[1]Zu An opened his mouth, but he didn’t know what to say.

Chu Chuyan sighed. “I didn’t expect to become a matchmaker between you and my master.”

“I’ve let you down, Chuyan," Zu An replied. No amount of explanations would do anything in this kind of situation. He didn’t want to come up with any more excuses to deceive her either.

“You really have let me down.” Chu Chuyan frowned. “The two of you were already together since then, and yet you’ve kept it from me all this time and pretended there was nothing at all. I was the only one kept in the dark. Is it that fun to have an affair? I didn’t expect to become part of your game.”

Zu An immediately panicked. “Chuyan, you’ve misunderstood! It’s not like what you're thinking! We weren’t trying to make you the fool, it’s just that there’s no way to explain this kind of thing at all! And your master and I didn’t have anything together. She always felt that she was letting you down and always pushed me away.”

“Tsk tsk tsk, look at how quickly you're trying to speak for her. It seems like your feelings for each other are already really strong, hm?” Chu Chuyan replied with a cold laugh. “No wonder I always felt that my master was treating me a bit strangely. Even such a strict person as her kept avoiding eye contact with me, and she was particularly nice to me. So it was all out of guilt!”

Zu An said dejectedly, “I was indeed the one who was wrong here. Your master didn’t have a choice.”

He didn’t know what Chuyan had experienced in that other point in spacetime, but her presence seemed to have become much stronger too.

“She had no choice?” Chu Chuyan cut him off coldly. “I understand my master’s personality the best. She was never nterested in men and always maintained three feet of distance from any man. If she really loathed you, would you even have a chance? Let alone the fact that you were already a hair’s breadth from dying. Could you even force her to do a thing? She was definitely the one being proactive between the two of you!”

“That’s also just a freak combination of different factors…” Zu An was panicking. If her relationship with her master ended up being ruined because of him, with Yan Xiuhen’s self-critical nature, she could decide to stop living. Then, Chuyan would feel as if she had killed her master and be left with a lifetime of guilt, which she would never be able to leave behind… That type of situation made him feel absolutely awful.

“Oh? Then please explain to me just how my master, who has always been as cold as ice and was called the frozen queen in the world of warriors, ended up giving up her own purity to help you? I want to hear everything in full detail. I know full well that if it was any other man, even if my master owed them a tremendous favor, she would absolutely still never choose to save them in the same way,” Chu Chuyan said with a frown.

Helpless to do anything else, Zu An was forced to explain to Chuyan that Yan Xuehen had gone all the way to Cloudcenter Commandery to kill him for her sake. Then, they had been trapped in the ki stone mines and encountered all kinds of dangers and powerful beasts. They had relied on each other for survival. He also told her about all of the other things that had happened.

When she heard about all of that, Chu Chuyan looked really jealous. “So you guys already experienced so many things together! Am I your wife, or is she?!”

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Zu An was speechless. He sensibly chose to remain silent here. Anything he said would only add fuel to the fire.

However, Chu Chuyan stared at Zu An and didn’t say anything else. Zu An was a bit alarmed and said, “Chuyan, you can hit me or curse me, but please don’t ignore me…”

“Give me your hand!” Chu Chuyan suddenly snapped coldly.

Zu An didn’t know what she was going to do and instinctively reached out his hand. Chu Chuyan suddenly grabbed his hand and bit down as hard as she could.

“Sss!” The sharp pain made Zu An suck in air between clenched teeth. He instinctively wanted to pull back his hand, but he quickly realized something and gave up on defending himself, letting her bite him.

A while later, Chu Chuyan let go. When she saw the deep mark and the bit of blood coming out of his hand, she felt a bit of regret. But she quickly asked with a frown, “Why didn’t you protect yourself?”

“I was scared of hurting you,” Zu An replied. “I know that you’re really mad. Compared to the pain I’ve brought you, what’s the big deal with this bit of pain?” Then, he reached over with his other hand too.

“Hmph, who wants to bite on your pig trotters?” Chu Chuyan harrumphed and turned away.

Zu An sighed in relief. He could clearly sense that her anger had subsided quite a bit.

Chu Chuyan suddenly sighed deeply. “You really are too good at making women like you. After what you told me, I don’t even know how to get angry at you. No wonder even my master was done in by you! I wonder just how many ignorant young ladies you’ve fooled with these tricks… No, there are also all kinds of madams, like the Second Empress, the Mermaid Queen, the human empress…”

Sweat poured down from Zu An’s forehead.

