That night, Meng Huaize had a terrifyingly vivid dream.
The crabapple tree by the stone table in the courtyard, which had already shed its blossoms, was now inexplicably in full bloom again. The pink and white flowers piled up like waves, overflowing with abundance. The sunlight poured down in golden streams, and the air around it seemed to shimmer with a faint golden mist.
Under a few branches stretching outward, Wu Yue stood side by side with Caizhi. Meng Huaize couldn’t make out what they were saying, but through the mist, he could see a subtle, intimate closeness between them that felt unsettlingly ambiguous.
A gentle breeze stirred the air, sending the crabapple petals fluttering down like snowflakes. The air seemed infused with a sweet fragrance. Wu Yue smiled as he raised his hand and plucked a cluster of blossoms from the branch overhead. With a gaze that held a tenderness Meng Huaize had never seen before, Wu Yue lowered his eyes and carefully tucked the flowers into Caizhi’s hair.
Meng Huaize finally heard a sentence clearly. That scoundrel Wu Yue said, “Beautiful.”
Anger surged through Meng Huaize, his vision nearly turning red with fury. He wanted to rush over to them, to shout at the top of his lungs: “Get away from my crabapple tree!”
He wasn’t sure where he was standing, but all he could see was the two of them being intimate beneath his tree, and that shameless demon Wu Yue had even picked his crabapple blossoms.
As the two grew closer, almost touching, Meng Huaize’s rage reached a boiling point. His head felt like it was about to erupt in steam. He didn’t know what he was fighting against, but after a long struggle, he finally took a step forward.
In an instant, the scene shifted. Suddenly, he was standing beneath the tree himself. Caizhi had vanished without a trace, and Wu Yue stood directly in front of him, looking down with a gentle smile, his eyes filled with warmth.
Meng Huaize felt a wave of confusion. All the earlier anger evaporated in a heartbeat, leaving only a strange, lingering feeling he couldn’t quite grasp. He had forgotten about Caizhi entirely, as if she had never been there in the first place—as if it had always been just him standing there, with no one else involved.
At that moment, a hand gently cradled the back of his head, and Wu Yue leaned down, placing a tender kiss on Meng Huaize’s lips. The cool, soft touch of Wu Yue’s lips sent a shiver through Meng Huaize, who closed his eyes, feeling strangely… satisfied.
Meng Huaize’s eyes opened in the dark, still lingering in the remnants of the dream. That peculiar sense of satisfaction remained, a tingling warmth spreading through him, oddly soothing.
Satisfied? As his mind cleared, Meng Huaize jolted, suddenly alert. Wu Yue had kissed him, and not only was he not angry—he had actually felt satisfied?
A flash of lightning tore through the sky, illuminating the room in a stark, white glow, followed by a deafening clap of thunder. Meng Huaize flinched, the sound yanking him out of his thoughts. He realized that sometime during the night, it had started to rain heavily, the downpour outside punctuated by howling winds.
Another flash of lightning lit the sky, immediately followed by a thunderous boom. Meng Huaize curled up slightly, his mind racing absurdly—was he being struck by lightning for harboring such twisted thoughts?
Before he could delve further into this line of thinking, another concern surfaced in his mind. The storm outside—what about Xuezhao and the unopened flower bud?
He scrambled up, nudging Wu Yue. “Wu Yue, it’s raining outside.”
Wu Yue responded with a vague grunt, signaling that he had heard, but kept his eyes closed, clearly intending to continue sleeping.
“I’m not sure how Xuezhao is doing. I need to check on him,” Meng Huaize said, his voice anxious.
Wu Yue, still half-asleep, muttered in annoyance, “He’s a demon. What’s a little rain going to do to him?”
“It’s not just Xuezhao, it’s the flower too,” Meng Huaize insisted, growing more anxious. He gave Wu Yue another push. “Let go of me.”
As soon as Meng opened the door, a rush of cold, rain-soaked wind hit him, carrying the damp chill straight into the room. The courtyard was already a muddy mess, the crabapple tree’s branches and leaves whipping wildly in the storm, their rustling sounding like harsh whispers in the night.
Meng Huaize, cloaked in a raincoat, hurried through the rain to the courtyard wall, calling for Xuezhao twice but receiving no reply.
In the darkness, he could barely see anything. He crouched down and searched for a while before finally finding the flower that Xuezhao had been protecting. The fragile stem was bent under the force of the wind, but fortunately, it hadn’t broken.
Meng Huaize gently touched the delicate bud with his fingers, letting out a sigh of relief. He released the branch and stood up, scanning the courtyard for something to shield the flower from the storm.
The rain was coming down too hard, making it difficult for Meng Huaize to keep his eyes open. Water dripped from his eyelashes as he fumbled around and finally found a tattered piece of cloth in a corner. He tried to cover the flower with it, but before he could even spread it out, the wind snatched the cloth, sending it flapping wildly in all directions, completely out of his control.
Just as Meng Huaize was struggling, he heard a snicker behind him.
Wu Yue stood leaning against the doorframe, dressed casually with his collar open, revealing his smooth, sculpted chest. He watched the scene unfold with amusement, disdainfully calling out, “So clumsy.”
