Chapter 11: Husband and Wife

Yu went ahead to take a bath, but then he realized, does Yaya need to take a bath? Thinking so, he stopped at the entrance of the bathroom, glancing back at Yaya who laying down on the bed, comfortably rolling and laughing about.

“Yaya.” Yu called out to her, causing her to stop her rolls.

“Yes?” Yaya said as she sat upright.

Looking at her now, he couldn’t bear to say it out loud.

“D-do you need to take a bath?” Yu asked as his smile stiffened, its corners twitching even.

“Bath? Is it another delicious food?” Yaya asked as her head titled.

“…” Yu could not utter a word.

Thinking more about it, he had an idea! He went back to the bathroom, searching for a small towel.

After finding one, he thoroughly washed it with water, adding soap to the towel even. Grabbing the towel and going back to Yaya, he made her stand up before he started scrubbing her face, arms and legs. Rinsing the towel and only using water, he wiped off the excess soap.

“Ooh!” Yaya exclaimed as she felt a sudden freshness cover her after Yu cleaned her with the towel.

I should ask Lanruo to teach her how to take a bath later… he thought as he took his own bath.

After doing so, he dressed up in a more comfortable set of clothes as he sat on the bed. Yaya then went over, sitting next to him before asking: “Papa can talk to mama right?”

“I can, what do you want to tell her?” Yu asked as she rubbed her little head, causing her hair to get a bit messy.

“Hmmm, tell mama that Yaya’s been having fun! Yaya met lots of nice people! Like Uncle Zhou, Elder brother Qing, Elder sister Xue, and elder sister! Also! Yaya misses mama very much!” Yaya exclaimed in joy.

Giving her a gentle smile, Yu spoke: “Okay, I shall tell her all of it!”

Hearing his words, Yaya brightly smiled. Thinking about Lanruo, he decided to send her a message via their connection.

“Hey, is my beloved wife free at the moment?” Yu playfully asked.

“Yes, the Spirit Elves are asleep and the majority of the Great Ancient Spirits are satisfied with their territory.” Lanruo spoke with a sigh of relief.

“That’s good, though I’m curious, what are Great Ancient Spirits?” Yu asked.

“Hmmm, think of them as the elder council in the spirit hierarchy, a step below the Spirit Queen. They mostly handle the distribution of spirits from all over the world and help me teach and guide the younger ones about their tasks.” Lanruo happily explained.

Hearing her enthusiasm, he pursued further.

“I see, I kinda want to meet them now! They sound pretty cool.” Yu replied childishly.

Though Yu can already be considered as an adult, even by this world’s standards, he never let go of a few childish sides of his. He felt that having fun in life is one of its greatest pleasures, not doing so would make you lose out in a lot of things!

“Pfft” Lanruo from the other side could not help but let out a laugh.

“What’s wrong?” Yu asked, hearing his wife laugh was quite a rare occurrence, as rare as finding a protagonist in a novel who got reincarnated to another world and doesn’t immediately turn into an emotionless killing machine in two chapters.

“Hmm, let’s see. If you go back home in a few days I can introduce them to you if you want.” Lanruo explained.

“Oh! I’ll see if I can then.” Yu replied with enthusiasm.

Sensing Yu’s enthusiasm, she felt a sudden felt joy in her heart as she asked with a laugh: “Fufu, how’s Yaya been?”

“She’s been doing fine today. She asked me to tell you about what happened today.” Yu said as he began a retelling of today’s events. At times he could feel that Lanruo expressed a great amount of joy, at times worry, anger even, and eventually relief.

Seeing such a wide array of different emotions from Lanruo expressed in the span of an hour really surprised Yu! As during the time when they were together, she would only ever express joy and shyness.

Experiencing all these sides he’s never seen before, Yu gained a deeper understanding of Lanruo. Finishing his story, she spoke.

“So Yaya’s reached the state where she can take on a physical form!” Lanruo exclaimed as she became overwhelmed with joy and excitement!

“Is it amazing?” Yu asked, although he knew a bit about the spirits, such as the fact that they are beings made of Soul Qi, as well as the fact that they’re beings who are very good at judging character as they can peek into the soul of nearly every living being, he doesn’t know much else.

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“Of course it’s amazing you dummy! How can a being made of Soul Qi transforming into a physical entity not be amazing?!” Lanruo exclaimed. Although Yu got scolded a bit, he didn’t mind it and asked further questions.

“I see! Well, does it represent anything in the life of a spirit?”

“It does! It represents that they’ve undergone a metamorphosis that allowed their souls to reach a state where it can project a physical form!” Lanruo explained with excitement.

“So Yaya became strong enough to do that, how strong would she be in this state?” Yu asked as he felt a bit overwhelmed with Lanruo’s overflowing excitement.

“She should be around the peak of the Master Stage! At the verge of becoming a fairy! Originally, her strength had just reached the Spirit Stage at the time she met you.” Lanruo said, causing Yu to remember how terrifyingly fast Yaya had been!

“Ah, well, Spirit Elves are not strong for combat, nor do they have a strong defense. So to make up for it, they possess a terrifying amount of speed!” Lanruo explained.

“Well, what about that Rogue Water Spirit I faced a while back? It was huge and had over four arms! When I submitted the stone they even told me that it was an ancient variant.”

