A century before.
A ten-odd-year-old little Ah-Ruan stood by the lake, his face stained with tears. Staring at the pitch-black surface of the lake under the moonlight, he wept while struggling to stretch out his bare feet, having just removed his shoes and socks, seemingly trying to test whether he could step into the chilling lake water.
The night was too dark, and the moonlight flickered on and off, mottled and uneven, preventing him from seeing the path beneath his feet. As a result, he stepped on a slippery stone, lost his footing, and tumbled straight into the lake! Knowing zero swimming, the little Ah-Ruan panicked and flailed about wildly in the water!
This was bad; everyone had already turned in for the night at this late hour, and absolutely nobody was around!
He had been so careful, yet he still managed to fall into the water!
He struggled desperately, wanting to cry for help, but opening his mouth in the water made uttering a sound, let alone vocalizing, utterly impossible!
Just as he thought he was done for, someone grabbed him by the collar and yanked him straight out of the dark, freezing lake water.
Soaking wet, he sprawled across the bank like one granted a reprieve from death, taking large, greedy breaths of fresh air.
“Are you looking to die?”
Hearing this voice, the little Ah-Ruan raised his head to see a youth clad in greyish-white immortal robes frowning down at him under the moonlight.
The youth appeared to be only fifteen or sixteen years old, his facial features not yet fully matured. He wore a silver crown adorned with tinkling bell chains, and his greyish-white immortal robes were embroidered with blooming lotuses rendered in ink washes, making him look light, fluid, and transcendently ethereal. Especially under the moonlight, he resembled a fresh lotus just beginning to bloom, so breathtakingly lovely that one couldn’t bear to look away.
Hmph, it wasn’t hard to imagine how many living beings a youth like this would captivate in the future!
Once his breathing stabilized, the little Ah-Ruan pouted: “I am not looking to die, it’s just that my sword accidentally fell into the lake, and I wanted to retrieve it.”
The youth smiled with serene clarity: “You are so small, do you even know how to use a sword?”
“You’re only a few years older than me!” the little Ah-Ruan said with frustration. “Not only do I know how to use a sword, I can forge swords with my own hands! If you don’t believe me, I’ll fish up the sword I forged myself and show you!”
The youth asked: “Want to die a second time?”
He almost forgot again that he couldn’t swim.
“It is late, hurry home.”
“No, I won’t go back until I find my sword! This is the first sword I ever forged with my own hands!”
The youth added: “Since it is a sword, it will naturally not run away. Go back first, and you can ask an adult to help you fish it out during the day.”
Staring blankly, the little Ah-Ruan replied: “They all look down on the swords I forge, saying my swords are just lumps of iron and don’t deserve to be called swords. They even said that if it sank, let it sink, and told me to just leave it be.”
Lowering his small head, he said with a grievance-laden tone: “I have been waiting here all day, and nobody was willing to help me fish out my sword.”
The youth remained silent for a moment before suddenly letting out a sigh and asking: “Where did your sword fall into the water, over here?”
The little Ah-Ruan raised his head abruptly and nodded along the direction pointed out by the youth.
“Wait for me here, do not go near the lake, you hear me?”
The little Ah-Ruan immediately nodded obediently in agreement!
With that, the youth turned and stepped into the lake. His white figure vanished into the dark, murky water in an instant. After who knows how long, he swam back up holding an uneven iron sword covered in nicks and notches.
The little Ah-Ruan, who had been waiting faithfully on the shore, hurried over to greet him. Clutching the iron sword handed to him, he shouted excitedly: “That’s it, that’s it, thank you!”
Soaking wet from head to toe, the youth originally intended to cast a spell to dry his clothes, but after glancing at the little Ah-Ruan, he decided that executing magic in front of a mortal might not be appropriate, so he abandoned the idea. Thus, the two soaking-wet little imps sat together under the moonlight to sun themselves in the moonbeams.
“This is the sword you forged?” The youth looked at the sword and mocked: “It truly resembles a lump of iron.”
The little Ah-Ruan laughed: “Whether it’s an iron sword or an iron lump, either way it’s my precious treasure! Thank you for helping me save it, oh, and for saving me too! What is your name?”
