Chapter 44: The Floor and the Stone Bed

When Ayu returned from hunting, having asked the tribesmen and tracked the way along, he found a large pile of neat stone slabs almost burying the two of them.

Seeing Ayu approach and calculating that the number of stone slabs should be nearly sufficient, Mutong asked the two brothers to slowly transport the slabs home while she trotted ahead to cook.

Today, Mutong used the leftover wild boar large bones and ribs to stew a pot of soup, dropping in a generous amount of noodle-fruits. Just before taking it off the fire, she tossed in some thorny cucumbers. She also made a pot of purple rice, stir-fried some chard, and prepared a dish of stir-fried shredded meat with houttuynia cordata. Two dishes and a soup, full-portioned.

Ayu had also brought back plenty of prey today: a beast the size of a tiger, two creatures resembling teal ducks, and a bird. Fearing they would spoil if left outside, Mutong stored all of these catches away.

By the time the two brothers carried all the stone slabs back, Mutong's meal was ready.

She had Dogi carry a back-basket filled with purple rice fruits, green beans, thorny cucumbers, a large head of chard, and some thorn berries to Jucao. When he returned, Dogi's basket was filled with several rattan baskets, and he was carrying two rattan chests in his hands.

After putting down the items and washing his hands, Dogi sat at the dining table with a grin: "Jucao said these chests and baskets are in exchange for today's food. The ones woven tomorrow will be considered repayment for the clothes and other items given by Sister-in-law."

The food sent to Jucao's family today, given the appetite of their three-member household, would last for several days. Therefore, Jucao was deeply grateful and wanted to weave more items to send to Mutong. Today, she had her father gather plenty of reeds by the river, and in a couple of days, she would learn to make reed mats, winnowing baskets, and the like. When the time came, she would keep a few for her own family and send the rest to the divine messenger's household.

With the laying of the stone floor on her mind, Mutong finished her meal in a few quick bites and went into the house. After taking a look around, she began her grand enterprise of floor-laying.

The soil on the floor of the house had long been beaten very flat. The two brothers, still eating, were moved out into the courtyard along with the stone table, and the belongings in the main room were temporarily cleared into the two bedrooms.

The main room was not large, measuring less than twenty square meters in total. Mutong laid the floor very quickly because the stone slabs had been made extremely smooth and uniform; she only needed to lay them out and tamp them down.

In no time at all, the main room was finished. Moving the items out of the bedrooms, Mutong then began laying the floors in the two bedrooms.

By the time the two brothers finished eating, Dogi went to wash the dishes, while Ayu helped carry the trimmed thin stone slabs. With someone to help, Mutong laid the floors even faster.

Not long after Dogi finished washing the dishes and returned, the floors of the two bedrooms were also completed.

Walking barefoot on the smooth floor, Mutong was extremely satisfied: this was her first "major" project since coming to this otherworldly realm!

With such a smooth and clean floor, would she still spread dry grass to serve as a bed? Of course Mutong wouldn't do that. Thinking of that sizable granite mountain head, Mutong led the two brothers out again just as the sky was turning dark.

Before nightfall, they hauled back several large chunks of granite.

After bustling about in the courtyard for quite a while, those chunks of granite were finally shaped into stones of roughly uniform size. Transported one by one back into Dogi's room and pieced together, a flat stone bed appeared. Spreading the previously woven reed mat over it, Dogi's mouth split wide in delight: This was a new bed made just for him?

Let it be like this for now! Mutong had been busy all day, and even with the help of "divine tools," her body could no longer hold out. Asking the two brothers to put the chests, baskets, and table back in their original places, Mutong grabbed her clothes and went to take a bath.

Tomorrow, she would use the remaining granite blocks to pave a path in the courtyard, and make a larger granite water vat—that should be about it. As for cabinets and the like, she would slowly make them later.

After bathing, Mutong lay in bed planning tomorrow's tasks, and her eyelids gradually drifted closed.

When Ayu finished bathing and entered the room, he saw that Mutong had already fallen asleep.

With tender affection, he kissed Mutong on the cheek, and Ayu lay down beside her. However, his aura and movements clearly indicated he was no longer the daytime Ayu.

Shen Kai embraced Mutong, breathing in the scent of her body. Right now, he felt immensely content: he had once thought he would never again be able to hold his dear Xiaotong in a mutual embrace, yet who could have known she would now become his wife?

Although he could not occupy this body round the clock, he was quite satisfied with the current situation. After all, every night, it was he who accompanied his Tong. By day, this body was Ayu; by night, this body was Shen Kai.

Shen Kai himself could not figure out why he could never drive away the original soul. But the current situation could be considered the greatest misfortune among blessings.

This body gave him a sense of familiarity and a fatal attraction; the concentrated essence and blood he had transformed into had plunged directly into Ayu's body the very first time he saw him. Yet he had never been able to completely control this body—he remained dormant during the day and only woke at night. The miraculous part was that he was acutely aware of all the interactions between Ayu and Mutong during the daytime.

While this brought him a sense of comfort, it also stirred a trace of doubt: Did it work the same way in reverse? Would that fellow named Ayu be acutely aware of every single thing he and Ah Tong did each night?

This thought made Shen Kai extremely displeased. Nonsense, who would be willing to let a third party know about their most intimate moments? Even though that third party was quite passive and inextricably bound to him, he still found it deeply irritating.

Yet he had no other choice right now; he could neither leave this body nor swallow up the consciousness of the other occupant within it. The current standoff was perhaps the best outcome. At least it was he, and not that so-called Ayu, accompanying his Tong every single night.

Inhaling Mutong's natural fragrance, Shen Kai drifted soundlessly into slumber.

As the first ray of morning sunlight spilled into the room, the person on the bed stirred. Shen Kai opened his eyes, and in a flash, he had transformed back into Ayu.

Ayu lowered his head to kiss Mutong's cheek. He remained puzzled about having another presence within his body, yet he simply knew it was there. The interactions between Mutong and that person were clearly different from those with himself—of this he was well aware. Perhaps the strange vocabulary that frequently popped into his mind was brought by that person?

Yet, so what? Mutong was his wife, the one who would walk hand in hand with him through life; this was something no one could ever change. Not even the other entity residing within his body could deny it.

He only knew one thing: he would never be defeated by that person! And that was enough. The person by his side was still waiting for him to accompany her through a lifetime!

Naked, he fetched water in a stone basin to wash his face and wipe down his body, then changed into a crisp, clean pair of shorts and a tank top. Touching the clothes on his body, Ayu smiled: these new garments had all been prepared for him by Mutong. And they were given during the day, not at night!

When Mutong woke up, she saw a man with a face full of sweet affection cheerfully cooking breakfast.