In the light of the full moon, a young man was silently sneaking through the bamboo forest. Because the leaves of the bamboo covered the ground, it was difficult to walk without the sounds of crunching beneath his feet. However, it didn’t concern him. After all, it was well-past curfew. As a sect of people who prided themselves as the best teachers, they would abide by their own curfew—it would be impossible for anyone to roam out this far at night.
The young man was in a good mood tonight. A light tune graced his lips as he traveled down the unmarked path. His heart was full as he thought back to the man he had met just hours before and the way he had finally called his name again. For a moment, the young man paused. His eyes narrowed happily and he rubbed his fingers together.
Although the hand wasn’t as warm as it had been in his memory, he chalked it up only to his childhood delusions. This was as it should be. It was right that his hands were a little colder. It felt distinct. It felt familiar.
A blissful sigh left his lips.
It was okay that he wasn’t recognized right away. After all, it just showed how much he had grown! Besides, it was obvious that Fan Yi had had a lot on his mind beforehand. And, to be honest, he had been far too enthusiastic. It was discourteous of him to act so friendly towards Sect Leader Fan. He was no longer a child, so he should know propriety! He just hoped Fan Yi wasn’t disappointed in him.
As these thoughts ran through Wu Lingtian’s head, he heard a shuffled just ahead. The glee in his eyes vanished and was replaced by a cold sword light. Yu Lan flew through the air and stopped just before the person’s throat.
A light cough announced the newcomer’s presence.
“Xiao Ling, what are you doing?”
Wu Lingtian’s eyes widened. He quickly retrieved his sword. “Da-shix—” he lowered his voice “—Da-shixiong, why are you at Purple Bamboo Sect?”
Li Ran’s brows furrowed. He was dressed immaculately, as always, in Drifting Clouds Mountain Sect’s robes. His hair was tied up into a high ponytail and his handsome face, in the moonlight, may remind young women of the scholars they often read about in poetry. The look of disapproval on this handsome face, however, might send young woman cowering away.
“Shizun sent you here to study but you’re—what? Sneaking out at night?”
Wu Lingtian averted his gaze, his fingers messing with the hilt of his sword. “Situ Hong, that bastard.”
“Don’t blame your friend,” Li Ran said. “I was the one that asked him, okay? I came to visit you but you were gone for so many hours that he ended up caving. You’re going to blame him? Why don’t you ask yourself why you ask the heir of Purple Bamboo School to cover for you?”
“I—”
“Enough. You’re coming back with me tomorrow.”
Wu Lingtian’s eyes widened. “I can’t!”
The phrase was blurted out, unlike the calculated excuses Wu Lingtian usually gives. Li Ran’s brows furrowed. He looked Wu Lingtian up and down skeptically. “You can’t?”
When the young man awkwardly nodded, Li Ran crossed his arms.
“Why? Is that all? You usually have a plethora of excuses as to why you won’t or can’t do something,” Li Ran said. He knew his shidi all too well, after all.
Wu Lingtian shifted his feet. He suddenly showed a flash of nervousness. “I…I…I just can’t.”
Li Ran’s brows moved higher. Now he was stuttering?
“If you can give me a good reason as to why you can’t return to the sect, then I’ll let you stay for the remainder of the allotted school year,” Li Ran reasoned. “I haven’t told Shizun yet, so everything is up to me.”
Wu Lingtian sucked in cold air through his teeth. His feet stomped the ground a few times before he clicked his tongue and looked at Li Ran weakly. “Da-shixiong, I promise I won’t stay out this late again next time. I’ll study hard—”
“Is studying hard the issue here? I know you’re a good student.”
“I…I’ll follow the rules?” Wu Lingtian said.
“Rules? What rules?”
“…Purple Bamboo Sect’s rules,” Wu Lingtian said. He glanced at Li Ran before averting his gaze again. “I just…I can’t leave yet. Give me…give me another week! It doesn’t have to be the rest of the allotted time.”
In fact, it would be better if it wasn’t—that was what Li Ran gleamed from Wu Lingtian’s look.
“Xiao Ling, just why are you so desperate to stay here?” Li Ran asked. He leaned forward and narrowed his eyes. “Did you find someone you like?”
