Chapter 145: Shizun Has a Mealtime Companion Now

The busy harvest season ended with the turning colors of the

leaves. The villagers of Yuliang Village prepared an assortment of parcels,

large and small, packed full of jerky, rice cakes, spices, and homespun

cloth. They thrust these parcels into Chu Wanning and Mo Ran's arms.

Sisheng Peak did not lack for food or goods. But these were heartfelt

gifts; to reject them would be rude. Thus the two accepted the parcels and

helped the village chief fill the saddlebags.

Ling-er was there too, hugging a bamboo basket covered in a

porcelain-patterned cloth. A lifted corner revealed fresh-steamed flatbreads

and a dozen green-shelled, hard-boiled eggs. She paused in front of

Mo Ran's horse, her bright, black eyes unable to meet his gaze. She wanted

to look at him, but the memory of her tipsy confession of the other night

was too mortifying. After some hesitant shuffling, she eventually came

over, raising the basket above her head, and said to the handsome man

seated astride the horse, "Mo-xianjun, I…I made these just this morning,

for you and Chu-xianjun to eat on the road."

Mo Ran hesitated, unsure of her intentions; he didn't know whether to

accept or decline. Ling-er understood his misgivings. She lifted her head.

Despite the blush on her face, there was stubbornness and some hurt in her

gaze. She might have tried everything to win the affection of this

extraordinary xianjun, but she wasn't one of those girls with no dignity,

who would continue clinging on after a clear rejection. "Relax, Xianjun,"

she said, "Ling-er doesn't mean anything by it. I just want to thank Xianjun

for taking care of Yuliang Village these last couple weeks."

Only then did Mo Ran take the basket. From his seat atop his horse,

he looked down and replied sincerely, "Many thanks, miss."

"Xianjun is most welcome."

When he saw that she was sensible about things, he felt more friendly

toward her. After a pause, he asked: "Do you have any plans for the future,

miss?"

"Why does Xianjun ask?"

"I just think you don't seem like a girl who wants to live in a small

village for long."

Ling-er smiled, the fight coming back to her eyes. "I want to visit the

upper cultivation realm. I hear Rufeng Sect's leader is kind and willing to

lend a hand to ambitious people of little means. As long as those of us from

the lower cultivation realm can find work in Linyi, they won't chase us off.

My needlework is decent, and I also know how to cook. I should be able to

get by."

Of course, she didn't say the most important part out loud—out of the

ten great sects, Rufeng Sect had the most disciples and its domain stretched

across a vast territory, totaling seventy-two cities of varying size. Moreover,

Linyi was well-known as a cultivator's hub; out of ten people on its streets,

five would be cultivators.

But Chu Wanning hadn't guessed her intentions; when he heard she

was headed to Linyi, his brows knitted slightly. "Things at Rufeng aren't as

simple as you might think. If miss only wants to settle in the upper

cultivation realm, perhaps consider Yangzhou's Rainbell Isle instead."

"It's impossible to make a living in Yangzhou; everything is too

expensive," Ling-er said. "Xianjun's advice is appreciated, but Ling-er has

already thought it over."

She'd made her stance clear. Chu Wanning knew it would be futile to

press, so he let it go.

The two set off on their horses with their saddlebags stuffed to

bursting. As they passed by Butterfly Town, Chu Wanning took a close look

at the barrier there. Fortunately, the spiritual current was plentiful and

everything remained stable. They continued riding and were back at

Sisheng Peak by noon.

Chu Wanning went off to brief Xue Zhengyong on how things had

gone. Mo Ran, left at loose ends, strolled about idly. As he neared Naihe

Bridge, he encountered someone scrubbing the stone lions on the bridge's

columns.

Who had been punished with manual labor? Not wishing to embarrass

the offender, Mo Ran decided to take another route. Yet just as he was

turning around, he heard a familiar voice call out across the distance. "ARan!"

Upon closer inspection, the one scrubbing the lions was Shi Mei.

Mo Ran was momentarily taken aback, feeling somewhat strange. For one,

it was odd to find someone as rule-abiding as Shi Mei getting punished. For

another, there was Shi Mei's current appearance. Even though it'd been

some time since Mo Ran had been introduced to this fully grown version of

Shi Mei, he hadn't gotten used to it. Instead, Mo Ran found Shi Mei's face

and figure increasingly unfamiliar as time went on. He almost hadn't

recognized him at first glance just now.

