The following evening, Gu Mang prepared to go to Wangshu Manor to return the thumb ring.
To avoid drawing attention, he put on a cloak and a silver mask that covered his face. It wasn’t unusual for cultivators in the cultivation world to dress this way, so he wouldn’t stand out too much.
Before he left, Mo Xi gave him a jade pendant. Gu Mang found it curious and fiddled with it as he asked, “What’s this for?”
“The token of an envoy from Xihe Manor. Otherwise, what will you say if the guards at Wangshu Manor question you?”
Gu Mang smiled. “…I never planned on going through the front door. I’m going to climb over the walls and sneak in.”
Mo Xi took him seriously. He grabbed Gu Mang and pulled him over, saying sternly, “Don’t fool around. You know what Murong Lian is like. What if he bullies you again?”
His grip was strong, and Gu Mang had been caught completely off guard. The two of them were extremely close. Mo Xi lowered his head, his breath brushing against the side of Gu Mang’s ear as he said quietly, “Stay still.”
As he spoke, he lowered his head and fastened the jade pendant to Gu Mang’s belt.
He was very focused as he did it. His face was turned slightly to the side, his features sharply defined. When his eyelashes fluttered, they resembled two soft little fans, casting shadows over the bridge of his nose. Mo Xi’s skin was exceptionally smooth and taut. Even at such close range, Gu Mang couldn’t find a single imperfection, as flawless as porcelain jade polished smooth by a stream.
“There.” Mo Xi said, “Just tell them you’re someone I sent. Show them this jade pendant, and they won’t dare stop you.”
Gu Mang smiled and ran his fingers over the tassel of the jade pendant. Then, suddenly, he raised a hand, took Mo Xi by the chin, leaned closer, and kissed him.
“Fine. Then I’ll just say I’m your man.”
Mo Xi: “…”
Mo Xi looked at him.
His shixiong stood before him like the finest dream of his entire life, and suddenly Mo Xi felt reluctant to let him go.
“Why don’t I go with you after all? I’ll wait for you outside Wangshu Manor.”
Gu Mang was taken aback. “Why? With this jade pendant, are you still worried Murong Lian will make things difficult for me?”
Mo Xi turned his head away. “…I was just saying.”
Gu Mang slowly realized what was going on and smiled.
“Are you saying you don’t want to be separated from your Gu Mang-gege?”
Mo Xi pressed his lips together.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to.
He was afraid.
He was afraid of parting with Gu Mang.
Perhaps it was because he knew Gu Mang’s lucidity had a time limit. Or perhaps it was because their previous separation had been so bitter and so painfully long. Whatever the reason, even someone as powerful as Mo Xi had become so afraid of Gu Mang leaving his sight.
Gu Mang reached out and, like an older brother, gently rubbed his head.
The gesture made Mo Xi’s heart grow even more tender. It had been a very long time since Gu Mang had treated him this way.
“I want to do this alone, but don’t worry. I’ll be back soon,” Gu Mang said. His long, handsome brows and eyes suddenly softened into a gentle smile. “When has your Gu Mang-gege ever lied to you?”
That was going a little too far.
Mo Xi said, “All the time.”
Gu Mang couldn’t help bursting out laughing. “Hahaha, okay, okay. You have a point. Don’t glare at me—it was my mistake. Punish me if you want.”
Mo Xi said quietly, “With the state your body is in right now, what kind of punishment could you even withstand?”
As he said this, there was something innately possessive and controlling in his eyes. It wasn’t ostentatious, but it was deep and bottomless.
Being looked at like that, Gu Mang couldn’t help feeling warmth spread through his chest, his heart softening.
His little shidi was just like this—seemingly restrained, yet fierce and intense in his desires. Inside that narrow-waisted, long-legged body was an emotion as blazing as molten lava. The things others could never see behind that self-controlled, almost ascetic face were things Gu Mang had already experienced firsthand.
Mo Xi was inexperienced, rough, even ravenous.
But Gu Mang actually didn’t dislike it.
