NEMB Chapter 27.2: Traveling Together

This seemed like a question, but it was obviously a declarative sentence, one with just the same amount of strength as Yan Jin’s handhold earlier!

Shen Zhixian didn’t know what Yan Jin was thinking. He only knew that he was now trapped in the wolf’s den and couldn’t escape.

He wanted to slip out but was firmly held in place by the paw of this big-tailed wolf. It wouldn’t be difficult to solve this problem, so long as he reveals his identity.

Forget it, Shen Zhixian thought. He’ll continue to pretend.

He refused to reveal his identity. Besides, he should have nothing to fear from Yan Jin, even though he was caught so firmly against the door.

Shen Zhixian wanted a pretext to leave. He made an excuse that he had already booked a room next door and wanted to go back to rest, but he was rejected ruthlessly.

The young man stood with a sword at his waist, looking at him quietly. His eyes were as dark as a deep pond, without any emotional ripples. He tenaciously bit out the words “familiarity at first sight” and insisted that Shen Zhixian stay the night so they could talk.

Shen Zhixian: “………”

Persist, persist, persist, persist!

Talk, talk, talk, talk!

Realizing that he was unable to escape, Shen Zhixian lost his smiling expression. He gave up struggling, allowed people to send hot water up, and sat on the bed angrily. “I’m going to take a bath. Troubling you to leave for a moment.”

Yan Jin was still hesitant. Shen Zhixian merely shot him a glance, then slowly loosened his outer robe and dropped it on the floor. Next, his shoes and sock followed, revealing his naked feet.

Yan Jin’s eyes subconsciously lowered to look.

Shen Zhixian’s feet did not normally see the sun so they were white as porcelain, the skin so thin that faint veins could be seen underneath. His toes were like pearls found within the deep sea, shiny and noble.

Shen Zhixian stood and lazily took two steps. His finger rested on the ties of his inner robe, even as he shifted a pair of eyes to look askance at Jin Yan. He said in a languorous voice, “Don’t want to go?”

Yan Jin suddenly regained his senses. He looked up to see Shen Zhixian pull apart his loose neckline, revealing a small expanse of porcelain skin. He quickly turned his head and hurriedly said, as if he’d been scalded, “I…I’ll wait outside the door.”

After he said this, he rushed out the door. As he closed the door behind him, he was probably in an unstable mood, because the door slammed with a loud noise.

Watching his reaction, Shen Zhixian raised an eyebrow, finding it quite interesting. They’re both two big men. What he had, Jin Yan also had. What was he so nervous about?

He was already so nervous and yet he dared to want to talk at night?

This small town inn naturally could not compare to Qingyun Sect. The hot water was just common hot water and had no spiritual aura.

However, as Shen Zhixian soaked in the water, he breathed a long sigh of relief.

Who knew that Yan Jin would just happen to be here?

This was also good. At least, he could finally have a good rest.

The hot water relieved the body’s fatigue. Shen Zhixian’s long fingers played with the water as he thought tiredly that, without spiritual power, he’d become easily tired just like an ordinary person.

A slight chirping sound came from the bed, and Shen Zhixian immediately turned his gaze over to the little grass bud that had just emerged from his sleeve.

Shen Zhixian made a gesture for silence. Xiao Caoya stopped, feeling aggrieved. Disappointed, it flew over and unhappily sat beside the tub. Two small leaves bent down, imitating a human figure with his hands on his hips.

“Okay, okay. It was wrong of me to shove you in my sleeve. But who knew we would unexpectedly run into Yan Jin by accident?” Shen Zhixian leaned forward and whispered, “You just wait in the storage bag these next few days. Wait until A’Jin leaves before coming out.”

Xiao Caoya was even more vexed when it heard these words. It stood and jumped hard in dissatisfaction. Using a small leaf, it angrily splashed Shen Zhixian with water, issuing a short, low-pitched “Chirp!”

