Gu Yue withdrew her hand.
She casually wiped it on her hem, her face full of disgust.
"Useless."
The two words were cold and hard.
She turned around.
The instant she did, all the murderous intent and frost vanished from her face.
Her shoulders slumped, and the corners of her mouth drooped.
The red in her eyes had yet to fade, but a thin sheen of tears welled in her purple eyes.
She looked as if her bones had been pulled out, and she sagged softly toward Lin An.
"Hubby..."
She stretched out both arms, wrapped them around Lin An's waist, and buried her face deep in his chest.
Her body trembled faintly.
Her voice was soft and clingy, thick with a nasal whine.
"It hurts so much... It hurts... I want a hug..."
She rubbed her face against him, paying no mind to her mussed silver hair.
"Wah... I think I'm going to die..."
She lifted her face.
Her wet purple eyes gazed at Lin An, her lips pursed in a wounded pout.
"If I get another chance... before I die..."
Her face suddenly flushed.
Her voice turned bashful, hiding some unspeakable anticipation.
"I want to step into the realm of adults."
Lin An looked down at her.
His face showed no expression.
His heart was just as calm.
This silly dragon was an even worse actress than that Black-Robed Person.
But he didn't push her away.
Forget it.
After all, she had saved him.
He'd let her hug him for a while.
He sighed and gently rested a hand on the back of Gu Yue's head.
His fingers slipped through her long silver-white hair.
It was soft and cool, flowing through his fingers like water.
Gu Yue's body stiffened slightly.
Then she buried her face even deeper.
Where he couldn't see, the corners of her mouth stretched desperately upward.
Lin An didn't notice.
His thoughts had already drifted elsewhere.
The Holy Spirit Cult.
They had started watching him.
That meant the Universal Group's expansion had begun to encroach on the interests of certain factions.
Or perhaps the things he had revealed over the years had finally attracted the eyes lurking in the shadows.
His train of thought abruptly broke off.
A sudden, ominous feeling came over Lin An.
"What just touched me?"
His voice was cold as ice.
Gu Yue's body stiffened.
She slowly lifted her head.
Her face flushed red at a visible speed.
The color spread from her cheeks to her ears, then down her neck.
She looked like a boiled shrimp, even the skin at her hairline turning red.
"I... Um... It... No... This is..."
The corners of her mouth twitched. She stammered, unable to get out a single complete sentence.
Lin An's gaze grew colder by the second.
He reached out and pinched Gu Yue's face.
His fingers squeezed hard, distorting her soft cheeks until her mouth puckered like a goldfish's.
"Mmph..."
Gu Yue made a muffled sound, not daring to struggle.
Just as Lin An was about to kick her out of his dream—
Plop.
A silver-white tail sprang out from behind her waist.
A dragon's tail.
Long and sleek, covered in fine silver scales that shimmered like stars beneath the dark red sky.
The tail playfully swished twice, then affectionately brushed against Lin An's ankle.
"It's my tail! My tail! What were you thinking?!"
Gu Yue's face burned red as she squeaked out a frantic explanation, her voice nearly cracking.
Her dragon tail whipped wildly behind her, as if to prove her innocence.
Lin An stared at the tail for three seconds.
Silver-white.
Dragon scales.
It really was a tail.
Then, with a blank expression, he raised his hand and punched Gu Yue in the face.
"You damn—"
His voice was as cold as a frozen lake.
"If you come into my dream again, I'll kill you."
Gu Yue's face snapped to the side from the blow.
Her dragon tail froze in midair.
Her whole body went still, as if someone had hit pause.
Then—
The dream shattered.
Lin An's eyes flew open.
The gray ceiling was just as it had been before he fell asleep.
Outside, the sky had darkened. The last bit of sunset slipped through a gap in the curtains, drawing a hazy yellow stripe across the ceiling.
His heart hammered like a drum.
His temples throbbed.
His back was drenched in cold sweat.
It was all that bastard Gu Yue's fault. She called him her hubby all day long, and now she had him seeing things everywhere.
He was afraid she'd pull out something bigger than his.
"I really can't look at her through normal eyes anymore."
Lin An covered his face, his voice muffled as it seeped through his fingers.
He'd even felt sorry for that silly dragon for a moment.
He'd even thought that if she simply liked him, maybe he could give it a try.
Now that he thought about it—
"Sure enough... I was too naive to treat her like the heroine."
He lowered his hand and gazed at the ceiling, his eyes carrying the hard-won weariness of someone life had taught a lesson.
Come to think of it, the Dragon God was originally a male dragon, wasn't he?
She was always calling herself the Dragon Queen. So what did she think he was?
A mate?
Prey?
Or did she simply want to find a female dragon who could bear little dragons?
Thinking of the Wife of the Dragon God entry, Lin An suddenly shuddered.
The more he thought about it, the colder his back felt.
Just then, he felt a warm touch against his chest.
He looked down.
At some point, that silver-white Reverse Scale had slipped out of his Soul Tool and come to rest quietly beside his pillow.
Lin An stared at the scale for a long time in silence.
The scene from his dream, where Gu Yue had killed the Black-Robed Person, still lingered before his eyes.
"Forget it."
He sighed.
"After all, you silly dragon did save me."
He paused, his voice touched with resignation.
"But sure enough... I still can't accept you."
The scale seemed to grow a little warmer.
Its light flickered, as if expressing displeasure.
Lin An said nothing more.
He leaned against the headboard, closed his eyes, and let his jumbled thoughts slowly settle.
His heartbeat gradually returned to normal.
His temples stopped throbbing.
Then—
A figure appeared out of nowhere.
It moved so fast that even its afterimage was a blur.
Before Lin An could even look up, the figure tackled him hard onto the bed.
Two slender but powerful arms clamped tightly around his waist.
Gu Yue sprawled on top of him, her face buried in the crook of his neck, her arms locked around him.
Her body was trembling violently, quivering with something close to fear.
"Hubby... Are you all right?"
Her voice came muffled from the crook of his neck.
"I sensed a dangerous cursed aura approaching you."
"Are you okay? Were you hurt?"
Lin An instinctively tried to push her away.
He raised his hand.
Then stopped halfway.
Because he could feel Gu Yue trembling.
She wasn't pretending.
It wasn't the soft, coquettish act she'd put on in the dream.
It was real.
Fear that seeped from her very bones.
Fear of losing something important.
Lin An's hand hung frozen in midair.
He fell silent for a moment.
Then slowly lowered it.
He gently rested it on Gu Yue's head.
His palm touched her soft hair, cool to the touch.
"It's all right now."
His voice was very soft.
"I'm not hurt."
Gu Yue's trembling gradually subsided.
But she didn't let go.
Instead, she buried her face a little deeper into the crook of his neck.
Lin An looked at the silver-haired girl in his arms and hesitated.
"By the way, did you just..."
He trailed off.
"What?"
Gu Yue lifted her face and looked at him innocently.
Her violet eyes were clear as crystal, her lashes gently curled.
With that delicate little face, she looked utterly harmless.
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