IPC Chapter 28: Wooden Statue, White Pearl

Interstellar Power Couple

Translator: Lala

Quality Check: Leslie

Editor: Chesh

First Published on Chaleuria

Chapter 28: Wooden Statue, White Pearl

 When night fell, the snow-capped jadewings returned to their nest in the tree. Both Lei Jue and Xiao Lingyu felt relieved, so they went back inside to eat. 

They hadn’t planned on going back to the floating villa at night, because Lei Jue planned to give the big tree some life energy the next day to ensure that it would successfully accustom itself with its new home. Hence, they needed to stay in the main residence. 

Xiao Zhicheng and Luo Yuling had gone over to Luo Yuling’s parents’ house today. However, just when they’d arrived there, their grandmother called and told them that something was strange about the house today. When they asked how it was weird, though, Grandmother didn’t say, merely telling them that they’ll see once they come back. And so the moment Xiao Zhicheng and Luo Yuling arrived home, they caught sight of the large, new tree in their yard. 

So that’s the strange thing?!

Those two kids really are something, Xiao Zhicheng thought. But with this, the snow-capped jadewings now have a home and no longer need to commandeer Lei Jue’s aircraft. That’s good, too.

Who knew that the moment he entered, he’d hear Lei Jue call out to them, “Dad, Mom, you’re back.”

Xiao Zhicheng and Luo Yuling abruptly froze. They gave an ‘ah’ in reply and nodded, then inquisitively met each others’ gazes. Although it was not the first time hearing Lei Jue call them ‘Dad’ and ‘Mom’, he’d only ever done so before in the presence of outsiders. Did they have a guest or something? Or was it that their youngest son had already told Lei Jue that they wanted to adopt him ahead of time?

Xiao Lingyu hurried over and in a hushed tone, said, “You’re not allowed to mention the matter of adoption!”

Luo Yuling lowered her voice as well, “Do we have a guest?”

Xiao Lingyu shook his head before rushing over to Lei Jue’s side to help him. Lei Jue was cooking tonight and had made a fruit cake[1] for Xiao Lingyu, Grandmother, and Second Brother to try. Xiao Lingyu was currently busying himself by bringing the food to the table. He couldn’t help with anything else, so all he could do was steal the robot servants’ jobs. 

At this moment, Xiao Zhicheng asked, “How do you feel today, Little Jue?”

“I feel pretty good, thanks for asking, Dad. I’m still feeling a stinging sensation in my chest, but I can deal with it,” Lei Jue replied.

Xiao Zhicheng gave a quick summary of the conclusion Lei Jue had arrived at, leaving out the part about Lei Jue’s transmigration. He only mentioned that it might be an effect of his wood abilities. 

Hearing this, joy coloured Xiao Zhicheng’s features. “Then that would mean you’ll be able to slowly heal on your own, right? If so then that’s great!”

Lei Jue nodded. “I should be able to.”

Xiao Zhicheng looked at Lei Jue, pleased, and patted his youngest’s shoulder too. He was about to bring up the stimuli, but then he thought that it wouldn’t be suitable to talk about it now with the kids about to eat, so he went over to his mother and wife. 

Whatever the mother and daughter-in-law were talking about, it was making them smile brightly. He’d only just arrived by his wife’s side when he heard her ask with widened eyes, “Is that true, Mom?”

Grandmother said, “Of course it’s true.” She lowered her voice. “I saw it with my own eyes. When Little Fifth transported that big tree over, Little Jue was overjoyed. They’ve been wearing smiles around the house for the whole day now, especially Little Fifth. He’s been grinning like an idiot!”

Luo Yuling looked at her husband. “Mom said that Little Fifth and Little Jue seem to be seeing each other.”

Xiao Zhicheng took a glance at his youngest and Lei Jue, who were currently setting the food out on the table. “They do indeed.”

It felt like there was a rosy air surrounding the two kids, stopping his second son from helping even if he’d wanted to. The two had gotten along with each other quite well even before this, but compared to how they were now, their relationship then seemed more like mutual respect with a touch of competitiveness. Now, however, the competitiveness had disappeared, and aside from the respect, an intangible sweetness had appeared as well. 

