TEMBMBIWB Chapter 25
by VolareThe young man frowned, “What nonsense are you spouting again?”
Yu Xiaodie said, “Don’t play dumb, the way you look at your master all day is like you want to devour him. Others might not see it, but I’ve been a matchmaker for years, my eyes are sharp!”
Sui Chunsheng heard it as half-true, a bit confused.
Yu Xiaodie said, “How about I help you out?”
Sui Chunsheng asked, “How do you want to help me?”
Yu Xiaodie chuckled, “Recently my father is urging me to marry. Come back to my cave with me and act for him, tell him I am currently in a relationship. If it works, I’ll help you get your master, how about it?”
Sui Chunsheng glanced at her, “I don’t want to get my master.”
“I’m content just being by my master’s side.”
Yu Xiaodie said, “You’re being stubborn, you’re a wife-to-be.”
“I’ve heard that your master has a betrothed. By then, you’ll have a hard time even being with your master…”
Just as the two were chatting enthusiastically, Tan Zhui occasionally looked at them, feeling a bit sour inside.
The White Deer Immortal ate until his belly was round, and now he had lost his appetite.
Tan Zhui couldn’t help but ask, “Ah Sheng, what interesting things are you talking about?”
Sui Chunsheng’s body trembled, and he quickly came back to his senses.
Tan Zhui didn’t expect to startle him, and saw the young man glaring at the eighth princess with a bit of annoyance.
Yu Xiaodie quickly said, “Just now, I was asking the young master to come to my cave and act.”
Tan Zhui asked, “Act?”
Yu Xiaodie said, “Yes. I wanted the young master to play my beloved, so my father won’t make things difficult for me.”
Tan Zhui looked slightly surprised, “So that’s how it is.”
A pair of gray-blue eyes met the young man’s gaze, his voice light, “Ah Sheng, are you willing to help the eighth princess?”
Sui Chunsheng hesitated for a moment, and Yu Xiaodie gave him a wink.
The young man finally said, “If Master agrees to let me go…”
Yu Xiaodie immediately moved closer to Tan Zhui, being somewhat attentive, “The White Deer Immortal is known for his gentleness and kindness, he will definitely agree. When the time comes, I will definitely thank the Immortal greatly.”
Tan Zhui turned to look at the young man, seemingly seeing some emotion on Sui Chunsheng’s face.
The White Deer Immortal lightly said, “Since Ah Sheng is so enthusiastic, it wouldn’t be right for Master to stop you.”
Yu Xiaodie was immediately delighted, laughing, “I knew it, the White Deer Immortal is the best Immortal in the heavens!”
Sui Chunsheng’s eyes trembled, and the young man’s face showed a dumbfounded expression.
Sui Chunsheng thought: Master, you actually let me go?
Yue Shanglan, who had been drinking at a nearby table and was slightly drunk, put his arm around the young man’s shoulder, noticing his expression and asked in confusion, “Huh? Little Chunsheng, you look terrible, did your master scold you?”
Sui Chunsheng turned his face away, ignoring him.
Yue Shanglan looked up at one and then the other. The expressions of the master and disciple weren’t good, while the eighth princess was smiling brightly, like she was watching a play.
Yue Shanglan sensed a bit of something, pulled the eighth princess aside, looked around, confirmed that no one was paying attention, and lowered his voice, “You didn’t say anything out of line, did you? Ah Zhui looks easygoing, but he’s actually very stubborn. If you were too direct, he would hide away!”
Yu Xiaodie glanced at him, “Don’t worry, I didn’t say anything!”
Yue Shanglan breathed a sigh of relief, “That’s good.”
Wugen was focused on eating, completely not understanding what the two were talking about.
At the round table, the master and disciple were both silent.
The next day, at nightfall, in the courtyard of the Fox Cave.
Little Hibiscus was taken away by the eighth princess early in the day, and Yue Shanglan also pulled Wugen out to play. Only the White Deer Immortal was left alone in the small courtyard.
Tan Zhui was sewing under the candlelight. Until the silver needle pierced his fingertip again, the beast hide quickly absorbed his blood, emitting a burst of light.
He rubbed his temples, came back to his senses, sewed the last stitch, and placed it at the head of the young man’s bed.
It was late, and the young man still hadn’t returned.
He left the last candle burning, leaning on the bed.
Tossing and turning, his mind was racing.
Only now did the White Deer Immortal understand.
He looked out the window, and finally gave a bitter smile.
He really is…
Tan Zhui felt a bit annoyed, and buried his head in the blankets.
After a long time, he started to have trouble breathing.
His head was a bit dizzy, and his heart also started to ache.
Only then did the White Deer Immortal not have the mood to care about anything else.
After a long while, the candlelight flickered, and the candle wax dripped.
Tan Zhui suppressed the knot in his heart, came back to his senses, and popped his head out of the blankets.
The next second, he felt someone hugging him from behind.
The familiar hibiscus scent was embracing him.
Tan Zhui’s emotions, which he had just calmed down, were disturbed once again in this moment.
The young man had a lot of strength, burying him entirely in his embrace.
Sui Chunsheng’s voice carried a trace of grievance as he whispered in his ear, “Master, why don’t you come find me… don’t you want to care about me anymore…”
Tan Zhui didn’t know where the young man’s question came from, smelling a bit of wine in the hibiscus scent.
But he didn’t dare to move at all.
Tan Zhui did not answer, his head buried back in the blankets.
The young man hugged him tighter, his voice resentful, seemingly choked with sobs.
“Master, don’t ignore me, care about me, please care about me…”
Tan Zhui was having trouble breathing, and his body involuntarily tensed up.
The White Deer Immortal didn’t understand why he was crying, nor did he understand why he felt sour inside.
The young man buried his face in his shoulder, sobbing softly.
