Chapter 108: Cherish

Lu Feng carried Su Muyu to the bed and laid her down gently.

Su Muyu mumbled in a daze, "Qing... senior... brother..." As she spoke, she clutched Lu Feng's hand and wouldn't let go, tears spilling from the corners of her eyes and dripping onto the pillow.

Lu Feng reached out and touched her forehead and cheek, comforting her, "It's alright, we're home now. You're safe."

Perhaps sensing subconsciously that Lu Feng meant her no harm, Su Muyu began to burrow into his arms, instinctively seeking protection, while her hands, spurred on by the drugs, wound themselves around his neck.

"You're safe now. Sleep—when you wake up, everything will be fine." Lu Feng pried her hands away, laid her back on the bed, then opened the drawer and rummaged around until he found a case of acupuncture needles.

He took out the case, opened it, and removed a fine needle, intending to use acupuncture to calm her down.

Su Muyu kept alternating between crying and fussing. Lu Feng held the needle and first gave her a prick on the hand.

Perhaps feeling as if a mosquito had bitten her arm, Su Muyu reached out and brushed the needle aside, tearing the puncture wound and causing a thin thread of blood to seep out.

Lu Feng quickly withdrew the needle and examined it—fortunately, the tip hadn't broken off inside her.

Acupuncture was out of the question under these circumstances, so Lu Feng gave up on that approach. He held her instead, letting her cling to him, and whispered soothingly, "Alright, it's all over now."

Su Muyu clung to him like a child, rubbing her forehead, cheeks, and lips against him, working herself into a sweat in her restlessness, her hands roaming wildly.

Lu Feng had only meant to hold her, gently stroking her cheek to give her some sense of security.

Suddenly, Su Muyu began to struggle. "Qing... senior... brother... save me..." She pushed at Lu Feng as she cried for help.

Lu Feng snapped back to his senses, released her, and comforted her, "Alright, alright... I won't hurt you. Everything's fine..."

"Water..." Su Muyu swallowed groggily, her throat parched.

Lu Feng hurriedly poured a glass of water and helped her sit up to drink.

She gulped down more than half the glass, spilling some onto the bedsheet.

After Lu Feng helped her finish the water and saw that she had calmed down slightly, he laid her back down, tucked the blanket around her, and got up to leave the room.

Just then, Su Muyu clutched the blanket and began to sob quietly. "Don't go... save me... don't go..."

Lu Feng's hand was already on the door handle. Hearing Su Muyu's crying, he hesitated for a moment, then locked the door, walked back to the bedside, and gathered her in his arms, letting her cry freely.

Su Muyu cried for a long while before finally stopping. She raised her head and looked at Lu Feng's face with hazy eyes, asking hopefully, "Are you Senior Brother Lu Feng?"

"Yes, I am." Lu Feng nodded in reply.

Su Muyu knelt up, and her two slender arms immediately wrapped around him. She pressed her forehead against his, her arms tightening with desperate force, and tears streamed down her face once more, falling onto Lu Feng's cheek.

Lu Feng wiped the tear tracks from her cheeks, looked into her eyes, and asked, "Muyu, can we try this once?"

Su Muyu gazed at Lu Feng with misty eyes, reached out to touch the slightly angular face before her, and nodded with a soft "Mm."

Lu Feng held her in his arms like a precious treasure, and they clumsily came together, accompanied by a hint of pain and far more primal longing.

...

The first time lacked finesse. Lu Feng simply acted on instinct—careful not to hurt Su Muyu out of tenderness, yet unable to suppress the urgency of his body, until he was utterly spent.

In the middle of the night, Lu Feng woke up cold. He raised his head and realized the blanket had vanished.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Lu Feng understood—Su Muyu was gone too, along with the blanket.

Panicked, he scrambled up, threw on a piece of clothing, and searched everywhere. When he opened the wardrobe, he saw Su Muyu curled up in a corner wrapped in the blanket, her expression vacant.

Lu Feng crouched down, reached out with pity to cup her face, and said, "Muyu..."

Su Muyu turned her head toward him, and a glimmer of light finally returned to her hollow eyes. In a tearful voice, she asked, "Senior brother, was it you last night?"

"It was me. I'm sorry—that was my fault." Lu Feng felt a pang of regret; he shouldn't have been so impulsive last night.

Su Muyu burst into tears, reaching out like a child to throw her arms around Lu Feng's neck. She sobbed, "Last night I had a dream. I saw that it was you, but I was so scared. Someone took me away yesterday and forced me to drink. I didn't know if the person I saw was really you."

"What you saw was me. Don't be afraid." Lu Feng comforted her.

"Really? It was you the whole time? There was no one else, right?" Su Muyu asked through her tears.

"It was all me. Always me." Lu Feng held her, gently stroking her back. "I'll treat you well. We'll go talk to your father—we'll get married tomorrow. Or we could do it today."

Only then did Lu Feng understand what Su Muyu had been worried about. He had thought her dazed state meant she was angry about what he had done last night, but in fact she had been afraid that someone else had touched her.

After soothing Su Muyu's emotions, Lu Feng carried her back to the bed and laid her down.

By now Su Muyu was fully awake, her face flushed crimson. She pulled the blanket over her head and said, "You should go back now."

"You drank something with drugs in it last night. I'm a little worried—let me take your pulse, and then I can go." Lu Feng said.

There was a long silence under the blanket before Su Muyu slowly extended her hand.

Lu Feng pressed his fingers to her pulse point and felt the rhythm of her heartbeat. Aside from beating a little fast from nervousness, there was nothing wrong.

After he finished taking her pulse, Su Muyu withdrew her hand back under the blanket and said again, "You should go back now."

Lu Feng hesitated for a long while before finally speaking. "Muyu, I've made up my mind. As soon as it's daylight, I'll tell your father that I want to marry you..."

"Don't tell him!" Su Muyu protested loudly from beneath the blanket.

"Why not? I need to take responsibility for you." Lu Feng said.

Su Muyu poked half her head out and said, "We're not of legal marriage age yet. We can't get married. So don't tell my father about this, and don't let Xiao Qing find out either."

"But we—"

"It's fine. Just pretend nothing ever happened." After saying this, Su Muyu pulled the blanket back over her head.