Fairy Emperor’s POV

Jin was pretending to sleep as the morning sun cast it’s glow through the windows, its rays slowly sneaking near his bed. As long as his wife wasn’t up to any of her extremely pleasant tricks, he would wake up; without fail, the moment the sun’s light hit the mountains. If there was nothing better to do, he’d get up immediately, but usually, there was something better to do. Currently, that “something” was lying next to him.

When he looked at his sleeping wife, two images overlapped. The primary image was from his human eyes, and the secondary image was from his spirit. He called this secondary image “spirit sight” and it was always visible. Jin could lessen or strengthen his spirit sight at will. Due to his nature as an ancient mountain spirit, he could never remove it entirely. Not that he was interested in doing so.

He liked to see the world the way his wife saw it though, so he often kept his spirit sight as weak as possible. But if something caught his interest, his spirit sight would automatically strengthen so he could “see” it more clearly.

Right now he was interested in his wife, so he subconsciously focused on her with his spirit sight. Human souls were very honest, regardless of what came out of the humans mouth. It was easy for him to tell what they were thinking or feeling.

For instance, when his wife was happy her spirit would shimmer like moonlight on water. But when she was sad her spirit would grow dull, like a thick fog he couldn’t see through. When she was resting and not thinking of anything, such as right now, her spirit would lightly glow to the rhythm of her breathing.

Even if he wasn't touching her, he could feel a pleasant heaviness emanating from her spirit that was rare in humans. Typically human spirits were weak, frail things that gave the impression that bumping into them might cause them to shatter. But his wife had never been pitiable like other humans. Even as a child her spirit had an unusual durability.

This was why he’d been willing to heal her when she was a child. Healing required his spirit directly touch the thing that was hurt. Without his Sister’s guidance, he lacked the finesse required for such delicate work. If the thing he touched was too fragile, there was a real chance he’d cause a greater injury or crush it instead of saving it.

But his wife was tough. Even if he was clumsy and rough, her spirit didn’t break. If anything, his touches seemed to further solidify her spirit, making it even more resilient. Observing this, he’d carefully pushed more and more of himself around her.

He could still remember how surprised he’d felt touching a human spirit for the first time and finding it… pleasant. As someone who spent eons being antagonistic towards humans, discovering he liked the feel of one had come as quite a shock. He spent a lot of time puzzling over this peculiarity and was only just coming to terms with it when she left the mountain.

Her leaving shouldn’t have meant anything, her existence was barely a flicker in his long life after all. Yet it had been so irritating and disappointing when she left! He spent two years flipping between mopping that she was gone and being angry at himself for mopping over it. She was just a human, she barely even existed, who cared where she was or what she was doing?

Then she came back. And no matter how he wanted to deny it, he was almost delirious in his relief and joy that she’d willingly returned. Suddenly it didn’t matter why he liked her, it just mattered that she was back and he could reach out and touch her whenever it pleased him.

He’d suffered through one terrible separation, he wasn’t sure he could go through a second one and remain sane. If he lost his mind, would his deer survive? Unlikely. So he reasoned he definitely couldn’t have her leaving a second time. He clearly had to keep her in the mountains, make it so she never left. For the deer’s sake.

This kind of flimsy rationalization now made him laugh.

He was glad he became human. Not only did it make it easier for him to understand his wife, but it also made it easier for her to understand him. Amazingly, the human body adapted extremely well to having an alien spirit stuffed inside it. Without any effort on his part, everything he thought and felt was naturally translated into the human equivalent. And also the reverse was true, what he felt as a human was naturally translated into something his spirit could understand.

Even though his base dislike of humans hadn’t lessened much, he had to admit the human body was impressive in this regard. Its adaptability seemed to extend beyond the purely tangible and affect the spiritual. He theorized this adaptability was the primary reason he was able to change.

If his Sister were here--

But it was better not to think in that direction.

Thinking about his Sister always left him feeling distressed. He reached out and placed a hand lightly on his wife’s head, rubbing his thumb across her forehead as he did.

His spirit reached out through his hand and touched her spirit. He was careful to be gentle so that he didn’t wake her up. The texture of her spirit helped him relax, somewhat relieving the mental knot that his Sister’s perpetual absence caused him.

