Chapter 172: Please Marry Me
Chapter 172: Please Marry Me
Xiang Ling’s eyes flew open as she was pulled out of the nightmare with a jolt. Darkness greeted her vision and the only sound audible in the silence filled room was that of her harsh breathing. Her chest heaved as she took in deep and quick breaths to calm down her racing heart.
"Was it that bad?"
Her head snapped to the side and she found Zhang Xuan leisurely sharing the bed with her. Another men who had a bad habit of appearing in her bed in the middle of the night.
"After what you have done, you shouldn’t be asking such a question." She told him as she calmed down enough to talk properly. Her enhanced eyesight adjusted to the darkness and she was able to see everything around her - including the fact that Zhang Xuan’s robe was barely doing its job of hiding his body.
She kept her gaze fixed on the ceiling above and tried her best to not look at the handsome man laying on the bed merely inches away from her.
"Are you that unhappy about our marriage?" He suddenly asked, his question surprising Xiang Ling.
"That’s not the reason. I’m angry because you chose such a way to do this. Don’t you know that you have created a huge problem for me by doing this?" She demanded an answer from the man.
"From where I’m seeing things, I think I have actually helped you a lot by doing things this way." He provided the excuse which left Xiang Ling in complete shock. She shifted to face him and asked, "Are you being for real?"
Zhang Xuan gave her a big smile before he answered, "Two of your husbands’ have been ignoring you for months, but my sudden appearance has brought their full attention back to you. As for the other three, while they have developed feelings for you, they still haven’t tasted the fear of the possibility of losing you yet. The five of them have been living together for a while and they have accepted each other as important members of your life. But at the same time, they need to learn that just because they can share you among the five of them, they can’t do it with anyone else. This will only help in strengthening your bonds with them. You can trust me on that."
Xiang Ling studied the man in silence for a while before she spoke, "You sound like you only did this to help me. Are you not going to marry me?"
The corners of his mouth curved at her question. Inching his face slightly closer, he answered, "Oh, don’t take me wrong. I do have all the plans to marry you tomorrow. I want to stay with you from the start of mornings till the end of the nights."
"You were already staying with me when you were inside my Spatial Realm. I really don’t know why you think of doing something like this." Xiang Ling was unable to think of a valid reason for which he would do something like this. If he wanted to stay with her, wasn’t her space the best choice?
Zhang Xuan let out a deep sigh and relaxed on his back. For the next couple of moments, he said nothing, but then he finally spoke. "After living for so long, it’s natural that people will start getting tired of worldly affairs. The same thing happened to me. I was done performing my duties and wanted to live in seclusion, and that was exactly what I have been doing for so long. Then, I recently started working on creating another Spatial Realm, but I wanted to make it even more unique than the previous ones. The problem was, after so many years, I was unable to recall just how many Spatial Realms I have already created and what kind of treasure I inserted in them."
He let out a small sigh before continuing, "My contracted spirit beast has been keeping a record of my creations and he handed it over to me for reference. I decided to visit all the Spatial Realms that I created. Maybe it was doing of fate that I arrived in your Spatial Realm the very night of your Heavenly Tribulation."
He stopped for a moment to chuckle at the recollection of those memories. "Your life was suddenly surrounded by so many interesting factors that it ended up picking my interest. At first, I only planned to stay for a few days to see how you will cope with all the things, but then I realized that with the passage of every day, I felt more and more reluctant to leave you."
He once again shifted on the bed and turned to face Xiang Ling who was silently listening to his story in fascination. After all, this was the first time he was telling her anything about himself.
"You might not believe it, Xiao Ling, but I’m too old to be tempted so easily. I have lived long enough and have seen enough to not care about anything or anyone in the Five Realms. Yet, you became the very first person in a very long time to make me care about you."
His voice was soft, merely a whisper as he confessed and Xiang Ling listened. She didn’t doubt a single word he was saying. There was something about him that told her he wasn’t one to lie.
"The more I stayed in your space and watched you work through the unexpected situations of your mortal life, the more I started realizing just how different and unique you are. It didn’t take me long to realize that I wanted more than just looking at you from the sidelines. I want to be a part of your life... both in the Mortal Realm and in the Upper Realms."
Xiang Ling didn’t know what she should say, or if she should even say anything at all. For the dozenth time that day, she was at a loss for words, but this time it was for a completely different reason.
"Xiao Ling, please marry me."