I Raise My Wife in a Supernatural Story (Infinite) - Chapter 5

Fear and despair collided, pushing Qi Yan to shout these words. Her emotions overwhelmed her reason in that moment, and she abruptly stood up from the ground, glaring at Bai Qing with eyes full of hostility, wariness, and defiance.

Bai Qing seemed momentarily surprised by her sudden outburst, but the expression vanished as quickly as it appeared.

“Being hostile toward me isn’t the right approach.” Bai Qing regarded her coldly. “I’ve already told you, we’ve formed a contract. To put it simply, we’re bound together now. No matter how much you reject me, you can’t leave me at this point. Besides, I can give you what you want. If I were you, I’d be thinking of ways to please me. With me here, you won’t die so easily.”

Qi Yan’s lips trembled, her breathing rapid with panic. “How do I know you’re telling the truth? What if you’re working with this damn script? Trusting you would just be walking to my death!”

Bai Qing’s lips curled into a humorless smile. “But you don’t have a choice, do you?”

That single sentence struck a fatal blow. The girl, who had been raging in the throes of fear, gradually quieted down. The fury and terror on her face faded, replaced by an indescribable vulnerability and helplessness.

Seeing her pitiful expression, Bai Qing sneered inwardly and averted her gaze. Just a child, after all easily frightened and utterly powerless. After all these years, the one who broke the seal and bound herself to me is actually this little brat.

So young, so immature, so frail, it felt like a single finger could poke right through her.

In truth, Qi Yan was 22, about to graduate from university. In modern human terms, she was on the verge of entering society, hardly a “child” anymore.

But in the eyes of Bai Qing, a fox demon who had lived for thousands of years, 22 was nothing but a blink of existence.

Bai Qing couldn’t be bothered to look at Qi Yan’s pitiful state any longer. She yawned lazily and said, “The seal was just broken. I’m a bit tired and need to rest. Don’t wake me unless it’s something important.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Qi Yan watched as the woman on the bed dissolved into a wisp of white smoke, which then vanished into the ring on her own finger.

Qi Yan was startled again and instinctively tried to pull the ring off. But it was as if it had fused with her skin no matter how hard she tugged, it wouldn’t budge.

A seemingly unremovable ring containing a woman whose intentions were still unclear Qi Yan couldn’t imagine anything more terrifying. She collapsed onto the bed, exhaustion washing over her.

The upheavals of the night had been too much. The moment she touched the bed, her fatigue became impossible to ignore. Even though her mind warned her that this environment was too dangerous to sleep in, her body’s weariness easily won the battle.

She didn’t know exactly when she fell asleep, only that when she woke, it was already lunchtime. Voices of the other players drifted in from outside the room.

She knew that in this world, rules were paramount especially when it came to time. As the guiding NPC, Red Sister’s words had to be followed without question. At the very least, on this first day, she couldn’t afford any mistakes.

Therefore, even though she was still sleepy, Qi Yan immediately scrambled out of bed. The moment her feet touched the ground, a wave of dizziness hit her. Her vision darkened, and she staggered, falling back onto the bed.

The ring on her left hand flashed, and a clear voice drifted faintly from it: “This weak? Can’t even stand properly.”

The sudden voice startled Qi Yan. Fortunately, she reacted quickly and immediately realized where the voice was coming from.

“Could you not suddenly speak and scare me like that?”

“Tch, you’re just too timid.”

The person inside the ring hadn’t shown themselves from start to finish, but the tone of their voice was dripping with undisguised disdain.

Qi Yan was a bit speechless. Once the dizziness passed, she got up and walked out. “I just got up too fast, that’s all. I’m not weak.”

“Is that so?”

The fox responded indifferently, making Qi Yan even more exasperated. She couldn’t help but ask, “If you dislike me so much, why did you bind with me? Why not just find someone you actually approve of?”

Not only was she exasperated, but she also felt wronged. It wasn’t like she had willingly agreed to this binding, the fox had taken the initiative to form the connection. And now, she was acting all high and mighty, full of contempt.

The fox in the ring scoffed before replying, “Do you think forming a spirit contract is such a casual matter? If you hadn’t opened the divination slip and released me, this contract wouldn’t have formed, nor could it have been established.”

As for the “contract” Bai Qing mentioned, Qi Yan still had no real concept of it. She didn’t understand these things and could only translate it into plain terms like “binding.” In her understanding, Bai Qing’s binding with her was entirely forced, it was all the fox’s doing, completely one-sided.

Yet now, the fox was acting as if she, too, had been forced into this, as if she had no choice.

