Honkai Double Transmigration, Taking Xilian to Honkai 3

Jiang Cheng curled his lips in indifference, his fingers once again gathering a thick layer of dust.

"What if I just treat you like a little kitten? I'll draw a big turtle on your face, a big turtle..."

"Mmph--!"

Before the words could fully leave his lips, Jiang Cheng's outstretched right hand, along with his mouth, was forcefully pinned down.

Due to the height difference, it was difficult for Kiana to hold both of his hands at once—so she simply threw her entire body onto him, using her knees to pin his arms to the ground.

She hovered half-atop him, her expression as kind as a delinquent schoolgirl leader preparing to initiate a bullying session.

"I can't win an argument against you, but I can just cover your mouth and attack you unilaterally, can't I?"

She smiled brilliantly, but those azure eyes were clearly burning with the flames of vengeance.

"Listen up—Jiang Cheng is the biggest idiot of all!"

Kiana looked down from her superior position at Jiang Cheng, who was pinned beneath her—though in reality, he simply had no intention of resisting. The aura of a victor enveloped her.

She freed one hand, dipped it into the dust on the ground, and viciously began to draw on Jiang Cheng's face.

One turtle.

Two turtles.

Three big turtles.

"Hahaha—now you're an idiot too!" Kiana laughed triumphantly, her azure eyes shining like a kitten that had successfully stolen a fish.

Only when Jiang Cheng's face was covered in layer upon layer of turtles did she release him, her chin tilted so high it almost pierced the sky.

"Hmph, hmph--!"

Kiana wore the posture of a total victor.

"Speak up? Why aren't you saying anything? Weren't you so smug just a moment ago, you i-di-ot Jiang Cheng?"

She dragged out her mocking tone.

"Why are you just staring blankly now that this young lady has you pinned down..."

"Is that it?"

The light, airy words were delivered precisely into her ears from Jiang Cheng's freed lips.

Kiana hadn't even processed what the sentence meant—

In the next instant, Jiang Cheng's fingers wiped the turtle off his own face, recycled the dust, and with lightning speed, smeared a streak across her right cheek.

"--!!!"

She touched her face in a daze, looking at the dust on her fingertips, her pupils shrinking violently.

A wave of shame and anger surged from her neck like a bursting dam. That small face, which had looked pale from low spirits just moments ago, now changed at a visible speed—

Turning red, heating up, and steaming!

Kiana was as red as a boiled shrimp, her composure shattered like a popped balloon. She exploded on the spot.

[Warning! Warning!]

In Jiang Cheng's mind, a synthesized mechanical alarm seemed to ring out. Accompanied by absurd background music, he looked at the face before him that was red enough to bleed and suddenly realized he might have played a bit too hard this time.

"Uh, can we call a truce?" He uttered a very pathetic line.

Unsurprisingly, his mouth was covered again.

For the next half hour, Kiana did not stop her psychological victory-style assault. To ensure that the current Jiang Cheng had absolutely no ability to resist, she even pushed him to the ground, climbed on top, supported herself with one hand, and kept her other hand firmly pressed over his mouth, reciting her childish remarks over and over again.

Jiang Cheng did not resist from start to finish.

Only above in the sky, the lightning belonging to the Third Herrscher flickered with even greater intensity.

Half an hour later.

Between pinning Jiang Cheng down and drawing turtles—and ensuring they were drawn with enough detail—Kiana's arms were starting to give out.

She was panting, her chest heaving like a bellows, looking exhausted enough to fall apart.

After drawing one last large, circular turtle on his face, she collapsed onto the ground beside Jiang Cheng without a shred of ladylike grace. She looked up at the sky, which resembled a split-pot hotpot, and gasped for air.

Finally, she had gotten her fill.

But what if... what if Jiang Cheng used his speed to toy with this young lady again?

Wouldn't she be unable to retaliate even if he drew all over her face?!

Ahhhhh, so annoying!

Why didn't I ever learn these kinds of taunts, or a way to become strong in an instant! That Stinky Old Man didn't teach me any of these useful things! Sneaking away all by himself...

--Forget it.

She closed her eyes, already prepared for Jiang Cheng to attack her with all sorts of counter-tactics.

Jiang Cheng really is a big villain!

The world's biggest villain!

Refusing to grant such a simple wish—when I clearly took quite a few beatings just to protect him!

Warm sunlight shone down on her flushed, heated face. That expression, having shed all defenses due to exhaustion, lost some of its coldness and confusion, gaining a touch of delicate, adorable softness.

"--Do you feel a bit better now?"

PS: Please, give me some votes.

