My wife is a witch princess

Chapter 78 Nightmare

"One-on-one!"

"Stop making a scene in the middle of the night, okay? Are you going to sleep or not?"

"One-on-one!"

Tao Yao hunched over, her fur standing on end, looking fierce.

However, there was a noticeable bump in the middle of her head, as if she had been hit by something hard. She was always out and about, so Song Che wasn't surprised that she had been beaten up.

"That bump on your head...?"

"I...I slipped and fell last time we went out! What, you have a problem with that?!"

Tao Yao's voice suddenly rose, carrying a sharp, bluffing tone.

"No problem. I just remember you had a bag when we first met, why isn't it fully healed yet?"

"I order you to forget about this immediately!"

The bedroom door opened slightly, and Xia Li peeked out.

"What happened?"

"It's okay, go back to sleep. Tao Yao is being silly again." Song Che waved his hand at her, then looked down at Bruce at his feet and gestured with his chin, "Bruce, go, bite her."

"I said one-on-one! One-on-one!" Tao Yao's claws scraped across the floor with a ripping sound.

"I know," Song Che yawned, the warm air from the air conditioner making him drowsy. "You alone can take on me and Bruce together. If you don't sleep, I'm going to."

Bruce growled softly, poised to pounce. The once menacing Fox King instantly shrank back, his voice trembling, but his tone remained defiant: "I...I warn you! I challenge you for the sake of all living beings! You wicked villain, if you aren't eliminated, you'll be a constant threat!"

"You watch martial arts dramas too?"

"I haven't seen it! But you don't need to see that to be a hero! Even if you're the worst one, your death can save millions of people!"

"Didn't you say you wanted to 'bless' me? Besides, since you came to my house, when have I ever really bullied you?"

"I...I've decided to go on strike!" Tao Yao raised her head, trying her best to look righteous and awe-inspiring. "I only have two choices now—if I don't kill you, I won't be able to live with myself; if I kill you, I'll be happy."

Song Che was amused by her: "Alright, stop acting, come in and go to sleep. According to you, my life isn't a life?"

Tao Yao fell silent, tilting her head as if she were seriously considering which was more important: "fighting for justice" or "going inside to sleep."

Seeing her like that, Song Che guessed she was feeling the call of freedom from the outside world again. Bruce didn't have that much patience; he growled and darted forward. Tao Yao meowed in fright, turned around, and darted into the darkness of the living room, disappearing without a trace.

Well, I guess I'll have to freeze outside again tonight.

Song Che was already used to it.

Although Tao Xiang always speaks with a lisp, she is tactful and perceptive; Tao Yao, on the other hand, is clumsy and stubborn, no wonder she used to be a wanderer. But it doesn't matter, if nothing unexpected happens, before midnight, Tao Xiang will foolishly sneak back, rub against his leg and whisper, "Sister, don't sleep, I'll sleep."

Song Che couldn't figure out what Tao Yao was up to, but he was certain that the new bump on her head was most likely the work of the "bad woman" he had mentioned before.

It's probably another monster.

Black hair, a tattered veil, bare feet, wrapped in rags… Song Che ran through these features in his mind, confirming that he didn’t recognize this person. Sounds like a formidable beggar, definitely more capable than Tao Yao.

Hearing that there was no more noise outside, Song Che turned off the living room light and went back to his bedroom.

As he passed Xia Li's door, he stopped and listened—it was quiet inside, but a sliver of light shone through the crack in the door. This girl has been staying up increasingly lately.

"Xia Li, goodnight," he whispered to the door.

"Mmm," came a similarly soft reply from inside.

Song Che lay down on the bed, the blankets already warm and cozy. Although today was rushed, thankfully nothing major went wrong. Xia Li's identity was temporarily concealed; the matter of her being an undocumented immigrant… he'd figure that out later. And now, she really was his girlfriend.

Thinking about this, he still felt a little unreal and dazed.

Xia Li... she's changed so much compared to before he "died." She used to be so domineering and unreasonable, how come after "dying" once, she's become... reasonable?

The witch is over a hundred years old, but her mind is like a child's. According to his original estimate, Xia Li would need at least another three hundred years to mature and become sensible.

He still couldn't understand. Could his "death" really have such a huge impact on her?

Forget it, don't flatter yourself.

Song Che shook his head, dismissing the thought.

It was still early before midnight, and the warmth of the heating and the comfort of the blankets made it impossible to fall asleep.

