ATAVID CH79

The wedding ritual was complete. A faint smile rippled at the corners of Wei Xun’s eyes, and the sheer joy between his brows practically overflowed as he slowly walked over to Jiang Qunyu.

He looked down at Jiang Qunyu, his tone certain yet tinged with a hint of obsessive tenderness, delivering his words one by one: “You are very happy, too.”

Jiang Qunyu’s chest tightened with pure rage, nearly causing him to spit out a mouthful of blood on the spot. His lips twitched rigidly. After being subjected to Wei Xun’s antics, the only thing churning in his chest was fury. He couldn’t maintain his “clueless beauty” persona at all. Freezing up his expression, he hurled his words like shards of ice: “Do you have some monumental misunderstanding of the word ‘happy’?”

He was furious!

Wei Xun’s tone turned peculiar: “Didn’t you just smile?”

Jiang Qunyu was temporarily at a loss for words. “…Who told you that smiling means someone is happy?”

“Heh,” Wei Xun said gloomily, “Jiang Qunyu told me.”

Jiang Qunyu: “???”

He swore he had absolutely never said that!

Wei Xun, that bastard! Scumbag! He was clearly taking advantage of the fact that Jiang Qunyu’s soul had scattered back then and that he wasn’t around, using his name to spout nonsense everywhere! He could even imagine how often Wei Xun must have slandered his reputation behind his back over the past century!

Yet, Jiang Qunyu had already come this far; he was truly riding a tiger and unable to dismount. If he admitted he was the real Jiang Qunyu now, his sacrifice would be in vain, and he would have completed the wedding ritual with Wei Xun for nothing.

Jiang Qunyu could only swallow his grievances, forcing himself to bear this silent loss. He didn’t hesitate to backstab the fabricated version of himself from Wei Xun’s mouth: “He was just messing with you.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, it seemed to strike a nerve with Wei Xun. The joy that had just filled Wei Xun’s eyes vanished instantly, and the dark chill that had briefly dissipated surged back, his tone icy and piercing: “He did deceive me. Heh, if I ever catch him…”

Jiang Qunyu’s heart skipped a beat, and he pricked up his ears, wanting to hear what Wei Xun would say next. But Wei Xun stopped dead in the middle of his sentence, the remaining ruthlessness fading as he fell silent.

Intimately, Wei Xun eased his long, fair fingers bit by bit into the gaps between Jiang Qunyu’s, indomitably interlacing their fingers until their palms pressed tightly against each other. His tone was unsettlingly affectionate: “Today is our wedding day. Let’s not mention outsiders, lest it spoil the mood.”

Thus, Jiang Qunyu was forced to let himself be pulled along.

The winding corridors were deep and long. A draft swept through with a crisp chill, fluttering their vibrant red wedding robes, the fabrics overlapping and clinging together tenderly. Outside the hall, several Ghost Elders who had rushed over watched their retreating figures walking hand in hand, their expressions complex and varied.

The leading Ghost Cultivator frowned, striding into the hall. He grabbed a ghost attendant whose soul was nearly scared out of its wits and demanded, “His Supremacy completed the wedding ritual with that demon youth?”

The ghost attendant was trembling so hard his entire body went weak, and even his tongue dropped out onto the floor. Hurriedly bending down to scoop his tongue up and stuff it back into his mouth, he stammered out, “Y-Yes… His Supremacy not only performed the bows to Heaven and Earth, but he also dragged all his subordinates here to witness the ceremony…”

“Witness the ceremony…” Hearing this, the Ghost Elder’s expression grew even more complex. After pondering for a moment, he spoke, “He is merely an ordinary demon youth. What could possibly be so special about him?”

Another ghost cultivator interrupted, “The meaning of His Supremacy is likely that we are forbidden from touching this demon youth. Since that’s the case, let’s select another candidate.”

Following those words, the surrounding elders fell entirely silent, none offering a rebuttal, effectively consenting to the decision.

