One hour later.
Clothes were scattered messily all over the floor.
The sounds of heavy breathing that had filled the room had finally subsided. Quan Xiaoyu lay quietly in Chu Tian’s arms, listening to Chu Tian’s strong heartbeat. Only at this moment did he finally feel that everything was real.
One of Chu Tian’s arms cradled Quan Xiaoyu’s head, while his other hand held Quan Xiaoyu’s tightly. Their fingers were interlocked, entwined together, neither willing to let go.
Chu Tian lowered his head slightly and kissed the top of Quan Xiaoyu’s head once again.
“Does it hurt? Now.”
Quan Xiaoyu’s head rested against Chu Tian’s chest as he gently shook it, then whispered, “It doesn’t hurt. I just kind of want to take a shower.”
Someone’s mild cleanliness obsession had flared up again.
“Perfect.” Chu Tian rested his head lightly beside Quan Xiaoyu’s cheek, letting their faces touch. “Let’s wash in the little river in your space.”
He said it with a wicked grin.
Ever since Quan Xiaoyu had officially revealed his space to the other three, the two of them occasionally talked about what was inside whenever they were alone. So Chu Tian already knew a little about the space.
“Really? Should we actually try it?” Quan Xiaoyu still sounded hesitant.
“Trust me. It’ll be fine.” Chu Tian kissed him again. “We’re one now. There’s no reason your space would reject me.”
Those words instantly made Quan Xiaoyu’s body heat up again. He hurriedly shoved certain thoughts out of his mind.
“Mm… okay. I… what should I do?”
“I’ll hold you. Just do the same thing you normally do when you bring other objects inside. Try bringing me in the same way,” Chu Tian instructed.
“Okay.”
With that, Quan Xiaoyu closed his eyes.
A moment later, both of their minds went blank for several seconds at the same time.
When they opened their eyes again, the two of them were lying in the middle of the courtyard inside the space, still maintaining the same position they had been in on the bed.
The only difference was that the grass beneath them was rather prickly.
The space was brightly lit, and having two naked people lying there made things a little awkward.
No.
Perhaps the only one who was embarrassed was Quan Xiaoyu.
Chu Tian displayed an unparalleled level of shamelessness at times like this. He calmly pulled Quan Xiaoyu to his feet and proceeded to thoroughly look him over from head to toe. He only stopped when Quan Xiaoyu became too embarrassed and pushed him away.
Only then did Chu Tian cheerfully begin looking around.
With his sharp eyes, he quickly spotted the little river outside the courtyard.
He still remembered how much Quan Xiaoyu loved water, so he immediately dragged him toward the river.
“Splash! Splash!”
The two of them jumped into the water. The cool, refreshing water instantly soaked through their entire bodies, bringing indescribable comfort.
After pulling Quan Xiaoyu around in the water and playing for a while, Chu Tian suddenly realized something.
“Is this the water we drink?”
Quan Xiaoyu burst out laughing.
Chu Tian’s expression, as though someone had suddenly stepped on his tail, successfully amused him.
He merely laughed without answering. Then he turned around, dove into the water, and quickly swam away, leaving Chu Tian to puzzle over it.
That only made Chu Tian stop puzzling.
He immediately dove underwater and went after him.
The two of them played around in the water for quite a while, until the chase finally ended with Chu Tian trapping Quan Xiaoyu in his arms.
After catching him, Chu Tian unhappily bit down hard on Quan Xiaoyu’s neck.
“You’ve learned to be bad!”
Quan Xiaoyu laughed and dodged him. After all, he didn’t share Chu Tian and the doctor’s peculiar sense of humor.
In the end, he finally explained, “The water we drink isn’t here. There’s a spring at the end of the woods. I’ll take you there later.”
“Oh.”
Only after Quan Xiaoyu said this did Chu Tian notice the woods. He was immediately attracted by the tiny points of shimmering light flickering among the treetops.
He stared at the treetops in amazement.
“What are those?”
Quan Xiaoyu followed his gaze and only then discovered that the glowing specks that had disappeared the last time were now back.
“I don’t know what they are, but they seem to have saved me before. That time at the villa, I almost mutated.”
“Oh, oh.”
Chu Tian nodded. He remembered that incident. Quan Xiaoyu had suddenly gone berserk, and the first human he had ever used his psychic abilities against had been Quan Xiaoyu.
“They look pretty amazing. I’ll find a chance to see whether they have any other effects. What’s in the woods? Fruit? Can we eat it?”
Chu Tian had discovered yet another new thing.
Quan Xiaoyu became embarrassed.
Although he looked like the master of this space, he actually didn’t understand it very well. On top of that, he hadn’t had a chance to enter it alone recently while they were traveling, so there were many changes even he knew nothing about.
For example, the young, unripe fruits that had once grown in the woods were now hanging from the trees, bright red and looking remarkably healthy. They looked quite delicious, too.
