by Catofdreams
It was at that point that Xue Yan understood what her husband meant. She shook her head as her husband explained the reason as to why he couldn't understand it.
With a distraught face, Lang Jie told Xue Yan:
"I don't recognize these characters…"
CHAPTER 32 – “THE HUSBAND DOESN’T SEEM TO PRACTICE MODERATION”
After a few hours of painstakingly trying to translate the book while maintaining its essence, Xue Yan was finally able to let out a sigh of relief.
"Finally!", Xue Yan couldn't help but let out a celebratory shout as she stretched her body. Although she didn't get tired of doing normal household activities, sitting on a desk for a few hours took a toll on her. She constantly had the urge to move around, but she ignored those urges since she wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible.
In her mind, Xue Yan silently praised her husband for being able to bear working a desk job for most of the day. She looked at the clock and saw that she's been writing for the past six hours. Lang Jie usually works for more than nine hours in a day, which made her develop a newfound respect for her husband.
"Darling! It's done!", Xue Yan called on her husband as she excitedly brought the book she painstakingly translated for her husband.
The book in her hand, unlike the original copy, looked completely clean and new. Unlike before, the book title was now clearly written on the new book's cover.
Lang Jie looked at the book in Xue Yan's hands with sparkles in his eyes. His excitement was now at its peak as he was about to start his road to greatness. He extended his hands, ready to accept the blessing from Xue Yan, but his expectations were quickly shut down as Xue Yan turned around as soon as she showed him a glimpse of the book.
"But you'll have to read it on your next day off. You still have to do your part in cleaning the house, so you should work on it this afternoon, and then rest tonight since you have work tomorrow.", Xue Yan walked back upstairs in order to hide the book from her husband, who immediately chased after her.
"Wait! I thought you'd say that, so I worked on the chores while you were working on the book's translation!", Lang Jie thought one step ahead of Xue Yan since he really wanted to start cultivating right away. He thought of almost every factor that could cause his start to greatness to be canceled or delayed, and within the six hours that Xue Yan used to translate the book, he swiftly dealt with each and every problem he thought of.
"Hmm… we'll see about that.", Xue Yan turned back and moved around the house in order to start checking the results of her husband's work. She had little to no expectations since she knew that if her husband was excited about something, he won't focus on any kind of work in front of him, including chores. She was confident that her husband did a horrible job on the chores he had to do or even forgot to do some of them.
"Darling. If I see something unsatisfactory, then you'll start cultivating next time, okay? No buts.", Xue Yan confidently laid out a condition that she knew was to her favor, but her husband's response made her confidence falter slightly.
"No problem! If you see even a single thing wrong with what I did, then I won't force it anymore!", Lang Jie was also confident since he had used a trick that he had up his sleeve.
Lang Jie knew that Xue Yan would use his clumsiness during times where he doesn't focus as a measure to push through with what she wanted. Though he didn't expect Xue Yan to be so complacent since she easily fell for his trap, he still had this battle in the bag.
Earlier, while Xue Yan was working on the translation, Lang Jie had called upon the most reliable man he knew that took care of household duties. He pulled out his phone and immediately sent a message to the man.
"Mao Cheng, can I ask you a favor?"
Not even five seconds after he sent the message, Mao Cheng already sent his response.
"Sure. What is it, boss?"
"Can you do a few chores for me?"
"No problem, boss. Should we come over now and deal with it?"
"I'd appreciate it if you could do that for me."
"Okay, boss. We're already on our way."
And just like that, in a span of a minute, Lang Jie acquired the help of the most reliable man he could entrust with the important duty of his household chores.
Although he did prepare a few more things in case Xue Yan would think of other matters, he could see from the current situation that he was extremely overprepared.
Xue Yan examined everything closely. Her husband was tasked with cleaning the living room, the movie room, and the backyard, as well as ironing his clothes and neatly folding them before placing them in a laundry basket for Xue Yan to sort out. In addition to all that, if his day off happens to land on a weekend, which it did, then he must go out and shop for their weekly groceries.
Although the things that he had to do didn't seem like a lot of work, Lang Jie knew that it was extremely tiring to do all of those things, especially since he wasn't used to moving his body a lot. He always handled it every week without fail, so he already knew how long it'd take for him to finish everything. If he did it all alone, the sky would have already turned dark before he would finish, and since he had no idea when Xue Yan was going to finish translating the book, he had to take preemptive measures.
The more that Xue Yan checked through the list of her husband's chores, the more defeated she felt. She didn't expect her husband to do such a good job of doing his chores even though he was thinking of something else. Xue Yan viewed this as Lang Jie being completely determined to start cultivating, but it really was just her husband being cunning. Xue Yan's moves were only good in normal chess, while Lang Jie thought multiple steps ahead and was already playing four-dimensional chess.