Jiang Qunyu felt like he had run into eight lifetimes of terrible luck; otherwise, how could the very first person he bumped into after being reborn be Wei Xun? He had clearly exhausted his wits just trying to stay far away from Wei Xun, yet in the end, not only did they meet face-to-face, but their relationship had also been tangled into a giant mess, too complicated to unravel.

The wedding ritual was already done, but tonight… surely nothing was actually going to happen between them, right?

At the mere thought of this possibility, a wave of revulsion washed over Jiang Qunyu, and his heart pounded uncontrollably. See? Just looking at Wei Xun brings bad luck. Even after over a century, his aversion hadn’t diminished in the slightest. Were it not for the sake of preserving his dignity, he would really want to clutch his head and wail right now.

Damn Wei Xun, damn Wei Xun, damn Wei Xun.

Grandfather above, weren’t they both completely straight?

Oh, wait. Jiang Qunyu remembered again. He had transmigrated into a restricted-rated Danmei (BL) novel, and Wei Xun was the antagonist second lead gong (top).

He fell silent for a moment, his brain rapidly whirring again. Maybe I should just run.

During the wedding ceremony earlier, Wei Xun’s overwhelming, crushing aura had effortlessly controlled his body. Jiang Qunyu finally understood—with his current cultivation level, he wouldn’t last more than a few exchanges against Wei Xun. Going head-to-head was pure suicide.

But if he ran, what were the chances of being caught and dragged back by Wei Xun? Once captured, his fate would undoubtedly be the same as those dozen or so previous grooms—thrown to feed the flowers. If he didn’t run, could he still leave this place with his straightness intact?

The more he thought, the more his mind wandered, and all sorts of chaotic thoughts popped up uncontrollably. Would I be on top? Or would Wei Xun be on top? How do two guys even do it? Back when he read the original novel, he hadn’t been very interested in the R-rated content, skimming through it to jump straight to the action and battle plotlines.

Jiang Qunyu couldn’t picture it, especially the image of himself and Wei Xun kissing or being intimate. Just thinking about it made his skin crawl, wishing he could vanish on the spot.

Finally, amidst Jiang Qunyu’s chaotic heartbeat, Wei Xun led him to a stop in front of a sleeping palace hall and raised his hand to push open the doors.

The moment he saw the furnishings inside, Jiang Qunyu froze, completely stunned. Everything here was arranged exactly like Wei Xun’s old cave dwelling back in the Lingxiao Sect—the low tables, the screens, the style of the ceiling beams, and even that pearwood bed and the patterns on the incense burner were identical down to the finest detail.

Before he could even speak, Wei Xun beat him to it, speaking in a ghostly tone that betrayed neither joy nor anger: “If those reckless fools before you had been as obedient as you, it would have been perfect.”

Jiang Qunyu: “?”

What did that mean? That was what he thought, so that was what he asked: “…Surely you don’t mean all those people before me were killed by you just because they weren’t obedient?”

Seeing how incredibly lively the expressions on his face were, a barely perceptible smile tugged at the corner of Wei Xun’s lips. Suppressing the urge to pull Jiang Qunyu into his arms and dote on him, he deliberately kept a cold face to deceive him, his tone quite wicked: “Naturally, disobedient things must all be killed.”

“Haha,” Jiang Qunyu let out two dry laughs, saying in all seriousness, “I am very obedient.”

Wei Xun led him, slowly walking over to the couch, and said flatly, “I know.”

Very obedient, so don’t leave me.

Seeing the couch only gave Jiang Qunyu a headache. Wei Xun isn’t planning to do something to him on this couch, is he?! He was a man of unyielding integrity, unbending before force!

But before he could finish his internal tough talk, Wei Xun leaned down slightly, scooped him up in a bridal carry, and placed him down gently onto the couch. He commanded in a low voice, “Sit.”

Jiang Qunyu blinked and complied, “Oh.”

The fingertips hanging at Wei Xun’s side curled slightly before he turned around with a cold, detached expression. It didn’t take long for him to return, still wearing his wedding robes. Out of thin air, an exquisite pair of silver scissors appeared in his hand, which he handed to Jiang Qunyu: “Cut my hair.”

