Chapter 43: CH 42

Made for Each Other

The blood loss caused a vague pain in his abdomen and dizziness. Xuan Long lost his strength before he could fly out of the palace and he had no choice but to stop in the imperial garden, taking his human form under a huge tree and holding onto the trunk, barely able to stand still.

The cramping pain in his abdomen gradually intensified. Xuan Long covered the small of his back and slowly slid to his knees, "Hmm..."

"Hey, are you okay?" A white light flashed mid-air, and the fox demon who had been following Xuan Long for several days finally couldn't help but show up and hurriedly bend over to help him.

Xuan Long turned his head to look at Hu Le after a moment and mumbled, "Why are you here?"

Hu Le saw that his face was pale and his heart clenched as he said, "Why can't I be here, are you the only one allowed to be here?"

Xuan Long dropped his eyes in silence, he was too ill to argue with anyone.

Hu Le's brows knitted together, "You are a dragon with at least ten thousand years of Tao and you can't even detect that I, a fox demon with just over two hundred years of Tao, am hiding beside you. To get yourself into this state for a human, you… you are just stupid."

"As stupid as my brother."

Xuan Long drew his hand back from the crook of Hu Le's arm and stood up with difficulty, holding onto the trunk of the tree.

"Now you believe what I'm saying. All human beings approach demons with ill intent."

Xuan Long did not pay any attention to him and turned to go. His steps were weak and he walked extremely slowly, as if he would fall down in the next moment.

The night was dark and a light rain fell from the sky, hitting Xuan Long's shoulders and hair and staining his eyelashes.

Hu Le hurriedly followed him and grabbed Xuan Long's arm: "Hey! I'm talking to you!"

"I heard everything!"

"That man betrayed you and deceived you! Why didn't you react at all?"

He happened to grip Xuan Long's left arm where it was wounded. Xuan Long grunted and tried to pull his hand back, but Hu Le held on until he felt a strange warmth and stickiness in his palm.

The demon's night vision exceeded that of the human race by a hundred times. Hu Le looked down at his palm, which was sticky and covered in blood, "You're injured?!"

Before Xuan Long could answer, he grabbed his arm and lifted up his wide sleeved robe. The outer garment was basalt coloured, so the injury was not easily visible, but the inner robe was pure white, and the not-so-smooth fabric stuck directly to the flesh and blood, staining the entire white sleeve bright red.

Hu Le rolled up the sleeve of Xuan Long's inner robe a little and saw his arm which was pitted after losing its dragon scales, and his eyes instantly reddened, "How could this happen?!"

"......" Xuan Long drew his hand back in silence, not wanting to discuss this with him, just wanting to leave this place sooner rather than later.

Earlier, worried that his trail's would be discovered, Hu Le did not dare to get too close to Xuan Long, and even listened in the corner of the walls quite far outside the hall, so he did not hear very clearly, but it was enough to let him know the important news.

Hu Le recalled that dragon scales seemed to be mentioned several times during the conversation between the two men, and his gaze chilled as he took a guess, "It's that human, isn't it? He pulled your scales again?"

"……” Xuan Long didn't answer, his figure gradually moving away in the rain. Hu Le stared at his back and said with bitter hatred, "I'll kill him and avenge you!"

Hu Le transformed into a nine-tailed white fox and sprinted in the opposite direction. Xuan Long used his body-shifting technique and stepped in front of him, hoarsely saying, "Don't go."

Hu Le transformed back into a man with a charming, noble face and gritted his teeth, "Why?! He has treated you like this, do you want to continue to love him?!"

The rain fell on Xuan Long's face, which was covered in an ancient bronze and dark gold mask, like a delicate and lifeless sculpture. His dry lips moved slightly and the voice that came out was very weak and hoarse, so much so that he really had to pay attention to hear what he was saying, "It has nothing to do with love. The dragon scales, I gave them to him willingly.”

Hu Le: "Are you insane?!"

Xuan Long did not move a muscle, and only his eyelashes, which hung with rain, trembled slightly, "He had saved me in a previous life, so we are even."

"From now on, we are strangers to each other... and won't meet again."

When Xuan Long said this, Hu Le could not say anything further. Xuan Long walked ahead, and Hu Le followed him behind.

"You go on. Don't follow me anymore."

Hu Le raised both eyebrows and said angrily, "Do you think I want to follow you, Young Master?”

"...... It's not as if I'm afraid you'll die halfway."

The door to the palace was closed at this hour, but a door for a human could not stop a demon. Xuan Long had no strength to fly, so he took his time. As no one was waiting for him at his place of return, he did not need to rush back as he had done before when he was worried that Yan Yuan might be waiting for him.

Fortunately, he could return to the cold, dark, thousand-year-old pool whenever he wanted.

Hu Le knew that Xuan Long was stubborn and didn't dare to carry him away, but he couldn't help but chatter to him again:

"Hey, I've heard that there are many delicious snacks in Chang’an. I used to live in Western Hong, this is the first time I've been to Chang'an, why don't we just stay in a house in the city after we leave the palace, and when we've had enough of Chang'an's food, we can go and enjoy the world."

"I promise you that I will never dig into people's hearts again and will definitely correct my ways properly."

"... Do you think that's good?"

