Gu Mang slowly recovered his health.
Because of his special circumstances, neither Junshang nor Mo Xi could give Gu Mang justice at this moment. Mo Xi understood what Junshang meant—reshaping the structure of Chonghua. That was Gu Mang’s wish. If Gu Mang’s identity were made public just like this, all the sacrifices and efforts would go up in smoke.
So whether it was Junshang or Gu Mang, both hoped that he could keep this secret.
But Mo Xi had never been good at pretending. This was not to say that he could not keep a secret; on the contrary, he was meticulous and disciplined, and could certainly keep his mouth shut. What he could not conceal was simply his feelings for Gu Mang. Even though he said nothing, and did his best to restrain himself in front of outsiders, within only a few days, almost everyone throughout Xihe Residence could see that his attitude toward Gu Mang had undergone a complete transformation.
Before, he had always kept a handsome, stern face, as though Gu Mang owed him five million gold shells and had never paid him back. Now, however, even when he spoke, his voice was calm and deep, filled with a pleasant magnetic quality, and he did not have the slightest temper.
During Gu Mang’s recovery, there was once a thoughtless young kitchen maid who ordered him to go help tend the fire. It was not particularly tiring work, merely a little dirty. Besides, Gu Mang had always been responsible for chopping wood and starting fires before, so he simply went along.
As a result, when Mo Xi returned to the residence and heard that Gu Mang had been dragged off to chop firewood, he went straight to the kitchen and, amid the servants’ panic and frantic scrambling, grabbed Gu Mang and pulled him out.
The cook trembled. “M-Master…”
“What nonsense are you doing?”
The cook said, “I just saw that he had nothing to do, so I-I wanted him to help with something.”
“He’s still a patient. How can you have him come help?”
Then he turned to Gu Mang.
“Go back and lie down.”
The cook: “…”
And the kitchen servants were not the only ones who had something to say about incidents like this. The young servant usually responsible for maintaining the precious antiques in Xihe Residence also had a story—
“Helping with the fire doesn’t even count! Let me tell you about something even more unbelievable. That day, Gu Mang went to catch a rice basket. The rice basket ran fast, Gu Mang chased after it, and accidentally knocked over the red-and-white glazed plum vase on the long table. That’s right, the most expensive one in the entire residence! It shattered into pieces!”
With every part of the story he told, the servants gathered around him let out sounds of astonishment like, “Wow,” and “Tsk!”
One young servant anxiously asked, “And then? And then? Did you report it to Master?”
The servant slapped his thigh.
“Of course! That vase alone was worth enough to buy a five-courtyard residence in the northern part of the city. How could I not report it? I immediately went and told Master what had happened.”
“My God… Master liked that vase the most. He must have been furious…”
“He was pretty angry. Do you know what he said to me?”
All the young servants shook their heads like rattles.
The servant imitated Mo Xi’s stern voice:
“Why did you put the vase in a place like that? What if it had hit someone? Was he injured?”
“…………”
After a moment of silence, one young servant let out an extremely awkward sigh.
“Wow.”
No one knew exactly what had happened between Mo Xi and Gu Mang, but Mo Xi’s change in attitude toward Gu Mang was something anyone who wasn’t blind could see. Fortunately, Xihe Residence had few people, and they were all fairly loyal to Mo Xi. In addition, Li Wei kept them properly in line, so outsiders still knew nothing about it for the time being.
“Manager Li, what do you think is wrong with Master? No matter what, Gu Mang is still a traitorous minister. If he treats him like this now, what will Junshang think? And what will everyone else think…”
Li Wei stood beneath the covered corridor, his sleeves drawn around his hands, gazing at the rippling water in the courtyard.
“Do you trust Master’s character?”
“Of course! Who in Chonghua has more integrity than him?”
“Then we trust him. Don’t ask about anything else. He certainly has his reasons for what he does. And as people by his side, there is only one thing we need to do.”
“What?”
