“You...” Ye Chenyan finally seemed to process what Yu Qingtang meant, but before he could say anything, Yu Qingtang stuffed a handful of peanuts into his mouth.
Ye Chenyan’s eyes went wide. “Mmph!”
Yu Qingtang shook his head smugly. “You really dared to leave me at Biehe Sect? What if I ran off with someone else while you were gone?”
Ye Chenyan froze, then narrowed his eyes and raised a brow. “Then you’d better find someone strong enough. Otherwise I’ll...”
Yu Qingtang took a step back and pointed at him. “Hey, hey, hey. That line of thought is dangerous. That’s called abducting an innocent man!”
“I’ll abduct you anyway!”
Ye Chenyan caught him by the wrist, his gaze wavering slightly.
“You... you mean...”
Yu Qingtang leaned closer in concern. “Don’t tell me you still didn’t understand?”
“I understood!”
Ye Chenyan stared at him without blinking.
“You’ve made up your mind. You’re not allowed to take it back.”
He slowly leaned closer, searching Yu Qingtang’s eyes as though trying to find even the slightest hesitation or unease.
He crossed the safe distance between them.
Then his gaze dropped to Yu Qingtang’s lips.
Yu Qingtang abruptly turned around.
“Since you’re asking like that, maybe I should think about it some more.”
“What?”
Ye Chenyan froze, then hurriedly grabbed him and pulled him back.
“No! You already said it. You’re not allowed to take it back!”
Yu Qingtang burst into laughter. “Oh, stop pulling! I won’t take it back, all right? I won’t!”
He fled around the table and finally plopped himself down in Ye Chenyan’s chair, pointing across from him.
“Okay, okay. Contestants switch sides. You sit over there.”
Ye Chenyan’s eyes were shining. Even after sitting down, he still couldn’t stop smiling at him.
“You...”
He wanted to confirm it one more time.
But he was also afraid that if he did, Yu Qingtang would tease him again.
“I really hate trouble,” Yu Qingtang said.
He picked up his cup and took a drink to hide the flush creeping across his face.
“Originally, I planned to solve your whole mess, then come back to Biehe Sect by myself.”
He stole a glance at Ye Chenyan.
“Back then, I thought that as long as I escaped the plot, none of that trouble would have anything to do with me anymore. I could stay here and live carefree for the rest of my life.”
Ye Chenyan rested his chin on the table and looked at him.
“And what if some idiot came looking for trouble with Biehe Sect?”
“Mm...”
Yu Qingtang squinted awkwardly.
“I didn’t really think that far ahead back then.”
“At the time, I thought this place was just a book. Anything unrelated to the protagonist, anything happening behind the scenes that the story never mentioned, was just static background.”
“I could stay Golden Core forever, and Biehe Sect would stay here forever...”
He rocked his head idly.
“We could all just live together without much plot, without much trouble, and go on with our lives.”
Ye Chenyan chuckled softly.
“And now it’s different?”
“Once I left Biehe Sect and went down the mountain, I realized everyone seemed to come alive.”
Yu Qingtang also leaned over the table and blinked at him.
“Even characters who were completely irrelevant in the original story had entire lives. Their own stories.”
“Not just Brother Xiao and Brother Chi. Even some random waiter on the side of the road—if you chat with him for a little while, you might find out he has three brothers, and his eldest brother just got married but then broke his leg...”
“No one writes a story in that much detail.”
He raised his eyes to Ye Chenyan.
“Starting with you—and then not just you—it’s like everyone slipped off the track of the plot and came alive.”
Ye Chenyan propped his chin on one hand and looked at him.
“No.”
“It started with you.”
“Me?”
Yu Qingtang pointed at himself blankly.
“I guess you could say that. I am that stray meteor from beyond the heavens, after all...”
“Maybe it isn’t that the people in the book came alive.”
Ye Chenyan hooked a finger around Yu Qingtang’s hand.
“Maybe you became someone inside the book.”
“I don’t know what the world outside the book is like. I don’t know where you originally came from.”
“But from where I stand, you’re the stone that fell into the lake.”
“One stone sent a thousand ripples across the water, one after another, without end.”
Yu Qingtang muttered softly, “But I still don’t know whether those changes are good or bad. Or what the future is going to become.”
