The setting sun was like fire, pulling the white cat's pupils into a thin line, which reflected Li Ruoshui's curious face.

No matter what age or time and space a cat is, Tsundere will always be their protective color, but this white cat is obviously an exception.

Anyone can lick it, anyone can rub it, as long as they can give enough money.

The proprietress of Tofufang collected the money, and repeatedly assured Li Ruoshui that the cat would never despise others.

"Don't worry, if it doesn't want to, you can take the money back as much as you can."

With this guarantee, Li Ruoshui walked to the inn with the cat in his arms, and knocked on the door a few steps away.

There is no response inside.

After struggling for a while, Li Ruoshui decided to go in and have a look. What if he didn't answer because he just didn't want to talk to her?

"I'm in."

Li Ruoshui touched the cat's head and gently opened the door with his elbow.

His door never seemed to be locked and could be easily opened every time.

Li Ruoshui and Maomao stuck their heads out together, smelled a fresh scent of wood chips, and swept around the bedroom. There was no one on the bed, and the whole room looked empty...

Except in the center of the room.

The pure white puppet threads hung clearly from the beams, dyed a touch of red by the setting sun, and the reflected shadows were cast on the windowsill, densely packed like a net.

Many puppets are hung by these puppet lines and stand on wooden tables. They face the door with their backs facing each other, their heads are next to their heads, their limbs hang down naturally, and they are also dyed with the color of the setting sun.

From the back, it looks like the little dough people are watching the sunset. They stand together obediently with the bright color of wood, and they look very cute.

"The craft has improved."

Li Ruoshui walked in with great interest. She still remembered the puppets that Lu Zhiyao made when she was a child. It was weird and ugly, and there was a little cuteness in the ugly. It was far less cute than it looked now.

She walked around to the pile of puppets, her praised smile froze at the corner of her mouth, and she scratched the cat fur subconsciously.

The front of this pile of puppets is simply too ugly, and they all look the same, which is simply doubly ugly.

"This is really..."

The cute doll from the back is really impressive.

They had mung beans shoved into their eyes, and because they didn't match the size, it looked like they were about to be squeezed out the next moment.

The mouth was also ground into thick waves, and the eyebrows were carved even harder, as thick as a crayon Shin-chan.

"Why do you look so ugly."

Ugly to the point of not even having that weird cuteness at the end.

Li Ruoshui moved away a bit, shook his head, his disgust was beyond words.

She left and continued to wander around the room, finding a lot of leftover wood in the corner.

It stands to reason that Lu Zhiyao has lived here for a long time, but apart from these dolls and wood, there is no trace of anyone living in the room.

"No wonder they don't close the door. Just these strange puppets can scare off many people."

Li Ruoshui looked around attentively, maybe it was because he had just hit hard, and the cat in his hand jumped from her arms without looking at it.

"do not!"

Seeing the white cat jumping onto the table lightly, Li Ruoshui's heart also jumped to his throat.

Although these puppets that look like strange legions are ugly, they are also made by Lu Zhizao. Maybe they are very precious. If they are broken because of her, why not?

The white cat circled the puppet on the table, sniffing every now and then, looking very curious.

Li Ruoshui approached it quietly, and while praying in his heart, he stretched out his hands.

"Meow"

The shopkeeper swore that the obedient white cat jumped away, and Li Ruoshui, who couldn't stop, jumped on the pile of ugly and scary puppets.

Several of them fell on the table, and the mung beans that were stuck in their eyes also collapsed, staring at her with empty eyes.

"Scary!"

Li Ruoshui was frightened by their stares, and reflexively waved them away, and the hanging puppet lines were knotted and tangled together.

There were also a few wrapped around her wrists.

She loosened the puppet string on her wrist and continued to catch the white cat.

"Don't jump on the flowerpot, what if it breaks?"

The cat seemed to think she wanted to play with it, and after a few meows, it jumped onto the vase again, with a light posture, but the vase wobbled a lot and was in danger of falling to the ground at any time.

"I have no money to pay for these things!"

Li Ruoshui regretted so much in her heart that she shouldn't have let the cat slip away just now, no, she shouldn't have come in.

