Over these years, Chonghua’s national power had risen rapidly. Restaurants of all sizes had sprung up throughout the imperial capital like bamboo shoots after rain, one wave after another.
Yet Mo Xi led Gu Mang into an obviously aged restaurant.
Honghu Pavilion.
Back then, this establishment had been one of the top restaurants in the imperial capital. Only princes, nobles, and the wealthy could afford to dine there, and its prices had been frighteningly high.
However, over the years, Honghu Pavilion’s attitude had softened considerably. Perhaps it had sensed the pressure of competition. This old swan had no choice but to imitate the small, affordable restaurants nearby. Its prices were no longer so aggressively expensive, and even ordinary cultivators could now enter.
But even so, the old Honghu’s fortunes had gradually declined.
At this moment, despite it being dinner time, the scene outside the restaurant was still deserted and lonely, with few customers coming and going.
Mo Xi entered the restaurant, and Gu Mang followed closely behind him.
The shopkeeper was a slightly plump, greasy-looking man surnamed Liu. He hurried over to greet them.
“Oh! Canghe Jun! It has been such a long time since we last saw you. Are you here for a meal?”
“A private room.”
“Of course, of course. The same old room?”
Mo Xi paused briefly.
“Mm.”
Shopkeeper Liu led them to a private room at the far end of the second floor.
There were delicate bamboo curtains, and the floor was covered with a thick woven carpet embroidered with the sun, moon, and stars.
Mo Xi still remembered the first time he had brought Gu Mang into this room.
Back then, Gu Mang had followed behind him. He had been so overwhelmed by the extravagant atmosphere that he could not speak for a long time.
Finally, he had grabbed Mo Xi’s sleeve with a pale face and said:
“Let’s make this clear first, big brother. Are you paying for this? Because if not, even if you sell me, I can’t afford this meal.”
But just like the glorious splendor of this restaurant, the golden threads on the carpet that once shimmered like scattered starlight had already become dull and covered in dust.
Mo Xi flipped through the menu, but his thoughts were too chaotic for him to see anything clearly.
In the end, he snapped the beautifully embroidered menu shut with a “pa” sound and pushed it toward Gu Mang.
“You choose.”
Gu Mang was still playing with the small copper plate hanging from his neck collar. Hearing this, he froze.
“I can’t read.”
Mo Xi said:
“There are pictures. Spiritual energy has been applied to this silk menu, so you can see the images.”
After hearing that, Gu Mang opened the menu and held it carefully against his chest, seriously examining it.
“I want this… this… and this…”
Sometimes he poked at the pictures with his finger. Other times, he bit his finger and stared blankly.
“I’m hungry.”
Mo Xi said nothing.
He turned his head away and refused to look at him.
Gu Mang noticed.
“Are you still angry?”
“No.”
Gu Mang thought for a moment, then suddenly said:
“You’re important too.”
Mo Xi’s heart moved slightly, but he still kept his cold expression.
“…Why bother flattering me? I don’t have a sachet to give you.”
Gu Mang smiled.
“But you gave me a necklace.”
“…”
If the emotion in Mo Xi’s eyes had originally been jealousy and resentment, those feelings immediately faded after hearing this.
What remained was only a dull ache.
He glanced at the black slave collar around Gu Mang’s neck and suddenly found himself unable to get angry anymore.
After all—
The major turning points in his life had all been given to him by Gu Mang.
Without the Gu Mang of the past, there would be no Mo Xi of today.
Putting aside the hatred between their nations, what could he possibly resent Gu Mang for?
…
When his family had suffered a disaster, it was Gu Mang who had reached out his hand to him.
When he had been unknown and insignificant, it was Gu Mang who stayed by his side.
When he had been lost and helpless, it was Gu Mang who smiled and encouraged him.
Gu Mang had done him a great kindness.
“Don’t worry. Everything will get better.”
