Chapter 99: Cute

With the next few hours, Kian and the girls built a makeshift kitchen in the island.

The makeshift kitchen was just a long flat stone over a fire pit, but Feimei had arranged it like she had been born beside a flame.

A blackened pot hung above the coals, bubbling with something dark and herbal, and even then, there was no heat spreading around the area.

Kian was quite impressed.

The girls sat around the fire, sitting in places they found comfortable.

Jia, for one, sat on a raised boulder, her knives moving through greens and pale roots while the sea air carried the smell of woodsmoke and wet soil.

Kian sat a little way off, one foot propped on a stone, lazily retying the leather strap of his shoe. The shoes in this world really were quite different from Earth.

He wasn’t part of the conversation between the girls, but he could hear every word, so he listened as he did his shoe work.

Jia sliced a white root into thin coins and tossed them into a wooden bowl.

"If you keep feeding Kian like this, Mom, he really will never leave the island." She smiled without looking up. "Not that leaving ever crossed his mind once he had a bed and one of us in it."

Mia cut a potato with her knife, then pointed it at Jia in a gesture of making a point. "Then we’re doing something right. I don’t want him leaving anyway. I’d rather have him here being spoiled than out there picking fights or flirting with another woman."

Jia leaned over to give her finished ingredients to Feimei. "Spoiling him means he starts giving orders like a little tyrant. It’s little time before he claps his hands when he wants water. That’s so lazy and stupid; he better never do that!"

Xiao Cui made a small noise of agreement. "He’s got that look, definitely, but he is also a hardworker. I’ve never seen him sit still."

Jia looked at her sideways. "Well, what do you think hardworking, talented men end up becoming once they have so many beautiful wives?"

Kian blinked.

Jia continued: "Kian is talented, he is smart, he is also hardworking. I know that better than most of you, but such talented men get so easily ruined by women."

Feimei stirred the pot once and smiled. "Let him act like a lord. A man who plants a farm, feeds his women, and stays close is enough, is it not?"

Jia raised a finger, wet with root juice. "See, that’s the problem. You understand it, unlike the others, yet you still agree to let it be. That’s not it. We should never dull his edge, we should become his blade as well."

Mia thought about it, then nodded. "It is actually true, to be honest. Comfort can kill character!"

Jiao Yin didn’t have much to talk about in such a deeply intellectual matter, but she listened intently, learning herself how these well read girls thought.

Kian finally pulled the strap tight and shook his foot once.

He didn’t move to join them, just watched the firelight play across their faces and listened to his whole household argue about how soft they were for him.

The island felt smaller in the dark, but in a way that made him warm instead of feeling tiny.

Feimei tossed a handful of herbs into the pot with her spirit control and gave it a slow, deliberate stir.

"Being his blade doesn’t mean sending him into danger, by the way. It means sharpening ourselves until he never has to stand alone."

She glanced toward Kian, her red eyes catching the firelight.

Mia nodded, sliding her knife back into its cloth roll. "We train, we watch, we hold the line when he can’t. But we also feed him and keep him warm."

Jia smiled, but still teased: "That’s still softening him, I’d say."

Xiao Cui said from the side, "That’s not softening him. That’s making sure the blade doesn’t snap from overuse; I believe our kisses, hugs, and cuddles are what is supposed to keep his from burning out."

She wasn’t as well read as Jia or Mia but she had her own opinions.

Jia sat back and stretched, then fixed Xiao Cui with a sideways look. "Strength without rest is just a broken edge waiting to happen, indeed. Maybe I will kiss him later after all."

Xiao Cui hugged her knees and frowned at the fire. "You guys, Mia and Jia are so well read I feel stupid."

Jiao Yin set her bowl down with a soft clink. "So are you! You also talk like them, though somewhat different. Only I am really stupid in this house."

Jia shook her head. "Whatever it is, you guys better behave. If any of you spoil Kian in a wrong way, I am kicking you out. That’s that, and I don’t speak without enforcing.

"He is got a good future, and I want it to remain that way. Anyone against it can get lost. I’ll kick you out if he can’t."

Kian listened, and something in his chest pulled tight. Jia wasn’t the type to think about something and talk about another, Jia always spoke what was on her mind.

He rose without a sound, crossed the few steps behind her, and wrapped his arms around Jia from behind. His chin dropped onto her shoulder, close enough to feel the small shiver that ran down her spine.

He said nothing, just held her while the ocean breathed against the shore.

Jia picked a small carrot from the bowl, turned her head just enough to find his lips, and nudged it between them.

She asked: "What? You have anything to say against that?"

"Maybe."

"Chew quietly and don’t speak. If I don’t do this, it’s just a matter of time before you had internal family issues," she said, then faced the fire as if he weren’t wrapped around her at all.

"Hm, hm."

Jia picked up another root and kept slicing, her voice dropping to something softer and more certain.

"I don’t care if this guy slinging on me never becomes some great elder. I only care that none of us becomes the reason he bleeds, or has to risk his life, or lose his edge."

She did not look at him, but her back settled against his chest as if she had decided he belonged there.

The fire crackled, sending a few sparks into the night.

Feimei’s smile deepened, her gaze moving from the pot to her daughter and back, but she said nothing.

Jiao Yin wiped her hands slowly, listening.

Kian kissed the side of Jia’s neck, just under her ear.

She snorted but leaned more of her weight into him.

Mia shook her head with a faint grin. "No objections on my part, but I’d like to have him for myself a bit more. You guys are taking too much of him from me!"

Kian smiled, winking at Mia and she pouted.

Then, Kian murmured in Jia’s ear: "Truly knows how to say I love you, don’t you?"

Jia’s knife paused for half a breath, then resumed its steady rhythm. "Never said that. Here, another carrot," she gave one more to him.

Kian didn’t argue. He slid his hand to her stomach and held her there, letting the silence say what she refused to.

He ate what she gave without complaint.

Jia fed him another slice of carrot, her eyes still on the fire. "So, Your Laziness, now that you have a farm and a house full of women, what’s next? You said you had plans for a business when we were in the sect before.

"Are you actually going to do something like that now that we are here in Mulberry Gate City, or will you just eat carrots and hope the island gives you everything?"

Kian chewed slowly and settled against her. "The farm will pay us first, it’s going to be a decent income source. Spirit crops, herbs, maybe eggs. After that, I have some business plans for the city itself."

He paused and rubbed her stomach once more, really enchanted with the shape of it. "And I have other plans too. I’m not done."

Jia reached for another root but didn’t cut it. She looked at the pot for a long beat, then nodded. "Good."

She tossed the root into the bowl and leaned back into him. "Don’t forget about our competition, though. Tomorrow morning we can check whose frost grass is better."

Kian smiled against her shoulder and gave a small nod. "Fine. If I win, you give me a child. If I lose, I give you one."

Jia froze, then twisted her head to glare at him. "That’s the same thing, you shameless pig. We had a different challenge, so honor that!"

Kian kissed under her jaw. "Don’t worry, I will give you other gifts if you win. But you won’t win though."

She looked at him disdainfully. "Sure, dude. You think what you want to think."

Xiao Cui broke into sudden laughter and tossed a bean at them. "You guys are so cute."