That night, Mo Ran stared at the wall, cheek in hand.
On the other side of that wall was Chu Wanning and Xue Meng's room.
Shi Mei liked cleanliness, so he had left a change of clothes folded neatly on the bed and gone downstairs to ask the attendant to bring up hot water for bathing.
The walls of the inn weren't very soundproof. In the quiet, he could faintly hear the sounds from the adjacent room.
Chu Wanning seemed to have said something, he couldn't hear clearly. But he heard Xue Meng's voice loud and clear——
"Seems a little tight."
Mo Ran's ears stood up like a dog's, wiggling a little.
Across the wall, the little phoenix said: "Shizun, does it hurt?"
"...It's fine, you can keep going."
"I'll be gentle, let me know if it hurts."
"You talk too much. Do it or don't."
Mo Ran's eyes widened in alarm: "???"
Surely there was no way no how between those two, but what kind of exchange was this? What're they doing?
The pup's ears were practically pressed against the wall. There was the faint sound of clothes rustling, and if he strained, he could even hear Chu Wanning's stifled groans.
He had heard Chu Wanning make this kind of sound in bed countless times before. That Shizun of his didn't like to make any noise when it felt really good or really painful, always biting down hard on his lower lip as unshed tears gathered in his eyes. At that time, all he had to do was push just a little bit harder to rip soft pants of breaths from his throat…...
"W-wait." Chu Wanning's voice was low and rough, "Don't... touch there."
"Alright." Xue Meng hesitated, then said in a small voice, "Then... Shizun will do it himself?"
"Mn."
Where?
What nonsense is this? Don't touch where? Do what himself? Just what are they doing!
Mo Ran's entire face darkened.
By the time he realized what he was doing, he had already knocked on the neighboring door.
A flurry of rushing noises came from inside. Pup's expression grew even darker. He raised his voice: "Shizun, what are you——"
The door opened with a creak.
Xue Meng stood there, fully dressed, hand still holding a piece of blood-stained gauze. He narrowed his eyes as he glared at Mo Ran with puzzlement.
"What do you want, making such a ruckus this late at night? Trip over a ghost or something?"
Mo Ran's mouth opened then closed stupidly. He glanced past Xue Meng to where Chu Wanning sat by the table with medicinal salve and fresh bandages on it.
"What were you guys..."
Xue Ment continued glaring: "Applying medicine, of course. Shizun's shoulder injury hasn't healed yet. The dressing hasn't been changed for a few days, and some of the wounds got infected again."
Mo Ran: "..."
He asked dumbly: "Th-then what was too tight..."
"Too tight?" Xue Meng thought for a while, brows drawn together, "Oh, the bandages. They were wrapped too tightly before, some bits got stuck to the wounds with blood and almost wouldn't come off."
He stopped talking suddenly and glanced at Mo Ran with suspicion.
"You were eavesdropping?"
Mo Ran rolled his eyes and scrambled to save his sorry face: "Who's eavesdropping! The walls here are so thin you can even hear breathing sounds if you lean against them, go see for yourself if you don't believe me."
"Oh. Really?" Xue Meng nodded, but then a moment later felt like something was off, "——Wait, how do you know that? Were you leaning against the wall to listen?"
Mo Ran: "..."
Xue Meng, angrily: "Mo Weiyu, you are such a freak!"
Mo Ran, just as angry: "Who knows what beastly things you might do to Shizun!"
Xue Meng was a pure person who knew nothing of such matters. He had no idea what Mo Ran was even on about, so he only got angrier: "What nonsense are you yapping about!" And turned to complain, "Shizun, he——"
Chu Wanning put on his outer robe, holding it closed with one hand while straightening out his hair with the other as he calmly walked over and glanced Mo Ran up and down.
"Did you need something?"
"I…...I heard..." Mo Ran fumbled for words, "Um, that stuff, so I thought Xue Meng was bullying you..."
"What?" Chu Wanning didn't understand at all, eyes narrowing, "Who's bullying me?"
Mo Ran wanted to slap himself: "..."
They were in the middle of staring awkwardly at one another when Shi Mei came upstairs.
"A-Ran? What are you doing outside Shizun's room?"
"I...uh..." Mo Ran stammered, "That, um, there was a misunderstanding."
Shi Mei smiled: "Well, has it been resolved?"
"Yeah, yeah." Mo Ran said hurriedly, "Shi Mei, didn't you go ask the attendant for hot water? Shizun probably hasn't bathed yet either, I'll go ask them to bring extra."
Shi Mei said: "No need." He took out four bamboo tablets, smiling, "The attendant said there's a natural hot spring by the inn which the innkeeper built into a bath. These tablets are passes, I got one for everyone."
Mo Ran thought that he, a cut sleeve, probably shouldn't go soak in the hot spring with the other three.
Xue Meng was whatever; Shi Mei was pure and divine in his eyes, and he dared not even think any dirty thoughts about him. But Chu Wanning… he was well aware, from the couple times of close contact they had since his rebirth, that he'd probably lose his mind if he saw that person undress.
