Chapter 27#

Having received this promise, Hua Jinian’s eyes suddenly lit up. In an instant, a hundred thoughts flashed through his mind, maybe even more. In the end, he didn’t know which one to say. The nine-linked ring was warmed by his hand, and the man brought the medicine bowl to his lips.

At this moment, the young man finally blurted out a sentence. He said: “You feed me.”

Hua Qianjue said in astonishment: “If you are willing to drink the medicine, I will naturally feed you.”

The young man looked at Hua Qianjue’s thin lips as if possessed, pushed the medicine bowl away, raised his head and quickly touched his cold lips, saying quickly: “I want you to feed me like this.”

After this light touch, not only was Hua Qianjue greatly surprised, but Hua Jinian himself was also scared pale. Thousands of thoughts of running away flashed through the young man’s mind, but that sinful obsession in his heart was still burning fiercely, making him try hard to straighten his chest and raise his face pretending nothing happened.

Hua Qianjue frowned slightly and whispered: “What do you mean?” The young man trembled slightly, but smiled easily and said: “That’s what I mean. We are father and son, what’s the big deal if you feed me like this?”

There was a bit of turbid haze in Hua Qianjue’s eyes, his chiseled face uncertain in the dim light and shadow. Seeing that he didn’t seem to have a clear intention to object, the various filthy and crazy thoughts in the young man’s heart seemed to find a breach, surging and clamoring to flow out. He didn’t want to deceive himself anymore—who cares about heavenly principles and ethics, who cares about noble face, who cares about tragic consequences!

Among those dappled tree shadows, from the moment he saw that meteor-like sword light, he began to sink deep into the mud. The more he struggled, the more he bound himself; the more he fled, the more there was nowhere to escape. Then what is there to fear? If hesitation causes this admiration to wither before it even blooms once, how can he be reconciled—

He looked up at the man, his hand unconsciously reached out, placed on the man’s chest to support his body, and leaned his face over—Hua Qianjue frowned, and finally reached out and twisted the young man’s hands back. Hua Jinian groaned in pain, then struggled unwillingly, cursing loudly: “You liar, you said you would agree to anything—”

Hua Qianjue kept a straight face, effortlessly suppressing the young man’s chaotic struggle, and scolded grimly: “Check your own internal breath.” At this moment, how could the young man care about any method? He was still cursing angrily, and the corners of his eyes were faintly red.

Hua Qianjue pulled his hair coldly and shouted in his ear: “Listen, this mental cultivation method is different from usual. It is to make people’s hearts quiet and extinguish inner demons. If your inner demons rise again, it will hurt and destroy you!” The young man cried even harder, shouting: “I don’t care, I don’t care, you promised me!”

Seeing signs of madness in the young man’s mind, the man reached out to test his internal breath, seeing that the qi was scattered, rushing left and right in the dantian, already out of control. Immediately, he tapped the young man’s major acupoints all over his body, placed his hands on his back, continuously transferring qi over, trying to guide the young man’s true qi onto the right track, but with little effect.

Hua Qianjue shouted sternly: “Concentrate, stop crying! Do you hear me! Don’t cry! Preserve the whole and guard the one!” The young man still choked and cried in his throat: “You promise me, you promise me first!”

Hua Qianjue really felt that he looked like a child throwing a tantrum at this time, but he absolutely refused to soften his words, saying coldly: “I agree if I want to, and I don’t agree if I don’t want to. Even if I go back on my word, who can do anything to me? Do you think I have no way to save you?” Speaking of this, he withdrew his hands, circulated energy in front of his chest for a cycle, and hit the young man’s back hard. The young man vomited a mouthful of phlegm and blood with a “wah”, and finally stopped crying and making noise, just sobbing quietly. In the silent Wuhuan Pavilion, the man’s deep voice was heard from time to time: “No thought in the heart!” “Empty and bright spirit platform!” “Spirit returns to the sea of qi!” “No delusion, no thought!” “Yes, that’s it… preserve the whole and guard the one…”

Unknown how long it took, the man finally let go of his hands. There was also cold sweat on his forehead. Hua Qianjue turned the young man around, saw his eyes closed tightly, his face restored to coldness, and then laughed low, whispering: “Alright, your foundation is reshaped now. Presumably you won’t be as strange as today in the future.”

As he spoke, looking at the young man’s face with undried tear stains but cold as ice, he suddenly missed the face that was shouting and screaming, crying and laughing just now. He reached out his hand, gently wiping away the undried tears on the young man’s face. Just then, Hua Jinian suddenly opened his eyes and avoided his hand with disgust on his face.

Hua Qianjue looked at him indifferently and smiled: “By the way, what did you want to beg me just now?” The young man tidied his clothes impatiently, turned around, and said faintly: “Forgot.”

