Chapter 48 He Angxiao, Your Wish Will Come True

Chapter 48: He Angxiao, Your Wish Will Come True

That day, Chi Luoxi was tossed around and thoroughly disciplined by He Angxiao, dazed and dizzy. In his haze, he said many things he didn't mean, things that made him blush.

Things like "Husband is the best," "Husband is number one in the world."

He was worn down, exhausted and dizzy, sobbing and repeating those words several times.

He Angxiao refused to let it go, insisting that he admit he loved his husband the most.

Then there were lines like "I can never leave my husband," "Husband is the sky, husband is the earth, without my husband I can't go on living."

Now, just thinking about it, Chi Luoxi wished he could crawl into a hole, bury himself back in the soil like a radish.

He Angxiao had really been holding it in. Ever since he arrived at Chi Family Village, he had been behaving like a reformed, doting boyfriend who had turned over a new leaf—considerate, patient, humble.

It had been a long time since he showed the unquestioned, domineering husbandly authority he used to have in Jiangzhou.

This time, finally catching Chi Luoxi badmouthing him in public was a godsend, a perfect excuse to reassert his husbandly dominance.

And since Chi Luoxi was in the wrong from the start, he had no room to argue. He Angxiao had completely seized the moral high ground, making it his absolute home turf where he could do whatever he wanted to collect what was owed.

Chi Luoxi was forced to cede territory, pay reparations, and even offer his body as atonement. In He Angxiao's words, this was a dual compensation—both physical and mental.

He Angxiao: "Chi Luoxi, you openly slandered your husband in public, seriously harming my physical and mental health and glorious image. According to our family law, you must be disciplined to serve as a warning to others."

Chi Luoxi retorted: "...Family rules? When did our family have rules? I didn't know about that?"

He Angxiao squeezed his cheek: "We didn't before, but now we do. I just made them up. The first rule is specifically for this kind of defamation against your husband. The right of interpretation belongs solely to me, the maker."

This was a completely arbitrary, ad-hoc rule designed solely to target Chi Luoxi.

The family rule was very specific.

He Angxiao demanded that from now on, Chi Luoxi must not say anything mocking about his husband in front of others, nor imitate his sarcastic, roundabout way of speaking that belittles people.

Chi Luoxi pouted pitifully and mumbled under his breath: "I didn't mean to. It's just that after being with you for so long, it rubbed off on me from being around you. And I think when I talk like that, people don't dare mess with me easily."

He actually kind of enjoyed using that slightly sharp, He Angxiao-style tone to occasionally leave others speechless, as if it made him a bit more formidable.

He Angxiao said: "...You don't need to imitate me. You can achieve that effect just by speaking naturally sometimes."

Chi Luoxi: "Really? But I feel like my words lack power."

He Angxiao really went too far this time.

Unfortunately, when it came to being intimate, it was difficult for Chi Luoxi to truly refuse He Angxiao.

His body seemed to have a mind of its own. To He Angxiao's touch, kisses, and even deeper possession, he would always, after initial shyness and resistance, quickly soften and indulge, unconsciously giving in and responding.

Earlier in Jiangzhou, the two were as sweet as honey, practically inseparable like conjoined twins.

They would cuddle on the sofa watching TV, Chi Luoxi's legs draped over He Angxiao's, He Angxiao's arms wrapped around him from behind. At night, they had to sleep intertwined, limbs tangled, pressed tightly together, as if they couldn't sleep soundly unless they were touching each other.

Some part of their bodies had to be connected at all times to confirm each other's existence and that they belonged to each other.

A few days earlier, during their quarrel, Chi Luoxi had run back to the village in a huff, deliberately keeping his distance from He Angxiao.

Now that they had made up, those carefully built walls of coldness came crashing down instantly. Chi Luoxi seemed to revert back to that slightly clingy Radish Spirit who liked to stick close to He Angxiao.

He Angxiao's aura was very attractive to Chi Luoxi—strong, stable, reassuring. Being wrapped in that aura made Chi Luoxi feel like he had nothing to worry about.

