Yan Fulang, who had committed an offense against his superior, was pulled into the room by Ji Yunzhao.
Warm and gentle spiritual energy brushed past the tips of his hair, dispersing the uncomfortable dampness and cold. Even the clothes on his back that had been soaked through by the water were dried by Ji Yunzhao using spiritual energy as well.
Yan Fulang lowered his eyelashes and sat by the edge of the bed, his body relaxing bit by bit.
He had not yet completely grown accustomed to the strange actions that popped up from this mysterious senior from time to time.
Ji Yunzhao had very fair skin, so if the force used on him was slightly heavy, it was very easy to leave a mark.
The faint touch of pink that had been accidentally brought out by the impact earlier had not yet fully faded. Following the movements of the young man, it would occasionally reveal itself slightly from within his wide, draping sleeves.
Yan Fulang withdrew his gaze, the knuckles of his hands hanging at his sides curling up unconsciously.
“There is a free-range chicken in the kitchen. Tonight, make one half into scallion oil chicken and the other half into soup,” Ji Yunzhao said as he fiddled with Yan Fulang’s hair, speaking casually as if in passing.
He did not inquire about what the other wanted to eat, nor was there any intention of discussing it. It was as natural as if he were handing down a command.
His train of thought being interrupted, Yan Fulang was dazed for a moment. “A free-range chicken? Where did a free-range chicken come from?”
Ji Yunzhao spoke with righteous confidence, “I brought it back.”
The red mark on his hand had not even disappeared yet, so he was too lazy to act out the play of a little chicken losing its way with Yan Fulang.
He would just bring the chicken back directly! He was going to hunt a rabbit tomorrow too!
Yan Fulang remained silent for a moment. He originally wanted to say that the ingredients in the kitchen were already very numerous, and by changing the patterns of the three meals a day, they could cook for several days without repeating a dish.
Yet for some reason, the words of objection rolled around the tip of his tongue and were still swallowed back down his throat by him.
“Alright,” he asked, “is there anything else Senior wishes to eat?”
Ji Yunzhao gave a threatening tug at his hair. “I told you just now that I wanted to add another plate of osmanthus cake. Did you forget?”
The force was very light and did not hurt, looking just like being pecked by a mischievous little bird. Yan Fulang suddenly wanted to laugh a little, and thus he let out a low laugh.
“I did not forget. I know.”
The somewhat deep and slightly husky voice entered his ears, and Ji Yunzhao subconsciously shrank back a bit. His fingertips trembled slightly, almost actually pulling at Yan Fulang’s hair.
“What are you laughing at?”
Ji Yunzhao pursed his lips, somewhat puzzled by his own inexplicable action of shrinking back, but being too lazy to engage in internal friction, he swiftly dumped a blame onto Yan Fulang’s head.
He spoke with a dissatisfied tone, “Laughing at me for eating too much?”
“I am not,” Yan Fulang said. The smile at the corners of his lips had not yet hidden away, looking brightly provocative under the light. “Senior does not eat much. If you like it, there can be another plate of pastries.”
“How can anyone eat so many pastries in one meal?”
Ji Yunzhao merely wanted to use this excuse to find trouble for Yan Fulang, but hearing the youth’s answer, he actually developed a feeling that the other was truly disdaining him for eating too much.
Ji Yunzhao paused, murmuring in a small voice, “What is wrong with a man eating a bit more? You eat even more than I do.”
Yan Fulang did indeed eat even more than he did. After all, he was still growing his body, and plus he had been tempering his spiritual root in the cold spring during this period of time, which caused a massive consumption and required a lot of replenishment.
“You are even more of a rice bucket than Tongtong,” he added another line.
The system, which was lying on the windowsill admiring the sunset, felt as though it had been insulted again upon hearing these words. However, it was not the only one being insulted, so it wagged the tip of its pitch-black tail in gloating joy.
At dinner time, a plate of scallion oil chicken made from a whole chicken and a chicken soup stewed from a whole chicken appeared on the table.
