Chapter 76

Chapter 76

In the evening, the rain outside grew heavier and heavier. Gu Changyuan 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 Changyuan turned around in his embrace, trying to find the clothes he had taken off.

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

"What's so interesting about the rain?"

Xie Licheng said that with his mouth, but he sat straight up in bed and stretched out his arm to shove the window open.

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

Gu Changyuan was startled by his movement. He quickly covered his chest with both hands and said urgently, "No, I'm not even dressed!"

There might be servants outside. If they saw him like this, how could he show his face?

Xie Licheng didn't understand. "What's there to be afraid of? The farm's got nothing but male wives and women, and they're all servants you carefully picked. Even if they saw you, so what?"

Gu Changyuan was worried that 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 Changyuan said, "Don't open it. You're not listening to me again."

Seeing that he dared to come at him, Xie Licheng used his big hand to pull the man into his embrace.

The young man's slim chest slammed into the man's solid one. Whether it was embarrassment or the impact that hurt him, the young man suddenly reddened his eyes and started whimpering and crying in a delicate, pitiful 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 Changyuan lay in his arms, whining and fussing for a good long while, before finally blushing and complaining in a small, resentful voice, "It hurts. A male wife's body is different from a regular man's. And it'd hurt even worse if I got pregnant."

Xie Licheng wanted to say, "But you're not pregnant yet," but the words got stuck in his throat. He didn't dare say them, scared of making his precious, delicate wife cry again.

Xie Licheng knew very little. In this brand new world, he was basically illiterate and a total brute.

He didn't understand the male wife's body at all. Now, seeing the person in his arms curled up with tears falling, he could only soften his voice and grovel with apologies.

"I didn't know this would hurt you. It's all hubby's fault. I was too rough, and that's why you got hurt."

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

Gu Changyuan didn't want to show him. He turned his back on him, refusing to even look at him.

Seeing this, Xie Licheng wasn't angry. Instead, he sidled up and started kneading his shoulders and legs.

Xie Licheng: "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have bumped into you on purpose."

Gu Changyuan, seeing that he had a good attitude in admitting his mistake, said softly with his back turned 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 awful. You can't be so rough with me then. You've gotta take real good care of me."

"Mm, from now on, I'll hold you in my palm, or just keep you in my mouth like a treasure..."

At that, Gu Changyuan thought of something or other and turned around to shoot him a dirty look.

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

When he touched Gu Changyuan's lips, Gu Changyuan slightly tilted his head up to cooperate with him. Compared to doing the deed, Gu Changyuan preferred the feeling of Xie Licheng kissing him.

It was that clingy, tangled-up, can't-get-enough feeling. After they'd first slept together, he'd gotten a little hooked on kissing Xie Licheng. Unfortunately, Xie Licheng was a bit different—he preferred getting him into bed.

To make Xie Licheng understand his preference, Gu Changyuan wound a strand of Xie Licheng's hair around his finger and said, "Hubby, I love it when you kiss me on the lips."

As he said this, Gu Changyuan made a point of tapping Xie Licheng's lips.

At that, Xie Licheng's gaze darkened. But remembering that he had just made the man cry, he didn't have the heart to pin him down and tease him again.

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

"Fine then, I'll kiss you more from now on—until you're sick of me."

If Gu Changyuan hadn't just been crying, Xie Licheng would've loved to kiss him until he was crying again.

But thinking about how he wanted to be a good man and a good husband, he suppressed that urge.

A good man shouldn't keep picking on his wife. He should dutifully wait on his wife hand and foot.

At that, Gu Changyuan's face burned with a warm blush, and his heart couldn't help but feel all warm and fuzzy. Afterwards, when Xie Licheng wanted to check his "injury," he put up a token resistance before letting him.

Gu Changyuan: "Is the injury serious?"

Xie Licheng nodded solemnly at his words. Just as he was about to get handsy and pull a naughty stunt, a system notification suddenly popped up in front of him.

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

Below this system notification, there was a line of smaller text as a reminder.

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

Xie Licheng quickly hugged Gu Changyuan tightly and then clicked on that notification.

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

So it turned out that Gu Changyuan and the others 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 a bond.

Anyone who's played games knows about bonds. Some bonds are between players, and others are between players and romanceable NPCs.

Now that he could form a bond with Gu Changyuan, he was naturally all for it.

He just wondered what benefits becoming his bond would bring to Gu Changyuan and him.

With that thought, Xie Licheng carefully read through the introduction to the bond relationship and discovered that becoming a bond did indeed come with certain benefits.

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

In other words, if Gu Changyuan wanted to go to the county town, he wouldn't need to travel all that way.

This was indeed very convenient. This way, Gu Changyuan could go wherever he wanted, and Xie Licheng wouldn't have to worry about him being bored at the farm.

Teleporting is also safer than traveling on foot, so Xie Licheng no longer had to worry about him running into danger on the road.

The second perk was that soulmates could sense each other and teleport to wherever the other was.

This feature worked not just inside the portable world, but outside of it too.

This was a huge win for Xie Licheng. If Gu Zhangyuan ever ran into danger down the road, Xie Licheng could get to him anytime, anywhere.

Since the soulmate bond was so handy, Xie Licheng naturally set it up right away.

Meanwhile, Gu Zhangyuan, who had no clue what Xie Licheng was up to, suddenly reached out with his slender fingers and tapped the air.

He asked, "Husband, what is this soulmate thing?"

Xie Licheng replied, "Just tap agree."

Gu Zhangyuan let out an "oh" and tapped agree, officially forming the soulmate bond with Xie Licheng.

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

His map was a simplified version, exactly like Xie Licheng's.

Now, any spot that had been unlocked on the map could be teleported to with a single tap.

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 ability once a day.

Xie Licheng was a player, so his teleportation had no limits.

In other words, if anything ever came up, it'd be easier for Xie Licheng to teleport over to Gu Zhangyuan.

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

He knew how to use it, but Gu Zhangyuan probably didn't. Since they had nothing better to do, they might as well test it out now.

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

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

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

Xie Licheng could go anywhere—anywhere he wanted, basically.

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

Then they tested the soulmate teleport. Xie Licheng went straight to the foot of the mountain in Peach Blossom Village to wait, and Gu Zhangyuan appeared just a step away from him.

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

Gu Zhangyuan smiled and said, "Husband, this is amazing. From now on, even if I go out by myself, I won't have to worry about getting into trouble."

Xie Licheng said, "Still, don't get careless. If I'm not around in the future, remember to keep that bottle of red potion on you."

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

The two had brought umbrellas when they left. Even though the rain had let up, it was still a pain to walk around in it.

Xie Licheng held the umbrella over both of them and asked, "Don't you like rainy days?"

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

Gu Zhangyuan really did love rainy days. On days like that, it felt like the whole world had been rinsed clean by the rain.

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

But he only liked enjoying the rain from inside the house—not walking around in it.

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

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

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

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

The two walked all the way back without having to worry about being spotted.

Gu Zhangyuan asked, "Why not just teleport back?"

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

Hearing that, Gu Zhangyuan caught on to what Xie Licheng meant, and his beautiful eyes curved into a smile.

Gu Zhangyuan thought to himself, he hadn't held him any less even when they were at home—this man really did love holding him.

Truth be told, he liked being held by Xie Licheng too, which was why he always let him get away with it.