Chapter 13 Not A Dream

Suddenly, Lang Juan realised that someone had placed an icy blade to his throat and let out a cold scream. The man hissed, realising the other person present in the room, maddened at how Zhan Peng caught him off guard.
“Who the hell are you?”
Without taking his sword off the man’s throat, Zhan Peng smiled handsomely and answered, “I am the Hero of Night.”
Lang Juan shouted again, but this holler was unique from the one earlier. At his beck and call, Zhan Peng could hear many footsteps coming from downstairs. Using two fingers, he tapped on Lang Juan’s shoulder to immobilise him before getting ready to defend themselves from the oncoming party.
Zhan Peng pulled the covers over Yuxi to shield her nakedness from further attention. He took on a crouching stance and unsheathed his great sword, unleashing whirlwinds with his melee power. The impact of each whirlwind, released one after another, incapacitated the enemies in no time.
One of his martial arts masters assigned to teach him martial arts, Master Wind, had imparted upon Zhan Peng the whirlwind attack skill, which one was enough to take down a few opponents, depending on their individual strength. From the looks of it, Zhan Peng knew he had done his master proud. His skill had improved trifold from before, although he doubted it was because of his daily meditation techniques.
The wave of attackers were no other than the innkeeper of the dark along with the bulk of its employees. Zhan Peng didn’t hesitate to give them a lesson before sending them packing.
He turned to the corner to discover Lang Juan had unlocked his locked qi acupoints and escaped. The most mystifying part was how he had done it without Zhan Peng noticing, arousing his notion that this fiance of Yuxi was no typical enemy.
Zhan Peng deviated his attention to the sleeping Yuxi. Up to now, she exhibited no signs of waking. Immediately, Zhan Peng realised something was amiss. Had it been anyone else, they would have noticed nothing, but Zhan Peng had studied from a few martial art masters. Among them, Master Storm studied a bit on herbalism, which Zhan Peng hadn’t failed to pick up a few skills.
What had they done?
He lifted her up and set her down on his lap before examining her nose and mouth with his fingers. By no doubt, she had been drugged.
Zhan Peng acknowledged that it was the second time Yuxi had fallen prey to the acts of such low grade tricks. The first time, he had also saved her.
What if next time, nobody was around to save her? The thought disturbed her.
And this Lang Juan was her fiance.
It didn’t take him long to figure out what he needed to do. He could work the effects of the drug out of her body, as long it wasn’t an aphrodisiac. From what he learned in Longsu, Zhan Peng fathomed that the only cure for the aphrodisiac was to do the deed. That one time, she had begged him to liberate her from the effects of the drug.
That was how their first time had happened. But how could she have forgotten their intimate encounter?
He reflected on the words Lang Juan had said to Yuxi while she was passed out and it just drove fear into his mind. No matter what, he had to protect her from the wolf’s claws. But would she believe him? How could he prove to her that Lang Juan was not who she saw him to be?
All these questions in his head were hitting a brick wall where he couldn’t get an answer. He looked down at her and absorbed the fascinating sight of her body, unable to refrain himself from harbouring lustful thoughts of her.
But if he did anything to her, he wouldn’t be any better than Lang Juan. He controlled his mind and breathed in as hard as he could.
Her first and last choice would never be him, after all.
He lifted her into a sitting position, with her back facing him, and summoned all his energy. It took a lot of his power to draw out the negative qi in her to reverse the effects of the drug, but he persevered. Beads of sweat dripped down on the hard floor as he focused on his power to restore her vitality.
Soon, Yuxi stirred. She was still shivering badly, leaving him no other choice but to warm her with the heat of his own body. Ignoring the weakness that crept over his insides, he took off his outer coat and covered her in it, before embracing her as tenderly as he could. She was weak now, and he couldn’t bear to hurt her.
“Zhan… Peng?”
He was glad to hear her mention his name and he responded by calling out her name softly.
“Am I dreaming? What happened?”
Weakly, he tried to open his mouth to answer her, but she laid a finger on his lips to halt him.
“I know this is a dream, Zhan Peng. Stay with me, please.”
Stay? Just a second of seeing her so exposed was killing him slowly. But he couldn’t bear to reject her. Nodding, he closed his eyes.
She lifted his hand and placed it on her chest.
“Zhan Peng, I like you but I feel you’re distancing yourself from me and I don’t know the reason why.”
He froze, not saying a word. She was looking at him so intently, with so much desire raging in her eyes. The thought even occurred to him that he could make advances on her right now, and the next day, she might not even remember it.
He didn’t want that.
She leaned against him and to his surprise, launched her lips on his. It was the most ravenous kiss he ever felt in his life.
Whatever it was, he didn’t want it to stop. Her heart was beating wildly against his and making his beat hard in return. He had never felt this way, even with Di Pao it was merely an exchange of wild desires but nothing like what he had now for Qian Yuxi.
Kissing her back hungrily, he pushed her down on the floor and trapped her small frame under his. She gazed back at him sinfully.
“Zhan Peng, I want you,” she said.
“Are you sure, Qian Yuxi? Once you do this, there’s no going back for us.”
He stroked her hair, undoing the high bun that held her hair together and observed her ink-black hair cascade down her partially exposed body, barely covering her mounds.
“Zhan Peng, I know this is wrong, but I want to sin. Let me sin once, in my dreams.”
“But this is not a dream, Qian Yuxi,” he whispered and held her down, kissing her so fervently that he sensed he was almost about to explode with the passion inside him. Moving downwards with his teeth, he bit hard on her lower lip and pushed her back against the icy wall.
Then he pinched her hard on the cheeks, more than she could ever tolerate.
Now she would realise that what had happened was not a dream.