"What are you doing here? Got in trouble?" Mo Ran asked as he

walked over.

Shi Mei looked a little abashed. "Mn…together with the young

master."

"Mengmeng?" Mo Ran paused for a moment, then chuckled. That

would explain it. It was true that Xue Meng was always getting himself into

trouble. "What did he drag you into this time?"

"He said he wanted to go to the forbidden grounds in the mountain's

backwoods to catch a few monsters for training."

Mo Ran's eyebrows rose.

"He ended up almost stabbing apart the crack in the barrier Shizun

sealed before he left."

Mo Ran didn't know if he should laugh or cry. "Does he think

monsters are something he can catch and keep, like cats and dogs? And

you! Don't just play along with him when he's messing around—why

didn't you try to talk him out of it?"

Shi Mei sighed in exasperation. "Of course I tried to talk him out of it.

It was no use. I was afraid it'd be dangerous, so I had to go with him…

Never mind, forget it, at least nothing really terrible happened. What about

you, A-Ran? You and Shizun went to Yuliang Village to help with the

harvest a while back, right?"

"Mn."

"How was it? Everything go smoothly?"

"Yeah, not too bad."

The two made small talk for a time. After bidding farewell to Shi Mei,

Mo Ran walked alone down a small, tree-lined path in silence. With his

newfound clarity, he could see in hindsight that his feelings toward Shi Mei

had been more of an obsession, something he held on to out of habit, and

not the love he'd thought. He'd once believed that because he looked at

Shi Mei and thought him beautiful, thought him divinely ethereal, and

thought his presence comforting, that this was desire. But it was not.

People had always appreciated beautiful things. Mo Ran appreciated

Shi Mei's beauty, but a closer examination revealed that this appreciation

carried no intimate desire. Mo Ran enjoyed looking at Shi Mei the same way

he enjoyed looking at the mountains cloaked with red leaves in the autumn

and ponds crowded with lotus blossoms in the summer. But in all these

years, he'd basically never had any inappropriate thoughts.

He still cherished Shi Mei and cared for him as before. Yet it was not

the same. Mo Ran finally understood what love was. He was no virtuous

ascetic; his love was hot and steamy, accompanied by the urge to conquer,

by the slap of flesh against flesh, by the rushing of blood and the spilling of

fluids. He was a wolf that could appreciate the scent of wild roses. But

wolves had fangs, and tastes to match; what he fed on was not grass or

flowers, but blood and flesh.

By dinner time, Xue Meng had finally finished organizing the books

in the second classics section of the library. He whined in exhaustion,

sprawling over the table at Mengpo Hall as he issued a steady stream of

complaints. Even his usual favorite, deep-fried diced chicken with chili

peppers, couldn't cheer him up.

As he played listlessly with his chopsticks, he spied Chu Wanning

entering the dining hall. The sight finally gave him the energy to straighten

up and call out, "Shizun!"

Chu Wanning looked over and nodded.

Mo Ran sat beside Xue Meng; he, Xue Meng, and Shi Mei had always

eaten as a trio. But today, when Chu Wanning walked in, Mo Ran set about

shifting all the plates and bowls around to make space at their table.

"What are you doing?" Xue Meng asked.

Mo Ran threw Xue Meng a grin. He stood and waved to Chu

Wanning. "Shizun, come sit here."

Xue Meng and Shi Mei gaped at him. They respected their shizun,

certainly, but sharing a meal with him was another matter altogether. To eat

with someone regularly required a certain level of familiarity and comfort,

if only so one could tolerate the sounds their dining partner emitted as they

crunched on bones and smacked their lips, could ignore the ugly faces they

made while eating or any slips in table manners. Judging by the expressions

on Xue Meng and Shi Mei's faces, it was plain that, though Chu Wanning's

own etiquette was impeccable, they were not used to eating with him, and

they didn't want to eat with him. To them, the occasional meal together

with their shizun was an obligatory social nicety wherein both parties had to

be on their best behavior. After those meals, their backs would often be stiff

from tension and they wouldn't have tasted a bite of what they ate.

Chu Wanning understood this as well. He looked in surprise at

Mo Ran, then shook his head and made straight for his usual spot, carrying

some simple vegetable dishes.

