By the time Fang Zhiyuan and Lin Fuqing returned to the inn, it was almost two o’clock in the morning.
Lin Fuqing had his hand on his door, but he was still worried. He turned back and said slowly, “Be more careful tomorrow and don’t underestimate the enemy. If you want to be angry, come at me, don’t torture yourself.”
Still angry, Fang Zhiyuan ignored him. He lowered his head and went into his room alone, slamming the door and blocking Lin Fuqing’s worried “Zhiyuan” outside.
The night was deep and quiet.
Still upset, Fang Zhiyuan didn’t even light the lamp but took off his long sword in the dark and sat on the bed, resting his cheek on the cold black sheath of the sword.
Tomorrow…was the day of the Golden Osmanthus Challenge.
On this night in his previous life, his blood was violently agitated, like a knife that couldn’t wait to be unsheathed.
Now, in this life, his heart felt heavy and uncomfortable.
In order to save Jina and protect Xuyun, Lin Fuqing was willing to hide this from him and put himself in danger…
There was a lingering gloom in Fang Zhiyuan’s eyes. The more he thought about it, the more annoyed he became. Finally, he couldn’t help but touch the Qiankun bag with his fingers.
With a thought, several jars of wine appeared silently at the bedside. He had secretly brought them out from under the old sacred tree without telling Lin Fuqing.
Fang Zhiyuan stared at the jar of wine hesitantly for a moment, then he finally reached out and broke the mud seal.
He couldn’t bring himself to confess his feelings to Lin Fuqing, but he couldn’t fool anyone else and he couldn’t fool himself.
After so many years, he regretted it so much.
Fang Zhiyuan didn’t like to attribute everything to coincidence or fate. Tracing back to the source, he felt that it was he who’d ruined Lin Fuqing.
He was like the dirt and blood that stained the celestial boy in the clouds.
It was he who brought Lin Fuqing to Liuhua Continent that year, causing his shige, who was originally living in paradise, to be involved in the turmoil of the immortal world.
If Lin Fuqing had not met Ji Na, everything that happened afterwards would not have happened the way it did.
Now, even if he begged Lin Fuqing to retire with him, that man would refuse.
The little brother who once loved the carefree mountains and rivers, the little brother who once only wanted to guard Taiqing Island with his junior brothers and sisters, the little brother who once was gentle and indulgent and coaxed him with everything, now he was unwilling…
Fang Zhiyuan drank wine in a depressed mood.
The wine from the mortal realm could not make immortals drunk, but Lin Fuqing had used magical rice and spring water from the immortal realm to make wine, and although it was refreshing, it had a strong aftertaste.
Fang Zhiyuan had never been able to tolerate alcohol well. It was fine when he was at the top of his cultivation before, but now he was only at the Golden Core stage, so how could he bear to drown his sorrows in alcohol?
Soon, his eyes were reddened by the alcohol. In a daze, he rested his head on his sword and stared blankly at a point in the air.
With eyes hazy from drunkenness, a voice slipped out from his lips, “Shige…”
When I first met you…
Could they never go back?
==========
In the unfamiliar bamboo house, the morning light was scattered all over the floor. A handsome young boy in a white robe and fur coat was leaning against the window, smiling at him casually.
“Although you didn’t help me wash the red beans, I still found the knife you asked for. Sit down and eat your porridge.”
Outside the window, the sky was clear and blue. A swallow flew in with mud in its mouth and landed on an old tree in front of the house.
It was the time when the east wind was most gentle.
Fang Zhiyuan was in a daze. He vaguely knew that he had fallen into a dream while half drunk, but he wasn’t very clear-headed.
Lin Fuqing tilted his head, “Are you listening to me?”
Fang Zhiyuan felt a surge of heat in his heart, and he reached out his hand blankly. In his confusion, he just wanted to hug the twelve-year-old junior brother in front of him.
But in a flash, his hand fell on the iron knife.
The ugly, rough iron knife was placed horizontally on the edge of the table.
It didn’t fit in with the exquisite chopstick holder, three white porcelain spoons and three bowls of hot and sweet red bean porridge in the middle of the table.
“No.”
The young Immortal Sovereign’s clean white fingers gently pressed on the scabbard of the black iron knife that was covered with blood, mud and dust.
Lin Fuqing’s eyes were clear and soft. “You’re too badly injured, you can’t hold a knife yet.”
Fang Zhiyuan seemed to understand something.
He was lost in the dreams of the past, looking for the boy he’d met that year.
This was the scene when he and Lin Fuqing first met…
Obviously so much time has passed, blurring those childhood memories, but this fragment was the only thing he still remembered so clearly.
