Blossom through the Cloud - Chapter 48

Chapter 48

The lingering warmth on her forehead refused to fade, while the temperature of her cheeks climbed rapidly, turning this brief lean and embrace into something far out of the ordinary.

Ruan Sixian felt it growing increasingly difficult to keep up her act.

If Fu Mingyu were to look back right now, he would see her eyelashes trembling uncontrollably.

Yet the warmth of his body was undeniably addictive, and the curve of his arm supported her with absolute precision—free of any sense of confinement, solid yet brimming with a gentle tenderness.

Just one more second at most.

Ruan Sixian thought she was on the verge of cracking; her chest was flooded with a surging wave of heat, boiling and thrashing wildly as if it were about to burst right through her ribs.

She furrowed her brow tightly and, just as she was about to snap her eyes open, a phone ringtone pierced the quiet interior of the vehicle.

It was Fu Mingyu's phone.

Using his free hand, he retrieved his device, brought it to his ear, and spoke in a low voice.

Taking advantage of his diverted attention, Ruan Sixian drew a soft, quiet breath.

"Hmm? Is she sick?"

Without changing his posture, Fu Mingyu cast a downward glance at Ruan Sixian's sleeping profile, his voice dropping even lower.

"Alright, I understand. I'll be right back."

With those few simple words, he ended the call, and the cabin lapsed back into silence.

The interruption allowed the suffocating tension in Ruan Sixian's chest to gradually ebb away.

Though her heartbeat remained erratic, it was considerably steadier than before.

She could hear the even cadence of Fu Mingyu's breathing right beside her ear, and the faint, clean scent that belonged to him lingered gently against the tip of her nose.

Maintaining her posture resting against his embrace, Ruan Sixian felt his grip tighten slightly around her shoulder.

That sudden wave of nervous anticipation came rushing back, fueled entirely by the heat of his palm.

At the same time, he tilted his head, his chin brushing lightly across the top of her head.

Ruan Sixian couldn't fathom why she was suddenly feeling so high-strung, as this reaction far surpassed the fluttering anxiety brought on by the kiss to her forehead moments ago.

Especially when they had shared an embrace far more intimate than this just last night.

Outside the window, car horns wailed in the distance, yet at this moment, even those urban sounds felt akin to a meandering melody, carrying a quiet, commonplace sense of comfort.

Despite her turbulent emotions, Ruan Sixian found herself uncontrollably wishing for this stretch of road to grow longer—just a little longer, and then a little more.

She began reviewing everything that had transpired today, slowly manufacturing a justification for herself.

Perhaps it was because today's embrace carried no consolation, no desperate plea for solace—it was simply the embrace of a man and a woman.

The most primal, direct expression of emotion, akin to a pair of long-devoted lovers naturally leaning into one another.

She drew another long, deep breath.

Merely breathing through her nose was no longer enough to supply her brain with oxygen.

Fu Mingyu was simply lethal at times; his gentle warmth arrived with such natural fluidity that it left no room for defensive barriers, pulling her into an unwitting surrender before she even realized she was falling.

She could hardly fathom that she would one day rest like this in his arms, let alone have him place a kiss upon her forehead.

Even more astonishingly, she had felt zero resistance, instead replaying the gesture over and over again in her mind.

It wasn't until she felt the vehicle slow to a gradual halt that she realized they must have arrived at the gates of Distinguished Minister Apartments.

Recalling the phone call he had just taken, Ruan Sixian decided she could no longer keep up the charade—someone in his household was sick.

Ruan Sixian slowly fluttered her eyes open, though Fu Mingyu remained completely still, staring calmly straight ahead.

She let out a soft cough and gradually straightened her upper body.

"Awake?" Fu Mingyu turned his head toward her, his breath brushing against her face as his arm naturally fell away from her shoulders.

Avoiding his gaze, Ruan Sixian turned to stare out the window for a moment. Remembering that someone at his home was ill and waiting for him to return, she spoke up, "You can just drop me off right here."

Upon hearing her words, the driver glanced back toward Fu Mingyu for instructions.

Fu Mingyu merely replied, "Drive inside."

Ruan Sixian pressed her lips together in silence, staring at her own reflection in the tinted glass while stealthily smoothing down her cheeks.

As the car passed through the security gate and rolled to a smooth stop beneath her building, Ruan Sixian quickly adjusted her expression to one of absolute normalcy.

The moment she reached for the door handle, she noticed Fu Mingyu pushing open the opposite door as well.

She quickly chimed in, "Dropping me off here is plenty."

Resting his forearm atop the open car door, Fu Mingyu glanced at her without a word, then simply walked around the vehicle to her side. "I'll walk you up."

Fine then.

Ruan Sixian kept her silence as she walked with him toward the elevator lobby.

While waiting for the elevator, Ruan Sixian's fingers instinctively tightened their grip on her backpack strap.

She realized that whenever things grew quiet, her emotional equilibrium dissolved all over again. Fu Mingyu stood right beside her, speaking just as little as he usually did, yet everything felt fundamentally different.

Perhaps because of that single kiss on the forehead, Ruan Sixian felt as though even when he wasn't doing anything at all, the entire dynamic had shifted.

