Night Ritual

Night Ritual

Chapter Six

Smut Warning

Fluff and a light sensual scene.

Read at your own discretion.

Xie Lian watched as the last villagers to visit Puqi Shrine left for the night. Today, there was a decent number of offerings, enough to go shopping the following week. Of course, if he wanted him to, Hua Cheng would pay, but Xie Lian knew he could get along fine this way without being a bother to the ghost king.

Speaking of Hua Cheng, Xie Lian turned to look at him, smiling softly as his lover calmly swept up fallen leaves near the shrine entrance. Hua Cheng hadn't returned to him for long—it had only been a couple of weeks since they had run into each other's arms, but every day Xie Lian was reminded of just how hard he had fallen for that man.

In any one of Hua Cheng's forms, even when he was doing something as simple as sweeping, Xie Lian noticed the slight sway of his strong arms back and forth, that long-forgotten Xianle hymn from Xie Lian's golden days as a god whispered under his breath, the subtle breeze blowing air through that cute, lopsided ponytail...those bright eyes rising to meet his...

When he had caught his gaze, Hua Cheng set the broom down and approached him at a leisurely pace, placing his hands on Xie Lian's hips once he was of distance. Xie Lian's face warmed when Hua Cheng touched their foreheads together.

"Will gege be making dinner tonight?" he hummed. His voice will always be velvet to Xie Lian's ears.

"En. If San Lang requests."

Hua Cheng flashed his brilliant smile. "Thank you, gege!" Hua Cheng kissed his nose and led him inside the shrine.

"What does San Lang want to eat?" Xie Lian asked as he separated himself from Hua Cheng to rummage through the kitchen for anything partially edible.

Hua Cheng propped his head on his hands with his elbows on the only small table Xie Lian owned as he admired his lover. "I'd love anything gege makes."

The same answer as always.

Xie Lian averted his gaze bashfully before attempting to cook without getting too distracted by Hua Cheng's shameless gaze. He got distracted...very distracted...several times... Xie Lian was hyper-aware of Hua Cheng seemingly stripping him bare to his soul with his eyes; he dropped ingredients, accidentally heaped spices in abundance into the pot, and was a red mess the whole time he was trying to cook.

He could hardly bear to look at the result. The 'meal' being palatable was entirely out of the question. Even knowing that Hua Cheng would eat a plate of dirt if he asked, Xie Lian was still hesitant to serve him such a thing.

While Xie Lian was ruminating about their dinner, Hua Cheng got up and placed his head on his shoulder from behind. "Looks good, gege."

It did not.

Whatever composite was in the pot had taken on a pale green color and fizzed curious bubbles around the pot's rim. And like oil and vinegar, anything that Xie Lian tried to add at this point only bobbed at the surface of the soup(?) as if it, too, were afraid to see what was beneath the oddly pigmented, swirling, murky clouds.

"Does gege have a name for this dish?"

Does such a thing even deserve a name...? This has to be one of the worst things Xie Lian has ever concocted.

"Ah... I... I'm not so sure..." Xie Lian averted his eyes and scratched at his cheek as if Hua Cheng would forget about it if he pretended he was mulling over names long enough.

As if he were completely unable to see and smell what was before him, Hua Cheng served himself a generous portion. Xie Lian joined him with a small bowl at the table and was reassured of his cooking ability when Hua Cheng practically licked his bowl clean. He even swallowed all of the spice flakes that had collected at the bottom of the bowl like sediment in an ocean.

And when Xie Lian finally tasted the food, he felt a light tug of warmth in his heart. Not because his cooking had improved—it most certainly hadn't—but because it was awful. It was awful, and Hua Cheng still stuffed his face like he was tasting a delicacy, even going as far as to give thoughtful praises and helpful tips to improve the dish.

How did Xie Lian become so blessed?

"Gege's I'm Not So Sure is delicious," Hua Cheng said, standing to get another bowl full of soup.

That wasn't supposed to be a name... Xie Lian thought.

Nevertheless, he smiled. "I'm glad San Lang enjoys it."

"How could I not enjoy anything gege makes?" Hua Cheng sat back down with another helping of the newly dubbed I'm Not So Sure, and they prattled over their dinner until they had both finished.

