Chapter 158: Dream

"Wife, let me ask you timidly... where am I going to sleep?" Xue Tian'ai, whose body was covered in bite marks, sat on the floor, looking up at Qin Mengxue as she nervously tidied up the underwear on the bed.

Just moments ago, Xue Tian'ai had experienced a rollercoaster of emotions in his life. Right after enjoying two rounds of wonderful kisses, he had been bitten until he yelped in pain.

Looking at Qin Mengxue's petite, pretty, cherry-like lips, Xue Tian'ai couldn't help but inwardly complain: Why did the exact same mouth give him completely different feelings? Actually, he definitely preferred Qin Mengxue when he was holding her and kissing her.

Shy and adorable.

Unlike Qin Mengxue when she was holding him and going on a wild biting rampage...

Haughty and domineering.

"Humph!" Qin Mengxue let out a heavy snort, turning her head away. Keeping her hands busy straightening the undergarments on the bed, she offered no reply, still looking very much like she was angry.

In truth, the moment she started biting Xue Tian'ai earlier, most of her anger had already vanished into thin air. The real reason she hadn't answered Xue Tian'ai's question yet was simply because she hadn't figured out where he should sleep either.

The living room or any of the other guest rooms were definitely out of the question. If her father, with his strict warlord-like discipline, ever found out, he would surely give her a severe scolding, which would undoubtedly become a massive headache for her.

So, just as she had initially thought, her own bedroom was the only possible place for Xue Tian'ai to sleep tonight. But where in the room should he sleep?

On the floor?

Wasn't that a bit too harsh? Besides, although it was early summer, it still got quite chilly after nightfall. What if he caught a cold sleeping on the floor?

Other than the floor... it seemed there was only... the bed. The bed itself.

At this thought, Qin Mengxue's face flushed red. Sharing the same bed with a man—even though this man was her husband—was something she had never even imagined before. But... but now, it seemed there was nowhere else besides the bed.

What should she do? What on earth should she do right now?

"Sigh, I guess I'll just sleep on the floor tonight." Seeing that Qin Mengxue wasn't answering, but guessing roughly what was going on from the conflicted expression on her face, Xue Tian'ai gave a soft sigh.

For someone like Xue Tian'ai, who had spent a whole year living in the Greater Khingan Mountains and the Himalayan mountain ranges, it didn't really matter where he slept. Under certain conditions, he could even sleep standing up. Therefore, to spare Qin Mengxue from further agony, he decided to take the initiative and sleep on the floor.

As soon as the words left his mouth, Xue Tian'ai flopped right onto the floor and closed his eyes.

Seeing Xue Tian'ai's prompt action right after making that statement, Qin Mengxue was slightly stunned. Given Xue Tian'ai's personality, shouldn't he be fighting tooth and nail to get onto the bed? How come he had arranged his own sleeping spot just like that?

Could this guy be putting on a pitiful act and playing games with her again?

Hmph! Exactly, it must be the exact same routine! This guy was definitely acting just like he did before, waiting for her to proactively invite him onto the bed!

Did he really think she was that easy to fool? Fine! Since you were the one who said you wanted to sleep on the floor, let's see how long you can last!

With her resolve firmed up, Qin Mengxue gathered her undergarments and stuffed them into her bedside table. Then, she stood up, switched off the room lights, and returned to her bed with a bit of a huffy attitude, wrapping herself tightly in the quilt.

Though she was back in bed, Qin Mengxue couldn't fall asleep. She simply lay on the soft mattress with a chaotic jumble of thoughts in her mind. Her head was entirely filled with Xue Tian'ai's face and the details of their kiss from earlier.

Thinking about how she had even taken the initiative to kiss Xue Tian'ai, her face turned red all over again. Perhaps in the heat of the moment she hadn't cared, but now that things had quieted down, she realized just how embarrassing of a thing she had done.

However, after that accidental kiss, Qin Mengxue also understood one thing in her heart: she must have genuinely started to fall for Xue Tian'ai...

Otherwise, why wouldn't she hate kissing him? Otherwise, why would her mind have gone blank at the end, leading her to proactively kiss him?

"Oh, so loving someone means making him sleep on the cold floor while you sleep in a soft bed?"

Right at that moment, a voice suddenly echoed in Qin Mengxue's mind, startling her so much that her delicate body tensed up slightly.

"No way... Clearly, that jerk insisted on sleeping on the floor himself; it has nothing to do with me! Besides, that jerk is definitely still faking pity! He wants me to invite him onto the bed so he can take advantage of me fair and square, just like when we kissed! Yes, that's exactly what it is!" A second voice chimed in within her mind.

"But the floor is still going to be cold," the first voice pointed out.

"That's why that jerk won't be able to stand it much longer, and he'll come crawling back, begging to share the bed with me!" the second voice immediately retorted.

"..."

"..."

The two voices, sharing the exact same voiceprint but differing in tone, began to argue inside Qin Mengxue's head, driving her to distraction. Finally, she buried her face into her pillow and rubbed her cheeks against it, banishing the arguing voices from her mind.