Even though his intentions had been laid bare long ago, he had never crossed the line into such explicitly intimate territory—the kind of physical intimacy exclusive to men and women crossing into romance.

—Until the elevator doors slid open, and Fu Mingyu unhesitatingly stepped inside right behind her.

"Are you still coming up?"

Ruan Sixian asked.

Fu Mingyu lowered his gaze with a faint smile. "What's gotten into you today? Am I not allowed to come up?"

Even setting aside the intention of walking her to her doorstep, he lived on the floor directly above hers; why on earth wouldn't he be allowed up?

"No, isn't there someone sick at your..."

"Hmm?"

The words trailed off into silence, leaving both of them quiet.

Catching the inquiring glint in Fu Mingyu's eyes, Ruan Sixian looked away, her conscience pricked by her slip-of-the-tongue, leaving her with nowhere to anchor her gaze.

The elevator doors slid shut in absolute silence, instantly shrinking the surrounding air into a suffocating space.

Ruan Sixian could feel Fu Mingyu stepping closer to her, inch by inch.

"You weren't asleep?"

"..."

Ruan Sixian was completely at a loss for words.

Fu Mingyu slid one hand into his pocket, leaning forward into her personal space. His towering presence invisibly enveloped her as he looked down from above, his brow lifting while his gaze grew progressively direct and heavy with unspoken implication.

There was no way out; she couldn't spin her way out of this one.

Ruan Sixian lifted her chin defiantly. "What, do you think stealing a kiss gives you the moral high ground?"

Fu Mingyu simply stared at her deeply without a word, a slow, knowing smile lingering at the corners of his mouth.

Ruan Sixian could practically read the underlying message in his eyes.

You didn't push me away, and you even kept playing along with your eyes closed—doesn't that mean you didn't mind at all?

Having her own secret thoughts called out so bluntly by him sent a fresh surge of heat rushing straight to her head. Whether out of embarrassment or pure vexation, she lashed out with a kick to his shin. He neither dodged nor flinched, absorbing the blow without so much as a flicker of expression change.

Fu Mingyu leaned in closer, invading her space until she was trapped against the corner of the elevator wall.

The cold marble pressing against her back suddenly felt scorching hot.

Neither of them reached out to press a floor button, leaving the compact compartment idling in place while the air itself seemed to stagnate.

The moment he spoke, his warm breath immediately wrapped around her.

"Then I suppose I'd like to push my luck and take it a step further. Would that be alright?"

Though phrased as a question, his tone carried zero hesitation as he lowered his head and captured her lips.

Fu Mingyu brushed his lips gently against her lower lip in a soft, exploratory taste. Sensing her instinctive flinch backward, he opened his eyes just enough to catch her tightly shut lids and the delicate flutter of her trembling eyelashes.

Pausing for a fraction of a second, Ruan Sixian slowly opened her eyes and met his gaze. In that single instant, it hit her—that tentative touch moments ago was simply him testing her boundaries.

And his momentary pause right now was him waiting for her confirmation in her eyes.

Ruan Sixian had no idea what her own eyes were communicating right then; she only knew her heart felt as though it was about to hammer its way out of her chest.

She had never anticipated tonight unfolding down this path.

She certainly hadn't expected such substantive physical contact—it defied all her expectations and lay entirely outside her control, yet her mind and body stubbornly refused to listen to reason, letting Fu Mingyu drag her completely off-course.

Her lips parted slightly as she drew in a breath to steady her tumbling emotions, but Fu Mingyu wasted no time. Freeing his hand, he cupped her face and abandoned all restraint, crashing down into a deep, thorough kiss.

The faint, lingering scent of alcohol carried in his breath poured over her in an intoxicating, overbearing wave.

Somewhere upstairs, a resident pressed the elevator call button, and the car slowly began its ascent, though neither of them registered the shifting environment around them.

With her back pressed firmly against the elevator wall, the dizzying sensation of weightlessness overwhelmed both her mind and her physical senses simultaneously.

—Until the elevator doors abruptly slid open with a chime.

It was the tenth floor once again. The elderly woman walking her Labrador froze dead in her tracks the second she took in the scene inside the elevator, staring in utter shock before instinctively hauling back on the leash of her wildly bouncing dog.

Ruan Sixian snapped back to reality, shoving hard against Fu Mingyu's chest.

He, however, remained immovable, simply turning his head to glance lazily over his shoulder.

His expression carried such an unbothered, flagrant arrogance that it startled the old woman into flushing crimson, hurriedly dragging her dog backward. "Pardon the interruption! Please, by all means, carry on."

The dog stubbornly refused to leave, leaping eagerly toward the elevator interior while the owner hauled back on the leash with all her might.

"You wretched beast! Move! Move! Move! We're going home!"

Ruan Sixian: "......"

Ruan Sixian stared at the sharp line of Fu Mingyu's jaw as he slowly turned his head back around. His chin grazed softly across the tip of her nose before he lowered his head to drop one final kiss onto the corner of her lips. "Little sister, give me a little reaction here."

His fingers brushed delicately against the locks of hair framing her cheek, his thumb lingering over her skin as though he were tempted to pull her back in for another kiss.

The last remaining shred of Ruan Sixian's shattered rationality was finally dragged back from the brink by the elderly woman's frantic shout of "Wretched beast!"

You wretched beast!