Jiang Yao was in a good mood. He enjoyed drinking wine while observing Luo Xiao eat to his heart’s content. Although he complained about Jiang Yao being a spendthrift, he gladly accepted the food.
He felt that this was the least Jiang Yao could do, after leaving him alone for as long as he had. Time slowly went by as the two men were engaged in conversation. They talked about cultivation, about their trip, their destination, and Luo Xiao asked a lot of questions about Jiang Yao’s home, Cloudsoar City. However, although he really wanted to know, he didn’t ask what Jiang Yao had been doing when he had left for so long. He felt that if the older man wanted him to know, then he would have told him already.
Although Jiang Yao had explained it while Luo Xiao was sleeping, he had no interest in telling the conscious Luo Xiao the truth. He didn’t want him to worry.
“Are you full?” Jiang Yao asked with mirth because Luo Xiao rubbed his stomach with a face full of bliss. “I’m stuffed,” Luo Xiao admitted, but then frowned slightly. He felt so full that he could hardly move, but when one was bloated, the best way to feel better was to go for a walk.
Jiang Yao had already paid for their meal and drinks, so when Luo Xiao admitted that he was done eating, Jiang Yao rose and helped Luo Xiao up.
“You didn’t have to eat all that food,” he said with a laugh. “It would be a waste of money to leave it,” Luo Xiao argued back. But his ears shone with a red hue, betraying his words.
He was embarrassed by his own behavior, but he had been so hungry that he wasn’t able to hold back.
As they left, they saw quite a few villagers who were headed towards the tavern and their questioning gazes passed over Luo Xiao and Jiang Yao who were leaving.
“Want to have a look at the items that the merchants are selling?” Jiang Yao asked suddenly. “We haven’t actually strolled through the caravan's stalls yet and there might be something you like,” he said as he smiled.
“You just want your payment,” Luo Xiao muttered, and Jiang Yao snickered. “Is there something wrong with that?” he asked completely serious.
“It makes me feel good and I enjoy that feeling very much so much so that I want to pay for it,” he said, but his words made Luo Xiao feel like he was someone who sold himself for money. This feeling caused his mood to suddenly plummet.
Seemingly understanding his thoughts, Jiang Yao paled slightly. He grabbed his hand and dragged him through the village, back to their carriage.
Many saw this action and everyone was very curious about what was going on. In the caravan, the gossip about Luo Xiao and Jiang Yao was the best thing to talk about as all the other news was boring and routine.
Luo Xiao was puzzled. “Why the rush?” he asked breathlessly. He had just eaten a lot of food, and now he was rushing through the village, it was quite uncomfortable. But Jiang Yao didn’t answer. Instead, he stopped, pulled on Luo Xiao's arm and dragged him into his embrace. He lifted him up like a princess and began moving with a speed even faster than before.
They arrived at the carriage within moments, and Jiang Yao quickly entered. He formed a barrier and tossed Luo Xiao onto the bed.
Luo Xiao was surprised by the sudden roughness and a yelp escaped his lips. His eyes were shut tightly, and when he opened them, he saw a shadow looming over him. When he looked up, he saw that Jiang Yao was leaning over him.
“What are you doing?” he asked with a timid voice. His face was red, and he climbed towards the wall at the end of the bed, as far away from Jiang Yao that he could get.
Something told him that Jiang Yao was currently very displeased with something. He couldn’t help but wonder why this previously happy man would suddenly turn so volatile and aggressive. Had he said or done something to warrant this complete change in mood?
“Luo Xiao,” Jiang Yao called his name with a low voice, and Luo Xiao’s eyes widened. Jiang Yao truly was mad. He had even called him by his full name, not using the nickname Xiaoxiao he had given to him since they started traveling together.
Unsure of how to respond, Luo Xiao lifted a hand, patted the bed near him and said in a weak voice, “Here…”
Jiang Yao sat down on the bed, but on the opposite end of where Luo Xiao was. Luo Xiao almost tried to sneak even further away, but Jiang Yao reached out, grabbed him around the wrist, and dragged him over to him.
