Chapter Eighty-Seven: The Skin Had All Been Scraped Away!

The kiss was smooth at the touch, threads and wisps of sweetness, like the finest chocolate in the world.

Her lips were sweet, cool and delicate, yet terribly intoxicating. Qin Luo could not help taking them into his own mouth, sucking on them with the fervor of a hungry infant at milk.

Before long, mere surface contact was no longer enough.

With an instinct he had never been taught, his tongue slipped into Lin Huanxi's mouth.

The foolish woman had been stunned senseless by his assault. She still held the expression of utter shock, eyes widened, pink lips slightly parted, allowing Qin Luo to press forward without the slightest resistance or obstruction.

Though a layer of clothing stood between them, his hand could still feel the astonishing elasticity and smoothness of her chest.

It looked abundant, yet no single hand could quite encompass it. Soft as well-kneaded dough, it was plush and yielding, yet carried an unusual weight.

With no experience at all, Qin Luo kneaded that tender flesh blindly, shaping it into all manner of strange forms.

This was a man's finest toy. To men, the allure of a breast was no less irresistible than a superhero to a child.

The moment he touched it, Qin Luo felt an almost aching reluctance to let go.

Desire surged fast through both their bodies, and Qin Luo could clearly feel a hard swelling rising below his waist.

For a man who had remained a virgin for more than twenty years, the body of a mature woman meant everything.

His movements grew rougher and rougher, and his body pressed toward Lin Huanxi's as though seeking safety in her warmth.

Only when their bodies overlapped, and he could feel the softness and heat of her, did Qin Luo finally experience the fullness he had been searching for.

He had overestimated his own composure. His original plan to merely tease Lin Huanxi had utterly failed; now he was following only bodily instinct, probing for what he needed.

At that moment, he felt as though his body were a dry well, emptied of all fullness, desolate and lonely.

Lin Huanxi stared wide-eyed as Qin Luo's face drew nearer and nearer, until her mouth was filled by a soft, wet thing.

Her mind went completely blank. She knew she should struggle under such circumstances, but her body would not move a single inch.

Worse still, Qin Luo's hand was gripping her chin tightly. Even if she had wanted to move, she could not escape the range of his attack.

It was an utterly unfamiliar sensation, like poison, like electricity, leaving every nerve in her body paralyzed. Even her thoughts grew stiff and sluggish.

Qin Luo, this inexperienced young man, became more and more forceful, and the pain in her chest made her frown involuntarily.

And it was precisely that pain that stirred a tiny trace of resistance in her mind, rather than allowing her to sink, under Qin Luo's lead, into an unpredictable sea of desire.

Feeling something foreign moving within her mouth, she bit down without the slightest hesitation.

"Aah!"

Qin Luo gave a pained groan and quickly withdrew.

Soon, his mouth was filled with a fishy, salty taste. Lin Huanxi had bitten him until he bled.

"Get out." Lin Huanxi glared at Qin Luo and said between ragged breaths. She had not yet fully awakened from the passion of the moment.

"Don't misunderstand. I was only thinking of your condition," Qin Luo explained. Of course, he knew how feeble that sounded.

No normal person would believe such a clumsy excuse.

As expected, the anger on Lin Huanxi's face only deepened.

She pointed to the door again. "Get out."

"Fine. I'm leaving. Don't be angry. But please, believe my explanation. I'm not the kind of person you think I am—"

Qin Luo had intended to say a few more words, but when he met Lin Huanxi's murderous gaze, he hurriedly fled the room before she could explode.

Bang!

The moment Qin Luo left, Lin Huanxi slammed the door shut.

Then she leaned against it and gasped for breath.

Her heart was pounding violently, as though it might burst free from the cage of her chest.

Even the tranquil state of her mind had been shattered, boiling like water at a furious, disordered simmer.

Her thoughts were a tangled mess.

Qin Luo opened his mouth and examined himself in the mirror. There was a clear wound on his lip, and even now fine threads of blood were still slowly seeping out.

Lin Huanxi's bite had been truly vicious; she had nearly bitten his tongue in half. He had retreated quickly enough, but his lips had still suffered.

Still, her lips had been so soft. Her chest had been soft too—everything about her had been soft.

Qin Luo lifted his right hand and studied it carefully, feeling rather envious of its good fortune.

What he had always wanted to do but dared not do, it had done. What he had always wanted to touch but could not reach, it had touched.

Qin Luo thought that being his own hand must be a truly blessed thing. He rather wished he could become his own hand.

"Will she believe my explanation?" Qin Luo wondered.

Then he quickly shook his head with a bitter smile.

What woman would be foolish enough to believe that a man came over, forced a kiss on her, pawed at her all over, and afterward claimed it was all to cure her illness?