At this time, grandmother patted the photon computer. “There’s more!” After opening an online post, she continued, “Look at this!”

Luo Yuling and Xiao Zhicheng sat on either side of their mother, the three of them looking at the photon computer together. It was the post that Lei Jue had created last night. The subject of the post was ‘When Two Talented Artists Become A Couple.’ Three pictures and a sentence made up the contents of the post: ‘Playing cards with Xiao Ling Fish tonight, whoever loses draws a turtle on the other’s feet.’

The post had only been up for a night and it already had 300 pages worth of replies. Below it, there were ones saying that they were showing off, ones that gave them their blessings, and ones that discussed how Lei Jue actually gave Xiao Lingyu such a cute nickname as ‘Xiao Ling Fish’[2], saying that it was too ill-suited for him. There were also many that said if they have the time to show off their love, then they have the time to start popping out children! And of course, there were also replies that said Xiao Lingyu didn’t deserve Lei Jue. 

Grandmother saw that particular reply too and shoved her way into the thread to follow up with a reply, posting, “They’re the best match in the world! The absolute best match!”

Xiao Zhicheng and Luo Yuling didn’t even know how to react anymore—what a considerate grandmother she was. 

Right then, Xiao Lingyu gave a call, “Grandmother, Dad, Mom, come and eat. Little Jue made a fruit cake, it’s really good.”

This was the only thing Lei Jue knew how to cook. He’d learned it from an auntie in the orphanage and they had only ever gotten to eat some for New Year celebrations. The recipe called for fruit, sticky rice powder, and powdered sugar as its main ingredients; the juice from the fruit made the fruit cake fragrant, and it tasted a little sweet and sour, with a chewy texture. 

Lei Jue hadn’t thought that Xiao Zhicheng and Luo Yuling would come back ahead of time, so he hadn’t made that much. On the bright side, having less meant that everyone could get a taste of it without having to eat as much. He was just about to serve a piece to grandmother when Xiao Lingyu shouted, “Wait!”

Xiao Lingyu hurriedly took a photo of the fruit cake and posted it, captioned, “The fruit cake that my madam makes is the best!”

He didn’t look at the replies after he sent it, planning on eating something first. However, when he raised his head he discovered that everyone was staring at him. 

Lei Jue violently stomped on Xiao Lingyu’s foot underneath the table, squeezing his next words from between the gaps of his teeth, “All you need are your hands to make the post, why did you have to say it out loud?!”

Xiao Lingyu gave a light cough, but in the end, Grandmother’s grin still stretched across her face and both Xiao Zhicheng and Luo Yuling were very happy too. 

However, they never would’ve guessed that this accidental display of their pure feelings for each other was only the beginning. 

At night, Xiao Lingyu and Lei Jue went together to Xiao Zhicheng’s study and told him the details of Lei Jue’s dream. Lei Jue wanted to ask Xiao Zhicheng whether he knew about ‘Lei Jue’s’ childhood, mainly because Xiao Zhicheng had known Lei Jianwei longer than they had. 

Unexpectedly, Xiao Zhicheng shook his head as he looked at Lei Jue, “Little Jue, I didn’t even know you existed before you were five years old, because your parents never mentioned that they had a child at the time.”

Lei Jue nodded. With this, however, he now had even less of a chance of knowing whether the things in his dream had actually happened in reality. 

At this moment, Xiao Lingyu showed Xiao Zhicheng the image of the outfit he’d saved on his photon computer. “Dad, have you seen this type of clothing before?”

Xiao Zhicheng thought about it carefully, then replied, “No.”

With this, Lei Jue had even started thinking that maybe the dream was really just a dream after all. But that was extremely unlikely—if it hadn’t happened before, the original Lei Jue couldn’t possibly have had such a strong sense of fear toward it. 

Xiao Lingyu and Lei Jue could only think of another way to make sense of the situation. The two were just about to get up and leave when Xiao Zhicheng called out to Lei Jue, “Wait, Little Jue.”

Lei Jue turned around. “Is there anything else, Dad?”

Xiao Zhicheng passed a square wooden box to Lei Jue. “You should keep this, it’s something your father made when he was still alive. I thought his handiwork was pretty good back then and took a few extra glances at it, so your father gifted it to me. But I think it would be more suitable for you to have it now.”

