When Fan Yi awoke, he felt that something was wrong. He was laying on something soft instead of the hard surface he had grown accustomed to waking up to. Under his hand was a warmth he hadn’t experienced in a week. He could hear the steady breathing coming from the person beside him. Soft candle light lit up the room, just enough for it to not be dark. When he shifted, the person beside him breathed a long sigh.
He felt warm fingers brush the back of his ear. His eyes rolled slightly beneath his eyelids.
“I know you’re awake.” The statement was followed by soft lips, pressing against Fan Yi’s ear.
Fan Yi’s lashes fluttered. He glanced up at Wu Lingtian, who was slightly hovering over him. He shifted and pressed his forehead against the other man’s thigh. “When did you return?”
Wu Lingtian remained silent. Fan Yi lifted his head slightly and looked up at him drowsily. “Hm?”
“I heard from Zhu He and Zhu Xue that you haven’t been sleeping well,” Wu Lingtian said.
Fan Yi blinked at him slowly, his mind not able to comprehend what Wu Lingtian was exactly saying.
“Is it because I’m not here? Or did you have nightmares?” Wu Lingtian asked, his fingers gently caressing the back of Fan Yi’s neck.
Fan Yi curled into the sensation, his eyelids unconsciously closing again. He leaned back into Wu Lingtian’s touch and let out a satisfied sigh. “Nightmares.”
“What nightmares?”
Fan Yi normally slept fine when he was at the sect. His insomnia rarely ever made an appearance.
“It’s too cold,” Fan Yi murmured. “Everything’s sore…”
Wu Lingtian’s gaze unconsciously landed on Fan Yi’s chest, where a very prominent scar had made its home. When Fan Yi twisted around this way, his robes fell slightly to the side, revealing the area over his heart which had colored purple since the weather had turned colder. Wu Lingtian reached out, his fingers brushing against the scar.
Fan Yi’s eyes opened. He looked at Wu Lingtian through his half-lidded eyes. He untied the string holding his robes together, revealing the rest of the scar. He propped himself up and looked at Wu Lingtian.
“Are you curious?”
Wu Lingtian met Fan Yi’s gaze. “Will you tell me?”
“Did that woman tell you anything?” Fan Yi asked.
“You mean Yu-jie?”
“…Yu-jie? Since when was she your sister?” Fan Yi frowned, his sleepiness flying out the window.
“It’s complicated,” Wu Lingtian said, “but we seem to be sworn siblings…if my memory isn’t wrong.”
Fan Yi’s mouth open and closed a few times. He finally sighed and laid down, the flaps of his shirt opening and revealing his bare chest. “That’s fine. Better than being her enemy, I suppose.”
“Are you and her enemies?”
“I wouldn’t say we’re enemies. I was harsh on her when she and Yueyue were together, so she dislikes me a little,” Fan Yi said. “She also has a bottom line as low as the ocean ground, so sometimes she goes further than others might with her teasing. She’s generally not a bad person though. She just offends people.”
Wu Lingtian chuckled. The Yu Liulin in his memory matched just that image. His gaze fell on the scar again. “She didn’t tell me anything.”
Fan Yi’s gaze remaining on Wu Lingtian as he spoke. “A long time ago, I had a period of time where I rapidly changed between lovers.”
Wu Lingtian glanced at him. “Is that where the rumors about you having a harem of boys came from?”
“It was grossly exaggerated,” Fan Yi said. “I never slept with boys, nor did I have a harem. I slept with men and women though. Some people would send their mistresses and male companions my way to appease me. I would take them in, spend a night or two with them, and send them off again.”
“Are you sure you should be telling me this?”
Fan Yi looked at Wu Lingtian in amusement. “You don’t get jealous though.”
Wu Lingtian’s eyes narrowed, a small smile playing at his lips. “Alright. Continue.”
“There was one person, during that time, that I especially liked. He never lived in the sect, but I would go visit him often,” Fan Yi said. The smile on his face faded slightly. “It was winter when he stabbed me with the coldest knife I had ever felt. It was like my fingertips were frostbitten the moment the knife touched my skin. I thought I was going to die.”
“…Did he stop?”
“He did. He was sent by one of my enemies, but it turned out he actually developed feelings for me. Unfortunately for him, I don’t take betrayal well,” Fan Yi said. “He might have stopped, but I didn’t.”
