I am reborn as a man

4) Gay either way

I quickly spun around and raised my fan to cover half my face.

Liang Yi who now stood half a meter from me wearing an elegant aura that seemed to cover him from head to toe, glared at me. He was half a second away from grabbing my throat and snapping it endlessly until the bones turned to goo.

He looked so handsome, especially his purple eyes, which were scowling at me intensely.

"What wind has blown this waste at my door?" he mocked without lessening the rage in his eyes.

Wasn't it enough that he had destroyed this body once? Why did it look like he wanted to do it all over again and remain unfazed about it?

"Ahem! I, I came here for...for..."

"You better think carefully before you answer, Lin Xuan." He said my name with such disgust.

Fair enough.

From what I had gathered, the previous owner of my body had been a notorious playboy who didn't want to settle down. When the Liang family asked him to fulfill his end of the engagement, Lin Xuan ran away on their wedding day and spent the day in the company of beautiful girls in a famous brothel around this city.

That was the day Liang Yi beat him up to death, which was also the day I arrived in this world or timeline.

Even though two weeks had passed since then, the rumors around the city were still fresh and exaggerated to stay juicy.

They said that the previous owner of my body had sent an impostor to wed Liang Ying. But Lin Hao had assured me that that had not happened.

"You destroyed my dantian. I came here for compensation."

He stared at me for half a minute without speaking. And then he exhaled shitting his eyes for a single heartbeat.

"Very well. Please, let's go in."

He stretched his left hand to welcome me in his room and the doors opened by themselves. This is what they called the manipulation of qi to control anything around them.

"At least you're sensible."

I swirled around and walked into Liang Yi's room feeling proud of my skills. Little did I know that the little gut feeling telling me to run was right and was trying to save me.

As soon as the doors closed, I was just from behind and sent flying through the air until I crashed on the bed.

"Ow-ow-ow!" I groaned, lying on the side to massage my waist, which had hit the hard part.

"Tsk! You're a man but you scream like a woman, shameful. What did my sister see in a promiscuous bastard like you? There are so many fine men in the city and outside. You don't deserve her."

"But I didn't want her!" I yelled subduing my groans of pain.

"What? Repeat that you bastard!"

In a single blink, Liang Yi had pinned me beneath him, his right hand squeezing my neck as if trying to wring it.

There was nothing pleasant about being strangled by such a good-looking man.

If I had met him in a woman's body, maybe he'd have gone easy on me.

But now that I was a man, of course, he'd not hold back on his strength.

My mouth gaped, desperately trying to cling to the little air I could afford while my legs thrashed around under him.

"Jia...ng Yi," I managed to call him, and suddenly, a little cat-like doll appeared above his head.

'Oh god, I think I'm about to die again. I just got here.'

"Hello, Lin Xuan," the holographic cat spoke, almost sending me to death's arm from the shock. "My name is Bai and I've been assigned to guide you in your new life by the gods.

My vision had started blurring, making the end seem nearer than ever. 'What kind of fate is this?' I questioned as Liang Yi's hand squeezed my windpipes harder.

"Would you like to make Liang Yi your protector?" the cat hovering above his head asked.

'What does that- will he stop trying to kill me?'

"Yes. He'll be bound to y-"

'Of course!' I screamed as more of my consciousness was sucked by the darkness.

"Congratulations, starting now, Liang Yi has earned the title, Protector. He'll be bound to you for...a lifetime. He won't be under your control, but he won't be able to harm you in the slightest and will be obligated to put his life on the line to save yours."

Suddenly, the pressure on my neck lifted and I broke out in a series of hard coughs as the fire in my lungs burned fiercer.

"Nngh!" Liang Yi's struggling noise made me look up with teary eyes and an aching throat.

He seemed to be immobilized and was trying to break out of it. The power coming from his body made me feel like I was under a furnace that would burn me to ashes any second.

"It really works!" I exclaimed before pulling my legs from under him to kneel on the bed.

"Ha! Look at you now. Not so tough, huh? Listen to me, Liang Yi, if you try to kill me again, I won't go easy on you."

"You!" he hissed through his clenched teeth with a bitter scowl.

"Host, the bond has been made; please do not infuriate him, or it will be weakened before it sets in," the cat instructed before disappearing.

"Wai- argh! Why didn't I ask for another bo-"

I was suddenly pounced on by Liang Yi who felt angrier than ever, knocking me down on the bed.

He raised his hand which was covered in a glowing purple hue. But as he shoved it to my chest, he stopped and the weird energy covering his hand vanished.

Veins began popping all over his temples and neck while he wore a strained and pained expression.

"What...is...happening?"

I grinned mischievously and pinched his hot cheek. "You're now my protector. Serves you right for ruining this body before I could even get in it."

"Don't to...ouch, me!" he breathed before collapsing on me.

Panting heavily on my shoulder, his weight felt like a whole car was lying on top of me.

"Get o...get off of- argh!"

I gave up my feeble attempts to push him and settled for being slowly crushed to death by a gorgeous man like him.

Wait, would it make me gay if I continued liking men now that I had a man's body?

But wouldn't it still make me gay if I turned to women since my soul had been a woman's?