NHWSG chapter 51

Is there anything more embarrassing than getting kissed by your boyfriend in the elevator until your legs go weak?

Sheng Zhao: Yes.

That’s when after getting kissed by your boyfriend until your legs go weak, not only does the elevator door open… but you also get seen by an acquaintance.

Originally, Hu Huanyang’s right hand, raised to greet, froze in mid-air, his smile freezing in a certain moment, accompanied by eyes wide in shock

The image of a family head that Sheng Zhao just established in front of  Hu Huanyang collapsed instantly. Hu Huanyang’s eyes shifted back and forth between Xing Yingzhu and Sheng Zhao three times, finally squeezing out a very forced smile.

“I understand, Xiao Zhao,” Hu Huanyang repeated, “I understand.”

Sheng Zhao: “…”

—You understand squat!

Sheng Zhao covered his face, feeling utterly ashamed, hurriedly brushing past Hu Huanyang, trying to escape in a hurry.

Xing Yingzhu knew that he might be in turmoil right now, so he generously let him go.

With his hands in his pockets, Xing Yingzhuo strolled leisurely out of the elevator, wearing a somewhat gentle smile—a smile that almost left Hu Huanyang dumbfounded.

After all, seeing such a smile on Xing Yingzhuo’s face was rarer than the sun swallowing the earth.

Hu Huanyang couldn’t understand how Sheng Xiao Zhao had such an ultimate charm that even Xing Yingzhu was bewitched by him, descending from his high and mighty status of an unattainable flower.

As a member of a legendary seductive fox race, Hu Huanyang found himself self-doubting in a bizarre way.

After much silent contemplation, he finally came to a conclusion—maybe there were strange deviations in the tastes of demons and humans.

Sheng Zhao rushed out of the hotel lobby in a panic, only to bump into Zhang Jian at the entrance.

“Sheng Zhao, what’s wrong?” Zhang Jian looked at him with confusion. “Did you see a ghost or what?”

Sheng Zhao: “…”

What kind of greeting was that! Sheng Zhao cursed inwardly: 

If Zhang Jian could hear Sheng Zhao’s inner thoughts at this moment, he would surely feel very wronged—because Sheng Zhao’s face was bright red, and he hurried as if being chased by a ghost, occasionally glancing back to see if there was anyone following him.

Based on Zhang Jian’s limited social experience, he could only think of this possibility.

Interrupted by Zhang Jian’s friendly greeting, Sheng Zhao’s face cooled down when the cool breeze blew, and he rubbed his face. The smoke-like CPU in his brain began to reboot.

“Aren’t we going to Mount Longhu?” Sheng Zhao said. “How are we getting there?”

“I’ve booked the plane tickets. We’ll board in three hours,” Zhang Jian scanned him up and down, saying, “Are you coming too?”

“How exciting.” Sheng Zhao, briefly stepping out of Xing Yingzhu’s sight, regained some eerie confidence. He raised his head proudly and even flaunted his new identity: “I have no choice, my boyfriend can’t be without me, he wants me to go wherever he goes.”

Zhang Jian: “…”

He had already heard about this from the gossip frontline soldier Hu Huanyang. At first, he thought Xing Yingzhu had used some means to lure Sheng Zhao, but now it seemed— he had completely overthought it. Sheng Zhao, not only did he not feel ashamed, he even felt proud, and his self-awareness was completely eroded by the pink bubbles.

No hope left, Zhang Jian thought coldly, he could just be handed over to Xing Yingzhu.

Unaware of Zhang Jian’s silent criticism, Sheng Zhao laughed proudly, then turned his head and walked towards the car next to Zhang Jian – the same configuration of car that had picked them up and taken them to the development zone before. Now, the two cars were parked one after the other in front of the hotel entrance, probably there to pick them up.

However, before he could take two steps and open the car door, he felt a strong force behind him, holding him back.

Sheng Zhao struggled for a moment but to no avail. When he turned his head, he realized that Xing Yingzhu had somehow walked out of the hotel lobby and was now holding onto his waistband with one finger.