Fan Yi pulled back the left flap and faced Wu Lingtian. “It touched my heart. It wasn’t enough to kill me, but I was paralyzed for a while. My cultivation almost had trouble recovering. And now, every time it becomes winter, I suffer from the side effects. Frost Poison doesn’t have a cure. Isn’t that unfortunate?”
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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“Is that it?”
Wu Lingtian lifted his gaze irritably. “Should I lock him up in an ice dungeon?”
Fan Yi smiled. “You’re not even a little jealous?”
“What’s there to be jealous of over a dead person?” Wu Lingtian asked. “Especially a person who hurt you.”
“But, because of this, I’ll think about him every winter.”
Wu Lingtian raised a brow. “As if I don’t know your temperament?”
“And what’s my temperament?”
“You think about them, but you’re only annoyed that he’s a person who caused this. The moment he decided to draw out his knife, you and him had already become strangers,” Wu Lingtian said concisely.
“Hm?” Fan Yi leaned against Wu Lingtian’s chest and nuzzled into his neck. “You know me very well.”
Wu Lingtian’s heart jumped in his chest. He shifted slightly, lowering himself so that Fan Yi could lean on him more comfortably. “I should at least know this much.”
Fan Yi’s smile widened. He wrapped his arms around Wu Lingtian’s waist.
After that incident, Fan Yi had distanced himself from people again. The small crack that he had forced open to let another person in was slammed shut and locked tightly. He spent years, coldly interacting with everyone, including his closest friends and his uncle. While he knew they wouldn’t betray him, he found that he was unable to treat them with even a trace of warmth.
But then, one day, one of his close friends had introduced him to a young boy. The boy watched him in wide-eyed fascination. It had been spring at that time and the boy’s cheeks were as rosy as the blooming flowers around him.
When he saw the boy cry, for the first time in a long time, Fan Yi felt a souring ache in his heart. When he pulled the boy into his arms, it was the first time he had embraced another human since he had been stabbed. Slowly, the boy’s warmth passed over to him; slowly, the icy poison began to release its grip.
At first, it was responsibility, then it was genuine worry. Somewhere along the line, after Wu Lingtian protected him over and over again, it somehow became affection. But what was affection even worth? What did it ever bring him?
Fan Yi shifted and pulled Wu Lingtian closer to himself. Wu Lingtian’s eyes widened as he fell on top of Fan Yi, his head landing against his chest. He listened to the irregular beating of Fan Yi’s poisoned heart, his own heart clenching painfully.
“You know, there is one thing that Yu Liulin would never be able to tell you about me,” Fan Yi said.
Wu Lingtian raised a brow. He raised his head curiously. “What’s that?”
“You always say I saved you or that I helped you,” Fan Yi said. His gaze softened. “But I don’t think you’ll ever know how much you helped me.”
Wu Lingtian stared at Fan Yi unblinkingly. His gaze slowly warmed, but he couldn’t find any words to say.
“Can I be honest?” Fan Yi asked.
Wu Lingtian nodded mutely.
“Recently, in my dreams, it’s you who stabbed me. But when I wake up, I don’t feel angry and I don’t feel sad,” Fan Yi said. He let out a helpless laugh. “I think even if you betrayed me in real life, I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to harm you.”
Wu Lingtian frowned. He propped himself up. “How could you say that?”
“I know, you wouldn—”
“If I did something like that, you should treat me like you did that other person,” Wu Lingtian said seriously. “Don’t even hesitate.”
Fan Yi held Wu Lingtian’s intense gaze, his slow beating heart once again showing signs of life.
“At that time, you should just kill me—because that person isn’t me anymore,” Wu Lingtian said.
Silence filled the room. Wu Lingtian’s chest heaved slightly. His hands were trembling as he looked down at Fan Yi. He opened his mouth again to speak, but a pair of icy hands reached up and pulled him back down. Wu Lingtian landed down against Fan Yi’s chest with a grunt.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
“No, it’s a real situation we have to consider now,” Wu Lingtian said. “You—”
“But I would still hesitate. You’ve softened me,” Fan Yi said, hugging Wu Lingtian tighter to himself.
He remembered what his uncle had said about Wu Lingtian being unable to live without him. Fan Yi had known for a long time that he was also unable to live without Wu Lingtian.
