The next day, Xue Huai was awakened by Yun Cuo’s silly cat scratching him with its paws. This silver-gray cat seemed to know that its claws could hurt people, so it tried to retract its claws and use a meat pad to rub against his cheeks. They’re warm and soft, with a hint of milk fragrance.
This cat had a good relationship with him in his past life. It was really strange, it was originally only close to Yun Cuo, but later it liked to play with Xue Huai, but he never saw it close to anyone else.
Xue Huai opened his eyes and reached out to touch the silly cat’s head, then slowly flipped over and got up.
Yun Cuo had already gotten up and was lightly washing his hands and feet, afraid of waking him up.
Xue Huai rubbed his eyes, got up, and casually said, “Good morning.”
Yun Cuo hesitated for a moment and also said, “Good morning.”
When he met those black eyes, Xue Huai suddenly realized something and quickly averted his gaze. Yun Cuo also quickly averted his gaze, and his ears turned red.
Recalling last night’s incident, both of them felt a bit unnatural.
After each of them silently finished washing and tidying up their clothes, Yun Cuo held his tongue for a long time and said to him, “Xue Huai, let’s have breakfast together ba.”
It wasn’t a query for him to rebuff, it was an offer. Xue Huai remained silent, assuming that he had agreed. He tidied up and left with Yun Cuo.
They got up early, and today is a day off, so no one noticed them coming out of the same room.
When they arrived at the cultivator’s food court, Yun Cuo pressed Xue Huai into his seat and didn’t allow him to move while he went to help Xue Huai get his meals and drinks. Xue Huai couldn’t sit still feeling embarrassed to have him do so many subtle things. He took advantage of Yun Cuo’s lack of attention and slipped away, offering him food and drinks as a gesture of courtesy.
Xue Huai doesn’t have many taboos and loves to eat fresh and savory things. This person is petulant as hell and is very particular about the color, smell, and even the taste of his food.
Yun Cuo, on the other hand, didn’t have so much to pick from—the same aesthetic as the one he’d been criticized for so many times by Xue Huai. His dietary needs are—anything is fine, but not overly bland and just a little bit heavier in flavor. He likes greasy, spicy, and sweet things.
Both sides prepared their meals as if rehearsed beforehand, they placed them on the table and pushed them to each other with great understanding.
Xue Huai lowered his eyes and looked at the dishes, bowls, and chopsticks in front of him.
Fish Soup with Snow Vegetables, Sea Shrimp in Soy Sauce, Sweet Egg Soup, completed by a couple of small steamed buns simmered in nine-colored deer milk. They were all his favorite foods, and Yun Cuo was afraid that he would be hungry. Thus, he took a little bit of everything and piled up the entire food box, enough for his entire day’s worth of meals.
Xue Huai picked up a milk bun and asked Yun Cuo, “Speaking of it, how do you know what I like to eat?”
A few days ago, Yun Cuo specially cooked for him every day, everything catering to his taste. At first, he thought it was just a chance encounter with an interesting classmate who thought his taste was similar, but later he found out it was Yun Cuo.
Now he remembered this incident—Yun Cuo and he have always had vastly different tastes when it comes to eating. Previously, the two of them ate dry food together in the military, head to head, and even shared a water bag. Later, the position of Yun Cuo was pacified, and it was rare for them to have a meal together. Even if they did, they would each have a dedicated chef and eat on their own without interfering with each other.
Yun Cuo, in this lifetime, should not have known his taste.
He casually asked and looked at him curiously.
Yun hesitated for a moment before quickly answering, “I… before leaving, I asked your old steward what you like to eat and what you use. I was afraid you might not be used to it here, so he made a list for me.”
Xue Huai muttered, “Oh.”
He caught a glimpse of Yun Cuo’s gentle, smiling gaze, which made him feel uneasy. He quickly lowered his head to eat.
Yun Cuo sat opposite him and opened the food box given to him by Xue Huai—he was also stunned.
