After Transmigrating Into the Book, I Picked up the Protagonist-Shou

Perhaps due to their close proximity, Xie Shuci caught a strong scent of blood and a faint fragrance emanating from the youth’s body.

Their chests pressed tightly together, their breaths entangled. Xie Shuci could almost feel the exquisite muscle lines on the youth’s body. Despite his seemingly slender frame, he was not lacking in muscles.

“You…” Xie Shuci leaned against his shoulder, about to speak, but the youth lifted his hand and gripped the back of Xie Shuci’s neck. Xie Shuci felt a sudden pain in his bones, and his body became weak and powerless. His head began to feel dizzy and heavy.

In the moment before losing consciousness, he saw the youth lower his head into the crook of his neck. In no time, both of them fell into a deep sleep.

The moonlight was hazy, and the forest path was silent.

The two bodies lay closely entwined in the grass, while a white horse grazed nearby, its hooves lightly tapping the ground from time to time. Under the dim moonlight, everything was quiet and beautiful.

Xie Shuci didn’t sleep well at all.

It felt as if a heavy load was pressing down on him. Every breath caused pain throughout his body, and his blood circulation felt restricted. He felt as if he had fallen into an icy cellar, with his limbs so cold that they didn’t feel like his own.

In the latter half of the night, he felt the weight on his body disappear in a daze, only to be replaced by a cold and powerful hand gripping his neck. Xie Shuci couldn’t breathe, feeling intense pain in his throat as if it were about to be crushed. But he couldn’t wake up and unconsciously murmured a few words.

“What the fuck… Just came back to life… don’t want to die…”

Xie Shuci didn’t know what he said, but in that moment of hesitation, the hand lightened its grip.

The feeling of hesitation and suffocation was too short, Xie Shuci naturally regarded it as a dream.

“Cough…”

As Xie Shuci regained consciousness, his throat burned with pain. He coughed a couple of times in discomfort, feeling a soreness in the back of his neck. Soon after, his senses returned, and his whole body felt uncomfortable.

Xie Shuci propped himself up with his hands on the soft grass, raising his upper body. Remembering what happened last night, he instinctively looked around, but there was no trace of the youth.

“Damn!” Xie Shuci rubbed his neck. He remembered that the youth had knocked him out last night. That little brat didn’t seem to have much strength and was heavily injured, bleeding from all seven openings. How could he have such a strong grip?

“It hurts like hell.” Xie Shuci muttered, complaining as he pounded his stiff muscles. He wasn’t worried at all about the youth dying. With that much strength, he didn’t look like someone on the verge of death.

In the distance, footsteps sounded. Xie Shuci suddenly turned his head and was surprised to see the youth approaching from the other end of the forest path, holding a bamboo tube in his hand. The bloodstains on his face had been cleaned, and his wounds had been treated with simple care.

“Didn’t he leave?” Xie Shuci looked at him in astonishment.

Xie Shuci took a closer look at the youth and realized something was wrong.

The youth’s footsteps were extremely slow, occasionally reaching out with his hand to feel his surroundings. It was as if he was blindly walking in the dark, his face devoid of emotion but with a slight furrow in his brow. His lips were tightly pressed together, and his eyes seemed covered in a hazy mist.

Xie Shuci saw the boy’s condition and his heart skipped a beat. He quickly got up from the ground and shouted loudly, “What’s wrong with you?”

His voice was not soft, but the young boy seemed not to have heard. He lowered his head and tapped a small stone by the roadside with his toe, confirming that he hadn’t taken the wrong path. Then he reached out and felt for a large tree nearby, following the direction in his memory, taking one step at a time towards Xie Shuci.

Xie Shuci’s breath caught. He suddenly realized something and walked up to the young boy, treading on the soft grass. He waved his hand a few times in front of the boy’s eyes, but the boy’s gaze was dull and unfocused as if he couldn’t see anything.

