“Do you all really have to go together?”
Lin Cangyuan glanced at Ye Liuxing with a sneer. “You could come with us.”
Ye Liuxing had the appearance of a concubine biting her handkerchief. He turned to Gui Yin grievously. “Shixiong! I’m being bullied!”
“Alright, alright. Aren’t you embarrassed? You’re in front of your martial nieces and nephews,” Gui Yin said, glancing at Ye Liuxing.
“It’s not like they even respected me in the first place,” Ye Liuxing wailed, fat alligator tears threatening to spill from his eyes.
Ye Liuxing’s disciples, who accompanied their shizun to send Gui Yin and the others off, glanced at each other.
“Shizun, if you really want to go, we c—”
“Are you stupid?” Ye Liuxing quickly recovered. “How could I leave you lot in charge of tending to the gardens? Do I want Yunjing Pavilion to go bankrupt?”
The disciples retreated, looking a little sheepish. Once they backed up, Ye Liuxing turned back to Gui Yin and the others.
“Why are you leaving me too? I thought you weren’t going,” Ye Liuxing said, catching a hold of Lin Cangyuan’s sleeve.
“I want to see the fun,” Lin Cangyuan pulled his sleeve away. He looked at Ye Liuxing gloatingly. “I’ll tell you all about it when I get back.”
Gui Yin sighed. “Alright, alright. We should get going.”
He turned to Gui Linghuo and the others. “You three be good and listen to your Ye-shishu while I’m gone.”
“Can’t we come with you?” Shan Yu asked, her voice meeker than normal since she was in the presence of elders.
“No. It’s not anything children should be hearing,” Gui Yin said, his gaze softening a few degrees. He crouched down and gave Shan Yu and Qin Siyi a tight hug. “I’ll be back before you know it.”
He looked at Gui Linghuo.
The boy hesitated before walking into Gui Yin’s arms. He remained in Gui Yin’s embrace for a little longer than Shan Yu and Qin Siyi before breaking away.
“This disciple will take care of Shuangye Peak while Shizun is away,” Gui Linghuo vowed.
Gui Yin chuckled as he stood. He ruffled Gui Linghuo’s hair. “Good. Thank you, Huo’er.”
Lin Cangyuan exchanged a few more words with Ye Liuxing before the group finally departed.
When the teleportation array realigned itself, they were in a different place.
Lin Cangyuan readjusted the dials on the machine with a slight scowl on his face. “I told them to install a teleportation array in Xingchen Pavilion, but those old fools kept protesting, saying that it would be impossible to do so while keeping proper security measures.”
Jiu Jingyi scoffed. “Isn’t our Yunjing Pavilion just fine?”
“They’re just moronic,” Lin Cangyuan murmured. “Get ready, we’re going again.”
They went through three arrays before arriving at the edge of their territory in the northwest. From there, they got onto their swords and flew straight west until they made it to Mingfang City (明芳城) where Xingchen Pavilion resided in.
Mingfang City was deep into the upper realms of the cultivation world. Here, small machines could be seen delivering parcels, letters, or even food from restaurants. Demonic beasts lined the streets, waiting for their owners to leave the luxurious boutiques and shops. The entire city seemed to be gilded in gold. It was resplendent, eye-catching, and exceedingly harmonious. Everyone here were cultivators of at least golden core and everyone wore the finest of silks.
While some may say Mingfang City was the most pretentious city on Quanjing Continent, but Gui Yin truly appreciated it for its prosperity.
Lin Cangyuan led Jiu Jingyi and Gui Yin to the inn he normally stayed at when he had to attend a conference. While their rooms were being prepared, the clerk snuck a few glances at the three people in front of him.
When Jiu Jingyi was younger, there were many people who were attracted to her looks, to the point that they would stir up trouble. Although she could take care of them, as she got older, she felt that it was a waste of time. Therefore, nowadays, whenever she would leave the sect, she would wear a silky gauze that covered the lower half of her face. Coupled with the arrow-sleeved robes she wore, she looked like a fresh Kaolin flower, who had just descended from the mountain to experience the world.
Now that this beautiful Kaolin flower was accompanied by two handsome, tall, broad-shouldered gentlemen—their entourage was bound to attract a few more admiring looks.
Lin Cangyuan handed a key to Jiu Jingyi and one to Gui Yin.
Gui Yin looked at the key in his hand and then to Lin Cangyuan. “We’re not sharing a room?”
“You want to share a room?” Lin Cangyuan pulled the veiled hat from his head and put it on Gui Yin instead. “If you want, I can ask for a refund.”
Gui Yin readjusted the hat on his head without question. “I was only curious.”
