The dark shadow departed, and the suffocating pressure of a Titled Douluo vanished with it.
The breath Lin Yi had been forcing himself to hold escaped him. He couldn't help coughing a few times, and a trace of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.
Though he had endured that strike with multiple layers of defense, how could a Titled Douluo's furious sneak attack be taken lightly? His internal organs had already been shaken.
"Don't move!" Zhu Zhuqing saw his condition, and her cool voice held a trace of urgency that was hard to detect. She hurried over and helped him sit on a stone bench.
Lin Yi waved a hand to show that he was fine. He took a deep breath, and the Snow Lotus Martial Soul within him began to circulate of its own accord, especially his first Soul Skill, Healing Light, strengthened by the Snow Lotus True Body. A gentle white glow spread from his body, flowing over his injured meridians and internal organs like a warm spring. Its pure life energy efficiently repaired the damage, driving away the destructive energy left behind by the frigid sword qi.
In just a short while, some color returned to his pale face, and his breathing steadied. With Level 79 Soul Power supporting it, the Snow Lotus's healing was remarkably effective.
Zhu Zhuqing watched quietly from the side. Seeing him recover so quickly, she finally let her taut nerves ease a little. Still, her cool eyes remained fixed on Lin Yi, filled with an emotion too complicated to put into words.
Silence settled over the courtyard. Only the mountain breeze rustled through the Spirit Grass.
After a long while, Zhu Zhuqing suddenly spoke in a low voice. She sounded colder than usual, yet seemed to be suppressing something. "Just now... why didn't you dodge? You held me and took a Douluo's attack head-on. Do you know you could have died?"
Lin Yi had been sensing how his injuries were healing. At her words, he paused and looked up at her.
Zhu Zhuqing stood straight as a pine tree. Her black fitted outfit outlined her graceful figure, but her gaze was no longer purely cold or resigned as it had been before. There was something more in it... confusion, perhaps, or even the faintest hint of hurt.
He thought about it and decided there was no need to hide anything. "The attack was aimed at me. You just happened to be standing nearby.
"You had nothing to do with these grievances. I was the one who dragged you into them. How could I let you get hurt because of me?
"It was just an instinctive reaction. I couldn't exactly stand there and watch you..." He trailed off, but his meaning was clear. Protecting innocent people beside him was almost instinctive, especially when he had the power to do so.
It was the same when he had saved Zhu Zhuqing back then, and when he had pushed her out of harm's way just now.
"Nothing to do with me... an instinctive reaction..." Zhu Zhuqing murmured, repeating the words. Suddenly, the faintest curve appeared at the corner of her lips, steeped in endless bitterness.
She lifted her eyes and looked straight at Lin Yi. Her gaze seemed to pierce through his calm exterior and see something buried deep within him, something he himself had never truly considered.
"Lin Yi." For the first time, she said his name so clearly, without any form of address. Her voice carried the resolve of someone burning her bridges. "Do you really think... I'm just an unrelated 'maid' you instinctively need to protect?"
Lin Yi was caught off guard by her sudden question.
He looked at Zhu Zhuqing, that cool, stubborn girl with a troubled past. From the beginning, he had bound her to his side with a debt of gratitude and a set of conditions. She had silently carried out her duties as a "maid," and now... He suddenly realized that he had never truly stopped to consider what she was thinking deep down.
"I..." Lin Yi opened his mouth, but for a moment, he didn't know how to answer.
Could he say he only saw her as a maid?
That seemed too cold, and it wasn't entirely true. Could he say he felt something more? He couldn't make sense of his own feelings.
Seeing him at a rare loss for words, the bitterness in Zhu Zhuqing's eyes deepened, yet she seemed to have set down a heavy burden.
She turned her head slightly to avoid his searching gaze. Her voice was so soft it seemed liable to vanish in the breeze, yet it reached Lin Yi with perfect clarity. "I know I can't compare to Xiao Wu.
"She's innocent and radiant, like sunshine.
"I've seen the feelings between you." Her voice trembled almost imperceptibly. "I never meant to compete with her, and I would never come between you."
She paused, as if gathering every last bit of strength, before finally voicing the words she had kept buried deepest in her heart, the words she had tried to deny even to herself:
"I just... I just couldn't help keeping you in my heart."
Boom!
Her words exploded in Lin Yi's mind like a thunderclap!
He was utterly stunned, staring at Zhu Zhuqing in disbelief as if he were seeing the cool girl who had quietly followed him all this time for the very first time.
Keeping him... in her heart?