The gust of wind caused by the movement of his hand blew the hair on the youth’s forehead. The youth’s steps faltered, his brows furrowed, and he probably knew that Xie Shuci was nearby. He opened his mouth to speak but couldn’t produce any sound, so he resorted to frantically swatting around like a headless fly, but he couldn’t catch hold of Xie Shuci.

“This can’t be… Don’t scare me…” Xie Shuci muttered with a pale face, observing the youth’s condition.

The youth no longer possessed the sharpness he had shown when they first met. Even his once awe-inspiring eyes were now devoid of any luster.

He failed to catch hold of Xie Shuci, and cracks appeared on his calm face. His breathing became rapid, and at one moment, Xie Shuci saw a hint of helplessness in his expression. The youth’s behavior resembled that of someone who had lost the only driftwood they grasped after drowning. Now, he looked fragile and pitiful, completely devoid of the arrogance he had shown the day before.

To be honest, Xie Shuci was startled.

He had only come out of the immortal sect a day ago, and he had encountered one unprecedented event after another. Now, his mind was blank, unsure of how to handle the situation before him.

The only conclusion Xie Shuci reached was that the youth couldn’t see or hear. It seemed that he couldn’t even produce any sound.

The youth, unable to catch hold of Xie Shuci, showed a hint of panic on his face. He opened his mouth as if he wanted to shout, but no sound came out. At this moment, he resembled an ordinary sixteen-year-old boy, filled with fear of losing his sight and sound, and a sense of confusion about the future. Seeing this, Xie Shuci felt a heavy heart.

Without time to consider anything else, he stepped forward and firmly grasped the youth’s cold hand, comforting him, “I’m here. Don’t be afraid.”

After saying that, he realized that the youth couldn’t hear his words.

In the instant Xie Shuci approached, the youth reached back and firmly grabbed hold of him. Although he had displayed great strength the day before, Xie Shuci now felt that the hand exerted no force at all and could easily be shaken off.

The blind youth held onto Xie Shuci tightly, as if he had found a piece of driftwood, finally sighing with relief. He slowly placed a bamboo tube into Xie Shuci’s palm, while simultaneously writing a word in his hand with his cold fingertips: “Drink.”

Xie Shuci’s nose tingled, and his empathetic abilities kicked in. He remembered that the youth was only sixteen years old and had been perfectly fine yesterday. Yet, today he was in this state and had gone out of his way to bring him water to drink.

Xie Shuci was a rather sentimental young man who always felt that he should shoulder some sort of mission. In this moment, as the only kind person by the side of the blind youth, he felt that he was needed and had to help the blind youth overcome this difficulty.

After all, in his imagination, the blind youth was a pitiful figure burdened with deep-seated grievances and a blood feud.

Xie Shuci accepted the bamboo tube, took a heroic sip, and, wrote on the palm of the blind youth while reciting, “Can… you… speak?”

The blind youth’s face returned to calm, holding onto Xie Shuci’s hand. Apart from holding Xie Shuci’s hand, he didn’t seem to have much fluctuation or any changes in his body.

After Xie Shuci finished writing, the blind youth shook his head.

Xie Shuci thought as much and wrote again, “What happened to you?”

The blind youth grabbed his hand and wrote in his palm, “Medicine can save lives, yet it is poisonous.”

“Poison? Can it be cured? I have many elixirs. Maybe they can help you,” Xie Shuci wrote, suggesting a possibility.

The blind youth paused for a moment, then shook his head, his lips slightly pursed. In Xie Shuci’s palm, he wrote, “Why did you save me?”

Xie Shuci was about to continue writing when the blind youth suddenly grasped his wrist and gently placed the palm of his right hand on Xie Shuci’s lips.

Xie Shuci stared at him blankly, not understanding what he intended to do.

As the blind youth raised his hand, a faint fragrance filled the air, and the warm palm touched Xie Shuci’s lips. The tingling and unfamiliar sensation on his lips left Xie Shuci stunned.

