by Catofdreams
"Please wait! I swear on my life that I have done nothing but try to please you, Venerable One!", Wen Cheng continued pleading towards Xue Yan.
"Your life is far from enough to ease this feeling of anger! This Venerable One shouldn't have trusted any of you!", Xue Yan was determined to wipe out the Purple Lotus Clan from this world.
As the lights started to descend towards them, a sound came from Xue Yan's pockets.
*DING*
As Wen Cheng heard the sound, a flash of hope glimmered in his eyes.
"O-oh, Venerable One! Please check the message! It should be from your husband!", Wen Cheng immediately told Xue Yan.
The descending lights stopped mid-air. Xue Yan's angry expression slowly turned into something else. As Wen Cheng looked at Xue Yan, he couldn't help but be shocked at what Xue Yan looked like now.
The woman who could easily rule over each and every being on earth with force if she wanted to, was now reaching in her pockets with a fearful expression on her face.
Wen Cheng looked at her and sighed in relief. If she was that scared to lose her husband, then the Purple Lotus Clan will now have survived yet another calamity.
Xue Yan hesitantly pulled out her phone. She was scared of what she'd read as soon as the screen turned on. The message was most likely from Lang Jie since she had no other contacts on her phone.
If Wen Cheng told Lang Jie everything, she couldn't predict how Lang Jie would react. Perhaps he would hate her for keeping so many secrets from him, or perhaps he would stay away from her out of fear for her power. Xue Yan's imagination wouldn't stop running wild, which made her feel even more anxious.
She felt time move extremely slowly. Every beat her heart made echoed throughout her body as the phone's screen lit up.
Her fearful expression slowly faded away as she read her husband's message.
"Honey! Good news! My new boss said you could come over and spend some time with me here! I was hesitant to accept it at first, but he insisted and told me to treat it as part of the job!"
The beams of light that were frozen mid-air slowly started to dissipate. Xue Yan stood there in silence for a while.
"You…", Xue Yan pointed towards Wen Cheng.
"W-what is it, oh Venerable One…?", Wen Cheng still felt a bit of fear as he faced her.
Xue Yan lifted her head and made eye contact with Wen Cheng. The layer of qi that covered her body slowly dispersed. After a while, the woman in front of them now looked like an ordinary person. Just a few moments earlier, they swore that they saw a god before them.
"Thank you so much!", Xue Yan couldn't help but tremble as she approached Wen Cheng and shook his hand wildly. She started imagining all of the things she could do with her husband. She didn't expect that their first trip overseas would be coming so soon.
"A-ah… you're welcome, oh Venerable One. This is nothing compared to the favor you've done for me in helping me with my cultivation.", Wen Cheng smiled towards Xue Yan. In his eyes, she really was just a fool for her husband, which, for him, wasn't a bad thing. After all, her husband was indeed a fine man.
"Well, this Venerable One has a lot to take care of! I'll have to prepare and make myself look good for my darling!", Xue Yan looked incredibly hurry. A strand of purple light descended upon her, and moments later, she was back into the real world.
"Since when was she able to control our defensive array…?", one of the members of the Purple Lotus Clan asked their patriarch, who was still standing in front of them.
Wen Cheng sighed.
"She's far above our level. That kind of thing is nothing for her.", Wen Cheng responded. As he recalled everything that just happened, he felt that he really was treading on thin ice. The next time he has a plan involving Xue Yan's husband, he'll make sure to tell her first.
"Let's make sure that we don't make her angry again…", Wen Cheng let out another sigh. He felt that his heart couldn't take another encounter with an angry Xue Yan. The other members nodded in agreement.
Xue Yan quickly traveled back to her home country. Unlike Wen Cheng, who needed an artifact to travel around the world quickly, Xue Yan simply used her Fluttering Ghost Steps to travel. It only took her half an hour to arrive home.
She spent the rest of her day planning the trip with her husband, who helped her with booking a flight. Even though she could just travel back to her husband much faster than a plane, she was extremely cautious this time since she has finally experienced what it was like to feel the fear of losing her husband. She wanted her husband to believe that she was just a normal human.
But maybe that was just too much to ask for. They managed to book a flight scheduled for that night. As she boarded the plane, she thought of everything that could've happened. She now felt extremely afraid of everything that could come in the way of their relationship, and so, she made a decision while she was on the flight.
"When the trip ends, I'll tell him everything…"
Xue Yan felt even more afraid as soon as she made her decision, but she knew that it was better than keeping secrets from her husband. It would be better to tell Lang Jie herself.
As the plane landed, her anxiousness reached a new peak. She started to tremble as she thought of what was going to happen the moment she told Lang Jie about herself, but as she left the airport, a voice came and calmed her heart down.
"Honey!"
She immediately looked at the direction where the voice came from and saw her husband, who was happily waving at her while looking incredibly excited to see her.
Xue Yan's anxiousness and insecurities slowly faded away as she saw her husband. Her lips slowly curled up into a smile.
