Skadi, My Wife

"For your own sake, for Talulah, for Old Wei and Madam Wei, for Lungmen."

He merely said warmly, "Without your past efforts, how could you be standing here now? Without your past perseverance, you would have left Lungmen long ago. Old Wei and Madam Wei would have lost the niece they saw as a daughter, and you would have lost them as family."

"Without everything you have done over the years, Lungmen would not have become as good as it is now. Without all that effort and persistence, how would Boss Lin have acknowledged you and been willing to tell you those truths? And how could you have made it to this day, thinking you had lost everything, only to discover the happiness of having lost nothing at all?"

Ch'en raised her head and looked at Chen An, her face streaked with tears.

Chen An wiped away her tears with his sleeve and said gently, "Everything is getting better. That is not consolation; it is reality. It is the return on all of Huil's efforts in the past. So do not be lost. Believe in yourself. Things will get even better from now on."

Ch'en bit her lip as the sunset painted her face red.

She stared at Chen An's face, seemingly glowing beneath the setting sun. After a long while, she suddenly threw herself into his arms and burst into tears.

Not because she was sad, but because she felt wronged and wanted to vent.

The grievance of having the truth hidden from her for so many years; the grievance she had buried in her heart all this time, unable to understand why her biological father had cast her aside; the grievance of desperately working toward a goal while often feeling lost; and the grievance of hating someone for years, only to suddenly discover that she might have hated the wrong person.

Amid her sobs, all those grievances and the anger that had accumulated in her heart over the years were released together.

She had never cried like this before. This was the first time.

Ch'en swore that it would also be the last.

The sky darkened.

The graveyard was quite far from Lungmen, and the wilderness at night was not like the city. It was not suitable for travel, so the two of them camped out in the wild that night.

Crackle.

The burning branches occasionally snapped, and the flickering firelight drove away the darkness.

Ch'en sat beside the fire, its light illuminating her face.

Usually stone-faced and fierce-looking, her expression was exceptionally gentle now. She even seemed to be smiling, radiant as the morning glow.

"I'm really sorry."

She glanced at Chen An beside her and suddenly said apologetically, "It's all because I was being wilful. In a moment of impulsiveness, I dragged you all the way out here with me. Now we even have to spend the night in the wilderness."

Camping outdoors was not really a big deal to Chen An.

Not even counting the distant past, just in the years since he had come to Terra, he had camped in the wild while wandering all over Terra with Skadi, while on the Ursus Icefield with Talulah and the others, and while travelling alone to Yan Nation.

It could be said that, since coming to Terra, the total time he had spent camping outdoors might have exceeded the time he had spent living in Lungmen.

What he was more worried about was something else.

Turning to survey the darkness around them, Chen An said worriedly, "There's no need to apologize for something like that. We're friends. I'm just worried about the animals nearby."

In a mournful tone, he said, "Female tigers are terrifying. They are already natural enemies to ordinary wild animals, but Huil, you are much scarier than a female tiger. I just hope the animals living nearby are not stupid enough to come running up and let you chop them into pieces."

Ch'en: "..."

She suddenly felt like an idiot for apologizing to Chen An. Her face immediately darkened.

"I'm so terrifying that I might scare the animals nearby. I'm truly sorry about that."

Gritting her teeth, she gave a smile that was no smile at all. "But compared to those animals, shouldn't you be more worried about yourself? You're clearly a decent person, so why do you always like saying irritating things and ruining the mood?"

By the end, she was suddenly rather troubled.

Ch'en truly thought Chen An was a very good person.

And as far as she knew, everyone she knew who also knew Chen An thought highly of him.

Not to mention the two people next door: Exusiai, who looked extremely sociable but was actually a dramatic type who rarely approved of others, and Texas, who often had no expression and gave people a gloomy impression. Just take that Char Siu Cat, Swire.

She was an absurdly wealthy woman, one of Lungmen's foremost young ladies. Though she worked at the Lungmen Guard Department and dealt with people at the bottom of society year-round, her young-lady temper had not changed much at all, and her standards were incredibly high.

Yet not long after getting to know Chen An, she had already become close with him. She even had him make figurines for her and bring them to the department, as if she wanted everyone to know how close they were.

At first, since no one knew him, people often asked who he was. Every time, she would say he was her friend, an incredibly capable and remarkable person, practically praising him to the skies.

Because of her, everyone at the Lungmen Guard Department got to know Chen An. Then, just like her, they had nothing but praise whenever Chen An was mentioned.

There was also the Rat King of the Lower District, Uncle Lin, the father of her friend Yu Xia.

He was a formidable figure, yet when she had gone to see him a couple of days ago, he had spoken of Chen An with great admiration while recounting the past.