Moreover, their height difference always gave Chi Luoxi an indescribable mix of shame and comfort.

He Angxiao was half a head taller than him, broad-shouldered, long-legged, and big-boned.

When He Angxiao hugged him from behind, encircling him entirely, it completely enveloped and trapped him.

At moments like that, Chi Luoxi felt like a large, soft plush toy—pressed down, enveloped, controlled. The feeling of being dominated and covered made his heart race uncontrollably, yet he inexplicably reveled in it.

But being in the village was different from the apartment in Jiangzhou. Here, the houses were spaced out, each with its own yard, actually more private than those poorly soundproofed apartment buildings in the city.

Under normal circumstances, no one would hear anything.

What He Angxiao found strange was that Chi Luoxi was actually more restrained here than in Jiangzhou.

Every time He Angxiao got a bit carried away or intense, and forced him to say embarrassing things, Chi Luoxi would bite his lip, bury his face in the pillow or blanket, and stubbornly refuse to make a sound.

His face would turn red, his neck and ears flushed pink, his body trembling violently, yet he stubbornly remained silent, only letting out muffled, sobbing hums through his nose when he couldn't hold it in anymore.

He Angxiao found it funny and irresistible, his heart itching with affection.

He leaned close to Chi Luoxi's sweaty, reddened ear, lowering his voice to a breathy tease: "Baby, what's wrong? Could it be that besides you, there are other spirit friends in these mountains, so you're embarrassed, afraid they'll hear?"

Chi Luoxi shook his head hard under the blanket, messing up his hair.

He didn't have any spirit friends. Teacher Hua had long since gone off wandering. He was simply embarrassed to be doing such things in the place where he grew up.

This was the mountain hollow where he was born and raised, where Chi Luoxi had grown up.

Doing that kind of thing here felt inexplicably shameful, as if watched by the silent earth, the night breeze, and the moonlight.

He Angxiao looked at the healthy pink nape of Chi Luoxi's neck, and the marks he had left there, pulling him tightly into his arms.

He Angxiao propped himself up on one elbow, curious: "Baby, let me ask you something."

Chi Luoxi hummed vaguely, nuzzling closer into his arms.

"When you were in your adolescence," He Angxiao's fingertips gently twirled a strand of his soft hair between his fingers, "did you ever have a crush on anyone?"

Given Chi Luoxi's upbringing—simple social circle, idolizing the Calabash Brothers, and seemingly no sex education of any kind in these mountains—He Angxiao suspected that before meeting him, Chi Luoxi was a complete blank slate when it came to love and desire. He Angxiao was the one who awakened him sexually.

The thought made He Angxiao's pride and possessiveness start bubbling up again.

Chi Luoxi nodded and said softly: "Of course I did."

He Angxiao's pride was suddenly punctured with a pop, a bubble of sour jealousy rising immediately: "Who?"

His mind quickly ran through a few possible candidates—some guy from the village, or a female classmate from school?

The more he thought, the more his old jealousy churned like aged vinegar.

Chi Luoxi said with a hint of nostalgia and admiration: "...My ideal type used to be carrots, of all things—I thought they were red, crunchy, and fresh."

He Angxiao: "..."

Picking a fight with a vegetable? He Angxiao wasn't that petty.

He Angxiao: "No, I mean a human. Was there ever one?"

Chi Luoxi was silent for a little longer this time, lying on his side, facing He Angxiao.

Then He Angxiao saw Chi Luoxi’s cheeks flush visibly red, a shy, rosy hue.

Chi Luoxi didn’t speak, just looked at him that way, his eyes flickering like two springs stirred by moonlight—clear yet shy.

He Angxiao asked, “…It’s me, isn’t it?”

Chi Luoxi’s face grew even redder. He buried his face in the blanket, leaving only a pair of glistening eyes, and nodded slightly: “Mm…”

He Angxiao’s voice was filled with unmistakable amusement: “When? How did you fall for me? Baby, don’t tell me you fell for me at first sight.”

The first time Chi Luoxi saw He Angxiao, he was swearing. Chi Luoxi thought he was so unapproachable, how could he ever like him?

