Li Xun flipped her skirt up, braced her at the waist, and lifted her into position. Everything was ready.
Zhu Yun snapped back to her senses.
“Li — Li Li Li — Li Xun?”
“Mm?”
She tried to roll over. Li Xun pressed her down. “Don’t move.”
“Hold on——”
“No need.”
“No, wait — wait! Stop——!“
Zhu Yun, eyes wide, scrambled across the bed on all fours. Li Xun grabbed for her a few times without success. She had wriggled around so much that he was thoroughly fed up — he simply flopped on top of her and said, flatly: “My dear princess.”
He was heavy!!
Zhu Yun could barely breathe. She craned her neck back with great effort and snapped: “Is this how you talk to a princess?!”
The body on top of her was trembling. Li Xun was laughing — and showed absolutely no intention of getting up. He explained, calmly: “This position is the most primal. From a physiological and anatomical standpoint, it is literally the most optimal configuration. Isn’t the princess a woman of science?”
Zhu Yun’s face was scarlet from being pinned down. “Get off me first!”
Li Xun: “You’re not familiar with any of this. Just follow my lead.”
He moved to prop her up again. Zhu Yun was so nervous she felt like she might be sick — without even thinking, she swatted his hand away with a sharp slap and yelled——
“No!“
“……”
The room went quiet.
In the strange stillness, Zhu Yun stole a glance back — and, as expected, found a face cold as frost.
She was done for.
When a man reasons his way to a commitment, it’s as binding as a signed contract. The ink had barely dried on this one, and she had already reneged before the pen was even set down. Anyone would have trouble with that.
And Li Xun, of all people……
Rejecting him in a moment like this — Zhu Yun could imagine precisely how badly this was going to go for her.
Zhu Yun scratched at the sheets and backpedaled quickly: “About that… it was a misunderstanding. I didn’t mean no, I have absolutely no objections!” She was flushing deeply, stumbling over her words. “It’s just… it is, after all, the first time.”
Li Xun said nothing.
Zhu Yun proposed: “Why don’t we start with something a bit more conventional first — ease into it.”
Li Xun raised one eyebrow.
Zhu Yun reached for an analogy. “Even boxing matches have warm-up bouts, you know.”
He let out a cold laugh.
Zhu Yun softened her voice: “Let’s take a bit of time to… adjust to each other. We have such a long future ahead of us.”
Something shifted in Li Xun’s eyes. Some word in that sentence had, apparently, reached him.
After a moment, Zhu Yun finally felt the weight bearing down on her ease. A hand came to rest on her shoulder and flipped her over — like turning a dead fish — so she was facing up.
Li Xun: “Is this conventional enough for you?”
“……”
To smooth things over, Zhu Yun reached up and wrapped her arms around him. Li Xun’s back was smooth — sleek skin, good elasticity, with clean, flowing muscle lines. She pressed her face against him, taking in a warmth she had never felt before.
Her skirt came off. She had no idea how.
He sat up and undid his belt, and in the middle of it, simply let Zhu Yun look.
Moonlight fell in through the window and settled across his shoulders, giving him the cool, luminous quality of pale celadon porcelain.
Li Xun was a deeply self-assured person — and this wasn’t limited to his intelligence. He had the highest possible acceptance of every part of himself. He had always believed he was the best, and that anyone who chose him had excellent taste.
Zhu Yun thought that a person’s beliefs could really shape a great deal — otherwise she, who had been particular about everything since childhood, would not be looking at a body she had never seen before and finding it, in this moment, without a single flaw.
It might not be quite the right word to use for a man — but she genuinely thought he was beautiful.
Li Xun lowered himself over her.
With his tall, long frame, he wrapped around her entirely, letting her head rest in the cup of his palm.
“Done making a fuss?” he murmured. The heat coming off him was considerably more than before. His large hand gripped her arm, and his voice dropped into a low, dissatisfied register. “Half a year. You’ve kept me waiting far too long.”
Yes, yes, fine — it was all her fault.
Zhu Yun reached her arms out from under his and wrapped them around his waist, then slowly slid her hands up along his back to the nape of his neck.
When her slender fingers threaded through his hair, Li Xun pressed forward into her.
He had already held himself in check for a very long time, and had no patience left for any more gradual buildup. Even with adequate preparation on Zhu Yun’s part, the moment it happened she bit her lip and shuddered.
She forced herself to redirect her attention. Her gaze drifted to his hair.
This was the first time she had ever touched Li Xun’s hair. She had always felt it was his own private territory — bleak in the way the school’s sports field was bleak, but beneath that barrenness, holding something he would never speak aloud to anyone else: a quiet resolve, a private pride.