Chapter 247: My Everything
The snow drifted lazily through the courtyard, caught in the bitter winter draft.
Wuhen didn’t move. He just stared, his expression perfectly blank for several agonizing seconds.
When he finally broke the silence, it was with a ragged breath that sounded like a laugh.
The question wasn’t a joke; it was a blade, and the laughter was just the sound of him bleeding out. "You truly don’t remember."
Ningyan’s brows furrowed. "I am asking a serious question."
"I know." Wuhen lowered his gaze briefly. His tails slowed. The wild excitement that had been lingering around him gradually faded leaving behind something far heavier.
When he looked up again, the pain in his eyes was impossible to hide. "You were my everything."
Ningyan froze.
Wuhen’s gaze never wavered. "You were my lover."
The courtyard became deathly silent. Even the wind seemed to still.
Ningyan stared at him, waiting for the punchline. The joke. The deception. None came.
Wuhen simply stood there... looking at him with enough longing to drown a sea.
"You’re lying." The words came out weaker than Ningyan intended.
Wuhen smiled faintly. "I wish I were."
Ningyan’s heartbeat quickened. His mind immediately rejected it.
No. Impossible.
Nothing about this made sense.
If it were true, Xie Zhenting would have told him. He Yuting would have told him. Someone would have told him.
Wouldn’t they?
"You expect me to believe that?"
"I don’t expect anything from you." Wuhen looked away for the first time as though he could no longer bear looking at him. "Three hundred years ago, I couldn’t save you."
Ningyan felt his breath catch.
"You... died." Wuhen’s voice cracked slightly but Ningyan heard it.
"I buried you.... I mourned you. And every day after that, I regretted surviving when you didn’t."
Something twisted painfully inside Ningyan’s chest. An emotion he couldn’t identify.
For the briefest moment, a flash crossed his mind. Red-gold fox eyes. Warm laughter... Wuhen’s voice calling his name.
Yan’er.
The image vanished before he could grasp it.
Ningyan staggered, his hand rising to his temple. "What..."
The pain disappeared as quickly as it had come leaving only confusion behind.
When he looked up again, Wuhen was staring at him. Hope and terror battling within those red-gold eyes. "Did you remember something?"
Ningyan’s hand slowly lowered. "No."
The hope shattered instantly.
Wuhen smiled anyway. "I see."
And somehow, that expression hurt far more than any accusation could have.
Ningyan pressed his lips together. "How did I die?"
The question struck like a stone dropped into still water.
Wuhen parted his lips. "You..."
"No." Ningyan immediately raised both hands and covered his ears. "No. I do not think I want to know that right now."
He took a deep breath and looked away.
The truth was that he was afraid of the answer... what it might reveal.
Wuhen watched him quietly before asking in a careful voice, "Does this mean you believe me?"
Ningyan hesitated. "No."
Wuhen’s ears drooped slightly.
"But..." Ningyan added after a moment. "I find it difficult to believe that someone would lie so persistently while looking at me the way you do."
At once, Wuhen’s ears perked up again.
"And the way he did."
The fox immediately narrowed his eyes. "Who?"
"Lan Meishan." Ningyan almost laughed. "I did my research. He is the Divine Beast King of the Abyss Serpent Clan."
His violet eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "Are you truly married to the same..."
His voice faltered.nA strange feeling stirred within his chest.
"...me?"
Wuhen stared at him for a long moment before finally sighing. "I genuinely cannot tell whether you believe me or not."
Ningyan shrugged. "I do not trust other beasts. Not after everything your kind has done to mine."
His gaze drifted toward the distant lights of the Phoenix Clan.
"Besides, why would powerful beast gods like you and Lan Meishan wish to get close to a demon beast?" He folded his arms. "If you are interested in me, you could simply ask for my hand in marriage instead of inventing absurd stories."
The words spilled from his mouth before he could stop them. "Claiming to be my husbands? Honestly, the lie makes no sense."
Wuhen simply stared at him and slowly smiled as though Ningyan had said something adorable.
Ningyan immediately regretted speaking. He cleared his throat and looked away.
The nine-tailed fox was infuriatingly handsome.
The sharpness of his features carried an effortless charm, while that constant hint of mischief made him seem dangerously attractive.