But he really had done it for her illness.

A problem of the heart required a remedy of the heart.

Lin Huanxi was currently in the early stage of emotional closure. She was not yet completely devoid of feeling and desire; there were still things in this world she cared about.

But if this continued, accumulating year after year, she might develop into the middle stage—or even the advanced stage, beyond all cure.

By then, even a living deity would be unable to pull her out of the emotional barriers she had built for herself.

So before Lin Huanxi abandoned emotion entirely, he had to tear open a breach in the sea of feelings that was about to seal shut.

He had to make her fall in love, or at least move her heart.

If nothing else, even making her hate him would be better than letting her become a cold creature of ice, severed from all feeling and desire.

He was not confident he could make her fall in love.

As for moving her heart—she had once had her heart moved, yes, but the person who had done so had not been him.

In the end, Qin Luo had no choice but to take this desperate measure and shamelessly run over to steal a little advantage from her. That way, she could only keep hating him.

And hatred, too, was a kind of feeling. So long as there was hatred, she could not continue sinking. Then, when the proper opportunity came, Qin Luo would be able to seize her and drag her back from the abyss.

Ah, the depth of his intentions—outsiders would never understand.

Qin Luo licked his lips and hissed in pain.

Yet he did not regret it.

As a brilliant young doctor with lofty ideals and admirable professional ethics, he ought to devote himself wholly to the noble cause of serving his patients.

He could not selfishly think only of his own purity, nor could he fear bearing risk or infamy.

Never mind one bite. Even two, three, a dozen, or dozens of bites—Qin Luo would absolutely not retreat a single step.

I go not to hell; who then shall?

************************

The next morning, when Qin Luo got up and went downstairs to exercise, Lin Qingyuan was already in the courtyard practicing tai chi.

Seeing Qin Luo come out, Lin Qingyuan smiled and said, "Good morning, Qin Luo. Did you sleep well last night?"

"Pretty well," Qin Luo replied. He deliberately turned his face aside as though concentrating on his exercise.

The wound on his lip had scabbed over, and he did not want Lin Qingyuan to notice anything unusual.

"Haha. Good. You and Huanxi have made up, then?"

"Ah? Yes, made up," Qin Luo said, thinking that the fact she had not taken a knife to him was already quite decent.

"Good, good. I told you, what quarrel can a young couple carry into the next day? Come, let's have a few hands. I haven't pushed hands with anyone in a long time, and I'm getting rusty," Lin Qingyuan said cheerfully.

"Well... my exercise for today isn't finished yet. This kind of training can't be interrupted. Next time, I'll accompany you, Grandpa, and we can push hands then," Qin Luo said. He did not dare face Lin Qingyuan directly.

"Haha. All right. No hurry, no hurry," Lin Qingyuan said with a smile.

"Oh, right, Qin Luo," Lin Qingyuan said suddenly.

"What is it?"

"Hm? What's wrong with your lips?"

"Just... bit them by accident," Qin Luo said, avoiding his gaze.

Lin Qingyuan studied Qin Luo's lips carefully for a while, then gave a strange smile and asked in a low voice, "Is Huanxi still angry with you?"

"She's... all right, I guess."

"Ah, that child. She bit you so hard. It's all broken skin."

"---Grandpa Lin, it's not what you think," Qin Luo hurriedly explained.

"Sigh, don't think that because I'm old I don't understand you young people's thoughts. I'm not blaming you. Don't worry, I can understand," Lin Qingyuan said, patting Qin Luo on the shoulder as though praising a junior.

At that point, he no longer treated Qin Luo as an outsider at all; he had entirely accepted him as the son-in-law of the family.

"We really didn't do anything."

"Sigh, Qin Luo, there's no need to explain anymore. If you keep explaining, you'll only seem distant. Still, you're a university teacher, and you should care about your image. If the students see you like this, where will your dignity be?"

"-------"

Qin Luo had no way to explain himself.

He had long known that although Old Master Lin had an aged face, he possessed a heart far younger and more uninhibited than his years would suggest.

"Oh, right. When are you planning to have children? I think Huanxi isn't exactly young anymore, so it might be time to think about having a child. If a woman gives birth after thirty, it's very hard on her body, because recovery is much poorer by then. If you really have a child, I can help look after it, so it won't delay your work—"

Bang!

A sharp crashing sound suddenly rang out. Not far from where they stood, a pot of cacti had been smashed to pieces. The plant's round body rolled to Qin Luo's feet, as though protesting being caught in the crossfire.

The old man and the young man both jumped in fright. When they looked up toward the second floor, Lin Huanxi was standing there, glaring at them with murderous fury.

Qin Luo quickly raised both hands in surrender and protested, "I didn't say a word. It was all your grandfather talking."