When Chu Xinghui returned home with the books, Xie Liufeng was outside poking at a bird with a stick.

The black bird, perhaps from being separated from its main body for too long, had gotten used to the outside and preferred nesting outdoors like an ordinary bird.

It was strangely popular in the sect—often fed by others with spiritual treats—which only made it more reluctant to go back.

When Xie Liufeng saw Chu Xinghui return, he finally let the bird go and greeted him: “Back already?”

The black bird seized the chance and flew off immediately.

Xie Liufeng glanced at the books in Chu Xinghui’s arms and asked casually: “You went to the library?”

Chu Xinghui nodded and explained: “I borrowed some books on dual cultivation.”

Xie Liufeng choked: “Dual cultivation?”

Chu Xinghui thought for a moment and offered: “Want to read them together?”

Xie Liufeng: “…”

He stared blankly for a long moment, then finally covered his face with a helpless hand: “Do you even realize what you’re saying?”

Chu Xinghui looked at him in confusion.

He was just trying to see if dual cultivation might help solve Xie Liufeng’s problem—what was wrong with inviting him to read together?

Seeing that Xie Liufeng clearly wasn’t going to join, Chu Xinghui regretfully looked away: “Alright then, I’ll read them myself.”

With that, he turned to take the books to his room.

Xie Liufeng sensed something was wrong and stopped him: “Wait.”

Chu Xinghui paused and looked at him questioningly.

Xie Liufeng asked: “Why did you borrow those books?”

Chu Xinghui explained his reasoning.

Xie Liufeng was silent for a long time, then suggested: “How about we take another approach?”

Chu Xinghui thought about it and looked troubled: “But I haven’t even started reading yet.”

Xie Liufeng took the books from his arms: “No more reading. These are confiscated.”

Chu Xinghui looked unhappy: “You’re just avoiding the issue.”

Xie Liufeng patiently explained: “Dual cultivation is something only Dao companions do. You shouldn’t be researching this just for me. When you have a Dao companion and truly want to do this with them, that’s when you should look into it.”

Chu Xinghui looked at him: “Would a Dao companion be more important than you?”

Xie Liufeng said helplessly: “That just means you haven’t met someone you want to make your Dao companion.”

When he said that, he felt a strange discomfort in his chest.

Maybe it was the emotional bond… thinking about this kid forMing a partnership with someone else in the future triggered a bit of possessiveness.

Chu Xinghui lowered his head and thought for a while.

Then he reached a new conclusion: “If only Dao companions can talk about dual cultivation, wouldn’t it be fine if we became Dao companions?”

Xie Liufeng’s heart skipped a beat.

He couldn’t tell what emotion rose in him at that moment, but after a pause, he calmly shook his head and smiled like always: “Only mutual affection can make two people Dao companions.”

Chu Xinghui was still young and didn’t understand these things. He probably said that just on a whim.

Even though Xie Liufeng didn’t have much experience either, he’d lived longer and couldn’t let the boy make such an immature decision.

Chu Xinghui continued following the logic: “If mutual affection is necessary… I like you. Don’t you like me?”

Xie Liufeng laughed helplessly: “I do… but this kind of liking is different from the mutual love between Dao companions.”

Chu Xinghui thought about it, couldn’t figure out the difference, and asked: “What’s different?”

Xie Liufeng suddenly found himself unable to answer.

He had a feeling this topic was heading into dangerous territory.

He tried to assert some elder authority: “In short… it’s just different.”

Chu Xinghui wasn’t intimidated in the slightest and continued staring at him.

After a while, he nodded reluctantly: “Fine, I’ll listen to you for now.”

If the books were confiscated, so be it—he could always borrow them again in secret later.

Xie Liufeng let out a sigh of relief.

He wanted to reach out and pat Chu Xinghui’s head like usual, but he hesitated for some reason. His hand paused mid-air before he casually withdrew it.

He had already grown up—perhaps it was no longer appropriate to be so familiar all the time.

Chu Xinghui glanced at his hand, then looked up at him with a slight frown.

Under his gaze, Xie Liufeng felt helpless. He finally reached out and gave his head a good rub.

*

Xie Liufeng seemed to have suddenly become very busy lately.

