1.18

Like a panicked rabbit caught in a snare, I pushed at his broad chest to pull away. His grip tightened on my dress and he pulled me into an embrace.

Awkwardly, I froze as I felt the pounding of his heart so clearly.

I wanted to call out his name, but it occurred to me, he was not CEO Jiang. I had no idea who he was.

"Can you let go?" I spoke through clenched teeth.

"In a moment," he sighed, his heartbeat slowed to a lull before his hand wandered to my lower back and pressed firmly.

"What happened to you?" He growled, pulling apart from me to look me over.

"Excuse me?" I blinked, confused.

"I cannot leave you alone for a minute," he sighed and dragged me through a door into what appeared to be a restroom.

I gulped, nervous and feeling very stupid for coming here, to begin with. Sure he could kill me, but he could also do a lot worse…

"What are you doing?" I turned to try and leave the room. At least in the office, I was only a door away from the multiple humans. This was still a world with law and order right? If I shouted loud enough someone would come?

"Shut up and lift your dress," he pulled me towards the bed as my heart fluttered in panic.

"Do what now?" I found myself unable to comprehend his instructions.

"There's something on your back, let me see."

"Oh," I felt flustered that my thoughts had run wild. A warm blush flooded my cheeks as I met his expectant glare.

"What's there to be shy about, It's just flesh. I've seen this body before, now turn around let me look."

Begrudgingly, I did as instructed. The cold hair hit my back as he raise the knee-length dress and rested his smooth hands on the curve of my spine. Thankfully I wore black tights that semi-hid my lace panties at least.

"Just what is this bastard doing? Who put this on you?"

"Put what on me? Explain what the fuck is going on, I'm so tired," I sat dejectedly on the edge of the bed, my head spinning.

"You should know by now what kind of world we're in," he knelt before me, "a Daoist has put a sigil on your back, one that will draw nearby souls to attack until you're dead."

I froze in shock. As a Taoist Jianyu should know that right. 

"It should be someone from the Mo Clan," I mused aloud, "though I don't know how…"

"That fucking idiot," he cursed, snapping me out of my thoughts, "fucking useless idiot."

"Calm down," I glared at him, feeling somewhat defensive over him cursing at Jianyu. Maybe he just never noticed. After all, he'd never touched me since the ghost had attacked me, maybe he really didn't know.

"I don't know what's going on," I surprisingly clutched at his arm in desperation, "please, just tell me, who are you? Who am I? What do you want from me?"

Startled at my touch, he stayed still, his mouth firmly pressed in a grim line.

"I told you, I am your husband."

"But that was my old life, I died, why are you here?"

"Is it wrong of me to want to follow you?" His question stumped me. With his capacity he was capable. But then again, how was he to know I'd enter Zhiyue's body? He was intimate with Zhiyue. So he had surely moved on, right? He had been somewhat affectionate with her from my memories, the love wasn't one-sided.

"We just met again by chance," I murmured, "and you still haven't told me who you are."

"Just call me by the name of the body I'm using," he gloomily replied, "Jiang Lixin."

"Lixin?"

He nodded. 

"Okay," I sighed, unhappy that he was unwilling to even just give me a name. 

"When we enter their bodies, we play a role…" My heart ached at the cold, unemotional response. Just because we were using another person's body did not mean we didn't exist, that we weren't alive right?

I was Luna. I wanted to be called Luna. I wanted people to see me for who I really was, even if I wasn't sure who that was yet.

"Then your role is CEO Jiang, my previous employer…"

"I am your husband," he snapped, then reached up to angrily pinch my chin, "you better remember that. Regardless of whatever body you use, your soul is mine. Only mine."

His possessiveness chilled me to my very core.

"You're not my husband," I replied, feeling somewhat aggrieved and defiant, "I married Jianyu, he is my husband."

My entire body froze at the immense pressure radiating in the room. 

"That bastard is not worthy of being called your husband."

"Why?" Tears found their way out of the corner of my eyes. "Whoever I was I died. I'm Zhiyue now. She married Jianyu."

"No, you stupidly married that bastard," he rebutted. Well, he wasn't wrong there.

"But Zhiyue was engaged to him, since young."

"Mo Zhiyue died, I protected her, I kept her safe…"

"But now you're CEO Jiang. That man died too…"

"And who's fault was that?"

I felt like we were only going around in circles.

"Just stop," I shouted.

He actually stopped. The pressure he had emitted lessened and I could finally twitch a finger.

