Pei Jiangmu's gaze clung to the pulsating artery on her neck. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed back all the urges to devour her.
He always kept half a step away from her. During the run, he took her hand.
His knuckles intertwined with hers tightly, but with each staggered step, he deliberately pulled back, creating a teasing sense of nearness and distance.
When Meng Ruozhao stopped and stumbled forward into his arms due to inertia.
He immediately caught her weight with his chest, even holding his breath lightly for fear of disturbing the moonlight in his arms.
"Are you okay?"
She suddenly looked up, and the top of her head brushed against his tense jawline.
Pei Jiangmu's pupils constricted sharply, like a wild beast hit by the pause button.
All his violence melted into a hoarse "Yes" in the warmth of her body.
When he lowered his head, his nose almost touched hers, but he stopped at the last millimeter.
Meng Ruozhao's breathing was still unsteady. After clearly hearing his equally intense heartbeat, she sprang out of his arms as if waking from a dream.
"Let's go a bit further. What if they catch up again."
She let go of his hand and continued walking.
The moment Meng Ruozhao turned around, Pei Jiangmu froze in place as if his spine had been pulled out.
He stared at his empty hand, losing all movement like a puppet with its strings cut.
The moonlight above cut out criss - crossing patterns of light and shadow on his face, making the desire burning deep in his pupils flicker.
"Wait..."
The syllables escaping from his throat were shattered by the night wind. His fingertips curled and stretched futilely, and finally he could only clench his fist tightly.
A slight pain crawled into his veins along his palm, but it couldn't suppress the surging magma in his chest.
The tingling sensation when her hair had brushed against his jaw just now was now being repeatedly engraved on his nerve endings.
Five steps, seven steps, fifteen steps... He silently counted the increasing distance between them.
Each number turned into a tiny barb, carving a bloody dent on the surface of his heart.
When Meng Ruozhao suddenly looked back, Pei Jiangmu quickly averted his gaze, and the tips of his ears turned an unhealthy shade of red.
In the moonlight, he was grinding his lower lip with his canine teeth, turning the blood beads oozing from the wound into a sweet poison.
"Hurry up and come here."
Meng Ruozhao thought he was scared silly, so she waved at him, signaling him to come quickly.
Pei Jiangmu looked up as if electrocuted and stared straight at her.
The way she stood there waving at him was exactly the same as many years ago when she waited for him to go home after school.
He desperately restrained himself to hold back the urge to rush over and hug her tightly.
The moonlight was like a basin of ice water pouring on his stiff back. The shadow cast by his eyelashes covered the fleeting panic in his pupils.
That panic was not fear, but a more secretive tremor that he himself had not yet named.
He hung his head like a puppy scolded by its owner and shuffled over to Meng Ruozhao's side.
Then, he turned back into that innocent - looking, harmless little puppy with a clean smile.
Only the subtle movement of his tongue licking his canine teeth was like the fangs of a wild beast that had not yet been retracted when sizing up its prey.
The moonlight stretched their shadows very long, and their outlines meandered and overlapped on the ground.
They looked extremely intimate.
They quickly left the riverside and walked two more streets until there was no one behind them.
Pei Jiangmu leaned against a century - old locust tree, gasping for breath. The texture of the bark pressed against the butterfly bones on his back.
The moonlight penetrated through the leaves, clearly illuminating the bruise on the corner of his mouth.
Meng Ruozhao rummaged through her bag and wanted to hand him a tissue, but her wrist was caught in mid - air.
"Is your hand injured?"
Her hand was dirty, and it was hard to tell if it was injured.
But the dirt didn't match her fair skin, and it made him feel displeased just looking at it.
Meng Ruozhao was stunned for a moment and then looked down at the dirt on her hand along his line of sight.
Suddenly, she winked slyly. While breaking free, she leaned in and pretended to touch his face.
"I'm not injured. It's just the filth I got on me just now."
Pei Jiangmu didn't seem to have any intention of dodging at all.
Instead, he closed his eyes and tilted his head back. His Adam's apple rolled in the moonlight, showing a vulnerable curve.
Like a puppy waiting to be stroked.
The shadow cast by his eyelashes under his eyes trembled slightly, like a raven's feathers closing after a storm.
"It's no fun."
She mumbled and retracted her hand.
"Of course, it's not real dog poop. It's just the mud by the riverside. I was just tricking them."
The man didn't believe it. He reached out and wiped it, and after finding that it could really be wiped off, he let out a soft laugh.
The vibration in his chest pulled at his wound, making the corners of his eyes turn red from the pain.
He held back the urge to grab her fingertips and take a bite, and said with a smile.
"Little liar. But you're really good at lying."
No wonder she was the good girl he had taught. She was brave and resourceful.
"Pei Jiangmu! Don't be so disrespectful."
Meng Ruozhao glared at him. Then she noticed the wound on the corner of his mouth, and her tone softened.
"Don't be so impulsive in the future. What if the other person has a weapon?"
She didn't know that this sentence was like a key that clicked open the Pandora's box in his heart.
Suddenly, he tightened his grip on her hand and lowered his head, chuckling.
"Then maybe sister will have to feel more sorry for me."
Meng Ruozhao didn't see the look in his eyes hidden behind his eyelashes.
Throughout this journey, he had been pinching his palm, using the pain to suppress his desire to tear those hooligans apart.
Beneath his crazy facade was a morbid dependence, and her touch was the only medicine that could turn him back into a human.
Meng Ruozhao didn't pull back the hand that Pei Jiangmu was holding tightly.
His palm was cold, damp, and trembling, like a withered leaf soaked by a heavy rain.
She thought it was the aftermath of fear, so she gently patted the back of his hand with her other hand.
"Anyway, next time you encounter danger, remember to run first."
The moonlight filtered through her fingers and cast a butterfly - shaped light spot on Pei Jiangmu's wrist bone.
He responded with a grunt. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed back all his restlessness, but in his heart, he translated this sentence into another language.
"I feel sorry for you and worry about you."
Pei Jiangmu's gaze clung to her eyelashes. Those delicate curves reminded him of the sports warehouse many years ago.
At that time, she also stood there against the light.
The breeze when her ponytail brushed against his collarbone, mixed with her pleasant scent and the smell of blood on him, drilled into his nostrils.
But at that time, she was crying so hard that she could hardly catch her breath.
"Pei Jiangmu, what would I do if you got hurt?"
"Do you have to see me cry my eyes out to be happy?"
"If I see you fighting with someone again next time, I'll never talk to you again."
He thought she was a bit noisy and didn't want to explain. So he simply lowered his head and covered her lips with his own.
She widened her eyes and stiffened all over.
The good news was that she didn't push him away.
The bad news was that she cried even harder.
After he let go of her, she immediately wanted to run to the school infirmary.
"Oh no, Pei Jiangmu's brain has been damaged."
At that time, he had protected her like a blank sheet of paper.
She thought he kissed her because his brain was damaged.
But she didn't know how long he had restrained himself for that kiss.
...
At this moment, she let him hold her hand. The warmth of her fingertips was seeping into his heart along his veins.
He had to use all his strength not to pull her into his arms.