Fan Yi embraced Wu Lingtian, until he felt the other man finally relax against him. The trembling above him stopped and the younger man’s breathing evened out. Fan Yi opened his eyes again and lightly shook Wu Lingtian.
“Feeling better?”
Wu Lingtian wrapped his arms around Fan Yi. “No.”
“No? Then, what can I do to make you feel better?” Fan Yi asked, slightly amused.
“…I don’t know. What do you think you should do?”
Wu Lingtian’s voice came out soft, making him sound more childish than he normally did. At this, Fan Yi could no longer hold back his laughter. He hugged Wu Lingtian against him tightly. After he calmed back down, he began to pepper Wu Lingtian’s face with kisses in between his giggling. Wu Lingtian’s face was bright red by the time Fan Yi finished.
“Do you feel better now?” Fan Yi asked, his thumb brushing against Wu Lingtian’s cheek.
“…I do.”
Under Fan Yi’s adoring eyes, Wu Lingtian wanted to hide. He wanted to drink in the attention, but the attention made him feel embarrassed. It made him feel naked in front of Fan Yi, but it was also what he had been craving for most of his life.
“Let’s leave tomorrow.”
“To where?” Fan Yi asked in amusement.
“The hidden realm,” Wu Lingtian said. “I got the pearl. I still…we still need to get Yu Lan.”
“And I’m coming with you?”
Wu Lingtian finally met Fan Yi’s gaze. “If I leave you alone again, I’m afraid you’re going to work yourself into exhaustion.”
“So, you’re worried about me?”
Wu Lingtian’s brows furrowed. He looked at Fan Yi’s teasing smile and huffed. “Yes, I’m worried about you. Is that anything new?”
“I just like hearing you say it,” Fan Yi said. He leaned in to hug Wu Lingtian again, but was abruptly stopped.
Wu Lingtian moved his hand from Fan Yi’s chest and pulled his shirt together before tying the strings. “It’s in the middle of winter. Even if you have furnaces, what do you think you’re doing revealing yourself like this?”
Fan Yi’s smile grew. He let Wu Lingtian fix his clothes before he draped himself over Wu Lingtian. “You pamper me too much.”
Wu Lingtian could feel his face warm again. Fan Yi was a lot clingier than usual, making Wu Lingtian’s heart soar to the sky. He knew it was because Fan Yi was slightly sleep-deprived, but he couldn’t help his guilty enjoyment.
After talking with Fan Yi for a bit longer, he put him to bed again and left to prepare food for when he woke up.
Wen Yi had gone to the kitchen, by orders of Ren Yizhou, to bring over the dinner they had specifically prepared for themselves and Tian Xiewen that night. It seemed that, after getting into a fight, Ren Yizhou wanted to make up for it.
As Wen Yi pushed open the door, she met a person she never expected to see. Her eyes widened and she rushed forward to put out the fire that nearly touched the ceiling.
Wu Lingtian took a step back awkwardly and watched Wen Yi expertly put it out.
The young woman breathed in deeply before turning to look at Wu Lingtian. “Wu-shishu, what are you doing?”
“…I wanted to try cooking.”
“You don’t need that much firewood to cook,” Wen Yi said.
“…I see.”
Wen Yi glanced at the wok helplessly and back to Wu Lingtian. “What were you trying to make?”
“Just…simple dishes. It seems like I really am helpless in the kitchen though,” Wu Lingtian said with a troubled frown.
Wen Yi stared at Wu Lingtian, as if she were looking at a foreign species.
Although Wu Lingtian had grown up on the streets, he spent a majority of his life as the privileged young master of Drifting Clouds Mountain Sect. Perhaps he had washed dishes here and there or did laundry as his chores. But cooking? As someone who had both private and sect-given, where in the world would this young master need to cook?
Not to mention, to begin with, Wu Lingtian had always had a reputation of being a monster in the kitchen.
“I…I can cook,” Wen Yi volunteered.
Wu Lingtian was embarrassed. He shook his head. “No, it’s fine. I’ll just ask the cooks to help me. You…you continue what you’re doing.”
Wen Yi nodded hesitantly. She began to pack up the dishes that had been set aside to cool. She glanced at Wu Lingtian, who was awkwardly standing by the kitchen doorway.
“Why did Wu-shishu suddenly want to cook?”