“Tell me, do you hate being my lover?” he asked with a voice so sweet and low that if any girl heard it they would squeal in excitement, but to Luo Xiao, it was the sound of a death sentence.
“No, I don't hate it,” he muttered honestly.
“If you like it, shouldn’t you be more loving towards me?” Jiang Yao asked, and his words caused Luo Xiao, who sat next to him, to lower his head and bite his lip. His face flushed deep red and his thoughts were chaotic. Be more loving? It was true that all their interactions were initiated by Jiang Yao and that he was just following along, but did he really have the guts to be demanding and loving towards this deity?
“Will you kiss me?” Jiang Yao pressured, and Luo Xiao realized that he didn't have the guts to kiss him. “Will you act spoiled towards me?” he continued to press for answers, but Luo Xiao just hung his head.
“If I don't take action and lure you into it, you would never kiss me. You would never even allow me to touch you when we’re alone or together with others,” Jiang Yao said with a sigh as he voiced his complaints.
“Also it is natural to look after one's lover,” he continued. “I’m a wealthy man and I want my lover to be comfortable. If I can buy something to improve your mood, then why should I not do so?”
“I’m not buying you; I am spoiling you,” Jiang Yao stressed this point, “but I wish you would act more demanding, and I wish you would be more spoiled towards me.”
“I don't want to bring you trouble,” Luo Xiao said in a weak voice.
“You're not bringing me trouble at all. You being so passive is troublesome instead. How are you to be my lover if you cannot even make demands of me, or kiss me?” Jiang Yao said.
“But I don't understand the purpose of us pretending to be lovers,” Luo Xiao gathered all his strength to ask this question. Jiang Yao gave him a long glance, “I am tired of having people fawning over me, so if I have a lover, they won’t cause me problems.”
“But you... When we are alone, why stuff like kiss... kissing and sleeping together?” Luo Xiao said. His face turning redder and redder the more that he spoke, but he really wanted answers.
Jiang Yao's face turned dark. “Are you saying you don't want to be my lover? To be convincing, you have to accept your role. Even if we are alone, you are my lover, especially when we are alone,” he said.
Luo Xiao didn’t get it, but looking at the dark expression on Jiang Yao's face, he dared not ask more questions.
“Are you saying you don't want to be my lover?” Jiang Yao's voice was as cold as ice and his eyes narrowed dangerously.
“That's not what I'm saying!” Luo Xiao quickly exclaimed, “I just... don't understand very well…”
Seeing his flustered face, Jiang Yao's heart softened slightly. But, after thinking about the fact that he was questioning their relationship, his anger flared up once more.
Jiang Yao was an overbearing and impatient person by nature. It was only because it was Luo Xiao that he was gentle and patient, but right now his patience had reached its end.
His eyes turned slightly red and his lips curved up into a sinister smile. He still held Luo Xiao's wrist in his hand and Luo Xiao, who saw the menacing expression on Jiang Yao's face, was unaware of what was happening, but his body trembled in fear. He had never before seen Jiang Yao this furious.
“You are my lover,” Jiang Yao stated with his low, growling voice seemingly threatening to swallow Luo Xiao completely.
“Your main job is to make sure I am happy and content,” he ordered, and Luo Xiao nodded his head like a chicken picking grains.
“Do you understand what I am trying to say?” Jiang Yao asked, his slightly red eyes staring at Luo Xiao's face, not allowing for even the slightest gesture to avoid his scrutiny.
Luo Xiao swallowed hard and nodded. “To make sure that I never mess up my job as your fake lover, I should always pretend that I am your lover even when we are alone,” he said.
Never had he thought that these words would cause Jiang Yao to get even more enraged. The words fake lover was truly the last things he wished to hear.
But he calmed himself down. Luo Xiao had submitted and would no longer think that he was being bought. But Jiang Yao understood that he had a large task with making his little lover understand that they were not fake lovers.