He hadn't taken a meal in Mengpo Hall in five years. As Chu

Wanning took his seat, he noticed a small, ornamental copper plate nailed

into the corner of the table. On it were engraved the words: Reserved for

Yuheng Elder. He stared at it for a long, silent moment. What was wrong

with Xue Zhengyong?!

He sat gloomily, setting his wooden tray down with a heavy rattle. Yet

before he could take a bite, someone pulled back the wooden chair across

from him, claiming a seat at the table "Reserved for Yuheng Elder." He

placed his own tray right next to Chu Wanning's—pressed very close,

almost touching.

Chu Wanning looked up and at length said, "What are you doing

here?"

"It's too cramped over there," Mo Ran said, grinning happily as he

picked up his rice bowl. "So I've come to eat with Shizun."

Chu Wanning glanced at where Xue Meng and Shi Mei sat, baffled. In

what world was it cramped? The two deserted by Mo Ran wore similarly

puzzled expressions as they peeked over at Chu Wanning and Mo Ran's

table. Shi Mei stared wordlessly. Xue Meng mumbled, "Is that mutt out of

his mind?"

Mo Ran had more pressing concerns. He'd stolen a glimpse at the

dishes Chu Wanning had picked earlier and it'd left him all twitchy. Chu

Wanning was a picky eater, and particularly fussy about what he would and

wouldn't touch; it was always this thing would upset his stomach, or that

thing tasted gross. Mo Ran couldn't imagine it was healthy; the nutritional

imbalance was bound to become an issue once Chu Wanning got older. In

the past, he couldn't have cared less what Chu Wanning ate. But things

were different now. Aside from the fact that he liked Chu Wanning, Mo Ran

was also his disciple. It was his duty to see that his shizun ate properly.

But getting Chu Wanning to eat was an art in itself. In much the same

way one couldn't shove food into a cat's mouth and expect them to eat it,

brute force wouldn't work on this man if he had an aversion to something.

An idea came to Mo Ran. He plucked up a piece of braised pork, neither too

fat nor too lean, and placed it in Chu Wanning's bowl. "Shizun, try this."

Just as expected, Chu Wanning frowned. "I don't like pork belly," he

said. "Take it away."

Mo Ran had prepared his strategy in advance. He said, smiling, "I

hear it's done sweet, Jiangnan-style."

"The way they cook meat in Jiangnan isn't like this." Chu Wanning

said.

"How would you know if you don't try it?"

"I can tell from looking at it."

"But the cook said it's Jiangnan-style." Mo Ran set the trap, waiting

for the cat to wander in. He said, still smiling, "Mengpo Hall's cook is an

experienced veteran, how can he be wrong? It must be that Shizun's been

away from home for so long you forgot what braised pork from your

hometown looks like."

"Absurd," Chu Wanning countered. "How could I possibly forget?"

Mo Ran ate a piece, making a show of carefully tasting it, then said

earnestly, "I really think it's Shizun who's wrong. This meat is so sweet—

try a piece if you don't believe me."

Chu Wanning was utterly oblivious to Mo Ran's ulterior motive.

Unconvinced, he picked up the braised pork and put it in his mouth.

"What do you think?" Mo Ran held back his laughter as he watched

this big white cat take the bait.

Chu Wanning frowned in earnest consideration. "It's not right. The

taste of star anise is too strong. I'm going to go tell the cook; this isn't how

you make Jiangnan's braised pork."

"Wait, wait—" Mo Ran hurriedly stopped him with a tug, feeling a

little speechless. He hadn't thought this guy would take it so seriously. If

Chu Wanning confronted the cook, wouldn't Mo Ran be exposed? "Don't

be hasty, Shizun; the cook must be busy right now. If Shizun says it's not

right, then it definitely isn't. I'll let him know later. Let's just finish our

meals first."

Thinking this reasonable, Chu Wanning sat back down and returned

to his meal. The crafty Mo Ran moved to the next step of his dastardly plan.

This time, he picked up a piece of fish.

Chu Wanning's chopsticks faltered. "Shad fish?"

"Mn."

"I don't want it. Take it away."

"Why not?"

"Don't like it."

Mo Ran grinned. "Because it has too many bones?"

A long pause, then: "No."

