Chapter 25 That Kind of Video

Chapter 25: Oh, That Kind of Video

Hua Ai raised a finger to his lips, making a shushing gesture.

It was a signal to Chi Luoxi that this topic ends here for now and shouldn’t be brought up again—they couldn’t easily reveal their identities in front of humans.

Chi Luoxi nodded and quickly covered his mouth.

Hua Ai watched his overly cautious and oddly obedient demeanor and found it amusing, though his expression remained calm and composed. He withdrew his finger and resumed his earlier explanation: “Alright, let’s continue. Look here…”

Chi Luoxi’s respect for Teacher Hua rose another notch. Sure enough, a bigger demon really was something else—able to stay so calm and unflappable even in a situation like this. Chi Luoxi himself couldn’t do that.

He struggled to suppress the storm of emotions inside him, forcing himself to focus on the problems in front of him. But his mind kept wandering, and he couldn’t help sneaking glances at Hua Ai from the corner of his eye.

In Chi Luoxi’s distracted, daydreaming state, the lesson passed unusually fast.

After class, Hua Ai packed up his things with an air of graceful ease and suggested, “I happen to have some free time this afternoon. Would you like to come with me to a nearby bookstore? I can help you pick out a set of basic study materials. That way, you can practice more at home. What do you think?”

Chi Luoxi had so many questions to ask. Hearing this, he nodded eagerly. “Yes, yes!”

Just then, Su Yi was in the kitchen preparing dinner. Hearing the noise, she poked her head out.

Chi Luoxi immediately ran over. “Su Yi, I’m… I’m going to the bookstore nearby with Teacher Hua. He said he’d help me pick out some exercise books. I’ll come back for dinner after I buy them.”

Hua Ai stood a short distance behind him, watching his clumsy, guilty demeanor. This kid was way too honest. Even such a simple excuse to go out—barely even a lie—was delivered so shakily, like he was sneaking off to do something shady. Clearly, he hadn’t had much practice lying.

Su Yi didn’t overthink it. She just smiled and nodded. “Sure, go ahead. Take your time with Teacher Hua picking out books. It’s fine if you play a little longer. I’ll text you when dinner’s ready.”

“Got it, Su Yi!” Chi Luoxi felt like he’d been granted a reprieve. He quickly put on his shoes and followed Hua Ai out the door.

Hua Ai didn’t take him to any bookstore.

They went downstairs and out of the apartment building, then Hua Ai walked into a small, elegantly decorated café near the neighborhood. It wasn’t very busy and had a nice atmosphere.

“Aren’t we going to the bookstore?” Chi Luoxi asked, following behind.

“That was just an excuse.”

The two of them headed to the innermost booth in the back corner, half-hidden by greenery near the window. It was secluded and offered good privacy.

At this hour, there weren’t many people around.

Hua Ai waved over a server and ordered a glass of juice for himself. Then he looked at Chi Luoxi. “What do you want to drink? Milk?”

Chi Luoxi randomly pointed at a brightly colored fruit tea. “This one, please.”

After the server left, Chi Luoxi leaned forward, getting closer, and whispered, “Teacher Hua… what kind of demon are you?”

After asking, he nervously glanced around, afraid someone might overhear.

“You don’t have to be so quiet. No one can hear us talking.”

Hua Ai teased him. “Why don’t you guess what I am?”

Chi Luoxi shook his head. “I can’t guess. Teacher Hua, I’m a small demon with very low cultivation. I can’t see through you.”

Hua Ai hadn’t expected him to know. “Have you heard of the weeping crabapple?”

Chi Luoxi shook his head. He opened his browser and searched. The screen showed a tree full of blossoms—soft pink or pale red flowers, layered densely on the branches, with delicate petals and slender stamens hanging down like silk ribbons, swaying gently in the breeze. Its posture was graceful, and the colors were understated.

It was indeed breathtakingly beautiful, just as beautiful as Hua Ai himself.

Chi Luoxi sighed in admiration. “Teacher Hua, your true form is really gorgeous.”

Way better than his own little radish sprouts.