The vegetable was the basket of weed-like things that Ji Yunzhao had brought back previously. Yan Fulang had tested it to be non-toxic, and it also looked very fresh and tender, so he stir-fried a plate of it plainly.
Before Ji Yunzhao’s seat, there was also a plate of osmanthus brown sugar rice cakes and a small dish of peach blossom pastries.
“Eh?” Ji Yunzhao pinched his chopsticks, blinking his eyes. “Why are there two chickens?”
He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, carefully counting the number of chicken legs and chicken wings in the dish over and over again.
It was indeed two free-range chickens, four wings and four legs.
“Senior brought back one, and I picked up one outside the courtyard.”
Yan Fulang methodically scooped rice for Ji Yunzhao. “That free-range chicken did not know if it had lost its way, crashing headfirst until it was knocked unconscious against the courtyard wall. Just right, Senior said I eat a lot, so I made them together.”
Ji Yunzhao: “…”
If it were not for knowing that Yan Fulang was soaking in the cold spring at that time and had no way to split his body to run around wildly, Ji Yunzhao would have suspected that the excuse he and the system had fabricated had been overheard by him.
Tsk, this is the bad thing about a brat growing up; he is starting to get playful.
Ji Yunzhao lamented in his heart, the gaze he used to look at Yan Fulang faintly carrying a thread of disdain.
With quick eyes and swift hands, he snatched a chicken wing into his bowl.
Seeing this, Yan Fulang placed the other chicken wing of the scallion oil chicken into his bowl. “Does Senior not eat chicken legs?”
“I like chicken wings,” Ji Yunzhao was satisfied again. “The chicken legs are bestowed upon you.”
Yan Fulang let out a light laugh, “Yes, thank you, Senior.”
…
The days at the bottom of the cliff were peaceful and leisurely. Ji Yunzhao went out for strolls every day and then supervised Yan Fulang to soak in the cold spring to repair his spiritual root, frequently lamenting that time flew by truly quickly.
In the blink of an eye, Yan Fulang’s spiritual root was almost completely repaired.
Ji Yunzhao held a set of black clothes, standing by the bank with great anticipation. “Come, come, come, let me see quickly.”
According to the system’s calculations, today was the final day for Yan Fulang to soak in the cold spring, and he would be able to begin cultivating immediately.
Ji Yunzhao had already waited for this day for a very long time.
The progress bar for his beautiful retirement life was currently loading. At this moment, he was so excited that he wished he could directly lift the person out of the water, dry him off, and have him cultivate.
He just did not know what Yan Fulang was still dawdling in the water for, not coming out for the longest time.
The thought of directly fishing the person up having just surfaced in his mind, Ji Yunzhao did not think it through carefully and truly just went ahead and did it.
A salted fish never wrongs himself.
The clothes prepared for Yan Fulang were casually thrown by him onto the stones by the bank, followed by a burst of splashing water sounds.
As a result of entering the water, Ji Yunzhao instantly regretted it.
“This water, how can it be so cold?!”
He had originally thought that this cold spring was not very large, so he could just walk a couple of steps randomly, reach out to scoop, and fish Yan Fulang out.
Moreover, he possessed a fundamental difference from Yan Fulang.
Setting aside that his cultivation was higher by several realms, if it were not for being influenced by the rules of the book world, which suppressed him to the Wuxiang Stage, with his own original cultivation, he should have reached the Taiqing Stage long ago.
The cultivation realms of this world were divided into: Fengchu Stage, Qinxin Stage, Tengyun Stage, Huiyang Stage, Qianyuan Stage, Wuxiang Stage, and Taiqing Stage, corresponding to: Qi Condensation, Foundation Establishment, Golden Elixir, Nascent Soul, Soul Transformation, Great Vehicle, and Tribulation Transcendence.
In any case, logically speaking, he believed that upon entering the cold spring, it should be impossible for him to experience such a bone-piercing chill.
Ji Yunzhao stiffened in the water, shivering and shaking, his legs almost unable to take a step.