And if he was being honest... If this fox truly was his husband... The thought was not unpleasant at all.
After a moment, Ningyan forcibly straightened his expression. "Shall we begin our travels? I need to leave the clan tonight before my kin realize I am gone."
Wuhen looked at him for a long moment before nodding. "We can."
Moments later, the two departed from the Phoenix Clan beneath the cover of night in the carriage held by spirit horses.
Wuhen did not bother informing Tu Lanyin of their departure. He knew her well enough.
If she wished to find him, she would.
The carriage glided through the night sky, its red-gold lanterns swaying gently beneath the moonlight.
Inside, silence reigned.
Su Ningyan had fallen asleep. His head rested against the carriage wall, white hair spilling over his shoulders, his breathing slow and even.
Across from him, Yan Wuhen sat quietly watching the rise and fall of Ningyan’s chest and the familiar softness of his sleeping face.
Eventually, Wuhen rose from his seat. "Ningyan..." His voice was barely above a whisper.
"Hm?" The response came automatically, thick with sleep. Ningyan did not even open his eyes.
A faint smile trembled on Wuhen’s lips. Carefully, almost reverently, he reached out and took Ningyan’s hand.
The familiar warmth nearly shattered his composure.
Slowly, he guided Ningyan toward him.
Still asleep, Ningyan offered no resistance.
Wuhen settled back into his seat and pulled him gently into his lap.
Ningyan shifted once before instinctively relaxing against him again as though his body remembered what his mind did not.
Wuhen wrapped both arms around him, tightly and possessively, terrified that if he loosened his grip, the person in his arms would disappear once more.
His face lowered to the side of Ningyan’s neck. The dark veins winding beneath pale skin were impossible to miss. Yet Wuhen ignored them completely.
Instead, he inhaled Ningyan’s scent softly.
The scent was unchanged.
After everything, It was still him. His Ningyan.
A painful sound lodged itself in Wuhen’s throat. His eyes burned and silent tears rolled down his face as he held Ningyan closer and allowed himself to cry.
^°^
When Ningyan woke the next morning, dawn was spilling gold across the horizon.
He blinked slowly, the sleep clearing from his eyes sluggishly. Then, his entire body stiffened into rigid shock.
He was sitting directly on someone’s lap, completely encircled by a pair of warm, possessive arms wrapped securely around his waist, anchoring him against a broad chest.
Ningyan immediately tried to stand.
The arms around him tightened.
Ningyan grunted. His hand shot down to grab the arm secured across his stomach. "This is highly inappropriate."
A sudden flash exploded through his mind, scattering the morning warmth.
He was inside a moving carriage, looking across the small space at a dragon beast with long blue hair and piercing, golden reptilian eyes staring right back at him.
And sitting right beside him, close enough to touch, was Wuhen.
Ningyan’s breath caught.
The memory vanished before he could grasp it.
His heart began pounding. "What... What was that?"
Why did every memory involve strangers?
Why was he seeing all these beasts?
Why had he never once seen Xie Zhenting or He Yuting?
His brows furrowed and twisted around abruptly to find Yan Wuhen already awake, watching him. Those red-gold eyes glittered with amusement.
"You are awake?"
"Good morning, Yan’er." Wuhen smiled immediately. The expression was so bright that Ningyan almost looked away. "I’ve missed having you in my arms."
Ningyan’s heart skipped unexpectedly. He frowned. "Are you always this forward?"
"What do you mean?" The fox looked genuinely confused.
Ningyan stared at him and threw his head back dramatically. "Have we arrived at the Heavenly Realm yet?"
Wuhen only smiled wider. The look in his eyes was completely hopeless like a fox who had found his greatest treasure and had no intention of letting it go. "I’m certain you missed me too, Yan’er."
Ningyan looked horrified. "I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about."
"I can see it very clearly."
"You are delusional."
Wuhen’s tails swayed happily behind him.
Ningyan stared.
The fox genuinely looked pleased as though being insulted was somehow a compliment.
"I am being held against my will." Ningyan pointed out.
And despite his words, Ningyan realized he was not struggling.
Not the way he would have with anyone else. Not the way he should have.
Yan Wuhen was supposed to be a stranger. A beast he barely knew.
Yet every instinct within him whispered otherwise.