Skadi, My Wife

Exusiai: "..."

She rolled up her sleeves, deciding not to waste words on Texas and just beat her up directly.

Just then—

"Ah, crap!"

Exusiai suddenly heard Skadi cry out in panic. Then, she felt the halo above her head abruptly grow heavy. Her mind went blank, and the world before her began to spin.

It turned out that Skadi had gotten curious about whether the bedsheet rope was sturdy enough. While Exusiai and Texas were arguing, she tugged at the bedsheet with one hand. Unfortunately, she used too much strength and yanked the electric fan straight down.

With a loud clang, the ceiling fan crashed heavily onto the dining table. As it fell, one of its blades happened to strike Exusiai's halo.

The halo was Exusiai's weakness. Simply having it covered made her chest feel tight, and prolonged coverage could even make her faint. Now that it had suddenly taken a devastating blow from a ceiling fan, Exusiai couldn't react at all. Her eyes rolled back, and she passed out on the spot.

Staring in disbelief at Exusiai, whom Texas had hurriedly caught... and then at the ceiling fan on the dining table beside them, Chen An froze for several seconds before suddenly letting out a grief-stricken howl:

"My electric fan!"

He had just bought it! It had cost a full 1,300 Lungmen Credits, and he hadn't even used it once after installing it!

You're About to Face Disaster!

"You're awake."

Exusiai slowly came to, only to hear a familiar voice utter something horrifying:

"Congratulations. Mother and daughter are both safe. Would you like to see your child now?"

"...?"

Though she was still a little dazed, Exusiai couldn't stop a question mark from appearing over her head when she heard that.

What, what was that supposed to mean?

Hadn't she just been lecturing Texas? How had someone suddenly started telling her that mother and daughter were safe? Had several episodes of her life somehow been skipped?

Exusiai_confused.jpg

"Your expression really is amusing."

Texas handed the glass of water she'd just poured to Exusiai, who was sitting up in bed with a baffled look on her face. The corner of her lips curled upward in a rare smile.

Chen An hadn't lied to her. Saying something like that when Exusiai woke up really did make her expression amusing.

—Texas had said that just now.

Exusiai took the water reflexively and drank two sips before cautiously asking, "What did you mean by that? I have a child with that guy?"

"No."

Texas answered bluntly, "I was lying to you."

Exusiai: "..."

Her mouth twitched. Her clenched fist loosened again. While she wanted to hit someone, she also felt relieved... and perhaps a tiny bit disappointed.

No? I thought... Pfft, pfft, pfft! What do I mean, I thought? There was no "I thought"!

Exusiai spat twice, drained the water in her cup in one gulp, and put on an angry expression.

Exusiai's strange behavior made Texas a little worried. "Exusiai, are you... are you still not quite clear-headed?"

"You're the one who's not clear-headed! I've never been in a better mood!"

Exusiai glared at Texas, then seemed to remember something and couldn't help asking, "Hey, Texas, wasn't I scolding you in the kitchen just now? How did I suddenly end up here?"

Texas studied her for a moment. After confirming that she really was in a good mood and hadn't gone crazy, she answered, "Oh, there was a small accident. The falling electric fan hit your halo and knocked you out."

With Texas's explanation, Exusiai finally learned what had happened earlier.

"What the heck? I can get into an accident even at home? My luck is way too terrible."

She pursed her lips in frustration and complained before asking rather rudely, "Why are you the only one here? Where's that guy?"

"He's not here."

"What!?"

Exusiai flew into a rage. "I got hurt, and he didn't even stay by my side waiting for me to wake up? Isn't that cold-blooded!?"

"He's not cold-blooded. After checking you over and finding that you were fine, he left."

Texas explained succinctly, "Also, before he left, he said that until lunch, and until he'd recovered from the grief of his beloved electric fan's sudden death, you and Skadi shouldn't appear in front of him. Otherwise, he was afraid he wouldn't be able to stop himself from tying you up and beating you."

"Skadi?"

Exusiai froze. Skadi was here too?

Then, as if remembering something, she turned to look toward the bed farther inside and saw Skadi sitting beside it. Her low spirits had made her so quiet that her presence had faded away, and Exusiai hadn't noticed her until now.

Noticing Exusiai looking at her, Skadi raised her head, looking utterly aggrieved. "Why was that electric fan so flimsy? I barely used any strength."

Exusiai opened her mouth, but for a moment, she had no idea what to say.