He Angxiao’s questions left Chi Luoxi no room to escape: “After we swam back that time, that night I had a really strange dream.”

“I dreamed you pinned me against the pool and did that to me—really roughly, holding my legs apart, no matter how much I begged you, you wouldn’t stop.”

When he woke from that dream, Chi Luoxi was drenched in sweat, his heart pounding like a drum. The images of being treated so roughly, unable to fight back, mixed with pleasure, lingered in his mind.

At the time, Chi Luoxi was so embarrassed he wanted to disappear. In the middle of the night, he turned himself into a carrot, crawled into a flowerpot, and buried himself in the soil for a long time.

He Angxiao knew it—he knew that his deliberately maintained physique was something Chi Luoxi couldn’t possibly ignore.

So Chi Luoxi had already harbored naughty thoughts from the start.

The two realized that from the very beginning, they had both harbored secret intentions, trying to seduce each other. Thinking about it, they were both pretty bad.

As the New Year approached, the festive atmosphere in the mountains grew stronger.

Chi Luoxi began dragging He Angxiao along to shop for New Year supplies.

He Angxiao originally wanted to hire a construction crew before the New Year to thoroughly renovate Chi Luoxi’s old, somewhat worn-out house—repair the windows, level the uneven ground, and give it a fresh coat of paint.

But Chi Luoxi was very insistent, saying the house was left by his grandfather, and he wanted to wait until he earned his own money to fix it up himself—that would be more meaningful.

He Angxiao couldn’t convince him, so he had to let it go.

They didn’t buy a lot of New Year goods, but everything was to Chi Luoxi’s liking: dried mountain specialties, candies and pastries from the town, and a few imported snacks Chi Luoxi loved.

The pile of goods in the house exuded a strong sense of everyday life and the joy of the upcoming holiday.

Although He Angxiao was in the village, there was a lot of work at the company as the year-end approached, and some important meetings had to be held.

That afternoon, during the annual summary meeting, He Angxiao’s company executives and department heads were taking turns reporting on the year’s performance and plans for the next year.

He Angxiao occasionally interrupted with questions.

Chi Luoxi quietly shelled nuts. He shelled a few but didn’t eat them himself. He glanced at He Angxiao, who was frowning at the screen, and then reached under the table.

Fair, slender fingers holding a pistachio carefully slipped into the camera frame from below, precisely delivering it to He Angxiao’s lips.

He Angxiao was listening to a marketing director who was reporting on the next quarter’s promotion strategy when something was suddenly placed at his lips.

He slightly tilted his head and opened his mouth to take it.

His tongue touched the cool, smooth nut and the slight warmth of Chi Luoxi’s fingertip.

He Angxiao’s expression remained unchanged as he continued looking at the screen, chewing and swallowing the pistachio.

On the other side of the call, the executives and managers saw this clearly. The boss’s face was in the center of the screen, as stern as ever. Then a hand—clearly not the boss’s, with well-proportioned fingers and fair skin—suddenly appeared from the bottom of the frame, intruding, and fed an unknown object into the boss’s mouth.

Everyone: “…………”

There were a few seconds of eerie silence in the conference room.

The marketing director who was reporting faltered for a moment.

Then a clear, soft voice—very low, but transmitted clearly throughout the entire online meeting—said, “Honey, is it good?”

He Angxiao turned his face slightly away from the screen, raised his hand to block the camera, and said quickly in a low voice: “Stop messing around, I’m in a meeting. Eat it yourself. I have to keep up appearances. Don’t feed me anymore.”

He Angxiao blocked the camera, but he hadn’t muted the mic!

Chi Luoxi: “I just didn’t want you to get bored during the meeting. How about I go cook you a meal? What do you want to eat?”

He Angxiao said: “Wait, let me finish the meeting. I’ll start the fire for you later.”

The silence in the conference room had escalated from eerie to terrifying.

Everyone lowered their heads, staring intently at their reports or notebooks.

And the several managers who were about to report next, without prior coordination, all sped up their speech and streamlined their content, striving to cover the most important points in the shortest possible time.

