Qiu Che stared at her for a moment, and suddenly licked his lips.
Her eyes were throbbing and clearly aggressive. Just when Li Qingwu nervously clenched his hands holding the bed sheet, thinking that she would question what he meant -
Qiu Che looked away.
She turned the pen in her hand, lowered her head, dipped some cinnabar, and dropped it on Li Qingwu's other ankle.
Li Qingwu couldn't tell whether he was relieved or more disappointed.
But in the end, this kiss, which was just a touch and not even a kiss, made the atmosphere between them a little ambiguous and sticky.
After Li Qingwu kissed her, the more he thought about it, the more ashamed he felt. He looked up at the sky and the ground, but he didn't dare to look at Qiu Che again.
When Qiu Che finished the last stroke, she finally got up, put away the brush and the cinnabar in the inkstone, and said, "It's done."
Li Qingwu looked down, his eyes sparkling, and clearly liked it: "...very beautiful."
It looks very much like the lotus on the lamp that Qiu Che made himself that year.
Qiu Che lowered his eyes and said, "I'll go wash up. If you're impatient, go to bed first."
It has been like this these days, and Li Qingwu has gotten used to it, and didn't notice anything wrong.
She nodded, watched Qiu Che leave, and lowered her head to look at the lotus on her ankle.
The mark completely covered up the ugly growth, and the bright red petals meandered along her slightly raised instep bone until it completely covered the scar.
A word suddenly came to her mind.
Lotus blooms at every step.
Not long after, Qiu Che finished washing up and came back with a steamy body.
Because they were in the wooden house where they lived, no one else would come at night. After she finished washing up, her collar was slightly open, revealing half of the delicate collarbone at her neck.
Li Qingwu only took a look, blushed and turned her head away, and swallowed back the words she was about to say.
Qiu Che glanced at the neatly arranged clothes on the stool beside the bed: "... What is this?"
"I don't know what to wear tomorrow..." Li Qingwu said in a low voice, his eyes flickered, as if he had done something wrong, and explained with a guilty conscience, "I want to ask you, which clothes do you think... look better on me?"
"All of them look good."
These were all given to them by Jiang Bo. They were clothes that girls in the village had worn before. Although they were washed very clean, the styles were not new, only the colors were brighter.
Li Qingwu had nothing to do these days, so he took them to sew and modify them, and he also felt that whoever wore them would look noble.
Qiu Che was really not proficient in clothing styles, and didn't understand why Li Qingwu suddenly got entangled in this.
She said casually, and thought about it again, "Is tomorrow a good day? Why suddenly..."
Li Qingwu smiled and said embarrassedly: "No. I just suddenly wanted to pick one."
She was embarrassed to say that it was because Qiu Che helped her draw the two lotus flowers, so she suddenly wanted to pick a set of clothes that matched them.
She didn't explain, but Qiu Che followed her gaze and looked down at her bare feet still hanging by the bed. He seemed to understand something and nodded as usual: "Okay."
"You can wear whatever you like."
Li Qingwu paused, as if he wanted to say something, but he didn't say it.
Qiu Che found that she often subconsciously ignored the expressions on other people's faces and didn't want to bother to guess what others were thinking. It was this character that made her, who was still longing for family affection in her previous life, fall into the warmth trap of the Qiu family father and son again and again.
In this life, she has not been able to change this habit, and even because of the hatred and pain in her heart, her words and actions have become more crazy.
But since she realized that she felt a little different about Li Qingwu, she always subconsciously observed the other person's expression, and some subtle movements, to figure out what the other person was thinking.
Although it was very unlike her personality, she actually had some fun in it.
Just like now, before Li Qingwu said anything, Qiu Che seemed to know what she was thinking. He sat down beside her on the bed and said lightly:
"You never have to hesitate with me. Just say what you want to say."
Li Qingwu's heart jumped uncontrollably.
"Actually..." She looked relieved and disappointed, which she might not even notice. "Actually, I don't know what I like."
Qiu Che looked at her sideways, slightly surprised. "I see you often wear scarlet or light yellow clothes. Don't you like them?"
"Yes," Li Qingwu thought for a while and chuckled. "But it seems that I don't like them."
She wore scarlet clothes only because the emperor and empress liked them. They thought that this color made her face look more delicate and beautiful. It
seems that most girls in their prime like scarlet, and Li Qingwu does too.