“Well, as long as you understand that you are mine,” Jiang Yao said with a sigh, and Luo Xiao looked up, his clear brown eyes looking puzzled. “I belong to you, how can I ever forget such a thing?” he asked quizzically.
The words Luo Xiao said so casually completely blew away Jiang Yao's anger. Luo Xiao admitted that he belonged to him so easily? And that he would never forget it... This was very good news, perhaps things were not as bleak as they seemed.
“Well then, my dear lover,” Jiang Yao said with a smirk, his mood was suddenly much better than before, “why don't you prove that you are my lover right now?”
Luo Xiao's face was completely red, but he wanted to prove that he could do what Jiang Yao wanted of him. However, Luo Xiao was still a naive and innocent young boy. Although he’d been kissed by Jiang Yao a few times, it wasn't enough to give him courage or make him think that he was skilled at kissing.
In fact, whenever he touched Jiang Yao, he felt like all the strength drained from his body. He felt numb, and at the same time, it was as if electricity surged through his body.
Seeing his blush, Jiang Yao smiled and ruffled his hair, “Don’t worry about it for now.” He said after considering it for a bit of time, “Why don't we go out and see what the merchants are selling? We should still be able to make it in time before they pack up for the night.”
Luo Xiao instantly nodded his head and a tender smile flittered to his lips. He wanted to see what the merchant caravan had for sale.
Seeing his smile, Jiang Yao released Luo Xiao's wrist and hooked their hands together. He sent a great smile to Luo Xiao, who could not help but be stumped in the back of his mind.
He had been so furious moments before and now he smiled so brilliantly... Wasn't this change too sudden?
It was very sudden and hard for Luo Xiao to understand. It certainly startled him, but after some consideration, he decided to just let it be. He couldn’t change Jiang Yao’s behavior by just thinking about it.
The sun's light was already starting to cast long shadows as the two walked towards the vendors. At most, they had about an hour before the merchants closed their stalls for the night and as such, Luo Xiao was a little hurried as they approached the sellers.
A majority of the sellers out right now were those girls Luo Xiao had talked to before, and as they stopped to look at one of their stalls, the merchant girls quickly took notice and smiled at them.
“Want to buy anything? We have some really nice artifacts from our home region, the Myriad Sands Kingdom,” one of the girls said while she smiled at them, attracting Luo Xiao’s attention to her items.
Momentarily glancing at them, he saw some intricate knives, a few bottles which looked as if they were made from a mysterious crystal, a few necklaces, some feathers, and weird fruits.
His interest wasn’t in the items actually, but in the words the girl had spoken. “The Myriad Sands Kingdom? But I thought that you told me you were born and raised by merchants your whole life?” Luo Xiao said.
Before the girl could speak, Jiang Yao softly sighed. “Xiaoxiao, born and raised by merchants doesn't mean they don’t have a home,” he said.
Luo Xiao wasn’t stupid, but he had only superficial knowledge about the world around him. Everything he knew was either from books, his father’s words, or from what Jiang Yao had told him.
The pretty merchant girl giggled as she noticed the slightly confused look in Luo Xiao’s eyes. “Want me to tell you about my hometown? Your partner might not know about it, it is pretty remote compared to…”
“I know about the Myriad Sands Kingdom, no need for you to explain,” Jiang Yao interrupted rather coldly, glaring a little at the girl.
Her expression, which had warmed up a little due Luo Xiao’s curiosity, very quickly turned fearful as she looked away, unable to respond. Jiang Yao’s gaze was just too domineering for the merchant girl to handle.
Luo Xiao lost any interest in the items and looked at Jiang Yao with curiosity despite their previous quarrel. “Can you tell me about the Myriad Sands Kingdom?” Luo Xiao asked.
“Only if you pay me with a kiss,” Jiang Yao replied quietly as if sharing a secret, but it was obvious that the girl had heard him. Her face quickly flushed at the thought as she looked away.