Before, eight out of ten times Chu Xinghui came home, he would run into him. Lately, eight out of ten times, he wouldn’t see him at all.

Chu Xinghui deliberately tried to catch him a few times and always got the same answer—that he had something to attend to outside.

Aside from that, Xie Liufeng’s attitude toward him didn’t really change. But the time they spent together inevitably decreased a lot.

Chu Xinghui didn’t say anything.

At least, he didn’t say anything on the surface—for the time being.

After a while, Chu Xinghui finally received a message from Cheng Yu.

He and Xie Tinglan had already settled in the city, and Xie Tinglan invited him over for tea.

It was already the rainy season. When Chu Xinghui left the house, the sky was overcast.

He looked up at the sky and didn’t bring an umbrella.

*

Xie Tinglan and her disciple were staying at the same residence as before—Cheng Yu’s cave dwelling.

When Chu Xinghui arrived, he greeted Xie Tinglan first. Not seeing the other person, he asked: “Senior Xie, where’s Cheng Yu?”

Xie Tinglan pointed to the room next door: “In the pill room. I sent him to prepare some medicine. Just happened to have time to talk with you. Sit wherever you like.”

Chu Xinghui sat across from her.

Xie Tinglan started the conversation: “I should thank you for telling me about the situation with the Xie family sending someone to seek a master.”

Her tone sounded a bit odd. Chu Xinghui thought for a moment and asked: “Do you mean… no one from the Xie family was supposed to come out to seek a master?”

Xie Tinglan looked at him with eyes that resembled Xie Liufeng’s and curved them slightly with a smile: “Normally, it’s common for cultivators from cultivation families to seek a sect. But the Xie family… ever since something that happened hundreds of years ago, their bloodline has had issues and can only cultivate a specific technique. It’s usually impossible for them to seek a master outside.”

Her gaze carried meaning. Chu Xinghui vaguely understood what she implied: “Does it have something to do with Xie Liufeng?”

Xie Tinglan nodded and poured him a cup of tea: “It does. These are old matters I haven’t talked about in a long time. I should say this up front—I know about them, but I wasn’t there myself. I only heard about it from some cousins I used to play with… But so much time has passed, and apart from Xie Qinghe himself, all the people involved back then have probably passed away.”

Chu Xinghui asked in confusion: “Weren’t you and Xie Liufeng… relatives?”

Xie Tinglan shook her head: “Though he calls me cousin and I do have the surname Xie, I’m not really considered a member of the Xie family.”

She explained slowly: “Back then, the Xie family had some reputation in Zhongbo City, but it was actually a small cultivation family. Most members were ordinary people or low-level cultivators with no hope of immortality. There was a lot of worldly influence. My birth father was his uncle. After my mother died, he remarried quickly. My maternal grandparents saw the Xie family didn’t treat me well, so they took me away. I had already left the Xie family for years by the time Qinghe was born. Later I went to Danding Sect and never returned. I actually never met him until after he left the Xie family.”

There was a hint of nostalgia in her eyes: “But I met his parents—they were gentle and kind elders.”

She understood what Chu Xinghui had come to learn and began recounting the events: “When Xie Qinghe was five, his parents died during an expedition. Most of what they left behind was lost. His childhood wasn’t easy. It wasn’t until he was tested and found to have an ice spiritual root that the family began to train him… But that only lasted about a year. Later, the then-head of the Xie family—my father—got hold of a mysterious cultivation technique from someone. It promised rapid advancement, but the cost was imprisoning Xie Qinghe and forcing him to practice it.”

“He had amazing talent. Though only at the Golden Core stage at the time, he managed to injure most of the Xie family’s experts alone, eventually drawing out the family’s grand elder. He killed the elder but was heavily injured and got imprisoned by the Xie family.”

“I heard he refused to cooperate with cultivating the technique no matter what they did, even crippled his own spiritual veins. The family tried everything but failed and locked him in the ancestral hall.”

Chu Xinghui immediately recalled the illusion he’d once seen.

He asked hoarsely: “That cultivation method…”

Xie Tinglan sighed: “What I said about the Xie family’s bloodline having problems—that was because of that technique. It allowed extremely fast cultivation, but everyone who practiced it died mysteriously. Almost the entire Xie family practiced it… and later, their descendants were born only able to cultivate that method. If they tried any other method, they’d suffer unbearable pain in their meridians and be unable to continue.”

