TBWE Chapter 32

Possession

The frog-buttoned short shirt’s collar was slightly open.

Bare skin trembled. Chu Li pressed her hand harder against Xi Chu’s shoulder; her nails almost dug into his simulated human flesh. 

“No…”

Her refusal was cut off by a deeper kiss. The warm tip of his tongue swept over her upper palate forcefully, stealing the already thin air. Chu Li was forced to tilt her head back and endure, dizziness growing stronger.

When she was about to black out from lack of oxygen, the entwined lips and tongue finally parted slightly, allowing her to gasp for breath. But immediately, his lips pressed down again, ice-cold fingers pressing on the second frog button.

Click.

The subtle sound was extraordinarily clear in the silent shrine. The black short shirt slid open further to both sides, exposing delicate skin on the shoulder, dazzlingly white in the dark.

The sticky, dark emotions in the creature’s eyes nearly overflowed.

His fingers did not touch the skin directly but slowly slid along the edge of the opened shirt. The cold touch felt like a snake crawling, sending shivers through Chu Li.

“Ugh!” 

Chu Li twisted her head away forcefully, her lips sucked red and wet. She kept gasping, voice trembling. “You said… you said you wouldn’t hurt me.”

Xi Chu’s action paused for a moment, eyes locking onto her tear-filled eyes.

“This isn’t hurting you, Li Li,” his voice low and calm. “You willingly stepped in and offered yourself to me.”

He had no intention to give Chu Li a chance to change her mind.

Before the words fell, the third frog button was undone.

The black frog-buttoned short shirt left the skin, piling on Chu Li’s waist. Thin, pure white underclothes lightly covered the curves. His gaze licked the skin inch by inch. No longer satisfied with just the collar, his fingers touched directly the skin exposed below her collarbone.

Chu Li stiffened, as if frozen.

His fingers moved slowly along the collarbone’s line, bringing a strange, mixed sensation of cold and slight tickling.

This slow and possessive touch was more terrifying and shameful than violent tearing. Instinctively, she wanted to avoid it, but her waist and thighs were entwined by his tendrils, unable to move.

His other hand went behind her, undoing the bindings on her thin back.

The tendrils seemed to sense their master’s intentions. No longer limited to calves, they moved, licking with a wet touch like countless deep-sea creatures crawling on skin.

The cold air crawled unfiltered over the skin in front of her.

Chu Li’s throat felt like it swallowed a stone, unable to make a sound, the terrifying numbness spreading all over.

She breathed rapidly, chest rising and falling unevenly.

Xi Chu gazed at the dark red mark on her snow-white skin, one inch below the heart, shaped like an ouroboros snake—his exclusive mark.

“Mine.”

The cold touch pressed on the dark red mark, fingertips gently stroking.

Chu Li suddenly closed her eyes, body stiffening.

The last line of defense in her heart wavered.

Xi Chu’s movement suddenly stopped, bending down, his lips landed on her slender neck.

It was not a kiss but rather a brand. His thin lips pressed on her warm skin, gently sucking once.

The strange and unfamiliar feeling shattered the last defense.

Slap!

Chu Li’s mind went blank, chest heaving violently with breath, palm hurting numb from the slap.

The creature turned his head away, twisting his neck, face expressionless and terrifyingly calm.

“Li Li, slapping like that only hurts your hand.”

He grabbed Chu Li’s numb hand, fingers forcing into the gaps between hers, pressing their ten fingers on the door.

“…Go, go away!” She struggled hard, tears flowing fiercely.

Soft, cold strands swept over Chu Li’s skin, leaving faint needles of sensation.

His nose tip lingered over her collarbone, sniffing slowly.

Chu Li let out a short gasp, body involuntarily recoiling, crashing against the cold door panel.

The lips and tongue of Xi Chu were not as cold as his outer skin; they were warm.

A slight electric current ran under the skin.

Chu Li could only let out a suppressed whimper, the only moving hand grasping the icy strands of hair, trying to pull him away. Xi Chu sensed this and gently gnawed.

“Ugh!” The grip on the hair instantly loosened, hand dangling on the creature’s head as if giving silent consent.

Her back pressed against the door; front and back were cold and hot alternately.

