Gu Chengyan had never seen such beautiful, pure blue eyes; they were like precious gems brought by Persian merchants:
Like the sky filled with stars, like the vast, boundless sea.
His brows were thick and dark, and the high bridge of his nose and brow ridge only served to make the eyes deep within his sockets appear more profound and captivating.
After gazing into them for only a brief moment, Gu Chengyan felt as if he were about to be sucked in.
Furthermore, he had risen from the water in such a hurry that he was completely unclothed. Although they were both men, he had bathed with his fellow disciples back at Qingshuang Mountain in the past.
But…
The youth’s gaze was overt, his direct, scrutinizing stare making Gu Chengyan feel prickly, and he subconsciously wanted to retreat toward the wooden rack to grab his clothes.
As soon as he moved, the youth moved too.
Even with the wounds on his body, the youth’s movements were sufficiently agile and nimble. Gu Chengyan hadn’t even had time to react before he was heavily pinned to the ground.
The volcanic rock beneath him was cold and rough, but a palm was placed behind his head, preventing him from hitting it.
Gu Chengyan was startled and came back to his senses, only to meet the youth’s playful eyes.
He was propped up on his knees, his hands pressed on either side of Gu Chengyan’s ears, the smile on his lips widening to reveal two sharp canine teeth.
The youth just looked at Gu Chengyan and laughed like that, completely disregarding the wounds on his own body that were oozing blood.
Light red droplets of water, mixed with blood, slid down his broad, solid chest, crossing his collarbones and ultimately gathering at the most prominent, thickest, and fullest point.
Then, they swirled and plop dripped onto Gu Chengyan’s abdomen.
This single touch was so hot it made Gu Chengyan unable to help but want to roll over and struggle free.
Seeing him fidgeting again, the youth frowned, looking displeased, and used one hand to grasp both of Gu Chengyan’s wrists, pressing them above his head.
Then, the youth stared at him, narrowing the distance between them inch by inch, until it was close enough to feel each other’s breathing.
Gu Chengyan pressed his brows together, his patience finally exhausted. He had only been enduring it without taking action because he saw that the other person was young and injured.
But the youth’s behavior was brazen; he clearly didn’t understand the meaning of crossing boundaries.
He suddenly exerted force, using a sharp burst of cun-jin (inch-power) to break free. After freeing his hands, he took advantage of the youth’s moment of daze to push him away heavily and scramble up.
If his internal energy were still intact, Gu Chengyan would have very much liked to strike the youth’s xue (pressure points) and put him straight to sleep.
After all, one who could survive on the snow-capped mountain was certainly no ordinary person.
Moreover, since both of them were unclothed at the moment, staying like this stirred up some unpleasant memories for Gu Chengyan.
He walked toward the wooden rack, and just as he grabbed his robe and put one sleeve on, a sudden gust of wind came from behind. Gu Chengyan only felt a piece of scorching skin press against his back, and his waist was tightly encircled—
That touch, overflowing with power, made him feel vaguely familiar.
However, in that brief moment of hesitation, the youth behind him went “mad” and pounced on him again, though this time he pinned Gu Chengyan down from behind.
His knees scraped against the rough rock, grinding out a large patch of red, and the pain finally made Gu Chengyan unable to help but curse:
“You hiss!”
He hadn’t finished his words before a searing pain came from the spot on his neck where it connected to his shoulder, pain so intense he practically lost his voice.
Gu Chengyan lay on the ground, eyes wide in disbelief.
This youth was, was actually biting him.
The sharp canine teeth were deeply embedded in his flesh; the force was so great it was practically as if he were trying to tear a piece of meat from his shoulder.
Gu Chengyan was in so much pain that his whole body went limp, his voice trembling uncontrollably:
“You… you let go…”
This weak tail-end of his voice somehow pleased the youth. He chuckled muffledly and let go as instructed, but did not release Gu Chengyan.
He lowered his lips, licking and sucking at the wound, alternating between light and heavy. His demeanor was intimate and fawning, but his strength was forceful and unyielding.
Gu Chengyan was both pained and angry: What kind of madness is this kid suffering from?!
