If She Didn't Like It, I Gave It Up

Ning Ke only put on a tough front. By the time he finished that performance, his body had reached its limit.

Blood poured from the sword wound in his chest as though it cost nothing. On top of that, Lou Yunxiao had seriously injured him several times in his fury. Once Ning Ke finished speaking, his eyes closed and he passed out.

As his slackening fingers brushed the trailing moon-white silk ribbon one last time, the array patterns covering it lit up with an almost imperceptible glow.

Then slowly faded away again.

Lou Yunxiao, consumed by rage, noticed nothing...

When Ning Ke woke again, he discovered that he had been moved somewhere else.

Instead of a stone wall digging into his back, he lay on a carved wooden bed with soft bedding. His wounds had also been bandaged and no longer bled.

But the pain had not lessened at all. In fact, it was even worse.

He knew that, in the novel, Lou Yunxiao had deliberately poured sword intent and Demonic Aura into his body to subject him to the greatest possible agony, letting them constantly corrode and ravage him.

It would not kill him, but the pain never stopped, like the torture of death by a thousand cuts.

Fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. Ning Ke tugged at the heavy, warded chains around his wrists and ankles. Knowing there was no escaping, he let out a long sigh, lay back, and gave up trying.

[Host, that acting before you passed out was incredible. Who taught you?]

Seeing that he was awake, Xiao Yuan could not resist striking up a conversation.

Ning Ke rolled his eyes and began boasting. Life is a stage. It's all about acting. Back in the day, I took a copy of An Actor's Self-Cultivation, hopped on my mountain bike, and went straight to audition for the Central Academy of Drama...

Xiao Yuan asked eagerly, [And then? Did you get in?]

Ning Ke's eyes returned to their normal position, and he rubbed the tip of his nose. Heh. No.

[...Then what the hell are you so proud of?!]

Ning Ke replied, Hey, you-why are you swearing at me?

Ning Ke really had gone to the audition back then, but he had a physiological defect: he could not cry.

From the moment he was born, while other babies wailed after a smack from the nurse, he had burst into honking laughter instead.

He had never cried once while growing up.

When he was in a traffic accident and broke his leg protecting his younger sister, he was taken to the hospital. The little girl had cried beside his bed, her eyes swimming with tears, and asked if it hurt.

He had merely gritted his teeth and smiled. "What's there to hurt? I can take it."

Everyone described him as a carefree optimist, an alien born without tear ducts. No matter how disastrous something was, Ning Ke could always get through it.

So during his acting audition, even though the judges were all extremely pleased with his face, he had managed to take the prompt he drew-losing the love of his life, hysterical, sobbing uncontrollably-

And turn it into a performance that practically screamed, "Dead? Whatever. The next one will be better behaved."

He had been promptly thrown out of the audition room.

No wonder he had not gotten in.

As his thoughts wandered, someone pushed the wooden door open from outside.

The grown-up version of Lou Yunxiao appeared before Ning Ke once more.

He really was handsome.

And now that Lou Yunxiao possessed overwhelming strength, he was no longer the little runt Ning Ke had beaten to a pulp in the Demon Abyss. His whole presence had gone up several notches.

Of course, compared with this gloomy-faced hunk, Ning Ke still desperately missed the kid who blushed at the slightest provocation, jumped into the Demon Soul River after getting his heart broken, and solemnly promised to stay with him for the rest of his life.

"Ning Ke, you need to understand." Lou Yunxiao walked to the bedside, his shadow falling over him. "As I am now, I have ten thousand ways to make you wish you were dead."

"So you'd better tell me where she is. That way..."

"You'll at least let me die quickly?" Ning Ke finished for him with a cheeky grin. "Or leave my corpse intact?"

"And if I refuse, you'll torture me?"

Lou Yunxiao: "..."

Much of his bluster vanished at once. He stood at the head of the bed like a statue, falling completely silent.

Ning Ke held back his laughter.

