>>sex of the dubcon variety
Mo Ran was just taking a sip of the pear blossom white when he suddenly felt something brush against his leg. He instinctively tried to move his leg away,
but the contact became even more evident before he could, practically pressing against him as it grazed past.
Caught off guard, for a moment he couldn't even process what had just happened, until Shi Mei sat back up, and he saw the light pink flush on that beautiful face, the way he had his lips pressed into a thin line and his brows lowered as if there was something on his mind. Only then did Mo Ran suddenly realize—— Just now, was that…?
Mo Ran choked and burst into a violent coughing fit.
In his mind, Shi Mei had always been as the untrodden snow in the spring,
the new moon atop the branch, to be gazed upon appreciatively from a distance and not to be frivolously touched in any way. But although he loved Shi Mei to death, and in fact would happily die for him, he'd rarely ever had any dirty thoughts about him, much less did anything of the sort in real life.
Had this pure, untainted person just...felt him up?
The thought shocked Mo Ran to the core, and he shook like a rattle drum[8],
horrified. Chu Wanning noticed and asked with a frown, "What's wrong with you?" "Nothing!" And right in front of Shizun too! ...Surely not?!
Th-that didn't seem like something Shi Mei would do…
Mo Ran's expression grew more complicated by the second; but rather than it being an awed surprise, it was more like an awful surprise.
After a long moment spent calming his nerves, he heard Shi Mei call out lightly, "Waiter, excuse me, these chopsticks got dirty, can I trouble you for a new pair?" The waiter came as called and left to fetch a replacement. Mo Ran turned his head nervously, only to come face to face with Shi Mei's gentle, mild expression and the same calm gaze as always, as if he had imagined the bashful blush earlier. Sensing the eyes on him, Shi Mei lifted his own peach blossom eyes to look back at Mo Ran with a subtle, barely-there smile.
"What is it?" "Nothing, nothing." Shi Mei said, "The chopsticks landed at an inconvenient place, right by your foot." "Ohh…" Mo Ran let out a breath of relief as he felt his heart settle back into place. He was overthinking things after all. He was going to chitchat with Shi Mei some more to ease the atmosphere, but Shi Mei had already turned away and stood up to ladle out soup.
Still feeling rather bad about the misgivings he had just now, Mo Ran said, "Here, let me help."
"That's alright, I got it." Shi Mei pulled back his sleeve as he spoke and calmly started ladling out the three delicacies soup for himself.
Mo Ran had put the soup there, close to Chu Wanning, far from Shi Mei. It had seemed okay enough at first while sitting, but now that he had to stand up to reach, it really became apparent just how far away the soup was from him—he practically had to stretch his arm all the way out just to reach it from the other side of the table.
One ladle, two ladles, slow and leisurely.
Mo Ran: "..." Shi Mei said nothing when he met Mo Ran's uneasy gaze, only smiled slightly before looking back down to continue ladling out his soup.
Feeling a bit awkward, Mo Ran waited for Shi Mei to finish ladling, then asked Chu Wanning if he wanted the soup. Chu Wanning said no, so he moved it to the middle of the table, not too close or too far from anyone, just right.
His esteemed teacher and his favorite person.
There shouldn't have been any bias in the first place.
Partway through the meal, Shi Mei suddenly said, "A-Ran, you've really grown up a lot, and you're no longer that disciple who used to make Shizun angry all the time. So since we're all here today, there's something I want to tell you, and an apology I want to make to Shizun." Seeing how serious Shi Mei was being, Mo Ran gave him his full attention.
"What is it?" "Do you remember the first time I brought you wontons?" Shi Mei said. "That bowl of wontons wasn't made by me, I never was any good at making those, it was…" Mo Ran smiled. "Oh, that. And here I was worried it was something serious. I already knew, a long time ago." "Ah, you already…?" Shi Mei's pretty eyes opened wide in surprise, then he turned to look at Chu Wanning, who was minding his own business drinking his wine. "Did Shizun tell you?" "Nope, saw it for myself right before going to the Underworld." Mo Ran was just about to say more when Chu Wanning suddenly put down his wine cup,
cleared his throat, and shot him a glance with a cool, stern expression.
Mo Ran knew that he had a thin face and didn't want others to know about his soft underbelly, so he said to Shi Mei, "Anyway, I found out about the whole thing five years ago already. It's kind of a long story, so let's not go into it." Shi Mei nodded. "That's just as well." Then he turned to Chu Wanning to say,
"Shizun, back then, when you didn't want to take the wontons to A-Ran yourself and had me do it instead, I didn't think much of it at first. But then, watching the misunderstanding between you two deepen over time, I felt terrible about it and was going to find an opportunity to clear it up with A-Ran, but every time I tried, the words never came out…I was being selfish, to be honest, because aside from the young master, A-Ran is my only close friend at Sisheng Peak, and I was afraid that he'd be unhappy if he found out, so…" "It's fine, I did say not to tell him. You did nothing wrong." "Still, I feel really bad about it, because it's like I took credit for Shizun's kindness. Shizun, I'm sorry." Shi Mei dropped his gaze as he spoke, and then a moment later, added, "A-Ran, I'm sorry as well."
