Bow your head

This guess was too terrifying.

Lian Qiao signaled to Lu Wu Jiu with her eyes that she wouldn’t shout, signaling again and again before Lu Wu Jiu finally released the hand covering her mouth.

As soon as they separated, Lian Qiao quickly wiped her mouth with the back of her hand: “Hey, are your symptoms getting worse? I feel like you’re much hotter than I was last time.”

Lu Wu Jiu lowered his eyes slightly, wiping his hand in a leisurely manner, only replying with one sentence: “Imagining things.”

His cold and indifferent appearance almost made Lian Qiao think the heat just now was an illusion.

“Is there not?”

Lian Qiao was puzzled, but she didn’t see that after Lu Wu Jiu elegantly finished wiping his hand, the fingers behind his back were slightly trembling.

In fact, this Gu started acting up in the evening. Lu Wu Jiu didn’t take it to heart at first, but slowly, every meridian began to itch.

When it reached an uncontrollable, dizzying state, he had no choice but to come to Piao Miao Peak.

Of course, Lian Qiao wasn’t so easily fooled. She pondered: “Why don’t I light a lamp and take a look?”

Lu Wu Jiu immediately stopped her, but Lian Qiao was faster. With a light blow, the candle was instantly lit.

In that instant, Lu Wu Jiu blocked it slightly, but Lian Qiao spotted the sweat on his Adam’s apple, and exclaimed: “Still saying you aren’t, you’re sweating!”

Knowing that this person was the type to single-handedly take on three great demons, never changing expression even if Mount Tai was pressing down on him, the fact that he was sweating at least meant he couldn’t handle it.

Lian Qiao started being sarcastic: “Yo, I remember someone being very arrogant a few days ago, a tiny Gu poison, and you can’t resist it?”

Lu Wu Jiu didn’t mean to be slapped in the face at all, instead pursing his lips: “You seem very happy? If I remember correctly, next time it’s supposed to be your turn?”

Lian Qiao instantly choked.

Alright, he was threatening her?

She smiled sweetly: “Where am I happy, I’m clearly worried about Your Highness. I wonder how Your Highness is feeling this time, so I can prepare myself.”

Lu Wu Jiu’s tone was cold and hard: “No feeling.”

Lian Qiao of course didn’t believe him. No feeling, huh? Then she just had to try and see what “no feeling” was like.

She remembered that when this Gu acted up, they had to stay within a certain distance, so she deliberately pretended to be looking for something, slowly retreating, putting some distance between them.

One step, two steps, when she retreated three steps away from Lu Wu Jiu, it was visible to the naked eye that Lu Wu Jiu’s cold white face started to tense, and the hand behind his back clenched tighter and tighter.

Of course, the look he gave her was also like a knife, growing sharper and sharper.

Lian Qiao didn’t care. The more embarrassed Lu Wu Jiu was, the happier she became. She deliberately stepped on the edge of his breaking point, back and forth three times, sometimes near and sometimes far. Even a fool could tell something was wrong.

Moreover, Lian Qiao couldn’t suppress her smug expression, finally forcing Lu Wu Jiu to sweat slightly, giving her a cold look: “Have you played enough?”

A triumphant smile instantly appeared on Lian Qiao’s face: “Three steps! You can’t be more than three steps away from me this time, can you? You wouldn’t want to hold me, would you?”

“Boring.” Lu Wu Jiu smirked.

Lian Qiao didn’t think it was boring at all, even finally feeling a long-lost sense of triumph: “Last time I had to be within five steps. I didn’t expect this Gu to be different for each person.”

Lu Wu Jiu retorted: “How do you know it’s not different from time to time? Maybe next time it’s your turn it’ll be within one step?”

Lian Qiao got anxious: “So what if it is? The time after that, you’ll still be in the negatives!”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Lu Wu Jiu raised an eyebrow: “Oh? You seem to be looking forward to it?”

Lian Qiao finally realized something was wrong.

Wait, negatives? What could be negative?

She immediately covered her mouth, then suddenly thought of it, it wasn’t just above that could be negative, and then covered her skirt again.

Lu Wu Jiu was very calm.

Lian Qiao also forced herself to stay calm. If he wasn’t afraid, why should she be? Maybe this Gu had been stored for too long and had already lost its power. If it really came down to it, so be it. She wanted to see who would actually do it first!

But tonight, there was something more important.

Lian Qiao coughed lightly, then said solemnly: “Since you’re here, you must know how difficult it is to bear this curse. Coincidentally,

I’m going out in the next few days to find the Kongtong Seal fragments. Do you want to come with me? Of course—don’t misunderstand, I don’t have any other thoughts, and I don’t mean to team up with you.”

Lu Wu Jiu’s face was calm when he heard the beginning, but he frowned slightly when he heard the end. After a long time, he only said one word: “Alright.”

Lian Qiao couldn’t help but get angry at his arrogant appearance.

But who told them to be bound together? To get out of this sea of suffering as soon as possible, she still had to find the fragments quickly.

She endured it: “Then I’ll see you then. Now, I want to rest.”

With that, she deliberately drew a line on the ground from the bed with her sword, then carried a chair and leaned her back against it by the bed, saying: “You just stay here. If you dare to come closer, don’t blame me for being impolite!”

Lu Wu Jiu glanced at the warning line with no spiritual power, too lazy to even lift his eyelids.

Then, he neither sat on the chair nor touched the bed, instead folding his arms and leaning against the bedpost, closing his eyes and waiting for the remaining half hour to pass.

