Ji Chenxi covered one eye with his hand, not looking at the person at all. When he heard the words, he only said in a hoarse voice, “I know!”
A light, quick laugh followed.
Chi Zhuo lifted a strand of Ji Chenxi’s hair that was spread across the bed and brought it to his lips, kissing it gently. “It hurts a little.”
This time, Ji Chenxi really didn’t feel like looking at Chi Zhuo. He moved his hand away just a bit and glanced through his fingers at the person, saying, “So you actually know what pain is.”
“Your Highness, of course I know pain.”
Ji Chenxi didn’t believe that at all. If he really knew pain, he wouldn’t still be moving when they were knotting.
“Your Highness, you look really beautiful right now.”
Chi Zhuo’s voice was very low, and when it reached Ji Chenxi’s ears, it carried a faint breathy tone. Ji Chenxi’s eyelashes trembled slightly, feeling a bit uncomfortable from that voice. His already red ears turned even brighter.
Teasing a pretty little rose was honestly a very pleasing thing. Even that bit of discomfort was ignored by Chi Zhuo. He kissed the earlobe hidden under the messy hair, going a bit further in. In that movement, Chi Zhuo let out a muffled groan, pausing for a moment before speaking to Ji Chenxi, “Little rose, open your spiritual domain to me.”
Ji Chenxi already knew it would be like this. This guy just wanted to enter that place where an alpha’s regression happens. In that space, knotting during marking could reach a certain level of spiritual unity. Of course, all of this was written in books. Ji Chenxi himself wasn’t interested in this kind of education at all. If it wasn’t a required course, he probably wouldn’t even bother learning the basics.
He reached out and grabbed Chi Zhuo’s hair, clearly unhappy. “You’re so annoying.”
“If it was when we just met, Your Highness wouldn’t only say ‘annoying’.”
“Don’t make me sound like I’m scary.”
“When we first met, Your Highness really was a very aggressive little wild cat.”
“Heh, little wild cat.” Ji Chenxi showed his dissatisfaction. He sounded like he didn’t want to cooperate, but he had already heard the unbearable pain hidden in Chi Zhuo’s casual tone. Right now, they were like a mismatched blade and scabbard forced together—the scabbard only restricted the blade, but the blade, in order to gain more space, kept forcing the scabbard open, cutting and tearing it apart.
What kind of mess was this.
This kind of thing was supposed to be something very enjoyable, but Ji Chenxi really couldn’t feel happy right now. He slowly loosened his grip on Chi Zhuo’s hair. The black cat pendant hanging from a black cord swayed gently, flashing a strange light through the soft black hair.
“Chi Zhuo, I’m in pain,” Ji Chenxi said softly.
At first, Chi Zhuo thought Ji Chenxi’s spiritual domain had gone out of control again, causing the pain. Only a second later did he realize—this place was too tight. The pain he was talking about was the pressure of being forcibly squeezed.
He kissed Ji Chenxi’s earlobe in a soothing way. “I’ll loosen it a bit more.”
At this moment, Ji Chenxi suddenly understood, in a strange way, what Chi Zhuo felt every time he got injured.
Was this something that could be solved just by “loosening” it?
He buried his head against Chi Zhuo’s chest and said nothing.
Chi Zhuo didn’t rush him to open his spiritual domain. A spiritual domain was something very private. Even the closest person couldn’t just be allowed in easily. If he wasn’t worried that things wouldn’t be properly stabilized otherwise, Chi Zhuo wouldn’t have made such an unreasonable request.
He absentmindedly brushed through the silver-white hair. The cool strands felt slightly itchy against his fingers, but it didn’t distract him much—the presence down there was still too strong.
He extended his spiritual power to check Ji Chenxi’s spiritual domain again, only to realize his consciousness slipped in smoothly into another space.
Ji Chenxi had already opened his spiritual domain for him.
Chi Zhuo was moved.
This stupid little cat wasn’t afraid it might be a bad person’s trick at all, just like that, he exposed his softest, most vulnerable place.
He fully immersed his consciousness into that world.
