Chapter 9: Her fingers his name

Morning at the inn came grey and damp.

Su Qingxue woke first again. She was against him , the same as every night. Her cheek on his shoulder, one hand resting near his chest , the heat of his body soaked into her through the thin robes .

Then she noticed the ’big bulge’ on his abdomen , his cock was fully stiff as if it’s ready to enter a woman. He was fully aroused, mostly because of man’s morning wood and the faint yin she has leaked overnight..

I-IS that his ....! Why - why is he....why is it like that ..was it because I was holding..him in my sleep?!!, wait is he awake... ....good , he’s still sleeping

Her Ears , cheeks turned pink , she looked at it for a long time , didn’t dare to touch , then she felt a strong warmth sensation in her abdomen and chest , it make her eyelids heavy and breathing hard.

She lay still for a few more breaths and then moved back carefully , the way she had learned to do so he would not open his eyes right away.

He opened them anyway , "Good Morning,"

"Don’t..." She got up and washed her face at the cracked basin.

The water was cold ,It helped a little. The dual feeling in the room was thicker than it had been in the village house like the walls being closer made it worse or better .

They ate downstairs without talking much. Weak porridge , weak tea . The innkeeper watched them once and then ignored them .

"Tian-ge we should keep moving," She said when they were back in the room packing the bag ,

"Three more days to the selection grounds if the weather holds ... and your hands? "

"It’s fine " It was not fully fine . The knuckles were still dark , she did not push though , she tied the bag shut and looked at the bed one last time like it had offended her .

They left the inn while the streets were still half empty.The road out of town climbed slowly between wet fields. Lin Tian matched her pace the dual core turned with every step, quiet , feeding on the thin stream of her Yin that still reached him even in daylight when she walked close.

She kept putting a little more space between them on the path , once a farmer’s dog ran out and barked until she spoke to it. The ordinary moment felt strange after the village and the rumors and the nights of waking up against him .

Around mid-morning the rain started again , light enough that they kept walking. Water beaded on her hair and the shoulders of her robe.

He watched a drop run down the side of her neck the forced his eyes back to the road .

Around midday they stopped under a stand of trees. She handed him water their fingers touched she pulled back too fast and looked at the trees instead of him . "You’re walking farther away than you need to."

She wiped her hands on her robe even though they were dry. "The air feels strange when I’m close. It has for days, I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like -like something is pulling and I don’t like not knowing what it is."

’ Thats the dual thread , which connects us faintly ’

" I told you I’d explain when the time is right."

"Hhm , and when is that?"

She made a sound that was not quite a laugh . Sat down against a trunk . He sat a few feet away . The dual core pulsed he could have closed the gap but he did not .

"In the village,when I woke up on you, I told myself it was just cold or habit or because the bed was small." She picked at the wet grass by her knee,.

"It’s harder to keep telling myself that when it keeps happening ."

"The You just don’t have to tell yourself anything ."

"What do you mean? Of course I do , If I don’t , then I have to admit something I’m not ready to admit."

The rain ticked on the leaves above them. Birds moved in the branches and went quiet, when they started walking again the space between them stayed a little wider than before, but her words stayed with him longer than the distance did.

By late afternoon the sky was darkening with more rain. The next village was too far. They found a small roadside shelter three walls and a roof, used by farmers and travelers,well empty for now. Su Qingxue swept the worst of the dirt with her foot while Lin Tian checked the path behind them.

They ate the last of the dried fish and some cold rice. The rain started as they finished, light at first, then steady on the roof. The shelter was open on one side. Wind pushed the wet air in.

"We’ll stay here tonight alright ," she said.

There was no bed , only the packed earth and the bag for a pillow. She laid out her spare robe on the ground and sat on it with her knees up, watching the rain. Lin Tian sat near the other wall.

The dual core turned in the dim light, aware of her, hungry in a way that had nothing to do with food.

