Lessons on Raising a Partner

Chapter 44: I seem to like him

Hai’an obediently grabbed the YangYang flower with his vines then turned off the switch. The light in the cave gradually dimmed, and finally returned to darkness.

In the quiet atmosphere, Hai’an could only hear Auguste’s shallow breathing. Even though he could see 360 degrees around him after turning into trembling grass, there was only infinite darkness in front of him, but Hai’an could feel Auguste’s eyes still gazing deeply at him.

A second ago, I watched you, and you looked back at me. When darkness came the next moment, our eyes did not shift, just like through the deep universe, a few light-years away from the arrival of the stars, the only light in each other’s world.

“Good job.” Auguste laughed and praised Hai’an.

Hai’an twisted his body, like drinking a cup of nectar-soaked flower wine, fumigated, a little shy, and a little uncomfortable. Auguste suddenly became very numb. If it weren’t that plants could not blush, he would surely be blushing now.

Auguste’s hands clasped together and he breathed softly into his palms. A few light blue lights came out of Auguste’s palms. They were not very bright, but they could clearly show Auguste’s face, which was almost covered by darkness. At this time, he laid the seedling on a slightly high stone in the cave and knelt on one knee.

The light he held in his hand was like the brightest star before the moon rose on every starry night. The darker the darkness, the brighter it becomes.

“Look.” Auguste dropped his hands, and like in his heart, a tiny pale blue flame lightly brushed by him. It floated to every corner of the cave, and suddenly fell near the small seedling. This scene reflected in Auguste’s eyes and the only thing in his eyes was Hai’an.

Hai’an stared at all this, and Auguste’s elongated shadow fell to the ground, twinkling slightly with the flames, like a curtain spread out.

Auguste put his left hand in front of Hai’an. “Come on, stretch out a vine.”

A tender vine slowly stretched out through the small round window of the nest. Auguste grinned and gently touched the vine. At the moment of encounter, Hai’an shook violently. Auguste thought he had hurt Hai’an. He quickly loosened his left hand, put out his right hand hidden behind him, and put a small piece of blue stone on Hai’an’s vine.

“Here you are.”

Hai’an wrapped his vine around the stone tightly, moved his eyes away from Auguste and looked carefully at the object. He found that it was a stone similar to the one left after burning the corpse of the little Ayulon.

When Auguste saw that Hai’an had taken his soul stone, he lowered his head and put his hands on the edge of the small nest. Then he put his forehead on the cover, closed his eyes and whispered, “If I give you my soul stone, you will always be with me. Even if we can’t find the human fruit, I will give you more precious things. Your life will be as long as mine. I will not let you dread a short life, but let you occupy a small part of my long life...”

Auguste was still whispering, but Hai’an grew sad. He circled Auguste’s soul stone tightly and hid it in the soil of his roots.

Yes, the life of plants was not longer than a hundred years, and Auguste still had a long life. If he was to be shaking grass all the time, one day he will wither and die. By that time, he will never see Auguste again.

Hai’an never wanted to be a human being more than now, and he wanted to be with Auguste that entire time. Hai’an suddenly realized that he seemed to like Auguste. And now, did it seem like Auguste felt the same about him?

But soon Hai’an remembered that he was still a potted plant. Auguste couldn’t have fallen in love with a plant.

Suddenly, the mood became low. Hai’an gently attached the vine to the place where Auguste leaned against the small nest, where there was warmth from Auguste, and stashed that feeling to the bottom of his heart to the tip of his vine.

It was like a bowl of warm sugar water, drinking it until none remained at the bottom of the bowl, and it turned out that there were still a lot of unmelted sugar granules, enough for you to sweeten more water again on a cold winter night.

“JianJian.” Auguste suddenly raised his head and called out to Hai’an. He was so frightened that he immediately took back his vine. Auguste’s deep eyes still looked at him firmly. “Even if you are a potted plant forever, you have my soul stone. No matter where you are, I can feel you and we will be together forever.”

Auguste actually discovered the difference between Hai’an and a normal plant. As a potted ornamental plant, Hai’an’s IQ was too high, just like another intelligent species that did not have human form.

