Wenren Sheng slept for three days straight.
When he first woke up, he subconsciously reached toward the bed, trying to find He Mu’s position so he could hold him and laze in bed a little longer.
But the edge of the bed was empty, nothing there.
Only then did Wenren Sheng remember that he had already proposed sleeping separately from He Mu, so of course there was nothing to hold onto in the morning.
He felt a little disappointed and draped his leg over the quilt bundled in his arms.
“Hate you,” he said sullenly. “You said separate and just separated.”
“Hate you.”
Wenren Sheng angrily bit the quilt.
“Annoying, hate you!”
“Hate him?” Yi Jinxiang’s voice suddenly popped up. “If you never see him again in the future, would you be willing?”
Wenren Sheng jolted in fright from her and bounced up from the bed.
Looking up, he saw Yi Jinxiang had coiled on the beam in his room at some point. A pipe was held between her fingers. She took the pipe from her lips and lightly exhaled a puff of smoke.
Wenren Sheng quickly pinched his nose and frowned. “Master, don’t smoke in my room. It reeks!”
Yi Jinxiang let out a displeased “oh” and turned the pipe in her hand back into a jade fan.
“You fought with Cangyu?”
Wenren Sheng crossed his legs, resting his hands on his ankles.
“No,” he said. “I just wasn’t feeling well. He was the one who brought me back.”
Yi Jinxiang raised a brow and leaned her body forward toward Wenren Sheng. “Where aren’t you feeling well?”
Wenren Sheng certainly couldn’t admit it was his first Heat Period and that He Mu had helped relieve him. He scratched his cheek guiltily. “Just a bit of a fever. Probably caught a chill the past few days.”
Yi Jinxiang didn’t press further. She lay back on the beam and slowly fanned herself. “Cangyu told me. He’s going into secluded cultivation for a while. I’ll train you in martial arts these next few days.”
“Secluded cultivation?” Wenren Sheng’s eyes widened. He sat up anxiously. “Why? He didn’t even tell me. I…”
He hadn’t given his gift to the Mountain God yet!
“What’s the rush? It’ll just be a little half-year,” Yi Jinxiang said as if it were nothing unusual. “After you ascend, you’ll have to do it too. Whenever your Dao Heart wavers, you need to go into seclusion for a time. Otherwise, you’ll easily fall into Qi Deviation.”
Wenren Sheng wilted and flopped back onto the bed, burying his face in the quilt.
“But why didn’t he tell me? Why not wait until I woke up before going into seclusion?” he mumbled. “He wasn’t like this before.”
Yi Jinxiang didn’t deny it and instead nodded. “It is strange. I’ve known Cangyu for a few hundred years, and I’ve never seen his Dao Heart waver.”
“—But no need to worry too much. He should be back before the New Year. By then, for your sixteenth Suspension Arc Ceremony, he’ll still need to braid your hair.”
Wenren Sheng lifted his head from the quilt and murmured, “My sixteenth birthday…”
Summer had already begun. In just a little half-year, he would turn sixteen.
According to Rabbit Clan custom, on the sixteenth birthday, the elders in the family would braid four Longevity Braids for him. Wenren Sheng now had three elders, so the clan leader and his master would each do one.
The Mountain God would braid two, because he was his first family member.
Thinking this way, Wenren Sheng quickly cast aside his morning gloom. He swung his legs and counted on his fingers.
“Then after sixteen, I can cultivate to the Golden Core Realm. And after that, it’ll be time to decide my Dao Heart, right?”
“How do you think your Dao Heart is?” Yi Jinxiang said. “Once you set it, you can’t change it. Otherwise, if your Dao Heart wavers later, you’ll lose your divine status, be demoted to the mortal world, and start over from scratch.”
Wenren Sheng was shocked. “That serious?”
That explained why the Mountain God had suddenly rushed into secluded cultivation.
If his Dao Heart was unsteady and left alone, it would either lead to Qi Deviation or demotion to the mortal world. Wouldn’t the efforts of the past century be wasted? It really couldn’t be ignored.
With this thought, Wenren Sheng’s mood improved greatly.
“Then I need to ascend early too,” he said happily, rolling around on the bed and muttering to himself. “That way, we can go into seclusion together later.”
What was it called… Dual Cultivation?
Right, he would Dual Cultivate with the Mountain God.
Yi Jinxiang watched him roll around like a little animal tumbling in a mud pit and couldn’t help laughing. “You like Cangyu that much?”
“Ah!”
Wenren Sheng immediately schooled his expression and stammered,
“W-What like? I just think it’s more convenient to seclude together!”
Yi Jinxiang covered her face with the fan’s edge and lightly tossed out, “You want to Dual Cultivate with him… That’s not impossible, but your Spiritual Flows are too different in style. What if you can’t handle him?”
