Oh. My. Fate?! (BL, Volume 6)

22 Caring for His Wounds

Meanwhile, Leng Jin Yu had returned to his house or rather he had returned to the threshold of his house. He stared at the door, one hand lifted as if to open it but in the end, he didn't go through with it.

He glanced at his white robes that had been ripped and sullied with blood and then thought of Jinde who was still inside. He somehow felt that he couldn't let him see this.

"Ah, this is crazy ..." Leng Jin Yu closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Even if he didn't want Jinde to see this, it wasn't like he could stand in front of his house forever. He would still have to go inside. Maybe he was lucky and Jinde wasn't there right now.

Thus Leng Jin Yu opened the door as quietly as possible and sneaked into his own house. Unfortunately, all his carefulness was for naught.

Jinde had been sitting in the study, a brush in hand, the ink dutifully ground by Xin Lan before he went to Leng Jin Yu's rescue, and an empty scroll of paper in front of him. He hadn't been painting though, his mind flickering between the memories he had made back with Chun Yin and the appearance of Leng Jin Yu.

He somehow didn't know what to paint. The former face of his lover? The new one? In the end, he just sat there reminiscing about the past one moment and imagining his future the next. He was only woken from his daze when the smell of blood assailed his nose.

Jinde sniffed and his golden brows wrinkled. It had been a long time since he smelled blood and he didn't really want to have to do anything with it ever again. Now, this smell had somehow invaded his house.

Jinde looked at the door and waited for the offender in front of it to knock only to witness how it was opened by a slightly pale hand. Jinde's pupil's contracted. This was ... Leng Jin Yu?!

He leaped to his feet and threw the brush away without caring if it was still stained with ink or not. He hastened to Leng Jin Yu's side and grabbed his arm, stunning him into remaining on the doorstep.

"What happened? Why ..." Jinde's gaze lingered on the ripped fabric and the blood seeping into it. His heart squeezed tightly. Ah, this shouldn't be happening! "How come you're injured? Didn't you just go outside for a few minutes?"

Leng Jin Yu gulped. Jinde looked distraught. Seeing him like this ... It hurt more than the injury to his shoulder. "It's alright. It's ... it's not my blood."

"Not your blood?" Jinde repeated in a daze.

Leng Jin Yu hurriedly nodded. "Yes. I'll go change." He wanted to go but Jinde grabbed onto his sleeve. His hold wasn't strong. Wresting out of his grip and walking away would have been easy but Leng Jin Yu couldn't bring himself to do it. "It's alright. It's really —"

"Really! Don't try to hoodwink me!" Jinde's chest heaved. This bastard! He actually dared to lie to him on the day they met! His grab on Leng Jin Yu's sleeve tightened and he pulled him deeper into the house. "Let me have a look at that."

"It's not necessary. I —"

Jinde stopped and whirled around. His golden eyes that had looked at him so gently before were suddenly blazing with fury, freezing the words he had wanted to say in Leng Jin Yu's throat.

Jinde harrumphed and pulled him into the room he had occupied the last few years. Leng Jin Yu blanked when he stepped into the familiar room. Four years ago, this had been the room he used. Now ...

Jinde didn't wait for him to adapt to the new situation. He pushed him onto the bed and before Leng Jin Yu knew what was happening, the belt he had been wearing was thrown beside him, his outer robe had fallen down to gather in a heap of fabric around his hips and his inner robe had been pulled off one of his shoulders, revealing one side of his torso. And those hands ...

Leng Jin Yu closed his eyes and gulped, shifting slightly on the bed. Alright. He obviously knew that Jinde was tending to his wound but ... Why didn't it feel like that at all?

He cracked his eyes open and watched how Jinde cleaned the wound. He dabbed at it gently, his gaze flickering to Leng Jin Yu's face every now and then to make sure it didn't hurt. Their gazes finally met and both of them froze. The piece of cloth Jinde had used remained pressed against Leng Jin Yu's shoulder, water slowly trickling down.

Leng Jin Yu shuddered. He forced himself to take another breath and tried to calm down but with Jinde's golden eyes in front of him ... His hands trembled. He wanted to reach out. He wanted to touch him. He wanted to press him down onto the bed and show him that there was no need to worry about him, that he was still well, that he could still ...

Leng Jin Yu pressed his eyes shut and cursed himself inwardly. What was he even thinking? They had only met today! And even if they hadn't ... How could he ...

Jinde peered at Leng Jin Yu's face and his tightly closed eyes. Had he seen that right just now? Leng Jin Yu had looked at him as if he wanted to make use of the situation, hadn't he? Jinde's gaze flickered. For a moment, he couldn't help but think of Chun Yin.

He could hardly say that they had done this kind of thing often considering that they had only managed to get into bed with each other for a pitiful three times despite living for so long. But Chun Yin's way of looking at him had sometimes been just like this.

Jinde bent forward and his fingers touched Leng Jin Yu's torso. He was a dragon. In the face of the man he loved, he naturally wouldn't have any inhibitions. Whatever he wanted to do to him he would let him do it.

Unfortunately for him, Leng Jin Yu wasn't a dragon but an ascended deity. He had grown up as a human and even now, after his ascension, the moral values they had still held him back. When Jinde touched him his muscles tensed and his eyes sprang open.

"I ... Maybe I should do this alone, after all."