He’d fled with serious injuries and passed out in the bottom cabin of a ship. He was unconscious with a high fever for two to three days and almost died in the dirty cargo hold. When he woke up, the ship had already set sail. He was discovered by the fishermen on the boat, and more than a dozen of them forced him to jump into the sea with machetes and harpoons.
He silently dragged his iron knife and jumped down.
In the cold and dark deep sea, qi monsters came screaming.
Blood flowed into the sea from the countless wounds on his body.
In his near-death hallucination, he saw that there was a shore in the sea of suffering.
He reached out to grab it, but only the cold wind passed through his fingers.
Finally, he fainted and sank into the endless cold sea.
Before his last consciousness disappeared, he vaguely had an Arabian Nights hallucination – someone held his hand, which could never hold anything, and pulled him out of the deep sea.
When he woke up, he saw the fairy island and green mountains outside the window.
Fang Zhiyuan smiled awkwardly in his dream. He followed his old memories and uttered two words in a low voice, without any emotions.
—Let me go.
That was him back then, covered in violent thorns, with no place to go but not daring to stay.
But the little immortal in white was not annoyed at all. He just frowned and stood up seriously. “No, I won’t let you go.”
He said coldly and hoarsely, “ Are you looking for death?”
Lin Fuqing said calmly, “I’m not looking for death, I’m looking for my rice.”
Fingertips poked out from his sleeves and tapped on the table. “I made three servings of porridge because I thought you would wake up this morning. If you don’t drink it all, all the rice, beans, and sugar will be wasted.”
“……”
He was at a loss.
“Ah, the brother who has been sleeping is up!”
The sound of footsteps came closer and closer, and a childish voice echoed in the dream, clear as a bell.
A little girl about three to four years old, dressed in red clothes, ran out from the inner room barefoot, stepping on the sunlight on the ground.
The little girl grabbed the corner of the clothes of the little immortal in white and revealed her little head with two buns tied up with red, flowered silk. She tilted her head and looked at him while biting her fingers.
“What’s your name?”
Fang Zhiyuan was still in a drunken dream, reminiscing about the past. The first word he said to Xiao Hongtang seemed to be –
Get lost.
Back then, back then…
He’d originally wanted Lin Fuqing to drive him away.
He was a star of calamity, a bad seed.
Wherever he stopped, he would lead yin qi there.
If he absorbed someone’s warmth, he would bring bloodied disasters to that person.
He lingered in the mud and blood, and he was too dirty. He had killed people, and countless people wanted to kill him.
He was on the verge of shattering, instinctively loathed to touch anything. Malicious intent could kill him, but good intentions would be killed by him.
He had developed a murderous aura, and his cold, cruel eyes would frightened even adult cultivators. Any normal child would have cried out of fear.
But how could Yu Hongtang be a normal child?
That was his shige’s Little Red Sugar…Being that she was raised by Lu Fuqing from infancy, there was no way she could be a normal child.
The jade-carved girl in red has shining eyes:
“Oh! Hello, Gun gege!” (Gun in pinyin means get lost).
“……”
Look, how terrible.
The spotless little immortal also turned his head when he heard this, his calm expression displaying a hint of curiosity. “Your name is Gun? Which character? Is it the Gun in Get Lost?”
“…….”
What was even more terrible was waiting here.
“Hehe… Gun gege, we can’t quarrel!” Yu Hongtang tilted her little face, displaying a large, innocent smile. Her cat-like pupils were black, bright and moist.
Small hands like snow lotus roots softly hugged his leg. “The porridge made by Qing’er gege is especially delicious!”
The girl spoke softly. Then she nodded her head earnestly and raised her hands to gesture. “Try it, it’s very sweet! It’s that sweet!”
The voice was sweeter than porridge, like broken crystals, each piece sparkling and falling in the memory with a tinkling sound.
Too dazzling…
He lived in darkness. How could he have seen such light?
He wanted to hide, escape, and leave.
But Lin Fuqing refused to let him go, so what could he do?
Finally, the unfortunate boy who was trapped in the memory finally hesitated and wavered, but still uttered a word in a cold and hard voice.
“I’ll eat the porridge, and you let me go.”
=========
“Zhiyuan…Zhiyuan!”
Before he knew it, it was already bright outside.
“Hmm…” Fang Zhiyuan had a splitting headache. He opened his eyelids with difficulty, and reflected on his slightly blurred vision was Lin Fuqing, who was leaning over with concern.
“You didn’t let me go…”
“What?”
Not understanding his nonsense but seeing that he was leaning on the bed with a sword in his arms, Lin Fuqing felt angry and amused at the same time. “You got yourself into this state so early in the morning… Why did you drink so much again?!”