Though no proud, unyielding man would particularly enjoy being dominated, Gu Mang could deeply feel that Mo Xi was pouring all the love in his heart into him, pouring every desire he possessed into him. The good and the bad, the rational and the irrational—this young man experiencing love for the first time had poured every part of himself into Gu Mang.
In the blink of an eye, time had flown by.
His young man was no longer young, and his shidi had become Lord Xihe.
Everything had changed.
The only thing that remained the same was the gaze in Mo Xi’s eyes whenever he looked at Gu Mang. It was still just as sincere and profound as it had been the first time he had revealed his love and desire to him.
As it turned out, their first love had already lasted fourteen years.
In the end, Gu Mang went to Wangshu Manor alone.
He showed them the jade pendant and passed through the guards at the manor gate without difficulty. He then walked beneath the covered corridor, whose eaves curled upward at the corners.
Wangshu Manor was still just as secluded and tranquil as Gu Mang remembered. Everywhere was permeated with Murong Lian’s distinctive languid air. Summer daybeds, soft quilts, small fans, and tea tables could be seen scattered throughout the courtyard.
Under the eaves hung birdcages containing golden-silk white-eye birds. The little birds perched lazily on their wooden branches, just as languid and indifferent to people as their master.
After informing the inner-courtyard guards that he wished to see the master, Gu Mang arrived at the central courtyard of Wangshu Manor to wait.
There was a huge garden there.
Gu Mang remembered this courtyard.
When he was little, there had been a swing here, along with a bamboo hobbyhorse leaning against the wall. They had also kept a whole bunch of little chicks, ducklings, and rabbits.
All children loved gardens like this, and Murong Lian had been no exception. Every so often, he would come here to play on the swing or chase the little animals around the garden.
And whenever the young master wasn’t around, little slaves like Gu Mang would sneak inside as well, using feeding the chicks as an excuse to steal half a day of leisure.
Once, when no one was around, Gu Mang had sat on the swing to play. As he swung back and forth, he gradually fell asleep without realizing it.
Then Murong Lian came in and flew into a rage.
He immediately shoved Gu Mang off the swing.
“You filthy slave! How dare you touch my things!”
“Someone come here! I don’t want this swing anymore! Take it down! Throw it into the pit and use it for firewood! It’s absolutely filthy! What terrible luck!”
The expression Murong Lian had worn back then still seemed to be right before Gu Mang’s eyes.
He had been so wildly overdramatic, as though Gu Mang were poisonous—as if touching even the slightest thing associated with Gu Mang would cause him to drop dead from poisoning.
Gu Mang had been shoved off the swing in the middle of his sleep. It took him a long while to recover enough to get back up.
When he finally sat upright and turned around, Murong Lian’s snarling, shouting expression suddenly froze.
“You… you…”
Against his pale face, Gu Mang raised a hand and touched his forehead.
His palm came away covered in blood.
A child who had never experienced anything like this before froze for a moment, then burst into tears.
The moment he started crying, Murong Lian panicked.
“You-you-you… you deserved it!! You filthy little slave!”
But as he watched the blood pouring more and more heavily from Gu Mang’s forehead, Murong Lian became frightened. He took two steps backward, then actually turned around and ran.
Gu Mang simply sat on the ground and cried.
It was the first time he had ever seen so much blood. His forehead hurt terribly from the fall, and tears kept rolling down his cheeks. He had no idea what to do.
As he cried his heart out, a woman suddenly came hurrying through the courtyard gate.
“A-Mang, what happened? What happened? Oh my, how did you get hurt this badly? Quick, let Auntie Lin take a look…”
Auntie Lin was the ugliest female servant in Wangshu Manor.
Her entire face had been horribly burned, her features blurred until she looked almost like a vengeful ghost. Everyone in the manor mocked her, and all the children were afraid of her.
Only Gu Mang was close to her.
Gu Mang had never had parents when he was young, so he had no idea what it felt like to be loved by one.
Back then, Auntie Lin would secretly slip him snacks, make little clothes for him, and teach him a few characters.
From those tiny acts of care, he desperately tried to draw out even the smallest taste of what “family affection” might feel like.
So the moment he saw her, he cried even harder in fear.
“Auntie Ni! Auntie Ni! I’m gonna die!”
