IWOL Chapter 168: Sweet Entanglement

Time passed day by day. 

In order to get along with Xia Qiongyun as quickly as possible, the Wonton Insurgency’s daytime training moved from the castle to the training rooms in Heimdall. Xia Qiongyun trained very hard. Others had adapted to the intensity of Cui Zuojing’s training a long time ago, but she had catch-up halfway, making the intensity of her training a little overwhelming. Despite this, she didn’t complain about the hardship.

Cui Zuojing asked Heinrich to investigate Xia Qiongyun’s experience after coming to the Pure White Realm, and found that this girl was indeed amazing. It took her one and a half years to walk all the way from the novice area to the Top of the Giant Tree. And although it took a little longer than Dong Zheng and the others, she didn’t have him, Victor, or Fu Zhe’s assistance. She really had to rely on herself to get to where she was now. 

Compared to most pilgrims, her growth was already super fast. 

Four months ago, Xia Qiongyun and her team joined Heimdall and got an S-level team assessment. Her former captain was also a very powerful guy. He was famous in the entire Top of the Giant Tree, but it was a pity that he died in a four-star box. 

Without the captain’s mediation, the already grieving members quickly had a dispute. Xia Qiongyun retired from the team in anger. After hearing that a new S-level team had arrived, he wondered if she could join. 

“She is very decisive when making decisions. Many people older than her may not be so courageous.” The more he looked at it, the more satisfied Cui Zuojing. Bold, decisive, and fearless…In Xia Qiongyun, he seemed to have seen the past shadow of Cheriyu Nana.

These qualities could never be completely cultivated in just one and a half years in the Pure White Realm. Although the experience could give a person a kind of reborn transformation, the nature engraved in the soul could not be changed so easily. 

Just like Dong Linhai no longer looked like a silly little young master. He could stand alone, but sometimes he would do silly, innocuous things on occasions. 

Xia Qiongyun must have received a very good education since childhood. 　

“By the way, did you know each other before? What was her status in the real world?” Cui Zuojing directly asked Dong Zheng. Since they knew each other, there was no way that he wouldn’t know.

Dong Zheng wouldn’t hide it from him anyway. 　　

“We met several times before in the real world, but that was two to three years ago.” Dong Zheng told him about the relationship between Xia Qiongyun and the Emperor. Seeing that Cui Zuojing had heard the name and was shocked, he smiled and said, “Don’t talk nonsense about this, even though we’re no longer in the real world.”

“I always thought that the Emperor wasn’t married.” Cui Zuojing paused for a while and sighed, “They did a great job keeping it under wraps. Anyway, your family is too awesome. If you can see the daughter of an Emperor, you must have a good relationship with him?”

“It’s my dad’s relationship,” Dong Zheng said. “If you really want to talk about me, then I’m not very familiar with Xia Qiongyun, so I just said a few words before.” 

After knowing Xia Qiongyun’s identity, Cui Zuojing was amazed for a while, but he didn’t treat her any differently. Here in the Pure White Realm, everyone was dead. No one cared how glamorous someone else was in the real world. Even if that person was the daughter of the President of the United States, wouldn’t she still be subject to the various rules of the Pure White Realm? 

However, Xia Qiongyun’s participation had greatly stimulated a person, and that was Lin Hangzhi. 　

Seeing the other party training so seriously, Lin Hangzhi gritted his teeth and trained even more seriously. He lost to Xia Qiongyun in a fight, and was unwilling to lose to her in other areas. 

Moreover, compared to his own ability, Xia Qiongyun’s ability…seemed to be much more powerful. 

Although Lin Hangzhi expressed his understanding, he knew that the resentment formed in the Labyrinth of Time wouldn’t disappear so easily. He’d been deflated since the first time he met her. He must change this situation!　

Fu Zhe analyzed the clues they found, and roughly determined the date of the circus’s tour at the Top of the Giant Tree. Next, they needed to find the entrance to the circus. 