Wu Lingtian’s eyes widened. “What—what are you saying!? I told you, there’s only one person in my heart!”
Li Ran’s eyes narrowed further. “I see. So, that person is here—in this city?”
Wu Lingtian shook his head.
In the future, perhaps, the grownup Wu Lingtian would be able to lie better. Perhaps he wouldn’t be flustered if people called his bluff. However, right now, Wu Lingtian wasn’t any accomplished cultivator nor was he very experienced in the world—he was only a seventeen-year-old youth and Li Ran could see through his schemes perfectly.
“Alright, alright,” Li Ran straightened. “But you know Shizun doesn’t want you chasing love.”
“I know,” at the mention of their shizun, Wu Lingtian’s face clouded over.
“She’s not just trying to get in your way.”
“…I know.”
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.
“Do you really know or do you fake know?” Li Ran asked.
Wu Lingtian glared at his da-shixiong. “Why are you always on Shizun’s side? Is she related to you? Aren’t I closer to you anyway? You always say that I’m like your brother.”
“I’m on Shizun’s side for your own good. Besides, when have I ever taken her side when it counted?” Li Ran asked, ruffling Wu Lingtian’s hair.
“Tbe jirb xcbk rtf’r fzagj tbgglyif ab wf!” Qe Olcualjc qgbafrafv. Lf milmxfv tlr abcuef lc vlrrjalrojmalbc. “Pa’r pera yfmjerf rtf tjafr atja P’w yfaafg ja tfg atjc meialnjalbc.”
“Qe Olcualjc.”
Qe Olcualjc qegrfv tlr ilqr. Lf uijcmfv ja Ol Ejc. “P’w pera xlvvlcu.”
Ol Ejc gjlrfv j ygbk.
“I…you’re changing the subject!”
“I’m changing the subject?” Li Ran asked incredulously.
“Yeah! I just asked you why you always take her side.”
“She’s our Shizun.”
“She’s also Shijie’s Shizun, but Shijie is always on my side,” Wu Lingtian said.
“It’s probably because you two are so similar in age, so she understands you better,” Li Ran said, brushing aside Wu Lingtian’s complaint.
Seeing Li Ran turn and walk back to Purple Bamboo Sect, Wu Lingtian followed after.
“That’s not how it works! You’re not that much older than us anyway,” Wu Lingtian said. He glanced at Li Ran. “Or is it because you two share an unspeakable secret?”
Li Ran scoffed. “What are you talking about?”
“They say that if you share a secret, then that makes you closer than blood-relatives. Like if you two killed a person together and then buried the body,” Wu Lingtian said.
“Hm?”
“Not that I’m saying you two would hide a murder,” Wu Lingtian said.
“Hmph.”
“If it’s not that then…” Wu Lingtian glanced at Li Ran. He smirked. “Could it be…you like her?”
Li Ran’s right foot caught onto the back of his left heel. He stumbled forward and nearly crashed into a stick of bamboo. Wu Lingtian shouted in surprise and reached out to steady him, but was quickly brushed aside.
“Don’t speak such nonsense,” Li Ran said sternly.
Wu Lingtian stilled. His hands still hovered out, near Li Ran. He had never seen his da-shixiong look so irritated. Even when Wu Lingtian had gotten into a fight with the sons of prominent clans, he had not been this angry.
Wu Lingtian slowly pulled back his hands.
The two martial brothers stared at each other as the wind brushed through their hair, bringing along the scent of bamboo.
“You…I was just joking.”
“…I know,” Li Ran murmured. He stood and brushed himself off before walking again.
Wu Lingtian pursed his lips and silently followed him.
The two walked in silence for a long stretch of the path until Wu Lingtian spoke again: “…Is it true or lies?”
“…Lies.”
“Does she know?” Wu Lingtian asked.
“I said it was lies.”
“I didn’t specifically ask you what was truth or lies,” Wu Lingtian pointed out.
Li Ran glared at Wu Lingtian.
“There’s…nothing wrong with falling in love with your shizun,” Wu Lingtian slowly reasoned. “I mean—there isn’t a taboo around it. A lot of people—”
“I’m not ‘a lot of people’, Xiao Ling,” Li Ran said.
