Chapter 134: Shizun Sure Can Eat

Mo Ran said nothing for a long moment; only the jut at his throat bobbed slightly.

It was as if he was drowning in torrential desire, clinging desperately to a piece of driftwood to keep himself afloat as he thought in a stutter:

R-respect and cherish him.

Respect as in respect and cherish, cherish as in respect and cherish. Do not defile, do not harm, do not have any unnecessary feelings, and definitely do not do anything like those outrageous things he had done in the past life to humiliate Shizun.

The inside of his chest burning like hot lava, Mo Ran had to repeat the sentence in his head four, five times before finally gathering enough of his wits to walk into the room with feigned composure and greet Chu Wanning with a smile.

"Shizun, so you were in after all...why didn't you say something?" "Just woke up," Chu Wanning replied dryly.

The dryness was no joke—his throat was dry, and his desire too, so much so that a single stray spark just might set off an uncontrollable blaze.

Mo Ran was holding a five-layered, heavy-looking bamboo meal box in his hands. He thought about putting it on the table, but one glance and he could see the mess of files, drills, mortise-tenon joint parts, nails, and all manners of blueprints scattered all over the tabletop. With no other option, he could only carry the box over to Chu Wanning's bed.

Chu Wanning seemed even more irritable than usual this morning, looking visibly agitated as he glanced at Mo Ran and snapped with a frown, "What do you want?"   "Shizun woke up pretty late. There's not much food left at Mengpo Hall now,

and I had nothing else to do, so I made breakfast to share with Shizun."   He opened the box as he spoke and began to take out its contents one by one. The topmost level held a plate of sauteed mushrooms, next was a plate of tender, stir-fried celtuce stem, then silk thread rolls and honey glazed sweet lotus root, and on the very bottom was two bowls of rice, each grain full and translucent, as well as a bowl of bamboo shoot and ham soup.

Two bowls of rice…

Chu Wanning was a little speechless—did Mo Ran really think that he was this much of a glutton?

"The table is a bit messy…does Shizun want to eat in bed, or should I clean the table up and move the food over?"   Of course Chu Wanning didn't like eating in bed, but the quilt was the only thing hiding his yet-to-subside arousal from view. He wavered between poise and dignity for a moment, then firmly chose the latter.

"There's too many things on the table, it'll take too long to clean up. Here is fine." Mo Ran nodded with a smile. "Okay." He really had to admit that Mo Ran was very skilled at cooking. He was already quite the good cook five years ago, and now, five years later, he was easily better than most ordinary chefs. Not only that, but Mo Ran also somehow knew his tastes very well—he knew that he didn't really like to eat congee in the morning, made sure to pick straw mushrooms for the mushroom dish, stuffed the silk thread rolls with sweet potato rather than bean paste, used only the tenderest tip portions of the bamboo shoots, and chose a cut of ham with a nice amount of fat, red and white interspersed like dusky clouds by the horizon…

Mo Ran had never asked him what he liked to eat, yet he had made everything just right, as if they'd already lived together for many years.

Chu Wanning was quite delighted with the food—he maintained his collected composure, but his chopsticks never stopped moving for even a moment. When he finished the last bit of the soup and looked up, he saw Mo Ran sitting at the edge of the bed with one foot on the cross bar of a chair next to the bed, cheek propped up in one hand as he watched him with a faint smile.

"What is it?" Chu Wanning subconsciously took out a handkerchief to wipe his mouth. "Is there something on my face…" "Nope," Mo Ran said, "I'm just happy that Shizun liked the food." "..." Feeling a little uneasy, Chu Wanning said in a mild tone, "It was good,

but there was too much rice. One bowl will do, next time." Mo Ran seemed like he was about to say something, but in the end decided not to, opting instead to grin at him, revealing a row of neat, pearly teeth.

"Got it."   What a dummy, so careful and meticulous about serious things, but ridiculously careless when it came to the normal day-to-day things, completely not noticing that there were two pairs of chopsticks at the bottom of the box.

He ate two people's worth of food all by himself, then turned around to tell him that there was too much food, that he's a bit stuffed...

The more Mo Ran thought about it the funnier it became, until he couldn't help putting his hand to his brow and letting his eyelashes droop down as they quivered with laughter.

