After kissing him, he apologized in a low and composed voice, “I’m sorry, Xue Huai. When you looked at me like that just now, I just really wanted to kiss you and couldn’t resist.”
Xue Huai was so angry that he wished he could kick him away, but before he could reach out, he was hugged again. Yun Cuo held him in his arms, smiled, and patted his back, giving the cat a furry look. “Don’t be angry, don’t be angry, why don’t I let you kiss me back too?”
Xue Huai scolded him, “Get out! You’re crazy, get out of the way, I’m going back to my room. I’m not going to say yes to you.”
Yun Cuo let go of him and stood still, smiling at him.
Xue Huai hesitated for a moment.
This is the first time he has seen Yun Cuo smiling so happily. Crazy, without even covering up, he just stared at him calmly and brightly, afraid that others wouldn’t know who he liked.
Five years—it’s long.
Xue Huai thought to himself, Maybe you won’t even like me anymore at that time.
In his previous life, he followed him from the age of sixteen to twenty-six and drifted apart from him.
People who once nestled in bed and watched the night sky together but later only had an argument whenever they met. Later on, the flaws in Yun Cuo’s character become more and more obvious. He wants to conquer the Six Realms and wants the whole world to run according to his wishes. He puts this pressure on him, repeating to him the promises he made when he followed him, asking him to fulfil them, while Xue Huai was gradually getting tired.
Yun Cuo is noble, perfect, and ruthless with iron fists in the eyes of others, leaving Xue Huai with nothing but endless tantrums and cold wars, like an immature child.
And perhaps he himself is too proud and sharp, never giving in, so he only gets hurt more and more.
Even though Xue Huai looked cold and calm, his heart was fleshy. Even though he let go of that secret affection because of a misunderstanding, he still wanted to accompany him well. Words hurt, and later the ideological gap between the two became increasingly apparent. The saying that different paths do not conspire against each other is not without reason.
He had the most intense argument with Yun Cuo before he set off for the Snow Plain. The reason is because Yun Cuo assigned him the task of conquering the Snow Plain Demon Clan, but temporarily replaced him from the position of chief commander and even forbade him from participating in that operation.
He didn’t give him any reason, he just said that his intuition told him that something would happen.
Xue Huai went to find him and told him, “Give me a reason. You were the one who made me go out to war before, and now you are also the one who brought me back. This is a good time, and you don’t want it. Are you going to send me out to play next time when it’s the toughest? War is not a game, labor costs money, and territory is not your chessboard. I don’t need to accompany you to play this constantly changing game.”
Yun Cuo said coldly, “Everyone else can do it, why can’t you? I heard that someone is scouting you. Did you want to leave me a long time ago?”
At that time, Xue Huai was favored by the prince of the Phoenix tribe, and he wanted to invite him to become a military strategist.
Xue Huai laughed angrily and said, “Yes, I wouldn’t stay here a moment longer if I had somewhere to go.”
Yun Cuo said, “Don’t go, that scouter is a coward. He wants to rob someone, yet he didn’t even dare to come over and fight me.”
Xue Huai said, “He is not as deep-rooted as you are, but you also came from that time as well. One doesn’t think about stability when expanding, and another, when behaving recklessly, doesn’t think about hidden worries. The rise and fall of death cannot be controlled. I’ve also given you words of advice eight hundred times already. Do you like to hear them or not?”
Yun Cuo was so angry that he didn’t speak for a long time. In the end, he just nodded and said, “Good, you are capable, Xue Huai. If you don’t want me, then don’t. Tell me earlier, it’s good for both of us.”
It’s obviously he who doesn’t want him, why does he have to say it the other way round?
Xue Huai felt that he was unreasonable.
Yun Cuo, this person is like this. He stubbornly believes that human hearts are unreliable and can only be stabilized by power, status, and money. Although he is the lord of the Nine Immortal Continents and later became the lord of the Seventeen Continents, sweeping through the four realms of demons and ghosts, he has never integrated into the place where he was as well.
Xue Huai didn’t know how to describe this matter. After they followed and fought together for ten years, he finally realized that the emperor beside him was actually a kid who would never grow up.
He stayed beside a tyrant. He is Xue Huai, the young master of the Xue family. The one who goes against tens of thousands of traveling ghosts and fights his way out is the only one who won’t go and flatter him.
In his position, he didn’t believe that he was the only one who saw that Yun Cuo had taken the wrong path, but he was the only one who dared to say it.
He had written a letter to Yun Cuo before he left for his journey, hoping to sit down with him and have a calm conversation when he came back, but unfortunately there is no chance left.
Xue Huai went to his room and sulked off to sleep.
On the contrary, he had a nightmare all night long, with various pieces of chaos from his previous life piling up one after another, causing him to feel palpitations all night and wake up in a cold sweat.
The gluttonous ghost saw him unhappy and arched his hand, then happily spat out a piece of wood for him, licked it clean, and brought it to him.
Xue Huai picked it up and saw that it was a box that Yun Cuo had sent to contain the gifts.
He quickly remembered this incident, so he went out to have someone carry them back to Yun Cuo. However, the old man told him that Xue Zong had happily collected them all and placed them in the vault of the Shenhua Terrace already.
The old man imitated the tone of Xue Zong and said to him, “The master has said, ‘If Xiao Huai comes to ask, just tell him that it’s not too late to return these things in five years, and there’s no harm in recognizing a son-in-law in advance. Let him think about how many things a single Extreme Spirit Stone could buy five years ago and how many things it could buy now. When you work in our family business, you have to be smart with math. You two should look everywhere first, it’s not a big deal.”