He had had a lisp back then. He was so young that he could barely speak clearly, and he could never pronounce the “Lin” in her name correctly.
Instead, he called her “Ni Auntie.”
“Okay, okay, don’t cry. It’s all right. Auntie Lin has taken a look. You’re fine. Be a good boy, A-Mang. Auntie Lin will take you to get bandaged up.”
The ugly woman picked the dirty little child up from the dust.
Even after so many years, Gu Mang still remembered the warmth and fragrance of her body.
Back then, he had thought that if he had a mother, his mother’s embrace must feel exactly like this.
He had never thought Auntie Lin was ugly.
Her eyes had always been so clear and so gentle that Gu Mang always felt her burned features were merely a mask she could never take off.
And behind that mask, there must surely be a face of breathtaking beauty.
He reached out his little hands and tremblingly wrapped them around her neck.
“Auntie Ni…”
Auntie Lin carried him to the resident medical cultivator of Wangshu Manor.
His forehead continued bleeding the entire way, and he cried terribly. When he saw the medical cultivator, he refused to cooperate either.
So Auntie Lin squatted down and coaxed him, distracting him from the pain.
“Say ‘Auntie Lin.’”
Gu Mang sniffled through his tears.
“Auntie Ni.”
“Lin—Auntie—” she patiently repeated, drawing out each syllable.
“Ni—Auntie—” he said clumsily.
The resident medical cultivator was a middle-aged man. He treated this lowly child and this ugly woman with obvious disdain.
He treated the wound, but couldn’t resist sneering mockingly.
“What’s the point of teaching this stupid child anything? Even after you teach him, he’ll still end up spending his life as Young Master Murong’s beast of burden.”
The corner of Auntie Lin’s eye seemed to twitch slightly, as though she were suppressing some emotion she couldn’t allow others to see.
But she had suffered bullying for so long that she knew arguing over such things would be useless given her position.
So she merely smiled at the medical cultivator, then turned back and gently stroked Gu Mang’s tear-streaked face.
“Come on. Say ‘Auntie Lin.’”
Gu Mang vaguely remembered his feelings at the time.
Perhaps he had been determined to stand up for himself and Auntie Lin.
He tried very hard, his little face flushing red with effort. He didn’t even care about the pain in his head anymore. Tilting his head stubbornly, he struggled to pronounce it.
“Ni… Ni… Ni Auntie…”
The medical cultivator sorted through the bandages beside them and burst into unrestrained laughter.
Gu Mang froze amid that piercing laughter for a moment, then burst into even more heartbroken sobs.
He had actually been trying so hard to pronounce the sounds correctly, to turn “Ni Auntie” properly into “Lin Auntie.”
But with his childish voice, he simply couldn’t say it right.
He felt so embarrassed.
Perhaps he really was a stupid child. Perhaps he really would only ever be fit to be someone’s beast of burden.
What the medical cultivator had said was probably true.
Only Auntie Lin looked at him with tenderness and compassion.
“That’s very good already. A-Mang will be able to say it properly when he’s older. Be good. Don’t be sad.”
“An ugly woman comforting a filthy little brat, hahaha—”
Was Auntie Lin ugly?
No.
In Gu Mang’s heart, Auntie Lin was the most beautiful woman in the world.
She had a pair of phoenix eyes that seemed to hold the fragrance of flowers stretching for ten miles, and arms as warm as the fourth month of spring.
Back then, he secretly vowed that he would grow up quickly, straighten out his tongue, and learn to call her name properly.
But in the end, he never got the chance.
Auntie Lin died when he was four years old.
Before she died, she told Gu Mang something.
And that thing ultimately became the reason Gu Mang remained in Wangshu Manor, enduring nearly twenty years of neither fighting nor arguing with Murong Lian.
That woman had said…
“Special Envoy.”
Someone suddenly called out to him from behind.
Gu Mang pulled himself out of his memories. He blinked, letting the moisture at the corners of his eyes fade, then turned around.
The chief steward of Wangshu Manor was standing beneath the covered corridor.
“I have already reported your arrival to the master. The master wishes to see you.”