Hua Ai acknowledged the compliment with a nod, his tone carrying a hint of justified agreement. “Yeah, I think so too.”

He was confident in the beauty of his true form—it was a one-in-a-million weeping crabapple, the most eye-catching one.

Hua Ai returned the compliment. “You’re pretty cute, too.”

“By the way, where did you become a demon?”

“Fog Mountain,” Chi Luoxi said, his eyes filled with attachment and nostalgia as he spoke of his hometown. “It’s in the south, a mountain far from here. My grandpa found me there in the mountains.”

“Fog Mountain… no wonder.”

No wonder Chi Luoxi seemed so innocent and naive, unacquainted with the world. Growing up deep in the mountains, how could he develop any cunning? By the time he came down the mountain, he probably didn’t even know what the word “malice” meant.

Chi Luoxi: “Teacher Hua, what about you? Where did you become a demon?”

Hua Ai: “I’m different from you. I didn’t become a demon in the mountains.”

Hua Ai recalled some unpleasant memories.

“I originally grew in the mountains, in a valley with decent spiritual energy. I lived there peacefully for a few decades probably…”

Back then, Hua Ai would bask in the sun, drink dew, and absorb the essence of the moon and stars. His cultivation progressed slowly, but the days were calm and free. He had absolutely no desire to become a human at all.

“Then one day,” Hua Ai’s voice turned noticeably colder, “I woke up to find myself uprooted and transplanted into a stranger’s human courtyard. I became an ornamental weeping crabapple in that family’s garden.”

From a free-spirited mountain spirit to a caged ornamental plant—this kind of fall from grace was an enormous blow and insult to a flower demon that had already gained sentience and longed for freedom.

“Plants usually need strong, sustained external desire or exceptional fortune to become demons,” Hua Ai continued. “I didn’t want to become a human. That rich family had a child who was young, not in great health, and had a strange personality. He always liked to sit alone under my tree without talking, just staring blankly at me or crying.”

At first, Hua Ai found it annoying. He thought human kids were troublesome and noisy. But the child’s aura was clean and sad. When he cried, his intense emotions washed over Hua Ai’s consciousness like a flood.

One day, for some unknown reason—maybe tired of the crying, or maybe feeling a touch of compassion—Hua Ai shook a few petals loose and let them fall onto the child’s hair and shoulders. Those petals felt like hands, stroking the child’s head and face.

From then on, the child confided in Hua Ai and relied on him. He came more often and talked more, though he still cried a lot. His desire was too strong—a fervent wish for companionship.

The result was that this powerful, pure will catalyzed Hua Ai into human form. He changed into a human, lying right there on the grass, and the child saw it all.

A beautiful crabapple tree, in the intense longing and tears of a human child, transformed into a human form, appearing abruptly before him—It was such a shocking and eerie scene.

“What happened next?” Chi Luoxi couldn’t help but whisper.

“Next?” Hua Ai’s lips twitched. “That child took me home. The rich family adopted me as their son, letting me grow up with the kid. They registered me in their household, sent me to school, taught me the rules of the human world.”

A free mountain flower demon became a human who had to follow human laws, learn human knowledge, and even deal with complicated human emotions.

Listening to this, Chi Luoxi felt that Teacher Hua’s experience was also pretty tough.

Even though it sounded like the family treated him well enough—letting him go to school—being forced to leave the familiar mountains, become something he never wanted to be, and adapt to completely strange surroundings and rules must have been really tough, huh?

“What about that child?” Chi Luoxi recalled the kid with such strong desire from Hua Ai’s story.

Chi Luoxi understood: he had become human because of his grandpa’s wish for company. But Chi Luoxi felt that Hua Ai had also wanted to keep that kid company, because Chi Luoxi himself had become human to keep his grandpa company, after all.

When that child was mentioned, Hua Ai's expression instantly became extremely complicated, mixed with disgust, irritation, and something Chi Luoxi couldn't quite read.

The waiter brought their drinks.

Hua Ai downed it in one gulp: "Him? He's grown up now, grown up, with an independent streak and an even worse brain. In short, I don't want to see him."

