Thirteen: Contract

Focus, Bai Fengjiu, focus, Fengjiu told herself. Among all the 500 men around her, how would she find Dong Hua Dijun?

She scrolled through every moment of their sweet and naughty kisses, and how she had been thrilled by his presence. They had indeed shared a bond, she admitted to herself. She recalled how she had led him on her 'love classes' and realised how she had developed feelings for him, although what she felt for him may not have been love. While being with him, she suddenly found the eagerness to try something: the so-called mortal love that was one's undoing.

"The clock starts now," a male voice, who she assumed to belong to the man in the dark suit. She shuffled through the crowd, picturing the cold god in all his disguises and both his mortal and immortal form, pinning her down, kissing her mercilessly. Was he whom she desired? Then she concentrated on one part of him: his scent. It was one of a kind, resembling sandalwood and yet, his scent was lighter than that of the actual thing. It was distinctive, and out of the other 499 men, not one of them owned a scent like that of the one and only, Dong Hua Dijun.

Dong Hua was relieved when she had stopped close to him, but since it was an act that she had to rely on touching and smelling him closely instead of depending on her immortal sense of smell to locate him from a distance, she stretched her hand out to feel him. It appeared that she had forgotten that even in his mortal disguise, he was close to 2 metres in height. And so, when she reached out to him, she instead grabbed his member instead of his hand. Everyone watching was amused, but she had confidently pointed out, her boyfriend Dong Yang.



Nevertheless, since she was able to identify her 'boyfriend' out of an enormous crowd of men of different shapes and sizes, they were considered to have cleared all the stages and were allowed entry to the actual party. Those who did not pass were only allowed to mingle at the hall outside, while they were welcomed into the inner grounds, which was an inner hall following the outer hall.

"It's a ploy," the god whispered, while not releasing her hand. "The true intention of the demon is to attract a crowd of mortals, then absorb the Yin and Yang. This will cause utter devastation of the human race, and an imbalance of the Yin and Yang."

"How do we stop them?"

"Catch the demon," he explained through another whisper. "I've already notified Liansong and Si Ming through my phone app, and shared with them a QR code linking to the party invitation and location. They will be disguised as a couple as well."

Fengjiu almost choked in disgust while visualising either Liansong or Si Ming dressed as a woman, and them trying to kiss each other. "Is one of them disguised as a woman?" she quickly whispered.

Dong Hua smirked. "You bet."

She hit the side of her head. The woman had better be Si Ming, or Cheng Yu would cry.

"Care to dance?" Dong Hua beckoned, and Fengjiu accepted. He held her close to him as they twirled together on the dance floor, and her heart raced again. The dance ended with him holding her at the waist, and her eyes again fixated on his in a long and deep gaze. This time, she felt butterflies in her stomach, a deep fluttery feeling, and her heart opened up to her feelings.

She had wanted him. She was confused. What if she fell in love with him, the cold god, and the lord of the universe?

As she was distracted, she realised he had pulled her up to her feet. Someone was calling out to her, and then she left to talk to that person.

Xiaoru. Her friend in the past. How was it possible she had not aged since all this while? Her attention was diverted to the man beside her friend. Ye Qingti, the gym owner, who had hit on her before.

He had aged, with white hair. She had not.

Xiaoru whisked her away to a corner to talk, with Qingti following. "Xiaojiu-jie, I have to tell you something," she said, once they were alone. Fengjiu suspected she knew about the demon.

"You must be careful of him," she said. "He's not a common mortal. Even if you are a demon like him, he is of high cultivation and is a danger to all of us." Apparently, Xiaoru didn't know her identity.

Fengjiu was a straightforward person. "How is it you have not aged all this while?"

"I too am a demon," she explained. "I'm a rabbit demon. Along with my sister."

Fengjiu's expression changed. "Why are you here?"

"Lai's my boss, and a good friend of Qingti. I just had to come to make sure he is safe."

"Are you with Qingti now?" Fengjiu asked.

"We're an item. We've been together since you left," she explained. "Although I think he did like you first, it was thanks to you that we ended up marrying."

"Does he know you are..." Fengjiu inquired curiously. To her, love was still very much a mystery.

"Yes. He would die for me, and I would for him," her friend said before they departed. She wished her friend a good blissful life, knowing Qingti, being a mortal, didn't have much longer in his life than the average mortal. The lifespan of a mortal didn't normally go over 105 years. But her friend's word had triggered a sense of curiosity in her mind. She wanted to taste mortal love. It had been ironical that she desired to know what it was like to love, since she had never wanted to be burdened by love in the first place. Maybe Xiaoru's bliss had changed her mind about love, or maybe, she was lonely after seeing all the happy couples out there.

She returned to find Dong Hua being toasted by a lady with an extremely low neckline, and she instantly felt displeased. Without thinking, she strode over, stomping on the floor madly with her boots, and declared, "This man is mine" before dragging him away from the woman's claws.

Dong Hua seemed amused, but maintained his composure and explained that the woman was only attempting to negotiate a business deal.

"She was about to put her claws on you," Fengjiu raged. "It was disgusting, did you even think of your female partner when you allowed another woman-"

He shut her off with a kiss. His right hand wandered to her waist, and held her tight to him. She closed her eyes, and kissed him back tenderly. He was a great kisser, and she was catching up very well, with all the kissing lessons they had been practicing at home. She didn't want to see him with another woman like today.

He completed the kiss, and whispered in her ear, "It's almost time. The lights will turn off as planned, and the demon will feast on every mortal's chi. That will be the exact moment when assistance from the Sky Kingdom will arrive."

"I don't appreciate you talking with that woman," she hissed at him. "When I'm done with the mission, you can be with anyone you want, I don't care. But now, I'm-"

"Your girlfriend, correct?"

