After the Demon Lord Lost His Memory, He Became the Immortal Venerable's Dao Companion - Chapter 1

“No, no, no…”

“Why are you crying? Why are you so delicate?”

Under the green gauze canopy, the air was thick with fragrance. The merman’s soft body was restrained by a pair of large hands, forced to stretch out like the flesh of a mollusk.

Drop by drop, scorching tears turned into snow-white pearls, rolling down onto the bedding.

“Are you a merman?” The man gripped Qi Yan’s ankles and yanked them back with force.

“…Pearls… don’t let… no!” Qi Yan shook his head as he cried, but the man remained unmoved.

“Why not? Why are you crying so pitifully?” The man easily gripped Qi Yan’s struggling wrists with just one hand, followed by an overwhelming cascade of kisses.

Qi Yan was smothered, unable to breathe, his entire body screaming to push something away. He jerked his eyes open, drenched in sweat, as if he had just been submerged in water.

Only when he saw the second person sitting beside him did Qi Yan realize he was no longer in the dream.

He grabbed the quilt and sat up abruptly, shrinking into the corner, watching the white-haired man before him with vigilance.

“Who are you? How did I get here?”

Shen Yuzong turned his head to look at Qi Yan and smiled. A beauty, indeed—everything about him was beautiful: his face, his frame, his hair, and even his ten fingers, which looked as if they were carved from jade.

Seeing him now, flushed with anger and slightly startled, he was even more beautiful. Furthermore, he was unclothed.

“You have lost your memory.”

Qi Yan reflexively wanted to refute this, but he suddenly realized he truly could not remember anything.

His name, age, family, friends, background—even where he came from and where he was going—none of it remained.

Qi Yan shrank further back and asked uncertainly, “Then… do you know who I am?”

“You are my Taoist companion; common folk call it a wife,” Shen Yuzong smiled. “In other words, I am your husband.”

Qi Yan looked up, dazed. Shen Yuzong did not seem to be lying, yet Qi Yan felt that something was wrong. Everything felt wrong.

“I asked what my name is,” Qi Yan repeated.

“Hanzhu. Your name is Hanzhu.”

Qi Yan was born with great beauty, and even his hair was like high-quality ink. A thick mane of soft, black hair spread across his back, dragging all the way to the foot of the bed. Shen Yuzong sat at the other end of the bed, and while Qi Yan was not paying attention, he wound the ends of the hair around his fingers to play with them.

“You are not lying to me, are you?” Qi Yan still felt uneasy.

Shen Yuzong stood up and moved closer to Qi Yan, his hand resting on Qi Yan’s bare shoulders and neck. “I do not lie. We have already consummated our marriage, so I am rightfully your husband.”

The hand resting on his neck felt like a branding iron, the heat seeping through his skin and straight into his flesh. Qi Yan turned his head away; the blush brought on by Shen Yuzong’s words bloomed like red plum blossoms from his cheek across his entire neck.

He looked up and noticed that Shen Yuzong was wearing a half-mask on his face.

“Your face… what happened to it?”

Shen Yuzong suddenly laughed. The sound was extremely light, instantly dissipating into the air.

He also did not tie up his hair; he leaned his face against Qi Yan’s legs, his three thousand strands of white hair spilling across the black bedding like a patch of snow.

You have not even figured out if you have been deceived, yet you dare to worry about others? Hanzhu, oh Hanzhu, why are you still so foolish?

If you stay this naive, you will be eaten until not even your bones are left…

“My face was burned while saving you. You are kind-hearted, and fearing that no one would want me in the future, you married me as your wife.”

“What? Now that you have lost your memory, you are going to despise me? Or perhaps you have always thought this way, and this just happens to be a convenient opportunity…” Shen Yuzong lowered his eyes, his expression self-deprecating.

Qi Yan bit his lip in astonishment. He was never one to be ungrateful. If it were truly as Shen Yuzong said, he might indeed be capable of such an outrageous act as “offering his body in gratitude.”

Seeing that Qi Yan did not reply, the expression on Shen Yuzong’s face grew more desolate. He lowered his eyes, preparing to stand up.

