Yun Huizhou did not try to persuade him further. He turned around, picked up the bowl, placed it on the dining table, and tidied up.
Soon, a servant from the South Island came by to take the dishes away.
Yun Huizhou also took his blade and stepped out the door.
However, Lian Li could hear that he hadn’t gone far; he was standing right on the roof.
Taking advantage of the fact that Yun Huizhou was outside on the roof, Lian Li ran off to take a bath, then burrowed into his bed and didn’t come out again.
When it was time to rest, Yun Huizhou extinguished all the candles in the room and walked over to his own bed to sit cross-legged.
He had just finished bathing, and there was still a hint of moisture in his hair. However, he didn’t plan on going to sleep immediately; by circulating his energy before bed, his hair would have just enough time to dry completely.
Lian Li also scrambled up to sit on his bed, ears pricked to listen for movement from Yun Huizhou’s side. Upon realizing that Yun Huizhou was circulating his internal energy, he thought about it and simply sat cross-legged to do the same.
Lian Li was already very familiar with the internal energy cultivation methods, so the time it took him to complete one cycle was not much different from Yun Huizhou.
Once he finished his cultivation, he eavesdropped on the movement from Yun Huizhou’s side again and found that Yun Huizhou had indeed finished as well.
He got out of bed and peeked through the curtain. He saw that Yun Huizhou was already lying in bed, preparing to rest. Judging by the sound of his breathing, he probably wasn’t asleep yet, just newly settled.
He stepped out from behind the curtain and walked toward Yun Huizhou’s side with light, stealthy steps.
Reaching the edge of Yun Huizhou’s bed, his face displayed a mix of hesitation, shyness, and a “do-or-die” expression.
After a long moment, he took a deep breath and steeled his resolve.
He reached out and pinched the corner of Yun Huizhou’s quilt. In the next second, he saw Yun Huizhou open his eyes and look at him.
Yun Huizhou didn’t speak; he just watched him.
Lian Li wasn’t particularly surprised. Given Yun Huizhou’s alertness, he likely knew Lian Li wasn’t asleep from the moment he had sat up to start his cultivation.
Not to mention, he had walked right up to his bedside.
From the moment he got out of bed, Yun Huizhou had heard his every move clearly; he could probably even simulate the scene in his mind.
Lian Li’s hand, which was pinching the corner of the quilt, gave a slight flick, tossing aside the thin quilt covering Yun Huizhou. Then, he nimbly climbed onto the bed.
He didn’t look for a spot to lie down beside Yun Huizhou as he usually did. Instead, he straddled him directly, sitting right on top of Yun Huizhou.
Yun Huizhou looked at him, his brow twitching slightly as if he were somewhat surprised. “What are you doing?”
Lian Li stared into his eyes and said, “What am I doing? What do you think I’m doing?”
Yun Huizhou wore an expression of a growing headache and said, “Then let me rephrase the question. Do you know what you are doing? Do you know what will happen next? Do you know what the consequences will be?”
Lian Li pursed his lips, then reached out to tug at Yun Huizhou’s pants. He said, “I definitely know what I’m doing.”
Yun Huizhou did not stop his movements. Instead, he showed a helpless expression and said, “Who starts by stripping the pants right from the beginning?”
Lian Li didn’t care. He grabbed the drawstring of the waistband and said, “There’s no fixed procedure. I’ll strip from wherever I want to strip.”
Yun Huizhou submissively allowed him to pull off his pants and continued, “But that’s not how it’s written in your storybooks. No, wait—some of your storybooks are written like that. But I always thought you preferred the first style; I didn’t expect you to like the other one.”
The trousers had already been stripped away, leaving only his undergarments. Lian Li placed his hands on the hollows of Yun Huizhou’s knees and looked up at him. “My storybooks have that written in them?”
Yun Huizhou paused for a moment, then said, “The ones you published under the pen name ‘Pure-hearted Pretty Young Gentleman’.”
Hearing Yun Huizhou recite his other, utterly humiliating pen name, Lian Li froze entirely. It took him a long time to find his voice. “How did you know?”
Yun Huizhou: “…Once before, you fell asleep facedown on the table while writing. When I was about to carry you to bed, I saw it. I figured you were thin-skinned and probably didn’t want me to know you wrote such articles, so I went back out and intentionally made a loud noise to wake you up so you could put them away yourself.”
Lian Li felt completely numb. Everything written under that pen name was pure smut—well, not pure smut, there was a tiny bit of plot.
But you had to search carefully through a screen full of “XXOO” to scrape out a tiny bit of story, and the plot had no logic anyway; it all existed solely to serve the “XXOO.”
And it wasn’t limited to men and women. Male-male, female-female, GB—he wrote whatever came to mind.
Although he didn’t publish as much as he did under the “Lian Aotian” pen name, the stories under this pen name were the most profitable.
Seventy percent of his private savings came from the stories under this pen name.
It was only because the writing was so shameful that he had never told Yun Huizhou.
He never expected… Yun Huizhou had known all along.
“Besides you, does anyone else on Zuimeng Island know?” After a long while, Lian Li asked in a small voice.
Yun Huizhou replied, “I haven’t told anyone else. Master, Martial Uncle, and Northern Martial Uncle shouldn’t know. Western Martial Uncle… it’s hard to say.”
Seeing Lian Li’s face full of despair, Yun Huizhou sat up and pulled Lian Li into his arms with a bit of force, making Lian Li sit flush against him in his lap.
He comforted Lian Li in a warm voice: “It doesn’t matter if Western Martial Uncle knows. He won’t tell anyone else. He’s seen plenty of things like this. Before you took those erotic illustrations out of the South Island library, I always thought only the West Island library had them. I remember he has a hidden cabinet there, a whole cabinet full of them. There are even Dual Cultivation manuals inside.”
“Dual Cultivation manuals?” Lian Li caught a keyword. So that kind of thing actually existed.
Yun Huizhou kissed his chin, then moved down to his neck, continuing, “Yes. When I was treating my injuries on the West Island before, Martial Uncle gave me one. He said it was the best in his collection and the best among existing Dual Cultivation manuals, with no drawbacks.”
Lian Li felt his heart was about to leap out of his chest. Following Yun Huizhou’s lead, he asked, “What else did he say?”
“Martial Uncle also said that if I take you through the practice, it will be of great benefit to you,” Yun Huizhou answered.
Lian Li subconsciously followed up: “Then what about for you?”
“For me?” Yun Huizhou paused. Pressed against Lian Li’s neck, he let out a soft laugh, his warm breath puffing against Lian Li’s skin.
Lian Li felt itchy and a bit tingly.
Sensing Lian Li’s shiver, Yun Huizhou continued, “Martial Uncle said… you won’t be able to drain me dry.”
Lian Li: “…”
Aaaaaah! I’m going to die!
Despite his frantic urge to flee, Lian Li’s hands remained deathly tight, clutching the clothes at Yun Huizhou’s shoulders.
Seeing that he was no longer speaking, Yun Huizhou held him and swapped their positions. In an instant, Lian Li went from being on top to being underneath, with Yun Huizhou kneeling in the middle, pressing down over him.
Lian Li: “…”
Wait, something’s not right!