“What’s up?” Xing Yingzhu said with a smile that was not quite a smile. “You want to go with Zhang Jian?”

Sheng Zhao blinked and quickly shook his head.

Xing Yingzhu exerted a little force, pulling his waistband back. Sheng Zhao couldn’t resist him, took a few steps back, and almost bumped into Xing Yingzhu’s arms.

Xing Yingzhu leaned against his back, bent down slowly, pinched his chin and twisted it to the right, speaking softly, “My car is over there.”

With Xing Yingzhu’s age written in four digits but pronounced in one, his childishness fluctuated, and one never knew when he would suddenly feel “undervalued” and start throwing tantrums.

After traveling with him for several days, Sheng Zhao understood this very well. He hurriedly retrieved his luggage from ZhangJian’s car and turned to kiss his cheek playfully, saying seriously, “Oops, I’m still suffering from the after-effects. I mistook the car.”

Xing Yingzhuo squinted his eyes, feeling contentedly appeased. He wrapped his arm around Sheng Zhao’s and let him drag him towards the other car.

Zhang Jian, who was watching on the side: “…”

Hu Huanyang, who had come out with Xing Yingzhu: “…”

The two of them looked at each other slowly, seeing some kind of complex emotion in each other’s eyes.

“I get it now,” Hu Huanyang said with a blank expression, speaking in an ethereal tone. “I’ve achieved enlightenment.”

“What?” Zhang Jian asked.

“In the ‘Avatamsaka Sutra,’ it was said that the Buddha cut his flesh to feed the eagle. I always thought that was stupid behavior, but just now, when I saw Xiao Zhao, I suddenly understood a truth.” Hu Huanyang said seriously.

It was quite a strange scene for a fox demon to quote from a Buddhist scripture. Although there have been sayings throughout history that Buddhism and Taoism are incompatible, Zhang Jian didn’t care much about it, nor did he feel unhappy.

He was somewhat surprised and turned his head to look at Hu Huanyang, thinking that this little fox spirit actually had some wisdom.

“What do you understand?” Zhang Jian asked gently.

“I think, maybe they enjoy it.” Hu Huanyang said.

Zhang Jian: “…”

“Let’s get in the car.” Zhang Jian didn’t want to dampen his enthusiasm, so he stiffly changed the subject, “We can discuss this matter over a cup of tea later.”

Zhang Yunfeng had already gone to the airport to check in early. The driver who came to pick them up this time was arranged by Zhang Jian’s local connections. This driver only knew that the four of them were “big shots” and didn’t dare to talk casually.

This time, Sheng Zhao didn’t sit in the front passenger seat but sat in the back with Xing Yingzhu.

It seemed that Xing Yingzhuo had something to say. As soon as he got in the car, he flicked his fingers and cast a “water membrane” between the front and back seats.

It was at this moment that Sheng Zhao slowly realized that he seemed to be different from before.

Although he had seen Xing Yingzhu perform “magic” before, most of the time it was vague and unclear. If Xing Yingzhu didn’t tell him, he wouldn’t notice what the other party had done.

But this time was different. He suddenly realized that if he concentrated and carefully “looked,” he could actually see some unexpected things with his naked eyes.

For example, the membrane that Xing Yingzhu had set up between the front and back seats. That thing was like water but not water, a semi-transparent soft substance that flowed slowly in the sunlight.

However, this new skill was still beyond Sheng Zhao’s control. Whether it was triggered or not depended entirely on fate. He only caught a glimpse of it when he got in the car, and then it disappeared in a blink of an eye.

“What’s wrong?” Sheng Zhao asked. “These professional drivers won’t chat with you like taxi drivers do.”

Xing Yingzhu opened his eyes and glanced at him, not answering that question. Instead, he waited until the car was on the road before casually pulling out a string of gleaming white objects from his left pocket.

• The horns of that dragon.

Both horns of that dragon had been sawn off by him, tied together with a thin rope, looking quite unsophisticated.

