Chapter 35: This Venerable One Slips

That Night, Mo Ran stared at the wall, cheek propped up in his hand. On the other side of that wall was Chu Wanning and Xue Meng's room.

Shi Mei was fastidious and had left a change of clothes folded neatly on the bed before going downstairs to ask the attendant to bring up hot water for a bath. The walls of the inn weren't especially soundproof. In the quiet, Mo Ran could faintly hear the sounds coming from the adjacent room.

Chu Wanning seemed to have said something. Mo Ran couldn't hear him clearly, but he heard Xue Meng's voice loud and clear.

"Seems a little tight."

Mo Ran's ears perked up like a dog's, twitching a little.

On the other side of the wall, the little phoenix asked, "Shizun, does it hurt?"

"It's fine. You can keep going."

"I'll be gentle; let me know if it does start to hurt."

"You talk too much. Do it or don't."

Mo Ran's eyes widened in alarm.

Surely there was no way, no how—not between those two. But what kind of exchange was that? What were they doing?

The pup's ears were practically pressed against the wall. There was the faint sound of clothes rustling, and if he strained, he could even hear Chu Wanning's stifled groans.

He had heard Chu Wanning make this kind of sound in bed countless times. That shizun of his didn't like to make any noise at all, no matter whether it felt really good or really painful; he always bit down hard on his lower lip as unshed tears gathered in his eyes. At such times, all Mo Ran had to do was push just a bit harder to rip soft, panting breaths from his throat…

"W-wait." Chu Wanning's voice was low and rough. "Don't…touch me there."

"All right." Xue Meng hesitated, then said in a small voice, "Then…Shizun will do it himself?"

"Mn."

Touch where? What nonsense was this? Don't touch him where? Do what himself? Just what were they doing?!

Mo Ran's face darkened. By the time he realized what he was doing, he was knocking on the door to the neighboring room.

A flurry of hurried noises came from inside.

The pup's expression grew even darker. "Shizun," he called, "what are you—"

The door opened with a creak. Xue Meng stood there, fully dressed, hand still holding a piece of bloodstained gauze. He narrowed his eyes as he glared at Mo Ran in confusion. "What do you want, making such a ruckus so late at night? Did you trip over a ghost or something?"

Mo Ran's mouth opened, then closed stupidly. He glanced past Xue Meng to where Chu Wanning sat by the table, upon which lay medicinal salve and fresh bandages. "What were you guys…"

Xue Meng continued glaring. "Applying medicine, of course. Shizun's shoulder hasn't healed yet. The dressing hadn't been changed for a few days, and some of the wounds got infected again."

"Th-then what was too tight…?" Mo Ran asked dumbly.

"Too tight?" Xue Meng thought for a while, eyebrows drawn together. "Oh, the bandages. They were wrapped too tightly before; blood stuck some bits to the wounds and they almost wouldn't come off." Suddenly, he stopped talking and eyed Mo Ran with suspicion. "Were you eavesdropping?"

Mo Ran rolled his eyes and scrambled to save his sorry face. "Who's eavesdropping? The walls are so thin, you can hear someone breathing even if you only lean against them. Go see for yourself if you don't believe me."

"Oh. Really?" Xue Meng nodded, but then belatedly felt like something was off. "Wait, how do you know that? Were you leaning against the wall to listen?"

Mo Ran couldn't immediately respond.

"Mo Weiyu, you are such a freak!" Xue Meng said angrily.

"Who knows what beastly things you might have been doing to Shizun?!" Mo Ran, replied, just as angrily.

Xue Meng was a pure person who knew nothing of such matters. He had no idea what Mo Ran was implying, so he only got angrier. "What nonsense are you yapping about?!" He turned to complain. "Shizun, he—"

Chu Wanning put on his outer robe, holding it closed with one hand while straightening his hair with the other. He calmly walked over and looked Mo Ran up and down. "Did you need something?"

"I… I heard…" Mo Ran fumbled for the words. "Um, that is, I thought Xue Meng was bullying you…"

"What?" Chu Wanning didn't understand at all. His eyes narrowed. "Who's bullying me?"

Mo Ran wanted to slap himself.

They were in the middle of staring awkwardly at one another when Shi Mei came upstairs.

"A-Ran? What are you doing outside Shizun's room?"

"I…uh…" Mo Ran stammered. "That, um, there was a misunderstanding."

Shi Mei smiled. "Well, has it been resolved?"

"Yeah, yeah," Mo Ran said hurriedly. "Shi Mei, didn't you go ask the attendant for hot water? Shizun probably hasn't bathed yet either; I'll go ask them to bring extra."

"No need." Shi Mei produced four bamboo tablets, still smiling. "The attendant said there's a natural hot spring by the inn, which the innkeeper converted into a bath. These tablets are passes. I got one for everyone."

Mo Ran felt that he, being a cutsleeve,20 probably shouldn't go soak in the hot spring with the other three. Xue Meng was whatever. Shi Mei was, in Mo Ran's eyes, pure and divine, and he dared not even conceive of dirty thoughts about him. But Chu Wanning…

From the handful of incidences of close contact they'd had since Mo Ran's rebirth, he was well aware that if he saw that person in a state of undress, he would probably lose his mind.