"Hmph! That guy definitely isn't asleep! How could anyone possibly fall asleep on a floor that's so hard and uncomfortable? He'll give up soon enough! As long as his attitude in apologizing is decent and his plea sounds sincere enough, this young lady might just agree to let him sleep on the bed!" Qin Mengxue finally settled on her plan.

Time ticked by. A full hour passed. Qin Mengxue waited and waited in bed, even rehearsing in her mind the sarcastic remarks she would use to tease Xue Tian'ai when he begged her. But... Xue Tian'ai, lying down on the floor, still didn't make a single sound.

Could this jerk really hold out for this long? Shouldn't he be coming over to beg her by now? Qin Mengxue thought to herself in secret.

Yet another half-hour slipped away, and there was still not a peep from Xue Tian'ai's direction...

Hey, hey, hey! What is going on here?

Lying in bed, Qin Mengxue felt her mind becoming somewhat tangled. According to her expectations, the floor was cold and hard, and Xue Tian'ai didn't even have a pillow—he should have surrendered in no time at all...

Yet Xue Tian'ai wasn't behaving the way she had imagined. This defied all logic! What on earth was that guy doing?

Qin Mengxue grew conflicted once more. Should she go and check on what state Xue Tian'ai was in? But what if this was just another little scheme of that jerk's? If she went over to look, wouldn't she be falling right into his trap again?

Time waits for no one. Another half-hour passed. Two full hours had now elapsed since Qin Mengxue turned off the lights and lay down in bed.

Yet there was still not a single sound from Xue Tian'ai, as if no such person existed in the entire room at all.

Finally, Qin Mengxue could no longer bear it. Wrapped tightly in her quilt, she slowly crept to the edge of the bed and looked down at Xue Tian'ai lying on the floor.

She was instantly dumbfounded. Xue Tian'ai was curled up slightly, lying on his side, eyes tightly shut, breathing very softly and lightly while resting his head on one of his arms.

Was this guy actually asleep? You've got to be kidding me!

Looking at Xue Tian'ai's steady breathing and his completely unchanged expression, Qin Mengxue felt a sudden wave of bewilderment. She had no idea what she should do anymore...

Staring blankly and helplessly at Xue Tian'ai's sleeping face, Qin Mengxue was soon overtaken by drowsiness and drifted off to sleep, feeling all hazy and fuzzy.

However, Qin Mengxue's sleep this time was exceptionally poor, and she even began to have nightmares.

In her dream, she was being hunted down once again. Numerous masked figures in black wielding large sabers chased after her, intent on taking her life, leaving her with no choice but to run and run endlessly.

The street she fled through was unimaginably long, seeming to stretch on without end... The pedestrians around her remained entirely indifferent to her desperate escape and the masked, blade-wielding assassins trailing right behind her.

Being a woman, her stamina eventually failed her. Before long, the assassins cornered her into a dead end, raised their massive blades high, and moved to hack her down.

At the exact moment the blade was about to strike Qin Mengxue, just as she closed her eyes and resigned herself to her fate, a figure suddenly darted forward, shielding her with his own body. The heavy blade struck that figure directly, and blood instantly splattered everywhere!

Blood sprayed across Qin Mengxue's face. When she managed to make out the figure who had taken the blow for her, her eyes widened in terror: "Ti... Tian'ai?"

"It's good... wife, you're safe, that's great..." Fresh blood trickled from the corner of Xue Tian'ai's mouth as he managed a forced smile for her.

In the next instant, however, Xue Tian'ai's body went limp, and he collapsed.

"Ti... Tian'ai?" Qin Mengxue lunged forward desperately, wanting to catch Xue Tian'ai's limp body, but... she grasped at empty air. The moment Xue Tian'ai hit the ground, his body suddenly vanished into thin air. The masked assassins pursuing her had also disappeared without a trace.

The surrounding scenery underwent a drastic, world-shattering transformation, turning pitch black as if she were the only person left in the entire universe!

"Tian'ai... sob, Tian'ai... Where are you? Where on earth are you?" Qin Mengxue wandered through the absolute darkness, sobbing bitterly.

In that vast, dark world, she was utterly alone—cold, lonely, and terrified. A multitude of complex emotions brewed within her heart.

"Sob, Tian'ai, stop playing hide-and-seek with me, won't you? Come out and keep me company... I'm so scared, I'm really so scared..." Qin Mengxue continued walking, her eyes swollen from crying.

Suddenly, the ground beneath Qin Mengxue's feet vanished, giving her an immediate sensation of falling.

At that exact moment, however, the pitch-black, freezing world began to crumble. A beam of light pierced through the cracks of the dark realm, catching Qin Mengxue's falling body, and instantly, she felt a familiar warmth...

The bone-deep cold and panic she had felt moments before melted away without a trace under the invasion of that warmth.

Simultaneously, Qin Mengxue opened her arms and embraced that beam of warm light tightly.