But if she added the premise of "being appreciated by others" before that, she suddenly felt disgusted.
As for light yellow, she never liked it.
She had kept her head down since she was little, and all she could see, apart from the palace wall, was the corner of the emperor's bright yellow clothes.
The imperial power of Daxia was supreme, and the color yellow was worshipped. In particular, only the emperor could use and wear bright yellow items and clothes on a large scale.
For Li Qingwu, colors related to "bright yellow" all represent imperial power and fatherly authority.
It represents the hand that pressed down her head, and the string of the marionette - it represents the irresistible, and the suffocating breath. When she was
fifteen years old, on the Lantern Festival, the emperor chose her and took her out of the palace to play, and she was also wearing a goose yellow dress.
It was a color bestowed by the emperor.
It represented favor and respect.
It also represented what he wanted to give, and Li Qingwu could not refuse no matter how much she hated it.
But it happened that that day was also the day they first met.
From that day on, she suddenly no longer hated this goose yellow dress.
She fell in love with lotus, butterflies, and everything related to Qiu Che.
It was as if she was subconsciously looking for the only bit of freedom in the endless, boring, long nights in the deep palace.
"You know, I like the moon very much," Li Qingwu leaned back and slowly lay on the bed, looking up at the moonlight outside the window, and said slowly as if in a trance, "When I was locked up, I didn't even go out of the courtyard gate in the palace... and I couldn't see the moon."
"That Lantern Festival was the most comfortable night I ever spent."
She didn't have to cater to flattery, nor did she have to pretend to be well-educated and considerate.
She only needed to look up and accompany a stranger who had only met once to look at the moonlight above her head.
It was a quiet moment that belonged to them alone. It seemed that when she looked up, the whole world stopped the hustle and bustle.
"Because I met someone," Li Qingwu smiled, "so I also liked the goose yellow dress she wore when I first met her." What
she didn't say was that when they met again in Linglong Pavilion later, Li Qingwu was also wearing that goose yellow dress.
Even the styles are exactly the same.
Unfortunately, old friends do not recognize each other.
"I like lotus, too," Li Qingwu said, "but lotus is a noble creature. Someone like me who grew up in the mud... am I really worthy of it?" It was unclear
whether she was using an object to describe herself, or herself to describe an object.
Qiu Che was silent for a moment, and then he lay down with her, looking at the hazy moon outside the window quietly, "I don't think it's right."
"What's wrong?"
"What you like or hate should not be determined by other things, and there is nothing unworthy of it."
Qiu Che said, "And... what you should hate is not that color, but that person."
Just like what you should like is not lotus, nor lotus lanterns, or anything else.
It's that person.
Of course, Qiu Che didn't say the latter part of the sentence.
Li Qingwu didn't know if he understood her implication. He was stunned for a long time, turned over, faced the wall, and said
in a muffled voice: "Then what do I like?" Qiu Che folded his hands and rested his head, "You have to find it yourself."
"What if you can't find it?"
"You won't find it. Life is long, and you still have a long life ahead of you, don't worry."
"What about you?" Li Qingwu asked in a low voice, "Besides wood carving...what do you like?"
"I like?" Qiu Che wanted to say if liking you counted, but just thinking about it in her heart, she shuddered with disgust.
Are people who are just beginning to fall in love so uncontrollable and mushy?
Qiu Che touched her nose and thought seriously: "I like blue and red, I like weapons, I like martial arts..."
Li Qingwu smiled, and turned to look at her sideways: "Why do you like everything so..."
She couldn't find a word to describe it.
Qiu Che paused, and then said, "Actually, I also like desserts and beautiful jewelry... Unfortunately, I've never worn them."
"Qiu Chudong doesn't allow me to eat too much sweets, saying that I'm a man, and it's not right to like sweets. He also doesn't allow me to wear clothes with bright colors, saying that they are too ostentatious and not stable."
But Qiu Zhe wears brocade clothes like a peacock every day, and wanders around the mansion all day long, and he has never scolded Qiu Zhe for this.
"I still want to try... How to use lip balm, whether it really looks good after using it, and whether it can be eaten."
Qiu Che lowered his eyes and smiled, "I secretly used my mother's when I was a child, and she beat me so hard that I hid in my room and cried secretly." Li Qingwu opened her mouth
: "... So it seems that I have no worries about food and clothing."
Her jewelry and clothes are always piled up in cabinets, and she can never use them all.
