Sleeping together.
“Our child?” Cen Moyu asked in confusion. “Gugu is not your child.”
He is mine.
Wenren Qi repeated this in his mind countless times. He reminded Cen Moyu, “Did you not say I was the child’s…”
The hatchling, still clutching his father’s lapel, chirped, “Godfather.”
Wenren Qi glanced at him. The little bird quickly burrowed into his father’s robes, pointing its tail feathers toward the man.
The chick desperately wanted to tell Cen Moyu the truth, but Wenren Qi had threatened him within his sea of consciousness. Wenren Qi claimed he was here to protect both father and son; otherwise, they would be in danger within the Demon Capital. The hatchling knew what had happened on his hatching day. Wenren Qi was indeed very useful. Since the chick’s feathers had not even grown in yet, he could not protect his father and truly needed Wenren Qi. Since his father was putting on an act by refusing to be the biological father and insisting on being the godfather instead, the little bird had no choice but to interact with Wenren Qi this way.
“I almost forgot,” Cen Moyu said to Wenren Qi with guilt. “I am sorry.”
Is this how he has looked at people during his hundred years as a closed door disciple? Wenren Qi wondered.
No wonder he often heard about visiting sects. Even Old Wen from the Jixue Sect had sent an invitation for his child’s celebration, never forgetting to mention in the letter that a certain elder’s child from their sect had proposed to the Qingheng closed door disciple and been miserably rejected. Looking into those eyes, anyone would want to hide him away.
“Are you angry?” There were other guests on this floor. Some were being escorted up by drunken song tower attendants. Demons were as common as could be here. As they passed, long tails would swish back and forth, and Cen Moyu’s gaze drifted elsewhere.
Wenren Qi followed his gaze. Remembering that Cen Moyu had looked at Hu Xinchi the same way, he let out a cold laugh. “You like that kind?”
“Your feathers look better.”
“Thank you.” Cen Moyu reluctantly withdrew his gaze. “It is very late. Can we talk tomorrow?”
“No.” Wenren Qi took a step forward. It seemed that if he moved once more, he could wrap his arm around Cen Moyu and close the door, just like the guest earlier, laughing and entering the room to do something unspeakable.
Cen Moyu’s stature was similar to the sparrow who had snuck into the Qingheng Sect. Wenren Qi had exposed Mai Li’s lies and learned that he had only infiltrated the sect for his lover, Tian Sui. Thus, he had not made things difficult for him. Whether he would make things difficult for Tian Sui was another matter entirely.
When mentioning Cen Moyu’s goal, the sparrow who had cultivated into an inner disciple had flickering eyes, seemingly trying to hide something. Worried that the Sect Leader might crush the little bird he had raised in a fit of rage, the scarred Tian Sui stepped forward. Under Mai Li’s disapproving gaze, he informed the Sect Leader that Cen Moyu seemed to have feelings for Lu Jijun.
Seems sounded uncertain. Tracking Cen Moyu all the way with this puppet body, Wenren Qi had replayed the sequence of being successfully taken by a demon more than a hundred times. It seemed nonsensical. If he was in love with Lu Jijun, why would Cen Moyu snatch him away? Why did he not just fly directly to Lu Jijun’s cave dwelling?
“What are you standing here for? Do you want to do it here?”
“What are you thinking, sir? I will see you back to your room.”
Midnight was a very tall song tower. The suspended lotus platform in the center served as the stage for the demon performances. Even standing at the edge, one could still hear the sounds of silk and bamboo instruments. Some guests who had drunk too much were being sent up, stumbling past Cen Moyu and Wenren Qi. The man with his back turned was tall, but Cen Moyu was facing the corridor. His face alone was enough to draw eyes. A bear demon widened its eyes and took a deep breath. “I want him to accompany me.”
Cen Moyu suddenly understood why Yu Xiang had refused to let him find a job in a song tower. Even though the Demon Capital in the East was more orderly than the one in the West, it could not escape the nature of demon beasts. During the day, nothing seemed amiss and everyone lived in harmony, but once night fell, the atmosphere changed completely.
Cen Moyu desperately wanted to close the door, but his original host’s old friend was still standing there, lost in thought. This one looked ordinary and was always expressionless, but letting the child acknowledge him as godfather was based on past sentiment. The fact remained that the child and Cen Moyu had been saved by this demon. Cen Moyu could not bring himself to be cold. He clung to the wooden door, gathered his courage, and met Wenren Qi’s gaze. “Then come in and speak.”
“Do not pull me! I want him to accompany me! With such a beautiful face, what kind of demon is this little sir?”
The drunken bear demon stumbled over. The murky scent of alcohol made Wenren Qi frown. He quickly pulled Cen Moyu to him and slammed the door shut.
