Lu Zhixing hid behind Xi Yu. Hearing him explain things that way, his expression was complicated as he stared at the back of his Shizun’s head.
His Shizun really was… adorable.
That explanation had only made things even more suspicious.
Luo Yuan cried even louder after hearing it.
Seeing this, Luo Cheng’an tugged Xi Yu over to his side and gritted his teeth as he looked at Lu Zhixing.
“Brother Lu, could you at least fix your clothes?”
He looked like someone straight out of a brothel, using his appearance to seduce people.
The Lu couple, who had remained silent all this time, finally reined in the excitement on their faces.
Lu Zheng patted Luo Yuan’s back and cleared his throat.
“Don’t cry, in-law. Let’s go downstairs first and let the two children get properly dressed.”
Jiang Shuhe pulled Shen Qing toward the door.
Shen Qing shot her friend a sideways glance, tugged on Luo Cheng’an, and said, “Let’s go.”
Then she looked at Xi Yu.
“You come down soon too.”
Luo Yuan was dragged all the way to the doorway.
He glared at Xi Yu and Lu Zhixing through gritted teeth.
“If you two aren’t downstairs in ten minutes, I’m coming back up!”
Jiang Shuhe gave him a push and considerately closed the door.
Before doing so, she even winked at Lu Zhixing.
The room was instantly left with only the two of them.
Lu Zhixing immediately turned around and tried to leave through the balcony.
Xi Yu grabbed him and threw a set of clothes at him.
“Stop running around. Just wear mine.”
Running all over the place was such a hassle.
Lu Zhixing clutched Xi Yu’s clothes, his eyelashes trembling slightly.
His voice was low and filled with guilt.
“Uncle Luo and Auntie Shen seem angry. It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have come over. I could have endured being a little uncomfortable.”
Xi Yu raised an eyebrow in warning.
“Try telling me again that you’re going to endure something unnecessarily.”
Then he added,
“They misunderstood. We just need to explain it.”
Xi Yu looked completely unconcerned.
But Lu Zhixing bit his lip.
“However, we announced it yesterday, and then they saw us like this today… If we explain, will they believe us?”
Xi Yu held the clothes, turned around, and changed into them in an instant, cleansing himself at the same time.
Hearing this, he fell silent.
He had originally thought that after they made the announcement, Luo Cheng’an’s parents would definitely ask about it. He could simply explain that he had done it to keep Lu Zhixing from being attacked online, and that should have been the end of it.
But now he wasn’t so sure.
After all, the two of them really had been in a rather… indecent position just now.
And because they were in the mortal world, he couldn’t explain the real reason.
It wasn’t that he was afraid they wouldn’t believe him.
He was afraid he would scare them.
This was troublesome.
Xi Yu clicked his tongue and said uncertainly,
“They should… believe us?”
When he saw that Lu Zhixing still hadn’t moved, he assumed he was afraid.
Xi Yu snapped his fingers, instantly changing Lu Zhixing’s clothes and cleansing his body as well.
“Let’s go downstairs first,” Xi Yu said.
Lu Zhixing hesitated for a moment before following behind him.
Downstairs
Luo Yuan was poised as though he were ready to charge upstairs at any moment.
Lu Zheng was gripping his arm tightly and trying to persuade him.
“The children are grown up. As adults, we shouldn’t interfere too much. What’s gotten into you, old man?”
Because Shen Qing and Jiang Shuhe were close friends, Lu Zheng and Luo Yuan were also very familiar with each other.
He teased him, then, apparently feeling that wasn’t enough, chuckled.
“Isn’t this a wonderful way for the families to become even closer? Didn’t you say before that if you had a daughter, you’d want to marry her to Zhixing? Now, even though it’s not a daughter, isn’t it more or less the same?”
“Just shut up!”
Luo Yuan was so furious he nearly jumped.
He angrily cursed Lu Zheng.
