Ch. 110 – Do You Like Me?

The early morning sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves of the trees above, falling upon the four figures sprawled haphazardly across the grass. Though weak, it still managed to dispel the lingering nighttime chill.

After a full night of running for their lives, lying on the grass and basking in the sun became a rare indulgence, so warm and cozy that they didn’t want to move a muscle.

And indeed, none of them moved, all of them sprawled out to relax their leaden limbs.

Nobody spoke. They hadn’t noticed it during their desperate escape, but the moment they lay down, wave after wave of exhaustion washed over them like the rising tide. Lifting a single finger seemed like an incredible effort, and moving their lips was much the same.

Time passed unnoticed as they lay there, but as the sun climbed higher in the sky and glared down, Feng Ye raised a hand to shield his eyes.

The movement aggravated the wound on his left shoulder, and the pain finally snapped him out of his drowsiness. Since he couldn’t move his left arm much, he raised his right hand instead.

But his hand didn’t move.

Feng Ye turned his head slightly to look at the person beside him. Hao Chen’s grip on his hand was just as firm as it had been when he pulled him up, and he hadn’t let go even though they were now out of danger.

He lay flat on his back on the grass, eyes gently shut, and looked so peaceful that he seemed to be asleep.

Feng Ye gazed at Hao Chen’s profile. There was a small flower in the grass right between the two of them, a pale purple wildflower just like the one the crow had brought him the day before.

The wildflower impeded Feng Ye’s view, and from this angle, it appeared as if it was pinned to Hao Chen’s head.

The flower had looked cute on the crow’s fluffy head, but it would just seem out of place on a grown man.

But if it was Hao Chen wearing it, Feng Ye thought it would look…..pretty good?

This fish was certainly vain. Carrying a folding fan with him that he waved regardless of the weather, he took flamboyance to the extreme.

But his vanity wasn’t groundless. His human form…..looks like that were indeed misleading, and he looked good in anything he chose to wear.

Rather than making him look effeminate, wearing a flower gave him an alluring charm.

It looked surprisingly good.

Wait. Feng Ye blinked and suddenly became aware of the direction of his thoughts. Was he actually praising Hao Chen’s good looks?

Despite the praise being limited to the privacy of his own mind, he was still appalled.

He took a deep breath and reminded himself of the other’s true nature – a fat black fish. He must not allow himself to be deceived by Hao Chen’s human form.

Once Feng Ye had his mental defenses back in place, he gave his right hand a shake to prompt Hao Chen to let go.

Hao Chen…..did not let go.

Not only did he not loosen his grip, he held on even tighter. His eyes were still closed, and this seemed to be the subconscious reaction of someone who was deeply asleep.

Feng Ye stared at Hao Chen, motionless. Had Hao Chen’s thumb not been brushing back and forth across the back of his hand, he might have fallen for it.

He tried to use his gaze to pierce through the fish’s pretense, but only succeeded in reconfirming the extent of Hao Chen’s thick face.

Hao Chen was completely immune to such a harmless attack, so Feng Ye was forced to resort to something he couldn’t ignore.

He bent his right knee and nudged Hao Chen with it, attempting to push him away.

Hao Chen was indeed pushed away, but he had only moved the slightest bit when he came rolling back toward Feng Ye. And at the end of this roll, he landed directly on top of Feng Ye.

Feng Ye: “……”

Feng Ye glared at Hao Chen, who pretended not to see it. He had constructed a completely logical explanation to justify his actions: “After all the chaos last night, I accidentally fell asleep as soon as I relaxed.”

His voice alerted Fang Yang and Cao Zirui, who sat up drowsily. Fang Yang added in agreement: “I nearly fell asleep too.”

Feng Ye: “…..”

Fine.

He was forced to accept this excuse. But just as a smug smile appeared on Hao Chen’s face, Feng Ye ruthlessly shoved him away.

Hao Chen didn’t insist on clinging to him, because when he sprawled over Feng Ye, he once again caught the scent of blood.

It was Feng Ye’s, along with a trace of the three-headed dog’s.

When Feng Ye emerged from the Path of Carnage, his blood-drenched clothes and bloody footprints were actually just illusions.

The Eight Ghost Generals had perished with the rest of Western Qiang long ago, and what lingered within the array were nothing more than illusory imprints.

Once they escaped the array, the blood soaking Feng Ye’s clothing had naturally vanished.

But Ling Yun had not been an illusion, nor had the three-headed dog, so the wounds and bloodstains they inflicted had not vanished after their escape.

After sitting up, Feng Ye began to tend to his wounds. The wound on his palm was fine and had basically stopped bleeding, but the injury to his shoulder was a bit more serious.

Since it was his left shoulder that was injured, he could only use his right hand to clean it, which was very inconvenient.

Hao Chen observed for a moment before venturing cautiously: “Shall I help you?”

