Chapter 316: Two Days and Two Nights
Seeing her own totem mark appear on Xie Youchen, Jiang Qingli couldn’t help but smile smugly.
"I’m amazing..."
Jiang Qingli examined it again and again, incredibly pleased.
She reached out to touch it and chuckled, emphasizing her prowess. "I actually marked you in just one night!"
Xie Youchen looked at her, his jet-black eyes filled with amusement. "Mm-hm, our Ah Li is the best."
As she was pulling her hand back after her inspection, Xie Youchen said slowly, "It wasn’t just one night, though."
"Huh?" It took Jiang Qingli a moment to understand, and she looked up at him.
The young man’s Adam’s apple bobbed lightly. He looked away, pinching his reddened earlobe between two fingers as he said hoarsely, "Ah Li... it was the first time."
"You succeeded in marking me then."
Jiang Qingli’s mouth fell open.
Marking had always been a difficult problem for the Empire’s experts on marriage and relationships. The Match Value wasn’t the key factor; there was a high degree of randomness involved.
Jiang Qingli had asked 030 before why she had marked Ye Linyuan so quickly, while it had taken a long time with Qin Muye. She wondered if it meant Ye Linyuan’s Match Value was higher than Muye’s.
"I can’t see Ye Linyuan’s Match Value from here, but..." 030 had thought for a moment before earnestly explaining, "Marking isn’t just about the Match Value. It’s also related to the needs of both individuals."
"When you had just returned, your soul was still unstable and your will to live was strong. Ye Linyuan was on the brink of a frenzy, and only you could soothe him. You happened to need each other, which made the marking simple. You could call it a happy accident."
"After that, your soul stabilized. With Qin Muye, it was a matter of your feelings for each other deepening, combined with a high Match Value."
Jiang Qingli paused, then asked a very important question. "My Match Value... is it very high?"
"Mm, 99%."
Even someone as unflappable as Xie Youchen couldn’t help but let his lips curl into a small smile as he revealed their Match Value.
"That high?" Jiang Qingli’s eyes widened.
A 100% Match Value didn’t exist in the Empire; 99% was the highest possible score, achieved by only a handful of couples in the Empire’s history.
"But..." Jiang Qingli grew even more confused. "If our Match Value is so high, why didn’t I see you in the matchmaking database?"
"It was there originally," Xie Youchen said. "My genetic data was never entered into the system."
According to regulations, all citizens of the Empire must have their genetic information entered into the matchmaking database upon turning eighteen. Once a female turns twenty, if she doesn’t have a Beast Husband, she is automatically matched with partners, from the highest compatibility down, receiving a minimum of three and a maximum of five.
Males, on the other hand, if they weren’t highly compatible with any females, could only arrange their own marriages or wait to be assigned to a female one day.
Xie Youchen had undergone genetic testing long ago and knew his Match Value with Jiang Qingli was a staggering 99%.
If she were to accept the assigned Beast Husbands from the system, they would inevitably be married.
Xie Youchen had also dreamed of a future where they would marry first and fall in love later.
But before his fantasy could become reality, a foreign soul occupied Jiang Qingli’s body.
Those souls used her body to run rampant, even committing murder.
Xie Youchen took the blame for the crimes and was exiled to the Lower District.
He chose Yi Nuo to protect her. Before Jiang Qingli’s soul returned, her body could not be harmed in the slightest.
Unsure if she would ever return, and uncertain if he would be betrothed to someone else in the meantime, Xie Youchen used his military merits to trade for the right to choose his own spouse.
Later, as her twentieth birthday drew near, Xie Youchen prepared for two possibilities.
If she didn’t return, he would kill the five Beast Husbands the foreign soul had stolen from Bai Yiyi. Those filthy things were unworthy of being married to her, let alone touching her. As for her body, he would bring it to the Lower District to watch over it himself.
If she did return, he would let the three Beast Husbands with the highest Match Values stay by her side.
Fortunately, she returned the night before the matches were to be finalized.
It was just that the unexpected appearances of Ye Linyuan and Baili Jing, as well as the liar Gu Nian, complicated things...
Xie Youchen had wanted to kill them more than once. But since they had all earned Jiang Qingli’s affection, he no longer had any right to harm them.
’But sometimes he wondered when it would be his turn.’
’Even though they had met so long ago, her gaze always seemed to pass over him and land on someone else.’