“Hmm, it must’ve been a Monarch. Spirits that specialize in combat, it had four arms which meant that it was close to becoming an Ancient Monarch, though they’re not wrong to assume that it was a monarch.” Lanruo explained as if it were a matter of fact.

“I see, then it’s not a Rogue Water Spirit?” Yu asked.

“It is, if I’m not wrong, that water spirit wanted to gain a much larger territory. However, it was denied by the Great Ancient Water Spirit. It threw a tantrum and left, we found it again after a few weeks but it wouldn’t listen no matter what. It was still a Spirit Knight at the time so we let it be… I didn’t realize that it grew into such a threat.” Lanruo let out a sigh before continuing her explanation.

“The term Rogue Spirit applies to any spirit that would not listen to reason, even mine. They are spirits who I could not save, so I am left with no other choice but to kill them… But I’m too weak… out of all the one hundred and fifty seven rogue spirits, I’ve killed a hundred and fifty two…. I couldn’t kill the rest of them after realizing what I’ve done and that Rogue Water Spirit was the one hundred and fifty third to pass on….. The first rogue spirit that wasn’t killed by me……” Lanruo spoke, her voice growing weaker and weaker with each word.

She paused for a while before continuing: “Earlier, when I sent you that message… I only thought about you and not about how that spirit is one of my children… I’m horrible…. aren’t I?”

Although Yu couldn’t see her at this moment, he could tell that she was already at the verge of tears. Hearing her words only made it painful for him as he felt his heart tighten.

“I shouldn’t have brought it up…” Yu replied, feeling guilty as he realized more and more how immense the burden of a spirit Queen is.

“No, its fine, I would have had to explain it to you eventually…” She explained, pausing for a while, the two went quiet. Yu didn’t know what to say, nor know what the right words were to comfort here, he wasn’t even there to comfort her physically, so he was at a lost.

“Would you hate a woman like me? Someone who would choose to kill her own children for the good of all?” She asked, although Yu could tell that she’s used all of her will power to say each and every word.

With this he knew that lying to her would do him no good, so he decided to speak from his heart: “No, I won’t hate you just because of that.”

“You’re lying…” Lanruo replied, as if she didn’t want to accept his answer.

“Then do you want me to hate you?” Yu asked, making her go quiet.

After a while, she spoke quietly: “No… I don’t want you to hate me….”

Hearing her words, he felt a surge sweetness in his heart, but it was only for a while.

“Then believe me when I tell you that I won’t hate you.” Yu replied, making her go quiet.

“Then do you think that the things I did were wrong?” She asked, her voice trembling still.

“I’m not in a position to judge.” Yu replied helplessly.

“Then as a mother, were the things that I’ve done wrong?” Lanruo continued.

After changing her perspective, Yu answered: “Yes, I believe that what you did was wrong.”

Hearing his words, it was like a hammer that struck her wounded heart, it’s was painful, far too painful for her to bear. But Yu wasn’t finished as he continued: “As a mother of the spirits, you shouldn’t abandon either one just because you couldn’t find a way to. But that’s just how I see things, I’m not always right, I may be wrong as well.”  

“No… You’re right…. I’m too weak to do anything…” She replied, unable to hold it anymore as tears started flowing.

This sudden act made Yu unable to react, he didn’t expect her to accept his views so easily. That wasn’t all, the pain in her voice was too much, he felt his heart get stabbed by a burning hot knife as it twisted and turned, it was painful for him as well. Calming himself down, he spoke.

“You know,”

Hearing him speak, her cries softened.

“My grandad told me once that to truly become stronger, one should first admit that they are weak.” He spoke with hints of nostalgia in his tone.

“I never admitted that I was weak, I never felt that I needed to be strong, even when I first came to this world…” Yu spoke with each word resounding deeply in Lanruo’s heart.

“Well, that was until now…” he said, although he can’t see her at the moment, he could feel her through their connection.

He paused for a few breaths before continuing: “In my previous world, marriage is also a vow to that the husband and wife undergo to show that they are willing to go through everything together. I want to become stronger to share your burden.”

Lanruo was speechless, she didn’t know how to respond. Before she’s realized it, tears started trickling down on her cheeks again. But this time around, it wasn’t because of sadness.

“Thank you…” Lanruo quietly said.

“What are you thanking me for? I’m your husband aren’t I?” Yu jokingly said, but the next moment, he felt Lanruo’s tears to flow even more!

Did I mess up?! Yu thought, thinking that perhaps he shouldn’t be joking in the middle of such a sensitive conversation.

“Mhm… You’re my husband.” Lanruo said with the sweetest voice he’s heard thus far. Through their connection, he could feel that she’s giving the most beautiful smile she’s ever had, he was charmed by its beauty, taking him a while to calm down.

“And you’re my wife.” Yu replied as he gave a smile from the bottom of his heart.

Sensing his smile, Lanruo spoke with sincerity: “I’m happy I met you.”  

“I’m happy I met you as well.” Yu replied how he felt, washing away the heavy atmosphere from before as the mood became sweet, with the two lovers longing for each other’s warmth.

As for Yaya, she’s long fell asleep on the bed, after all, Yu and Lanruo’s been talking for two hours already! The two neglected the passage of time as they immersed in their own little world once more.

Feeling it was already late, the stopped for now and went to sleep.