Wu Lingtian’s eyes slowly opened. He could hear voices coming from the other side of the screen but before he could make heads or tail of the conversation, it abruptly stopped. Footsteps made their way over and stopped at Wu Lingtian’s bedside. He turned his head and looked at the people surrounding him with obvious worry.
“What are you all doing here?” In the silence, Wu Lingtian slowly pushed himself up, his eyes drifting between the unexpected guests. When no answer came, Wu Lingtian came to his own conclusion. “You found out the case of the puppets was related to me.”
Situ Hong and Xiao Xunrui nodded hesitantly.
“For now, we decided to keep it under wraps,” Situ Hong said. “There’s enough evidence pointing just towards Rong Meihua anyway, but she’s…well she’s supposed to be dead, so…”
“I understand,” Wu Lingtian said.
“Are you…feeling better?” Xiao Xunrui asked.
Wu Lingtian remained silent. He looked between Situ Hong and Xiao Xunrui. “I appreciate that you both came to see me, but I need some time alone.”
“That’s fine,” Xiao Xunrui nodded. He stood and pulled Situ Hong with him. “We’ll be staying for a while anyway. Don’t feel obligated to entertain us though.”
Situ Hong nodded. “Just take care of yourself first.”
Wu Lingtian mumbled his thanks. He offered the departing Xiao Guo a small smile before he was left alone again.
In fact, he didn’t want to be alone right now, but he also didn’t want others to see him in this state. He was fatigued. His head hurt and his heart constantly felt like something was poking at it. His eyes ached, as if he carried the tears of the many people he had killed. His mind was fuzzy as he tried to discern between the past and the present. At times, he felt that he was still under Rong Meihua’s control but others he would realize he was safe. But how safe was he?
He pressed his hand to his chest. The serpent’s heart was embedded deep into his soul now. If he wanted to get rid of it, he would have to cut off a part of his soul. There was a way to use a lotus seed to help patch it, but that would require someone else to use their soul energy to help him. He didn’t know if there was anyone willing to do that.
Or he could just kill Rong Meihua. But until he was able to accomplish this task, he would have another weakness at his side.
Wu Lingtian leaned against the headboard and stared out into the room around him. He felt itchy. He wanted to stand and walk around, but when he tried to move it was almost like his limbs were disconnected from his mind. He had no energy to do anything.
About an hour or two later, the door creaked open. Wu Lingtian closed his eyes and prepared himself to turn his guest away, but when he saw who it was, his words froze in the back of his throat.
“Have you been crying?” Fan Yi asked, his brows furrowing. He set down the medicine and the food he brought and sat down beside Wu Lingtian. His gaze carefully examined his redden eyes. With a small shrug and a soft smile, he said: “Well, crying wouldn’t be the worst thing. If you want to let it out, you can let it out.”
Wu Lingtian didn’t answer. However, because of his silence, he looked even more pitiful. Fan Yi felt his heart squeeze. He reached out to pull Wu Lingtian into a hug, but was stopped by a hand to his chest. He glanced down and then looked back at Wu Lingtian.
The man didn’t explain himself.
“It’s okay,” Fan Yi coaxed. “I want to hug you. Won’t you let me?”
Wu Lingtian slowly lowered his hand. He let Fan Yi pull him to his chest and remained silent as he indulged in the soft caresses. After a long time, Wu Lingtian spoke.
“I can’t cry,” Wu Lingtian said.
“That…must be because Rong Meihua had suppressed your emotions for so long,” Fan Yi said. “But perhaps you should still try. If you scream and shout out your emotions, maybe you’ll feel better faster.”
Wu Lingtian mentally cringed at the idea. He shook his head. “I don’t know if I can.”
Fan Yi laughed. He pulled back and gently wiped Wu Lingtian’s face. “If you can’t, then I can just stay until you feel better. How does that sound?”
Wu Lingtian nodded. He leaned into Fan Yi’s touch and closed his eyes. “I feel uncomfortable.”
“You’re sick. You have a bit of a fever again,” Fan Yi said. “You’ll be fine in a day or two. It should just be a stress fever. Those rarely last long.”
“Mn.”
Fan Yi watched Wu Lingtian silently. A small smile flickered onto his face. He leaned closer and pressed a kiss to Wu Lingtian’s forehead. When the other man’s eyes flew open and stared at him, Fan Yi laughed. He had been trying to hold back, but it was getting harder now. He kicked his shoes off and crawled into bed with Wu Lingtian.
“It’s a little cramped, is that okay?” Fan Yi asked as he lifted the covers.
Wu Lingtian watched him in a daze. “It’s fine.”
Fan Yi let out a content hum and settled down beside Wu Lingtian. He leaned against the back of the bed and glanced at the other man. “What’s wrong?”
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.
“…You don’t hate me?”
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“But—”
“Can I reframe it for you?”
Wu Lingtian pursed his lips. He hesitantly nodded.
