WPCID 30: That just ended, maybe another day?

Lu Buzhuo felt an inexplicable sense of guilt.

He had always thought that Shen Zhou had drugged him that day, that he had become hot and feverish only after drinking the tea.

…Turns out it was all him losing control.

“Shen Zhou put the soybean powder into… a medicinal tea,” he said evasively. 

“Perhaps it reacted with some other herb. By the way, where’s Chu Xuan?”

The change of topic was a bit deliberate.

Xie Xianqing tactfully didn’t press the matter. Coincidentally, he also wanted to know what was going on with Chu Xuan, so he pointed his fan towards the kitchen’s back window. 

“He heard you coming and fled through there. Tell me, what did you do to him? In the time it took to stew a chicken, Chu Xuan became as afraid of you as if he’d seen a ghost.”

Lu Buzhuo: “?”

He suddenly realized how little he knew about his junior brother.

After a moment of silence, he ladled two bowls of chicken soup from the pot and gave one to Xie Xianqing. 

“Tell me about me and Chu Xuan, back when we were at Kunlun.”

“You and Chu Xuan? You were just… martial brothers.” Xie Xianqing took the chicken soup and thought for a moment. 

“But he joined the sect late. When he joined, your master of formations had already passed away, leaving only your master of swords… who should be called the Sect Leader. At that time, there was frequent unrest in the Cave of a Myriad Bones, and the Sect Leader was never around. So, it was basically you who took care of him.”

“At such a young age, all he knew day in and day out was practicing his sword, practicing his sword, practicing his sword. I have no idea where the Sect Leader picked up such a little old-fashioned stick-in-the-mud. Later, you also started to follow the Sect Leader in and out of the Cave of a Myriad Bones, and he became even more reticent, practically a clam. I really couldn’t stand it anymore, so I tricked him into coming to Shuyu Peak and played with him for a few days.”

“He was afraid of the dark when he was a child. That day, he was staying in my room, so quiet I almost thought I was the only one there. I was worried, so I kept getting up to check on him. Later, he suddenly spoke, asking if I could light a lamp. I lit an oil lamp for him. Then he said that besides his senior brother, no one had ever lit a lamp for him at night, and he thanked me.”

As Lu Buzhuo listened, a quiet figure vaguely emerged in his mind.

Seemingly cold and aloof, yet always wanting to follow him around. When happy, he would say “Senior Brother”; when sad, he would say “Senior Brother”; even when pushed to his limit, all he would say was “Senior Brother.” It was as if all other words were superfluous; between the two of them, a single “Senior Brother” was enough.

He suddenly realized that his act of kneeling… had perhaps gone too far.

Xie Xianqing, caught up in his story, couldn’t stop. 

“I asked him if he had ever eaten those sweet, sticky pastries from the foot of the mountain, and you know what, he said no! Later, I personally went to the kitchen… Hey, where are you going? I’m not done yet!”

“To find my junior brother.” Lu Buzhuo also climbed out the window. 

“Remember to keep the chicken soup warm for me. Shen Zhou will want to eat when he wakes up.”

“I’m not your cook!” Xie Xianqing was so annoyed he chased after him and slapped the windowsill. 

“At least leave a fire control formation before you go!”

Lu Buzhuo was already long gone. It was a mystery how such a sickly fellow could be so agile.

He could only trudge back resentfully to watch the fire.

Chu Xuan hadn’t gone far. He was lying on the roof of the woodshed next door.

When Lu Buzhuo caught him, he nearly slid off the roof. His sword slipped from his hand and clattered down, breaking two tiles.

“Senior Brother,” he called out hastily, not even taking the time to pick up his sword. Then, as if remembering something, he said anxiously, “I didn’t mean to use my position as Sect Leader to pressure you. It’s just my duty. I can’t just let a demonic cultivator run free…”

“I’m not asking you to let him run free.” Lu Buzhuo picked up the sword, handed it back, and sat down beside him. 

“Did Master never teach you how to turn a blind eye when you’re in a difficult position?”

Chu Xuan took the sword, hugged it, shook his head, and adopted the posture of a student earnestly listening to his senior brother’s teachings.

Lu Buzhuo: “.”

Xie Xianqing must have been talking nonsense. There’s no way I would have raised such an honest junior brother.

“Like this,” Lu Buzhuo gave an example. 

“You discover a demonic cultivator lurking in a residence of ordinary people, his movements furtive. In order to investigate the demonic cultivator’s purpose, you don’t act rashly and alert him. You take up temporary residence nearby and keep a close watch on him day and night. This way, you’re neither ignoring the situation nor needing to act immediately.”

Chu Xuan thought for a moment, then looked at him hesitantly. 

“Senior Brother, are you asking me to stay here?”

Lu Buzhuo: “…You can stay if you want. The west wing is empty and very spacious.”

Chu Xuan looked thoughtful.

After a moment, he looked up again. 

“But a demonic cultivator must eventually be eliminated.”

“…”

“However, what Senior Brother said makes sense.” Chu Xuan kept his eyes on him, his gaze as clean and pure as the ice crystals on the mountains of Kunlun. 

“Senior Brother has been missing for many years. Now that I’ve finally found you, I should stay for a few more days.”

Lu Buzhuo was rendered speechless by his gaze. After a moment, he asked, “How long was I missing?”

“Nine years.”

Lu Buzhuo didn’t know how Chu Xuan must have felt when he was missing, but he imagined it couldn’t have been easy. He gently bumped the other’s shoulder with his own. 