What did that mean?
Was it what he thought it meant?
The girl he had bound to himself in the name of "three years as a maid," while assuming she must resent him... He had never imagined that she would... feel this way about him?
The shock left his mind completely blank. He even forgot to react.
He looked at Zhu Zhuqing's slightly flushed ears and tightly pressed lips, their line betraying both nervousness and stubbornness, and felt a tempest surge within him.
When had it started?
Was it because he had saved her? Or had something quietly changed during all those days they had spent together?
But just as the air froze and Lin Yi reeled from the shock—
"Huh? Zhuqing, you like Lin Yi too?"
A crisp female voice came from the courtyard gate without warning. It carried a hint of curiosity, a hint of innocence, and even a hint of... excitement?
The two of them jerked around as if struck by lightning.
Xiao Wu had returned at some point. She was leaning against the gate, hands clasped behind her back and head tilted. Her big eyes blinked as she looked from the stiff-faced Lin Yi to Zhu Zhuqing, whose ears had turned bright red and who looked ready to crawl into a crack in the ground. There wasn't a trace of anger or jealousy on her face. Instead, she looked... fascinated, like she had just uncovered an interesting secret!
She had clearly heard Zhu Zhuqing's last sentence!
Zhu Zhuqing's face turned from red to white, then back to red. Shame, embarrassment, and mortification tangled together until she could hardly breathe.
The most private, most shameful feelings she had thought she would bury forever had been exposed in this way, by one of the people involved, so bluntly!
Lin Yi's scalp prickled. He felt as if he were being roasted over a fire.
What... what was this situation?
Xiao Wu, however, seemed completely oblivious to the unbearable awkwardness in the courtyard. She bounced inside, naturally hooked her arm around Lin Yi's, then looked at Zhu Zhuqing, who wished she could make herself disappear. Tilting her head, she spoke with the straightforward, innocent logic of a Soul Beast, and said something that stunned everyone:
"Why hide it if you like someone? That must feel awful!" She wrinkled her petite nose, seemingly baffled by Zhu Zhuqing's restraint. "We Soul... Uh, I mean, I think if you like someone, you should just say so openly. Isn't that much better?"
She gave Lin Yi's arm a little shake and looked up at him, her big eyes full of earnestness. Then she made a suggestion that left both Lin Yi and Zhu Zhuqing frozen in place, their entire worldviews shattered:
"Lin Yi, Zhuqing's great too. She's pretty, strong, and she likes you so much.
"You're so powerful anyway. What's wrong with having one more person like you? Couldn't the three of us be together?"
Pfft—!
Lin Yi nearly choked to death on his own saliva! He stared at Xiao Wu, who was nestled in his arms with an expression that said, "I'm so open-minded and considerate, hurry up and praise me," his mind completely fried!
The three of them... together?!
What kind of outrageous suggestion was that?!
Xiao Wu, what was going on in that head of yours?!
Was that the sort of solution a human could come up with?! Though she wasn't human...
Zhu Zhuqing was even more stunned, as if struck by lightning. She stood frozen, a look of utter disbelief on her usually cool face.
She stared at Xiao Wu as if she were some prehistoric monster.
She had imagined Xiao Wu might get angry, feel hurt, reject her, or even that she might be insulted and thrown out. But she had never imagined she would get such a... shocking "suggestion"!
The air in the courtyard seemed to freeze completely.
Lin Yi looked at Xiao Wu, whose expression was either guilelessly innocent or simply the product of a bizarre way of thinking. Then he looked at Zhu Zhuqing, whose shame and mortification were so intense that her worldview seemed to be collapsing and rebuilding itself. He felt as if he had two heads and both were hurting.
What was this supposed to be?!
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something to break the unbearable awkwardness, but every word he could think of seemed feeble in that moment.
Seeing that he still hadn't said anything, Xiao Wu thought he was seriously considering it. She added another remark that nearly made Lin Yi spit blood. "Look, Zhuqing takes such good care of us! If she's here, I'll have another sister too!"
Lin Yi: "..." He felt he needed to calm down. Very much.
As for Zhu Zhuqing, after the initial, earth-shattering shock and shame, she looked at Xiao Wu's clear, slightly bewildered eyes, so obviously sincere that they couldn't possibly be feigned. The immense absurdity of it all somehow eased her humiliation a little.
She suddenly realized that Xiao Wu... might really think that way.
She wasn't mocking or testing her. She genuinely thought... this could work?
That realization sent Zhu Zhuqing's already confused thoughts into an even greater tangle.
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