’Thankfully, his dream had now come true.’
’Even the memories of his painful, secret crush now felt blissful.’
Xie Youchen didn’t say anything, but Jiang Qingli could guess most of it. They knew each other too well.
The girl sighed, wrapped her arms around his waist, and burrowed into his embrace.
"Anyway, you’re marked by me now," she said possessively. "No one out there will want you, so you have no choice but to marry me."
"You can only be mine."
Jiang Qingli tilted her head back to look him in the eye, emphasizing her point with grave sincerity.
"Mm-hm, I’m yours."
Xie Youchen cupped her face and lowered his head to kiss her lips, murmuring softly,
"Mark or no mark, I’m yours."
"Always."
"Forever."
-
They were lost in each other until dusk, when Jiang Qingli finally, and reluctantly, got out of bed.
Xie Youchen wanted to stay, but Jiang Qingli shook her head.
"I’m a female master now, you know. I have other Beast Husbands to see tonight..."
Bringing this up right after they’d been intimate was a total mood killer, but if they were going to be together, it was something they had to face.
Besides, today was Monday.
Ye Linyuan and Xie Youchen didn’t get along. When Xie Youchen joined the group chat yesterday, Ye Linyuan hadn’t said a single word. He was surely seething with resentment, so she couldn’t let the two of them run into each other.
Fortunately, Xie Youchen was very considerate and agreed to leave through the back door.
Before he left, he gave her a soft kiss on the lips and reminded her to eat something.
Jiang Qingli saw him to the elevator, then rubbed her rumbling stomach. She padded downstairs in her fluffy slippers to forage for food.
The ground floor was pitch-black.
Jiang Qingli flipped on the light, only to be met by a pair of cold, golden, slitted pupils.
Ye Linyuan was sitting on the sofa with his arms crossed, the atmosphere around him as frigid as a winter day.
Feeling a pang of guilt, Jiang Qingli walked over and said in a soft voice, "It’s still early. What are you doing here already..."
Hearing the words "still early," Ye Linyuan let out a cold snort.
’He really is angry...’
’That snake has such a temper. I’m only a little late!’
Jiang Qingli saw some pastries on the table and guessed Ye Linyuan must have brought them.
She feigned surprise as she sat down next to him, casually grabbing a pastry and stuffing it into her mouth to change the subject. "Yummy, but why is it so dry?"
Ye Linyuan’s brow furrowed. He snatched the pastry from her hand and squeezed her cheeks with his other. "Spit it out."
His tone was stiff. Jiang Qingli, unsure what had set him off, blinked in confusion. "Hwy?"
"Sweetheart, Linyuan brought those yesterday."
Baili Jing emerged from the other side of the room.
’What’s Baili Jing doing here? Didn’t he say he had to work on Monday nights?’
Jiang Qingli blinked, confused.
Meeting her gaze, Baili Jing offered no explanation. He simply walked over carrying a perfect-looking soufflé, holding his other hand out to her. "You don’t want to get a stomachache. Here, spit it into my hand."
Baili Jing doted on her to an absurd degree.
Naturally, Jiang Qingli was too embarrassed to spit it into his hand. She waved him off, found a tissue, and spit the pastry out into that instead.
The White Fox Actor smiled, sitting down on her other side and gently wiping her lips with a handkerchief.
She took the plate from Baili Jing, but as she picked up her fork, a flicker of confusion crossed her face. "Last night? But I didn’t see you yesterday..."
Ye Linyuan let out a cold, humorless laugh. "It’s not Monday," he said icily. "It’s Tuesday. Eight p.m."
Jiang Qingli: "Huh?"
The air seemed to stand still.
Jiang Qingli froze, her mind flashing back to the wild abandon in the bedroom.
The curtains had been drawn tight, blurring the line between day and night.
She hadn’t had a full night’s sleep, only waking intermittently before they would... continue.
The bed, the rug, the floor-to-ceiling windows, the bathroom counter, the bathtub...
She remembered being hungry at some point, but only vaguely recalled Xie Youchen holding her on his lap to feed her a nutrient solution. She could never manage more than a few sips before they were lost in their endless entanglement once more...
Jiang Qingli glanced at her terminal. It was, indeed, Tuesday.
So, she and Xie Youchen... hadn’t just spent one night together.
It had been two full days and nights.