There were several jars of wine scattered on the ground, a perfect example of catching the criminal red-handed.
Lin Fuqing couldn’t help but put his hand on his forehead.
Today was the Golden Osmanthus Challenge. In this inn, how many young talents spent the last few hours in the night sharpening their swords?
Some people would listen to the instructions and teachings of their teachers, some would comprehend the techniques of martial arts, and some would even take elixirs crazily… At the very least, they would chant the Heart Purifying Mantra and meditate for an entire night.
Take Lin Fuqing for example. He’d washed, changed his clothes and went to bed directly, and before he fell asleep, he was still thinking about how to coax his little troublemaker the next morning…This was already very rare.
He didn’t expect that there was someone even worse next door. How careless this person must be to get so drunk the night before the Golden Osmanthus Challenge?
Lin Fuqing resigned himself to his fate and searched for the hangover pills in his Qiankun bag. Fang Zhiyuan was still tugging at his sleeve, half-opening his hazy eyes, “Liar…”
Feeling helpless, Lin Fuqing couldn’t reason with the drunk guy, so he could only free up one hand to rub his head and coax him. “Okay, okay, I’m a liar, I’m the worst, right? You’re the most obedient, don’t move…”
“Shige…”
Fang Zhiyuan was still confused, watching the rosy lips of the white-robed youth in front of him opening and closing.
He wanted to bite.
He felt so itchy. He really wanted to get close to it, and crush into it, and bite it…
For so many years… For so many years, he had secret feelings for Lin Fuqing, but he dared not ask for relief.
This feeling was like a seed. He had buried it underground without light for decades, and he thought it would have rotted long ago. But when he dug it up one day, he found that it had sprouted into aged wine.
The drunkenness overwhelmed his rationality, revealing the burning thoughts hidden deep inside that he dared not show to others.
With his mind wandering, his consciousness became even more confused.
Fang Zhiyuan slowly reached out and grabbed Lin Fuqing’s collar, pulling him closer. The latter was slightly surprised, but did not resist.
He was still staring at his shige’s lips.
He couldn’t bear to bite it.
Fang Zhiyuan closed his eyes and raised his neck. He moved his thin lips closer and gently brushed them against the corner of Lin Fuqing’s lips, once, then twice.
“……”
Lin Fuqing had a strange look on his face.
Fang Zhiyuan was unaware of it. After the kiss, he felt satisfied and leaned his head on his shige’s shoulder, then he fell asleep again in a daze.
Outside the inn, the pale morning light was rising.
Gradually, the sound of guests moving around could be heard.
Lin Fuqing didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. After a long while, he let out a light sigh, took Fang Zhiyuan into his arms, and fed him a few pills.
There was a faint, helpless smile on his face, and his long eyelashes concealed the deep, complex emotions in his eyes, casting a small shadow on his fair, lower eyelid.
In the silence, he bent down.
He lightly kissed Fang Zhiyuan on the lips.
It was as if he was dissatisfied that this person had kissed the wrong spot, and so he was lovingly correcting that small mistake.
He knew that this man would lose his memory if he drank too much, and he would not remember anything when he woke up anyway.
——————————-
The author has something to say:
(Before drinking)
Fang Zhiyuan: (Brainwashing himself) I’ve disappointed shige. I’m not worthy of him. I like him so much but I have to try to restrain myself. I just want to protect him and be a clean shidi for the rest of my life…
(After drinking)
Fang Zhiyuan: (confused) Come and kiss.
Lin Fuqing: (lovingly) I’ll kiss you too.
The love line is roughly like this: Second Fang Shixiong has a crush on his shige, and he struggles with himself every day and tries to hide it, but the other party knew about his crush a hundred or eighty years ago. Lin Da Shixiong openly loves his shidi, and he tells him he likes him every day, but after a hundred or eighty years of open love, the other party still thinks that he’s joking and that it was unrequited love (on FZY’s part).
Moreover, judging from the calm way that Demon Lord Lin returned the kiss this morning, this couldn’t have been the first time that the little calamity star had suffered from alcohol-induced dementia.
In fact, I really want to change the CP attribute of Fang Zhiyuan in the copywriting from “evil, charming and arrogant” to “cute, fierce and irritable.” But even so, he is still the top =w=
Junior Sister Hongtang was finally pulled out by me, and the Xuyun team is complete!
—————————
Translator Note:
Yu Hongtang = Yú Hóngtáng (鱼红棠), which literally means Fish Red Cherry-Apple.
Little Red Sugar = Xiao Hongtang = Xiǎo Hóngtáng (小红糖), which literally means Little Red/Brown Sugar. So the nickname Little Red Sugar is a play on Yu Hongtang’s name.