If his daughter had not been there, and if he had not felt that some things were inappropriate to say—or that saying them might get his beard pulled out—he probably would have told her outright, "I admire this lad. I need to find a way to make him my son-in-law." At his age, instead of enjoying his retirement, he was still worrying about things like that. No wonder he always angered Yu Xia into pulling his beard. That shameless old man!

And there was Aunt Wen Yue. She clearly knew Chen An had Skadi, yet she kept encouraging Ch'en to go on a blind date with Chen An. If that did not mean she liked Chen An, then what did?

But if he was someone everyone liked, why did Chen An so often make people want to slap him to death?

Ch'en was utterly puzzled. She secretly sized Chen An up a few times before finally deciding that perhaps, aside from being gentle and reliable in a reassuring way, he also had a rather nasty side hidden beneath that extra mouth of his.

"Did I say anything irritating or mood-ruining?"

Chen An pretended not to understand. "No, right? I was only telling the truth. Huil, you're super fierce, and you even carry Chi Xiao around with you. Forget female tigers—even female tyrannosaurs are probably less frightening than you, aren't they?"

Ch'en: "..."

Calm down, calm down. He was a good friend. Chi Xiao was not for cutting him down.

The veins at her temples bulged. Clenching her teeth, Ch'en barely managed to suppress the urge to draw Chi Xiao and slash him, ensuring he would never be able to speak again.

She then turned her face away, putting on an expression that said she did not want to talk to Chen An.

Ch'en truly did not want to speak to Chen An—she was worried that if she responded, Chen An would say more irritating things and stir up the killing intent in her heart until she could not help slicing him into eighteen pieces!

Chen An did not care about Ch'en's coldness. Grinning, he chatted with her a little more, though he did not say anything else that would make her explode with anger.

After some idle conversation, he suddenly brought up a serious topic. "You used to hate Old Wei because you thought he had deliberately done nothing when Talulah was abducted, because you thought he was a heartless man. Now that you know the truth, what are you planning to do from now on?"

"...I won't hate him anymore, but I definitely won't forgive him so easily either."

Ch'en turned back. She stared blankly at the flickering campfire for a long while before saying, "No matter what difficulties he had, the fact remains that he gave up on Talulah. I know he did it for Lungmen, but that is not a reason for me to forgive him."

She fell silent for a long time before softly saying, "It depends on Talulah. If I see her again someday and she is willing to forgive Wei Yenwu, then I will forgive him too. You were right. Family may not be important, just like my father. To me, he matters less than a stranger. Whether he exists or not makes no difference. But family who cares about you is important. I have made mistakes for many years. I cannot keep making them."

It depended on Talulah?

Then I suppose you'll be able to forgive Old Wei very soon.

Chen An thought, That silly girl who seemed to have walked out of a hot-blooded shounen manga had hated Old Wei just like you. She had even run away with someone because of it, but that was because she had been deceived into thinking her father had been killed by Old Wei in a struggle for power.

But later, after learning the truth—after learning that Old Wei had killed her father to protect her, and that her father had willingly accepted death—the only person she hated was Koschei, her nominal adoptive father, who had tricked her out of Lungmen with lies.

But her adoptive father Koschei had already been stabbed to death by her several years ago. Even the remnant soul residing within her, waiting for a chance to steal her body, had been discovered by yours truly, the great man who picked her up back then. After asking for her opinion, I casually crushed it to death.

Now, she was happier than you had ever been.

"Koschei? Why did you suddenly ask me about that person, Alina?"

While chatting with Alina, Talulah was deeply puzzled when she suddenly heard that name.

"Because I saw him in a book today. It reminded me that Talulah, you seemed to have mentioned this person before, as if you knew him very well."

"...Yes, I did know him very well."

Talulah was silent for a long while before saying that.

Many years ago, Talulah had been deceived and abducted from Lungmen. The person who had abducted her was Koschei.

Her life after being abducted had not been difficult. On the contrary, it had been extremely comfortable. Koschei, who had taken her away, did nothing to harm her. Instead, he nurtured her as if she were his successor.

That was why, despite being abducted at a young age, Talulah still possessed the elegance and composure of an aristocratic young lady. It was not a lingering temperament from her childhood, but because Koschei had raised her as an aristocrat after abducting her.

But Talulah was not grateful to Koschei. Instead, she hated him deeply.

Especially after learning that her uncle Wei Yenwu had not killed her father in a struggle for power, but for her sake, and after learning that she had been deceived, her hatred became even more intense.

She hated Koschei for abducting her from Lungmen and making her wrongly hate her own family, causing her separation from them; she hated Koschei's cunning and deceit, his coldness and cruelty toward Ursus civilians and the Infected; and she hated even more how Koschei had always tried to influence and control her, trying to turn her into someone as cunning and ruthless as himself, someone who treated human lives as worthless, cared only for profit, and possessed not a trace of light in her heart.

Why had Talulah contracted Oripathy?

