“Apologies, apologies. It’s not that we are unwilling to hand them over, but truly because our swords have recently run into some issues and aren’t with us.” The black-haired man said with a full face of apology. “We will definitely pay for the sword pendants! How could we let this young gentleman spend his own money!”
With that, he began searching his person for a money pouch. After checking once without finding it, he realized with a start: “My apologies, young gentleman, my silver is all with my junior brother. Would it be convenient to leave a name and address? I’ll fetch the silver and deliver it personally!”
Then, as if remembering something, he quickly added: “I am Shen Sanchuan, staying at the Yuanlai Inn on the very next street. We are here to attend this grand Broken Sword Manor auction.”
Ruan Weibai smiled: “Isn’t that a coincidence? We are staying at the same inn too! My name is Bai Ye… and this is my husband, Ye Tang.”
He extended his right hand toward Shen Sanchuan: “Pleased to meet you, Brother Shen.”
Now, the handshake gesture might look completely discordant in this world, but if the other person possessed a system as well, they would undoubtedly reach out and grasp it instinctively!
[System: Vocal, host, you’re a genius! As long as you shake hands, I’ll be able to sense it!]
Seeing that the other party was about to make a move, Ye Tang intercepted and pulled Ruan Weibai’s extended hand right back, dragging him bodily to his side: “Why is my wife going around extending his hand to beg money from people?”
Ruan Weibai: “…”
No, which of your eyes saw me begging for money?!
Shen Sanchuan hurriedly chimed in: “It was my oversight. If the two gentlemen have time, why don’t we head back to the inn together so I can retrieve the silver and repay Brother Bai Ye first?”
Ruan Weibai originally wanted to say the silver didn’t matter, but upon second thought, wouldn’t accepting the money back be the perfect opportunity to orchestrate a physical touch?
Thus, nodding with a smile, he said: “We just happened to finish strolling around anyway, let’s head back together.”
Then, glancing at the white-haired man beside Shen Sanchuan, he asked politely: “I still don’t know your esteemed name, honored guest?”
The white-haired man returned the courtesy gracefully: “My humble surname is Qian, given name Longjing. Pleased to meet you.”
Ruan Weibai wanted to move closer to the two of them, but because Ye Tang kept holding onto him without letting go, he could only speak from a distance: “You two look at a glance to be kindred spirits of mine. Once your beloved swords return in the future, you must definitely let me feast my eyes!”
“Brother Bai Ye is too kind. Actually, we are quite curious about Brother Bai Ye’s sword as well. Would it be convenient for Brother Bai Ye to fetch your sword for us to admire?”
Ruan Weibai waved his hand and said with a depressed expression: “To tell you the truth, my ol’- ahem, my sword isn’t with me either. Once I get it back, I’ll definitely let you two take a look! They’re all my precious babies!”
Nodding with a smile, Shen Sanchuan agreed: “Then it’s a deal!”
At a single glance, Ruan Weibai could tell their weapons were definitely extraordinary treasures. Moreover, their bearing and poise clearly marked them as peerless immortal sword cultivators of the same lineage. Whoa, two peerless celestial swords, it’s driving me crazy with envy!
Among all weapon types, his absolute favorite was the sword, and the one he excelled at forging most was also the sword. Calling him a sword fanatic who loved swords as much as his own life wouldn’t be an exaggeration at all!
Crucially, they even claimed their own natal swords weren’t present. For wagers of peerless celestial swords to be casually stored away and not kept close at hand meant they could only be natal celestial artifacts that had already acknowledged their masters! Stacking this many buffs together had hooked him so completely that he couldn’t help wanting to link arms and walk side by side with the two of them right then and there!
Alas, Ye Tang kept dragging him back.
“Those two people possess extremely high cultivation bases,” Ye Tang murmured, holding Ruan Weibai’s hand as they walked behind. “And they deliberately concealed their cultivation and true appearances.”
Ruan Weibai rubbed his chin, the smile at the corners of his lips impossible to suppress: “I could feel it, both of them are major beauties!”
Ye Tang: “You seem rather excited?”
“Husband, don’t misunderstand, I just wanted to take a look at their weapons. I have a hunch, they’re at least super-celestial grade immortal swords, hehe!”