Staring at the scissors, Jiang Qunyu felt a sudden jolt in his heart. For a fleeting moment, this scene felt uncannily familiar. A faint, quiet bitterness welled up from the depths of his heart, tightening his chest; even he found this surge of emotion inexplicable.

He slipped off his shoes, curled his legs up, and shifted his body back to make room for Wei Xun on the couch. Looking up, he asked, “How much should I cut?”

He had no idea what Wei Xun was up to, but he didn’t refuse either. He comforted himself: as long as Wei Xun wasn’t trying to kiss him, he could temporarily indulge him in these small matters.

Wei Xun sat by the edge of the couch, his silken black hair cascading down like a waterfall. His tone was smooth and unruffled: “One hundred and thirty-eight strands.”

Jiang Qunyu’s eyes widened instantly, his face a picture of utter bewilderment. “?”

He had only been asking out of courtesy, yet Wei Xun was actually taking him seriously? Cutting hair had to be detailed down to the exact number of strands? Jiang Qunyu didn’t want to humor him anymore. Reaching out, he grabbed a lock of Wei Xun’s dark hair, snipped off a small bunch cleanly, and tossed the scissors aside. “Count them yourself,” he grumbled.

Wei Xun’s lips parted into a slight smile. “Alright, now it’s my turn.”

Jiang Qunyu blanked for a second. “Your turn for what?”

“To cut your hair.”

Jiang Qunyu instantly grew alert, instinctively shrinking back. He shielded his hair with both hands, glaring at him with full wariness, and blurted out, “Your desire for revenge is way too strong!”

Unfortunately, before the words even fully left his mouth, and before he could jump off the couch to escape, Wei Xun leaned over. With a stride of his long legs, he mounted the couch, gently drawing Jiang Qunyu into his arms from behind, completely enveloping him in his aura.

Jiang Qunyu froze instantly, able only to cast his eyes down, staring at their overlapping crimson wedding robes. It was an incredibly bizarre feeling. He couldn’t stop his mind from wandering into chaotic thoughts.

Wei Xun’s movements were agonizingly slow. What could have been resolved with a single snip was drawn out as he insisted on counting them strand by strand. His slightly cool fingertips wove through Jiang Qunyu’s hair, occasionally brushing past the tip of his ear or his neck by accident, sending a faint, dense prickle of itchiness down his skin straight into his heart, making him fluster.

Jiang Qunyu truly couldn’t handle this atmosphere, which felt far too strange to him. Breaking the silence first, he spoke up, “You’re not planning to cut exactly one hundred and thirty-eight strands of my hair too, are you?”

“Yes,” Wei Xun replied as if it were the most natural thing.

Jiang Qunyu: “…”

This petty, wretched man! After all these years, his petty, vengeful personality hadn’t changed one bit. He gnashed his teeth in his heart, but trapped within Wei Xun’s embrace and unable to budge, he could only endure it silently.

After an unknown amount of time, Wei Xun’s cool fingertips finally withdrew from his hair. Catching a glimpse of the lock of hair in Wei Xun’s hand from the corner of his eye, Jiang Qunyu felt his scalp tighten, his heart aching for his lost strands.

Wei Xun seemed to place the two bundles of hair into his cosmos bag. Watching this, the bizarre sense of anomaly in Jiang Qunyu’s heart grew stronger. Out of nowhere, a verse flashed into his mind—

Tie the hair to become husband and wife, a love bound beyond all doubt…

Realizing what he was thinking, Jiang Qunyu froze. He didn’t even know why his thoughts had strayed there. He figured he must have been bewitched by the wedding robes they both wore, actually tricking himself into believing they were genuinely getting married.

After several days of tossing and turning, Jiang Qunyu was genuinely exhausted, but he was terrified that Wei Xun would do something to him once he fell asleep. If he had known things would end up like this, he might as well have just confessed his identity right from the start. If Wei Xun knew he was the real Jiang Qunyu, far from doing these intimate things, he would probably want nothing more than to draw his sword and slay him on the spot—which would honestly be much more straightforward than this.