Jiu Jingyi glanced between Lin Cangyuan and Gui Yin. She looked down at the key in her hand and let out a soft sigh. She wanted someone she could share a room with.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Gb sbe ybat kjca ab rtjgf j gbbw?” Olc Jjcusejc ibbxfv ja Ale Alcusl jcv Xel Tlc. “P mjc pera jrx obg j yluufg gbbw.”
“Zfc jcv kbwfc rtbeivc’a yf rb mibrf klat fjmt batfg,” Ale Alcusl rjlv ygffhlis. Vtf uijcmfv bnfg ja tfg wjgalji ygbatfg jcv lwwfvljafis yfmjwf lgglajafv. “Qtja’r klat atja fzqgfrrlbc? Qtja? Tbe vbc’a atlcx P’w j kbwjc? Gb sbe rff atfrf?”
Lin Cangyuan turned away and Gui Yin flourished his fan in front of his eyes. Both men suppressed a groan as Jiu Jingyi gestured to her breasts.
“Shimei, we’re in public,” Lin Cangyuan said.
“I swear, you two never take me seriously. Just because I grew up with you smelly me—Don’t just walk away!” Jiu Jingyi scowled. “I’m a woman too!”
“Yes, yes, you’re a woman,” Gui Yin said, refusing to look back at Jiu Jingyi as they made their way to the stairs.
Jiu Jingyi clicked her tongue. Her voice returned to a regular volume, “Honestly, rather than me, I should say that you two are the odd ones. You grew up with such a lovely shimei by your side, but your heart wasn’t moved in the slightest.”
“It’s not like I can help it. I was born a cut-sleeve,” Gui Yin said, throwing his hair over his shoulder.
“What’s your excuse?” Jiu Jingyi used her food to prod Lin Cangyuan’s heel.
Lin Cangyuan shirked away. He looked Jiu Jingyi up and down. “Too beautiful.”
“I’m serious. I prefer people who are a bit less, um, attractive,” Lin Cangyuan said. “I like the ugly ones.”
“That explains why you don’t like Yenuo,” Gui Yin murmured.
Lin Cangyuan glared at Gui Yin. “What nonsense are you talking about now?”
“Yenuo is quite handsome,” Gui Yin said, sighing wistfully.
Lin Cangyuan’s brows furrowed. “Gui Qinle.”
“I’m not thinking about him in that way. I’m just saying, objectively, he’s very handsome. Right, Shimei?”
“If his heart didn’t already belong to another, I would consider him,” Jiu Jingyi said.
“You two are wretched,” Lin Cangyuan grumbled, his pace quickening to put some distance between them.
Gui Yin dropped back to walk beside Jiu Jingyi. He leaned a little closer to whisper. “How did you know about them?”
“He came to ask me for advice.”
“Shixiong did?”
“Yenuo did.”
Gui Yin’s eyes widened. “What did you say?”
“I said ‘Your shizun has bad taste. He won’t look at you’,” Jiu Jingyi said. “But then he went and confessed anyway.”
“Indeed, Shixiong has bad eyes. He’s always been like this though; he’s never liked anyone.”
“What’s the point of pretending to be ascetic now? It’s not like we’ll forget how wild he was when he w—”
“I can hear you two,” Lin Cangyuan snapped.
Gui Yin and Jiu Jingyi stopped walking in the face of Lin Cangyuan’s glare.
“Admit it, Shixiong, you’ve only been this irritable recently because you miss Yenuo,” Gui Yin said, rubbing salt into the wound.
Lin Cangyuan gaped at Gui Yin speechlessly. After a while, he huffed, threw his sleeve, and slammed the door to his room.
Gui Yin and Jiu Jingyi remained in the hallway for a spell.
“I’ll order wine?” Jiu Jingyi suggested.
“We can use my room,” Gui Yin agreed.
Their communication was sparse, yet tacit. In less than ten minutes, the two martial siblings had already set up several jugs of wine with a few things to snack on. About another ten minutes later, Lin Cangyuan joined them. He was still sulking, but Gui Yin and Jiu Jingyi no longer went out of their way to tease him.
As the sun began to set, Gui Yin watched as Lin Cangyuan became drunker and drunker.
It was difficult for cultivators to get drunk because of their bodily constitution, so in the higher realm there were specific wines that had a higher alcohol content than what regular mortals would drink. As people who were in the upper realms of cultivation, Jiu Jingyi and Gui Yin had settled for the wine with the highest alcohol content. While Gui Yin and Jiu Jingyi were still okay, Lin Cangyuan slowly sank to the table. There was still a small pout on his lips.
“He’s such a lightweight,” Jiu Jingyi mumbled as she downed another cup.
Gui Yin glanced at the woman beside him. You’re one to talk.
Her face didn’t show it, but Gui Yin knew she was also drunk now.