Ye Tang: “…”
The four of them walked in two pairs, one behind the other. Before they even reached the inn, Shen Sanchuan’s junior brother trotted over to meet them. The undisguised joy and relief upon catching sight of his senior brother. As someone who had been through it all, Ruan Weibai grasped the dynamic between the two instantly!
Ruan Weibai whispered to Ye Tang: “Look at that, they’re both taken, which means you have even less to worry about! Earlier when I said you were my husband and they didn’t react with anything unusual, I guessed right away they were pure-love loyalists too.”
Ye Tang stated: “His junior brother is a demonic cultivator.”
Ruan Weibai clapped his hands with utter righteousness: “See? Immortal-demonic romance, doesn’t that make it an even more perfect match?”
Ye Tang: “…”
“Senior brother, senior brother! How could you go shopping with Master and completely forget to call me?”
Shen Sanchuan replied: “If we called you along, Senior Brother Huang would definitely tag along too, and I was afraid he’d start randomly buying useless things for Master again, so I just accompanied Master out for a stroll by ourselves.”
“So then,” his junior brother retrieved the sword pendant from Shen Sanchuan’s hand and smiled brightly, “what is this? Could it be that you personally ‘randomly bought’ it for Master, senior brother?”
Shen Sanchuan laughed awkwardly and hurriedly changed the subject: “Let me introduce you. These two are friends we just made, this is Brother Bai Ye, and this is Brother Ye Tang.”
“Gentlemen, this fellow is my junior brother, Lu Linze. Whenever I go out and forget to bring silver, my junior brother is always the one who manages the funds.”
Once Shen Sanchuan finished the introductions, that junior brother of his smiled and bowed to the two of them: “Greetings, gentlemen. Judging by my senior brother’s words, it seems he owes the two of you some silver?”
Ruan Weibai answered: “The silver isn’t the main point. The real goal was to make friends with you two, though now it’s three of you!”
[System: Host, you’re super smooth with your words. How did you train your EQ so high?]
Lu Linze laughed: “Brother Bai Ye speaks straight from the heart, so making friends is a given! However, this silver still needs to be repaid, otherwise my senior brother definitely won’t let me into our room tonight!”
Beside him, Shen Sanchuan blushed instantly, giving Lu Linze a light kick: “Stop talking nonsense and hurry up and give me five hundred taels of silver first!”
As Lu Linze was retrieving the silver, another man dressed in crimson robes stepped out from behind him. That man wore an alluring, languid expression. The moment he approached, he threw his arms around Qian Longjing’s neck and rubbed against it affectionately: “Master, where did you and Sanchuan run off to? You actually left me and Aze behind. That brat insisted it was my fault for making you angry and causing your senior brother to run off with you, and now he’s throwing a tantrum and dragging me out to look for you!”
Pushing him away, the white-haired Qian Longjing said: “We merely went out for a stroll, stop clinging to me.”
The crimson-robed man complained: “Sanchuan and I are both your personal disciples, isn’t the differential treatment a bit too obvious? Can you spare me from sleeping alone tonight, Master?”
Qian Longjing: “…”
Ruan Weibai wore a face full of doting, motherly smiles as he lowered his voice to tell Ye Tang: “The first pair is the senior-junior power dynamic, and this second pair is the master-disciple forbidden romance, plus both are younger bottoms, exquisite, truly exquisite!”
Ye Tang: “The one in crimson is also a demonic cultivator, and his strength is formidable.”
Ruan Weibai’s eyes shone brightly: “Sss, white-haired cold and aloof ascetic master Shou X seductive, dissolute decadent disciple Gong, I love it, I love it! I really want to beg Boss Shang to drop an eight-million-word spicy masterpiece right now!”
Ye Tang: “…”
[System (pacing back and forth anxiously): Host, why are you still shipping them? Hurry up and figure out a way to touch that Shen Sanchuan!]
On the other side, Shen Sanchuan received the silver from his junior brother and turned back to Ruan Weibai, saying: “Sorry to have made a spectacle of yourselves in front of these two gentlemen. This is my senior brother, Huang Xi. Huang Shixiong, these two are.”
