"Mmm... Harder... That's it... Come on, almost there..."
Lia's hands clenched tight, trembling with excitement. Her eyes were glued to the bare, sweat-drenched body bobbing up and down in a frantic rhythm. Long's face was flushed crimson, strained with exertion, his voice raspy and broken as he gasped for air:
"...I... I... can't take it anymore... Ngh..."
"Don't stop! Come on, you can do it!"
Lia raised her voice, pleading eagerly.
"Spare me... I'm about to... to blow!"
The moment the words left his lips, Long's massive frame collapsed onto the floor. The pile of sandbags stacked on his back came crashing down with him, creating a thundering thud and kicking up a cloud of dust.
The acrid scent of cement rose from the damp warehouse floor. Sweat poured off him like rain, mixing with the dust to create a gritty, slippery sludge that clung to his skin, causing a maddening itch. Long lay completely flattened, his limbs too exhausted to twitch, wheezing:
"I'm... dying! This is way more brutal than those push-up variations Trung used to force me to do."
"BLEUGH!!!"
A violent spasm wrenched his gut, surging up his throat and forcing him to purge everything in his stomach onto the floor.
The warning earlier wasn't a lie; Long really did "blow"... just in the nastiest, most unhygienic way possible.
"Did... did my grandfather really swallow this routine whole every single day?"
Long asked wheezily, his eyes groggy. Filling his vision right now was a pair of fair, soft thighs approaching him. Lia bent down low, her small hand reaching into the back pocket of her tight gym shorts to pull out a handkerchief embroidered with an intricate purple butterfly.
She tenderly wiped away the drool and dirt lingering at the corner of Long's mouth, her voice gentle and encouraging:
"In his youth, Alex trained even crazier than this. But for your first day, lasting this long is already really good."
Long's emerald eyes shifted, locking onto the handkerchief in Lia's hand. He asked quietly:
"I haven't seen that before."
Lia's small hands hurriedly clutched the handkerchief to her chest as if afraid someone would snatch it, her cheeks flushing slightly. Her long lashes lowered, veiling shimmering, nostalgic eyes, as a gentle smile bloomed on her lips:
"It was... a gift Alex gave me..."
Long's brows furrowed for a split second. An invisible, stinging pain shot down his spine. He quickly turned his face away to hide the messy, dark emotions sprouting within, then blurted out a stray question:
"Do you love me?"
Lia tilted her head, looking at Long with a hint of confusion at the sudden question:
"Of course I do... But why do you ask all of a sudden?"
He fell silent for a moment, swallowing back his wandering thoughts, then replied with forced casualness:
"Ah, it's nothing. You go inside and find something to eat first; I'll clean up this 'battlefield' and join you right away."
His voice feigned ease, but his eyes were evasive, staring specifically at the murky puddle on the floor, not daring to look straight at her.
Suddenly, a warm, soft sensation pressed against both his cheeks, forcing his face to turn. Long's vision swiveled and stopped right in front of violet eyes staring at him with evident annoyance.
"What's this about? Don't tell me you're jealous?"
Long's cheeks flushed slightly; he averted his eyes again, muttering:
"No way..."
"Still denying it? Do you not trust me?"
Lia's question was the straw that broke the camel's back. Long's facial muscles tightened, lips pressed together in resignation. Finally, unable to hold it back, he blurted out, his voice trembling as he poured out his heart:
"I... I honestly don't understand why you like me. I feel like I'm just a replacement copy. Like actually... you don't like me. What you like is just the shadow of Alex existing inside me. The one you love is your grandfather, not me."
The pressure on his cheeks increased. Lia leaned her face closer to him, her gaze stern and voice sharp as steel:
"Listen here, kiddo. I love you, and it's not because you resemble your grandfather. Do you think your personality and Alex's are that similar?"
Lia raised a brow; her rapid-fire question hit Long like a bucket of cold water, awakening memories of his grandfather. An image popped into Long's head of an old man always laughing loudly, overly energetic, doing things recklessly without a second thought.
His eyelid twitched. Yeah... thinking back, that's way off.
"I like you because you always worry about me, you're always gentle, understanding, and never controlling... I could list your good points all day. But most importantly: You are very loyal. That is the biggest difference between you and Alex."
Long was stunned hearing that. Even though he had heard Lia curse Alex as a scumbag and a womanizer before, getting an official confirmation still shocked him to the core.
In Long's memory, he never knew who his grandmother was, and his grandfather had stayed single, raising his dad alone like a "rooster raising a chick," never taking another step with any woman.
"So... what was he actually like in his youth?"
"A legendary playboy. The number of women who passed through his hands is uncountable."
A few drops of cold sweat began to roll down Long's forehead.
"He played the 'multi-species' game too. He didn't even spare the Dragonkin."
This time, sweat poured down his forehead like a waterfall.
This truth shocked him deeply, but also sparked a curiosity about the relationship between his grandfather and Lia; not-so-wholesome thoughts began to surface. Lia caught on and pinched his cheek.
"What kind of dirty stuff are you imagining? Your grandfather and I didn't do anything. Although I was charmed by him, strangely enough, he always kept the relationship at a teammate level... Probably because my spirit body at the time didn't interest him."
"So do you still have feelings for him?"
Lia pinched harder, scolding him sharply.
"Ouch."
"I said all that and you still ask? I was just reminiscing about memories earlier, there's no romantic love left! And if I didn't love you, then why did I say before that I wanted to keep this human form to have children with you?"
As soon as she finished, her violet eyes welled up with tears, making Long's stomach knot tight as he realized he had hurt her.
Long froze, his mind rewinding everything, stringing together every piece and realizing with horror the price Lia had to pay.
It wasn't just changing shape. It was trading the status of a higher being for a brief human life. She had given up eternal agelessness, given up the pure body of a Fairy to imprison herself in this weak fleshy shell. Now, she had to face birth, aging, sickness, and death; endure hunger, thirst, and the mundane, annoying physiological needs she never had to care about before.
Looking at it from any angle, this was a losing bet, full of risk and pain. Just how big must her love be to make an immortal creature accept such an insane trade-off?