For the long passage of time a deity experienced, perhaps in his eyes she was just a child, a very, very small child.

She very much wanted to comfort the clan deity, but the clan deity did not need comforting, and instead comforted her. Luo Yuan caught the clan deity’s hand and held it close for quite a while. Then, in the silence, she began to doubt herself. The clan deity’s birth just now had been so real, and those memories—could she imagine something like that? What exactly was this world after death?

“It doesn’t feel like something I imagined at all… it feels more like it really happened.” she whispered.

“How silly, still not believing this is real?” the clan deity asked with a slight smile.

Luo Yuan’s gaze slowly changed, and she said awkwardly, “But… I already died. Death was also very real. Since I died, then all of this right now definitely isn’t real.”

“Mm… why do you think that once death comes, there is no more ‘real’?” the clan deity gently reasoned with her. “You did indeed die before, but you and I formed a deity marriage contract. From now on, you will exist in this world in a state different from humans. This place is the inside of my statue, like a chaotic heaven and earth. As a ghost, you cannot leave for now. You need to be immersed in my aura here to condense a body.”

“Since you must stay for a period of time, I was worried you would grow bored, so I let you see my birth.”

Luo Yuan felt as if struck by lightning.

These weren’t my own fantasies?

She saw herself tightly clutching the clan deity’s hand, her other arm wrapped around him, a posture full of eagerness as though she wished she could burrow right into his body. If it were real, then everything she had done earlier… wasn’t it like some kind of perv—no, a chihan¹Chihan 痴汉: a lewd, overly forward person, often used jokingly.? She hesitantly used this word on herself, filled with shame and unease, her mind shaken.

Immediately she reacted again: if it were real, then she had truly married the clan deity. If a wife did such things to her husband… it wouldn’t count as perverted, right?

She told herself everything was perfectly normal, lifted her eyes, and let them circle once around the clan deity’s smiling face, still wanting a bit of justification to prove whether what was happening before her was real or not.

“If it’s real, how could you possibly marry me? I have nothing, and nothing special about me.”

“You do—have you forgotten?” the clan deity said. “Though you killed someone and there is ‘evil’ within your body, I cannot devour it. In all my existence, I have seen only one such person as you. How is that not special?”

Right. Luo Yuan remembered. She had already suspected before that the clan deity kept her here for five months just to observe why he couldn’t eat her.

“So you found the reason, and then decided to marry me?”

“Not exactly. Since you had already died, there was naturally no reason to be found.” The clan deity smiled, speaking languidly. “However, though I found no reason, I did find a wife, so I gained something after all.”

Luo Yuan inexplicably choked a little and almost wanted to laugh. Was the clan deity teasing her?

“Then since you married me… you can’t divorce, can’t go back on it, right?” she cautiously asked.

Hearing the clan deity shake his head in denial, Luo Yuan instantly felt a bit puffed up. No matter the reason, she had truly become the clan deity’s wife! Even if she touched the clan deity’s hand here—no, even if she touched more than that—the clan deity couldn’t go back on it!

Luo Yuan couldn’t help laughing.

The two sat in the chaotic, dark world. The clan deity propped his chin, seeing his little wife secretly delighting in herself, and after she finished delighting, feeling a bit embarrassed yet also somewhat expectant as she peeked at his chest—she was likely curious about the seam at his chest. All over her body she showed a contradictory feeling of not daring to reach out yet itching to try.

Seeing her sit there for half a day still unable to decide, the clan deity, perceptive and considerate, offered kindly, “You can do whatever you want. I won’t be angry, nor will I blame you.”

Luo Yuan was overjoyed. She felt the clan deity saw through everything, that he understood all her little thoughts, and thinking the chance couldn’t be wasted, she threw herself into his arms as he smiled, wrapping her arms around his neck. Her hands slid past his neck, moving upward to touch his long hair—that was also something she had long wanted to touch.

The feel was just as she had imagined before: cool, like flowing water. That faint, light fragrance drifted to the tip of her nose again. Thinking of the clan deity’s birth she had witnessed, and recalling the clan deity’s earlier joking line, “It’s the scent of ashes,” Luo Yuan’s heart hurt.

She felt that this fragrance must have some quality that bewitched the heart, making her unconsciously want to draw closer to the clan deity. When she first leaned in just now, she had only wanted to touch his hair, but under the lure of the scent, with her mind completely overturned, she directly kissed him.

Clan deity: “Mm…?”

He tilted his head slightly, feeling two kisses on the side of his neck. So, he thought, it turns out she didn’t want to look at the seam after all.

Feeling his hair being gently stroked again and again, he shifted a little and lifted her dazedly clinging face away. Before he could speak, he saw her regain clarity, her expression showing anxious guilt, as if she were about to apologize and confess her sins. So, before she could wilt, he pressed her back to her original place and indulgently said, “Enough. Since you like it, do as you wish.”

Pressed back beside his neck, Luo Yuan reflected a moment. She really shouldn’t behave like some grabby little hooligan—practically like someone unable to restrain themselves before their own stunningly beautiful wife, forcing themselves on her regardless of whether she wanted it. But she had truly never been like this before.

She withdrew her hand, holding back the urge to stick close again, and lowered her head. “I was wrong.”

The clan deity soothed her, “You just formed the deity marriage with me, so you indeed received some influence. You wish to draw close and absorb my aura and strength so that when you leave here, you can adapt to the outside world. This is normal, no need to blame yourself. It’s just…”

He lifted his long hair into his hand and showed her. “My hair hides much ‘evil’ here.”