Meng Huaize had no time to argue, still grappling with the flapping cloth. Through the pounding rain, he shouted, “There’s an umbrella behind the door! Come help me hold this!”
Wu Yue raised an eyebrow, clearly finding Meng Huaize’s request laughable. Instead of fetching the umbrella, he stepped into the rain directly. Yet, strangely, not a single drop seemed to touch him. The storm raged around him, but the wind and rain seemed completely irrelevant to him.
Meng Huaize, despite wearing a raincoat, was already soaked through, his clothes clinging to him and his feet practically submerged in water. Compared to Wu Yue, he looked utterly bedraggled.
He tried to pass one corner of the cloth to Wu Yue, but Wu Yue sidestepped it. Crouching down, Wu Yue touched the flower branch lightly with his fingers. A faint golden light flickered, and the swaying branch immediately stilled.
Despite the fierce wind and rain, the branch now swayed only gently, bathed in a subtle, serene golden glow.
Meng Huaize stood there, holding his useless cloth, completely dumbfounded.
Wu Yue yawned and stood up, casually saying, “That should do it. Can we go back to sleep now?”
“Wait,” Meng Huaize called after him. “What about Xuezhao?”
Wu Yue clicked his tongue in annoyance, clearly finding Meng Huaize troublesome. He pointed down at the ground.
Meng Huaize looked down to see Xuezhao lying exhausted beneath the flower branch.
Xuezhao was drenched, panting heavily, his wrinkled belly heaving up and down. After running back and forth in the storm trying to shield the flower, he was utterly worn out.
Seeing Meng Huaize looking at him, Xuezhao struggled to stand up. The rain had made him look even more pitiful, his sparse fur now matted and sticking to his skin, making him resemble a homeless stray caught in the storm.
Feeling a pang of sympathy, Meng Huaize reached out to pat the top of his head.
“The rain’s too heavy,” Meng Huaize said gently. “Come inside and take shelter for a bit.”
Xuezhao nodded vigorously at first, but then hesitated, casting a cautious glance at Wu Yue. Wu Yue snorted but didn’t say anything, turning to walk away. Find the original chapter at novelping.com.
Xuezhao was no bigger than a cat, so Meng Huaize let him crawl under his raincoat and followed closely behind, step by step, back into the house.
The door closed behind them, shutting out the storm. Meng Huaize took off his raincoat, revealing that his clothes were soaked through. His wet hair dripped water onto the floor. Xuezhao, now squatting at the entrance, was still soaked, and a small puddle had already formed beneath him.
Meanwhile, Wu Yue, the great demon, had ventured out into the storm without getting so much as a drop on him. He now lounged lazily on the bed, casually tossing a glowing golden orb in the air as if nothing had happened.
Meng Huaize found a dry cloth in a cupboard and tossed it to Xuezhao. “Wipe yourself off first.”
After tidying himself up, Meng Huaize looked down to see that Xuezhao was still holding the cloth awkwardly with his paws, barely moving. His body remained soaking wet.
Meng Huaize sighed, crouched down, and took the cloth from Xuezhao, helping him dry off.
Xuezhao remained still, letting Meng Huaize wipe him, though his eyes kept drifting towards the bed, and to Meng Huaize’s surprise, his brownish skin seemed to be turning slightly red.
Meng Huaize paused, wondering if he was imagining things. The scene felt oddly strange. Xuezhao quickly glanced at him and then lowered his head, his small, withered paws clasped together in front of him, his soft ears twitching against his head.
Something about the atmosphere felt off. Meng Huaize hesitated for a moment before asking, “What are you looking at?”
The ugly little demon suddenly covered his eyes with both paws, laughing shyly. He rocked slightly on his haunches and said in a small voice, “Are you two… that kind of relationship?”
Meng Huaize was shocked. “Wh-what?”
Xuezhao uncovered one paw and peeked at the bed, still blushing shyly. “You two sleep together. My papa and mama sleep together too.”
Meng Huaize felt a rush of heat shoot to his head, nearly knocking him off balance. His face flushed red as he stammered, “No, no, it’s not the same! We’re both—both men! I mean, I’m a man, and he’s…”
He broke into a panicked, sweaty rant, not even sure what he was saying anymore.
Xuezhao lowered his other paw, tilting his head in confusion. “That’s fine too! On Bianxi Mountain, Qing Zhi and Hai Yisuo are both male, and they kiss too.”
Meng Huaize’s mouth dropped open, speechless.
“Oh?” Wu Yue, now intrigued, clapped his hands to make the golden orb disappear and looked at Xuezhao with great interest. “If that’s the case, then we have something similar on Jiu Yi Mountain. That cat demon Tun Nan lives in the same cave as that fox from Hezhou. So they must be like that too.”
Looking like he had just had an epiphany, Wu Yue’s nonchalance prompted Xuezhao to feel bolder. “We have even more like that on Bianxi Mountain…”
Meng Huaize stood frozen in place, listening in utter disbelief as his entire world seemed to shatter. Help, he thought. What did I just hear? I feel so… contaminated.