Yan Fulang lay down with a perfectly natural composure, his hands properly and neatly folded over his stomach, and said, “This is my room, so of course I am sleeping here.”
Ji Yunzhao asked, “?”
Ji Yunzhao almost could not find his own voice, “Your, room?”
Was he currently sleeping in Yan Fulang’s room? He had never heard of someone sleepwalking while drunk.
The beds in both rooms looked exactly the same. When they had replaced the furniture back then, Ji Yunzhao had been lazy and bought identical ones.
The bed curtains were also in the same color scheme and were changed according to the season. The ones embroidered with peach blossom branches that had been hung up in the spring had not been taken down yet, and even the mattress possessed the exact same softness. When Ji Yunzhao used to log into his alt account as the little fat bird to find Yan Fulang to sleep with, he had noticed this bed was firmer than his own, so he had found an excuse to change the mattress as well. This was why he failed to recognize it now.
However, when they were drinking the hangover soup earlier, Yan Fulang surprisingly did not remind him either.
Ji Yunzhao thought for a long time, but he could not figure out what his cheap disciple was scheming. It could not possibly be a long-delayed filial affection for his master, could it?
Yikes, how bizarre. When Yan Fulang used to try various tricks to test him, he certainly did not look like someone who respected his master or honored the Dao very much.
The more Ji Yunzhao thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong. There was truly no need to share a bed and a pillow with his cheap disciple using his main account, so he lifted the blanket to leave.
“As your master, I drank too much and walked into the wrong room, my mistake, a total mistake, ha ha ha, ”
Just as he finished speaking, a slender hand reached out and covered the lifted blanket right back up.
The youth, who had already lain down prepared to sleep, sat up. His pair of peach blossom eyes looked deep and serene, quietly gazing over with a look of inexplicable grievance.
“Has Senior sobered up up, and now feels regret?”
Ji Yunzhao thought, “???”
Regret? Regret what?
Ji Yunzhao stared blankly at his cheap disciple. For some reason, a wave of guilt suddenly washed over his heart, and it took him a long moment before he remembered to frantically ping the system.
“What exactly happened after I got drunk?”
The system said euphemistically, “It is just that, uh, after getting drunk, two single men sharing a room, the kind of thing that frequently happens.”
That kind of thing, could it be,
“!!!”
Ji Yunzhao could no longer sleep. He sat up with a whoosh, “I, I, I, I actually did that kind of thing to Yan Fulang! I am simply worse than a beast!”
The system said, ” ah?”
Wasn’t the disciple who took advantage of his master’s drunkenness to do this and that the one who was more of a beast?
Ji Yunzhao looked with deep worry toward Yan Fulang’s, backside.
“System, what should we do about this? A perfectly good Dragon Aotian protagonist was actually, by me, how can I naturally buy some medicine for him?”
“Host, is there a possibility that you have mistaken things?” The system said, “From a medical point of view, one cannot achieve an erection when completely drunk. Furthermore, you were so drunk that you did not even know your own last name, so it could only be, ”
“Impossible!” Ji Yunzhao said without even thinking, “Whether I was the one who got taken advantage of, would I not know it myself?”
The system understood, “Host, you are exceptionally gifted!”
Ji Yunzhao thought, “?”
The communication between the person and the system took place entirely within their minds, and their chatting speed was very fast. However, to Yan Fulang, who was unaware of the situation, Ji Yunzhao appeared to be dazed, as if he did not know how to answer.
“Senior?” Yan Fulang deliberately lowered his voice, “Are you truly, so unwilling to stay in the same place with me?”
Ji Yunzhao refuted out of reflex, “How could that be!”
“That is good then. I thought I was being loathed by Senior.”
Yan Fulang seemed a little tired. After covering Ji Yunzhao with the blanket, he gently patted the soft surface of the quilt.
“The bed is too big. When I sleep alone, I always feel it is empty and desolate, and I am not used to it. In these ten years, this is also my first time sleeping together with another person. When I was young, ”
Yan Fulang suddenly let out a self-deprecating laugh and did not continue speaking, “Senior, please do not laugh at me.”
Ten years ago, Yan Fulang was only seven years old when his family met with a sudden catastrophic change, which must have been very painful. And after getting drunk, Ji Yunzhao still did not know what exactly he had done to the boy.
Ji Yunzhao’s heart softened, “I won’t.”
Perhaps the un-faded alcohol inside his body was still taking effect, because Ji Yunzhao actually lay down along with the momentum and did not get up again.
With so many things happening, his current brain clearly could not process them, and a wave of drowsiness suddenly swept over him violently.
Before falling asleep, he vaguely sensed a stream of icy cold moisture spreading across the bed. Yan Fulang already had no need to soak in the cold spring every day, so this coldness, was it his own illusion?
When Ji Yunzhao woke up, the daylight was bright. He checked the time and realized it was almost noon.