The man sighed “Ah”, and then chuckled behind him: “Forgot so soon?”

The young man nodded and said indifferently: “I have nothing to beg you.”

Hua Qianjue laughed low: “Then don’t be in a hurry to leave, finish the medicine.”

The young man paused, but still turned around. Just about to ask where the medicine was, unexpectedly before he could recover, he was greeted by a rough kiss. The young man refused vigorously, but was locked firmly in the embrace. Strange yet familiar embrace, cold yet hot entanglement, violent yet tender probing. The bitter medicine juice was transferred bit by bit without leaking a drop along with the crazy giving and resisting.

Suddenly, the two separated again. Hua Qianjue reached out to gently wipe the blood flowing from his bitten lip, laughed loudly nonchalantly, and walked back to the long chair.

“I don’t like others ordering me, asking me to do something…” The man smiled wickedly at the young man whose face was changing constantly, and laughed word by word: “But I dislike others rejecting me even more…”

The young man frowned at him, his face looking even worse. The man glared at him sideways with dissatisfaction: “Isn’t this what you asked for yourself? For the remaining medicine, do you want me to continue feeding, or drink it obediently yourself?”

Hua Jinian was silent for a while, still trying hard to suppress himself, picked up the medicine bowl and drank it in one gulp. He observed the man’s expression carefully for a while, and found that whether he obeyed him or disobeyed him, the expression deep in that person’s face was one of indifference, as if nothing in this world could enter his eyes. For a moment, the young man didn’t know what posture to adopt in front of him, whether to turn away or complain a few more times.

But this cowardly hesitation didn’t trouble him for too long, because Hua Qianjue’s gaze fell back on him, and asked in his usual teasing tone mixed with low laughter: “Jinian, you came to find me… what exactly for?”

After Hua Jinian’s mind cleared, he was wishing to forget the infatuation and desire that made him look ugly just now. Hearing him say this half-mockingly and half-smilingly, that stubborn self-esteem floated to his mind unhesitatingly. In a trance, he began to feel that this lukewarm father-son relationship where they saw each other often was not bad. He immediately said in a low voice: “Nothing important, better not to mention it now.”

Hua Qianjue knew he was hiding something as soon as he heard it, but strangely didn’t get angry. Since he dispersed his kung fu, seeing the myriad plants and trees in this world again, everyone harboring their own schemes, laughing and scolding, various faces, he just found it more and more interesting. But the most interesting thing in this world was his only son, a different face every day, a request that he found interesting every day. Coaxing didn’t work, scolding didn’t scare him, and he often glared at him with this mask-like face now, peeking at him—

As he watched, his eyes flashed, and suddenly he discovered the shape of an object faintly leaking from under the semi-wet lapel on the young man’s chest. There were plenty of people in this world he couldn’t remember, but he never forgot the objects and artifacts that passed through his hands. He immediately remembered how that exquisite object with nine interlocked rings was obtained, and how it was given to others. It’s just… Hua Qianjue thought, and couldn’t help putting his gaze back on the young man’s handsome face.

He brought it, exactly why did he come?

What did he want to say to him?

On those features that didn’t seem to resemble him, the slightly pale cheeks and tightly pursed lips faintly revealed a bit of ascetic color. But it was such a young man who invited him, lured him, and begged him passionately just now, raising his face towards him, making him can’t help but remember that equally passionate night. When the disgust of incest was gradually forgotten in the long years, what remained was pure desire and the burning collision of passion, the overwhelming pleasure of living a life of dreams.

The young man was still glaring at him unwilling to admit defeat. His expression would probably always be this dead fish-like indifference calm as autumn water, the man thought nonchalantly. But there was still a faint fire in the young man’s eyes. He could easily blow it out, but he could also make this fire burn for him forever. And he had ten thousand ways to add firewood under the fire, making it brighter and brighter, never disillusioned.

Hua Jinian just wanted to escape at this moment. This wish was so strong, almost as urgent as the mood when he wanted to see him at the beginning. He was not a moth flying into the fire. Even if he yearned for that bit of sinful purgatory fire, after realizing the pain of being burned, he would eventually retreat. All courage would gradually dissipate, and all infatuation would gradually wear away.

He wanted to rush back, taking advantage of the opportunity that the man had just reshaped his foundation, to advance with the momentum, practicing the mental cultivation method again and again, picking up the shells that he hadn’t had time to put on completely piece by piece, until thousands of miles were ice-sealed, and the cold pool had no dreams. But Hua Qianjue at this time obviously wasn’t willing to let him go so easily. He seemed to know everything, yet seemed ignorant of everything, doing whatever he wanted, instead being free and unfettered. He was like a cat that just caught a mouse, and like a child who just got a toy. If he didn’t toss it thoroughly, he would fight to the death—

He stared at the young man. He had stared at this young face in front of him with such interest long ago. Wanted to pick him up, throw him into the air, wanted to catch him, throw him high again, wanted to kiss him, with a fatherly loving kiss, with a villain’s rude kiss, with an enemy’s brutal kiss, wanted him to accept gently, also wanted him to bleed, and even more wanted him to struggle with tears.