Mo Ran had never blamed Shi Mei for that; even though his initial fondness for him was due to the mix-up with Chu Wanning's wontons, Shi Mei had also been genuinely good to him afterwards. Not to mention the fact that Shi Mei had only been doing what Chu Wanning had asked of him, not intentionally trying to take credit.
Mo Ran said in a hurry, "Nonono, don't worry about it, it's all in the past already anyway…" He stared at Shi Mei in the light of the candle. It was a face he'd never seen before in the past life, because Shi Mei had already died by then, his life cut short, wilted before it could bloom, and became the sorrow of his lifetime.
He didn't even get the chance to find out that, ah, so this is what Shi Mei would've looked like if he'd lived to be twenty four.
Tall and slender, with a face that was fair as jade and a pair of warm peach blossom eyes that were clear and glistening, he looked so gentle that even his anger would probably be soft and mellow.
His tightly clenched heart relaxed by degrees and he secretly let out a sigh of relief, suddenly feeling very giddy, his heart feeling warm and settled.
Compared to Shi Mei when he was nineteen, this twenty four year old Shi Mei felt a little like a stranger, no longer so intimate and familiar as they used to be. Maybe this unfamiliarity was the very reason that a thought so ridiculous as "Shi Mei was feeling up his leg" would even pass his mind, but Mo Ran was sure that he'd get used to it in time…and, as for the matter of romantic sentiments, he didn't want to force it anymore—whatever happened would happen.
He had wandered about for five years, hardly leaving a trail the whole time,
and still had a couple of close calls. He didn't know if the fake Gouchen had a hand in any of those incidents, but the fact was that the person behind it all had neither revealed themselves nor been caught. Mo Ran was sure that there would be trouble down the line, and he knew better than to let his guard down.
He was going to keep the two people beside him safe and sound, even if it cost him his life.
And so Mo Ran set his heart at ease for now, but little did he know that the inner demon never rests, turning to another as soon as it relented its grasp on him.
Maybe it was because of how much he had eaten at dinner, but Chu Wanning got sleepy soon after getting back. He had originally planned to work through the night to finish the blueprint for the new mechanism he was designing, but he only managed to get halfway through it before the yawns hit him. He tried to keep going for a while longer, but eventually gave in and,
blinking sleepily, plonked into bed and passed out without even changing out of his clothes.
It was a hazy sleep, and he dreamed of all kinds of nonsense.
First it was that "Size Ranking of the Cultivation World's Young Heroes", then it was that firm, toned body he'd seen at the Miaoyin Springs.
In the dim light of the candle, Chu Wanning's brows twitched into a frown, as if trying to free himself from this shameless dream, only to inadvertently sink deeper into it instead...
And then, he had that dream again, the same one from before.
A Sisheng Peak that looked nothing like the one he knew, a Loyalty Hall that was and yet wasn't.
And a grown-up Mo Weiyu who was grasping him by the jaw, looking at him with venomous, mocking eyes as he said obscene things to him.
He said, "Let me fuck you and I'll agree to your terms." This Mo Weiyu was a bit different from the Mo Ran he knew—his expression was too crazed, his handsome face was too pale, and his skin wasn't tanned the color of wheat.
"Get down on your knees… and suck me off…" The disjointed words came in fragments from the depths of the nightmare,
and it felt like there was something in his head that was just about to break apart, just about to break free of its chains and charge toward him.
He felt a chill run down his back, yet also for some reason felt inexplicably flustered.
In his dream, he watched as Mo Ran closed in on him and tore at his clothing, the sound of the fabric ripping clearer than it ever had been before.
Then it all went black, like he was sinking into morasses.
The dream cut off there, the same way it had countless times before.
Except that, before, once the dream ended, he was able to sleep peacefully the rest of the night with no further disturbances. But today, for some reason, his vision gradually lit up again after that dream had ended.
Chu Wanning tried to see, but the new dream was so hazy it was like looking through a layer of mist. He couldn't quite see his surroundings, only that it was scarlet everywhere.
He couldn't see clearly, but his sense of smell and sense of touch gradually came back as the dream went on, became more acute than usual, even. He was suddenly assailed by an indescribably heated arousal, and he saw a toned body moving above himself, pressing down against him and rocking. Startled, Chu Wanning instinctively tried to struggle, but it was as if his body didn't belong to him at all, but to the him of the dream.
He could feel himself trembling, and he could hear the man's rough breathing, the hot puffs of breath against his ear, lips that kept brushing against the lobe of his ear time and again but did not kiss him there nor take his earlobe in to suck.
He turned his head; he was lying on a large, soft bed that creaked and rocked with their movements, and he could smell the musky scent of a beast pelt that seemed to be spread across the bed. He tried to reach out with a hand and grasp the bedcover amidst the vague fuzziness of it all, but didn't have the strength to move.
The man was so vicious, holding nothing back like he wanted to tear him apart. He heard a moan ripped from his own throat, hoarse and strangled.
