Chapter 74 – Extra Story [Senior Brother, please spare my life (8)]

Editor: SleepyMango123

That day, Yun Qing was cheeky and pestered the other for a long time, trying to ask why, but Yun Zhen’s mouth was tightly sealed, and he stubbornly insisted that the retreat was only for cultivation and that he wasn’t angry.

Yun Qing had listened to these remarks for a long time, and was fooled by Yun Zhen’s tone and expression. He thought that his action of admitting his mistake, scattering the bills and coaxing him softly for a long time should have calmed Yun Zhen down, and that he wouldn’t be at odds with him all the time, even if he was originally angry. Furthermore, Yun Zhen’s temperament had always been indifferent and maybe he really felt that there was no need to tell himself.

When he thought about it this way, some strange emotions appeared in his heart, and his smile faded. “Then I’ll go up now.”

Yun Zhen closed his eyes, not daring to look at his sullen face, and gave a light hum.

Yun Qing climbed up and decided that this week, when it was his turn to cook, he would ask others to deliver meals to his brother, and not bring any interesting things, as a punishment for his Senior Brother who decided to retreat without notifying him.

There was no one in the fields, only floating clouds and birds, and the setting sun. Yun Zhen began to meditate and breathe, filling his mind with practice formulas, and determined not to think of Yun Qing.

What he didn’t understand was how the matter of love seemed to be soft and lingering, but there was a twist in it, and it was best not to tear it apart. Doting couples who faced each other day and night, might gradually feel bored, but it was more difficult to tear apart a loving couple than to tear down a building. Sometimes the more one knew who they shouldn’t like, the more they wholeheartedly liked the other party.

Secondly, the human brain was the most unruly thing in the world. Once a person who usually thought about something ten times a day was restrained by the mind to not think about it, the brain would purposely think about it a hundred times. Even if he ordered his mind not to think about the other, he was already thinking about him once.

In the blink of an eye, a month had passed. Yun Zhen, who thought he could overcome the difficulties through self-control, not only failed to not think about his Junior Brother, but also forced himself out of his obsessive-compulsive disorder— Every time he opened his eyes, he thought about his Junior Brother and every time he closed his eyes, he thought about him. Even in his dreams, he thought of him.

What was worse was ever since Yun Zhen peeped at Yun Qing taking a bath in the old house the last time, his body had become shameless. When he closed his eyes at night, he had an unspeakable dream. Although it was inconvenient to get water during the retreat, Yun Zhen had to bite the bullet and wash his pants in the morning eight out of ten days.

So this retreat to try to forget Yun Qing turned into a large-scale memory event for Yun Qing.

A ray of moonlight leaped into his heart, and Yun Zhen remembered the bright moon he had smashed the watermelon under while picking it up from the well that night. The watermelon was picked up and cut, and the disciples divided them. Yun Qing’s small face was embedded in a curved watermelon, and the watermelon was overflowing with red juice. He picked up the watermelon seeds that stuck to his face. The pale face reflected by the moonlight turned to him and smiled beautifully.

As an autumn leaf flew into the cliff cave, Yun Zhen remembered that day when the bamboo forest was filled with the dancing of swords, and the leaves were chaotic like rain. Yun Qing became playful, and used his sword energy to force the bamboo leaves to float into the air, and then cut each piece in half, having fun on his own. Yun Zhen didn’t know what he was doing, and secretly used his sword energy to help him hold the leaves that he didn’t have time to cut. He saw through it and refused to admit it.

The cliff was extremely long and wide, like a huge bowl. The mountains and the sunset starry river, all sank into this big bowl. Everything was related to Yun Qing.

……

On this day, Yun Zhen sat cross-legged in the cliff cave. Thinking about Yun Qing in a daze and about the hardships during this period of time—since the retreat, his mind hadn’t become clear and firm at all. Instead it had become more chaotic and confused. Last night, when he was meditating, he was overwhelmed by a sudden sense of grievance and anger, and his inner body flew around like flies. It took a lot of effort to suppress it. As a result, the affected meridians were aching faintly. At lucky moments, there would be a burst of burning pain. If he didn’t take care of it in the next ten days to fifteen days, he was afraid it wouldn’t get better.

Taoist were most afraid of not having a clear state of mind. Miscellaneous thoughts would not only make the practice twice as unsuccessful, but also make the meridians go retrograde in severe cases, causing them to go crazy. Yun Zhen originally thought that his hopeless love would lead to disaster, but instead, he didn’t expect that the unwillingness to cut off his love would become the first barrier.

That heart had long been soaked in the grief of secret love, dared not hope, did not need to respond and did not seek to be upright. But when even the last handful of hidden favourites were taken away by the harsh owner, it still refused to let go.

After a long silence, Yun Zhen got up and walked slowly to the edge of the cliff cave, letting the mist on the mountainside turn into an icy mist to fill the gap between his body and the robe. He overlooked the thousand-year-old mountain stream under his feet, and looked up at the rising sun that had risen from the east to the west over the hundreds of millions of years on the dome. For the first time since the retreat, he let his mind go, openly and brazenly, thinking of Yun Qing.

He had always thought that liking was wrong, and he had never treated himself gently. Things in the world seemed to be chaotic, but in fact, everything was controlled by the way of Heaven. As small as a mayfly’s life and death and as large as the sky and the stars shifting, it was the way of Heaven. No matter how great one’s ability was, no one could escape. He was born to only love men with a restrained, reserved old-fashioned personality and a long-term love within. To be attracted to a young junior who was smart and evasive and face each other day and night was actually in line with the way of Heaven, and there was no other way but to let nature take its course.

