NHWSG chapter 46

Question on Zhihu: What to do if your boyfriend doesn’t want to be human anymore?

Highly upvoted answer: I suggest fighting poison with poison, be even less human than him.

Sheng Zhao: “…”

He silently deleted this question and then turned off the screen—apparently, the public’s perception was vastly different from his question, so it was better not to listen.

“Not reading it anymore?” Xing Yingzhu asked, “In being human, it’s wise to listen to others’ opinions with an open mind.”

“Not going to read it,” Sheng Zhao chuckled twice, threw his phone away, and with a face full of tender innocence, earnestly said, “Our matters are ours to decide, we won’t listen to others.”

Xing Yingzhu snorted and wrapped his tail tip around Sheng Zhao’s wrist.

In Sheng Zhao’s eyes, he had always thought that Xing Yingzhuo was an untouchable beauty, touching him even a bit would result in getting one’s hand chopped off.

But who would have known that Xing Yingzhuo himself was clingy? He seemed to treat Sheng Zhao as a mobile support, never coming off once he climbed him up.

Fortunately, Xing Yingzhu deliberately shrank his original size. Now the whole snake looked at most ten meters long, about the thickness of Sheng Zhao’s arm. Although it was a bit heavy when coiled around him, it was still within Sheng Zhao’s acceptance range.

What amused Sheng Zhao was that Xing Yingzhuo’s temperament seemed to become even more “beastly” after reverting to his original form. His temper was much clearer than when in human form, and sometimes even seemed a bit childish.

For example—

“Is this Zhang Jian’s medicine?” Xing Yingzhu asked.

“Yes,” Sheng Zhao said, opening his palm to look at the bottle in his hand, then uncorked it and smelled a fresh mint fragrance.

“It’s from Hu Huanyang,” Sheng Zhao said, “He said he used it… Should be useful for demons.”

The large snake coiled around him spat out a displeased message, obviously not happy with this answer.

“What others have used, can’t be any good, can it?” Xing Yingzhu said.

“It’ll do,” Sheng Zhao sighed, assessing the bottle in his hand, and said, “If you don’t want to use this, I’ll just order some erythromycin ointment for delivery.”

Xing Yingzhu: “…”

Faced with the alternative medicine costing 2.5 yuan, Xing Yingzhuo finally acknowledged the reality and reluctantly agreed.

Most of the thunder burns on Xing Yingzhu’s body were concentrated on and around his tail, and whether it was intentional or not, his injury was conveniently wrapped around Sheng Zhao’s waist, easily accessible when Sheng Zhao lowered his head.

The beautiful scales on Xing Yingzhu’s body bore horrifying burnt marks, with most of the gloss gone. Sheng Zhao applied the cool, light-colored ointment to the wounds, feeling heartache.

“How did this happen?” Sheng Zhao grumbled incessantly, “I thought you were immune to lightning strikes.”

The big snake squinted its eyes, lazily resting its head on Sheng Zhao’s shoulder, and casually said, “He stepped on my tail.”

“Now that you mention it, it’s as if that dragon is a conductor,” Sheng Zhao quipped.

Sheng Zhao was afraid that Zhang Jian’s medicine wouldn’t be effective, so he used it without hesitation. He almost emptied the entire bottle, applying a thick layer on Xing Yingzhu’s wounds.

Although Xing Yingzhu said he didn’t care, his body was quite cooperative. After applying medicine to the wounds on his tail, he even turned over voluntarily to show the small burns on his waist to Sheng Zhao.

Sheng Zhao carefully inspected him from top to bottom, making sure nothing was missed, before sealing the bottle and gently touching the burns treated with ointment.

He had once touched Xing Yingzhu’s scales in the underground river of Shanghai. They felt cool and moist, as smooth as jade, even smoother than satin. However, back then, Xing Yingzhuo was noble and aloof, and he was stopped after just one touch, which was unsatisfying.

Thinking about that feeling, Sheng Zhao felt a little itchy and couldn’t help but glance at Xing Yingzhu. Seeing that he was closing his eyes, almost falling asleep, Sheng Zhao boldly reached out and touched the tip of his tail.

Xing Yingzhu: “…”

Xing Yingzhuo didn’t politely stop him this time, but lightly flicked his hand back with the tip of his tail. The force was gentle, like being lightly touched by a curtain tassel, leaving only a slight red mark, not painful.

Sheng Zhao chuckled twice and rubbed his hand.

Seeing his silly appearance, Xing Yingzhu found it amusing and instantly lost his temper.

“Does it feel good?” Xing Yingzhu asked.

Sheng Zhao thought that Xing Yingzhuo was going to give some benefits to his new “lover.” Abiding by the principle of honesty, he nodded enthusiastically. Little did he know, Xing Yingzhuo just smiled lightly, flicked his tail, and turned to swim away from him.

“In that case, no more touching.” Xing Yingzhu said.

Sheng Zhao: “…”

—What a stingy attitude! It’s not like touching him would make his scales fall off!

However, Sheng Zhao dared not express his anger and didn’t have the courage to reach out to touch again. He could only regretfully give up this benefit.

At that moment, the doorbell rang outside, and Sheng Zhao temporarily set aside his thoughts of negotiating with Xing Yingzhu, going to open the door.

He thought it might be Zhang Jian or Hu Huanyang, but to his surprise, when he opened the door, he saw a young man in a hotel uniform standing there. He was pushing a small metal cart and had a gentle smile on his face.

“Xing Yingzhu,” Sheng Zhao called out to him, poking his head out, “Did you call room service?”

Xing Yingzhu responded from the bedroom.