“This is very dangerous.” Even if the spiritual energy on the chick was masked by the arrival of another bloodline, this place was still repulsive to a cultivator. Wenren Qi held Cen Moyu’s extremely slender waist and effortlessly placed him on the bed. “How did you survive before this?”
The palm of the male demon resting on his waist was very hot. Cen Moyu felt a strange sense of familiarity with the size and shape. He had never been so close to anyone, save for the one where he had been thoroughly explored inside and out, resulting in a child. Cen Moyu could not help but steal a few glances at the vine demon. This face was truly unremarkable, so strange that it had no memorable features, as if it would be forgotten in the blink of an eye. It was completely different from Wenren Qi’s face, which was impossible to forget.
Why did I think of Wenren Qi at this moment?
Tian Sui had said the Sect Leader had descended the mountain, but Mai Li, who had returned, had not sent Cen Moyu any news, indicating no unusual movement in the Qingheng Sect. How could the leader of the world’s number one cultivation sect, located ten thousand miles away, come to the Demon Capital? Perhaps it was for something else. According to Yu Xiang, the City Lord of the Demon Capital was over three thousand years old and possessed unfathomable cultivation. Rumor had it that the Qingheng Sect Leader, Wenren Qi, had visited the Demon Capital with friends in his youth and challenged the City Lord. The City Lord had been full of praise for Wenren Qi’s talent and did not take the youth’s challenge to heart.
“What are you looking at?” Wenren Qi saw Cen Moyu sitting dazed and assumed he had been frightened by the bear demon. “I am not that kind of creature.”
“You are also a demon,” Cen Moyu said, snapping back to reality. He scanned Wenren Qi’s build, comparing it to the man in his blurry memories who had tormented him. Seeing the face, he could not help but feel disappointed. He hesitated for a long time before offering a sincere thanks. “But you are a good demon.”
Wenren Qi gave a mocking laugh. “Do you think I am ugly?”
When Elder Qinxun first made the puppet, Wenren Qi had been dissatisfied. Ordinary was fine, but this face was too ordinary. It was not ugly, but it certainly was not handsome. It felt as if all the faces in the human world were added or subtracted from this one, leaving no memory points. The Elder refused to change it, insisting that Wenren Qi would eventually understand the advantage. Wenren Qi asked what it was, but the Elder would not say. Since he was in a rush, he had to settle for attaching his soul to the puppet and descending the mountain.
Even though he had guessed this bird was fond of beauty, Wenren Qi still felt a hint of regret for not arguing more with Elder Qinxun. If the puppet’s face had even one tenth of his original appearance, it would not have caused this bird demon such disappointment, resulting in him being praised as merely a good demon. That was not what he had said that night.
“No, no,” Cen Moyu waved his hands. “I do not judge people by their looks.”
“I know I do not look good,” Wenren Qi sat beside him, acting as if there was no awkwardness in their reunion. He stared at the hatchling sticking its butt out in Cen Moyu’s lap and could not help but maliciously poke its tail feathers. “So that is why you do not want me.”
The man looked ordinary and his voice was raspy and unpleasant. Cen Moyu was good looking himself and his ex boyfriend had been quite handsome, so he had some standards for appearance and physique. This person had saved his life, and he did not have those feelings for him, making it difficult. He thought that the original host’s romantic debts were so hard to repay.
“It is not that I do not want you, and we never said we would marry,” Cen Moyu tried his best to recall the original host’s memories. That vine demon had been silent while the little bird chirped away. “If you have also transformed into a human, we can travel together as companions.”
“Does traveling as companions not carry the possibility of marriage?” the male demon sitting next to him countered. Cen Moyu thought for a long time before bringing up the protagonist rumors he had heard from Yu Xiang. “Well, I also heard that the Sect Leader of the Qingheng Sect traveled here with companions before, and he did not marry his friends.”
The Fairy Pitta’s eyes were pure, and he had not been tainted by much demonic aura in the city. Wenren Qi had interrogated Mai Li and learned that his demonic aura was removed by soaking in a certain treasure. Cen Moyu seemed to possess a demon body but lacked any demonic aura.
“Who said that?” Since the person in question was right there, he could clarify. Wenren Qi stared at Cen Moyu’s open lapels, where the chick seemed to have fallen into a dazed sleep. “His friends are all married.”
“What? All of them?” Hearing about Wenren Qi made Cen Moyu perked up for a moment. “Was it not just the two of them traveling?”
“Many people.” Wenren Qi was not young, and Elder Jueya had nagged him to death about marriage, often using Wen Jinggen as a benchmark. He married early, and though his children were born late, they were now married too. Unlike you, tsk tsk tsk.
“How do you know?” Cen Moyu asked. “Did you not transform even later than I did?”