The corners of Yun Zhen’s lips raised slowly, his eyebrows and eyes were filled with rare tenderness, and the few strands of loose long hair that were not restrained were blown away by the wind, adding a sense of freedom and casualness to his serious image. Like a clay statue soaked in rain, he finally softened his body and slid down the shrine, no longer posing a dignified and sacred appearance.

The universe was vast and the time was endless, so it must be able to accommodate this vague snow-like love.

Yun Zhen lived in the cave and forgot his days. After pinching his fingers, he realised that it happened to be the Mid-Autumn Festival, and it was a good day to leave. During this period of time, he had lived a simple, but hard life. After packing up the few items in the cave, he climbed up the iron rope.

It was not known where the Master and his wife travelled to. The second-ranked Yun Jian was in charge of all the affairs in the temple. He managed the juniors and brothers loosely, so Yun Zhen’s return was not welcomed so warmly this time. There were even some who even thought that the second Senior Brother managed well, and seeing the strict Senior Brother leaving seclusion was like a primary school student being disappointed when the head teacher who had asked for leave suddenly appeared in the classroom.

“Senior Brother!” Yun Qing heard the movement in the courtyard and ran out of the kitchen wiping his hands. He was so excited that he raised the door a bit, and his voice and pitch became clearer and higher, “I happen to be cooking today, and I intended to send you mooncakes later!”

Yun Zhen looked away as his heart pounded rapidly.

Yun Qing smiled brightly. “Did you leave the seclusion ahead of time or did you come to accompany us to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival?”

“Left seclusion.” Yun Zhen couldn’t change his habit of being reticent for a while. His warm words were rolling in his stomach, but he couldn’t get them out. He just stared at Yun Qing, as if he wanted to make up for what he missed in the past two months. Yun Qing was puzzled and touched his face. “Is my face stained with vegetable leaves?”

Yun Zhen shook his head, retracted his gaze, rolled up his sleeves, and walked into the kitchen. “I’ll help you.” After saying this, he thought that there should be more dishes for the reunion dinner and fearing that Yun Qing would be tired, he issued orders to all the juniors, “Everyone, come and help.”

The juniors and brothers couldn’t wait to escape. However, they had no choice but to sigh and follow them into the kitchen.

There were several large pots of ingredients on the counter in the kitchen, and a half fluffy little butt hung on the outside the pot of cabbage. Yun Zhen glanced at it, coughed lightly. The little white rabbit who was stealing vegetables fell onto the desk with a slap, and waved his two front paws in front of him.

Yun Qing, who followed Yun Zhen in, leaned over to take a look, and said, “Bouncy stole some food.”

The Little White Rabbit kept shaking his head, like a human. “Jiya jiya.” No, no.

“Then it was eaten by mice?” Yun Qing held back a smile, and picked up a vegetable leaf that had been ravaged by the three flapped mouth.

The little white rabbit nodded vigorously. “Ji!”

Afterwards, he jumped down from the desk aggressively, hopped to the corner and stood up and held onto a piece of wood that blocked the mouse hole by the wall. Relying on the fact that the mouse couldn’t get out, he fiercely chirped at it.

“It’s not that you aren’t allowed to eat it, it’s mainly because being too fat will affect your health.” Yun Qing took a peeled potato from Yun Zhen and cut it into cube-sized pieces.

For the little white rabbit who had a love for beauty, the most annoying thing was to be called fat. Thus, he shrank his soft little body into a ball, trying to reduce his size.

Yun Qing was mean. “Ah, becoming rounder.”

The little white rabbit was so disturbed that he flattened in an instant!

While Yun Zhen was peeling potatoes in his hands, his eyes were glued to Yun Qing’s body for a moment. He observed his facial features, which were handsome, but when his face was expressionless, it was rather scary. When he softened like this, he immediately showed his appeal, which was really good-looking.

Yun Qing turned his head to pick up the peeled potatoes, just in time to see Yun Zhen looking at him with a gentle expression. This gentleness was different from usual. It could not only squeeze out water, but also squeeze out honey, causing the corners of his eyes and brows to be full of peach blossoms. Yun Qing had never seen this expression before, and the heart in his chest suddenly swayed, like a pendulum being gently pushed by someone. However, at this time Yun Zhen had already looked away and at the potato in his hand.

“Hey, I feel that Senior Brother keeps looking at you today.” Yun Jing, who was focusing on peeling peanuts, suddenly said.

Once interrupted by Yun Jing, Yun Qing’s inexplicable feeling just slipped away, he didn’t bother to look for it and just joked with a smile, “We haven’t seen each other for two months. Senior Brother missed me.”

Yun Zhen’s chest suddenly felt a heat flow. He had missed Yun Qing so much for the past two months. Suddenly, the words pierced his heart, and the flow took advantage of the situation as he blurted out, “I did miss you.”

After he finished speaking, his chest became hot, and the final sound was also trembling with nervousness. In his more than 20 years of life, it was the first time he said “I miss you” to someone, and his face flushed with embarrassment.

Yun Qing was stunned for a moment, and then amused, “If you miss me, so be it. Why are you blushing ah?” Little did he know that what he said about missing and what Yun Zhen said were not the same thoughts at all. He paused, and then said in surprise, “…Oh, that’s not right. How could you say those words? Did someone kidnap you? Are you still my Senior Brother?”

Yun Zhen lowered his head and focused on peeling the potatoes.

Just saying the one sentence of “I miss you” caused the pent-up knots in his heart to dissipate like a heap of ashes blown by the wind. He was so happy that even the meridian that was damaged last night didn’t hurt much.

Sorry for not updating! I’ve been busy with job hunting and preparing for my exams.

Wish me luck!!

Jeanie