41. Jealous of Yourself?

An unexpected humiliation.

Kiana's eyelashes fluttered, and she narrowed her eyes.

Jiang Cheng lay on the dust-choked wasteland; since he had been pinned to the ground, he simply stayed there.

"We successfully brought Mei out of the city, so Nagazora hasn't been written off yet. We saved millions of people."

"If you don't have the strength, I can carry you on my back—just like you carried me before."

"I think I'm pretty strong now, you know~"

There was no anticipated sarcasm, nor was there any urging for her to continue fighting stubbornly, calling her an idiot like an idiot would.

There was only comfort—cheap yet precious, refreshing as the summer breeze sweeping in from the edge of the horizon.

Kiana let out a heavy breath.

She remembered why she had suddenly involved herself in the relationship between Mei and Jiang Cheng, why she had insisted without reason that they speak their minds, and why she had gone to such lengths for it.

"Trust, huh..."

It really is a precious yet cheap thing.

Just like a diamond.

Lab-grown diamonds are cheap and no different from stones on the side of the road, but those one-of-a-kind, massive diamonds found only in the rarest of places—the ones unique to the entire world—can easily fetch prices at auctions that would make one's jaw drop.

Kiana gazed at the sky.

The twilight light cast a filter over the heavens, as if it were a burning rose garden; every petal was so brilliant, so romantic it made one feel dull.

The clouds in the sky are beautiful.

Even more beautiful than the aurora seen in Siberia.

I wonder if, the next time I look at the clouds, I will be alone again, lying lonely on the ground.

The wind of the wasteland brushed gently over the weathered earth, blowing away some of the scorched scent of lightning.

"...Thank you."

Soft, like a breeze brushing against the face.

Jiang Cheng turned his head in a hurry, only to see that dust-covered face looking peacefully at the high-hanging sky.

Long, curled eyelashes shattered the skylight into countless fragments of gold, as if melting the ice of her eyes into seawater.

The light seemed to favor her especially; the translucent silver hair and the folds of white lace rendered the light and shadow in sharp, three-dimensional relief, making her exposed skin appear almost transparent.

Like the ice fields of the far north.

That coldness hanging high as the moon, a brilliance one dared not touch.

The moment a boisterous girl suddenly turns serious, just looking at her is enough to make one's heart race.

"If you don't want me to carry you this time, consider it a debt I owe you. You can make me pay it back anytime... anytime," Jiang Cheng said softly.

Kiana's sudden drop in mood, her eyelashes drooping like fallen petals, had never escaped his notice.

If not for Kiana risking her life to protect him several times, he likely would have had to abandon this side-story script long ago.

Therefore, he did not want to be the one who remained indifferent.

He really disliked seeing Kiana wear that dejected expression. Just as he had disliked the Void Drifter back then.

Disliked it?

Actually, he liked it—he really liked it. Kiana in her awakened state was truly, truly beautiful. What he hated... was actually just the sadness on Kiana's face.

His emotional intelligence wasn't particularly high; he didn't know how to make Kiana truly happy.

He couldn't exactly go and drag Siegfried back immediately, could he?

But if he did drag him back, the problems would only become more complex—why did Siegfried leave? What was the deal with his arm?

That information would crush Kiana; she couldn't handle the mystery of her own origins right now.

Siegfried couldn't shoulder the burden of being an anchor alone, and as a father, he shouldn't have been involved at all; the past was too deeply intertwined with him to be severed.

That was why he used this childish, playful method to fish Kiana out of the ocean of despair.

Being pinned to the ground by Kiana was part of it, too.

A prank without a price is just one-sided bullying. Being chased and beaten is the true essence of joy.

"Hoo..."

"Haah..."

Looking up at the sky, he suddenly felt a sense of relief.

Although only half was visible, with the rest obscured, the sky was a truly translucent blue, with golden threads shimmering between the clouds.

That morning, when he and Xilian lay on the rocking chair, they must have seen a sky just as beautiful.

Magnificent clouds would always remain, but if the person you watched the sky with was dead, then they were truly gone.

Raiden Mei touched her lips, her face already flushed with a fiery glow more vibrant than the sunset.

Her fair, delicate skin, a complexion so flawless it would make any woman envious, only served to make the rising blush impossible to hide.

[Is there anything to be excited about?]

The moment she heard the voice in her mind, the heat on her face deepened.

"This is, after all, Cheng-kun's first time!"

[Am I not you? Besides, I thought you would be the one to care... since this is your first time, too~]

"That sort of thing doesn't matter."

Raiden Mei clenched her fists deep within her heart.

[Aren't you embarrassed?]