This Shi Mei [name] was not that kind of shimei [junior sister].
Shi Mei was genuinely male and, considering when he'd joined the sect, he was actually Mo Ran's shixiong.
The reason he had such an unfortunate name was due to the Sisheng Peak Leader's lack of erudition.
Shi Mei was an orphan, and the Peak Leader had found him in the wild. He had been a weak and sickly child, and so the Peak Leader had thought he would give this child a humble name, as humble names bring an easier life.
As a child he had been very pretty, like a darling young lass, lovable and charming. After much thinking, the leader eventually came up with the name Xue Ya[7].
As Xue Ya grew older and older, so too did he grow more and more beautiful. He possessed a slim figure, and the tips of his brows and the corners of his eyes were well-shaped, giving him a graceful mien. The overall effect was of a striking and peerless natural beauty.
The crude, uncultured farmers of the villages didn't think it wrong to use the name Xue Ya, but had anyone ever heard of a legendary beauty named "Dog Balls" or "Steel Cocks"?
His fellow sect disciples didn't think it appropriate and gradually stopped calling him "Xue Ya". But since it had been a name bestowed by the Peak Leader, they didn't dare presume to change it, and so they half jokingly started calling him shimei instead.
Shimei this, shimei that; after a while, out of kind consideration, the Peak Leader shook out his long sleeves and kindly offered, "Xue Ya, why don't you change your name to Shi Mei once and for all? Using the character "mei" from the word meng mei, as in latent, what do you think?"
He actually had the gall to ask…...what normal person wouldn't abhor such a name? Still, Shi Mei had a sweet temper, and when he saw that the Peak Leader was watching him with excited cheer, thinking that he'd done an amazing deed, Shi Mei didn't have the heart to decline. Even if he felt aggrieved, he couldn't embarrass the Peak Leader, so he knelt and accepted the name with grace. From that day on, his name was changed to Shi Mei.
The person in the black cloak coughed a few times, finally catching his breath. His gaze fell onto Mo Ran. "Mn? A-Ran? What are you doing here?"
Behind a thin layer of organza, a pair of eyes gentle as spring water and bright as the night stars pierced into the depths of Mo Ran's heart. With this one look, the seal on Taxian-Jun's hidden feelings and tender affections was suddenly broken.
It was Shi Mei.
There was no mistake.
Mo Ran was a scoundrel. In his past life, he'd played around with many men and women. That he hadn't died from too much sex had come as a surprise, even to him.
However, the only person he'd ever given his heart to, he did not dare to touch.
He and Shi Mei had been close, their relationship ambiguously romantic.
However, up until Shi Mei's death, Mo Ran had only ever held his hand and the one time their lips had brushed in a kiss, it had been an accident.
Mo Ran felt that he was dirty and sullied, while Shi Mei was pure and gentle; Mo Ran was not fit to be with him.
In life, Shi Mei had been treasured and cherished by Mo Ran, and all the more so after his death. Then, he'd become Taxian-Jun's moonlight. No matter how much he desperately tried to relive memories of him, the deceased still belonged to the past, dissolved to nothing more than a lump of earth. In the underworld below, traces of that transcendent figure had long been obscured.
But in this moment, Shi Mei was standing in front of him, alive once more. It was only with great effort and all of Mo Ran's willpower that he could hold back his emotions, restrain himself.
Mo Ran helped Shi Mei up and patted away the dust on his cloak, heart aching with an almost physical pain.
"If I hadn't been here, they would have bullied you even more! Why didn't you hit them back?"
"I wanted to try reasoning with them first…..."
"You can't reason with these people! Are you injured? Where does it hurt?"
"Cough cough, A-Ran, I…...I'm fine."
Mo Ran turned his head, his expression ferocious. He said to the cultivators, "You dare lay hands on someone from Sisheng Peak? Some nerves you've got there."
"A-Ran…... don't mind it...…"
"You guys wanna fight? Come on then! Fight me!"
The group of cultivators had taken just one blow from Mo Ran, but that one blow had been enough to make them aware that his cultivation skills were far beyond theirs. They retreated, afraid to get into a brawl with him.
Shi Mei sighed, and advised, "A-Ran, cease the quarrelling, forgive and forget."
Mo Ran turned back to Shi Mei, and couldn't help but feel a forlorn sort of distress in his heart, the corners of his eyes feeling all hot.
