The tent was thick with mist, dampening the sheer gown already clinging to Gong Sun Xiangyi's skin. Her naturally graceful figure now seemed even more... ethereal as the translucent fabric clung like a second layer of flesh.
Delicate ivory fingers traced Lin Jingyu's athletic frame with featherlight caresses, each movement achingly tender in its intimacy...
Whether from sheer indulgence or the soporific effects of the medicinal herbs steeping in the tub, Lin Jingyu remained blissfully oblivious to his surroundings. He lay half-submerged at the edge of the wooden bath, allowing Gong Sun Xiangyi's hands to cleanse every inch of him with reverent care.
His eyes were closed but she couldn't hide the crimson blush spreading across her cheeks - whether from shyness or the suffocating heat was impossible to tell.
What captured her gaze most was the paradoxical juxtaposition: his chiseled physique beneath skin smoother than a newborn's, so impossibly soft that it defied all logic of masculinity. Her eyes lingered on his face next - not too angular yet undeniably refined, with lips neither full nor thin but perfectly proportioned, an aquiline nose, and eyebrows like willow leaves. The combination rendered him... beautiful in a way that transcended typical male handsomeness.
This was the visage of an erudite scholar, the countenance of a gentleman, yet beneath those features lay terrifying power wrapped in shamelessly underhanded tactics...
Still, as she gazed into his angelic face, her already flushed cheeks darkened further. Her racing heart quickened with each passing second.
Her trembling hands had drifted to his face when he suddenly emitted a soft "hum..." His eyelids fluttered open through the steam, locking onto a vision of exquisite helplessness - a face blooming with unspoken embarrassment rather than seduction or innocence.
In that moment, Lin Jingyu forgot entirely about the woman who once danced naked on serpent heads, whose single-handed scatterings of poison had claimed countless lives. All he saw was an innocent maiden...
A breathtakingly beautiful one at that.
She lowered her gaze when his eyes caught hers - a natural reflex for someone who lived in constant danger through her deadly craft. Most would die from merely touching her bare skin, yet Lin Jingyu treated her toxins with casual indifference.
Perhaps only the late General Gong Sun could claim such proximity to her body as this man now did.
From the first moment he saved Xiaohua, his loyalty had been sealed in her heart. Even the enslavement of part of her soul meant nothing compared to that debt.
She believed wholeheartedly - if she was willing to sacrifice herself for Xiaohua, then surrendering a portion of her spirit was but a small price to pay.
Later, witnessing him effortlessly dispatch Ling Xingxuan with that single finger strike in the cavern... It had shattered all her reservations. No one else possessed such terrifying power, and in that instant she submitted irrevocably - not through love or affection, but through absolute conviction.
This was why she couldn't meet his gaze now, just as no subject could look directly into an emperor's eyes without consequence.
Lin Jingyu followed her downward glance to the delicate curve of her neck revealed by the soaked fabric. The sheer dress clung to every contour with merciless intimacy - there were no undergarments to obscure what he already knew so well.
His throat worked in a dry swallow as his body reacted predictably, arousal stiffening against complete physical relaxation. Breath hitched in his chest, pulse thundering like war drums through his veins.
It was an embarrassing truth: despite over a year in this world with Qin Yuting, Jiu Feng, Hu Yanmeng, Luo Ling'er and Zhuge Siyu all orbiting his life in various capacities... he remained a lifelong virgin.
A total neophyte who'd only ever read about such things.
In this situation - fully nude while she wore nothing but damp gossamer silk, with zero resistance if he simply reached out to pull her into the tub...
Who could possibly remain unaffected?
Certainly not Lin Jingyu. When confronted with Yao Ruo's infamous allure in the past, he'd resisted because knowledge had tempered desire. Memories of Luo Ling'er's pure eyes had anchored him against temptation.
But now... He knew she was his by right and nature alike. She would never harm or demand anything from him. Total submission awaited whenever he simply spoke the word - any word, even those too base to utter aloud.
And so his restraint finally shattered. No more gentle scholar's eyes to temper his impulses. No more caution against life's dangers remained in that single hand that now moved inexorably toward her...