Chapter 21 – Sharing the Same Bed
Habit was a frightening thing. It could inconspicuously and quietly tamper with a person’s heart.
During the marriage ceremony, Xiao Che wanted to lend an arm to Xia Qingyue and had his arm mercilessly frozen by her. The first time he called her “wife”, it almost sent her into a rage. The first time he led her by the hand, Xiao Che could feel the ice cold killing intent coming from her…
However, during these few days, the “Qingyue my wife” call coming from Xiao Che’s mouth became more and more smooth. No matter what she thought in her heart, she appeared on the surface to have wholly come to accept this form of address. Even undressing in front of him wasn’t that awkward anymore, not to mention him leading her by the palm.
These few days, Xiao Che without a doubt slept in the corner, but it wasn’t that uncomfortable with the thick blanket spread on the floor. Whenever three in the morning came about, he would wake up by himself and use the silver needles to give her “treatment”. These few days, she also became more and more aware of how much her physique had astonishingly changed.
The lighting was dim, but Xia Qingyue’s back was like jade, her skin brighter than snow. Xiao Che held the silver needles in his hand as his fingers fluttered. Before long, he was covered in sweat. Half an hour later, another session of “opening the profound” had finished. Xiao Che removed all of the silver needles, a long sigh of relief escaping from his mouth. Exhausted, his mind suddenly felt dizzy and his body swayed before collapsing on top of Xia Qingyue’s bare back. An indescribable feeling of warmth and softness spread across his chest.
Xia Qingyue abruptly opened her eyes, a look of anger passing through them. She was just about to use strength push Xiao Che far away when she felt that his current breathing was unexpectedly, incomparably weak… weaker by several factors than any time before.
Xia Qingyue withdrew her profound strength and used only a small bit of power to push aside Xiao Che. She then dressed in a flash before extending a hand to support Xiao Che’s body. Looking at him, she asked, “What’s wrong?”
Xiao Che’s complexion was so pale that not even a trace of blood could be seen. His eyes were half open as if he had lost the strength to open them completely. He nodded slightly, then weakly said: “It’s nothing… I had just overused… my strength and energy a bit… Let me rest a little and I’ll be fine.”
Xia Qingyue’s eyes wavered, a feeling of an ache that she shouldn’t have once again appearing in her heart. After the first acupuncture treatment, his entire body had lost strength. Every time it happened, he was able to recover relatively easily. However, these last few days, he had to perform acupuncture on her every day. Every needle required the limit of his profound qi. His body was originally weak. To be continuously weakened like this… how could he afford that? It was possible for this to cause his body irreparable harm.
“… You don’t need to put in so much effort for me.” Xia Qingyue said with a complex look in her eyes.
Xiao Che grinned as he laughed: “No, you’re worth it… because you are my… official wife!”
Xia Qingyue: “…”
Xiao Che closed his eyes and slowly gathered his strength. Using a very quiet voice, he said: “Even though you married me to repay a debt of gratitude, you never considered me your husband. But there’s no way for me to act like you’re not my wife aside from divorcing you. Treating his woman well is also the most basic responsibility and most important honor for a man…”
After saying this, Xiao Che’s chest started to feel warm… I say! Even I was touched by those words, I don’t believe that you with your womanly heart, felt nothing!
For a long time, he didn’t hear any Xia Qingyue say anything. He opened his eyes, lightly took a few breaths, and then said with a pitiful expression: “Qingyue my wife, I might not be able to walk very well. Can you… help me over there?”
His eyes looked towards that corner… the place where he slept.
Xia Qingyue gave the blanket covering the ground a look, the aching feeling in her heart that she shouldn’t have intensifying a sliver. She shook her head, her body turning to the bedside. “You sleep on the bed, I’ll sleep there.”
Upon hearing this talk, Xiao Che was suddenly alarmed. Borrowing strength from who knows where, he quickly reached out and grabbed Xia Qingyue’s arm: “Out of the question! That’s definitely out of the question! Even though you are stronger than me in every respect… I’m a man, you’re a woman! As a man, how could I sleep on the bed and let a woman sleep on the floor! If you want to sleep there, then I’d rather sleep in the courtyard!”
His voice was urgent, and contained an irrefutable kind of resolution. As he finished speaking, he also struggled to get up, as if he wanted to get off the bed.
A complex expression appeared on Xia Qingyue’s face. She lightly bit her lip and, after a brief struggle, finally made a decision. She reached out and gave Xiao Che’s weak body a light push back, grabbed the crimson blanket, and covered both his and her own body with it.
“You’re not allowed to touch me.” Xia Qingyue laid down on the outside half of the bed, her back facing Xiao Che, hiding her current expression from him.
Xiao Che silently smiled. He quickly adopted a snug sleeping posture and happily closed his eyes. “Rest easy. With your profound strength, even if I wanted to, I still won’t be able to do anything to you… hu, sharing the same bed… only like this can we be considered husband and wife…”
Xia Qingyue: “…”
“Alright… Qingyue my wife, I’ll sleep first… wu, tomorrow I’ll have little aunt make me some ginseng and chicken soup to recuperate… wu…”
Xiao Che’s voice became more and more quiet. As his voice completely faded, his breathing also became exceptionally steady… he peacefully fell asleep in the midst of his immense exhaustion.
