Chu Wanning and Mo Ran left Peach Blossom Springs and traveled
all over the map, searching for information regarding when markets opened
at the various sects. After several days of hasty travel, they finally decided to
stay a night at an inn in a small town.
They'd hardly rested since leaving Peach Blossom Springs, so Mo
Ran had retired to his own room a while ago. Chu Wanning sat at a table, lit a
candle, and contemplated the porcelain bottle in his hand under warm yellow
light.
Inside the white jade porcelain bottle were thirty or so golden pills. It
was fortunate that the Xuanji Elder had brought this bottle with him when he
came. If not for that, Chu Wanning didn't know what identity he would have
had to assume with Mo Ran.
"This is new medicine from Tanlang. There's about thirty in there,"
Xuanji had told Chu Wanning back at the cave. "He did some research in the
ancient archives and changed some ingredients, so one pill will allow you to
regain your adult form for seven days. Here, these will last you a while."
"Send Tanlang my thanks."
"There's no need for thanks." Xuanji smiled with a wave of his hand.
"Tanlang puts on a stern face, but he's very curious about your condition. Oh,
right, he also said to let you know that this medicine isn't too stable. Intense
emotions might diminish its effectiveness, so be careful about that."
Chu Wanning was caught up thinking through Xuanji's words when he
heard a knock at the door. He quickly tucked the porcelain bottle away and
extinguished the incense in the burner. "Come in."
Mo Ran had just gotten out of the bath, so he walked into Chu
Wanning's room wearing only a thin bathrobe while wiping his long hair,
which was dark as black jade.
Chu Wanning cleared his throat, thankful that his face remained neutral
before eventually saying, "What is it?"
"My room is no good. I don't like it. Shizun, can I sleep on your floor
tonight?"
Mo Ran was being awfully vague, and Chu Wanning wasn't that
gullible, so he obviously sensed that something was up. "What don't you like
about it?"
"I-it's just…just no good." Mo Ran snuck a glance at Chu Wanning
before mumbling, "The sound insulation is terrible."
Chu Wanning furrowed his brows, too noble and chaste by nature to
catch his meaning. Without another word, he pulled on his outer robe and
walked barefoot to Mo Ran's room. Mo Ran couldn't have stopped him if he
tried, and so could only follow after.
"It's a little spare, but not so much as to be intolerable." Chu Wanning
stood in the room and looked around, a tinge of chiding in his voice. "When
did you get so spoiled?"
Then a series of crashing sounds came from the room next door, like
something heavy had fallen to the floor.
Mo Ran couldn't bear to listen to anymore, so before things got even
worse, he reached out and tugged the corner of Chu Wanning's sleeve.
"Shizun," he pleaded, "let's leave already."
Chu Wanning's brows furrowed. "Really, what's the matter with you?
Just what do you find so objectionable?"
Mo Ran opened his mouth, but before he could get his words together,
coquettish giggles drifted over through the wall.
"Chang-gongzi is sooo naughty, always bullying me—nnh, n-no,
wait…ah!"
"Heh heh, babe, this peony on your chest is so pretty. Let me take a
whiff, see if it smells nice too."
The walls were so thin that they could hear even the rustling of clothes
on the other side. The rough pants of the man and the sweet moans of the
woman mingled together into something truly harrowing to the ears.
Incredibly, Chu Wanning didn't understand what was happening at
first. It wasn't until a few moments later that he put two and two together, and
his pretty eyes flew wide open while the color of his face changed rapidly
from white to red to blue, then finally settled on ashen as he cursed,
"Shameless!" and stormed out of the room with a sweep of his sleeve.
"Pfft."
Mo Ran failed to hold it in and started chuckling quietly behind him.
Luckily, Chu Wanning was so flustered that even his arms were swinging out
of sync as he walked stiffly away, so he didn't notice
Mo Ran laughing at him.
Only after getting back to his room and downing a whole cup of tea did
Chu Wanning finally regain some semblance of composure. He nodded
toward Mo Ran. "Such obscene speech is indeed detrimental to one's
cultivation. You may stay here tonight."
"Oh." Truth be told, when Chu Wanning had suddenly appeared at
Peach Blossom Springs and done everything in his power to protect Mo Ran
without doubting him in the slightest, Mo Ran had been beside himself with
shock and happiness in equal measure. Now that things had settled down, he
couldn't help feeling giddy. At this moment, under the candlelight, his
shizun's habitually impassive face somehow seemed a lot cuter. Sitting
cross-legged on the floor with his chin propped up, Mo Ran's eyes lit with
his smile as he stared at Chu Wanning.
"What are you looking at?"
"I haven't seen Shizun for so long—I just wanna take an extra look."
The youth's tone carried his smile, and his gaze was warm and bright. Now
that Mo Ran studied him, Chu Wanning…really did look quite like Xia-shidi.
Chu Wanning glared. "Instead of looking at me, go dry your hair. How
are you going to sleep with it dripping like that?"
"I forgot the towel in my room." Mo Ran grinned. "Shizun, do it for
me?"
Chu Wanning eyed him.
For a period of time, Xue Meng had been injured and unable to lift his
arm, and whenever he washed his hair, his shizun had dried it for him. Chu
Wanning had always done it very quickly by regulating his spiritual energy to
warm the towel and evaporate the water.