“So cold, cold, cold, cold, I cannot take it anymore, Ah-Tong, hurry up and pull me up, ah, ah, ah!”
$$Shh—$$
The system was almost about to jump up on the bank:
$$Host, do not call me directly in front of the male lead!$$
Ji Yunzhao was nearly frozen numb, his brain, through rounding up, was almost condensing into a lump of ice, so how could he still consider that much.
To describe the coldness of the spring water as deep into the bone marrow was considered conservative. The freezing breath entwined around his divine soul, making Ji Yunzhao feel as though he had stepped with one foot into the extreme north, deeply trapped within a glacier.
His frozen brain turned with difficulty, and Ji Yunzhao murmured in a low voice, “A miscalculation.”
The secret realm spiritual treasures and the like of the cultivation world, including various weapons and props, were all divided according to the four grades of Heaven, Earth, Mysterious, and Yellow. The Heaven grade was the best, and moving downward, the effects decreased grade by grade.
This cold spring at the bottom of the cliff, just like the Clear Heart Stone, belonged to the Heaven-grade spiritual treasures. Especially the effect of the cold spring, regardless of whether the user’s cultivation was high or low, treated everyone entirely the same.
“Slipped away, slipped away.”
Ji Yunzhao turned around to leave.
He did not want to fish Yan Fulang out anymore. The system was right, a discrepancy of about a month in the cultivation plot line was completely normal, so there was no urgency to resolve it all in one moment!
However, he underestimated the slipperiness of the stones at the bottom of the water. Unfamiliar with the cold spring, his legs and feet were frozen to the point of almost being unable to move, and the moment he took a step, his footing slipped.
The water current surged. Yan Fulang, who faced away from the bank, perceived the strange movement coming from the water. The moment he turned around, a cold and soft body crashed into his embrace.
He settled his mind, fishing the person up from the water and supporting him firmly.
“Senior?”
“Ugh.”
The person in his embrace was trembling out of shape, his long hair soaked through by the cold spring as if condensed with a layer of frost and snow.
Yan Fulang subconsciously raised his hand, touching his face.
Ji Yunzhao did not care about the youth’s offense, much less struggling out from his embrace.
His icy fingertips covered the back of Yan Fulang’s hand, and the warmth coming from the cheek caused him to lean against it uncontrollably, nuzzling like a small animal.
Ji Yunzhao buried himself even deeper into the youth’s embrace, holding onto the heat source without letting go, his entire person wishing he could hang upon his body.
“Take me up,” Ji Yunzhao said with a trembling voice. “So cold…”
Yan Fulang’s hand resting on his shoulder tightened. “Can Senior still walk by yourself?”
Ji Yunzhao did not answer, merely burying himself further into his embrace.
“Then, pray forgive my offense.”
Within the bone-chilling spring water, Yan Fulang bent down slightly, one hand passing through the crook of Ji Yunzhao’s knees while the other hand supported his back, picking him up horizontally and walking toward the bank.
The system active took up the labor for the first time.
The little black cat picked up Yan Fulang’s clothes with its mouth, then used its tail to roll up the cloth placed together with the clothes.
Yet Yan Fulang did not set down the young man in his embrace, nor did he stop his steps to receive his own clothes.
He carried Ji Yunzhao all the way into the main house.
Not until he was gently placed onto the bed did Ji Yunzhao seem to recover his senses, loosening the hand that spanned the youth’s neck.
In fact, the moment he exited the cold spring, his consciousness that had almost been solidified by the frost cleared up a great deal, and before he was carried to the main house, the person had already recovered by seventy or eighty percent.
As for why he did not speak up to remind Yan Fulang to set him down…
It was probably because he felt his appearance at that time was too embarrassing.
The ostrich mentality was manifested thoroughly upon Ji Yunzhao’s body.
As long as he remained buried in Yan Fulang’s embrace, then that person who was clearly already at the Wuxiang Stage yet still shivered inside the cold spring was not himself.
At that time, almost his entire person had fallen into the water, wet through from head to toe. His slender eyelashes were dripping wet, hung full of dense, tiny water droplets, and his long hair dripped water, quickly soaking a small patch of the bed.
