Chapter 100

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Chapter 100: Tease

Inside the inner chamber draping with red curtains, Shunde sat in front of a mirror turned away from her face.

Her expression was dim as someone slowly approached.

Only one person could step in here unannounced.

The Grand Master stopped behind Shunde. She gently stroked the edge of the mirror and did not turn around to look at him.

"Ruling, drink the medicine."

The Grand Master placed a bowl of black liquid on the table next to her.

He seldom did anything himself, but with her medicine, he personally handled the entire process -- from boiling the water to serving them to her.

Shunde looked at the bowl. "I will drink it later."

"It will be most effective to drink it now."

"I don't want to."

The Grand Master picked up the bowl with one hand and pulled open her jaw with the other. Without a single word, he started pouring the medicine down her throat.

Shunde clenched her teeth and struggled hard, finally breaking loose from his grip and stumbling back a few steps. She stared at him in anger. "I don't want to drink it! I won't drink it! No!"

The Grand Master's face grew cold.

His expression was frightening, but Shunde only felt anger and rage. He moved his hand and she felt an invisible force grab her throat and pin her onto the table. She struggled to no avail.

Her mouth was forced open so brutally that her jawbone dislocated. He poured the medicine into her mouth, then released his hand and watched her.

Not observing her emotions, but watching her face.

Severe pain radiated out of her chest and ripped through her entire body, then crawled up to her face. She fell down wailing, and rolled around on the floor in agony.

The scars on her face wriggled like worms, slowly eating away the rotten flesh under her skin and smoothing it.

The Grand Master ignored her screams and watched with eyes lit with hope.

Eventually, her pain subsided and she laid on the ground panting for breath like a beaten dog. Her scars looked much better now.

The Grand Master squatted down, ruffled her hair and gently stroked her cheek. "This medicine works, be a good girl next time."

Shunde glared at him, part fear and part resentment. The Grand Master did not say anything else. He walked out of her chamber as quietly as he came.

After a long time, Shunde finally got up from the ground.

She covered her chest with one hand and clenched a fist with the other. Before her breathing calmed down, she took out the unfinished pill and her eyes glowed with a vicious craze.

She opened her mouth and swallowed it.

"I can't wait anymore, not a day, not a moment... Ji Chengyu, jade phoenix... you are both mine…"

She staggered out the door.

...

Ji Yunhe rested on the sea bed for two days. The patch of lingzhi was beautiful at first, but now after staring at them for so long, she grew bored and wanted to go out.

"Just hang on, you can go ashore tomorrow. By then the poisonous fire should be completely gone," Changyi reassured her. "One last day, don't rush it."

"Why didn't you bring me here in the first place?"

"At that time you only needed one lingzhi. Plus there was a sea demon here, fighting him while carrying you would have been inconvenient."

Ji Yunhe froze, then looked around into the dark sea. "Where is the sea demon now?"

"I chopped off a tentacle and it ran away."

"So this was his home?"

"Correct."

Ji Yunhe said disapprovingly, "Tsk tsk, such a bully. Hawk taking a sparrow's nest, shameless!"

"He started it."

She could not help but laugh. "I remember back in the Demon Valley dungeon, I asked you to take me under the sea sometimes."

Changyi nodded, "You did." He answered with certainty as if he remembered everything she had ever said.

"This place certainly counts, and I have seen many sides of you now." As if she just remembered something, Ji Yunhe pulled out the silver pearl hanging around her neck.

It dazzled and reflected the shimmering glow of the sea lingzhi around them.

When Changyi saw her pull it out, he suddenly forgot the grief he had felt that day, and blushed...

"This is the tear of a jiaoren, right?" She closed in on him. Changyi turned his head and acted like he did not see it. But how could Ji Yunhe be this easy to brush off. She approached him from the other side. "You cried it for me?"

Changyi cleared his throat.

Ji Yunhe saw his ears turn red and smirked, she was definitely not letting him off the hook now. She went straight to him face to face. "Just one?"