Hua Ai didn't want to say another word about it.

Because the grown-up child insisted on marrying Hua Ai.

He always made the absurd claim that Hua Ai, this younger guy, was a wife sent from heaven, from childhood onwards, and even more so as an adult. No one could talk him out of it, as if he were crazy.

It got to the point where Hua Ai didn't dare go back anymore. He hated the rich and he hated madmen.

Hua Ai changed the subject: "So Mr. He isn't your brother?"

Chi Luoxi shook his head: "He's my husband."

Hua Ai was silent for two seconds: "…Husband? How is he acting like your father?"

Hua Ai's gaze swept over Chi Luoxi's handsome face, and he recalled the few times he had interacted with that Mr. He, remembering his cold, domineering, controlling attitude.

What Hua Ai hated most was that overbearing, controlling personality.

Back when the director of the educational institution contacted him and strongly recommended Chi Luoxi, he was told something like this: "Teacher Hua, this student—the kid himself is fine, very obedient, very well-behaved. His foundation is a bit weak, but he makes up for it with high cooperation and willingness to learn. It's just the parent…"

"He's a piece of work. He's very satisfied with you in all aspects, your teaching ability is unquestionable, but he has some prejudice against your appearance, worried you might be a distraction. But rest assured, he pays generously, and this kid is definitely a long-term student. With such a weak foundation, meeting Mr. He's standards will take at least three to five years to show results. You could easily make enough off him to buy an apartment. Consider it?"

When Hua Ai heard this, he thought it was absurd. He had zero sexual attraction to anyone under twenty-five anyway.

If it weren't for the fact that he was a bit strapped for cash lately and was hiding from someone, he wouldn't have taken the job.

Chi Luoxi scratched his head awkwardly, his voice soft: "Ah, what can I do? My husband is just like that. He has a difficult personality, a bad temper, so many rules, and always wants to control me. But he's still a good person, and he treats me well. He buys me lots of things, and he takes care of me when I'm sick."

"A bit bad"? It's completely terrible.

Hua Ai: "So now, he's supporting you?"

Chi Luoxi nodded. Trusting Hua Ai, a fellow spirit who felt strangely familiar and reassuring, he poured out his whole journey from Misty Mountain down, recounting his hardships one after another.

He explained how he was deceived, how he signed an unfair contract at Chunhui, how he was bullied by Manager Yang and He You, then how he met He Angxiao, who took him out of Chunhui, and has been living with him ever since…

"If I hadn't met my husband, I don't know what I'd do. Maybe I'd still be washing dishes at Chunhui, or worse. And now things are pretty good."

Hua Ai, having been a teacher for so long, immediately went into lecture mode: "You can't go on like this either. As you are now, you're just a canary, a little pet raised by He Angxiao, living at his mercy, relying on his moods. When he's happy, he gives you some perks; when he's not, who knows if he might kick you out one day."

"How much does he give you each month?"

Chi Luoxi: "200,000, but I haven't spent much. He also buys me lots of things. He said when I get into university, he'll buy me a house…"

Hua Ai: "…How much?"

As Chi Luoxi spoke, he felt a bit guilty about living off someone else without effort: "Teacher Hua, I know it's not good either. That's why I'm trying my best, isn't that right?"

Hua Ai looked at Chi Luoxi's clear yet guilty eyes and thought to himself, at least this face is nice to look at.

"…Does He Angxiao have any other brothers?"

Chi Luoxi blinked, thought seriously for a moment, then shook his head: "I don't think so? I haven't heard him mention any. He seems to be an only child, no siblings. But his mother remarried, and I don't think she had any more kids?"

He wasn't sure. He Angxiao rarely talked about his family; he only knew the basics.

Hua Ai realized that this Little Radish didn't catch his teasing, so he didn't press further: "…Never mind, don't feel burdened. You deserve all of this."

For someone with He Angxiao's personality and controlling nature, others couldn't earn this kind of money anyway.