“I don’t know. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in here,” Quan Xiaoyu answered softly.
Chu Tian was speechless for a moment.
He finally understood what it meant to “sit on a mountain of treasure without realizing it.”
He sighed, pulled Quan Xiaoyu onto shore, and headed straight for the fruit trees.
After studying the shape of the trees for a while, Chu Tian carefully picked two fruits and placed them in Quan Xiaoyu’s hands.
“We’ll take them out later and study them.”
“Oh.”
Quan Xiaoyu nodded.
The two of them then continued deeper into the woods, looking for the spring Quan Xiaoyu had mentioned.
When they reached the spring, however, Chu Tian was immediately captivated by the multicolored fruit tree.
He completely forgot about the spring and stood in front of the tree, carefully examining it and clicking his tongue in amazement.
The same tree, with seven-colored fruits.
This time, Chu Tian didn’t reach out to pick any.
A single tree standing beside the spring had produced exactly seven fruits, which was clearly different from the abundance of fruit growing throughout the woods.
At a glance, it was obviously something extremely precious.
So Chu Tian merely looked at it without touching.
His emotions were extremely excited now. Unlike Quan Xiaoyu, who seemed almost completely uninterested in the place, Chu Tian was filled with curiosity about everything here.
To him, this place was like a whole new continent, with countless secrets waiting for him to uncover.
Chu Tian took a deep breath, walked over, and pulled Quan Xiaoyu into his arms once again.
“You have to promise me that you absolutely cannot let a fifth person know about the space.”
Quan Xiaoyu looked at Chu Tian in confusion, unable to understand why he was bringing this up again.
Chu Tian smiled bitterly as he explained, “This place is like a gigantic treasure. It has the power to tempt people’s hearts. Once they discover its allure, I believe many people will instinctively develop the desire to possess it.”
He buried his face deeply into the crook of Quan Xiaoyu’s neck and murmured, “If this weren’t yours, perhaps even I wouldn’t be able to resist it. So, if possible, don’t bring anyone else in. Faced with such enormous temptation, not everyone can withstand the test.”
“So you passed the test?”
Quan Xiaoyu looked at him seriously.
Chu Tian froze.
He had spent all that effort reminding Quan Xiaoyu to protect himself, and yet Quan Xiaoyu’s attention was focused on what Chu Tian himself thought?
Looking into Quan Xiaoyu’s earnest, unwavering eyes, Chu Tian’s heart, which had been somewhat restless after being tempted by everything around him, slowly settled down.
“Yes. I passed the test.”
His response sounded almost like a vow.
Chu Tian answered seriously, then kissed the corner of Quan Xiaoyu’s eye, as though sealing the vow with a mark.
“Then that’s all that matters.”
Quan Xiaoyu smiled.
It was a radiant smile. He rarely smiled like this, but at this moment, his smile was dazzling.
For some reason, that smile deeply moved Chu Tian, and his eyes actually grew slightly moist.
This idiot!
Only now did Chu Tian understand even more deeply that compared with all those external possessions, what Quan Xiaoyu cared about more was his heart.
In truth, Quan Xiaoyu’s love was completely different from his outward coldness and dullness.
His love was passionate and crazy.
A love that one was willing to give everything for—could that possibly not be crazy?
“Ah…”
Chu Tian let out a deep sigh and held Quan Xiaoyu tightly in his arms.
“You’re so stupid. How am I supposed to protect you?”
This wasn’t the first time Chu Tian had called him stupid, and Quan Xiaoyu didn’t really mind. He seemed to remain immersed in the happiness of hearing that Chu Tian had “passed the test.”
“I’ll show you the supplies. I secretly stored enough to last us a very long time.”
Quan Xiaoyu happily took Chu Tian’s hand and led him back toward the courtyard.
As they crossed the river again, Chu Tian looked at the school of medium-sized, unfamiliar fish swimming in the water and casually asked Quan Xiaoyu,
“Can we eat the fish in here?”
“There aren’t any fish in the water…”
Quan Xiaoyu turned his head toward him, but before he could finish speaking, his voice abruptly stopped.
“Fish… Where did these fish come from?”
He stared at the school of fish swimming through the water in astonishment. It took him a long moment before he managed to say that.
Chu Tian quickly caught the important part of his words.
“There weren’t any fish here before?”
Quan Xiaoyu continued staring wide-eyed as he nodded.
He was absolutely certain. He had been in this river many times before. The water was extraordinarily clear and transparent. If there had been fish, he would have noticed them long ago.
But now, there really were fish.
And no one knew where they had suddenly come from.
“Maybe there were fish eggs here before, and they only hatched recently.”
Chu Tian made a wild guess.
At this point, he didn’t bother analyzing the logic too closely. This space was simply too mysterious, with too many unknowns. It wasn’t something they could figure out in a short amount of time.