Pausing for a moment, the youth looked back at the little Ah-Ruan and replied: “My name is Ye Tang, and you?”
“My given name is Ruan Weibai, and I also have the style name Bai Ye… But you can call me Ah-Ruan.”
“Ah-Ruan?”
Smiling, the little Ah-Ruan nodded: “Only people I like are allowed to call me that!”
The scene cut back to the present.
“We are both consenting adults here, calm down!”
Looking down at the Ruan Weibai beneath him, Ye Tang shook his head and said: “Sometimes I truly feel that you are completely heartless, remembering nothing of what you’ve said or done.”
“There are many things I prefer not to bicker with you about, but you have already formed a bond with me, yet you still keep your thoughts on others. Do you truly believe I will keep tolerating this indefinitely?”
“Perhaps after giving you a proper discipline, you will remember to exercise some restraint.”
“Wait, Ye Tang, I can explain!” Ruan Weibai struggled to sit up, though bound hand and foot by Ye Tang’s Chijiang, moving about proved decidedly inconvenient.
Running a hand across Ruan Weibai’s throat, Ye Tang tightened his grip slightly around his chin: “Explain?”
“Mm-hm, how about you untie me first? Let’s talk things through properly.”
Withdrawing the Chijiang, Ye Tang looked at him and said: “Very well, explain.”
Unexpectedly cooperative, Ye Tang left Ruan Weibai somewhat dazed once untied.
To be honest, it wasn’t that he didn’t want to engage in intimacy with Ye Tang; he was mainly afraid that Ye Tang would play too rough, leaving his fragile, useless body unable to take it and rendering him bedridden for the next few days. With the auction convention about to start, he refused to miss it over this, which was why he had urgently called a time-out!
“Actually, it’s because.” Ruan Weibai’s mind went blank for a second. Damn it, how was he supposed to fabricate a lie again?
[System: What the heck, host, you didn’t even prepare your explanation beforehand?]
Ruan Weibai: I didn’t think he’d actually listen to my explanation! I was just shouting blindly to stall! Don’t they always pull this in TV dramas?! Crucially, who actually stops to listen to explanations in moments like this?! What happened to the promised discipline?
[System: Good, good, good, you really are a natural-born talent.]
Seeing that Ye Tang was genuinely waiting for his explanation, Ruan Weibai steeled his heart and abruptly adopted an expression of deep, tragic grievance: “Forget it. Since you don’t trust me, no matter how I explain, you won’t believe a word. In the end, whatever bond we share can never withstand your lack of trust in me.”
Propping his head up with one hand, Ye Tang maintained an indifferent expression: “Go on, I’m listening.”
“You clearly don’t believe me!”
“If you don’t speak, how will you know whether I believe you or not?”
“Even without you speaking, I already know you don’t believe me!”
“Is it because you haven’t finished fabricating your excuse yet?”
“How did you kno-” Ruan Weibai, who had nearly blurted it out, sat in place in awkward embarrassment.
Damn it, I got baited right into his trap!
Scratching his head, he simply confessed honestly: “There were indeed some reasons, but it really wasn’t what you had in mind.”
Ye Tang nodded: “Very well, I believe Ah-Ruan.”
Feeling astonished by how easygoing Ye Tang was acting, Ruan Weibai stared at him with wide eyes.
Leaning in closer, Ye Tang grabbed his chin and pulled him over, taking a light sniff at the corner of Ruan Weibai’s lips: “Strong smell of alcohol.”
“I drank a bit too much, but mortal wine cannot compare to Lanquique Heaven’s, let alone the wine of our Wufan Nine Realms. For me, it’s no big deal.”
“If you find the smell of alcohol on me offensive, should I move farther away?”
“How could I ever find you offensive?”
As he spoke, he pressed close to Ye Tang, feeling their breaths mingling against each other’s faces.
“Ah-Ruan, do you remember the first time I got drunk?”
Blinking, Ruan Weibai asked: “Why bring that up all of a sudden?”
In truth, before the two of them became sworn enemies, there had been a period when their relationship was passable. Back then, Ruan Weibai often tried to rope Ye Tang into drinking and chatting, yet Ye Tang never touched a single drop of alcohol.