“What’s the worst that can happen? Even if your uncle completely ruins you, you’re still a noble. Look at me, I’m a slave, and I’m not worried. What are you worried about?”
“If one day your uncle really pushes you into a corner and you have nowhere to go, I’ll give you half of my room and half of my food. How about that?”
“You still have me.”
How many things had Gu Mang done for him?
When Mo Xi’s future had been uncertain and he had been constantly excluded in the military, only Gu Mang cared about whether he was happy, whether he had eaten enough.
Mo Xi had always been cold and stubborn. At that time, the other noble youths living with him looked down on him.
They thought that because he had lost his father when he was young, and his mother had remarried someone else despite the scandal, once she became pregnant again, Mo Xi’s situation would become utterly miserable.
They even deliberately knocked his assigned food onto the ground.
It was Gu Mang who could not stand watching a fallen young master being bullied, so he always shared his own rations with him.
But the food given to slave soldiers was terrible.
Gu Mang could tell that Mo Xi never complained, but eating it was extremely painful for him.
So Gu Mang thought of a way.
Every few days, he would use the excuse of buying jewelry and rouge for girls, then ask his brothers to lend him money through various tricks.
Afterward, he would quietly use that money to buy more pastries for his little junior brother, trying to make this pitiful person happy.
At that time, everyone in the army said Gu Mang was too much of a womanizer.
Even his friends teased him for being too fickle.
“Two days ago you said you wanted to buy Little Lan a jade hairpin. Today you’re asking for money again, saying you want to buy Little Die a flower hair ornament. Sigh, what a flirt.”
Gu Mang’s closest friend back then, Lu Zhanxing, also said:
“A Mang, what’s wrong with you? I’ve never seen you spend money so recklessly before. After joining the army, have you gone wild?”
Gu Mang’s response was to shamelessly stretch out his hand.
“Brother, give me some reward? I’ll wash your clothes for a month later.”
Lu Zhanxing was shocked.
“You fell for another girl?!”
Gu Mang casually made something up.
“The daughter of Old Wang from the neighboring village.”
“…She’s only six years old!! You’re insane!”
No one knew the truth.
No one knew that the “insane woman-chasing spendthrift” Gu Mang was actually using the excuse of visiting brothels to secretly sneak into the kitchen of a small, shabby restaurant in a nearby town to wash dishes.
Gu Mang used disguise magic and changed his clothes. Nobody could tell he was a military officer stationed nearby.
He washed piles of soup bowls and rice bowls. His energetic and hardworking appearance even made the shopkeeper look at him differently.
“Young man, why don’t you just come work here permanently? How about this salary?”
Even with his appearance changed, Gu Mang’s eyes remained bright and shining, as if they held all the stars of a summer night.
“Thank you, shopkeeper. But I have other things to do normally, so I can’t stay…”
“Ah, what a pity.”
The shopkeeper patted his head.
“It’s rare to see such a hardworking young man.”
To take care of him, his Gu-shixiong endured hardships that nobody knew about.
But Mo Xi did not know any of this at first.
Until later—
When he saw the bloodstained letter from his fellow soldiers, he realized that he had fallen in love with this man who was three years older than him.
Unable to restrain himself, he traveled through wind and snow to confess to Gu Mang.
But inside the tent, only Lu Zhanxing was there.
And Lu Zhanxing told him:
“Gu Mang? Gu Mang was dragged into town to have fun at a brothel! A man who doesn’t enjoy himself when young is wasting his youth! Hahaha!”
At that moment, Mo Xi felt as if a heavy club had struck him directly on the head.
It took him a long time to recover.
Yet he still could not control his emotions.
He mounted his horse and rushed toward the place of pleasure that Lu Zhanxing had mentioned.
But he found Gu Mang’s friends there.
Only Gu Mang himself was nowhere to be seen.
He refused to give up.
His chest burned like an unstoppable flame.
He searched through one shop after another in the small town near the military camp.
Finally—
In the kitchen of a small restaurant, he saw the “brothel-visiting” Gu Mang.
