Reborn To Be The Imperial Consort [BL]-Chapter 96: Crimson Spider Lily — I

Indistinctly muffled sobs were interspersed with the rushing yet soothing noise of flowing river. The newly sprouted leaves of the towering trees clung to their branches as the mild light of the sun spilled over them, casting their looming shadows on the green forest floor under them.

Since the winter has long since passed, the river and its water was no longer frozen, its flow vigorous as it streamed through the heart of the forest, its water relentlessly crashing and tearing through the rocks scattered throughout.

Even after a long time, the sobs showed no signs of decreasing, the voice turned hoarse yet the grief palpable in their choked misery seemed to only increase as time went on.

The birds no longer chirped, their once joyous trills quietening into silence as they fell into deaf ears with no one to appreciate the sweet quality of their songs.

The clouds in the sky rolled, fleeting as the vast expanse of its blue hues spilled away, the platter of it gradually darkening from the seams as the sun began to set, strolling through the sky to hide behind the ancient mountains covered in tall trees.

Wherever the shining star went, a red hue followed, spilling across the sky akin to a painter’s colour falling on a seemingly clear canvas. As the reddish hue of crimson faded away, where it weakened, a dull shade of violet took over, mingling and intertwining seamlessly and beautifully with the red and the darkening blue of the sky that was fraying at the worn edges.

It was an ages old forest, the cusp of mountain, home to who knew how many fauna stretched far and wide. Near the stream that went through its heart, however, intermittent sobs and whimpers echoed in their heartbreaking cadence as the sun neared its time for setting, for it was supposed to give way to the darkness and its deep veil of night.

As the water gurgled, its flow cutting through the rocks, two men sat gracelessly near the bank, collapsed to their knees and their robes stained in the char and cinder.

Yet neither seemed to care as the male with a head full of beautiful, silken raven locks that pooled at his back held tightly onto the man with amber hair, his arms wrapped securely around the latter even as they trembled and his own breath stuttered.

The amber-haired man’s sobs were muffled, no longer as loud as they had been hours back as he burrowed his deeper into the raven-haired man’s chest, his face flushed and wet from the tears he shed, his body trembling visibly.

Li Xinyuan’s golden gaze was hooded as he stared down at Hu Lijing whilst the nine-tailed fox sniffled and shivered in his arms, his chin was propped on the crown of the fox’s head as he rubbed shapeless patterns on his back, his own eyes holding a watery sheen in them, golden irises dark into a molten shade.

His lips pursed together into a thin line as he tried to regulate his own breathing while comforting the absolutely shattered man in his embrace.

His throat bobbed, voice thick and tight as he attempted to speak, lips parted ever so briefly. Only he wasn’t able to make a sound, let alone say a single word.

Li Xinyuan sucked in a deep breath, suddenly crushed by the weight of realisation from listening to Hu Lijing count his long, long life — while rather briefly — that even though he had only been told the major parts and knew that their was more to what fell into his ears.

More than Hu Lijing was willing to share and possibly had the ability to.

Li Xinyuan closed his eyes, eyelids falling shut as he sucked in a deep breath, his lips quivering as he held the man tighter, he couldn’t trust his voice, he knew he couldn’t. There was far too much choked in his voice, far too much waiting to be expressed and spoken that the surgeon just knew he wouldn’t be able to speak.

Moreover, he had yet to provide some measure of comfort to Hu Lijing because when the latter had started recounting his life to him, Li Xinyuan had been far too stunned to react at the correct moment.

Rubbing his shoulder in comfort, Li Xinyuan nibbled on his lips as he licked the soft flesh and sighed.

"Truthfully," he began in a low voice, his cadence as soothing as he could muster up in spite of the sorrow and rage embroiling in his heart. "I am not particularly sure what I want to say or what I should say... I just... I’m here for you. Let it all out, please. For your sake and mine. Please."

Bringing his hand on the back of Hu Lijing’s head, the surgeon sunk his fingers into the man’s hair and scratched his fingers on his scalp, trying to make soothing patterns as he pressed the side of his face on the man’s head.

"You’ve had a tough life." He murmured softly, pursing his lips as he frowned pensively.

A few moments before Li Xinyuan had said those words to him, Hu Lijing’s cries had subsided considerably, sobs dissolving into hiccuped sniffles as he leaned into the former’s shoulder.

But when the surgeon’s words fell, the undercurrents of silent support and empathy in his voice shook the nine-tailed fox who had lived an extremely long life, pushing a millennium in fact, and made his nose feel sore once more, tears welling in his eyes relentlessly.

You’ve had a tough life. Li Xinyuan murmured to him. Now that he had said so, Hu Lijing couldn’t help but feel wronged in his heart.

Over the past years since he’d barged into the human realm, escaping tenaciously by the skin of his fangs and claws not to mention the sacrifice Long ZhenHai had done to ensure his lowly life was preserved; the only thing Hu Lijing ever felt guilty and extremely sorrowful for was Long ZhenHai and his kinsmen. But Long ZhenHai first and foremost.

And because he had managed to heal under the careful care of Li Xinyuan’s parents — especially his mother who had been pregnant at that time — after the boy’s birth Hu Lijing had single-mindedly thrown himself into raising the young infant to become the youth he had become.

Partly it was to take his mind off the loss he had suffered and partly it was to repay Li Xinyuan’s parents for their kindness to a complete stranger like himself.

But even if Hu Lijing would neither admit nor acknowledge it, he had helped raise Li Xinyuan also out of the selfishness he fostered in his own heart.

When he was in the spirit realm, because in his eyes his child was nothing more than a symbol of disastrous misfortune, Hu Lijing could never bring himself to love the little life growing in his womb. But when he had lost both his child and the father of the child, Hu Lijing had felt himself fall into a spiralling abyss of insurmountable despair.

So much so that in the past whenever he looked at the infant Li Xinyuan — so quiet and lovable — he began to envy the infant’s parents for having a child, unwittingly nurturing the need to care for the child — his own child — in the process. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

Unfortunately for the nine-tailed fox who had long since fallen into an erratic state of despair and hopelessness, it had been an extremely tough wish to fulfil.

No matter how kind-hearted the Li couple had been, they simply could not risk leaving their only son in Hu Lijing’s care, at least not without supervision and most definitely not until the fox spirit had recovered his mental stability. Perhaps it had been Hu Lijing’s fortune that Li Xinyuan happened to have a godly doctor for an aunt who helped him recover due to a request from her brother and sister-in-law.

This one — or one too many — act of kindness had only proven beneficial for them in a long run since Li Xinyuan who had grown up under Hu Lijing’s meticulous and nearly omnipresent care was also blessed by him.

A man blessed by the nine-tailed fox — who was on his way to become the ten-tailed fox — was someone who would not only be immune to all the poisons but also be invulnerable to acts done by using Gu insects.

If Li Xinyuan’s parents had saved Hu Lijing’s life, then Hu Lijing had blessed Li Xinyuan’s life very thoroughly in turn.