The Guide to Capturing a Black Lotus

87

The springs in Wufeng Town were always bitingly cold.

The lingering white fog penetrated to one's bones, humid and cold. It felt like the fog concealed an innumerable number of sharp icicles of all sizes, torturing one's skin till it felt like it had fallen off.

The small river tributary before their eyes snaked back and forth. Both sides of the river embankment were filled to the brim with cattails. Taller than a man's knee, they seemed just like the dried, dense hair of mother earth.

The main leads hurried along the road, trying to take every shortcut. They forged through the thickets, drilled their way through the wasteland and finally arrived at the pond. However, there wasn't even a single rock of any respectable size within. There were only a few smaller rocks whose apex barely broke the surface.

"Ah Sheng," Mu Yao turned around with a gaze full of surprise, "This... isn't isn't an underground river."

This was just... a simple, shallow and completely normal creek with no danger at all.

Mu Sheng was carrying a half-awake girl on his back but didn't hesitate at all to step into the water: "She can't walk anymore."

Mu Yao was speechless.

Ling Miaomiao's arms were wrapped around his neck and her eyes were nearly closed.

Since he was willing to carry her, she was also too lazy to bother with the edge of her skirt getting wet, letting him take her about as he wished.

Her hanging leg swung back and forth.
Suddenly, she started to tilt it at a strange angle. Mu Sheng slightly turned his head and from her angle, she could see the arc his eyelashes made.

"What's wrong?"

"My shoe..." She raised her right foot and a slim and slender foot peaked its way out of the edge of her skirt, "It's about to fall."
She twirled her ankle, trying to get him to help her put it back on tight.

.." He paused for a moment before quickly reaching out and taking off both of her shoes.

Then, he tied them together before stashing them into his robes. "You won't drop them anymore."

"....." Ling Miaomiao felt ashamed as she curled up her bare feet, hiding them under her long skirt. She didn't feel like bothering with him anymore.

However, his hand moved downwards once again to pinch her right ankle before massaging it a couple times. His eyes were pitch dark: "Cold?"

"Not cold." She tried to shrink back her leg in discomfort as she struggled, even stomping on his hand before he had a chance to retrieve it.

Suddenly being stepped on, the youth's eyelashes trembled. He reached out and immediately grabbed ahold of her knees and obediently stayed silent from then on.

It was calm and silent. As such, Ling Miaomiao immediately felt sleepy again.

He sensed that the breathing of the girl on his back had become shallow and her body soft and pliable. Her arms wrapped around his neck started to loosen more and more so he tightened his grip and called out: "Don't fall asleep, you're going to fall off."

Ling Miaomiao abruptly woke up and subconsciously embraced him tightly. She couldn't even open her eyes as she patted his collarbone twice, patiently whispering to him: "I won't fall off, I have you holding me."

"......" Mu Sheng leapt from one smooth rock to another. The edge of his robes had already been soaked but her soft pomegranate colored skirt softly rubbed against the bottom of his cuff like a delicate but pliable petal.