It had not been an accident. She had deliberately infected herself with Oripathy. Her goal had been to escape the control and influence of her adoptive father, Koschei, though she had not succeeded.

Talulah had later ended up on the Icefield because of Koschei as well. By chance, she learned the truth of the past and discovered that Koschei had deceived her. After confronting him and confirming that the truth was exactly as she had learned, she had been blinded by rage and attempted to assassinate Koschei.

She fled the duke's estate because of that, arriving on the Ursus Icefield, where Chen An and Skadi found her. Later, she joined the Reunion Movement and met Alina, FrostNova, and the others.

Memories of Koschei were the thing Talulah least wished to recall. She had only told Chen An about those matters. She had never spoken of them to anyone else, not even Alina and the others.

So when Alina asked about him now, Talulah merely said that she did indeed know him, then chose to brush the matter aside vaguely.

"That man was cunning and deceitful. Even after death, he would leave behind schemes to harm others. Alina, it would be best if you learned less about him. You only need to know that I contracted Oripathy because of him and ended up on the Icefield, where I met Chen An."

Chen An?

The moment she heard that name, Alina's attention immediately shifted.

She put on a stern face and began lecturing Talulah. "What do you mean, met him? You were clearly picked up by him! Don't think I don't know. Chen An found you unconscious on the Icefield. After you woke up, not only did you not do anything to repay him, you said you did not know where to go or what to do, then clung to him and refused to leave. You made him wash your clothes, including your underwear, and he did all the cooking too. If you had not met the Reunion Movement later, you would have let him raise you into a useless slob."

Talulah: "..."

Her expression became awkward, and she could barely speak clearly. "Th-those things... I never told anyone about them, did I? Why would you know, Alina?"

Aside from the laundry, which Alina had helped her wash later and thus discovered the truth about, she had never talked about any of the other things, okay?

"Chen An told me."

Alina said it as if it were obvious. "He also said that although you look like an aristocratic young lady, you are actually lazy and greedy. Sometimes you like sleeping in, and when someone wakes you up, you get cranky. You look smart, but you fall for tricks easily. A self-important idiot like you could be fooled by him ten times in an hour."

As she spoke, she suddenly looked confused. "Why did you think nobody knew about this? Chen An told all of us right in front of you."

"Al-all of us!?" Talulah was stunned.

"Of course."

Alina nodded, pursing her lips in a smile. "Did you forget? Back when we were still on the Icefield, you played five rounds of rock-paper-scissors with FrostNova, best three out of five. You made her act cute to Mr. Patriot and say, 'Father, I like you.' You got too pleased with yourself, so Chen An could not stand it and mocked your terrible rock-paper-scissors skills. He said that against someone like you, he could win ten times with his eyes closed. You refused to accept that, so you bet with Chen An on rock-paper-scissors too. In the end, you lost thirty times in a row. As punishment, you called him World's Handsome One thirty times in front of everyone. That was when Chen An told everyone all those things."

Talulah: "..."

Thank you so much, Alina, for reminding me of such an important thing—my ass!

I finally managed to forget something so embarrassing. Why did you have to make me remember it?

Alina, Alina, what happened to you? Weren't you my gentle, considerate, wonderful Alina? Why did you suddenly seem to have been possessed by Yelena and turn into a bad-hearted, wicked Alina?

And—

Chen An! You bastard! You actually dared to tell everyone those things! Just you wait. When I find you someday, I will definitely show you what cruelty means. I'll play rock-paper-scissors with you again, then beat you a hundred times and make you shout "Miss Talulah is the world's number one!" a hundred times in Chernobog's square!

As her dark history was relentlessly exposed, Chernobog's mayor swore viciously in her heart while also feeling the urge to die immediately.

By the time Chen An and Ch'en returned to Lungmen, it was already the afternoon of the next day.

Ch'en did not send him back to the villa. They parted ways halfway there, and Chen An returned alone.

The instant he stepped into the villa, as if they had been lying in wait for him, Swire and Exusiai suddenly jumped out.

"Where the hell did that Street Dragon take you last night!?"

That was Swire, furious like a cat with its fur standing on end.

"You left Skadi home alone and ran off to fool around all night without coming back. Scumbag!"

That was Exusiai, looking at Chen An with utter disdain, as if he were a cheating bastard.

"Welcome back."

That was Texas. She wagged her tail and blinked, greeting Chen An before stepping aside. She quietly said nothing else, like a passerby simply watching the drama unfold.

Then, without even giving Chen An time to answer, Swire and Exusiai each grabbed one of his hands and dragged him into the villa.

Inside the villa.

Swire and Exusiai sat on the sofa and began their public trial of Chen An.

"Explain yourself! Where did you go with that Street Dragon all day yesterday and all morning today? She actually dared to steal my man! That Street Dragon ￥@*＆!"