CH 3

Would You Like to be With Me as Husband and Wife

Trigger warning: This chapter does mention rough sex, though it doesn't go into the details of it.

On that day, Yan Yuan went out of the palace in disguise to look for the legendary mysterious dragon in the thousand-year-old pond under the Jinghua Mountain. Unexpectedly, before he could rendezvous with the immortal cultivators who claimed to be able to subdue demons, he was attacked at the edge of the pond and was seriously injured, and when he woke up, he found himself in the pond.

It was a blessing in disguise.

In recent years, the world has not been very peaceful. There are demons and evil spirits in and around Chang'an City, digging out people's hearts and drinking their blood, and they are extremely evil. Yan Yuan originally thought that this mysterious dragon was not a good creature. A demon is a demon, cold-blooded and cruel. If he digs out his heart, he is doing the people a favour.

However, now it was the very same demon in his eyes that had saved him.

The empress' life is in danger… with only relying on the thousand-year-old ginseng, he will last at most three months.

He doesn't have much time left…

As he was in a daze, the sound of footsteps approached the stone bed. Yan Yuan returned to his senses and rolled over to see the broken medicine bowl with a missing spout in the hand of a man in exquisite clothes, and immediately wrinkled his brow bitterly, “A’Po… I think I am almost well enough, there is no need to drink any more medicine.”

In a flash, a month had passed. His body had long since healed, but in order to find an excuse to stay, he had said that his internal injuries had not yet healed. When Xuan Long saw him shouting in pain all day, he poured him a bowl of medicine every day, a medicine that was neither grey nor black, and Yan Yuan was scared by the bitterness.

Xuan Long handed the bowl to him, "Drink."

The man seemed cold and ruthless, but in fact he was very easy to get along with, and it could be said that he had responded to Yan Yuan's every request over the past month.

As an emperor, he had been pampered since he was a child. His mouth was fussy and he loved good food. No matter what delicacy he wanted, Xuan Long could go to the market and get it for him, but he was extra tough on the matter of drinking medicine.

Knowing that he could not avoid it, Yan Yuan took the bowl and drank it down, then handed it back to the dragon and was about to lie down to sleep when he was suddenly handed something else.

It was a square piece of milky white cane sugar, lying in the palm of Xuan Long's hand.

Yan Yuan's heart moved slightly. Picking up the sugar and putting it in his mouth, he washed down quite a bit of the bitterness, "You've gone to the mortal world again?"

“En." Xuan Long said.

There was only one stone bed at the bottom of the pool, so the two of them could only sleep together at night. Xuan Long tended to take up a small spot along the edge of the bed, and he was accustomed to sleeping on his side with his back to Yan Yuan.

Yan Yuan cherishes Ning Zhiyu and has always been in love with him, but has never crossed the threshold of courtesy, and has always kept to himself. For some reason, he couldn't help himself when facing Xuan Long. Looking at the man's lonely back, he couldn't help but wrap his arms around his strong, thin waist, trying to dispel that loneliness, “A'Po."

Xuan Long's body froze, and the roots of his ears turned red at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Except for his first instinct to push Yan Yuan away, which aggravated his injuries, Xuan Long did not resist Yan Yuan's closeness afterwards.

Even now, he was not used to having someone by his side, and was unable to get used to the feeling of a disturbed heartbeat.

What was wrong with him…

"I like you." Yan Yuan said close to the dragon's ear.

The fondness was genuine and had nothing to do with love, it was only because he had stepped in to save his life… roughly like liking the heartfelt servants around him.

If he didn't have to, he wouldn't want to hurt Xuan Long in any way, but now, he had to make a choice.

His lover was waiting for him.

“……" Xuan Long didn't know how to reply to Yan Yuan, so he didn't say anything.

"Do you like me?…" Yan Yuan asked gently.

Xuan Long's turquoise demon pupils widened in bewilderment, his mind a jumble of confusion.

He didn't know.

Most likely, he liked him.

After all, no living being would hate someone who truly treated them with respect.

"In our human race, if two people love each other, they can become husband and wife, never to be separated."

“A'Po, would you like to marry me?…"

Yan Yuan's voice was so gentle and melodious, like the most sincere zither sound in the world. It was buzzing and vibrating in Xuan Long's ears, messing with his heartstrings, so much so that he didn't even notice that his belt was being slowly unbuckled.

“Husband… wife…" Xuan Long murmured in a trance, these two words too foreign to him.