He shook his head desperately, trying to struggle free, but that person had so much strength, as if he could crush him in his hand. Chu Wanning felt numbness spread across his scalp as his entire body shook uncontrollably…
Maybe it was because the dream had been too realistic and too draining, but Chu Wanning slept all the way until noon the next day before waking up, and then spent a long while just lying there in bed staring off into space. And when he turned his head, it was almost as if he could still smell the scent of the beast pelt from that dream, musky and sweet.
But then he blinked, and he was back in his black sandalwood bed in the Red Lotus Pavilion, and everything was perfectly fine, with nothing out of the ordinary.
Except…
Chu Wanning froze, then slowly looked down at himself.
"..." Yuheng Elder, who rarely ever had any physical reactions after the years spent practicing asceticism due to his cultivation method, discovered that he actually… shamefully… had… morning… wood...…
Did all his years of ascetic training get eaten by a dog or something?!
And those dreams last night——what the hell was that? Why did he dream of such absurd things! How…how did it even happen?
Surely not from just seeing Mo Ran's body that one time at the Miaoyin Springs and then accidentally reading that trashy book with the "truly aweinspiring" garbage?
Chu Wanning's entire face darkened. He buried his face in his hands and rubbed vigorously at it, but it was still just as dark when he looked back up.
...
Just what was wrong with him?
Chu Wanning pressed his lips together and was just about to go have a soak in the cold lotus pond to cool himself off, but his toes hadn't even touched the ground when he felt a ripple in the barrier of the Red Lotus Pavilion.
He had a visitor.
Chu Wanning immediately paled and yanked the quilt over to cover up his lower half. That person walked fast too, probably using light footwork. He heard two knocks at the door.
"Shizun, are you up yet?" The voice sounded just like the one in his dream, except the one in his dream had been deeper and throatier, steeped in a fervent, bottomless lust.
But the voice outside the door now was gentle and respectful, even a little worried, probably because of how late Chu Wanning had slept in.
The sound of that voice seemed to smash through the wall between dream and reality as Chu Wanning leaned against the bed, clutching the quilt to himself. The voice of that person outside brought back the entanglement in the dream and the intense motions one by one, rousing passions into turbulent tides,
making it even harder for him to calm himself.
He was just about to lie back down and pretend to be sleeping when he heard Mo Ran say from the outside, "Shizun, are you in there? I'm coming in if you don't mind." I'm coming in...
It was such a simple, normal phrase, but it made Chu Wanning think of the way that man had lain atop himself in the dream, lips closing and parting, the way that masculine body had felt so hot he was sure he was going to get burnt.
That person had said between pants, "Relax, I'm coming in." Chu Wanning's face burned red-hot; he sat in bed in a daze with his clothes in a disheveled mess and a fire burning him up from the inside. There was ferocity and denial in his eyes, but they were like the gravel at the shoal, with sharp points that could ward people off in the bitter cold of winter, but once the snow melted in the spring and the tide rose, washing over the jagged edges with flowing, glimmering water, they no longer seemed half so threatening.
He'd rarely ever been so mortified and helpless, and had practically never felt such intense desire before.
Chu Wanning sat there in a dazed stupor, only snapping out of it when Mo Ran pushed the door open to come inside, but by then it was already far too late to feign sleep.
And so the sight that greeted Mo Ran when he walked in the door was that of Chu Wanning sitting in bed, the inky black hair draped loosely about him a sharp contrast against his face like the radiant surface of a frozen lake under the sun. His eyes and brows looked even more stern than usual, and when he lifted his eyes, the look that he directed his way was like the cold light reflected off the frosty edge of a blade drawn just a bit.
But there was a touch of red at the corners of his eyes, and so the cold light was tinged with allure and the ferocity was weaved with chagrin, as if he'd just suffered at someone's hands, had unspeakable things done to him, his eyes filled with indignation and a glassy hint of wetness.
Mo Ran's breathing abruptly slowed down as he stared wordlessly at Chu Wanning, this man who was like a tender bud growing out of a thorny thicket. He felt like a heavy rock had been dropped into his chest, sending waves splashing high…
Author's Notes:
Yesterday, an adorable cutie said that Shi-meimei picking up the chopstick was like Ximen Qing flirting with Pan Jinlian[9], so the question is: is Shizun Granny Wang, or is he Wu Dalang?
Mini Theatre: "How Atrocious Can The Title Of This Novel Get":
"Jinlian And His Dalang Shizun" "I Fell In Love With My Little Wolfdog - Granny Chu's Autobiography" "The Plum in The Golden Vase and Those Things That Happened Between Dalang and Jinlian" "The reformed slutty wife Jin Buhuan"[10] "The Handsome and Charismatic Chu Dalang"
[8] Rattle drum is a popular children's toy [9] Two adulterers from The Plum In The Golden Vase, one of the most famous pieces of ancient Chinese smut from the Ming dynasty. Pan Jinlian was Wu Dalang's wife, but was spurred by Granny Wang to cheat on and murder him with Ximen Qing. They also appear in Water Margin: Wu Song gets revenge on them for his brother.
[10] The original idiom is "浪子回头金不换" (lit. 'the reformed wastrel Jin Buhan'), used to describe someone who turns over a new leaf.