In a completely different part of the forest, the fairy in question was currently being squeezed by a pair of large male hands.

"You can mess with me all you want, but how dare you humiliate MeiMei like that."

"W-wasn—t—" The fairy tried to say in a strangled voice, eyed bulging.

"You dare?! You were watching, you were the one who threw that pinecone, you saw MeiMei's reaction! To claim to be her friend all this time and behave like this—" Jin was murderously angry and currently bearing down his fury in full strength on Ye.

"He-lpi-ng y-ou!" Ye desperately spat out. He knew Jin was going to be upset, but this level of anger was beyond his expectation. The fairy was actually pleased, but he didn't dare show it. He didn't have a death wish, after all.

Jin stared at the fairy for a long moment before slightly loosening his grip. Not enough for the fairy to escape, but enough he could breath again.

"What do you mean helping me?"

After a few minutes of panting, Ye was able to say, "You needed MeiMei to notice you."

"Notice me? She notices me all the time."

"Not like that!" Ye refrained from rolling his eyes. "She sees you like she sees me. Not as a man, but a companion. A friend."

"…and what is the problem?"

The fairy eyed the man, a little impatient. "Are you going to remain her friend forever?"

"Can't I?"

"And when a man comes along and takes her away?"

Jin scoffed. "What man would take her from me?"

"Jin, she can't live in the mountain forever the way things are. She needs a family."

"I. AM. HER. FAMILY." He gritted his teeth and started squeezing Ye again.

"YOU. ARE. HER. FRIEND." Ye yelled back before the air was forced out of his lungs.

Jin frowned, grip loosening. "Family may be friends."

Ye sighed wearily. Sometimes talking to the Emperor made him want to jump off a cliff, "Friends may be loyal and there is love there too, but it's not the same as family. There is a depth that comes from familial love that can't come from friendship. No matter how one tries. The love shared in a family will always be closer and more intimate than that of a friend. Even the pain is deeper when it comes from family. Don't act like you don't understand the difference. You've experienced it yourself. Or are you going to claim the deer are more valuable than....?"

Ye left the last sentence hanging. Even after all this time, he was still forbidden about talking about Xuiying directly.

With this, Jin's frown deepened and his grip on the fairy loosened enough for Ye to escape. Ye jumped away to the nearby tree branch, rubbing his sore body, thankful to be free.

After several minutes of thinking, Jin countered. "If that is the case, then what does that make you? What does that make of the years you've been with her? Aren't you relegated to the lesser role of friend?"

"As things remain, yes. Didn't she leave me for two years, after promising to stay? My friendship with her is not enough to bind her. She will leave me again, seeking something deeper. It is the nature of humans, they can not help it. She needs a family, and I can't give it to her."

"How can you accept that?!"

Ye threw a pine-cone at him angrily. "I don't accept it! I love her, but what can I do!? I will always be a fairy, I will never be human! But you, oh mighty Emperor, you are human! You have a chance where I never will! You can be with her as a human man, and you can make a family with her. And then, she will stay. She will never leave me, because she will love you. It works well for both of us."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Jin's eyebrows had shot up at Ye's explanation.

"And what's more, aren't I made from you? If you become a real family, then I will be included in it." Ye was bouncing from one leg to the next excitedly. "I will be… huh.. What's it called? I will be like a brother-in-law! Yes, yes! And to your children, I will be Uncle Ye! Hehehe!"

"C-children?" Sputtered Jin, startled.

Ye sighed in disappointment. The Emperor's thickness hadn't lessened as a human. "How do you think you'll become a family? You must marry her! You be the husband, she will be the wife. Your body is sturdy enough, even if the spirit isn't human, children should be no problem. Imagine it! Little Jin's and MeiMei's running around the mountain… Hehehehehe!"

Jin's eyes widened. It had actually never occurred to him that marrying MeiMei was an option. Xuiying had insisted on defining family in terms of siblings. So while Jin knew what marriage was, he'd never thought to apply it to himself. Family was always "brother and sister".