"It's better to come to me by yourself, I won't be so gentle when he catches him later."

The cat couldn't understand the words, so he jumped on the table again and went around to the puppets. Its pupils formed a thin line and looked into the puppets.

"Meow!"

Probably because it was ugly, it slammed the puppet away, and the slender puppet lines flew all over the room and became tangled.

Li Ruoshui: "..."

She brought the cat to coax people, not to make things worse for her.

"Tomorrow I'll go get my money back."

The cold moonlight sprinkled on the street, shining on the white walls and black tiles, and the gray brick floor cast the shadows of the trees.

It was late at night, there were not many pedestrians on the street, and it was time for the inn to close, but Xiao Er still insisted on staying at the door. He knew that a guest came back very late.

When he was lying on the counter and was about to fall asleep, a white figure appeared at the door. He leaned on a blind stick and walked to the stairs with a light car.

"Young master." Xiao Er stopped him: "The girl came to see you today."

Lu Zhizhi paused and turned his head slightly to "look" at him, with a gentle temperament: "Is she gone?"

"She went upstairs, but she didn't pay attention to whether she left... Would you like me to accompany you upstairs to have a look?"

"No."

Lu Zhi was walking upstairs with a blind cane, and the voice was a little erratic: "She's probably gone."

He walked to the second floor, stopped when he approached the door, put his right hand on the thin sword beside him, and gently pushed open the door.

The smell of wood in the room seemed to be much stronger. When entering the door, could still feel a lot of loose and soft wood chips under feet. After hearing the breathing of the person in the room, Lu Zhi moved away from the hand holding the sword.

He habitually raised the corners of his lips and walked forward. Just as he was about to say something, he was suddenly caught by a thread on his cheek, stopping his steps.

"..."

Lu Zhi took a step back, reached out and touched a pair of knotted puppet lines.

Now he understands.

If you guessed correctly, there should be puppet strings all over the room by now, and there's no way to go forward.

"How many threads are wrapped around you?"

There was no echo in the room. He listened carefully again. His breathing was long and his heartbeat was slow. He seemed so peaceful in this room.

"Asleep."

Lu Zhizhi put the blind stick aside, fumbled for the line in front of him, and slowly approached the bedside.

The robe on his body had long been thrown away by him, revealing the black girdle that was tightly restrained inside. Against the background of the moonlight, it felt a little less soft and more cold.

At this time, Li Ruoshui was sitting on his feet, leaning against the bed, tilting his head and sleeping soundly.

There were a lot of puppet strings wrapped around her body, not too tight, but enough to restrain her movements.

Li Ruoshui was trapped in the line early because of catching cats, and she had to wait for Lu Chiao to come back anyway, so she simply slept here.

Lu Zhi stood in front of her, the black shadow completely shrouded her, then he reached forward and grabbed the dangling puppet wires.

"You should be taught a lesson."

With a chuckle, he retracted the hand he wanted to help her, and let the threads wrap around her.

There were a few soft sounds from the roof, and when he turned to leave, he grabbed the falling white cat and stopped it from jumping on Li Ruoshui's head.

"Where did it come from?"

He grabbed the back of the white cat's neck, groped to the window, untied the thin wire on his body, and sent it to the window sill with a soft voice.

"Let's go, there is one in the room that has made a mess here."

The white cat is very conscious, it probably understands that he spent money, and jumped into the house after being sent to the windowsill.

Perhaps the smell of blood on Lu Zhiyao's body was too strong. It was not too close to him, but it was also within a few steps.

"Then you have to be good."

It was rare for a cat to be willing to stay with him, and he didn't stop him too much. After speaking softly, he went to wash his hands.

He had a good time today, but the smell of blood on his body was a little thicker.

After all, the blood of such a foul-smelling person is always dirty, and even throwing away the robe can't dispel the stench, and he has to change his clothes.

There were no lights in the room, but it was no different to him.

Lu Zhiyao walked to the bedside after washing his hands, found his robe from the luggage, and put it on the puppet wire that was worn around the room.

