Ji Yunlang was not one to sleep in; even from childhood, he had always woken up earlier than Jiang Zhou.
His master was someone who lived detached from the mortal world. When Ji Yunlang was young, he would wake up early, eat his breakfast alone, and head out to practice his swordplay on his own without ever waking Jiang Zhou.
Once he grew up, waking up early meant first preparing a meal for Jiang Zhou, then entering the bedroom to wake his still-sleeping master with kisses. If kisses didn’t work, he would touch him until he woke. If Jiang Zhou rose obediently, Ji Yunlang would lead him to eat. If Jiang Zhou felt lazy and refused to get up, Ji Yunlang would slide into his blanket, teasing and fooling around with him until the sun was high in the sky, at which point they would rise to directly eat lunch.
Sometimes, after several rounds of play, Jiang Zhou would still feel sleepy. He would tug the blanket back over himself to drift back to sleep, leaving Ji Yunlang feeling slighted and thoroughly displeased.
And whenever Ji Yunlang was displeased, Jiang Zhou would be the one to suffer.
Outside, the sky was already bright. Unable to sleep, Ji Yunlang rolled over and looked out the window, locking eyes with the person sitting in the tree.
Seeing that he was awake, Jiang Zhou vaulted through the window, lifting the freshly bought breakfast before him. “Hungry?”
Ji Yunlang sat up. “No. Back when you admired my mother, did you deliver breakfast to her like this too?”
“No,” Jiang Zhou replied. “She had your father.”
Though his tone was flat, only he knew the bitterness behind it. Ji Yunlang instantly felt a sense of shared misery, repeating to him once more: “Unrequited love never has a good ending.”
Ji Yunlang needed to get dressed. Summoning his Qiankun bag, he fished out an identical red outer robe right before Jiang Zhou’s eyes.
Just how many of these identical robes does he have?
When Ji Yunlang was at the Qingxiao Sect, he wore the silver-white sect uniform. Since returning from the Bafang Region, he almost always wore red. It seemed that from the age of ten until now, his body had only ever worn these two styles.
Jiang Zhou was growing a bit tired of looking at them. He planned to get Ji Yunlang a few new robes; he wanted to see him wear something different.
Noticing his lingering gaze, Ji Yunlang pointed toward the window. “Get out.”
Jiang Zhou: “I’ll wait for you outside.”
Ji Yunlang ignored him, inwardly hoping he wouldn’t run into him out there.
When he finally changed his clothes and stepped out of the inn, his wish came true, he indeed saw no sign of the man.
He planned to head to the restaurant first to grab Husheng and throw him back to the Bafang Region, then set off for Penglai Island to search for Jiang Zhou.
If he found him, great. If not, so be it. Jiang Zhou was an infuriating man; Ji Yunlang didn’t want to see him again for the rest of his life.
Suddenly, his head was gently patted. Someone stuffed a bag of steaming-hot pastries into his hand, smelling incredibly sweet.
Ji Yunlang had only ever had his head patted by Jiang Zhou when he was a child, yet lately, he was frequently patted by this creepy senior. Staring at the paper bag of pastries in his hand, he warned, “If you keep laying your hands on me, I will.”
Before he could finish, his head was patted again.
Walking beside him, Jiang Zhou took a piece of pastry from the bag, ate it, and said, “No extra ingredients.”
Ji Yunlang was annoyed to death. He hurled the entire paper bag back at him, quickening his steps to put some distance between them. “Stop following me.”
Jiang Zhou caught the bag nimbly, ensuring not a single pastry fell out. Seeing that Ji Yunlang refused to eat, he spat out the bite in his mouth as well, following closely behind at a moderate distance.
Ji Yunlang entered the restaurant, only to walk right back out, his expression extremely dark.
Left unsupervised, Husheng had run out to play again first thing in the morning. It was all the fault of that Hu Ye, giving a child so much money just to show off his wealth.
Jiang Zhou caught up at this moment. Seeing his dark expression, he said knowingly, “Time for breakfast.”
When the stomach is empty, the temper flares.