"Can I… marry MeiMei?" He finally asked, feeling hesitant and somewhat confused.

Ye's eyebrow rose. "Yes? Why couldn't you?"

"I was only ever seen as a Brother. I don't know if I can be anything else."

"Isn't that just because you never acted like anything but a spoiled rotten brat?"

Jin's face darkened, but he found he couldn't refute Ye's comment. It was true that he'd mistreated Xuiying horribly. Since they were spirits, how they defined their relationship was totally dependent on their own view of each other. That Xuiying had seen him only as a brother, could Jin really blame her? What had he ever done to make her think otherwise?

Feeling disheartened by his past conduct, his shoulders slumped.

"I am barely competent as a brother at this point, how will I do as a husband? What if I'm bad at it? What if I repeat—?" He couldn't finish his sentence. That time period was still an open wound that hadn't healed. It would never really heal, without reconciliation, so he tried not to think on it too deeply.

Ye hopped down from his branch and onto Jin's shoulder.

"Look, if anyone has a right to hold your past against you, I do. But being human has changed you. It's allowed you to grow. You aren't the same person as you were before. If you are to make mistakes, they are going to be brand new ones, not the old ones of the past. And if that is not enough assurance, I am here too. I promise, I will help you."

Jin glanced at the little fairy on his shoulder in surprise. Fairies don't make empty promises. They weren't able to, it wasn't in their nature. And even though Ye was an extreme troublemaker, he was bound by the same restrictions.

"You… you would make that kind of promise to me?"

Ye's eyes narrowed with an indecipherable emotion in them. "I'm simply keeping a promise I made to someone else, so think nothing of it."

"Hm." Jin nodded, relieved. They weren't enemies anymore but they weren't friends. With Jin, an altruistic Ye could not be trusted. It would be like a rabbit trusting a hawk to only eat vegetables. "Then I agree that marrying MeiMei is the best option."

"Excellent! Then we shou—"

"But," Jin interrupted. "You must never repeat what you did today. It was cruel to her, Ye. It was cruel. I'll not allow such a thing a second time. If you dare, I'll trap you in a rock and bury you in the roots of the mountain. Do you understand?" The blue in his eyes disappeared, replaced by a sharp piercing gold.

Ye gulped and nodded quickly. "O,of course. I won't do such a thing ever again."

They stared at each other tensely for a few minutes. Finally, Jin looked away, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"What was the point of your mischief anyway? You said I needed to be noticed…"

"Oh that!" Ye said happy to move the topic along. "Your first meeting, while hilarious, was awful. It made it so no matter how mature and smart and strong you get, you're perpetually that man-child she met at first. I've been looking for an opportunity to create a memory between the two of you that will be stronger than that initial meeting."

"And having me walk in on her bathing was the best you could think of?"

Ye snickered wickedly. "That's not what I was doing."

Seeing Jin's clueless expression, Ye clucked his tongue in disappointment.

"She likes your mind well enough, it's your body that was the issue."

Jin glared. Ye often said cruel things without the slightest bit of guilt. Next Ye will be calling Jin ugly to his face, he was sure!

"If my body is the problem, how is forcing her to see me naked going to help?"

"Because," Ye chortled in amusement. "I've trained you ruthlessly for over two years. You think I did that for your sake?! I was sculpting that wimpy looking body of yours into something I knew would get her attention. I've been with her much longer than you, I understand her tastes better. But I've had no opportunities for her to see all my hard work… she taught you too well! You're both so chaste! Ah! Human morality can be such a pain!"

Jin's eye twitched. It wasn't like MeiMei was the only one who'd drilled human concepts of modesty into his head. Ye had been doing it too.

Seriously, this fairy was a pain to deal with. Whether he was your friend or enemy, he was always up to something. Jin couldn't understand how Mei Hua got along with him so well.