He had already realized that approaching the dragon would be difficult, so he adopted the gentlest approach and sought permission first.

Feng Ye paused what he was doing and glanced over at him. Hao Chen’s expression was somewhat apprehensive, as if he didn’t know whether or not he would be welcome.

Feng Ye pursed his lips. He had rebuffed Hao Chen’s approach inside the Grand Array, and had done the same to Fang Yang. He was fully aware that his sensitivity bordered on paranoia, but it simply wasn’t something he could control.

Under normal circumstances, although Feng Ye wasn’t particularly fond of allowing others close, he wouldn’t have warned them away so ruthlessly.

But the Royal City of Western Qiang brought back too many memories, and encountering the Eight Ghost Generals and Ling Yun in such quick succession had kept him in a constant state of tension. Even the slightest nudge was able to trigger an extreme reaction from him.

Just like a bowstring pulled taut, the tighter the draw, the more violent the recoil.

This was the reason he couldn’t allow anyone near his wounds, even though his rational mind knew that Hao Chen and Fang Yang only wanted to help him.

But emotion was not subject to reason, and his mind was in turmoil. The chaos of the situation swirled together with his memories, and he no longer had the presence of mind to rationally assess the intentions of those approaching him. Thus, he defaulted to his most primal instinct.

The instinct to trust no one.

Some instincts were innate, while others were acquired, learned through falling down over and over, then standing up again and again while clutching at his wounds.

After lying in the grass for most of the morning, the stress had begun to gradually seep out of him. He was no longer as tense, nor were his scales bristling in warning to those who dared to approach.

He nodded to Hao Chen in agreement.

Hao Chen’s eyes lit up as if he had received an unexpected gift, and he immediately leaned in.

He helped tear away the fabric over Feng Ye’s shoulder. It had become fused to his skin, and even the slightest touch tugged at the wound. Thus, Hao Chen tore it with extreme caution, his movements agonizingly slow. So slow that Feng Ye lost patience and grabbed hold of Hao Chen’s hand, using it to rip the fabric back with sudden force.

With a sharp rip, a large gap was torn open at the shoulder, bringing with it shreds of flesh.

Feng Ye gritted his teeth as he did it, but didn’t give a single cry of pain. His expression also didn’t change in the slightest, and as if everything was perfectly normal, he handed the torn strip of fabric to the stunned Hao Chen.

Hao Chen wasn’t the only one staring at him in silence. Fang Yang and Cao Zirui were equally dumbfounded. The freshly-bleeding wound looked terrible, but this “Useless Shixiong” didn’t make a sound. Even those courageous heroes of legend surely couldn’t do better.

Fang Yang gave Feng Ye a thumbs-up, while Cao Zirui nodded in admiration.

Feng Ye wore a mild expression, as if this was all nothing to him. But Hao Chen, who was closest to him, still caught a subtle clue. Feng Ye’s forehead was beaded with cold sweat, and the moment he tore the fabric from his flesh, a barely perceptible shudder had run through his body.

This dragon is just putting on an act. He’s clearly in terrible pain, but he still has to put on a front and pretend like he’s fine, Hao Chen thought.

If it was him who had been injured, he would have put on an act too. But in contrast to Feng Ye, who would only reveal one point of pain out of the ten he felt, even if Hao Chen only felt one point of pain, he would magnify it into ten.

He would insist on making a scene and feigning weakness in order to elicit care and concern.

“Shixiong, I’ll go down to the river and fetch some water to wash out your wounds,” Fang Yang volunteered.

He had already forgotten Feng Ye’s harsh words to him earlier, and didn’t require an explanation from him, having come up with one all on his own. It must be that Useless Shixiong couldn’t afford a distraction from his efforts to open an exit to the Grand Array, and therefore couldn’t allow him to touch him.

Now that Hao Chen was tending to Useless Shixiong’s wounds, he decided to go and fetch some water since there was nothing else he could do to help.

“I have some wound medicine here. Take it,” Cao Zirui chimed in. As he spoke, he fished several small porcelain jars out of his storage pouch and placed them beside Feng Ye and Hao Chen, then accompanied Fang Yang to fetch water.

Feng Ye’s clothing had already been torn open, but the grit embedded in the wound needed to be washed out before it could be medicated and bandaged. It seemed that they wouldn’t be able to continue until Fang Yang returned with the water.

But the moment the boys had walked a safe distance away, Hao Chen materialized a sphere of water in the palm of his hand with a casual snap of his fingers.

How could a sea-dwelling Kunpeng not know how to materialize water? But he didn’t stop the two boys, because he wanted to be alone with Feng Ye.

He had achieved his goal, but Feng Ye’s wounds could not be left unattended. Once the boys returned, he would come up with some random excuse to brush them off. 

Thus, Hao Chen began to unreservedly use his spiritual power. The technique for gathering water wasn’t difficult, but it also wasn’t something a disciple at Qi Refining stage should be capable of.