Ji Yunlang ignored him, walking down the street on his own. The moment he turned into an empty alleyway, he abruptly drew his sword, pressing it against the neck of the man following him, pinning him to the wall.
The edge of the blade bit into his neck, immediately drawing beads of blood.
“Just how long.” The blade pressed deeper, drawing even more blood. Ji Yunlang’s expression was filled with impatience. “do you plan to follow me?”
Leaning against the wall without moving, Jiang Zhou lifted another bag of snacks he had bought along the way to his face, saying, “Salty.”
If you don’t like sweet, there’s salty.
He didn’t know what Ji Yunlang liked. For the past several years, it had always been Ji Yunlang feeding him. Jiang Zhou was not a picky eater and had no strong preferences; he loved whatever Ji Yunlang cooked.
He just didn’t know if Ji Yunlang was picky.
The sword was lodged in his neck, drawing blood with every word he spoke. Ji Yunlang stared deathly at his face, the aroma of green onion oil from the snacks drifting past his nose.
After a long silence, Ji Yunlang withdrew his sword, snatched the other bag of sweet pastries from his hand, and walked out of the alleyway. “I hate green onions.”
Understanding dawned on Jiang Zhou. He raised his hand to wipe the trail of blood from his neck, stepping forward to follow him.
Hurts like hell.
Ji Yunlang is truly brutal.
At dusk, Ji Yunlang finally caught Husheng outside Luxi City.
Husheng had wanted to see the grander sights outside the city, and despite not knowing the roads, he had boldly run out on his own.
Ji Yunlang asked him, “Did you see them?”
Having just been thoroughly frightened by being lifted by his collar, Husheng hadn’t even wiped his tears dry yet. He nodded quickly. “I saw them! There are trees! Clouds! A river! Birds! And mmph mmph mmph!”
Ji Yunlang covered his mouth, looking at him with distaste. “A complete waste of all those books you read.”
Jiang Zhou stepped in to rescue him once again, asking, “Where is Lin Xiao?”
“He didn’t come out,” Husheng hid behind Jiang Zhou to escape Ji Yunlang, pointing toward the city. “I asked him to come with me, but he said he wouldn’t take a single step out of that restaurant even if it killed him. Otherwise, Eldest Brother would definitely appear silently behind him with a broadsword.”
Jiang Zhou nodded, thinking: This Lin Xiao is truly worry-free.
Hiding behind Jiang Zhou, Husheng was very close to the large blade on his back. Forgetting to wipe his tears, he stared with wide eyes, hesitantly wanting to reach out and touch it.
Ji Yunlang was already angry at Husheng for running off. Seeing this display, he let out a cold sneer, turned, and walked away.
Still captivated by the blade, Husheng didn’t notice Ji Yunlang’s departure. However, the “Eldest Brother” suddenly grabbed his shoulders, pushing him forward a few steps. Pointing at Ji Yunlang’s retreating figure, Jiang Zhou said, “Go coax him.”
Husheng: “…”
Jiang Zhou gave him another nudge, urging, “Hurry.”
Husheng quickly ran forward, familiarly wrapping his arms around Ji Yunlang’s arm. Ji Yunlang shook him off, but he clung right back on, looking up to say something as he refused to let go. This time, Ji Yunlang didn’t shake him off again. He stopped his steps, lowering his eyes to lecture him.
Husheng obediently hung his head and listened, nodding from time to time. “Mhm, I understand. I won’t dare do it again.”
Only when he was sure Husheng had finished coaxing him did Jiang Zhou stop watching from afar and step closer.
When Ji Yunlang is angry, he must be coaxed immediately. Others don’t understand, but Jiang Zhou understands best.
Otherwise, once the opportunity was missed, it would not be easy to coax him back. Just thinking about it made Jiang Zhou’s entire body ache.
Ji Yunlang wanted to send Husheng back to the Bafang Region. Hearing that he had to return alone, Husheng refused to leave, his briefly assumed obedience vanishing instantly.