Hua Jinian was lowering his head pretending to be respectful, just missing the man’s undisguised bloodthirsty gaze in an instant. At this time, the door of Wuhuan Pavilion was suddenly pushed open. Tianxiang walked in with her head down and whispered: “Little Young Master, I heard them say you wet your clothes, so I ordered them to boil water. Why don’t you… take a good bath now, so as not to catch a cold.”

How could the young man let go of this opportunity to withdraw? He nodded and whispered: “Okay, I’ll go.” He turned around, walked two steps out the door, and laughed softly again: “Tianxiang, you don’t need to act anymore. Father has pointed out everything to me.”

Hearing this, Tianxiang couldn’t help but freeze there. Suddenly, she seemed to have aged ten years. Hua Qianjue mocked lowly behind her: “Cui’er, his dream has woken up, has your dream… woken up?”

Tianxiang laughed low. Looking from behind, only her two shoulders could be seen trembling slightly. She laughed low and said: “Woken up, woken up… How can the dream not wake up? How can the great enmity of the Fang family not be avenged?”

Hua Qianjue mocked nonchalantly: “I have waited for you for seventeen years. If you want to make a move, you might as well be quick…”

Tianxiang didn’t look at him either, strode out. There seemed to be a bit of madness on her face, but she gradually fell silent, reached out to wipe away the tear stains, and thought with a sneer in her heart, this revenge, seventeen years ago, had already begun.

The ancients said: A day in the mountains, a thousand years in the world. Using this to describe the freedom of secluded life, this saying was half right and half wrong for Hua Jinian. What was right was that living in such a towering fortress on the top of a mountain with birds singing and flowers fragrant, dancing with swords, tasting tea, composing poems, discussing paintings, tuning the qin, and singing in leisure time, was indeed intoxicating. What was wrong was that the gentle masks that the people in the fortress refused to take off for a long time often made him furious, and his temperament became more and more withdrawn.

Originally, he suspected whether he really had some terminal illness or severe poison, but under the careful care of this group of people, watching his body gradually become energetic, he gradually dispelled this doubt. The young man originally thought that Hua Qianjue would appear frequently in front of him, but during this period, there seemed to be suddenly many things to handle in the fortress. Unless it was a festive occasion, that man would only take time to come and look at him when he took medicine regularly. The corners of his mouth were often pursed with that wicked low smile, but there was no longer that lazy and unruly appearance and the ceremonial guard with people crowding around.

Just like this, living in peace for a full year. Hua Jinian sometimes vaguely remembered many things from the past, but they were often worn away to only fragmented memories, often just the arc of a mouth corner, a dappled smile, and a pair of pitch-black eyes shining in the darkness, mixed with the withering sea of flowers and the elusive back figure. When he met that person, he was not yet of school age. Now he is in the year of dancing elephant (15-20 years old), but his state of mind has aged a hundred times, a thousand times. He would also vaguely remember the words he had said to those two women, but after sifting through, what was left behind was even more blurred.

Only vaguely remembering a morning with lush tree shade, when he was still a child, with a simple and joyful temperament, smiling lightly without knowing the height of the sky and the depth of the earth, saying that only in front of that person could he be like a child. Unexpectedly, until now, only that man can obliterate all his strength, squeezing out his child-like ignorance and ridiculousness bit by bit. But this taste is completely not the half-surprise and half-joy of pretending to be angry back then, but a mixture of vicissitudes of bitterness and indifference.

This Mid-Autumn Festival, Futu Fortress ended this banquet unusually simply. Hua Jinian watched from the side, suddenly somewhat surprised that nearly half of the hall masters were new faces he had never seen before. Some had monkey-like faces, some had rat-like eyes. The more he looked, the more disgusted he felt, so he excused himself early. The next day, he took a long sword and a bag of flower seeds alone, stood on the open ground in the backyard, used the sword to dig a small earth pit, sprinkled a seed down, buried it casually with his foot, and stepped on it a few times.

The long sword in his hand was like an ordinary shovel. His posture was innocent and casual like a sprouting child holding a small bamboo pole gesturing and writing on the ground. His pitch-black and indifferent eyes were half-covered by the hanging forehead hair, only his pale face and petal-like ruddy lips could be seen. Coupled with the flowers blooming like brocade around him, this moment could almost be put into a painting.