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Hu Le was actually a bit of a wooer, but for fear of rejection, he didn't dare to make it too obvious. He was so charming that he could even charm himself, but when it came to Xuan Long, he was so rigid that he couldn't use any of his charming techniques.

It is true that the IQ of people who fall in love will plummet, and the same goes for demons.

The most annoying thing was that he had hinted so bluntly, but Xuan Long still did not respond, simply treating him like air. Hu Le couldn't bear this temper, but when he was about to argue with him, Xuan Long suddenly swayed and fell down.

Hu Le instinctively caught him: "Hey!"

"Stupid dragon! Stupid dragon!"

"Wake up!"

Xuan Long's face was as white as paper, his eyes were tightly closed and he had passed out.

"Damn it.” Hu Le cursed under his breath as he picked Xuan Long up in his arms and flew up.

……

Three days later, Xuan Long woke up with a low cough, covering his lips. He sat up, propped up on the bed, just as Hu Le pushed his way through the door.

"You're awake?"

Hu Le was carrying a turquoise medicine bowl in his hand, and his eyes showed surprise. When he saw that the bandage on Xuan Long's left arm had turned red, his face changed and he hurriedly put the bowl on the table, went over, grabbed his hand and put it down, frowning, "Don't use this arm, it's barely healed and the wound is breaking open again because of you."

Xuan Long's basalt robe had been replaced and he was now wearing clean white profane clothes, so it was clear that Hu Le had saved him again. Xuan Long looked up and around, "Where is this?"

"An inn in Chang'an City, a few days ago? You suddenly fell into a coma, so I took you to stay in a random inn."

The place was elegant. Excluding the bedroom, there was also a welcoming room outside, which was very spacious and on the top floor.

When Hu Le saw that Xuan Long did not speak, he explained awkwardly, "Don't worry, I didn't steal or rob, I saved all this money from before."

As for how it was saved, it was naturally from the hearts of those rich merchants and businessmen who were full of fat. Those wealthy merchants had stolen many layers of skin from the commoners, so he had done his part to remove the evil spirits.

Hu Le watched Xuan Long's expression carefully, fearing that he would hate him for it, but in fact, Xuan Long's mind was empty and he hadn't thought of anything.

"Many thanks."

"No need to thank me, I'm happy to save you, Young Master." He turned to the round table and brought over a bowl of medicine, scooping a spoonful to Xuan Long's pale lips, and spoke softly, "I have asked the healer to come and see you, and he said that you are in a very bad state. If you do not recuperate properly, not to mention the child, you may lose your life. This is an elixir that is good for the recovery of wounds, so drink it quickly."

Xuan Long was silent for a moment, then took the bowl of medicine and tilted his head, drinking it down in a few gulps.

Hu Le took the empty bowl of medicine back and, finding the blood on his arm an eyesore, muttered, "The old wound on your heart has not yet healed, but you have added a new one to your arm."

The dragon and the fox stayed in the inn for the time being. Xuan Long liked the quiet and hated to go out, and apart from his encounters with Yan Yuan, he hardly ever went out of the thousand-year-old pond, as the bright daylight made him feel that his ugliness and inferiority could not be hidden, even if he wore a mask. Therefore, he spent years and years hiding at the bottom of the dark pond, not willing to disturb any living creature.

Having thought that his long life would be spent in such endless loneliness, Yan Yuan's appearance brought a brief moment of joy to his bitter and tasteless life.

For the first time, someone said they liked him and were willing to treat him well. Even if this was nothing to ordinary people, to Xuan Long, it was a rain from Heaven, a pool of clear water for a traveller in the desert who was about to die of dehydration. In such a situation, even if it was a mirage, he would have jumped at it.

Although he had an ugly scar on his face and a lonely and uninteresting personality, there was at least one person who liked him, and that was enough.

But in the end, that person's love was never real.

Xuan Long became more sullen because of this. Perhaps because he had a foetus in his belly, he always slept during the day, but at night, he loved to sit by the window in the outer room, watching the lights of the city and the crowds of people.

Ten thousand lamps were burning, but none of them were lit for him.

The market outside the inn was the busiest area in Chang'an, and most of the vendors downstairs were selling Qixi Festival gifts, such as jade, knots, fans, handkerchiefs... and much much more.

Xuan Long looked at those pairs of men and women with smiling faces, and his icy-turquoise eyes were slightly lost in thought.

In a trance, a familiar figure suddenly came into view.

The man was dressed in a navy blue brocade robe with a jade crown on his head, and his handsome face was particularly striking in the crowd.

He was carefully protecting Ning Zhiyu, who was wearing a white robe beside him, as he crossed the crowd and stopped in front of a small stall.

The street market was too noisy for Xuan Long to hear what the two men were saying, but he saw them talking and laughing in front of the stall. Yan Yuan's face wore his long-lost gentleness, and the two men looked down and picked up something. Finally, Yan Yuan picked up a silver hairpin from the stall and inserted it into Ning Zhiyu's hair, and they smiled at each other.

Made for each other.

Somehow, this phrase suddenly came to Xuan Long's mind.

Translator Notes

Hey guys! I have recently acquired an uncensored version of the raws for this book thanks to one of my amazing readers. I will be using that to translate from now on and will be going back to add in parts that were censored in previous chapters. If I update a previous chapter, I will send a notification over my discord server. I will start by updating chapter 7 tonight.

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

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