When she was tired of being dressed up by the palace maids every day, it turned out that there was a girl who was raised as a boy. She stared at the jewelry on the heads and the colorful clothes of the women passing by on the streets every day. She also cried secretly because she was beaten for using her mother's lip balm.
Qiu Che shrugged nonchalantly: "It's okay, I practice martial arts and can withstand beatings."
"Then why are you crying?"
"I was a little crybaby when I was a child," Qiu Che said lightly, "I would hide and cry secretly when I saw my father favoring Qiu Zhe, I would hide and cry secretly when I saw Madam Liu didn't give me dessert, and I would cry secretly when my mother beat me because of lip balm..."
Li Qingwu felt distressed when he heard it, but he wanted to laugh for some reason.
The curve of the corners of his lips hung on his cheeks neither rising nor falling. He felt much more relaxed after being infected by Qiu Che's relaxed, conversational tone: "Did you ever cry secretly when you were in school?"
"Not really," Qiu Che said, "They were all a bunch of kids and deserved a beating. Unfortunately, I practiced martial arts. I avoided them at first, but later I beat them and made them cry secretly."
Li Qingwu really laughed this time: "It's good."
"What's good about it?" Qiu Che sighed, "They make trouble every day, and have bruises on their faces every day. The teacher punishes me by making me stand and spank my hands every day."
"Being able to go to school... is good."
Li Qingwu said softly, and seeing that the atmosphere suddenly became quiet, he smiled and asked, "Does it hurt when the teacher spanks my hands?"
Qiu Che paused.
"It hurts."
She said in a serious and slightly exaggerated tone, "My palms are swollen and itchy from being beaten, and there is no ointment. The teacher is also very fierce. You are not allowed to move when you are punished to stand."
She said calmly, and Li Qingwu should feel relieved: "Is it true?"
"Really," Qiu Che tilted his head and said, "So in fact, it's a good thing you haven't experienced it."
In a sense, they are two completely opposite individuals.
One has been pampered since childhood, but has never received a real school education.
The other has suffered physical torture, but can go to school to study and make clear her ambitions, can take the exam, and make money as an examiner.
They have experienced too many things that the other has not experienced. From a few poor words, they can only glimpse the tip of the iceberg of each other's childhood.
This feeling is like two people who should have gone in opposite directions and had nothing in common, but accidentally walked towards each other step by step.
From then on, the branches and leaves intersected and were inseparable
. The two turned their heads at the same time, looked at each other, and laughed at the same time.
It seemed that something was quietly growing in her heart on such a quiet night.
Qiu Che smiled for a moment, and then suddenly fixed her gaze.
Li Qingwu noticed her gaze.
Her heartbeat suddenly became louder again.
When people are moved, they cannot control their heartbeats.
And every time she was alone with Qiu Che, Li Qingwu could not control her heartbeat.
She pretended to be calm, as if she was used to it, and raised her chin almost imperceptibly.
She whispered: "I... put on lip balm today."
There is actually no lip balm in Taoyuan Village.
But who made them stay here these days, they really have nothing to do.
When Li Qingwu was bored, she took some petals that had just fallen from the peach tree, crushed them into juice, added some common and necessary materials, covered them, and put them in water to cool for a while. *
The simplest lip balm is made in this way.
Qiu Che's eyes fell silent.
Seeing that she didn't express her opinion, Li Qingwu's ears were red under the dim candlelight, but he rarely looked away, but added: "Didn't you say... you wanted to know what lip balm tastes like?"
Qiu Che lowered his eyes.
"Qingwu."
"Hmm?"
After a while, Qiu Che spoke again, his voice slightly hoarse: "Actually... you didn't lose your memory, right?"
The smile on Li Qingwu's lips and the uneasiness in his eyes while waiting disappeared because of this.
She was stunned for a moment, and panic quickly spread in her eyes. She opened her mouth and said: "I..."
For a long time, she couldn't say anything to defend herself under Qiu Che's calm gaze. She could only turn around and lie on her back, biting her lip without leaving a trace, closing her eyes, and asked in a muffled voice: "How did you know?" Qiu Che
smiled.
But he didn't say anything, so Li Qingwu, who closed his eyes, didn't see it.
Qiu Che said, "Li Qingwu, who has lost her memory, doesn't remember who I am, but remembers everything about me."
"Giving the carving knife, meeting for the first time on the Lantern Festival, meeting again at Linglong Pavilion... all have something to do with me."
