My Wife Is A PrincessChapter 8: Fruit of LongevityThe muddly-yellow incandescent light shook on the ceiling, the light bright a moment then dim the next. The zi zi sounds of electricity still echoed from time to time.
A black smoke carrying the distinctive smell of burnt leather drifted inside the living room, making it difficult for people to restrain their harsh-sounding coughs.
The sofa had already been scorched until only the slightly budging skeleton frame was left. The cloth had charred to a black charcoal and broke into ashes. The blackish wooden frame was bared, and the springs bounced up and down, having lost their supports and the weight pushing down on them.
Li Luyou was still lying on the sofa, smoky black. It seemed he’d suddenly changed his ethnicity…He, coming from Africa, was a black man.
His hair had been burned bare, black ashes from the broken cloth crowding on his scalp. His eyebrows were still there fortunately, but the clothes on his body had already turned one by one into hanging strips of cloth. His pair of running shoes he’d worn for more than three years had been definitely wiped out, the soles melted. The exposed feet seemed especially white at this time.
Li Luyou couldn’t make sense of his current situation. He could only feel the springs painfully p.r.i.c.king into his b.u.t.t, so he leaped up, feeling a burst of painful stings from the scorching burns. But it made him understand very clearly that he absolutely didn’t suffer from any serious injury. There hadn’t been any trace of stiffness in his movements just now when he’d bounced up; he was still as lively and well as before.
"This is more like how an aboriginal should look." Annan Xiu stood in front of the sofa, her appearance still that of someone with a very irascible temper. She watched Li Luyou full of anger.
"My G.o.d…" Li Luyou understood he might have wronged Annan Xiu. She hadn’t been intent on causing his death, but now he had other things to worry about rather than apologizing to Annan Xiu. The entire room was already beyond recognition.
The sofa was thoroughly sc.r.a.pped, the television, the satellite decoder, the fridge… He hurriedly ran to the kitchen. The microwave oven, the pressure cooker, and the electric stove were all smoking.
Li Luyou pushed open the door to his own bedroom, filled with desperation. Unsurprisingly, his treasured computer he’d painstakingly saved for after working in the computer market was already waste.
"Annan Xiu!" Li Luyou almost roared as he charged out. He could turn a blind eye to the rest, but the movies, pictures, comics, novels, and doc.u.ments he’d collected for so many years had all been destroyed.
"Ah, the popsicles melted."
So said Annan Xiu with much regrets as she opened the fridge.
"Popsicles… Popsicles… " Li Luyou quivered in anger. "Annan Xiu, you hurry to go the h.e.l.l back, you just leave at once immediately right now!"
"Don’t you wonder why you’re still fine when those things are all broken?" Annan Xiu felt happier the more she saw Li Luyou stamp with rage, the unconcerned expression on her face like whispers of clouds and light breezes.
"Can I still be called fine?" Li Luyou had almost become a human bomb about to explode under the little girl’s provocations.
"Idiot."
Li Luyou saw the little girl’s contemptuous expression and gradually calmed down. Right, how could he be still fine. His own clothes were already shredded to pieces like this, but there wasn’t the slightest trace of injury on his body. Earlier he still had some painful feeling from the uncomfortable burn, but now he’d already entirely returned to normal.
Li Luyou lowered his head and looked at himself, then very quickly discovered the rest of the differences. He originally had a four-pack on his abdomen, now it seemed to have doubled. His chest bulged; now he was a man with a gully between his pecs. There was even less of a need to mention the outlines of the muscles on his arms and thighs.
It seemed like this body wasn’t his. Li Luyou subconsciously commanded his body to do a few motions, but the body turned out to be entirely under his control.
This line of sight also seemed a little wrong, He was already tall to begin with, but now it seemed he was a few centimeters taller again. Annan Xiu seemed even tinier when he lowered his head to look at her.
He could feel his body br.i.m.m.i.n.g with strength. He could burst out with an energy he didn’t even dare to imagine in usual times with just a raise of the hand or a lift of the foot.
Annan Xiu was still ignoring him. She ran to the balcony to breathe fresh air. At present this room was really not a place for a human to stay in.
Li Luyou followed her there. Who let him lose his cool and misunderstand her.
"In fact… You could have resisted as soon as I became angry…" Li Luyou said awkwardly.
"At that time the medicine pill was in the middle of transforming your body. You couldn’t have endured my attack, and it’d have caused some unpredictable injuries." Annan Xiu’s eyebrows shot up, her cheeks crimson. Li Luyou seemed to be talking about her intentionally letting him hit her b.u.t.t. "But don’t you go imagining I suffered this wronging for your sake, you’re just still useful to me, that’s all. I’ll first note this account down!"
"You first tell me about this matter…"
Li Luyou felt that Annan Xiu was also in the wrong. She’d precisely wanted to see the sight of Li Luyou in discomfort and fright. She’d definitely never thought that an aboriginal like Li Luyou would actually dare to carry this elder princess of the Annan imperial house like a sandbag and throw her on the sofa once angry. Then he’d even hit her a.s.s.
How would she be able to preserve the majesty of a senior princess if this thing were to spread back to the Annan imperial house? Annan Xiu already made the decision to absolutely never let Li Luyou come into contact with other people from the Heavenly Clouds Divine Realm.