“That’s how it should be.”
Ye Chenyan laughed.
“No one knows whether the future will be good or bad.”
“The road ahead is unknown. You just keep moving forward.”
Yu Qingtang chuckled under his breath.
“Then I still hope yours turns out better.”
“My life is already good.”
Ye Chenyan’s voice softened.
“I think it’s better than the story you told me.”
His eyes brimmed with laughter.
“So tomorrow, are you still coming down the mountain with me?”
“You’re still asking?”
Yu Qingtang tilted his head.
“Was I not obvious enough?”
“Not obvious.”
Ye Chenyan pushed his luck and tugged on him.
“Show me some more.”
“Tch.”
Yu Qingtang sat up straight and looked at him, then got to his feet and walked to the window, pushing it open a little wider.
Ye Chenyan watched him curiously.
“What are you doing?”
Yu Qingtang dusted off his hands.
“First, I’m making sure my escape route is clear.”
Ye Chenyan: “Huh?”
Yu Qingtang suddenly leaned in, planted a lightning-fast kiss on his cheek, then spun around and bolted in one seamless motion.
Ye Chenyan’s eyes flew wide.
He instantly grabbed Yu Qingtang by the belt and hauled him back.
Yu Qingtang had only just managed to touch the window frame when he was yanked away from it.
He immediately started howling.
“How are your reflexes that fast?! Don’t you know how to go easy on people?!”
“What are you doing?! No, no bed! I’m not going to the bed! This is Biehe Sect! My Senior Brothers, Senior Sisters, and Master are all here! There’s even a Little Junior Brother who hasn’t formally joined yet! You can’t—”
Ye Chenyan clapped a hand over his mouth and gestured for silence.
“Shh—”
“Don’t actually summon everyone over here.”
Yu Qingtang blinked at him from behind the hand covering his mouth.
Ye Chenyan stared back.
Against the darkness outside, his eyes were astonishingly bright.
He was just about to lower his hand when Yu Qingtang grabbed it and pressed it back over his own mouth.
Ye Chenyan: “...”
He rested his forehead against Yu Qingtang’s, looking faintly aggrieved.
“Why are you still not letting me kiss you?”
Yu Qingtang kept Ye Chenyan’s hand over his mouth and gave him a sidelong glance.
“It’s not that I’m not letting you kiss me. Your eyes look dangerous. I can tell you want a lot more than one kiss!”
Ye Chenyan looked up at him and said nothing.
Yu Qingtang abruptly sat up.
“I knew it! You brat, give you an inch and you want a mile! You’re plotting something!”
He had barely tried to make his escape when Ye Chenyan pressed him back down onto the bed.
“Hey—”
Ye Chenyan held him there and reluctantly conceded a step.
“Then... then I’ll restrain myself.”
He raised his eyes and looked at him pitifully.
“You can’t refuse to give me an inch just because I’d ask for a mile. Surely I still get the inch?”
Yu Qingtang: “...”
His eyes darted around.
“Then... then only one inch, okay!”
Only then did Ye Chenyan lean down.
He approached carefully and gave him a kiss that was somehow different from all the ones before.
Their breaths mingled.
Ye Chenyan asked softly, “Are you nervous?”
“N-no!”
Yu Qingtang’s head was already spinning, but he still stubbornly held his ground.
“I’m not nervush at all! This is nothing—ow!”
He suddenly clutched his cheek and rolled straight off the bed.
“What happened?!”
Ye Chenyan froze and hurriedly scooped him back up.
“What’s wrong?”
Yu Qingtang looked at him with tears in his eyes.
“I bit my tongue.”
Ye Chenyan: “...”
He pressed his lips together, struggling to hold it in.
He failed.
He burst out laughing.
“Hahaha! You...”
Half laughing, half helpless, he tried to pry Yu Qingtang’s mouth open.
“Let me see. Did you bite through it?”
Yu Qingtang was too embarrassed.
He turned his head firmly away and absolutely refused to open his mouth.
His words came out muffled.
“Now I know cultivators can still bite their tongues and die. No matter how strong your physical body gets, it still can’t beat your own teeth...”
He suddenly turned his head toward Ye Chenyan.