“What are you trying to do? Are you going to find your wife again? She doesn’t even want you anymore! Besides, my Eldest Brother is right here. Why aren’t you willing to cultivate a relationship with him? What does my Eldest Brother lack compared to your wife?”
Ji Yunlang glanced at Jiang Zhou. “He can’t bear children.”
A lingering shred of hope remained in Husheng’s eyes. He looked up at Jiang Zhou. “Eldest Brother, you.”
Jiang Zhou: “Can’t.”
Husheng’s head drooped in disappointment.
Subsequently, the little boy became entirely lackluster, dragged back to the Bafang Region by Ji Yunlang.
Handing him over to the Bone Dragon, Ji Yunlang instructed the beast to watch the house and the kid. Seeing that the boy still had his head lowered in silence, he rubbed his head. “Wait a bit longer. In a while, I’ll take you to live in the Immortal Region.”
Husheng asked sullenly, “With my Eldest Brother?”
Ji Yunlang said, “No. I already have someone in my heart, and I don’t like your Eldest Brother. You’re still small; no matter what I say, you won’t understand.”
“But if Eldest Brother likes you and you don’t like him, isn’t Eldest Brother very pitiful?”
“Yes,” Ji Yunlang withdrew his hand from his head, lowering his eyes to look at the silver chain on his wrist. “Who isn’t pitiful?”
Midnight, Outside Luxi City
Jiang Zhou led Lin Xiao out of the restaurant. Once they were out of the city, he symbolically drew his blade and pressed it against his neck.
Lin Xiao walked tremblingly ahead of him. “Eldest Brother, whatever you do, please don’t let your hand shake.”
Jiang Zhou: “Mhm.”
“If my father doesn’t show up, you won’t actually silence me permanently, right?”
“I will.”
“Was all our friendship over these past few days…” Lin Xiao choked up, “completely fake?”
They walked into an open glade in the woods.
“It is midnight.”
Jiang Zhou aimed at his neck, raising his blade high.
Lin Xiao froze. “You’re doing this for real?!”
The broadsword swung down fiercely. The moment before it could slice his neck, Lin Xiao closed his eyes and bellowed, “Father!”
“Sp-sp-sp-spare his l-life!”
A thunderous shout echoed from the other end of the woods.
Jiang Zhou stayed his blade. Lin Xiao’s legs went so weak he nearly collapsed.
After a swift rustling through the trees, a middle-aged version of Lin Xiao appeared before them.
Jiang Zhou looked at Lin Xiao’s face, then examined the middle-aged man opposite him, asking in puzzlement, “So.” He choked for a moment, then collected his thoughts and restarted, “so alike?”
Lin Xiao had yet to recover from the fright of the blade, but his father answered for him first, “N-n-no mistake. My son and I are f-f-famous for being identical. Br-brother, did you w-w-want to catch me, but c-c-caught my son by mistake instead?”
Hearing him struggle through this entire sentence just to save his son, Jiang Zhou felt inexplicably stifled. He silently sheathed the broadsword he had used for intimidation.
Releasing Lin Xiao, he said to the father, “Let’s talk.”
Lin Father’s face instantly filled with difficulty.
Lin Xiao sighed. “My father is most terrified of anyone wanting to talk with him.”
…Until Jiang Zhou pulled out paper and a brush.
The two of them found a large tree stump and sat down to communicate.
Moonlight poured into the center of the glade. Jiang Zhou and Lin Father huddled together, writing back and forth with flying speed, neither wasting a single second. The tips of their brushes practically sparked.
Lin Xiao sat opposite them, watching. Although it was highly inappropriate and extremely dangerous, he still felt an inexplicable sense of peace.
An Eldest Brother who writes very fast, a father who writes very fast. A reliable Eldest Brother, a reliable father.
Jiang Zhou wrote: That secret code care to elaborate on it?
Since Lin Father held the old roster, he must know of the new roster’s existence.
Lin Father actually found it inconvenient. He had already written the character “No” on the paper, but Jiang Zhou casually unsheathed his blade, laying it horizontally across Lin Father’s lap.