Initially, Ruan Weibai assumed Ye Tang was just putting on airs of cold, aloof detachment; but the more Ye Tang refused to drink, the more Ruan Weibai wanted to make him drink.
As the saying goes, people always want to taste whether a forcibly twisted melon is sweet or not!
Eventually, after exhausting every possible method without succeeding in getting Ye Tang to take even a single sip, Ruan Weibai decided to throw caution to the wind!
On a certain dark, windless night, emboldened by alcohol, he shoved Ye Tang back into a chair, straddled directly onto his lap face-to-face, and before Ye Tang could react, passed a mouthful of wine over mouth-to-mouth!
The expression on Ye Tang’s face back then was so richly varied he would never forget it for the rest of his life!
First came shock, his eyes locked straight onto him; then anger, as though wanting to say something but keeping his lips pressed tightly shut; followed by flushing embarrassment and indignation, his face genuinely turned shades of red he had never witnessed on the guy before!
Yet for some reason, even though Ye Tang could easily have spat that mouthful of wine out, he swallowed it instead.
And then, something unexpected happened to Ruan Weibai.
Ye Tang got thoroughly drunk right then and there!
“Of course I remember. You got all dazed and muddle-headed after I forced a mouthful of alcohol down your throat.”
Curving his eyes into smiles, Ruan Weibai said: “Yet your alcohol tolerance wasn’t terrible, and I actually rather liked it, you were exceptionally obedient, and crucially, you only listened to me.”
Looking at him, Ye Tang slowly stated: “I want to try again.”
Try again?
Failing to grasp his meaning, Ruan Weibai countered: “Try what again? Don’t tell me you want to drink alco, mm.”
Shadows of curtains swayed.
His eyes widening in instant shock as Ye Tang captured his lips in a kiss, Ruan Weibai didn’t even have time to register astonishment before Ye Tang effortlessly breached his teeth and lips, launching an overwhelming offensive that trapped him as though he were besieged on all sides, ransacking every corner until he didn’t even dare to breathe!
Knowing full well that he was so nervous he had forgotten how to breathe, Ye Tang showed no intention of stopping. Instead, slipping a hand behind the back of his head, he pressed him even closer.
“Ye-Ye Tang, I can’t breathe.” he let out fragmented, intermittent pleas for mercy.
Halting slowly, Ye Tang glanced at him, then pulled his entire person into his embrace. Feeling Ruan Weibai gradually resume breathing, he leaned down to whisper softly beside his ear: “Ah-Ruan, I am somewhat drunk.”
Ruan Weibai’s earlobes turned furiously scarlet. This fellow was doing it on purpose!
To say nothing of the fact that he wasn’t drunk at all, even if someone genuinely were drunk, ordinary people couldn’t possibly get intoxicated simply from kissing; yet this idiot Ye Tang was famously allergic to even a single drop of alcohol, and he had deliberately spent all that time lingering and tasting on his lips just now!
So he had deliberately fished for intoxication using him!
Ahhhhh, how could anyone use a method like this to get drunk?!
“What on earth do you want, Ye Tang?”
“What does Ah-Ruan want me to do?” Pinning Ruan Weibai down onto the couch, Ye Tang used one hand to clamp down on his right wrist, preventing him from moving freely. “You know how obediently I listen to you now.”
What did he want him to do? What did he want him to do! Do…
Ruan Weibai thought: Damn it, what should I do if I’m starting to feel tempted?!
[System: Hold on… hold on, host! You still have the auction convention to attend.]
Ruan Weibai: I know that, but… Ye Tang’s technique is genuinely amazing, and besides, it’s been over half a month since we last did it…
[System: Then I can only gift you eight words.]
Ruan Weibai: What eight words?
[System: Beyond endurance, no need to endure.]
Ruan Weibai: ?
The room remained exceptionally quiet, save for the sound of each other’s breathing.
The fragrance of wine lingered in the air.
After who knows how long, he reached out to grip Ye Tang’s lapel, tightening his grip subconsciously before loosening it again, then turned his head away and slowly squeezed out a few words.
“Ye Tang, let’s do it.”