AU Extra — “Young Boy’s Illusory Dream” (10)
It was like a nightmare far too absurd to be real.
When Mo Xi woke up, he found himself lying on the bed at the small inn in Liansheng Town.
The carved window was half open, and sunlight slanted in from outside. The impatiens flowers sitting in a clay pot bathed in soft golden light, while dust motes drifted up and down within the beam.
At first, his gaze was still somewhat unfocused. Then, at a certain moment, his eyes suddenly came back into focus, and he abruptly sat up in bed.
The scenes from last night surged through his mind like a flood.
His memories had been washed into fragments. He could not remember everything that happened after he was possessed in a coherent sequence, but he had a general impression of most of it.
His head immediately began throbbing with unbearable pain.
He raised a hand to support his pounding temple, only to discover that it had already been wrapped in bandages, and the dislocated fingers had also been set back into place.
Mo Xi stared blankly at his palm.
Yesterday, at the very end, someone seemed to have come in.
A man.
And…
He remembered that “kiss” that could hardly be called a kiss, and his entire body suddenly stiffened.
His memories slowly surfaced, while the color drained little by little from his face.
Just then, the guest-room door creaked open.
Mo Xi suddenly looked up, the lingering redness in his eyes slicing toward the person like a sword.
“You—”
Sure enough, the young man who entered was the same person who had appeared at the very end last night.
Although Mo Xi had not been able to see his face clearly at the time, he had still gotten a general sense of him.
He could not be mistaken.
Mo Xi’s expression became almost unbearably ugly.
He gritted his teeth.
“You actually… You were actually…”
“Sigh. Yes, I’m Gu Mang. But not Gu Mang Senior Sister. I’m Gu Mang Senior Brother. You seem to have already figured it out.”
The young man glanced at him with a bitter smile, closed the door behind him, then walked over to Mo Xi’s bedside and raised a hand to touch his forehead.
Mo Xi instinctively tried to dodge.
But because he was so furious and agitated, instead of getting away, his vision suddenly went black, and he nearly fainted again.
Mo Xi was so angry that he could barely breathe.
After panting for a while, he stretched out the hand wrapped up like a bear’s paw and slapped Gu Mang’s hand away.
A mouthful of rage was stuck in his chest, almost enough to make him spit blood.
This Gu fellow could clearly fight and hold his own, yet he had shamelessly claimed that he was completely incapable.
He was clearly a man, yet throughout the entire journey he had never once revealed the truth.
Instead, he had teased Mo Xi endlessly, and even…
“Cough, cough, cough!”
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became.
He did not manage to say a single word and instead turned to the side, coughing violently.
“You just woke up. Your body hasn’t recovered yet. If you want to curse me out, wait until you’ve recovered before you do.”
“Get out…”
“I’m here to apologize. I don’t think you heard me yesterday…”
Gu Mang should have known better than to mention yesterday.
The moment he did, Mo Xi coughed even harder.
A thin layer of deeply embarrassed red immediately spread across his pale face. His sharp, piercing eyes glared at the culprit with undisguised resentment, and the way he clenched his teeth made his anger vividly apparent on his handsome face.
Gu Mang noticed his expression and immediately shut his mouth.
“…”
After a long moment, this shameless scoundrel actually became embarrassed.
He muttered,
“I’m really sorry…”
Mo Xi had been about to say something when his gaze suddenly froze.
It focused on Gu Mang’s lips.
Senior Brother Gu’s lips were split open, and rather badly at that. It was obvious that something had bitten them viciously.
Thinking about yesterday, there was obviously only one possible culprit.
Himself.
The realization made Mo Xi’s face turn even paler.
He suddenly lowered his eyes, his eyelashes trembling slightly.
After a long while, he finally asked without raising his head,
“I didn’t do it on purpose.”
“Huh?”
Mo Xi was silent for a moment.
Then he abruptly raised his eyes.
Light and shadow flickered chaotically within his dark eyes, shifting between brightness and darkness like dust motes floating in the beam of sunlight by the window.
