Subtle Influence

Jiang Huaiyue immediately yanked over the blanket and covered Shen Wuxiao with it.

Then she hurriedly lowered her head to look.

The moment she looked, Jiang Huaiyue's mind buzzed, turning completely blank.

Her ears seemed to have gone deaf, unable to hear any sound at all.

Her lips trembled, and all strength seemed to drain from her.

Those beautiful eyes stared fixedly at the striking patch of crimson on the bedsheet.

That sight stabbed deep into her heart!

The sliver of luck she had been clinging to vanished without a trace.

She truly could not hold it in anymore. Covering her face with both hands, she began to sob.

Shen Wuxiao, who was pretending to be unconscious, was helpless as well.

He could only take it away first, then make up the process afterward.

With this layer of relationship between them, she would have no way to regard him as an ordinary friend again.

And in her understanding, he knew nothing about it.

Jiang Huaiyue had no idea what to do.

At that moment, she was full of helplessness.

After crying for a long time, Jiang Huaiyue finally stopped.

She wiped away her tears, raised a hand to tidy her disheveled hair, and slowly got out of bed.

Then, she picked up a pair of scissors.

Shen Wuxiao was startled. Damn it, she was not going to snip him off, was she?!

Fortunately, his worries were unnecessary.

Jiang Huaiyue merely cut off that piece, put it away, and then got dressed.

After getting dressed, she left the room directly and sat on the sofa in the living room.

Shen Wuxiao opened his eyes as well and glanced to the side.

There was now a hole in the bedsheet, but otherwise nothing had changed.

After another ten-odd minutes passed, Shen Wuxiao finally got up and put on the lower half of his clothes.

His upper body remained bare.

Holding his clothes, he ran out of the room as if fleeing for his life.

He happened to see Jiang Huaiyue sitting on the sofa, looking utterly lost!

Shen Wuxiao asked somewhat nervously, "Yue'er, are you all right? Did those people do anything to you?"

Seeing the urgency written all over Shen Wuxiao's face, Jiang Huaiyue could not even find a reason to blame him.

No matter how she looked at it, none of this could be blamed on him.

Besides, if not for him, she might have been taken away.

What would have awaited her then went without saying. She truly would have broken down.

Jiang Huaiyue shook her head, though her voice was somewhat weak. "I'm fine!"

Only then did Shen Wuxiao breathe a heavy sigh of relief. "It's good that you're fine!"

"I... I don't know what happened either. When I woke up just now, I was in your room, and I wasn't wearing any clothes."

Jiang Huaiyue's face could not help growing hot.

Yet she still forced out a clumsy excuse. "It... it was those two people. They... they said they needed to leave evidence, so..."

Shen Wuxiao's mouth fell open as well. "Damn, what kind of fetish is that? They knocked me out just to do such things!"

But Shen Wuxiao seemed to take it quite well. Plopping down onto the sofa, he said, "I'm a grown man, so it doesn't matter. It's enough that you're all right!"

"I was truly careless this time. I never expected that asking around for some information would attract experts."

"It's also because I was useless and couldn't protect you. Fortunately, nothing terrible happened. We'll have to be more careful from now on."

Jiang Huaiyue said nothing, merely looking at him with a trace of resentment in her beautiful eyes.

But she could not say it. Such a thing was far too absurd.

Could it be that she was supposed to tell him that while he had been unconscious, she had somehow given him her body?

Jiang Huaiyue was still unable to accept this matter so quickly.

Right now, she did not want to speak either, and could only say to Shen Wuxiao, "I'm a little tired. I'll go rest first!"

Shen Wuxiao nodded. "Go ahead. Don't worry, I'll stand guard here!"

Jiang Huaiyue did not respond, instead staggering toward the room.

Finally, she shut the door and locked it.

Back in the room, she could not help curling up on the bed and pulling the blanket tightly over herself.