He wrote: The skin of your Lin family.
He said, “Is very easy to flay.”
Sitting opposite them, Lin Xiao wiped away a nonexistent tear and said to his father, “Cousin Lin Wei is already gone.”
A flash of terror crossed Lin Father’s eyes. Just as he was about to ask something, Lin Xiao added, “But don’t worry, Father. There’s no need to worry about Uncle Six having to bury his own son, because before Cousin Lin Wei passed, Uncle Six had already passed away first. He died peacefully in his bed and was buried together with Aunt Six.”
His father remained terrified, so Lin Xiao continued, “Of course, before Cousin Lin Wei passed, I had already retrieved our family’s item.”
Lin Father finally let out a sigh of relief, patting his chest, and asked him, “Wh-where is the i-item?”
Jiang Zhou pulled out the scroll, rolling it along the hilt of his blade to spread it out. As he swept his hand across the paper with spiritual light, the names began to tremble, looking as though they might leap out at any moment.
Seeing this, Lin Father knew he had run into an expert. The lies he had prepared to fabricate dissolved at the tip of his brush.
“Were you…” Lin Father asked Jiang Zhou, “a-also once part of the Pavilion?”
Jiang Zhou wrote a single word for him: Yun.
“The Yun family.” Lin Father murmured, “is already ruined, just like the J-Jiang family.”
Lin Father mistook the man before him for a lackey like himself with their master’s clan fallen, they had nothing left to rely on and could only wander about.
Lin Father sighed, pulling a sheet of paper from beneath the scroll, and wrote: After the head of the Yun family passed, they still haven’t decided on a new head to this day. Even the head of his guards has vanished without a trace, leaving no one to coordinate with. Coupled with the current high-risk period, the Pavilion has completely severed ties with Penglai Island. I see that you are no ordinary fellow, Brother. Could it be that because of this, having lost a master to serve, you left Penglai Island?
Seeing him speculate about his origins, Jiang Zhou wrote back: As the Grand Elder, Jiang Nian failed in his supervision. The disciple exiled from his own sect broke through the Bafang Region, threatening the Immortal Region, so the Pavilion marked it as his failure. Once something goes wrong in the Bafang Region, the remaining four major sects will push the Jiang family and the Qingxiao Sect to the front lines first. Until this matter is resolved, a blade will hang over Elder Jiang’s head. And your Lin family is merely the scapegoat Jiang Nian found for himself.
The densely packed names on the scroll trembled and leaped out, forming a dark mass of translucent spirits wrapped in resentment that coiled around Lin Father.
Jiang Zhou wrote: You used to do tasks for Jiang Nian, and your hands are stained with plenty of the Bafang Region’s blood. The five major sects want to use Jiang Nian to take the blame, and Jiang Nian will use you to take the blame. Fortunately, those Bafang Region people you once drove and toyed with like livestock have long since died out. Even if something happens in the future, no one will come looking for trouble with you. Therefore, fleeing with your entire family is your wisest choice.
“You.”
Lin Father stared at him blankly. After a long while, he wrote deflatedly: There are dozens of people working for him, and I am merely a small fry among them. Now that Elder Jiang wants to use me to block the blade at my age, with elders above and youth below, what can I do? Sit around and wait for death?
Jiang Zhou: It doesn’t matter, you all have to sooner or later anyway.
Halfway through writing the word “die,” he stopped his brush, crossing out and blacking out that line.
Lin Father: “…”
Did he think I couldn’t see that?!
When Jiang Zhou asked about the new roster, Lin Father shook his head. Jiang Zhou placed the blade against his neck; though sweat drenched his brow in fear, he still shook his head, writing: It is definitely not at the Qingxiao Sect. After that incident back then, Jiang Nian became much more cautious, planning to wait several decades or a century until the Bafang Region was completely stabilized before making a move. Therefore, the Qingxiao Sect has not handled that new batch of people in the Bafang Region, so the roster naturally wouldn’t be in our hands.
Jiang Zhou fell into contemplation. “Back then.”
