After Crossdressing and Provoking Long AoTian

Ye Chenyan narrowed his eyes, tugged Yu Qingtang’s hand back toward his mouth, and made as if to bite him again.

Yu Qingtang immediately let out a wail. With lightning speed, he pulled an oil-paper parcel from his storage ring and waved it in surrender.

Ye Chenyan stopped and raised an eyebrow at him.

Yu Qingtang held the parcel out. “I brought this for you.”

“It isn’t much, but you know how few spirit stones I have.”

He leaned closer with a pitiful expression and deliberately asked, “Why don’t you look happy? Don’t tell me you don’t want it.”

“Nonsense.” Ye Chenyan accepted the parcel with a quiet laugh. “Why spend your own money on this? Whatever you want to eat, you can just tell Uncle Snake and have him bring it back.”

“From a money-saving perspective, that would be the right thing to do.” Yu Qingtang bobbed his head sagely. “But this is from me. That makes it different!”

“Senior Sister Tianxin said Starwatch Pavilion can cover my expenses in Nanzhou, but I can’t keep owing you favors whenever I go out.”

“I earned a thousand spirit stones from Scholar Xiao before, and I picked up a little more along the way. I have some savings now. I can afford to buy you a few snacks!”

Yu Qingtang grinned. “Don’t worry. I’ve already set aside the pork-hock budget for when we return to the sect!”

“And whenever I go out to have fun from now on, I won’t forget to bring something back for you!”

Ye Chenyan tightened his grip on the parcel in amusement and slowly began unwrapping it. “I’m not a child. I’m hardly going to throw a fit just because I can’t go out with you.”

“You don’t have to pacify me.”

“Really?” Yu Qingtang leaned right into his face and chuckled. “I’m going out again tomorrow.”

Ye Chenyan’s hands paused.

Then he said casually, “It’s rare for them all to be here. You should go out with them a few more times.”

“If you went out alone, I’d be worried about you running into trouble in a chaotic place like Nanzhou.”

He tossed one of the snacks into his mouth, smiled, and poked Yu Qingtang between the brows. “Just remember to cultivate properly at night. Otherwise, your karmic fire might set your backside ablaze while you’re out having fun.”

“Mhm, mhm.” Yu Qingtang nodded, leaned closer, and asked mysteriously, “Guess where we’re going tomorrow.”

Ye Chenyan propped up his chin and considered it. “I’m not particularly familiar with Nanzhou. As for places worth visiting...”

Yu Qingtang’s smile gradually widened.

He leaned into Ye Chenyan’s ear and whispered, “Brother Chi, Brother Xiao, and I are going to soak in the sulfur springs.”

Ye Chenyan fell silent.

He slowly folded the oil-paper parcel closed, placed it in his storage ring, and calmly brushed off his robes.

“Understood.”

“Huh?” Yu Qingtang stared at him in astonishment. “That’s it?”

The young man had remarkable self-control!

Ye Chenyan raised an eyebrow. “You’re deliberately trying to unsettle me. I’m not stupid.”

He stood, turned around, and immediately stumbled over the chair with a loud bang.

Yu Qingtang could not hold it in.

“Pfft.”

Ye Chenyan whipped around in embarrassment and fury. “What are you laughing at?”

“At how stubborn you are.” Yu Qingtang showed no intention of restraining himself.

The consequence was that Ye Chenyan grabbed him around the waist, hoisted him up, and deposited him on the bed.

At the worst possible moment, Yu Qingtang remembered Pretty Butterfly’s theory about how “well-behaved” Ye Chenyan was being. He began struggling in alarm.

“What are you doing? What are you doing?”

“Cultivating.” Ye Chenyan’s smile never faded, but Yu Qingtang could now distinguish between the smile he wore when he was happy and the smile he wore when he was angry.

The one on his face now was practically a textbook example of a dangerous smile.

“Aren’t you going out tomorrow?” Ye Chenyan smiled as he pinched Yu Qingtang’s cheeks. “You’re even going to bathe with Brother Chi and Brother Xiao. Shouldn’t you cultivate properly first? Otherwise, I’m afraid your karmic fire will boil the bathwater and stew all of you in the same pot.”

“Ahem.” Yu Qingtang suppressed his laughter and explained with a perfectly serious expression, “I don’t think cultivation will necessarily be required.”

