On Changming mountain where it snows year-round, all you can see is a span of whiteness around, clouds under your feet, and in the surrounding area there are a few small bamboo lodgings, a small house, looking like a place where unworldly immortals dwell.

Qi Ye (Lord Seventh) is brewing wine.

A rich and penetrating aroma soaks through the window and diffuses far away, which is what they call “Green foam on fresh, unfiltered rice wine, on a little terracotta stove⭐.” It seems as if a person like him can be stranded on high mountains or deep forests, and yet will still be able to lead an elegant, comfortable life.

➖⭐
The phrase from the poem “Wèn liú shíjiǔ – 問 劉十九 = Asking Liu the Nineteenth” by Bai Juyi. Hugh Grigg’s English translation.
➖

The head sorcerer, holding a book on one hand, sits beside him. Occasionally when he has a question he would quickly lift up his head to ask. Qi Ye (Lord Seventh) still has his head lowered to stare at the little makeshift stove, but every time a question is raised he can answer straight away without thought – if that year he was not born with royal’s lineage, with this vast amount knowledge it is still enough for him to score high on the exams and become government officials.

The head sorcerer has occasional exchanges with him, while holds onto his hand and asks: “Cold?”

Qi Ye is placing his hand near the stove, so he shakes his head. Looking out of the window, he suddenly smiles: “Look at this place, this can be considered a heavenly mountain where birds abound, but humans are nowhere to be seen within sight. After staying here for a while, I don’t even know what time it is.”

The head sorcerer feels something stir in him, and asks: “Do you like this place?”

Qi Ye looks at him out of the corner of his eye, smiles: “If I say yes, would you really stay and accompany me here?”

The head sorcerer considers for a moment, then his face stern, says: “So far Lu Ta is still young, but if you really like this place, I’ll return and teach him properly, then pass on Nanjiang to him in two to three years, then I’ll return here with you. Would that be alright with you?”

Qi Ye is stunned for a moment, then suddenly bursts out in laughter. Hitting him lightly on the head, he mumbles: “Oh you wooden pestle, you really think everything is serious. Who would want to live in this bizarre place, with the cold air and frozen ground? Nanjiang is still more spirited.”

He lowers his head and smiles: “Can drink now.” He quickly gets two glasses on wine, carefully pours out for two, gives one to the head sorcerer while he raises one himself and brings it close to his nose for a deep breath. He squints: “They still say one part of cold is enough to hide a hundred parts of imperfections, only when it remains rich in flavour after brewing then you can call it high-end wine. There’s the saying “three glasses and you can see through the world, one bottle and you will become one with nature”. All worldly worries can only be solved by this one thing, which is …”

His voice is interrupted by a series of ‘bang bang bang’ noises. Qi Ye sighs, his sudden interest in using poetry to accompany wine has been immediately squashed. Annoyedly taking a sip, he scolds in a low tone: “This flea couple, keep making noise from morning ‘til night. I see that Zhou Zishu is healthy now, we should take our leave tomorrow. My ears can’t have a moment of peace.”

Zhang Chengling’s normal kungfu practice cannot cause such a huge ruckus. Normally, such a ruckus that sounds like it wants to tear down houses all comes from his two shifu fighting.

The head sorcerer said that once Zhou Zishu can wake up, it means the most dangerous period has passed. Zhou Zishu, clearly having experience in being beaten up, was only fragile for two to three days after he gained consciousness. It was not even ten days before he could get up, and only a few days more until his spirits became better. Once he could run and jump, things start to stop being peaceful.

With these two, who even knows who antagonised the other first, but like Qi Ye said, it takes two to tango. They are so noisy from dawn to midnight, even when doing something like properly sitting down and having a meal, they can escalate from normal bickering to fighting with their chopsticks. At first Qi Ye still thought it was fascinating, but then he finds it bothersome and has since refused to share the same table with these two gorillas, lest he comes collateral damage.

Qi Ye reminisces, rather annoyedly: “Before, Zishu was such a dependable person, why … Haiz, a man is truly influenced from the company he keeps.”

The head sorcerer smiles: “Actually, this is good as well. It is painful to reorganise a person’s tendons and nerves, so it is already difficult to straighten them out again. Not to mention this is an incredibly cold place, it is already not easy for a normal person to recover their mobility. Zhou zhangzhu is not just moving, he is forcefully stretching his muscles. While it is painful to do this now, it will be beneficial in the long run.”

Wen Kexing has one arm around Zhou Zishu like he is about to embrace the other man fully. Zhou Zishu uses this as leverage to twist away from his arm, his body not even landing before he uses his foot to tease at Wen Kexing’s chin, forcing him to take a step back, then Zhou Zishu uses his finger to ambush him. Wen Kexing was careless and got hit, suddenly losing all the strength in his knee, almost forcing him to kneel on one knee. But in the moment he falls, he simultaneously rolls over to grab at Zhou Zishu’s legs, forcing them to roll together.