Mo Ran covered his face with a hand: "I'll pass."
Xue Meng, shocked: "You don't bathe before bed? Gross!"
Mo Ran said: "I'll ask the attendant to send some hot water up."
Shi Mei was baffled: "They don't boil hot water here, since all the guests go to the hot spring."
Mo Ran: "..."
Having no other choice, Mo Ran could only grab a change of clothes and go to the hot spring with everyone else. This inn was pretty diligent at currying favor; it knew well that most people who come to stay are cultivators headed to Jincheng Lake hopeful for a weapon, and so named the bath "Daybreak's Reflection in Jincheng" to invite some luck.
Mo Ran was scared stiff of losing his senses, and dared not even touch the other two. He changed in a rush, wrapping the towel tightly around his waist, and ran off by himself to the hot spring first to find a secluded spot.
It was already rather late, so there weren't many people in the bath, and the ones who were there were scattered distantly. With a square of white towel on the top of his head, Mo Ran sank into the water, leaving only half his face above, and let out a breath, 'gulugulu' blowing bubbles.
The first person to finish changing strode out with long, bare legs.
Mo Ran snuck a glance and let out a breath in relief. Thank the gods, it was only Xue Meng.
Xue-gongzi may be handsome, but he wasn't Taxian-Jun's type no matter how you cut it. Their gazes met, and Xue Meng pointed at him: "You, stay away from me."
"What gives?"
"You're dirty."
Mo Ran: "Hehe."
The bath was misty with water vapor. After a while, Xue Meng paused in the middle of scrubbing himself to call out: "Shizun, over here!"
Mo Ran, with half his face underwater, nearly choked. He knew damn well that he shouldn't look, but his gaze still couldn't help wandering over.
That single glance nearly killed him. He was so startled that he swallowed two whole mouthfuls of bath water and didn't even have time to be grossed out, hurrying instead to sink even deeper into the water until only his eyes were above the water.
He totally didn't expect Chu Wanning and Shi Mei to come out together.
Shi Mei was slender and softly beautiful, with long, ink-black hair draped over his shoulders, and wrapped in a towel.
By all rights, Mo Ran should've wanted to sneak a look at him the most, but his glance darted quickly past him. He truly respect Shi Mei like the bright moon above, and dared not stare at him in public.
Chu Wanning, on the other hand, was tall and coldly handsome, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist, toned body and firm skin. He had his hair up in a high ponytail, and wore a large, white bathrobe that covered his whole body, except for the front where it was too wide to be pulled close and revealed a large expanse of smooth, firm chest.
Staring at him, Mo Ran felt like he was going to suffocate and boil in the water.
He wanted to look away.
But his traitorous eyes refused to listen, and his gaze fixed itself there without moving even the slightest bit. His ears slowly turned red.
Across the heavy mist, Chu Wanning seemed to have glanced at him, or perhaps not. He put a layer of waterproofing barrier over his bandages and stepped into the water. His legs could be seen between the floating robes, long and slender, balanced with tight contours.
Mo Ran: "......"
He really couldn't take any more, closing his eyes and sinking all the way into the water.
Even covered by the towel wrapped around his waist, his reaction was really too...
Mo Ran felt extremely wronged.
He really didn't like Chu Wanning, he truly hated Chu Wanning.
But his body remembered their fervent love-making, those frenzied intertwinements that could turn even bones of steel into tenderness, and all of the absurd things between the two of them that made his face redden and his heart race.
The jut of his throat bobbed as a celestial war raged within.
Mo Ran was really about to cry.
It was the first time in his life that he loathed himself so——why was he like this? Shi Mei was right there, what the fuck was he doing losing his damn mind over Chu Wanning?
Even if they had pressed together skin to skin as they entwined in the previous life.
All that was in the past.
No matter how hung up he was over Chu Wanning's body, how could he do this to Shi Mei? This was too disrespectful to him, he deserved better.
Mo Ran lowered his head and focused on dispelling those wicked thoughts for quite a while before finally managing to suppress the fire in his abdomen. He burst out of the water and shook off the droplets, wiped his face with the towel, and opened his watery eyes.
And came face to face with Chu Wanning.
Even worse, the water he had just shaken off all splashed right onto Chu Wanning's face. He watched as a droplet leisurely made its way down into his sharp black eyebrow, and then slowly slid lower, nearly about to get into that beautiful phoenix eye.
Chu Wanning: "..."
Mo Ran: "..."
This was truly the worst. He couldn't see the surroundings earlier when he was submerged underwater holding his breath.
Chu Wanning also had no idea Mo Ran was under the water here, and was just minding his own business coming over here to fetch the box of fragrance bars. He didn't even get to the box before he got splashed with a faceful of water.
The hot spring was quite deep, the buoyancy of the water strong. Mo Ran, head swimming, tried to back away, but ended up slipping and falling right into Chu Wanning's arms instead.
"Ah!"
"..."