As Xue Yan mentally ticked off the last checkbox on the list, she sighed and turned towards Lang Jie.
"Darling. Since you seem to be really determined, I'll give you a chance. But please… PLEASE, don't rush things. Control your pace. If anything feels off, then tell me right away.", Xue Yan warned her husband. Although she did feel that her husband was being too rash, his unwavering determination, paired with his cunningness, made her give in to his wants.
Xue Yan handed over the book towards Lang Jie, who held it as if it was some important treasure, which it technically was. Xue Yan's art was extinct, and since the cultivation base recorded in the book produced the very first recorded Immortal Emperor cultivator, its worth should be immeasurable.
Lang Jie looked at the book and read the title written on the blue cover.
"The Energy from Existence Itself…"
The title alone already made Lang Jie feel confused as to what it meant. He skimmed through the book and saw that he could recognize the letters written in the book, which made him feel relieved. Although he could read it, he knew that it would be difficult to understand it. If the title alone already sounded complicated, how hard is it to comprehend its contents?
Xue Yan saw the intimidated look on her husband's face.
"Darling, you don't have to think too much about it. There's almost no hidden meaning behind the words in the book. After all, it's an art that even children learned before.", Xue Yan told her husband in order to guide him to the right path.
She had to be careful not to divulge too much about the book since a cultivator must forge his or her own path, and even if Lang Jie was the husband of an extremely powerful cultivator, he was no exception to that notion. Xue Yan believed that one can not grow stronger if they depend on others too much.
Lang Jie listened to her advice and didn't read into things too deeply. He tried reading the title once more with an empty mind.
'The Energy from Existence Itself.'
As those words entered his mind, he immediately started having a few opinions on the matter. Although he wasn't sure which one was right, it was an improvement from the first time he read it.
"Does this mean that the qi cultivated in this art is qi that comes from real things?", Lang Jie immediately consulted his wi
fe on the matter.
"Not exactly, but you're close to the idea.", Xue Yan had an impressed look as her husband hit close to the right answer. Before, she tried to teach this art to others since it was something that could be used in order to improve a person's daily life. Their initial thought about the name was that it meant that the qi comes from living beings.
"It means that the qi cultivated in this art comes from things that exist. The air, living beings, inanimate objects, and even your thoughts have qi. The qi that comes from all those are the ones we cultivate with this art.", Xue Yan explained it since she thought that her husband's idea about the matter was already good enough.
"M-my thoughts? Even my thoughts have qi?", Lang Jie couldn't help but ask Xue Yan. He could understand the air and living beings having qi. Inanimate objects were a bit far-fetched, but he could still more or less see the possibility, but when Xue Yan mentioned that even thoughts had qi, his understanding on the matter trailed off.
Xue Yan nodded in response.
"Yes, even thoughts have qi. Your thoughts are in your mind, therefore it exists. If it exists, then it has qi.", Xue Yan continued explaining.
"A common misconception about qi is that it only comes from nature. This misconception caused quite a lot of cultivation bases to be incomplete, which makes it hard for cultivators that practice those bases have a hard time breaking through since completely understanding an incomplete idea still causes a lack of knowledge."
As Lang Jie heard Xue Yan's explanation, the idea of 'The Energy from Existence Itself' slowly became more and more concrete in his mind. He couldn't wait to start reading the book's contents, especially since he's already learned a lot just from the title itself.
"Although it isn't a thick book, you should still take your time reading it. Every line in the book is important in understanding the art fully. If you don't understand something, don't skip it. Instead, think carefully about it and form your own interpretation of the words.", Xue Yan continued giving advice. She thought that she might be giving her husband too much help, so she decided not to say anything else about cultivation after that.
"Okay… I'll do my best!", Lang Jie told his wife as he hurriedly went to the dining area. He didn't want to wait for a second longer and wanted to start reading it, so he decided to go to the dining area where there was a chair to sit on and a table with a lot of space.
Xue Yan watched her husband excitedly reading the book. Lang Jie's yearning for knowledge made him look better in Xue Yan's eyes.
"Good luck, darling.", Xue Yan cheered for her husband silently and went on to do the chores that she had neglected earlier as she worked on the book's translation.
The day continued, and Lang Jie continued reading the book slowly, trying to comprehend each and every line, while his wife silently cheered him as she watched him with a smile on her face.
That night, Xue Yan comfortably laid down on their bed. Although she had already finished everything she had to do and was blessed with the sight of her husband working hard, she had an extremely angry look on her face as she stared at their bedroom ceiling.
It was already midnight. Usually, they would go to sleep at 10:00 P.M. since Lang Jie had to wake up early in order to go to work, but this time, Lang Jie wanted to continue reading, so he was now up for a bit longer.
