Chapter 13: Traveled through time again? [1/2]

Eye.

She slowly pressed her face against his chest.

Not as afraid of him, yet unable to meet his gaze as before.

She didn’t know what to do.

Should she report that he’s a demon? Or help him conceal it?

Was he truly sincere in being her husband?

Or was he hiding here for some reason, using her to mask his identity?

Would he always treat her as his wife and be good to her?

Or would he, once he reclaimed his demon identity, abandon her or even kill her?

Yingran, lost in wild thoughts in his embrace, grew more confused the more she thought.

Xu Liling placed her on a stool, lifted her skirt, and removed her embroidered shoes. Only then did she snap back to reality, instinctively trying to stop him.

Xu Liling had already taken off her shoes and socks to check her ankle. “It’s fine.”

Yingran’s hand, raised to stop him, froze in mid-air before retracting. Watching his focused expression, she nodded. “Mm.”

Xu Liling: “I’ll be back later. If you’re hungry, eat first.”

Yingran: “Mm.”

She watched Xu Liling walk out of the main room, then turned to face the food on the table.

Early summer was hot, but the mountain air wasn’t too warm.

Especially at night, the mountain breeze was cool.

He had prepared the meal and waited for her a long time, even adding spiritual herbs to the black chicken soup just for her.

She remembered he had reheated the food once and the soup two or three times.

She thought perhaps the spiritual herbs in the soup would lose their potency if it cooled, so he kept reheating it, waiting for her return.

Yingran picked up the black chicken soup and took a sip from a spoonful.

The soup had been skimmed of excess oil, free of any fishy smell or unpleasant medicinal taste.

It wasn’t an extraordinary delicacy, but it was a flavor she liked.

Only, it was increasingly salty.

Before, she thought it was unintentional, but now she knew—because he was a demon. Likely due to practicing demonic arts, his sense of taste was fading.

Halfway through drinking, Xu Liling returned with a basin of spiritual herb water for her to soak her feet.

Yingran found it odd and blurted out, “Soaking my feet while eating?”

Xu Liling: “Then soak your feet first, then eat.”

He placed the basin by the door, grabbed a stool, and carried her to it.

Yingran dipped her feet into the spiritual herb water.

The temperature was just right; the spiritual energy flowed through her veins, relieving the exhaustion from a day spent in the mountains.

Xu Liling crouched in front of her, avoiding the water, and pressed the tendons around her ankle. “Does it hurt?”

Yingran shook her head. She hadn’t sprained her ankle—she had lied to him.

She changed the subject: “If the soup cools, will the spiritual herbs lose their effect?”

Xu Liling: “No.”

Yingran, puzzled: “Then…”

Why did you keep reheating the soup?

She quickly shut her mouth.

That was close—she almost revealed she’d been watching him from the mountain.

But Xu Liling casually explained, “The soup gets fishy when it cools. If you want to drink it later, just reheat it.”

Yingran’s heart trembled, and she let out a soft “Oh.”

She loved eating meat but was sensitive to smells, always hating the fishy odor.

Meat had to be soaked or blanched with spices for her to eat it.

Before marriage, she rarely ate meat at home.

It wasn’t that the academy lacked food, but her father said she was troublesome and forbade the cook from preparing it specially for her.

Only her mother occasionally made her meat, also calling her troublesome, saying others didn’t notice the fishy smell, but she did.

But after marriage, when she said she liked meat, there was almost always meat to eat.

Except for the first month after their wedding, when Xu Liling didn’t know how to cook, she had eaten meat with a fishy taste a few times.

After that, the meat she ate at home never had a fishy smell, and Xu Liling never called it troublesome.

Over time, she unconsciously took it for granted that the meat at home was free of any fishy odor.

She forgot that the meat without the fishy smell was because Xu Liling had carefully prepared it.

She lowered her eyes, looking at the spiritual herb water she was soaking her feet in.

