Lian Li: “I really have to thank you…”
Yun Huizhou: “You’re welcome.”
Yun Huizhou stood up and followed behind him, preparing to go to the kitchen together.
Just as they put the bowls away and returned to the room, they saw the West Island Lord already sitting there waiting for them.
Seeing the two enter, he extended his hand.
Lian Li was stunned, not understanding what he meant, but Yun Huizhou understood clearly. He walked over and offered his hand.
The West Island Lord grabbed his wrist to check his condition. After a moment, he released his grip and nodded. “It seems they have all been drawn out; only the internal injuries remain. Pay attention to yourself when you circulate your energy these next few days.”
After finishing his instructions for Yun Huizhou, he reached out toward Lian Li.
With Yun Huizhou as a demonstration, Lian Li also knew what the West Island Lord meant and hurriedly walked over to extend his hand.
He felt Lian Li’s pulse, then took out a small bottle. “Take one pill every day until they are gone. Don’t keep looking so pale, or it’ll look like we’re mistreating you.”
Lian Li took the bottle and tucked it away.
The West Island Lord seemed to have come only for these two matters. Once he finished speaking, his figure flickered and he vanished.
Just as he left, there was a knock on the door.
Lian Li: “…What is going on today? I feel like people are coming one after another.”
As he spoke, he walked toward the door. Opening it, he found Zhao Honglan.
Lian Li looked behind him and saw that Qu Tingquan was not there. He took a step back to let Zhao Honglan in. “Why did Senior Brother Zhao come alone?”
Aside from the first day when they sought out the West Island Lord for a check-up, Zhao Honglan and Qu Tingquan had stayed in their own courtyard. Even when they occasionally came out, the two were inseparable; Lian Li had seen it several times.
Zhao Honglan coming alone this time truly made Lian Li a bit curious.
Zhao Honglan greeted the two of them, sat down at the table, and stated the purpose of his visit.
“Brother Yun hadn’t woken up before, so it wasn’t appropriate for me to disturb the two seniors and Junior Brother Lian. However, there is a matter that has indeed troubled me for a long time. Therefore, as soon as Brother Yun woke up today, I hurried over.”
He said he had hurried over, but in truth, he had deliberately waited half a day. He knew that Yun Huizhou would definitely eat first upon waking, and then the East and West Island Lords would come to check the situation, so he had specifically waited a while.
“What is it?” Lian Li asked.
Yun Huizhou also looked over at this moment, seemingly interested in Zhao Honglan’s words.
“It’s about Tingquan,” Zhao Honglan said. “I’ve been thinking about what Senior East and the Spirit Cult Leader said regarding who the Holy Gu actually belongs to. I’ve been pondering this for the past few days—what exactly happened between Tingquan’s mother and the Spirit Cult?”
“I’m worried there are things we don’t know about, and if something suddenly erupts later, we won’t be able to think of a countermeasure in time.”
Hearing Zhao Honglan mention it, Lian Li finally remembered there was such a matter. Previously, his mind had been entirely occupied by Yun Huizhou’s injuries and the Gu poisoning, causing him to fling the matters of the male and female leads to the back of his mind.
Since this involved the Female Lead, it was likely part of the main plot.
Although Lian Li felt his guesses were mostly accurate, he didn’t dare to speak recklessly.
Even though Yun Huizhou had listened to Lian Li’s fabricated story and found that many things matched up, Lian Li had insisted it was all nonsense, so it was impossible for him to tell Zhao Honglan.
“This… we should still go ask Senior Uncle,” Lian Li said after a moment of hesitation.
Then he saw Zhao Honglan looking at him with a smile, not responding.
Lian Li: …
He understood. Zhao Honglan wanted them to accompany him to find their Senior Uncle.
Lian Li thought about it and realized he was indeed a bit curious about the story behind this. Thus, he stood up and said to Zhao Honglan, “Then, Senior Brother Zhao, I will go with you to find Senior Uncle.”
Zhao Honglan: “I’ll have to trouble Junior Brother Lian then.”
Lian Li turned to ask Yun Huizhou: “Are you going?”
Yun Huizhou shook his head. “I won’t go.”
He walked to the bed, sat cross-legged, and continued, “I will circulate my energy to heal my injuries.”
Since Yun Huizhou wasn’t going, Lian Li didn’t try to persuade him. He simply said to Zhao Honglan, “Then Senior Brother Zhao, let the two of us head over.”
“Alright.”
Sitting on the bed, Yun Huizhou watched Lian Li and Zhao Honglan leave. Just as he closed his eyes, he suddenly remembered that when he was injured, his clothes had been completely stripped off by Lian Li. The set he was wearing now was from the bundle he had placed on Ice Treader’s back.
And that bundle happened to hide the book given to him by Jin Manjue.
When Lian Li was getting the clothes, could he have seen that book?
If he saw that he had hidden a book like that, what would he think?
He remembered back then, when Lian Li said that pimp wanted to strip his clothes, Lian Li had kicked the man with lethal force. If he saw that he had hidden that book, would he consider him to be the same kind of person as that pimp?
He then remembered how, when he had reached out to grab Lian Li’s shoulder earlier, Lian Li had suddenly reacted strongly and shouted for him not to touch him.
Instantly, a cold sweat broke out on Yun Huizhou, and a surge of irritability rose in his heart.
Lian Li was indeed very resistant to such things. Previously, when the two of them hugged, Lian Li wouldn’t have had such a large reaction.
But now, because he saw that book, he suspected that he had those kinds of thoughts toward him, and thus was no longer willing to be close to him.
No wonder he was so looking forward to Senior Uncle teaching him martial arts; he probably wanted to avoid him.
Yun Huizhou took a deep breath, feeling that he couldn’t let Lian Li continue to misunderstand like this. But then he thought of the dream he had the night he saw that book, and what he had done in the washroom behind the screen after waking up with a start.
He couldn’t stop the guilt from welling up. Although he and Lian Li were fellow disciples, they were indeed a bit too intimate at times.
Before, he simply felt that since he only had this one junior brother—one he had picked up and taken in himself—he had to take responsibility.
He had indeed been a bit more indulgent toward Lian Li at times, and he hadn’t felt anything was wrong.
Zhao Honglan had so many junior brothers and was good to every one of them. He only had one junior brother, so it was normal to be even better to this sole junior brother.
Before the matter of the Beauty Ranking came up, he hadn’t realized this problem.
He had never thought about such things before, and he was very certain that before meeting Lian Li, he should have liked women, so he was even less aware of these aspects.
Thinking of this, he suddenly froze.
Lian Li had once worn women’s clothing for a year on Drunken Dream Island…
This kid was naturally good-looking, with fair skin and a slender build. He was only sixteen last year. When he wore women’s clothing and dressed up a bit, aside from being slightly tall, one couldn’t tell he was a youth at all.
Could it be… because Lian Li’s female appearance was too deceptive and too beautiful, that he… fell in love with Lian Li dressed as a woman?
And because Lian Li and the version of him dressed as a woman were the same person, his feelings had transferred to the male-clothed Lian Li…?