"You can't come in here," a voice loudly called out from behind the door.

"Just try and stop me," Jianyu's familiar voice called out in response. 

Shit.

How was I supposed to explain this?

Lixin laughed, then a mischievous glint appeared in his eyes. 

Before I could stop him, he whisked me up in his arms and tossed me onto the bed. Then he climbed on top of me, pressing my helplessly frozen self down and he began to kiss my neck to leave a very obvious mark.

The door bust open and a very pissed Jianyu appeared with secretary Li hurriedly following after him.

"Get off her," he roared but remained standing still.

Lixin slowly climbed off me and off the bed, completely withdrawing whatever means he had used to keep my body frozen still.

Disheveled and panicked, I scrambled from the bed to stand, my knees wobbly and weak.

Jianyu took a few steps forward, painfully grabbed my wrist, and dragged me from the laughing Lixin all the way past the curious staff to the elevator and pressed the button for the carpark.

Scared, I shrunk my neck, unable to ask System to heal the hickey now he had seen it.

Did he think I was having an affair?

"Jianyu," I meekly attempted to speak but was shot down by a cold glare. 

When the elevator opened, he pulled me along to the back of a car and practically tossed me in. Then walked around to the driver's seat and started the car.

After an hour, it was only then I realised we had left the city.

"J-Jianyu, where are you taking me?"

Was he going to take me to some random forest and kill me? 

I did my best to ignore System laughing at me internally.

"The Fu clan," he coldly answered. 

That was his ancestral home, right?

"W-why?"

"Your identity is compromised, yet you stupidly leave home and…" he was unable to answer as he swerved to a layby and parked the car, before angrily punching the steering wheel. 

I couldn't help but be shocked. Jianyu was always calm, even when he wasn't. 

"I didn't, I didn't do anything, I just," I found myself lost for words. How could I explain that I was visiting my dead husband to make sure he wasn't plotting to kill my current husband?

To Jianyu, Lixin was just my previous employer. Who I'd barely had any contact with.

He climbed out of the car, slammed the door shut, and took out a cigarette to lean against the metal railing and smoke.

Nervously, I racked my brain for an excuse, any excuse, but none came.

After a while, he came back, but instead of going for the driver's seat, he opened the rear door and climbed into the back with me.

Inspiration hit me.

"Lixin is a Taoist," I squeaked out, making Jianyu raise a brow.

"Lixin?"

That shouldn't be the thing he picked up on right?

I coughed, "CEO Jiang is a Taoist. With you and Dr. Wu being so secretive, I just wanted to talk to someone else, who knew he would, he would."

"That's enough," he growled, then raised his hand to the mark on my neck. 

I shrunk back, finding myself pressing against the car door.

"Are you scared of me Luna?" He frowned, hands back to his side and clenched, "I'm sorry, I was just…"

"No, no," I shook my head, "you have every right to be angry. You're my husband."

His lips twitched when I said the word husband.

"Did he just kiss you?" He asked, glancing over my clothes.

"Y-yes, he just did this, nothing else."

He sighed, "okay."

"Are you still angry with me?"

He looked at me as if I was stupid for asking. 

"I'm angry that you left without a word," he finally replied a few minutes later.

"I was stupid, I'm sorry, I won't do it again. But CEO Jiang told me something important."

"What?"

I unashamedly lift my dress as I leaned closer and grabbed his hands to press them at the same spot Lixin had touched before. 

His brows raised in surprise then narrowed. I was right, he did not know.

"Since when?"

"I think it was the guqin, this all started when I cut my finger and spilled blood on the guqin." Thankfully time had passed and he couldn't notice that my finger had healed perfectly since then.

His hands pressed firmly onto my spine as he closed his eyes. 

"Can you get rid of it?" I asked, feeling nervous at the prolonged silence.

"No, I need the blood of whoever cast it."

I sighed, nervous at the idea of ghosts coming at me.

"Don't worry, the dead won't come near you so long you're beside me or within the clan," he reassured me, his voice finally softening. As if this information finally eased the distrust in his heart. Thankfully I came up with the excuse of Lixin being a Taoist.

Still, guilt tore at me inside. I should come clean right? I should tell him that his Zhiyue was dead and I was in her place. That I was an immortal who had once been married to the soul inside that man and now Lixin.

Yet, they had been in the same room and Lixin had done nothing, only played a stupid trick. It appeared his murderous intent had lessened. Should I really expose all this to him now?

Lost in thought, I barely noticed him leaving the back seat to start the car again.