Not knowing what form he was in now, and fearing that abruptly letting someone in might startle the service staff, Sheng Zhao took the cart himself after getting Xing Yingzhu’s confirmation and politely declined the subsequent dinner plating service.

Fortunately, by the time he entered, Xing Yingzhuo had finished his brief moment of idealistic indulgence and reverted back to human form, clad in a loose bathrobe.

The dinner delivered by the hotel was exquisite and ample enough for three or four people. Sheng Zhao, who had been hungry all day, only realized he was hungry when he saw dinner. He didn’t even bother asking who was paying for it, simply handed a pair of chopsticks to Xing Yingzhu, sat down without ceremony, and lifted the lid off the steak plate.

Xing Yingzhu wasn’t particularly hungry, but seeing Sheng Zhao eat like this made him feel a bit hungry as well. He ended up eating a few more pieces of carrots than usual.

“You could actually look for a side job,” Xing Yingzhu objectively commented, “Ask Hu Huanyang, they might need food broadcasters.”

Sheng Zhao single-handedly devoured half of the dinner, feeling too full to move. He leaned on the sofa, absentmindedly peeled an orange in his hand.

“Forget it—” Sheng Zhao said with a lack of enthusiasm, “My appetite is no match for anyone else’s. I’d rather not suffer that punishment.”

He handed half of the orange in his hand to Xing Yingzhu and then glanced at the neckline of Xing Yingzhu’s robe, gesturing below his collarbone.

“Um—” Sheng Zhao said, “I saw a little dragon here before, why isn’t it there now?”

“You could see it?” Xing Yingzhu was a little surprised.

“Huh?” Sheng Zhao was also puzzled when he heard this, hesitatingly asking, “So, not everyone can see it?”

—That’s for sure, Xing Yingzhu thought.

He lost his bones eight thousand years ago, was pulled out of the dragon’s body as a living soul, and then stuffed into a snake’s belly. Logically, he wasn’t a dragon anymore “in this life.”

It’s just that because he was originally a living soul, he had not yet gone through the cycle of reincarnation, so his cultivation and inner alchemy were still his original configuration.

But logically speaking, even if it were Zhang Jian, or the Tianshi master, they might not be able to see his inner alchemy clearly… yet this silly boy managed to see it clearly.

Xing Yingzhu felt that this was unlikely to be a coincidence.

He looked at Sheng Zhao thoughtfully, making the other person’s back hair stand on end, before asking, “What did the dragon you saw look like?”

“…It had a faint purple luminescence, but it was hard to see clearly,” Sheng Zhao hesitantly said, “But it had horns, claws, two long wings on its back, cloud-like patterns on the tip of its tail, and its whiskers were a bit long.”

As Sheng Zhao spoke, he gestured with his hand, then continued, “But it disappeared in a flash… Did I see it wrong?”

“No,” Xing Yingzhu said.

Not only did he not see it wrong, he saw it very clearly.

“I thought it was just my eyes playing tricks on me,” Sheng Zhao breathed a sigh of relief, casually chatting, “Then I remembered you mentioned that you were actually a dragon, so I thought to ask you… Huh? What are you looking at?”

Xing Yingzhu snapped out of his thoughts. He had briefly been lost in some memories, not quite catching what Sheng Zhao had said.

“Nothing,” Xing Yingzhu said slowly, “Sheng Zhao, you might not be an ordinary person.”

Sheng Zhao: “…”

Coming from Xing Yingzhu, this statement was too terrifying. Sheng Zhao was afraid he would follow it up with something like “Actually, you’re the son of a lost member of the demon race in the mortal realm. Your dad isn’t your dad, your mom isn’t your mom, and your brother isn’t your brother,” or some other melodramatic lines.

“Really?” Sheng Zhao said dryly, “Am I some kind of savior who descended from the heavens to save the world, like those protagonists in fantasy novels who grow from useless to powerful, from a nobody to a god who controls the winds and commands the rain?”

Xing Yingzhu: “…”

Xing Yingzhuo’s rare solemn mood instantly dissipated, and he sighed without a trace, feeling mentally exhausted. “Stop watching TV dramas… and read fewer novels too.”

With Sheng Zhao’s diversion, Xing Yingzhu’s intention to give him a serious explanation also vanished. He thought for a moment, then reached out, lightly wiping below his own collarbone with his thumb.

Sheng Zhao didn’t know what trick he had in his hand, but with just a light touch, he actually cut a small wound there out of nowhere.

“Hey—” Sheng Zhao was anxious, “What are you doing?”

Xing Yingzhu didn’t say anything. He casually wiped away a bead of blood that seeped out, then rubbed it with his finger and held it in the palm of his hand.

Then, suddenly, Sheng Zhao saw that the drop of blood was suspended in Xing Yingzhu’s palm in a form that defied physics. Before he could even be surprised, he saw several faint fluorescent lights flowing from Xing Yingzhu’s fingertips toward the drop of blood.

The drop of blood in Xing Yingzhu’s palm seemed to transform into a semi-solid substance, emitting a deep red glow, like it had turned into a luminous gemstone out of nowhere.

This was the first time Xing Yingzhu had shown something similar to “magic” in front of Sheng Zhao. Sheng Zhao’s eyes widened in disbelief.

The fluorescent light from Xing Yingzhu’s fingertips wrapped around the blood droplet like a shell.

Finally, the blood droplet fell into Xing Yingzhu’s palm, and he casually “drew” a strand of light from the remaining fluorescence, turning it into a thin rope and threading it through the blood droplet.

After doing all this, Xing Yingzhu hung the freshly made “pendant” around Sheng Zhao’s neck.

“Sheng Zhao, let me tell you a story,” Xing Yingzhu said.