Both of them were sitting on the couch where Bai Yu Yan leaned on his embrace as his fingers gently weaved through her long hair. She followed his movements and obediently sat with his warmth covering her. Neither of them spoke a word as they both thought about what happened earlier. After a moment, Lu Tong Xiao lowered his head and kissed her forehead, then kept his face buried in her hair.

Bai Yu Yan was surrounded by his familiar smell of sandalwood and ink that had a calming effect on her. After hesitating for a long while, she raised her head from his chest to look at his face and asked, "When and how did they drug you?" She knew the man was well trained and cautious enough to not fall in such traps easily.

Her question made him raise his brows in surprise. He didn't think that she would be able to notice it. Looking at her, he replied after a moment, "It was earlier in the receiving room."

"In the tea?" Bai Yu Yan asked curiously.

Lu Tong Xiao shook his head and said, "In the perfume."

Perfume? She frowned and thought about it carefully when it happened. While serving tea, Bai Chun Hua was indeed very close to him but Bai Yu Yan had thought the girl had another intention. No wonder she was trying to stick herself to him, she thought after realization. She just never imagined the Bai family would be this stupid and daring enough to drug Lu Tong Xiao.

"Are you having any difficulty?" she asked suppressing the awkwardness. She knew her question could come as a suggestive one but feeling the heat emitting from his body, she couldn't hold back. She thought it was because of the drug but seeing him sit calmly without any change in expression she wondered if she was wrong.

"The effect of the drug won't last long unless it is mixed with a specific kind of incense. But since I threw away the incense they had prepared earlier, the drug didn't get to mix with it so the effect didn't get to amplify," he explained and reached his finger to smoothen out her furrowed brows. Having her so close to him was not helping at all but if he had to choose, he would still choose to stay this close to her. "Don't worry, it will wear off within an hour," he assured her.

When he remembered her fierce action earlier and saw how she was obediently sitting in his embrace while seriously worrying about him, Lu Tong Xiao couldn't help but feel a tickle in his heart like a soft feather was caressing it. Suddenly, his eyes darkened and he leaned over to capture her lips without wasting a moment.

NSFW content here and is available only on Patreon

"You don't want to continue?" She asked after a moment when he didn't take any further action. 

"Shhh.." Lu Tong Xiao whispered as he moved one of his hands and laced his fingers with hers, "Not here, love. Not now," he said with a low hoarse voice that sounded dangerously sexy to her ears. She was willing to do it to help him but Lu Tong Xiao knew she was not completely ready for it. Their relationship had just started and he didn't want to ruin it by hastening things. He was willing to wait for their relationship to grow so that she can be tied to him with love and not just the marriage they had. They had a long way ahead of them and there would be many more chances where he would show her his desire for her when he was clear-headed and not driven by his lust.

When she understood the meaning behind his words, Bai Yu Yan felt sweetness envelop her heart. They remained in the same position in the comfort of silence for some time before Lu Tong Xiao's breathing gradually turned normal. Years of training had helped him build a certain degree of resistance to such normal drugs. Although it was still hot, his temperature slightly cooled down than before. He got off the bed, drank the whole jug of cold water on the bedside table and returned back. While Bai Yu Yan lied there watching his movements, he carried her to the bed, pulled the thin sheets over their body and said, "Sleep."

That night, Bai Yu Yan felt her strangely beating heart before she fell into the slumber in his arms. 

The whole area was shrouded in a thick blanket of fog, not leaving a single space uncovered. There was no visible path as her own feet were veiled in the cloud hung heavy in the air. Bai Yu Yan had a vague memory of having been there before and moved her hands in an attempt to disperse the fog so that she could see past it. Gradually, it thinned out and spread away which let her see the all too familiar scene once again as her eyes travelled to the broad back of a man where Lu Tong Xiao was kneeling before a tombstone with her name engraved in the memorial.

She tried to run towards him and ask him what he was doing there and if she was dead already. But no matter how much she tried, her body didn't move an inch as if her feet were stuck on the ground.

When she opened her mouth to scream so that he could hear her voice, she heard him say, "Bai Yu Yan, you are the only person I have wronged in this life."

After hearing his words, Bai Yu Yan found herself rooted in the spot, looking at him where she no longer struggled to move. The fog began to reemerge, slowly enveloping him and the last thing she saw was his lonely back and a bloodied sword lying on the ground beside her grave.

Then, she woke up from her dream, forgetting it like it never happened.

A/N: Since I posted this chapter earlier than what I had said before aka Thursday, I'll compensate my patrons with another chapter as soon as I finish writing it.