“Think about it. The senior and junior brothers of the Dharma Academy probably bathe together all the time. A little physical contact would be perfectly normal, wouldn’t it? Surely that can’t count as breaking a precept.”

He raised one finger with great solemnity.

“Besides, the Dharma Academy’s precept against lust only says not to approach women.”

“Which means there is a very real possibility...”

He declared with ringing conviction—

“The Buddha doesn’t punish bros!”

Ye Chenyan stared at him in silence.

After a moment, he dragged Yu Qingtang out of the bedding until their foreheads nearly touched and stared directly into his eyes.

“Bros?”

Yu Qingtang blinked innocently. “My good bro Chi Yantian, my good bro Scholar Xiao, and...”

Ye Chenyan narrowed his eyes.

Yu Qingtang hurriedly finished in one breath, “My good sister Pretty Butterfly! And Monk Baoshan, who might become another good bro!”

He escaped Ye Chenyan’s clutches and rolled deeper into the bed.

“I never said you were my bro!”

Ye Chenyan refused to let him off. He reached out and jabbed him in the side.

Yu Qingtang howled and begged for mercy. “Wait, wait! Where did you learn that? How did you know I’m ticklish there?”

Ye Chenyan pinned him down, amusement dancing in his eyes. “Fifth Senior Brother taught me.”

Yu Qingtang stared at him in disbelief. “My senior brother taught you how to deal with me?”

“Mhm.” Ye Chenyan answered without the slightest shame and jabbed him from the other side. “He also told me you’re especially good at acting cute and begging for mercy, so sometimes I need to stand firm and make you suffer a little.”

Yu Qingtang wailed, “Fifth Senior Brother—you’ve doomed me—!”

Ye Chenyan once again pinned down a certain idle cultivator who was flailing wildly across the bed.

In a low voice, he asked, “Are you truly going?”

Yu Qingtang stole a glance at him and cleared his throat.

“I am.”

Ye Chenyan lowered his eyes and released him.

Yu Qingtang shuffled closer, secretly studied his face, then gestured with both hands.

“They’re private pools. One tub per person, with screens and formations separating us. We’ll only be able to talk to each other.”

He bobbed his head.

“At the moment, whether I’m gay or not is a Schrödinger’s-cat situation. For the sake of their chaste reputations, I obviously can’t bathe together with them.”

Ye Chenyan looked down at him. “...I had already guessed as much.”

“Since you went out of your way to tease me, you must have already thought of a solution.”

Yu Qingtang tilted his head at him.

“But it still bothers me.” Ye Chenyan lowered his head as though he wanted to gather Yu Qingtang into his arms and hide him in the shadows. “They say demonic cultivators follow their hearts, act however they please, and never suppress their desires.”

His fingers gently brushed Yu Qingtang’s cheek. For some reason, his voice had grown slightly hoarse.

“My emotions have been difficult to suppress these past few days. You shouldn’t provoke me too much.”

Yu Qingtang’s eyes widened slightly. “I—I haven’t gone that far, have I?”

Ye Chenyan merely stared at him.

Yu Qingtang abruptly reached out and pinched his cheeks.

“So what wicked idea were you having? Confess and I’ll go easy on you.”

Ye Chenyan let him knead his face however he pleased and said helplessly, “I wanted to hide you away. I wouldn’t let you go outside, and I wouldn’t let anyone else come see you.”

He braced himself against the edge of the bed and leaned down until their heads rested against each other, almost as though he were complaining.

“Why does everyone like you so much?”

“A senior sister you met for the first time immediately joined you in causing trouble. A guileless fool and a clever man with more schemes than anyone needs both like following at your heels. Even that unpredictable mad girl likes playing with you.”

He turned his head aside.

“And that’s only in Nanzhou.”

“If we include Qingzhou, that old man would happily kick me out and take you as his disciple instead. Senior Brother Wen...”

Yu Qingtang bumped his forehead against Ye Chenyan’s and deliberately added, “You missed one. Even Flamelet likes me here in Nanzhou.”

Ye Chenyan turned to look at him.

Yu Qingtang laughed. “You’re awfully likable too. Do you want me to count them off on my fingers?”

Ye Chenyan looked directly into his eyes.

“But I don’t want anyone else to like me.”

Whenever he looked at Yu Qingtang like that, he became almost impossible to withstand.

Yu Qingtang fell silent.

He slowly shrank back and covered Ye Chenyan’s eyes with one hand.