He steeled himself and said,
“What happened yesterday.”
Gu Mang: “…”
“I didn’t mean to.”
Gu Mang also felt extremely awkward, but he was unwilling to admit that he was embarrassed.
So he laughed awkwardly and pretended to be carefree.
“Ah, of course you didn’t mean to. And what you did doesn’t count as a kiss anyway. You bit me. You just happened to bite my lip. That’s not what kissing someone is like. I’ve kissed plenty of girls before, so you have to believe me.”
Mo Xi did not respond.
He simply looked at him.
Gu Mang gave another dry laugh.
“Besides, we’re both grown men. We kissed, so we kissed. Neither of us took advantage of the other.”
As he spoke, he hesitated, then cautiously glanced at Mo Xi’s terrible expression and tentatively suggested,
“How about… you rinse your mouth?”
Mo Xi still did not answer.
The two of them sat in tense silence for another moment.
Finally, Mo Xi decided to be merciful and end a topic that was actually humiliating for him as well.
“What about that ghost?” he asked. “Did you catch it?”
“I did. I used a spell to pull it directly out of your body and sealed it inside a wooden puppet.”
“Bring it here. I’ll interrogate it.”
“Now?”
Gu Mang’s eyes widened.
“Better not. You were possessed by a fierce ghost and struggled against it for so long. Although you’re pure-blooded and there’s no danger to your life, I checked your pulse yesterday. You’ve suffered damage to your vital energy, so you should rest first. Besides, even if you question it now, it won’t be able to tell you much.”
“Why?”
“Because of you, of course. Yesterday, you kept refusing to let it erode you, and the backlash on its consciousness was severe. While it was inside your body, it didn’t realize it itself, but after leaving your body, its soul scattered. It probably won’t be able to reform until tomorrow morning.”
Gu Mang sighed.
“You really are incredible. After being possessed by that thing, you managed to hold out for so long without even touching a single girl.”
Mo Xi gave him a cold sidelong glance.
Gu Mang sat down beside his bed and continued naturally,
“Ah… But seriously, I’m really sorry. I never told you my real identity along the way, and I even made you suffer so much trying to save me. If you hadn’t had such strong self-control, I almost would have caused a disaster.”
“Even if you say that, I still won’t plead with the Elders on your behalf.”
Gu Mang froze.
Then he smiled and extended his hand toward Mo Xi.
“Not only do you not need to plead with the Elders for me, you can hit me as much as you want. Senior Brother won’t fight back.”
Mo Xi looked at him indifferently, seemingly about to actually hit him.
Gu Mang immediately let out an utterly shameless cry.
“Ah! That hurts!”
“…”
In reality, Mo Xi’s palm had not even come down.
He simply raised his bandage-wrapped hand and said expressionlessly,
“I haven’t even hit you yet.”
Gu Mang: “…Oh.”
Awake though he was, Mo Xi’s body had indeed suffered severe damage from the evil aura.
Gu Mang sat beside him for a while and did not say much. He soon noticed that Mo Xi’s spirit was beginning to flag again.
His cool, sharply defined face looked even more haggard beneath the faint morning sunlight.
So Gu Mang stood up.
“You should sleep for a while. I won’t bother you.”
Mo Xi’s eyes were closed.
Beneath his straight, handsome nose, his pale lips were slightly pursed.
He did not answer immediately.
After a while, his eyelashes trembled lightly.
Then, with what sounded almost like a cold mockery, he asked,
“Not the delicate Senior Sister Gu anymore?”
Gu Mang awkwardly rubbed his nose and coughed.
“Only the mighty and handsome Senior Brother Gu.”
“Senior Brother, I can see. Handsome and mighty, I’m not so sure.”
“All right, all right. Whatever you say is right.”
Gu Mang smiled helplessly.
“Go to sleep peacefully.”
“…”
A pair of eyes as dark as the deep sea looked at him.
“Get some good rest.”
Mo Xi did not say anything else.
Gu Mang blinked.