Luo Xiao felt his face heat up. He pouted a little before looking away from the handsome man. He was too daring! There was no way he would pay for everything with a kiss, there had to be another way!
A rather amused twinkle appeared in the handsome man’s eyes as he took Luo Xiao’s hand and walked towards the next vendors in line.
“Alright, alright, this one will be free. Xiaoxiao, do you remember anything from the map you looked at a few days ago?” As they approached and passed another stall set up by one of the more gossipy girls, Jiang Yao once more lifted up Luo Xiao’s mood, distracting him from his words earlier.
“The map? Of course I do! Are you going to let me look at it again?” Luo Xiao said with a brilliant smile as he looked through the items laid out for sale. He eagerly looked through a few books before moving away to the next stall.
“One of the bordering countries of the Chengzi Empire is the Myriad Sands Kingdom. It’s also like your Kingdom of Zhanshi, a rather backwater place at the edge of the continent,” Jiang Yao said with a sigh. Occasionally he glanced at the items offered for sale, but he had no interest in them. Unlike Luo Xiao who looked upon every item with excitement. But he really couldn't decide on which ones to buy.
“It’s said that their land experienced desertification after an extremely strong spirit was born there millions of years ago, but whether that is true or false, nobody knows,” Jiang Yao said.
Luo Xiao’s ears perked up at the mention of a spirit. He put down the small figurine he’d been looking at and glanced at Jiang Yao. “A spirit? Can they really change the land just by being born?” Luo Xiao asked.
The handsome man chuckled at Luo Xiao’s question. He was beginning to like this feeling of telling Luo Xiao new information. “Xiaoxiao, you should get a book on spirits just like that one on demons, even I don't know many things about them,” Jiang Yao said.
Luo Xiao felt that Jiang Yao wasn’t really answering his question, which made his pouting even more obvious. Clearly, Jiang Yao would not answer questions that he didn’t pay for.
Realizing this, he could not help but sigh to himself. After thinking about this, Luo Xiao picked up a small glass bead which glistened gently in the dimming sunlight.
“I’ll tell you one last thing for free. The Myriad Sands Kingdom are known for their exports of really well-made glass goods. They have special sand mines, where they gain a material called Jade Wisp Crystal. That bead you're holding is made from those Jade Wisp Crystals. In fact, most of their goods are made from them,” Jiang Yao said.
Luo Xiao’s eyes lit up. He could not help but look at the bead with more interest. But he shook his head and put it down before moving on to the next stall.
Inwardly, Luo Xiao felt quite awkward around Jiang Yao now, especially considering how quickly the handsome man’s emotions had changed earlier. The anger he had witnessed less than an hour ago was still clear in his mind, something which Jiang Yao could see as plain as day.
A few more minutes passed as they shopped in such a manner. The shadows grew longer and longer as the girls began to close up their stalls and put away their goods. While walking beside the stalls, Luo Xiao managed to learn a few more sparse things from Jiang Yao about the Jade Wisp Crystal as they approached the second to last merchant displaying her goods.
Now, Luo Xiao knew that the Jade Wisp Crystals were a relatively precious material in the outer regions of the continent. There were properties of the Jade Wisp Crystal that could be helpful to the cultivation of beasts. For this reason, humans were extremely protective of the mineral.
It didn’t have any desirable properties for the other three races, but any items made from it had a special luster to them. Therefore it was used in making crowns, jewelry, rings, and other decorative items crafted from these crystals. This, in turn, led them to be sold for exorbitant prices in the outer countries. Of course, Jiang Yao had no need to mention that to him. After all, these so-called luxurious items were nothing more than trash.
The last stall that the two men approached was surprisingly owned not by a youth, but an old man. The items he had for display were relatively similar to the rest of the merchants, but there were also a few that were not made from Jade Wisp Crystals.
Luo Xiao’s expression lit up as he saw new, unfamiliar items, and he picked up a golden hairpin that was on display. Tilting it a little in the fading sunlight, Luo Xiao saw a beautiful net-like structure inside.