As a chuuni teenager who had been single his whole life, Xie Shuci was only interested in fictional characters. Although he had received love letters from several girls, he had been influenced by heroic stories and had only desired to accomplish world-shaking and soul-stirring deeds. For example, when thunder resounded at 2 a.m., he would run to the rooftop wearing slippers, hoping to be struck by lightning and awaken his dormant powers. He had done many foolish things like that in junior high school, even thinking that falling in love would only hinder a man’s sword-pulling speed. Later, he became a content creator and was kicked into the BL pit by his fans. He spent his days immersed in watching men fall in love.

But the key point was that it was all just watching! In real life, he had never let anyone touch his lips, especially not such a… such a handsome boy…

Bah! Xie Xiaoci, are you stupid? Is this the only thing you can think of right now?

Xie Shuci hastily shifted his gaze away from the blind youth’s face. Even though the blind youth couldn’t see, he still lowered his head guiltily and slightly increased the distance between his palm and his own lips. Seeing this, the blind youth wrote in his palm, “Speak.”

Then he used his other hand to cover Xie Shuci’s lips again.

Xie Shuci realized what he wanted to do and said in a half-believing manner, “Can you understand what I’m saying?”

He spoke slowly, and his lips lightly brushed against the blind youth’s palm, his breath as gentle as a feather, delicately caressing the blind youth’s skin.

Whether it was Xie Shuci’s imagination or not, he felt the blind youth’s hand tense up for a moment.

The blind youth nodded, indicating that he understood what Xie Shuci was saying.

He placed his other hand on Xie Shuci’s palm, ready to continue writing, but Xie Shuci interrupted, “You don’t have to write. I can tell what you’re saying.”

There was a period in high school when spy movies were popular, and one of the essential skills of spies was lip-reading. Xie Shuci found this skill particularly cool and learned many techniques online. In the end, he managed to learn it with great difficulty. As long as the speech wasn’t too fast, he could understand it.

The blind youth hesitated for a moment, moved his lips, and silently asked, “Why did you save me?”

Xie Shuci understood what the blind youth was saying and a smile curled up at the corner of his mouth. The blind youth felt his smile but looked puzzled, waiting for his response.

Xie Shuci proudly lifted his chin. “I am naturally benevolent and charitable.”

The blind youth fell silent for a moment as if recalling something. A subtle smile appeared on his lips, and he said with deliberate pauses, “Good people don’t receive good rewards.”

Xie Shuci replied nonchalantly, “I didn’t expect any reward. Where I come from, nobody would watch others die without lifting a finger.”

The blind youth pursed his lips, seemingly savoring the meaning behind Xie Shuci’s words. In the end, it was unclear what conclusion he reached, he tried to retract his hand from Xie Shuci’s lips.

But Xie Shuci hadn’t finished asking his questions. Just before the blind youth pulled away, Xie Shuci grabbed his wrist and voluntarily pressed the palm of the blind youth against his lips. He asked, “Apart from not being able to hear, see, or speak, are there any other issues with your body?”

The blind youth’s expression darkened slightly, and he lightly parted his lips, silently saying, “My cultivation has been completely ruined.”

Xie Shuci’s heart sank, and he stared at the blind youth in disbelief.

Cultivation completely ruined… In this world where the strong are respected… cultivation being completely ruined…

Although Xie Shuci had only a vague understanding of the setting in novels and hadn’t read them carefully, he could still comprehend what “cultivation completely ruined” meant in this world, not to mention that the blind youth was still being chased by others.

In contrast to Xie Shuci’s shock, the blind youth quickly regained his composure. He opened his lips and asked, “What is your name?”

Xie Shuci swallowed and lightly brushed his lips against the palm of the blind youth. He answered, “Xie Shuci.”

Feeling that this response wasn’t enough, he wrote his name again in the palm of the blind youth.

The blind youth felt the traces on his palm and his lips curved up slightly. He silently repeated, “So your name is Xie Shuci.”

Xie Shuci was momentarily stunned, feeling that his words held a deeper meaning.