The grand wedding ceremony of the young master of the Rufeng Sect was fast approaching, but there was suddenly a rumor surfacing to the top, spreading among the guests of every major sect.
"Zhang-gongzi, I have recently learned of something that sounded absurd at first, but after much thought, it was most likely true. Do you want to hear it?" "What a coincidence, I also have a secret that concerns the Rufeng Sect. It is also a shocking rumor, perhaps it is the same thing you wanted to share?" The other quirked his brows meaningfully and replied, "Does the secret Zhang-gongzi hold concern a particular couple?" "Indeed." The two exchanged a look, and one of them said in a low voice, "Listen to mine first. I heard Ye Wangxi of the Rufeng Sect and…" The other couldn't hold back anymore upon hearing this, completely ditching the proper manners of a gongzi and bursting out laughing as he slapped his thigh, his eyes beaming with gossip. He exclaimed excitedly, "Yes yes yes!
Hahaha it killed me, that's the secret! Ye Wangxi and Song Qiutong of the Rufeng Sect are having an affair!" "This really is 'good news stays indoors and bad news travels for a thousand miles'. I didn't realize even you, Lian-gongzi, who doesn't enjoy listening to meaningless gossip, knew this. But we'll have to keep our voices down if we want to discuss it. We are in Linyi, there are people of the Rufeng Sect everywhere, so be wary of eavesdroppers." It was hard to say whether there really were eavesdroppers, but "three men make a tiger"; rumors can become truths with enough talk, and this news was gradually swelling, like cotton wool soaked in water. Even though no one had actually witnessed the affair with their own eyes, the contents of the rumor were nonetheless more and more plentiful, growing spicier the more it spread…
Until finally, even the non-cultivating commoners in the small villages outside of Linyi had heard, and the fields circulated with the talk.
"Goudan-ge[12], lemme tell you a secret, don't tell anyone okay?" "What secret? Acting all serious, tell me, you know how well I keep my mouth shut, it won't ever get out." "Listen well then, there's an earth-shattering scandal at the Rufeng Sect.
That Song Qiutong, you know her right, the woman who's about to marry Nangong Si, she's such a tramp. Goudan-ge, did you know? She's gotten chummy with Ye Wangxi behind her own fiance's back!" "How's that possible??" "Well why not? Didn't you know that back when Song Qiutong was being auctioned at Xuanyuan Pavilion, it was Ye Wangxi who grew lecherous at her beauty and bought her for dual-cultivation purposes?" Li Goudan was quite shocked, his mouth hung wide open until he finally stammered out, "My, my heavens…Such a thing…" This villager Li Goudan's worldview was completely turned upside down, and at night in bed when he was cuddling his wife chatting, he marveled, "Chunhua, you're still the best after all." The villager Zhao Chunhua blinked. "What's wrong? Saying that so suddenly?"
"See, even though you're a little ugly and a little short, you're hardworking and can bear many children. Not like some women, cheating on their husbands and going against the values of womanhood." Zhao Chunhun was somewhat irritated. "How am I ugly? Just because my face is a little sallow?" Then she got curious. "Who's wife is being promiscuous?
How come I didn't know?" "It's not anyone from the village, it's those bunch of lord cultivators who fly around on swords all day." Zhao Chunhua was astonished. "Who is it?" "The one who's about to marry at the grand wedding," Li Goudan said.
Zhao Chunhua subconsciously did not consider in Nangong Si's direction and blanked for a good while before it abruptly dawned on her. She jolted off the bed. "My heavens, what?! There's such a thing? You're not just talking nonsense, are you?" "Why would I talk nonsense?" Li Goudan puffed out his chest to make his wife believe him more. He said with great conviction, "A friend saw with his own eyes how Ye Wangxi of Rufeng Sect is having an affair with Song Qiutong!
Those two have already slept together behind Nangong Si's back!" Heartlessness in romance had always been one of the fastest news to travel;
whether it be the poor or the rich, cultivators or not, everyone loved to use it as a topic of conversation. In the blink of an eye, the guests gathered at the Rufeng Sect all more or less learned about this scandal. By the time it reached Chu Wanning's ears, the content of the story had already been lavishly embellished,
and even the year, month, day of Ye Wangxi and Song Qiutong's date was described in detail. They even went so far as to say Song Qiutong was marrying Nangong Si now because she was already carrying Ye Wangxi's child, and the fickle lover that was Ye Wangxi refused to recognize the mother and child at the cost of his own career.
"Just you all wait and see who that child looks like after it's born, Nangong Si or Ye Wangxi!" Chu Wanning knew Nangong Si's character but he was unfamiliar with Ye Wangxi and Song Qiutong, so he couldn't be sure whether the rumor was true or not. He felt rage, but while someone with his personality might be an expert at differentiating right from wrong, when it came to the transient affairs of romantic relationships, he was completely at a loss of what to do.
One day, Nangong Si came to pay a visit and Chu Wanning gave him a subtle talking to, but Nangong Si didn't seem to understand the implied meaning at all, and continued to happily tell Chu-zongshi all about the fun stories of his pet faewolf Nao Baijin.
"I was breeding him the other day and it went fairly smoothly. That female faewolf should be giving birth next month. I wonder how many wolf pups she'll give birth to," Nangong Si said while smiling. "If some are born handsome, I'll have my father send one to Sisheng Peak." When Chu Wanning heard this he felt it was a good chance and said, "Mn, but I worry the wolf pup's blood won't be pure." "Why wouldn't it be? Nao Baijin and that female faewolf are both cultivated from snow wolves, they're plenty pure." "You're that certain that female faewolf was never bred with other demon wolves before?"