Because they all had an unspoken consensus—

Their boss had to finish the meeting and rush off to start the fire and cook for his partner.

Over at He Angxiao’s company, ever since news spread that he was accompanying his partner on a home visit with no set return date, the whole office atmosphere had become noticeably lighter and more relaxed.

Not that they didn’t respect He Angxiao as their boss.

Quite the opposite—because they respected him so much, the boss’s handsome, perpetually expressionless face that could freeze people, along with his demanding nature and powerful presence at work, put too much pressure on everyone.

Now that the boss was temporarily away, although important decisions still required his remote approval, handling daily tasks without that invisible pressure constantly hanging overhead made everyone feel like they could breathe easier.

Even the gossip in the break room became a bit louder.

Privately, many employees even secretly hoped that the boss’s partner’s relatives would have more issues and more complicated matters—ideally, that the boss’s home visit leave would be extended indefinitely, so they could enjoy a few more days of relaxation.

Only Riley and the few core assistant managers around He Angxiao knew that their boss wasn’t just on a home visit—he was clearly chasing his partner.

During a small meeting with her trusted insiders, Riley, while handling the preliminary documents that He Angxiao had sent remotely about the tea plantation investment plan in Chi Family Village, couldn’t help but sigh regretfully: “Too bad China’s infrastructure is now so well-developed—every village has roads, every household has internet. If only the boss’s partner’s hometown were one of those truly remote, primeval forests with no phone signal at all—how great would that be? The boss wouldn’t even be able to work remotely.”

An assistant manager next to her pushed up his glasses: “Riley, if it were that kind of place, wouldn’t they turn into cavemen?”

Back in Chi Family Village, the festive atmosphere was genuinely strong.

Young people who worked outside, like migratory birds, were gradually returning.

As soon as they entered the village, they were stunned by the brand-new asphalt road. On both sides, the areas that used to be piled with firewood and overgrown with weeds had been cleaned up neatly.

Because of this road, the whole village seemed brighter and more spirited.

Hearing that it was Boss He from the city who had paid for the road and also developed the tea plantation, meaning they might no longer have to leave their hometown to work, these young people looked at Boss He with eyes that held not only initial surprise but also much more gratitude and hope.

They felt a sense of pride in the improvement of their home.

The villagers, simple and honest, remembered He Angxiao's kindness.

As the New Year approached, every household began preparing festive goods—homemade cured meat, sausages, glutinous rice cakes, rice puff candy, fried treats... They always set aside an extra portion and had their children deliver it or brought it themselves to Chi Luoxi's house for Boss He and Xiao Xi to taste.

The items weren't valuable, but the sentiment was genuine.

On Chi Luoxi's table, all kinds of food had piled up into a small mountain.

Chi Luoxi looked at them, felt a warmth in his heart, and he remembered He Angxiao's grandmother.

To Chi Luoxi, Grandma He was an elegant yet somewhat lonely elderly woman. Her health wasn't great and she needed care, but she was strong-willed and didn't like crowds.

Still, He Angxiao was her only grandson.

"Honey, Grandma must be very lonely spending the New Year by herself. Besides, the housekeeper will need to go home for the holiday too. How about we go back on the second day of the New Year? To spend the holiday with Grandma."

According to local custom, most people would wait until after the fifth day, or even the Lantern Festival, before leaving their hometown again.

Chun Sheng happened to drop by with some fried lotus root cakes his mother had made. When he heard they were leaving on the second day, he teased, "Most people are desperately trying to get home before New Year's Eve to reunite with family. But you're in a hurry to leave? A gay couple has to visit relatives and pay New Year calls, huh? Seems like a daughter-in-law is a matter of circumstance—once a son is married off, he's like water spilled."

His words made Chi Luoxi blush.

He Angxiao had stayed with him in the mountains for so long, leaving his company affairs half unattended. Chi Luoxi was genuinely touched.

He couldn't be completely inconsiderate of He Angxiao.

He Angxiao's relationship with his parents was complicated and distant, so that could be put aside for now.