Huang Xi smiled: “I heard it all. Sanchuan’s friends are naturally my friends. So, what kind of trouble did you actually cause people?”
“Just now, when my master and I were out shopping, we took a liking to two sword pendants. The vendor tried to fleece us, and it was entirely thanks to Brother Bai Ye stepping in to beat down the price and even fronting the silver for us, otherwise we would’ve ended up paying five times the actual price for no reason.”
Holding the silver, Shen Sanchuan took a step closer toward Ruan Weibai: What’s the rush, look, isn’t the opportunity right here!
[System: Good, good, good! Take his silver, touch his hand! Hurry up!! I’m dying of anxiety!]
“Brother Shen is too polite, but I really can’t accept this silver.”
Hearing this, Shen Sanchuan took another step forward, offering the silver with both hands: “Accept it. If you don’t accept it, we won’t be able to rest easy! My master would also blame me for losing my manners.”
Nice, being this close makes my touching him look completely natural!
“There’s really no need to stand on such ceremony…” Ruan Weibai muttered as he reached out his hand, intending to grasp Shen Sanchuan’s hand and push the silver back.
Just as his fingers were about to brush the other man’s hand, Ye Tang directly snatched the silver right out of Shen Sanchuan’s palm and placed it directly into Ruan Weibai’s hands: “Stop pushing it back and forth, just take it.”
Ruan Weibai stared down at the five hundred taels of silver that had materialized in his hands out of thin air: ” पार्वती?”
[System (biting a handkerchief): Oh no, I’m gonna die, it failed again!!]
No, why does Ye Tang keep messing with me?! I was literally a fraction of a millimeter away from touching him!! And now the guy pulled his hand back all the way into his sleeves!
Turning his head, Ruan Weibai shot Ye Tang a look of smoldering fury.
[System (anxious): Host, forget it, just rush forward and hug him!]
Ruan Weibai: Are you trying to shorten my lifespan? Hugging another man right in front of his husband? You might as well just let me ask him straight up if he has a system!
[System: Oh right, why didn’t you just ask him directly?]
Ruan Weibai retorted unhappily: Didn’t you say yourself that you couldn’t be sure whether the other person’s system was an enemy or a friend? Asking him point-blank like that wouldn’t be any different from committing suicide by self-explosion!
[System: True. What if his system’s mission is to execute the villain boss of this world? Then you’d be completely screwed.]
Ruan Weibai: Exactly. What are you even panicking about anyway? Anyone who didn’t know better would think you wanted to couple up with their system.
[System (taking a sharp intake of breath): I! AM! A! PROPER! SYSTEM!]
[System (compromising with itself): Fine, whatever. As long as I can scan the opposing system, I’ll be able to deduce whether his mission poses any threat to you. Host, you should still think of a reliable way to make physical contact with him first so I can investigate the purpose of their system, and then we can decide whether to self-expose based on the circumstances.]
Ruan Weibai: Setting aside whether the other guy even has a system, I genuinely want to befriend them anyway. Calm down, don’t scare people off.
[System: Uh, so what’s your plan then?]
Ruan Weibai: Friends making friends by sharing a few cups of drinks, isn’t that perfectly appropriate? Grown adults throwing back a few rounds of alcohol and tossing arms over shoulders or patting backs is totally normal, right?
[System: Oi, that makes sense, makes total sense!! Host, you really are a genius!!]
Pocketing the silver, Ruan Weibai turned back to address the group: “Since it’s come to this, I won’t stand on ceremony either. These three sword pendants will serve as tokens of our friendship! Meeting by chance is better than a formal invitation, why don’t all of you come to my room tonight so we can drink to our hearts’ content and get thoroughly wasted?”
Shen Sanchuan smiled at the invitation: “To tell you the truth, we had the exact same thought! If Brother Bai Ye hadn’t brought it up, we were planning to invite the two of you to our room for a casual drink anyway.”
“A casual drink? How could that ever be enough?” Ruan Weibai laughed heartily, turning to shout toward the innkeeper not far away: “Innkeeper! Heaven-grade Suite Number One, send twenty jars of your most expensive wine up immediately, put it on my tab!”