Seeing this, Feng Ye deliberately teased: “Fellow Daoist Hao Chen’s cultivation has advanced by leaps and bounds. You’ve actually mastered the water-gathering technique?”

Hao Chen’s hands were busy, and he couldn’t spare the attention to answer as he guided the sphere of water to Feng Ye’s shoulder. This extension of his spiritual power naturally carried a chill unique to the North Sea, so the sphere of water was much cooler than room temperature. The moment it touched his skin, the chilling cold combined with the pain of his wound subjected Feng Ye to the uniquely strange sensation of being caught between fire and ice.

“Hiss!” Feng Ye sucked in a sharp breath.

Due to his mental preparations, he hadn’t cried out when he first tore his clothes, but this time, he was caught by surprise.

With the flow of water brought under control, Hao Chen finally had a moment to reply with a playful tease: “No matter how rapidly I advance, I’ll never be able to match Fellow Daoist Feng Ye’s transcendent swordsmanship. Even in a fight with the former sect leader of Lingxiao Sword Sect, your battle ended in a stalemate.”

It feels like it’s been a while since we bantered like this, Feng Ye thought during a lull in the pain.

He and Hao Chen seemed to have been trading jabs since the moment they met. Back then, he always saw this sticky candy as an annoyance, and never could have imagined that one day, he would seize Hao Chen’s hand as if betwitched.

And “bewitched” was the only way to describe it, because looking back on it now, Feng Ye was simply unable to understand why he had chosen to trust Hao Chen. To trust that Hao Chen would hold onto him and not let go, allowing him to fall back past those eighteen stone doors into the underworld.

The wound on his shoulder no longer hurt as much, and his body was gradually adapting to the biting chill of water from the North Sea. Feng Ye stared into Hao Chen’s eyes, attempting to figure out what exactly had bewitched him.

Hao Chen lowered his gaze. Seeing that the wound was sufficiently clean, he took the porcelain bottle left by Cao Zirui and applied the medicine to Feng Ye.

He carefully sprinkled the medicinal powder on the wound, then took a spare set of his own clothes out of his storage bag and tore the sleeves from them to use as makeshift bandages, winding them around Feng Ye’s arm.

“Do you like me?”

Hao Chen was caught off guard when he heard this question out of the blue, and went abruptly still.

After a brief pause, he resumed his work and tied Feng Ye’s wound up with a large bow. Only then did he straighten up and put some distance between them.

He slowly raised his head to meet Feng Ye’s eyes, which were watching him closely.

“I like you, ah,” Hao Chen said with a smile.

Now it was Feng Ye’s turn to freeze. He hadn’t expected Hao Chen’s answer, nor had he been prepared for him to offer it so casually.

So casually that it seemed unreal.

This wasn’t the first time Hao Chen had told him he liked him. “I’m starting to like you more and more,” Hao Chen had told him, but Feng Ye hadn’t taken it seriously, regarding it as merely one of Hao Chen’s usual jokes.

But this time…..Feng Ye wasn’t certain if it was a joke or not.

You could call Hao Chen respectable, but he could also be as dissolute as a scoundrel. You could call him disreputable, but then, his behavior didn’t seem to be that outrageous. He hovered somewhere between serious and frivolous, evading definition.

In the same way, his words were a mix of truth and falsehood. He spoke without considering what should or should not be said, even if he knew very well that it might lead to a misunderstanding.

Take for example when they first met: they’d only lain side-by-side on the bed for a short while, but the story from Hao Chen’s mouth made it sound as if they had done something indescribably explicit.

Words from someone like that naturally couldn’t be taken at face value, and Feng Ye himself was fundamentally distrustful of others. Combining these two factors, the result was that Feng Ye only took about half of what came out of Hao Chen’s mouth seriously.

But this time…..Feng Ye looked into Hao Chen’s eyes. The anxiety in them had vanished, and everything half-hidden and half-revealed had finally surfaced.

Or perhaps it had never been hidden at all, and Feng Ye just hadn’t noticed.

It was the most wonderful thing in the world, so beautiful that Feng Ye was almost bewitched a second time.

He raised his hand unthinkingly, as if to touch those eyes brimming with affection, only for his hand to freeze at the halfway point.

It was almost a conditioned response when he withdrew his hand.

The more beautiful something was, the more dangerous it was. The moment he let his guard down, he would be met with eternal doom.

Time and again, he tried to extend his trust, and time and again he was deceived.

It had happened so many times that distrust was etched into his very bones, until it became instinct.

The scales on Yinglong’s body, impervious to bladed weapons, had not always been so hard. Only through countless cycles of peeling away and growing back had they become as tough as they were.

This was the way he protected himself.

Feng Ye clenched his fist, words of rejection on his tongue.

But before they could pass his lips, Fang Yang and Cao Zirui returned.

And all Feng Ye could do was temporarily swallow them back.

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