That was true. Li Ran, the successor of Drifting Clouds Mountain Sect, always followed the rules to a T. He was upright, heroic, and soft-hearted. He was the envy of many sect leaders, but he was also the idol of the younger generation. His accomplishments were slim, but his kind reputation preceded him. He wasn’t outstanding, but he was well-loved and very well admired. This was the kind of person Li Ran was.
He wasn’t the kind of person who would do something as unorthodox as fall in love with his own shizun.
Li Ran stopped walking. He sighed and rubbed at his face. “I won’t make you go back. Just don’t bring this up again, okay?”
“…Da-shixiong, this isn’t about whether you’re making me go back or not,” Wu Lingtian said. “This—”
“Don’t bring it up again.”
Wu Lingtian slowly closed his mouth. After a long time, he spoke: “You’re not even going to try?”
“Try what?”
“…Pursuing her. Telling her your feelings?”
“What would be the point of that?” Li Ran asked, a bitter laugh escaping him. He glanced at Wu Lingtian. “She already loves someone else. If I told you right now that I loved you, would you let go of the person you hold in your heart?”
Wu Lingtian’s mouth opened and closed mutely. In the end, he could only shake his head.
“Exactly. So, just forget about it.”
“Do you know who it is?”
“…I do.”
“Are they any better than you? Is it just because of age?” Wu Lingtian asked, his brows furrowing. “You’re plenty mature, you—”
“He’s dead. I can’t compare to a dead person.”
“…Oh.”
“He’s also way older than her,” Li Ran said. “No matter what I do, I…I wouldn’t…forget about it.”
“…If you want to talk about it, then you can talk about it. You know how tight-lipped I am,” Wu Lingtian said. “I promise I won’t tell anyone.”
Li Ran glanced at Wu Lingtian. He watched silently as Wu Lingtian reached into his Qiankun pouch and pulled out a bottle of wine.
“Or you can have some of this and then you can forget everything you’re about to tell me,” Wu Lingtian said.
Li Ran scoffed. “Drinking? Our sect doesn’t permit drinking.”
“We’re not at Drifting Clouds Mountain Sect,” Wu Lingtian said. He sat down on the ground and held the wine bottle out to Li Ran. “Just a few sips. You’ll feel better even if you don’t tell me.”
Li Ran hesitated before grabbing the bottle of wine. He sat down beside Wu Lingtian, pulled aside the read cloth and drank half of it in one go.
Wu Lingtian watched him silently.
“I’m bad at lying,” Li Ran muttered.
“That’s fine. It’s not a good life skill to have. The fact that you can’t lie means you never felt the need to,” Wu Lingtian said.
Li Ran chuckled. “I guess.”
Silence settled between the two. Li Ran shuffled with the dried bamboo leaves at his side while he sorted out his thoughts. Wu Lingtian, beside him, also had a lot to think about it.
“It’s the late sect master.”
Wu Lingtian froze.
“The one she likes is the late sect master,” Li Ran said. “I…found out when he died. She was in his room. She was crying a lot. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to comfort her, but she was inconsolable…she kept talking about how she wished she could have prevented it or found a way to stop it. That was the first time I saw her so emotional. I’ve never seen her like that since.”
“The…Uncle Wang?”
Li Ran glanced at Wu Lingtian. He looked away with a hum.
“…So, she should be okay with you liking her.”
“This isn’t about that,” Li Ran said. “She loved him so much. There’s no way…I could ever compare.”
“Well, you don’t know until you try right?”
“Would you ever tell the person you like that you liked them?” Li Ran asked. “You said that they were an unreachable person.”
“I would tell him,” Wu Lingtian said.
Li Ran frowned.
“I’m not just saying that! He’s an unreachable person now, but I’m going to work until I can be in reachable distance,” Wu Lingtian said. “I’ll let the entire world know my name. I’ll have a decent reputation, so he knows I’m a good person, but not so much that he thinks I’m the unreachable one.”
He looked at Li Ran with a gleam in his eyes. “I have an entire plan. Then, after I’ve established myself, I’ll get close to him. It’ll be like those romance stories, where the love interest always appears at the most opportune time. I’ll let him know he can trust me first, then we’ll become friends. And when the time is right, I’ll confess to him.”