But Grandma had only He Angxiao as her sole grandson. She had been good to him, too. The last time they video-called, she had specifically urged He Angxiao to treat him well and not bully him.

He Angxiao had actually been thinking the same thing, but he worried Chi Luoxi might miss the lively atmosphere in the village during New Year, so he didn't bring it up.

Now that Chi Luoxi had taken the initiative, He Angxiao was also moved.

On New Year's Eve, according to tradition, they stayed up to welcome the new year.

He Angxiao somehow got his hands on a huge box of fireworks—some were booming skyrockets, others were safe and beautiful handheld ones.

The village kids happily took some.

Nightfall fully enveloped the mountain village, with only the occasional firecracker in the distance.

He Angxiao and Chi Luoxi set off fireworks at their own courtyard gate.

He Angxiao wrapped his arms around Chi Luoxi from behind, pulling him close into his embrace, resting his chin lightly on the top of his head. Together they watched as He Angxiao lit the fuse.

A golden spark shot up into the night sky, trailing a bright tail, and at the highest point of the ink-blue canopy, it bloomed gently, shattering into countless tiny shimmering golden particles that fell slowly like a meteor shower.

It bathed the small courtyard's patch of sky in a riot of colors, dreamlike and enchanting.

He Angxiao picked up a thin sparkler and lit the tip with a lighter. Brilliant silver sparks burst forth, crackling in the dark, dancing and shimmering like a tiny handful of solidified starlight in his hand.

He handed the burning sparkler to Chi Luoxi.

Chi Luoxi held it, his eyes shining. He suddenly looked up at He Angxiao behind him and asked softly, with a hint of innocence, "Honey, can I make a wish on this? Like a birthday candle?"

He Angxiao looked down at him. "What do you want to wish for? You don't need to do it with this. Just say, 'He Angxiao, grant my wish.' I promise that whatever I can do, I'll give it to you."

Chi Luoxi's heart melted at his words. He blinked and asked back, "Honey, if you could make a wish, what would it be?"

He Angxiao said, "I wish that me and Chi Luoxi will be together forever—in this life, the next life, life after life, never apart."

As Chi Luoxi listened to his greedy vow, he dropped the sparkler, his heart both aching and soft. In the flickering light of the fireworks, he looked up into He Angxiao's deep, focused eyes.

He cupped He Angxiao's face and said very seriously, "Congratulations, He Angxiao. Your wish will come true."

Just as He Angxiao was about to lean in to kiss him, Chi Luoxi spoke again.

"Honey," Chi Luoxi looked at him, "Actually, I'm just a carrot spirit with very shallow spiritual power and low cultivation. I'm not much different from ordinary people. I'll age, get sick, and die. My lifespan probably won't be much longer than a human's. So you don't have to feel anxious or overthink things in the future."

"If one day you die before me, I'll turn back into a carrot and burrow into your grave to be with you—because you, for all your strength, are actually very timid. You're scared of loneliness, scared of being alone. If you have to stay by yourself, you'll definitely be afraid."

"If I still want to live a few more years to see the world, I might plant myself on top of your grave, absorb a bit of the sun and moon's essence, and keep you company. But..." Chi Luoxi thought for a moment and shook his head, "Probably not. Because a world without you would be so boring—extremely boring. I probably wouldn't last long either. I'd just feel it's meaningless and wither away on my own."

He said these words so matter-of-factly, as if it were the most natural thing.

—When you're alive, I'll live with you. When you die, I'll rest with you. Even if I turn into the most ordinary carrot, I'll take root by your side.

He Angxiao's eyes instantly reddened.

So Chi Luoxi had understood everything—understood his unease and fear.

The overwhelming surge of love hit him so hard his vision went black.

He Angxiao pressed Chi Luoxi tightly against his chest, as if exerting all his strength to fuse this person into his bones, blood, and soul, hoping they would never be separated for eternity.

"...Chi Luoxi, I love you so much."

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Author's note: Our little carrot sure knows how to love.

Boss He: I've finally found true love. Thank you, the Creator.

Next up: more side stories about our little carrot's career path, haha. I've thought of so many funny side stories for this pair.