Marriage
Yuanli was furious, pulling away from him and fretfully adjusting her clothes. "I thought you were a lovestruck man, but I didn't expect you to be such a hypocrite. You're flirting with me while expressing your love for my late wife. I was wrong about you. Get lost."
Just as she was about to leave, Qi Heng took a few steps forward and hugged her tightly from behind, whispering in her ear, "I have always only admired you, Ah Li."
"Stop making such nonsense! I was born into such a noble family, how could you even dream of being me. Even if I've been too indulgent towards you, it's really emboldened you to treat me as a substitute for your lowly deceased wife."
"Whether I'm making up stories or not, you know it better than anyone else. If I wasn't 100% sure it was you, how could Ah Jin dare to get close to a woman other than you?"
Yuanli tilted her head slightly and glanced to the side, only to see Qi Heng with tears in his eyes, looking at her with such grievance and pitiful expression.
"You are my only lover now. I may not want your life. But I will never have you as my only lover in the future. If you are smart, you should pay more attention to your words and actions in the future and don't waste this face. Go kneel outside the corridor for a night to wake up your mind."
"I will obey your command. I thank you, Your Majesty, for sparing my life."
Qi Heng stood up and retreated to the outside of the palace. Just as he was about to close the door, Yuan Li said coldly, "You can go back to your room and put on your outer clothes before kneeling. Don't catch a cold and pass it on to me."
Just hearing these words that sounded full of disgust, Qi Heng's mouth, which had originally drooped due to grievance and sadness, slightly raised up again, with a faint smile, and quickly hid it again.
"I will obey your orders."
After Qi Heng left, Yuan Li began to search for the helper in the hall. The hall was completely silent, and she didn't know whether the immortal had disappeared or was not there.
The whole house was silent. Yuanli glanced around the rooms but couldn't find him. She had no choice but to give up and call the maid to help her wash and change clothes.
As they were removing the pearl hairpins, the attendant bent down slightly and said in a voice only the two of them could hear, "Madam, the bed curtain is higher than the beam. If you need to lower it, please call the servants. Don't burden yourself."
"It's not me."
"Every day when you get up, the servants will hang the bed curtains open and never let them down until you are ready to take a nap. So... I'm afraid someone has entered this bedroom. Do you want me to order a search?"
Yuanli nodded slightly, and saw the attendant quickly tidy up her loosened bun and glance aside. Two palace maids understood and took their white jade crescent-shaped forks and headed towards the bed curtains.
In the brass mirror, layers of luxurious bed curtains were pulled back, revealing no one on the couch. The other maids each inspected the bedroom, then, after checking their own people, shook their heads at the head of the room.
"Your Majesty, there are no signs of anyone entering the palace or the couch, but it's still best to be cautious. I've already had the quilts and pillows replaced. There will also be increased inspections and guards in the Emperor and Empress's Palace tonight, so you can rest assured and sleep well."
"Um."
After ensuring the palace was safe, the headmaster quickly washed and dressed, tucking her in the quilt until she was covered properly before lowering the bed curtains. He extinguished all the candles in the room, leaving only a few near the outside burning, to keep the room dimly lit in case the master woke up in the middle of the night. The bed, with its well-placed curtains, felt just as comfortable as if the candles were out, allowing for a more comfortable sleep.
After doing all this, she went out.
Yuanli had just closed her eyes, about to fall asleep, when suddenly, through her eyelids, she could sense a faint light appearing out of nowhere on the pitch-black couch. Her hand, resting on the quilt, felt an itch, as if something extremely soft was sliding across the back of her hand.
There's someone else in the bed!
Yuanli was a little afraid to open her eyes until a familiar fragrance hit her, and then she recognized who was on the bed.
To be precise, it's a ghost.
The fear in my heart was swept away, replaced by embarrassment, endless embarrassment. All I could think about were the words I couldn't answer at the moment.
He was not in a hurry. He did not wake her up when she pretended to sleep, nor did he make any noise to disturb her, nor did he leave.
The two of them were in a stalemate for a long time. Knowing that he would not leave easily this time, Yuanli opened her eyes reluctantly.
"A-Cha, you're here late at night, is there something wrong?"
"Tianshu hasn't told you yet?"
"Are you the helper Tianshu found for me? However, the Heaven Realm has robbed your things and hasn't returned them yet, so aren't you still unwilling to help them easily? Why did you agree to Tianshu?"
"Because he's asking for help with something related to you, I'm happy to do it. Besides, the reward he offers... is very generous."
Yuanli felt like crying but couldn't. Putting aside the embarrassment, she didn't know how to persuade Cha Suxun to protect Hengjin's life, considering the hatred between him and Emperor Hengjin over the wife's theft.
If she were Cha Suxun, now would be a perfect opportunity for revenge.
Yuanli smiled wryly and agreed: "It's good. It's safe with you here." She quietly moved to the edge of the bed.
But Cha Suxun actually followed her.
"It's late at night, Ah Cha, why don't you go back to sleep and come back to protect me tomorrow."