How embarrassing.
Ji Yunzhao pursed his lips. Just as he was preparing to use spiritual energy to dry himself off, a wide cotton cloth suddenly covered his head, and a pair of well-defined large hands reached over, wiping his hair with careful and gentle movements.
The roles were reversed.
Ji Yunzhao was dazed, almost failing to react.
He parted his lips, but in the end still said nothing, allowing Yan Fulang to help him wipe his hair until it was half-dry before shifting uncomfortably on the bed, moving backward.
Spiritual energy slowly overflowed from his fingertips, looking somewhat laggy as if infected by its master’s emotions.
He used double the usual amount of time to thoroughly dry the water vapor on his body.
Never going to that cold spring again, he decided in his heart, then straightened his body and pulled Yan Fulang over.
The youth was still entirely wet. After coming out from the cold spring, he had been busy running around Ji Yunzhao, unable to attend to himself.
Ji Yunzhao did not have the system bring over another dry cloth, spiritual energy extending continuously from his palm, every place it passed over becoming warm and dry.
After returning to the main house, the two people did not let out a sound again.
Ji Yunzhao helped Yan Fulang dry his upper body. Coming to the lower body, if it were in the past, he would not mind helping to dry it together, as there was no need to remove the trousers anyway.
Yet he hesitated for a long time, still taking a bath towel out from his space and driving Yan Fulang behind the screen.
The main house possessed only a single screen, placed before the bed.
Continuous green mountains and rivers were painted upon the screen. The sunlight spilled in from the window that was opened by half a pane, falling between the mountains and waters, and also falling upon the youth standing behind the screen.
The places that the silk canvas could obscure were limited, and Ji Yunzhao suspected for the first time whether he should find time to buy a new screen.
He turned his head away, catching the passing system to pull it into his embrace, and covered its eyes that were looking toward the screen.
“Little perverted cat,” he said. “Do not look recklessly.”
When Yan Fulang finished changing his clothes and when he walked out, Ji Yunzhao did not notice either.
The system struggled and twisted in his embrace, completely impossible to grasp.
It was said that cats were liquid, and the system wearing the little black cat skin was even more liquid than liquid, slippery and ungraspable, continuously clawing at Ji Yunzhao’s hand that covered its eyes.
Ji Yunzhao had no choice but to compromise, then forcefully took the system to turn its back around, pinching its small paws to open the system mall.
“Ah-Tong, do you think a wooden screen is better, or is a bamboo one good?” He stared at the mall interface choosing for a long time, unable to select a new screen. “Or should I simply go create a partition wall instead?”
The system was a bit speechless:
$$Host, there is no need, right? I do not think the male lead will frequently change clothes in your room.$$
Ji Yunzhao: “…”
Ji Yunzhao: “You are right.”
He closed the mall interface, beginning to ponder for the first time whether he should maintain a bit of distance from Yan Fulang.
However, the distance between them was not very close either, right? His thinking of miscellaneous things here was likely just because he had to rely on the cheap disciple to come out of the cold spring, feeling a loss of face.
Once a person loses face, they will repeatedly think back to the situation at that time, and always feel that something is not quite right.
Yes, that is exactly how it is.
Ji Yunzhao shook his head, releasing the system.
The system did not go far, circling around the bed once and coming back, using its tail to whip Ji Yunzhao’s arm as a reminder.
“Meow~”
Ji Yunzhao turned around in puzzlement, meeting a bowl of ginger soup.
“Senior.”
Yan Fulang pushed the ginger soup forward a bit. “It was too cold in the water, drink some ginger soup to warm your body.”
The state of mind Ji Yunzhao had managed to organize with great difficulty became messy once again.
“I- I do not need to drink ginger soup.”
He said in a small voice, “Did you forget? I do not get sick.”
Cultivators indeed would not fall sick due to falling into water, even if that spring eye was a Heaven-grade spiritual treasure.
“I did not forget,” Yan Fulang said in a low voice. “It is just that, I accidentally made an extra bowl just now.”