Nangong Si blinked. "That's impossible, that female faewolf was raised by the Bitan Estate and there's only one of her in the entire kennel, she couldn't have bred even if she wanted to, our Nao Baijin was all she had!" Chu Wanning felt his hint was already incredibly obvious and very clear. He compared people to wolves to hint at all those rumors, so why couldn't Nangong Si understand?
Chu Wanning pondered and thought perhaps he wasn't precise enough.
After some contemplation, he added, "While she was the only faewolf at the Bitan Estate, she still had to stay at the Rufeng Sect for a while when you brought her over to breed with Nao Baijin, correct? You have so many faewolves, might she have…" "She won't, she won't!" Nangong Si started to laugh brightly, "So that's what Zongshi is worried about? That female faewolf and Nao Baijin are kept in the same cage, there's no chance for any other faewolves." "..." On your dumb head be it!!!
Nangong Si didn't notice Chu Wanning's gloom in the slightest, and he rose to his feet in invitation. "Zongshi, the construction of the Xiaoyue Track Field wasn't complete when you first left, and now it's been expanded twice already.
Let me bring you over for a visit and take a ride on Nao Baijin?" "No," Chu Wanning rejected.
Nangong Si was visibly disappointed. "Why not?" "I don't know how to ride anything else but horses," Chu Waning replied.
"You're about to be a married man, settle down some, don't be raising wolf pups all day or waste time at the track fields. Go spend time with Miss Song, if you're able. People and animals are the same, if you don't spend time with her, you'll grow distant from one another." "That won't happen, Song Qiutong treats me perfectly well, and she's very obedient too." "..." "Then, Zongshi, if you think I'm neglecting her, I'll just call her over to join us.
I'm always telling her about you, so she must want to meet you as well." At those words, Chu Wanning thought that since he didn't know Song Qiutong well, he wasn't sure how much truth the rumors contained, so it wouldn't be a bad thing to get to know the junior married couple-to-be better before Nangong Si's wedding.
Thus, he nodded and rose to his feet. "Very well. Then go find her, and I will wait for you at the Xiaoyue Track Field." While Nangong Si was leaving, he ran into Mo Ran, who was just returning, at the courtyard door, and the two bowed in greeting at the spirit screen. As Mo Ran entered the courtyard, he spotted Chu Wanning standing beneath the osmanthus tree. Before him was a small stove of red clay spouting with strings of steam, and upon the stone table were two cups of half-finished eight treasure tea.
"Shizun, Nangong Si came to see you?"
"Mn, he wants me to go to the Xiaoyue Track Field to take a look at the faewolf he raised," Chu Wanning said as he turned around to head back inside.
"This attire is inconvenient for riding, I will go change." Faewolves were ferocious creatures, and although Mo Ran knew Chu Wanning was capable, he was still too worried to let the man go on his own. "I'll go with Shizun." Chu Wanning stopped in his step at this and gave him a sidelong glance. "Do you know how to ride wolves?" Mo Ran smiled, his black eyes bright. "Why wouldn't I? My horse riding skills are superb, so theoretically, nevermind wolves, I know how to ride anything." Chu Wanning was just about to tease him when he suddenly felt "Good at riding anything" connotated some sort of wet, ambiguous affair. The scenes that had appeared in his dreams flashed before his eyes involuntarily, and his mind wandered to the positions the two of them had taken within the dream, of the sweat pooled at Mo Ran's firm abdomen, and how he had lain powerlessly on the divan for the other man to ride as he pleased, almost as if he had become a plaything under Mo Ran's body as the man drove on.
Boom, Chu Wanning flushed bright red.
He scolded under his breath, "Shameless!" Who knew if he was scolding Mo Ran or himself, but he turned and slammed the door shut behind him, leaving the half-rolled curtain still swaying, like the drawn out, quivering heart of the one who had fled to hide inside the house.
Xiaoyue Track Field was a vast pasture. The world was frozen now, the grass and trees windswept, with a thin layer of frost covering the field where green met yellow. The winter day hung inoffensively over the sky, though because of the dark overcast lighting, it appeared meagrely cold, and the sun's rays that spilled down were even more perfunctory in their work, showing no signs of life. Nonetheless, at the end of the horizon stood the dense, private hunting woods of the Rufeng Sect: evergreens luxuriant with bushes of pine needles, glowing a field of golden from the distance like the fluffy and soft baby feathers of fledgelings.
Nangong Si was standing by the wooden fence in the middle of conversation with Song Qiutong when he suddenly noticed two men approaching, emerging from the thin fog. It was Chu Wanning and Mo Ran, and he was slightly taken aback at first before he chuckled. "Mo-zongshi, have you come along too because you don't trust leaving your shizun with me?" "No," Mo Ran chuckled as well. "I came in case shizun runs into anything upsetting and lashes out at Young Master Nangong because he has no one else to yell at. What a grievance that'd be for Young Master Nangong, so I'm here specifically as a punching bag." "..." Chu Wanning sent him a narrow glare and said frigidly, "I think you're here to set things on fire." "Pft." Song Qiutong who was standing behind Nangong Si giggled softly when she heard the exchange. Lifting her curtain of eyelashes as soft as baby feathers, she gracefully stepped out from behind her fiance, delicate and lovely in bearing, beautiful in coiffe and face.
She gazed at Mo Ran and Chu Wanning as she gently chuckled. "I have long heard talk of the deep master-disciple bond between Chu-zongshi and Mozongshi, and from what I see today, it appears to be true."
[12] Dog Balls bro