Chapter 402: We should wait
By the time breakfast was ready, Rory finally stepped out of Yuel’s room.
Noticing Terry sitting on the sofa, she immediately walked over and scooped him into her arms. "Terry, when did you wake up?"
Terry hadn’t slept a wink the night before, so Rory had assumed he would sleep in late today. She hadn’t expected him to be up so early.
"I’ve been awake for a little while," Terry said, looping his arms around Rory’s neck to plant a kiss on her cheek. Then, he reached his little hands out toward Yuel. "Mama needs to eat breakfast. Let Daddy hold Terry instead."
Yuel immediately stepped forward, extending his arms. "Rory, Terry is right. Go have your breakfast first, I’ll hold him."
"Alright then." Rory handed Terry over to Yuel and headed off to eat.
Breakfast had been prepared by Nix, and it consisted entirely of Rory’s favorite dishes. Just as she sat down, Lian suddenly walked over and handed her a box.
"A gift for you, my female master."
A gift first thing in the morning? Rory looked at the box in her hands, then up at Lian. "Why the sudden gift?"
Lian smiled warmly. "I’ve been preparing this gift for a long time. I have to leave shortly, and I was worried I wouldn’t get another chance to give it to you."
"You’re leaving?" Rory stared at Lian in shock. "Didn’t you say before that you were coming with us to the Central District?"
Lian took the opportunity to hold Rory’s hand, explaining softly, "An urgent matter came up, and I need to make a trip to the Beast God Mountain. Both your and Vincent’s health have stabilized now, so my leaving for a few days won’t cause any issues."
According to the coordinates sent by the Star Track, this location was indeed the closest starting point to the Beast God Mountain. Rory had heard from Vincent and Yuel that Lian used to be the young island master of Starlight Island, possessing the ability to commune with the Beast God and the freedom to enter and exit the Beast God Mountain at will.
"Then how many days will you be gone?" Rory asked.
"If I’m fast, I can be back in five or six days. If it takes longer, maybe half a month," Lian said, his gaze drifting down to Rory’s lower abdomen. "But I promise I will be back before you give birth to the cubs."
He figured that as a doctor, being by her side when she gave birth would give her some peace of mind. Even though female beastmen faced no real danger during childbirth, they still got nervous.
After breakfast, Rory kept dwelling on the fact that Lian was leaving for the Beast God Mountain.
Vincent walked over and playfully pinched her cheek. "You’ve been frowning ever since we finished eating. Are you worried about Lian?"
Rory shook her head. "No."
It wasn’t that she was terribly worried about him—after all, Lian was the strongest among them, and the Beast God Mountain was practically his home. Nothing like what happened to Aren would happen to him.
"If you’re not worried about him, does that mean you’re reluctant to see him go?" Vincent asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked at her.
Rory remained silent.
Was she reluctant? It felt like there was a little bit of that.
Seeing her silence, Vincent knew he had hit the nail on the head. "Since you’re loath to see him go, he hasn’t left yet. You can go see him, or at least see him off."
Rory looked up at Vincent, pursing her lips with a highly complex expression on her face.
Her husband was actively encouraging her to go see another male. This... this feeling was truly... wild.
Rory took out the gift Lian had given her and opened it. Inside lay a stunningly beautiful spatial ring.
When Vincent saw the spatial ring, he couldn’t help but burst out laughing.
"Heh, it looks like this guy is terrified you won’t want him. He’s handing over his entire life fortune to you in advance."
Rory picked up the spatial ring and was instantly startled by what was stored inside. The internal space of the ring was unimaginably vast, and it was packed almost to the brim with rare, priceless treasures.
With so many highly valuable items, Rory didn’t dare accept it before she and Lian had actually established a proper relationship. She immediately placed the spatial ring back into its box.
Without a moment’s hesitation, she stood up and walked briskly toward Lian’s room.
The door to Lian’s room wasn’t shut, it was just slightly ajar. Inside the room, Lian sat quietly on the sofa, his long, elegant fingers rhythmically and lightly tapping the armrest.
Creak.
The door opened.
Lian looked up and saw Rory standing at the entrance. He didn’t seem surprised at all. In fact, it looked as though he had long anticipated her arrival. He had been sitting right here, waiting for her.
"My female master." Lian looked up at Rory as she walked in, slowly straightening his posture. "Is there something you need?"
Rory held out the box to him. "Take this back."
Lian looked at the box Rory was holding out, but he didn’t reach out to take it. "Why are you returning it to me? Is it that you don’t want it, or is it that you can’t accept it right now?"
Rory replied, "The things you’ve given me are far too valuable. I can’t accept them yet."
Lian drew his gaze away from the box, stood up, and looked intently into Rory’s eyes. His gaze was deep, as if trying to see through all her innermost thoughts.
Only after a long moment did he speak. "By saying you can’t accept it right now, do you mean you will be able to accept it in the future?"
Giving her this gift was his way of testing Rory’s attitude toward him.
Rory looked at Lian, suddenly hesitating, unsure of how to answer. This man was incredibly intentional and driven. He appeared as aloof and ethereal as an immortal, but in reality, he exerted an immense, suffocating pressure.
"Your silence... is it because you don’t know how to answer me?" Lian took a step closer, bending down to grip Rory’s shoulders so he could look her straight in the eye. "Then let me answer on your behalf. You don’t dislike me either, do you? I refuse to believe you feel absolutely nothing for me."
"The only reason you don’t want to accept my gift right now is because we haven’t defined our relationship yet, so you don’t dare take it. It’s not that you actually don’t want it, am I right?"
"You have feelings for me too, don’t you?"
Lian’s hand gently brushed against Rory’s cheek, his breathing growing slightly heavy. He pressed the box firmly back into Rory’s hands.
"Accept him, alright?"
He used the word "him," not "it."
Rory met Lian’s deep eyes, which felt as though they could pull her very soul right in. She was completely at a loss for how to answer his barrage of questions.
Lian was right. She couldn’t bring herself to dislike him, and... she couldn’t deny that she felt something for him.
"Lian..." Rory’s voice felt a bit dry. She lowered her gaze, took a deep breath, and said, "I... it’s not that I don’t want to accept him."
Rory paused, searching for the right words. "I just feel it’s a bit too early to accept him right now. Our relationship hasn’t reached that stage yet. Besides, you’re about to leave for the Beast God Mountain."
Rory raised her head, looking at Lian earnestly. "I think we should at least wait until you return from the Beast God Mountain before we talk about this."
They hadn’t even defined their relationship yet, so taking someone’s entire net worth just felt wrong. It really didn’t sit right with her.
Rory’s words sounded like a rejection, but they were also a disguised promise. She was willing to accept him, but only after he returned from the Beast God Mountain.
But Lian didn’t want to wait.
"Rory, but I don’t want to wait anymore."
He leaned down and suddenly captured Rory’s lips in a kiss.
"Since you don’t dislike me and you have feelings for me, what difference does it make if you accept me now or wait until I return to accept me?"