Zero got off the skiff, stood with his back to the gate, and placed the things in his hands beside the stone lion.
He lit another cigarette and lowered his head to stare at the faint red glow at his fingertips.
Zero thought, 'I'll stay alive.'
Eric was just an ordinary child, one whose age wasn't even a fraction of Zero's.
For him to reach this point... was already incredible.
To save him, he had done everything he could.
Then what reason did Zero have to die?
He wasn't the type of adult who could calmly enjoy the sacrifices of a younger generation.
Even if Eric was too emotional, too kind...
Zero would never harshly criticize or deny a child's decision.
People only belittle and deny the value of an item when bargaining, trying to spend the least possible cost to obtain it.
The same applied to people.
When others belittled someone, it was to reduce the price they had to pay.
But when someone denied themselves, what was it for?
Zero did not need praise from others, nor did he care about slander.
He did not need to investigate the Aeons' motives.
As long as he had value.
As long as he was still a "higher-dimensional invader."
Then he and the Aeons could continue getting along peacefully and harmoniously.
Zero stood with his back to the gate, lowering his head as he watched the cigarette burn down bit by bit. Even after the final spark died out, he still maintained the same posture.
Zero did not move. After a long while, he picked up the takeout bag and gift bag, turned around, and walked toward the gate.
Of course he knew Xianzhou people could pay using jade abacuses.
The jade abacus was made by Marty. Payment was only one of its simplest functions.
As Zero entered the password, he reflected on himself.
He had never held prejudice against subordinates because of gender or age. He would even loosen standards appropriately.
For example, Daiyang.
Forget dating eight people at once... As long as she didn't date one person eight times at the same time, Zero could accept it.
His requirements were very simple.
As long as it wasn't illegal, everything was negotiable.
He was so tolerant toward his subordinates, so how could he demand Jingliu follow the stereotypical image people had of women?
Wouldn't that be too harsh on Jingliu?
How could this be Jingliu's problem?
She was a Cloud Knight. After entering the military camp, the first thing she learned was obedience to military orders.
Jingliu clearly separated public and private matters. She had never told Zero any intelligence from within the Cloud Knights.
Now, Jingliu merely wanted to propose to him.
Was there a problem? No problem.
It was neither illegal nor against moral boundaries.
He and Jingliu were the closest of partners.
Shouldn't he tolerate everything about Jingliu?
Zero stood at the door thinking for a long time, yet he still had not finished entering the six-digit password.
His finger hovered over the final button for a long while without pressing it.
But no matter how much he delayed, it was useless.
Being proposed to by Jingliu... he still could not accept it.
Forget it. Just treat him as an overly controlling narcissist.
He would propose to Jingliu again later. Rounded up, that would make them even.
Zero let out a deep sigh, stopped hesitating, pressed the button, and opened the door.
His courtyard was no different from when he left yesterday.
That meant it was inside the house.
Zero unconsciously slowed his steps.
After only a few steps, Jingliu appeared in his sight while holding Jade.
Zero, "..."
Logically speaking, he knew nothing about Jingliu's plan.
Jingliu said she had not fed Jade, so Zero should have come to feed the cat.
Now Jingliu was here...
Zero carried the bags and quickly walked over, using his free hand to rub Jade's head.
He smiled at Jingliu and was just about to say something when her expression turned serious.
Zero thought for a moment and attributed it to the two cigarettes he had smoked earlier.
"Does the smoke smell strong? I'll go change clothes."
Jingliu gently shook her head.
"It's not very strong. No need to change."
Jingliu put down Jade, took Zero's hand, and pulled him inside.
The lights in the house were not on.
Zero subconsciously tightened his grip on the hand beside him.
The two passed through the entrance hall and arrived at the living room, where everything suddenly brightened.
The most eye-catching thing was an object in the corner almost reaching the ceiling, wrapped in light strips and shaped exactly like a cake.
Beside it was a huge bouquet of blue peonies.
The living room lights were off, and the room was dim. Aside from the light source, only a few candles had been placed around.
Every layer was wrapped with ribbons matching the color of the materials.
Every few layers, blue flowers decorated it.
Zero stared at it for a long time before barely recognizing the raw materials used to make the cake.
Credits.
A thirty-layer cake tower made from credits rolled into tube shapes and arranged together.
Zero had handed out countless checks, but rarely handled cash.
He fell silent for a moment before saying, "...This is the first time I've seen this many credits."
Jingliu stared at Zero's side profile. Under the lighting, the mole at the corner of his eye looked less distinct.