Yan Fulang was not by his side. The other half of the blanket was neatly spread across the surface of the bed, while his own half, was best left unmentioned.
He crawled up sluggishly, and for the first time, he proactively and consciously tidied up the bed.
The bedroom door was opened by a small crack. He stealthily poked his head out, and seeing that there was no one and no cat around, he finally felt relieved and tiptoed back to his own room.
After changing his clothes and taking a bath, Ji Yunzhao curled up onto the soft couch where he usually spent his time.
Everything that happened yesterday, he remembered it all now.
It was not the alcohol-induced debauchery that the system had suggested, but it was not much better either.
Ji Yunzhao slowly covered his head, curling his entire body into the small blanket.
Was that person who became crazy and erratic after drinking really himself? How did handcuffs even get involved? He had even told Yan Fulang that he wanted to sleep with him. Help, he really wanted to change tasks.
Upon learning the true situation, the system was very disappointed. It felt that novels were all full of lies, and in a fit of rage, it took all those melodramatic texts to prop up the table legs.
Ji Yunzhao stayed curled up in his room for a long time. The door was locked, the windows were not opened, and he even threw out the system that had finished propping up the table legs, shutting himself away in the small blanket out of depression.
He remained depressed until Yan Fulang finished cooking lunch and came over to find him.
Three very polite knocks came from outside the door. Ji Yunzhao heard them, but he pretended nothing was happening and burrowed even deeper into his small blanket.
Seeing no response from inside the room, Yan Fulang’s thin lips curved up quietly. He did not continue to wait and pushed the door straight open.
“Senior, it is time to come out and eat.”
A very faint friction sound came from the soft couch by the window. The young man’s voice echoed from inside the blanket, sounding very muffled.
“You eat first, I will eat later.”
“The dishes will get cold in a little while.”
As Yan Fulang spoke, he set out the food and walked over to the soft couch to dig the person out.
“Senior, it is stuffy inside the blanket. Come out to get some fresh air.”
“I made beggar’s chicken, white cut chicken, scallion oil chicken, roast chicken, yellow braised chicken, and also the scallion and ginger mud crabs that Senior likes.”
“For desserts, there are osmanthus cakes, yam cakes, water chestnut layered cakes, ”
Before he could finish listing half of the dishes, the little mound on the soft couch moved very slowly.
Ji Yunzhao lifted a corner of the blanket, revealing half of his face, “Yan Fulang, did you slaughter every single chicken on this entire mountain?”
“How could I,” the youth said with a light laugh, “I still left a few to hatch chicks.”
“The scallion and ginger mud crabs, how did you know I like to eat that?”
“The last time we went into the city, this was the dish Senior ate the most of.”
…Even this had been noticed by him.
Ji Yunzhao did not say it out loud, but having his fur smoothed down with delicious food by his scheming cheap disciple, his mood had already improved a bit.
He dithered for a few more minutes before crawling out of the blanket, sitting down by the table with a head of messy long hair.
This meal was eaten in silence and was somewhat awkward, but Ji Yunzhao had not eaten for more than a day, and he was not accustomed to refraining from food like the local people of the cultivation world, so he was truly starving. He quickly cleared away more than half of the dishes.
Yan Fulang’s eating manner was much more elegant than his, and he even had the spare leisure to peel the crab shells for him.
The crab meat piled up like a small mountain on the plate. Ji Yunzhao ate a lot of it without even raising his head, and only after he finished eating did he realize that he had let Yan Fulang serve him for the entire lunch.
…Ji Yunzhao began to shut himself away in depression again.
This time, the depression lasted quite long. He stayed cooped up in his room until dark, not even going out to eat dinner, only buying a bag of nutrient fluid from the system mall to get by.
His appetite had already been spoiled by Yan Fulang’s culinary skills, and he had forgotten how terrible the nutrient fluid tasted. With one sip, he almost threw up.
“Host, look at you, why must you do this,” the system pushed open the window, shaking its snowy white whiskers, “It is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but hard to go from luxury to frugality. Come and eat dinner with us.”
Ji Yunzhao glanced at it, “What, your retirement insurance did not come in person, so he sent you to be the lobbyist?”
The system shook its head, “No, I am merely feeling some trepidation over being able to enjoy the seafood feast all by myself.”
Ji Yunzhao thought, “…”
Who are you fooling?
In the end, he still did not join the dining table.
The result was that when it was time to sleep, Yan Fulang came knocking on the door while holding his pillow.
“What are you doing,” Ji Yunzhao held onto the door frame, blocking the front of the door, “Is your bed broken?”
Yan Fulang said calmly, “It is not. It is just that, Senior said before that you wanted to sleep with me.”
The night where spring and summer intertwined was still somewhat chilly, not to mention that they lived in the mountains.
The youth wore only a single layer of thin inner clothing, standing quietly outside the door waiting for him to open it.