“When I was younger, I had a neighbor,” Fan Yi said. “He wasn’t a good person. He spent every day drunk. No one in the neighborhood liked him—they all knew he was a horrible person. This horrible person didn’t have anyone by his side, but he had a dog. This dog lived outside his house, in the courtyard, to ward off strangers. Every day, whenever someone walked by, it would bark. It was a pitiful one and everyone could hear the anger within this dog’s voice.
“Still, many of the neighbors sympathized with it because there were some nights when the man would return super drunk. In the past, he might take his anger out on his wife, but now that she was gone, all he had was this dog. So, he beat the dog,” Fan Yi said.
Wu Lingtian frowned.
“It was a very methodical beating though,” Fan Yi explained. “He would draw a circle around the dog and every time the dog moved out of the circle, he would hit it. Again and again—this process repeated for years. One day, when I was walking by, I noticed that the man wasn’t home. The dog, however, was sick. I wanted to take it back to my father to see if he could help it, so I snuck in and untied the dog. Do you know what happened?”
“The man came back?”
Fan Yi shook his head. “The dog wouldn’t move.”
Wu Lingtian pinched at the blankets beside him. “Was it too sick?”
“It wasn’t sick to that point. When it was tied up, it could still walk around within the circle, but when I untied it and tried to get it to come with me, it remained rooted in place. I released its leash, but it still remained within the circle,” Fan Yi said. “Do you know why?”
“…Because it’s scared of being hit,” Wu Lingtian guessed.
“Correct. After so many years, the dog didn’t think that it was the leash or its owner keeping it from escaping. It just naturally thought that if it stepped out of the circle, it would be hurt,” Fan Yi said.
Wu Lingtian lowered his gaze. After a moment, he spoke again: “Are you saying I’m like this dog?”
“Animals and humans have a natural desire of freedom, but it’s so easy to take it away—that’s how they’re similar,” Fan Yi said. “If you didn’t kill people, if you didn’t hurt yourself, then she would hurt you and those that you care about—that’s what you thought, right?”
“…Mn.”
“And you weren’t wrong. She had those capabilities,” Fan Yi said. He fell silent for a moment and sorted out his thoughts. “What’s important now is not to blame yourself for what happened or even mourn those that are dead. You just need to accept it and learn to move on.”
Wu Lingtian dug his nails into his palms. “Okay.”
“It’s much easier said than done,” Fan Yi reached over to Wu Lingtian’s hands. He gently pulled them apart from each other and turned one over. The harsh red nail markings stood out against Wu Lingtian’s pale skin. “Some days will feel worse than others. It’s a slow process. You just need to take your time.”
Wu Lingtian’s fingers trembled as Fan Yi gently held on to him. He met the other man’s gaze. Fan Yi was waiting for a response, but Wu Lingtian wasn’t sure what to say. He wanted to nod and say he understood, but if he did that would mean that he was agreeing to try. He wasn’t even sure if he had that energy.
Right now, he felt like he had stepped into a pool of goo. It clung to his clothes and made it hard for him to even lift his feet. He wanted to leave, but it was raising until it was up to his neck. It was hard to breathe and it was disgusting. It was disgusting that he still had the audacity to wallow in his own self-pity. But he couldn’t stop.
“What’s wrong?”
Wu Lingtian shook his head.
“If something’s wrong you have to tell me,” Fan Yi said. “I can’t read your mind, unfortunately.”
Wu Lingtian forced a smile, but it quickly fell again. He averted his gaze and fell silent.
“What do you want to do about Rong Meihua?” Fan Yi asked quietly.
Fan Yi felt Wu Lingtian trembling the moment the name was mentioned. He gripped Wu Lingtian’s hand tighter.
“Do you want me to handle it?” Fan Yi asked.
Wu Lingtian lowered his head even further.
“You just have to nod or shake your head,” Fan Yi said softly. “Of course, if you can’t decide now, you can always decide later.”
“I…want to handle it,” Wu Lingtian murmured. “But I need a bit of time.
“Alright,” Fan Yi said. “I understand. But if you need me to help, I’d be mor than willing to.”
Wu Lingtian glanced at Fan Yi. “And how would you do that?”
Fan Yi let out a long hum. He smiled as he gently fixed Wu Lingtian’s hair, his gaze roaming over his lover’s face. “I’ll just kill her. Who knows if Drifting Clouds Mountain Sect is still a real sect, or if it’s full of puppets? Or should I capture her and lock her in a dungeon? Just like she did to you.”
Wu Lingtian gaze seemed to concentrate on Fan Yi intensely. “I wouldn’t want to torture her.”
“But I would.”
The simple sentence brought a twisted joy to Wu Lingtian. He quietly shook his head though. “I don’t even know how we’ll defeat her, much less lock her in a prison.”
“Do you know any details?” Fan Yi asked.
Wu Lingtian hummed. “The technique she used to make the puppets is similar to her cultivation technique. She modified her soul. In order to strengthen her cultivation, she uses parts of souls from other people. That’s why she’s mentally unstable.”
“Mentally unstable?”