Shi Mei had always been kind hearted. In his past life, at his deathbed, there had been no resentment, no hatred. He'd tried to persuade Mo Ran to not hate their Shizun, who could've clearly saved Shi Mei's life but who had instead chosen to stand at the side, not lifting a finger.
"But they...…"
"I'm okay though, see, nothing happened. Having less problems is better than having more problems, please listen to this shige." Mo Ran sighed. "Alright, I'll listen to you, I'll listen to everything you say." He shook his head, then shot a glare at the cultivators. "You hear that? My shige has pleaded for leniency on your behalf! Hurry up and get lost! What are you still here for? Are you waiting for me to accompany you out?"
"Yes, yes! We're leaving, we're leaving!"
"Hang on," Shi Mei said to the group of cultivators.
They assumed that, after having beaten Shi Mei up, he was not about to let them go easily. Thus, they knelt onto the floor, bowing as they said, "Xianjun, xianjun! We were in the wrong, we were ignorant. Please let us go!"
"You didn't listen to me earlier when I tried to reason with you." Shi Mei sighed. "You kidnapped someone's child, breaking their parents' hearts. How can you live with this on your conscience?"
"We're sorry! We're sorry! Xianjun, we made a mistake! We will never do it again! We will never do it again!"
"From now on you must live a clean life, no more evil deeds, do you understand?"
"Of course! You've taught us a good lesson! We, we've learned our lesson! We've learned our lesson!"
"Then, please apologize to this Madam, and heal her children with care."
And so the incident finally came to an end. Mo Ran helped Shi Mei up onto his horse, then rented another one from the pit stop. The two headed back to their sect, side by side.
The moon shone high up in the sky, its light piercing through the leaves to scatter onto the footpath.
As they went, Mo Ran began to feel an elation growing inside him. He'd initially thought he wouldn't be able to see Shi Mei until he was back at Sisheng Peak. He hadn't expected Shi Mei to come down to the base of the mountain for errands, and run into him by chance. This only cemented Mo Ran's belief that he and Shi Mei really were fated.
Even though Shi Mei and himself weren't technically an item right now, they'd already snogged in their past life. By all indications, it was going to be smooth sailing this lifetime as well, it was all just a matter of time.
The only thing he needed to worry about was protecting Shi Mei, making sure that things would not happen like they had that year, when Shi Mei had died in Mo Ran's arms…
Shi Mei had no way of knowing Mo Ran was reborn, and chatted with him as he usually did while they went back. Soon, they arrived at the foot of Sisheng Peak.
Who would have thought that, in the dead of the night, there would be a person standing in front of the mountain's gate, glaring at them with a threatening gaze.
"Mo Ran! You finally remembered to come back??"
"Eh?"
Mo Ran looked up. Ah! Such an angry little darling of the heavens.
It was none other than a youthful Xue Meng.
Compared to the one he'd seen before his death, this fifteen-ish year old version was much more unruly and handsome. He was dressed in a set of light armour, with a black base and blue trimming, high ponytail tied up with a silver hair piece. A belt decorated with a lion's head was fastened around his strong and slender waist, gaiters wrapping around his wrists and ankles. A slim scimitar on his back gleamed with a cold light, and the quiver by his left arm glittered with silver.
Mo Ran sighed to himself, quietly thinking.
Hmm, flashy.
Xue Meng, whether a teen or a grown up, was really flashy.
Just look at him; rather than sleeping, he dressed himself in full armour. What was he doing? Here to perform a pheasant's mating call? Like a peacock displaying his train?
Mo Ran disliked Xue Meng. Xue Meng too, disliked him back.
Mo Ran was an illegitimate child. When he was little, he hadn't known who his father was. He'd gotten by working odd jobs at a pleasure house[8] in XiangTan. It was only when he was fourteen that he was found by relatives, and brought to Sisheng Peak.
Xue Meng, on the other hand, was the young master of Sisheng Peak, as well as Mo Ran's cousin. He was a prodigy, with people calling him the "darling of the heavens'' and "son of the phoenix". For a cultivator, on average, the first three years was spent on learning the basics. To form a spiritual core, it took ten. With Xue Meng's innate talent, it had only taken him five years to achieve all of that.
But in Mo Ran's eyes, whether it was a phoenix or chicken, peacock or duck, they were all birds. The only difference was in how long their feathers were.
