Waaah, I'm being forced into loving my yandere wife's brain.

Lin Zhiyao didn't even dare to raise her voice when questioning them, fearing that the nuns next door might treat them both as disrespectful to the Bodhisattva and throw them out. If rumors spread, it would only push her to the brink of death.

The bell was right next to her, but she didn't dare touch it.

He kept his eyes fixed on Shen Jin.

I secretly hoped he would be more rational.

Shen Jin remained bent over, securing the bell firmly to Lin Zhiyao's ankle with such force that Lin Zhiyao felt a bit of pain from the tightness.

"Ugh, cousin..." Lin Zhiyao pleaded, genuinely afraid he would go crazy, "Please, please, don't do this kind of thing in the temple..."

But Shen Jin still acted as if he couldn't hear Lin Zhiyao at all.

He gently plucked the bell a few times and was pleased to see Lin Zhiyao seem to be reminded of something, her delicate body trembling slightly from the movement.

Then, Shen Jin propped himself up, placed his palm on her pillow, and pulled Lin Zhiyao into that small space through the quilt.

He pressed his lips against Lin Zhiyao's earlobe, staring at her flushed skin, his breath hot, "Yaoyao, you can't escape."

Will countless gods and Buddhas bear witness? That would be even more exciting.

Shen Jin firmly locked Lin Zhiyao's slender white wrist with one hand, and his burning kiss landed, leaving Lin Zhiyao with no way to avoid it.

"Ugh...!"

Her fingers, palms, the captivating gaps between her knuckles, her breath, her panting, the undulating texture of her skin like a jade mountain collapsing.

Everything about it fascinated Shen Jin.

It also made him like a ferocious beast whose instincts were awakened, wanting to dominate, plunder, and mark, cruelly stripping away and possessing what was beautiful, and carrying it back to the cave full of his scent to build a nest in a frenzy.

Shen Jin's hand slid across her delicate palm, his fingers slipping between her knuckles, gripping her tightly. Their fingers intertwined like the most intimate lovers in the world.

Is he crazy?

Madmen have no reason.

Shen Jin only knew that...

He and she.

They should have been one.

*

The bell rang softly and continuously, its sound particularly clear in the quiet meditation room.

It looks like we're about to repeat the same mistakes.

"Cousin! How could you be so cruel to me?"

Lin Zhiyao was pinned down by him, her temples damp with sweat on her neck. All her fear and unease erupted at this moment, her voice trembling uncontrollably, and tears rolled down her cheeks, accumulating into a small lake at the base of her nose.

"You...you've done this to me, what am I supposed to do after I enter the palace? Waaah..."

As she spoke, tears welled up in her almond-shaped eyes again, overflowing like a lake, sliding down her nose and soaking into the pillow.

Shen Jin paused in his movements.

He leaned over Lin Zhiyao, and moonlight streamed in through the window paper, illuminating her wet eyelashes and the tip of her nose, making her look like a pitiful fledgling bird soaked by the rain.

Shen Jin's Adam's apple bobbed slightly.

The dark fire that had been burning in those fox-like eyes was suppressed for a moment by something, surging and then finally subsiding.

Lin Zhiyao's appearance really made his heart clench.

Shen Jin reached out and gently wiped away the tears from the corner of her eye with his fingertips, his voice low and soft: "Don't worry."

Lin Zhiyao sobbed, tears still clinging to her eyelashes, forming pitiful strands as she looked up at him.

Shen Jin paused for a moment, then said, "You know the old emperor is seriously ill. With his health, it's uncertain whether he can even have children. What are you worried about?"

Lin Zhiyao bit her lip and didn't reply.

The tears continued to fall silently, glistening in the moonlight.

Shen Jin looked down at her pitiful appearance, suppressing the heat in his heart. He brushed his fingertips across her flushed cheekbones and said, "Even if that day comes, I will find a way to keep you safe."

Lin Zhiyao paused, her tears subsiding, and asked in a hoarse voice, "What method?"

The dark color in Shen Jin's fox-like eyes was swirling and churning, like an unfathomable undercurrent at the bottom of a pool.

"I can't tell you right now," he said.

Lin Zhiyao's already anxious heart sank even further. She struggled to free her wrist, which he was holding, but couldn't. Tears streamed down her face again: "Cousin, you...you're just trying to fool me...you'll deny it after this is all over..."