Xue Huai：“……”
He immediately ran to his father’s study, knocked on the door wildly, and found that the person had already run away. So he killed his way to the Shenhua Terrace, but the person is nowhere to be seen.
The servants of the Shenhua Terrace all told him in embarrassment, “Young Master, the master has just left and said he is going to another place to negotiate a contract, so that everything here will be taken care of by you…by you”
Xue Huai：“?”
After selling off his son, he left. The old thing really ran away so fast.
Xue Huai keenly noticed a subtle twist in the maid’s tone: “By me, who else is going to take care of it?”
“You and I, Xue Huai.”
A familiar voice came from behind him. There was a slight smile inside.
Yun Cuo sat under the eaves behind him, just like when he last came here, quietly facing the winter lotus in the courtyard.
Xue Huai laughed angrily again and said, “You don’t understand anything. Why are you here?”
His father’s attitude had changed too much, and he didn’t know what Yun Cuo had said. He had coaxed Xue Zong to hand over his precious son to him.
He is like a cat with a strong sense of territory, waving its teeth and claws to fiercely attack other intruders. Xue Zong inexplicably made a five-year agreement and was coaxed into selling his beloved biological son. Yun Cuo was indeed the same Yun Cuo.
The person who is best at deceiving people and luring others to follow, full of crap.
Yun Cuo turned his head to look at him with a hint of innocence and said, “It’s not that uncle’s elbow turning outward1胳膊肘往外拐 or gē bo zhǒu wǎng wài guǎi is an idiom lits. one’s elbow turns to the wrong side, meaning to side with the outsiders instead of one’s own people.. It’s this time, Shenhua Terrace is mainly delivering my business, isn’t it? What Uncle Xue means is that it would be most reassuring for me to come and keep an eye on it myself when I’m free, so that you can be free to do your work as well. What do you think, Xue Huai… Xue Huai Ge?”
Xue Huai believes that there’s something fishy about him.
He had nightmares all night because of the man in front of him, but when he saw him, he actually calmed down.
If you can’t dodge, then let’s just go with the flow.
Avoiding him is not a good idea, no matter how you look at it. Yun Cuo in this life has not done anything wrong: liking someone is not wrong. But he was so determined to force his way out of it that it backfired.
Xue Huai said, “Young Master Yun, let me first say that I am an extremely stubborn and selfish person. I don’t like someone at first sight, and I still don’t like them after watching them many times. No matter how kind you are to me, I won’t have any response. In this life, you are not within my plan. It’s better to find another way out as soon as possible.”
Yun Cuo：“Okay.”
He clearly didn’t listen attentively, and there was still a smile in his eyes. The little gray cat walked out from behind him and came to Xue Huai. After hesitating for a moment, it pounced on him and then climbed onto his shoulder.
Perhaps it was because he knew he had provoked him yesterday that Yun Cuo was very disciplined in the Shenhua Terrace and no longer does anything to cross the line.
Still separated by a sliding wooden door, Yun Cuo was outside and Xue Huai was inside. Yun Cuo was checking the very long file list, while Xue Huai was drawing on his atlas. When the wind blows, it causes the lotus flowers in the courtyard to sway, the flowers’ fragrance and snow bamboo’s scent drift into the room, carrying a slight coolness.
The little gray cat ran back and forth between the two, occasionally bringing in the body temperature of the other person.
Not saying anything; in fact, it’s too quiet.
Occasionally, when Xue Huai puts the brush down, he feels like he is the only one here. But when he turns his head and looks over, he always finds that Yun Cuo is still there.
The two maintained this eerie calm and silence for several days.
Xue Huai couldn’t leave the Shenhua Terrace. His father is not here, so he is the master, busy both inside and outside. The old man has been delivering meals for both him and Yun Cuo these days. He guesses that the next step is probably to change the address to Second Young Master Yun Cuo.
The two people even eat separately.
That day, Xue Huai was sitting at the table, slowly drinking a bowl of snow lotus congee from the Bi An Hua, and suddenly heard the sound of wings flapping outside.
A green bird holding a letter shrank in the corner and trembled, looking at Yun Cuo in the corner with a frightened expression on its face.
Xue Huai heard the sound, and the green bird became even more frightened. With a snap, it put down the letter and flew away, trembling with fear and almost crashing headlong into the roof.
Yun Cuo: “What did you do to it?”
Xue Huai asked back: “What did you do to it?”
The two of them looked at each other without saying a word.
The letter was written on ordinary paper. After the green bird left, it was blown away by the wind and almost fell into the water. Yun Cuo’s eyes were sharp and his hands were agile2眼疾手快 or yǎn jí shǒu kuài lits. Sharp eyes and agile hands are used to describe being clever, alert, agile, and quick to react when doing things.and took it, after looking at it, he passed it to him and said, “It’s your letter.”
It’s a letter from Murong Jinchuan, asking about his health.
Xue Huai was sick for a little more than half a month last time and even missed the appointment with Murong. Murong waited for many days, and no one was coming. Asked to Xue Zong’s head, did they find out that his roots had been invaded by Yin breath, and he was still in deep sleep and recuperating.
After finally getting better, Yun Cuo’s proposal took up most of his thoughts. He was even too busy to take care of his affairs3自顾不暇 or Zì Gù Bù Xiá meaning be unable to take care of one’s own affairs, much less look after others., and of course, he’d forgotten to say hello to his grandparents.
Now that this letter had come, he was reminded to quickly write a reply to report his safety.
Murong Jinchuan wrote in the letter: There is no hurry, if your body is well, you can come to practice at any time.
Xue Huai looked at the letter, and then, at Yun Cuo outside, his eyes suddenly lit up.
