SES Chapter 232 Part 1

Chapter 232

Mu Dai rushed forward without hesitation and threw herself into Luo Ren’s arms.

Luo Ren hesitated for a moment, then lowered his head to look at her.

Mu Dai looked back at him. There was so much she wanted to say. Compared to when they were back home, Luo Ren seemed different now—darker, thinner, his presence sharper and more defiant. There was a hardness about him, nothing gentle.

But no matter what, she was overjoyed. She rested her head against his chest and wrapped her arms around him.

She heard Luo Ren murmur, “I must be dreaming.”

Dreams aren’t always absurd chaos—some people solve problems in dreams, some compose poetry, and some even realize they’re dreaming while still inside it.

He gave a small laugh, almost like a sigh of relief. His arm tightened around her waist, pulling her closer. His hands slipped under the hem of her shirt and grabbed the fabric. Before Mu Dai could react, he seemed to be helping her undress—yanking it up in one swift motion—but not fully removing it. Halfway up, he twisted the fabric into a loop so only her nose and mouth were exposed, covering her eyes and trapping her arms inside.

Darkness fell over her vision. Her body was suddenly pushed down, her back hitting the cold ground, making her arch reflexively. Her waistband loosened—Luo Ren had undone her pants and tugged them down. She panicked and struggled, but the more she fought, the more tangled she became. Her arms wouldn’t come free, her legs felt bound.

His weight pressed down on her. He kissed behind her ear, along her neck. One hand pushed aside her bra and roamed freely across her chest.

Did Luo Ren think she was just some erotic dream? Sweat beaded on her forehead. Her body reacted despite herself—trembling, lips going dry—but her mind stayed clear. When he kissed her lips, she steeled herself and bit down hard.

He jerked back with a pained hiss. Mu Dai seized the moment, rolling over and sitting up. Through the fabric over her eyes, she could barely make out where he was; she drove her elbow back into him and rolled away, scrambling to her feet.

She stumbled immediately—her pants were still around her ankles. Regaining her balance, she hurriedly pulled her shirt back on, kicked off the half-removed pants, picked them up, and threw them at him. “Who told you to do that?!”

She didn’t dislike intimacy with him—but this time felt like coercion. Being blindfolded, not even allowed to see, filled her with anger.

Luo Ren couldn’t hear her words, but from her movements, he could tell she was furious. He looked down at the pants crumpled at his feet and bent to pick them up.

The damp jungle wind swept through. Barefoot and bare-legged, she shivered slightly in the cool air. Luo Ren came over, handed her the pants with a faint smile, then turned back and sat on a tree stump. Resting his rifle against himself, he casually blew across the barrel and wiped it with a piece of deerskin.

Mu Dai quickly fixed her clothes and walked over. Kneeling halfway in front of him, she tried to get closer. Luo Ren glanced at her, expression unreadable. When she leaned in, he leaned back without ceremony, tilting his head aside and swinging the rifle between them as a barrier.

He had his pride—if she didn’t want to be touched, fine, he wouldn’t touch her. But she shouldn’t come teasing him afterward. He wasn’t going to play along.

Mu Dai almost laughed, like she’d discovered another side of him no one knew. Ignoring his resistance, she reached out and forced his head to face her.

“There are some things I can do that you can’t,” she said.

She couldn’t just let him treat her like a passing dream—someone to satisfy his needs and then forget upon waking. That wouldn’t do. She was Mu Dai.

She picked up his hand.

Luo Ren seemed amused and let her.

Mu Dai pulled out the necklace from beneath her clothes and guided his hand to the pearl whistle hanging from it.

Even though she knew he couldn’t hear her, she spoke each word solemnly.

“Luo Xiaodao, I’m your girlfriend.”

“No matter how many possibilities there are, don’t fall in love with someone else.”

“Not ‘don’t’—you can’t. I’m not asking. I’m telling you.”

Her voice turned fierce. “If you don’t find me, I won’t go easy on you. You don’t get to flirt with me and then go chasing new lovers in a thousand other possibilities—no way.”

Luo Ren couldn’t hear her. His brow furrowed slightly as his fingers traced the whistle. It was a sailor’s whistle, clear and piercing enough to cut through storms at sea. He remembered owning one just like it—but didn’t recall a pearl attached.

In the darkness, the pearl’s smooth surface gleamed with threads of gold—soft and feminine, strangely familiar, yet utterly out of place in the jungle.

Mu Dai wrapped her arms around his neck and slowly leaned into his embrace. He couldn’t help but hold her.

Her body was slender yet soft, fitting perfectly against him, as though this embrace had always been meant for her.

She murmured, “Luo Xiaodao, you once said you didn’t like hugging people, because your chest and abdomen hold vital organs. If someone in your arms had bad intentions and stabbed you, that’d be the end.”

“Do you remember what I said back then?”

She sighed softly, burying her face in his neck.

His scent, his embrace—unlike anyone else’s. Even if her eyes were covered and she had no light at all, she could still recognize him.

When you love someone and grow used to holding them, your body—your sense of touch and smell—remembers. It tells you this person is different from all the others.

She guided his hand to her collarbone. There was a scar there, along with a tattoo—his initials inked into her skin.

His hand stiffened. His fingers traced slowly along the scar before his warm palm covered it.

Mu Dai gazed at him gently.

I can’t make you see my face or hear my voice, she thought. But between lovers, countless feelings and heartbeats go beyond sight and sound, don’t they?

Luo Ren lowered his head and slowly kissed her lips.

Mu Dai closed her eyes.

His movements were light—soft and slow at first, then deepening with an unavoidable intensity. The damp breath of the jungle surrounded them; the wind rustled unseen leaves like waves rising and falling, whispering.

For a fleeting moment, she thought she heard him say, “My girl.”

Her heart leapt. She opened her eyes in surprise—but suddenly the wind roared. Luo Ren, the jungle, the endless night—all twisted and shattered in an instant.

Mu Dai tried to scream, but the gale shoved the sound back down her throat. She lost her footing and was hurled forward, tumoring through the air again and again, as if pulled by an invisible force.