Chapter 76

Chapter 76

In the evening, the rain outside grew heavier and heavier. Gu Zhangyuan groggily sat up from the bed, but his waist went weak and he flopped back down.

Xie Licheng reached out and scooped him into his arms, asking softly with his eyes still closed, "Hungry?"

Gu Zhangyuan turned around in his arms, trying to find the clothes he had taken off.

Gu Zhangyuan said, "The rain outside is getting heavy. I want to push open the window and take a look."

"What's so interesting about the rain?"

Xie Licheng said this, but he sat straight up in bed and reached over to push the window open.

The bedroom window was right beside their bed, and with a gentle push, they could see the scenery outside.

Gu Zhangyuan was startled by his movement. Covering his chest with both hands, he quickly said, "Don't! I'm not even dressed!"

There might be servants outside. If they saw him, wouldn't that be embarrassing?

Xie Licheng didn't understand. "What's there to be afraid of? The farm's got nothing but biao and women, and they're all servants you hand-picked. So what if they see you?"

Gu Zhangyuan was worried he might actually open the window, and he no longer had time to protect himself. He quickly held his waist and sat up, wrapping himself around Xie Licheng like a water snake.

Gu Zhangyuan said, "You're not allowed to open it. You never listen to me."

Seeing that Gu Zhangyuan dared to come at him, Xie Licheng pulled the person into his arms with his big hand.

The biao's thin chest slammed into the man's solid chest. Whether it was from embarrassment or the impact hurting him, the biao suddenly reddened his eyes and started crying in a soft, timid way.

Xie Licheng was stunned for a moment, then quickly held him and asked, "What's wrong? Did I hurt you?"

It shouldn't hurt. His chest muscles were soft when not flexed, with a bit of elasticity. It shouldn't hurt to bump against him.

Gu Zhangyuan lay in his arms, whining and grumbling for a long time, then blushed and complained softly with a sulky, resentful expression, "It hurts. A biao's body is different from a regular man's. If I ever get pregnant, it'll hurt too."

Xie Licheng wanted to say, "But you're not pregnant yet," but he bit back the words, scared of making his delicate wife cry again.

Xie Licheng knew very little. In this brand-new world, he was basically an illiterate brute.

He had no clue about a biao's body. Now, watching the person in his arms curl up with tears streaming down, he could only soften his voice and apologize, begging for mercy.

"I didn't know this would hurt you. It's all my fault, all because I was too rough. That's why you got hurt."

As he said this, Xie Licheng tried to pull Gu Zhangyuan's hand away to get a good look, so he wouldn't accidentally break his pretty wife.

Gu Zhangyuan didn't want to show him, so he turned away and ignored him.

Xie Licheng didn't get mad. Instead, he leaned over and started rubbing his shoulders and legs.

Xie Licheng: "I was wrong. I shouldn't have purposely bumped into you."

Gu Zhangyuan, seeing that he had a good attitude in admitting his mistake, said softly with his back to him, "You're too rough."

"Mm, it's my fault. I shouldn't have been so rough."

"When I get pregnant later, my body's gonna feel really uncomfortable. You can't be so rough then. You've gotta take good care of me."

"Mm, in the future, I'll hold you in the palm of my hand, or even keep you in my mouth like a treasure..."

Hearing this, Gu Zhangyuan thought of something and turned around to shoot him a dissatisfied glare.

Seeing that he wasn't as angry as before, Xie Licheng scooped him back into his arms and kissed him over and over.

When he touched Gu Zhangyuan's lips, Gu Zhangyuan tilted his head up slightly to cooperate with him. Compared to doing the deed, Gu Zhangyuan liked the feeling of Xie Licheng kissing him a lot more.

It was that kind of lingering, tangled-up feeling. After sleeping with Xie Licheng, he'd gotten a little obsessed with kissing him. Unfortunately, Xie Licheng was a bit different—he preferred having sex.

To make Xie Licheng understand his preference, Gu Zhangyuan wrapped a strand of Xie Licheng's hair around his finger and said, "Husband, I like it when you kiss me on the lips."

As he said this, Gu Zhangyuan even tapped Xie Licheng's lips on purpose.

Xie Licheng's gaze darkened at this, but remembering he'd just made him cry a moment ago, he didn't dare push him down on the bed and mess with him again.

Xie Licheng nodded, grabbed Gu Zhangyuan's other hand, and kissed it.

"Alright then. From now on, I'll kiss you a lot, until you get sick of it."

If Gu Zhangyuan hadn't just been crying, Xie Licheng would've really wanted to kiss him until he cried again.

But remembering he wanted to be a good man, a good husband, he suppressed that thought.

A good man shouldn't keep bullying his wife. He should be willing to "work like a dog" for her.

Gu Zhangyuan's face burned at his words, and his heart couldn't help but feel all warm and sweet. After that, when Xie Licheng wanted to check his "injuries," he put up a half-hearted resistance but didn't refuse again.

Gu Zhangyuan: "Is the injury serious?"

Xie Licheng nodded seriously at this, and was just about to pull a sneaky, pervy move when a system notification popped up in front of him.

"Ding! Detected that the player's intimacy level with an NPC has reached 100. Would you like to set this NPC as the player's soulmate bond?"

Below this system notification was a string of smaller text as a reminder.

"Setting a favorite NPC as your bond makes it easier to build a closer relationship with that NPC."

Xie Licheng quickly hugged Gu Zhangyuan tightly and clicked on the notification.