These are clearly all his favorite foods inside. It’s the dishes that Xue Huai has always disliked for not being tasty—greasy meats, sugar-pickled fruits and jerky meat, and a lot of various sauces. He used to dislike eating herbs and vegetables, and his body always lacked wood elements, but he just didn’t like them and didn’t want to eat them. He wouldn’t eat them even if the Imperial Doctor begged him to.
Therefore, Xue Huai always helps him add another grilled Sichuan dish. There are many leaves, which are easy to eat and have a crispy taste. There is not much grass leaf flavor, and it is not as difficult to chew as other vegetables. Only in this way can Yun Cuo willingly lay down his chopsticks.
Now, all the dishes in his food box are what he loved to eat in his previous life, except for this forgotten Sichuan dish, which is vegetarian.
It’s like… it has become a habit. Xue Huai didn’t even notice this, nor did he notice that not only did Yun Cuo choose his favorite food, he also subconsciously chose Yun Cuo’s favorite food.
How does he know what he likes to eat?
How could Xue Huai, in this lifetime, know his dietary habits?
Yun Cuo was tense all over and looked at Xue Huai in surprise.
Xue Huai keenly sensed it. “What’s wrong?”
Yun Cuo’s voice carried a faint, undetectable tremor. He tried his best to calm himself and pretended to be indifferent, asking, “How do you know I love to eat these things?”
When he asked this question, Xue Huai understood—he was a good cook for him in his previous life, and these meticulous and deep details had become his little habit, engraved in his bone marrow. In the past few days, he had become familiar with Yun Cuo again, and he didn’t even realize that he needed to avoid these small details.
Xue Huai didn’t think this was a big deal at all—before, he avoided Yun Cuo and acted differently from his past life, all he wanted to do was avoid him. Now it seems that he can’t avoid it anymore, so he will return to his usual routine and let nature take its course.
After all, it’s not a big deal to discover one’s true cultivation, there’s always a reason to excuse these minor details. No one in their right mind would think in terms of rebirth anyway. In the Immortal Realm, there’s never been anything but soul-snatching and soul-taking, but he has never heard of people coming back to life after death.
He himself found the whole thing unbelievable.
Xue Huai casually said, “I guessed. You look like someone who only knows how to eat meat. What’s wrong?”
Yun Cuo: “……”
He lowered his head and stared at the dishes on his plate, staring blankly for a while before finally saying, “En.”
After a moment, Xue Huai finished his meal and rinsed his mouth with the orchid water he carried with him. Looking up, he saw that Yun Cuo had hardly moved his chopsticks. This person was stunned and seemed to be distracted.
Xue Huai: “?”
He spoke up, “What’s wrong with you? I’m full. I’ll go to my master’s place later, then I’ll leave first?”
Yun Cuo saw him stand up and instinctively called out, “Xue Huai… Xue Huai ge.”
There was an obvious panic and confusion between his eyes. He reached out and grabbed Xue Huai’s sleeve, whispering, “Did you really…… guess what I like to eat?”
Xue Huai realized that Yun Cuo was over his head with him on this one. He glanced at Yun Cuo and suddenly felt blessed to his heart—this kid couldn’t have gotten ahead of himself and thought he’d follow along to find out what he loved to eat, could he?
Xue Huai became even more uncomfortable, and he felt a little angry. “Don’t be so naive, Xiao Tao doesn’t like vegetables and only eats meat too. I see that you look quite similar to it, I didn’t know what you liked to eat beforehand.”
His words were a bit loud at this moment, causing several people next to him to look this way.
But Yun Cuo still tugged at his sleeve, stubbornly and bewilderedly, lifting his eyes to look at him and whispering, “Xue Huai ge…”
There were more and more onlookers, and occasionally someone pointed at them and chuckled, half envious and half sighing. Xue Huai quickly wanted to pull off his sleeve from his hand and said solemnly, “I’ve got to go find my Shizun. You can find another time to discuss the upcoming trial with me.”
Yun Cuo didn’t persist anymore, as if he had suddenly regained consciousness and loosened his sleeve.
Xue Huai glanced at him and felt that this person was a bit strange, but he didn’t think much about it. He gave a salute and left.
