Chapter 5
Edward Quan ·
17
“Gu Sui.”
My heart was racing.
Excitement.
Anticipation.
My old toy and my new toy were finally facing off!
Seeing Shen Wang, Gu Sui assumed he'd come on tribal business and tried to dismiss him.
“Wait in the study.”
“I'm in no mood for work right now.”
“Don't disturb me.”
I couldn't help laughing.
Shen Wang calmly pushed him aside and walked steadily toward me.
Naturally, he held out his hand.
Under Gu Sui's astonished gaze, I placed mine in it.
“Sorry,” Shen Wang said calmly.
“I'm not in the mood for work either.”
“And you two...”
“Shouldn't disturb us.”
See?
I'd told you.
I'd kept it so well hidden that no one had noticed.
Gu Sui lowered his voice.
“Shen Wang.”
“I'm about to break through.”
“You have no beast markings.”
“I was the one who took you in.”
“Are you really going to fight me for Ruoli?”
His fish tail appeared in a wash of damp air.
He lunged, fierce and aggressive.
“Break through?”
Shen Wang looked down at him with contempt.
“Not while I'm here.”
His tail lashed out like lightning.
So fast that Gu Sui had no chance to react.
He was sent flying.
Unhurriedly, Shen Wang supported me and gently lifted me onto his shoulder.
I was a little afraid of heights.
But it was such a novel experience that I completely forgot about Gu Sui and Xu Qin.
Gu Sui's face went white with horror.
“You...”
“It isn't that you have no markings...”
“You have five!”
Only a beastkin with five beast markings could have broken his attack so easily.
18
Shen Wang didn't deny it.
Instinctively, I glanced at him.
No wonder I'd sensed danger from the beginning.
Xu Qin hurried backward, clearing the battlefield.
Gu Sui braced a hand on the ground and slowly rose.
He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
There was a trace of hope in the eyes he turned on me.
By now, he'd worked out most of it.
“If you really wanted to dissolve our bond, you would've left long ago. You wouldn't have waited until now.”
“Ruoli... you still have feelings for me, don't you?”
“I know I was wrong. I admit it.”
“But I can't lose you.”
I patted Shen Wang's shoulder, signaling him to leave.
I didn't want to hear any more.
Just as we were about to go, Gu Sui raised his voice.
“Ruoli!”
“I never meant to betray you.”
“It's just... I kept seeing you in Xu Qin.”
“She was more like the way you used to be.”
“I couldn't help wanting to get close.”
“I asked Shen Wang to help keep things from you so I could go on a honeymoon with her.”
“Only when the love poison took effect and my mark appeared on her did I realize...”
“Maybe there was no going back.”
“But I want to make amends.”
“To save this.”
Keep things from me?
As I remembered it, he'd asked Shen Wang to sleep with me for him.
I felt Shen Wang's body stiffen.
A suspicion occurred to me.
By now, quite a few merfolk had gathered without my noticing.
They'd heard everything Gu Sui had said.
I immediately pointed at Xu Qin and explained enthusiastically.
“From now on, she's your chief's lady.”
“Don't get us mixed up.”
“She even has your chief's mate mark.”
“How has not one of you noticed?”
Who could fail to understand after that?
Xu Qin hadn't cared whether she was the other woman.
But now I'd torn away the cover in public.
The whole tribe knew.
This time, Shen Wang took me away.
Gu Sui still chased us regardless, trying to make me change my mind.
But I was annoyed.
And tired.
I patted Shen Wang's shoulder.
“Hit him with your tail again.”
“Stop him following us.”
This time, Gu Sui was flung into the courtyard.
He spat a mouthful of blood.
He tried to stand, but couldn't move.
At some point, Shen Wang had poisoned him.
All he could do was watch us disappear from sight.
Gone from him forever.
Once we returned, Shen Wang helped me dissolve my bond with Gu Sui.
Back among his people, Gu Sui must have felt it too.
19
We found somewhere to stay at random.
Only a temporary place to rest.
I didn't ask anything more about Gu Sui having asked Shen Wang to look after me.
Shen Wang knew I had plenty of free time and loved gossip.
So every day, he took me back to the merfolk to watch the latest developments in Gu Sui's life.
Sure enough, just as expected, Xu Qin really was pregnant.
She stroked her belly tenderly, full of anticipation for the child's arrival.
Then Gu Sui said calmly, “This child...”
“Can't be kept.”
His voice was so cold Xu Qin went numb with disbelief.
“This is our child!”
“You want to kill your own child?”
“Ruoli can't have children.”
“So I've never wanted any.”
“That hasn't changed.”
Xu Qin burst into tears.
“She doesn't want you anymore!”