Her shoulders were shaking as she cried, as if she were releasing all the anxiety and fear she had felt over the past few days through these tears.

Looking at her like this, Shen Jin felt a vein throb on his forehead, sighed, and finally moved closer.

He hadn't actually thought it through yet; the sentence he just said was just something he made up to comfort her because her crying made his heart clench.

But having already spoken, Shen Jin began to think in that direction, and after a moment he had an idea.

Shen Jin whispered in her ear, his warm breath brushing against her thin, delicate skin: "The old emperor's eyesight isn't good. You should find a maid who's currently menstruating and bring her in. Put out the candles, and when the light is dim, who can tell?"

Lin Zhiyao sobbed, tears trembling on her eyelashes.

"Just let her take your place for a while, and then secretly switch her back after that old man is done."

Shen Jin's voice was close to her ear, gentle and warm, "It's only about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn. There are many maids in the manor who have signed life contracts. If you really can't bear it, you can find a reason to promote her to the rank of concubine later. That wouldn't be a bad idea."

After saying that, he lowered his eyes, but in his mind he was planning something else.

He had read all the memorials from the Ministry of Personnel and the secret letters from the palace. The person sitting on the dragon throne probably wouldn't live to see Yao Yao enter the palace.

It's just that I can't say these things to her; she's timid, and if she knew, it would only make things worse.

Lin Zhiyao was stunned upon hearing this, and stopped crying for a moment. Tears still glistened in her eyes, but she stared straight at him.

Shen Jin looked down at her expression. Her tears were still wet, but her almond-shaped eyes were wide open, reflecting the moonlight. She seemed to be stunned by something and had even forgotten to cry.

The suppressed fire in Shen Jin's heart suddenly surged up again, bringing with it a subtle yet intense pleasure.

He realized that his cousin was crying so much because she was worried about the old emperor.

Yao Yao was unwilling to enter the palace or marry that man who was over fifty years old. All her resistance and avoidance of him was not because she disliked him, but because she was afraid.

She feared that once she entered the palace, she would never be able to escape; she feared that the arranged marriage would trap her in the deep palace for the rest of her life; she feared that what he did to her at night would cost her her life after entering the palace.

But what if this marriage doesn't happen?

What if she doesn't have to enter the palace?

Then she...

The hidden fire in Shen Jin's heart burned even brighter, and the deep light in her fox-like eyes almost enveloped her entire being.

He lowered his head, his nose brushing against her damp temples, inhaling the faint, warm fragrance of her hair. His voice grew a little hoarse: "Yaoyao, you weren't speaking just now... were you thinking that it would be better if you didn't have to go to the palace?"

In other words, her cousin was in love with her.

Lin Zhiyao blinked but didn't reply.

She wasn't actually thinking about any of that.

She was just wondering if Shen Jin's method would actually work, and if it would really not give her away.

For a moment, she seemed stunned, even forgetting to cry.

But Shen Jin clearly didn't think so.

When she acquiesced.

The fire in my heart could no longer be suppressed.

Shen Jin kissed her, much harder than before, his tongue prying open her teeth along the lip line, entwining and sucking her soft tongue.

Lin Zhiyao was stunned by his kiss and hadn't recovered from the thoughts she had just had when her mouth was filled with Shen Jin's predatory breath.

The bitter taste of the tea, mixed with the coolness of the night dew, made Lin Zhiyao's mind go blank again.

Lin Zhiyao instinctively tried to turn her head away, but Shen Jin's hot palm gripped the back of her head tightly, his five fingers digging into her hair like five chains that imprisoned her, making her unable to move.

Shen Jin's kiss was hot, his breath sliding from her lips down her soft jawline, gradually reaching her slender white neck, leaving a faint pink mark on her collarbone.

The bell rang again.

"Um...cousin..."

Lin Zhiyao tilted her head, the moonlight shining on her wet, red eyes. The tear stains hadn't dried completely before new ones appeared.

Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the quilt, and a few soft, pitiful sobs escaped her throat.

Shen Jin paused at her collarbone, then looked up at her. The moonlight reflected in Shen Jin's pupils like two dancing points of light, contrasting with the deep darkness beneath, making them resemble a bonfire burning fiercely yet quietly in a deep ravine, as enchanting as a mountain spirit.

"Yaoyao...for my cousin..."