"Since you remember all these, why don't you remember me?"
Qiu Che moved a little closer and put his hand on her other shoulder.
They were lying side by side on the bed at this time. This time, Li Qingwu didn't hide - there was nowhere to hide, because there was a wall behind them.
Qiu Che almost touched her red earlobe and whispered, "Then there is only one possibility."
"You are lying to me."
Li Qingwu's breathing became a little faster .
"Your acting is good, but it's a pity that you didn't prepare enough." While speaking, Qiu Che's lips brushed against her ear inadvertently, causing Li Qingwu to shudder unnaturally.
"There are too many flaws in your words."
It can be seen that Li Qingwu was not on guard against her, and... he didn't act very hard.
This thought made Qiu Che's mood suddenly happy.
"Last time, you kissed me in front of Jiang Bo. Did Yaotai teach you that?"
She propped her head up and chuckled twice before Li Qingwu answered, "I guess so. Otherwise, if you were really brave, you wouldn't have slept in the same bed with me for so many days and didn't dare to do anything."
Li Qingwu felt ashamed when he heard it. He opened his eyes angrily and reached out to cover her mouth: "...Don't say it."
Her palm rubbed against Qiu Che's warm and cool lips, and as if she was burned, she quickly withdrew her hand and pulled the quilt over her head in self-abandonment.
Only one red ear tip was exposed.
So cute.
Qiu Che endured it again and again, and didn't kiss her immediately.
She pulled the quilt covering Li Qingwu's head and said, "Okay, I won't laugh at you anymore. Don't hold it in. You'll get hurt in a while."
"...Really?"
Qiu Che vowed, "Really."
However, Li Qingwu just showed his head hesitantly, and Qiu Che reached out and grabbed his wrist.
She struggled blankly, but of course she couldn't break free: "...What?"
"Don't you want me to taste the taste of lip balm?"
Qiu Che's voice was slightly hoarse - since she came to Taoyuan Village, she has restored her original female voice, clear and bright, and it sounds more exciting than before.
She leaned over and said, "I think it's a good idea."
"When you said you would reward me just now, the kiss was wrong." Qiu Che put his other hand on her cheek and rubbed it gently.
The moment their lips touched, Li Qingwu seemed to be burning.
She stammered and responded in a daze: "What...what's wrong again?"
Qiu Che said: "Relatives don't kiss like this."
Li Qingwu thought: How should I kiss?
But she couldn't say it out loud, because soon, she personally understood the meaning of Qiu Che's words.
Qiu Che's kiss was also stumbling, but it didn't prevent her from being gentle enough.
The heat was rising, and the ambiguous sound of water stains kept ringing between their intimate lips and teeth.
The candles in the room went out at some point.
Qiu Che heard the other person's rapid breathing, just like her own.
The bodies pressed together were extremely hot. Li Qingwu hung on the white and bare ankles beside the bed. The lotus painted with cinnabar was bright in color, shining in the moonlight.
Unconsciously, they were already holding hands, and the two almost equally slender hands were so similar and fit.
The heartbeats seemed to merge together.
In the violent heartbeats, it was unclear whose heart was beating.
Qiu Che let herself sink in this gentle sea of desire.
When she bent down to kiss Li Qingwu's hot earlobe to comfort him, Qiu Che thought that fate had treated her unfairly.
But it turned out that it had also given her gifts.
After living a new life, she thought she had no worries except for Wang, who was suffering from illness due to overwork.
In order to get revenge and ascend to a high position, she could do anything and give everything. She didn't care about reputation, didn't care whether she had friends or not, didn't care whether she lived long or not, and whether she could have a happy ending.
But at this moment, she suddenly had the long-lost thought of longevity. She wanted to be together
for a long time
. She wanted to grow old together with Li Qingwu.
When she was old, she would find a village similar to Taoyuan Village with Li Qingwu, and sit together on the bed, in the yard, or on the eaves - shoulder to shoulder, back to back - just like the night they first met, looking up at the moon.
She would wear gold and silver hairpins on her head, put on lip balm, eat candy figurines, wear red, green, goose yellow, and scarlet clothes, carry a lotus lantern, hold her wood carvings, and the carving knife that Li Qingwu gave her...
It would be a very long, very long, very far future, until they arrived together.
At that time, when she turned around, they would still be there.
* I don't know how to make lip balm, it's just made up, don't believe it