Bai Liang woke up the next morning feeling a little light-headed. He habitually reached out to find Li Ziyang and his eyes fluttered open when he realized the bed was empty. Slowly, he propped himself up and looked at the door.

He could sense Li Ziyang downstairs, but this was the first time for him to wake up by himself. He knew Li Ziyang was genuinely upset yesterday.

Last night, when his consciousness started fleeting away, he really intended to tell Li Ziyang the truth but when he wanted to say his master’s name, something restricted him. At first, he thought it was heaven’s intervention, but recalling back about it now, it came from the protection his master gave him.

Why didn’t his master prevent Li Ziyang from knowing instead of placing a restriction on him? As expected, did he make some kind of a deal with Li Ziyang to stay in control? Li Ziyang didn’t have any spiritual instability like Dantalion after all.

What should he do?

From the first world until now, he wouldn’t deny he fell in love with his master’s reincarnations exactly because they were his reincarnations. But at the same time, he didn’t want to compare them and so he accepted each of them as who they were.

Did he play around with Li Ziyang too much? Was that why he wouldn’t believe his words? Truthfully, because of their status as uncle and nephew right now, he got a bit too excited and mostly acted spoiled and playful as Li Ziyang’s nephew instead of himself.

After a moment of self-reflection, Bai Liang finally got up and wore his night robe. Walking down the stairs, he inwardly made a promise to himself to stop messing around and act around Li Ziyang properly.

With how Li Ziyang tried to intimidate him on their first meeting, he couldn’t help himself. That was also how he ended up stalking his master after the night they met in the woods, wanting to see what he would actually do under his intimidation.

The answer was a stab to his intestines…

He sensed Li Ziyang in the living room and entered. He was about to call out when he saw the scene inside and halted.

In front of the TV, Li Ziyang stood with a woman clinging to him. Her full chest was pressed against him as she tiptoed and pulled him closer to her lips. Before their lips could touch, the woman felt a cold grip on her shoulder before a split second later, she was violently thrown and slammed to the TV.

Crash!!

“Ahh!!” the woman screamed in shock and pain as she tripped and fell to the ground with a loud thud.

She hadn’t recovered her wits when a shadow loomed over her and she blankly looked up to the person locking her between his feet. She shrieked in fear when she saw the ghost-like boy with his demonic eyes glowering at her.

Bai Liang smiled at Li Ziyang without reaching his eyes, “Uncle, who is this lady?”

Instead of Li Ziyang, the woman herself answered, “You’re his nephew? How could you do this to your future aunt!? I’m your uncle’s fiancée, Shin Jia! Where’s your respect!?”

“Fiancée?” Bai Liang lowly laughed in an unknown mood. “I see…Is that so?”

“What are you laughing at?” Shin Jia became unnerved. “Get off me!”

Under everyone’s shock, Bai Liang unhesitantly untied his sash and spread open his robe, showing the vulgar marks on his body that had yet to vanish. His calm smile carried a silent mocking.

“I suggest you reconsider kissing him, Miss Shin. We both don’t want you indirectly kissing my body, do we?” he chuckled.

“Kyaaa!!” Shin Jia hurriedly covered her eyes in disgust. “Li Ziyang, your nephew is crazy!! Hurry and kick him out!!”

Bai Liang was about to say something back when a pair of arms encircled him from behind and closed his robe back.

“What are you doing?” Li Ziyang tied the sash firmly, not bothering to lower his voice. “Your body is only for my eyes to see.”

“Li Ziyang…?” Shin Jia heard Li Ziyang’s words and looked back at the pair back and forth ominously.

Without any word, Bai Liang turned and forcefully kissed Li Ziyang. His emotions were in a jumbled mess and he stared straight at Li Ziyang who also wasn’t closing his eyes.

Shin Jia was shocked out of her wits that she froze pale on the ground. With a glance from Bai Liang, she flinched and with what sanity she had left, she scurried to her feet and ran away. Unfortunately for her, it was impossible for her to escape as a witness.

Bai Liang broke his kiss with Li Ziyang and shoved him away angrily, “If this is how you want to play, I’m not going to amuse you. You can be mad at me however you want, but I’m not going to accept you abusing my feelings towards you for it.”

He turned to leave only for his wrist to be caught. He struggled to free it though he knew it was futile. Even before Li Ziyang became a mermaid, their strength was equal. Now that he was a mermaid, he was naturally stronger than him.

Li Ziyang tugged Bai Liang to face him with some force. Seeing the tears trickling down his pained eyes, he felt as if each drop cleansed the murky feeling in his chest.

“Let go!” Bai Liang tried pushing Li Ziyang off him while pulling his hand away.

Li Ziyang grasped Bai Liang’s other wrist, “You’re finally showing your true self.”

“Even if you didn’t do that, I already intended to do so the minute I woke up,” Bai Liang glared at Li Ziyang. “You can break me however you want but if you still want me, there’s a limit, Li Ziyang. If I didn’t stop her, you were going to let her kiss you, weren’t you?”

“Then, how do you think I felt yesterday when you kissed him?” Li Ziyang lowly asked, his heart brewing something sinister once again. “You didn’t just let him kiss you, you kissed him.”

“No, it wasn’t me who let him kiss me,” Bai Liang decided to bite the bullet. “It was you.”

Li Ziyang paused.

“I’m right, aren’t I? If you’re really mad at us kissing, you should’ve regained control when we were on our way back from the port,” Bai Liang suspiciously said. “He promised to make you a mermaid so you waited.”

“…” Li Ziyang’s hands tightened.

“Between the two of us, the one who has any right to be angry is not you,” Bai Liang lowered his eyes. “Not once have you told me you love me.”

He finally managed to snatch his hands away and left, leaving Li Ziyang standing desolately in the spacious room. Returning to their bedroom, he grabbed a set of clean clothes and went to another room to take a quick shower and get changed.

Xue Liang: [Master…what are you planning to do now?]

‘I’ll go to where Li Shen is and proceed to the next event,’ Bai Liang answered while straightening his clothes.

Xue Liang: [Are you going to leave Grandmaster…?]

‘…We need some time.’

Bai Liang took his phone and went downstairs, heading straight to the front door. Li Ziyang could sense him leaving anyway, there was no need to inform him. The driver opened the door for him, but he went to the driving seat instead and left the villa by himself.

Li Ziyang watched the car drive away from the living room window, “…”

He couldn’t deny that when the housekeeper informed him of Shin Jia’s visit, the first thing he thought of was to make Bai Liang understand what he was going through, so he let her do as she pleased. The moment Bai Liang came to the living room, a part of him also wanted to see what he would do in the situation, to see whether or not Bai Liang would feel the same way as him.

He got to see Bai Liang’s true self but at what cost? Bai Liang was right, he didn’t have any right to be angry. Recalling back the way they were, all he ever did was demand and receive Bai Liang’s affection. How could he question Bai Liang’s feelings towards him when he himself seemed as if he only lusted over Bai Liang’s body?

It was his turn to appease Bai Liang.

Bai Liang reached the club outside of town almost an hour later and seeing him driving Li Ziyang’s car, the guards readily let him enter. He was led to the basement and entered Li Shen’s confinement while the guards stood outside.

With his instruction, Li Shen had been food and water deprived. Mermaids dehydrated easier than Aria and humans, so his complexion was now pale with his skin dried and his lips chapped.

Li Shen weakly raised his head and his eyes shook in disbelief, “Bai…Lun?”