Luo Yuan looked closely and indeed saw faint wisps of black qi flowing within his pitch-black hair. The clan deity drew her hand over and let her see the same faint threads of evil qi that had unknowingly wrapped around her fingers. “Therefore, do not keep touching it for long. Choose another place you like.”

So it wasn’t that he disliked me, and it wasn’t my problem at all! Luo Yuan was instantly comforted. She felt there was truly no existence as gentle as the clan deity—how could he be so good?

The clan deity placed his hair back behind him. He could only sigh once more—his young little wife was simply far too enthusiastic.

───♡───

The shrine looked the same as she remembered, except the surrounding curtains had become red, matching the red wedding robes she wore. Luo Yuan stood at the center of the shrine, looking around once, feeling as though a lifetime had passed.

Her feet were solidly on the ground, yet her body felt light, as if she only needed to tiptoe slightly to leap very high.

The two elderly shinu attendants stood outside the shrine waiting. When they saw her appear, their attitude made a one-hundred-eighty-degree turn from before; they bowed respectfully. “Madam.”

Seeing the two of them, Luo Yuan instinctively turned her head to the deity altar to look for the clan deity, but he was not there. The two Shinu followed her gaze and carefully asked, “Is there something wrong with the clan deity? Why has he not appeared?”

Luo Yuan was just as confused; she didn’t know either. She only remembered falling asleep while holding him, and upon waking found herself here. Could it be that the clan deity had gone out? Was he strolling in the courtyard?

She took a step forward and walked out of the shrine.

The two Shinu cried out, “Madam!” and hurriedly followed, quickly opening the black umbrellas they had long prepared to shield above Luo Yuan’s head. But the two old women were elderly, their movements slow, and they failed to catch up in time—allowing a bit of sunlight to fall on Luo Yuan.

Luo Yuan felt a burning pain where the sun touched her, as though scalded by hot water. She stopped beneath the umbrella’s shade and looked at the bit of sunlight that had hit her hand, revealing a faint pinkness on the back of it.

Seeing she was unharmed, the two Shinu relaxed, but their gazes toward her grew strange again. The one with the poorer temper said, “Madam has only just been transformed. For now, you absolutely must not walk beneath the sun. If severe, the sun may scorch you into green smoke.”

Luo Yuan was startled. Isn’t this exactly what a ghost is? So ghosts really can’t endure sunlight? She asked, “If I’m burned into smoke by the sun… will I die?”

The Shinu answered, “Madam now shares the clan deity’s life. Naturally, you will not die. If the sun burns you into smoke, you will simply return to the depths of the shrine beside the clan deity and condense again. However, Madam must not become careless simply because no harm will befall you. The strength you re-condense with is given by the clan deity. If you are injured, you yourself will be unharmed, but the clan deity will have to expend power on your behalf.”

Hearing this, Luo Yuan understood at once. She certainly did not wish the clan deity to suffer, so she firmly remembered the warning.

No matter how the Shinu with the bad temper tried to hide it, she still couldn’t help revealing some dissatisfaction when she spoke. “Normally, when a clan deity takes a wife, the wife in her first birth as a ghost is extremely fragile. Even a bit of sunlight would be unbearable. But Madam’s condition is far too good—clearly you received a great deal of power from the clan deity… Yet this is supposed to be a long, gradual process. It must not be rushed. Even if the clan deity himself does not mind, Madam must know moderation. Do not demand endlessly, or it may harm the clan deity.”

Luo Yuan stared blankly, then her face flushed scarlet with embarrassment—she felt as though she were being criticized for excessive marital relations on the very first day of marriage. She—she didn’t do anything! Just a hug, that was all. When she asked, the clan deity smiled and said she could do as she liked. T-then… it turns out it wasn’t allowed?

She didn’t know what taboo she had violated, so she asked softly, embarrassed and confused, “I don’t know how I’m getting strength from the clan deity. I only hugged and… kissed him. I didn’t do anything else.”

Not only that—she had also sunk into his body and witnessed his birth! Remembering this, Luo Yuan added, “And I also saw the deity spirit’s past and some memories. Was it that? Is that harmful to the deity spirit?”

The two elderly Shinu twitched so hard their decades of professional discipline could no longer hide it. They exchanged a look, their eyes filled with utter despair. They wanted to say something but couldn’t bring themselves to open their mouths. In the end, they only murmured, “No wonder the deity spirit has not appeared today… so it was such a great expenditure.”

Luo Yuan: “……?”

That strange feeling was growing heavier and heavier.

The Shinu no longer mentioned it, and Luo Yuan herself had no face to bring it up again. Walking beneath the black umbrellas they held up for her, she didn’t even have the courage to glance back at the shrine.

Holding the umbrellas, the Shinu asked cautiously, “Your position within the Qin clan is extremely elevated now—you are our ancestor. Many in the clan wish to pay their respects to you. But the old residence here is inconvenient. We wonder if you would be willing to stay for a few days at the Qin clan’s secondary residence in Yuhan District, so that the clan’s younger members may come to greet you?”

From that one sentence, Luo Yuan instantly heard the hidden meaning beneath the two old women’s words.

The two elderly Shinu were worried she didn’t know restraint, that she might go back and cling to the deity spirit for more… power. So they hoped to keep her settled for a while, detouring with this matter of clan members coming to pay their respects.

Luo Yuan covered her face, her voice weak. “Okay.”

Footnotes

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  Chihan 痴汉: a lewd, overly forward person, often used jokingly.