At those words, Wenren Sheng reacted like his tail had been suddenly stepped on. A jolt of electricity shot up his spine, and his cheeks instantly burned scarlet.
“Master, what are you talking about!”
“Dual Cultivation. Otherwise, what would you do in seclusion together, sit face-to-face meditating?”
Wenren Sheng was mortified. He grabbed a pillow and threw it at Yi Jinxiang. “He Mu and I aren’t that kind of relationship at all. Master, don’t talk nonsense!”
“Then I must have misunderstood.”
Yi Jinxiang flicked her tail to catch the pillow and tossed it back to him.
Seeing she wasn’t continuing to tease him about his relationship with He Mu, Wenren Sheng caught the pillow and lay back down on the bed, resting a hand on his stomach.
What couldn’t handle? The Mountain God had always been gentle with him. Like this time when he helped relieve his heat, he hadn’t even used much strength.
The Mountain God just got jealous occasionally. As long as he gave him more kisses and hugs, he wouldn’t be mad anymore.
Once he told the Mountain God about his demon identity and their relationship got a bit more intimate, he… he wouldn’t mind letting the Mountain God touch his tail and ears.
As Wenren Sheng thought about it, his face grew a little red.
“Master, let me ask you something.”
Yi Jinxiang didn’t notice his expression and “mm”ed. “Go ahead.”
Wenren Sheng blinked and stared at the ceiling. “If there’s someone you like a little, and he likes you a little too—”
“But you’ve been hiding something from him the whole time. Would you still confess your feelings?”
When he first met the Mountain God, Wenren Sheng had been too young to understand the weight of lies. He hadn’t realized his identity could be patched up and covered for so many years.
Now, it had reached the point where he had to come clean.
Wenren Sheng could hide his identity forever just to avoid separation, but after falling for the Mountain God, his heart could no longer contain such a lie.
And…
Wenren Sheng rolled over and let out a light sigh.
He had grown up. From now on, during his annual Heat Periods, he might shift back to his true form in front of the Mountain God at any time.
Better to confess honestly now than suddenly sprout a tail and scare him half to death.
“If it were me, I’d say it, of course.”
Yi Jinxiang slowly descended from the beam, shifting back to human form, and sat beside Wenren Sheng.
“Besides, keeping it bottled up inside only makes me suffer. Say it out loud, and we both suffer together. Isn’t that much better?”
Wenren Sheng propped his chin and thought for a moment. “Can’t we both be happy?”
Yi Jinxiang laughed. “You’re quite greedy.”
Wenren Sheng’s head started smoking just thinking about such profound emotional matters. He rolled left and right in the quilt, messed up his hair, and finally shouted, “Forget it, forget it.” He looked up at Yi Jinxiang.
“Master, are you free today?”
Yi Jinxiang raised a brow. “What’s up?”
Wenren Sheng grinned at her. “I want to go to the market with you and the clan leader to pick out a gift for the Mountain God.”
After the start of summer, plenty of small boats appeared on Xiang City Lake, rowing between the lotus leaves to pluck lotus pods. In the blink of an eye, a boat would be full.
Wenren Sheng had planned to head straight to the jade shop for a gift, but the clan leader had kept muttering about wanting lotus seeds before they left. He had no choice but to set that aside and go down to the lake first to pluck some for him.
The sun blazed overhead, the humid heat oppressive.
Wenren Sheng wasn’t afraid of the sun. He rolled up his pant legs, exposing a section of lotus-root-white calf, and waded into the water without a word.
Though he had trained in swordsmanship with He Mu for over half a year, he was still skinny-armed and skinny-legged, without much muscle. He still looked like a green boy.
In the first few months, He Mu had loved pinching his arms, warning that someone so skinny definitely wouldn’t be able to wield a sword in the future. He’d even piled extra vegetables into his bowl, saying they were “what great heroes love to eat.”
So childish. He was almost sixteen, and the Mountain God was still playing such tricks.
But every time Wenren Sheng thought that, he would subconsciously worry, “If I don’t eat these, maybe I really won’t become a great hero.” In the end, he always got tricked into eating it all obediently.
Seeing the water wasn’t deep, Wenren Sheng waded toward the center of the lake, pushed through to a patch of lotus leaves no one had touched, and reached down to grope around.
“Be careful not to fall in!” Wenren Jing shouted anxiously from the shore, hopping around. “One pod is enough. Too many will upset your stomach!”
Yi Jinxiang stood beside him, holding a paper umbrella.
She glanced at Wenren Jing and saw the little old man drenched in sweat. Not even an hour out, and his thin white shirt was soaked through.
She tsked inwardly and reluctantly tilted the umbrella toward Wenren Jing, as if afraid he’d drop dead from sunstroke right there.