When Cui Zuojing returned to the Pure White Realm, the train had taken him directly to the circus, but that actually wasn’t so easy for pilgrims to enter. 

In the blink of an eye, another Blood Night arrived. 

The team has already accumulated enough points to pass the Blood Night, and they weren’t in a hurry. This night was doomsday for some people, marking the end of life, but for them, it was just like any ordinary night. 

After spending a tiring day in Heimdall, they had no training activities planned for the evening. Since he couldn’t wander outside on a Blood Night, Cui Zuojing planned on relaxing and playing Fu Zhe’s gaming console in the living room. 

He had just washed away his exhaustion and came out of the bathroom when he saw the screen of his mobile phone lit up on the bed. 　

Cui Zuojing climbed onto the bed, unlocked the phone with his fingerprint, and the message Dong Zheng sent ten seconds ago came into view. 

Cheap Captain: “Come to the apartment to accompany me for a while?”

Cui Zuojing raised his eyebrows and wiped the water residue on his fingers on the sheets. 

Arabidopsis: “For what?”　

Cui Zuojing waited for a while but didn’t see a reply. He wiped his hair half dry and put on his pajamas. Not knowing what Dong Zheng wanted to do, he opened the bedroom door with Fu Zhe’s key and directly entered the apartment. 

This apartment was designed specifically for a multi-person team. There were six large and small bedrooms with a large living area. Everyone had already claimed their own room and would rest here when they wanted to breathe during the day. 

Cui Zuojing checked the living room and the kitchen but didn’t see Dong Zheng’s shadow. Since it wasn’t anything important, he didn’t use the blood contract to guide him and slowly looked for Dong Zheng. 

The huge full moon hung high in the blood-colored night sky, outlined with a dark shadowed ring. Cracks began to silently climb up the full moon. 

The door of Dong Zheng’s room was closed. Cui Zuojing paused in front of the door. When he finally opened the door, he saw the man sitting on the bedside with his back facing him, looking at the full moon outside the window. 

Dong Zheng didn’t turn on the lights, and the bloody light from outside shone in, washing everything in the room a coquettish color. 　

“What do you want me for?” Cui Zuojing walked over, unknowingly slowing down his words. 

Dong Zheng turned his head and smiled at him. Cui Zuojing sat next to him, so that they were sitting side by side with only half an arm’s length distance between them. 

“It’s nothing. I just thought… the first time I saw a Blood Night, you were by my side.”

“You still need me to accompany you on your first Blood Night here?” Although he said this, Cui Zuojing still recalled that time. Eleven months had passed and everything had developed to this moment.  Although his heart was full of courage, he didn’t know whether his journey forward would be smooth.

Fortunately, he met Dong Zheng. 　

Just as Cui Zuojing silently thought this, he suddenly felt a weight on his waist. He didn’t know when Dong Zheng had silently moved over and placed one hand on his waist. His fingers weren’t very honest as they splayed across his pajamas, rubbing his skin. 

While doing bad things, Dong Zheng still looked out the window and sighed. “At that time, I didn’t know that your feelings were taken away. I also secretly complained many times that you seemed inhuman. Now that I think about it, maybe I fell in love with you in the Labyrinth of Time, in that moment when I woke up in the hospital corridor and saw you.”　

Cui Zuojing couldn’t understand. “…What made you fall for me? Was I too good-looking? Yes, I must admit I am indeed a handsome guy, but it shouldn’t be enough to make you like me like this.”

Dong Zheng smiled. He thought for a while and said, “Maybe it began out of worship for the strong. If you ask me to explain it to you carefully, I wouldn’t be able to.”

The presence of the hand on his waist was so strong that it was impossible to ignore. Cui Zuojing placed one hand over his hand, thinking to pull it away. But suddenly, he heard a sentence, “Can I kiss you?”