He rested for a moment, just as he was about to gather his strength to flip the youth over and give him another beating, a shrill wolf howl came from the narrow hole above them.
The youth behind him released him immediately, turning his head to look at the hole in agitation, a low growl constantly issuing from his throat.
Gu Chengyan didn’t have time to look; he only grabbed his clothes and put them on rapidly. It wasn’t until his three-fold waist sash was tightened and the collar was seamlessly sealed that he finally let out a sigh of relief.
Looking up again, he saw the youth stretching his arms, trying to climb the cave wall toward the dome. His legs were very long; at fourteen or fifteen, he was already as tall as Gu Chengyan.
Only,
The youth, halfway up, had his feet slip and he slid down pathetically. Had it not been for Gu Chengyan standing by the pool to block him slightly, he would have ended up in the water again.
“You…” Gu Chengyan opened his mouth, but before he could finish, the youth scrambled up and grabbed the protruding stones on the rock wall once more.
The cave wasn’t very high—eight or nine feet, about the height of two people combined. The bottom half, near the hot spring, was rough volcanic rock that was easy to climb, but the top half, near the narrow opening, consisted entirely of smooth blue stone.
Not to mention the lack of purchase, the steam from the hot spring had covered those blue stones with a layer of slippery moss for years.
Unless one was a gecko or possessed qinggong (light body techniques), it was absolutely impossible to climb up.
Gu Chengyan wanted to persuade him, but found that the youth was exceptionally stubborn, refusing to give up after falling several times, not even caring when the wounds on his body cracked and bled.
When one side of the wall didn’t work, he switched to another, even knowing how to take the pebbles from the edge of the hot spring to pad under his feet for leverage.
Seeing that he was only a short distance from the hole, the youth gauged the distance and prepared to kick off to jump over, but the pebbles supporting him clearly couldn’t handle the heavy kick and collapsed before he could fully spring up.
With such a sudden change, the youth reacted swiftly, turning mid-air to grab a protruding stone for leverage, barely managing to hook onto the opening with his outstretched hand.
Before he could let out a sigh of relief, the slippery edge crumbled under his fingers, taking a patch of moss with it. He groaned and fell heavily, hitting his head exactly on the largest pebble.
Gu Chengyan: “…”
Seeing the youth unconscious, Gu Chengyan endured for a moment, but in the end, he couldn’t bear to stand by and watch him die, walking over to crouch down and check his head.
The hand he reached out with wasn’t stained with blood; that was good, his head wasn’t broken.
The wolf howls overhead continued to rise and fall, but they were gradually interspersed with mournful whimpers. The snowy mountain was already quiet, and the rock cave acted as an invisible amplifier, so Gu Chengyan could even hear the sound of flesh being torn and the crunch of teeth crushing bone.
Quite hair-raising.
Seeing it was getting late, and fearing that the big white horse would be eaten by wild beasts if it stayed outside too long, Gu Chengyan packed his things and walked outside.
After walking two steps, he couldn’t help but want to look back at the youth.
But turning his head pulled at the wound on his neck, the pain causing his face to contort, and his movement back toward the cave stopped dead.
The wound was deep, but because of the youth’s licking, it was no longer seeping blood. He raised his hand to cover the wound:
What a troublesome kid.
Why bite people randomly?
However, seeing the youth lying soddenly in the cave, unconscious, Gu Chengyan finally walked over to take off his cloak and stoke the fire.
But after coming outside and mounting the big white horse, Gu Chengyan remained silent for a long time without whipping it. Finally, under the curious gaze of the white horse, he turned back into the cave:
“Abai, wait for me a moment longer.”
Half an hour later, Gu Chengyan struggled to wrap both hands around the youth’s waist, half-bowed, dragging him bit by bit through the snow toward the hut.
The youth had no clothes on when he fell into the cave. Fortunately, he was about the same height as Gu Chengyan, so he could just barely squeeze into the clothes Gu Chengyan had been wearing when he arrived.
If one ignored the collar that simply wouldn’t close.
Gu Chengyan had originally wanted to carry him on his back, but he had tried it back in the cave; the youth looked lean, but was actually heavy when lifted.