He had lived alone for thousands of years and had never thought that there would be a living being willing to be with him in the future.

With gentle movements, Yan Yuan flipped Xuan Long over to lie flat on his back, bullying his way onto him. Placing his palm against the unmasked left side of the man's face, he lowered his head to kiss his thin lips, “En, husband and wife."

"Would you like that?” Yan Yuan's smile was the same as when he first saw him; a stranger like a jade, a gentleman like no other in the world, and a smile that gave Xuan Long the illusion that he would drown in his eyes.

His cheeks burning inexplicably, Xuan Long turned his face away, no longer meeting his gaze, and spoke indifferently, "If you are willing, I don't care."

With a low laugh, Yan Yuan turned the man's face and kissed him. Yan Yuan himself had little technical skill at all, just sticking his tongue in and kissing him. Xuan Long was embarrassed, his brow wrinkled in discomfort at the other man's roughness, his long, sparse eyelashes fluttering helplessly, and his cheeks flushed.

It was a good thing his complexion was not as white as Yan Yuan's, so it wasn't too obvious.

When the kiss ended, Yan Yuan gasped for breath and went to pull at Xuan Long's clothes, but Xuan Long clasped his wrist warily, his naturally cold turquoise eyes staring at him with a hint of suspicion.

"What are you doing?"

"To be husband and wife is to have intercourse, everyone does.” Yan Yuan said with amusement, "Don't you know that?"

Xuan Long stared at him for a moment without moving, then slowly let go of his hand.

After taking off his clothes, Yan Yuan had no time to admire Xuan Long's beautifully proportioned body before he noticed a wound on his chest the size of a grown man's fist. The surface layer of skin was gone, revealing the pink and tender flesh inside, which was quite scary.

"You're injured?" Yan Yuan wrinkled his brow, subconsciously wanting to reach out and touch it, but afraid of hurting him. "How did you get it?"

"It's nothing to worry about." Xuan Long did not want to worry him and did not want to say more.

Yan Yuan didn't ask any more questions.

It was the first time for both of them. As soon as they got to the main event, Xuan Long's face turned white with pain and cold sweat appeared at the corners of his forehead. Yan Yuan stopped for a moment, “Does it hurt? The first time is a little painful."

Xuan Long saw his excited look and could not bear to spoil his fun, so he reluctantly gasped and said, “It's okay."

How could Yan Yuan not know if Xuan Long was in pain? Before the wedding, the palace maids had sent him a book on lovemaking, so he knew exactly how to do it between men, and he had deliberately omitted those tedious steps to make him suffer.

After the rough lovemaking session was over, Xuan Long's face was bloodless, and his blue silk was scattered around his body in a messy manner, sticking to his cheeks. It was the first time Yan Yuan saw him look so weak, and he felt a little sad, “Not feeling well?"

Xuan Long opened his half-dazed eyes, and seeing Yan Yuan's worried face, he said, “… It's fine."

Yan Yuan found blood between his legs and wanted to ask him to get up and clean it up, but the man had already fallen asleep, his sharp eyebrows stayed wrinkled, and he was defenseless in his sleep.

Usually, Xuan Long's sleep was very light; his five senses were so acute that he would wake up at the slightest turn of Yan Yuan’s body. He had never slept this deeply.

This might be his only chance…

Yan Yuan stared at Xuan Long's face for a long time. It was an extremely handsome and gentle face, even the shape of his lips looked good in just the right way, thin and glowing with a touch of powder, his masked appearance was like a heavenly god descending to the earth, ice-cold but not really inhuman.

He had always been curious as to why Xuan Long wore that golden bronze mask, which he didn't even take off in his sleep, and while it seemed like now was a good opportunity to find out, he no longer had the heart for it.

There were more important things waiting for Yan Yuan to do.

A little over half an hour later, Yan Yuan gingerly got out of bed and walked over to the uneven stone table not far away, on which were some fresh fruit and a shiny dagger.

Xuan Long had never eaten fruit. All those things had come after Yan Yuan's arrival, including the blanket on the stone bed, which Xuan Long had gone to mortal world to get because Yan Yuan had said it was too hard. Before that, the dragon had always slept on a bare stone bed.

Yan Yuan picked up the dagger on the stone table, which felt as if it weighed a thousand pounds, but he nonetheless forced himself to walk towards the man on the bed.

Between the life of Xuan Long and the life of Ning Zhiyu…

He chose the latter.