Lin Father knew he understood, sighing as he wrote: Yes, back then. I’ve forgotten how many years have passed. If not for that incident, the five major sects wouldn’t be so paranoid at the slightest movement from the Bafang Region, and you and I wouldn’t have fallen to this state. Working for the five major sects paid so well and brought so many benefits, and I could even find such a great sect for my son to study and cultivate in. If the current situation didn’t forbid it, I truly wanted to keep working for them.
Jiang Zhou snatched his paper and brush, saying, “Twenty-four years.”
Lin Father was astonished. “Y-you r-remember so clearly?”
Jiang Zhou burned the stack of papers in his hand into ash, scattering it with a wave of his hand. Staring at the drifting embers, he said, “I cannot forget.”
On that day, corpses piled up like mountains, the black sands soaked in blood into mud, and even the red moon carried the stench of blood. The two foolish people of the Bafang Region had their bones gouged and tendons pulled, their heads hung high for public display. Yet even before dying, their desperate counterattack had only managed to leave a single scratch on the culprit’s wrist.
Jiang Zhou still remembered that night. Having made an appointment by the lake, Yun Yan had arrived fashionably late, having bathed, his hair still dripping with water.
Jiang Zhou had noticed the bleeding scratch on his wrist at a glance, asking him how it happened. Yun Yan hadn’t hidden it either, placing his hand in his palm and saying with a smile: “I ran into two wild cats blocking my path on the way—one male, one female. It’s spring, and they were wild. I accidentally got scratched while dealing with them.”
Jiang Zhou had told him his kindness was unnecessary, applying medicine for him and saying that such wild cats were no good, that he shouldn’t bother with them in the future.
Yun Yan’s eyes had curved, a smile appearing on his lips. On that day, his face had been exceptionally pale, while the color of his lips had been exceptionally deep. Staring into Jiang Zhou’s eyes, he had whispered: “I must bother with them.”
Jiang Zhou retched.
Startled, Lin Xiao quickly ran over to ask him what was wrong. Jiang Zhou pushed him away, swiftly retreating into the empty woods, vomiting until his head grew dizzy.
Before him was a vast stretch of sinister trees blocking the moonlight. The evil spirits clad in human skin were hidden behind this darkness, beneath their smiles lay one bloody fangs after another.
Jiang Zhou left the Lin father and son outside the woods. Gathering his scroll and carrying his blade, he walked to the place closest to the Bafang Region.
The moment Ji Yunlang emerged, he was ambushed or more accurately, openly attacked, receiving a full embrace.
He delivered a fierce punch to the man’s waist, bringing his sword up against his back neck, saying coldly, “Do you love harassing me that much?”
Jiang Zhou did not move. His front neck had just been slashed earlier, and now it was his back neck’s turn. Ji Yunlang drew blood, yet Jiang Zhou still didn’t let go, burying his head in his shoulder as he said, “Not biting you. Just a hug.”
Just as Ji Yunlang was about to strike him with his sword, he said, “I miss your mother.”
“You…” Ji Yunlang was choked up, falling silent.
Jiang Zhou said, “Your mother was a very good person. She loved to smile, used to make clothes for me, treated my wounds, and told me about the Immortal Region. I brought her heart-shaped stones, fresh beast bones, and the only green bud on the tree. Your father.”
He choked. Ji Yunlang waited for a moment before connecting, “My father beat you.”
Jiang Zhou: “Mhm.”
Ji Yunlang: “You asked for it.”
Jiang Zhou stopped speaking.
Ji Yunlang asked, “How long do you plan to hug?”
Jiang Zhou remained motionless, saying, “If you don’t let me hug, I will bite.”
“Being a rogue and having unrequited love will never end well.” Ji Yunlang sheathed his sword, his finger pad wiping the trail of blood from the back of his neck as he stared at the silver chain on his wrist, his gaze calm.
He didn’t know if he should hate Jiang Zhou right now or miss him, nor did he know if the newly freed Jiang Zhou would hate him or miss him.
Either way, whether one was a rogue or an unrequited lover, there would never be a good ending.