Li Wei said, “Keep our mouths shut.”
Under careful recuperation, Gu Mang’s wounds quickly scabbed over. Because his body had been tempered with the blood of a demon wolf, his constitution was much better than before. But unfortunately, although Jiang Fuli could heal the injuries on Gu Mang’s body, he could not stop the effects of the Time Mirror from fading.
Those memories that Shan Gao had “flashed back” into him slowly began to disappear from Gu Mang’s consciousness like sand slipping away.
Gu Mang probably knew that if there were things he did not say now, perhaps he would never have the chance later. The clarity he possessed was, in the end, merely a fleeting dream granted by Heaven’s mercy.
So he asked Mo Xi for paper and a brush. When Mo Xi was beside him, he would talk with Mo Xi. When Mo Xi was away, he would stay alone in the room and write down some of the things he had remembered. Every morning after waking, he would look over what he had written the previous day. If there was something he had begun to forget, he would memorize it again.
He was desperately trying to prolong his own clarity.
Once, while Gu Mang was asleep, Mo Xi saw the Huanhua paper placed beside his pillow. In the most conspicuous spot on the paper, Gu Mang had written about their first meeting at the Academy.
On the paper, Gu Mang had written:
“He was sitting beneath a tree eating zongzi. Although he looked up at me once, unfortunately, this person was expressionless. Sigh, he probably has absolutely no impression of me.”
Mo Xi had just wanted to keep reading when Gu Mang opened his eyes and woke up.
Seeing Mo Xi looking through the pages he had written, Gu Mang immediately sat up and hurriedly snatched the papers from his hands.
“Hey, hey, hey! No peeking, no peeking!”
“…” Mo Xi froze for a moment. “You mind?”
“You’ll make me so embarrassed if you read them.” Gu Mang shielded his papers. “If you want to read them, wait until I’ve completely forgotten all the flashed-back memories. Anyway, by then I’ll have been silly and foolish, with neither a red face nor a pounding heart. I won’t even know what embarrassment is.”
Mo Xi’s eyes dimmed.
Gu Mang hurriedly added, “Oh, all right, all right. I might not forget everything that quickly, right? Look, I’m deepening my memories every day. Maybe after a year or two—oh, no, ten or twenty years—I might still remember them?”
Mo Xi said nothing, nor did he expose Gu Mang’s lie.
He merely raised a hand and drew Gu Mang’s head toward him, until their foreheads touched.
After a while, he took Gu Mang’s right hand, the callused pads of his fingers rubbing over Gu Mang’s index finger.
There were obviously so many heartfelt things he could say, so many vows of eternal love they could discuss.
Yet Xihe Jun merely stroked Gu Mang’s fingers and said softly,
“Your hands are covered in ink again. You don’t even know to go wash them.”
He sighed and continued,
“You…”
Gu Mang laughed.
“Are you the senior brother or am I the senior brother? Are you the impressive one or am I? How come you’re lecturing me now?”
“Of course you’re the impressive one.” Mo Xi gave a bitter smile. “Even now, I can’t imagine how you managed it. Even though you already knew the whole story, you still said nothing and followed Zhou He to undergo the Black Demon Trial.”
“What else could I do? I had my helplessness. You had yours, and Junshang had his. Actually, don’t resent him too much for what he did. When you’re standing at the top, you can’t always control your own actions. To be honest, if he truly had no kindness or sense of justice in his heart, he could have found an opportunity to kill me. But in the end, he didn’t.”
Mo Xi said nothing.
After a while, he lowered his lashes and wrapped his hand around Gu Mang’s again.
His broad palm touched the sapphire thumb ring Gu Mang was wearing. He had asked Gu Mang about this ring before, and after learning that it had been given to him by Murong Lian, Mo Xi had been rather confused. But at the time, Gu Mang’s body was still extremely weak, so he had not asked further.
Now that he noticed it again, Mo Xi could not help slightly furrowing his brows.