Gu Mang had changed his appearance. Under normal circumstances, Mo Xi should not have been able to recognize him.
But at that time, Mo Xi had been paying close attention.
The moment Gu Mang lifted his head from beside the basin, Mo Xi caught the gaze of the person looking back at him.
Just that one glance.
Mo Xi recognized him.
He was the Gu-shixiong he had been searching for.
From the disappointment he felt after hearing that “Gu Mang had gone to a brothel” to the shock of seeing Gu Mang washing dishes—
At that moment, Mo Xi’s heart had hurt terribly.
Suddenly, he no longer knew how he should express his feelings.
His entire chest was filled with passion and longing, causing even the way he looked at Gu Mang to become burning and intense.
But as the saying went—
One’s courage was strongest at the first attempt, weakened at the second, and exhausted at the third.
When he had first wanted to confess, he went to the military tent but could not find him.
When he had angrily rushed toward the brothel, his possessiveness raging as he wanted to drag Gu Mang out, he still could not find him.
By the time he truly found him, that overwhelming impulse had already faded.
He stood in the snowstorm, breathing heavily.
He pushed open the wooden fence gate, startling the little chicks in the restaurant’s backyard and sending them scattering everywhere.
He walked straight toward the confused Gu Mang.
He saw Gu Mang’s hands submerged in the water.
In that freezing weather, because Gu Mang did not want the shopkeeper to discover that he was a cultivator, he could not use magic.
His hands had developed chilblains.
Mo Xi suddenly felt his throat tighten.
He did not know what qualification he had, with his current status, to speak of love.
He did not know what right he had to ask Gu Mang for anything more.
Without saying a word, he pulled Gu Mang up from the small stool.
His long eyelashes lowered.
He held Gu Mang’s cold fingers in his hands.
He held his senior brother’s hands in his palms, gently rubbing them.
Then he softly asked:
“Does it hurt?”
But Gu Mang only smiled foolishly.
“It’s nothing.”
“Just these little chilblains? A real man should be a little rough around the edges. That’s what makes him handsome.”
Gu Mang scratched his head with his swollen, radish-like fingers and grinned, revealing a small canine tooth.
“Your Gu Mang-gege is the most handsome.”
That statement was obviously ridiculous.
Nobody would think two frozen, swollen fingers looked handsome.
But Gu Mang did not care.
What he meant was—
Since you came to the army, since you were assigned to the same unit as me, and since you are my junior brother, I won’t let you suffer.
Mo Xi had not never tried to persuade Gu Mang.
He had told Gu Mang that he had already done too much for him, while his own future was uncertain.
These favors and kindnesses were things he might never be able to repay.
But Gu-shixiong, that old military rogue, only smiled.
On a winter night, snowflakes rested on his long eyelashes.
“Who asked you to repay me?”
“Since you joined my unit, you’re my brother. I have to protect you.”
Mo Xi said:
“But I…”
“Don’t ‘but I’ and ‘but you’ me.”
“If you really feel bad, take a scroll and write down everything you owe me. Once you become successful, repay me with interest.”
Gu Mang laughed and reached out to rub his head.
“Oh my, my little princess really is such a petty fool.”
Mo Xi watched that young, vivid smile grow freely beneath the sunlight.
At that moment, he secretly made a decision.
In the future, he would definitely give the best things back to Gu Mang.
Not only repay him—
He would give him all the rare treasures in the world, all the flowers and splendor.
He would treat him well for his entire life.
But what happened in the end?
Gu Mang gave Mo Xi salvation.
And what Mo Xi gave him in return was the heavy, black shackle around his neck.
And, ironically—
This truly was the best thing he could give Gu Mang now.
After experiencing betrayal, hatred, and a heart that had become as cold as iron, this was the final thing he could offer him.
So this was what their entire lifetime amounted to.
The dishes had been ordered.
Mo Xi still sat silently with his arms crossed, lost in thought.
