Ling Yue finished speaking and pushed Feng Ling, making her lie halfway down.
“Last time it stopped very quickly… so this time it needs to be longer.”
“Wha—mmph!”
Before Feng Ling could finish speaking, Ling Yue had already placed her jade-like foot on her face.
And the force was so light it almost made one want to cry, because it was too gentle, so gentle it didn’t feel like pressure at all, more like a very slow method of measuring the structure of her facial bones.
The skin on Ling Yue’s sole gave off the floral scent of leftover shampoo, mixed with her own unique fragrance, sliding down from Feng Ling’s nose bridge.
Feng Ling stayed half-lying like that, her lips pressed against the arch of the instep, all the hot air from her breath bouncing back onto her own face.
At the same time, the muffled sounds from her throat sounded dull and stuffy in the steam-filled bathroom.
Then, her legs kicked under the water, but all they hit were the ceramic walls at the far end of the bathtub.
“Don’t kick. Kicking counts as moving too… By the way, you haven’t used your quota for today, have you? But last time I asked if you wanted to use my foot again, you chose yes, and this time is a continuation of that, not a new item.”
After Ling Yue said that, she moved her foot a few centimeters away from her face, let her catch a breath, then placed it back, even closer than before.
Feng Ling’s breath hitched half a beat.
Her fingers grabbed hard at the bottom of the bathtub under the water, but caught nothing.
She lifted her hand and grabbed Ling Yue’s ankle, pushing it outward.
The force wasn’t great—just enough for Ling Yue to notice she was pushing, but not enough to break free.
After pushing less than two inches, she let go.
Her fingers pulled back and landed on Ling Yue’s calf, the fingertips pressing against the thickest part of the gastrocnemius muscle, staying there without moving anymore.
“Air… I need air… ha… ah… ha…”
Seeing Ling Yue finally withdraw her foot, Feng Ling gasped heavily.
There was a trail of moisture at the corner of her mouth, whether bathwater or saliva, and her cheeks were classically red all the way to her ears.
Then Ling Yue fully pulled her foot away from her face and placed it into the water, using her toes to tap Feng Ling’s knee and asking,
“How did that feel? Next time I can try for even longer.”
“No! Absolutely not!”
Feng Ling buried her face in the water and blew a string of bubbles.
Those bubbles rose to the surface and scattered around the crown of her head.
Next, Ling Yue pulled her out of the water, wrapped her in a bath towel like a bundle, and carried her over her shoulder toward the bedroom.
Feng Ling, now like a wrap, hung head-down behind Ling Yue, her calves dangling and flailing, calling out constantly, “I can walk by myself! Put me down! Put me… put me down!”
“Last time you walked on your own, you slipped in the hallway and hit the door frame. It’s safer to carry you today.”
Ling Yue said this as she turned into the bedroom and dumped her onto the bedsheet.
When the bath towel loosened, Feng Ling rolled half a turn on the sheets, kicked the towel aside, and quickly burrowed under the covers, leaving only her eyes and forehead exposed.
“Your hair isn’t dry yet,” Ling Yue said softly.
“Blood clan don’t catch colds! It’ll dry naturally by tomorrow morning!”
Ling Yue smiled and sat down on the edge of the bed.
She brushed aside the hair on Feng Ling’s forehead and said, “From that bite you gave me today until just now, you’ve actually been challenging something. But in reality, your body knows better than you what it really wants. Next time you want to challenge yourself, remember to use up today’s quota first—that’s your big sister’s advice. Your heart rate has been much faster than usual the whole time…”
She finished, leaned down to kiss Feng Ling’s forehead, then stood up, walked out of the room, and gently closed the door behind her.
Feng Ling was still wrapped in the blanket, her two big eyes wide open.
What Ling Yue had just said kept playing over and over in her mind.
‘Use it? Use it where?’
She had spent the entire day trying to take Ling Yue’s blood… and what did that whole process look like in Ling Yue’s eyes?
The next morning, Feng Ling curled up on the sofa, staring blankly at the Switch screen.
Link had been standing in one place for almost ten minutes.
But in her mind, she was thinking about something else.
Last night, after she scraped that bit of blood into the Removal Agent, a few small bubbles rose in the bottle.
When she checked it this morning, the bubbles were gone, and the color of the liquid hadn’t changed at all.
She wasn’t sure if the reaction had completed or failed.
“Xiao Feng Ling, what do you want to drink this morning?”
Wang Ling Yue called from the kitchen.
“Anything, as long as it’s not spicy.”
“Then sweet it is today… Blood Glutinous Rice Porridge, with a bit of blood clan specialty honey. They say it calms the nerves.”
“I’m not restless!”
Feng Ling shouted that, then was stunned herself.
She really hadn’t slept well last night… tossing and turning until dawn before falling into a daze, her mind full of thoughts.
Soon, Ling Yue came out of the kitchen carrying two bowls of Blood Glutinous Rice Porridge.
At that moment, Feng Ling was mashing the A button on the controller frantically.
On the screen, Link was hacking away at a Moblin.
She was pressing fast, but she had already gone overboard—the Moblin had long ago dissolved into a puff of black smoke, and she was still slashing at the air.
“Your enemy is already dead. What, are you DPSing the air now?”
Ling Yue said with some amusement.
Feng Ling turned Link in a new direction and charged toward the next target.
“That’s called finishing moves! Don’t you know the rules of gaming?”
As she spoke, she took a sip of the porridge Ling Yue had handed her.
The sweetness of the Blood Glutinous Rice Porridge melting on her tongue—at that moment, the taut string deep inside her body finally loosened a bit.
The porridge was really good, much denser than ordinary blood cubes.
She took several sips, and when the bottom of the bowl was nearly empty, she realized Ling Yue was sitting beside her, her own bowl untouched, just quietly watching her eat.
“Why aren’t you drinking?”
Feng Ling asked.
“I don’t really like sweets. This bowl was made for you.”
Ling Yue said, pushing the bowl in front of her over to Feng Ling’s hand.
Feng Ling stared at the bowl of Blood Glutinous Rice Porridge that had been pushed over.
Her finger traced a circle around the rim of the bowl as she asked,“Sister Ling Yue… you always say you’ve lived a long time and experienced a lot. Of all the things you’ve experienced, is there anything you knew probably wouldn’t work out, but you went ahead and did it anyway, and it actually succeeded?”
“Plenty. And the most successful one was turning you into my…”
“… ”
“The biggest failure… well, hasn’t appeared yet.”
“But what if… I mean, what if you fail one day?”
“I don’t think about ‘what ifs.’ Things only need to be handled when they happen. If they haven’t happened, thinking too much won’t help.”
Ling Yue stood up and walked toward the hallway.
“Tiancan Lili will come by this afternoon to drop off some things. You open the door for her. I’m going out at noon to clean up the perimeter. About two hours. You can play games or sleep at home, but don’t touch the main door.”
“Got it, got it.”
Feng Ling waved her hand, watching Ling Yue’s back disappear at the top of the stairs.