We Can…Discuss in the Future...

Early next morning, Su Yang woke up in a daze when the sun was high in the sky.

It was a rare, fine day today, where it was cloudless around the Elegant Jade Peak and the earth was bathing under the bright and beautiful sunshine. It reflected off the snow and made it twinkle like the stars in the Milky Way.

However, the temperature was still very low. Su Yang stood at the door and shivered from the cold breeze outside.

“There is a heated pot 暖籠 There’s not a good translation for this ancient heater. That’s what it is, an ancient heater. It has an outer layer made from bamboo (fire hazard much?) with a clay inner layer that holds the heated coal (based on the images). I assumed there is some kind of cover because it can keep food warm, not sure if it’s inside the pot or above the pot. inside. Let’s not go out today.” Gu Feidi pulled the other back into the room. “Since we are here to nurse your health, you’ve to take care of yourself. You don’t need to get up early.”

Su Yang studied the sun’s position and chirped, “Get up early? Judging by the sun, it’s already late morning. It won’t be long before we have lunch…”

He was right. Soon, Luo Yu sent his disciples to bring lunch and a warm fur robe.

The two enjoyed lunch before Su Yang was called away by Luo Yu. The doctor checked his pulse and began to draft an updated prescription. 

“Your Apparition is overbearing. Not to mention your freezing internal energy. These two would gradually damage your meridians, then your body, and vitality.” Luo Yu explained. “I can’t suppress the first one for you, so I’ll give you some prescriptions to strengthen your meridians and vitality, for you to bear its erosion for as much and as long as possible.”

Su Yang nodded and took back his hand. He rubbed his cold fingertips under his sleeves. 

He silently watched Luo Yu finalizing the prescription and then said, “Luo…Senior, I still want to ask you to help me completely remove the Blood Gu.”

Luo Yu frowned. “If you want to eliminate the Gu Bug, you need to use Half-Withered Crimson again. Even with the help of the hot springs, it will aggravate your cold sickness. Besides, there is a chance of damaging your meridians during the removal process. One mistake, and your body will quickly collapse from the strain…”

Pondering for a moment, Su Yang said, “Even so, I still don’t want to rely on medicine for another year or two. What if the curse on me really does come true, it won’t be worth delaying if I’m destined to die first from it. Won’t it be better…to listen to my wishes?”

Luo Yu was surprised. “Are you really not afraid of death?”

Su Yang slowly exhaled and gave his senior a bitter smile. “It’s not that I’m not afraid, but…since it’s already like this, wouldn’t it be useless to be afraid of it?”

Seeing that the younger man had made up his mind, Luo Yu sighed, “If this is what you wish, I’ll add acupuncture treatments, and afterward, I’ll remove the Poisonous Gu.”

Su Yang nodded. “Senior, thank you very much.”

Luo Yu examined Su Yang and couldn’t help suggesting, “If you like, you can call me uncle from now on.”

Su Yang: “...”

After some hard struggles, he couldn’t call the other man by his family name. Su Yang smiled at Luo Yu with some regret. “It’s still…it’s better to call you Senior for now.”

Without any sudden emotion on his face, Luo Yu said calmly, “Then…no matter. I haven’t fulfilled my duty as your uncle either. Your mother…never mind, I’ll do my utmost to help you. We can start on the treatment today. Once we gather all the ingredients, we can start the removal process, and you can rest at ease.”

Su Yang nodded again.

Luo Yu added, “Don’t feel restricted staying here. Make yourself at home. If you need anything, let me know and I’ll handle it.”

* * *

From that day on, Su Yang and Gu Feidi lived in the courtyard closest to the hot spring.

Luo Yu drafted up a prescription and asked Qin Jianyue to go down the mountain to get the ingredients. He would check Su Yang’s pulse and apply acupuncture daily. Outside of medical treatments, there would be supplements with the meals to maintain Su Yang’s body at a healthy level.

When applying the needles, Su Yang couldn't be cold, and after the treatment, he could not be touched by the cold breeze. Therefore, Su Yang and Gu Feidi would stay in the warm pavilion by the hot spring. The pavilion was only a few steps away from the hot body of water, making it the warmest place in the courtyard on the mountain. 