"Just one."

"Then can you squeeze out a couple more, I can make a set of matching earrings."

Changyi looked at her teasing eyes, and realized that this naughty girl had advanced herself and started poking fun at him.

He decided to be straightforward about it. "The day the lava hit and you fell into a coma, after Kongming dug us out, they were all over the ground."

All… all over the ground...

Turned out he was a treasure chest with endless riches...

He stared at her without dodging or avoiding, and she understood the meaning behind his words. All of a sudden her heart ached and she touched his head.

Changyi quietly accepted her caress.

Of course he was now aware that there was no magic spell called "touch it and it will get better". He had considered it to be just another one of the many lies she told him, adding to her list of sins.

But here at the bottom of the sea, her touch smoothed over all his scars and bitterness collected over the years, as if its healing powers were real.

He also saw the heartache in her eyes.

"Lost and found, they were tears of joy," Changyi said. "You don't need to feel bad."

Ji Yunhe tightened her lips. "Big-tailed fish, I am feeling bad for the money all over the ground that no one picked up. You guys don't know a thing about jumpstarting Northlands' economy." Ji Yunhe paused and thought about the first part of what he said. "Lost and found, joy..." She smiled. "Changyi, are you romancing me? "

Changyi asked, "Does that count as romancing?"

"That depends on who you are to me."

Ji Yunhe was teasing him again. She was sure he would be shy about it, but unexpectedly, he was very direct. "You were marked by a jiaoren. In your language, it would be… together always."

Ji Yunhe was a bit bewildered by his bluntness. "Earlier, if I had wanted to go separate ways instead of follow you back north, you would have lost your companion for life."

Changyi did not even think about it. "Would still be in the heart."

His words moved her again.

She lowered her head and smiled. "Where is the mark now?"

"It was printed on the body below the lake that burned..." Changyi still remembered the pain he felt when her body disintegrated into the lava. "So the mark is gone too."

"Back with you again?"

"Yes." Changyi looked at her. "If you don't like it, we don't have to use it."

"We have to use it."

Changyi did not expect that from her.

She continued, "Changyi, after we go back to the city, we will be facing the strongest man over the past century and the entire imperial court. Even though they lost the heart of their people, their power still cannot be underestimated. We will not always be together, and this mark can provide us with a link. It has to be printed, but it also needs to be fair."

Fair, meaning she should be able to sense him too.

Changyi watched Ji Yunhe for a while, then brushed aside the hair around her ear and planted a gentle kiss.

She felt the same pain as last time, but was now in a completely different state of mind.

His cool lips left her ear but he did not back away. Instead, he blew softly onto her wound. Even though the pain was nothing to Ji Yunhe, being cherished like this made her feel incredibly warm and fuzzy inside.

No one had ever treasured her like this before.

Not Lin Canglan who raised her, not Lin Haoqing who grew up with her, and not her friends who admired and looked up to her.

Even with Changyi himself, they were never this close back in the Demon Valley. And after he brought her to the north, all they had between each other were grudges and disputes.

And now, he gently helped her blow her wound.

Ji Yunhe felt like her whole body was melting under his cool breath. It tickled her ear, ruffled her hair, and flushed her face.

She lifted her eyes and watched him. He looked so innocent, completely unaware that his actions had aroused certain responses inside her.

"Changyi."

"Hmm?"

"You're such a tease sometimes."

"Hmm?"

Without further ado, Ji Yunhe pulled him toward her and kissed him passionately on the lips.

His eyes widened.

The giant bubble held out by Changyi's spell suddenly swayed, moving the lingzhi patch along with it. Amidst their shimmering light, the sound of seawater resonated inside the confined space, like the giggles of a naughty child who had peeked in.

Ji Yunhe did not let go.

Blue eyes narrowed. His hand held up to her head from behind, and he tilted his body...

"Ji Yunhe, you're also very good at teasing."

She smiled.

In the calm of the deep sea, they did not know day and night, only each other.

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