“How is that the same? Huh? How is that the same?! My Yubao is innocent and adorable. If he runs into your son, whose scheming mind has more holes than a slice of lotus root, won’t he get eaten up without even a scrap left?!”
………………….
Xi Yu had just come downstairs when he heard this and immediately retorted,
“Don’t say that about him. Lu Zhixing is very innocent.”
Luo Cheng’an closed his eyes.
Then opened them again.
He wore a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
Let’s redefine the word “innocent.”
Only Xi Yu could possibly think Lu Zhixing was innocent.
There were many times when Luo Cheng’an wondered whether Lu Zhixing had put some kind of spell on Xi Yu.
Otherwise, why had Xi Yu always believed that this rebellious little disciple who coveted his own Shizun was an innocent person?
It was as though the moment this person entered his life, Xi Yu’s intelligence simply stopped working.
Not to mention Zhili up in Heaven—even the Lu Zhixing standing here now.
Someone who had managed to remain completely scandal-free in the entertainment industry while thriving, and had simultaneously turned one of the Lu family’s subsidiaries from the brink of collapse into a company generating one-third of the group’s total revenue within just a few months.
How could someone like that possibly be innocent?
Yet even now, Xi Yu still believed that Lu Zhixing was someone who could be bullied at any moment.
Wasn’t he supposed to hate demons?
Wasn’t he supposed to be disgusted to the point of loathing by even the slightest connection to the demon clan?
Then why, despite Lu Zhixing carrying demonic aura—even though he had used the Soul-Separation Technique to make Xi Yu believe he was merely a vessel—could Xi Yu possibly fail to notice the abnormalities that occasionally appeared when the demonic aura affected Lu Zhixing?
Yet he still believed Lu Zhixing was a pitiful, helpless, and innocent vessel.
Xi Yu’s hatred of the demon clan had reached an almost obsessive level.
He should have resented Lu Zhixing because he carried demonic aura.
Even if he didn’t resent him, he shouldn’t have been this close to him.
And yet…
Luo Cheng’an thought about that Weibo post announcing that the two hearts belonged to each other, as well as the sight of Lu Zhixing and Xi Yu entwined together just now.
They had been almost intimate.
The two of them had been so close, without the slightest gap between them.
He knew the truth about that Weibo post.
It was most likely Xi Yu’s way of protecting Lu Zhixing from being attacked online, and Luo Cheng’an had only brought this upon himself by his own actions.
But that kind of intimacy was wrong.
It wasn’t like the Lanxing he knew.
The Lanxing he knew had always been as cold as ice.
Even with him, he rarely showed much physical intimacy.
Throughout the entire Heavenly Court, the Lanxing Palace was the only place without a single immortal attendant.
Lanxing disliked people getting close to him.
During this period, Luo Cheng’an had relied on Xi Yu’s guilt toward the person known as “Luo Cheng’an” to gradually close the distance between them.
But he could feel Xi Yu resisting somewhat.
Even when he had leaned against Xi Yu’s shoulder last night, he hadn’t missed the stiffness and discomfort in Xi Yu’s body.
He had always known that Lu Zhixing was relying on the demonic aura in his body and Xi Yu’s concern about the Demon Venerable appearing in the mortal world to lie beside him time and time again.
But this level of intimacy was something he was seeing for the first time.
No.
It was more accurate to say that this was the first time he had witnessed it with his own eyes.
The way the two of them embraced had looked so natural.
It seemed as though Lu Zhixing was the one clinging to Xi Yu, but Luo Cheng’an hadn’t missed the hand Xi Yu had wrapped around Lu Zhixing’s waist.
Why?
Why, when Lu Zhixing’s personality was now even more like Zhili’s, did Lanxing remain special to this person?
Whether it was Lanxing or Xi Yu—
Why were they always special toward this person, whether he was Zhili or Lu Zhixing?
A flash of killing intent crossed Luo Cheng’an’s eyes.
He became even more determined that Zhili had to die.
If this person could still affect Lanxing even after changing identities, then he could only die.
He wasn’t worthy of Lanxing.
