Chapter 112 - Taking Responsibility

Li Ming squirmed as the bright sunlight disturbed her, waking her from the deep sleep that she was enjoying.

Somehow, she felt a weird but beautiful calmness in her heart. Her soul was feeling happy and excited for some unknown reason.

She tried to shield her eyes from the bright light that was filtering into her room through the large window.

As she sat up on her bed, the hangover finally hit her, making her grimace. 

"Ahh!" She rubbed her temples while crying out in pain. 

A fair and slender hand carrying a vial of a colorless liquid appeared in front of her eyes.

Li Ming immediately recognized the potion and without wasting a single second she gulped down the entire vial.

She was in no hurry to check who was the person in her bedroom, her entire focus was on getting rid of the headache that was killing her.

After two minutes or something, the potion finally kicked in and she relaxed as a sigh left her lips.

All this while Ruoshan was silently sitting on a chair beside her bed. 

Li Ming opened her eyes and finally looked at the man who for some reason was looking completely different from his usual self.

He was still wearing light purple colored brocade clothes with silver designs sewn on them. 

By now Li Ming was sure that purple was his favorite color but what surprised her was the way in which his neckline and a part of his collarbone were clearly visible. 

His silver hair was combed neatly and rather than flowing down his back like usual, they were tightly held in a high ponytail by a silver headdress that gleamed in the morning sunlight.

This new hairstyle gave his features a sharp edge and bared his entire neck and throat.

What shocked Li Ming was the multiple hickeys that were adorning the right side of his throat, bright red, and purple bite marks.

"What the...!" 

Li Ming was so shocked and out of words that she just remained sitting there on her bed, staring at the hickeys with huge eyes. 

"Do you like the art?" Ruoshan asked as he looked at her with emotionless eyes.

"A-art?" Li Ming let out a shocked and horrified squeal as she gave Ruoshan an alarmed look.

"En! Isn't this an art? After all, you are the artist. I thought you won't like it if I called your art anything else," Ruoshan said with the same expressionless face. Though there was a slight touch of mockery in his tone.

Maybe his emotionless face was the exact reason why it took her almost an entire minute before the words registered in her mind.

"I'm the what??" Li Ming almost shrieked as she looked at Ruoshan with her terrified eyes.

"Did you already forget, Xingan? This isn't fair. You assaulted me just a few hours ago, took away my innocence, and now you are behaving like you don't remember anything. How can you do that to me? Are you going to pretend that you don't remember anything because you will need to take responsibility for taking away my innocence?" 

Li Ming opened her mouth but then closed it. She gulped and once again tried to speak and ended up stopping at the last moment. She was so lost at that moment that she feared her mind had probably short-circuited.

Something in Ruoshan's eyes was telling her that no matter how extra his words sounded and how much she wanted to deny them, there was actually some truth behind them.

And that's exactly when the events of the previous night hit her in full force.

The pill refining, the note, her blood, the person who saved her, the ancestors, the wine, and then the episode when she was with Mr. Beauty and Ruoshan in some kind of ancient-looking royal bedroom.

She almost let out a shriek when the images of what she did with or, to be specific, to Ruoshan, appeared in front of her eyes. 

She wanted to disappear in some kind of hole as she cursed herself.

Moreover, she wanted to immediately return back to those so-called ancestors to show them exactly how grateful she was feeling at the moment. Note the sarcasm!

She bit her lips as she tried to ignore the eyes that were slightly gleaming purple as they kept trained on her. She was hundred percent sure that she would be looking like a tomato at that moment.

"You never answered my questions, Xingan. Are you going to take responsibility for your acts?" Ruoshan asked and this time his voice came out a deep growl that gave Li Ming shivers.

"I have some matters to take care of. I'll be going now," Li Ming said as she hurriedly stood up from the bed and ran towards the door.

But whom was she kidding? Was there even a chance for her to step her foot out of the room?

Before she could be anywhere near the door, she was dragged into the embrace of the Ever Night Lord as both of his hands encircled around her waist, capturing her own hands in the process.

"Let me go!" Li Ming said as she tried to get herself free from the hold of the Immortal who was making her soul sway in happiness.

"Stay still." The voice was barely above a whisper and the tone was as soft as possible but the order hiding behind those words stilled Li Ming. 

She didn't want to test Ruoshan's patience especially when she was aware that his instincts were probably urging him to claim his mate.

The fact that he had not tried to even lay a finger on her and didn't take the advantage when she was drunk and throwing herself at him, made Li Ming Parise him in her heart. 

But she knew that one wrong move from her and all the patience and control that he had over his soul would shatter, most importantly when he had almost no idea about exactly how a soul bond worked.

As far as she had searched about the soulmates of this cultivation world, there never had been any case like hers. Not even between two people, a bond between six was a far cry.

That meant that this world carried almost no knowledge about soul mates and soul bonds, something that she had learned about since her childhood as a mage.

After all, soulmates and soul bonds were the most common but most auspicious part of the supernatural world.

"I won't let you go until you will answer my questions," Ruoshan whispered into her ears making goosebumps appeared on her skin.

"I was drunk." Li Ming finally let out a faint excuse after a few moments of silence.

Ruoshan turned her around and made her look at him in the eyes as he held her chin between his thumb and index finger.

"Do you regret it?" 

There was a vulnerability in his voice that made Li Ming's heart clench in sadness. Without even missing a single second, she shook her head.

"No. I don't!"

A small smile appeared on Ruoshan's face which immediately transformed into a smirk with his next words, "Then take responsibility."

"What responsibility? You are clearly exaggerating about what happened," Li Ming huffed as she glared at the Ever Night Lord.

"How am I exaggerating? After what you did no one will agree to give their daughter to me even as my side wife. That's why you need to take responsibility for your actions." Ruoshan defended himself.

Li Ming almost growled at the mention of another female in his life but somehow she stopped herself from doing so. She let out a sigh as she muttered, "I'm too young to take your responsibility."

Ruoshan looked at her with a soft smile on his face as he said, "Then grow up first. I'll wait until you will be old enough to take my responsibility."

"Whatever! Now, let me go!" Li Ming rolled her eyes and once again tried to move away from the Immortal lord but the arms around her waist only tightened.

"You are prohibited from ever drinking too much wine in public. I don't want you to go around assaulting innocent Young Masters," Ruoshan said in a tone that sounded like an order.

"What rubbish are you spouting? I was drunk!" Li Ming glared at him with fiery eyes. How dare he throw profanities like this at her?  

"That's exactly why you are not allowed to drunk so much in our absence. You are only allowed to drink a little bit but not too much." Ruoshan was firm on his words. No matter what, he would never leave her in the presence of any other male in her drunken state.

He didn't trust anyone with her except his brothers but he would also never stop her from doing something, rather he would make sure that she would be as safe as possible.

"Don't think that just because I agreed to take your so-called responsibility means that anything is going to change between us. That would be your biggest imagination," Li Ming said with her hands folded around her chest.

"Never. I know that nothing is going to change between us." Ruoshan answered with a nod of his head.

"Good! Also, you are not allowed to bring up yesterday night's event in the future. If you did, I'll make sure that you will regret it," Li Ming warned him.

"En!" Ruoshan nodded his head, immediately agreeing. But then he hugged her tightly and kissed her on her forehead.

Li Ming pushed him away as she gave him a final glare, "And don't cling onto me. Otherwise, I'll fry you in a boiling pan."

Ruoshan only smiled at the girl as she hurriedly entered the washroom to hide her blushing face.

But as she was standing under the shower spray, the face of the other man, Mr. Beauty, appeared in her mind and suddenly she had a lot of questions to ask from Ruoshan.