Chen An had only just moved into his new home, and his new home had already been wrecked. He found that utterly unacceptable.

So, after giving the unconscious Exusiai another examination and confirming that she was fine, Chen An kicked Skadi out of the house and sent her next door to keep Exusiai company.

Afterward, feeling that he ought to escape the painful place that was his home and get some peace by putting it out of sight, he ran away from home to cool down.

After going outside, Chen An headed straight downstairs, then walked east for ten minutes before stopping in a small park.

He glanced sideways at Swire, who had been following him ever since he left the house. Chen An said nothing and found a public bench in the park to sit on.

When Chen An looked at her, Swire turned her face away and pretended to admire the scenery, her tail swishing as though she hadn't noticed his gaze. Once Chen An looked away and sat down somewhere on his own, she immediately stopped pretending, dashed over, and sat beside him.

"Hey."

Swire tapped Chen An's arm with her tail, making her tone sound as casual and unconcerned as possible. "It's just a ceiling fan. Why are you still angry about it? If you really want to install one at home, I'll pay for it. That electric fan didn't look like it cost much anyway."

Chen An ignored her and continued thinking.

He actually wasn't that angry.

After all, just like Swire had said, the electric fan wasn't worth much. Of course, even if it had been expensive, Chen An wouldn't have been much angrier. At most, his heart would have hurt a little more.

Compared to worldly possessions that could be bought with money, he cared more about friends like Skadi and Exusiai.

Otherwise, with Skadi constantly wrecking the house and Exusiai constantly causing trouble, he would have died of anger long ago.

The reason he had remained silent until now was simply that he was thinking about how to recover his losses.

And also, Skadi had said a few days ago that she wanted to live in a big house. Should he find some way to fulfill her wish?

Recovering his losses and getting a new house—both could be done easily enough if he had money. But the problem was that Chen An had no money. Even if he hadn't spent a single coin of the money he'd tricked out of Swire and Ch'en, it still wouldn't be enough, because he had never intended to keep that money for himself in the first place.

So what exactly should he do?

Chen An pondered for a long time before inspiration suddenly struck.

Why not sell Skadi?

Skadi was beautiful, fair-skinned, and delicate. If he put her on a scale and sold her for ten credits a pound, maybe someone would buy her.

Though ten credits a pound wasn't much, Skadi was heavy! As long as he had her remove that weight-reducing necklace before stepping on the scale, the display might just explode from the reading. Wouldn't that earn him a huge sum of money?

As for how he might end up with money but no Skadi after selling her, making the house useless even if he bought one—that was fine too. Skadi was alive, after all. He could just have her run back on her own later.

The more he thought about it, the better the idea seemed. Chen An's eyes shifted as he suddenly asked Swire beside him, "Rich lady, I'll sell Skadi to you for ten credits a pound. Want her?"

Swire was baffled. "Skadi? Why would I buy her?"

Leaving aside the fact that human trafficking was illegal, even if it were legal, Skadi wouldn't be willing to be sold, would she?

Chen An: "..."

Given Swire's answer, Chen An decisively gave up on the idea of trafficking Skadi.

There was no helping it. Swire was rich—ridiculously rich. If even she didn't want to buy Skadi, then people with less money had even less reason to do so.

"Hey, say something. How could you possibly come up with an idea like that? Say something."

Ignoring Swire's curious questioning, Chen An sank into thought once more.

As the saying went, where there's a will, there's a way.

And sure enough, in less than a moment, Chen An came up with another new way to make money—sell Exusiai's halo!

Exusiai's halo was pretty rare. It seemed that only people of her race had them. If he could take it off and sell it, maybe it would fetch a large sum too.

So, should he go back while Exusiai wasn't paying attention and nobody was around, knock her out with a club, then remove her halo and sell it?

The idea tempted Chen An. Just as he began considering whether it was feasible and wondering how much force he should use to knock Exusiai out, he suddenly heard a familiar voice.

"Are you sure that guy's really here? We've searched so many places already. Don't tell me you've got it wrong."

That voice was...

Chen An looked in the direction of the voice in surprise, and his expression abruptly changed.

Nian and Dusk? What were they doing here!?

The compass in Nian's hand suddenly began spinning wildly again. She slapped it with her hand, but it kept doing the same thing, and she couldn't help flying into a rage.

