My wife is a witch princess.

"That bump on your head..."

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

Tao Yao's voice rose, clearly indicating that she had lost her composure.

"No problem. I just remember you had a bump when we first met, why isn't it healed yet? Did you get hit again?"

"I order you to forget about this immediately!"

"Now that you've given the order, I remember it even better."

The bedroom door opened a crack, and Xia Li peeked out.

"What happened?"

"It's nothing, go back to sleep. Tao Yao is being silly again." Song Che waved to her, then looked down at Bruce at his feet and raised his chin. "Bruce, go, bite her, teach her a lesson."

"I said one-on-one! One-on-one!" Tao Yao's claws scraped across the floor with a sizzling 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 let out a low growl, poised to pounce. The once menacing Fox King instantly shrank back, his voice trembling slightly, but his words remained defiant: "I...I warn you! I challenge you for the sake of all living beings! If you, you big bad guy, 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, as long as you're gone, you 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 to appear 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 and come in 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 as 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, Song Che felt like she was going to have to freeze outside all night again.

He's already used to it; I wonder if Tao Yao is.

Although Tao Xiang always slurred her words, she was quick-witted and would immediately back down whenever she sensed something was wrong. Tao Yao, on the other hand, was both clumsy and stubborn; no wonder she had been a wanderer before—she never yielded. But it didn't matter. If nothing unexpected happened, before midnight, Tao Xiang would foolishly sneak back, rubbing against his leg and whispering, "Sister won't sleep, I'll sleep. Sister won't eat, I'll eat."

In this light, Tao Yao has one more advantage than Tao Xiang: she has backbone.

Song Che couldn't figure out what Tao Yao was up to, but he was certain that the new bump on her head was probably from when the bad woman hit them again.

It's probably another monster, and it's really bad. Song Che only kicked them once, but this woman seems to beat them every day.

He had black hair, wore a tattered headscarf, was barefoot in the dead of winter, and was wrapped in rags... what else could he be but a beggar?

Even beggars don't go barefoot.

Song Che went through these characteristics in his mind and confirmed that he did not know such a person.

He sounds like a formidable beggar, someone who's better than Tao Yao in combat, and could be considered the leader of the Beggars' Sect.

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 room, he stopped and listened. It was quiet inside, but a sliver of light shone through the crack in the door, so he guessed she was reading again.

This girl has been staying up increasingly lately.

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

"Ah."

Song Che lay down on the bed, the blankets already warm. Although today was rushed, thankfully nothing major went wrong. Xia Li's identity was temporarily concealed; as for the matter of being an undocumented immigrant… they could figure out a solution later.

She's actually become his girlfriend now.

Thinking about this, he still felt a little unreal.

Xia Li... has changed so much compared to before he died.

She used to be so domineering and unreasonable, but after dying once, she suddenly became... reasonable. It just doesn't make sense.

The witch is over a hundred years old, but her mind is like a child's. According to his original estimate, it would take at least another three hundred years for Xia Li to become sensible. Even three hundred years might not be enough. Sun Wukong took five hundred years to mature, so Xia Li would need at least a thousand years.

Was her own death really that devastating for her?

Forget it, don't flatter yourself.

Song Che shook his head, dismissing the thought.

It's still early before midnight, and the warmth of the heating and the comfort of the blankets make it very cozy.

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 carefully. The medal was quite thick, and it was part of the prize itself; it looked... like two gold coins stacked together?

two!

Upon closer inspection, besides the prominent tree shape on the front, there is another number below the gold coin.

The numbers on the back are completely illegible.

The number on the front is "1".

It probably means champion or first place.

Several thoughts popped into Song Che's mind.

The first gold coin granted the extraordinary ability to read minds. Although it was one-way and somewhat illogical, it certainly transcended common sense. If the first coin worked, what about the second, the third… and who knows how many more? Does each coin correspond to a unique ability?

I don't know how many there are in total.

When Song Che asked Tao Xiang before, he only knew that the wicked woman sent it to perform the consecration ceremony, but he still didn't know the specific purpose of the consecration.

The gold coin was split in two and sold for money, while the extraordinary ability fell into Xia Li's hands—it seemed that they got all the benefits.

This makes it impossible to deduce the woman's true purpose, as it offers her no real benefit.

Speaking of which... that wicked woman doesn't use gold coins to buy a pair of shoes?

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, hate, and grudges. Her perception is stronger than her feelings. She can tell if the other person is angry, just like she knows that Song Che likes her—even though she only knows this much.

That's her perception.

Over those hundred years, she met many, many people. Some were hypocritical and deceitful, while others schemed against her... She began to reflect, to observe, and to try to understand what lay behind the lives 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 that 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.

There was no noise in the bedroom.

She hugged the blanket, feeling a little hot.

I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep. I didn't want to close my eyes and return to that dream again.

Xia Li didn't like that dream.

She threw back the covers, walked to the window, and drew back the curtains.

The sky was already turning grayish-white; dawn was approaching.

As a princess, she may have failed.

If it weren't for Song Che, she might have been completely deceived by the King of Hit or the conspiracy of the forbidden kingdom long ago.

After the witch who passed on her magic left, she became the target of everyone's hatred. No one expected that a young witch, with only a contractor, could hold onto the power of the magic castle.

Although she had a nightmare, she felt somewhat recovered, and her thoughts were more agile than usual. She thought, if Song Che's "sincerity" towards her was, in his own words, "hypocrisy"...

Let him continue being "hypocritical" then.

Never change.

forever……

……

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.