Cui Zuojing’s brain crashed. For a second, he couldn’t understand how Dong Zheng had changed the topic so suddenly. He turned his head to look at him, thinking he was joking. 

“If I refuse, will you not?”

Dong Zheng asked in turn, “If I don’t, will I get beaten?”

“Yes,” Cui Zuojing said seriously. 

Then, in the next second, something warm and soft pressed against his lips. Dong Zheng simply directly kissed him. Cui Zuojing instinctively tilted his head back, as if to hide. But Dong Zheng pressed a palm against the back of his neck, making it difficult for him to escape. 

In truth, if Cui Zuojing really wanted to escape, Dong Zheng wouldn’t be able to stop him. 

But he seemed to be trapped by the warmth of Dong Zheng’s palm. After resisting symbolically for a few seconds, he silently accepted the kiss. 

This kind of kiss had happened once or twice between them. Cui Zuojing couldn’t say whether he liked it or hated it. But when they kissed, his breath became ragged and heavy, giving him a strangely warm feeling. 

But this time, Dong Zheng didn’t just press his lips to him. He gently nibbled Cui Zuojing’s lower lip, and then slid the hand on his waist up to cup his jaw, slightly pinching his chin to part his lips. His tongue slipped inside, gently prying open his teeth. 

“Um—!” Cui Zuojing’s eyes widened and he instinctively reached out to push Dong Zheng away. 

But Dong Zheng grabbed his hand and clasped their ten fingers together. He tilted his body and they both fell on the bed, the combined weight of their two bodies creating a slight depression on the soft bed. 

He rolled over, pressed the Cui Zuojing underneath, and deepened the kiss. 

Cui Zuojing kicked Dong Zheng, but Dong Zheng didn’t react. All his attention was focused on their entangled lips and tongues. Cui Zuojing’s hands tightly clasped the sides of Dong Zheng’s face, and from his throat came a faint protest, sounding like a cat with his entire body unfolded and his soft underbelly exposed.　

Cui Zuojing kicked him again, and when he realized that Dong Zheng had no intention of withdrawing, he no longer resisted.

Cui Zuojing clearly felt that every part of his mouth was being intimately licked, including the soft flesh at the bottom of his tongue, making the apex of his heart tremble unceasingly. Dong Zheng was very gentle, but even so, he couldn’t hide his poor techniques. 

But it was this unpracticed way of kissing that melted away Cui Zuojing’s strength.

Cui Zuojing’s tight muscles gradually relaxed. He didn’t know if it was due to hypoxia, but he felt a surreal dizziness. Dong Zheng probably ate something a short while ago; his mouth was full of the taste of pineapple fruit candies, and the sweetness lingered along the crevices of his mouth. 

He actually kissed me like this, Cui Zuojing thought in a daze. Isn’t it normally gross exchanging saliva with another person?

He gradually calmed down, acquiescing to Dong Zheng’s advances. Dong Zheng let go of his hand and stroked his cheek like he was a treasure. Then, he fiddled with the messy ends near Cui Zuojing’s ears and pinched his soft earlobes. 

Cui Zuojing didn’t like being in this kind of controlled position. Being too passive always gave him a sense of danger. When Dong Zheng let go of his hand, he took advantage of it by pressing his hand to the back of Dong Zheng’s neck and exerted force with his waist. 

Their positions flipped in an instant. Cui Zuojing pulled away, forcibly interrupting this unexpectedly deep kiss. He kneeled above Dong Zheng with one knee on his body, panting heavily. Ignoring the memory of this pineapple kiss, he stared down at Dong Zheng, his brows slightly furrowed, as if deeply perplexed. 

He couldn’t explain his various behaviors.

The first crack climbed up the full moon, signaling the beginning of the massacre. 

Dong Zheng succeeded in stealing food, and so his eyes were full of smiles.With his thumb, wiped away the wet gleam on the corners of Cui Zuojing’s lips, and lazily responded late to Cui Zuojing’s answer. “Hit me, then.”