He crashed his lips against hers furiously as the lights turned off by themselves, and they couldn't care less as Liansong and the disguised 'female' Si Ming rammed their way into the crowd armed with immortal weapons and torchlights, attacking and winning the day while the cold god and the fox princess were preoccupied with each other.

Finally, the demon was caught and imprisoned in a magical martial weapon of Liansong's, and the rescued human crowd excluding Qingti and Lai Qing, had their memories of the incident wiped and dispersed, returning to where they came from earlier.

"That was fast," a lipstick-marked Dong Hua stated, arising from where he had been rolling on the sofa with Fengjiu in the dark while they had exchanged the wildest of kisses. Liansong and Si Ming traded looks with each other.

"If that's acting, Dijun should really get an award," Si Ming said.

"Priveleged information," Dong Hua stated. "No rumours to be heard outside unless you want an amnesia potion fed to the two of you."

"Roger that," they said and disappeared, likely through the use of a magical transportation weapon.

Back at the now-empty party hall, Fengjiu toasted Dong Hua with what was left of the mortal wine. He commented that she appeared to be a good drinker, since she had downed almost everything and was still sober.

In fact, Fengjiu wasn't sober. Though she could walk and respond to what the cold god was saying, she had no control over what she was saying and just muttered everything out of her mind. If the idiom seventy percent drunk, thirty percent sober applied to her, then she must be at the very last 1% of the 30% to be that intoxicated.

"So, I'm done," Fengjiu said. "I'll be gone by tonight." She hiccuped, and the god had a whiff of her alcohol-filled breath.

"Tell me, what can I do to keep you by my side?" the god inquired. No words could describe how he simply desired her now, especially after how he had felt her petite body on his earlier. Now that she was drunk, she was turning him on even more, so hard that he could feel his own arousal through his pants. Earlier, if not for the other woman present beside his Jiu'er, he would have gone mad about the man with white hair looking at his Jiu'er.

"I.... I don't want to go on any more blind dates. Can Dijun put an end to those dates? I don't like those men. I know Dijun is powerful. He has magic. He can get rid of them all. Stop the dates coming. That's why I escaped to the mortal realm."

He realised she was intoxicated, but yet, her mind was clear.

"Do you know who you are talking to?" he tested her.

"You are, Dong Hua Di Jun, the first emperor, the lord of the universe," she pronounced confidently and clearly. "I know it's in your power to do that."

"Very well," Dong Hua replied with a smirk. "But how can I keep you here in the mortal world?"

"Help me find a way to experience mortal love," she said smartly. "Xiaoru is so happy with Qingti, I want to taste mortal love as well. I won't go back to Qingqiu till I experience what that is. To be able to die for love. To love to the extent of cherishing her over your own life."

She was blurting everything out from her own heart, so seductively that the cold god couldn't resist any more, and since there wasn't anyone else around, he did the one thing that Fengjiu had been wondering why he wouldn't. He used magic to teleport them back to their hotel room, and following that, another spell to flush out the alcohol from her mind.

She was sober once more, and staring at him intensely.

"I agree to your requests," he suddenly said.

"Which one?" Fengjiu demanded.

"All of them."

"What about the mortal love?"

"I can fulfill that for you," he said. "Will you not regret?"

She shook her head. "I want a try at love. I've never experienced it before."

"Let's start from here," he said. "From today onwards, we are mortals in love with each other. No magic, no mission, no title."

She gazed into his eyes quizzically. "Why do you want to do this, Dijun? What do I call you then?"

He knew it was hard for him to admit he liked her and wanted her, and answered, "Dong Yang. We will wed as mortals, and spend 100 days of a mortal marriage contract. After that, you can decide what you want to do."

She leaned in for a kiss from him, and asked him, "But I don't have love for you just yet."

"Do you like it when we kissed for the mission?"

She nodded.

"The mission is over. Now, all that is left is my promise to you, for you to have a chance at experiencing mortal love. We will work together in this, think of it as a journey rather than a mission."

"Where did you learn these lines from? It's rather not like you, You Cold God."

"No god," he smacked her on her hand, and she pouted. "Just Dong Yang."

"Okay, Dong Y-A-N-G." She was acting smart, and he wanted to show her who was smarter.

"From today onwards, I am your love. What are you going to do?" he teased.

"Show me what lovers do in this mortal world." He put his lips on her, and kissed her as intensely as he could, till she was trembling from the waves of passion rousing her, and at that point, she recalled what her aunt had told her. All those erotic stories about love and lust, and how she would get to experience it one day. She had read such erotic novels as a young immortal when her classmates had brought them to the academy, and very soon, she would get to experience them herself.

He lay her down gently on the bed, and carefully peeled off her dress, before revealing to her what she had been keen on seeing all the while. His toned, muscular body. She was quivering with delight to feel him on her, but at the same time, she was a bit jittery about how she would end up feeling. He placed his lips close to her ear, and whispered his promise that she would like it as much as he would, and he would not do anything to hurt her. He really liked her and desired her, but he couldn't admit it to her. He knew if not for the contract, she would probably not want to stay. But at the same time, her desire had been so obvious.

He kissed her forehead, and then slowly moved down to nuzzle her cheeks, before admitting his tongue into her mouth. She allowed him to run his fingers along her bare body, not missing any part of her. He feasted on each sensual moan from her, and after he was convinced she was comfortable with what was to happen next, they both caved in to their sensual desires for each other.

He really wanted her to be his, even if the mortal love was just a starting point. He no longer cared about the bet, or how he was going to be undone by love.

She wouldn't be his undoing, she was so beautiful, so sensual, so adorable. He could see a long future with her. Their future. And with that, his mind was set.