Opening Her Heart to Her Mate
The three beastmen at the dining table all froze.
Especially Lu Liufeng, who stared at his mistress in disbelief.
“Mistress…”
Before he could finish, Mu Ling interrupted.
“He’s a beastman, so what does that make us?”
A pang of bitterness rose in his heart as he emphasized his point.
“Mistress clearly has five beastmen!”
Jiang Xi blinked in confusion.
“When spring comes and the fox tribe sends the Golden Soul Fruit, if you dissolve the marriage contract, I’ll only have Lu Liufeng left,” Mu Ling said.
He subconsciously wanted to say he wouldn’t dissolve it.
Yi Yuexi spoke first.
“Who knows when my tribe will arrive? Who knows if they’ll bring the Golden Soul Fruit?”
His fox-like eyes sparkled, and his beautiful face was carefree.
Jiang Xi blinked, tilting her head in puzzlement.
“Then we’ll just wait until you find the Golden Soul Fruit,” she said.
What else could they do?
“Anyway, living together like this hasn’t caused any irreconcilable conflicts, so we can just continue like this,” Mu Ling said, pressing his lips together.
“Then you’re saying Lu Liufeng is the only beastman you’ll have,” Jiang Xi said, starting to get confused.
“Yes,” she confirmed.
“Although you have the title of beastmen, it’s in name only. But Lu Liufeng…”
She looked at him quickly, a little embarrassed, because the two of them hadn’t reached that stage yet.
She spoke delicately, “Years from now, I may only have Lu Liufeng by my side.”
Lu Liufeng’s emotions fluctuated wildly—sometimes joy, sometimes worry.
Though he wanted to monopolize his mistress’s love, as a beastman from Eagle Strait, he knew better than to let possessiveness cloud his judgment.
Unexpected things could happen at any time. For the sake of his mistress’s safety, he couldn’t, and mustn’t, be possessive.
Yi Yuexi’s fox eyes narrowed slightly.
Even though he had stopped paying much attention to the mistress, he sensed something was off.
The previous mistress would never linger for just one beastman.
Usually, after marrying a beastman, she would soon set her sights on another.
Mu Ling spoke stubbornly, “Who can say what the future holds?”
But deep down, his inner scale was slowly tipping toward staying.
Yet years of experience kept warning him not to be fooled by appearances.
That night, Mu Ling dreamed of the Misty Forest.
In his dream, half of the child mistress was engulfed in darkness, and the other half glowed.
Her small, soft hand rested atop his head, radiating warmth and comfort that spread through his body.
The half-black, half-white face gradually overlapped with the mistress’s face.
Her large, jet-black eyes seemed unchanged over the years.
Mu Ling suddenly opened his eyes, rubbing his head with his paws.
In the last instant before waking, he thought he saw a glow—a translucent green light intertwined with the dense green of the Misty Forest, dreamlike and surreal.
Just as he was about to fall back asleep, his upright ears twitched.
The mistress’s voice?
Before sleeping, Jiang Xi remembered she had forgotten to tell Lu Liufeng about the Eagle Strait memories.
But worried he might be asleep, she had planned to tell him the next day.
For some reason, tonight she couldn’t sleep, tossing and turning.
Perhaps it was because her identity as a sacred-favored female had been revealed, or because Yi Yuexi had been pestering her, or because Mu Ling had suggested she take multiple beastmen… or maybe it was the memories she had seen in Lu Liufeng’s ability-sea.
In short, her thoughts were scattered, and she couldn’t fall asleep.
After an uncertain amount of time, she suddenly heard some movement outside.
Wrapping herself in furs, she opened the door to find Lu Liufeng standing in the wind and snow, holding a basin of glowing embers, as if he was about to enter.
Jiang Xi froze for a moment. Lu Liufeng paused too, then smiled gently.
“The wind and snow are heavy tonight, and it’s quite cold. You might need to add some embers to your room,” he said.
Jiang Xi hurried aside and let him carry the embers in.
Her gaze passed over him to the outside.
Snow swirled everywhere, covering even the red moon. The snowfall was unusually heavy.
Inside, it was warm, a completely different world from outside.
The atmosphere felt strangely intimate.
Lu Liufeng’s heartbeat quickened slightly. He paused, about to leave, but Jiang Xi stopped him.
“Wait.”
“I have something I want to tell you.”
There were no chairs inside, so they could only sit on the layers of furs, which were soft and still warm from the mistress lying on them.
Lu Liufeng sat down, feeling the warmth, his pale cheeks tinged with a faint blush.
“What… what is it?”
Seeing his mistress now, all he could think of was that she had said she only needed him.
Just him… was enough.
Though there was no fire, a beastman’s vision was sharp, especially an eagle.
Lu Liufeng could see the embers casting a faint red glow on her cheeks, blurring with the dark background. Her jet-black eyes reflected the firelight, sparkling beautifully.
Jiang Xi didn’t notice his nervousness and spoke.
“This afternoon, while helping you organize your abilities, I saw some of your memories.”
Lu Liufeng froze. “Memories?”
Jiang Xi nodded, then briefly described the scenes and speculated:
“I’m not sure if it was because of your beastman form.”
“When I organized Duan Si’s abilities twice, he fully transformed into his beast form, so I only saw the ability-sea, not memories.”
She suggested, “Next time, you should fully transform too.”
Everyone needs some privacy.
Lu Liufeng shook his head, his amber eyes gentle as he looked at her.
“Liufeng is willing to open his heart to his mistress.”
“A beastman has no secrets from his mistress.”
Jiang Xi was momentarily at a loss.
After all, she herself had plenty of secrets.
“But…”
Before she could finish, Lu Liufeng continued:
“You don’t need to feel pressured. They say that when a beastman fully opens his heart to his mistress, a sufficiently powerful mistress can sometimes glimpse her beastman’s past. It’s not strange.”
Hearing this, Jiang Xi’s feelings grew more complex.
She hadn’t expected Lu Liufeng to trust her this deeply.
She pressed her lips together, feeling she could not reach that level herself.
For a moment, the room fell silent, the only sounds being the embers burning and the howling wind outside.
“Lu Liufeng.”
Jiang Xi suddenly looked up at him.
Her vision was weaker than a beastman’s, so she relied on the embers’ red glow to see his refined, gentle face.
The young man lowered his gaze to meet hers, his amber eyes focused and tender, filled entirely with her.
Jiang Xi’s heartbeat raced. Summoning her courage, she said:
“When my body fully recovers, let’s truly be together!”
Truly together.
Like a real beastman couple… really, together!