“Tell me honestly, how many other women I don't know about are there?” Chu Chuyan stared at him calmly. Her clear eyes carried a kind of tenderness that could shatter one’s heart.

“Um, about that…” Zu An was now really panicking. He really didn’t want to fool her, but he had just told her about Yan Xuehen. The current atmosphere was a bit off, so if he told her a bunch of other things too, even calling it a bloodbath would be putting it midlly. He was worried that he could really lose her forever.

Chu Chuyan harrumphed and said, “Forget it, I suddenly don’t want to hear about any of that stuff anymore.”

I’m not that generous. I might really not be able to take it if I hear about everything…

Zu An was full of guilt. “I’m sorry, Chuyan.”

Chu Chuyan shook her head. “There’s nothing to be sorry about. I should actually be thanking my master.”

Zu An was stunned. He looked at her in shock.

“Do you think I’m being sarcastic?” Chu Chuyan suddenly laughed. Then, her ten slender fingers gently clasped his face. “If my master hadn't saved you with that method in Great Snowy Mountain, I would have been the one who killed you. If I recovered my memories and learned that I had personally killed you, I might have really gone mad.”

When he heard the fear in her trembling voice, Zu An felt extremely moved. “Then why were you still so… so scary just now?”

“If I hadn’t done that, how would you have told me about your relationship in complete detail?” Chu Chuyan winked. A cunning look appeared on her face.

Zu An was speechless.

Why has my Chuyan, who was as pure as a white sheet of paper, seem to have become a bit of a schemer?

Chu Chuyan then said, “By the way, don’t tell her that I know about your relationship when you get out. Hmph, I just want to see how she’ll continue to pretend in front of me!” Her eyes were shining brightly as she spoke, as if she was really looking forward to that and found it really exciting.

Zu An was a bit troubled. “That’s… not too good, is it?”

If Yan Xuehen found out that he had worked together with Chu Chuyan to fool her, another bloodbath could follow.

Chu Chuyan rolled her eyes at him. “Why didn’t you feel that way when you worked together to keep it from me before?”

Zu An was speechless. When he saw the resentment in her eyes, he sensibly chose not to refuse her.

“That’s more like it.” Chu Chuyan smiled happily. Then, she suddenly cried out in alarm. “What are you doing?”

“I miss you.” Zu An hugged her tightly. He moved closer to her ear and began to kiss her gently.

She was the one who was menacing all this time, so it’s now time for me to go on the offensive.

Chu Chuyan was embarrassed and panicked. “I’ve already died, you know?”

“You’re not even a soul, you’re between life and death,” Zu An said with a big smile. “Even if you’re a soul, it’s not really a problem either. Did you forget who I am now?”

Chu Chuyan blushed. “You really are a scoundrel…”

Zu An interrupted her and said domineeringly, “I'm the big boss here now. There's no one else I want to disrespect; the one I want is you.”

At first, Chu Chuyan was still a bit embarrassed and instinctively struggled. But then, she heard her lover whisper by her ear, “Chuyan, we’ve already been apart for a long time…”

She couldn't help but feel stunned when she heard that. Even though they hadn’t been apart for that long from this world’s perspective, from her own perspective, she had entered the river of time and had even become the Snow Lady. It had already been far, far too long between the two of them. And last time, she had even shattered into pieces and disappeared before his eyes, so that had probably affected him a lot.

He must have been trying to find a way to save me all this time.

When she thought of that, she felt endless tenderness. She also embraced him tightly.

Zu An had already set up a restriction around them, so the water ghosts in the river wouldn’t be able to watch what was coming.

Both of them began to kiss each other intensely and embraced each other firmly, as if they each wanted to take the other into their own body. Then, they naturally joined together.

Ever since he entered the underworld, Zu An had always seemed like an invincible and unstoppable divine sword. But no matter how strong he was, no matter how unmatched, he was still returned to the sheath in the end.

Their bodies trembled greatly. They were now purely souls, so the experience was completely different. It was a true merging of spiritual desire.

Zu An kissed Chu Chuyan while sharing the bitterness of his yearning in the time they were apart.

Chu Chuyan suddenly said, “Hmph, you sound so romantic, but weren’t you having a lot of fun with the Mermaid Queen all that time?”

1. The author has been consistently updating after a slump in China, and so he titled this chapter after his sponsor. ?