Suddenly, she remembered he was a demon, recalled the burns on his hand from last night when he fed her medicine.

She grabbed his hand in the dim light, and by the candlelight from the room, she saw many more burn marks on his hand.

When he rode home on his flying steed today, he brought back a large bundle of spiritual herbs.

He didn’t come back specifically to kill anyone.

He had taken leave on purpose, gathered spiritual herbs, and returned to care for her.

Yet because he killed a group of people who wanted to kill him and her, because he was a demon, she was afraid of him?

Yingran, overwhelmed with mixed emotions, touched the burn marks on his hand. “Does it hurt?”

Xu Liling: “It’s fine.”

Fine? It must hurt a lot.

Ordinary people gathering spiritual herbs would already find the injuries painful.

Let alone a demon, whose nature clashes with spiritual energy.

For a demon to gather spiritual herbs, it would require far more effort than an ordinary person.

Yingran bit her lip, wanting to say something caring, when suddenly she felt a warm flow beneath her, sticky and wet.

Only then did she remember her period had come, and she hadn’t changed her sanitary cloth all day—likely staining her skirt again.

She reached behind her skirt, and sure enough, there was a wet mark. She hurriedly stood to check the stool.

Xu Liling glanced too. There was a wet red stain on the stool.

Yingran was flustered and embarrassed.

Xu Liling, however, was calm: “Sit for now. After eating, go bathe and change.”

Perhaps because she was still thinking he was a demon, Yingran unconsciously felt distant, stammering, “The stool…”

Xu Liling, nonchalant: “It’s fine. I’ll clean it later.”

Yingran’s eyes suddenly reddened, her heart a mix of indescribable feelings. She only thought:

No matter what, he is Huai Zhen.

Xu Liling asked, “What’s wrong?”

Yingran suddenly hugged his neck, crying loudly as if releasing all the fear, shock, and unease of the day. “Huai—”

Xu Liling frowned: “Why are you crying?”

Yingran: “…My stomach hurts.”

A warm palm gently rubbed her lower abdomen. Xu Liling held her in his arms with his other hand, patting her back to comfort her.

“Feeling better?”

She sniffled, leaning into his embrace.

The mountain wilderness was quiet, the night peaceful.

“So, you know he’s a demon, and you’re just going to pretend you don’t and live with him like this?”

Yingran sat by the window, embroidering a green bamboo waistband: “Before we married, my mother told me that living with a man means keeping one eye open and one eye closed.”

“Is this something you can just keep one eye closed about? He’s a demon!”

Big Flower jumped anxiously on the windowsill. “How long do demons even live? How long do I have to wait for him to die so I can bind you to do missions?”

“Maybe longer than mortals, maybe… shorter.”

No demon on the path of demonic cultivation knows when they’ll die—how could Yingran know?

She changed the subject. “What happened to you yesterday? Why did you suddenly faint?”

Big Flower’s gaze wandered. “At that moment, a progress bar suddenly appeared on my system interface.”

“What progress bar?”

“I don’t know what it was. It’s my first mission… Maybe high-energy plane missions are like this, with unexpected surprises.”

Big Flower sprawled out. “Maybe this progress bar signals that the villain’s world-destroying process is speeding up, who knows.”

Yingran’s hand paused mid-embroidery, and she gave a small smile. “So, cherishing the present is even more important, isn’t it?”

Big Flower, basking in the sun, yawned lazily.

Yingran continued embroidering, her voice soft: “But maybe because I witnessed that scene, I had a nightmare last night… I dreamed I was on a blurry battlefield, surrounded by monks and demons fighting…”

Big Flower: “Battlefield? Right now, only Yunzhou has a war—”

“Hey! Where’d this cat come from? So cute!”

Madam Wang and the others pushed the door open, walking over with smiles to tease Big Flower.

Big Flower stopped talking, happily flipping over to show its belly: “Meow~”

It knew no one in this world could resist a cat!

Except her husband, that demon!