His wife felt similar to touching silk, very smooth with a chill to it. The coolness felt soothing to his blazing spirit and he wished he could wrap himself up in her like an actual silk sheet. Unfortunately, his spirit was much too large and her spirit, being human-sized, too small for that to ever be a possibility. He had to satisfy himself with rubbing against her when he had the chance.

Thinking in that direction, he stopped stroking his wife’s head and scooted closer and snuggled up against her with an unabashed crafty look on his face. She mumbled something unintelligible, his movement having woken her slightly. He tensed, wondering if she’d wake up, but then she sighed and dug deeper into his embrace.

Truthfully, doing this was naughty and he knew it was naughty. After smothering her spirit for years, he’d unintentionally stunted her spiritual growth. In retrospect, he’d been a fool to think a mountain-sized spirit could bear down on a tiny human spirit indefinitely with no consequences. When he’d been told his behavior was harmful, naturally he backed off.

Especially after she came out of the coma, he’d made sure to be careful and never touch her spirit unless she initiated. Even if she was doing much better than a normal human would under the same circumstances, he still felt the need to be cautious.

But then she’d fully recovered from the poison. The cultivation she’d developed in her Core World had been completely absorbed into her body. Without his constant overbearing pressure, her spirit had room to grow. It had strengthened ten times over, condensing and fortifying itself over and over again.

For a time he’d felt guilty for having unintentionally stunted her growth for all those years. When he saw her recovering smoothly, he’d felt relieved that no permanent damage was done. Truly, his wife had an indomitable spirit!

Then he’d felt very very tempted.

He had no idea how to explain in human terms just how intensely attractive his wife was becoming by the simple act of strengthening and solidifying her spirit. After all “thickness” was not usually associated with beauty in the human mind. But it was very beautiful! And then, as if to make matters worse, his spirit sense was overlapping with human desire, making everything ten times worse!

What was he supposed to do? Nothing? Did he look dead?! No, no, he definitely couldn’t keep himself to himself. That wasn’t happening!

Thus he rationalized that, as long as he didn’t overdo it, small spurts of closeness wouldn’t cause any harm. A little rub here, a little cling there, ought to be fine. As the years passed he would take any opportunity he could find to do just that. When his wife didn’t seem to notice and no adverse side effects appeared, he stopped feeling guilty all together and became whole-heartedly shameless in his behavior.

He probably could have let her know what he was doing a while ago and not got into trouble. She was strict about him keeping a distance, but not unreasonable. After all, when they rolled in the sheets there wasn’t even the tiniest gap between them. But he rather enjoyed the thrill of being sneaky and kept putting off his confession.

There was a shift in his wife’s breathing and a flicker in her spirit, indicating she was waking up. Reluctantly he pulled his spirit away, just enough so he wasn’t pressing on her anymore.

Mei blinked blearily a few times, rubbing her eyes and yawning. When she realized she was being held, she looked up at him and smiled. Her spirit shimmered happily, proving the smile wasn’t just for show.

“Good morning.” She greeted lazily.

He kissed her forehead. “Good morning, Mountain Flower.”

She gave a big stretch and sat up. The moment the covers fell off she gave an intense shiver.

“Ah!” She pulled the covers back over her body and scooted close to him. “It’s so cold!”

“It snowed last night,” He chuckled.

Her eyes lit up. Since she didn’t have to hunt for food anymore, she rather enjoyed the snow.

Then she frowned and glared at him. “Don’t think I’m going to stay here and snuggle with you just because our room is freezing.”

“Aw, I was found out...”

“How many times have you done this? Of course I’d be on to you!” She poked him and then laughed, “I’ve got things to do today, Jin. And so do you. We really can’t.”

“Tch.” He flicked his finger half-heartedly, causing the room to slowly warm-up. “I don’t see why we’ve got to live by other people’s schedules.”

“Don’t be like that.” She hugged him tightly while waiting for the room to get to a decent temperature. “If we don’t let dignitaries from other countries meet us, how will we make any alliances and treaties?”

He grunted, putting on a face of annoyance while enjoying her embrace. The reason he used the “cold room” ploy in the winter so frequently was that it had a high probability of working and, even when it didn’t, he still got a few extra cuddles in before she started her day.