As she looked at her husband's face, she realized that she really did have to tell him. She couldn't bear to keep hiding secrets from him. After all, he was the man that she loved so dearly.
If everything could end after she tells him everything, then she might as well enjoy the next few days.
She ran towards her husband as fast as she could and leaped towards his arms. She felt her husband's warmth as she tightly embraced him.
"Darling! I missed you so much!"
CHAPTER 13 – “THE BREWING STORM IN THE SKIES AND IN THE HOUSEWIFE’S HEART”
Two men were walking around on a crowded beach, looking for some girls to have fun with. The Purple Lotus Hotel had a lot of customers at this time of the year, so they thought that there should be a few women willing to go with them.
"Dude! That woman over there is smoking hot!", one of the guys pointed at a woman who was lying on a chaise lounge. Her figure was out of this world.
That day, countless men were getting slapped by their lovers as they passed by and took a peek at the gorgeous woman.
"If I don't try my luck today, I can not call myself a man!", the guy gathered his courage and approached the woman.
"Excuse me, miss! Are you alone?", he tried moving as smoothly as he could, but the woman didn't even acknowledge his presence. She continued relaxing while lying on her back.
"Umm… hello?", the guy persisted. Such beauty could only be seen once in a decade! He could not bear to give up so easily.
The woman was still ignoring him, acting as if she didn't hear anything, which made the guy extremely pissed.
He thought that he was quite good looking compared to the average man. He also worked out a lot, so his body was more than pleasing to the eye, yet the woman wouldn't even spare him a glance.
He was going to berate her for being too snobbish, but before he could, a man's voice suddenly reached their ears from behind them.
"Honey! I brought us drinks!", a man suddenly approached the woman out of nowhere while holding two glasses of what seemed to be iced tea. He looked like the very definition of average. Not too tall, not too good looking and flabby.
'Hmph! If the woman won't even entertain me, how could you ever hope to dare that she'll give you any attention?!', the guy who approached the woman earlier mocked the man that just arrived, but what happ
ened next was completely out of his expectations.
"Oh Lang Jie, darling! You shouldn't have!"
The beautiful woman immediately got up as soon as she saw the man that just arrived. Her voluptuous figure became even more clear as she stood up to greet the man.
"Hey lady, instead of hanging out with this chump, how about you hang out with a real man like me?", the guy didn't want to give up after seeing the Lang Jie, who was able to make her react. Even if the woman was his lover, the difference between the two guys was massive.
Lang Jie immediately looked at the rude man who just tried to pick up his wife.
"Excuse me, but this woman here is my wife!", Lang Jie scowled at the guy, who simply laughed at him in response.
"So? Look at you, and look at me! Whatever she is to you, it's clear as day that she's better suited to be with me!", the guy continued mocking Lang Jie. He continued to laugh at the poor guy in front of him until suddenly, he felt a cold chill run down his spine.
"What did you just say to my husband?"
An angry Xue Yan glared at the guy who had just insulted Lang Jie. The guy flinched for a minute, but as he noticed more and more bystanders staring at them, he gathered the courage to talk back.
"I just told him that he's nothing compared to me! What are you gonna do about it, huh?!", the guy angrily responded. As Xue Yan was ready to unleash the hidden beast within her and send the guy straight down to the deepest circle in hell, two members of the Purple Lotus Clan appeared out of nowhere and subdued the guy.
"Please don't kick up a fuss in public, sir.", one of them told the guy as they put his hands behind his back and gripped it tightly. The man tried to resist, but even if he exerted all his strength, the tightly grasped fist on his wrists wouldn't even budge.
"B-but I didn't even do anything ye-"
Before the guy could continue talking, the other Purple Lotus Clan member delivered a swift blow towards the back of his neck which immediately knocked the guy out.
"Sorry for disturbing your time together, sir… madam…", the two members apologized towards Lang Jie and Xue Yan and bowed their heads towards them even if they were the ones who saved them.
"A-ah! Raise your heads! You did nothing wrong!", Lang Jie wasn't used to being treated that well, so he felt a bit embarrassed by the Purple Lotus Clan's treatment towards him.
Meanwhile, Xue Yan was still fuming from anger. She felt that the guy didn't receive enough punishment as she watched the two cultivators drag his unconscious body into the hotel. From a distance, she noticed an elderly man waving at her. The man was wearing a hat and sunglasses, which covered most of his face.
He pulled out a sketchbook with something written on it. A normal human wouldn't be able to read a single character written on the paper, but with Xue Yan's sharpened senses, she could easily read it.
"Don't kill anyone in the premises!"
He flipped the sketchbook towards the next page.
"It's bad for business! I still have to earn money in order to pay your husband and his co-workers their wages!"
The elderly man took off his sunglasses for a bit in order to make eye contact with Xue Yan. He had to check if she understood.
Xue Yan simply sighed. She took her husband by the hand and started walking away.