"What's so funny?" "Nothing nothing." Mo Ran didn't want to embarrass him—his shizun valued his image above all else, after all—so he changed the subject to offer him an out. "Shizun, I just remembered something that I forgot to talk to you about yesterday." "What is it?" "On my way back, I heard that Great Master Huaizui left the day before you came out of seclusion." "Mn, correct." "So you didn't even see him after waking up, right?" "I did not."

Mo Ran let out a sigh and said, "Then it's not a matter of Shizun being discourteous at all. I overheard people on the outside saying that Shizun didn't have any manners, that Great Master Huaizui had spent the last five years to bring Shizun back to life and didn't even get a thanks for his trouble. But the Great Master himself left first, and it'd be totally unreasonable to expect Shizun to run over to Wubei Temple as soon as he wakes up to kneel outside shedding tears of gratitude or something. Those mouthy people are really annoying, so now that we've cleared that up, I'll have Uncle address it at tomorrow's morning assembly——" Chu Wanning suddenly interjected, "No need."   "Why not?"   "...The Great Master and I have long since burned our bridges," Chu Wanning said. "I wouldn't have thanked him even if he was still here when I woke up."   Mo Ran was taken aback for a moment. "How come? I know that Shizun chose to leave the temple of his own volition and had already severed his master-disciple relation with Great Master Huaizui then, but he still came to Shizun's rescue at his time of need, and…"   But Chu Wanning interrupted before he could finish. "Things between him and I are hard to explain, nor do I care to talk about them. If people want to call me a cold-blooded, ungrateful person with no conscience, then let them. It's only the truth."   Mo Ran fretted, "How is that the truth? You're clearly——you're clearly not that kind of person!" Chu Wanning's head snapped up and his expression abruptly iced over,

blood pouring like a dragon touched on its inverse scale[11].

    "Mo Ran," He said suddenly, "Just what do you even know about me?" "I——"   He looked at Chu Wanning's bright eyes, at the frosty cold inside; here was a man who never let his guard down, who always kept his distance.

For a moment, he wanted nothing more than to disregard all consequences and say, I know, I know a lot of things about you, I understand, and even if there are some things from your past that I don't know about, I'm willing to listen, to share the burden with you. Don't just keep everything to yourself, under all those locks, behind all those walls. Aren't you tired? Isn't it hard for you?

But what right did he have to say any of that?

He was his disciple. Be not impetuous. Be not irreverent.

In the end, Mo Ran said nothing.

A moment passed in silence, and Chu Wanning's tense frame, taunt like a bowstring, finally began to relax by degrees. He sighed, as if drained, and said,

"People are not saints, and little can be done against fate. There are certain things that can't be changed even if you want to. Never mind, don't bring up Master Huaizui to me anymore. You can leave, I'm going to change." "...Yes." Mo Ran drooped his head and quietly collected the meal box. But just when he got to the door, he suddenly spoke up, "Shizun, you're not mad at me, are you?" Chu Wanning shot him a glare. "Why would I be mad at you?"

Mo Ran beamed brightly. "That's good, that's good. Then can I come again tomorrow?"   "Suit yourself." He paused before suddenly remembering something and adding, "In the future, there's no need to say things like 'I'm coming in' to me." Mo Ran blinked. "Why not?"   "You're going to come in anyway! So what's the point in saying something like that?!" Chu Wanning was getting all worked up again, but whether it was at Mo Ran's untimely bout of purity or at his own uselessly reddened face was anyone's guess.

Chu Wanning didn't get out of bed until after Mo Ran had left, all confused.

Not even bothering with shoes, he walked barefoot to the bookcase and took out a bamboo scroll, unrolled it, and stared at the words written there with an unreadable expression for a long, silent moment.

Huaizui had left the bamboo scroll at his pillow side before leaving. A spell on the scroll prevented anyone other than Chu Wanning from opening it. The writing on it was neat and straight, and read, "Confidential. For Chu-gongzi only".

His own teacher calling hm Chu-gongzi.

Ridiculous.

The letter was neither too long nor too short. It went over some things that Chu Wanning should be mindful of after waking up, before going into great length "entreating" him for one thing.

Great Master Huaizui asked that he absolutely go to meet him at Longxue[12] Mountain near Wubei Temple after he has recovered. He had written, in earnest terms, that he was getting on in years and would not be long for the world, that he felt immense guilt over certain things of the past.