She softly said, "Me too."
Zero sighed inwardly.
What should come would always come.
He asked, "When did you prepare this?"
Jingliu replied, "Three system hours ago."
Zero sighed.
"So it was Dan Feng again..."
Only Dan Feng knew his location.
After pausing for a moment, he asked again, "Why did you... give me credits?"
Jingliu curled her lips.
"That's a long story."
Back when the two had not started dating, Jingliu met an online user on the forums named "AAA Luofu Flowers 24h Delivery."
That day, she spent one hundred thousand patrol talons.
Very quickly, Jingliu forgot about the matter.
It was only after receiving the marriage certificate issued by the Geoheart Company and taking marriage leave with it that she remembered the expense.
Better now than later. She might as well use it today.
Jingliu contacted that online user. After seeing photos of all kinds of flowers, she found herself at a loss and had to ask other friends for help.
She and her friends picked for a long time before finally deciding on peonies as the main flower.
One hundred thousand patrol talons could buy nearly ten thousand peonies.
Thankfully, Zero's door was wide enough and the living room large enough to fit a skiff, as well as a bouquet requiring several people to wrap their arms around it.
Jingliu originally wanted to spend all the patrol talons directly, but there was not enough time. Even having workers come to Zero's house to arrange the bouquet would take seven or eight system hours.
So she settled for second best, ordered nearly a thousand peonies, and followed Dan Feng's suggestion of exchanging the remaining patrol talons for credits to make the cake tower.
Afterward, Jingliu dug out the forging tools Yingxing had previously given her. After hammering away for a long while, she picked out the ring she was most satisfied with from among many options.
Then, she started packing her luggage.
Before the two met, Zero had already seen all kinds of people with all kinds of personalities.
He traveled with subordinates and laughed together with friends and family.
That was a past Jingliu could never participate in.
Jingliu used to think lifespan was the huge gap separating them.
The comrades around her age either died on the battlefield or fell into mara-struck madness.
After learning the truth, for one brief moment, she felt regretful. Regretful that they had not met earlier.
But it didn't matter.
She would travel alongside Zero.
Zero once told Zandar that he did not want to stay here.
He also once told Jingliu that he was close to immortal, but might still die someday like a short-life species.
Then she would use this marriage leave to take him away from the Luofu.
To strive, within their limited time, to see more scenery with her lover and create memories belonging only to them.
The moment Jingliu saw Zero, she decisively abandoned the draft she had revised over and over.
In her memory, the number of times Zero smoked could be counted on one hand.
Was he unhappy?
Because she acted first and informed him afterward?
Or because... he guessed she planned to propose?
Zero had always followed rules strictly and refused to cross the line before marriage.
Now that the two had already registered and gotten married, then...
Skipping the proposal step should be fine, right?
Jingliu held Zero's hand in return.
"Happy birthday."
Zero widened his eyes, seeming very surprised.
Jingliu pretended not to understand, "What's wrong?"
Zero opened his mouth. After a moment, he only said, "Nothing..."
Jingliu pulled Zero over to the sofa, and the two sat down.
Her gaze landed on the cake tower in the corner.
Jingliu calmly said, "This is your birthday gift."
"I asked Dan Feng. He said you definitely haven't seen cash before."
"I did think about using patrol talons."
She paused almost imperceptibly before continuing, "It's just... the result probably wouldn't look very good, so I chose credits in the end."
Zero placed the takeout bag and alcohol onto the table in front of them.
Following Jingliu's thoughts, he imagined it for a moment.
If credits were replaced with sharp-edged patrol talons...
It would be like using bullets to make a cake tower.
It really did feel strange.
Zero looked directly into Jingliu's eyes.
"This is a... very novel gift."
"I really like it."
Jingliu raised a brow.
"Really? Before, when I gave you Abundance abominations, you also said they were very special."
Zero sighed inwardly.
He had played too many word games.
In Jingliu's eyes, he had no credibility at all.
"I really do like it."
He seriously said, "I previously... didn't see much cash. What I dealt with most were checks."
Jingliu, "..."
Right. How could a Xianzhou Marshal possibly use cash?
Zero had given her many precious gifts before, jewelry, property, and even on ordinary days he would bring her flowers.
Although Jingliu was Sword Champion and could barely count as upper management on the Luofu even before receiving the gaze of the Reignbow Arbiter...
Compared to her lover, who previously held an even higher position, there was a huge gap between her imagination and reality.
Like a farmer imagining the emperor using a golden hoe.
Jingliu uncontrollably recalled the gifts she had given Zero.
