UCTOOT CH126

The smile on Shi Shu’s face froze. “Cook for me?”

“What of it?”

Following behind him, Shi Shu asked, “What day is today? Could I have forgotten? Don’t tell me yet, let me think!”

Xie Wuchi: “Take your time thinking.”

Hearing him say that only cranked up Shi Shu’s anxiety. He racked his brain while stealing glances at Xie Wuchi. He was doomed. For Xie Wuchi to take time off on a workday specifically to cook and keep him company, it had to be a special date or anniversary. If he forgot, what would this pampered young master think?

Trailing behind Xie Wuchi, Shi Shu stammered, “Well… uh…”

An attendant brought the carriage forward. Helping him aboard, Xie Wuchi asked, “Did you forget?”

Sweating bullets, Shi Shu’s mind raced frantically, though his face remained a picture of breezy nonchalance. “No way, hahaha, how could I forget? By the way, on my way back today, I saw people venerating your spirit tablet and erecting shrines. They said it’s super popular in the Eastern Capital. Isn’t that creepy?”

Xie Wuchi glanced at him. “The divine right of kings, the cycle of the Five Virtues rising and waning, endless and cyclical; wherever heaven’s mandate rests, a new dynasty is born. That they view me as a deity or Buddha is a good thing; it signifies the will of the people.”

Shi Shu: “So that’s how it is. So simple and sincere, treating you like a god who can deliver them from suffering.”

Having successfully deflected, Shi Shu resumed agonizing in silence: Stupid brain, think faster!

Shi Shu never managed to figure it out, yet Xie Wuchi did not press him either. Riding together in the carriage, they rolled along the broad avenue in the autumn wind. Still, since Xie Wuchi kept silent, Shi Shu began to wonder if he was overthinking things, and today was just an ordinary day after all.

Once their relationship settled into stability, both had their own duties to manage. Shi Shu worked at the agricultural colonies, while Xie Wuchi was consumed with governing four major prefectures. In comparison, Xie Wuchi was far busier. In the startup phase of empire-building, he rose early and retired late, departing at dawn and returning beneath the stars, braving the biting wind and frost.

To Shi Shu, it felt like being a set of parents: stepping out for work every morning, coming home to live life together.

A steady relationship. Living life.

Shi Shu paused to reflect: what an old-fashioned way to put it.

Was this what a mature, settled relationship felt like? Sleeping with Xie Wuchi every night, cuddling, kissing, and touching. Xie Wuchi especially loved kissing him, lingering in long kisses almost every time they were together before falling asleep.

Shi Shu felt a calm, abundant warmth. Having spent so long in this ancient world, such peace and security were exceptionally rare. At the thought of spending a lifetime with Xie Wuchi like this, Shi Shu would laugh himself awake from dreams in the middle of the night.

After a three-year marathon of romance, parting and reuniting, wasn’t it finally time to enjoy the fruits?

Outwardly stoic, Xie Wuchi turned completely uninhibited at night, warming the bed for him every evening with his firm, scorching frame. Shi Shu could touch his abs or anywhere else he pleased.

Xie Wuchi craved intimacy. Letting Shi Shu caress, hug, and kiss him at night was like recharging his batteries. Especially during lovemaking, his rather eccentric cravings could all be indulged.

Truthfully, Shi Shu never considered him abnormal, because people were inherently different.

Occasionally, Shi Shu would pull up the system interface, noting that the tally of surviving transmigrators continued to dwindle.

Inside the carriage, Xie Wuchi wanted to kiss him again, lowering his eyelids. Shi Shu looked up, meeting his gaze with clear eyes.

Xie Wuchi: “Open your mouth.”

Whenever his desires flared up, Xie Wuchi’s inhibitions toward intimate acts virtually vanished, bordering on mild exhibitionism. Shi Shu, however, possessed none of that; he stayed alert like a watchful cat, scouting their surroundings to protect them both.