Yingran asked, “What did the manager say?”

Despite yesterday’s shock, Yingran didn’t dare stay home to rest. She went to work as usual early this morning, afraid Xu Liling would notice something off.

Besides, it gave her a chance to get some fresh air.

So many people had died at home—she’d overthink and feel scared if she stayed alone.

Madam Zhao sighed: “Still haven’t found anyone.”

Madam Liu: “Such a big group of people, who knows where they went. They wouldn’t just leave for Yunzhou without a word, would they?”

“This bunch of monks were always huddling together, acting all secretive. Who knows what they were scheming. Whatever, we’re just here for some extra cash.”

Madam Wang said, “If they don’t come back, I bet in two or three days, the manager will tell us to pack up and go home.”

Madam Liu: “Earn an extra spirit stone while we can.”

They finished teasing the cat and sat back at the table to work on their tasks.

Yingran quietly embroidered her waistband.

The Yunzhou monks didn’t return to the inn last night, and the manager reported it to the Mysterious Office, sending people to search. They still hadn’t found a trace.

Yingran knew where they went but couldn’t say or dare speak, for fear of exposing herself.

The day passed peacefully.

After work, Xu Liling came to pick her up, along with the other ladies’ Mysterious Office husbands and Guan Yi.

The officers all had furrowed brows.

Guan Yi greeted Yingran and Xu Liling. “Brother-in-law, be careful on the way home.”

Xu Liling nodded.

Madam Wang asked her husband, “What’s the word? Found them yet?”

Her husband: “Nope, don’t know if something happened or they just ran off.”

Guan Yi, full of confidence: “No worries. The Xuanheng Sect from Yunzhou has already arrived in Yiwang Prefecture. They’ll investigate what happened.”

Yingran’s heart tightened.

The officers bantered and headed home.

Yingran glanced at Xu Liling, seeing no change in his expression, and said nothing more.

On the flying steed, leaning against him, she chatted as usual about the day’s gossip with the ladies.

Xu Liling rubbed her abdomen. “Feeling better today?”

Yingran nodded. “Much better.”

Xu Liling asked, “Want a late-night snack tonight?”

Lately, Yingran worked late, ate dinner at the inn, and got hungry at home, so Xu Liling would make her a bowl of noodles.

Yingran shook her head. “No, I’ve been eating so much I’m getting fat.”

Xu Liling pinched her stomach. “You’re fine.”

Yingran playfully swatted him, turning to see his smiling face in the night. She traced his features with her hand and leaned up to kiss his jaw.

At home, they bathed, went to bed, and fell asleep in each other’s arms.

The next morning, he took her to Yuehong Inn.

Everything seemed the same as before, as if nothing had changed.

Yingran spent three uneventful days at the inn with the ladies, guessing the manager would soon let them go.

At noon, after eating and seeing Xu Liling off, she said, “In a couple of days, I’ll take you to buy clothes.”

Xu Liling: “Mm.”

He leaned down, kissed her forehead, sent her into the inn, and rode off on his flying steed.

“Here’s your pay for today, plus a small final bonus. You all know the situation—starting tomorrow, you ladies don’t need to come back.”

The manager handed Yingran two spirit stones and moved on to the others.

Yingran thanked him.

It was just past noon.

The dismissal came suddenly. When Xu Liling brought lunch, she didn’t know it was her last day. Now, she’d have to wait until evening to go home.

Yingran asked the manager, “My home’s far from the county, and carriages are scarce. Can I rest here? My husband will pick me up tonight.”

Manager: “Of course, the room won’t be cleared until tomorrow.”

Yingran thanked him.

The other ladies lived in the county and had to get home to their chores. Unable to stay with Yingran, they said goodbye and left.

Yingran smiled, seeing them to the door, then sat by the window to watch the street.

Lately, when idle, she loved watching from here, often seeing interesting street scenes.

On the way home each night, she’d tell Xu Liling about them.