Huai Falls for an Old Friend - Chapter 6

Whenever Xie Huai was unhappy, he liked to lie on a rock beside the waterfall.

A few years earlier, a black bear spirit had gotten drunk and said several nasty things about me. Xie Huai had beaten him senseless.

I had found him here afterward, too.

Now he leaned lazily against the stone, a foxtail stem between his teeth.

“What are you doing here?”

I sat down beside him.

“Qingqing, the red mark on your face is gone. I never knew you were this beautiful.”

I knew.

The Heavenly Dao had left me one chance at life. Before the great demon was reduced to ash, however, a wisp of his soul had attached itself to mine. That was why I’d been born with a blemished face.

During my tribulation, it had seized the opportunity to escape.

“Qingqing, everyone says the God of War loves all living beings. I don’t want that. I only want you to love me.”

Xie Huai was utterly serious, but this was the one promise I could not make.

Protecting the Three Realms had been my purpose from the moment I gained awareness. It had been my duty before, and it would remain so.

“I’m sorry.”

His smile turned bitter. Though he spoke quickly, his voice was so calm that he sounded almost detached.

“I’ll have the things I found these past few days delivered to Mount Xinyi. Don’t worry about the invitations. I’ll visit every household and apologize. Yellow-gray-black-and-white Qingqing, make sure you forget me!”

His hungry gaze lingered on me as if he meant to carve my image into his memory.

“You aren’t coming with me?”

“Coming where?”

I rubbed my forehead. He was far too foolish. Better to keep him beside me, lest someone lure him away, rip out his dragon sinews, and sell his hide.

“Many of my former subordinates are at Mount Xinyi. Aren’t you coming to meet them?”

His eyes lit up, only to dim again.

“Qingqing, when I was still a hatchling, my mother’s bedtime stories were all about the Heavenly Emperor and the God of War—the untold tales between them.”

“So you decided to hand me over to him?”

Without a word, Xie Huai locked me in his arms, squeezing tightly and burying his face against my shoulder.

“Qingqing. Qingqing. Qingqing.”

At last, he whispered, “I can’t bear to let you go.”

He gave me no chance to answer.

“But I don’t know what reason I have to keep you. You’re so powerful, and now you’re the God of War. You share a past life with him. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

“Xie Huai, listen to me. I like you. I want to marry you.”

My face might have been marred, but I was powerful, and Qingqiu’s standing was high. Over the years, plenty of people had offered themselves to me.

From beginning to end, Xie Huai was the only one I allowed to remain by my side.

Other than my family, he was the only person I had permitted into my heart.

I turned his face toward mine and met his eyes.

“The wedding will proceed as planned. The only hardship for our little black dragon baby is that he’ll have to live with me at Mount Xinyi.”

Xie Huai flushed. “I’m not a baby.”

He let out a long breath. “Qingqing, now that you’ve given me this sign, I’ll never give up on you.”

There was no need for him to give me up.

I wrapped my arms around his lean waist.

I’d always thought myself cold when it came to love. My purpose was the peace of the Three Realms.

Then I met Xie Huai.

Xie Huai, clumsily comforting me and telling me to ignore the words of weaklings. Xie Huai, soaring through sky and sea to make me smile. Xie Huai, following at my heels, coaxing and acting cute.

I thought I could no longer let this man go.

“Xie Huai, have a little confidence. You are the most beautiful man in the Southern Sea, after all.”

He murmured, “Beautiful enough for you?”

“Yes. So beautiful I can’t tear myself away.”