Next to it, there was also a small bracelet made from the same materials as the hairpin. Luo Xiao looked at it with fascination. “Jiang Yao, what is this?” he asked.
The handsome man who had been observing Luo Xiao calmly glanced at the hairpin and bracelet.
“This is a similar mineral to the Jade Wisp Crystal, but it’s found in a different place. Nothing too special,” he waved his hand easily dismissing it.
Luo Xiao’s gaze lingered on the two beautiful objects for a little longer before putting them both down with a sigh. “They are beautiful,” he said.
It was so clear to Jiang Yao that Luo Xiao had finally found something he wanted.
“How much for both of these?” he suddenly spoke to the old man behind the stall, his voice carrying the demeanor of royalty he tried to avoid using when he spoke with Luo Xiao.
“Thirty Earth Grade spirit crystals for the hairpin, twenty for the bracelet,”
“Earth Grade spirit crystals!” Luo Xiao gasped, startling the rather unimpressed Jiang Yao.
“Xiaoxiao, are you alright?” Jiang Yao said.
Luo Xiao’s eyes went wide as he stared at the bracelet and the hairpin before looking down. “Jiang Yao... We can’t afford that…” Luo Xiao said.
It was only then Jiang Yao realized that Luo Xiao had only ever heard of spirit crystals and never seen or used them himself. Born in such a faraway place like the Kingdom of Zhanshi, and in such a small village, he had barely ever even seen gold not to mention spirit crystals.
All the youth knew was that they were more precious than gold and no one in his village had ever even seen one, to the villagers spirit crystals were a myth.
Naturally, Luo Xiao also had no idea that Jiang Yao was in possession of these spirit crystals as he had only seen the handsome man pay with gold and gold bars.
Jiang Yao was quite amused, “Xiaoxiao, didn’t I tell you that you can always pay with a kiss?” he said.
Almost instantly, Luo Xiao blushed a deep red making the aged vendor raise an eyebrow while Jiang Yao took out some softly glowing crystals from his embroidered pouch.
“Thirty for the hairpin, twenty for the bracelet,” Jiang Yao said as he placed the spirit crystals down next to the hairpin and bracelet. He then took the two items away and put them in his pouch. “It’s getting dark now Xiaoxiao, let’s head back,” he said.
Luo Xiao’s brown eyes had moved and were curiously looking at the spirit crystals, though he was still blushing from his lover’s comment. His eyes sparkled with a childish interest toward the world. This was something that made Jiang Yao gaze at him for a little longer before he took his hand and headed back to their carriage.
The sun had almost fully set as the old man watched them leave. He chuckled a little at the slightly possessive behavior Jiang Yao had over his innocent and gem-like Xiaoxiao as he called him.
“If only…” he muttered before shaking his head. It was just a fleeting, unimportant memory that those two reminded him of. With a slight smile, he put his fifty Earth Grade spirit crystals away and packed up his stall, like everyone else in the caravan.
In such a manner, three more weeks of endless travel passed with the caravan. They stopped at a few small cities along the way and at each one, the merchants opened their stalls and sold their wares to mortals and cultivators alike.
For the most part, Luo Xiao and Jiang Yao were social. Every evening they came out and talked with the merchants, although they avoided the jealous girls. Jiang Yao didn’t leave Luo Xiao’s side even once this whole time. It became clear to the people of the caravan that Jiang Yao enjoyed teasing the younger one. Every day, at least once, Luo Xiao’s face would look like a bright red tomato, making people laugh, especially if it happened during dinner.
At the end of the third week, the two finally bid their farewell to the caravan after Heavenward City’s fortified walls appeared in the distance. There were merely a few more hours of travel by foot to the seemingly rather big city.
Even if the distance could be covered quicker with the caravan, Jiang Yao insisted on it being just him and Luo Xiao for the last stretch.
The handsome man smirked while holding Luo Xiao’s hand tightly as he led the way.
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