Thirty-Two

"Hey, Li Yuxi?!"

The said woman turned away from the table of bottled water and snacks to look at Wang Lifen making her way to her.

"Hey, Wang Lifen," she said and handed a bottle of water to her.

"Thank you." Wang Lifen quickly uncapped the bottle and took a drink. "How is the expedition going for you?"

"It's going well. Although, we haven't come across anything except pieces of broken items and clothes. I mean, they are still something but not anything special," Li Yuxi replied and Wang Lifen hummed.

"That's true. I was even thinking we mark a different piece of land," Wang Lifen said, then stood directly in front of Li Yuxi. "By the way, Lee Qiang has been calling me."

Li Yuxi blinked at the statement. She had nothing to say to her about her husband as it was difficult to hold a conversation with her husband's former mistress.

"He keeps begging me to come back to him," Wang Lifen said. Her voice was heavy, almost as if she was sad or feeling regret.

"You should ignore him," Li Yuxi said in a dismissive tone.

"How are you even married to him? That man is conceited and a pretender… At some point, I felt like he didn't even love me but for my money. He always used to bring up the topic of how much I make and how he loves women who work."

Li Yuxi laughed. "I'm sorry… this is just funny."

Wang Lifen chuckled drily as if she did not get the joke.

"What's funny?"

"Wang Lifen, it's funny that Lee Qiang claims he wants someone like that when I make enough to take care of myself. I am a working-class person, the type of woman he goes after and even compares me with. So, it's ironic and funny each time I think about it," Li Yuxi said, smiling.

"Oh… He's a piece of shit."

The duo laughed, filling the awkward air with comfort.

"I don't know how you manage with him but… why don't you divorce him?"

The topic of divorce set sadness in her heart. She shrugged her shoulders and exhaled.

"If it was that easy, I would have." Was her reply until someone called Wang Lifen, making her relieved.

"See you later," the woman said and walked away.

Li Yuxi turned around to face the table, only to collide with Zhao Ling's body. She took a step back and glared at his face.

"The mortal is right," Zhao Ling said, staring past her head.

The fact that he had called Wang Lifen the word he called her, made her feel a little jealous. She gritted her teeth to push the feeling away and looked aside. She had gotten used to him calling her his mortal, so hearing him use the word on another person did not sit right with her.

"Why are you feeling jealous?" His voice was full of humor.

"Jealous?" She was perplexed. "I am jealous? Pfft. No, I'm not. Why would I be jealous?"

Li Yuxi, out of awkwardness, scratched her neck while looking away from him. She gasped and stilled when he cupped her chin and turned her head. She gulped as she made eye contact with him.

"Do I need to remind you that I can feel everything you feel?" He whispered.

The way his eyes were darting from her eyes to her lips made her remember their kiss. She even had to lean into his touch and part her lips.

"Do not tell me you are now feeling lust because I do not need to make my chi feel yours to tell that your thoughts are tainted," he said and rubbed his thumb on her cheek.

Li Yuxi bit down hard on her lip and shuddered when he pulled her lip out of her teeth. She licked her lips and took a step forward. The need to kiss him again was so great that she did not care about the fact that anyone would see her kissing the air from their point of view.

"What if I was?" She whispered and he smirked.

"You really want me to consume you… by the level of your lust, I cannot begin to imagine what would happen when I…" He leaned close to her face. "...feed from you."

"Li Yuxi?"

They moved away from each other with a jerk at the sound of Lin Wei's voice. She saw a deep frown on Zhao Ling's face and from the way his sash glowed, it let her know that he was very angry. Before he could do anything, Li Yuxi turned in the direction that Lin Wei was standing and wrapped her arm around his arm.

"Who were you talking to?" Lin Wei asked, glancing at the exact spot where Zhao Ling was standing.

"Me?" Li Yuxi acted shocked. "I was just revising something in my head."

"You are becoming weird. Are you sure you didn't hit your head earlier?"

Li Yuxi genuinely laughed as she dragged Lin Wei away from Zhao Ling, heading back to her site.

"I'm serious. You are making me worry," he said.

"I'm fine, Lin Wei. Come on, let's get back to work. We need to make use of sunlight."

‡‡‡

All Li Yuxi could think about was the kiss she had shared with Zhao Ling. The feel of his cold and soft lips against hers had left her body craving for more. The weight of his hard and muscular body on hers added to the sensual highness she was going through at that moment. For a man who had died years ago, he knew how to kiss. His kisses dug the need for sexual relief out of her body. The swirl of his tongue around hers had left her heart pumping fast.

At some point, she had sworn that he had a boner. She felt it against her inner thigh and wanted to feel more of it. It shocked her that he could do such, seeing that he was not even fully human. It was also funny to her that she was making out with a ghost but she did not care as she wanted him in more ways than one.

"Li Yuxi?"

The woman flinched out of her daydream and realized she had been smiling at the ground. She blinked and turned her head to look at Lin Wei who had been there for a few minutes. She cursed herself for getting distracted and smiled at him.

"What have you been thinking about?" Lin Wei asked and pushed his glasses up his nose bridge.

A blush spread around her cheeks and bowed her head.

"It's nothing." Li Yuxi grabbed the duster laying on the ground and continued to brush the ground.

She swapped tools, grabbing a small hammer and a thick metal nail. She began to hit the top of the nail with the hammer, breaking the muddy soil. The soil cracked and scattered, she spotted something white in the red soil. She blinked hard and grabbed a scalpel, which she used in scraping some parts of the sand to reveal whatever it was.

"Did you find something?" Lin Wei asked beside her.

"It seems like I did." She continued to scrape more of the sand away, and more parts of the thing she saw got revealed.

The curve of what resembled a bracelet with gold trimming was revealed after a few minutes of digging. She was in awe at how beautiful the bracelet looked. She held the exposed side and gently shook it while slowly pulling the bracelet. The bracelet loosened a bit and she quickly dug more soil away with her scalpel.

Soon enough, the bracelet came out and she raised it to her face. There was a golden dragon design running around the bracelet and at the end of the curved bracelet were the tail and an open mouth of the golden dragon.

"Whoa, that is beautiful," Lin Wei said. "Is that real gold?"

"From the look of it, yes," she replied in awe as she turned the bracelet around, eyeing the whole body. "This could be more than two centuries old yet it is still looking preserved."

Out of curiosity, Li Yuxi moved the bracelet to her other wrist. She slipped her hand through the bracelet and a cold rush ran through her body. A prickling feeling traveled on her skin to her spine and when she stared at the bracelet, the dragon was moving and shining bright.

A sharp pain shot through her spine and straight to her heart, which made her want to scream but it was almost as if her tongue would not move. Her lungs tightened and her vision started to blur. She fell on her side, causing Lin Wei to rush and hold her up in his arms.

Li Yuxi could hear Lin Wei's voice but it sounded so far away. She could hear the soft thumping of footsteps and the movements of the people around were in slow motion. She shifted her gaze toward the copper chain that was connected to Zhao Ling and saw it cut into two.

Just as Zhao Ling appeared beside her, a rush of adrenaline pumping through her body, accompanied by a strong weight inside her.

"Mother?"

Li Yuxi's head turned without her doing to look at Zhao Ling and a smirk was forced on her lips.

"Hello, son." Was what she heard coming out of her mouth.