After a few more drinks, Lin Cangyuan’s head was flat to the table. A small sniffle exited him. Gui Yin glanced at Jiu Jingyi, but the woman didn’t have a reaction. Her concentration was on the bottle in front of her. Her eyes were full of love. For a moment, Gui Yin contemplated what he should do. Should he leave? This was his room though. If he left, he wouldn’t be able to use the other two rooms. Should he kick them out? If he kicked them out, who knew where they’d wander off to?
Before Gui Yin could make a cruel decision, a hand shot up and caught a hold of his wide sleeves.
Gui Yin watched, somewhat dazed, as Lin Cangyuan pulled himself up. He was face to face with a man he considered his older brother. The man who was normally so calm and collected was…crying.
“Qinle…”
“…Yes?”
“I don’t know what to do,” Lin Cangyuan said, his voice crackling.
“If you don’t know what to do, you can ask Shim—”
“No! I have to ask you,” Lin Cangyuan said sobbingly.
Gui Yin looked to Jiu Jingyi.
The woman was staring out into the terrace, a blissful look on her face. It was as if she were in a completely different room. The sounds of Lin Cangyuan’s sobs didn’t reach her at all, nor did Gui Yin’s desperate gaze.
By the time Gui Yin’s mind reconnected to Lin Cangyuan’s conversation, the other man had already latched onto his waist. His fingers annoyingly latched onto the edge of his belt, making Gui Yin unable to pull away.
Gui Yin sighed in resignation. He patted the back of Lin Cangyuan’s head, the way he would when he was comforting his disciples. “What’s wrong? What’s so difficult that it has you crying?”
“I really…”
“Really what?”
“Really…really…feel useless…”
Gui Yin’s brows furrowed. “How could you be useless? You’re one of the most powerful people on this continent. If you try to claim first, only two other people would dare to contend with you.”
Lin Cangyuan shook his head. “Not because of that!”
“…Then what?”
“Yenuo…”
Gui Yin’s eyes widened a fraction. “What about Yenuo?”
Lin Cangyuan shook his head again. After that, like a petulant child, he refused to speak anymore. However, he clung onto Gui Yin until he fell asleep.
At some point, Jiu Jingyi drunkenly wandered out. While dragging Lin Cangyuan with him, Gui Yin watched Jiu Jingyi peacefully float back into her room and close the door. Only then was he assured enough to return to his own room. Similarly, after crying and taking a nap, Lin Cangyuan woke up. He stared dazedly in front of him before standing and returning to his own room.
A night of chaos finished with Gui Yin by himself, accompanied by several other bottles of wine. He let out a sigh and figured he should just finish them. It wasn’t like cultivators got hangovers anyway.
Gui Yin took the remaining four bottles and went to the terrace. He made space for himself and set the bottles down at his feet. He pulled aside the red cloth and began to drink.
Night had fallen a long time ago and the streets were near empty. There were a few people on their leisurely way home. The bustling city had quieted down, leaving behind only the moon, for people to admire and speak their thoughts to.
He lowered his head and took a few gulps before sighing. “If only I had someone to talk to right now.”
Drinking alone was far too depressing.
He remembered a time, back in the twenty-first century, when he found out his boyfriend had actually been engaged to a woman during their time together. Gui Yin would have understood if his parents had forced it upon him, but it hadn’t been just that. After learning more, after talking for a while, Gui Yin only felt tired. Why was it that every man he ever encountered was scum?
The wound stung more than Gui Yin realized, but it wasn’t just because of that scum man. Maybe the Gui Yin—Gui Qinle—of this world had also been played by scum men. That was why the pain hurt even more.
Gui Yin fell into his own thoughts. Lord Immortal Ninglan, Gui Qinle, Gui Yin—were any of these three different people? They weren’t. In the end, they were all him.
He tilted his head back and finished the bottle. He bent down and picked up another bottle. He let out a soft grunt and straightened. Then, he froze.
Resting innocently on the railing was a small note, folded neatly in half. Gui Yin’s eyes narrowed. He looked around but saw nothing but a quiet street and felt nothing but the warm, summery winds. He refrained from opening his next bottle. He picked up the note and unfolded it.
His slender fingers smoothed the note out as his eyes drank in its contents.
“Why are you drinking so much?”
Gui Yin found himself giggling. He folded the note and opened the new bottle. “The mood is good, so I wanted to drink a bit more, that’s all. I’m not upset or anything.”
Gui Yin drank silently, his mind wandering. He didn’t think a second note would show up, but when the winds teasingly tugged at his hair and he glanced over again, there was another note. His brows furrowed. He plucked it from its spot and opened it again.
“‘Is it good?’” Gui Yin read out loud. “It’s wine. It’s enough to satiate that itch.”
Just when Gui Yin thought “surely a third note wouldn’t come”, he felt a slight presence to his left. He looked and saw the next note. Gui Yin’s lips twitched. He picked up the third note and opened it.
