Yu Qingtang subconsciously followed him for two steps before coming back to himself. He immediately clung to the bedpost in terror. “You, you, you...”
“What do you mean, squeeze? Squeeze where? You can’t just say things like that!”
“Why not?” Ye Chenyan’s eyes curved with laughter as he reached out to pry open his fingers. “Aren’t we both men, Brother Yu That-One?”
“Men have men’s dangers.” Yu Qingtang put on a grave expression. “You don’t understand! For your own safety, we should sleep in separate beds. I can sleep on the floor too. I’m not picky.”
“My safety?” Ye Chenyan leaned close and asked, “What danger could I be in?”
He did not use any real strength. It was more like he was idly playing with Yu Qingtang’s fingers, a teasing glint flashing through his eyes.
Yu Qingtang turned his head away and presented him with the back of his head. “I have terrible sleeping habits. When I wake up in the morning, my pillow and blanket are usually on the floor.”
“Also, I automatically enter defense mode when I sleep. If you touch me even once, you might suffer my self-defense counterattack!”
Ye Chenyan’s eyes curved with laughter. He cleared his throat and said with utter sincerity, “It’s all right, Brother Yu That-One. I’m not afraid of pain.”
Yu Qingtang slowly turned his head to look at him.
“Oh, right.” After they stared at each other, wide-eyed, for a while, Ye Chenyan suddenly changed the subject. “Fifth Senior Brother went back to Biehe Sect. He said you should send him a message once you woke up.”
“As for the Esoteric Sect, there is no need to worry for now. Nanzhou is a mixed bag of dragons and snakes. Their reach cannot extend here for the time being.”
“Oh.” Yu Qingtang answered and reached into his pocket for his transmission stone. “Then I’ll send Fifth Senior Brother—”
Ye Chenyan looked surprised. “Eh? I was just talking to myself. How did Brother Yu That-One understand me?”
Yu Qingtang’s hand froze on the transmission stone. “...”
“Oh—” Ye Chenyan clapped his hands, enlightened. “You are also a Biehe Sect disciple.”
“He is your Fifth Senior Brother too.”
Yu Qingtang choked and guiltily looked away. “Mm, mm. Something like that.”
He looked aside in a blatant attempt to cover himself and began spouting nonsense. “Actually, my Biehe Sect is flourishing with people. You could say it has, well, many disciples. At the foot of the mountain is Yu Family Village, and there are even more people surnamed Yu.”
“Mm-hmm.” Ye Chenyan cooperatively nodded and gave a low laugh. “Then what rank are you, Brother Yu That-One?”
Yu Qingtang wiped his face. “Two hundred and fifty, I guess.”
“Mm?” Ye Chenyan raised a brow. “Your seniority is that low? Then wouldn’t that make you Little-Little-Little Junior Brother?”
He leaned closer, rubbed Yu Qingtang’s head, and his eyes were bright with amusement. “Don’t worry. Senior Brother Ye will protect you from now on.”
Yu Qingtang closed his eyes. “...Why don’t you just expose me directly?”
Ye Chenyan feigned surprise. “Why would Brother Yu That-One say such a thing?”
Yu Qingtang plopped down on the floor, curled into the corner with his back to him, and howled, “I was wrong, I was wrong! Just expose me directly! Give me a quick death, will you?”
Ye Chenyan held back his laughter, crouched down, poked his back, and asked in a low voice, “Was that just now another of Biehe Sect’s ultimate techniques? Which move was that?”
Yu Qingtang answered quietly, “...Stubbornly holding on.”
Ye Chenyan nodded deeply. “I would like to hear the details.”
“It means the mouth is on my body, so as long as I don’t admit it, it didn’t happen.” Yu Qingtang crouched in the corner and covered his face. “But I failed to hold on.”
Ye Chenyan really could not hold it in and let out a muffled laugh.
Yu Qingtang turned his head and glared at him, then deflated on his own and asked quietly, “How much do you know?”
Ye Chenyan scratched his forehead, a little embarrassed. “More or less... everything.”
Yu Qingtang lifted his head in shock. “Everything?”
He subconsciously patted his perfectly flat chest.
Ye Chenyan looked down following the motion, then nodded lightly. “Mm. I know.”
Yu Qingtang sucked in a sharp breath and sat there blankly for a moment. Feeling that this hint seemed a bit ambiguous and not very clear, he cautiously stretched out a finger and pointed lower.
Ye Chenyan’s gaze dropped, then quickly withdrew. His ears slowly reddened. He closed his eyes and coughed lightly. “Ahem.”
“I said I know everything.”
Yu Qingtang shrank into a ball in the corner in terror. “Y-You... how do you know? No, when did you know?”
