Over the next several days, Liu Shiye began the careful process of folding Mingfei into the life of his household. Nothing was hurried, and yet nothing was left vague. Every action followed a pattern he would set for himself to carefully build an illusion; Mingfei's presence was simply expected to fit within it.
At dawn he rose as he always did, lighting the small in the pit in the courtyard before the sky had fully brightened. Water was set to boil, herbs measured, and tea leaves prepared with quiet precision. By the time Mingfei appeared, he was already seated at the low table with two cups arranged.
He did not look surprised.
"You're late," he said simply.
She stopped in the doorway, raising a brow. "Late?"
"The tea has already steeped once." said Liu Shiye.
Mingfei glanced at the second cup that had clearly been prepared for her.
"You expected me to come." She noted.
"I did." Liu Shiye replied nonchalantly.
He poured the tea without flourish and pushed the second cup toward the empty seat across from him.
"If you intend to stay here," he said calmly, "then you will eventually follow the household rhythm."
She sat, lifting the cup and inhaling the fragrance. "And if I don't?"
"Then the rhythm will still exist," Liu Shiye replied. "You'll simply spend more time catching up to it."
Over the following days, the pattern repeated itself.
Meals were prepared and eaten together—not because he insisted each time, but because a second bowl was always placed across from his own. When herbs were sorted and mixes of fruits and spices tasted, a second seat was arranged beside him with parchment and brushes ready. When he trained in the courtyard, the space opposite him remained clear.
He never called for her.
But he always prepared as if she would arrive.
One morning she paused near the kitchen doorway while he prepared tea, watching the steady efficiency of his hands as he measured dried leaves and ground a small measure of medicinal root into the pot.
"You organize everything like a drill," she remarked.
Liu Shiye poured the water slowly. "Discipline prevents waste."
"Of tea?"
"Of time."
He handed her a small tray without turning.
"Set the cups."
She accepted it, though her eyes narrowed slightly. Liu Shiye remained calmed and assured himself that his antics would pay off. Manipulation had to be subtle.
After a moment he spoke again, his tone calm and matter-of-fact.
"I'm not here to indulge you."
She glanced up.
"We do everything together," he continued. "Meals, work, training, planning."
He set the teapot down between them.
"Even bathing."
That made her pause.
Her eyes sharpened immediately.
"Even bathing?" she repeated.
"Yes."
He lifted his cup and took a slow sip, as if the statement required no further explanation. She leaned against the table slightly, studying him.
"This is a marriage trial, Mingfei," he said. "Everything else is pretense."
The words were not provocative or teasing.
"You live the future in the present," he added. "Or you don't."
Mingfei stared at him for a long moment. Then she exhaled slowly. A faint laugh escaped her—soft and brief, almost hidden beneath her breath.
"You're absurd." She exhaled.
"Possibly." Liu Shiye shrugged.
"And stubborn." She hissed
"Also possible."
She lifted her tea cup, shaking her head.
"But I suppose consistency is better than hypocrisy." Liu Mingfei spoke softly, lips close to the brim of her cup.
Liu Shiye said nothing, only returning to his tea.
Yet the next morning when Mingfei entered the courtyard, she noticed something she hadn't seen before.
Beside the bathing room door, two sets of towels had been folded neatly on the bench. They had been placed there long before she woke. The boundaries were clear and the expectations already set. All the while, Liu Shiye behaved as though her place within them had never been in question.
Mingfei, can't you see the truth in this small place, She looked around the small yard and into the humble home she now shared with Liu Shiye. Everything was set in pairs, waiting to be shared with her.
Liu Mingfei sighed, "Three moons. Then its over".
The household settled into a quiet routine after that.
Meals were taken together. Training sessions followed the same steady rhythm each morning and evening. Tea, to wake the body. Liu Shiye would train private techniques, the spar with Qiao Ren using his Bone Destruction Arts. Ending with body conditioning.
Conversation was sparse Between Liu Shiye and Liu Mingfei but deliberate, each exchange measured as though both were testing the weight of the other's words. It was a soft tug-o-war, neither fully trusting the other.
Yet there was one aspect of Liu Shiye's life that remained carefully separated from everything else. At certain hours of the day, he simply disappeared.
He would leave the small corner of the house he used to study, and return some time later with the same calm expression he always carried. Sometimes it was before dawn. Sometimes long after dusk. Whatever business occupied him, he never mentioned it at the table, never hinted at it during their training, and never allowed Liu Mingfei to witness it.
And he never brought it into their shared routines. Liu Mingfei noticed. At first she said nothing. Pride held her tongue. Curiosity was an indulgence she refused to show. But the pattern repeated day after day.