He had known all along that the brat would threaten him as soon as they met.

But he was also certain Lou Yunxiao would not dare actually kill him. Cutting off everything the other man could say and riling him up was pretty entertaining.

As the current sect master of the Sword Sect, Lou Yunxiao always appeared composed, aloof, and in control before others. Yet around Ning Ke, he repeatedly lost his composure.

He exhaled and had only just said, "You..."

When that ancient fox spirit, his sworn enemy, tilted his head back and smiled at him.

Then said something completely unrelated.

"Kid, I'm hungry."

"Do you serve meals here?"

"Ning Ke!"

Lou Yunxiao bristled.

Ning Ke's smile only grew brighter. "Great Sect Master, guard against arrogance and impatience. You practice dual cultivation of Dao and demon now. What if..."

He twirled his jade-white fingers and pointed at Lou Yunxiao's flat stomach beneath his Daoist robes. "You upset your Demonic Aura? That wouldn't be good."

Xiao Yuan laughed until its stomach hurt. [Host, you make it sound like you're worried he'll upset the baby!]

Ning Ke replied, Heh, that's exactly what I meant.

After that little performance, Lou Yunxiao actually calmed down.

Keeping his voice low, he said, "You're deliberately trying to anger me."

Ning Ke spread his hands. "I'm not. I didn't. Don't make wild guesses."

Since he began demonic cultivation, a single misstep could send Lou Yunxiao plunging into an abyss.

That was why he usually took great care to keep his emotions in check.

Yet now, Ning Ke had made him lose control again and again.

This was a very bad sign.

He had noticed it himself.

He silently recited the Clear Mind Heart Sutra several times, then looked coldly at Ning Ke and asked, "What do you want to eat? I'll have the kitchen prepare it."

Ning Ke grinned, radiant as peach blossoms.

"I want fish."

"Grilled by you."

Foxes loved fish, and so did Ning Ke. But during his year in the Demon Abyss, the Human-Faced Fish in the Demon Soul River had been utterly disgusting. Every time Lou Yunxiao caught some, Ning Ke threw them away. He simply could not bring himself to take a bite, which had left him without fish for an entire year.

Now that he was out, he was craving some.

But when Lou Yunxiao heard this fiend actually wanted him to grill fish for him, killing intent immediately spread around him. "Don't push your luck."

"It's fine if you don't want to." Ning Ke shook his chained hands. "Bring the ingredients into this room. I'll grill it myself."

An hour later, delicious aromas drifted through the room.

Like an old man, Ning Ke fanned the charcoal with a palm-leaf fan, occasionally turning the fish propped beside it. Next to him, Lou Yunxiao sat rigidly upright on a stool, his handsome face black with anger amid the swirling smoke.

He thought Ning Ke was out of his mind.

And he himself was probably out of his mind too, for staying here grilling fish with him.

"Smells amazing!" Ning Ke waited eagerly until the fish was cooked through, then held it in his hands and ate until grease covered his mouth, occasionally sucking sauce from his fingers. Only after his third fish did he finally let out a satisfied burp.

He was utterly content.

At that point, only one grilled fish remained beside the charcoal.

Ning Ke pulled it free and offered it to Lou Yunxiao. "Kid, want some?"

"No."

"Why?" Ning Ke remembered that this brat had caught fish for him several times in the Demon Abyss, looking as though he wanted praise. Ning Ke had thrown them all away.

"Afraid I poisoned it?" He waved a hand. "You watched me grill it. I had no chance to poison anything. Besides, what poison could possibly bring down someone as badass as you are now?"

Staring at the grilled fish, Lou Yunxiao remembered the disgust she had once shown toward the fish he caught from the Demon Soul River. His expression grew colder.

"She didn't like fish." He rose and swept his hand through the air. The charcoal in the room and the grilled fish in Ning Ke's hand all turned to ash and scattered into the air.

"So I gave it up," he said coldly.