But fortunately, a piece of bone product and a complete set of bones were not on the same level visually, so although Sheng Zhao took a breath of cold air, he wasn’t really scared.

“You really took it!” Sheng Zhao looked at him incredulously, pointed at the thing, then at Xing Yingzhu, and said, “Are you really going to make this into a bracelet for me? That’s too cruel!”

“Is it not good?” Xing Yingzhu asked back. “Zhang Jian wanted it, but I didn’t give it to him.”

Sheng Zhao: “…”

Sheng Zhao was silent for two seconds, hesitating between “making Xing Yingzhu happy” and “being truthful to his conscience.” For the sake of his future safety, he painfully chose the latter.

“I don’t understand the hobbies of people like you.” Sheng Zhao said truthfully. “Does this thing have any substantial significance, or do you just love collecting trophies?”

Xing Yingzhu gave him a disdainful look of “ignorance,” shook the string of dragon bones, and said, “This is a good material for refining. Zhang Jian’s sword is just missing a demonic substance to temper it, so of course, he wants it.”

“Then give it to him.” Sheng Zhao said. “Actually, I have you, and that’s enough for me, really.”

Xing Yingzhu was almost disgusted by his corny words, and almost didn’t reply.

“Really don’t want it?” Xing Yingzhu asked.

“No, no.” Sheng Zhao said painfully. “I’ve seen this thing alive, I’m afraid I’ll have nightmares if I carry it with me.”

Xing Yingzhu regretfully put away the dragon bones.

Sheng Zhao didn’t know if he was upset, and was about to say something, but saw Xing Yingzhuo seamlessly pull out something black and shiny from his right pocket, the same one he had tucked in earlier.

Sheng Zhao: “…”

Are you Doraemon or what!

This time, Xing Yingzhu didn’t ask for Sheng Zhao’s opinion anymore. He leaned over slightly and hung the thing around his neck.

Sheng Zhao was afraid that he would come up with some strange material for him again, so he quickly lowered his head to take a look, only to find that it was a black wooden plaque.

Wood was obviously safer than bones as a material. Sheng Zhao breathed a sigh of relief and asked, “What’s this?”

“Lightning-struck jujube wood.” Xing Yingzhu said. “There’s a jujube tree in the development zone. When the thunder fell, it happened to strike that tree. I saw it today and brought it back.”

Sheng Zhao blinked, feeling a little stunned.

Xing Yingzhu was very close to him, with both hands around his neck, hanging the wooden plank around his neck and tying it securely.

Before, Sheng Zhao had only thought that Xing Yingzhuo was deliberately trying to scare him with these items, but he didn’t expect that he would really care about him and find something useful for him.

Feeling touched, he wanted to say a few words of thanks, but hesitated to speak. After struggling for a while, he could only hum softly, “Destroying public greenery is illegal…”

Xing Yingzhu: “…”

Xing Yingzhuo tightened the loop of the leather rope and then wrapped the hanging rope of the blood-drop pendant that Sheng Zhao had been wearing around his neck with the hanging rope of the jujube wood from behind, adjusting the positions of the two necklaces, and then casually said.

“Shut up.”

Sheng Zhao obediently fell silent.

He lowered his head and saw that the rope Xing Yingzhu had reserved for the wooden plank was very long, hanging loosely around his body, much like a woolen necklace. The combination of one long and one short necklace didn’t look off when worn together, but instead looked like some kind of trendy mixed accessory.

Xing Yingzhu played with the wooden plaque for a while, flipping over the piece with the lightning strike marks on it.

Watching his movements, Sheng Zhao suddenly had a flash of insight and a thought flashed through his mind – he always felt that this was the thing Xing Yingzhuo wanted to give him from the beginning.

“Xing Yingzhu.” Sheng Zhao coughed lightly and asked nervously, “Did you never intend to give me this bone frame from the beginning?”

Xing Yingzhu lazily lifted his eyelids to glance at him, emitting an indiscernible hum from his throat, which was considered an acquiescence.