Reborn To Be The Imperial Consort [BL]-Chapter 111: Buds of A Marigold — VI

It didn’t take long for Li Xinyuan’s face to completely fall as he curled his fingers and clenched his hands into a fist, pulling his arm back, straightening his posture as he bowed his head, raven fringes of hair spilled over his face, curtaining his features as he pressed his lips together tightly and took a deep breath.

"Did I mishear you or did you really say that you wish to go back to that place?" He asked in a low voice, hoping that he had really misheard Hu Lijing.

But didn’t he know that it was a rather futile thing to hope for? He knew that.

Hu Lijing shook his head, expression sombre as he exhaled deeply and looked up at him, offering him a hesitant, tight lipped smile.

"You misheard nothing, Xinyuan." He replied, voice thin as he spoke, turning his head to look at the streaming water in the dead of the night. "I really said that. However," he paused, organising his thoughts as he made an effort to articulate the things he wanted to express. "It’s not so much as a wish to return to the Spirit Realm as it is a necessity."

Li Xinyuan bit his lips, holding his tongue as he swallowed a flurry of questions resting in the crevice of his throat.

"A necessity, you say." After a long time, he gritted out, teeth grinding together as he focused on regulating his breath. "If it is not too much to ask, could you please elaborate why you want to return to the place wherein your misfortunes began?"

Hu Lijing grimaced slightly and didn’t bother suppressing it as he opened his mouth to answer, then closed it, repeating the action several times until finally he closed his mouth and took a deep breath.

"..-body." He mumbled under his breath, pursing his lips as he clenched his hands on his sides. Li Xinyuan squinted down at him, golden eyes narrowing as he leaned down, bringing his face closer to the crown of the nine-tailed fox’s head.

"What did you say?" He asked quietly. "I couldn’t quite hear you, say it a bit louder."

Hu Lijing’s gaze flickered up to meet his, a half-hearted glare concealed in it as he huffed. "I said, I need to go back to retrieve ZhenHai’s body and give him a proper funeral, a funeral he deserves." He swallowed thickly, feeling the vortex of emotions that he had barely suppressed starting to rear its tumultuous head once more.

Hearing that, Li Xinyuan’s face fell, heart sinking as he barely resisted the urge to slap his own forehead in regret. Stupid, stupid idiot!

Why did he always have so many questions to ask?

"O-oh." He forced out, tongue swiping over his lips as he gulped, feeling saliva pooling in his mouth. "You can’t not go." He mumbled quietly as he turned his head away, not daring to keep the eye contact going.

"Yes." Hu Lijing nodded stiffly, nerves getting better of him as he fussed with his sleeves, pulling at the barely present strands as he chewed on his lips, anxiety pooling in the pit of his stomach. "I have to. I can’t avoid it any more."

Li Xinyuan pursed his lips, grimly staring at his feet as he clicked his tongue. "But... Will there be anything left of his body at all? Aside from bare bones that is."

It was a sharp question, not to mention a harsh one. It was bound to cause hurt for the surgeon had chosen to stab write where it hurts with the question and then twisted the knife with the last statement.

"The bodies of us, mystical beings, are fundamentally different from humans’ Long ZhenHai and mine even more so." Hu Lijing replied, his tone clipped as he spoke, silently nursing the pain caused by the question. "While yes, within decades a normal body would be reduced to a skeleton... I’m more than that ZhenHai’s body is bound to be intact, that’s if someone didn’t desecrate it."

The thought alone sent a jolt of fury down Hu Lijing’s body, the anger numbing his nerves as the flames of it burnt brighter.

Li Xinyuan nodded in understanding. "Then, the odds of his body being in a good condition even after decades are alright." He put a hand on his chin, stretching his neck as he hummed contemplatively. "Alright, then let’s go."

Hu Lijing nodded along, starting to stand up when he snapped his head to look up at Li Xinyuan, eyes wide as he stared at the man.

The surgeon looked down at him, eyebrow cocked inquisitively. That... Was definitely a whiplash.

"What?" He asked bluntly, all the glum atmosphere from them having discussed each other’s swaying mental health had been long since swept away. Now, in spite of it all, he felt a sudden urge to pick his ear.

And maybe check the stupid novel to see how things were developing on Liu Mingyun’s side, though he was pretty confident that nothing as shocking as this could be happening on the other side.

Internally, the surgeon let out a scoff of disbelief. Who would have ever imagined a no name, unimportant side character from the original novel that Hu Lijing was to have such a saddening and profound backstory.

"You— what do you mean ’let’s go’?" Hu Lijing stumbled over his words, evidently stumped. "Who said anything about you coming with me?"

"Lijing," Li Xinyuan drawled, reached out to hold his elbow as he helped the divine fox spirit stabilise. "Let’s make it clear that I am not letting you go back to that place on your own, not in a million years. You will not be going alone." He shook his head firmly.

"It’s dangerous for you to—"

"Exactly," the surgeon nodded sagely, raising one hand as he summoned Sui Yue that he had tossed somewhere in worry. "Because it is dangerous, I’d rather be with you than let you go there alone." His eyebrows twisted into a furrow. "Those people tried — though they failed — to execute you. And I will kill at least one of them to relieve my anger if we stumbled into someone. Trust me, I’m coming with you."

All the protests and disagreements that Hu Lijing had wanted to express died an unfortunately premature death as he saw the steely resolve in the surgeon’s eyes.

In the end, he was the one to concede. "There is no dissauding you, is there?" He sighed helplessly as he shook his head, turning to the river. "Stay alert. It is a beautiful place on the surface but so much more dangerous than you can imagine."