The young man’s sobs, the young man’s emotions, could no longer be suppressed at this time, and poured out like a flood.
After a long while, Sui Chunsheng let him go.
The hibiscus scent that had engulfed him and made him feel suffocated and dazed disappeared.
The White Deer Immortal’s heart also felt empty for a moment.
The two of them very tacitly created some distance, with the grass woven screen separating them.
Sui Chunsheng, through the screen, looked at his master’s back.
He didn’t dare to look at his master’s expression; he was afraid.
Tonight, he had revealed his feelings in a drunken rage.
The young man wanted his master to be awake, yet he prayed that his master was asleep and had not heard his drunken words.
A sleepless night.
…
The group bid farewell to the Fox Cave and returned to Fangcun Mountain.
During the time they were back at Fangcun Mountain, Hua Zhi also returned from the South Sea.
However, he didn’t seem too enthusiastic.
It seemed as if some cracks had formed in the relationship between the master and disciple since that day.
The young man stood by his side, grinding ink for him.
Watching the White Deer Immortal concentrate on practicing calligraphy, his hands moving slowly.
Sui Chunsheng suddenly asked, “Master, you don’t like Hua Zhi, so why don’t you refuse the Heavenly Lord?”
Tan Zhui’s hand paused, the tip of the brush soaked in ink, spilling a smudge on the rice paper.
“How do you know that Master doesn’t like Immortal Hua Zhi?”
Sui Chunsheng paused for a moment, muttering, “Master just doesn’t like him.”
Tan Zhui’s eyelashes trembled slightly, his voice a bit muffled, “Hibiscus, can you say, who does Master like?”
Sui Chunsheng was stunned for a moment, unable to say a reason.
Tan Zhui finished writing the last character, and added two characters “self-restraint”.
The next day, Wugen came in with breakfast.
Tan Zhui didn’t see Little Hibiscus and asked, “Hibiscus, why didn’t he come today?”
Wugen mumbled, “He’s in closed-door cultivation.”
Tan Zhui was stunned for a moment, confirming that he hadn’t misheard.
“When?”
It took the White Deer Immortal quite a while to come back to his senses. Why didn’t Little Hibiscus tell me before going into closed-door cultivation?
This child had always loved freedom since he was little, not liking constraints, and even less liking being locked up.
So much so, that in the past five hundred years, Little Hibiscus had never been in closed-door cultivation.
Tan Zhui felt annoyed, and put down his chopsticks after eating for a short while.
Just as the White Deer Immortal was feeling annoyed, Immortal Yue Shanglan walked in.
Looking around, he couldn’t help but wonder, “Huh? Why isn’t your little Chunsheng here pestering you today?”
“I passed by Duan Xiao Peak just now, and didn’t see little Chunsheng practicing.”
Tan Zhui said, “He’s in closed-door cultivation.”
Yue Shanglan was taken aback, “Closed-door cultivation? You really have no humanity. Little Chunsheng just got the beast hide, and his mind was just becoming stable, and you’re already hitting him like this.”
Tan Zhui was too lazy to pay him any mind, simply saying, “Did you come today for something?”
Yue Shanglan pouted, “Look, if you’re not happy, you chase people away.”
“It’s a good thing I’m here for something serious.”
Tan Zhui said, “Speak.”
Yue Shanglan sat down next to him, “The great elder of the Heavenly Medicine Sect, Elder Zhou You, said he has developed a prescription to suppress the Xiu Luo Demon Soul, as well as a supplementary medicinal bath. He was thinking of having little Chunsheng stay at the Heavenly Medicine Sect for a period to see the effect.”
“And coincidentally, in a little while, the major immortal sects of the Nine Heavens plan to open schools at the Heavenly Medicine Sect, and have little Chunsheng listen to lectures with the disciples and medical students. Being with people his own age should be more cheerful.”
After hearing this, Tan Zhui nodded, “When Hibiscus comes out of cultivation, I’ll tell him.”
Yue Shanglan nodded, but still didn’t move his butt.
The White Deer Immortal, seeing that he seemed hesitant to speak, couldn’t help but ask, “Speak directly if you have something to say.”
Yue Shanglan, “I’m just curious, you don’t like Hua Zhi, why are you marrying him? And why did you let the Heavenly Lord stuff him on your mountain?”
Tan Zhui was taken aback, with doubts in his heart, he said, “Just assume that I like him.”
Yue Shanglan, “I know you, you don’t like him.”
Tan Zhui looked at him, his eyes were cold.
“The heavens are really strange today. You two came to ask me this type of question.”
Yue Shanglan was stunned, “Two? Who else asked?”
Tan Zhui’s face was a bit cold, his face stern, “Once someone has something that they never want to lose again, they will become as timid as a mouse.”
It took Yue Shanglan a long time to come back to his senses.
“Do you think that by marrying Hua Zhi, you can make the Heavenly Lord put down his grudges against you?”
“I don’t understand, you’re actually giving in.”
Tan Zhui smiled, “I’ve already said the reason.”
Once someone has something that they never want to lose again, they will become as timid as a mouse, even if it is an ancient divine lord.
Sui Chunsheng had been in closed-door cultivation for a month, working hard at his training.
He wanted to throw everything out of his mind, and his mind had become much clearer, his spirit also becoming more stable.
He could even be considered to have comprehended what it means to have a clear and open road.
His five senses were sharp, already reaching the realm of a High God.
Thus, he immediately smelled the faint scent of ‘Jiangzhen’ incense.
The young man suddenly opened his eyes. He could sense it, the figure that was only separated from him by a stone wall.
The emotions that he had suppressed surged up again, like a wildfire, that the spring breeze could not extinguish.
The moment he came out of cultivation, the moment he saw the White Deer Immortal, he could no longer endure.
…