Shen Zhixian was suddenly splashed with water, which covered up one person and one grass bud. He helplessly said, “A’Jin wants us to travel together. There’s nothing I can do…. Ah? What did you say? You want to find him?”

Shen Zhixian lowered his voice, feeling unhappy. “Why do you want to go to him? Are you the grass that I raised or that he raised?”

“Chirp! Chirp!”

Xiao Caoya was determined and shook the water droplets off, still wanting to abandon its owner to find Yan Jin. But, as soon as it tried to fly out, Shen Zhixian caught one of its small roots.

Shen Zhixian whispered, “A’Jin is very poor. He has no spirit stones at all. If you follow him, then you won’t have any elixirs to eat.”

Xiao Caoya’s movements paused.

Shen Zhixian displayed a “sure enough” triumphant smile, but this smile didn’t last long. Xiao Caoya pulled it’s thin root out from between his fingers and flew toward the windowsill.

Without looking back, he flew out the half-opened window.

Shen Zhixian: “????”

Even though it gave Shen Zhixian a little face and didn’t go out directly through the front door to expose Shen Zhixian’s identity, he was still furious.

This ungrateful grass bud!

All this time, who knew how many expensive elixirs it’d eaten? But now, just because of a little frustration, it wanted to abandon the master! Straight into another person’s arms!

Shen Zhixian, who’d been cast aside, treated the water as if it was Yan Jin. The calmer his face was, the more vigorous he became. The sound of water splashing spread out through the room, which wasn’t soundproofed very well, and fell into Yan Jin’s ears.

Yan Jin stood by the door with a sword in his hand, seeming to be neither walking nor waiting. He listened to the sound of the water and couldn’t help remembering Shen Zhixian’s bare feet…the gap between his inner robe, revealing a pair of slender legs…

His ears suddenly became very hot, and he uncomfortably raised his hand to touch his lips. He tightened his mouth and began to meditate in his heart.

By the time Shen Zhixian finished slowly bathing, it had already grown late. Due to the incident with the storyteller, he’d not eaten at all this evening and was a bit hungry. He was about to ask that the water be taken down and for food to be delivered when the door opened. Yan Jin came in with a three-tier snack box.

The delicious aroma wafted up to his nose in an instant.

As he lazily put on his shoes, Shen Zhixian’s annoyance at being banished into the wolf’s den finally dissipated a little.

Since he’d just finished bathing, his hair was still wet and his cheeks were flushed red by the heat. His clothes were carelessly thrown on, his outer coat just loosely covering his inner robe. The whole picture exuded an uninhibited, indolent taste.

He smelled the food and his Adam apple bobbed slightly. A few drops of water silently slid down into his collar, leaving moist trails along his fair skin.

Yan Jin saw it all and felt the tips of his ears that had just calmed down flush hotly again. He hurriedly lowered his head and laid out the food on the table.

Xiao Caoya was sitting on Yan Jin’s shoulder, chirping. Shen Zhixian saw it and became angry all over again. Resisting the urge to pull it down, he pretended to look at it curiously. “What is this?”

Yan Jin placed a bowl of clean, white rice in front of Shen Zhixian. After putting a pair of wooden chopsticks on top of the rim, he said, “It’s a little grass bud that my master is raising.”

He retracted his hand and sat down, without putting any tableware in front of him. Who was sitting opposite him, he knew full well. Although he didn’t know what Shen Zhixian was planning, he was still a bit uncomfortable when he thought about eating at the same table with Shen Zhixian.

He still had spiritual power so it was fine even if he didn’t eat. However, Master had no spiritual power and could not abstain from eating. This was crucial.

Unfortunately, this little place didn’t have the best food. Certainly not remotely close to the type of food that Master was used to eating. Yan Jin wasn’t sure if Master would eat it.

Shen Zhixian didn’t know Yan Jin’s thoughts. He only stared at Xiao Caoya for a long time. Finally, he slowly said, “This grass bud looks very stupid.”

