Realms In The Firmament

“Hmm? Can’t I come?” Su Ye-Yue got a little angry when she heard Ye Xiao. She wrinkled her little pretty nose and said, “Sooner or later, it will become my house too! I will be the vice-chairman here! I am here to check my residence in advance! Can’t I do that? Listen to you. You don’t want me to be here from deep within your heart, do you?”

She humphed and started to twist the whip in her hands. She squinted at Ye Xiao with a look like ‘I will whip you to death, if you ever dare to piss me off again’.

She intentionally showed a dark look to Ye Xiao, but it turned out to be so adorable that he didn’t even feel the least bit threatened.

He had not been in the mood, but she had actually amused him. The words she said, ‘will become my house too’, ‘the vice-chairman’, ‘check my residence in advance’… he found them really funny.

As she had behaved like this, maybe Su Ye-Yue actually didn’t feel any antipathy towards Ye Xiao. Maybe she had already given in to her fate, so she cared no more about it, but it revealed her true personality.

“Heyyy, what are you talking about?” Ye Xiao tried to comfort her, “How could I possibly not welcome you? I am super happy that you came to my house. Oh no, our house.”

“Humph!” Su Ye-Yue acted like the boss of the house and walked around Ye Xiao, holding her head high with her wrinkled nose, and then she snuffled a bit and asked interestedly, “Oh, Xiao-Xiao, how come you smell so good? What are you carrying with you?!”

“What are you talking about? I don’t have anything on me!” Ye Xiao contested her claims, but he knew clearly about the origin of his pleasant fragrance.

The reason why he smelled so good was quite simple. He had accomplished ablution of the muscles and bones twice with his body, so most of the impurities in his body had been cleared. His body was pure like a newborn child’s body, so it certainly smelled good.

“Yes! You definitely do!” Su Ye-Yue was quite certain about this fact, as she took a closer look at Ye Xiao and smelled him around. Then she murmured with confusion, “It is not the smell of perfumes for girls… And it is not the smell of a flower… and… Oh? Oh!!”

She found that she was too close to Ye Xiao, and then she looked up and saw Ye Xiao looking at her with a complacent smile. The pretty face and his soft eyes were really close to her. She could even feel his breath!

She was so shocked that she screamed. She immediately jumped away from him and felt her heart racing. Her pretty face turned red. She suddenly felt awkward and didn’t know what to do. She was flustered and embarrassed at the same time. She would have liked to turn around and run out of the house, but she found herself unable to move her legs. Instead, she realized that she would rather stay here than leave.

Ye Xiao felt warmth spreading in his heart, and said softly, “What an adorable little girl.”

Su Ye-Yue felt her face quickly heating up as her original beautiful pale white skin quickly obtained a deep shade of red. She managed to stutter out a few words, “Y… you… you… you are just slightly older than me! Humph, how dare you speak to me with a tone of seniority! I… If you… y… you speak like that again, I… I… I wi… will punch you down!”

Ye Xiao laughed out loud carelessly. He felt pleased from the bottom of his heart.

Hearing his voice and smelling his scent made Su Ye-Yue’s heart beat even faster. The blush on her face didn’t vanish; it became even more obvious and cute.

She suddenly came out with a thought that this guy was to become her husband in the future…

He was to become her husband…

This thought had appeared in her mind and was actually lingering around for a long time. She just couldn’t help but feel even more embarrassed.

Before now, Su Ye-Yue had simply regarded Ye Xiao as her playmate and a man she had been loathly engaged to. Their fates were intertwined because she couldn’t disobey her parents. That was it and that was all.

However, at this moment, the thought of him becoming her ‘husband’ that appeared in her mind had truly surprised this vivacious girl.

She lowered her head and stayed quiet for quite a while. When she finally raised her head, she found that Ye Xiao was now sitting on the chair across her and that he was actually focussing on reading a book.

She finally felt relaxed and felt lucky that he didn’t seem to notice her.

But she couldn’t help but be a little bit upset as well. She was wondering why he wasn’t looking at her at all.

Then she took a few steps ahead and softly sat in front of him, and observed his pretty face. A long time passed in the silence.

After reading the book for a while, Ye Xiao stopped to rest and only now realized that Su Ye-Yue actually hadn’t left. He looked up and saw that she was laying her elbows on the table and bracing her lower jaw. She was looking at him quietly and calmly.

He felt puzzled, and asked gently, “Are you ok?”

Maybe because Ye Xiao had spoken gently, she wasn’t startled. She was still calm, and a little bit absent-minded as she murmured, “Xiao-Xiao… You have changed a lot recently…”

“I have changed a lot? Have I?” Ye Xiao frowned.

