He slightly tucked in his chin, a faint, uncertain flush staining the depths of his dark eyes. The hand hanging at his side suddenly shot out and firmly grasped Xingyu's slender wrist.
Xingyu loved to bully Lingjing, yet she unreasonably refused to allow him to fight back.
This sudden act of defiance wiped the flippant, teasing expression right off Xingyu's face. Her long, upturned eyes widened into circles, clearly mirroring her shock and annoyance.
She gritted her teeth and tried to pull her hand back, but it wouldn't budge.
...
Xingyu's pretty face crumpled into a scowl as she said with haughty dissatisfaction, "Let go of my hand!"
Xu Lingjing acted as though he hadn't heard her. He looked obediently kneeling before her, but in reality, he wasn't obedient at all.
He was very tall; even on his knees, his build remained robust and lanky. With his broad shoulders and narrow waist, he completely blocked Xingyu's body from behind.
His pitch-black eyes were like a bottomless abyss, giving off a feeling of untamed wildness, as if he might turn and bite back at any second.
Flustered and exasperated, Xingyu twisted her face and glared fiercely at him for a moment. Then she raised her foot and kicked him in the shoulder, her pretty crimson lips parting and closing as she hurled insults at him.
Xingyu didn't know how to curse or use foul language; she just repeatedly told him to get lost.
"Don't touch me!"
"Bad thing! Don't pretend you can't hear me!"
Xu Lingjing released her wrist, but instead firmly grabbed her fair ankle, locking her in place so she couldn't move.
He looked up at her. His thin lips were as red as blood, and his black eyes flickered with an inscrutable, sticky gloom. Yet he did nothing else, merely shaking his head gently. "I'm not dirty."
Bad thing!
He clearly heard what she said, yet he chose to respond selectively!
Xingyu was wearing a light blue shirt and a black long skirt. The hem hit right at her calves, but the kicking motion exposed her fair, slender, and shapely lower legs.
The ankle gripped by his large, knuckle-defined hand was so delicate and thin that a little force could snap it.
The sticky, mottled gaze he directed at her made her spine tingle. Her breathing grew slightly ragged, her cheeks puffed out, and she rolled her eyes fiercely.
"Ow... let go, you're gripping my ankle too hard."
Xu Lingjing obediently let go at last.
He actually believed that?!
Xingyu let out a cold snort and kicked him hard in the chest. This time she used real force. As he let out a muffled groan and fell backward, palms propping himself up against the carpet, Xingyu grabbed whatever was nearby and hurled it at him.
A throw pillow, a tissue box, and even a tablet directly smashed into his forehead. Bright red blood cascaded down, looking exceptionally terrifying. In no time at all, his cheek, collarbone, and the white shirt on his chest were smeared into a blur.
Xingyu turned her head away, refusing to look at him.
"Get lost, don't look at me! If you look at me again, I'll dig your eyes out!"
Xingyu hugged her knees, curling up angrily on the sofa as she stared blankly at the television screen.
The System: [Lord Demon, Lord God's forehead is bleeding. Aren't you going to get him some medicine?]
Xingyu was like a firecracker ready to go off at the slightest touch, taking her anger out on whoever provoked her: [Whose system are you anyway? If you meddle again, I'll burn your feathers off! Whose side are you on, anyway? Are you feeling wronged serving me here? Didn't you just see what he did to me? Didn't you see how terrifying his eyes were? I just toyed with him a little and he wanted to eat me alive. Doesn't a beast like that deserve a beating?]
Every single word was laced with gunpowder, nearly scorching the system itself.
The System: [...] It didn't dare speak another word.
*The Lord God wouldn't get angry over the Demon's bullying anyway,* it thought to itself.
But there were no "buts"—the Demon was naturally just that willful, starting whenever she pleased and ending whenever she wanted.
Yet others were strictly forbidden from treating her that way.
Otherwise, it would drive her into a fit of anger and embarrassment.
Even when he had no intention of bullying her and was merely fighting back after being humiliated far too severely.
By dinnertime, Xingyu's stomach was already a bit uncomfortable, plagued by a dull ache. She couldn't stomach anything except rice porridge.
At that moment, Xu Huaishen asked why Xu Lingjing hadn't come downstairs.
The moment Xingyu heard him mention Xu Lingjing, she exploded: "Why do you care whether that beast eats or not?"
"Beast" was such an odd word to use, and Xu Huaishen's expression shifted. "Did he bully you?"
How could a demon ever admit to such a humiliating thing? Gritting her teeth, she retorted angrily, "He doesn't listen to me. Whatever I tell him to do, he won't do it."
Xu Huaishen's expression returned to normal, and he let out a long sigh of relief. "Why should he listen to you? He's your stepbrother, not your servant."
"Can't he listen to me just because he's not my servant?"
