The King's Mate - Part 3: Guishi

Chapter 2

When Hua Cheng was done talking, Xie Lian felt rather complicated.

It was a lot to take in, despite Hua Cheng's best attempts to give Xie Lian time to process certain facts during his... report. If he was honest, his first thought was that Hua Cheng had gone off the deep end, and that he would do his best to indulge and support him, but he was just too honest and too ashamed to even look Xie Lian in the eyes during most of his story, that Xie Lian had a very hard time not believing him, as preposterous as it seemed.

But how was he supposed to accept that his husband was apparently some sort of half demon, half huli jing hybrid that could do magic, without questioning his sanity just a little bit? Unfortunately, Xie Lian was promptly reminded of the incident in the forest, and the creatures just outside the door, which already kind of proved that Hua Cheng was truly speaking the truth. Xie Lian couldn't imagine Hua Cheng ever purposefully lying to him to begin with, but... it was still difficult to believe.

However, the story that followed after was even more ludicrous, and surely something that Hua Cheng couldn't have made up, even if he had lost it a little. After all, he could feel his sincerity, his shame, his insecurity and his remorse through their bond. Which already spoke volumes in and of itself; feelings could only be noticed by the bonded mate if they were incredibly strong. If Hua Cheng had been only a little embarrassed, Xie Lian would have never been able to get a hunch of it. But the fact that he could so distinctly tell his emotions was already telling him that Hua Cheng felt these things extremely intensely, and that simply couldn't be manipulated.

While Xie Lian didn't doubt Hua Cheng's ability to overthrow any given king or emperor and sit himself down on their throne, he had a bit of a harder time believing that Xie Lian himself was supposed to be a quasi-immortal by being bonded to Hua Cheng. Though when his alpha told him about the jade he'd inserted into Xie Lian's neck, he moved a hand to touch the area and did indeed feel a tiny, smoothly rounded and stone-cold protrusion there.

It freaked him out; he couldn't pretend that it didn't.

Knowing that he had been as good as dead, and that he was only alive now because his husband had done everything in his power to save his life no matter the cost... it was certainly something he needed to learn to come to terms with. However, the overwhelming gratefulness he felt for Hua Cheng having done so much to keep him alive was nothing that needed prior contemplation. Had he died and left his daughter to face that monster by herself, alone in a forest, without finding E'ming first, and without being able to see Hua Cheng again for a last time... he would have died with nothing but regrets.

And while he truly would have liked to be conscious when Hua Cheng put the bonding mark on him, he understood why it had been necessary to do it before Xie Lian kicked the bucket. Though, since that had been an effective method to keep Xie Lian alive, he couldn't really doubt the fact that Hua Cheng, and by extension Xie Lian himself, were indeed immortal. Logically, it made sense. But it was so incredibly hard to wrap his head around!

So instead of trying to do that, he instead focused on the fact that his alpha was apparently a demon. A demon that was poisonous to him. Which apparently wasn't a problem as long as he drank four cups of some specific tea per day...?

Xie Lian realised that he should probably feel horrified by the thought of his husband having turned into some creature only told about in legend and old tales to scare children into obedience. But if he was honest, he was curious more than anything.

That was why, once he'd somewhat stomached all the information Hua Cheng had dumped on him, Xie Lian got up from the bed and wobbled over to his alpha on shaky legs, before letting himself fall onto his lap. Predictably, his alpha caught him in his secure grip by reflex, though his whole body tensed just a short moment afterwards.