the mirror and indicated her wounds. “See for yourself! If you want a drink of my blood, could you say something before you take a bite out of me? Anyone could see it on my neck, here! Did you do this on purpose?”
Qinghan considered the throbbing red marks upon her alabaster-white skin. “Then I shan’t bite you there, next time.”
The conversation had taken another unpleasant turn. Glaring wide-eyed, she hissed, “Next time? No, don’t bite me anymore!”
The boy watched her in baleful silence.
“And what’s that supposed to mean?” For some reason, his gaze was making her nervous. It sent a chill up her spine.
At length, Qinghan blinked, bit his lower lip, and said, “I won’t bite you on the neck anymore.”
Zhe Huo breathed a little easier, hearing that—and missing what had been left unsaid. She proceeded to the next item on the agenda: “Also, no more climbing atop of me to drink my blood while I’m sleeping!”
One of the boy’s ears flattened down, then straightened up again. He was thinking this through carefully.
“What’s there to think about? Answer me!”
“Okay…”