He shared everything else with clinical consistency: meals, bathing, exercise, the quiet rituals of living under the same roof. He expected her presence beside him as naturally as one expected breath.
Yet those private dealings remained completely his own.
The contradiction gnawed at her.
Who was this man she had been bound to for three months?
He was disciplined, infuriatingly calm, and strangely unwavering in the expectations he placed upon her. But behind those quiet disappearances, there was something else—a life she could not see. It made her wonder about him when he wasn't with her.
Eight days was her limit. Then she snapped.
It happened that very night when the house had long since gone quiet. The lantern beside the bed burned low, casting warm shadows across the room. Liu Shiye had already settled beneath the covers, his breathing slow and even as though sleep were moments away.
Liu Mingfei lay beside him, staring at the ceiling.
"What is it you do when you leave the house?" She asked softly.
The question lingered in the dim air. Liu Shiye did not open his eyes as he replied.
"That," he said calmly, "is my affair."
She turned her head toward him.
"A husband's affairs are not entirely his own."
That made him open his eyes. His gaze shifted toward her slowly.
"And why," he asked quietly, "would you think otherwise?"
Liu Mingfei met his stare without hesitation.
"Because I am your wife." Her voice carried the faint edge of challenge, "You insist we share everything. Meals. Work. Training. Even bathing. We're sleeping in the same bed even now!"
"You said it yourself. Live the future in the present." Despite her emotions, he remained a spring breeze.
"So by that logic… your affairs should also be shared." For a moment, Liu Shiye simply looked at her.
She paused.
He knows, Liu Mingfei panic in heart.
Then something in his expression hardened. The calm composure he carried so easily vanished in an instant. It was first time she had seen such a look in a long time. It caused her to flinch. The abusive memories returned.
Liu Mingfei wasn't much stringer than him. At the Fourth Body Phase, she could still over power him, but conditioned to heed her fiancée, she allowed him to abuse her, trapping her mind in a place of neigh submission.
She hated this feeling. After she decided to poison him, she never expected to feel this way again. Her first balled, grasping a handful of the fur pellet beneath her. Liu Shiye noticed her tension and the his face went soft in an instant.
"You speak of logic now?" he said quietly.
Liu Mingfei frowned slightly at the sudden shift in his tone.
"You demand the rights of a wife," he continued, his voice sharpening, "yet you behave like a guest waiting for her carriage."
Her brows knit. He definitely knows, she thought again.
"What are you implying?" she asked.
His laugh was short and humorless.
"Implying?"
He sat up in bed, turning fully toward her.
"You believe I cannot see it?"
His voice grew colder with each word.
"You tolerate this arrangement. You endure my presence. You follow routines because it passes the time."
Liu Mingfei's expression darkened.
"That is not—"
"You are counting the days."
The words struck like a blade.
"Three moons," he said. "That is how long this farce lasts."
His eyes burned into hers.
"You have no intention of becoming my wife. You are simply waiting until the trial ends so you may walk away cleanly. Sparing you father of the penalty."
The accusation hung between them like thunder.
Liu Mingfei opened her mouth to respond, but Liu Shiye did not stop.
"You ask about my affairs now?"
His voice cut deeper.
"You, who have given nothing of yourself since the day you arrived?"
Her pride flared.
"I have followed every rule you set. Do not accuse me--"
"Yes," he snapped. "Like a prisoner follows the guard's orders."
The words hit harder than she expected. Isn't she a prisoner?
"You obey," he continued, his voice low and ruthless, "but you do not participate. You endure."
Liu Mingfei felt the heat rise in her chest. She felt wronged.
"That is unfair."
"Is it?"
He leaned closer.
"Tell me, Liu Mingfei."
His tone softened—but only slightly.
"Have you once shown any desire to remain here beyond the trial?"
Silence answered him.
Her pride would not allow the easy answer. Liu Shiye exhaled slowly.
"That is what I thought." He said.
He leaned back slightly, his gaze still locked on her.
"You want the rights of a wife?"
His voice was steady again—but colder than before.
"Then earn them."
Liu Mingfei's eyes flashed. "I do not need to—"
"Yes," he interrupted sharply. "You do."
"You want to stand beside me in life?" His eyes narrowed. "Then show me something. Some effort. Some intent. A little endearment!"
Each word landed heavier than the last.
"Because right now," he said, "you are nothing more than a reluctant bedmate that I can't even taste."
The room fell silent again. Then Liu Shiye spoke one final sentence. His voice was quiet, sharp, "And do not forget, Mingfei."
His gaze darkened.
"You are the one who betrayed me first."
The lantern flickered.
And for the first time since the trial began, Liu Mingfei felt the ground beneath her certainty begin to crack.
