Before Yu An could agree, his clothes fell away with a SWISH.

The pearls on the chain shimmered, accentuating Lan Yin’s pale skin and making it seem even fairer.

Yu An stared, dumbfounded. Her eyes were uncontrollably drawn to the chain, then traveled downward...

’Stop, stop, stop!’

’Am I even allowed to be looking at this?!’

Perhaps it was because Yu An’s gaze was too intense, but Lan Yin’s skin slowly flushed a shade of pink.

"Wait, wait, wait—"

Yu An snapped back to her senses and quickly covered her eyes. "Put your clothes back on!"

’This is outrageous, truly outrageous. She’d planned on just sleeping tonight, but after a stunt like this, it would be a real disservice to the handsome man before her... ah, no, the beautiful *scenery*... not to do something more intimate!’

Lan Yin froze. "You... you don’t like it?"

"Then I won’t wear it. I’ll never wear it again..."

He fumbled, trying to take the chain off, but the more he hurried, the more flustered he became.

In his distress, his eyes quickly welled with moisture, and pearls came pattering down, striking the floor.

"Who said I don’t like it?" Yu An hadn’t expected him to react so strongly. "It was just so sudden, you startled me."

’Anyone would be startled if they suddenly saw a naked, handsome man, right?’

Lan Yin hesitated, his hands still trying to undo the chain. "Really?"

"Of course it’s true."

Yu An said with a sigh, "Why do you cry even more than Xiao Yu?"

Lan Yin blushed, saying shyly, "An’an, I don’t want to, but I can’t control it."

His eyes were rimmed with red, his voice full of vulnerability. "I’ve hurt you before. The thought that you might not like this, or even hate me, or like others more than me... I... I just..."

"How could that be?"

Yu An said patiently, "Let the past be the past. I won’t play favorites, nor will I neglect anyone."

"It was just too sudden. It’s not that I don’t want to see you wearing it. How about we try that again, but in the proper order?"

"Hm?"

"First, let’s see that tailfin."

Beneath the light of the Fluorite, the magnificent tail fin shimmered with iridescent colors. Every single scale glowed, and the pearls dotted among them added a subtle, almost imperceptible... allure.

Yu An reached out and touched it. It was cool and smooth.

"It’s so beautiful," she praised sincerely. "The thought that this will be my own exclusive tailfin from now on suddenly makes me so happy."

Lan Yin’s pupils quivered as he felt her hand stroking all over his tail.

"Mm, it’s An’an’s."

He slowly moved closer, his Adam’s apple bobbing. "An’an, you’ve seen the tailfin. So, next..."

Yu An said with a straight face, "Next, drop the ’fin’."

Lan Yin froze for a moment. Once he understood what Yu An meant, his face flushed crimson.

’Blushing or not, he still had to do as Yu An asked.’

Yu An was very satisfied. "And finally..."

"An’an, do you want some pink pearls?"

Lan Yin asked out of the blue. Yu An nodded subconsciously. ’Pink pearls are so beautiful, who wouldn’t want them?’

The next second, a refreshing, watery kiss landed on her lips.

"For this last step, just listen to me."

"There will be lots of pink pearls tomorrow. It’s just... you’ll have to work a bit hard for them, An’an..."

And it was hard work indeed.

Late that night, wearing a bracelet strung with pink pearls, Yu An couldn’t stop yawning, one after another.

Lan Yin, in contrast, was full of energy, a wide grin on his face as he held Yu An and washed her clean.

The sight of him was an eyesore, and she wanted to slap him.

She had only just learned that pink pearls only appeared when a Merfolk was aroused.

Once or twice would have been fine, but a certain merman, using the noble excuse of collecting enough for a bracelet, had made her go at it again and again.

’She finally understood. The crying, the vulnerability—it was all just a ploy to achieve his lewd objectives!’

’So much for being pure-hearted and ascetic! Those must have just been rumors!’

Lan Yin placatingly kissed the corner of her lips. "Don’t be mad, don’t be mad. I won’t be so excessive next time."