Wenren Sheng groped around for a while before finally snapping off a lotus pod stalk with force, complete with the pods on top. He held it high for Wenren Jing to see.
“Clan leader—”
Wenren Jing quickly replied, “Good, that’s enough!”
“Why do you suddenly want lotus seeds out of nowhere?” Yi Jinxiang asked under the umbrella, frowning. “I didn’t see you eat them the past few years.”
Wenren Jing glanced at her. “Can’t I want to eat them this year?”
“Then pick a time that’s not so hot,” Yi Jinxiang said offhandedly. “What if you croak tomorrow and miss out?”
At those words, Wenren Jing surprisingly didn’t snap back.
His eyes dimmed, and he muttered under his breath, “Isn’t it about time to enter the coffin?” It was so quiet Yi Jinxiang didn’t hear.
Wenren Sheng soon waded back to shore hugging the lotus pods. He wiped sweat from his brow with his arm and presented them to Wenren Jing.
“Alright, now can you come with me to pick out some jewelry?”
Wenren Jing’s eyes lit up again. “Oh,” he said, nodding in satisfaction. “Sure, sure. What kind of jewelry do you want to look at?”
Yi Jinxiang finally curved her lips and smiled. “A gift for his sweetheart.”
“Yeah, yeah, it’s for— What? No it’s not!” Wenren Sheng agreed halfway before flying into a rage. “Master, you’re talking nonsense again!”
It was true, but he just couldn’t admit it.
His feelings could only be known first to the Mountain God. He couldn’t just blab them everywhere.
He pettily shoved the lotus pods into Wenren Jing’s hands, grumbling inwardly that “Master doesn’t understand anything,” and ran off toward the depths of the market without another word.
He hadn’t run two steps before he stopped in front of the jade shop he had eyed for a long time.
Xiang City wasn’t prosperous, and after the fall of Return to One Sword Sect, it had no ties to the Immortal Sects. The market had only this one jewelry shop.
The storefront was fairly grand. Two Everbright Lamps hung under the upturned eaves and flying corners. The blackwood signboard bore the three large characters “Langyu Pavilion.”
Wenren Sheng rarely came to such an upscale place. He straightened his clothes and crossed the threshold nervously.
He had been saving money for a long time to prepare a gift.
But after browsing inside, Wenren Sheng realized he had still underestimated the price of jade in Xiang City.
He sat on a small stone by the jewelry shop door, counting on his fingers over and over. Even the cheapest piece of fine jade would take him a decade to afford.
“It’s over,” he said, propping up his face dejectedly. “I’m so poor.”
Yi Jinxiang strolled up unhurriedly then and looked down at him. “No money on you?”
Wenren Sheng held out his wrist to her, full of woe. “This bracelet the Mountain God gave me—one bead alone is worth more than all the fine jade here. I want to give him something precious too.”
“You’re still a kid. What money could you have?” Wenren Jing sat beside him, surprised. “You really have to give a gift?”
Wenren Sheng pouted and nodded.
Yi Jinxiang, watching from the side, let out a light “hmph” of “little pauper” and tossed him a heavy money pouch. “Here, take it.”
“Master!” He was so excited he could barely speak. “Then, then I’ll work by Master’s side to pay it back…”
“I’m not asking you to pay it back,” Yi Jinxiang waved her hand, interrupting. “In a few months, you’ll be of age. It’s what you deserve.”
Wenren Sheng opened his mouth to speak, but suddenly another money pouch was stuffed into his arms.
This time, it was Wenren Jing.
He mysteriously leaned close to Wenren Sheng’s ear and whispered, “Buy the most expensive one. Scare him to death.”
“Clan Leader…” Wenren Sheng was at a loss. “Where did you get so much money? Don’t tell me you gave me all your family savings.”
Wenren Jing patted his head and laughed. “How could that be? I have plenty of money. This is nothing.”
Upon hearing this, Wenren Sheng was so moved that tears streamed down his face.
He clutched the two heavy money pouches, looking at his master and the clan leader with teary eyes, unable to speak, while wondering why everyone on Fragrant Ze Mountain was so rich, yet he was the only poor one.
Finally, he wiped his eyes, rushed into the jewelry store, bought the most expensive jade on the entire street, had it made into a thumb ring, and carefully carried it back home.
“The size should be just right.”
Wenren Sheng held a green thumb ring in his hand and carefully turned it once in the candlelight, his eyes shining brightly.
“I’ve measured the Mountain God’s hand several times. It won’t be wrong.”
He nodded, then carefully placed the thumb ring into the wooden box, straightened the box, and hid it in the corner of the table.
When the Mountain God returned, he would give him this gift.
The lamplight was soft and flickering, casting a warm glow on Wenren Sheng’s face.
Then, he would tell him his feelings.
–