But now, he was stuck riding the tiger; the bows to Heaven and Earth were completed, and he could only steel himself to keep acting under the guise of Jiang Yu. They had finished the wedding ritual just half an hour ago; if Wei Xun really wanted to do something to him, he couldn’t even find a proper reason to refuse. Jiang Qunyu was deeply distressed.

In contrast to Jiang Qunyu’s distress, Wei Xun was in an exceptionally grand mood.

Wrapping his arms around Jiang Qunyu from behind, he held him close and tilted his head slightly, burying his face into the side of Jiang Qunyu’s neck. He greedily inhaled the faint, clean scent radiating from him as a maddening possessiveness surged in his chest.

I want to kiss him so badly, bite him so badly…

He wanted to enter Jiang Qunyu’s body, possess him entirely, and merge into one with him. He wanted to make him cry, to make him regret abandoning him…

But he had checked his pulse just now; his soul was still unstable, and his body remained weak. If he frightened him at this moment, given Jiang Qunyu’s temperament, he would surely leave him again without a care, never looking after himself properly. Therefore, Wei Xun intended to nurture him for a while longer; he needed to fully mend Jiang Qunyu’s soul.

Yet, to do absolutely nothing was simply impossible for Wei Xun. The person in his arms was warm and soft, and Wei Xun hadn’t held him enough, but right now, there was something else he was even more eager to try.

“Go to sleep,” Wei Xun murmured against his neck, his voice dropped extremely low, tinged with a hint of coaxing.

Jiang Qunyu’s entire body tensed up; he didn’t dare sleep, not believing for a second that Wei Xun could be so well-intentioned. He turned the thought over and over in his mind: why on earth was Wei Xun so intent on marrying him? To say he had fallen in love with “Jiang Yu” at first sight was a statistical zero. Could it be… that he possessed something Wei Xun needed to extend his life? After all, Wei Xun’s current character setting was supposed to be sickly and short-lived. Of course, looking at Wei Xun right now, Jiang Qunyu couldn’t find a single trace that matched those descriptions.

Wei Xun felt him resisting sleep and threatened, “If you don’t want to sleep, we can do some things fitting for a wedding night.”

Without another word, Jiang Qunyu shut his eyes tight.

Watching his ostrich-like behavior, Wei Xun smiled faintly, got up, and left the sleeping palace hall.

Jiang Qunyu remained uneasy at first, but Wei Xun seemed to stay away for a long time—so long that by the time Jiang Qunyu faintly heard approaching footsteps again, his consciousness had already begun to drift. Through the haze, he seemed to catch a whiff of a subtle, familiar fragrance.

…In the blur, a scene surfaced in Jiang Qunyu’s mind. It seemed to be a memory of him asking if Wei Xun had lit some incense. The youth, clothed in robes as white as snow, with clean and detached features, had replied emotionlessly, “Yes, to calm the mind and nurture the spirit.”

When had that happened? Jiang Qunyu had forgotten. He only wondered why Wei Xun was using this incense again.

After a long, long time, Jiang Qunyu suddenly felt a warmth on his lips, as if they were cupped by something soft, lapping at them, bit by bit prying open his unconsciously tightly shut teeth, invading both gently and forcefully. He was kissed until he gasped for breath, his chest feeling slightly tight, his lips stinging with a subtle ache.

Inside the hall, the red candles burned brightly, their flames flickering and casting a warm, crimson glow over the room. Wei Xun leaned over, kissing the youth, the corners of his eyes flushed with a lingering, vivid color from the surging tide of passion.

Not until the person in his arms gasped softly for breath did he finally bring himself to pull back a fraction, just as a candlewick snapped and sparked. Lowering his head, he gathered the youth tightly into his embrace, his fingertips stroking Jiang Qunyu’s flushed lips, completely enveloped in absolute joy and satisfaction.

He no longer had to envy the self from that illusion.

He belonged to Jiang Qunyu, and Jiang Qunyu belonged to him. They would love each other, and they would be together forever.