"But whenever Shizun eats fish, it's always the ones without bones,

or ones with larger bones that are easy to pick out. There's no way Shizun

won't eat shad because it's a small fish with lots of bones, right?" Mo Ran

laughed.

He was all too familiar with Chu Wanning's soft spots and knew just

how to poke them. Sure enough, Chu Wanning was fooled again. Irked, he

said, "How ridiculous." Then he picked up the piece of shad Mo Ran had

placed in his bowl and ate it, clearly demonstrating that he certainly could

eat fish with lots of bones.

Just like that, Chu Wanning was unwittingly coaxed by Mo Ran into

eating far more variety than usual, with meat and greens from almost every

dish. What would've been a quick meal dragged on for almost an hour, and

still they weren't done. By the time they returned their dishes and left,

Xue Meng and Shi Mei were long gone, and only a handful of disciples

remained inside Mengpo Hall.

Mo Ran walked Chu Wanning back to the Red Lotus Pavilion. The

sun slowly sank below the horizon as they walked the tree-lined path,

twilight spreading across the skies. The night breeze blew, and Mo Ran

strolled languidly with his hands clasped behind his head. All of a sudden,

he smiled and said, "Shizun."

"What do you want?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to call out to you."

Chu Wanning eyed him. "Are you so stuffed with food that all the

nonsense is coming out of you?"

Mo Ran's smile grew soft, "Yup, totally stuffed. So Shizun, can I keep

eating with you in the future?"

Chu Wanning knew Mo Ran didn't mean anything by it, but his heart

couldn't help but skip a couple beats. Fortunately, his gaze remained steady.

"Why? Are you fighting with Xue Meng?"

"No, no, that's not it," Mo Ran waved the notion aside with a laugh.

"It's just that I haven't eaten in their company for so long. It's been five

whole years. Sitting together again feels a little awkward. But if Shizun

thinks I'll get in the way, I'll find another place to eat by myself tomorrow,

it's fine."

Chu Wanning didn't immediately reply.

Of course, Mo Ran couldn't say, I feel bad for you, always eating

alone, and neither could he say, I want to make sure you eat well. Mo Ran

didn't have to try to know neither approach would work. What he could do

was feign vulnerability, confess how pitifully lonely he was, and say that he

really wanted company. Chu Wanning had ever been kindhearted; he

definitely wouldn't deny him.

Mo Ran could see the resolve crumbling in Chu Wanning's eyes. All

he needed was one last push: "But honestly, I really don't want to eat

alone."

"Why's that?"

Mo Ran lowered his soft lashes. His small smile was half genuine

emotion, half playing it up to get Chu Wanning on the hook. "Shizun,

someone who eats by themselves is simply satisfying hunger, don't you

think?" He paused for a moment, and in the splendid red glow of dusk,

brushed aside the loose strands of hair blown against his forehead by the

breeze. His dimples were deep as he gazed intently at the other man. "When

two people share both food and company, that's when you really taste the

food, feel its warmth. That's called eating a meal."

Chu Wanning watched him silently.

"Shizun, can I still eat with you tomorrow?"

There was no defense against the little wolf-pup when he made an

effort to be sincere. Mo Ran had a stubbornness about him that stirred the

heart as he said: "Shizun, I spent five years all alone out there. Now that

you're awake, I'll always eat with you. It'd feel weird without you. And I

promise I won't eat rabbit heads or duck necks." A puff of laughter escaped

toward the end, and he shamelessly tugged at Chu Wanning's sleeve. "I'll

eat tofu with scallion and sweet osmanthus lotus roots with you. So say yes,

pretty please?"

Mo Ran had actually been doing quite well up to that point. But with

this, he accidentally reminded Chu Wanning of an unsettled score. A

menacing expression settled over his face as he chuckled coldly, "Fine by

me, but you have to eat exactly what I do in the mornings."

"Sure!" Mo Ran agreed before he'd fully processed Chu Wanning's

words. "Wait, what do you eat in the morning?"

"Savory tofu pudding." Chu Wanning replied cruelly. "With

seaweed."

Mo Ran blinked, flabbergasted. Was Chu Wanning seriously bringing

up ancient grudges from the time they had hotpot together when he was Xia

Sini?

Chu Wanning ground out through clenched teeth, "And. Dried.

Shrimp."