Zero's hands paused for a moment, then he touched Jingliu's cheek and stayed bent over as he removed her makeup.
Jingliu laughed to herself.
He was shy.
Anyone without sharp eyes really would have been fooled by Zero.
Jingliu sat where she was and stretched out her arms, trying to wrap them around his neck.
To match her movement, Zero had no choice but to bend down again.
He lowered his eyes and asked, "What is it?"
Jingliu gently stroked the side of his neck.
Over the past several thousand years, Zero had encountered many dangers.
A thousand years ago, he had even suffered an injury to a vital spot.
Even when she kissed his neck, Zero would stiffen.
But now, he was completely relaxed, letting her rest her hand there.
Like Jade.
Taking the initiative to show her its soft belly and allowing her to rub and pet it however she wanted.
Jingliu carefully felt the faint pulse under her hand. Her eyes became gentler and gentler.
"Husband."
She leaned close to his ear and chuckled.
"Your heartbeat is uneven."
The next moment, he picked her up and moved her from the chair onto the dressing table.
Using the table for support, the distance between them shortened. Zero only needed to lower his head slightly to kiss her lips.
His lover's hair was soft and fine. It had been pinned up almost the whole day, and now it had become curly.
She clearly hadn't done anything to it, but it looked like large curls styled by a professional.
Zero raised a hand and tucked the slightly messy strands behind her ear. Then he cupped her face with both hands and kissed her.
Their breathing gradually grew hotter, making Jingliu's face turn red.
She lightly patted his chest, signaling him to stop.
Zero picked up a makeup remover pad from the table and removed the last bit of makeup from her face.
She raised her head slightly, and their noses touched.
Zero understood the feelings in her eyes and froze for a moment.
After a while, he looked into those red eyes that kept drifting away.
She was clearly embarrassed, yet still...
Zero lowered his eyes and complained softly, "You're too much."
Jingliu thought, 'Who's the one being too much?'
Zero was the perfect partner. He never rejected her.
Normally that was fine, but in certain situations, Zero...
Would agree to anything she asked.
At first, he would show different expressions.
But as time passed, he became more and more at ease.
Because of that, Jingliu's bottom line kept retreating, and sometimes she tried to fight back.
But her counterattacks were harmless.
Like a cat lightly biting a finger when it was annoyed, they couldn't make Zero show the reaction or expression she wanted.
Why was it that just a few compliments from Zero would make her completely surrender?
By now, her competitive spirit had overcome her embarrassment.
Jingliu steadied herself, and her eyes stopped wandering.
She reached out, grabbed Zero's collar, and kissed him again.
After a long while, breathing lightly, she asked word by word, "Can't I?"
Zero blinked slowly.
"You can."
He tilted his head slightly and looked at the table beside them, where red candles were also burning.
"But we haven't drunk the wedding wine yet..."
Jingliu, "..."
'You're still thinking about the wedding wine.'
'You did that on purpose, didn't you?'
Then she thought about it. After they started dating, Zero had confessed to her.
After they got their marriage certificate, he even made up for the proposal ceremony.
Zero always followed the proper order and refused to cross the line before marriage.
If Jingliu hadn't used something from the Ten-Lords Commission to handcuff him...
He probably wouldn't have agreed to anything more intimate until after getting the certificate, holding the wedding, drinking the wedding wine, and performing the hair-tying ceremony.
Thinking of this, Jingliu patiently drank the wedding wine with him and picked up the scissors wrapped with red silk to cut off a lock of her curled hair.
She looked at her own curls, then at Zero's hair crown, and became curious.
Jingliu reached out and removed Zero's hair crown.
The result disappointed her.
His hair was the exact opposite of hers. It was thick and stiff. Even after being tied up for half a day, there wasn't the slightest curl.
What if it stayed tied up all day? Would it become curly on its own?
At that moment, the sound of the scissors snapping brought her back.
Zero cut off a strand of black hair and solemnly tied their hair together with a red string.
He lowered his eyes and stared at it for a while before smiling at Jingliu and saying softly, "Now, we're husband and wife."
He pulled Jingliu into his arms and wrapped them tightly around her waist.
"Jingliu..."
———
Incense had been lit in the room beforehand, but compared to the scent of the person in his arms, it was too sweet and too strong.