“Did you notice?” Wu Lingtian asked. “Whenever that Li Ran spoke to me, he seemed ready to attack me, yet he was holding back? It’s because, at some point, the souls had trouble merging. Before she took care of me, she was fine. I’m not sure why she’s acting up again, but if it’s because her powers are weakening, then we have a chance.”
“If that’s true, we should try to move fast.”
Wu Lingtian glanced at Fan Yi. “Are you really planning on torturing her?”
“Do you want me to?”
Wu Lingtian looked at Fan Yi silently.
“Then, I won’t,” Fan Yi smiled. “I do want to though.”
Since Fan Yi had sat down and combed through Wu Lingtian’s memories, he felt an insatiable anger. It was something he hadn’t felt since his family had died.
Seeing Wu Lingtian’s expression, Fan Yi sighed. He wrapped his arms around Wu Lingtian and pulled him to his chest. A light kiss was pressed against his ear and Fan Yi stayed in that way for a moment.
“You can relax now,” Fan Yi murmured against Wu Lingtian. “I’ll take care of everything else for now, so just relax.”
Wu Lingtian huddled in Fan Yi’s embrace. The knot in his chest had somewhat loosened. He lifted his free hand and clung onto Fan Yi.
“Can you not leave my side?” Wu Lingtian asked, his voice soft.
“Mn.”
“And can you put more candles in the room?”
“I have a Nightly Pearl. I can move it in here for you,” Fan Yi said.
“And can you move the screen away?”
“Of course.”
“And the bed curtains.”
“Okay.”
“I don’t mind if my clothes are sitting outside, so can you remove the closet as well?”
“That’s easy to do,” Fan Yi agreed.
“Can you replace the red decorations with another color?”
“Mn. I was just thinking red was a little gaudy. What color do you want?”
“Blue is fine.”
“I’ll do blue then,” Fan Yi said. He smoothed down the side of Wu Lingtian’s hair. “Are you tired? If you’re tired, then sleep. I’ll be here.”
“I don’t want to sleep,” Wu Lingtian mumbled.
“Then don’t.”
“Are you busy?” Wu Lingtian asked.
“I’m not busy. Xiewen and Yizhou are doing everything,” Fan Yi said.
“Alright,” Wu Lingtian mumbled. He hesitated before wrapping his arms around Fan Yi’s waist. “If you need to go somewhere, can you tell me?”
“So clingy,” Fan Yi said with a particular sweetness to his voice.
“Mn.”
“You know, I watched your memories,” Fan Yi said.
“Mn.”
“I showed up in there a lot,” Fan Yi noted.
Along with Wu Lingtian’s memories were also his thoughts. Once you entered the space, you would be able to experience all the emotions he had in that particular moment. Of course, before allowing others to read his memories, Fan Yi had extracted only the important pieces and packaged them for others to understand Wu Lingtian. The raw memories had been witnessed only by him.
Wu Lingtian stiffened slightly. His face began to warm. “Is that strange?”
“No. I thought it was cute,” Fan Yi said. “Especially when you were at Purple Bamboo School. You already had an entire plan, didn’t you?”
Wu Lingtian buried his head against Fan Yi’s shoulder. “Don’t talk about it.”
“Should I not have watched it?” Fan Yi asked as he ran his fingers through Wu Lingtian’s hair.
“I don’t mind,” Wu Lingtian said. “It’s just embarrassing.”
“Is it?” Fan Yi chuckled. “But now I know how much you care about me. I can match you now.”
“Staying with me is enough,” Wu Lingtian mumbled.
“It isn’t though,” Fan Yi said. He kissed the side of Wu Lingtian’s head. “Are you feeling a little better? Should we go for a walk?”
“I don’t really want to go anywhere right now.”
“Alright. We can rest the rest of the day, but tomorrow you have to at least stand outside the door, okay?”
Wu Lingtian nodded.
“The sun is a magical thing. It makes you live in the moment,” Fan Yi said. “But sleep and rest is also important. We’ve been traveling too often recently anyway.”
Wu Lingtian smiled weakly. “I’m sleepy.”
“Sleep. I’ll stay here. I might have to get up to do something, but I’ll make sure to wake you if I do.”
Wu Lingtian nodded.
Fan Yi helped him get under the blankets before laying down as well. Instead of resting on the pillow, Wu Lingtian shifted to lay his head on Fan Yi’s chest. After only a few minutes, Wu Lingtian fell asleep, his breathing soft and even. Fan Yi watched him silently, his fingers carding through his hair.
This chapter feels so soft and fluffy with all the love, trust, and care between the two of them. It’s just so nice, especially after the last few chapters.
Thanks for the chapter!
thanks for reading!!
He must be so exhausted! But I’m happy that he’s comfortable enough to act cute, with his requests and clinging. Now Fan Yi understands how long Wu Lingtian has loved him and why they had to coax him to wake up when Fan Yi first brought him home. I’m looking forward to Fan Yi killing Rong Meihua. Hopefully everyone can get a turn, if they can turn her into a puppet.
damn cruel, but deserved 😂 thanks for reading!
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