TSMITB Chapter70

The cold wind raged all night, blowing snowflakes scattered everywhere, which finally settled and piled up steadily after much difficulty.

When Shen Que woke up groggily, the space beside him was already empty, leaving only some faint, residual warmth. He rolled around in bed for another half hour before lazily opening his eyes.

The curtains automatically drew to both sides as light broke in from outside, dispelling the darkness of the room. The sun hung high in the sky, the snow had stopped, and thick piles lay everywhere.

Shen Que rubbed his messy hair, propped himself up, and the quilt slid down to his waist, exposing speckles of red marks on his chest.

“Sheng Qixiao.” Shen Que threw back the quilt, got out of bed, and walked naked on the soft carpet, starting to search the whole house for Sheng Qixiao. His inner thighs were still painfully sore, and his waist ached as well; he needed to find the culprit and settle the score.

The door to the walk-in closet was ajar, and rustling sounds came from within.

Shen Que opened the door without hesitation and quickly scanned the room; there was no sign of Sheng Qixiao, but a cabinet door was open, and the source of the sound was there.

“Sheng Qixiao.” Shen Que called out again, and the movement stopped.

Shen Que moved closer to look: clothes that had been neatly hung were knocked askew by a round, black head. As if sensing Shen Que’s approach, the head changed position and turned around.

A pair of light-colored eyes peeked out from between the fabrics, clear and calm, staring unblinkingly at Shen Que.

Shen Que instinctively took two steps back in shock, quickly grabbing a piece of clothing to cover his private parts. After composing himself for two seconds, he looked again at the small face that closely resembled Sheng Qixiao, “Sheng Qixiao?”

The child crawled out of the pile of clothes, covered by an excessively large grey undershirt whose hem nearly reached his ankles. He continued to watch Shen Que with wide eyes while tilting his head.

Shen Que reached out, lifted him out, and placed him on the floor. He pinched the child’s soft cheek, pulled a chair over and sat down, then carefully examined him while making a video call to Ke Di.

It took half a minute before the call was answered. Ke Di’s hoarse voice came through, “What’s wrong? You’re disturbing someone’s sweet dreams in the middle of the day.”

Shen Que didn’t speak, just turned the camera toward the small figure on the floor wrestling with sleeves that were too long.

The face on the video, shrunk down into the small box in the upper right corner, was stunned for a full ten seconds before Ke Di’s sharp, explosive voice came through, “Holy cow, did you suck his blood? Why did he shrink again!”

“…I didn’t exactly suck blood… does ‘gathering yang to nourish yang’ count?” Shen Que also fell silent for a moment, touched the bridge of his nose, and was uncharacteristically sincere.

Ke Di pinched his philtrum, taking a long time to recover, “Can’t you two be a little more restrained!”

“Is this something I can decide?” Shen Que mercilessly tugged and pulled the child’s face, “So what do we do now? You can’t seriously expect me to raise him until he grows up, right? I might already be dead by the time he grows up!”

“…Don’t worry, it’s not that easy for you to die now. I also can’t do anything, you’re on your own!”

“……”

Hanging up the video call, Shen Que scrutinized the little squirt in front of him again, “Why aren’t you talking or moving? Your brain capacity didn’t shrink too, did it? You haven’t become an idiot, right?”

The little squirt gave Shen Que an imperceptible glance, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly as he drew out his words, “I don’t know what to say.”

“So you can talk, you haven’t gone silly then. Do you know who you are? Do you know who I am?” Shen Que tapped his forehead with a finger, smoothing the stray hairs on his cheeks behind his ears.

The little squirt shook his head.

“Your name is Sheng Qixiao.” Shen Que patted his head again, stood up to look down at him, and smiled mischievously, “I am Shen Que, and I am… your father. Come on, call me Daddy, let me hear it.”

“?” Little Sheng Qixiao looked up and slowly clenched his fists.

Seeing his eyes widen, Shen Que found bullying the child really amusing, especially since this child was Sheng Qixiao. Shen Que lifted the shrunken little Spirit Master by the collar with one hand and took him back to the bedroom, “Wait here, Daddy is going to change clothes and take you out to eat.”

Sheng Qixiao silently watched the floor move beneath him, seemingly unable to accept being so easily carried around by Shen Que.

It wasn’t until Shen Que was fully dressed, putting on his trousers and selecting perfume for the day’s outfit, that a childish voice piped up, “I want that too.”

“What do you want?” Shen Que turned around, and although it was a question, he didn’t give time for a reply, feigning maturity, “What’s a child doing wearing perfume?”

“…I want trousers.”

“We don’t have trousers you can wear at home. Just stay as you are, I’ll wrap you in a coat later.”

“I want trousers.”

“Why are you damn kid so stubborn? Don’t you know kids don’t wear trousers? No one will look at your bare butt anyway.”