Hua Cheng offered to wash their dishes after their meal. Xie Lian wanted to do something to clean up the shrine too, but he soon found that Hua Cheng had already taken care of everything like the perfect lover he is. Giving up on trying to outshine Hua Cheng in chores, Xie Lian stepped into their dim bedroom (which was now separate from the rest of the shrine after the villagers' renovations). But the door unexpectedly shut after him, and a dark figure approached him from behind. "Is gege getting ready for bed already?"

This was Hua Cheng. Not his San Lang, but his Hua Cheng.

That charming youth who ate Xie Lian's horrid meals with a smile on his face was gone with the snuffed-out light as the door shut behind him, leaving him with Hua Cheng.

"I thought San Lang was doing the dishes." Xie Lian felt a chill and a wave of heat wash over him simultaneously as Hua Cheng wrapped his arms around his waist.

"Nothing takes priority over gege." Hua Cheng tugged at Xie Lian's belt. "Do you need help undressing?" Xie Lian's face flushed. He could tell that Hua Cheng was being dirty, but the comment was so perfunctory that Xie Lian couldn't tell exactly why what he was saying was dirty.

"I...can do it myself..." he muttered but made no move to indicate his intention to remove his outer robe as he said he would. Still, Hua Cheng nearly walked away. The only reason he hadn't was Xie Lian's placed hands over his own to keep him there. "...But San Lang may do as he wishes..." he added.

Just because he knew Hua Cheng's intentions didn't mean he wanted him to stop. He'd spent his whole life celibate, but that didn't mean he was necessarily opposed to having that type of relationship with Hua Cheng. If anything, Hua Cheng would be the only person he ever wanted to have that kind of relationship with, so he was fully amenable. Occasionally, he would hint at things Xie Lian didn't understand, which would confuse him, but that was the extent of his discontent.

Hua Cheng pulled Xie Lian's belt off, and his outer robes loosened down to his shoulders. Xie Lian shivered at those cold lips delicately pressed to his pale skin. But with every kiss, he added more passion. Hua Cheng ran his tongue over Xie Lian's neck and sometimes roughly sucked on his skin, making slight marks on his once-smooth skin. Xie Lian sighed at the sensation, feeling his body grow hot.

But just before he let out an involuntary groan from his throat, Hua Cheng slipped his robe off and cut his actions short. As if nothing had happened, he folded the robe and placed it away for Xie Lian to put on in the morning. And still, he had the nerve to turn back to Xie Lian and peck his cheek without even the slightest trace of the intensity he had previously experienced.

Xie Lian sighed (for an entirely different reason this time). This had become his norm. Every night, Hua Cheng would do something like this, then abruptly pull back just when it started to feel really good. Xie Lian couldn't even say what exactly he felt toward Hua Cheng's actions, but he knew that the sudden break-off irked him.

That being said, the sexually frustrated god could no longer take the forestalling and shoved Hua Cheng to the closest wall with his hands on either side of him and used the sternest tone he could muster. "San Lang—" Xie Lian's voice was cut off by the concerning rasp of wood heard from behind Hua Cheng.

With the strength of a martial god used to forcefully press the taller man against its walls, the structure shuddered. For a moment, Xie Lian almost feared the building would collapse again. But thankfully, the quaking eventually subsided, and Xie Lian silently expressed his gratitude to the villagers and Quan‌ ‌Yi‌zhen‌ for the renovations.

As his eyes adjusted to the pitch-black room, Xie Lian could make out Hua Cheng's wide eyes as he breathed a soft, "your highness...?"

Xie Lian took a breath and steeled himself for whatever reaction he might receive from Hua Cheng. "My San Lang is very good to me, but he also teases me very much. And I'm thinking that he might be expecting me to know something I don't...or expecting me to do something...but I'm not sure what he wants..." Xie Lian continued, growing less confident with every word. "And...I...— Like I said, San Lang is very good to me, so I want to do what I can for him...if—if he'd tell me what to do..."

By the time Xie Lian finished his speech, he'd grown incredibly self-aware of his impetuous actions and their current position. Xie Lian wasn't nearly as tall as Hua Cheng, so his face only reached up to the base of his neck, giving him a view of both the sharp rise and fall of his lover's chest and his flaming red complexion.