“It’s been hard on you all these years. Don’t take what happened earlier to heart. It was my misunderstanding.”

Compared to the cold “I don’t really know you yet” from before, this gesture was filled with intimacy, as if his Senior Brother had truly returned.

Chu Xuan nodded, looking somewhat happy.

His mission accomplished, Lu Buzhuo climbed down from the roof with his junior brother in tow, returned to the kitchen, picked up the steaming bowl of chicken soup, and casually departed.

Xie Xianqing sidled up and nudged Chu Xuan with his elbow. 

“Hey, what did Lu Buzhuo say to you? You look so happy.”

Chu Xuan’s expression was no different from usual; not a trace of “happiness” could be found anywhere on his face. 

“Senior Brother wants me to stay here.”

Xie Xianqing: “Just a few days ago you said you couldn’t stay for long…”

“Senior Brother also said the west wing is very spacious. Tonight, are you going back to the Taiping Branch Office, or are you staying in the west wing with me?”

Xie Xianqing swallowed the rest of his sentence.

“I’ll stay,” he said with a flick of his fan. 

“I can stay anywhere. I’m not picky.”

The moment Lu Buzhuo returned to his room, he was embraced from behind.

The other person sniffed suspiciously around his shoulder, then let go and slowly moved to his front, staring at the bowl of clear, yellow chicken soup sprinkled with chopped scallions.

“You’re awake. Are you hungry?” Lu Buzhuo casually placed the soup on the table and straightened his clothes for him. 

“Your lapels can’t be open, and your belt needs to be tied properly… Why did you run out like this?”

Being reprimanded, the wolf ears drooped.

“I’m not saying you did anything wrong,” Lu Buzhuo said with a laugh. He pulled the man onto his lap, scooped up a spoonful of soup, and brought it to his lips. 

“Have a taste?”

Shen Zhou was obliging enough to take a sip, but then he went back to sniffing Lu Buzhuo’s shoulder, his brow furrowing more and more.

“Someone else’s…” he said haltingly, racking his brain for the words. 

“Not mine…”

Lu Buzhuo: “.”

Could it be that after sitting with Chu Xuan for a while, he picked up the scent of incense from him?

Before he had time to think about it, he saw Shen Zhou get angry.

His wolf ears stood up straight. He nimbly slipped out of Lu Buzhuo’s lap, grabbed the hand holding the spoon, and, with practiced ease, pushed up the sleeve, accurately found the clasp, and with a series of clinks and clanks, pulled out a long chain, wrapping it around the bedpost.

Lu Buzhuo: “…”

Lu Buzhuo: “Wait, Shen Zhou, let me explain… Don’t push me… What are you trying to do? That just ended, maybe another day?”

Shen Zhou pushed and pulled him back onto the bed. He climbed up as well, pinning down his misbehaving dao companion. He leaned down and rubbed the scented shoulder with his wolf ears a couple of times.

Lu Buzhuo: “.”

He stopped struggling, suddenly a little disappointed.

To think he was expecting something from a dao companion whose mind was addled by demonic energy and couldn’t even dress himself properly. Lu Buzhuo came to his senses, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. What kind of nonsense am I thinking.

Suddenly, Shen Zhou leaned forward and placed a kiss on his brow. As he leaned down, the pendant hanging around his neck swung down, lightly tapping against the bridge of his nose.

“Someone else’s… is gone.” After saying that, he undid the chains.

Lu Buzhuo was stunned for a moment.

When the pendant had landed on the bridge of his nose, he had squinted and then opened his eyes again. His gaze followed the pendant’s cord upward, tracing over the other’s lips and nose, until it rested on those beautifully shaped, slightly lowered eyes. A strong sense of déjà vu suddenly washed over him.

It was as if at some time, in some place, he had also lain like this, looking up at Shen Zhou.

He rolled over and wrapped his arms around Shen Zhou, kissing him back while trying to recall where he had seen this scene before.

…

… …

The sky was so dark it seemed it could collapse at any moment, the clouds as black as ink. Beside him was a constantly swaying lantern, on the verge of extinguishing, illuminating the other’s malevolent eyes.

It was the city tower of Biancheng from his memories.

Lu Buzhuo frowned slightly.

The perspective of this memory seemed a bit too close to Shen Zhou, so close it was as if he wasn’t the one lying on the cold stone bricks of the city tower, having his tongue cut out, his eyes gouged, and suffering a death by a thousand cuts.

The perspective was constantly swaying, rising and falling, occasionally blocked by a piece of clothing. To be precise, he was more like… like the pendant hanging around his neck.

He thought back to his conversation with the shadow.

“If I had been able to break free from the restraints three years ago, why would I have waited for time to turn back?”

“…A stream of light flew in from somewhere, and the power of your soul suddenly surged. I was caught off guard and was sealed away.”

Very few heavenly treasures could directly affect a damaged soul unless the object had some special connection to the soul, or was even originally part of it.

In an instant, Lu Buzhuo had a moment of clarity.

That stream of light was probably his own soul from his past life. It had not dissipated with the death of the past “Lu Buzhuo” but had, for some unknown reason, hidden itself in Shen Zhou’s pendant.

He now knew why he had returned with his memories.

He leaned down and kissed Shen Zhou again, kissing the just-sat-up Shen Zhou so hard he fell back down again.

Shen Zhou: “?”