When Cui Zuojing heard these words, he reached out and very gently slapped the side of Dong Zheng’s face. 

This slap was more like a caress. Dong Zheng pulled Cui Zuojing’s hand to his lips and dropped a light kiss on his knuckles. He asked him in a low voice, “Want to know how about I feel about you in my heart?”

Cui Zuojing lifted his gaze and saw the well of emotions in Dong Zheng’s eyes, which alarmed him. He wanted to say, “I don’t really don’t want to.”

But before he could answer, Dong Zheng had already restored the blood bond between them.

In an instant, the surging love from Dong Zheng overwhelmed him.

He hadn’t made any mental preparations, and so he almost drowned in it. It had been a long time since he’d had such strong emotional impulses. The remaining emotions he had were far from reaching this intense level. It was as if a tsunami had struck him, leaving him with no resistance at all. 

The heart in his chest that had just recovered from the kiss began to jump wildly again, and all the sweetness, the tolerance, and the impulse that belonged to Dong Zheng was exposed to him, leaving him with no way to turn away from it. 

Cui Zuojing covered his chest and gasped. An unfamiliar and intense emotion he’d never experienced before made him grip Dong Zheng’s hand, feeling at a loss. He was like a drowning man grasping at straws or a desert traveler scrambling for a bottle of water. He gripped Dong Zheng so tightly that his knuckles turned white. 

He wanted to hug. He wanted to kiss. He wanted to take a step further than that. He wanted to put him in his pocket and keep him in his eyes—Was this what it felt like to like someone?

At this moment, Cui Zuojing was truly sure that Dong Zheng really loved him. 

Cui Zuojing wasn’t “tortured” for too long. Dong Zheng very quickly cut off the connection. Then, he held him in his arms, bit his ear, and solemnly whispered, “I love you.”

Cui Zuojing closed his eyes, his eyelashes trembling. He clenched his teeth and it took him a long time to say, “…I know.”

When these emotions were withdrawn, Cui Zuojing felt as if he’d stepped off a cloud with one foot. But before he fell to the ground, someone caught him. 

Dong Zheng treated Cui Zuojing as if he was a treasure, and sentiments surged between them. At last, he’d moved the young man who rarely responded to him and so the young acquiesced to what he would do later. 　

“Does this feel good?”

Cui Zuojing didn’t answer. 

But his hands clutched the bed sheet, his grip suddenly loosening and tightening. From time to time, the screams and protests of the people being cleared came through the window, but it didn’t damage the ambiguous atmosphere in the room. 

The hour hand on the clock watched everything and silently walked half a circle. 

Cui Zuojing got up from the bed and kicked Dong Zheng. His cheeks were flushed. He didn’t need to look at it to know that it must be bright red. 

“Did you feel good?” Dong Zheng asked him, not minding Cui Zuojing’s behavior of taking his pleasure and running.

“Felt good, felt good, felt good enough to die, okay!” Cui Zuojing violently ripped off the sheets to hide his nervousness and embarrassment. He rubbed his hair and stuffed the sheets into Dong Zheng’s arms, shouting, “Hurry up and wash it!”

“I have to take a shower first.” Dong Zheng endured the need that was almost bursting out. He put the sheets in the corner and walked towards the bathroom while undressing. He didn’t forget to tell Cui Zuojing, “Wait for me.”

“Who will wait for you?!” The young man’s roar answered him. 

The bathroom door closed, and the sound of water quickly came on. Cui Zuojing stared at the direction of the door. The pleasure that lingered along his nerve endings hadn’t yet dissipated. After a long time, he fell on to the bed and raised his hands to cover his face, sighing.　

I’ve probably gone crazy, he thought. 

———————-

Xixi: I feel…a little conflicted, but I tell myself that if Cui Zuojing really wanted to, he could kick Dong Zheng’s balls up into his stomach. 

—— Volume VII: Heimdall【Ends】——