A lowly, despicable person like him wasn’t worthy of the noble and pure-hearted God Venerable Lanxing.
The room fell silent for several seconds after Xi Yu defended Lu Zhixing.
No one noticed Luo Cheng’an’s hand clench and then slowly relax.
Luo Yuan raised a hand and pressed it against Xi Yu’s forehead.
His voice trembled as he spoke.
“My son… my son, ohhh~ Daddy’s checking if you have a fever.”
Lu Zheng and Jiang Shuhe exchanged glances.
They both saw the helplessness in each other’s eyes.
Lu Zheng felt extremely guilty.
Even though Lu Zhixing was his son, he couldn’t bring himself to agree with Xi Yu’s statement.
Xi Yu noticed everyone’s strange expressions and pulled Luo Yuan’s hand down.
“I don’t have a fever.”
He pulled Lu Zhixing down beside him and sat with him before slowly looking at everyone.
“Lu Zhixing and I aren’t what you think we are.”
Shen Qing held onto the emotionally unstable Luo Yuan and gently asked,
“Then what are you? Can you explain?”
“This isn’t very easy to explain,” Xi Yu said after thinking for a moment. “But Lu Zhixing and I are completely innocent. We’re absolutely not the kind of relationship you’re thinking of!”
“Then what about the Weibo post?”
Luo Yuan opened his phone and held it out to Xi Yu, hope shining in his eyes.
“You didn’t post it, did you?”
Xi Yu looked at Luo Yuan’s expectant expression and gave an awkward smile.
“I did post it.”
The corner of Luo Yuan’s mouth twitched.
“So you’re saying that you two slept while embracing each other, and you even publicly announced your relationship on Weibo, but you’re not the kind of relationship we think you are?”
Several pairs of eyes simultaneously fixed on Xi Yu.
Xi Yu nodded.
“That’s right.”
Xi Yu explained why he had made the post.
“Because of the variety show, too many people were attacking Lu Zhixing. That negative energy affects him, so I had no choice but to resort to this.”
Lu Zheng went, “Ohhh~”
He looked at Xi Yu with a gentle expression.
“So you were just protecting him out of concern for a good friend, and there was also some unavoidable reason why you were sleeping while embracing Zhixing, right?”
“Exactly, exactly.”
Xi Yu nodded.
“That’s right.”
The moment Xi Yu said this, everyone’s gaze toward Lu Zhixing changed.
Luo Yuan exploded.
He pointed at Lu Zhixing.
“Scheming! Scheming!!! What a schemer!!!!!”
Lu Zhixing had heard a little about the criticism directed at him, but he wasn’t part of the entertainment industry, and since it wasn’t his own child, he hadn’t paid much attention to it.
A few days ago, Lu Group’s stock had dipped slightly because of the matter involving Lu Zhixing.
That was when he asked Lu Zheng why he hadn’t intervened.
It was only a little criticism.
At the time, he had even wondered why Lu Zhixing hadn’t shut it down immediately.
Suppressing it wouldn’t have been difficult.
It would have only cost some money.
So this was what he had been waiting for.
Jiang Shuhe and Lu Zheng naturally realized it as well.
Now they understood why their son hadn’t wanted them to interfere.
At the very beginning, when all the negative comments appeared online, Lu Zheng had intended to suppress them.
It was his own son who had specifically told him not to interfere.
Thinking about it now, perhaps even the criticism itself had been orchestrated by Lu Zhixing.
Jiang Shuhe looked at Lu Zhixing, who had been scolded by Luo Yuan and was now nervously clutching the hem of Xi Yu’s clothes.
She quietly gave him a thumbs-up.
Her son had this much scheming ability. He was bound to succeed at whatever he did.
Lu Zhixing tightly gripped the hem of Xi Yu’s clothes and moved closer to him.
His eyes, however, were fixed on Luo Yuan.
His expression looked hurt and aggrieved.
“Uncle Luo, did you misunderstand something?”