Wu Lingtian glanced at Wen Yi. “…Just wanted to try it.”
Wen Yi finished packing the tiered lunchbox. She hesitated slightly. “If Wu-shishu doesn’t mind, I can teach you. My cooking isn’t that great. I can only make a few simple dishes.”
Wu Lingtian’s expression remained impassive, but Wen Yi could read a twinkle in his eyes.
“Could you teach me after I come back? I’m heading out again tomorrow.”
Wen Yi nodded. “Just come find me whenever you’re free.”
This statement finally allowed Wu Lingtian to show a small smile.
As Wen Yi left the kitchen, her mind whirled. Her gossiping heart, which had been stunted for a long time, suddenly blossomed again. She had to tell someone. She had to tell Su Han!
Wu Lingtian didn’t know what he had set off yet.
After enjoying a meal with Fan Yi, the two men spent the night together and, the next day, left Screeching Sparrow Sect again.
This time, the Rui Sword refused to accompany Wu Lingtian. There was an air of gloominess around the sword. It wouldn’t even look at Wu Lingtian. Without another word, it flew from Wu Lingtian’s grip and headed for Tian Xiewen’s residence. Wu Lingtian looked down at his empty hand.
“You don’t have to feel guilty,” Fan Yi said. “It’s not like the Rui Sword didn’t know this would be the outcome from the beginning.”
Wu Lingtian hummed noncommittally. Still, while he never planned to become the Rui Sword’s master, he felt that he should at least make it up to him somehow in the future.
The journey from Screeching Sparrow Sect to their destination was short and uneventful. When they arrived at the beach, Wu Lingtian pulled the pearl from his lapel and tossed it into the ocean. Slowly, the water began to part, revealing a path that led them down to the secret hidden realm. Wu Lingtian followed closely behind Fan Yi as they walked.
A long time ago, the opening of hidden realms were extravagant ordeals. Sects from all over the continent would gather and organize competitions to pillage the realms. Throughout the years, interests in them became less and less, not because the contents inside were less and less, but because the realm had become more and more dangerous. Through the pillaging, the cultivators of previous generations would awaken more and more slumbering beasts, causing the hidden realms to be nearly impossible to navigate.
The only hidden realms that were explored now wielded no real treasure. It was more just a place for younger disciples to temper themselves.
The realm that Wu Lingtian had hidden Yu Lan in was a realm that had long been lost to the throes of time. No one kept track of it anymore. The only reason Wu Lingtian had known about it was because he had fallen into it once with Fan Yi. Since then, for some unexplainable reason, Wu Lingtian had always religiously kept track of when it would appear.
Perhaps it was because this was one of the last times Wu Lingtian had met Fan Yi. Like a mad man, holding onto his last thread of sanity, it was the only thing keeping Wu Lingtian together.
“A-Tian?”
Wu Lingtian looked up.
“Which path should we go down?” Fan Yi asked.
Upon entering the realm, the watery depths of the ocean had disappeared. What faced them now were grassy fields, blooming flowers, and luscious trees. Up until this point, they had only run into relatively harmless spiritual beasts. However, the deeper you ventured into the forest, the more dangerous things would become.
Wu Lingtian glanced down the forked path. “You choose.”
Fan Yi glanced back at him.
“I feel like I’m always unlucky with these kinds of things,” Wu Lingtian said.
“If you’re unlucky, then I’m even worse,” Fan Yi murmured. He bent down and picked up a pebble. After closing his eyes, Fan Yi randomly tossed it in the air. When he opened his eyes again, he found the pebble had landed near the left path. “We’ll go this way.”
“This also works?”
“It’s fate deciding. Fate shouldn’t have worse luck than us, right?”
But it was their fate, so who knows what it had in store?
Wu Lingtian’s not jealous, but Rui Sword is 😄. I’m so happy that Fan Yi has given himself up completely to his attachment to We Lingtian. That whole sleepy cuddle scene was sooo indulgent 😌.
“At that time, you should just kill me –because that person isn’t me anymore.”
SCREAMING. CRYING. ARGH!!!!!!!! speaking from personal experiences huh ;-; his shizun and Li Ran and aaaaaagggggggghhhhhhhh
i got a big achey feeling like “there’s gonna be some sort of betrayal huh…. or perhaps in a way it already happened.” if so, i know they’ll get through it cause…. well cause they better!!!!