“Shen Que!”

Watching the child’s face turn red with anger, Shen Que happily hummed a tune.

After arriving at the mall, the two headed straight for the children’s clothing store.

Little Sheng Qixiao kept a straight face the entire way; no matter how Shen Que teased him, he kept his lips tightly shut and didn’t say a word.

Shen Que was afraid he might genuinely anger him, so he Googled whether children could die of anger, and only felt relieved after getting a negative answer.

Thinking about it, he decided Sheng Qixiao was an exception after all, and turned to ask Ke Di. Ke Di sent a smiling emoji, told him not to court death, and warned that Sheng Qixiao’s species was quite vengeful in certain matters, so he shouldn’t push it too far.

Shen Que put away his phone and proactively made peace with the Pufferfish-version of Sheng Qixiao, saying he would take him to buy clothes, and only then did the child’s expression improve slightly.

But clearly, he had relaxed too soon.

As soon as the two entered the store, a sweet-talking sales associate approached them, “What a beautiful little girl…”

Shen Que didn’t hear the rest. His gaze followed the associate’s gesture, looking at an entire section of fluffy princess dresses.

An ominous feeling surged in Sheng Qixiao’s heart. He tugged on Shen Que’s hair, “Shen Que, you’ve gone to the wrong place, it’s not here.”

Shen Que ignored him, put him on the ground, personally picked out several outfits, and pulled him straight toward the fitting room.

“Come, try this on and see.”

Little Sheng Qixiao stood his ground with crossed arms, determined to maintain his cool demeanor, and firmly shook his head, “I’m a boy.”

“I know.” Shen Que lifted him onto a chair with one hand, “Will you put it on yourself, or should I help you?”

“Shen Que!” Little Sheng Qixiao’s fists tightened again, threatening, “You better think carefully, when I gr—”

“En, en, we’ll talk about it when you grow up.” Shen Que hummed dismissively twice, cutting him off, and his expression turned slightly melancholy, “We don’t even know when you’ll grow up. You’re so small yet already disobedient…” As he spoke, he falsely dabbed at non-existent tears, feigning sadness.

“……” Little Sheng Qixiao fell silent. Although he knew Shen Que was faking it, he… ultimately chose a black puffy dress that relatively best matched his temperament, which was adorned with small pink ribbon flowers on layers of soft tulle.

“So you like pink, you have such a girlish heart.” Shen Que suddenly realized.

“Shen Que!”

Shen Que laughed, ignoring the angry glare that could almost shoot fire, and sincerely praised him, “I never thought you were so cute as a child.”

Little Sheng Qixiao’s fire was extinguished.

“Oh my goodness, whose little princess is this? She is absolutely gorgeous!”

Emerging from the fitting room, Little Sheng, who had initially managed his emotions, found his face inevitably turning pitch black, despite his best efforts to restrain himself.

With his body shrunken, his emotions were inevitably colored by those corresponding to his age; he couldn’t control them.

Shen Que, however, proudly raised an eyebrow, selected a few more items, paid the bill, and arranged for the store clerk to deliver them home.

As they walked out of the store, Sheng Qixiao stubbornly refused to let Shen Que hold his hand, striding ahead with his arms crossed and his cheeks puffed up in anger. Shen Que followed behind, constantly taking photos and videos with his phone, and soon sent over ten clips, complete with voice messages, to Ke Di.

“How about it? He’s cute, right? It’s just his hair is a bit long, I’m planning to take him to get a haircut.”

Shen Que looked at Sheng Qixiao’s hair, which was long enough to nearly trail on the floor, and felt momentarily bewildered. He remembered that when they left the house, the hair was only waist-length. How could it have grown so much in just a few hours? Or did he remember incorrectly?

At that moment, the phone vibrated, it was a message from Ke Di, consisting of six dots, along with a sincere piece of advice not to drag innocent people into his reckless behavior, and a notice that he would be blocking him for 24 hours for his own safety.

Shen Que didn’t take it seriously and brought Sheng Qixiao to his usual styling studio.

“Cut his hair.”

Tony, the chief stylist, audaciously poked Shen Que with his elbow, “Young Master Shen, when did you get such a big younger sister? And your relationship is so close too.”

Little Sheng Qixiao stood on the chair, reached out and pushed Mr. Tony to prevent him from getting too close to Shen Que.

Shen Que glanced at him, “Who told you he’s my younger sister? He’s a boy.”

“Oh~ your younger brother…”

“My son.”

Sheng Qixiao and Tony: “……”

“Hahaha, Young Master Shen, you’re quite the joker,” Tony opened a style book, “What kind of haircut are you planning to get?”

Shen Que thought carefully for a moment, and pointed to a picture of a Hime Cut, “This one.”

This time, Sheng Qixiao didn’t resist. He sat on the chair with his eyes closed as if he had given up the struggle, or perhaps was conserving his energy.