Their conversation turned back to their shared identity and experiences. As fellow plants turned humans, struggling to survive in human society, a sense of camaraderie emerged between them—kindred spirits in the same boat.

They talked about the carefree life of being plants, just basking in the sun, drinking dew, absorbing the essence of the sun and moon, sleeping whenever they wanted, sprouting leaves at will, without thinking, working, or dealing with complex relationships. That was true serenity.

"Being human really sucks," Chi Luoxi complained softly, resting his chin on his hand. "You have to eat, sleep, and you get sick. Too hot or too cold is uncomfortable. You have to learn so many hard things. Being a plant is better."

"Who says it isn't?" Hua Ai wholeheartedly agreed. "When I was a plant, I just wanted to sleep, breathe, and sprout every day. As a human, you have to work, study, deal with all kinds of random people and things. It's exhausting."

It would have been fine if they hadn't become human. But once they did, experienced the human world, learned to speak, turning back into a plant felt too lonely.

Neither human nor spirit, they felt like they existed in a third world.

The two chatted for the whole afternoon.

Seeing that it was about time to leave, Hua Ai stood up and encouraged Chi Luoxi: "Keep it up, Xiao Luo. I believe in you. Study hard. I've been through this stage too, I know it's not easy. But once you learn, gain knowledge, and get a diploma, you'll have more choices and won't have to rely so much on He Angxiao, you understand?"

Chi Luoxi: "Yes! Teacher Hua, I'll work hard."

He Angxiao had been observing Chi Luoxi's state over the past few days. He seemed exceptionally happy.

Beaming with happiness.

Chi Luoxi was naturally delighted. He had finally found a kindred spirit in the vast sea of people.

This change was something He Angxiao would normally welcome. He didn't want to see Chi Luoxi frowning every day. But the problem was that this good mood was always linked to that Hua guy.

Every few days, he would hear Chi Luoxi say he was going to the bookstore with that Hua guy to buy reference books.

Were there really that many books to buy?

What really set He Angxiao off was that he once overheard Hua Ai addressing Chi Luoxi as "Xiao Luo" while explaining a problem—not "Xiao Chi," but "Xiao Luo."

Xiao Luo.

Huh.

Everyone else calls him Xiao Chi, but this one has to be special and call him Xiao Luo, as if to show they're special and close.

He Angxiao really wanted to fire this Hua guy right away. Make up some excuse to get rid of him. He was already mentally screening replacements—a stern, wrinkled retired math teacher who would stop any funny business. Then see if Chi Luoxi would still smile at him.

But the problem was that Chi Luoxi really liked this Hua guy. Always going on about Teacher Hua this, Teacher Hua that.

He Angxiao knew he shouldn't have ignored his initial unease and wariness when he first saw Hua Ai. Making a compromise to keep him was a mistake. Chi Luoxi was so naïve and a sucker for pretty faces—he might get influenced for the worse.

His irritation peaked when He Angxiao learned he had to go on a short business trip.

It wasn't really an important trip. Just to a neighboring city to negotiate a deal. If all went well, he could be back in two days.

In the past, He Angxiao wouldn't have hesitated for such a short trip. He might have even seen it as a vacation. But now, when his assistant reported his itinerary, his first reaction was to frown. He didn't want to go.

When he told Chi Luoxi about the trip, his expression naturally wasn't great. His face was gloomy.

When he heard about the trip, Chi Luoxi said: "Honey, you're going on a business trip? Safe travels! I'll study hard at home, so don't worry."

So sweet, exactly the kind of reaction a thoughtful partner should have. But for some reason, it rubbed He Angxiao the wrong way. He wasn't even home, and Chi Luoxi seemed pretty happy about it.

He Angxiao made a suggestion that even he felt was a bit absurd: "How about I ask for two days off for you? I don’t have anything urgent anyway—I’ll take you out for a short trip."

He knew Chi Luoxi liked going out.

But Chi Luoxi disagreed: "No way! I have to study. You can't just skip days when you're studying. Teacher Hua said studying is like watering a little sapling every day; missing even one day won't do. Babe, you go do your work. I'll be fine on my own at home."