He had no other choice but to drag him by circling his waist. Between the dragging and pulling, it was inevitably necessary to touch that mass beneath the wide-open collar…
The muscles were full, rounded, firm, and resilient.
By the time he finally dragged and pulled him into the main room, Gu Chengyan fell to the floor, exhausted, his cheeks flushed red.
He didn’t know if it was from shame or fatigue.
Having been reborn for so long, this was the first time Gu Chengyan felt that the dissipation of his inner strength was such a troublesome thing; he didn’t even want to move a finger.
Looking at the clothes that were half-wet and half-dry, covered in snow and mud, Gu Chengyan shook his head; this bath today was essentially for nothing.
The youth was still unconscious. After Gu Chengyan rested for a while, he got up to change his clothes, built a fire to warm the room, and dried his long hair.
After tidying himself up, he dragged the youth to the bed Iron Pillar had temporarily set up, boiled water, and took out herbal powder and bandages to treat the wounds.
Most of the wounds on the youth’s body were scratches; the light ones were just blood lines, the heavy ones deep to the bone, and the most serious one was on his shoulder and neck, appearing as if a piece of meat had been bitten off by a wild beast.
After applying the medicine and wrapping the bandages, Gu Chengyan pulled up the quilt and tucked the youth in, who was clearly running a high fever.
He was only afraid that if someone went about unclothed in the snow, they would freeze to death, so he had kindly brought him back. It absolutely was not because…
Gu Chengyan coughed lightly and looked away, simultaneously lifting the hand that had been pressing on the youth’s chest and abdomen.
It was already the middle of the night by the time he finished all this, and Gu Chengyan no longer had the heart to roast the rabbit, only being able to drift to the west wall.
—That was the foot of the bed formed by the chest.
The Rongdi people respected the north. Inside a felt tent, the east circle was usually for beds and tables, while the west circle was for food, cooking utensils, and hunting gear. Gu Chengyan had grown accustomed to this while with Iron Pillar.
Checking the fire in the hearth, Gu Chengyan let out a yawn and fell asleep directly on the bed.
He hadn’t slept for long when he was awakened by the noise in the courtyard. It was not yet dawn, yet there was a burst of rooster crowing in the courtyard.
Besides that, there were horse neighs, sheep bleats, and… wolf howls.
Wolf howls?!
Gu Chengyan woke up instantly. He hurriedly draped his outer robe over his shoulders, grabbed a torch, and pushed the door open to look. As soon as he opened the door, he saw a black shadow dash out of the courtyard.
Looking from afar, it was a wolf of massive proportions.
It had a dead rooster clamped firmly in its mouth. Upon seeing the firelight, its four claws ran even faster through the snow, and it soon disappeared at the foot of the Holy Mountain.
Gu Chengyan frowned. Iron Pillar had reinforced the walls of the Snow Mountain Villa before he left, even specifically heightening them. How did this wolf climb in?
Holding the torch, he carefully observed the perimeter and discovered that this wolf was quite clever, actually using its claws to scratch a hole in the courtyard wall. It had bitten through the underlying wattle fence and burrowed in, biting two big roosters to death in one go.
Had it not been for Gu Chengyan coming out to scare it, it would surely have taken both chickens away.
Looking at the five-colored rooster that remained lying in the snow, lifeless, Gu Chengyan let out a helpless sigh, picking it up by the neck and bringing it back into the room.
Since it was already dead, it couldn’t go to waste.
Everyone talked about old “hen” soup; Gu Chengyan had never eaten big rooster soup, and didn’t know if it would be delicious.
After putting the food in its old place, Gu Chengyan was truly so sleepy that his eyelids were fighting each other, and he fell into a deep sleep the moment his head hit the pillow.
Behind him, however, the youth lying on the bed slowly sat up. His sapphire-blue eyes cleared up after seeing the chicken and rabbit piled at the foot of his bed, and then he looked deeply at the fast-asleep Gu Chengyan.
The corners of the youth’s mouth lifted inch by inch. Finally, he got out of bed, leaned over to carefully sniff all three things, picked up the freshest big rooster, and placed it at the foot of Gu Chengyan’s bed.
Afterward, he picked up the two wild rabbits, pushed the door open, and walked into the morning snow and wind.