Dinner.
Bai Qianshuang looked at the lavish spread of dishes on the table and finally picked up her chopsticks, taking small, delicate bites. But after just a few mouthfuls, she set them down again and gave Ye Chuan a slight nod.
"Thank you for your hospitality. I'm already full," she said, her usually cold voice tinged with gratitude.
"That fast?" Ye Chuan asked. Bai Qianshuang had barely eaten anything—was she too shy to eat more?
Surely it couldn’t be because she was dieting?
He glanced at her figure. Though her long robes concealed it, the nightgown she wore yesterday had left little to the imagination. She definitely didn’t need to lose weight.
"Yes, this is enough," Bai Qianshuang replied. But as soon as the words left her lips, her stomach betrayed her with an audible growl. The air hung silent for a moment before she muttered awkwardly,
"That... is the sound of food converting into spiritual energy."
"I’m not actually hungry."
As if lacking conviction, she added weakly, "Not hungry."
Ye Chuan propped his chin on his hand, watching her stubborn denial with amusement.
"So, if you fart, does that mean your spiritual energy is leaking?"
"?!" Bai Qianshuang immediately protested, "No!"
"Just eat. A full stomach is better than anything else. You need energy to do the things you want," Ye Chuan said, pausing briefly as if recalling something.
"Going hungry is no fun."
Hearing this, Bai Qianshuang silently picked up her chopsticks again and resumed eating.
The girl turned out to have a bigger appetite than he expected. Before long, more than half the dishes on the table were gone. Fortunately, Ye Chuan had prepared plenty, even going out to buy half a white-cut chicken.
Of course, he kept the drumsticks for himself.
Curious, Ye Chuan asked, "By the way, can cultivators live for a long time? How old are you?"
"Great cultivators can live as long as heaven and earth. Even those at the Foundation Establishment stage can live two or three hundred years," Bai Qianshuang explained seriously, a grain of rice still clinging to the corner of her lips as she set down her chopsticks.
"So, you’re at the Golden Core stage... Wait, are you hundreds of years old?" Ye Chuan was surprised—she didn’t look it at all.
Bai Qianshuang shook her head. "I just turned eighteen."
"No wonder you’re so easy to fool."
"Hm?"
"Ahem. An eighteen-year-old Golden Core cultivator must be pretty impressive, right?" Ye Chuan wasn’t entirely familiar with cultivation, but he had read a few novels about it. If someone could reach the Golden Core stage at eighteen, they had to be a genius, right?
"I suppose so. But there’s always someone stronger—many have greater talent than me," Bai Qianshuang admitted. Though now, without spiritual energy in this world, she could no longer cultivate.
Realizing Ye Chuan’s interest in cultivation, she asked, "Ye Chuan, do you want to cultivate?"
"Who wouldn’t want to live a little longer?" Ye Chuan mused. The pursuit of immortality had been an unattainable dream for countless people throughout history.
"The path of cultivation defies the heavens. The journey is arduous beyond measure," Bai Qianshuang warned.
Ye Chuan simply smiled without responding. Truthfully, he wasn’t that interested in cultivation—he just wanted to cure his illness.
Heart failure was nearly impossible to treat, only manageable to some extent. And even if treatment were possible, he couldn’t afford it. But Bai Qianshuang’s arrival had shattered that reality, giving him a glimpse of hope he never thought he’d have.
Seeing Ye Chuan lost in thought, Bai Qianshuang spoke up. "Could you tell me more about this world?"
"Oh, right. Where did we leave off yesterday? Pangu creating the world..." But realizing that myths might confuse her further, Ye Chuan decided to briefly explain modern history instead.
"To soar through the skies without relying on spiritual energy, using only machines... How marvelous," Bai Qianshuang remarked after learning about airplanes.
This world was truly nothing like the Tianxuan Continent. Mortals here could achieve what only cultivators could in her homeland.
The sheer disparity made her chances of returning seem even slimmer. Her spirits sank, and even the unruly strand of hair sticking up from her head drooped in defeat.
"Alright, time for a bath, don’t you think?"
"A bath? Cultivators cleanse themselves daily with spiritual energy. We don’t need baths," Bai Qianshuang replied, only to remember she no longer had any spiritual energy left.
"Let’s go," Ye Chuan chuckled.
However, his bathroom still used an old solar water heater, and the showerhead’s temperature control was broken. The only way to bathe was to fill a bucket with scalding hot water and mix it with cold water to adjust the temperature.
"Watch some TV for now," Ye Chuan said, turning on the television before heading into the bathroom. "I’ll get the water ready for you."
Just as he grabbed a red bucket to prepare her bath, a loud crash echoed from the living room, followed by the sound of something heavy hitting the floor!
"What?!"
Ye Chuan rushed back to find Bai Qianshuang gripping her sword, her gaze fixed coldly in one direction.
"Ye Chuan, be careful! An enemy approaches! Stay behind me!"
"An enemy?!" Ye Chuan followed her line of sight—only to see his bulky television split cleanly in half, its wires and circuit boards exposed. The loud noise had been the TV crashing to the floor after being sliced apart.
"That TV was older than me!" Ye Chuan stood frozen, staring at the mutilated television.
"Television?" Bai Qianshuang, confused by his reaction, explained, "I saw someone charging at us with a sword—they even had wings."
"Fighting spirit golden chicken wings?" Ye Chuan rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.
"Put the sword down first."
"No."
"That’s just... a long-distance image-transmitting artifact. The people inside aren’t real, just pictures," Ye Chuan tried to explain in terms she might understand, though he wasn’t sure if such things existed in her world.
Bai Qianshuang froze, realizing her mistake. She quickly sheathed her sword. "I acted recklessly. Forgive me, Ye Chuan. I will do my best to compensate you for your artifact."
She even offered her own sword. "This blade was a gift from my master. Though it cannot compare to your treasure, it’s the only valuable thing I have..."
"Relax, it wasn’t worth much," Ye Chuan waved it off.
That old TV wouldn’t fetch more than a few bucks in a secondhand market anyway.
"As long as you’re unharmed, that’s all that matters," he told her.
His precious money-making tree—what if she got hurt?
Those words made Bai Qianshuang tremble slightly. She couldn’t bring herself to meet his gaze.
"It’s nothing..." She lowered her head, her voice filled with guilt. "How can I make it up to you?"
"Just stay here with me," Ye Chuan said.
"Very well. I shall marry you." Having made up her mind, Bai Qianshuang declared it firmly.
Ye Chuan: ?
We barely know each other, and you’re already after my body?