Xue Yan hated the thought of her husband going to work without enough rest, so that alone already made her feel grumpy, but that wasn't enough to make her as angry as she was at that moment.
So, what caused our female protagonist to be so angry? The answer is simple. She was lying alone on the bed.
Xue Yan would never go to bed without her husband since she had no need for sleep. If she wanted to rest, she could just meditate, which would make her feel fully rested in just a quarter of a time that an average human sleeps for. She only goes to bed because she wanted to fall asleep with her husband beside her.
Now, her husband was still downstairs reading the book. Xue Yan tried persuading him to get some rest, but he just told her to go to bed first and he'll follow shortly after. They had that conversation two hours ago.
Xue Yan trusted her husband's words like a fool. She didn't even stop to think that her husband was too focused to remember anything he said. It was only when she laid down on the bed for more than an hour that the thought came into her mind.
"Lang Jie… as soon as you come to bed, I'll thoroughly reprimand you…"
Xue Yan couldn't help but mutter the words in her mind out of frustration. Although she loved her husband dearly, she was still really mad at him now.
Even if he didn't mean to make her feel that way, he still chose to focus on the cultivation base rather than spending time with her and resting. Xue Yan felt worried since Lang Jie was already being troublesome even though he just started cultivating. The more he becomes into it, the less time he might spend with Xue Yan, and she REALLY didn't want that to happen.
As time passed by, she slowly started calming down. There was still a hint of anger in her heart, but it wasn't enough to scold Lang Jie. She decided that when Lang Jie came in, she would just have a bit of a talk with him to deal with the matter at hand.
Now, all that she needed to do was to wait for her husband to come.
Xue Yan patiently waited for Lang Jie. No matter how much he wanted to read the book, it shouldn't be enough for him to sacrifice rest, right? He did have to work the next day after all…
Wrong.
As sunlight slowly started coming in through the blinds in their home's bedroom, Xue Yan's veins started bulging out of anger. She had already thought of a lot of ways she could go about explaining how resting is important and that he should practice moderation, but there was a flaw in her plan.
Lang Jie didn't go to the bedroom the entire night.
Xue Yan angrily got out of their bedroom and went down the steps with extremely heavy steps. Lang Jie, who was still reading the book, immediately felt a chill run down his spine. He was so absorbed in the book that he only just noticed that the sun was already on its way up.
As his wife's heavy footsteps echoed throughout the household, he knew that he was in really deep trouble this time.
"LANG JIEEE!!!!!!"
CHAPTER 33 – “THE HUSBAND POURS OUT HIS PROBLEMS AND RINSES IT WITH ALCOHOL”
"Thanks for letting me stay over, Yang Wei…"
"No problem. I'm always here to help you out."
Lang Jie stood in a small studio apartment near their office. The apartment was the place where Yang Wei used to live before. Although he had already moved in with Jane in her villa, he already paid a year's worth of the apartment's rent back before he went on a business trip with Lang Jie, so he still had a few months left.
"Well, how did it happen?", Yang Wei asked while taking out a familiar-looking gourd from the plastic bag in his hands. Lang Jie couldn't help but feel surprised as soon as he saw the gourd.
"Did Brother Cheng send you the Purple Lotus Wine already?", Lang Jie asked Yang Wei, who gave a nod in response.
"He gave me a few to congratulate me on my new relationship.", Yang Wei replied.
"Brother Cheng told me that he's going to send you some next month since the next batch isn't ready yet.", he continued as he poured Lang Jie and himself a cup of the delicious liquor.
"I see, I see…", Lang Jie responded as he gulped down the entire cup. The familiar taste immediately filled his mouth and lightened up his dampened mood.
"So, back to it. What happened?", Yang Wei asked Lang Jie once again.
Lang Jie sighed as he recalled what happened earlier in the morning.
"Well, you see…", Lang Jie was about to talk about it, but he realized that he couldn't talk about cultivators with Yang Wei, so he had to tweak a few details to make it mortal-friendly.
"My wife has a hobby which she doesn't want others to know…", Lang Jie told Yang Wei, who kept nodding, urging Lang Jie to continue.
"I wanted to do it as well
, so she helped me start doing it… but then I stayed up all night reading a book about it. I didn't even notice that it was already morning by the time I stopped…", Lang Jie continued.
Yang Wei had a suspicious look on his face, but he didn't want to say anything since he still didn't know everything.
"So… she got angry and kicked you out? Is that also why you looked like a living corpse in the office earlier?", Yang Wei asked before he took a swig of his drink.
"Mhmm…", Lang Jie nodded and poured himself another bottle of alcohol.
"Her hobby also seems a bit tiring to do. I felt my energy slowly getting drained just by reading about it…"
Yang Wei almost choked on his drink as he heard Lang Jie say that.