Yan Jin: “…”

Xiao Caoya: “…… ”

Xiao Caoya chirped and immediately jumped up to fight. Yan Jin quickly caught him in the palm of his hands and lightly coughed.

It was the first time that Xiao Caoya was taken into the palm of Yan Jin’s hands. It immediately relaxed and began to twist affectionately in Yan Jin’s palm, shyly trembling under his fingertips.

Shen Zhixian: “…”

He grew even more angry and withdrew his gaze. If his eyes didn’t see, his heart wouldn’t feel so vexed.

Three dishes and one soup on the table were quite hearty and smelled good. Shen Zhixian was hungry. Although he saw that Yan Jin didn’t eat, he was too lazy to care. He ate a little from a few dishes and slowly finished his small bowl of rice. Then he gracefully laid down his chopsticks and wiped his mouth with a handkerchief.

Yan Jin felt a little relieved when he saw that Shen Zhixian had eaten about the same amount of food as usual, and then he became a little worried.

Master always eat so little. No wonder he was so thin…

As he was thinking this, he heard Shen Zhixian, who was sipping tea, politely asked him, “What should I call you?”

He acted like they were strangers who just happened to meet each other by chance.

“…” Yan Jin was silent for a moment, then he said, “Sui Xian Gege.”

“Cough, cough–” Shen Zhixian almost sprayed out the tea in his mouth.

Yan Jin stood up silently and walked over to pat his back in a familiar way, soothing him.

In the early days, Shen Zhixian used to pretend to be sick and coughed a lot. As a result, he’d become very accustomed to Yan Jin’s action. So, even though he’d changed his identity on the surface, he subconsciously accepted Yan Jin’s movements and didn’t think anything was wrong with it. After coughing for a while, he calmed down. His cheeks were slightly red, and he gasped a bit before asking in a hoarse voice, “What did you call me?”

Yan Jin refilled the teacup in front of Shen Zhixian and waited until he finished drinking before saying, “My name is Yan Jin. I’m the disciple in the book, your distant cousin. I should call you…”

He paused and said seriously, “Sui Xian Gege?”

Shen Zhixian:” ????? ”

Shen Zhixian was called “gege” twice in a row and felt that his old face was a little bit lost. He forced his face to remain calm even though he was internally roaring. As he opened his mouth to speak, Yan Jin added, “Is this right? I had a very solitary childhood and had never called anyone older brother before. I’m also not sure what to call you…”

His face had some doubts, and when a pair of dark eyes looked over, there was a hint of confusion and helplessness within the depths of those eyes.

Shen Zhixian suddenly remembered the little Yan Jin from a few years ago, who’d been lonely and emaciated and unable to fight back. Suddenly, he softened. Taking his folding fan in hand, he opened it and half-covered his face to conceal the unnaturalness of it as he said, “En, what brother? There’s no need to call me gege. Just….call my name.”

Yan Jin seem a little regretful. He hesitated for a moment before saying, “Ok.”

After responding with “Ok,” he called, “Sui Xian.”

Listening to him, Shen Zhixian somehow felt that there was a hint of nostalgia and enthusiasm in the “Sui Xian,” sounding unusually warm and…

He remembered his previous guess and snapped his folding fan shut, before he murmured a soft “En.”

He felt a little unhappy.

Was the “Sui Xian” that Yan Jin had met before so worthy in his memory? Such that he couldn’t help transferring the sentiment onto someone with the same name?

So, remembering the “Sui Xian,” why didn’t he follow him, then?

The unhappy Shen Zhixian decided to go to bed early tonight, refusing to talk anymore to Yan Jin and Xiao Caoya.

After all, he was just an ordinary person now!

—————————–
Xixi: Haha. I thought YJ was just teasing SZX with the whole “gege” thing, but he was serious. He can be so surprisingly innocent. And, SZX got jealous of “Sui Xian.” Not to mention the slight sexual tension….I love it!

Gege = Brother. It also carries an intimate connotation and can be used as a term of affection.