Having confirmed the perimeter, Shi Shu leaned in. Xie Wuchi’s kiss descended, charged with raw desire, his hand cupping his face. The veins along his neck shifted as he swallowed, licking his mouth until it was warm and pliant.

Resting his hand on Xie’s shoulder, Shi Shu accepted the deep kiss, which gradually turned into a mutual caress of tongues.

A faint, wet sound stirred between them, drowned out by the clattering wheels of the carriage, audible only to the two of them.

That magnetic, raspy pant, thick with raw craving, made Shi Shu think every time that Xie Wuchi was an incubus reincarnated.

Kissing him in the carriage, Shi Shu kept half an ear on outside movements. Xie Wuchi paid no heed, merely tasting his lips and stroking his jaw.

After kissing for a long while, Xie Wuchi released him, a thread of moisture catching at the corner of their lips, his dark pupils staring intently at Shi Shu. Feeling a flicker of embarrassment, Shi Shu took the initiative to interlock their fingers, shifting closer into his chest to let him nibble his earlobe.

The moment they returned to the manor, after instructing the cooks to deliver fresh ingredients, the two headed straight to the bedroom.

Shi Shu’s robes slipped past his shoulders down to his wrists, baring his fair chest and shoulders. Sitting on the bed, his fingers tangled tightly into dark hair, gripping and releasing: “Xie…”

His leg was caught and lifted by a hand, his foot resting against the sandalwood bedframe. Slender, calloused fingers contrasted sharply against fair skin as he was eased back into the bedding, met with the slick, fervent sound of intimate adoration.

Shi Shu could hardly bear the overwhelming sensation, clutching at his hair, yet Xie Wuchi’s strength was immovable. Trembling all over, Shi Shu wanted to kick him away, yet couldn’t bring himself to do it.

“Let go of me… I don’t like this…”

Instead of releasing him, Xie Wuchi lifted his other leg as well, pressing kisses deep and relentless.

Clenching his fists, Shi Shu’s voice rasped in a muffled whimper: “Let me go… I hate you…”

Though it was not the first time, previously having to endure being overwhelmed on both ends had made it almost too intense to enjoy.

Through the latticed window draped in sheer gauze, Shi Shu’s arched spine finally relaxed, slumping into the quilts to wipe the damp corners of his eyes, only to be lifted up once more. Xie Wuchi loosened his formal robes with embroidered flowing patterns, setting his jade pendant aside, pulling Shi Shu down across his lap.

Dressed upright and stoic from the waist up, their bodies pressed flush below. Letting out a husky pant, the youth’s slender waist moved in friction against him.

Shi Shu was filled to capacity, feeling Xie Wuchi’s scorching presence envelop him. After an unknown stretch of tender, lingering passion, punctuated by several deeper drives, he was held tight as everything concluded.

Exhausted by him, Shi Shu dozed off for a while. By the time he woke, footsteps stirred in the courtyard. Attendants delivered fresh fish, duck, broth herbs, and vegetables into the yard, bowing and retreating once everything was in place.

“Aiya!” Scrambling up with enthusiastic haste before his robes were even properly fastened, Shi Shu ran into the yard. Clad in simple robes, Xie Wuchi stood in the kitchen beside the side room, preparing to cook.

“You’re cooking right now?”

As Shi Shu approached, Xie Wuchi reached out to smooth his lapels. “Sit here and rest.”

Right beneath the dense shade of a Shantung maple tree, Shi Shu waved his hands: “No, no, no, let me make this meal! I’ve been wanting to practice my culinary skills.”

Xie Wuchi: “Oh?”

Shi Shu eagerly took over the fish, duck, and cleaned pigeon delivered to the courtyard. He seared the fish in hot oil until golden and crisp, seasoned a sauce with vinegar, chili, sugar, and oil, then simmered the fish with coriander in the broth. Next, he chopped the duck to braise it in soy sauce, and tossed ginseng and red dates into the pigeon soup before covering the pots.

