Xin Hexue patted his shoulder, trying to comfort him, “I’m sorry to bring up your sorrow. Please accept my condolences.”
Du Zhi followed behind the two as they walked along the village path. Watching Xin Hexue and Ren Ke getting closer and closer, his brows furrowed unconsciously.
He didn’t know why, but he felt…
Uncomfortable.
Du Zhi lowered his gaze and pressed the spot on his chest where his heart was beating.
Ren Ke’s house was just an ordinary farmhouse, not large, but clean and tidy.
He provided the two with dinner and hot water to bathe.
During the meal, Xin Hexue asked Ren Ke, “I heard Li Erhu say that you are a scholar. Are you planning to take the provincial examination this year?”
Ren Ke: “Yes. By August, my mourning period will be over, and then I can take the provincial exam.”
Because the imperial examination system in Dacheng was not as complete as the one from his past life, it only had county exams, provincial exams, and the Ministry of Rites exam. Xin Hexue wasn’t familiar with the details.
He took the chance to ask, “So after each provincial exam, how many xianggong are recommended to the capital for the Ministry of Rites exam?”
**Xianggong is a title for candidates who have successfully passed the provincial examinations.
Not everyone who took the Ministry of Rites exam in the capital was promoted through the local state exams. Many were students from official academies, called shengyuan, who could take the Ministry of Rites exam directly without going through county or provincial exams.
Those taking the county and provincial exams were more often people like Ren Ke, who weren’t even considered from poor scholarly families. They were so impoverished they couldn’t even afford the tuition for official academies.
Ren Ke was quite clear on this matter. “The xianggong recommended by the provincial office usually consists of three from a large province, two from a medium one, and one from a small one each year.”
‘This makes things very simple,’ Xin Hexue thought.
That poor scholar must have come from one of the provinces that experienced a drought this year, and since the number of xianggong recommended from each province was very limited, this greatly narrowed down the target range.
All he had to do was wait around the capital and lie in wait for the xianggong from those provinces to arrive, and he would definitely be able to find that person. It wouldn’t be like fishing for a needle in the sea.
However, before that, he couldn’t let Du Zhi lock him up in the An Ning Tower.
Xin Hexue cast a faint glance at the monk who was eating in silence.
………
There were only two bedrooms in Ren Ke’s home. He originally intended to give up his own room so they could each have one, and he would spend the night on a makeshift bed in the hall. But Xin Hexue refused. As guests, it wouldn’t be right to disturb the host’s rest. He and Du Zhi could share a room.
It was said to be a shared room, but after washing up, Xin Hexue once again took over the bed for himself.
Du Zhi was driven to the couch on the other side.
He wasn’t angry. He just sat cross-legged on the couch to meditate.
As the moon rose that night, Xin Hexue slipped into the monk’s dream while he dozed off.
Du Zhi’s dreamscape was as boring as he was in person.
There was an empty expanse of lake and sea, with a large reef in the center. Du Zhi was sitting on it with his eyes closed, reciting scriptures.
The sound of water rustled, as if something submerged and floated back up to the surface.
Du Zhi quietly opened his eyes.
He saw a young man rise from the water like a sea demon. His wet, smooth black hair floated like green algae. His fair face appeared in the hazy mist, a small mole at the corner of his eye. His lips were a light color, and perhaps because of the faint smile at the corners, there was an inexplicable sense of purity and seduction all at once.
The young man sat on the reef. His thin shirt was soaked through and clung to his snow-white back. He lazily leaned toward Du Zhi, and the water dripping from his clothes and skin made a cold dripping sound, dampening Du Zhi’s red kasaya.
Du Zhi realized this was his dream, and Xin Hexue had entered it.
He thought Xin Hexue had come to talk to him about something, so he asked, “What is it?”
Xin Hexue: “Master, you’ve been rather quiet tonight.”
Du Zhi was usually a taciturn person, who spoke very little, but compared to before, he was abnormally silent tonight.
Du Zhi lowered his eyes and said seriously, “I don’t know why, but seeing you and Ren Ke talking so happily, I felt uncomfortable, and so didn’t want to speak much.”
Xin Hexue knew he didn’t lie, and upon hearing this, he used the chance to guide Du Zhi to think deeper. “Why is it that seeing me chatting with Ren Ke happily makes you feel uncomfortable?”
Du Zhi shook his head. “I do not know either.”
Xin Hexue saw he couldn’t figure it out and said, “Why are you so stupid? Don’t use your head, use this.”
A soft fingertip was pressed to the place where his chest beat.
Du Zhi repeated in confusion, “Use this?”
It seemed… his heartbeat sped up a little.
[Du Zhi love value +2]
Xin Hexue nodded. “Listen to what your heart is trying to say.”
Du Zhi’s lips tightened into a straight line. He seemed to seriously contemplate for a moment. After a while, he said honestly, “I feared seeing you do pleasurable things with Ren Ke, so I felt unhappy.”
Ren Ke was also a scholar, and it seemed this koi demon paid more attention to scholars. The last time Du Zhi had seen him, it was while he was doing that tongue-touching pleasurable thing with Zhou Shanheng.
Xin Hexue had clearly figured out the key as well and understood Du Zhi’s logic.
Because last night Xin Hexue had said that tongue-touching wasn’t about sucking human essence, but simply something demons did for pleasure, Du Zhi had since used “pleasurable thing” to refer to it.
Xin Hexue let out a silent laugh.