Moreover, from the sound of it, this contract seemed to have various restrictive conditions and couldn’t just be formed with anyone at will. Qi Yan was completely baffled, these things were way beyond her comprehension.

“But, why me? I just drew a beginner’s divination slip based on the [Guide]. That’s all I did. I didn’t do anything else, let alone use any spiritual energy to break your seal.”

Qi Yan’s mind worked quickly. Though she didn’t understand much, she could extract the information she wanted. From Bai Qing’s words, it was clear that their contract had formed because Qi Yan had unintentionally broken the seal imprisoning the fox by drawing that beginner’s slip.

But all she had done was draw a slip, could that really count as breaking a seal?

As they spoke, Qi Yan had already opened the door and stepped out into the hallway, where she happened to run into the young couple. The three of them nodded at each other in greeting.

Bai Qing didn’t seem to care about the presence of others and continued, “The slip you drew was the artifact that sealed me. I’ve been imprisoned within it for over a hundred years. In all that time, no one has ever been able to break its seal, you’re the first.”

“For a hundred years, I’ve wondered what kind of powerful person would one day be able to break my seal. Now that I’ve finally met them. I must say, it’s quite unexpected.”

Qi Yan: “…”

This fox really wasn’t holding back with the disdain.

She opened her mouth to retort but was cut off again.

The fox in the ring said, “Shh. If you speak now, they’ll hear you.”

Qi Yan swallowed back the words on the tip of her tongue, feeling utterly stifled. She inwardly cursed this fox for clearly having a way to block sound but deliberately not letting her use it!

In any case, there was no time now to continue discussing what this contract actually was. Qi Yan went downstairs to the dining area to join the rest of the tour group.

The group was small just six tourists in total, plus their guide, Sister Hong. Even seated in the homestay’s dining room, they couldn’t fill the space.

The six of them gathered around a round table. Cuilan had already laid out the meal: aside from a pot of white rice, there were three cold dishes and a large stew that was it for the meal.

The bald man, who seemed to have just woken up, looked irritable. His expression twisted further at the sight of the meager spread.

“This is it? This is what we’re eating for lunch? Are you kidding me? There are six of us, three men! Who’s gonna get full on just one stew?”

The stew was served in a large bowl with a ladle. The bald man grabbed it and started aggressively stirring, cursing nonstop. “Not even a single piece of meat, what the hell is this? Is this even for humans? Where’s the owner? Owner!”

Everyone else, including Qi Yan, thought the bald man had lost his mind. Even if they couldn’t fully grasp their current situation, they had no choice but to grit their teeth and adapt. The priority now was survival and escape, what the hell was this guy doing, courting death?

The female student sitting next to him shrank away, putting as much distance between them as possible, afraid of being implicated.

Qi Yan glanced at Sister Hong beside her, who merely propped her chin on her hands, watching the bald man with an amused smile, making no move to intervene.

When Sister Hong’s gaze shifted slightly to meet Qi Yan’s, the latter quickly lowered her head, chilled to the bone.

Cold sweat trickled down Qi Yan’s back. She had a feeling the bald man was about to face dire consequences. Just from Sister Hong’s expression, it was clear she was deliberately letting him dig his own grave.

From Sister Hong’s attitude, it seemed the bald man was committing some major taboo in this scripted world. As the guiding NPC, Sister Hong likely wasn’t on the players’ side, just as Qi Yan had initially suspected. She might issue tasks and explain rules, but she was no ally to the players.

The bald man ranted for a long time before Cuilan finally rushed in, flustered and terrified.

Whether out of sheer madness or stupidity, the bald man mistook her fear for weakness and escalated his verbal abuse. Learning that Cuilan was a widow only emboldened him further, spewing every vile insult a man could hurl at a woman.

“Filthy language. Disgusting,” Bai Qing’s icy voice came from the ring.

Qi Yan nodded in agreement. She had zero sympathy for the bald man.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” Cuilan kept bowing and apologizing, the picture of submissiveness.

“We don’t have extra ingredients at home. The town’s been foggy the past few days so we haven’t had a chance to restock.”

Just as the bald man was about to escalate further, the refined-looking man cut in. “Then let’s leave it at that. It’s fine. We’re guests here, we’ll eat whatever the owner prepares.”

Cuilan lowered her head and murmured, “I’ll go buy groceries this afternoon.”

The bald man snorted with a smirk. “You’d better make sure the dinner spread looks impressive tonight. Otherwise.”

His eyes roamed over Cuilan’s figure, slowly curling into a sickening grin.

Qi Yan’s brows instantly furrowed, the anger in his chest nearly boiling over.

“Easy there, kid,” Bai Qing drawled lazily. “He’s digging his own grave.”

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