It’s Not Uncomfortable
His disciple was a little white dragon.
Duan Wangyue slept very deeply, hugging his own tail. He had experienced too much during the day, which consumed a significant amount of energy. Even though his mind was weighed down with worries, he was still a five-year-old child at heart. Lying on the soft bed that carried a pleasant floral scent, he struggled a few times against the overwhelming fatigue that swept over him before quickly drifting off to dreamland.
He had no idea at all that the secret he guarded so painstakingly when he was awake was now exposed to Xiao Yuan without the slightest bit of disguise.
Qin Ke’s warnings echoing in his mind grew louder and louder: Young Master! Stop sleeping! Wake up quickly! Your Shizun is back!
Duan Wangyue seemed not to hear Qin Ke’s voice, continuing to sleep sweetly while hugging his tail. It seemed he was having some kind of sweet dream, as the tail held in his arms swayed back and forth, the fluffy tip brushing against the tip of his nose again and again. Itched by the sweeping tail, Duan Wangyue furrowed his brow unhappily, but his arms remained tightly wrapped around his tail without loosening.
Xiao Yuan did not know that a little chubby bird in the shadows was watching his every move with trembling fear. Perhaps he had noticed, but he didn’t care; in the worldview of the cultivation world, spiritual little animals appearing inside the sect was completely normal.
He took out the two sets of disciple robes and the jade pendant he had just obtained from the Vestment Hall from his Qiankun bag, placing them at the head of the bed. Bending down to tuck the blanket over the soundly sleeping little dragon cub, his gaze landed on the fluffy tail tip that was obediently resting motionless on top of Duan Wangyue at some point. A trace of hesitation flashed through his clear, translucent eyes. Lifting his gaze to look at the little dragon cub, whose breathing was steady and clearly still fast asleep, he couldn’t help reaching out to stroke the fluffy tail tip once.
When busy with work, he wouldn’t go home for days on end. Even though he liked fluffy little animals, he had never once harbored the thought of keeping one.
The fluffy texture felt very similar to petting a cat at a cat café. Not knowing if it was because it was his first time petting a dragon tail, he felt that the dragon tail was slightly softer and felt even better to stroke than the cats he had petted before.
Seeming to feel deeply ashamed of such sneaking behavior, the corners of his eyes and his ears both flushed with a faint pink tint. In a flurry, he quickly tucked the blanket over Duan Wangyue and fled from the room as if escaping.
He was completely unaware that Duan Wangyue, whose entire little body was enveloped inside the blanket behind him, had his eyelashes tremble slightly, while the tips of his ears and his dragon horns both blossomed with a layer of bashfulness. Shizun! How could Shizun touch my tail?!
Both dragon horns and dragon tails were extremely sensitive areas. It was as if every dragon cub, from the moment of birth, already knew that dragon horns and dragon tails could not be casually touched by just anyone.
Especially the dragon tail.
Duan Wangyue hugged his tail with his eyes wide open, his expression somewhat vacant, as if he still hadn’t recovered from the reality that Shizun had stealthily touched his dragon tail.
“Young Master, are you still alive?”
Qin Ke’s pair of small wings were flapping so fast they were practically a blur. Having finally managed to lift a corner of the quilt with his beak, Xiao Yuan had blocked most of his view earlier, so he hadn’t been able to see what Xiao Yuan, who slaughtered demons and monsters without batting an eye, had done to his frail Young Master.
The quilt had just been lifted by a corner when, before he could look closely, he was suddenly grabbed by Duan Wangyue. His tiny body was imprisoned within the Young Master’s dragon claws, unable to move at all.
His bean-like eyes carefully peeked at the Young Master’s expression, feeling as though his little heart was about to be scared right out of his chest.
Just what on earth did Qingyuan Xianzun do to the Young Master?! Even his dragon horns have turned red!
Could it be some new type of spell that raises a demon’s body temperature as if they were being scorched by spiritual fire?!
He just knew that Qingyuan Xianzun, who loved dabbling in crooked and unorthodox ways, wasn’t a good person!
“Young Master? Are you alright?”
Duan Wangyue blinked, swept his tail back and forth a few times, and lowered his gaze to meet Qin Ke’s bean-like eyes. “I’m fine.”