How could this monk be so completely clueless about matters of love and desire? It was as if all the seven emotions and six desires shared by demons, ghosts, and humans alike had been stripped from him, and no one had ever taught him or spoken to him about such things.
Xin Hexue lifted his eyelashes and quietly leaned closer. His breath was fragrant like orchids as he asked softly, “Do you want to? Do what we did last night…the pleasurable thing?”
Du Zhi stared at him intently, his thoughts as direct as his gaze. “Yes.”
He earnestly closed the distance between him and Xin Huexue. After receiving the affirmative answer, Du Zhi tilted his head slightly, just enough to press against those faintly colored lips.
He even instinctively learned how to cup Xin Hexue’s face, pried open his teeth, and finally found that soft, red tongue again.
At first, he merely tested the waters with a light suckling kiss. When he noticed the young man’s breath faltering for a moment, as if receiving positive feedback, Du Zhi gently moved his lips and tongue, his motions slow and gentle.
He seemed to be learning, experimenting in different ways to see Xin Hexue’s reactions, even pushing in as far as the root of his tongue.
Until Xin Hexue could no longer endure and pushed him away. Beneath the thin shirt, his snow-white chest rose and fell violently with breath.
The originally fair skin now showed a faint red at the corners of his eyes.
Even his lips, which were usually light pink, were now a lustrous, wet red from the clingy kiss.
The light panting sounded like feathers brushing against the heart.
Du Zhi pressed a hand over the place where his heart beat.
It seemed…
It was beating even faster.
[Du Zhi love value +5]
Xin Hexue’s long eyelashes had clumped into thick little tufts from the damp mist.
He steadied his breath and asked Du Zhi in a calm voice, “Did you feel pleasure?”
His body, already wet from coming out of the lake, now had a faint blush reflected on his jade-like face. All traces of cold aloofness had melted away, and when he asked the high monk such questions, he looked even more like a gorgeous ghost fished up from the water.
Careless hearts might be easily lured in by this cold-faced and ruthless water ghost, only to be dragged down and drowned.
Du Zhi remained as honest as ever. “Yes.”
Xin Hexue pressed a hand to his shoulder, leaned close to Du Zhi’s ear, and whispered in a low, soft voice, “Then let me teach you…this thing is called a kiss.”
Du Zhi committed it to heart and earnestly replied, “I remember it.”
Then he asked again, “Can I kiss you again later?”
This damn monk really did learn something.
Xin Hexue gave him a sideways glance. “It depends on how you perform.”
Du Zhi nodded.
With that nod, his gaze fell on Xin Hexue’s fish tail. Its snow-white scales were sparkling and dazzling under the sunlight of the dream.
Xin Hexue brushed back his wet black hair and tucked it behind his ear. The damp strands clung to the line of his spine. As he leaned back against the reef, he noticed Du Zhi’s gaze and asked, “Are you very curious?”
Du Zhi studied the fish tail for a moment, then nodded again.
Xin Hexue gave permission: “Then you can touch it, but remember to be gentle.”
Everyone has the ability to observe beauty, and he also thought his fish tail was very beautiful, so he lifted the tip of his tail.
Du Zhi’s movements were very light. He first placed his hand on the middle of the fish tail. The white scales didn’t feel as sharp as they looked; actually, the texture was flexible and had no lethality.
His large, wide palm suddenly covered Xin Hexue’s abdominal fin, then the soft gauze-like area below the abdomen, and the place that had seemed strange to him last night…
Before Du Zhi could say anything, as soon as his hand touched it, the lifted fish tail flicked at the speed of light.
A faint red mark immediately appeared on his left cheek.
Du Zhi didn’t understand why Xin Hexue suddenly got angry. He didn’t have time to react, so he asked seriously and properly, “Are you hurt here?”
He had just noticed that the abdominal fin was covering a light pink color.
There were no white scales covering that spot, so Du Zhi could only guess it was an injury where scales had fallen off. This made him tense and very concerned about Xin Hexue’s condition.
Xin Hexue frowned and retorted, “Are you sick?”
Du Zhi denied it, “No.”
Then he calmly asked, “Why did you attack me just now?”
Xin Hexue felt his temples throb twice and got a slight headache.
He took a deep breath and smiled lightly. He leaned close to Du Zhi and lowered his voice, “I wasn’t attacking you just now. That’s also a way our demons use to have fun and pleasure ourselves. Don’t you think it’s pleasurable?”
Du Zhi pondered for a moment, “…Yes, pleasurable.”
[Du Zhi love value +5]
Xin Hexue really was genuinely amused now.
Du Zhi didn’t understand.
Seeing this monk’s stupid look, Xin Hexue’s anger faded a little, because now he no longer treated Du Zhi as a normal person.
He stroked the remaining red on Du Zhi’s left cheek and gently patted it.
Xin Hexue murmured softly, “Master, you really are… shameless.”
Du Zhi was slightly stunned.
Then all the scenery in the dream…the mountains and water…were completely disturbed.
Xin Hexue lazily sat up on the bed. Du Zhi, who was on the other couch, also opened his eyes.
Xin Hexue propped himself up on the head of the bed, asking curiously, “What’s wrong? Did you get angry when I scolded you?”
“Not at all.” Du Zhi probably hadn’t realized that “shameless” was a scolding. He looked dazed for a moment, then turned to look out the window. It was pitch black; the moon was high in the sky. “It’s the hour of the Rat.”
The hour of the Rat.
Demons and spirits roamed free.
That was why Du Zhi stopped resting.
Xin Hexue sat on the bed and beckoned with a finger, “Come carry me on your back, let’s go together!”