“I surrender. Truce.”

Ye Chenyan laughed quietly.

For once, Yu Qingtang sat up cross-legged with remarkable enthusiasm. “Time to cultivate! Bathing with my bros in separate private pools might not break any precepts, but eating delicious food is much more dangerous. I should cultivate as much as possible.”

“I don’t know whether I’m imagining it, but since I started cultivating more diligently, the Lotus Realm seems to have grown a little larger.”

“That means your cultivation is producing excellent results.” Ye Chenyan propped his chin on one hand. “Once you’ve gone far enough, perhaps you’ll reach the point where ‘meat and wine pass through the gut, but the Buddha remains in the heart.’ Then you’ll be able to break as many precepts as you like without karmic fire roasting your backside.”

Yu Qingtang gazed longingly toward that beautiful future.

“One can only hope. One can only hope.”

He sat cross-legged on the bed and began cultivating.

Only a short while later, he realized that the gaze resting on him had never once moved away. He quietly cracked one eye open.

“Why are you still staring at me?”

“I already told you.” Ye Chenyan propped up his chin and watched him without blinking. “Now that I’ve gained a totem today, my emotions feel especially turbulent. I can’t calm myself down.”

“The more I suppress them, the worse it feels.”

“It’s as though the stronger the demonic energy inside me becomes, the greater my power grows—and the harder it becomes to control all the thoughts in my head.”

He smiled. The bright sparks in his eyes refused to fade.

“Right now, I want to look at you. So I can only follow my heart and look at you properly.”

Yu Qingtang stared at him.

Then he silently pulled the Dragon-Crane Zither from his storage ring.

“Your heart is unsettled. I’ll play the Heart-Cleansing Melody for you.”

Ye Chenyan reached out and pressed his hand over the strings.

“Is there anything wrong with letting my heart be restless once in a while?”

He lifted his eyes.

“Let it stay restless for a while.”

Yu Qingtang looked at his hand, then at the Dragon-Crane Zither.

“Isn’t it chewing through your spiritual power?”

“It is.” Ye Chenyan’s expression did not change. “Ignore it.”

Yu Qingtang hurriedly pried his hand away.

“We should probably not ignore that!”

He earnestly played the Heart-Cleansing Melody for Ye Chenyan.

Although Ye Chenyan said it “helped a little,” even Yu Qingtang could tell that his performance had been less than impressive.

He lowered his head and studied the qin in his hands.

Every note the thing produced radiated perfunctory indifference, like an office drone being forced to clock in. It could not compare to how it had sounded in the past.

Yu Qingtang narrowed his eyes and turned Ye Chenyan’s head away.

“Wait a moment.”

“Hm?” Ye Chenyan did not understand, but he obediently sat with his back to him.

A faint rustling of fabric came from behind.

Ye Chenyan’s eyes shifted slightly. Once he realized what Yu Qingtang was doing, his ears slowly turned scarlet.

He asked uncertainly, “You...”

“Done!” Yu Qingtang announced.

Ye Chenyan turned around.

Sure enough, Yu Qingtang had changed into women’s clothes again.

It had only been a few days since Ye Chenyan had last seen him dressed that way, yet the sight felt both strange and familiar.

It was as though nothing about him had changed from before—and yet everything had.

Yu Qingtang lightly brushed his fingers over the qin strings. The Dragon-Crane Zither’s spiritual power immediately surged in jubilation.

He sneered.

He knew it!

This worthless qin simply liked beautiful women!

Even though it knew he was a man, it became perfectly cooperative the instant he put on a dress. For a moment, Yu Qingtang could not decide whether that meant its devotion to beautiful women was impressively pure.

He raised his head to speak and met Ye Chenyan’s gaze.

Yu Qingtang paused, then slowly leaned closer.

“What is it?”

His eyes narrowed meaningfully.

“Could it be... that just like this qin, you still prefer me when I’m wearing a dress...”

“I’m nothing like it.” Ye Chenyan leaned closer with smiling eyes.

His finger traced lightly over Yu Qingtang’s Adam’s apple before hooking against his collar.

“I’m much smarter than it is.”

“I know exactly who is underneath the clothes.”

Author’s Note:

Far away at Biehe Sect, Eldest Senior Sister: The reason he looks the same yet different is that he’s missing my exquisite makeup! My makeup! My makeup—!

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