He picked up his phone and scrolled through it listlessly.

The photo of the medal that Jiang Xiaoxiao sent was still in his album, and this time he looked at it more closely. The medal was quite thick, and it was part of the prize itself. It looked... like two gold coins stacked together?

Upon closer inspection, besides the striking tree-shaped relief on the front, there is also a blurry number below the gold coin.

The numbers on the back are completely illegible.

The number on the front is "1".

It probably represents the champion.

But the pattern of these "overlapping gold coins" sparked several thoughts in Song Che's mind. The first gold coin granted him the extraordinary ability of "mind reading," though it was limited and one-way, it truly transcended common sense. If the first coin worked, what about the second, the third... and who knows how many more there would be? Would each coin correspond to a unique ability?

Previously, when Song Che asked Tao Xiang, he only learned that the "bad woman" sent it to "bless" the coin, but he still didn't know the specific purpose of the "blessing." The gold coin was split in two and sold for money, while the supernatural power fell into Xia Li's hands—it seemed that they got all the benefits. In this way, it became impossible to deduce the woman's purpose, because it didn't seem to bring her any real benefit.

If I can't figure it out, I'll just stop thinking about it.

Song Che tossed his phone aside. As long as that woman only targeted Tao Yao and didn't cause them any trouble, he'd let her be.

……

Xia Li had a nightmare, which was rare for her.

She didn't have anything she was truly "afraid" of. But during the hundred years she wandered alone after Song Che's "death," she developed a real fear.

True loneliness.

She can sense joy, anger, sorrow, love, and hate, though her feelings are somewhat faint. However, she can clearly tell if the other person is angry, just as she knows that Song Che likes her—even though she only "knows" it.

During those hundred years, she met many, many people. Hypocrisy, pretense, scheming... She began to reflect, to observe, and to try harder to understand the more complex things behind the emotions of other beings.

She tried to accept that living beings are naturally good at disguising themselves. But when she actually made some progress in understanding emotions, she found herself becoming "weaker".

Because Xia Li never bothered to conceal her aura, she always intimidated potential enemies with her strongest presence.

Power was the only thing she truly possessed.

When she became "weak," many people's attitudes became even more blatant.

She had tried to find companions during her long journey.

Over a hundred years, she encountered countless faces. But no one else, like Song Che, ever truly trusted her.

Song Che had told her that he didn't lie to her because he was "hypocritical," and he wanted to appear sincere in front of her. But Xia Li felt that he wasn't "pretending," nor was he being "hypocritical."

Song Che always said things that she couldn't understand at the time. Only recently did she gradually realize that it was probably called "self-deprecation".

Xia Li woke up with a start, her forehead damp with a fine sheen of sweat.

But the moment I woke up, wrapped in the familiar blankets, I felt a surge of peace of mind.

Thankfully it was just a dream.

There's no need to go back to Hitler and experience that long century again.

In those hundred years, she had reflected enough, changed enough, and grown enough. She was no longer the "Your Highness" who only knew how to give orders arbitrarily. She knew that always ordering people around would annoy them, that it was difficult to meet someone who "didn't deceive" her, and that it was even more difficult to meet someone who was both "honest" and took her seriously.

Her hand touched the hardcover book on the bedside table; the edges of the book had been worn soft from repeated readings. Even with her photographic memory, she still reread it again and again, each time discovering something different, and always finding that certain details she had overlooked before were actually the truly fascinating parts.

The bedroom was completely silent.

She hugged the blanket, feeling a little hot.

Upon waking, I felt relieved and couldn't fall back asleep, fearing that if I closed my eyes, I would fall back into that cold dream.

She gently lifted the blanket, walked to the window, and pulled back a corner of the curtain.

A faint grayish-white tinge had already appeared on the horizon.

Her own silhouette was faintly reflected in the glass window.

As "Your Highness," she may be a failure.

If it weren't for Song Che, she might have been completely deceived by King Hitler or the schemers of the "Forbidden Kingdom" long ago.

After the departure of the top witch who had passed on her life's magic, she became the target of everyone's hatred. No one expected that a young witch, with only an unknown contractor, could so firmly hold onto the power of the magic castle.

Although she had a nightmare, she felt somewhat better and her thoughts were clearer than usual. She thought, if Song Che's "sincerity" towards her was what he himself called "hypocrisy"...

Let him continue being "hypocritical" like this.

