The Moon is Beautiful Tonight...

Gu Feidi held the unconscious Su Yang in his arms. He panicked when he saw blood oozing from the older man’s mouth and nose.

Fortunately, the Beast Man was frightened by the Serpent Woman’s similar state and immediately stopped his attack and held his wife back.

Seeing that there was someone each of them wanted to protect, the elder man retreated along the mountain road without saying a word.

The arms around Su Yang became tighter, as Gu Feidi raised his bloodshot eyes and gave a deep look at the two seniors. Then, he picked Su Yang up and used his light movement skill to take off into the dense mist.

Steep cliffs and large boulders surrounded the mountain road. He managed to find a stone crevice that could be used as a shelter from the wind and other potential attackers.

Su Yang’s cold sickness was more severe with his body in such terrible shape. Seeing that there was no end to the blood oozing out, Gu Feidi’s eyes turned red. He used his internal energy to explore Su Yang’s meridians, but the cold shoved him out. As a last resort, he could only use his internal energy outside the meridians, trying to stabilise Su Yang’s dropping body temperature.

Because of the prior fight, he didn’t have much internal energy left, but he had time for meditation to recuperate it. He had to burn up his remaining reserve for Su Yang, to keep the sleeping man warm.

It was not until he squeezed out his last bit of internal energy did Su Yang’s temperature finally stabilise.  

Ignoring his aching meridians, he held the ice-cold man in his arms, whose breathing and pulse were at least stable.

Keeping the sleeping man in his arms, he shuffled through their luggage with one hand and pulled out all the clothes inside. Wrapping the fabrics around them, he planned to use his own temperature to warm up Su Yang.

The bloodstains on the corner of Su Yang’s lips were dried and frozen, and couldn’t be wiped clean. Gu Feidi lowered his head and landed a gentle kiss on Su Yang’s lips. Using the tip of his tongue, he slowly and tenderly licked away all the crimson.

He reached out to hold Su Yang’s face, put his cheek on the cold forehead, and slowly closed his eyes.

“Su Yang, please…get better soon.” Gu Feidi muttered in Su Yang’s ear.

The state of affairs on the mountain changed as the snow started to fall again.

Without internal energy running through his body, Gu Feidi also felt winter’s chill. He hugged Su Yang tightly and kept his eyes shut. He meditated and adjusted his breathing to regain his internal energy, and any internal energy he regained, he would pass it straight to Su Yang. When the sleeping man’s physical signs were stable, he continued to further warm them up.

This cycle lasted until the wind and snow stopped, and it was already dark outside the crevice.

The Apparition lake inside Su Yang’s body finally calmed down. His body temperature began to rise and gradually returned to normal, but he was still asleep. No matter how much Gu Feidi called, the other man didn’t wake up.

The unknown cause of Su Yang’s lethargy was worrying. Gu Feidi didn’t dare to sleep, so he kept the man in his arms for the whole night, until dawn.

When Su Yang finally opened his eyes, he saw the layers of clothes piled up around him had a thin layer of snow. Because of the single robe that separated them, he could feel Gu Feidi’s hot chest behind him and a pair of warm arms around him.

He moved his stiff arms, and the snow gathered on them fell to the ground.

Gu Feidi suddenly opened his eyes and asked in a hoarse voice, “You woke up!”

It was early in the morning, and the fog in the mountains was concentrated on the hillside. The faint golden morning sun from the east poured in from the crevice of the stone. It reflected on the thin layer of snowflakes in Gu Feidi’s hair.

Dazed by the view, Su Yang wanted to speak, but he coughed from the aching pain in his throat. When he finally coughed up the pain in his chest, he wiped his lips and found his hand was covered in bright red.

Gu Feidi’s eyes were red, and he looked as if he was about to cry.

Su Yang flattened his lips and quickly licked his lower lip. Trying to cheer the other up with a smile. “This is nothing. Didn’t you vomit blood every day from the Blood Gu? Once we get rid of the Poisonous Gu, I’ll be fine like you. So please don’t worry.”

Then he stood up from Gu Feidi’s arms and picked up the robe covered in snow to wipe the blood from his hands.

When he raised his head again, Gu Feidi’s expression had returned to calm as he was using his internal energy to warm up dry food for Su Yang.

They stayed in the stone's crevice and ate the heated food, then they packed their bags and continued up the mountain hand in hand.

With a tacit understanding this time, neither of them used their internal energy. They relied only on their feet to journey slowly up the mountain road.