He just felt a little embarrassed, that was all.
Next time, next time he wouldn’t let Shizun touch his tail anymore.
Duan Wangyue pulled the blanket down a bit, exposing his slightly pink head, and rolled over to lie flat on the bed, immediately catching sight of the two light cyan robes and the milky white jade pendant.
He picked up the jade pendant and looked at it closely in his hand. Characters were engraved on both the front and the back. His fingertips lightly traced over the engravings above, and he asked, “What is carved on it?”
Qin Ke was young and merely a fledgling the size of a palm; his learning really couldn’t be considered very high, but he still recognized the characters on the jade pendant.
Ever since they met, the Young Master hadn’t let him do anything, which made Qin Ke feel quite defeated. Now, suddenly needed, he lifted his neck and said excitedly, “This says ‘Duan Wangyue’. And this says ‘Sixth Peak’.”
Duan Wangyue’s gaze followed the movement of Qin Ke’s wings, lingering on the three characters for ‘Duan Wangyue’ for a little longer. So, his name was written this way.
He stroked the handwriting on it several times, lowering his gaze as if pondering something.
Looking at Qin Ke standing on top of the clothes, he said with a solemn expression, “Shizun saw my tail and horns. He knows I’m not human.”
Qin Ke was also influenced by his expression and nodded earnestly. “Yes.”
“But he didn’t kill me.”
Qin Ke nodded, then hesitantly shook his head, before transforming into a toddler about the same size as Duan Wangyue. He reached out a chubby hand and solemnly touched Duan Wangyue’s forehead. “But your body is very hot.”
Pulling his hand back, he spoke with a heavy wave of worry, “People of the immortal sects are exceptionally deceitful. Who knows what newly developed spell that Xiao Yuan might have cast on you!”
Only then did Duan Wangyue realize that Qin Ke hadn’t seen his tail being stroked. With a cold face, he recovered his usual demeanor. “Let’s try again.”
Try again?
Try what?
A few flickers of bewilderment flashed through Qin Ke’s bean-like eyes, but very soon, he found out what the Young Master wanted to try.
The candlelight burned all night long.
Xiao Yuan sat before the desk, carefully browsing through the manuscripts left behind by the original body. The original body had been someone terrible with directions and a tech-savvy geek; the manuscripts he left behind contained quite a few designs and blueprints for new-style spells and mechanical puppets.
After reading through them roughly, Xiao Yuan put down the drafts in his hand and raised a hand to rub his slightly sore and aching brow.
The more he looked at those drafts and blueprints, the more novel they felt, and several of the drafts had even gone through multiple revisions. If any of those finished products were actually built, their lethality would be extraordinary.
He truly couldn’t understand why a tech geek who stayed comfortably at home doing R&D would run off to abuse the male protagonist, to the extent that he didn’t even have a corpse left intact after death.
Not having an intact corpse was one thing, but he had even been kept around as a skeleton figurine lingering on his last breaths for a whole year.
Unable to figure it out, Xiao Yuan could only attribute everything to the demands of the plot.
Because the plot demanded it, a tech geek who spent year-round staying at home had to mutate into a huge pervert to torment his own disciple.
The door was knocked on, followed by the sound of a childish voice: “Shizun!”
As if suddenly remembering something, Xiao Yuan’s expression turned somewhat unusual before quickly calming down as he uttered, “Come in.”
Duan Wangyue pushed the door open and entered. The first thing he saw was the candle holder burning by the table. He had changed into the disciple robes, and his body was still shrouded in that black hooded cloak.
Xiao Yuan was not surprised by this at all. The protagonist, after all, especially a somewhat out-of-the-ordinary protagonist, would always be bullied to varying degrees, then meet a soft-hearted deity, and only then open up their heart.
And he, he was that soft-hearted deity.
What world-destroying protagonist? His disciple was the proud favorite of the righteous path of the immortal sects!
“What is it?”
Duan Wangyue asked cautiously, “Shizun, if I look very strange, will you throw me away?”
His phrasing still had somewhat awkward pauses, which fell into Xiao Yuan’s ears carrying an extra layer of fondness for no apparent reason.
Xiao Yuan blew out the candle that had burned for the entire night, then beckoned to Duan Wangyue, pulling little Wangyue right into his arms in one motion. He asked, “How so, strange?”