The smell lingering around his nose was like the autumn wind passing through the hall in late autumn.
Like plants and jasmine in the forest after the rain.
Zero and Jingliu pressed their cheeks together.
He remembered a paper Zandar had sent him before.
A biologist had discovered that smell influenced people's choice of partners to some extent.
Everyone had a unique scent. When someone encountered a scent they liked, they were very likely to be attracted to the person who carried it.
This was a choice made by one's genes.
And long ago, Zero's genes had already chosen Jingliu for him.
He knew himself very well. He had an extremely bad side to him. He wasn't a good person by common standards, much less a normal one.
Zero appreciated the anger enemies displayed when they were close to collapse and death.
He appreciated the smiles his partners had to force because of social obligations.
Even toward people close to him, he held the same attitude, quietly observing all their emotions and expressions.
Would the Luofu Sword Champion, who appeared cold and distant in the eyes of outsiders, reveal more sides of herself to him? Would she take the initiative to tell him what was in her heart?
He had already gotten the answer to the first question.
Yes.
As for the second...
He would have to wait a little longer.
Zero smiled and gently touched Jingliu's soaked eyelashes.
His lover noticed his movement belatedly and glared at him in annoyance.
He buried his head in the crook of her neck, hiding the increasingly deep look in his eyes.
Zero suddenly said, "When you're like this..."
"It's very easy for me to trick you."
Jingliu's unfocused red eyes gradually regained focus.
After a moment, she realized what he meant.
Who? Who are you calling easy to fool?
Once Zero saw how she interrogated serious criminals, he wouldn't say that anymore.
Zero sighed inwardly.
He had already tried very hard to restrain himself.
Otherwise... should they stop here? Continue after going to the bedroom?
If they continued, would Jingliu get angry?
Just as he was thinking this, Jingliu had adjusted her breathing. She lightly patted the hand around her waist and said, "I want to bathe."
After speaking, she noticed that Zero was still fully dressed, except that his collar was slightly messy.
She thought, 'Why?'
Why was she the one constantly losing?
She grabbed Zero's collar and kissed him.
———
This time, Zero changed out of the red clothes.
The two of them went from the bathroom to the bedroom, then from the bedroom back to the bathroom.
Now they were back in the bedroom again.
Jingliu sat in Zero's arms wearing a bathrobe.
His body was the type that looked slim in clothes but well-built without them.
His muscles weren't exaggerated, but he had abs and a V-line. It was the kind of figure most women would like.
Only after touching him personally did Jingliu know what relaxed abs and a V-line felt like.
Very soft.
Jingliu couldn't help but wonder, hadn't Zero stayed up all night for several days in a row?
Who was the Cloud Knight, and who was the Diviner?
Could it be something he had trained at the academy?
After staring at him for a long while, she asked, "What courses did you take when you studied at the academy?"
Zero slowly stopped drying his hair and said, "The academy? The courses were very mixed, very strange."
"Tea ceremony, flower arranging, pottery, knitting, baking... things like that."
Jingliu had never come across such classes when she was studying.
She thought perhaps the academy had changed over the thousand years, but even her disciple had never mentioned such things.
She thought she had heard wrong.
"...Knitting, what's that?"
Zero sighed helplessly.
"Knitting sweaters, scarves, all kinds of strange things..."
Jingliu asked uncertainly, "You can knit scarves?"
Zero slowly shook his head.
"No. I only wanted the credits, so I bought a finished product on the Starnet and handed it in."
Jingliu asked again, "What about flower arranging?"
After thinking about it, Zero said, "The exam was simple. Mostly identifying flowers and making a flower basket within the time limit."
Seeing her interest, he added, "The baking class was making desserts. I only know how to make simple things like chocolate, egg tarts, cookies, and so on..."
After introducing a series of classes, Zero couldn't help sighing.
"Jing Yuan really had good timing."
"By his year, those classes had been canceled."
After saying that, Zero realized something.
Hua, 'Well played!'
'I told you to learn starskiff driving, swimming, and diving, and you made me study flower arranging, knitting, and baking?'
Seeing his increasingly strange expression, Jingliu guessed who the culprit was.
She quickly changed the subject.
"What about physical education? What did you choose?"
Zero naturally continued the topic.
