External Forces

A flood that had been building for years burst through the dam, sweeping away everything in its path with a force of destruction.

Gu Shenwei felt that he was both the flood and the sacrifice devoured by it. The body in his arms struggled, but compared with this force, it was insignificant. Soon it merged with him, rising and falling together with him in the torrent.

The sturdy defenses built by reason over many years were destroyed in an instant. He did not think, nor did he dare to think, because he knew what the result of thinking would be. At that moment, instinct held absolute sway. He deliberately emptied his mind, leaving reason not the slightest foothold.

Gu Shenwei was no ascetic monk devoid of passion and desire. He had experienced most of the pleasures a woman could offer a man. In all his brief relationships, he had always been the one in control. Never before had he become so completely lost in desire. There was no so-called master, nor even any sensation of pleasure. Everything followed its natural course; everything happened as though water flowing into a channel.

It was a wondrous journey plunging toward a bottomless abyss. Death accompanied the revelry, while the end gazed upon the beginning.

The two of them had lost the power to restrain themselves. Only an outside force could separate them.

It took only the tiniest outside force—not even more than the faint sound of a door curtain being lifted—for reason to finally turn defeat into victory.

Gu Shenwei retreated two steps. Everything he thought he had destroyed was rebuilt in an instant, without even a speck of dust missing.

Shangguan Ru still stood where she was. Fierce flames still burned on her lips, their lingering warmth spreading through her entire body.