That next evening, as the sun sank low and the lanterns were lit, Liu Shiye summoned her to bathe. The routine was shared, the principle simple: there was no deception, no pretense. Bathing together, like meals and work, was a test of trust, of discipline, of perception.
Liu Mingfei hesitated only for a moment at the threshold, then stepped inside. Two attendants stood off to the side, behind the fabric wall that Liu Mingfei prepared. She had bathed at the same time as Liu Shiye, but never in sight of him and never in the same basin.
This time, after that night with Liu Shiye, she had decided to take a step. Wondering if Liu Shiye was genuine in his pursuit of happiness with her.
Has he actually forgiven me for poisoning him, She thought in her heart, Is the danger in my head? Are his threats desperate attempts of love?
If so, the only thing keeping her from a happy married life was her. Inside, the water was warm, scented faintly with herbs that Liu Shiye had selected to invigorate the senses.
Mingfei moved the fabric wall aside and for the first time, Liu Shiye had bore witness to her nakedness, a striking sight that shocked him and stirred him deeply. Her creamy skin, perky breast, erect pink nipples pulled taught by the late autumn chill. His eyes followed her tone stomach and long legs. The wide hips that joined them.
"You…" he said.
"Yes. I heard you." Mingfei spoke, "We have a bit more than two moons left. I can show some effort."
She moved slowly to the steam oversized basin. She stepped in and Liu Shiye quickly moved to secure her leg. Her breath thickened and cheeks deepened with red. From below, her fresh pussy covered by a light layer of soft chestnut brown hair was on full display.
"To keep you stable." he explained, "Come in."
She took another step, then lowered herself into the water. Liu Mingfei, took a sharp breath and exhaled. Embarrassment and anxiety set in. She was sharing a bath with a man, one she once despised and even tried to kill, while the man who promised her the world had never even seen her naked.
A mysterious thing, fate, She thought.
His voice carrying over the soft splashes of water. "Your body will tell me things your words cannot. Your reactions, your breathing, the tension in your muscles—everything is a language. Pay attention."
Liu Mingfei's lips quivered in amusement, but she said nothing. She understood immediately that there was no indulgence here. The bath, like breakfast, tea, and training, was an attempt to pull her closer wrapped in routine. She let him lead the motions, from selecting herbal oils to the subtle adjustments of posture and position so that they could fit comfortably together.
Suddenly, a force pulled her close, breaking her thoughts and flesh pressed against her sex as she found herself straddling Liu Shiye.
"Let me go," she struggled.
"You're stronger than me. You can leave at anytime." he replied.
"Then you'll divorce me…." she said.
"Then relax. I'll take you when you allow me. Not a moment before." Said Liu Shiye, "Just soak with me. Once we're finished, we'll go on with our day and no one will know how close we came to such lustrous bliss. Our secret."
Liu Mingfei took a deep breath then settled. As she rested, his fleshing pillar hardened and her nubile lips parted, straddling his rod, exposing its most sensitive parts to friction. A subtle buck from Mingfei, then a pause, pulled a smirk from Liu Shiye.
"Tomorrow, you should go buy things to make the house more comfortable for you. Decorate." said Liu Shiye.
"But, what about…"
"I'll handle my affairs at that time and you can go to the market." Liu Shiye explained, "Maybe, a few more days like this and I'll be ready to share a piece of myself with you."
Mingfei nodded and Liu Shiye didn't say more.
Moments passed, and by the time they were dressed, the world outside seemed distant, irrelevant. Within the household, the power dynamic was clear—but there was a rhythm to it, a careful balance that Liu Shiye had designed. Two attendants remained with each of them, silent witnesses and assistants to the growing intimacy of discipline, but no army, no distractions, no interference.
"Do you understand now?" he asked softly, setting his cup down and looking directly at her. "This is not about dominance or indulgence. It is about understanding. Observation. Preparation. Anticipation. Life with me is life as it will be. I will adjust. You will adjust—or you will not."
Liu Mingfei's eyes met his steadily. "And if I do not?" she asked, voice calm but deliberate.
"Then," he said, a faint smile tugging at his lips, "we will see if this marriage trial ends in peace—or in a calculated separation, and your father will settle the matter financially."
She nodded, neither intimidated nor submissive. The boundaries were clear. The expectations were clear. Yet the unspoken tension between them—curiosity, challenge, and something faintly dangerous—was only beginning to thrum.
And in the quiet of the household, Liu Shiye's mind was already calculating the next steps: the development of the distillery, the training schedules, the subtle tests of Mingfei's character, and the constant refinement of his own influence. Every day together would be another move in a game whose stakes extended far beyond the walls of the house.