On other days, he couldn’t go out and practice martial arts. When he was bored, he would pester Gu Feidi and teach the younger man how to dance—couple’s ballroom dancing, waltzs that transformed to tangos, and ended with a ballroom rumba, in the Brazilian style.

When Su Yang was humming the dance music, Gu Feidi laughed and commented that the rhythm made no sense. Su Yang rolled his eyes and flattened his lips. “This rhythm does make sense, this is called an international classic!” 

In recent days, Su Yang’s unrestrained modern speech was laughed off by Gu Feidi. 

Dancing, plus their playful quarrel made them sweat all over. Su Yang and Gu Feidi would take a bath afterward in the hot spring. 

Gu Feidi helped Su Yang clean his back with a cotton towel.

The tattoo, after being soaked by the water, became more vivid and beautiful, but both of them knew what kind of deadly curse lurked under the unworldly flower.

Gu Feidi lowered his head and placed a light kiss on Su Yang’s back, then he wrapped around the other man’s neck, whispering, “The crimson epiphyllum is very beautiful. Once you are rid of your Poisonous Gu, I should get a matching tattoo once we’re down the mountain. What do you think?”

Su Yang said with a smile, “Are you crazy? You are the Tengyun Pavilion’s Young Lord, getting the Evil Sect’s flower, what does that make you?”

Gu Feidi smiled and didn’t answer.

Being quietly held by Gu Feidi, Su Yang felt completely at peace inside. However, there was always an unspeakable sadness in this tranquility.

Su Yang asked reflexively, “Since when did you keep your hands to yourself?”

Gu Feidi wondered, “What do you mean?”

“Before, there was a time when you would coil around me as much as possible, always wanting to…” Su Yang fake coughed. “Go further in our relationship. Why are your hands being so perverse recently?”

Gu Feidi chuckled, caught the other’s hands that were patting on the back of his hand. He lowered his gaze to Su Yang’s shoulders and moved to the needle marks from the earlier treatment on the older man’s chest, now blushing a deep red from the hot spring’s steam.

“You’re not well.” He murmured. “Why would I have the heart to touch you?”

Su Yang raised an eyebrow, as he narrowed his eyes and asked in a dangerous tone, “Why don’t you have the heart to touch me? Just so you know, I’m also a man…Who is to say you won’t be the passive one?”

Gu Feidi’s eyes landed on Su Yang’s face. Suddenly, a smile appeared at the corner of his lips, revealing a mysterious smile.

Now Su Yang raised both his eyebrows. “What are you laughing about? Let me tell you, this is not impossible. I’m also a young martial artist with masterful skills.”

Gu Feidi related, “I’ll concede once you manage to defeat me. For now…you’ve to heal first.”

Su Yang bit his lower lip, shifted a little to the side to put an arm around Gu Feidi’s shoulder and whispered by the younger man’s ear breathlessly, “If,  I told you…” His tone turned husky. “...I want to be on top, would you let me?”

After staring at Su Yang for a while, Gu Feidi grinned to avoid the question. “You haven’t recovered yet. We can…discuss it in the future.”

With the Blood Gu still in his body, Su Yang didn’t dare to continue his teasing. Otherwise, it might result in both of them suffering. They took a simple bath and hugged each other to sleep.

* * *

The same morning, Qin Jianyue, who had been out gathering ingredients for several days, finally returned. 

Once everything had been gathered, Luo Yu could start preparing what was needed to completely eliminate the Blood Gu in Su Yang.

Today, after their daily treatments, Luo Yu ordered Su Yang to have a good and proper rest to prepare for the removal process—removing it required Su Yang to use his internal energy with Half-Withered Crimson. He needed to maintain a good mentality in order to bear the discomfort caused by the treatment process.

“My trip down the mountain this time, in addition to purchasing the ingredients and delivering the letter, I also learned an interesting thing.”

