I Raise My Wife in a Supernatural Story (Infinite) - Chapter 4

The woman lying sideways on the bed was so beautiful she didn’t seem human or rather, she didn’t seem like someone who belonged in reality. To be fair, Qi Yan, in her short twenty-odd years of life, had never seen anyone this stunning. The celebrities on TV were already gorgeous, but they paled in comparison to this woman. Could someone like her truly exist in the flesh?

Qi Yan shuddered and instinctively stepped back, but her back was already pressed against the door. There was nowhere left to retreat. The cold surface of the door seeped through her thin T-shirt, sending chills down her spine as cold sweat broke out all over her body.

“You, you!” Qi Yan opened her mouth, but her throat was tight, only managing to squeeze out a faint sound not even a complete word.

In a world where life and death hung by a thread and danger lurked at every turn, suddenly encountering a beauty so ethereal she seemed plucked from the heavens and worse, drawn from this world’s ominous divination slips Qi Yan didn’t think this could possibly be a good thing. Was she about to be killed in the next second?

This is bad, this is really bad. Though too terrified to make a sound, Qi Yan’s mind raced faster than ever, already conjuring up scenes of being devoured by this woman who might not even be human.

Help! What kind of luck is this? Am I going to die right at the start?

For the first time, Qi Yan truly understood what it meant to cry out to heaven with no answer, to beg the earth with no relief.

The woman propped her chin on one hand, studying Qi Yan for a long time, the enigmatic smile at the corners of her lips never fading.

After what felt like an eternity just as Qi Yan was calculating her chances of successfully making a run for it, the woman on the bed finally moved.

She slowly sat up, casually adjusting her loose robes. No matter how she moved, her gaze remained locked onto Qi Yan’s face, exuding an air of absolute scrutiny.

Qi Yan couldn’t read her intentions. The two of them remained frozen in this staring contest for what felt like ages, neither making a move.

Then, suddenly, the woman in white swung her right hand forward. A streak of white light shot from her fluttering sleeve from Qi Yan’s perspective, it was heading straight for her face.

The sheltered twenty-something was terrified out of her wits. Qi Yan let out a shriek, dropped into a crouch, and hugged her head, trembling all over. Up until now, she had managed to keep her composure, even making sound judgments faster than those older and more experienced than her. But none of that changed the fact that she was only twenty-two.

She hadn’t even properly stepped out of campus life before being thrust into this horrifying twist of fate. No one could stay truly calm in her shoes.

Qi Yan was scared terrified, even. She had been forcing herself to stay composed, but faced with sudden danger, she couldn’t keep up the act any longer.

Crouched on the ground with her arms wrapped around her head, she screamed in fear before resigning herself to helplessness. If this woman was some kind of ghost who wanted to eat her, there was no way Qi Yan could fight back.

Yet the pain of death she had braced for never came. She stayed curled up for a while, but the white light that had sliced through the air didn’t seem to have harmed her at all.

As the tide of fear gradually receded, Qi Yan cautiously cracked open her eyes and peeked through her fingers while still crouched. The blinding, dangerous white light had vanished. In its place was a silvery thread extending from the woman’s right hand and from the looks of it, the other end seemed to be attached to Qi Yan herself.

Qi Yan blinked in bewilderment, her gaze following the silvery-white thread extending from the woman’s finger until it reached her own body. After scanning herself, her eyes finally landed on the ring finger of her left hand.

The thread coiled several times around her left ring finger, shimmering with a silver glow.

Unable to conceal the astonishment in her eyes, Qi Yan slowly looked up at the woman in white, puzzled about what she intended to do.

The woman watched her with an amused expression, her fingers playfully winding the thread around several times. Qi Yan couldn’t see clearly but noticed that the woman seemed to be wrapping the thread around her own finger as well.

Then, the previously fading white light flared up again, so intense it stung Qi Yan’s eyes. She instinctively lowered her gaze, only for her eyes to inadvertently fall on her left hand.

The silver thread coiled around her ring finger flickered rapidly, its glow gradually dimming from bright to faint. Within seconds, the light vanished entirely, condensing into her finger and leaving behind a silvery metal band once the radiance faded.

“This!”

Qi Yan stared in shock at her left hand before lifting her gaze to the woman on the bed.

The woman in white raised her left hand, admiring it as though it were a masterpiece. Qi Yan had excellent eyesight, and the room wasn’t large, the distance between them wasn’t far. She could clearly see the faint silver glow on the woman’s left ring finger, identical to the one on her own.

“You! what did you do?” Qi Yan spoke cautiously, wanting to know what this was but afraid to ask too loudly, lest she provoke the woman.