The first thing he saw was a fairytale-like world—colorful candy houses, dreamy trees wrapped in pink and purple like cotton candy, and cloud puffs shaped like white cat heads. How could it be… so cute?
Chi Zhuo was genuinely shocked.
His own spiritual domain was a wild jungle where black mambas grew freely, so he had naturally assumed Ji Chenxi’s would be a snowfield, since his spirit animal was a snow leopard. But why was the first thing he saw something like this?
After entering Ji Chenxi’s spiritual domain, Chi Zhuo’s consciousness took the form of a small black snake. Even though his form had changed, his perception remained human-like. He quickly scanned the surroundings, trying to find the snow mountain suitable for a snow leopard. What he found instead was a field of pink and purple flowers everywhere. There weren’t even roses planted in this “little rose’s” spiritual domain, which felt oddly wrong.
The black snake moved quickly through the area, but every time, it ended up circling back to the candy house.
After a moment of thought, Chi Zhuo decided to enter the candy house. Before he could even squeeze through the gaps in the candy structure, the candy door opened.
A very small, soft little bundle stood there, looking curiously at the snake on the ground. That delicate face—Chi Zhuo didn’t even need to look twice to know who it was.
The pretty little child reached out with soft, pink hands and picked him up, spinning in place happily. “Snake snake! Mine!!”
Chi Zhuo: “…?”
He quickly understood the misunderstanding.
Second genders aren’t usually determined at birth. Many are formed later. It was clear this little prince hadn’t fully differentiated yet. Or rather, he already had a spiritual domain, but hadn’t yet received his spirit animal.
Unfortunately, Chi Zhuo was not his spirit animal.
He didn’t know what went wrong, but in this spiritual domain, he was treated as Ji Chenxi’s spirit beast.
The child even carried him out of the spiritual domain, eyes shining, and showed him to a woman who looked like an adult version of Ji Chenxi.
The woman was elegant and refined, so beautiful it made everything else pale in comparison. But from the first glance, Chi Zhuo didn’t like her. There was a hidden disgust in her gentle eyes.
She hated her own child.
Little Ji Chenxi was just a silly kid, hugging the black snake everywhere—playing, sleeping with it, doing things completely unlike his real personality. Clearly a little wild cat with a bad temper, yet he forced himself to look well-behaved.
Too fake.
Chi Zhuo stayed with him as he grew up, and whenever the kid overacted, he would gently tap his hand with his tail, reminding him to keep it in check.
Chi Zhuo didn’t even really want to remind him. He already saw it—Ji Chenxi was forcing himself to become someone else, someone who didn’t really exist, someone that woman would like.
Gentle, kind, soft like a little cream bun that anyone could take a bite of.
Looks like an angel, but actually a little devil underneath.
After pretending all day, he would complain to his little snake.
Older Ji Chenxi hugged the snake and said, “That person today was so annoying. But I dug a big pit for him anyway—he’s definitely going to suffer later. Also, little snake, you were too fierce today. You scared my mother. What if she thinks I’m like you?”
Chi Zhuo: “…”
Who cares about this brat.
Just as he was about to slip away to be alone, the pretty kid suddenly kissed his head hard.
“You’re so fierce… but I like you. You actually protect me.”
Chi Zhuo decided to forgive him again.
The little snake stuck out its tongue and licked Ji Chenxi’s face in response.
Ji Chenxi laughed happily.
“Do you love me the most?”
The snake hissed twice, answering in its own way—anyway, the kid couldn’t understand.
At night, Ji Chenxi lifted the snake higher, studying it under the dim light. The silver-haired child held the black snake carefully in his arms like it was a treasure.
Then he said lightly, “You love me this much… so why doesn’t my mother seem to like me the way I thought she would?”
Not just “not as much”—Chi Zhuo could clearly feel that sometimes, that woman’s gaze could even be described as disgust.
The little snake gently licked his finger.
Poor little rose… you actually understand everything, don’t you?
Hello, everyone ヾ(＾∇＾). I hope you enjoyed the story! If you’re feeling generous, please buy me a coffee, share/comment on my translated works! Check out the link below for early chapters. (๑>ᴗ<๑)