"Why do you want him to listen to you so badly?" Xu Huaishen felt his daughter was acting a bit strange. In the past, she had always been indifferent to Lingjing, turning hostile the moment she saw him, but she had never shown this level of interest.
"I just want to. I want him to obey me."
"But compliance comes from compromise, and compromise comes from affection. Everyone is a mirror. Since you hate Lingjing so much, he can feel your aversion, and he won't have much fondness for you either. Naturally, he won't listen to you."
Xingyu suddenly grew sullen again. She put down her spoon and said with a hint of frustration, "Since he's the kind of person nobody could ever like, I suppose I'll never be able to make him listen to me."
Sensing his daughter seemed a bit more animated today, Xu Huaishen said meaningfully, "Even plants and trees have feelings, let alone people. If you treat Lingjing a little better, naturally he'll grow to like you."
Xingyu's anger hadn't faded yet, and she sneered, "He's no human."
"Don't talk about your brother like that. Go call him down for dinner."
"I won't!"
"Didn't you want him to listen to you? Treat him better and he will."
Reluctantly, Xingyu climbed the stairs, walked up to Xu Lingjing's bedroom door, and raised her hand to rap against it in an erratic beat.
"Yeah," came a muffled response from inside.
Xingyu stood at the doorway for a moment, growing a bit impatient. "I'm coming in."
"Come in," his voice sounded strange, carrying a low, hoarse quality, like a clear spring choked by debris.
Xingyu pushed the door open and saw Lingjing curled up on his side atop the black sheets.
"You're going to sleep at a time like this?" Xingyu frowned.
As she stepped closer, she noticed something was wrong. There was a bandage plastered to his forehead, but his face was deathly pale, his lips drained of color, and a sheen of damp, hot sweat beaded his brow. He looked sickly and fragile.
With the original owner's memories, Xingyu naturally knew this was a fever caused by an infected wound.
Xu Lingjing struggled to pry open his eyelids. The frost-pale skin of his lids was now flushed crimson, and his pitch-black pupils were veiled in layer upon layer of mist. It looked like he had a very high fever.
And yet he still claimed he was fine.
Xingyu was on the verge of being driven crazy by Xu Lingjing. "I'm going to call a family doctor for you. Are you mute? You're burning up like this and you just endure it?"
"I'm really fine. I just took some fever reducer, I'll be better in a bit."
"This isn't going to make it better." Xingyu turned and left, leaving Xu Lingjing alone in the room.
Xu Lingjing's vision was a blur; he couldn't tell whether Xingyu's expression had been one of worry or impatience. Until her back vanished from his sight, he couldn't tell the difference.
Xu Lingjing closed his eyes again. His body alternated between burning heat and freezing cold, curling up like a wretched dog. His neat hair was disheveled, and sweat beaded thickly across his pale, transparent neck.
He wasn't running a fever because of an infected wound; it was because he had stood under cold water in the shower for half an hour.
He stared at the blood flowing from his forehead, splashing into pretty, eerie droplets upon the wet floor.
Drop by drop, the color started as blood red, turned crimson, faded to a watery pink, and finally became completely transparent.
When it stopped bleeding, he simply dried his body and slapped a random adhesive bandage onto his forehead.
Yet the moment he stepped out of the bathroom and caught the autumn breeze, his head had grown heavy and dizzy.
He collapsed onto the bed and slept for a long while before dragging himself up to take fever medicine.
...
The System: [Lord Demon, I didn't expect you to care so much about Lord God.]
Xingyu: [I don't care about him.]
Miguang was flitting back and forth excitedly in the System Space, looking like someone who had completely seen through Xingyu and thought her behavior was utterly foolish and hypocritical.
Xingyu's face darkened: [Stop letting your imagination run wild or I'll turn you into roasted bird! If he burns to death and I'm bound to him, wouldn't I be in danger too? I'm just looking out for myself; a demon would never care about anyone else!]
When Xu Lingjing woke up again, he found Xingyu sitting beside his bed with an indignant look on her face.
He blinked his eyes shut and opened them again, only to find her still sitting right there.
He tried to sit up, but Xingyu caught the movement and hurriedly pushed him back down, casting an irritable, sidelong glare at him. "Are you out of your mind? Didn't you see you're on an IV drip?"
The corners of Xu Lingjing's mouth curved upward into a shallow arc. Blessed with striking good looks, his rare smile was as soul-stirring as bright pear blossoms blooming in spring.
"I'm sorry," he whispered softly.
"You're mental. You can even smile after getting yelled at."
Xingyu now figured that Xu Lingjing was out of his mind, and so was the Lord God—Heaven must be full of psychiatric patients!
How did she somehow get dragged into it, too?
The System gasped in shock: [Hey, how can you discriminate against Heaven?]
[This isn't discrimination, it's an objective evaluation. You're all mental cases, indeed.]