For Auguste, it didn’t matter whether he was a plant or not. It didn’t matter whether he could speak. Everyone had their own unique way of expressing themselves. It was enough for him to understand Hai’an.

In his more than five hundred years of life, only his kin Carl accompanied him. It was a long and lonely way to find his fellow people. Later, there were gradually other people on the ship. They lived together like family, but they all had no home. Maybe one day, after the ship stopped on a planet, the crew would find their own home and leave the ship. Never to come back.

Auguste was still a little selfish. He didn’t want to be lonely, but he didn’t want to think about other people who wanted to be together all the time. Hai’an’s appearance gave him a different feeling. He even wondered if he really had a fetish, as it was not normal.

It was all fate. There were tens of millions of people in the universe, but he was waiting for a potted plant. But Auguste did not want to resist that feeling.

Never being separated and always being together had become a part of his life.

Whether plants could become human beings or not, he only wanted Hai’an to belong to him all his life.

After Auguste said those words, his heart was soft. He could show it without saying anything. He just wanted Hai’an to know how important he was to him. Auguste saw Hai’an hiding his soul stone and stayed still for a while, wondering what he was thinking.

Suddenly, two vines were stretched out from the small nest and covered Auguste’s eyelids gently.

Does this mean close your eyes?

When Hai’an saw Auguste close his eyes along with him, he began to stretch out more vines and weave a straw ring without flowers. The little soul stone was retracted back into the earth by Hai’an and placed near its roots. This small hard stone was better than thousands of precious stones.

He felt that maybe Auguste had discovered his difference. He wanted to be with Auguste all the time after the night they came back from the black market. Only now did Hai’an figure out his mind clearly.

But he could not tell Auguste that.

He couldn’t say anything. He couldn’t do anything.

If they did not find the human fruit, and he could not speak the words of the world, maybe when he died, Auguste would still know nothing about his feelings.

He was unwilling for this to happen.

When he was in the Elune Forest, he had seen the ceremony of two elves sworn to each other. Each elf had its own flower, which grew on the tree of life where he was born, and bloomed on a moonlit night. When the elves met the one they liked, they picked the flower and wove a corolla for their beloved.

Then, witnessed by other elves, they swore to each other that their souls belonged to one another.

He hadn’t blossom yet, so he couldn’t knit a corolla for Auguste.

Hai’an wrapped the vines around Auguste’s wrists, and the vines tangled around each other, forming a fine bracelet, then he tore off the excess vines and retracted them into the small nest. It was painful to rip off the vine, just like ripping off a finger, but Hai’an was happy.

Now I’m yours. You’ll be mine when I bloom.

When Auguste opened his eyes, he found a bracelet of vine-braided straw on his wrist. At the junction of the straw rings, there was also light green juice flowing where the vines were broken. He immediately looked at Hai’an, but Hai’an stayed in the nest and did not stick out the vines, so Auguste could not see Hai’an’s wound. He sighed and took Hai’an into his arms and sat down against the wall.

He laid his chin gently on the cover of the small nest, and the night passed like this.

So the next day when everyone gathered, Colin, with his sharp eyes, immediately found the vine bracelet on Auguste’s wrist.

“Well, what is this? Was this JianJian’s token of love for you?” Colin began to tease Auguste.

But Auguste answered earnestly, “Yes.”

Colin: “...”

Only Carl frowned and glanced up and down at Auguste. “Auguste, you...”

“Let’s get moving!” Auguste interrupted Carl and walked on.

Carl could not say anything more. He followed Auguste and left the cave of the snow wolves.

“What’s wrong?” Lydney walked next to Carl and found his attitude towards Auguste was a little strange.

“... Nothing.” Carl hung his head and suddenly added, “I will have it too.”

Lydney didn’t catch Carl’s last words, “What did you say?”

But Carl did not answer Lydney. They were guided by the big wolf with the little wolf in his arms. His name was Jones and he was very tall, almost the same size as Auguste.

“Be very careful when you walk along these roads. We don’t know when the insects will come out from under your feet and bite off your head in one bite.” Jones did not return to wolf shape, because then they could not communicate. Jones was wrapped in a huge wolf fur cloak. It was so tight and heavy that no wind could penetrate it.