"This is the second greatest insult I’ve ever suffered, you just wait." Annan Xiu’s little cheeks were still flush with the pink halo from resentment, her teeth itching in hate.
"What’s the first?" Li Luyou asked with great curiosity. He hurriedly changed the subject when he saw the lightning on Annan Xiu’s hands. "Let’s go eat outside, today I’ll take you to eat something good."
They couldn’t stay inside the room for now. Li Luyou took Annan Xiu to a luxurious restaurant nearby after a quick wash. All this time during, Li Luyou had thought that he was already striving very hard and very magnanimously by willingly providing a.s.sistance to the Annan Xiu who held enmity toward Earth, so he’d never thought about acting like a host. Only today did he get the idea about giving her a nice treat for once.
Annan Xiu looked at the pictures and picked her dishes. Li Luyou’s mind wasn’t very focused on eating and he asked in a quiet voice, "What did you really give me to eat?"
"Fruit of Longevity."
"Ah, can you live forever and stay eternally young after eating it?" Li Luyou dared to imagine anything and everything when he was with Annan Xiu. The Heavenly Clouds Divine Realm was no doubt a world of legends the way he saw it, and it wouldn’t be surprising if it had things that made you live forever and stay eternally young after you ate them.
"Can’t." Annan Xiu rolled her eyes at him.
"Then what’s the use, why call it this name?" Li Luyou was greatly disappointed. He was pretty afraid of death. There was such beauty in the world when he thought about it. His eyes would just close after death, and he wouldn’t be able feel anything any longer even if the whole universe were to be annihilated. It was scary just thinking about it.
"The Fruit of Longevity is a medicine pill purified from the outer sh.e.l.l of the Fruit of Life. It has great benefits for strengthening and invigorating the body, and it indeed has the effect of prolonging life. In the Heavenly Clouds Divine Realm, ordinary people have a lifespan between three to five hundred years, while the imperial clan’s lifespan is above a thousand years. This is all due to the effects of the Fruit of Longevity." Annan Xiu said with some impatience, as if something like the Fruit of Longevity wasn’t worth mentioning for her.
"Be a bit more casual… can you give me one of those Fruit of Longevity?" Li Luyou wasn’t someone who liked to open his mouth and ask something of someone else, so he was a little embarra.s.sed, but he couldn’t not ask. Something that could make people live three hundred years! It was enough to make anyone’s heartbeat frantic probably. It wasn’t for himself that Li Luyou wanted another one. He even hadn’t had time yet to carefully savor the joy of being able to live three hundred years.
"Wait until you fully absorb the medicinal effects of this Fruit of Longevity. I’ll think about whether to give you one after that…" Annan Xiu then thought just after speaking that he’d offended her just then, and now she’d still promised to give him another Fruit of Longevity. Would he be thinking she was treating him pretty well? Annan Xiu hurried to add, "I gave you the Fruit of Longevity only to make it easier for you to perform better in your duties as an attendant."
Annan Xiu looked at Li Luyou. The expression in his eyes were pretty full of happiness and grat.i.tude. She couldn’t help but humph. What a loser, just a Fruit of Longevity was enough to bribe him.
Li Luyou was actually thinking, it seemed he had to treat Annan Xiu really well in the future. Worthy of a princess from the Heavenly Clouds Divine Realm, she really had a lot of good stuff… Only, where did those things come from? Her two hands were empty the first time he’d seen her, and there hadn’t been any pocket on her palace clothes either. But apart from clothes, it seemed she also had more than one of these Fruits of Longevity lying around. Where were these things stored?
Li Luyou stopped himself before going too far and didn’t ask too many questions. He picked an additional sweet dessert for Annan Xiu despite his tight economic situation.
What Li Luyou had chosen for himself was Italian spaghetti, a tiny portion of it. He finished it in three or two mouthfuls, then he sat there and savored the changes of his body. He was actually able to very easily bend the knife and fork, then straighten them again.
"Puerile." Annan Xiu humphed in contempt, then cut the beef, eating it one small mouthful after another.
Li Luyou flattered, "The first time I went to a western restaurant, I kept poking the knife and fork on the plate and banged them really loud." It was the first time Annan Xiu had come to a western restaurant, but she didn’t show the slightest bit of unfamiliarity or lack of adaptability. She’d mastered the basic ways of using tableware by herself after a few casual glances.
"I’m not you anyway." Annan Xiu thought it was a matter of course. Making banging sounds was rude no matter where you ate.
"Does it taste good?"
"Better than the things you make. We’ll come back often in the future." Annan Xiu had entirely no appet.i.te for those things Li Luyou made.
"Ok, we’ll come often." LI Luyou’s smile was a little forced. Alas, didn’t he have to carefully serve her for the sake of the Fruit of Longevity? It was only that he had to think of ways to make money now, and he also didn’t know if the things at home could be repaired or not. Otherwise he’d need to spend another great stack of money on the sofa, fridge, television, microwave oven… If he gave private lessons as a tutor, just what year and what month would he be able to reach his goal? Li Luyou was unceasingly distressed.