Chapter 77:
This Venerable One Feels Very Awkward
CHU WANNING AND MO RAN left Peach Blossom Springs and traveled all over the map, searching for information regarding when markets opened at the various sects. After several days of hasty travel, they finally decided to stay a night at an inn in a small town.
They’d hardly rested since leaving Peach Blossom Springs, so Mo Ran had retired to his own room a while ago. Chu Wanning sat at a table, lit a candle, and contemplated the porcelain bottle in his hand under warm yellow light.
Inside the white jade porcelain bottle were thirty or so golden pills. It was fortunate that the Xuanji Elder had brought this bottle with him when he came. If not for that, Chu Wanning didn’t know what identity he would have had to assume with Mo Ran.
“This is new medicine from Tanlang. There’s about thirty in there,” Xuanji had told Chu Wanning back at the cave. “He did some research in the ancient archives and changed some ingredients, so one pill will allow you to regain your adult form for seven days. Here, these will last you a while.”
“Send Tanlang my thanks.”
“There’s no need for thanks.” Xuanji smiled with a wave of his hand. “Tanlang puts on a stern face, but he’s very curious about your condition. Oh, right, he also said to let you know that this medicine isn’t too stable. Intense emotions might diminish its effectiveness, so be careful about that.”
Chu Wanning was caught up thinking through Xuanji’s words when he heard a knock at the door. He quickly tucked the porcelain bottle away and extinguished the incense in the burner. “Come in.”
Mo Ran had just gotten out of the bath, so he walked into Chu Wanning’s room wearing only a thin bathrobe while wiping his long hair, which was dark as black jade.
Chu Wanning cleared his throat, thankful that his face remained neutral before eventually saying, “What is it?”
“My room is no good. I don’t like it. Shizun, can I sleep on your floor tonight?”
Mo Ran was being awfully vague, and Chu Wanning wasn’t that gullible, so he obviously sensed that something was up. “What don’t you like about it?”
“I-it’s just…just no good.” Mo Ran snuck a glance at Chu Wanning before mumbling, “The sound insulation is terrible.”
Chu Wanning furrowed his brows, too noble and chaste by nature to catch his meaning. Without another word, he pulled on his outer robe and walked barefoot to Mo Ran’s room. Mo Ran couldn’t have stopped him if he tried, and so could only follow after.
“It’s a little spare, but not so much as to be intolerable.” Chu Wanning stood in the room and looked around, a tinge of chiding in his voice. “When did you get so spoiled?”
Then a series of crashing sounds came from the room next door, like something heavy had fallen to the floor.
Mo Ran couldn’t bear to listen to anymore, so before things got even worse, he reached out and tugged the corner of Chu Wanning’s sleeve. “Shizun,” he pleaded, “let’s leave already.”
Chu Wanning’s brows furrowed. “Really, what’s the matter with you? Just what do you find so objectionable?”
Mo Ran opened his mouth, but before he could get his words together, coquettish giggles drifted over through the wall.
“Chang-gongzi is sooo naughty, always bullying me—nnh, n-no, wait…ah!”
“Heh heh, babe, this peony on your chest is so pretty. Let me take a whiff, see if it smells nice too.”
The walls were so thin that they could hear even the rustling of clothes on the other side. The rough pants of the man and the sweet moans of the woman mingled together into something truly harrowing to the ears.
Incredibly, Chu Wanning didn’t understand what was happening at first. It wasn’t until a few moments later that he put two and two together, and his pretty eyes flew wide open while the color of his face changed rapidly from white to red to blue, then finally settled on ashen as he cursed, “Shameless!” and stormed out of the room with a sweep of his sleeve.
“Pfft.”
Mo Ran failed to hold it in and started chuckling quietly behind him. Luckily, Chu Wanning was so flustered that even his arms were swinging out of sync as he walked stiffly away, so he didn’t notice
Mo Ran laughing at him.
Only after getting back to his room and downing a whole cup of tea did Chu Wanning finally regain some semblance of composure. He nodded toward Mo Ran. “Such obscene speech is indeed detrimental to one’s cultivation. You may stay here tonight.”
“Oh.” Truth be told, when Chu Wanning had suddenly appeared at Peach Blossom Springs and done everything in his power to protect Mo Ran without doubting him in the slightest, Mo Ran had been beside himself with shock and happiness in equal measure. Now that things had settled down, he couldn’t help feeling giddy. At this moment, under the candlelight, his shizun’s habitually impassive face somehow seemed a lot cuter. Sitting cross-legged on the floor with his chin propped up, Mo Ran’s eyes lit with his smile as he stared at Chu Wanning.
“What are you looking at?”
“I haven’t seen Shizun for so long—I just wanna take an extra look.” The youth’s tone carried his smile, and his gaze was warm and bright. Now that Mo Ran studied him, Chu Wanning…really did look quite like Xia-shidi.
Chu Wanning glared. “Instead of looking at me, go dry your hair. How are you going to sleep with it dripping like that?”
“I forgot the towel in my room.” Mo Ran grinned. “Shizun, do it for me?”
Chu Wanning eyed him.
For a period of time, Xue Meng had been injured and unable to lift his arm, and whenever he washed his hair, his shizun had dried it for him. Chu Wanning had always done it very quickly by regulating his spiritual energy to warm the towel and evaporate the water.