Dinner time.
Seeing the table full of delicious food, Bai QianShuang finally picked up her chopsticks and started eating delicately. But after a few bites, she put down her chopsticks and nodded slightly towards Ye Chuan.
"Thank you for the hospitality, I'm full," she said, her cold voice laced with a hint of gratitude.
"So fast?" Ye Chuan asked. Bai QianShuang had barely eaten anything. Was she too embarrassed to eat more?
It couldn't be because she was dieting, right?
Ye Chuan glanced at Bai QianShuang's figure. It wasn't obvious under the robe, but yesterday, when she wore that nightgown, everything was very clear. She definitely didn't need to lose weight.
"Yes, it's enough." As soon as Bai QianShuang finished speaking, her stomach rumbled again, betraying her.
A moment of silence hung in the air, and she mumbled, her head lowered,
"That's… the sound of food being converted into spiritual energy."
"I'm actually not hungry."
As if lacking conviction, she added, "Not hungry."
Ye Chuan propped his chin on his hand, watching Bai QianShuang stubbornly trying to maintain her composure, finding it rather amusing. He asked,
"So if you fart, it means excess spiritual energy has leaked out?"
"?!" Bai QianShuang immediately said, "No!"
"Just eat. A full stomach is better than anything. Eat your fill so you have the energy to do what you want." Ye Chuan paused, as if remembering something.
"Being hungry isn't a pleasant feeling."
Hearing this, Bai QianShuang silently picked up her chopsticks and began to eat.
The girl ate more than he expected. In no time, half the dishes on the table were gone. Fortunately, Ye Chuan had prepared plenty, even buying half a white cut chicken.
Of course, he saved the chicken leg for himself.
Ye Chuan was curious. "Speaking of which, do cultivators live for a long time? How old are you?"
"Cultivators can live as long as heaven and earth. Even at the Foundation Establishment stage, one can live for two or three hundred years."
Bai QianShuang put down her chopsticks, a grain of rice still clinging to the corner of her mouth, but explained to Ye Chuan very seriously.
"Then you're at the Golden Core stage… so you're hundreds of years old?" Ye Chuan was surprised.
She didn't look like it at all.
Bai QianShuang shook her head. "I just turned eighteen."
"No wonder you're so easy to fool."
"Huh?"
"Cough, an eighteen-year-old Golden Core cultivator, you must be quite powerful, right?" Ye Chuan wasn't clear about the specifics of cultivation, but he had read a few cultivation novels.
If someone could reach the Golden Core stage at eighteen, they must be a genius, right?
"I suppose, but there are always greater mountains beyond the mountains. There are many people with greater cultivation talent than me." Bai QianShuang didn't deny it, but now that there was no spiritual energy here, she couldn't continue cultivating.
Hearing Ye Chuan ask about cultivation, Bai QianShuang seemed to understand something and asked, "Ye Chuan, do you want to cultivate?"
"Who wouldn't want to live a few extra years?" Ye Chuan sighed.
The pursuit of longevity had been a dream for many throughout history.
Bai QianShuang said, "The path of cultivation is a defiance of heaven, and the process is incredibly arduous."
Ye Chuan just smiled without speaking. He wasn't actually that interested in cultivation; he just wanted to cure his illness.
Heart failure was practically incurable, only manageable. And even if it could be cured, he didn't have the money. But Bai QianShuang's appearance changed everything, giving him a glimmer of hope that shouldn't have belonged to him.
Seeing Ye Chuan lost in thought, Bai QianShuang said, "Can you tell me more about this world?"
"Oh right, where did we leave off yesterday? Pangu creating the heavens…" But Ye Chuan realized that talking about mythology might confuse Bai QianShuang, so he briefly explained the modern world.
"Soaring through the sky without relying on spiritual power but using vehicles, how amazing," Bai QianShuang said after learning about airplanes.
It seemed that this world was truly different from the TianXuan Continent.
Mortals could actually achieve what cultivators could.
Thinking about such a huge gap, and how it made her chances of returning even slimmer, Bai QianShuang felt a pang of loss, even her usually perky ahoge drooping.
"Alright, it's about time for a bath, right?"
"Bathing? We cultivators cleanse ourselves with spiritual energy every day, we don't need to bathe." As Bai QianShuang spoke, she suddenly remembered that she seemed to have no spiritual energy left.
"Let's go," Ye Chuan smiled.
Ye Chuan's bathroom still used an old solar water heater, and the showerhead was broken, unable to regulate the temperature. So he had to fill a bucket with boiling hot water and mix it with cold water to get the right temperature.
"You can watch some TV first," Ye Chuan turned on the TV and walked into the bathroom. "I'll adjust the water temperature for you."
Just as Ye Chuan was carrying the red bucket, preparing to give Bai QianShuang a bath, a loud crash suddenly came from the living room, followed by the sound of something shattering on the floor!
"What?!"
Ye Chuan rushed back to the living room and found Bai QianShuang holding her sword in one hand, staring coldly in a certain direction.
"Ye Chuan, be careful, there's an enemy! Get behind me!"
"Enemy?!" Ye Chuan followed Bai QianShuang's gaze and saw that their CRT TV was split in two, the wires and circuit boards exposed.
The loud crash was the sound of the halved TV falling to the floor!
"My TV! That thing was older than me!" Seeing the dismembered TV, Ye Chuan was dumbfounded.
"TV?" Seeing Ye Chuan's reaction, Bai QianShuang was puzzled. "I just saw someone with a sword and wings on their back charging towards us, trying to attack us."
"Dou Qi Golden Chicken Wings?" Ye Chuan pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on.
"Put the sword down first."
"No."
"That's just… a… a long-distance image transmission artifact. It's just a picture, not a real person." Ye Chuan tried to explain using terms she might understand, although he wasn't sure if such things existed in Bai QianShuang's world.
Bai QianShuang froze, then realized she had caused trouble, and quickly sheathed her sword.
"I was too reckless, please forgive me, Ye Chuan. I will do my best to compensate you for your artifact."
She even offered her sword. "This sword is a magical treasure bestowed upon me by my master. Although it's not as valuable as your treasure, it's the only thing I have…"
"It's fine, it's fine, it wasn't expensive," Ye Chuan waved his hand, seeing Bai QianShuang's reaction.
That CRT TV would probably only fetch a few bucks at a flea market. It wasn't worth much.
"As long as you're okay," Ye Chuan said to Bai QianShuang.
What if his precious money tree got injured?
His words made Bai QianShuang tremble. She didn't dare to meet his gaze.
"I'm fine…" Bai QianShuang lowered her head, her voice filled with shame. "How can I compensate you?"
"Just stay here," Ye Chuan said.
"Alright, I will become your wife." Hearing this, Bai QianShuang seemed to have made up her mind.
Ye Chuan: ?
Are we that close? Why are you suddenly interested in my body?