After a while, he leaned closer to take a careful look and discovered that Mo Xi had already fallen asleep.
He was still leaning against the headboard, his cheek turned slightly to the side, his eyelashes trembling faintly with each breath.
That face was still very young.
Although he was already far more composed than others his age, there was still a softness belonging to a youth in the line of his jaw.
Gu Mang’s gaze slowly lowered, landing on Mo Xi’s lips.
He paused for a moment, then quickly looked away.
The young master looked so aloof and proud now that Gu Mang could not reconcile him with the person who had lost control the previous night.
He could not see even the slightest trace of the heat, ferocity, or even the almost savage brutality that had been in him last night.
Those lips were clearly so pale and restrained, practically overflowing with an aura of abstinence.
Yet who would have thought they would feel…
Stop.
If he kept thinking about it, something about this felt strange.
Gu Mang raised a hand and subconsciously rubbed his own lips again, even though he had already done so countless times.
He stood up, helped Mo Xi lie flat on the bed, tucked the thin blanket around him, and then gently drew the moon-white silk curtains closed.
“Black Tortoise Protective Formation.”
“Roaring Barrier.”
“Dream Tapir Pillow Companion.”
After forming three seals in succession, Gu Mang finally left the guest room.
There was no one in the corridor.
He took a small puppet carved from paulownia wood out of his Qiankun Pouch.
The puppet was only the size of a palm.
Its craftsmanship was crude. One eye was carved larger than the other, and its mouth was crooked as well.
At first, the puppet simply lay motionless in Gu Mang’s palm.
But when Gu Mang untied the red cord around its neck, it suddenly rolled over and scrambled upright.
Rubbing its eyes, it shrieked in a high-pitched voice,
“You! You! You! You vile bastard! You cross-dressing bastard! Get me out of this crappy wooden puppet right now!! Otherwise I’ll—I’ll—”
It turned out that this puppet was none other than the one containing the sealed soul essence of the old Cucumber Ghost.
“You’ll what?”
Gu Mang placed it on the windowsill in the corridor and snorted.
“Jump off the building and kill yourself? Or set fire to the place and murder someone?”
“Ah!!”
The Cucumber Ghost—or perhaps he should now be called the Little Puppet—threw his head back and screamed in fury before tumbling backward onto the windowsill.
“You’re cunning and malicious. Junior Brother Mo had only just entered the martial world and had no experience, which was why he fell into your trap. But you’d better put away that act in front of me.”
“Or do you really think that someone who came out of a cultivation academy can’t handle a mere evil ghost like you?”
The Little Puppet kicked his tiny legs and shouted,
“No! You’re bullying the weak with your strength! That’s not what a gentleman does!”
Who would have thought that Gu Mang had absolutely no shame?
He deliberately looked surprised.
“You’re right. I’m not a gentleman. I’m a complete scoundrel. How did you know?”
“…”
“Do you know what this scoundrel plans to do to you next? If you don’t, I can whisper it to you.”
Gu Mang folded his arms and stared at it.
“I plan to lock you on the eighteenth level of the Demon-Suppressing Tower. Countless vengeful souls and wild ghosts gather there, all of them with profound cultivation. Once you’re inside, your three souls and six spirits will be gnawed away until nothing remains. You’ve committed evil for years, so it’ll be a perfect way to avenge all those couples who suffered terribly because of you.”
The puppet still stubbornly talked back.
“What evil have I committed? Didn’t you hear that everyone calls me the Land God who Sends Children?”
“You still dare to say that?”
“Giving someone a child is better than building a seven-story pagoda, I—AAAHHH!!”
Before he could finish speaking, the Little Puppet was lifted into the air by Gu Mang.
Gu Mang narrowed his eyes.
“I’m not joking with you. I mean it.”
Only then did the Little Puppet finally begin to panic.
“Don’t! Don’t! Big Brother, good Daoist, beautiful sir, let’s talk this out! That eighteenth level of the tower is full of big shots. I’m just a little ghost! How about we pick another level? What about the first level?”
