Did she stare at her?
I just checked, wasn't Mu Jige's eyes closed?
I quickly got up to check. Her eyes were indeed open, very wide, staring blankly yet purposefully at the ceiling.
Had she woken up early?
I maintained a half-meter distance from Mu Jige, knees slightly bent, toes pointing outward, ready to flee at any moment. I waved my hand in front of her eyes.
There was no reaction.
"Hey, are you awake?" I asked softly, then thought, "If you're awake but can't move, blink your eyes?"
Still no reaction, not even an eye-roll.
I guessed that the muscles around her eyelids were just tense, pulling them open. She was still in a dormant state.
My college classmate Cui Xiaohu used to do the same thing when he slept, it had startled me. In the middle of the night, he'd lie in bed, snoring, with his eyes wide open, looking awake but actually resting, seeing nothing.
I felt relieved. I tucked her in again and went back to the living room, telling Zheng Bingbing, "It's fine, she won't wake up anytime soon. Don't worry."
"Oh," Zheng Bingbing patted her chest, sat down, and idly looked around.
Two people who weren't very familiar with each other, staying in a relatively small living room, felt a bit awkward. I turned on the TV and half-heartedly watched the news—would my uproar at Jiuxian Cave and stealing a corpse make the news?
I found the Fucheng news and saw that Prefect He was being interviewed. Besides cultural tourism, he was also in charge of family planning. Facing the camera, he was enthusiastically discussing how to take multiple measures to encourage the public to have three children.
"Uncle, I'm a bit hungry..." Zheng Bingbing said, sitting on the armrest of the sofa. "Is it safe to order takeout?"
I nodded. "It's easy to expose our location that way. How about this, you stay inside, and I'll go buy some food."
"No, no, no, I'll go buy it!" Zheng Bingbing quickly said. "I don't dare to stay alone with her."
"Alright, then be careful," I said.
Zheng Bingbing found a rather old trench coat in the homeowner's closet, put it on, and wore a wide-brimmed hat, the kind worn by square-dancing grandmas, to go buy food.
I watched TV for a while, then went back to the bedroom to check. Mu Jige's muscles seemed to have been reactivated to some extent, kicking aside a corner of the blanket, revealing half of her long leg.
Long, straight, fair, firm and shapely, with small, rounded knees. The muscle lines were clear but not protruding, a perfect blend of softness and strength.
I have to say, these were the most beautiful legs I had ever seen, bar none. Only a young Zhou Huimin could have competed with them.
Many young people nowadays might not know this name. There was a legend back then: "Li Xiaolong's fist, Zhou Huimin's leg," the twin prides of China. You can imagine how spectacular they must have been. You can probably find it on Baidu.
However, no matter how beautiful, it was like reflections in water and the moon in a mirror. After all, she was currently in a state of slumber. I couldn't take advantage of the situation. Although in my dreams, I had tried everything, touching everything, everywhere, inside and out, deep and shallow, now that I was back to reality, I had to adhere to moral restraints.
I covered Mu Jige again and sat beside her for a while. Her eyes seemed tired from staring, no longer as wide as before, and her gaze had softened considerably.
According to historical records, she was about 25 years old when she was sealed. For a young woman, that was the prime of her life, with all her physiological indicators at their peak.
To have slept for four hundred years at one's peak, anyone would feel terrible. I felt a little sympathetic now, or rather, understanding towards her. This also explained why Mu Jige had been trying to lure people to save her for these four hundred years...