First were the severed limbs of Abundance abominations.
Because of that gift, Diviner Xiao Lin deeply misunderstood her.
After getting drunk, she and Zero fought for several system hours.
Next came patrol talons.
But Zero did not lack patrol talons.
Later, Jingliu delivered food to Zero and somehow got caught in internal Vidyadhara conflicts. Right after eating, she got poisoned.
In her panic, she even chopped down Zero's front door.
Then came a peach blossom branch, a pair of gloves, a flower crown, a handmade ring...
And finally, the proposal ring she gave Zero.
One she bit out herself.
Jingliu, "..."
If their genders were reversed, weren't they exactly like characters from a storybook?
A poor, violent young punk tricked away a wealthy young lady of high status and generous spending without spending a single coin.
No, she was even worse than a punk.
At least the punk had a straw-woven ring.
If this got posted on the interstellar forums, she would probably get cursed out for thousands of pages.
Jingliu blanked out for a moment. When she raised her eyes again, she met Zero's gaze directly.
The room was dim. Under the lighting, his features looked softer and softer.
Those eyes were gentle and calm, as though nothing in the world could shake him in the slightest.
Until he looked at her.
A lake silent for thousands of years stirred because of her.
Zero shifted his gaze and, using the candlelight meant to create atmosphere, examined Jingliu's hair.
He could not find the trace of blue Hui Feng mentioned, so he gave up and looked toward Jingliu's face instead.
As the saying goes, beauty looks even better under lamplight.
Zero blinked slowly.
After staring for a while, he asked, "Jingliu, why do you like me?"
"When did it start?"
Jingliu's gaze moved from his brows and eyes to the mole at the corner of his eye, stayed there for a while, and finally landed on his opening and closing lips.
She thought, 'So what if I'm a punk.'
'I already tricked him into my hands anyway.'
'We're already married, so what's there to be shy about?'
The bit of embarrassment Jingliu originally felt instantly disappeared.
She reached out and gently rubbed Zero's cheek, deliberately using a frivolous tone to say something straight out of a romance story, "Love at first sight."
Zero looked helpless. He raised his hand and covered the back of Jingliu's hand, stopping her from continuing to pinch and rub his face.
Jingliu pulled her hand back and let it rest at his collar.
Seeing he still looked determined to question her further, Jingliu still did not change her answer.
"It really was love at first sight."
Zero knew he would not get a proper answer, so he could only go along with it.
"Alright, alright. Love at first sight."
The moment he finished speaking, he suddenly felt a chill at his chest.
When he lowered his head again, Zero's expression froze.
He stopped Jingliu's movement.
"Wait..."
Jingliu ignored him, held his face, and kissed him.
Cloud Knights underwent all kinds of harsh training.
When first entering the military camp, everyone had to change training uniforms more than ten times in a single day.
Jingliu slightly pulled away. Her lips first landed between his brows, then on the mole near his eye.
Zero felt each other's breathing.
The places Jingliu kissed seemed to turn burning hot as well.
Zero could not say a word for a long while.
In his imagination, this kind of intimacy... should only happen after the wedding.
He was extremely conservative regarding intimate relationships, yet he also deeply understood that he had an extremely bad side to himself.
For example, waiting for Jingliu to take the initiative and voice her desires.
But now, she had taken the initiative.
From registering their marriage to this kiss, Jingliu had always been the one taking action first.
Because Jingliu mistakenly believed she would become mara-struck like other Xianzhou people.
For the first time in a long while, Zero fell into confusion.
He had originally never wavered.
Before parting, Hui Feng had advised him.
Told him he should allow himself to make mistakes.
Then... should he make a mistake?
Or tell Jingliu the truth?
How should he say it?
Tell Jingliu that she might become an immortal monster like him?
That someday, she might be unable to live or die?
Zero forcibly pulled himself out of his thoughts, lowered his eyes, and tightly embraced Jingliu.
He softly said, "Jingliu, we still have a very long time ahead of us."
Jingliu only treated it as comfort from her lover.
She absentmindedly thought, 'Forgot something.'
The thing her colleague from the Ten Lords Commission gave her had been left at home.
Jingliu pressed her lips against Zero's neck.
Once again, she felt her lover's body stiffen.
Jingliu's movements paused, and she stiffly lowered her eyes.
It was here.
She blankly stared at the neck before her, completely free of wounds, subconsciously wanting to reach out and touch it.
Jingliu suddenly pulled back her hand.
She heard herself ask, "Does it hurt a lot?"