Gu Mang noticed that he was looking at the ring, and his lashes trembled almost imperceptibly.
Mo Xi caught that subtle expression completely, but he did not point it out. Gu Mang had once belonged to Murong Lian’s household, and the entanglement between Gu Mang and Murong Lian had lasted for nearly twenty years. Some things, after being twisted together over such a long passage of time, truly could not be explained in a single sentence.
Mo Xi did not force him. He merely said,
“Do you want me to return this thumb ring to him for you? Or do you want to go see him yourself?”
Gu Mang did not answer immediately. He spread his fingers and looked at the sapphire ring shimmering with brilliant light. After thinking for a while, he said,
“I still want to go to Wangshu Residence myself.”
Mo Xi was silent for a moment.
“All right.”
Hearing how muffled his voice sounded, Gu Mang could not help looking up with a smile.
“You’re unhappy?”
“No.” Mo Xi paused. “But remember to wear your face covering and put on a cloak.”
At this, his expression darkened slightly.
“You know that many people in Chonghua want to make things difficult for you.”
“I’ll be careful,” Gu Mang said.
Inside the room, the water slowly dripped through the clepsydra. It was already getting late.
Mo Xi said, “Then I’ll go back to the study first. Get some rest early. I still have some case files to read. If anything happens, just come directly to me. No one will stop you.”
Gu Mang smiled.
“Don’t take care of me too much either. Don’t forget that I’m still a traitorous minister. You need to restrain yourself in front of outsiders.”
At the word “outsiders,” Mo Xi’s heart suddenly pounded.
His heart raced because he had waited so many years—from adolescence into adulthood, until he was already over thirty—only to finally receive a genuine acknowledgment from Gu Mang.
But the ache came from the fact that they had gone through too much. So many new and beautiful things had already been worn through. The two of them were like pieces of patched cloth. Though they were still whole, they had ultimately become unrecognizable.
Gu Mang noticed that he was in a bad mood, so he teased him.
“Mo Xi.”
“Hm?”
Gu Mang lay on his stomach against the pillow and looked up with a smile.
“Come sleep here after you’ve finished reviewing the case files. Don’t go back to your own room. You let me sleep in the main bedroom while you sleep in the side room for so many days. If word gets out, people will say I’m bullying you again.”
Mo Xi lowered his head, pressed his lips together, and said nothing.
Moonlight spilled down, illuminating the edge of his ear and revealing a faint flush.
In the end, Mo Xi said softly,
“You should get some proper rest.”
Gu Mang’s smile deepened.
He lowered his lashes and reached one hand out from beneath the covers, touching his little junior brother’s face.
“You’re so well-behaved.”
“…”
“Too bad Senior Brother doesn’t have any candy to reward you with.”
Mo Xi looked up at him.
Then, suddenly, he leaned down and lightly kissed him on the lips.
Naturally, he did not dare kiss him too deeply. There was a fire buried so deeply within his heart, and Gu Mang’s breath could turn that spark into a sea of flames.
So Mo Xi merely kissed him once before sitting upright.
“I’m going back.”
Gu Mang raised a hand and touched his own lips.
“Sweet?”
Seeing that Mo Xi did not answer, he shamelessly continued to tease him.
“Hehe, is the candy sweeter, or am I sweeter?”
“…”
Mo Xi was not very good at saying romantic things. When Gu Mang provoked or angered him, he could still force out a few short sentences brimming with raw, beastlike intensity. But when he was gentle and affectionate, he was actually terribly clumsy with words—and terribly honest.
So when faced with Gu Mang’s teasing question, he did not know how to respond.
He merely raised his hand and extended two fingers, lightly tapping the center of Gu Mang’s forehead.
Gu Mang was poked and kicked the blankets twice while lying on the bed.
“You could at least say something! The older you get, the more boring you become. You might as well bore yourself to death.”
Mo Xi was silent for a moment.
And then he really did say something.
He said,
“Then… good night.”
Gu Mang:
“………………”