Qin Jianyue brought this up to Luo Yu after the two younger men left. “It's been said around the Central Plains Wulin that Gu Feidi was abducted by Su Yang using some darkcraft technique. With the Young Lord’s whereabouts unknown, they tried to incite the Tengyun Pavilion to start a war with the Evil Sect, and…I found that the Tengyun Pavilion seems to have the same intention and is secretly mobilising elite forces from various branches.”

Luo Yu frowned. “How is that possible? If Hai-ge wanted to budge the Evil Sect, he would have done it a long time ago…What’s more, he knew that Su Yang is not in the Evil Sect, but…here....Wait!”

“You noticed as well?” Qin Jianyue raised his eyebrows. “I suspect Gu Ruohai deliberately sent Gu Feidi and Su Yang here to avoid the upcoming conflict in the Jianghu.”

Luo Yu didn’t understand. “For what reason? For many years he’s never wanted to be an enemy of the Evil Sect. He wouldn’t suddenly change his mind.”

After pondering for a moment, Qin Jianyue asked, “Do you remember that E’Luo Jue killed his brother and usurped the throne three years ago?”

After a moment’s silence, Luo Yu replied, “...I do.”

Qin Jianyue shared, “What is he like? In fact…I suspect that he is the mastermind that caused the recent turmoil in the Jianghu for revenge against Su Huaizhu, for the purge he did years ago. The one where he almost cleaned out the E’Luo Gui Faction’s spies placed in the Central Plains.”

“E-Luo Jue…”

Luo Yu took a deep breath, slowly exhaled and described in a deep voice, “He is like a venomous snake. Patient, extremely patient, attentive, and very cunning…Since childhood, there was never something that he didn't get when he wanted it, except…”

Speaking of this, the doctor suddenly widened his eyes and he stood up, turned to Qin Jianyue in shock and uttered in a trembling voice, “...Except for Jin-er!”

Qin Jianyue was surprised, “Jin-er?”

Luo Yu nodded. “At the beginning, E’Luo Yue loved Jin-er very much. He would publicly announce her as the only family member he recognised. And with a strong desire for monopoly, when he saw other siblings getting too close to Jin-er, he would drive them away, regardless of the method. I’m the only one who didn’t face his wrath, because Jin-er and I were born from the same mother, who was also favoured by our father. I was only able to interact with Jin-er because he didn’t dare to provoke me.” 

“Later when our mother died, I snuck into the House of Jade for fun…Jin-er stayed in the faction for two years before sneaking out of the Royal Court to find me.” He spoke with a slight frown. “E’Luo Jue…Maybe some sort of obsession was born. It’s hard to say.”

Qin Jianyue rubbed his chin. “E’Luo Jue should know about Jin-er’s trip with Su Huaizhu and Gu Ruohai.”

Luo Yu’s expression darkened. “It’s not as simple as that. Su Huaizhu took Jin-er away, and then she passed away. He should have known all of this news already. If he wants revenge, he would never give the person he hates a merciful death. Instead, he would stir up a disturbance of the peace and cause discord, like a predator playing with its prey, like destroying his target’s family and everything they love…Set off disturbances, making Gu Ruohai fight Su Huaizhu to the death…This does sound like his style.” 

Qin Jianyue asked, “Should we warn them?”

Luo Yu nodded. “This may be related to the Faction’s former matter. Naturally, I can’t keep this to myself and say nothing…I’ll write up a letter now. I would have to trouble you again to go down the mountain and deliver my message.”

Qin Jianyue smiled. “Not an issue. But, are you going to tell the two kids the truth?”

Luo Yu thought for a moment and decided, “Gu Ruohai handed over the jade pendant, I’m afraid it’s not just to ask me to heal Su Yang…I gave it to him to thank him for helping me go into hiding. Now…I’m afraid he’s asking me to look after the two children and keep them out of the dispute.”

As he spoke, he sighed, “Those two children also bear such hardship. In the future, it’s uncertain to say if they would face separation by death…It’s better to let them spend more time together and not be disturbed by such worries. This is the resentment of our generation, and it should end in our hands.”