Ye Chenyan lowered his eyes. “Long ago.”
“Just... before going to Biehe Sect, I already knew.”
“Liar.” Yu Qingtang denied it instinctively. “You’re not that smart!”
Ye Chenyan: “...”
He silently lifted his head. Yu Qingtang reached out and patted his shoulder, speaking with deep earnestness. “Little Ye, it’s fine to lie to me, but don’t lie to yourself too.”
Ye Chenyan looked at him wordlessly. Yu Qingtang lost his nerve, drew his hand back, and immediately changed his tune. “Senior Brother Ye is born wise and clever. Nothing can fool you!”
He paused, then said in a small voice, “You couldn’t possibly have known I was a man and still...”
Ye Chenyan could not help letting out a muffled laugh.
“Ah.” He sighed, then suddenly reached under the bed and brought out two jars of wine, setting them on the table. He looked at Yu Qingtang with a smile. “Guess what I want to do?”
Yu Qingtang huddled in the corner and muttered quietly, “...Use wine to remove the fishy smell from the fish?”
Ye Chenyan truly could not hold it in. He braced himself against the wine jar and laughed until he could hardly straighten up. “Then I really will be eating drunken fish today!”
He set out two cups and poured the wine. “Sit.”
Yu Qingtang looked at him eagerly and only slowly shuffled over to sit opposite him, staring at the cup before him.
He asked quietly, “Why drink?”
“For courage.” Ye Chenyan raised a brow. “Some words might need three parts of drunken boldness before they can be spoken.”
“You need courage too?” Yu Qingtang looked at him in surprise.
“Mm.” Ye Chenyan answered with certainty and raised his cup to him. “What you want to know, what I want to know—ask whatever you want. For anything that cannot be answered... drink a cup.”
Yu Qingtang looked into his eyes. After a silent moment, he reached out and hugged the entire wine jar into his arms. “Then let me top up a day pass first.”
“Ah?” Ye Chenyan was caught off guard.
Yu Qingtang had already lifted the wine jar and gulped down a large mouthful.
“Hey!” Ye Chenyan hurriedly steadied the jar, afraid he would drink himself senseless in one go. “Slow down! I... I wasn’t asking you to...”
“Pfft!” Yu Qingtang staggered and almost stuck his head into the wine jar.
The wine was strong, and its kick came quickly. After only a few gulps, he felt the alcohol coursing through his limbs and bones, heating his whole body until steam seemed to rise from him.
Yu Qingtang refused to let go of the wine jar. He turned his head away, not daring to look into Ye Chenyan’s eyes, and said quietly, “But there are a lot of things I can’t tell you.”
Ye Chenyan looked steadily at him, then lowered his head, opened the other jar, and gently clinked it against the one in Yu Qingtang’s arms. “Then... I can simply not ask.”
“Really?” Yu Qingtang peeked at him, then suddenly stuffed his head back toward the wine jar. “Aiya—you, don’t make that kind of face!”
“I was wrong!”
With a miserable expression, he lifted the wine jar and knocked its mouth against Ye Chenyan’s jar twice. “I’m kowtowing to you, all right? Don’t be unhappy...”
Ye Chenyan’s eyes widened slightly, and he could not help laughing softly. “All right.”
He paused, then corrected himself. “Never mind. Not all right.”
“Ah?” Yu Qingtang looked at him in shock.
“I do not like agreeing to things I cannot do.” Ye Chenyan raised his eyes to look at him. “Besides, people are always greedy.”
“When I see that you want to coax me into being happy now, I remember the one ring inside the Love-Listening Bell formation.”
He lay on the table and stared into Yu Qingtang’s eyes. “Then I won’t give up.”
Yu Qingtang stared at him blankly and also lay down. He dazedly sat there for a while before slowly speaking. “I—I have a friend.”
He lifted his eyes in an obvious attempt to cover himself. “It’s not me. It’s a friend of mine.”
“Mm.” Ye Chenyan smiled. “All right. Your friend. What happened to him?”
“He—” Yu Qingtang tilted his head, trying to decide where to begin. But his brain was not turning very well, so he simply closed his eyes and stopped thinking, starting directly from the beginning. “A long time ago, he read a book.”
“In the book, there was a person—”
His finger swayed and pointed at Ye Chenyan’s nose. “That was you.”
“Me?” Ye Chenyan raised a brow. Remembering the “Hua Shimiao” story Yu Qingtang had told at Guiyi Sect before, his expression turned somewhat strange for a moment.
“The book was super long. I read it for ages back then.” Yu Qingtang propped his chin up. “That dog Xiaosa really knew how to pad things out. One fight could last ten-something chapters, and the names of the divine abilities got longer and longer. Every single time, they were shouted out in full...”