Mo Ran covered his face with a hand. "I'll pass."

"You don't bathe before bed? Gross!" Xue Meng said, shocked.

"I'll ask the attendant to send up some hot water," said Mo Ran.

Shi Mei was baffled. "They don't boil bathwater here, since all the guests go to the hot spring."

Left with no other choice, Mo Ran could only grab a change of clothes and go to the hot spring along with everyone else.

The inn was pretty diligent when it came to currying favor. They knew that most people who stayed with them were cultivators headed to Jincheng Lake in hopes of obtaining a weapon. So, they had named the bath "Daybreak's Reflection in Jincheng" to invite luck.

Mo Ran was scared stiff of losing his senses, too afraid to so much as accidentally brush against the others. Instead, he changed in a rush, wrapped the towel tightly around his waist, and ran off by himself to the hot spring to find a secluded spot.

It was already rather late, so there weren't many people in the bath. The ones who were there were scattered a distance away. With a square of white towel on top of his head, Mo Ran sank into the water, leaving only half his face above it, and let out a long breath, listening to the glug-glug sound as he blew bubbles.

The first person to finish changing strode out with long, bare legs. Mo Ran snuck a glance and let out a breath of relief. Thank the gods—it was only Xue Meng.

Xue-gongzi might have been handsome, but no matter how you cut it, he wasn't Taxian-jun's type. Their gazes met, and Xue Meng pointed at him. "You. Stay away from me."

"What gives?"

"You're filthy."

Mo Ran said only, "Har har."

The bath was misty with water vapor. After a while, Xue Meng paused in the middle of scrubbing himself to call out, "Shizun, over here!"

Mo Ran, with his face half-underwater, nearly choked. He knew damn well that he shouldn't look, but his gaze couldn't help but wander.

That single glance nearly killed him. He was so startled that he swallowed two whole mouthfuls of bathwater and didn't even have time to be grossed out. Instead he hurried to sink even deeper into the spring, until only his eyes remained above it.

He totally hadn't expected Chu Wanning and Shi Mei to come out together.

Shi Mei was slender and beautiful in a soft way, with long, ink-black hair draped over his shoulders and wrapped in a towel. By all rights, Mo Ran should've wanted to sneak a look at him more than anything, but his glance darted quickly past him. He sincerely respected Shi Mei like the bright moon above and dared not stare at him in public.

Chu Wanning, on the other hand, was tall and coldly handsome, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist, a toned body and supple skin. He had his hair up in a high ponytail and wore a large white bathrobe that covered his whole body except for the front, where the robe couldn't quite be pulled close and revealed an expanse of smooth, firm chest.

As Mo Ran stared at him, he felt like he was going to suffocate and boil in the water. He wanted to look away, but his traitorous eyes refused to listen and fixed themselves on Chu Wanning without moving even the slightest bit. His ears slowly turned red.

Through the heavy steam, Chu Wanning seemed to have glanced at him, or perhaps not. He cast a waterproofing barrier over his bandages and stepped into the water. His legs were visible amidst the floating robe, long and slender, balanced with tight contours.

Mo Ran really couldn't take any more. He closed his eyes to sink all the way into the water. Even though he was covered by a towel wrapped around his waist, his reaction was all too clear…

Mo Ran felt extremely wronged. He honestly didn't like Chu Wanning—he in fact hated Chu Wanning. But his body remembered their fervent lovemaking, those frenzied entanglements that had turned even bones of steel tender. All of the absurd things they had shared made his face redden and his heart race.

The jut of Mo Ran's throat bobbed as a celestial war raged within him. He felt like he was about to cry. For the first time in his life, he loathed himself—why was he like this? Shi Mei was right there. What the fuck was he doing, losing his damn mind over Chu Wanning?

Even if they had once pressed themselves together, skin to skin, as they intertwined in their previous life—all of that was in the past. Even if he was hung up on Chu Wanning's body, how could he do this to Shi Mei? This was utterly disrespectful to him. He deserved better.

Mo Ran lowered his head and focused on dispelling these wicked thoughts for quite a while before finally managing to suppress the fire in his abdomen. He burst out of the water and shook off the droplets, wiped his face with a towel, and opened his watery eyes.

And came face-to-face with Chu Wanning.

Even worse, the water he had just shaken off splashed right onto Chu Wanning's face. He watched as a droplet leisurely made its way down into Chu Wanning's sharp black eyebrow, and then slowly slid lower, nearly slipping into that beautiful phoenix eye.

An awkward silence bloomed between them.

This was the actual worst. Mo Ran hadn't been able to see his surroundings when he was submerged underwater and holding his breath.

Chu Wanning also hadn't realized Mo Ran was under the water at that location. He had just been minding his own business, moving to fetch the box of fragrance bars. He didn't even reach the box before he was splashed with a face full of water.

The hot spring was quite deep, the water exceptionally buoyant. Mo Ran, head swimming, tried to back away, but instead, he ended up slipping and falling right into Chu Wanning's arms instead.

"Ah!"