He stood beside Li Ruoshui, reached out and touched his waist, the buckle made a soft click, and the black girdle was released, and the outline of the waistline was also hidden in the scattered robes.

The window had just been closed by him, and only the pale moonlight penetrated into the room.

The butterfly bone on Lu Zhi's back was exposed in the moonlight, and then it was covered by black hair. The patterned, blood-stained trousers also slipped to the ground, revealing his well-proportioned calf.

The white cat squatted in the corner with its head huddled, and meowed several times after licking its paws.

Li Ruoshui, who had had enough sleep, was awakened by these sounds, and opened his eyes leisurely after licking his lips.

As soon as he opened his eyes, what caught his eye was a gleam of white, not only the skin under the moonlight, but also the white tan on his waist.

The Epiphyllum was too realistic, as if it really bloomed on him under the moonlight. It was obviously pure white, but it had some confusing flavors.

But before she could take a closer look, she was covered by white clothes.

"woke up?"

Lu Zhiyao was sorting her clothes, as if she didn't know what she saw.

Li Ruoshui bit his lip and swallowed the "wow" from his mouth, so as not to destroy the current pure and peaceful atmosphere.

"I just opened my eyes and didn't see anything."

He raised a smile, took out the long hair bound in his clothes, and spread it out behind him.

"Your heart seems to be beating fast."

...Sometimes she really thinks that listening too well is not a good thing.

After changing clothes, the smell of blood faded a lot. Lu Zhiyao pushed the door to the corridor with satisfaction, and knocked on the stairs.

The little Er who was cleaning up stuck his head out from the stairs: "Is there anything else the guest officer?"

Lu Zhiyao listened to the voice and threw the silver into Xiao Er's arms: "I'll bring you some food and hot water later."

"Good."

When he returned to the room again, Li Ruoshui was unraveling the white lines on his body. She could only move these lines in small steps, and she couldn't do large movements at all.

And the initiator of this situation is squatting not far away, meowing obediently.

"The threads are so tight."

Li Ruoshui thought he didn't know his situation, and said it out loud deliberately.

Lu Zhizhi raised his eyebrows, half-knelt on the ground to search for the scattered puppets, and changed the topic quite naturally.

"Why did you bring the cat to me? Why aren't you in the Zheng residence?"

Li Ruoshui glanced angrily at the cat beside him.

"The matter of Zheng Mansion is settled, of course I'm leaving, but there is still a little thing to wrap up, and I may have to go back for a day."

"That's it."

Lu Zhiyao responded lightly and continued to look for the puppet with his head down, as if he wasn't interested in her answer.

"Go a little to the left, there's one there."

Li Ruoshui moved his stiffly entangled hands, and gave him a direction by the way: "And who can I go to if I don't look for you."

She doesn't know about other people, but Lu Zhiyao will definitely love to hear such words.

Sure enough, he raised his lips and picked up the puppet.

Lu Zhiyao raised the puppet in his hand and shook it at her, his eyebrows and eyes softened a lot, and a few strands of broken hair hanging down on his eyes made him even more gentle.

"Do you think it looks good?"

There was only one mung bean left in the eyes of the doll in his hand, his limbs were hanging down, and his head was dangling with his hands, looking weird and terrifying.

Of course it's not good-looking, and it can even be called an ugly character. If it was carved according to someone, that person would cry to death if he knew it.

"It's so dark now that I can't see clearly."

Li Ruoshui blocked her back with objective reasons. Between her conscience and perfunctory, she chose neutrality.

Lu Zhizhi walked to the table, put the puppet on the table, and sighed slightly: "It doesn't look like it."

He heard Li Ruoshui's excuse, and even heard the faint embarrassment in it, probably because he felt ugly.

"...Really don't come and help me solve it, even if you throw a knife at me."

Lu Zhiyao tugged on the puppet string in the air, poured himself a cup of tea, and didn't reply to her.

Li Ruoshui: "..."

After chatting with him so much before, thought it was all right, but it seemed that he was still angry.

It's hard to coax.

Seeing him playing with puppets in silence, Li Ruoshui suddenly had a question—

Does he know he's angry?