“Even if you say so, it’s still a bother.”

“Hn, I know it’s tiring, especially for you... but I get to show you off to other people.” She grinned cheekily, “So I won’t feel guilty.”

He laughed at her obvious ego-stroking. Though she wasn’t being entirely serious with her comment, she wasn’t exactly lying either.

When he impressed people and they spoke well of him, her spirit would shine more intensely than if she had been complimented directly. When people spoke poorly of him, her whole spirit would droop in disappointment. Not many were stupid enough to insult him behind his back, much less to his wife’s face, so he didn’t often see her drooping. But both reactions were adorable.

“Alright, it’s warm enough now.” He let her go, himself getting out of bed without further dawdling. There was no point in staying in his bed if she wasn’t going to be next to him.

Regardless of who came to visit, they had a set morning routine they did. It only changed slightly depending on the weather: practice their martial arts, get cleaned up, and then have breakfast. Today was no different.

After breakfast, he sauntered towards the Palace’s Front Court at a leisurely pace. It was his philosophy to never hurry to official functions, lest the people waiting get the idea they were actually important to him.

He’d only just left his own courtyard when he sensed two people following him. They were having a whispered conversation.

“Ninth Brother, will this really work?”

“Heh, it’ll definitely work this time. Second Brother said we keep failing because we’re too predictable.”

“...predictable…”

“That’s right, so this time we’ll wait for him to cross over to the Front Court--”

‘Oh? Yan Li most certainly didn’t mean for you to take your pranks out where the public can see and will definitely deny any culpability.’ Jin thought in amusement.

“--then I’ll come attack from the top and you attack from the side. Remember that move First Brother showed you last week?”

“Yeah!”

‘I see the Brat is using his siblings to inflict mischief on this Imperial Father’s body while he’s away. Again.’

“SH! You want him to hear us?”

‘Too late, much too late.’

“Sorry…”

“Anyway, make sure you use that one.” There was a pause, “He’s almost there, let’s split up. From the side, okay? Remember!”

His ninth and tenth son then split up, the twelve-year-old jumping on to the roof and making his way to the gate that separated the Back and Front Courts. The six-year-old ran near the inner parts of the walls that split up the Back Courts into smaller courtyards and gardens.

Since the tenth son was still small and he was following the walls, it was taking him longer to get to their end destination. Being a considerate father, Jin slowed his stride even further to give his youngest time to catch up with him.

The Back and Front Courts were divided by a five foot thick wall that had its own roof. There were three gates to the east, south, and north. The East Front Gate was the largest and where he was currently heading.

Beyond the East Front Gate was the Front Court, where all the official business was conducted. At this moment, it seemed that his Fourth Son, Lu Shao, was giving the visiting nobles and officials a tour. This was almost certainly to distract them from the fact that Jin was very, very late.

Coincidentally, when his sons executed their attack would be at the exact moment the visitors would turn a corner and get a full view of the East Front Gate.

As he stepped through to the other side of the Gate, his sons put their plans into action. The small one hit from the side, somehow managing to do so feet first while spinning, and the older one came down from above. Jin let his body get hit, falling to the ground like a cloth doll.

He had to give Shan Hui credit. If a lesser man had gotten hit with a spinning attack like that, they’d probably be crippled. He’d make sure to compliment his oldest on his excellent taste in attacks. And by “compliment”, he meant to yell at the Brat until his ears fell off.

The two boys were ecstatic at having finally caught him. Usually, he’d just step to the side and avoid any number of pranks they’d set for him. But it was cold outside and they’d tried so hard he just didn’t have the heart to disappoint them.

“Old Man we caught you!”

“Yay! We caught you, we caught you!”

They were still clinging to him as they shouted their victory, eyes shining with expectation. Seeing the look on their faces, he felt a little helpless. They beat him up and now they expected a performance.

He rearranged his features to look angry.

“You brats!” Jin yelled dramatically, brow furrowed and only the slight edge of a smile peeking out of his scowl “How dare you treat your Imperial Father this way?!”

With that, he grabbed whatever body part he could reach and expertly flung them away. As their smaller bodies spun through the air, they shouted “WEEEE!” and landed with a ‘thump’ in the surrounding piles of snow.