“I wonder if Senior Sister cried at the sight of your scar.”
Xie Yi coughed. Let’s say she had not been amused. “It’s only a scar, why is everyone making such a fuss…”
“You’re a beautiful person. Weird, but that’s how humans are – we like pretty things that aren’t marked.” Xu Yan carefully touched it. It looked bad right now, although the edges were fading to a paler pink. “Are you worried about how Master Li sees it? I mean, usually people want to look their best in front of those they like.”
“That’s only when you want to pursue someone”, Xie Yi responded and looked at his arms. His left arm was still black and blue from the bruises that stayed behind after it healed. The right one showed an equally ugly cut.
“And you’re not?” Xu Yan’s voice was incredulous. “You? Is it because you don’t know how?”
“No”, Xie Yi said, then corrected himself. “Well, yes, I also don’t know how, but that’s not the problem.”
He absolutely didn’t know how to pursue people.
“It’s a lot like with Lu Han’s situation. For one, I absolutely don’t suit him, and there’s nothing I can do about that – I will always be messy and blood-thirsty and fidgety, someone who is bad with people and doesn’t care about anyone other than the ones he likes. Completely unlike Shi Yue.”
“…And the other reason?”
“There’s too much I can’t say”, Xie Yi lamented.
He knew that much. If he had a partner he wanted to trust with all of his heart, then he couldn’t keep secrets like he did now. This wasn’t about keeping a bad habit a secret. This was a full life of terrible mistakes that he couldn’t ever talk about.
If it was ‘only’ that, he could possibly decide to accept it, but this was a secret with too many effects. His habits and experiences, even his knowledge, all was too much based on that life.
He didn’t like the thought of always, always having to tell his beloved one that he couldn’t answer why something about him was the way it was.
“Couldn’t you share it with your lover when you trust him enough?” Xu Yan tried to cheer him up. “You don’t need to lay everything out in the open as soon as you get together.”
“I think”, Xie Yi started and hesitated. “…I think if it’s things that you yourself couldn’t forgive if you heard them, there is no way of sharing. Anyway, I don’t think I’ve got the right to have a lover currently.”
Xu Yan looked more than unhappy at hearing that but Xie Yi leaned forward, grabbed Mingtian and heaved him onto his friend.
Distracted, Xu Yan steadied the horned canine and glared at the black-haired youth.
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.
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“Do you know how to pursue a woman?”, Xie Yi snickered and gained another grumpy glare.
Xie Yi leaned back and looked up at the sky out of the window.
“You all do nothing but worry about me, it’s amazing. I would like to say that I’ve learned from it and will not do anything stupid again, but that would be a lie.” He watched Xu Yan as he said so, but his friend looked neither surprised or offended.
“I just don’t want you to be hurt, that’s all. But I know we are cultivators and there will always be injuries. The only difference is that you are starting earlier.”
“I need to recuperate, and Master does, too. I’ll be very manageable for a while”, Xie Yi promised with a hand on his chest.
“How about we call Senior Sister over soon to find something to distract you? So you won’t get bored”, Xu Yan suggested.
Because neither Xie Yi nor Shi Yue could truly train at the moment, they had to search for different things to do. Shi Yue was naturally resistant against boredom as a Grandmaster and while his body wouldn’t allow him to use spiritual energy for the moment, he had enough paperwork.
Xie Yi did not want to use it despite being able to – he wanted to let his body calm down first. That meant that next to normal physical exercises, he needed something else to do.
And frankly speaking, he wanted to do things that were as normal as possible. His mind felt weird after the episode with the outpost and he wanted to regain his peace.
“Sure, let’s see what kind of ideas she has.”
Li Mei certainly had things she wanted to do.
She spent a lot of time digging every detail about their trip out of Xu Yan and Xie Yi. Knowing the situation, she didn’t try to pry about Xie Yi running away, but the overall trip was no secret and she hadn’t had a chance to hear about it yet.
Listening to Xu Yan’s description of a timid Xie Yi, she was laughing in tears.
Once she heard about his new outfit, she also forced him to bring it over. Li Mei clicked her tongue in admiration at the overall image Xie Yi gave off. “Maybe it’s time for a change of style for you.”
“Huh? Why?”
“You’ve grown a lot recently. It shows on your face especially.” She walked once around Xie Yi. “You’re maturing quickly. I think this is the perfect time to bring out your maturity!”
“Xiao Yi is still young though. Is there a reason why we’d want him to look more mature?” Xu Yan generally agreed that Xie Yi had changed a lot recently, but he saw no reason to enhance the effect of his growth further.