“Sure. The first level contains an ancient evil beast. I imagine it’s lonely occupying an entire level by itself. How fortunate that you’ve volunteered to keep it company.”
“Ahhhhh! No, no, no! Then the second level! What about the second level, big brother?”
“Are you bargaining with me?”
“Yes, yes, yes! Big Brother, good Daoist, beautiful sir, please give me a way out! I don’t want to be reduced to nothing! Look, when you were disguised as a girl, I sincerely praised you, didn’t I?”
“Then I really have to thank you.”
“No need, no need.”
Gu Mang tossed him back onto the windowsill.
Then his expression suddenly turned stern.
“Answer the questions I’m about to ask honestly. If you lie even once, you can choose between the eighteenth level and the first level yourself.”
“Yes, yes, yes! All right, all right!”
“First question. A young couple disappeared from the Chonghua imperial capital a month ago. Before they disappeared, they came to Liansheng Town to pray for a child. Have you seen them?”
The Little Puppet said pitifully,
“I see so many worshippers every day. How would I remember…”
“Think carefully. Under your normal possession, those people without spiritual power often die weak and sickly because their internal organs have been damaged by yin energy, creating the illusion that a father’s life was exchanged for a child’s.”
“But that couple wasn’t in such a condition. They disappeared together after coming here to pray for blessings. If you were responsible, you should remember.”
The puppet shook its head like a rattle.
“Big Brother, good Daoist, beautiful sir, you saw it yourself. I’m just a lustful ghost. I only like controlling people’s bodies to do those, heheh, things.”
“…”
“I don’t traffic in people.”
“I didn’t say you trafficked in people.”
Gu Mang said,
“And besides, they’re two fully grown adults. How would you traffic them? I’m only asking whether you’ve ever treated a particular couple differently.”
The puppet thought hard for a moment, then firmly said,
“No.”
There was no reason for it to lie about this.
Gu Mang nodded.
“All right. Then among the worshippers who prayed to you, do you remember two people named ‘Bai Rouxia’ and ‘Lin Yun’?”
“Are those the names of the missing couple?”
“That’s right.”
The Little Puppet paced back and forth across the windowsill a few times.
It stroked its uneven, wood-chip-covered chin.
“I don’t remember the name Bai Rouxia at all. But Lin Yun… I feel like that name is very familiar. It seems like I’ve seen it somewhere before, and…”
“And?”
“And not just once.”
Gu Mang’s brows furrowed slightly as he sank into thought.
The Little Puppet’s survival instinct was extremely strong.
In order to keep its soul from being torn into pieces, it was being remarkably cooperative.
It hugged its head and thought desperately for a long time. If a wooden puppet could blush, its face would probably have turned red from the effort.
But in the end, it let out a breath and shook its head.
“Sigh, I can’t remember. But ‘Lin Yun’… it doesn’t seem to be a name I’ve seen on a prayer plaque.”
“I thought so too.”
Gu Mang said dryly,
“Otherwise you wouldn’t feel as though you’d seen it so many times. Fine. Keep thinking about this question slowly. I’ll ask you about the second thing.”
“Aw, I’m being so obedient and so willing to reform and become a better person! Big Brother, please plead for me. Don’t send me to the eighteenth or first level!”
Gu Mang thought to himself:
This fellow’s true nature is hideous. Yesterday, he endlessly tormented Junior Brother Mo, yet his ability to disguise himself was first-rate. Pretending to be innocent, acting naive, playing the pitiful victim—his talent for being two-faced was practically unrivaled among ghosts.
The puppet was still chattering away.
“Actually, I’m pretty helpless too. If I told you that I was lying to you before, and that when I was alive I never even touched a woman, would you believe me?”
Gu Mang recalled the old Cucumber Ghost’s cucumber shreds.
He shook his head at first.
But after a moment, he said,
“Answer my second question first. After you do, I might believe you.”
He lowered his eyes and stared seriously at the little puppet sitting on the windowsill.
“Who moved your corpse beneath the ancient peach tree?”