It was Duan Wangyue’s first time sitting on someone else’s lap. It was too intimate, and he felt a bit unaccustomed to it. After fidgeting a few times, he sat obediently and dared not move, looking at Xiao Yuan with timid eagerness as he said, “I’m a monster.”
“Who said our Wangyue is a monster?” Xiao Yuan said softly, “Our Wangyue is the cutest little dragon cub Shizun has ever seen.”
Duan Wangyue’s body stiffened. The secret he had hidden for so long had just been spoken aloud like that.
The cutest little dragon cub.
It was as if he were hearing these words for the very first time. He sat blankly on Xiao Yuan’s lap, not knowing what to do or what expression to wear. Both his mind and his heart were filled entirely with Shizun’s words:
‘The cutest little dragon cub.’
The hand resting on his back was large and very warm, gently patting him up and down, which greatly eased Duan Wangyue’s current wandering and flustered state of mind.
Clutching Xiao Yuan’s clothes, he asked the question once more in sheer disbelief, “Am I the cutest little dragon cub?”
“Of course.”
Xiao Yuan’s answer came swiftly and without any psychological burden. After all, he wasn’t speaking false words; in all the years he had lived, the only dragon he had ever seen was the little cub right in his arms.
Duan Wangyue fell silent for a split second, then broke free from Xiao Yuan’s embrace and ran off with pattering steps on his short little legs.
Xiao Yuan didn’t stop him, calling out just as he reached the door, “Walk slower.”
And then, he successfully watched as a certain little dragon cub tripped over the overly long hooded cloak.
“Got it!”
The little milky voice quivered. Xiao Yuan couldn’t help smiling, digging out a hooded cloak from his childhood days from the wardrobe. Comparing it against his memory of Duan Wangyue’s height, he pulled out a pair of scissors and shortened it a bit.
The original body had been born looking like a jade-carved doll when he was young, yet he loved wearing a cold expression. His Shizun had thought he looked cute, like a little adult, and liked to tease him, even the color of his clothing leaned toward the flamboyant red category, including the cloak.
The little dragon cub was born cute too, just a bit thin. If properly raised, he would only become cuter.
Duan Wangyue had no idea that he had gained a brand-new red hooded cloak. He sat on the bed while the tail behind him made rustling noises across the mattress.
He pressed his lips together, his expression somewhat solemn. When on earth did Shizun discover that I’m not human?
It couldn’t be last night. It must have been even earlier.
Qin Ke didn’t understand why the Young Master had gone out all happily only to return with a heavy, gloomy face. After pacing back and forth across the table trying to figure out how to comfort the Young Master, he watched as the Young Master bolted out again like a gust of wind.
Flapping his wings to give chase and take a look, he thought: Well, of course, he’s gone into Qingyuan Xianzun’s room again.
He didn’t dare to go in, only daring to stretch his neck out from far away to watch.
Xiao Yuan had just finished sewing the cloak when, hearing footsteps, he called out, “Come in.”
Turning around to look at the little cub who wasn’t wearing his cloak, the tips of his brows lifted slightly. Without saying anything else, he simply stated, “Come try it on and see if it fits.”
Once the bulky, oversized cloak draped over his body was removed, Xiao Yuan noticed that his thin and tiny disciple’s waist had suddenly become a whole circle wider.
Realizing what it was, he squatted down in front of Duan Wangyue to help him put on the cloak, asking, “Is it uncomfortable having your tail pressed down like that?”
Duan Wangyue let him handle it, pressing his lips together at the words as if having made some sort of decision. “It’s not uncomfortable.”
How could it not be uncomfortable?
His tail was often wrapped around his waist, and after a long time, it would grow sore and numb. But he only ever dared to let his tail down for free movement when the dead of night arrived.
Because the people in the Duan manor didn’t like his tail, calling it very ugly, and saying they would chop it off if it ever showed.
Even though Shizun was good to him, Duan Wangyue didn’t dare to gamble at all.
If others didn’t like his tail, he liked it himself.
Xiao Yuan let out a light chuckle. His originally cold and striking brows and eyes softened, making one involuntarily think of the warm sunlight following early spring as he said, “Good.”