He felt the hair in front of his forehead being cut strand by strand; the ends lightly brushed his eyebrows, causing a faint itch.

Shen Que sat nearby, taking picture after picture of him, looking very satisfied.

The fringe that reached his eyebrows made his light-colored big eyes appear rounder and more innocent, and concealed the natural hint of heroic spirit between his brows. The hair on both sides of his cheeks was cut short in a straight line, creating a stark contrast with the long hair at the back.

Paired with the black puffy dress, he truly took on the delicate and eerie air of a “dark princess.”

Sheng Qixiao watched himself in the mirror expressionlessly, his heart completely calm. Then he looked at Shen Que, who was nodding non-stop, clearly delighted that his plan had worked, with malicious glee practically spilling out of his eyes, and he silently ground his teeth.

You really have guts, Shen Que.

After finishing all this, Shen Que finally remembered that the two hadn’t eaten yet.

“Are you hungry?”

Sheng Qixiao glanced at him, wanting to say he was too angry to eat, but his stomach rumbled honestly instead.

While waiting for the children’s meal to be served, Shen Que’s phone kept ringing. It was Shen Yi calling. He originally didn’t want to answer, but the person clearly wouldn’t give up until they achieved their goal, so he finally picked up.

“What is it?”

“When did you get a son? And you even dressed him up like a little girl too? You’re picking up all the wrong things instead of the good ones, secretly having a child at such a young age? Didn’t you like that person from the mountain? You were acting half-dead over him just a while ago…”

“Oh right, that’s the child he and I had.”

“?” The other end of the line was silent.

Shen Que held the phone up to Sheng Qixiao’s mouth, coaxing him, “Come on, good son, call ‘Big Uncle’.”

Sheng Qixiao looked up at Shen Que, pondered for a moment, and then called into the receiver, “…Big Brother.”

Shen Que was exasperated, “Why are you taking sides with him?”

It was already dark when they left the mall. Sheng Qixiao slept peacefully in his new child safety seat, while colorful lights swept over his gently trembling eyelashes, casting ever-changing shadows.

Shen Que held the steering wheel, and during a pause at a red light, he turned his head to look at him. On that tiny face, the contours of his features already bore the shadow of his adult self.

Shen Que suddenly felt that raising him like this wouldn’t be impossible either, but it would take too long, and he really didn’t want to actually be his father; it was too weird…

In the early morning, the whole world quieted down.

Shen Que was sleeping alone in the large bed in the master bedroom. Sheng Qixiao had been settled in the secondary bedroom under the excuse that children shouldn’t stay up late and their routines were different.

His phone screen was still on, continuously scrolling through introductions to the top kindergartens in the country.

He wasn’t sleeping very soundly. Vaguely, he heard the sound of the door opening and then locking. A tall, upright figure glided through the darkness and covered his entire body.

————

Shen Que opened his eyes with a deep gasp.

“Sheng Qixiao!” He struggled, trying to pull back, but was ruthlessly pulled back again. The rest of his sentence took a while to come out through his trembling, “…How did you change back?”

The butterfly floor lamp by the bed was on. Shen Que saw that Sheng Qixiao’s Hime Cut fringe had been swept to both sides and held back with the new brown little bear hair clip bought today.

“Are you very surprised? Or very disappointed?” Sheng Qixiao pressed down on his shoulders and smiled slightly, “Haven’t you had enough fun yet?”

“……” A chill ran down Shen Que’s spine. He moved his lips, trying to argue, “I was transforming grief into a fighting spirit by taking you to experience different lives…”

“Is that so?” Sheng Qixiao’s smile magnified in Shen Que’s eyes, “Thank you, I’m also very full of fighting spirit right now.”

He lowered his head and kissed Shen Que.

Shen Que kept his eyes open, only to feel the ceiling shaking violently, getting faster and faster, finally merging into a vast expanse of white.

The snowflakes in the warm room were scalded by the burning magma, trembling uncontrollably, which only led to more passionate heating.

The author has something to say:

Q & A Section:

Shen: “Do you have magically long hair?”

Sheng: “Its growth speed is occasionally faster, but I don’t think it counts.”

Shen: “Do you have magical hands?”

Sheng: “…Yes.”

Shen: “Do animals talk to you?”

Sheng: “Most of the time they aren’t saying anything nice.”

Shen: “Have you been poisoned?”

Sheng: “If Gu counts as poison…”

Shen: “Have you been cursed at?”

Sheng: “En.”

Shen: “And now for the most important question: were all your problems solved because of the appearance of a tall, handsome man?”

Sheng: “Although practically… but all the motivation came from him, so, yes.”

Shen: “Then you are indeed a princess. So, what was wrong with me making you wear a princess dress!”

T/N: Finally reaching the end. Thanks everyone for reading. See y’all in my next project~