Yun Cuo sat quietly in the same spot, moved his chopsticks a few times to eat, but didn’t eat much. He ate them completely and cleanly, the only thing that’s left is the forgotten Szechuan cuisine.
Today, while the cultivator was on vacation, Xue Huai worked with Cai Yi to help her grade the homework—Xue Huai could be described as one word ‘miserable’ at the Murong Mountain Sect. Murong Jinchuan didn’t even give him pocket money and even stopped his grandmother from secretly giving it to him. If it weren’t for him secretly bringing a small treasury with ten thousand melon gold seeds on his body before he set off, he wouldn’t even be able to eat Yun Cuo’s little meals.
It is obvious that only going out without getting in is not a long-term solution, so he went to work with several masters, even taking the lowest paycheck—Murong Jinchuan heard that several masters had treated him well, and he even specifically instructed them not to let him get too much paycheck, so that he knew that “making money is not easy.”
All in all, Xue Huai was at his wit’s end with his stubborn and stingy grandfather. At home, they pampered him, but outside, they were strict to the point of being demanding…… Anyway, it was just miserable.
There are quite a few files that he needs to correct today, so he didn’t have time to go back and feed the gluttonous ghost. Therefore, he asked a fellow disciple he knew for help.
The gluttonous ghost was casually found by him on the roadside when he was twelve years old. The gluttonous clan are originally fierce beasts, eating everything without end, so they are ranked first among the four harms in the Immortal Realm, along with Zhu Jiuyin, Qi Qi, and Shi Hou. At that time, this group of gluttons was caught and executed, and they all turned into fierce beast ghosts. Others planned to capture their souls all at once, but a pitiful gluttonous ghost desperately escaped, grabbing the passing Xue Huai and trembling.
At that time, Xue Huai was also just a little bean pudding. He had just lost his mother, and his father immediately married someone new. He was confused and cynical, and he was caught off guard by such a bald and ugly creature.
He didn’t feel scared at that time, he just looked at its tearful eyes and felt that it’s a bit pitiful, being beaten to death once, and even the soul was beaten once again, making it even more pitiful.
He then carried it back home.
Someone tried to stop him, “Little Master Xue, Little Ancestor Xue, this thing is very fierce. It eats everything, even you! You stop that.”
Xue Huai put a finger into the gluttonous ghost’s mouth and observed for a while. The gluttonous ghost didn’t dare to move, so he withdrew his hand and said, “Look, it doesn’t eat mine. It’s very well-behaved. I can keep it in my bedroom and use it as my trash can. I’ll feed it the garbage from home every day, okay?”
The gluttony that has become a ghost cannot digest food, but still retains the nature of being extremely painful when one is not satisfied with filling their stomach. Xue Huai would help it fill its stomach with a few stones every time he finished pouring out the garbage and then spit it out the next time he needed to clean up the garbage.
This is what he calls “feeding gluttony.”
The fellow disciples who are ordered to feed the gluttonous ghost suffer unbearable hardships—the task of feeding the gluttonous ghost is something that ordinary people dare not do. Who knows if your hands and feet are still there after feeding it?
Young Lord Xue Huai was also a strange person, raising anything but a gluttonous ghost as a pet.
As soon as he left, he frowned and looked up, only to see a young man with silver hair and dark red eyes in the courtyard—for a moment, his eyes lit up. In his mind, he quickly weighed up the question, “Which is more terrifying? The gluttonous ghost or the Young Immortal Lord?” Finally, he decided to take a gamble.
He rushed down and boldly told Yun Cuo, “Hey! Young Immortal Lord! Your wife wants you to help him go back and feed the gluttonous ghost.”
Yun Cuo froze, “Who are you talking about?”
That person said, “Your—wife! Xue—Huai! Everyone knows that there’s nothing to be ashamed of. I’ve got the words. I’ll go first ah.”
Yun Cuo stood in place for a while and instinctively wanted to go upstairs to find Xue Huai, but he held back.
Wife, it came out so easily as soon as his lips flattened together.