When they were in Puqi Village, Hua Cheng preferred to use his 'San Lang' skin. And while everyone knew he was a ghost king, he still went along with the ruse and mimicked the functions of a living human.

As a ghost king, controlling such functions directly would be facile, but constantly doing it manually can be bothersome, so he leaves them in an autonomous-like mode, which tends to regulate itself more on his emotions and his genuine reaction. And at this time, Hua Cheng had forgotten that he'd been doing just that when he was plowed into a wall by the most attractive person to ever exist in his eyes, so his face was brighter than his robes and his breathing became utterly spasmodic.

Seeing his lover completely flabbergasted, Xie Lian's face set ablaze as if he'd just realized his previous actions, and he lamely retracted his arms from either side of Hua Cheng. "S—sorry, I...— Umm, just ignore that..."

But before Xie Lian could drag himself away and welter in the dirt out of shame, Hua Cheng regained his composure, grabbed one of his hands, and laced their fingers together. "Your words are too important to ignore. I'd never expect anything from you, gege, but I do want to know if you like when I touch you certain places."

"You...want what...?"

Xie Lian's confusion was washed away in a fit of giggles when Hua Cheng brought their hands up together and kissed Xie Lian's. "Like here?"

Of course, he likes when Hua Cheng holds and kisses his hand as if he were the most precious thing in the world. Who wouldn't?

"En."

"What about here?" Hua Cheng tenderly pressed his lips to Xie Lian's for a quick kiss, their lips lingering on each other.

"En." Xie Lian's lips curved upwards on Hua Cheng's.

"Here?" Hua Cheng began kissing down his neck again, and, almost like an instinct, Xie Lian tilted his head back to offer better access. That heated feeling from before lingered in him, and a jolt of pleasure shot straight to his member.

"Mnh... I...do..." Xie Lian sighed.

"And here?" Xie Lian gasped and looked down dumbly at Hua Cheng's knee in his hardening crotch. "Won't gege tell me if he likes this?"

"San Lang!" Xie Lian felt a hand grope his ass, and he burrowed his burning face in his lover's robes and pulled himself against the man. But when his groin slid across Hua Cheng's leg, he couldn't keep his feverish body from reacting, and a soft moan escaped his throat.

As if testing the waters, Hua Cheng drew Xie Lian even closer, and that slight friction was enough to stimulate another moan from the latter. "So you like it?"

Xie Lian shamefully nodded.

Hua Cheng let out a low chuckle, practically melting the god in his arms. "Well, that's good because I like being touched there too." Without another word, Hua Cheng let go of the other's hand and slipped both of his own hands to Xie Lian's thighs as he hoised him up and held him to the wall with himself between Xie Lian's legs. With nowhere else to put his hands, Xie Lian wrapped his arms around Hua Cheng's neck almost unthinkingly.

At the level at which Hua Cheng kept Xie Lian, though, their lower bodies were level, and they were face-to-face, flush against each other's bodies. He could feel the heat from Hua Cheng's hardness on his own through their clothes and see his lover's smirk. Xie Lian simply couldn't help the drawled-out groan that escaped him.

Xie Lian's face heated impossibly so. Directly facing Hua Cheng while making these noises almost proved to be too much for him. But before he could rationalize the situation and whatever Hua Cheng was about to do, that wily and oh-so-sexy ghost rolled his hips and began grinding his bulge against Xie Lian's. This time, they both moaned, and Xie Lian felt slightly less embarrassed about it. Only slightly, though.

Xie Lian leaned forward and urgently kissed Hua Cheng. They kissed like how Hua Cheng would kiss him after dark to tease him, building up the desire that led to this very moment. Immediately, their tongues met and swirled around each other as they sucked each other's mouths in rapacity. Disregarding how embarrassing the act is in itself, the fervid making out stifled Xie Lian's moans and kept him distracted from thinking about their position.

Hua Cheng's earlier erratic breathing almost seemed calm compared to the large gulps of air he took in now between their passionate making out, but Xie Lian's own breathing wasn't much better. Every time Xie Lian felt Hua Cheng buck his hips up against his own, a wave of ecstasy engulfed him, swamping him in gratification he never knew.