Li Mei raised her index finger and moved it back and forth in front of Xu Yan’s face. “Everyone knows that Xiao Yi confessed to Master Li. I think this might be a good way to get him interested in Xiao Yi, don’t you think? Change his opinio, make him aware of Xiao Yi.”
“I don’t want to court my master”, Xie Yi uncomfortably interjected. “I’ve said that before, too.”
“Aren’t you… having any sort of problem with this?” Xu Yan’s face looked comical with how awkward it was. The unspoken had been officially declared now, which was different from before. “I-I mean, with Xiao Yi being interested in Master Li…”
Li Mei looked at him for several seconds. “Are you serious?”
Because none of them seemed to talk on the same wavelength, the conversation broke off weirdly.
At this perfect timing, Master Chen entered the room with a few files in her hand. “Li Mei, I need you to make…”
Everyone turned to stare at her. The voluptuous woman stopped walking and threw a confused glance around.
Li Mei walked towards her and stopped right in front of her. She used her hands to present the female cultivator. “Master.”
Xie Yi and Xu Yan nodded. Li Mei was Master Chen’s disciple.
Li Mei stepped on her tiptoes, her hands on the woman’s shoulders, and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. The Master only blinked and otherwise didn’t react to it. Li Mei once again looked at the two. “Girlfriend.”
“What”, Xu Yan dumbly said. He turned to his friend. “Did you know about this?”
“Didn’t know.” Xie Yi hurriedly shook his head.
Master Chen’s eyebrows moved from scrunching to lifted to lowered. She looked at her disciple and Xie Yi in a fancy outfit. “I really would love knowing what is going on here.”
“I’m proving my point of being supportive towards relationships between master and disciple, as well as between the same gender.” The young woman looked up at her girlfriend with upturned eyes and sweetly leaned on her.
The teacher let the thought run through her head.
She knew her disciple was close with Xie Yi and Xu Yan. She also knew that Xu Yan was very tight-lipped.
Xie Yi, well, he was into his own master.
Either way, she did not have to worry about this getting out and the annoyance that would follow and besides, she actually agreed that seeing Shi Yue get together with Xie Yi would be terribly amusing.
Mostly because Xie Yi was the polar opposite of what the Grandmaster had always said he wanted to marry one day. Also because they looked quite adorable together.
And out of pure spite for Shi Yue often teasing her for having to maintain a distance to her girlfriend in public.
…Hm. She couldn’t see any problem.
“You lot sure know how to cause trouble. Don’t mess around too much. Now let me finish my sentence – I need you to make a few potions for me until tomorrow.” She placed a list in Li Mei’s hands, gave her a kiss on the forehead and left.
The young woman giggled happily.
After an initial five seconds of surprise and confusion, Xie Yi had adapted much quicker than Xu Yan. “You two look cute together. She loves you a lot.”
Li Mei grinned shyly. Her cheeks were flushing a bit. “I could write a book about the troubles we are having, honestly. But it’s worth it for the person you like.”
“I’m not sure about my opinion on this”, Xu Yan admitted awkwardly. Hearing about same-sex relationships and seeing their actual interactions was different. It wasn’t like he had seen Xie Yi and Shi Yue do anything, he was only supporting a theoretical relationship.
“That’s normal”, the woman shrugged. “It’s because it’s something you’re not used to seeing. I guess for Xiao Yi it’s that he has no prejudice in the first place?”
“I don’t care about who is together with whom as long as it’s whole-heartedly”, Xie Yi confirmed with a blank face.
Xu Yan was so supportive of him, why did he look so surprised at Li Mei having a girlfriend?
Author’s Note
Those who have read this story before might have noticed I cut out a whole scene here, but that’s because I didn’t like it anymore and felt it was too out of character.
Xu Yan isn’t homophobic (duh). It’s just that he’s literally not used to seeing same-sex relationships (this just now was the first time ever) so he finds it a bit odd, but he gets used to it pretty much immediately.
OMG they are all so cute.
Thank you for the chapter
SECOND SIDE PAIRING SPOTTED 😍 Well, less spotted, more awesomely revealed ehehe! Didn’t expect this, but they’re so cute~~~
Thank you for the chapter!! ☺
They are so cute, love that Li Mei took advantage of her lover holding files to sneak a kiss. If Xie Yi is 21, how old does that make Li Mie?
She’s actually several years older, but thanks to her cultivation she also still looks like in her early twenties 😀
I thought Xu Yan’s reaction was because he likes Li Mei. But I still think Xu Yan is quite good even if what i was thinking happens (TG it did not), i think he is the kind of guy who doesn’t make big waves out of little things. (Er… It was clear in my head, just not in my tongue hahaha)