My Flash-Marriage Husband Is an Eldritch Being - Chapter 4

While I was away, I messaged Qi Shuo every day.

If I ate something delicious, I sent him a photo. If I encountered a difficult client, I sent him several voice messages to curse them out.

At first, Qi Shuo replied almost instantly.

The moment I sent a message, his response appeared, as if he spent all twenty-four hours of the day watching his phone.

[Baby, you look beautiful today too.]

[Don’t drink anything iced. Your period is coming soon.]

[Did he upset you? Do you need me to take care of him?]

That last one sounded a little dangerous.

I hurriedly replied, [No. You’re a paleontologist. What could you possibly do to him?]

After a while, Qi Shuo wrote back, [I could study him.]

He made me laugh out loud.

When I returned to the hotel that night, I video-called him as usual.

Qi Shuo answered immediately, but the background was pitch-black. I could see only his pale face.

“Why are the lights off?”

“I’m getting ready to sleep.”

It was only eight thirty.

“Did you eat today?”

“Yes.”

“What did you have?”

Qi Shuo was silent.

I grew annoyed. “You haven’t been eating properly again, have you?”

He did not answer. He simply stared at me on the screen for a very long time.

“You’ve been gone so long.”

He seemed even paler now.

“There’s nothing I can eat.”

My eyes stung. I wanted nothing more than to buy a high-speed rail ticket and go straight home.

But all I could do was kiss him through the screen and instruct him, “I won’t be back for a few more days. Starting tomorrow, you have to send me a photo of every meal so I can check.”

He gave a listless murmur of assent.

Over the next few days, Qi Shuo did send me the promised photos of his meals, but his replies grew slower.

At first, he answered instantly. Then it took ten or twenty minutes. Eventually, hours passed before he responded.

He stopped accepting my video calls as well, saying that he was at the institute and it was not convenient.

But in the past, no matter how busy he was, he would always answer long enough to look at me once.

On the fourth night, I called three times in a row. He did not answer any of them.

I grew increasingly uneasy.

The next day’s work was supposed to last until the afternoon, but I forced everything through by noon.

Then I changed my ticket to the earliest high-speed train and hurried home half a day early.

When I opened the door, the apartment was terrifyingly quiet.

Not a single light was on, every curtain had been drawn tight, and the air held a damp chill.

I fumbled for the entryway light. The moment it came on, I saw Qi Shuo on the sofa.

He was curled into a tight ball, clutching my crumpled pajamas to his chest, his face buried in them and his body utterly still.

Startled, I abandoned my suitcase and rushed over.

“Qi Shuo?”

He slowly raised his head, and I finally saw his face.

In just a few days, he had become shockingly thin.

His face was almost bloodless, and even his lips had lost their color.

The instant he recognized me, starlight seemed to return to his dim eyes.

“Baby.”

Qi Shuo dropped the pajamas, rose, and pulled me into his arms.

His strength was astonishing. His arms locked so tightly around my waist that I could barely breathe.

I touched his icy face, my worry deepening.

“How did you lose so much weight? Are you sick?”

He did not answer. He merely lowered his head and brushed his lips against mine as though confirming I was real.

Once. Then again.

Just as I was about to question him further, he suddenly clasped the back of my neck and kissed me deeply.

Like something that had starved for ages, he desperately drank in my breath. Even the arms holding me were trembling faintly.

His kisses drove me backward until my back met the wall. At that very moment, the entryway light I had just switched on snapped off.

The apartment plunged back into darkness. Qi Shuo’s silhouette wavered in the murky light.

His entire body was ice-cold.

Alarm shot through me. A moment later, Qi Shuo’s palm covered my eyes.

“Be good. Don’t look.”

“Your body—”

He kissed the rest of the words back into my mouth.

He gave me no chance to escape, carrying me all the way from the entryway to the bedroom.

In the darkness, countless cool, pliant things seemed to close in at once, overlapping around me to form an impenetrable cocoon.

The hand over my eyes never moved.

“Honey, something feels strange…”

His face was buried against the side of my neck. His voice was so hoarse it barely sounded like him.

“Don’t be scared. Just let me hold you for a while.”

His definition of “a while” was clearly different from that of a normal person.

He held me to feel my warmth and listen to my breathing, lowering his head every so often to touch his lips to mine.

It felt as if a very, very long time passed.

At one point, I tried to push him away, only to find that I was completely enclosed on every side.

“Qi Shuo, I’m getting uncomfortable.”

Whatever surrounded me immediately loosened.

He made a drowsy sound, but his arms still did not let go.

I had meant to keep asking what was wrong with his body. In the end, his embrace made me so sleepy that my eyes drifted shut before I knew it.