Anyway, since the ground is only ice and snow, and Qi Ye, the head sorcerer, and Zhang Chengling have kept a healthy distance from them, the ground can be considered clean, and they did not mind rolling around on it. Wen Kexing, smiling like a thief, presses down on Zhou Zishu, his arms on each side of Zhou Zishu’s head, and asks: “Do you concede this time?”

Zhou Zishu has just recovered from serious injuries, his stamina not as good as Wen Kexing yet, so he breathes heavily: “… this move from you is too despicable.”

Wen Kexing leans down close, quietly says: “Clearly you were the one who ambushed me first.”

Zhou Zishu suddenly says: “Hey, old Wen.”

Wen Kexing answers with a ‘uhm’, licking on his neck a bit, then says: “What?”

“I say …”

Zhou Zishu absentmindedly says something, Wen Kexing could not hear it clearly, so he puzzledly asks: “Hmm?”

In just one moment when his guard is down his chest got hit. Wen Kexing yelped. In a blink of an eye he got thrown down, feeling like the sky and earth have gotten reversed. His arms are twisted behind by Zhou Zishu, his body held immobile on the ground. Zhou Zishu learned from his despicable style and blew air by his ear. He laughs softly: “Now what, do you concede now?”

Wen Kexing used all his strength to twist his head around to look at him, asks: “A-Xu, do you really want to tie me up?”

Zhou Zishu raises his eyebrows, smiles: “Good idea.”

He immediately moved to immobilise acupuncture point, only seeing that he has been incapactiated temporarily, Zhou Zishu relaxes. He sits beside him and gropes his face, lamenting: “Little wifey, in order to pin you down, this husband has sweat all over my face.”

A hand suddenly reaches up to touch his forehead. He sees the supposedly immobilised Wen Kexing slowly sits up and says: “Oh? Let me see, did you really sweat? Don’t let yourself get a cold ah.”

“You know to move your acupuncture point!”

Zhou Zishu, shaken, immediately leapt three metres away, guardedly looks at him. Wen Kexing side-eyes him seductively: “I know so much more.”

Then they start to rush at each other again, continuing their explosive flight.

Actually the head sorcerer has some minor misunderstandings. The two of them fighting from morning ‘til night, tendons and nerves is one thing, but another reason is there is a problem that needs resolution immediately – once their win or lose is not yet determined, top or bottom position will also not be decided. They both have fire burning in their stomach, so they can only fight to release it.

At first, Zhang Chengling still excitedly ran over to watch them, thinking he could learn something from them, but afterwards he realised their fights were too fierce already. Aside from learning specialties like “black tiger pulls out heart”, “monkey stealing peaches” or something like “Upending skies”, there is no value-added experience to be learnt. He then immediately lamented that no wonder they were kungfu masters, even their techniques are trimmed down to the basics. Hence, he went back to study his own kungfu step-by-step.

Yet in the young man’s heart he still holds some annoyance. His shifu keeps criticising that his movements are ugly, but does he himself not frequently roll around on the ground in such improper style with Wen senior?

The two top masters have completely fallen to become two top street rats, all the while unintentionally misleading a young man’s path to glory.

Only at twilight everyday after Zhou Zishu takes his medicine can both of them hold a ceasefire. The head sorcerer prescribes medicine on a case-by-case basis. With fragile bodies that cannot withstand much he prescribes comfortable, slow-acting medicine. With this Zhou Zishu that can brush away any pain and suffering he only uses the fiercest medicine. Everyday after using his medicine, Zhou Zishu always feels uncomfortable, needing to clench his teeth and wait for the medicine strength to pass, his body frequently drenched with sweat.

Then he would wash up a bit and go to rest, recharging his spirits to continue jumping around the next day.

The next day after Zhou Zishu took his last dose of medicine, the head sorcerer and Qi Ye bid them goodbye and depart. While the culture in Nanjiang has always been open-minded, the child sorcerer Lu Ta still holding down the fort, but this trip had taken both of them too much time. After sending the two of them off, Zhou Zishu can have his first night not having to suffer through the medicine that makes him feel like being skinned, his demeanor extremmely calm.

Wen Kexing carries a jar of wine in, holding it out and shaking it in from of Zhou Zishu, and the latter took it with no formalities. He immediately moves to stick himself to Zhou Zishu, his sparkling eyes pinning on the other’s side profile.

Zhou Zishu gets stared at until goosebumps broke out, swallows a mouthful of wine and asks: “What you looking at?”

Wen Kexing smiles: “You’re not afraid I’d drug you?”

“What drug?”

“What drug do you think?”

Zhou Zishu sneers and side-eyes him: “You dare? Drug me with aphrodisiac, are you not afraid I’d explode and do you?”

Wen Kexing pretends to be act indecisive, frowns and says: “Oh right, that would really be bothersome.” He props his head on his hand and scans Zhou Zishu from head to toe, shaking his head and lamenting: “You can just give me this one thing. Or else if we continue like this, both of us are going to end up monks.”

Zhou Zishu side-eyes him: “Then why is it not you who just give me this one thing?”