"What's wrong with this compass? Why does it keep spinning every other second? What happened to following the needle's direction and definitely finding the person or thing you're looking for? We've followed it for more than half a year now, and apart from some weird junk, we've gotten absolutely nothing. Did that brat give this thing to me just to fool me?"

"If you can empty your mind of distractions and focus wholeheartedly on finding the person you're seeking, the compass won't lead us elsewhere."

Dusk said coldly, "And haven't I told you many times? Don't place your hopes in that compass. He's outside the bounds of fate. Spells and artifacts that seek causes and effects are useless against him."

"We're searching like headless flies anyway. It's better to have something to hope for than nothing, isn't it?"

Nian grinned mischievously, paying no attention to Dusk's rebuke. She even put on the airs of an elder sister and earnestly lectured Dusk, "Girls should be gentler. It's because you're always so cold, Dusk, that you scared him away and made us travel all the way out here to find him."

"How absurd. Wasn't his hasty departure caused by you, dear foolish sister, letting something slip after eating so much spice that your brain ended up in the pot along with it? Women ought to be gentle, Nian. Before you say such things, take a look at yourself. See whether you possess even a trace of the grace and virtue a woman should have. You worthless idler, this rowdy little thug who wastes her life on toys—how do you have the nerve to say such things to me?"

Dusk's tone grew colder and colder. The contempt in her eyes as she looked at Nian was as though she were looking at an insect. "He considered us friends and let down his guard, harboring no suspicion. We finally deceived him into entering the illusion on the pretext of acting out a scene to comfort me, dressed him as the groom, and put on bridal gowns and phoenix crowns ourselves. All we had to do was wait for him to lift our veils with the jade ruyi and make it a done deal. Yet because of one careless remark from you, he realized he'd been deceived and left in disappointment. Since then, there has been no word from him."

"Nian, do you know that if you weren't my sister, I would have thrown you into one of my paintings long ago and let you suffer endless loneliness? If you weren't my sister, and if I hadn't spent so long living in paintings that I knew little of the outside world and couldn't conveniently travel alone, I never would have journeyed with you."

"So shut up!"

Her tone turned rough. "Stop relying on your status as my sister to spout such unwanted advice, you good-for-nothing bastard!"

Nian looked embarrassed. Knowing she was at fault, she gave an awkward laugh and sheepishly shut her mouth.

Unaware of Nian and Dusk's conversation, Chen An had already greased his heels the instant he saw them. He called Swire over and fled in a panic.

He ran all the way back from the park to his home. Before entering, he even looked behind him several times. Only after confirming that no one was following except Swire did Chen An breathe a sigh of relief. He pulled Swire through the door and slammed it shut.

Leaning against the door, he patted his chest and kept congratulating himself. Good thing he'd run fast and hadn't been discovered. Otherwise, he would have been finished.

Chen An's ghost-stricken reaction left Swire extremely confused, but because it hadn't been appropriate to ask earlier, she hadn't said anything. Now that they were home, she finally couldn't hold back any longer.

"What did you see just now? Why did you look like you'd seen a ghost?"

"How are ghosts scarier than those two? Hoshiguma is adorable, okay?"

After making that lingeringly frightened jab, Chen An didn't give Swire another chance to ask questions.

He cautiously opened the door and peeked outside. After confirming there was no one there, Chen An pushed Swire out and told her to go home first. Then he swiftly shut the door again, ran back to his room, and began packing his luggage.

Originally, he had planned to stay in Lungmen for a while longer. Even if the Lower District had already gotten on track and no longer needed him much, and even if old acquaintances from Chernobog like Talulah might also appear in Lungmen, that wouldn't have changed his plans.

In fact, because of Skadi's wishes, he had even considered getting a large house in Lungmen and extending his stay there.

But now, he had changed his mind.

Nian and Dusk were incredibly troublesome women. More importantly, there weren't just the two of them. Including their other brothers and sisters, there were twelve of them in total.

He couldn't say all of them were like that, but most of those twelve siblings really were extraordinarily troublesome.

If they discovered where he was, he wouldn't be able to live in peace afterward.

For one thing, Chen An could guarantee that once Nian and Dusk found him, they would definitely drag him off to finish the wedding they hadn't completed back then. Damn it! They had clearly said they only wanted him to help act out a scene to comfort Dusk, that shut-in who had seen through worldly affairs and found everything meaningless. They said it would be over once they met at the wedding hall. Yet they had actually wanted to make it real, deceiving a friend's feelings like that. It was too much!