Lei Jue opened it and took a glance. He discovered a wooden carving of a lifelike arctic grey wolf inside. It was unknown what sort of wood was made to use it, but it had a uniquely fresh fragrance to it. The most peculiar thing about it was that the wolf’s neck had a small pearl-like object hanging from it that was white with two little holes in it, strung by a fine silver thread. Judging by the texture, it looked like some kind of seed. 

“Thanks, Dad.” Lei Jue accepted it, and after looking at it a little more he shut the lid and left the study with Xiao Lingyu.

Luo Yuling came up the stairs holding a cup of warm milk just in time to see her youngest son about to go into Lei Jue’s room. She hurriedly pulled him back and said, “You guys…”

Xiao Lingyu responded without a second thought, “We’re just going to chat in bed.”

Luo Yuling opened and closed her mouth, then sighed without saying anything, leaving with the cup of milk in hand. 

On the contrary, Xiao Lingyu was unbothered by it. He knew that in a relationship, no matter how much they liked the other, sexual satisfaction was also a very important part of being together. Hence, he didn’t dare think that they could go on platonically forever. Moments like now, in which he was able to interact with Lei Jue like this, were all just stolen time. 

Lei Jue laid down on his bed after showering and took out the wooden carving, staring at it for a little while longer. Then he carefully brought it to his nose and sniffed it. 

Xiao Lingyu saw this and asked, “What’s wrong? Is there something weird about it?”

Lei Jue said, “Don’t you think that this smell is a bit familiar?”

Xiao Lingyu said, “Yeah, isn’t it the same as how you smell? It smells really nice.” He buried his face in Lei Jue’s neck and sniffed. “It’s a smell that beckons people to sin, tsk!”

Lei Jue pushed Xiao Lingyu’s head a little further away. “Don’t seduce me, I’m young and can’t resist your wiles.” 

Xiao Lingyu could only take out his communicator and silently scroll through his feed. He was looking through the comments on his new post for a while, when he suddenly sat up. 

These trolls, what did they mean by “it’s such a pity that someone as good as Lei Jue’s been married to Xiao Lingyu”?! They were even saying stuff like “Water helps wood grow and wood helps fire grow; in the end, Bai Yujiang of the Western Moon District’s Bai family and Zuo Han of the Southern Clearwater District’s Zuo family are better matches for Lei Jue, since one’s a water ability user and the other’s a fire ability user.”

Better match his foot! One was so tanned he looked like a black potato, and the other was so pale he looked like Wuchang[3]. The only thing they were a better match for was the job of carrying Lei June’s shoes, more like. 

Xiao Lingyu came up with over ten versions of replies to that, summoning Carrera and ordering, “If there are any comments saying the madam and I aren’t a good match, use these replies I made as examples and fire it all back at them!”

Lei Jue heard him and turned around to look. “You sure have a lot of free time on your hands. Why bother with them? It’s their mouths, are you planning on sewing up each and every one?”

Now that he thought about it, Xiao Lingyu realized it was pretty childish of him to do this. But if he didn’t do anything, he would feel irritated, because sometimes he also thought that Lei Jue deserved better than him.

Lei Jue didn’t need to touch Xiao Lingyu to feel the dejection rolling off of him this time, so he grabbed Xiao Lingyu’s hand and interweaved their fingers. “Haven’t you heard the phrase ‘time will tell’ before?”

Hearing this, Xiao Lingyu stared at Lei Jue. He suddenly realized that a serious Lei Jue was more terrifying than Lei Jue when he was purposefully trying to seduce Xiao Lingyu.

He’d been seducing his body before, but now he was seducing his heart. 

 

 

[1] 水果饼: Shui Guo Bing: Fruit cake: Not a cake as in western cakes. This one is more crepe-like in shape. 

[2] 小灵鱼: Xiao Ling Yu: Xiao Ling Fish: Literally meaning Little Spirit FIsh (alternative translations include Little Magic Fish, Little Soul Fish, Little Clever Fish, Little Deft Fish, et cetera). This is a pun, as it’s almost homonymous to Xiao Lingyu’s name, with the intonations slightly different.

[3] 无常: Wuchang: demon regarded as the messenger of death