The tent was allocated this way: Long Baobao, Ye Lingyue, and Emperor in one tent; Lan Cai’er and Yan Jiu in another.
As night fell, Ye Lingyue could only take Long Baobao and enter the tent, with Emperor following closely behind.
The "Emperor’s Slaughter" tents were simple, and with Emperor’s tall stature, the tent seemed much smaller once he entered.
Ye Lingyue did not dare to make eye contact with Emperor and quickly shoved Long Baobao into the sleeping bag, urging him to sleep.
But Long Baobao just wouldn’t sleep. He tossed and turned, keeping it up until deep into the night.
"Big Sister Hei, Baobao can’t sleep. Can you sing a song for me?" Long Baobao himself wouldn’t sleep, nor would he let Ye Lingyue sleep. Content orıginally comes from novel fire.net
"I’m tone-deaf; I can’t sing," Ye Lingyue replied irritably; she had been working hard all day and was now sleepy.
"Then, I can’t sleep," Long Baobao blinked and rolled around in the bedding.
At this moment, Ye Lingyue deeply regretted agreeing to accompany Little Steamed Bun to sleep.
"Little ancestor, what will it take for you to sleep?" Ye Lingyue was at a loss.
"If you don’t sing, I won’t sleep. Or maybe, Brother Di could tell me a story?" Seeing that Ye Lingyue refused to sing, Little Steamed Bun dawdled, shifting his hopes to Emperor.
The latter raised his eyebrows, and his dagger-like gaze swiftly flew over, instantly driving away all of Ye Lingyue’s drowsiness.
Long Baobao looked utterly indifferent, like a pig not fearing boiling water.
"Tell a story, please tell a story. In other families, daddies tell stories and mommies sing songs before the kids go to sleep."
"Obnoxious kid, you love listening to songs and stories so much, go home to your parents," Ye Lingyue finally lost her patience.
She was a fool, never having listened to songs or stories during bedtime throughout her life.
This scolding from Ye Lingyue immediately brought tears to Long Baobao’s eyes.
"Baobao doesn’t have a daddy or mommy. They died in an Artifact Refining accident with an alchemy furnace exploding when I was born." Long Baobao’s words stunned both Ye Lingyue and Wu Zhong.
Neither had expected this seemingly innocent and lively child to have been an orphan since infancy.
"Baobao, I’m sorry. I didn’t know," Ye Lingyue’s heart panged with pain.
She thought she had been unfortunate enough.
Little did she know that Long Baobao was even more pitiful; at least she still had her mother, Sister Cai’er, and adoptive parents.
No wonder he ventured out alone at such a young age.
Upon reflection, Ye Lingyue decided to sing a song for Long Baobao.
"I’ll sing ’Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ to you... I don’t remember it very well, I can only sing approximately." Ye Lingyue racked her brain; in her fuzzy memory, there seemed to be such a song, a long time ago, it seemed someone had sung it to her.
"Twinkle, twinkle, little star..."
The girl’s sweet and mellow voice quietly echoed in the tent.
Long Baobao lay on Ye Lingyue’s body, his eyelids growing heavier, and finally, he fell asleep, his little hand clenching Ye Lingyue’s hand, refusing to let go.
The soundly sleeping Long Baobao still murmured.
"Big Sister Hei, Brother Di, let’s never be apart."
Ye Lingyue’s eyes softened, and she patted Little Steamed Bun’s chubby face.
"We will always be together," Ye Lingyue whispered. Seeing that Little Steamed Bun had fallen asleep, she breathed a sigh of relief. It was the latter part of the night, and her turn to keep watch had arrived. As she was about to withdraw her hand, she noticed an intense gaze fixed on her.
Emperor was watching her intently; in his eyes flickered two flames, ready to ignite at any moment, as if they would devour her entirely.
Ye Lingyue’s heart skipped a beat, automatically trying to dodge.
"You sleep, I’ll keep watch tonight."
She was somewhat surprised, and when she looked up again, the team leader had already turned his face away, as if those two burning gazes were just her illusion.
In the tent, soon the sound of breathing could be heard.
Throughout the night, Ye Lingyue felt as if there were two gazes on her, lingering for a long time.
She seemed to hear someone speaking in her ear with a tender and lingering voice.
"Ye Lingyue, whether in heaven or on earth, I will always be with you."
That voice sounded exactly like Feng Xun, for only Feng Xun would have such a gentle voice.
On the same night, in another tent, there was a completely different scene.
Lan Cai’er had entered the tent with a highly guarded demeanor, huddling in the corner of the tent.
As for Yan Jiu, he walked in nonchalantly and plopped straight down on the ground.
As soon as Lan Cai’er entered the tent, she regretted it.
Why did she act on impulse and turn down Song Jingyun’s invitation? She could have let Dao Ge and Yan Jiu share a tent.
Now it was awkward, alone with a man; she didn’t know what to do.
She saw that Yan Jiu looked like a regular person, but who knew if he might become a beast in the middle of the night.
Just as Lan Cai’er was lost in her wild thoughts, she heard the sound of deep sleep.
This annoying man had actually fallen asleep.
Upon looking again, he had taken up all the bedding.
What happened to taking turns keeping watch? As a man, he had gone to sleep first.
Lan Cai’er was infuriated, she jumped up, rushed to Yan Jiu, grabbed his hand, and began to pull him out.
Unexpectedly, just as she touched Yan Jiu’s hand, her hands were twisted around, lifted high above her head by a large palm, and before Lan Cai’er could react, she felt a large, dark shadow pressing down on her.
Yan Jiu, who was still in sleep, now pinned her beneath him, a half-smiling, half-serious look on his face.
"Stop pretending. If you had the nerve to share a tent with me, you should have expected what might happen. Little Lanzi, although you’re not much to look at, I must admit, you have a great figure," Yan Jiu said pressing his firm body a bit more onto Cai’er.
Just through the clothing, he could feel the softness of her body, like water.
Lan Cai’er’s face had a birthmark, but her body was genuinely attractive, with curves in all the right places, especially now as Yan Jiu held her hands high above her head, making her body taut like a drawn bow, her chest particularly prominent, stimulating Yan Jiu’s gaze.
"Bastard, aren’t you afraid I’ll scream?"
Lan Cai’er felt the thick breath from the man and his increasingly hot body and grew somewhat afraid.
Only then did she realize that the deputy team leader when bantering and the deputy team leader at night were worlds apart.
"You can scream all you want – it’s best if Dao Ge and Song Jingyun hear you. But right now, they are probably being intimate and might be too busy to care about your clownish antics," Yan Jiu sneered a few times.
Indeed, right after he finished speaking, Lan Cai’er’s face turned pale.