Xiaolin's heart hadn't stopped racing since she confessed. Even more so, now she was at the height of the most exciting moment of her life.

Xiaolin actually confessed. She confessed to her master, of all people. She couldn't believe it.

Well, so far, it's looking good. Gale hadn't outright rejected her, but why wasn't he saying after mentioning he had something to discuss on this topic?

Gale said they would discuss this, but all he did was drop her on the bed and start wiping her with the towel, turning her anticipation to a new peak.

Xiaolin was dying with anticipation as Gale wiped her arms, neck, and face every so slightly. Even though she was hot with the touch, she felt like she had been handled as a child, as there was no change in her master's expression.

But things changed when he was done cleaning her non-private areas. Gale stopped and faced her.

"I'm removing your robe," he said, as if asking for permission.

Xiaolin nodded, her face turning redder.

Gale gently tugged off the wet robe from her upper body and then lower. The robe was already in tattered rags, so he didn't make Xiaolin go through all the pain to remove them. He simply cut it into parts to remove them.

A moment later, Xiaolin was only in her underclothes. The maiden girl shied away, hiding her face.

Gale's eyes feasted on her texture for an extended moment, but he managed to keep everything within his pants. The bond was making it difficult for him as all Xiaolin was feeling was reverberating onto him, making him excited as well.

Everything was screaming at him, saying this might not be a bad idea. The supply texture, the picturesque face with overloaded cuteness, the shying away expression, the budding breasts that were left untouched since the girl was born, or the flat belly and the maidenhead that went deeper into her nether region—all screamed at him, asking him to love this girl.

Gale wrapped her with the towel again and rubbed gently, intentionally missing her private parts, but this was no less stimulating for Linlin's maiden heart.

"Master," Xiaolin squeaked with a barely coherent voice, "you're killing me."

Gale stopped. "Anything more is inappropriate for me to continue," Gale said. "You have to remove your undergarments on your own even if it hurts."

Xiaolin nodded heavily, not prepared to go all the way.

"Should I leave for the moment for you to change and then come back to discuss a little later?" Gale said. "Well, it's late. It will be better if we do this in the morning."historical

"No," Xiaolin squeaked louder. "I'll die with anticipation. Master, say whatever you have to say now."

"As you wish." Gale exhaled a deep breath and sat next to her in the bed. "It might be unbecoming or even hypocritical for me to admit, but I have no issue loving you even though you're my disciple."

Xiaolin's heart burst into delight, but Gale wasn't nearly finished yet.

"We are practitioners. We live a long life, and getting a companion who can spend all the long years with you is heaven's fortune. Well, I'm still young and already lost two women whom I thought I could live eternity with.

"So I didn't hold on to the false belief that everything will work out for the best. I have lost enough to be thoroughly suspicious of the heavenly fate. This world had shown its graces, tossing me to the best of its people, but in the next moment, it had taken away many things as well, pitting me against the worst of its people.

"I don't. . .can't hope for everything to work well for me. For all that mattered, I would be a powerless fool the next day if I didn't find a cure for my wound. And the odds everyone showed me, it's unlikely for me to find a cure."

Xiaolin sucked in a deep breath. The anticipation wasn't collapsing at her master's confession. Not at all.

In his confession, her master decided to open up about his emotions regarding the matter, and she could feel the honesty and pain through the bond. True, it was recently made, but she could feel it strengthening as he talked.

"Now the question is, why do you care, or can you care about a man who may lose everything the next day, and even brought disaster to your life? As my past entails, it has already happened twice."

Xiaolin drew her palm closer to her masters and clasped them. "Master," she said softly. "You already know my answer. It won't change even if you become a nobody. You made me what I'm now. Before you, I was nothing. So if you become nothing, I'll do everything to make you whole again."

Silly girl, she has no idea how the world works, Gale mused. But he surely liked her conviction.

"Will your answer still be the same if I can never love you like I loved Saarya and Selene?"

Xiaolin nodded.

"Will your conviction remain the same if I decided to love another person?" Gale asked, his voice serious. "Will your conviction about me remain the same if you choose to marry more than one person?"

Xiaolin was ready for the woodpecker impression, but she halted as the words resounded in her ears.

"Will you," she asked, instead, "marry more than one person?"

Gale smiled, finding her hesitation. "I've been tempted before," Gale laughed. "I can say for absolute certainty no straight man in the world can remain free of this temptation."

Xiaolin's face grew complicated. "Master, this isn't fair."

"It isn't," Gale agreed. "You can take your time with this. We have all the time for this, but--"

"Fine," Xiaolin cut in.

Gale blinked. "What did you say?"

"Fine," Xiaolin said, clenching her jaw, "I agree for you to have more than one partner."

_____________

Drop power stones and Golden Tickets whatever you have to make the book rank higher.

It depresses me whenever I see the dwindling numbers.

I'll think of bonus content accordingly.