It’s as if he was flying through the Mortal Realm and suddenly fell steeply into the earth. Like when he was still in the Demon Realm, he watched the people of the Demon Realm act rudely, recklessly, and freely, drinking the strongest wine and eating the most heavily flavored meat. When he first came to the Immortal Realm, he was not used to it and vomited all night long, so his mother built a stove to cook and boil medicine for him in a smoky and fiery manner.
As the steam rose, the proud and arrogant Demon Princess also lowered herself, like every ordinary and precious mother who cherishes children.
The two words “mother” and “wife” are the same, they belong to the Mortal Realm. His mother only allowed him to call her mother when he was sick, but the rest of the time she had to let him call her “Queen Mother.” She followed the rules of the Immortal Realm and dreamed of being recognized by her beloved.
Yun Cuo chased after him and pulled the fellow disciple back. He asked, “You just said, Xue… Xue Huai, what did he ask me to do?”
The classmate was startled by him and carefully repeated, “… Feed the gluttonous ghost.”
The next moment, Yun Cuo disappeared. His shape and shadow are like the wind and ghosts, and in an instant, they’re lost in the fragrance of eternal spring.
“Don’t be scared, you eat ba.”
In the Warm Pavilion, Yun Cuo crouched in front of the gluttonous ghost, trying to communicate with it gently.
Unfortunately, the gluttonous ghost resisted and was also very frightened—Xue Huai had always only given him stones and garbage to eat, but the fierce person in front of him brought him meat!
Not just meat, but this person brought 56 food boxes over and filled the entire room!
Yun Cuo piled up all the dishes that appeared in today’s food court in front of the gluttonous ghost, allowing it to move freely. Unfortunately, this glutton is a bit too timid. As soon as it approaches, it trembles, and its face is filled with fear.
Not to mention eating, it was estimated that if he stayed alone with it for a little while longer, this little gluttonous could be scared to death by his sudden and strange behavior.
He closed the door and sat-cross legged outside Xue Huai’s room, quietly waiting for the gluttonous ghost to finish.
After a while, the sound of babbling and chewing came from inside.
Yun Cuo waited patiently for a few moments before suddenly pulling open the door to look inside.
The gluttonous ghost was so scared that it choked and crawled out of the colorful dishes on the ground, jumping onto Xue Huai’s bed and rubbing the oil off against his bed.
When Xue Huai returned, what he saw was this scene—
Yun Cuo hurriedly sprinkled purification techniques in his room, while the gluttonous ghost lay on the ground trying to eat the food box, attempting to destroy the evidence. There were still twenty food boxes left to swallow, and the room is a mess—it has been greased by the gluttonous ghost and trampled on in a mess, even on the roof and window frames.
His fragrant and tidy room has become like a vegetable market entrance.
Xue Huai widened his eyes. “What have you guys done?”
Yun Cuo turned around and said in a slightly low voice, “I’m feeding your gluttonous ghost.”
Xue Huai was confused and said, “You feeding the gluttonous ghost like this?”
Yun Cuo said, “It’s your pet, and I don’t know what it wants to eat, so today I brought a little bit of everything from the food court.”
His voice became even lower: “It really only eats meat, Xue Huai… Xue Huai Ge, you really treat me like the gluttonous.”
The gluttonous ghost glared angrily at Yun Cuo and flew into Xue Huai’s arms.
Xue Huai finally realized that this person had taken the words spoken during the day to heart and felt aggrieved here.
He was dying of laughter—the childishness of Yun Cuo in this life was simply beyond his imagination.
Surprisingly, he actually came to confirm whether the gluttonous ghost only ate meat like him or not! This person is only three years old ba!
He held onto the gluttonous ghost and solemnly pointed out, “But Xiao Tao’s status here is much higher than yours. You have to call Xiao Tao ge.”
Yun Cuo didn’t speak.
After a while, he asked again, “Xue Huai, what’s your cultivation level now? We will have to pass the trial in a few days. Let’s work together to practice.”