“…Later, I received news that he had died. The Xie family gave him a cheap coffin and threw him into the mass grave.” Even now, there was regret in Xie Tinglan’s expression: “His parents were kind to me in my childhood. After I heard of his death, I wanted to relocate his grave. But when I opened the coffin… it was empty.”

“You probably know what happened after that. Somehow, he escaped and went to the Beiyue Sword Sect, gradually gaining recognition… until today.”

“So before I met him, I thought he must be the fiercely proud kind of person, someone who couldn’t tolerate even a speck of sand in his eye. But after meeting him…” Xie Tinglan smiled and looked at Chu Xinghui: “You’ve always been by his side—you should know him best. Though he talks nonsense and does some inexplicable things, he’s actually the kindest, most tolerant person.”

It was precisely because Xie Liufeng had such a good temper that what he had been forced to endure back then seemed all the more heartbreaking.

Chu Xinghui lowered his eyes and couldn’t help clenching his fists.

Seeing that Chu Xinghui was upset, Xie Tinglan went on to tell a few amusing stories about Xie Liufeng.

Once she’d said enough, she glanced at the time: “Alright, I should go see what Cheng Yu’s done to the medicinal herbs.”

Those herbs were extremely delicate—she couldn’t fully trust her disciple with them yet.

Chu Xinghui nodded and took the initiative to say goodbye.

Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly recalled something and sincerely thanked her: “By the way, thank you for helping me detoxify last time.”

“That’s not something you should be thanking me for.” Xie Tinglan gave him a meaningful look: “Hasn’t Qinghe told you what he did?”

She cleared her throat and very helpfully explained the entire situation to Chu Xinghui.

As his elder cousin, it was her duty to assist her cousin in strengthening the master-disciple bond.

Chu Xinghui froze for a moment.

He thanked Xie Tinglan again, then left.

*

After saying goodbye to Xie Tinglan, Chu Xinghui slowly made his way back.

Suddenly, he felt a raindrop fall onto the back of his hand.

He looked up at the dark sky.

It had started to rain.

Chu Xinghui stopped walking, stood still for a while, then sent a message to Xie Liufeng.

Xie Liufeng’s voice came through the message talisman: “What is it?”

Chu Xinghui said: “It’s raining.”

On the other end, Xie Liufeng also looked up at the sky: “Mm, it’s raining.”

They fell silent for a while.

The sound of rain from both ends wove together through the talisman.

Then Chu Xinghui suddenly spoke: “I didn’t bring an umbrella.”

Xie Liufeng’s breath hitched slightly.

Chu Xinghui pursed his lips and said directly: “I want you to come pick me up.”

For a Golden Core cultivator, a bit of rain meant nothing—both of them knew that perfectly well.

There was a pause on the other end.

After a long moment, Xie Liufeng’s voice came through: “Alright, stay right there and wait for me.”

So Chu Xinghui obediently stood still.

A quarter of an hour later, Xie Liufeng arrived with an umbrella.

Chu Xinghui smelled a familiar sweet scent and reached out to him without hesitation.

Xie Liufeng teased him: “Didn’t buy it for you.”

Chu Xinghui looked up at him.

Xie Liufeng chuckled and handed him a full bag of sugar-coated hawthorn treats.

Satisfied, Chu Xinghui tugged at the string tying the paper bag and stepped under the umbrella with him.

Xie Liufeng saw that the wind had tousled Chu Xinghui’s hair and instinctively reached out to fix it.

Just as he was about to touch Chu Xinghui’s hair, he paused, intending to pull his hand back.

Chu Xinghui, noticing the brief hesitation, immediately caught the retreating hand.

He stared at Xie Liufeng for a moment.

Then, without a second thought, he threw himself into Xie Liufeng’s arms.

Xie Liufeng froze completely.

Chu Xinghui looked up at him from the embrace, his gaze clear and sharp, and asked: “You’ve been keeping your distance from me lately. Are you going to push me away now too?”

Xie Liufeng let out a sigh.

Forget it… things had always been like this—avoiding it now was pointless.

Then, resignedly, he held the umbrella steady with one hand and wrapped the other arm more tightly around the person in his embrace.

 

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