Night came early under the clouds. She lay down facing the open side of the shelter. He lay a few feet away. The gap was larger than the bed at the inn. For a long time the only sounds were rain and her careful breathing.

Sleep did not come for her the way it usually did.

She kept thinking about the village, the uncle, the boy with the split lip , the way Lin Tian had looked at her when he said : he had a good reason not to stay dead.

The way her body found his chest every night without asking her first . The warm-and-cold feeling that sat under her skin when he was close.

She turned onto her back and stared at the dark roof.

The dual feeling was still there even with the distance ,and underneath it something else that had been slowly building for days , a restless ache , a low heat between her legs that she had been ignoring, since the first morning she woke up on his chest.

She glanced to the side, Lin Tian’s breathing was even, probably asleep or close to it.

I should leave it alone’ she knew that.

Instead her hand slid down under the edge of her robe like she could stop at any second. Her fingers found the soft heat between her thighs .

As she touched the heat she finds her finger sticky and wet, this discovery made her face burn and her body trembled slightly.

She bit her lip, and moved her fingers in a small circle over the soft folds she usually ignored. Her breathing become heavier , she tried to breathe slowly, not to let tian sense it.

The dual feeling in the air thickened the second she touched herself, like something in his body had noticed from a few feet away. That should have made her stop , It made her press harder.

It felt too good too fast , she kept her breathing quiet and her eyes on the dark shape of him , his shoulder, the line of his neck, the mess of his hair.

Her fingers slipped lower, she pressed a finger just slightly and her hips twitch , her mind become clouded , her eye closed, body trembled,

"haaahh" a soft breath leave her throat , she swallowed it. The rain covered most of the noise...

She moved faster , in small desperate motions, chasing the tight heat that had been sitting in her .

"Haah " haah"..." hnh" soft slow breaths leaving her throat.

She didn’t push it too deep, there was a barrier , she was afraid to break it . Her free hand traced her soft light pink areolas in round motion , slowly pinching her nipple, as a sticky line began flowing from her entrance slowly towards her another entrance.

Her thighs tensed , the salty and musky smell covered the room .The dual feeling pulled tighter, and for a second she didn’t realise what she’s doing..

"Tian-ge...."

She suddenly froze , fingers still inside herself !

’Tian-ge’s breathing has changed’

She pulled her hand back like she had been burned and turned onto her side facing away from him, knees drawn up and her face hot .

The ache between her legs pulsed, unfinished and begging for touch. She kept her eyes shut and her body rigid and waited for him to say something.

He did not , for a long time there was only rain.

Then quietly , from the other side of bed ,

"Qingxue ." She didn’t answer. "I heard you ."

"Don’t....!"

"I’m not going to pretend I didn’t ."

She pressed her face into the robe. "I-I thought you were asleep ."

"I was asleep , then I wasn’t , I heard some voices, so I opened my eyes "

Silence...The dual core was loud in the space between them now, turning hard , feeding on the Yin her body had released when she touched herself when she was aroused.. His cock was rigid against his trousers, but he stayed where he was.

"Come here..... ," he whispered,

"No...."

"I’m not going to do anything you don’t want, just come closer "

"That’s not....." I can’t... not here , not like this , people already think we’re...."If I get closer to you now, I’ll lose myself.

"I know what people think all right ," he said at last .

She did not turn around. She also did not tell him to stop talking, she felt her heart beating loudly.. after a while her shoulders loosened a fraction, not from calm but from exhaustion. Sleep took her eventually, thin and restless.

Lin Tian lay awake and stared at the dark

heh so stubborn .

The dual core turned and turned. Her Yin still reached him across the gap, richer now, marked by what she had done.

He could have closed the distance , put his hand where hers had been . Finished what she started and claim her .

Outside the rain kept falling , and further down the road, past the bend they would take in the morning, the two men in travel-stained robes had stopped under a tree to wait out the weather. One of them looked, toward the shelter’s direction and spoke.

"They’re close , Let’s do it tomorrow."

The other nodded and checked the edge of a blade .