Chapter 51: Smell Like Stardust
Chapter 51: Smell Like Stardust
"You smell like stardust"
Xiang Ling stared at the man who just whispered these words next to her ear before pulling back his face to look into her eyes. Their faces were so close that she could see every little detail in his face and that included the crimson rings that were surrounding his gray irises. No wonder, she used to catch the crimson hue in his eyes now and then.
"Stardust?" She found herself asking in a barely audible voice as her brain registered the sentence that was too close to the truth.
"Mmhm." Dao Ming hummed in response with his lips still curved in a little smile. "Are you not going to explain yourself?"
His question pulled Xiang Ling out of the trance that had taken over her. "Explain what?" She asked while shifting her gaze and staring at the ceiling above. Looking at the half-naked man, who was hovering above her, was making some really crazy thoughts appear in her brain. So, she decided to avoid looking at him as much as she could.
"Explain who you are and what you did to the real Chen Xiang Ling?" Dao Ming offered as he kept his gaze glued on her face. He observed every single shift in her expression as he added, "Did you kill her?"
The accusation made her jerk her eyes back to his face as she stared at him in shock. "What? No! Why would I do that? She died on her own." The words were out of her mouth even before her brain could have registered them. "Well... that’s not... I mean... I didn’t..."
She tried to make things better but she was at a total loss for words. She couldn’t pretend to be the real Xiang Ling because she would not be able to explain her ten thousand years of cultivation and possession of the space realm.
The man didn’t speak for a while as he kept looking at her with a blank expression on his face. A moment later, he finally spoke - "You still haven’t told me your true identity. Who are you?"
"I can’t tell you." Xiang Ling answered in a determined tone as she tried to pull herself together. "All that I can tell you is that I have nothing to do with her death. I just ended up in her body for some reason and now I’m trying to fix her life so that I can live here peacefully." She confessed truthfully.
Unfortunately, Dao Ming wasn’t satisfied with her answer. He let go of one of her hands only to hold her chin between his thumb and fingers as he spoke, "You are entitled to tell me exactly who you are. You are currently living inside my wife’s body. You owe me this explanation."
Xiang Ling opened her mouth to refute but was unable to do so. He was right. She did owe him the explanation. She let out a small sigh before answering - "I’m the Blue Star."
Silence took over them as the two of them stared at each other for a while before Dao Ming decided to break it. "An Immortal from the Celestial Realm? What are you even doing here in the Mortal Realm?"
Xiang Ling hated to answer this question but she still did - "I did something to upset the Heavenly Queen and was punished by her to experience my life tribulation. Somehow I ended up in your wife’s body right after she died."
Once again the two of them were surrounded by silence and Xiang Ling waited anxiously for the man to speak and he did, after a few long moments. "If not for the fact that I have assessed your powers and seen your space, I would have never accepted this story of yours as truth. And then there’s that smell of yours..." his eyes trailed down to her neck as he spoke these words, "... no wonder you smell like stardust."
When he looked up into her eyes again, Xiang Ling felt as if the crimson rings around his crises were shining a little bit brighter but when she tried to look closely, they were as normal as possible. "What are you going to do now?" She found herself asking as the worry of her uncertain future as a mortal surrounded her.
Dao Ming finally let go of her and pulled away completely, dragging the blanket along with him in the process. Xiang Ling would have almost protested if she hadn’t noticed him wrapping the blanket around his waist almost immediately, making her realize that he was completely naked all this time.
She stared at his muscular back with wide eyes and waited for him to answer her question. A moment later, he turned to face her and finally answered, "I’m going to do nothing."
"Huh?"
She stared at him in confusion, not understanding what he was trying to say. Was he letting her go after finding out about everything? Wouldn’t he tell the others about her?
"I was never interested in my so-called wife. She was nothing more than an insecure nuisance. I don’t care if she’s dead." Dao Ming confessed and left Xiang Ling shocked by his words even though she should have seen it coming from miles away considering the past between the previous owner of her body and all the men in her life. But what shocked her even more were his next words.
The man stepped closer and only stopped once he was standing right in front of her. He bent his waist until his face was closer to hers and spoke, "As for you my, Little Star, you have successfully caught all my attention."
Xiang Ling felt her heart beating crazily inside her chest but she wasn’t sure what was the reason behind it. Was it because of the words or the man speaking those words?
"What do you want?" She asked.
A smile once again bloomed on his lips as he answered, "I want you to keep me happy if you want me to keep your secret."