SHIZUN IS SO SWEET

"Eat them another day," Chu Wanning told him.

"But Shizun, I am so hungry..."

"Then go to Mengpo Hall for dinner. They prepared exquisite dishes for dinner tonight."

Mo Ran gave Chu Wanning a pitiful look in response.

"But Shizun, it is already so late. All the food is gone already..."

"..."

As if on cue, Mo Ran's stomach started to growl.

Chu Wanning was stunned. This stupid man went roasting food in front of his Red Lotus Pavilion but did not remember to feed himself. Mo Ran was not getting smarter as he got older. Was there anything else that Chu Wanning had to teach him???

If it had not been that late at night, Chu Wanning would have told Mo Ran to go down the mountain to get some food to fill his stomach.

Unfortunately, by then, all food stalls in nearby towns were closed.

To Chu Wanning's greatest dismay, the only food that they had at the moment was the milk pastries that had yet to be roasted.

"Fine," Chu Wanning said with a sigh. "We need to hurry. I still have an all-elder meeting tonight."

The younger man flashed him a smile that was as bright as sunshine.

"Thank you, Shizun."

Chu Wanning did not want to roast the pastries outside of his pavilion. To be more specific, he did not want anyone to see him sit together with Mo Ran to roast some milk pastries. Yuheng Elder had an image of cold, ruthless, and aloof elder to maintain. Otherwise, the insolent disciples would think that they could start doing things under his nose without getting punished.

The pair of shizun and disciple thus went to the bamboo pavilion and roasted the pastries by the lotus pond. Above their heads, the moon was shining brightly. In the background, the sounds of cicadas chirping and frogs croaking were heard.

Mo Ran with his scalded hands was told to apply the ointment and sat obediently on a bench while his shizun roasted the milk pastries like all cultivators should have: by using a fire talisman.

While the shizun attended to his task with full focus, Mo Ran reminisced about the past. There was an afternoon like this, during a summertime, a long, long time ago. It might be around this time in his previous life, when he dragged Chu Wanning out to the bamboo pavilion out of boredom to play with him.

Around that time, their relationship was as cold as it could be. Other than the wild entanglements at night, Chu Wanning had no warmth for Taxian-Jun. In the first years of Chu Wanning's confinement, the first cultivation emperor beat him a lot for resisting his disciple on the bed. And yet, ironically, after Chu Wanning lost his spirit and stopped fighting back, Taxian-Jun did not stop pestering him.

He had come to realize that what he wanted was not Chu Wanning's obedience or obeisance, in or out of bed.

What Taxian-Jun wanted was Chu Wanning's love, but he was too stupid to acknowledge it.

So, that afternoon, he coaxed Chu Wanning into betting against him in a childish game. A sour plum treat with ice if Taxian-Jun won, and a visit to Wuchang Town if Chu Wanning won.

Mo Ran leaned against the pavilion railing and gazed at Chu Wanning, his eyes were misty from recalling the past.

Wanning, in the previous life, at this time, you and I were married.

Had I treated you better back then, would you pay more attention to me?

Would you have opened your heart to me?

Could we have been... happy together?

"It's done," Chu Wanning's voice pulled Mo Ran out of his trance.

"Is that so?"

The shizun failed to detect the deviant emotion in his disciple's tone. He blew softly against the roasted milk pastry on a stick and carried it to Mo Ran.

"Here, have a taste," Chu Wanning handed his disciple the stick and looked up at his face.

Unable to contain the burning emotions in his heart, Mo Ran rose to his feet, grabbed Chu Wanning's wrist, and yanked him close.

"Ah...! The milk pastry!"

The stick with the milk pastry fell from Chu Wanning's hand to the ground. Mo Ran ignored it and circled an arm around Chu Wanning's slender waist instead. Before Chu Wanning could stop him, his disciple already captured his lips with his own.

"Mmf...!!!"

Stunned by the unexpected kiss, Chu Wanning did not resist when Mo Ran probed his lips open and slipped his tongue into Chu Wanning's mouth, ravishing his oral cavity like a beast. The younger man's body was scalding hot and his kisses were tyrannical. With Chu Wanning's eyes tightly shut, the strong masculine scent of Mo Ran smelled even more potent. It messed up with his head, melted his bones, and knocked the air out of his lungs.