"I'm a ghost, not a human, so I don't need to sleep at night. Tianshu sent me to protect you closely, so I should be by your side all the time. Go to sleep, don't worry about me. I'll watch you sleep, and I guarantee that not even a mosquito will dare to get close to you."
Hearing this, Yuanli hesitated and said tactfully: "But... I can't sleep if you look at me." After saying that, she moved to the side.
And Cha Suxun followed her closely.
"Why can't I sleep? I'm not someone else. You and I have slept in the same room for tens of thousands of years. Even if we share the same bed and quilt, we've slept together countless times. Just think of it as being in the Nether Palace."
When talking about the word "others", Cha Suxun dragged out the last syllable, as if he was referring to something else.
Yuanli didn't know how to answer, so she could only stare at something randomly, not daring to fall asleep without distraction. During this time, she slowly moved several times, and Cha Suxun followed her every time.
Until she was very close to the bed, she could only move one last time, otherwise she would fall off the bed. But looking at Cha Suxun, Yuanli had no choice but to harden her heart and move again.
Unexpectedly, when she moved, Cha Suxun reached out and hugged her waist through the quilt, pulled her back into his arms, and pressed her tightly against him, with only a little quilt that was folded up after being pulled between them.
"How long have you known Heng Jin? I've been with you day and night for thousands of years. Why can you be so calm and intimate with him, but not even want to get any closer to me? Even if I don't do anything intimate to you, you feel uneasy."
"A-Cha, I have a mission, you know. Besides, after three lifetimes of suffering, we are husband and wife in the mortal world, so it's impossible for us not to be intimate. It's not that I don't want to be closer to you, nor am I uncomfortable, but, it's just that you are the Lord of the Underworld, so of course I wouldn't dare to be as intimate with you as I did with the mortal Qi Heng."
"Can't you show me some mercy?"
Yuanli's eyes widened in shock at his sudden aggrieved and somewhat coquettish words.
And Cha Suxun's next move surprised her so much that she exclaimed it was outrageous.
He put away the will-o'-the-wisp that belonged to her on his shoulder, and lit a few candles outside the tent, maintaining the brightness of the will-o'-the-wisp when it was there.
He pulled out the scissors from his bosom, and instantly, long, thin red threads intertwined into a web, extending everywhere. The light from the marriage thread on his ring finger, which was dozens of times thicker than the one on her hand, almost illuminated the entire bedroom.
Tianshu said that the deeper the love and the deeper the bond, the brighter, thicker and more indestructible the thread will be.
"Don't you want to see where my marriage line leads?"
Hearing this, Yuanli nodded repeatedly, sat up, and happily replied, "Let me think about it!" Firstly, she was genuinely curious, and secondly, it would be better for her to go out with him to find his match than to lie on the couch with him, staring at each other in bewilderment.
Cha Suxun's smile widened as he sat up with her. The next moment, he suddenly pulled her hand over and held the Scissors together with him.
Aside from its owner, or certain magical arts, the red thread on the ring finger, representing the bond between husband and wife, would only be visible to the person holding it. Therefore, when Cha Suxun held her hand, Yuanli offered no resistance.
The moment she grasped it, Yuanli discovered that Cha Suxun's marriage thread was actually connected to her ring finger. Yuanli stared at the marriage thread in disbelief, stunned.
But when he looked up, Cha Suxun in front of him suddenly turned into Chi Xun.
But this time when Chi Xun appeared, she could recall Cha Suxun's appearance easily and clearly.
This is clearly the same person.
"You asked me that question in a roundabout way that day, didn't you just want to know if I was your Chi Xun? Now that you know, what do you want to do?"
"Impossible, impossible... Chi Xun and I have been inseparable since childhood. We grew up together. And, I have confirmed with Tianshu that Chi Xun is just a mortal, and you can't even breathe."
Cha Suxun pulled her other hand to his chest, feeling the rise and fall of her chest with her heartbeat and her breathing.
"The one before you is indeed a mortal."
After gathering her thoughts, Yuanli said helplessly, "Acha, this isn't fun. I'll need Chi Xun later, so stop using his body to tease me. We're in the Xijiang Palace, and if Chi Xun's body suddenly appears here, we'll be dead."
"A-Li, what do I have to say so that you will believe that Chi Xun is me, and I am Chi Xun."
"You are Chi Xun now, yes, but what I wanted to ask yesterday was whether the Chi Xun I grew up with was you. You said you were Chi Xun, but in my previous memories, I never felt that Chi Xun looked like you."
Facing the current Cha Suxun, Yuanli didn't dare to easily say that she couldn't even remember his appearance before. Although the tribulation did affect the memory, Cha Suxun would still be sad to hear it.
"That's because in the years that have passed, you've forgotten my face."
"You made me forget on purpose?"
Cha Suxun smiled with satisfaction and nodded in praise: "A-Li is as smart as ever, and she understood everything immediately. However, I won't hide it from you. I have already admitted to you several times that I am Chi Xun."
These words were so powerful that Yuanli found it difficult to digest them for a moment.
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