“Right away! No problem at all, honored guest! I’ll have them delivered straight to your room in a jiffy!”
Then he tugged on Ye Tang’s hand with a twisted expression, lowering his voice to warn him: “You’re not allowed to drink.”
As he spoke, Ruan Weibai leaned in slightly closer, tugging and pulling at Ye Tang’s hand while putting on a mock-serious, earnest little expression as he looked up directly at him.
From Ye Tang’s perspective, these unconscious little movements of his looked precisely like a devoted young wife guarding her husband against wild drinking outside, clearly full of concern, yet acting all cutely miffed.
At that moment, an overwhelming impulse surged within him to pin this person against the wall and ravage him thoroughly, wanting to grip his waist, trap his hands, and watch him squirm and beg for mercy while weeping with flushed red eye-tails…
He pressed a hand against his temples, forcing himself to stop the thoughts from running wild.
Ruan Weibai naturally had no inkling of the thoughts churning inside Ye Tang’s head. After leading the group back to their suite, he cut straight to the point: “As the saying goes, when meeting a bosom friend, a thousand cups of wine are still too few. Since we all hit it off so well, tonight we’ve simply got to drink till we drop!”
Once everyone sat down and opened up, Ruan Weibai discovered that Shen Sanchuan’s celestial sword possessed an ice attribute, while Qian Longjing’s possessed a thunder attribute, matching his own Yingjie and Yuanguang attributes down to the letter. His interest skyrocketed instantly, and he engaged the two of them in a fiery, animated discussion, tossing back cup after cup of wine without stopping.
On the other side, Ye Tang sat chatting idly with Lu Linze and Huang Xi. Seeing that Ye Tang wasn’t drinking, they didn’t force him either, choosing to accompany him with tea instead. Initially, the three of them chatted about random, boundary-crossing topics that completely ignored their true identities, but somehow, the conversation drifted into a tea-party discussion on how to coax one’s wife into a good mood, with each of them sharing their own hard-earned experiences.
After three rounds of drinks, Ruan Weibai judged the timing to be ripe. Standing up under the guise of pouring drinks for the two of them, he deliberately feigned drunkenness, swaying as he accidentally spilled a splash of wine onto Shen Sanchuan: “Ah, my apologies, my hand slipped for a second, let me help Brother Shen wipe that o-”
Before his hand could even extend, Ye Tang stepped in, handing a handkerchief directly to Shen Sanchuan. After expressing his thanks, Shen Sanchuan replied: “I can wipe it myself, it’s no trouble at all.”
Ruan Weibai: “…”
Well well well, I refuse to believe in this jinx!
Tonight I’m going to pull out all the stops and act completely drunk!
“No, I insist on helping you wipe it! Nobody is stopping me!” Stumbling to his feet, he staggered forward, intending to throw his arm around Shen Sanchuan’s shoulder, but before his fingers could graze the other man’s robes, he was scooped up horizontally into a firm embrace by Ye Tang.
“You’re drunk, I’m taking you back.”
Ruan Weibai threw a tantrum: “Talking nonsense, I am completely sober! I haven’t finished our drinking contest yet, put me down!”
With a brief “apologies” directed toward the company, Ye Tang carried the loudly protesting Ruan Weibai straight into the master bedroom.
The moment they crossed the threshold, he dumped Ruan Weibai onto the bed, leaned over him, and stated: “Planning to cozy up to other men right under my nose? Did you really think I wouldn’t see right through it?”
“I, I didn’t.”
The alcohol sobered him up by half on the spot. Wait, is Ye Tang actually furious? It made Ruan Weibai’s tone unconsciously lose all its previous bravado.
“Once, twice, thrice. Did you really think I’d keep pampering you endlessly?” Pinching a seal in his hand, Ye Tang conjured the healing immortal artifact Chijiang, which slowly wound itself around Ruan Weibai’s wrists and ankles, binding him securely.
Based on experiences from previous times, the appearance of Chijiang meant he was going to suffer terribly.
“Ah-Ruan, it looks like you’re truly due for some proper discipline.”
Ruan Weibai swallowed hard, nervously warning: “We’re both consenting adults here, calm down!”