To her surprise, the woman showed no hostility. Instead, she lazily reclined again, watching her with amusement. “I’ve heard that modern humans bind their marital vows at this spot you call it a ‘ring,’ don’t you? Wife, now that you’re mine, it’s only fitting you wear this matching ring to seal our marriage covenant.”

Qi Yan: ???

What the hell, who are you calling ‘wife’???

Qi Yan looked at her, then down at herself, then back up at the woman, her fair face scrunched in utter confusion.

“Wait, you, you’re talking to me?”

The woman propped her head up with one hand, her fox-like eyes half-lidded as she replied lazily, “Obviously. Is there a third person in this room?”

Qi Yan was still baffled. “But us? How does that make me your wife?”

The woman couldn’t help but laugh. “I thought modern people were supposed to be open-minded.”

Is this even about being open-minded?!

Having crouched for too long, her legs were going numb. Since the woman showed no hostility, Qi Yan relaxed slightly and simply sat cross-legged on the floor.

The two faced each other in the cramped room, separated by a short but palpable distance. Though Qi Yan remained inwardly wary, she tried to appear outwardly calm, hoping to engage with the strange woman on equal footing.

The woman saw right through her, chuckling softly as her gaze took on a more probing edge.

“I’m a bit tired and wish to rest, so I’ll grant you three questions. Once you’ve asked them, I’ll be sleeping.”

This venerable one?

Qi Yan stared at the woman. That archaic way of referring to oneself, in this day and age, it sounded ridiculously chuunibyou. But then again, considering the world she now found herself in, even the most absurd things somehow made sense.

For now, let’s set aside other matters. With three questions at her disposal, Qi Yan pondered what she should ask.

“Who exactly are you?”

“Hmm?” The woman lifted her eyelids slightly and countered, “Didn’t your Guide tell you?”

“You know about the Guide?”

“Tch, of course I do.” The woman’s tone remained indifferent, but Qi Yan’s sharp ears caught the underlying hostility in her words.

It was as if she and the Guide were on opposing sides.

The Guide belonged to the Scriptworld. If she was hostile toward the Guide, did that also mean she was hostile toward the Scriptworld?

No, it was too early to jump to conclusions. Qi Yan warned herself inwardly, the Scriptworld was far too treacherous, and she couldn’t afford to trust anyone or anything lightly.

Maintaining her vigilance, Qi Yan stared at the woman. “You still haven’t answered my question.”

The woman waved a hand dismissively. “Fine, I’ll tell you. This one’s name is Bai Qing.”

As soon as the name “Bai Qing” left her lips, Qi Yan saw a blinding light materialize before her eyes, slowly coalescing into a gilded talisman that dropped at her feet.

The words on the talisman were crystal clear:

[Bai Qing, Nine-Tailed Fox King. A hidden special talisman within the Script world. Conditions for extraction: unknown. Conditions for contract formation: unknown. Abilities: unknown. Records: incomplete.]

Qi Yan’s face darkened. This talisman description was utterly useless aside from learning that Bai Qing was a Nine-Tailed Fox King, it provided no meaningful information whatsoever.

Once all the words on the talisman had fully manifested, it began to crumble into dust from the edges, binding itself irrevocably to Qi Yan.

Qi Yan turned to Bai Qing. “You’re the Fox King? So, you’re a monster?”

Bai Qing nodded lazily. “Yes, I’m a yokai. But we yokai are different from the ‘monsters’ you humans speak of.”

“What’s the difference?” Qi Yan asked reflexively.

Bai Qing smirked. “Does that count as a question? You’ve already asked two. If I answer this one, that’ll be all three.”

Qi Yan snapped back to reality, realizing she shouldn’t waste her limited questions. She quickly backtracked. “What is this thing you put on my hand? And why did you call me your wife?”

Bai Qing casually swept her long hair aside, reclining on the bed with a languid stretch. “Don’t modern humans exchange rings when they marry? You used your life essence to break the seal that bound me. The moment the restriction was lifted, a contract formed between us. From then on, whether we like it or not, we’re bound by fate inseparable. Rise together, fall together.”

She rolled onto her side, her tone so flat it was almost devoid of emotion. “To strengthen our connection and make it easier for you to supply me with life essence, I forged a spiritual tether between us using my own essence. I even shaped it like a modern human ring, I thought it was rather romantic, myself.”

The more Qi Yan listened, the dizzier she felt. Cold sweat broke out across her body, her teeth chattering uncontrollably.

Clenching her fists, she shouted, cutting off Bai Qing’s monologue. “Stop joking around! I get it now, you’re just feeding off my life essence, aren’t you? Like some kind of parasite? And you’re dressing up this one-sided, exploitative relationship as a marriage. Are you out of your mind?”

She was utterly terrified, with no idea what would happen if this monster latched onto her. Would she eventually have all her vitality drained away and meet her doom?

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