"This old monk hopes to speak with you before his passing. You still carry that old injury, and hearing that the adverse effects of the injury cause you to have to go into seclusion for ten days every seven years, this old monk feels truly remorseful. If you would be willing to come to Longxue Mountain, it can be healed. However, the healing spell is quite risky, so you must also bring along a disciple of dual wood and fire elemental to stabilize the array."   Old injury… Longxue Mountain...

Brows furrowed deep, Chu Wanning's fingers nearly dug into his palm.

Healed? How? How could something that has been destroyed, been lost,

and those one hundred sixty four days spent at Longxue Mountain, how could any of that ever be recovered?

Just how masterly did Huaizui think he was, that he could level out a scar this deep?!

His eyes snapped open as golden light cracked in his palm, the letter written on sturdy Xiangfei bamboo shattering instantly into powder in his hand and scattering away into the air.

Never again would he set so much as a single foot into Wubei Temple for as long as he lived.

Nor would he refer to Huaizui as Shizun ever again.

In the blink of an eye, it was already the fourth day since Chu Wanning came out of seclusion. Xue Zhengyong had called him to Loyalty Hall on this day and handed him a letter of commission. He shook open the letter and read the few simple lines written on it.

Chu Wanning lifted his gaze and said, "I think you gave me the wrong one." "Huh?" Xue Zhengyong took the letter and read over it again himself, then replied, "Nope, this is the one."   "..." Chu Wanning narrowed his eyes. "It says to help with the farming at Yuliang[13] Village." "Do you not know how?" "..." Xue Zhengyong's eyes went wide. "Wait, you seriously don't know how?!" Backed into a corner by the string of questions, Chu Wanning seethed. "Isn't there anything more normal, putting down demons and whatnot?"   Xue Zhengyong said, "Y'know, things have been pretty peaceful lately, so there actually aren't any places being troubled by demons right now. Aiyah it'll be fine, Ran-er's going with you anyway, you can just sit to the side and take it easy while he does all the hard work if you want, harvesting some rice and threshing some millet's no big deal to the young and spry anyway."   Chu Wanning's inky black brows were furrowed so deep. "Since when did Sisheng Peak start taking odd jobs like these?"   "...Since always? Like when Granny Wang's cat gets stuck in a tree at Wuchang Town and Shi Mei goes to get it down. It's just that there were usually more hard-to-handle issues before, so I never bothered you with any of the simpler ones," Xue Zhengyong said. "Besides, didn't you only just wake up? I was actually gonna send someone else, but I thought you'd be bored just sitting around." "But even then I don't...want to harvest rice." Chu Wanning narrowly avoided blurting out that he "didn't know how to harvest rice".

Xue Zhengyong insisted, "Like I said, Ran-er will be there to help you out, so just take it as a leisure trip to relax and stroll around a bit." "Can I not relax and stroll around just fine without taking an assignment?"   "I mean, I guess." Xue Zhengyong scratched his head. "But Yuliang Village is pretty close to Butterfly Town, with that Heavenly Rift that Ran-er patched up last time. He's not you, after all, so why don't you check on it while you're there and see if there's any parts that need reinforcing?"   Only then did Chu Wanning finally see a need for him to go, so he took the letter without another word and turned to leave Loyalty Hall.

Author's Notes:

Congratulations, players, you have entered the new instance dungeon "If I Can't Blueball You To Death, Consider It My Defeat".

Dog and Shizun are about to embark on an instance dungeon of unprecedented low difficulty, and the wingwoman[14] is about to come online to deal this dumb dog the final blow, so that he can accelerate his revelation of what love is, ah, fuck!! Die of stupidity, I don't care!!!

I will maintain my principle of "If I can't blueball you little vixens to death, I'll perform 'swallowing a bite of durian' on the spot". In this raid, there's no actual smut, but I'm driving fake cars all around; hope everyone's happy reading the fake smut~ hahaha~

[11] A dragon's inverse scale: Dragons are said have a scale grown in inverse direction on their throat. It's their weak spot, and something not meant to be touched-anyone who dares touch it is killed.

[12] 龙血 Longxue - dragon blood

[13] 玉凉 Yuliang - cool jade

[14] Literally translates to "lady aiding the gong to score"