Crown Prince and Ghost King

Chapter 41

BanYue spoke up her agreement to that, so neither Pei Ming nor Pei Su himself had anything to say against it. If anything, Xie Lian was more than relieved; despite his more than enough spiritual powers, the god needed some rest and sustenance as well, if he wanted to be at his best shape once they faced the more dangerous areas of Mount Tong'lu.

After setting up camp inside the decrepit house, BanYue dutifully worked on starting the fire and Pei Su went hunting. As for Xie Lian, he put Hua Cheng down and started staring at his face once more, trying to find any sign that told him his husband was having a hard time coming back.

A moment later, instinct made him whip his head around, and sure enough Pei Ming was watching the two of them.

The two stared at each other, and Pei Ming huffed a dry laugh. Before Xie Lian could say anything, however, BanYue walked over with a pot for food in her hands, and called out to her general.

«What is it?».

The black pot in BanYue's hands had a terrified wild chicken within it: «Pei Su-gege caught it to have me cook, but I don't know how».

Right, BanYue never learned how to take care of herself properly. Xie Lian was too incompetent with food to help her – and he really didn't feel like becoming better – so she only learned some basics for survival. Plucking and cooking a chicken on the fire wasn't something she ever did in the past, especially after becoming the Guoshi of BanYue and being treated with food prepared specifically for her in a palace. Of them, Xie Lian knew Pei Su was somewhat of a good cook, he used to make something for both BanYue and Xie Lian before enlisting in the army, but he went ahead to scout after hunting.

Pei Ming, on the other hand, seemed to be dissatisfied with BanYue no matter how he looked at her, and despite the friendly relationship now running between them, Xie Lian truly wanted to slap him across the face for what he told her out loud.

Saying she only fought and killed and couldn't even cook... BanYue wasn't a delicate girl raised in a normal household, and couldn't understand his puzzling words. She grew up in the streets, and then became the fearsome Guoshi that people both hated and loved with passion; what use were makeup and household chores for her?

«General Pei, with all due respect, don't talk to BanYue using that tone», Xie Lian couldn't help but scold him, taking the pot with the chicken from the ghost's hands. «I can teach you, okay? You never could or needed to learn, it's fine if you feel lost now».

Since BanYue already deeply admired him, she happily followed his instructions, while Pei Ming took a couple seconds to recover from the shock of receiving a lecture before jumping into action.

An incense time later, Xie Lian was pulling the colorful feathers off the wild chicken, and Pei Ming raised his blood-soaked hands with some grumbling; the martial god insisted on killing the chicken with his bare hands, a bloody an grimy sight, instead of using a knife. As if they didn't have anything to kill a chicken with.

E-Ming would have done so without caring about being used for such a mundane task, but Xie Lian didn't really want to listen to Pei Ming or Pei Su complain about eating something that had been killed by the cursed scimitar.

Xie Lian threw the fully plucked chicken back into the pot, filled it with water, and started slowly cooking it atop the fire. To add flavor, he threw in some wild herbs as well, but tried to restrain from putting anything else into the mix.

While he was fond of experimental kinds of cooking, and tended to mix anything and everything to see what could work together, he knew that Pei Su truly needed to eat. His hellish cooking wouldn't help him gain some of his strength back, and would probably only make him sick.