Every Lifetime I Fall {COMPLETED but undergoing revisions}

Chapter 81: Fourth Life - Swooning Steam

"How would I know?" Flustered, I turned away from him.

Whispering into my ear Lu Kai asked, "Want to know a secret?"

Inching away from his breath I blurted out, "Why'd you have to be so near?"

"Yang Zi Huo thought you looked really pretty today."

"R-- Really?" I blushed.

"But I always think you're pretty."

"Ha..."

"Rong Xin, can I ask you something?"

"Mm?"

"Why do you like Yang Zi Huo? Isn't he a little mean to you?"

I stared at Lu Kai. It was a weird question to answer because he was Master but a separate entity. I didn't know why but in front of Lu Kai, I wasn't intimidated at all. However with Master, I was a complete pushover.

"I don't know. I just feel admiration for him. He looks mean, but he actually has a kind heart."

"You think so?"

"Why else would he have allowed me to follow him to Bleak Night? Master does have a blunt way of speaking and sometimes I am hurt by it... but I know that he cares for me even if just a little. I like it especially when he calls my name."

"Would you say that you love Yang Zi Huo like how I love you?"

"I-- I believe I do."

Grabbing my hands, Lu Kai held them under the water. The pressure from his large hands compressed my chest tightly and caused the beatings of my heart to become unstable. Staring into one another's eyes, I waited for him to break the silence.

"Do like me enough to marry me?" He raised a hand to brush back a strand of wet hair on the side of my face.

"Marry you?!"

"You don't want to?"

I shook my head. "I mean you're really nice, but you and Master are like night and day. How do I know which I'm marrying? And-- Master wouldn't agree to it! Just because you've decided to marry me, doesn't mean that so has Master."

"He has to marry you. After all, he and I are the same person."

"Master doesn't-- There's no way-- He doesn't like me."

"He does like you."

"Wh-- What?" I didn't believe him. How could I?

"You say he cares for you, right? Why would he bring you to Shui Jing Mountain? Cook meals when he doesn't even eat? Bring you into the city to buy makeup and accessories? He wanted to spoil you because he likes you."

"He... feels sorry for me."

Yes... Imagine finding a teary-eyed orphan locked in a cave just waiting for death and saving her out of pity. When she had no one left she could trust, he took her in as if taking in a stray. Never would he have thought her to be someone he would see as a lover until he was forced to face his past.

"You want me to show you?" Lu Kai's face was suddenly serious and his voice authoritative, making my stomach turn.

"Sh-- Show me?"

"Show you how Yang Zi Huo really feels?"

"How are you going to do that?"

"Kiss me first and then I'll show you." His goofy smile reappeared and the itch to give him a knuckle to the head surfaced.

"What?! Are you crazy?"

"Just a little one?"

"You-- Were you starved of affection as a child? You're much too needy..."

Sighing, Lu Kai told me, "I was starved incredibly so much that I will need at least ten kisses from you everyday to function." Resting his head on my shoulder, he snuggled in closely causing me to flinch from the tenderness.

"Weirdo..."

Although he was odd but also undeniably sweet, Lu Kai was a stranger to me. I'd only met him on three occasions. He was convinced that I was his reincarnated lover, which I myself was still doubtful of.

Like that Mantis Demon proposing marriage to me out of the blue... Can I trust him?

Distancing myself from Lu Kai, I stared at him in the eyes. He stared back with a childlike smile. Placing my hands on his face, I squeezed and pulled his cheeks. He grimaced from my touch.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"This isn't the first time someone's asked to marry me. I have to be sure you're who you say you are."

He pulled down my hands and yelled, "Someone asked to marry you?! Who?!"

"Uh... Actually it happened two times..."

Yes, two times where I almost ended up being eaten by my so called groom.

"Are you really that popular out there?" Lu Kai's face turned worried with anxiety. He grabbed a clump of his hair and walked away as the ripples of water caused little waves from his movement.

"I wouldn't say popular..."

I'm just preferred demon food.

"Tell me you turned them down," he turned around asking.

"Well, they were both unavoidable situations."

One looked exactly like Master, and I was completely fooled and didn't refuse. Regrettable. 

"I-- I have to get out of here. You can't marry anyone else." He paced back and forth in the spring bath wholeheartedly in distress about his rivals in love.

For some reason, I found it funny that Lu Kai was envious and ridden with worry when all the marriage proposals that occurred to me were entirely bogus! The reality of it was that no one really thought of me as a serious candidate for marriage. But he was so worried that someone was going to take me away from him. Me. The unwanted Li Rong Xin.

Snickering, I couldn't hold in my laughter.

"You're laughing at me?"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's funny." Through the muffles of giggling, I tried to cover my mouth.

"You think it's funny that I'm worried about all these other guys coming around to steal my wife?"

"Hey! Who said I was your wife?"

"This won't do. I have to mark you." He reached for my arm and pulled me into the middle of the spring. Lifting me up, he supported my body above the water. I held onto Lu Kai's shoulders while his firm hold around my waist steadily kept us close, body to body.

He swung me around in water, splashing us with the waves of the hot spring. My heart skipped like pebbles across a still lake, and the joyous laughter from the both of us felt like a slice of prohibited paradise.

Lu Kai ceased the playing in the water and stared lovingly into my eyes. I counted the droplets that fell from his hair. He looked handsome, tempting me with the softness I barely saw on Master's face. His arms tightened around me as I gripped strongly onto his muscles on his arm.

"You're mine as I am faithfully yours." His breath softly brushed against the skin of my neck.

My turbulent heart wrestled with joy and caution at the same time allowing an intense vibration to echo throughout my entire body. Finding myself drawn by his sweet words, I nodded. I quickly realized my action of confirmation meant that I was agreeing to Lu Kai's proposal.

Gleefully smiling, he leaned in with his protruding lips. I couldn't tell if it was the steaming water that was making me light headed or that Lu Kai was overwhelming my will to put up a defense. His lips softly grazed mine, and I felt myself awaken with a pulsating static immediately leaving my body.