And so Mo Ran saw Xue Meng as: a bird.
Xue Meng saw Mo Ran as: a dog.
Perhaps it ran in the family, but Mo Ran was shockingly gifted as well, even more so than Xue Meng.
When Mo Ran had first arrived, Xue Meng had considered himself higher class. He was more skillful, more educated, stronger and more handsome. How could he be compared to his illiterate, sloppy, hooligan of a cousin?
Thus this narcissistic phoenix boasted to his attendants, "Listen up, this Mo Ran is a loafer, an absolute street mongrel. You are not allowed to give him any attention. Just pretend he's a dog.
The attendants praised him right back, saying, "Young master is right, that Mo Ran is already fourteen years old. To start cultivation now, he would have to study the basics for ten years, and take another twenty years to form his spiritual core. By then, young master will have already ascended, and he can only watch from below."
Xue Meng sneered. "Twenty? Hmph, looking at this piece of trash, I doubt he could even form a spiritual core."
Who would have thought that this piece of trash would have gained his spiritual core after just one year of studying with his Shizun.
The phoenix felt like he'd been struck by lightning. The harsh truth was hard to swallow.
And so he'd secretly cursed the other to slip and fall when he traveled on his sword, reciting curses until his tongue twisted.
Every time he saw Mo Ran, the small phoenix Xue Meng couldn't help but roll his eyes, and his scoffing could be heard from three miles away.
As Mo Ran remembered these childhood memories, he couldn't help but narrow his eyes in amusement. It had been a very long time since he'd experienced such trivial things. After ten years of loneliness, even unpleasant things from the past had become very sweet to him.
Noticing Xue Meng, Shi Mei dismounted his horse and took his bamboo hat off, revealing a peerlessly stunning face.
It made sense that he would be dressed like this to go out by himself. Mo Ran stole a peek from the side, feeling elation and longing, thinking to himself that this person was truly alluring, a beauty that was out of this world.
Shi Mei greeted Xue Meng, "Young Master."
Xue Meng nodded. "You're back? Did you take care of the man-bear incident?"
Shi Mei smiled. "It's been taken care of, all thanks to A-Ran's help."
Xue Meng's proud and lofty gaze was sharp like a blade. It swept up and down over Mo Ran, then immediately turned away. He furrowed his brows, face twisting in displeasure, as if one more look at Mo Ran would sully his eyes.
"Shi Mei, go back and rest. Stop hanging out with him, he's a petty thief. You'll only learn bad things, hanging out with him."
Mo Ran showed no weakness, and said mockingly, "If Shi Mei isn't going to learn from me, then is he supposed to learn from you? Dressed in full armour in the middle of the night, sticking your tail out like a bird. Prince of the Heavens...? Hahaha! More like Princess of the Heavens!"
Xue Meng was furious. "Mo Ran! Watch your mouth! This is my home! Who do you think you are?!"
Mo Ran contemplated for a moment, counting off on his fingers as he did so, then said, "I'm your older cousin. If you think about it, I'm ranked higher than you, actually."
It was like Xue Meng had been splattered with a faceful of dog shit. He scowled, and said sharply, "Who wants a cousin like you? Don't flatter yourself! In my eyes you're nothing but a dog rolling in the mud!"
Xue Meng was someone who really liked to call other people dogs. Like dog spawn, dog thing, son of a bitch, such epithets came to his mouth with ease. Mo Ran picked his ear nonchalantly; he'd long grown used to these things. But, beside them, Shi Mei was feeling rather awkward. He said some soothing words in a low voice, and with a sneer, Xue Meng finally shut his righteous beak.
Shi Mei smiled, then gently asked, "Young Master, it's so late. Are you waiting for someone?"
"What else would I be doing? Moon-watching?"
Mo Ran burst into laughter. "No wonder you're dressed like this, you're waiting for your date! Ay, who's the unlucky one? I pity her. Hahahahaha."
Xue Meng's expression darkened, and he snapped, "You!"
"…Me?"
"I'm waiting for you, what are you going to do about it?"
Mo Ran: "......???"
[7] 丫 [Ya] i.e. 丫头 essentially means "little girl"
[8] 乐坊 is an establishment where girls sing, dance, and/or play instruments to entertain the patrons, and sometimes sell their bodies. Think, the Hollywood Memoirs of a Geisha film.