“Are you nervous about the conference?”
The previous two notes made vague, friendly conversation, but this one spoke about Gui Yin personally. He felt a hint of surprise, but tucked the note away soon after. He didn’t bother responding this time.
Then, he got a fourth note. “Are you?”
A fifth: “You can tell me.”
A sixth: “There’s no shame in being nervous.”
A seventh: “Hey.”
An eighth: “Hey.”
A ninth: “Hey.”
Tenth: “Hey.”
Eleventh: “Hey, don’t ignore me.”
Gui Yin finally burst out laughing. He held onto the railing as he doubled over, the note still clutched in his hand. It was a full belly laughter—something that Gui Yin hadn’t experienced in a while. He wasn’t sure if it was the lateness of the night or the amount of alcohol he had had, but the contents of the notes and the way its sender scribbled each word tickled Gui Yin in a way that was foreign to him.
A long time later, he straightened up, his sides aching from how hard he was laughing. When he looked to the side, he found that the last bottle of wine was missing. In its place was another note.
“Punishment for ignoring me.”
“So childish,” Gui Yin said, an amused smile on his face. He paused for a moment before walking to the railing again.
He leaned his body out and twisted himself so he could look to the rooftop. When he saw nothing, he hooked his foot to the railing and leaned down further, to see if there was anyone below him. When he realized that both places were empty of suspects, Gui Yin pulled himself back onto the terrace with a slight pout.
“I didn’t take you to be a coward, Palace Lord,” Gui Yin said, savoring the remainder of wine he had.
Gui Yin felt a flutter against his cheek. He glanced over and caught the note.
“Not a coward. I’m just afraid you’re still mad at me.”
Gui Yin let out a long hum as he held the note to his lips. His thoughts were blurring now. He felt light, yet heavy at the same time. He blinked slowly as he leaned against the railing of the terrace. A chuckle left him unknowingly and a charming smile painted his face.
“Mad at you for what?” Gui Yin asked. “For giving me a useless voucher? Or for not giving me your real name.”
Gui Yin tucked the note away again with a shake of his head. “I’m not mad about either. I just…don’t think I should trust someone who says they appreciate my efforts, but won’t even show me your face.”
He dazedly took a step back. “But I understand. It’s complicated. You and I don’t have any connections to each other. Maybe it would be more suspicious if you acted like you trust me right off the bat. I would definitely put distance between us then…definitely.”
He swayed a little and glanced at the empty bottles to the side. “Mm…if you want to make up for it then…just pick up my trash, okay? I’m sleepy. I’m going to go ahead and sleep first.”
If Gui Yin were any more sober, he would have realized he had just openly invited a stranger into his room. He would have realized it was a bad decision and he would have smacked himself in the head. Unfortunately, Gui Yin was inebriated and he was tired. His eyelids drooped as he stepped into the room. The candles were still bright, but Gui Yin felt as if he were walking through the dark.
He bumped into the table once, the divan once, and even a candle stand once. Miraculously, the candle stand didn’t topple over. It swayed, bent forward, and remained that way in thin air.
By the time Gui Yin collapsed onto his bed, the candle stand had righted, the empty bottles were gone, and the notes Gui Yin had carefully stored away had disappeared too.
It was as if nothing had happened.
Known Note Guy (prev Mystranger) is really cute!! that last bit tho, is it shadow manipulation? 🤔 dimension fuckery? 🤔 bisexual invisibility day? 🤔
🤔 the mystery continues…thanks for reading!!
Omg haha this is cracking me up
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
thanks for reading!!!
So the old romance is still potentially alive, and it may have been with this palace lord guy, who may have been setup and seen in a farce by our MC… I see no flaws in my logic 😅
I am very curious why he would need to say are you still mad if there was no massive misunderstanding between the two in the past
It’s because Gui Yin was upset at the Huigu Palace Lord for not giving a real name even tho he said he owed Gui Yin (+not revealing his face and manipulating GY and Li Fangyin into helping with the Qi Du Cult instead of just asking normally). It’s just stupid flirting from the Palace Lord, no need to read into it 😂
thanks for reading!!!!!!!
the note spam hahahaha
All the notes lmao
And Gui Yin saying that he was born a cut-sleeve and swaying his hair was everything
yeah ↖(^ω^)↗
Lol this may be one of my favorite chapters so far, the note spam, abundance of funny moments, interactions between er-ye and Gui Yu,and so on. Also weird ending 🤔 why does everything kinda start moving like a mirage?
Thanks for the chapter 😺
I had to laugh at the note exchange, it made me think of a xianxia style text messaging.
Sooo ‘serpent’ is erye is mysterious gold-eyef dude is note sender?
He might be the ex that was mentioned, maybe some misunderstanding happened?