Xia Qingyue quietly turned towards him. Seeing Xiao Che’s face close at hand, her gaze trembled with a complex expression…
Ever since she joined Frozen Cloud Asgard, she had decided to suppress her feelings and desires for a lifetime. Never did she think that there would be a day where she would be sleeping in the same bed as a man. Before marrying Xiao Che, she wouldn’t allow even his slightest touch…
But now, she was sleeping in the same bed as him. Not only that, there wasn’t much unacceptance in her heart…
What’s wrong with me? Don’t tell me it’s because I feel guilty towards him?
Maybe…
Her thoughts agitated, she unwittingly also sank into her dreams. She didn’t realize that being able to fall asleep so quickly with a man clearly laying right next to her meant that unconsciously, her heart already did not hold any feelings of wariness or rejection towards Xiao Che.
This nap had Xiao Che sleeping until three hours after sunrise. When he opened his eyes, Xia Qingyue was already gone from his side. Her figure was also nowhere to be found inside the room.
Even though he rested for an entire night, his body was still stressed, and it felt as if he had a grave injury. Xiao Che got up, letting out a heavy sigh and thought out loud:“If this continues, there’s a chance my body really will break down. I seem to have excessively showed off a bit too much.”
“However, this is the only way to have her willingly look for those three things for me.”
Xiao Che got off the bed and changed his clothing. After taking off his outer garments, he held the pendant hanging around his neck, momentarily dazed… On the first day of his rebirth, the overlapping memories gave rise to an immense suspicion concerning this pendant. That’s because in his life on Azure Cloud Continent, he also had a pendant around his neck that was exactly the same as this one! The pendant appeared to be made of silver, and could be opened to reveal a bright and clean mirror on each side. However, that was it. There was nothing else special about it.
On Azure Cloud Continent, his master told him that this pendant was around his neck when he picked him up. In addition, the one on his neck now has also been around his neck for as long as he could remember. Grandfather told him that this was something that his father, Xiao Ying, got from who knows where. Ever since he was born, it has been around his neck and has also served as a memory of his father.
Two lives… the exact same pendant… what exactly is going on here?
After changing his clothes, Xiao Che immediately entered the Sky Poison Pearl. Inside the emerald green world, the scarlet haired girl was still peacefully floating in a protective posture, showing no signs of waking up.
These two days, he tried to roundaboutly ask grandfather and Xia Qingyue if there was any place that had red haired people. The response he always got was “this is the first time hearing of it”. This caused Xiao Che to have an even greater interest and suspicion towards this girl’s identify. However, he didn’t tell anyone of this girl’s existence.
Having changed into a set of casual clothing, he gave his body a stretch. Suddenly, an alluring and delicious smell passed in front of Xiao Che’s nose, causing him to momentarily salivate. He followed the smell and, upon seeing a pot of soup on the table, rushed over with all speed. As he opened the lid, a gust of steam accompanied by a seductively delicious smell slowly rose up.
“Ginseng and chicken soup… Ah! Little aunt is the best after all!” Xiao Che’s stomach immediately rumbled. He picked up the chopsticks and started gulping down the food. After he ate for a while, the front door was pushed open, and Xiao Lingxi, dressed in all light yellow, charmingly walked in. Upon seeing Xiao Che’s table manners, she opened her mouth to say: “Yi? Chicken soup? It smells delicious! And it seems to have the smell of ginseng. Little Che, who made this chicken soup for you? Hee hee, and you didn’t tell me, sneakily eating here by yourself!”
Xiao Lingxi’s words gave Xiao Che a moment of pause: “Little aunt, don’t tell me that you didn’t bring this over?”
“Of course not!” As Xiao Lingxi finished speaking, the expression in her eyes suddenly became strange: “Who else in this Xiao Clan would make chicken soup for you besides me? Hmm… It can only be your wife, Qingyue! It seems that the relationship between you two as husband and wife is fairly good.”
Xiao Lingxi’s words obviously carried a sense of sourness. Xiao Che set down his chopsticks and muttered: “She… How could she… make chicken soup for me…”
This definitely wasn’t possible!
“Hmph! It doesn’t matter who made it for you. To begin with you liked chicken soup, just drink it all… I came here to tell you that the Xiao Sect people will arrive in the afternoon. Right now, the entire Xiao Clan is preparing for it. When the time comes, you have to be a bit careful. You must not carelessly offend the Xiao Sect people.” Xiao Lingxi solemnly said.
“I know. If worse comes to worst, I just won’t go outside. They couldn’t possible select me anyway.” Xiao Che answered indifferently.
“You can’t stay inside.” Xiao Lingxi shook her jade like finger at him, sternly saying: “From what the clan master said, the young master from the Xiao Sect wants to review everyone in the Xiao Clan… Not one can be missing! At that time, you must not forget your manners.”
“Then there’s even less to worry about. It’s not like little aunt doesn’t know that I always have been the most well behaved.” Xiao Che answered with a smile. He then started to gulp down the food again.
“Alright. Then I’ll go to daddy first to help. It’d be good if you joined us after you finish eating the chicken soup.” Xiao Lingxi turned and left as soon as she finished speaking.
…………………………