“Wait. Your physical strength is ridiculously high now. Doesn’t that mean your bite is basically as dangerous as a divine weapon?”
Ye Chenyan narrowed his eyes.
“That logic does make sense.”
“But the way you said it makes it sound weird.”
Yu Qingtang patted his head and grinned wickedly.
“It wouldn’t sound weird if you turned into a puppy.”
“Then whenever we run into bad guys, you can bite them on the ass!”
Ye Chenyan tilted his head at him.
Yu Qingtang immediately covered his own backside and corrected himself.
“Not that you need to transform right now! And I’m a good person! Anyway, it’s getting late. I should go back!”
One hand covering his cheek and the other protecting his backside, he fled.
This time, Ye Chenyan didn’t pull him back.
He simply leaned over the windowsill and watched him go.
Yu Qingtang looked back.
Ye Chenyan clearly had not turned into a puppy.
And yet Yu Qingtang somehow felt as though he could see a tail wagging behind him.
“Ah.”
Yu Qingtang sighed.
It was over.
He actually thought Ye Chenyan was cute now.
How did that saying go again?
Once you start thinking someone looks adorable no matter what they do, you’re probably finished.
In the end, he still hadn’t escaped this calamity.
With a great splash, he had fallen straight into love.
Yu Qingtang sighed wistfully and continued walking beneath the moonlight.
Behind him, Ye Chenyan called out.
“Qingtang.”
Yu Qingtang didn’t turn around, suddenly a little embarrassed.
“What?”
Ye Chenyan’s eyes curved with laughter.
“You’re going the wrong way.”
“Huh?”
Yu Qingtang turned back blankly.
Ye Chenyan pointed in another direction, amused.
“Your room is over there. Don’t tell me you already forgot.”
Yu Qingtang: “...”
He cleared his throat.
“I didn’t forget. I-I just don’t come back often, so I thought I’d take a walk.”
“Oh—”
Ye Chenyan drew the word out, then swiftly climbed out through the window.
“Then I’ll come with you.”
“Huh?”
Yu Qingtang froze.
Now he had talked himself into a corner.
He could only keep walking.
“Shanyuan Peak isn’t that big. There’s not much to see. What do you want to look at?”
“Anything.”
Ye Chenyan followed behind him with a cheerful smile.
“I’m not here for the scenery anyway. I just want to stay with you a little longer.”
Yu Qingtang muttered, “...We’re leaving together tomorrow. It’s not like this little while matters.”
Ye Chenyan raised a brow.
“It matters.”
“Even a little while matters.”
Yu Qingtang: “...”
He cleared his throat.
His ears had gone bright red, and he refused to look at him.
“Tone it down.”
“Oh.”
Ye Chenyan obediently agreed.
Then he followed behind Yu Qingtang, staring at him with bright, hopeful eyes.
Yu Qingtang suddenly whipped around.
“No, you...”
He gestured helplessly.
“Close your eyes!”
He just couldn’t handle that sparkling, little-animal kind of gaze!
“Huh?”
Ye Chenyan widened his eyes.
“But if I close them, I won’t be able to see where I’m going. You’ll have to lead me.”
He held out a hand toward Yu Qingtang.
Yu Qingtang looked down at the hand.
Then at Ye Chenyan’s eyes.
He seriously considered which was harder: taking a moonlit walk hand in hand, or letting Ye Chenyan stare at him like that.
In the end, he answered honestly.
“I can’t. I can’t do either.”
Ye Chenyan widened his eyes innocently.
“Huh?”
Yu Qingtang took one step back.
Ye Chenyan followed with one step forward.
Yu Qingtang eyed him warily.
“Don’t come any closer! I’ll set myself on fire right here!”
Ye Chenyan’s eyes curved with laughter.
“You’re embarrassed?”
“Yes, yes, yes!”
Yu Qingtang gave up completely and squeezed his eyes shut.
“Even a thick-skinned cultivator like me gets embarrassed sometimes. Amazing, isn’t it?!”
Ye Chenyan muffled a laugh.
Taking advantage of Yu Qingtang’s closed eyes, he quickly stepped forward and kissed him.
Yu Qingtang: “...”
Heavens above.
Yu Qingtang turned and fled for his life.
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