Simon held Su Xiangli, smelling the scent of sweat, shower gel, shampoo, and conditioner. He could feel her presence, real and undeniable, through sight, smell, hearing, and touch. Su Xiangli's skin was delicate, her muscles firm and resilient, her bones slender and strong. She was like a carbon fiber rod wrapped in clay, a moving object in the material world, or rather, "relatively still" in Simon's arms.
Hidden rationality and sensibility were undoubtedly speaking.
Even hallucinations…
Simon could perceive fragmented images: Su Xiangli showering in the morning, then applying lipstick with a small mirror outside the dance studio. Her breakfast consisted of shrimp dumplings and fish porridge. The shrimp dumplings must have been delicious, and the fish porridge fresh and sweet. On her way here, she accidentally bumped her shoulder against a bus railing, quite hard, to the point that her left arm moved unnaturally… Was there anything else?
Simon stared into Su Xiangli's eyes.
He felt a falling sensation, as if his soul was being drawn from his body. Through Su Xiangli's eyes, Simon's prying thoughts surged into her brain, empathizing with her. She was joyful, joyful at Simon's intimacy. She was angry, angry at many things. Was it Simon? A little. Was it that annoying effeminate dance teacher? A little. Was it her mother? Not much… There was also a prolonged pain. Her joy floated on top of this pain. What kind of pain? Dance practice? Neglect from her parents?
A young girl's heart was only so big, and in a short while, he had seen it all. Simon, feeling quite dejected, withdrew his gaze. He picked Su Xiangli up, set her down, and wanted to say something comforting, but in the end, it was just: "Practice your dancing well. I'm going to read for a bit."
Su Xiangli clutched her chest, staring at Simon with a curious look. "Just now, I suddenly felt so comfortable, like I was soaking in milk. No, in clouds. I felt like a sugar cube in coffee, you know, that kind of…"
Simon pursed his lips, mumbling a few words, "That's good, that's good." He didn't dare to meet Su Xiangli's gaze again and hurried to the resting area in the corner of the dance studio to sit down.
Su Xiangli did not comply with Simon's words. She followed him and also sat down on the sofa. Su Xiangli pouted, "I bumped into a railing when I came here today."
Simon thought for a moment and asked, "Shall I give you a massage?"
"Do you know massage techniques?" Su Xiangli looked disbelieving, which annoyed Simon so much that he immediately spent nine hundred Comprehension Points to learn "Traditional Chinese Medicine Tui Na and Bone Setting Techniques." In the learning space created by the system, he massaged all sorts of men, women, young, and old for ten thousand hours, and incidentally earned an achievement.
[Grip of the Old Master (Legendary)]: You spent a considerable amount of Comprehension Points to learn an ancient skill. Your powerful hands can make any hominid primate tremble. Any seemingly profound soul is nothing more than a accumulation of bones, flesh, and fascia under your hands. You can make their souls leave their bodies in an instant.
Effect: Hand dexterity greatly increased, upper body strength greatly increased, palm tactile sensation greatly improved, affinity greatly increased, divergent thinking greatly increased, attention slightly improved, personal charm slightly increased, probability of middle-aged hair loss slightly increased.
Simon: Tired gaze of an underage child.jpg
Su Xiangli tilted her head curiously, "What's wrong? Are you angry?" She sat right next to Simon's right side, her legs, wrapped in white pure cotton stockings, drawn together on the sofa; her feet rested on the edge of the seat, her arms wrapped around her knees. Then she rested her head, with its tied-up hair, on her knees, and in this way, she obliquely peered at Simon, half-hidden.
She really had the graceful bearing of a swan, the teachers here were not wrong, Su Xiangli had the talent to learn ballet well. She was a naturally proud white winged creature, possessing an innocent wildness, yet representing a distant divinity.
In Simon's mind was the system's comment: Any seemingly profound soul is nothing more than a accumulation of bones, flesh, and fascia under your hands. You can make their souls leave their bodies in an instant.
He did a light backward flip, from sitting on the sofa, he suddenly jumped behind it. He walked behind Su Xiangli, placed his hands on her shoulders, four fingers resting on the girl's collarbone—a slender collarbone, detectable even through her clothes. His thumb pressed against the muscles of her back neck, and he pressed lightly.
"Ouch!—" Su Xiangli cried out in surprise, attracting the attention of two or three apprentices in the dance studio.
Someone walked over curiously.
But their arrival did not distract Simon and Su Xiangli at all. Simon's every movement, practiced and extreme, the pressing, pushing, and tapping of his fingers, was like a scalpel, dissecting the texture of the body, exposing muscles, bones, internal organs, and then exposing the soul.
Su Xiangli had been comfortably purring until Simon pressed his fingers to her temples. She felt a real and illusory electric current surge through her brain. She had already lost consciousness at this moment, or rather, her surface thoughts had been stripped away, leaving only a deeper, tranquil existence, floating in the warmth emanating from Simon's palms. She seemed to also feel Simon's thoughts—living things have water flowing inside their bodies, and non-water.
She was in the non-water, enveloped by Simon's warm consciousness. Su Xiangli peacefully fell into slumber.
Until Simon withdrew his hands.
"Wow, how magical…" The girl sighed, collapsing as if drained of strength, lying on her side on the sofa.
The onlookers wanted to ask something, but Su Xiangli immediately jumped up, took Simon's hand, and walked towards the changing room. She left Simon outside the women's changing room, only telling him to wait.
Simon slowly came back to his senses. He had also seen it just now, holding a tiny white swan in his palm. This was definitely a hallucination, but he had an irrational thought: Su Xiangli also had the same hallucination, that she was a swan floating in his palm.
What role did the palm play at this moment?
And what did it mean for the swan?
A boy of about ten, slightly older than Simon, walked up to him and asked, "Were you giving Su Xiangli a massage just now? You know so much."
Simon clicked his tongue. The first thing that popped into his mind was, "Why do you know her name is Su Xiangli?"
But he stopped that thought in time. What he said was, "Thank you."
The boy intended to continue chatting, but Simon no longer had his usual conversational fluency. To the questions the other person asked, he merely deflected, and to the compliments, he remained indifferent.
The inner Simon was still grappling with his strange thoughts, while the outer him was already exhausted.
Simon suddenly said, "How about this, you seem really curious. I'll give you a massage, and then you'll know."
When Su Xiangli came out, dressed, a boy with a blissful expression lay by the changing room door. Simon was surrounded by four or five people, who chattered excitedly, grabbing Simon's hands, trying to place his Old Master's Grip on themselves, to experience what it felt like for their souls to leave their bodies.
Su Xiangli pushed through the crowded people, and amidst a flurry of waving hands, she precisely grasped Simon's right hand. The right hand, which had been trying to escape, became still in her grip. Su Xiangli pulled the boy and ran outside, leaving behind disappointed onlookers.
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