Gu Mang suddenly said:
“You’re still unhappy.”
Mo Xi looked up at him.
“…This time, I really am not.”
Gu Mang insisted:
“Why are you unhappy?”
“…”
“Do you not like this place? Then we’ll go somewhere else.”
Mo Xi sighed, pulling himself out of his memories.
“Go somewhere else for what? The food here is very good. There are several dishes you used to like. I just don’t know whether you ordered the right ones just now.”
“The old me…”
Gu Mang murmured:
“Really liked them?”
“I told you before. We knew each other in the past.”
Gu Mang tried hard to think for a while.
Then he gave up.
But he still said:
“Fine. If you say we knew each other, then we knew each other.”
This restaurant served many Sichuan-style dishes.
The spicy food was not unfamiliar to Gu Mang.
After all, the Western Shu Kingdom was an ally of Chonghua.
During the year when Western Shu was caught in war, Gu Mang had gone there to assist their alliance.
From that time onward, he had changed from someone who could not tolerate even a little bit of spice into someone who could eat an entire plate of chili chicken covered in red oil without changing his expression.
But although he could eat spicy food, Mo Xi knew that Gu Mang still preferred food from his hometown.
He simply did not know—
During those years when Gu Mang had betrayed Chonghua, stayed outside, and joined the enemy nation of Liao—
When he looked at tables filled with fine wine and delicacies, had he ever missed the steamed buns and baked cakes of his homeland?
Had he ever felt even the slightest trace of regret?
Unlike Chonghua’s usually gentle cuisine, everything about this restaurant was intense and passionate.
The kitchen was half-open, only covered by a cloth curtain.
Guests downstairs could hear the furious sizzling of hot oil.
The sharp clanging of spatulas striking against the wok.
From time to time, flames would roar upward from the pan, illuminating the entire kitchen in a fiery red glow.
“Fish-flavored eggplant, cold mixed chicken, and a basket of guokui. Two guests, please eat while it’s hot.”
The waiter carried dishes in both hands, with a bamboo basket balanced on his head.
“It won’t taste good once it gets cold.”
Gu Mang reached out and silently removed the bamboo basket from the waiter’s head.
The guokui was filled with pork fat and meat.
When the dough was rolled out, minced pork, crushed Sichuan pepper, and fresh green scallions were wrapped inside. Both sides were brushed with lard and baked against the oven wall, giving off wave after wave of hot, fragrant, roasted aroma.
Gu Mang did not like scallions.
But after picking them out, he found that he really liked the flatbread. Holding it in his hands, he ate it with great seriousness.
The other dishes arrived one after another.
Twice-cooked pork was placed between his chopsticks. The meat slices, coated in a bright sauce, trembled slightly and shimmered with oil.
Boiled cabbage was soaked in a rich chicken broth. The tender vegetable hearts were soft and refreshing, leaving behind a clean sweetness.
Stir-fried kidney slices were cut into beautiful curled patterns and cooked together with garlic sprouts over high heat. When brought to the table, they still carried the lingering heat of the flames. The texture was crisp and tender.
The aroma of the dishes was simple yet powerful.
With just one bite, every part of the body seemed to become refreshed instantly.
The numbing sensation of Sichuan pepper stimulated the nose and tongue.
There were no expensive ingredients on this table, yet the food was exceptionally delicious.
Its value came from the skill of the chefs.
That was also why this restaurant had once been able to charge such high prices.
“Delicious.”
After saying that, Gu Mang mumbled to himself:
“Feels like I’ve eaten this before?”
Hearing this, Mo Xi’s already weak appetite became even more nonexistent.
He put down his chopsticks and turned his head to look out at the streets and alleys outside.
Gu Mang licked the crumbs from his lips.
“Princess, what’s wrong with you?”
At first, Mo Xi did not react.
But after a moment, he suddenly realized what Gu Mang had called him.
He abruptly raised his head.
“What did you call me?”