“Why are you so determined to hang yourself from that one tree?”
“Didn't you like me before?”
“She's gone.”
“Why won't you accept me?”
Gu Sui answered evenly.
“Only now do I realize...”
I didn't hear the rest.
Shen Wang had covered my ears.
“Those words are filthy.”
“They're not fit for you to hear.”
I chose to believe him, reluctantly.
Gu Sui insisted on making Xu Qin end the pregnancy.
Eventually, a beastkin secretly in love with her told the others.
The news spread everywhere.
In this world, females and children were what beastkin valued most.
Yet their chief wanted to destroy a child.
The entire merfolk tribe rose against him.
Their shouts shook the sky.
I watched from above for a while, grew bored, and asked Shen Wang to take me down.
Our new home would be inland.
I'd heard there was a City of Ten Thousand Beasts.
A prosperous place of busy streets and crowds.
Somewhere well worth living.
Shen Wang had no objection.
He wanted to go there with me.
We planned to leave in three days.
Somehow, Gu Sui found us.
He looked exhausted, all his old bearing gone.
His voice was hoarse, almost pleading.
“Ruoli...”
“I have nothing left.”
“I'm only asking you to look back at me once.”
Calmly, I turned.
And did look back.
“There.”
“Now what?”
“You have nothing.”
“But I do.”
“Besides, Shen Wang takes me hunting every day.”
“I don't need to pick flowers anymore.”
“He picks me a bouquet himself.”
With every sentence, Gu Sui's face grew paler.
“Whether you believe it or not...”
“I never...”
“Thought of giving you up.”
I nodded.
“I believe you.”
I'd heard plenty about people whose bodies were in one place and hearts in another.
So I didn't want to hear any more.
“Shen Wang.”
“Let's go.”
This time, Gu Sui didn't follow.
He'd never been someone willing to humble himself too far.
Ending it like this was good.
No more connection.
That was the best ending for us.
20
On the way to the City of Ten Thousand Beasts, I kept pressing Shen Wang about what Gu Sui had meant by asking him to keep things from me.
Unexpectedly, we fell victim to a love poison.
Mine cleared in seven days.
But Shen Wang was a serpent beastkin.
His took a full month.
For that entire month, we were tangled up in each other, oblivious to everything else.
Even my voice went hoarse.
The question I'd wanted to ask vanished completely from my head.
At last, I tried to crawl away quietly.
Shen Wang caught my waist and pulled me back.
His voice was rough.
“Just once more.”
“The poison's almost gone.”
“A-Li...”
“You're amazing.”
His praise went to my head.
And he got his way again.
Shen Wang was my favorite toy.
I thought that, barring surprises, I'd play with him for the rest of my life.
Bonus Story
Only when Shen Wang broke through to his fifth beast marking did he discover that after a breakthrough, beastkin reverted to their juvenile form.
He became a tiny venomous snake.
No threat at all.
Unfortunately, he'd been hunting a wild beast many times his size.
The breakthrough had come too suddenly.
He'd had no chance to prepare.
Seeing his juvenile form, the beast lunged.
He'd never feared death.
But just then, he saw a beautiful young woman running toward him.
She was leading a group of merfolk.
Hands on her hips, she shouted, “Everyone, charge!”
“If we catch this one today, I'll treat the whole tribe to a feast!”
Her smile was bright and free.
Shen Wang quietly watched this unexpected female for a long time.
Only after she left did he slowly follow.
At the merfolk's lavish feast, he saw their leader Gu Sui behaving intimately with her.
Then he learned her name.
Wen Ruoli.
A small, fragile female.
At that moment, he had only one thought.
He wanted to protect her.
That night, Gu Sui didn't return to his room.
Shen Wang quietly slithered to the sleeping Wen Ruoli and coiled around her arm.
Round and round, leaving his own scent on her.
Then he saw the merfolk mate mark on her body.
For the first time in his life, he understood jealousy.
If he killed that merman, would the hateful mark disappear forever?
At first, he really had intended to do it.
But in the end, the plan went completely off course.
Gu Sui suddenly seemed to lose his mind.
He fell for another female who resembled Wen Ruoli.
Except they were nothing alike.
The day Gu Sui asked for his help, Shen Wang smelled the scent he'd left behind.
An ability only serpent beastkin possessed.
Wen Ruoli was right outside.
So he quietly poisoned Gu Sui.
What Gu Sui had intended to say was, “We're built alike, after all.”
“Just pretend to be me in the study.”
“Ruoli's innocent. She won't notice.”
But what came out was, “We both... have two, after all.”
“She's innocent.”
“She won't notice.”
No one knew.
Shen Wang had done it deliberately.
— The End —