Li Ran chuckled. It was as if he was listening to a child, telling him how they’ll confess to their puppy love. “What if he rejects?”
“It’s fine if he rejects. I just want to make sure I have a chance before I tell him,” Wu Lingtian said. “If he rejects me, then we can still be friends. The distance may have grown again, but it’ll be much closer than it is now. At the very least, if he ever needs help, he’ll know he can rely on me.”
“…You’re very passionate.”
“He’s the first person I felt safe with,” Wu Lingtian said, his expression softening. “Honestly, even if he rejects me, I’m grateful his existence allowed me to experience these feelings. I thought…”
Wu Lingtian glanced at Li Ran with a small smile. “I never thought I’d be able to experience something called ‘love’.”
Li Ran’s brows furrowed. “Why’s that?”
“…You know where I’m from. I didn’t even know I would live this long. Love isn’t an emotion that exists over there. The strongest emotion you can have is hate,” Wu Lingtian said. “It never occurred to me that the person who would be on my mind all the time wouldn’t be someone I’m trying to kill, but would be someone I’m want to protect. It’s…nice. I’m glad he was so nice to me—he even gave me a chance to love him.”
Li Ran felt his s nose sour slightly. Whether it was the alcohol, or true emotions, he still reached out and pulled Wu Lingtian into a half-hug. “If you’re this sincere to him, he’ll probably accept.”
“I don’t know about that,” Wu Lingtian laughed. “He’s quite emotionless. I could tell just by the way he treated me. But…he really did care when he saw me cry. Maybe I’ll cry more in front of him.”
“Cry more?”
“Haven’t you heard? Men are most afraid of crying women.”
“…Are you a woman?”
“But if I act like a weak woman, wouldn’t it be the same?” Wu Lingtian asked.
“You’re not that pretty,” Li Ran said.
Wu Lingtian glared at Li Ran. “A lot of people say I’m beautiful.”
“Not to that extent,” Li Ran looked away, a slight look of disgust on his face.
Wu Lingtian scoffed. “You just don’t have taste.”
Li Ran glanced at Wu Lingtian. There was a slight pause between them before Wu Lingtian cleared his throat.
“Shizun is a renowned beauty. What can I say about her?” Wu Lingtian pointed out. He glanced at Li Ran. “You really…aren’t gonna?”
“She already knows, I’m sure,” Li Ran said. “The fact that she hasn’t said anything…well, you know how she is.”
Wu Lingtian nodded. After taking another look at Li Ran, it was obvious that he wouldn’t be confessing to Rong Meihua. The secret may even follow him to the grave.
Li Ran clapped Wu Lingtian’s back. “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. Worry about yourself.”
“What do I have to be worried about?” Wu Lingtian asked brazenly.
Li Ran raised a brow. “You snuck out after cu—”
“You said you wouldn’t take me back,” Wu Lingtian said.
Li Ran scoffed. He stood, brushed the dead leaves from his robes, and held up the wine bottle. “And you’re drinking while you’re away from the sect.”
Wu Lingtian’s eyes widened. He shot up. “Da-shixiong, you just drank too! If you tell Shizun, I’ll tell her you also drank.”
“Alright, alright. I was just teasing you,” Li Ran said, a fond smile on his face.
“This isn’t something to joke about,” Wu Lingtian said with a light huff. He glanced at Li Ran, who was beginning to head up to Purple Bamboo School again. “So, are you staying for a while? Or will you be heading back?”
Li Ran glanced at Wu Lingtian. “Do you want me to leave that badly?”
“What? No, no,” Wu Lingtian shook his head. He gave Li Ran a sheepish smile. “I was only curious.”
Li Ran held his gaze for a while before sighing. “I won’t get in the way of you meeting up with your beloved, so don’t worry about that. I don’t have such a twisted hobby.”
Wu Lingtian grinned. “This is why I always say Da-shixiong is the best.”
Li Ran gave Wu Lingtian a helpless glance and sighed. Surely, there would be other reasons, right?
Aww no wonder he and Xiu Lan are so devastated. Li Ran was one of those sweet boys back in their youth.
😭😭😭 one of the sweetest boys (thanks for reading!)