Lost in Her

[A Different Kind of Mutual Pampering]

She realized something was wrong with Shi Sheng on a snowy night.

She held the rag doll Chu Zhixing had given her in her left hand,

a blood-dripping hatchet in her right,

and stood among three horribly mangled corpses.

She looked back at him and smiled. "A Xing, they'll never bully you again."

Chu Zhixing felt colder than ever before.

He struggled toward her one step at a time,

took the hatchet with a trembling hand, wiped the blood from her face,

and managed to force a smile. "Mm. Shi Sheng is so good to me."

*

They say that when the disgraced Crown Prince returned to the Eastern Palace, he brought back a girl who wasn't right in the head.

He ate and slept with her, cared for her personally, and forbade anyone from approaching her.

Not long afterward, the Crown Princess chosen by the Emperor died, and someone identified Shi Sheng as the murderer.

On the night the Imperial Guards came to take Shi Sheng away, the usually gentle and obedient Crown Prince launched a coup. The Emperor died mysteriously that very night.

Later, when the new emperor ascended the throne,

the ministers watched as he led a girl to the Dragon Throne and seated her beside him.

He coaxed her gently: "Be good, Shi Sheng. Wait here for me a moment. We'll go home soon, all right?"

Shi Sheng lowered her head and played with the most exquisite cloth doll, nodding obediently. "Hurry, A Xing."

He was once the moon. Then he fell in love with the abyss, and willingly sank into the mire to drown there with her.

Blurb written on 2021/10/28, screenshot saved

Cover artist: Miao Jiang from Daguan Garden

Theme: Saving each other is love, and falling together is love too. Don't try to define love