Never change.

……

Good morning, Xia Li.

Good morning, Song Che.

"I mentioned to my parents this morning that I'd be going to visit them tonight." Song Che squeezed toothpaste onto his toothbrush, the cool minty scent filling the bathroom.

"Okay, I'll go with you." Xia Li stood behind him, waiting to use the sink.

Song Che glanced at her in the mirror.

She pursed her lips slightly, her blue eyes reflecting the morning light, as if holding unspoken words.

"You have something to ask me?" He turned around, his mouth still full of foam, his voice muffled. "Didn't sleep well last night, thinking about it all night?"

"I went to sleep." Xia Li shook her head, her silver hair swaying. "After waking up, I suddenly thought of a few questions."

"Tell me about it." Song Che rinsed his mouth and wiped the water from the corner of his mouth.

She looked up, her gaze earnest: "I want to know... am I 'mature' enough now?"

Song Che paused for a moment, then smiled, a hint of helplessness in his smile: "Well... I can't really say. Because I myself might not even be considered mature. Maturity isn't something that just comes with age."

"So you didn't know either." Xia Li's tone didn't betray disappointment, but rather seemed to confirm something.

"Well, in my opinion, you're now willing to humbly learn and know you have shortcomings, so you're already on the right track. Besides, don't you witches only become adults at three hundred years old? Your standards are different from ours."

"Didn't you say that maturity has nothing to do with age?"

"Your Highness has made rapid progress," Song Che praised with a smile. "Actually, you're already quite... well, quite sensible. You just lack the time to live here. Stay a little longer, and you'll naturally understand what 'maturity' truly means."

"Is it... a responsibility?" she pressed.

"I don't know." Song Che shook his head honestly. He wasn't confident in guiding Xia Li on this matter, and he himself had his own selfish desires and calculations. In his shallow understanding, a truly mature person should be able to "remain calm even if Mount Tai collapses before them," but he admitted that he couldn't do that—if half of Mount Tai really collapsed, he estimated that his soul would fly away in fright.

Xia Li nodded, not asking any further questions, as if this answer was enough. She turned around, picked up her toothbrush and cup, and silently stood by the sink, starting to squeeze toothpaste.

Just then, the living room door was gently pushed open a crack.

Peach blossoms poked half their little heads in, their noses a little red from the cold, their hair a mess, making them look pitiful.

"Brother Song Che..." she said softly, her voice trembling with fear, "I apologize to you on behalf of my sister... She's just impulsive, she didn't really want to fight you..."

Song Che, holding his toothbrush, turned to look at the living room and said to her, "It's nothing, I didn't take it to heart. But you..."

He seemed to remember something, and lowered his voice, "What exactly are you trying to achieve by 'consecrating' that gold coin? There has to be a reason, right?"

"Brother Tu... can you take us in?" Tao Xiang sniffed, her eyes a little red. "We've been wandering for so long... Sister may be fierce, but she's actually afraid of having nowhere to go."

"Then what about that 'bad woman' with black hair and tattered clothes I mentioned before? Why did she bully you? What exactly is she...?"

"She...she was like a ghost, she couldn't speak." Tao Xiang frowned as she recalled, "She probably...lost the ability to speak? She communicated with us, sometimes writing on the ground. Her handwriting was quite beautiful, but...she stuttered, like a wild woman."

Song Che listened carefully but found no useful clues. Unable to speak, communicating only through writing—he truly didn't recognize this person.

"What words did she write?"

"Consecrate the gold coins, [comma]"

"this one?"

"Hmm...that's it." Momoka thought hard for a moment, then suddenly added, "But it's a bit strange. Every time she writes these five characters, she puts a comma after 'light'...and then, the pen 'bang,' it explodes."

"It exploded?" Song Che raised an eyebrow. "That's incredibly strange?"

"Yes!" Tao Xiang nodded vigorously, gesturing to her face. "When the pen exploded, she got even angrier. She stood there stiffly without saying a word, her eyes were terrifying... I didn't dare to move."

"Alright then." Song Che stroked his chin, the description sounding absurd.

"Brother Song Che, you have to believe me, I'm telling the truth!" Tao Xiang looked at him anxiously, afraid that he wouldn't believe her.

"I have some doubts." Song Che looked at her, his tone softening, "but I won't kick you out. When we get more gold coins later, we'll have your sister 'bless' them. I want to see what's hidden behind these gold coins."