“Yes… Yes, you have…” She tilted her head and thoughtfully said, “Your outer appearance hasn’t changed… But you used to be very annoying, which made me want to punch you down all the time… As for now… the annoying part is gone… Instead, you are…”

She frowned and tried to organize proper words to clearly describe her feelings. After a while she continued, “…like… You are composed and credible now… Why is that? And you look like you have many things hidden in your mind, like there are so many stories in your head... That is weird.”

Ye Xiao lifted his eyebrows and smiled.

Changed? Of course he had changed! It would be weird if he had not.

If this Ye Xiao was still the departed Ye Xiao, not the Xiao Monarch, that would be a massive problem!

Anyway, he had to admit that girls’ instincts are really frightful.

Su Ye-Yue was a princess, so things that usually happened to normal girls would never happen to her. However, the annoyance she had felt in the departed Ye Xiao was the natural reaction of every normal girl had towards the foppish fools.

Ye Xiao realized that sometimes even a tiny action could let people notice his changed personality. He felt that he really needed to seriously think about this.

He had always been free and alone in his previous life, traveling around the world with laughter.

However, everything was different now. If he showed the personality of the Xiao Monarch in this present life… people would wonder how he turned into a solitary man from a foppish teenage boy…

Even in this mortal world, there could be people who would regard him as a threat and were able to easily kill him.

Maybe he should show himself as a foppish fool in people’s faces, so that it could become his perfect disguise.

Besides, after living for such a long time, Ye Xiao clearly knew that he had mostly lived wrong in his previous life.

Every bit of affection he had received had actually made him understand, but he actually felt like he understood nothing.

He was always confused about it.

Could it be… that he had to go through all the troubles in heaven and hell before he could become successful?

So he was thinking, “Maybe I should try to get into a relationship?”

The reason he had stayed away from relationships till now was due to him practicing the Pure Yang Martial Arts.

“The disturbance you have caused this time is really serious. Although you didn’t kill Mu Cheng-Bai, but all of the existing evidences are pointing at you.” Su Ye-Yue expressed her anxiousness.

Su Ye-Yue had not cared about this case before, because she had not thought that it would matter whether Ye Xiao would die or not; she would have probably felt nothing more than a little pity. However, she cared for him now.

Even she herself didn’t know how and why her mind had changed.

Someone she hadn’t cared about before, had suddenly become important to her. How?!

“You’re in a truly dangerous situation.” She lovingly looked at Ye Xiao.

“Hmm. I know.” Ye Xiao nodded, “I am afraid I really am getting into a perilous position… The princes are fighting for the throne; the noble clans are interfering; the supreme dan beads have shown up; the reclusive martial sects are back to the world… The thing regarding me has happened during all these events, so maybe I will be the blasting fuse to the bursts of the battles…”

“That is true… What will you do next?” Su Ye-Yue asked worriedly, “I can ask my dad to send a team of guards to protect you and lead you out of the capital to the north. You can get away from this mess.”

Ye Xiao replied after thinking for a while, “A man should stand straight up in the world. How can I keep escaping from troubles. The more dangerous the situation is, the more I can get trained. If I can get through this, it will definitely be a reform of me. A danger is also an opportunity. If I can’t get through it… then there won’t be any big accomplishments in my life. I will be a useless fool who is unable to protect the one who he cares for and who cares for him.”

Ye Xiao smiled, “I am too young. I haven’t been through anything that will make me regret when I die. So if I die, I die.”

When he said so, he suddenly thought of a pair of eyes he had seen before, which looked exactly the same like the eyes that were looking at him right now.

He felt sad. Then he sighed.

Su Ye-Yue’s face suddenly turned red again.

She started to think,

“What… What does he mean? Of course, the ‘Get through this’ part is understandable. The ‘can’t get through’ part… The one who he cares for and who cares for him… Who is the one he was talking about? ‘Too young’, ‘haven’t been through anything that…’ What was he talking about? Could it be… Could it be me?”

She suddenly felt the accompaniment of gongs and drums in her mind that her heart nearly beat out from her chest. She felt shyness, happiness and sweetness at the same time. She tried her best to humph strongly, in case she got ludicrous, and then she spoke like a peevish child, “Oh, come on. This has nothing to do with me, I guess… Oh, you are just talking nonsense again… Come on! I am leaving. I won’t hear your balderdash. You are so annoying~!”

She then stood up and literally skipped to the door.

But in fact, she looked like she was… escaping!