Ji Yunzhao did not know if he had misheard or if the youth had really let out a very soft sigh, but by the time he regained his senses, Yan Fulang had already placed his pillow right next to Ji Yunzhao’s pillow.
“Senior, good night.”
“Good night.”
The bizarre situation of sharing a bed and a pillow lasted for a long time.
Living together with Yan Fulang, aside from having to examine his cultivation and sword techniques every day, their three meals a day were also eaten together, and they even lay together at night. Ji Yunzhao had lost almost all of his private space, let alone finding time to shut himself away in depression.
After that day, all the wine in the house had been moved by him to the back mountain. After all, it was bought with real gold and silver, and quite a lot of it was brewed by themselves, so he could not bear to throw it away. He only asked Yan Fulang to find a place to bury it all, and told him not to reveal where it was buried.
After sleeping together many times, Ji Yunzhao also slowly calmed down, thinking that since the little Dragon Aotian had lost his parents at a young age, perhaps he was treating him as a mother.
Being a mother would not do, but being a father was something he could consider, treating it as the care from an elder.
However, in the past few days, he discovered that his sleeping posture was becoming less and less well-behaved. Sometimes when he woke up, either his leg was draped over Yan Fulang, or his entire person was buried right into his embrace.
Even separating into two blankets to sleep was useless, as one blanket would always end up falling onto the floor, causing him a lot of distress.
His sleeping posture, was it actually this bad?
Upon discovering once again that he had somehow ended up pillowed on Yan Fulang’s shoulder while sleeping, Ji Yunzhao became a bit frustrated.
“How about tonight, you go back to your own room first to sleep, ”
Before the word “sleep” could even be uttered, Ji Yunzhao watched with his own eyes as the light within those peach blossom eyes instantly extinguished, like fading starlight, looking so pitiful that he could not bear to finish his sentence.
The youth lay beside him, sleeping soundly on his side. Even the deep night could not conceal his handsomeness. The bridge of his nose was high and straight, his lips were naturally pursed, and his long eyelashes were like small fans, casting faint shadows upon his eyelids.
Once he reached adulthood, he would surely charm a countless number of young girls.
Ji Yunzhao watched him quietly for a while, then poked the system, “System, how about I just tie myself up when I sleep at night? Otherwise, day after day like this, what is the meaning of constantly harassing the male lead?”
“There is no need for that,” the system gave him an idea, “Can you not just switch to your alt account after he falls asleep? You can even do the tasks for the alt account that way. My battery power is sufficient, so there is no need to switch back at a fixed time anymore.”
Ji Yunzhao thought about it, “That makes sense.”
It just so happened that he had not switched to his alt account to snuggle with Yan Fulang for a long time either.
He waited patiently for a while longer, and seeing that Yan Fulang was sleeping as soundly as possible, he impatiently switched over to the account of the little fat bird.
After a brief period of light, swirling white mist, a red and white little bird poked its head out from inside the blanket.
Ji Yunzhao cocked his long, bright red tail feathers, controlling his round, fluffy body to walk over to the center of Yan Fulang’s chest. Then he sat down on his backside, curling into a glutinous rice ball, closed his eyes, and began to go idle.
As he slept on, his body suddenly became warm, as if he was being scooped up by a large hand. The soft blanket beneath him turned into a warm and broad palm.
His tender yellow beak unconsciously rubbed against the cold white knuckles. Ji Yunzhao slept in a daze, unable to even open his eyes, and quickly fell asleep once more.
The youth raised the little bird in his palm, a trace of a smile surfacing by his lips, and gently tapped its head.
Early the next morning, Ji Yunzhao woke up to a burst of clinking and clanking hammering sounds.
The biological clock of the little fat bird alt account caused him to wake up once before sunrise. Taking advantage of the fact that Yan Fulang had not awakened, he switched back to his main account and lay back down to catch up on his sleep.
This was his first time doing this account-switching business right in front of Yan Fulang, and he did not expect it to go so smoothly.
Ji Yunzhao felt secure in his heart and prepared to properly plan out the times for switching accounts in the future. He stretched his back, casually draped a piece of clothing over himself, and went out the door.
In the courtyard, the youth dressed all in black sat before the stone table, holding a small hammer, tapping away at a cylindrical object that looked very familiar.
Ji Yunzhao walked closer to take a look, and saw that it was that bamboo-woven birdcage.
Ji Yunzhao felt a bit chilly all over his body, and he shrugged his shoulders unconsciously, “Why are you suddenly messing around with this?”
“Last night, I seemed to have seen that red and white little bird again. However, I was sleeping in a daze, so I cannot remember it very clearly. It might have been seen in a dream. But I have an intuition that this birdcage will be put to use very soon.”
Yan Fulang raised his eyes to look at him, his brows and eyes curving into a smile, “I have said before, I want to give it to Senior.”
Ji Yunzhao thought, “…”