Xue Huai had wanted to directly answer that it was the Yindan stage, but after thinking about it, he was afraid that he would be pursued by Yun Cuo again, so he said, “My wood spiritual root is almost at the Qi Cultivating Stage, why?”
The more one’s speak, the more mistakes one will make, so it’s better to show off less.
Yun Cuo asked, “What about the water spiritual root?”
Xue Huai said, “I haven’t built the foundation yet.”
Yun Cuo whispered, “It’s nothing, I just thought…”
I thought you were the same as me, returning from Infernal Hell.
A worldly-wise person, if he intended to conceal it, what he said could not be trusted.
He remembered the reason why Xue Huai avoided him in this lifetime—was it true that he had scared him the first time they met?
How could he, as a beautiful and ignorant young man, distance himself from him for such reasons?
Yun Cuo stood still in place, his palpitations and fear in the morning enveloped him again—his palm emitted a faint red light—it was a rune that was knotted together, a spell that could probe the cultivation of an immortal.
He can be reborn, why can’t Xue Huai?
As long as this spell was used on Xue Huai now, then everything would be solved.
Yet it could also be the end of everything.
He paused and pressed the spell down.
Xue Huai noticed that his face was not very good and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Yun Cuo continued, “It’s nothing.”
Xue Huai was upset and said, “If there’s nothing, just clean the room for me. If the blanket is not clean, I won’t sleep. And this pile of food boxes…” He squatted down to check the stomach of the gluttonous ghost and found that the food boxes he swallowed were all bitten into pieces.
Xue Huai leaned forward and asked Yun Cuo, “Do you have money? If you lose one, you’ll pay ten. The food box in the food court here costs one hundred golden melon seeds, and you will also need to publicly read a reflection as well.”
Yun Cuo cautiously said, “Xue… Xue Huai, don’t be angry. I can… have someone deliver the money.”
He came in a hurry and didn’t even bring his personal clothes, so naturally he couldn’t bring any money.
Xue Huai became even angrier, “You… you this person!”
He quickly became discouraged and said, “Forget it. We’ve known each other for a while. I’ll give the money to you. As for the self-criticism, let the little glutton go up and howl a few times. Anyway, it was it that bit them apart.”
The gluttonous ghost grunted and struggled in his arms. Yun Cuo remained silent and hurriedly tidied up the room, only to find himself at a loss for a long time. The more he helped, the busier he became.
Xue Huai threw it to the ground, sighed, and lazily said, “You go out, I’ll take care of this.”
Yun Cuo stood still and said in confusion, “I’m sorry, Xue Huai, I didn’t mean to.”
Xue Huai nodded impatiently and looked at him. “I understand. I understand. You go out first, I’ll clean the ground. You go wash Xiao Tao’s paws.”
Yun Cuo woke up as if in a dream, then exited the door, holding the gluttonous ghost to purify his claws while watching Xue Huai slowly cast spells and clean things back in place.
After Xue Huai finished cleaning up, the gluttonous ghost also happened to have finished washing up, it broke free from Yun Cuo’s hands and then rushed to the corner of Xue Huai’s bed. Without moving, he turned his back on them and began to sulk.
Xue Huai said, “Alright.”
Upon hearing the words, Yun Cuo walked in and casually closed the door.
Xue Huai: “?”
He said, “I’ve said it’s alright, I’m asking you—Yun Cuo, Yun Master—to go out. You’ve caused me enough trouble today.”
Yun Cuo approached him and looked down at him. “Can we add a little more, Xue Huai ge?”
Yun Cuo’s breath brushed against his ear, still so low, but as if someone had bullied him: “I’m not leaving, I want to be with you today. I really want to be with you today, Xue Huai.”
He didn’t think deeply about it, he admonished himself not to think deeply about it. He is such a selfish person, deluding that the shallow happiness in front of him can last a long time.
He forced that stubborn guess out of his mind.
His voice was low. “Last time you said to give you time and let you think about our relationship, but when will you be able to figure it out?”
The author has something to say: The Gluttonous Ghost: Starting to contemplate plans to run away from home