It was at this moment that Qi Yan reached out and grabbed him, saying with a serious gaze, “Swear it. Swear you are not lying to me.”

Shen Yuzong’s eyes lit up, and he gripped Qi Yan’s hand in return. “I swear that I have never lied to my wife. Should I break this oath, may I never enter the cycle of reincarnation.”

Just as Shen Yuzong finished speaking, Qi Yan heard a thunderous crack in the sky.

“You took a Heavenly Dao Oath?”

A Heavenly Dao Oath was different from an ordinary promise. Verified by the Heavens, if the person who swore it violated it, they would be punished twofold.

“Of course. Since I am making a vow, it must be convincing. Zhuzhu, now that the words are spoken and the oath is made, you should believe me now, right?” Although Shen Yuzong was smiling, there was an inexplicable sense of oppression to it.

He picked up a lock of hair from by Qi Yan’s ear and sniffed it. Seeing that Qi Yan did not stop him, he pushed his luck and leaned in closer.

It was not until he was slapped across the face that Shen Yuzong’s movements ceased. He was stunned for a moment, but quickly regained his composure, took hold of Qi Yan’s hand, and pressed his face against it while looking down.

With a look of pity and heartache, he said, “Zhuzhu, what did I do wrong? Does your hand hurt?”

Qi Yan was at his wit’s end; he was completely unaccustomed to such intimate contact. He was becoming shy to the point of madness. He could not push him away, and if they were to argue logic, he was the man’s wife—what reason did he have to forbid his husband from touching him? That was why he had slapped him in a moment of panic.

Qi Yan bit his lip and turned his head, trying to pull his hand back; the way the man was rubbing against him felt too ticklish.

“You… do not do this. I am not comfortable.” Qi Yan avoided Shen Yuzong’s intense gaze.

“Zhuzhu, since you have married into this house, you must naturally understand one principle: a husband’s words are paramount. From now on, you must answer my questions before speaking of your own affairs. Otherwise, your husband will not respond to you.”

Qi Yan frowned. What kind of rule was this? Even in the mortal realm, there were no such backward, unequal treaties.

“No… why should I…”

Before he could finish, his mouth was sealed with a kiss. Shen Yuzong’s kiss was just like him: malicious and forceful.

It forced Qi Yan to the point of suffocation. Tears streamed down his face, yet the man refused to retreat.

Qi Yan hammered his fists against Shen Yuzong, but Shen Yuzong took it all without reacting at all, remaining like a wall looming over him.

It was unknown how much time had passed before Qi Yan was finally able to breathe again. He felt a bit aggrieved, but even more so, he felt shy.

He rolled over and pulled the quilt over his head, ignoring Shen Yuzong.

At this point, Shen Yuzong realized he had gone too far. He retreated back to his pathetic act, saying, “What is wrong, Zhuzhu? Do not smother yourself. I was just impatient. I am afraid that once you wake up, you will not want me anymore. People already look down on me because I am disfigured…”

Hearing this, Qi Yan felt a pang of guilt. Just as he was about to comfort him, he heard Shen Yuzong say, “But Zhuzhu, you have to get used to it. Things will only be harder to accept than this in the future. A wife has a wife’s responsibilities, and a husband has a husband’s duties, does he not?”

“And what duties does a husband have?”

Qi Yan did not notice that, unwittingly, he had fallen into Shen Yuzong’s trap. Instead of refuting him, he had acknowledged his status as a wife.

“A husband… a husband is responsible for dressing his wife, feeding his wife, combing his wife’s hair, bathing his wife, and then…”

“Then what?” Qi Yan peeked out from under the quilt.

“Once the wife gives birth to a child, he dresses the wife, feeds the wife, combs the wife’s hair, bathes the wife, and watches the wife breastfe…”

Before Shen Yuzong could finish, Qi Yan covered his body with the quilt, sat up, and slapped him, his face flushed bright red. “You shameless man!”

“Zhuzhu, this is just what any normal married couple does. I am only speaking the truth.” Shen Yuzong pinched Qi Yan’s fingers and kissed them one by one.

Only when he had forced the man to curl his fingertips inward did Shen Yuzong finally let him go.

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