Chu Wanning looked at Mo Ran and his perfectly functional limbs, then
hmphed coldly. "You're neither sick nor injured. Why would I do it for you?"
Still, he waved him over.
The candle cast warm light on Mo Ran's incomparably handsome face.
It had already been almost a year since his rebirth, and he was reaching that
age when growth spurts occurred. Without really noticing it, he had gotten
quite a bit taller these past few months. At present, when he sat on the bed, he
was nearly the same height as Chu Wanning.
This height made it a little difficult for Chu Wanning to wipe his hair,
so Mo Ran leaned back on his arms and shifted his body lower. Standing at
the side of the bed, Chu Wanning rubbed his long hair dry with an
exasperated expression. Mo Ran yawned contentedly, closing his eyes to
enjoy this rare moment of peace. Outside the window, a frog croaked now
and again.
"Shizun."
"Mn."
"Did you know? The feathered tribe's illusion sent me back to Lin'an
two hundred years ago, and I met someone named Chu Xun."
The rubbing didn't even pause. "How would I know that?"
Mo Ran rubbed his nose with a grin. "He looked like you."
A long pause. Then, "There are plenty of similar-looking people out
there. Nothing strange about that."
"No, really," Mo Ran said, all serious. "You were practically cast
from the same mold. Shizun, do you think he might be your ancestor?"
"It's possible," Chu Wanning replied mildly. "But with something from
two hundred years ago, who can say?"
"He had a son who looked like Xia-shidi," Mo Ran continued.
"I feel like all this is a bit too much to be coincidence. Shizun, is Xia-shidi
perhaps a lost relative of yours?"
"I don't have any relatives."
"That's why I said, 'lost'…" Mo Ran mumbled. He was so close to
Chu Wanning that he could detect the light, soothing fragrance of haitang.
It smelled so good. Whether in their previous lifetime or this one, Chu
Wanning's scent always seemed to soothe him. In his past life, whenever he
returned from a bloodbath, he had always needed to bury his face in the
crook of his shizun's neck just to breathe again.
Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he was already hopelessly
addicted to Chu Wanning's scent. He closed his eyes and slowly relaxed into
the familiar peace, mind drifting in the flow of time.
In his last lifetime, he would on occasion return to the empty Wushan
Palace after another slaughter, soaked head to toe in rain. He had clearly
committed countless sins, but he was nothing more than a drenched stray with
no home to speak of.
At such times, he would sit and wrap his arms around Chu Wanning's
waist, bury his face against his abdomen, and have his shizun stroke his hair
over and over again. It was the only way to calm the madness within.
Those bygone dreams were things of the past—of another life. But
with his eyes closed, they seemed like only yesterday.
Chu Wanning noticed that the chatterbox had stopped talking and
lowered his lashes to glance down at him. In the dim light of the candle, Mo
Ran's face was relaxed, at peace.
Although his face still had a touch of the soft tenderness of youth, his
features had matured with striking definition, like a natural handsomeness
blooming through haze that still carried the deadly freshness and vitality of
the young.
Chu Wanning's hand wavered for a split second, and his heart seemed
to beat a little faster. He had no idea what compelled him to say in a soft
voice, "Mo Ran."
"Mm…" Mo Ran absentmindedly mumbled a reply. Then, as if
exhausted, he leaned closer and pressed his face against Chu Wanning's
waist, just like he once had in his past life.
Chu Wanning was struck speechless.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
His heartbeat was rapid in his chest, like war drums on a battlefield.
The reverberations made him dizzy.
Chu Wanning pressed his lips together. Not knowing what else to do,
he could only continue to wipe Mo Ran's hair, steaming away the last
droplets of water.
A long while passed in this fashion, until he set the towel down,
brushed aside some stray strands of hair from Mo Ran's forehead in passing,
and said in a low voice, "All done. You can go to sleep now."
Mo Ran opened his eyes, black with a tinge of purple and still a bit
dazed. After a few moments, they gradually became clearer.
When he finally broke out of his daze and noticed that he had gone so
far as to give in to habit and lean into Chu Wanning's waist—
and even more unexpectedly, that he hadn't in fact been shoved off—Mo Ran
was startled, to say the least. His eyes opened wide in stupefied
astonishment, making him look just like a dumb dog.
Chu Wanning had at first still felt a bit uneasy, but he couldn't stop
himself from smiling at that look on Mo Ran's face.
As Mo Ran realized that he was actually smiling—however lightly, it
was definitely a smile—his eyes became even rounder. He sat up straight,
hair a bit of a mess, and suddenly said with utmost seriousness, "Shizun, you
have a scent. It smells really nice."
Chu Wanning was once again struck speechless.
Mo Ran paused, then suddenly furrowed his brows, as if trying hard to
remember something. When he did manage to remember it, consternation
crept into his expression. "Huh, that's strange," he mumbled. "Doesn't…Xiashidi also smell like that?"
Chu Wanning's expression went instantly rigid. He flung the towel onto
Mo Ran's head before he could react and physically tossed him off the bed.
"I'm tired now," he said coldly. "Get the hell off and go to sleep."
Mo Ran landed stupidly on his back, caught completely off guard. He
lay on the floor in a daze for quite a while before sitting up and rubbing his
nose, not mad at all, and obediently got up to make his bed on the floor.