As Ye Chenyan listened, his brows drew together. “Dog Xiaosa?”
“That’s your dad,” Yu Qingtang said casually. He paused, then added, “Not your demon-race dad. It’s...”
He scratched his head, seemingly unsure how to explain it, then suddenly pointed overhead and said, “Just treat him as the Heavenly Dao. Anyway, you’re the son of the Heavenly Dao, and dog Heavenly Dao and dog Xiaosa are both surnamed ‘Dog,’ so they’re all one family...”
A sudden boom of thunder rang through the sky. Yu Qingtang was so frightened he nearly fell off his chair.
“Careful!” Ye Chenyan hurriedly caught him.
Yu Qingtang huddled in Ye Chenyan’s arms, tightly clutching the front of his robe. “Bad news. Dog Xiaosa is striking me with lightning!”
“No, he doesn’t dare strike you.” Ye Chenyan coaxed him. “Nanzhou’s climate is damp. It is precisely the season for frequent thunder and rain. It was only a coincidence.”
Then he asked, “So what did he write?”
“He wrote that you would become one of the greatest figures under heaven in the future.” Yu Qingtang clicked his tongue and shook his head. “All along the way, peach blossoms never stopped blooming, beauties accompanied you, and one heart was divided into so many pieces. Your harem was harmonious, and your path of love was brilliant.”
Ye Chenyan’s eyes widened. “Utter nonsense! How could I be—”
Yu Qingtang struggled to climb back up, then went to hug that jar of wine again. He tilted his head and looked at Ye Chenyan. “After that friend of mine finished reading that book, with a snap, he ended up inside it himself and even met you.”
He guiltily lowered his eyes. “He didn’t deliberately want to do anything bad. It only counted as being a tiny little bit bad. Anyway, he thought he could casually fool a playboy ghost and even trick you into coming to propose marriage later.”
“After he tricked you, he forgot all about it. Because to him, the other person was only someone from a book he did not especially like.”
“But later, you really came...”
“He muddleheadedly went down the mountain with someone, went traveling, went adventuring, and the person from the book became the person before his eyes.”
He lifted his eyes and stared blankly at Ye Chenyan. His face had an unnatural drunken flush, and his eyes were lost and uneasy. He cautiously reached out and tugged on Ye Chenyan’s sleeve. “Then he remembered he had lied to someone, and he wanted you not to be too sad.”
Ye Chenyan immediately held his hand and stared into his eyes. “I also have a friend.”
“When he was young, he liked someone. It was love at first sight, and he thought about that person for many years. Later, he discovered that person was a little liar.”
“So he found a way to coax him down the mountain and wanted to torment him. In the end... in the end, not only could he not bear to do it, he also sank deeper and deeper.”
“But he also lied to someone...”
Yu Qingtang tried hard to prop himself up a little, resting his chin on the wine jar. “Then, my friend lied to your friend once, and your friend lied to my friend once. That counts as even. We’re clear!”
“That won’t do.” Ye Chenyan propped his chin up, hooked Yu Qingtang’s finger, and laughed. “How could it be settled that easily?”
“When it comes to feelings, how could fairness be calculated by one time from you and one time from me?”
He leaned closer, his eyes full of laughter. “I refuse to be clear with him. I want to be tangled up with him for a lifetime.”
“Why don’t you lie to me again, so you can owe me a little more?”
“It’s not me.” Yu Qingtang looked away. “It’s that friend of mine...”
He muttered softly, “But you’re way too hard to fool.”
“I’m still hard to fool?” Ye Chenyan raised a brow. “I believe everything you say.”
“Really?” Yu Qingtang leaned over and raised one finger. “How many is this?”
Ye Chenyan: “One.”
“No.” Yu Qingtang’s face was grave. “It’s two.”
Ye Chenyan laughed despite himself and cooperatively nodded. “All right, it’s two. Whatever you say.”
Yu Qingtang spread his palm. “This isn’t a palm either. It’s a fist.”
“All right, a fist.” Ye Chenyan smiled. “What else?”
“And...” Yu Qingtang carefully leaned close to him, pressed near his ear, and tried to hypnotize him. “That day, the bell didn’t ring.”
Ye Chenyan answered without the slightest hesitation. “No. It rang.”
He suddenly turned his head. His lips brushed lightly across Yu Qingtang’s cheek, the kiss fleeting and gone as if it were an illusion.
Yu Qingtang’s face instantly flushed red. “You, you, you...”
Ye Chenyan caught him, refusing to let him run. He cupped Yu Qingtang’s face and stared unblinkingly into his eyes, asking in a low voice, “Does it ring now?”
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