My Flash-Marriage Husband Is an Eldritch Being - Chapter 5

By the time I saw his face again, a full five hours had passed.

Outside the window, night had fallen completely.

He had held me until my entire body went numb. I lay on the bed, unwilling to move.

Qi Shuo, on the other hand, had shaken off every trace of his earlier weakness.

His body was warm again, color had returned to his face, and his bright eyes made him look positively radiant.

It was absurd.

“You looked like you were about to die a few hours ago.”

He was fine now, while I had spent five solid hours as the human body pillow he clung to and breathed in.

Qi Shuo held me and drew me a little tighter against him.

“I wasn’t sick. I was missing something I need to maintain this form.”

I did not understand. “Were you deficient in some vitamin?”

Qi Shuo buried his face in my hair and inhaled deeply.

“It’s fine. I’ve replenished it now.”

I was still sleepy and had no energy to question him further. I adjusted my position and rested my face against his chest.

At last, the room fell quiet.

Qi Shuo stroked my hair idly.

I rested with my eyes closed for a long time before gradually realizing that something was wrong.

It was too quiet.

His chest was warm, and his breathing was steady.

Yet with my ear pressed there all this time, I had not heard a single heartbeat.

I opened my eyes, held my breath, and listened carefully again.

Nothing.

Qi Shuo had no heartbeat.

The discovery gave me such a fright that I jerked my head up and stared at his face.

“Honey, is there something wrong with your heart?”

Meeting my gaze without a flicker of emotion, Qi Shuo said, “Baby, work has been so exhausting that you’re hallucinating. Listen again.”

I placed my ear against his chest once more.

Sure enough, I heard a loud thumping.

It was extremely erratic, though, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, like an arrhythmia.

That worried me even more. I was about to ask him another question when the heartbeat gradually became steady and rhythmic.

It was as though he knew what I was worried about and had deliberately adjusted the tempo.

Far from relieved, I felt even more unsettled.

The more I thought about it, the less any of this made sense.

Every abnormal thing about Qi Shuo seemed connected to some physical problem.

He barely ate, his body temperature was lower than a normal person’s, he liked to hide when he got excited, he lost a shocking amount of weight after a few days apart from me, and now his heart started and stopped at random.

We had undergone premarital health checks, but those included only the most basic screenings. If Qi Shuo truly had some rare condition, letting it worsen was no laughing matter.

I climbed out of his embrace and said sternly, “You’re coming to the hospital with me tomorrow for a thorough physical.”

Qi Shuo stared at me for a moment. “I don’t need one.”

“Your heart just stopped!”

“It’s fine now.”

“The fact that it stops and starts is the problem!”

Qi Shuo fell silent.

I opened my phone to make an appointment, but he reached over, took it from me, and put it somewhere I could not reach.

“The hospital won’t find anything.”

I stared at him. “Are you hiding some illness from me?”

He looked at me and said, “As long as you stay by my side, I’ll be perfectly healthy.”

I jabbed him in the head, furious. “This is not the time to show off how hopelessly in love you are!”

No matter how long I argued, his only answer was that he would not go.

Seeing how determined he was to avoid treatment, I called a friend who worked in cardiology. I wanted to ask which tests we should arrange first.

After hearing me out, my friend suggested that I take Qi Shuo for an electrocardiogram and an echocardiogram.

Then they teased,

“Newlyweds really are different, huh? You treat him like he’s made of glass. Does your Dr. Qi still read your mind like before? I remember you showing off every day when you two were dating, saying he knew you better than the worm in your stomach.”

I glanced instinctively at Qi Shuo.

He was sitting by the bed, unpacking the luggage I had brought home, and did not seem to be listening to us.

“What mind reading? He’s just attentive to me.”

My friend made a series of skeptical noises.

I laughed. “It would actually be pretty scary if he could read minds. Even married couples need some space of their own.”

The sound of the zipper abruptly stopped.

Qi Shuo still had his head lowered, but his expression did not look good.

I paid it no mind. After arranging to bring Qi Shuo to my friend when they were free, I ended the call.

Qi Shuo stood there looking at me, his lips pressed into a straight line.

“Baby, what if I really could hear your thoughts?

“Would you think I was frightening?”

I considered it. Assuming he was joking, I joked back that if it were true, I would send him to a research institute to be sliced up and studied.

Qi Shuo did not laugh.

Only after a long time did he answer softly.

“I understand.”