The way he looked at Wenren Qi was without fear, unlike that chaotic, rainy night where he was clingy and close. Wenren Qi’s parents had a good relationship, and he was on good terms with his elder brother and younger sister. Logically, his personality should have been gentle and he should not have turned out so crooked. Yet he naturally loathed having others close to him. Even when traveling with friends, he would either be in the front or the back alone. Being in pairs was an invisible burden to him, though he did not demand the same of others.
The person transformed from a Fairy Pitta turned his gaze toward him, wanting to hear him speak without a hint of desire. Wenren Qi suppressed a surge of heat coming from nowhere and gazed at Cen Moyu, speaking with that raspy puppet voice. “I heard about it.”
Cen Moyu was a bit disappointed. “I also heard about it. Yours might not necessarily be true.”
“What I said is true.”
“Why? You did not see it with your own eyes.”
Those things happened hundreds of years ago. Cen Moyu had been a closed door disciple for a century and knew very little about the protagonists, relying entirely on disciple gossip. After descending the mountain, he had also heard many folk legends. For instance, the Qingheng Sect Leader had an elder brother who died in the Abyss of Delusion. Publicly, it was said they perished together with a demon, but in reality, he was madly in love with the demon. Wenren Qi’s younger sister, Wenren Jin’an, had died at the hands of a fox demon, leaving no remains. Wenren Qi had once refused the position of Sect Leader and wanted to leave. If Elder Jueya had not used every means and ounce of strength possible, the Qingheng Sect probably would not have kept its status as the number one sect today.
Wenren Qi was not that vine. “I saw it with my own eyes.”
“When?” The little demon with lake green eyes blinked a few times, his long, tearless lashes fluttering like butterfly wings. Wenren Qi’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he suppressed the images of licking that instinctively surfaced. He turned his face away. “Before I met you.”
“Then was that back when you were still a seed?” Cen Moyu thought about it. “Maybe another bird carried you from the Demon Capital to the outside?”
The more he thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. Wenren Qi did not respond. He had not expected Cen Moyu to be so good at self justification, as if he could easily forgive betrayal and offer comfort to anyone.
Who was that man the bird hatchling mentioned? Does he want to return to that person’s side? Does he plan to lay a nest of eggs for that person, too?
“Cen Moyu.” The cultivator disguised as a demon suddenly called the Fairy Pitta’s name. Cen Moyu jumped. “What is it?”
Wenren Qi asked again, “You still have not told me, what is our child’s name?”
Cen Moyu glanced at the little bird sleeping soundly against his chest. “Gugu.”
Even though the hatchling had accidentally revealed the reason, Wenren Qi still had to ask, “Why?”
Cen Moyu spent a long time wondering if birds like the sound of drums before answering truthfully, “I like the sound of drums.”
Wenren Qi frowned. “But he said there is an uncle who has not shown his face yet. You told him the same.”
“An uncle who has not shown his face?” Cen Moyu thought for a moment and guessed it was the system. He lowered his brows and shook his head, pretending not to know. “Are you not the uncle?”
He truly still had secrets. Could that be someone from the Abyss of Delusion? Was he really an undercover agent sent by the Abyss?
“Stop pulling at my clothes,” Cen Moyu said softly, afraid of waking Little Treasure. “I only have this one set.”
Wenren Qi finally snapped out of it and looked at his hand tightly gripping the bird demon’s sleeve. The other was clearly panicked, seemingly trying to cover the skin exposed by the loose fabric. It was ineffective. Half of his shoulder was visible, and Wenren Qi saw at a glance the place he had once bitten. He let out a cough and hurried to pull the clothes back over Cen Moyu. “I am sorry.”
“It is nothing,” Cen Moyu was still worried about him. “You are so tall and big, yet your complexion is poor. Are you sick?”
He had seen demons transformed from plants in the city who were terrified of insect infestations, so he asked, “Do you have bugs on you?”
Wenren Qi shook his head. From the corner of his eye, he saw the little demon looking at him with concern. Even though his current identity was that of a long lost friend, Wenren Qi was still displeased. He asked Cen Moyu, “Are you like this with everyone?”
“Me?” Cen Moyu was confused. “Are you not my friend?”
He didn’t even confirm my identity; he is far too trusting.
The spies previously sent by the Abyss of Delusion were all elites. Cen Moyu, with such low cultivation and who had run away after failing his theft, looked as if he had no skill whatsoever. Wenren Qi had intended to take him away as soon as he found him, but now he felt he should stay in the Demon Capital for a few more days to see if this silly bird truly had an uncle of unknown origin. If Cen Moyu truly was a spy and intended to hand the child over to that centipede in the Abyss of Delusion, he would never show him mercy.
“I am also the child’s father,” Wenren Qi said, seeing Cen Moyu yawning repeatedly. “Get some rest early.”
“Alright.”
Wenren Qi: “Together.”
Cen Moyu turned pale with fright. “What do you mean together? Are we going to sleep together?”