The so-called NPC mentioned in the notification referred to Gu Zhangyuan.

It turned out that people like Gu Zhangyuan were also seen as NPCs in the game by the system when they came to this world.

What surprised Xie Licheng even more was that he, as a player, could actually set up a bond.

Anyone who's played games knows about bond relationships. Some let players form bonds with other players, and some let players form bonds with romanceable NPCs.

Now that he could become a bond with Gu Zhangyuan, he was naturally all for it.

He just wondered what benefits there'd be for them if Gu Zhangyuan became his bond.

With that in mind, Xie Licheng carefully read through the bond relationship guide and found out that becoming a bond did come with some real benefits.

The first benefit was that Gu Zhangyuan could now teleport between maps just like Xie Licheng could.

In other words, if Gu Zhangyuan wanted to go to the county seat, he wouldn't have to trek all the way there.

This was super convenient. This way, Gu Zhangyuan could go anywhere he wanted, and Xie Licheng wouldn't have to worry about him getting bored at the farm.

Teleporting is also safer than traveling on foot, and Xie Licheng no longer has to worry about him running into danger along the way.

The second perk is that soulmates can sense each other and teleport to wherever the other is.

This feature works not just in the portable world, but outside of it too.

This is a huge win for Xie Licheng—if Gu Zhangyuan ever gets into trouble down the road, Xie Licheng can reach him anytime, anywhere.

Seeing how handy the soulmate bond was, Xie Licheng naturally set it up right then and there.

Meanwhile, Gu Zhangyuan, who had no clue what he was up to, suddenly raised his slender fingers and tapped the air.

He asked, "Hubby, what's this soulmate thing?"

Xie Licheng replied, "Just hit agree."

Gu Zhangyuan let out an "oh" and reached out to tap agree, sealing the soulmate bond with Xie Licheng.

The moment he clicked agree, a map of the game world popped up in front of him.

His map was a simplified version, identical to Xie Licheng's.

Now, any spot unlocked on the map could be tapped to teleport to.

On top of that, he also had a soulmate page.

On this page, he could get a rough idea of where Xie Licheng was in the portable world.

For instance, right now Xie Licheng was at the farm in Peach Blossom Village.

He could choose to teleport to his soulmate's side, but he could only use this feature once a day.

Xie Licheng was the player, so his teleportation had zero restrictions.

In other words, if anything ever came up later, it'd be way more convenient for Xie Licheng to teleport to Gu Zhangyuan.

After getting a quick rundown of Gu Zhangyuan's side of things, Xie Licheng smiled and stood up, ready to take him out to test the teleportation feature.

He knew how it worked, but Gu Zhangyuan probably didn't. Since they had nothing else going on, they might as well give it a proper test run now.

The two got dressed and grabbed their umbrellas. Xie Licheng teleported to Peach Blossom Town first, and Gu Zhangyuan followed with his own teleport.

After meeting up in Peach Blossom Town, Xie Licheng teleported to the county seat, and Gu Zhangyuan followed suit.

After testing it twice, they found that Gu Zhangyuan's teleport wasn't as good as Xie Licheng's.

Xie Licheng could go anywhere—wherever he wanted to go, he could just teleport there.

Gu Zhangyuan's teleport was a simplified version, and when going to the county, town, or village, he could only land at a set spot.

Then they tested the soulmate teleport. Xie Licheng went straight to the foot of the mountain in Peach Blossom Village to wait, and when Gu Zhangyuan showed up, he was just a step away.

Gu Zhangyuan thought the teleport was amazing—it seemed like no matter where Xie Licheng went, he could keep up.

Gu Zhangyuan said with a smile, "Hubby, this is awesome. From now on, even if I head out alone, I won't have to worry about getting into trouble."

Xie Licheng: "Still, don't let your guard down. If I'm not around in the future, remember to keep that health potion on you."

Gu Zhangyuan said quietly, "I know. Let's head back—it's been raining nonstop out there."

The two had brought umbrellas when they left. Even though the rain had let up, walking around in the wet was still a hassle.

Xie Licheng shared his umbrella with him and asked, "Don't you like rainy days?"

Gu Zhangyuan: "I do like them, but the rain soaks the hem of my clothes easily. Plus, it's getting dark now, and I don't like walking on dark roads in the rain."

Gu Zhangyuan really loved rainy days—when it rained, the world felt like it had been rinsed clean.

The trees got greener, the flowers bloomed brighter, and even the distant mountains looked more mysterious and beautiful.

But he only liked watching the rain from inside his home, not walking through it outside.

Xie Licheng nodded. "Alright, let's head back then."

The two walked back together, and before they'd gone far, Gu Zhangyuan's shoes, socks, and the hem of his clothes were already soaked through.

Seeing that, Xie Licheng scooped him up with one arm and kept walking back slowly.

It was already dark, and with the rain coming down, there was hardly anyone out in Peach Blossom Village.

They could walk all the way back without any worry of being spotted.

Gu Zhangyuan asked, "Why don't we just teleport back?"

Xie Licheng: "If we teleport back, I won't be able to hold you."

Hearing that, Gu Zhangyuan caught the meaning behind his words, and his beautiful eyes curved into a smile.

Gu Zhangyuan muttered to himself—even when they weren't out, Xie Licheng held him plenty. This guy really loved carrying him around.

But the truth was, he loved being held by Xie Licheng too. That was the only reason he spoiled him like this.