Wen Kexing slowly drags a hand over his hips, seductively caressing up and down, and lowers his voice: “I can give you many of these things, but …”

Zhou Zishu’s wrists got pinned down, and they started going at each other again in their room, while controlling their strength to not blow out the roof.

Zhang Chengling walks past after finishing his kungfu training, calmly sees this disturbance and knows that they have started fighting again. He silently thinks, is being together not good enough, why do they have to scratch each other up like two kids, such an improper thing to do? He then mournfully sighs, and quietly returns to his room.

After three hundred rounds, both of them have run out of breath, so they come to a ceasefire. Wen Kexing grabs back the wine jar to gulp down mouthfuls of drink, expelling a breath and falling back on the bed with his limbs splayed out, waving his hand: “No more fight, today I’m out of energy.”

Zhou Zishu let out a breath of relief, just waiting for this sentence from this master. He immediately sits down on bed and pushes him inside, saying: “Move for me.”

Wen Kexing shifts inside,staring up at the bed hanging fabric. He looks like his mind has drifted away, staying silent for a long while before saying: “A-Xu, after some more time, after you have completely recovered, can you accompany down the mountain?”

Zhou Zishu, who is keeping his eyes close to rest, makes an affirmation sound and says: “I have recovered quite a lot now, I can come down the mountain – what do you want to do?”

Wen Kexing falls silent. Zhou Zishu waits for a long while, sensing something unusual. He opens his eyes to see Wen Kexing still looking like his soul has travelled to elsewhere, his gaze stare fixedly ahead. He quickly says: “What’s wrong?”

Wen Kexing’s eyelids flutter, he forces himself to smile and whisper: “Nothing. That year my parents died in the wild, they don’t even have a grave to bury their clothes and belongings. I’m an unfillial son that haven’t been back for more than twenty years, overall I should …”

Zhou Zishu sighs, slowly wrapping his arms around the other’s waist. Wen Kexing follows his lead to roll over, placing on hand on his back, his fingers placing on Zhou Zishu’s butterfly bones, absent-mindedly tracing the shape of his bones. He buries his face on Zhou Zishu’s shoulders, sadly says: “And there’s still A-Xiang …”

Zhou Zishu says: “While you stayed in town to recover from your injuries, I returned once and managed to find A-Xiang and Xiao Cao … together. I’ve buried them properly.”

“Thank you.” Wen Kexing says intelligibly, his arm hugging Zhou Zishu tightly, his voice barely audible: “Through half this lifespan, I’ve always been alone by myself. I thought at least there’s still A-Xiang … but A-Xiang was gone, during that time you were still unconscious. I’m not as calm as the head sorcerer, I thought, what if you … I …”

Zhou Zishu was shocked to feel his shoulder get damp. He cannot help but lower his head to look, but Wen Kexing waves his hand to blow out the light, his voice slightly choked up, then softly says: “Don’t look at me.”

Zhou Zishu never knows how to comfort someone else, so he can only let Wen Kexing hug him.

Gradually, Wen Kexing’s hands start to travel over his body. Zhou Zishu has slight discomfort, but the other man has no intention of messing around. He just keeps calling out his name, like he is extremely unsure, his voice carrying a tint of fear and urgency. Zhou Zishu sighs in his heart, thinks, aiii, he is so pitiable, he will let him have this one time.

He uses an extremely large amount of force to restrain himself, to relax. For the first time in his life, he lays down his guard and gives himself over to another person. When their hair entangles, their sideburns touch, there is only the other man’s whispers that sound like he was slightly pleading: “A-Xu, don’t go …”

Even in a place of extreme cold there is still warmth softly and quietly radiating from beneath the bed curtains, like it can bloom into flowers.

In early morning the day after, Zhou Zishu sleeps in, a rare occasion. Wen Kexing opens his eyes to look at the person in his embrace, his face showing a small smile of satisfaction.

The moment he moves, Zhou Zishu wakes. He just feels like there is no spot on his body that is comfortable, and his body is even embraced by someone else.

He wants to open his mouth and curse, Wen Kexing has since prepared for this. In an instant Zhou Zishu opens his eyes, he immediately suppresses his satisfactory smile and with a complicated expression filled with too many emotions to discern, he stares deeply into Zhou Zishu’s eyes.

The phrase ‘motherfucker’ has not even left Zhou Zishu’s mouth before he saw the other man’s red-rimmed eyes and has to swallow it down. With nothing to say, he awkwardly turns away, leaving his back and saying softly: “If you want to wake up, wake up by yourself. Don’t disturb me.”

Wen Kexing immediately hugs him from behind, once more lying down. From where Zhou Zishu cannot see, Wen Kexing withdraws his fake pitiable expression, smugly thinks inside that having a soft heart is even cuter than having a soft waist.

But he does not stay smug for very long before sadly realised something. He sneaked a glance at the person lying next to him, silently thinking, but … is it really everytime he wants to …. he has to pretend having a crying session?

This is kind of … tragic.

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