Chapter 220: Kissed Her
Chapter 220: Kissed Her
"But I didn’t!" Xiang Ling was quick to remind the man. "I just told you that the person you saw with me was actually the Crown Princess. You can’t possibly be still mad at me. I did nothing wrong!"
Despite knowing that he misunderstood the situation, Xin Cheng didn’t feel his anger dissipating at all. "You-" He started speaking, but before he could have spoken more than a word, Xiang Ling decided to intervene.
"You can’t possibly be jealous of a woman now. Are you?" She demanded while staring into his eyes.
Xin Cheng immediately looked away and closed his eyes while letting out a long sigh. The very next moment, he almost buried his face against her shoulder as all the anger started leaving his body. He was suddenly looking like a man who was carrying way too much burden on his shoulders and that sight of him tore through Xiang Ling’s heart.
Before his face could have touched her shoulder though, he took a step back and put some space between the two of them. "I... please accept my apology for overstepping the line just now. I... I just lost it for a moment." He was looking at anywhere but at her as he apologized to her, surprising Xiang Ling in the process.
Slowly, she nodded her head in acceptance of his apology and watched him looking around the area as if he was trying to decide what to do next.
"Let me take you out." He finally decided and moved to put more distance between the two as they were still standing way too close to each other.
Before Xiang Ling could have realized what she was doing, her hand had already reached out to grab his sleeve which stopped him before he could move out of her reach.
Xin Cheng looked just as surprised by her action as she was. His questioning gaze studied her face to learn what she was up to, but thankfully, he didn’t try to move away, nor he removed her hand that was still holding his sleeve.
"What?" He asked.
"Can... can we stay here for a while?" Even Xiang Ling didn’t know she wanted that until the request made its way out of her mouth. But once it did, she knew that she wanted to stay with him inside his space for a bit longer.
From the surprised look that appeared on Xin Cheng’s face, it was clear that he wasn’t expecting such a request from her. Shaking his head in rejection, he quickly replied, "We can’t. Let’s get out of here."
He was ready to bring her out immediately, but Xiang Ling’s hold on his sleeve tightened as she kept him from moving. "Xin Cheng, please. Just for a little while?"
Noticing the plea in her eyes and the way she was looking at him, Xin Cheng felt all his high walls crumbling down. While every cell in his body was screaming at him to run as far away from this woman as possible, his heart forbade him from taking even half a step away from her.
"We can’t stay here." He finally found the courage within him to decline her request. Then in a much softer tone, he added, "It’s dangerous for you."
"I know," Xiang Ling replied and stepped closer, almost forcing the man to stop breathing in panic. She stopped merely a breath away from him and looked up into his deep crimson eyes that were looking almost black at the moment.
"Why are you so stupid?" He suddenly questioned. If it had been some other time, Xiang Ling would definitely have felt offended at the term, but not this time.
"It’s because of you." She replied instead. "You make me want to know how a normal moment with you will feel like. It’s your fault that I’m like this. You are the one who made my heart yearn for you." Never would she have expected to confess her feelings for him in such a way, but as it was already done, she felt no regrets.
She waited for him to react and when he finally did, she felt herself melting. His hand came to cup her cheek and his thumb lightly brushed against her skin as he asked, "What should I do with you?"
"Kiss me."
The words threw both Xiang Ling and Xin Cheng off guard. The latter seemed like he was splashed with a bucket of cold water that finally pulled him out of the trance he had just lost himself into. But just as he was about to pull away from her, Xiang Ling grabbed his arms and stopped him again.
"Don’t go! I have never asked for anything from you. Instead, I always tried to be understanding towards your behavior and every decision you made. I promise to not ask for anything from you in the future as well. But... can you please fulfill this one request of mine?"
She took another step toward him, leaving barely any space between them. Gazing up into his deep eyes, she continued, "Please, Xin Cheng? Let me keep this moment as a sweet memory. Don’t make me look anymore pathetic by making me beg for a moment of happiness with you."
With every passing second, with every word that left her lips, Xin Cheng felt his resolve breaking. After staying strong in his decision for so long, he never expected to find himself losing so quickly in front of her.
"What if this will make us even more distant in future? Things will never be same between us after this." He tried to threaten her so that she would back down. But it seemed like she had made her mind.
"We were never close to begin with. From the very day I arrived in the Mortal Realm, we have always been the most distant despite living together. Can things become even worse than this?"
Xin Cheng didn’t have an answer for her question. So, he did that one thing she wanted the most from him. He closed the remaining space between their faces and... kissed her.