Xie Lian couldn't tell why he felt this way or why Hua Cheng was the only person who could make him feel it, but he loved it. He couldn't even tell what it was, but he didn't want it to stop. He wanted to be this way with Hua Cheng until neither of them could stand it (or stand at all) anymore.

However, that time seemed to come much faster than Xie Lian would've liked. He threw his head back, breaking the kiss, and tried to seal his lips as he was nearly overcome by pleasure. So much so that his arms slipped from Hua Cheng's neck to the solid muscle of his shoulders.

Xie Lian's entire body was hot, and he felt like he was about to burst by the time he tried to warn Hua Cheng. "Sa—San...Lang...—" He found himself unable to continue when Hua Cheng's abandoned lips began sucking at his neck. Not that the following words would have been coherent anyway, considering he could hardly manage his own lover's name through the desperate moans elicited from his throat.

Opting to be silently overwhelmed by the motions against his lower body, Xie Lian bit his red and partly numb lip in another attempt to suppress the sounds scratching at his throat, but it wasn't long before he felt Hua Cheng's mouth creeping up to his ear. "Let it out, gege."

Xie Lian couldn't tell whether he was talking about his moans or that peculiar pool of heat in his gut. He couldn't bear to listen to anything but Hua Cheng's rough grunts softly muted against his skin, and as for that odd feeling in his stomach, he simply didn't want to let it go. Even looking past the inexplicable fear he held, not knowing what it was or what would happen when he stopped restraining it, it was also so exhilarating that he wanted to keep it.

But as much as he wanted to hold it within himself, he couldn't keep his body from tensing up with a euphoria previously unknown to him. He felt himself overflowing, and an unfamiliar watery sensation erupted from his member. With that sensation came a cry ripping itself from his throat, which he buried in Hua Cheng's shoulder.

Xie Lian clung to Hua Cheng like he was the last purchase in the world as he trembled through his first orgasm. And when his body slacked, he'd just realized how hard he'd been gripping Hua Cheng the whole time. There was no way it wouldn't bruise. Not that he couldn't heal himself; Xie Lian only felt guilty.

Hua Cheng pulled his face from Xie Lian's neck and prompted the god to look up with a string of kisses from his temple to his cheek. Through the haze of elation, Xie Lian felt the touch of his lover's lips and wanted to see him. He picked his head up and met with the sight of Hua Cheng's gorgeous face, beautifully contorted by the same overwhelming ecstasy he'd just felt.

They both stared into each other's faces, admiring the other's striking pulchritude accentuated by the passionate moment.

Hua Cheng's face was tinted a warm red around his cheeks, and his eyes were a deep rufous. But what reflected in them was Xie Lian's prurient gaze, eagerly flitting around Hua Cheng's face, frequently stopping on his swollen lips and the splendid crimson pearls staring right back at him. With his lips slightly parted and his doe-eyes uncharacteristically half-lidded and dark, Xie Lian was driving Hua Cheng up the wall (even though their physical positions evinced the opposite).

"Fuck, I love it when you look at me like that," Hua Cheng cursed as he got closer to his climax, "gege, I'm going to cum." Finally able to tease his lover back after all this time, Xie Lian tantalizingly licked his lips and drew Hua Cheng's face closer to him by the other's neck, all while maintaining intimate eye contact. Much to Xie Lian's delight, Hua Cheng finished with a loud, erotic groan, and the two looked deeply into each other's eyes while panting.

After some time, they caught their breath, and Hua Cheng finally asked, "is his highness tired?"

As if the ghost king's words had a soporific effect, Xie Lian answered quietly, "en." He wrapped his enervated arms around his lover's neck and leaned his face into the other man. Hua Cheng carried him over to the mat on the floor, and Xie Lian fell torpid as soon as he lay down.

It's no wonder Guoshi wanted him to practice abstinence. Being around Hua Cheng alone is already enough to pluck his heartstrings—even with his apathy towards all things venereal, Xie Lian was so readily debauched by him that he could easily see himself getting addicted to sex...

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