"I suddenly don't feel like hanging out at the beach today, darling.", Xue Yan continued walking away while dragging her husband. Lang Jie looked at his wife's back and saw that her usual confident figure wasn't there. After spending a few years together, he could tell that there was something going on with Xue Yan. It felt like she was always on edge ever since she arrived in the country.
"Are you okay, honey?", Lang Jie couldn't help but ask her out of worry.
Xue Yan looked back at him and smiled.
"I'm okay! Why'd you ask?", Xue Yan's tried to replicate her usual confident face, but Lang Jie could easily see that something was off. He wanted to help his wife, even though he had no idea what was wrong.
"Oh, nothing… I just thought that maybe you had something on your mind!", Lang Jie smiled back at her, trying his best not to make her notice that he was worried for her. After all, he always believed in the saying that happiness is infectious.
"Don't worry, honey… it's nothing!", Xue Yan told Lang Jie as she continued walking. Lang Jie made his steps a bit longer in order to be beside her.
As they continued walking, Xue Yan's silence immediately told Lang Jie that something was indeed wrong, but he just didn't know what. Countless assumptions ran towards Lang Jie's imagination.
'Is she tired of me?'
'Is she not happy with our relationship anymore?'
'Was the guy earlier right?'
As Lang Jie's insecurities started attacking him emotionally, he tried his best to maintain a smile as he walked beside Xue Yan.
In reality, Xue Yan was just worried about what would happen after she told Lang Jie her secret. Despite telling herself that she should make the most out of the little time she had before that happens, she still couldn't help but feel distraught as the day of reckoning crept closer.
As the married couple walked side by side, both being eaten away by their insecurities, clumps of dark clouds were forming in the skies. A large storm was brewing.
"Why do you keep sighing, Brother Jie?", Wen Cheng sat in front of Lang Jie and Yang Wei as they got together to eat dinner. Lang Jie invited Xue Yan, but she said that she wasn't feeling well and that she wanted to rest alone in her room.
Lang Jie sighed as he tried to eat the food on his plate. He didn't have any appetite, but he still tried to finish whatever was on his plate.
"There you go again… what's the matter? Did something happen with Xue Yan?", Yang Wei asked Lang Jie with a worried expression on his face.
After feeling conflicted, he took a deep breath and felt that he had to let out the feelings that were being bottled up inside him.
"Let's talk about it over a drink. Is it fine bos- err… Brother Cheng?", Lang Jie felt that he was being too presumptuous, talking about drinking while his boss was present, but Wen Cheng gave out a hearty laugh as soon as he heard Lang Jie.
"Of course! I also love alcohol, so why not?", Wen Cheng felt pleased that someone has finally asked him to drink. His clan members were usually busy, so when he drank, he usually did it alone. He felt extremely excited as he realized that he now had companions to drink with.
Wen Cheng raised his hand. Not long after, a member of the Purple Lotus Clan appeared from thin air, right beside him. Wen Cheng whispered something to him, and moments after, the guy disappeared.
"It's been so long, it's been so long…", Wen Cheng started humming in a happy tune. He couldn't hide his excitement at all.
A few people wearing traditional outfits calmly walked towards their table and handed each of them a cup. One of them then placed what looked like a gourd made from jade in the middle of the table.
"Let us start right away!", Wen Cheng immediately put his hands on the gourd and poured himself a drink.
"This is the best alcohol I have! It's been fermenting for more than a century, yet you can barely taste the bitterness of the alcohol. But the punch as soon as you swallow is quite strong!", Wen Cheng explained the contents of the jade gourd and immediately downed a shot right after.
Wen Cheng felt extremely refreshed as he felt the alcohol permeate in his body. Lang Jie and Yang Wei looked at the old man in front of them and thought that the drink must be quite good since the old man's expression seemed like he was in heaven.
"W-well, don't mind if I do then…", Lang Jie's worries about drinking in front of his boss quickly disappeared as he felt his insecurities take a firmly gripping his heart.
As soon as Lang Jie started pouring himself a drink, he smelled a faint, sweet smell coming from inside the gourd. The smell was extremely delightful, which made him feel excited as he watched the liquid pour into his cup.
The moment his cup was filled, Lang Jie immedi
ately downed his drink. He felt a subtle sweet taste fill the entirety of his mouth. Just the feeling of swallowing the drink felt extremely refreshing. It was as if he was in a lake, surrounded by hundreds of beautiful lotuses. As he swallowed the last drop, he suddenly felt heat surging from his stomach, straight up to his mouth. He felt as if his insides were burning for a moment, but as the burning feeling disappeared, a cool feeling started to settle in which felt incredibly soothing.
"Wow, what kind of drink is this? This is really good, Brother Cheng!", Lang Jie couldn't help but ask Wen Cheng. He wasn't a big fan of alcohol, but he really enjoyed the taste of what they were drinking.
"This is a secret product of our clan! We produce the liquor ourselves, but we don't distribute it publicly. We call it the Purple Lotus Wine.", Wen Cheng responded.