After a very steep plank road, they finally reached the hilltop of the mountain, which was permanently covered by snow. The terrain here was slightly calmer, but there was already a thick layer of snow on the stone steps, making it slippery and difficult to walk, so they had to use their light movement skill up the mountain.

Soon, Su Yang felt the chill again.

This round, he didn’t have the willpower to continue, so he squeezed Gu Feidi’s hand and asked in a low voice, “Can you carry me?”

Naturally, this was a request that Gu Feidi would never refuse.

Going with the piggyback ride, Su Yang hugged Gu Feidi’s neck and placed his cheek next to the young man’s ear. He said with a genuine smile, “I seem to have dreamed about this before.”

Gu Feidi asked, “Is that right?”

Su Yang nodded and recalled, “Yes, really. It was when…when I just completed my training in the House of Jade and was on my way back to the Evil Sect. I dreamed of someone carrying me to the snow mountain. It was freezing, but the person’s back was very warm, then…”

He suddenly stopped in the middle of his story. He thought of what happened after he woke up that morning. His ears were burning and he could clearly hear his racing heartbeats.

At that time, he didn’t realise that Gu Feidi was the fuzzy faced guy in his dream. Now clinging to Gu Feidi’s back, he had a sudden realisation—so the person in his dream was Gu Feidi. He had been dreaming of Gu Feidi for a long time.

It turned out that as early as that time, there were already traces of Gu Feidi imprinted deep in Su Yang’s subconscious.

After a long silence and without hearing the second half of the sentence, Gu Feidi questioned, “Then? What happened?”

Instead of answering, Su Yang sucked on his lip and asked, “How about you? Have you ever dreamt of me?”

Gu Feidi chuckled and replied, “Of course.”

Su Yang inquired, “Yes of course or of course not?”

Gu Feidi mumbled, “Yes of course…many times in fact.”

Su Yang continued to poke, “When was your first time dreaming of me?”

“Er…” Gu Feidi hesitated.

“Come on!” Su Yang patted lightly on the other’s shoulder.

“My first time…was at the House of Jade.” Gu Feidi confessed. “The night you were taken back to the Lively Spring Garden from the Hidden Pearl Pavilion.”

Su Yang was surprised. “That’s very specific. You remember it that clearly?”

Gu Feidi smiled tenderly. “Yes. Very deep impression.”

Su Yang pursued further. “Do you remember what you dreamed of?”

Gu Feidi turned his head to glance at Su Yang.

The two were inches from each other. When their eyes met, both could feel the hot breath coming out from the other person, making the surrounding atmosphere slightly warm, even with the snow and ice surrounding them.

Su Yang gave Gu Feidi a very natural peck on the lips and asked again, beaming, “What did you dream of?”

Gu Feidi’s throat trembled slightly. He turned back, and a smile appeared on his face, but he didn’t answer.

Unwilling to give up, Su Yang pleaded, “Please. Can you please tell me…?”

Gu Feidi questioned, “Do you really want to know?”

Su Yang replied without a second thought, “Of course I want to know!”

Shaking his head, Gu Feidi laughed from the other’s cute display. After a long hesitation, he finally revealed in a low voice, “After that dream, I realised for the first time that my feelings for you…might not be as simple as friendship.”

He turned back to look Su Yang in the eyes and said with an affectionate smile, “...Do you understand now?”

Of course, Su Yang understood.

He just didn’t expect Gu Feidi to like him that long ago.

Looking back at their time at the House of Jade, they only interacted with each other for half a year. Moreover, at that time, Su Yang had tried his best to not get too close to Gu Feidi, and he always avoided the other person.

Later, when Gu Feidi entered the Hidden Pearl Pavilion. His feelings didn’t fade after a year and a half of separation. On the contrary…they strengthened into a wonderful fundamental change. 

It was very fortunate that they could meet again.

Having a thought like that, Su Yang pressed his cheek against Gu Feidi’s neck. As he smelled the faint fragrance of flowers, he slowly closed his eyes.

The arms around Gu Feidi’s neck suddenly released and slid off.

What Gu Feidi was about to say was stuck in his throat.

He quickly caught, and stabilised the falling Su Yang and called out, “...Su Yang? Su Yang?”

Su Yang leaned on him like a puddle of water and was completely unresponsive. 

Gu Feidi anxiously shifted the man into his arms. He checked the other’s breathing, pulse, temperature, and internal energy. There was nothing out of the ordinary—Su Yang simply fell asleep.