He Angxiao's face dropped, and he asked a completely ridiculous question: "Who's more important, me or studying?"

Chi Luoxi was dumbfounded. He wrapped his arms around He Angxiao's waist, pressing his face against his chest, and pleaded: "Babe, don't put me on the spot, okay? You're very important, and studying is very important too."

Chi Luoxi thought for a moment, then picked up the carrot plushie he himself always loved to cuddle and stuffed it into He Angxiao's arms: "Babe, how about I let this keep you company? When you're on your business trip, hug it at night—it'll be like hugging me. When you see it, you'll think of me and won't feel lonely."

He Angxiao: "No."

He Angxiao thought he'd only said that because he was afraid Chi Luoxi wanted to go but was too embarrassed to say it.

Fine, then he didn't go. He'd worked independently for years—two days was nothing. He didn't care at all.

As a result, He Angxiao, who woke up every day in a home full of carrot stuff, now found himself in a hotel bed, and without carrot-themed things everywhere, he felt a bit off.

And it didn't stop there. Before leaving, He Angxiao gave Chi Luoxi a rule: "For these two days I'm gone, you need to video call me at least three times a day. Once when you get up in the morning, once at noon, and once before bed at night. I need to know what you're doing when I'm not there."

Chi Luoxi nodded obediently: "Uh-huh, got it, babe. I'll call you."

He Angxiao: "...You know, *that* kind of video."

"What kind?" Chi Luoxi blinked, confused. He didn't get it.

He Angxiao didn't explain. He just walked out the door.

Soon Chi Luoxi learned exactly what kind of video He Angxiao meant.

He Angxiao had only gone to a neighboring city a few hundred miles away—a three- or four-hour drive. But through the phone screen, Chi Luoxi felt totally exposed with no privacy under He Angxiao's watch.

What He Angxiao wanted to see was far from a normal daily check-in.

The morning and noon videos were relatively normal. He Angxiao would ask what Chi Luoxi had eaten, then make him set the phone on the table with the camera facing him so Chi Luoxi could keep him company while eating.

The evening ones were even worse. He would chat with him, and the conversation would often wander into inappropriate territory. Chi Luoxi blushed furiously, hiding under the covers with only his watery eyes peeking out, and he couldn't even hang up during his shower.

Chi Luoxi thought, sure, when He Angxiao was home he was controlling and clingy, but he wasn't this twisted, was he?

One night during a video call, He Angxiao said more embarrassing things and made more unreasonable demands. Chi Luoxi couldn't take it anymore. He buried his face in the pillow, only the tips of his bright red ears showing, and said in a muffled voice: "Babe... next time, don't go on business trips, okay..."

Chi Luoxi figured that even if He Angxiao was controlling at home, at least he wasn't tormenting him through a screen like this.

On the other end, He Angxiao heard that and said smugly: "Chi Luoxi, don't be so clingy, will you? I've only been gone two days."

He said that, but the joy in his voice almost overflowed from the screen.

See? Chi Luoxi really couldn't do without him.

He was so stubborn before, refusing to come with me. Now that I'm actually gone, he regrets it.

Little did he know, Chi Luoxi was just driven to his wit's end by the harassment.

So He Angxiao compressed his originally two-day trip as much as possible. He handled everything efficiently, even making excuses to skip the evening dinner party his counterpart had arranged, which he normally couldn't get out of.

Before leaving, he said to Riley in a tone that sounded like complaining: "Ah, I have to head back early. You'll have to tough it out tonight—I'll give you a big year-end bonus. I can't be away from home for even a moment."

Riley was about to roll her eyes, but at the mention of the bonus, her expression instantly snapped into a professional smile: "Safe travels, boss. And say hi to the boss's wife for me."

Ah, whatever. "Boss's wife" it is.

I'm too tired to explain any more.

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Author's Note: Who really can't do without whom? I'm not saying. Who has skin hunger and separation anxiety? I'm still not saying.

Teacher Hua is also someone with a story.

I'm a little late! I was on the bus just now and there were no seats, so I couldn't pull out my phone to send this.