Lian Qiao then closed the curtains, carefully closing all three layers, then leaned against the tent, listening intently.

But other than the rustling of the mountain breeze through the treetops, there were no other sounds.

Lian Qiao recalled something, remembering Lu Wu Jiu’s cold and unyielding face. Actually, in the beginning, her relationship with Lu Wu Jiu wasn’t this bad.

The first time they met, Lu Wu Jiu was indeed arrogant and self-important.

Later, Lu Wu Jiu’s temper became much better. He rarely embarrassed her like that again, and was quite polite to others, although he was always cold and aloof. But the more Lian Qiao interacted with him, the more she realized that he was just hiding it deeper, becoming even more inscrutable.

Underneath his cold exterior was in fact complete indifference.

This had to start with Lian Qiao giving him gifts. She was open-minded and young at the time, throwing the initial unhappiness behind her and sending him gifts every day because she liked him.

He would politely take them, thanking her.

Lian Qiao initially really thought he liked them, so she kept sending him different things, all kinds of wooden carvings, beads, or clay figures she made herself. He still accepted them, never saying he didn’t like them.

It was only much later that Lian Qiao realized that the things she gave him were never displayed or brought out.

She didn’t take it seriously, until one time she accidentally discovered that Lu Wu Jiu had thrown away all the things she gave him.

How did she discover it?

It was a coincidence. That time, she enthusiastically carried a set of mother-of-pearl chess pieces that she had made herself, preparing to give them to him as a birthday gift. Lu Wu Jiu still accepted them.

Later, however, Lian Qiao was doing a trial at the foot of the mountain when she saw a set of mother-of-pearl chess pieces that were exactly the same being sold at the market. The inscriptions on them were a little crooked, as she had scratched her hand by accident when carving them.

So, Lian Qiao recognized at a glance that this was the set she had given to Lu Wu Jiu.

She initially thought this shop owner was a thief and grabbed him to settle the score, but after asking, she learned that these things were all picked up in the back mountain.

The shop owner said that people from Wu Xiang Sect often threw away things they didn’t want in the back mountain, and he had picked up the chess set there. There were many other useless things left.

Lian Qiao of course didn’t believe him, and dragged him to the back mountain herself. As a result, when she arrived at the location, she found not only the case for the chess set, but also many other things, wooden carvings, beads… too numerous to count.

Many of them were things she had given to Lu Wu Jiu.

She was furious at the time, hugging all the things in her arms, wanting to question Lu Wu Jiu why he treated her like this.

But the shop owner muttered, ‘What’s the point of asking? They’re just a bunch of broken things. Only this chess set looks a little valuable, so I picked it up.’

Lian Qiao was instantly discouraged. Even if she was slow, she understood that Lu Wu Jiu was actually putting up with her, that he didn’t like these things at all, and even thought she was annoying, but had to accept them out of politeness.

But she never understood his unspoken words, always sending things over the years. Maybe his room was too full, so he had to throw them away.

Having her feelings rejected was a very sad thing. After realizing this, Lian Qiao was truly depressed for a long time.

She didn’t understand, if he didn’t like them, why didn’t he tell her, instead secretly throwing them away behind her back.

Her father stroked her head and sighed, telling her that not everyone was as honest as she was. With her father as her backing, she could always do whatever she wanted, but she couldn’t expect everyone to be the same as her.

Lu Wu Jiu accepting them was respect for her.

Lu Wu Jiu throwing them away behind her back was also respect for her.

Lian Qiao seemed to understand, slowly realizing that this was perhaps what Lu Wu Jiu considered decent and the best way to handle things.

He actually didn’t do anything wrong. The mistake was that they had different natures. It was her who had forced it.

That was the first time she experienced the taste of growing up. In the end, she didn’t confront him, and would even continue to give him things, but no longer the unique ones, but the kind that everyone had.

She would no longer be sentimental, nor would she guess what he liked. Everything about him slowly had nothing to do with her. She only observed his moves, trying to defeat him.

She wanted to see the day when such an arrogant person bowed his head to her.

But she didn’t expect Lu Wu Jiu to bow his head to her for the first time because of the Love Gu.

Her thoughts kept going back to it, Lian Qiao glanced at the person who had no choice but to stay within one step of her, feeling quite smug.

It must be unpleasant to be forced to stay with her, right?

It seemed this Gu poison wasn’t all bad, at least it could disgust him.

Anyway, since Lu Wu Jiu hated her so much, he certainly wouldn’t do anything to her.

After enduring for three days, Lian Qiao was really sleepy, so she went to sleep without worry, letting Lu Wu Jiu leave on his own after an hour.

When Lian Qiao opened her eyes again, it was already broad daylight.

She opened the curtains and jumped up, only to find that her clothes were intact, without any disarray, and she could finally rest assured.

However, when she looked up, she was stunned—

The small garment she had hidden under her pillow last night was hanging openly on the armrest of the chair!

There was also a note stuck to the garment, the handwriting was firm, the tone was restrained.

But… it wasn’t hard to read the meaning: it was reminding her to pay attention to her sleeping posture next time, and not to kick everything into other people’s arms.

Lian Qiao’s hand holding the note trembled slightly. Did this mean that when she fell asleep last night, she kicked her underwear into Lu Wu Jiu’s arms?

No way, could it be so embarrassing!

She imagined Lu Wu Jiu picking up her underwear with one finger, and her face instantly turned red, dazed and bewildered, she wailed and plunged her head into the pillow.

Even more tragically, this small garment was actually one she had worn.