Fear and uncontrollable physiological reactions overlapped like honey on a blade, dizzying when licked.

The tendrils tangled between Chu Li’s legs, carrying a shivering exploratory desire, tightened strongly.

Chu Li suddenly sobered up.

“No… go away, go away!” She screamed in terror, tears streaming.

Compared to being touched by Xi Chu’s human form, being entangled by these cold, slippery, living tendrils was even more overwhelmingly frightening and disgusting.

Xi Chu stopped moving.

He looked down into Chu Li’s beautiful eyes, now pure panic within.

The agitated tendrils paused abruptly, then quickly retreated like a tide, withdrawing silently from her knees, waist, and ankles, vanishing into the thick darkness. Only wet marks from licking and faint red indentations remained on the skin.

The force confining Chu Li’s waist and thighs disappeared.

Her legs suddenly softened; she barely supported herself with the wrist held by Xi Chu and her back against the door, gasping violently, in a dazed, wary state after surviving the ordeal.

Xi Chu said nothing, just released her wrist, then held her side waist. His other hand slid down the smooth spine, lifting her forcefully.

Chu Li’s body instantly floated; her legs instinctively wrapped around Xi Chu’s slim waist, barely maintaining balance. This posture forced her tightly against him, skin touching his clothing, the cold sensation making her body shiver.

Xi Chu held her steadily with one hand and freed the other to continue the tendril play that had stopped earlier.

Chu Li’s pupils contracted instantly.

“No…” Her protests were drowned by Xi Chu’s descending kiss.

This kiss was deeper and more forceful than before, completely depriving her of thought.

Cold air surged, wrapping the skin beneath the black long skirt.

Xi Chu knew well that humans were fragile creatures. Even after drinking his blood and obtaining some “monster” traits, the fragility remained unchanged.

Therefore, before officially starting, he was full of patience.

Using lips and tongue to soothe, measuring with fingers carefully, confirming her limits.

“Ugh, ugh…” Chu Li’s neck arched back, body trembling violently like a fish out of water, tears streaming continuously, dampening her lashes.

Time in the dark stretched indefinitely.

In the deep mountains, multiple nights of rain fell, a sudden downpour accompanied by dull thunder.

Through the heavy door, Chu Li clearly heard the rain.

Drip, drip…

The rain made the air inside the shrine sticky and humid. Rainwater seeped in through the door gaps.

The tendrils hidden in the darkness carried away the rainwater. Strange buzzing sounds rose and fell like waves.

Chu Li almost tore the cloth on his shoulder, pupils unable to focus, eyes filling and streaming tears, blending indistinguishably with the rain.

Finally, Xi Chu’s lips left hers, resting on her forehead.

In the bottomless eyes churned thick, dissolving greed and hunger. He stared intently at her tear-filled, fearful eyes, voice low:

“Look at me, Li Li.”

Another rumble of thunder, the rain seemed to momentarily freeze.

At the words, Chu Li gripped his shoulder tightly, like a fish thrown ashore, futilely opening her mouth, her breathing stopped.

Her back pressed against the door panel, its chill seeping through.

Xi Chu’s lips pressed down again, swallowing the distorted whimper into his belly.

He sighed faintly, his other hand stroking her spine lightly.

His hunger briefly satisfied, the tendrils in the dark rustled and wildly danced.

[ …#Not enough…#%*… ]

They buzzed, muttering strange, muffled babble.

A monster’s nature was to plunder. He restrained the instinct, holding Himself still.

He was waiting.

Time seeped by in darkness, broken only by ragged, uneven breaths.

Chu Li’s body was as rigid as stone. Yet slowly, that strange discomfort seemed to dull, to grow numb, beneath Xi Chu’s deliberate stillness.

Just as her taut nerves began to slacken, He finally moved.

The support behind her vanished. Darkness before her eyes swirled like a whirlpool, and Chu Li, caught in His embrace, toppled backward—straight into the softness of a bed.

Snap. A night lamp flickered on.

The familiar ceiling. The familiar bedroom. It was the one in the duplex villa she had bought.

Chu Li froze in a daze, not yet able to tell dream from reality, when the tall figure before her pressed down.

Slowly—painfully slow, tentative at first—He drew back, then leaned forward once more.