Before, he had to suppress Lan Ying and couldn’t allow himself any major emotional swings. Now that he didn’t have to, he was... letting himself go a little.

Yu An shot him a glare. "Before you say that, get your hands off me!"

When Lan Yin tried to get closer, she slapped him away. "If you have so much energy you don’t know what to do with, go turn a millstone! I’m dead tired!"

"Oh," Lan Yin said pitifully. "But it’s not dawn yet. Can I go after sunrise, please?"

Yu An’s lip twitched. "Whatever."

’In any case, she was going to sleep. Han Fengyun hadn’t shown up yesterday, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t today. There might be a tough battle to fight in the morning.’

She was so exhausted that she fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow. Lan Yin smiled helplessly and gently kissed her forehead.

’This kind of life... isn’t so bad after all.’ 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

To prevent Han Fengyun from sending more people to search for them, Yu An didn’t let Mo Yan out. She and her Maid, Mo Wei, weren’t lonely in the spatial dimension; they started learning to grow vegetables with the Cloud Beasts.

Before setting up her stall, Yu An took out some red paper and whispered a few things to the others.

Ao Wu pouted. "An’an, you’re playing favorites. Why wasn’t there such a big fuss when I arrived?"

Without looking up from cutting the red paper, Yu An replied, "Then I’ll make it up to you next time, but you’ll have to do the cutting yourself."

"On second thought, never mind," Ao Wu said, looking at the red paper with a frown. "This is too hard to cut!"

When the food stall reappeared before the customers, all they could see was a sea of red. By the time Han Fengyun arrived with his men, he found the place bustling with excitement.

Yu An was beaming as she spoke to the crowd. The scene was so noisy that Han Fengyun could only catch scattered words like "congratulations" and "what a blessing."

He was in a hurry to take Han Li back home, so he didn’t give it much thought and led his men forward.

"City Lord?"

Yu An feigned surprise upon seeing Han Fengyun and said with a smile, "What brings you here? Could you be here to..."

"Boss Yu, I am here to take my son, Han Li, back to our estate."

To prevent Yu An from making excuses and refusing to hand over Han Li, Han Fengyun went straight to the point. His tone was perfectly amicable, but Yu An didn’t miss the cold glint in his eyes.

Han Fengyun said apologetically, "My son has a problem with his spiritual power. He turned into his beast form and ran wild. It’s all thanks to Yu An for taking him in. I’ve had too much to deal with these past few days, which is why I sent guards to retrieve him."

"It was just that the guards misunderstood my orders and caused offense to Boss Yu. I hope Boss Yu can find it in her heart to be magnanimous."

With Han Fengyun taking such a humble stance, if Yu An refused to hand over Han Li, she really would be suspected of kidnapping the Young City Lord.

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Yu An said with a troubled expression, "City Lord, it’s not that I don’t want to give you the Young City Lord. It’s just..."

She gestured to Han Li, who was clinging to her leg like an ornament as usual. "It’s just that the Young City Lord woke up for a bit and said he wanted to be my Beast Husband. Once a male has a Female Master, he’s supposed to live with her. For him to go back to his previous home... that wouldn’t be quite right, would it?"

Han Fengyun was stunned. "Wha-what?"

"The Young City Lord is my Beast Husband now," Yu An said again. "I just announced it to everyone so they could share in the joyous news. Surely the City Lord heard about it and came specially to deliver the dowry?"

"Utter nonsense!"

No matter how good Han Fengyun’s acting was, he couldn’t help but lose his temper at Yu An’s words. "How outrageous! My son has a Female Master, and I, his Beast Father, am the last to know!"

"Well, there’s nothing to be done about it," Yu An said with a helpless shrug. "This was the Young City Lord’s choice. You’re not going to break up a happy couple, are you, City Lord?"

Han Fengyun’s face darkened. "That’s just your side of the story. My son is still unconscious. How can you prove he said he wanted to be your Beast Husband?"