Mo Ran's hand slowly moved down to Chu Wanning's waists and started to knead them. He pressed their bodies together, causing his erection to poke at Chu Wanning's stomach.

At that point, the shizun ripped his eyes open and shoved hard against Mo Ran's chest. At the same time, Tianwen emerged in his hand.

"You!!!" he spat out in extreme fury. "You insolent, licentious disciple!!!"

Chu Wanning hurled Tianwen in Mo Ran's direction. Instead of avoiding or blocking Chu Wanning's attack. Mo Ran grabbed Tianwen with bare hands. Blood spurted out where the willow vine cut into his palms, but Mo Ran did not even flinch. It was almost as if he did not feel any pain. His eyes were directed at Chu Wanning, and he did not care about anything else.

Mo Ran pulled at the willow vine, dragging the stunned shizun back into his arms.

"Wanning," Mo Ran whispered with a hoarse voice as he wrapped his arms around his shizun and buried his face into the latter's neck.

Warm breaths blew on Chu Wanning's neck, sending a shiver down his spine.

"I love you," Mo Ran said, his voice trembling from suppressed desire. "I love you, Wanning..."

Chu Wanning's mind went blank, his lips parted in shock.

Love, he said.

He said "love", not "like".

Just what was Chu Wanning supposed to do with Mo Ran? Did the Hatred Flower amplify Mo Ran's gratitude to Chu Wanning in such a way that the former now believed that he was in love with his shizun?

This is wrong, Chu Wanning told himself. This is very, very wrong...

With or without the flower, disregarding his own feelings for Mo Ran, whether it was in the past or present, he could not. He could not do this. It was a forbidden relationship. A shizun and a disciple must not have even the slightest inclination toward such abominable feelings.

As if the circumstances were not bad enough, Chu Wanning sensed someone intruding into his Red Lotus Pavilion. It was Xue Meng.

"Shizun?" the young master of Sisheng Peak called out from far away. "Shizun? Dad sent me to pick you up for the elders' meeting..."

Gritting his teeth, Chu Wanning stepped off the ground as silently as he could and flew with Mo Ran in his arms toward the bamboo forest, away from Xue Meng.

Xue Meng eventually arrived at the bamboo pavilion. He cursed when he stepped on the sticky milk pastry on the ground.

"Oh, shit!" he shouted before looking around with fright. He must have accidentally pushed the pastry to the ground from the small table in the middle of the pavilion. Worried that Chu Wanning would scold him for dirtying the pavilion, Xue Meng quickly got to work and cleaned the whole pavilion.

Meanwhile, Chu Wanning dropped Mo Ran off at the bamboo forest. The younger man's heart was filled with tender emotions and his eyes were brimming with infatuation. Not wanting to trigger the Hatred Flower and at the same time draw Xue Meng's attention, Chu Wanning let himself be kissed again and again until Mo Ran eventually calmed down.

In the end, Chu Wanning looked a lot like someone who had been bullied badly. The edges of his beautiful phoenix eyes were red from embarrassment, and his lips were swollen from Mo Ran's ferocious kisses.

"I have to go," Chu Wanning struggled to break free from Mo Ran, who latched at him from behind and pressed his nose into Chu Wanning's shoulder to inhale the latter's addictive scent.

"Wanning..."

Mo Ran pressed a kiss on the side of Chu Wanning's neck. "Can I come again tomorrow?"

Come again tomorrow? For what???

"You... you let me go first," Chu Wanning replied weakly.

Instead of letting go, Mo Ran bit and sucked at Chu Wanning's neck, leaving a red, glaring bruise on the jade skin.

"I will come again tomorrow," the unrepentant disciple decided before he finally let Chu Wanning go.

Baffled by Mo Ran's bold actions tonight, Chu Wanning stared after Mo Ran's figure as he sneaked out of the bamboo forest.

After Chu Wanning calmed down, he made his way to the elders' meeting.

Xue Zhengyong had grim news to share that night. Nangong Si, the young master of the Rufeng Sect, was dying. The Rufeng Sect had a plan to save his life, but it required the help of the strongest cultivators in the realm.

As part of the top ten cultivation sects in the realm, Sisheng Peak naturally agreed to contribute.