"Xianzhou PE classes are mostly the same. The clubs I chose were swimming, horseback riding, and golf."
"The sport I stuck with the longest was swimming."
"The riding grounds and golf course were too far from the dormitory, so I quit after getting the credits."
Jingliu found it strange.
Zero possessed countless assets. He lacked neither credits nor property near the academy.
"Why did you choose to live in the dormitory?"
Zero brushed aside his half-dry bangs and hesitated.
"That... because..."
"Hua arranged... guardians for me?"
"If something happened at school, they would only say, 'I'll have the bodyguard or nanny pick you up.'"
Jingliu understood immediately.
Who would dare interfere with the former Marshal?
At first, Zero had always thought those two people were strange.
He thought the problem lay with himself.
He thought that after crossing into another world, he couldn't fit into the Xianzhou and couldn't regard those two as his parents.
They rarely met, and Zero had tried getting along with them.
But reality proved that they simply couldn't get along.
So he gave up. After selling his first talisman, he chose to live in the dormitory.
Not long after, the two guardians in name died together, leaving him an enormous inheritance.
At the funeral, Zero felt nothing.
He didn't want to spend their credits, so he earned money by drawing talismans and eventually bought property near the Divination Commission.
After gradually recovering his memories, Zero started using those credits.
Since it had all been Hua's arrangement, he didn't mind.
Looking back now, his time at the academy had been the easiest period in his memory.
Casually taking Jingliu's hair and dividing it into three strands, he braided it while talking about his days at school.
"Eight o'clock was self-study, but the teachers didn't actually supervise us. The first class started at nine. The breaks between classes were long."
"They said it was because they were afraid we'd skip breakfast. After another class, it was lunchtime. In the afternoon there were two more classes, and school ended around three forty-five."
Jingliu, "..."
She was interested in everything about Zero.
She wanted to make up for the past she had missed.
But...
When Jingliu was in school, they had five classes in the morning and three in the afternoon.
Breaks lasted only five minutes.
During those five minutes, they had to carry books and homework to the next classroom.
Before leaving school, there was another PE class or self-study session, and classes didn't end until six.
After six came club activities.
Anyone wanting enough credits to graduate early had to join clubs.
What was this? Was she just unlucky?
Older generations always said that conditions hadn't been so good back then.
Only now did Jingliu truly understand what those words meant.
She asked, "What about Jing Yuan? Was it this easy for him too?"
After finishing one braid, Zero separated another section of hair.
"Not really. I heard their breaks were only five minutes."
Jingliu immediately felt balanced.
So only Zero's year had it easy.
Still, he only had four classes a day and had graduated from the academy two years early and entered the Divination Commission.
Jingliu praised her lover inwardly. Looking down, she found that he had already braided several small braids for her.
As repayment, Jingliu tied up Zero's long hair.
Pinching the tied hair, she said seriously, "You're not allowed to undo it."
If it stayed tied for a day and a night, it should become curly, right?
Looking at his face, she suddenly asked, "Did anyone pursue you?"
Zero froze and said, "Yes."
After answering, he immediately changed the topic.
Jingliu felt sour inside.
Zero never treated admirers as gossip. He never mentioned them to anyone.
She knew she was jealous.
It was unreasonable jealousy, even somewhat inexplicable.
Jingliu reached out and pulled open Zero's bathrobe.
———
The next day, just as the two were about to leave for the vacation planet, Jingliu changed the destination midway and went to the Ten-Lords Commission.
After greeting some members, she skillfully led Zero to the area where serious criminals were held.
Picking up a sword at random, she said before entering the cell, "Didn't you say I'm easy to fool?"
"See for yourself whether I am or not."
Elsewhere, Hua opened every classified location on the Xianzhou to Zero and Jingliu.
As long as they wanted, they could go anywhere.
Then Hua set off on the journey back with a group of guards.
Before she even reached Xuling, she received a message from Tengxiao.
Hua, "..."
On the second day of your marriage, instead of going on your honeymoon...
'You went to the Ten-Lords Commission?'
'What are you doing? Interrogating criminals? Can't you be normal?'
'Then again, if Jingliu were normal, how would the two of them have ended up together?'
Hua laughed dryly a few times.
"They really are... a match made in heaven."