Yet beneath the blanket, Shen Wuxiao's scent was incomparably distinct.

That fresh, heart-soothing scent stirred her already chaotic heart even further!

Jiang Huaiyue did not want to think too much about it right then. She simply lay on her side, staring blankly ahead.

But the less she wanted to think about it, the more the earlier scene filled her mind.

She simply could not shake it off.

Even as she was angry, she blamed herself too, blaming herself for being so careless.

To help Lin Fan gather information, she had sacrificed herself.

Thinking of Lin Fan, she now felt an indescribable bitterness.

She and Lin Fan were comrades, and there were feelings between them that went beyond those of comrades.

Jiang Huaiyue knew that she had feelings for Lin Fan. Otherwise, she would never have traveled thousands of miles to Zhonghai.

Between the two of them, there had only been a sheet of window paper separating them.

But now, everything had turned to nothing in an instant.

Jiang Huaiyue was still traditional in her thinking and placed great importance on her first time. Even if she had feelings for Lin Fan, it was destined to be impossible now.

She had already given herself to that guy outside. Even if he did not know, she could not pretend that she knew nothing.

She could deceive herself, but she could not deceive her own heart.

Jiang Huaiyue truly was exhausted. Gradually, her eyelids closed, and she slowly fell asleep.

When she woke after one sleep, it was already evening.

She had slept for several hours.

Jiang Huaiyue got up and freshened herself up simply.

When she walked out of the room, it was empty, without a single person in sight.

As she headed toward the sofa, however, she saw Shen Wuxiao sitting on the swing in the courtyard.

He swayed back and forth, staring off into space.

Seeing this, a hint of relief unexpectedly appeared on Jiang Huaiyue's pretty face.

Just as Shen Wuxiao had thought, Jiang Huaiyue truly could no longer regard Shen Wuxiao as an ordinary friend.

Even if it had not reached the point of liking or love, a barrier between them had undoubtedly been removed.

Their distance had been drawn closer without them realizing it!

Jiang Huaiyue rubbed her temples and looked at the time. It was nearly dinner.

She did not want to be idle either. Once idle, she would think too much.

Thus, she went into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, finding that there were still quite a few ingredients inside, all fresh.

She took out several kinds of meat and vegetables, soaked some rice, and decided to cook herself.

Jiang Huaiyue was an all-rounder—graceful in the drawing room, capable in the kitchen, skilled in both letters and martial arts, with wisdom beyond compare.

Even at the border, she had not had many chances to cook. Outside, they usually ate dry rations or food prepared by the mess hall.

Naturally, Shen Wuxiao outside noticed what was happening within.

He felt quite pleased in his heart.

She was already cooking. Was calling him husband still far away?

And tonight, he had an excuse to stay here and deepen their feelings.

"System, does this count as getting Jiang Huaiyue? Where's my points reward?"

"Ding, based on the progress, it only counts as halfway. If the host does not find me too noisy, you may choose to receive half the points first, with the other half issued once you finish the job."

"Then forget it. Give them all at once. This is making it feel like a mortgage."

"Understood, Host. It will all be settled together then. It will not merely be one-sided point plundering; there will be other things as well."

"Fine!" Shen Wuxiao replied.

He was truly desperate to obtain a great many points.

There were too many good things in the store. He wanted them all.

Especially some Great Divine Abilities. Though he could not use them yet, possessing them but not using them and not possessing them at all were two entirely different concepts.

The road of martial arts was immensely long, and Shen Wuxiao also knew that this was a high-martial world.

For ordinary people, Grandmasters of the Seventh Rank through Ninth Rank, Ninth Stage, were already the ceiling.

But only those walking the path of martial arts understood that Grandmasters were merely the beginning of martial arts.

Not to mention that he was not even a Grandmaster yet, merely a Sixth Rank, Fifth Stage master.

Only level sixty-five, that was all.

As for splitting mountains and cleaving seas, he could not do that at all right now.