Chapter 188.2 - Gong Tianqing’s Guest
188.2 – Gong Tianqing’s Guest
In the middle of the night, Gong Tianqing suddenly felt something and thus woke up.
She is a light sleeper. She doesn’t like sleeping soundly, because that is when she dreams, dreams all kinds of things from her past.
–“You are unnecessary.”
For her, her father’s words were ice-cold.
In the dark, she opened her eyes.
The cold air characteristic of the night poured into the eye sockets abruptly and wound around the eyeballs, making her feel uncomfortable. Gong Tianqing blinked her walnut red eyes, which look like two flickering glass beads.
“Is, is anyone here?”
Gong Tianqing sat up slowly and asked thusly, restless.
Her room is pitch dark, as if everything was swallowed by darkness, presenting a completely different atmosphere from that of daytime.
Thanks to the faint moonlight that came from the windows, she could barely see things around her.
Gong Tianqing inspected her room.
Except for Gong Tianqing herself, there are no other sounds or breath in the room. Nevertheless, she still perceived a slight anomaly.
In a corner of the room, there is a shadow — a black shadow swaying like a flame.
There’s something there. However, what is it?
“Young Ancestor…?”
Gong Tianqing asked probingly, but received no response.
Is it my imagination? At the moment when this suspicion welled up inside her, something peeled off from the darkness.
The space cracked like glass that fell on the ground, and an outline portraying the human form came into her eyes little by little.
It’s a person! Gong Tianqing couldn’t help holding her breath, waiting in astonishment for the visitor to emerge from the darkness. Reason told her that she should call for help, but it all happened so suddenly that she couldn’t react momentarily.
After who knows how long, everything finally became peaceful again.
The room is still full of darkness as if nothing happened. However, there is now a man reflected in Gong Tianqing’s eyes.
Black suits this man rather well.
He is wearing a black battle gown embroidered with dark gold threads. His face is hidden under a peculiar gold mask, with only a pair of jet-black eyes, that seem ruthless and cold at first glance, but actually are full of emotions, being revealed.
Quite eye-catching, the mask has a distinctive metallic luster, while the drawing on top of it gives off a grim, ferocious, and oppressive feeling.
Standing in the dark, the man looks like some supernatural being.
Anyone would be frightened if such a specter-like character suddenly appeared in their room, and Gong Tianqing is no exception.
Frightened, she shrank back briskly and opened her mouth to scream. But in the end, she didn’t let a scream burst out of her mouth. She only let out a short “wu” sound.
She covered her mouth with her hands and suppressed her fear.
“… Commander Luo?”
Gong Tianqing has a faint impression of the man’s eyes. If she’s not mistaken, the man in front of her is Luo Hong, the commander of the State Guard.
“It’s me.”
Sure enough, the visitor is Luo Hong, the commander of the State Guard.
In the State Guard, only he, who succeeded the teachings of the Shadow Gate, has the ability to sneak in here — the abyss of the Merak Temple — without alerting Xue Qilin.
After all, Xue Qilin’s residence is not far from Gong Tianqing’s room. Even a slight fluctuation in breath is enough to alarm the lass with the nickname of “Natural Disaster”. If it weren’t for the Shadow Gate’s unique technique, who could curb the tremendous fluctuations of breath of the Heaven Realm to such a degree?
Although the Shadow Gate’s technique is quite mysterious, but to put it bluntly, it is in fact a method that slows down the flow of true qi inside the body and “blocks” the “major acupoints” of the body to prevent true qi from leaking outside and causing fluctuations in spiritual qi.
However, if you try to operate true qi, the huge pressure generated by true qi running at high speed is still enough to break through the technique’s blockade and cause fluctuations in spiritual qi.
In other words, although Luo Hong has the ability to sneak in, yet he may not be able to use even a little bit of true qi. Otherwise, the moment after he operates his true qi, Xue Qilin will rush over.
Because of this, Gong Tianqing was able to muster her courage, and didn’t immediately call for help. What’s more, since she heard of Luo Hong’s character from the late Luo Qing, she believes that the other party wouldn’t sneak into her room for no reason.
There must be an important reason for him to come find me — Gong Tianqing mused.
“Commander Luo…”
Gong Tianqing peered at Luo Hong’s expression timidly. She hesitated for a while, and then asked probingly.
“For you to pay me a visit late at night, is there something you want to talk about?”
“Mhm, there is.”
Luo Hong’s voice was as weak as ever, as if it came from who knows where.
“Please excuse me for appearing uninvited, for paying a visit late at night. It is not convenient for me to visit you during the day, Young Lady Gong. You should know that your Young Ancestor…” Luo Hong used a slightly aggrieved tone, “… doesn’t like me very much.”
Although Luo Hong only participated in the Luo Qing incident because Luo Qing entrusted him with it, but Xue Qilin still took her anger out on him and even threatened to beat him up if she sees him again.
Perhaps that is the reason why. In order to avoid disputes, Luo Hong didn’t visit her in the customary way. Feeling sorry for him, Gong Tianqing waved her hands.
“It, it’s okay… I’ll pour you a cup of tea.”
Gong Tianqing wanted to get out of bed. But when she extended her left foot out of bed, she suddenly realized that she is almost naked under the quilt, only wearing undergarments. As a result, she let out a short cry and retracted her left foot under the quilt.
“I, I’m sorry, Commander Luo, I’m not fully clothed, it’s inconvenient…”
Luo Hong was taken aback for a moment, and then shook his head bitterly.
“It’s okay, I didn’t come to be a guest.”
“Huh, is, is that so?”
“Mhm.”
Even though she saw Luo Hong nod his head, Gong Tianqing still couldn’t relax.
“Then at least I’ll have to pour you a cup of tea…”
Gong Tianqing said stubbornly while fumbling about with her hand, looking for the clothes placed on the nightstand. She is oblivious to the fact that her fair arm, which has been exposed from underneath the quilt, has entered Luo Hong’s eyes.
Luo Hong, who has been calm all along, looked away somewhat awkwardly and dissuaded her a little hastily, “Really, you don’t have to mind me.”
“That won’t do. The moment you cross the doorway, you are considered a guest. How can I not serve a cup of tea to my guest!”
“Ugh… I’m not really a tea person.”
Seeing that Gong Tianqing, who didn’t find her clothes, bit her lower lip with a struggling expression. Luo Hong, afraid that she may directly jump out from below the quilt, looked around, at a loss of what to do. Finally, he saw a kettle on a table.
“I’m fine with just water.”
He hurriedly walked up to the table, poured himself a glass of water, and took a sip.
“The water is out of this world…”
“Huh, Commander Luo… is, is just water all right?” Gong Tianqing stopped moving, stunned, “The water should be cold already…”
“It’s fine, it’s fine, I like drinking cold water the most.”
Seeing that the scantily clothed Gong Tianqing looks like she has given up on the idea of jumping out of bed, Luo Hong secretly sighed a sigh of relief. At the same time, he wondered if there was ever a time that he was in such an embarrassing situation.