Xie Wuchi said little, dutifully seated beneath the maple tree as Shi Shu instructed, tasting each dish the moment it came off the stove.

Xie Wuchi: “Keep practicing.”

Shi Shu: “Damn it, still no good? I’ll practice more.”

Before long, the table was laden with dishes deficient in appearance, aroma, and flavor alike. Clutching his bowl, Shi Shu sat down and picked up a morsel of fish: “Pah, pah, pah! What on earth is this? Did someone poison it?”

Xie Wuchi remained thoroughly calm. “There will come a day when I get to eat a delicious meal made by you.”

Shi Shu made do, and Xie Wuchi ate with accustomed ease. The rice was overly gummy, far from distinct, tender grains. Laughing as he ate, Shi Shu asked, “By the way, what day is today really? I honestly forgot. Tell me.”

Xie Wuchi: “Is it not Mother’s birthday?”

“Huh?”

The tough piece of duck dropped into the bowl with a sharp clunk. Shi Shu leaped to his feet: “How do you know my mom’s birthday?! I never told a single soul!”

Xie Wuchi: “Two years ago, along the road of exile from the Eastern Capital to Taiyin Prefecture, you tended to me night and day without loosening your belt. Every evening upon reaching a post station, you rushed in first to secure rations or cook in the kitchen so we wouldn’t go hungry.”

Gripping his chopsticks, Shi Shu slowly recalled the past.

“That night our luck was decent. There was congee and rice left in the station’s pots, which you bought and shared with me. While I sat in meditation, you quietly slipped into the kitchen to buy a bowl of egg noodles, hiding from me, and cried while you ate.”

“Enough, enough, enough!” Like a cat whose tail was stepped on, Shi Shu flailed, “Stop, stop, stop! Don’t say another word! How did you even know I cried?!”

Xie Wuchi: “From the very beginning, I was always watching you.”

Shi Shu: “You…”

Memories flooded back into Shi Shu’s mind. Truth be told, the road of exile had been brutally harsh. Though Shi Shu tended to remember only the good and forget the bad, the crushing weight had taken its toll at times. Especially on Ms. Bo Mo’s birthday, wondering what his parents were going through back in their world. Fearing he would sound overly sentimental if he told Xie Wuchi, since exposing emotional vulnerability felt embarrassing, Shi Shu had bought a bowl of noodles to eat by himself.

Tears had dropped into the broth, making the soup saltier and saltier.

Terrified someone might notice he had wept and find it mortifying, luckily it was cold outside; he had stood in the chilly wind for a long time until night fell before stepping inside. Xie Wuchi had been lying in bed asleep.

He had assumed Xie Wuchi never noticed, remembering only that the moment he climbed into bed, Xie Wuchi had pulled him into an embrace. Scorching body heat warmed his chilled frame before leaning in to kiss him.

A deep kiss that led Shi Shu to hold him in return. Romantic love had not yet bloomed with clarity, yet in that pitch-black room, he had indulged in an ambiguous, breathless kiss with another man, parting only to cling closer. Perhaps the dark had veiled and blurred the crossing of boundaries.

Shi Shu remembered: “Back then, you kissed my eyes. You…”

“At that time, I…”

Thinking it over, Shi Shu murmured, “My parents…”

A swirl of complex emotions settled into a bright, clear smile: “My parents probably never imagined I would grow like this here. If they knew, they’d definitely be happy for me.”

Leaning his head against Xie Wuchi’s shoulder, Shi Shu said, “I need to live well too, so they don’t have to worry.”

Though the dishes in their bowls tasted terrible, they finished most of them anyway, leaving the rest for Laifu. Laifu hesitated for a moment before digging in. A breeze swept through the courtyard, scattering leaves across the flagstones and onto the hems of their robes beside the stone bench.

Tonight it snowed, snowflakes drifting softly, glowing against the dark crimson sky.