However, to fall into a deep sleep suddenly created a panic attack within Gu Feidi’s heart for no reason.

After many attempts, he wasn’t able to wake Su Yang. Lifting his head in determination, he blinked the wetness out of his eyes and tied the sleeping man firmly on his back with his coat as he sped his way to the top of the mountain.

It wasn’t until he could see the courtyard with white walls and black tiles on the hillside in the distance, Su Yang woke up in a daze.

When he noticed the sudden change in his surroundings, he realised that ‘closing his eyes for a brief rest’ became longer than he wanted.

Su Yang leaned on Gu Feidi’s back and asked in a whisper, “Did I just…fall asleep?”

Gu Feidi’s whole body trembled.

He nodded in silence after a long time.

Su Yang was also quiet. He knew this wasn’t a good sign.

Perhaps this was just the start of the Apparition of frozen lake’s double-edged sword. Maybe their current cold environment and his three mental skills began to take effect, and slowly consumed his vitality.

Or perhaps, the season was approaching, the winter when Gu Feidi would end his life by stabbing him in the heart. Even if he didn’t intend to continue the plot, the powerful rule governing this world would still do anything to cease his existence. 

“It’s nothing.” Su Yang tried to smile. He murmured beside Gu Feidi’s ear, “It’s just that, it’s too cold here and my mental skills are more toward a cold nature. Maybe...I just need to hibernate. When we find the doctor and extract the Poisonous Gu, I should be fine once we are back down the mountain. So please don’t worry.”

Gu Feidi replied with a low hum and said nothing.

Su Yang attempted to act coquettishly to shift the topic, “I’m so hungry…”

Gu Feidi didn’t answer as he walked with his head down.

Su Yang coaxed, “Shidi, your Shixiong is hungry…Do you have anything to eat? Where did you put the dry portions?”

With no way to stop the pestering, Gu Feidi sighed. “It’s in the oiled paper bag on your left. You can eat out of the bag.”

Su Yang knew where the food was. Seeing a smile on Gu Feidi’s face from his teasing, he stopped giving the other a hard time and took out the dry biscuit from the luggage. He put his hands in front of Gu Feidi and broke it off into bite-size pieces.

After finishing the piece in two bites, he broke off another small portion and put it near Gu Feidi’s lips, and he opened his mouth to accept the offer.

Su Yang slowly broke the biscuit and shared it with Gu Feidi.

Su Yang moved the last piece close to Gu Feidi’s mouth.

Gu Feidi opened his mouth subconsciously for a bite, but Su Yang pulled his arm and moved the food away at the last second. Gu Feidi leaned his neck forward, but it was out of his reach. At last he chuckled. “So mean.”

Su Yang laughed mischievously, took the piece and transferred it to his mouth. He now held it between his lips.

Then, he poked Gu Feidi’s cheek with the biscuit between his lips and made two grunt noises to signal Gu Feidi to turn his head.

“Knock it off.” Gu Feidi finally turned his head and looked at Su Yang with a smile. “You’re acting like a misbehaving child. Shouldn’t you be the Shidi?”

Su Yang ignored him. He raised his chin to share the last bite with Gu Feidi.

Gu Feidi had no choice but to bite the other end of the food as they finished the last piece of the biscuit.

Su Yang raised his hand to wipe both of their mouths. With a hand below Gu Feidi’s chin, he turned the younger man’s head and gave him a kiss.

“Shidi.” He called.

“Yes?” Gu Feidi asked.

Su Yang said with a gentle smile, “...The moon is beautiful tonight'The moon is beautiful tonight' Is an internet saying for “I love you”, or a love confession. This originated in Japan from teacher Natsume Sōseki who asked his student to translate “I love you” from English to Japanese between a couple under the moonlight. The student directly translated it to “I love you”, but the teacher told them that lacks meaning and it should be translated as “The moon is beautiful” “月が绮丽ですね”（月色真美）which turned into “The moon is beautiful tonight” (今晚月色真美). This more hidden confession means they wanted to experience all the wonderful times together.
.”

Gu Feidi lifted his head to study the afternoon sky. Feeling puzzled, he questioned, “Are you sleepy?”

Su Yang didn’t answer.

He squeezed Gu Feidi’s neck and changed the topic. “Is that the Miracle Doctor’s courtyard in front of us?”

Gu Feidi nodded. “That’s right. We’re here.”