After Sheng Jun Chapter 72 (Part 2)
Translated by Sylver (ko-fi)
Chapter 72 Old Memories (part 2)
Besides brewing tea, this tea shop where the three rested also steamed pastries.
Jiang Xingzhi smelled the aroma, his eyes showing eager movement. Seeing this, Zhong Ming ordered some pastries to place on the table, using them to fill his Deng Deng's abyssal mouth.
While eating, Jiang Xingzhi asked Su You, "So you came looking for us because you heard about our joyous occasion?"
"Can't really call it looking." Su You played with the longan in his hand, "It's just that after a thousand years, suddenly hearing news about you two, this lord was startled. On a whim, I went to revisit old places, and unexpectedly really encountered you."
Suddenly heard news about them? Jiang Xingzhi ate with bulging cheeks, staring at Su You with both eyes, "You hadn't heard any news about us before?"
No matter how much one hid in remote corners, his own death had shaken the Three Realms at the time - Su You shouldn't be unaware.
Su You thought about it, "No."
Jiang Xingzhi stopped eating the pastry, his eyes going blank as he began to space out. When he was lost in thought, his gaze wandered over Su You's face. Seeing this, Su You propped his chin with interest, letting him look back.
A pair of hands suddenly reached over to turn Jiang Xingzhi's face toward himself.
Jiang Xingzhi's vision focused, "What are you doing, Xu Jian?"
Zhong Ming was persistent, "If you're going to space out, look at me. I'm your dao companion."
...... Where on earth did this inexplicable obsession come from? Jiang Xingzhi helplessly coaxed him, "I won't space out looking at your face."
Zhong Ming: !
Crash, the chair opposite was pushed back. Su You couldn't stand it and stood up, "Alright, this lord is going back. You two can be lovey-dovey slowly." He finished speaking and waved the invitation in his hand, "This lord will come when the time comes."
The blood-colored figure turned and left, disappearing from the empty riverbank in the blink of an eye.
After Su You left, Zhong Ming instantly became comfortable all over, even rarely accompanying Jiang Xingzhi in eating a few pieces of pastry.
Jiang Xingzhi indulgently allowed him to share his food, speaking up to ask, "Why do you think Su You hadn't heard any news about us before this?"
Zhong Ming was immersed in his indulgent gaze, leisurely peeling a longan to stuff in his mouth, "Don't overthink it. For all the things you can't figure out, there will always be a day when everything becomes clear. Right now the most important thing is our bonding ceremony."
"You're right." As soon as Jiang Xingzhi thought of the bonding ceremony, he immediately threw these complex questions to the back of his mind. He extended his hand, curling his index finger and placing his thumb on top, saying to Zhong Ming, "Look, what's this?"
Zhong Ming leaned closer, "Making a heart?"
"...... Dummy, this is seven." Jiang Xingzhi said, "There are still seven days until our bonding ceremony!"
Zhong Ming was amused by him and pinched his index finger to straighten it, "Soon it will be this."
"What's this? One day until the bonding ceremony?"
"This means 'united as one.'"
Jiang Xingzhi's little face immediately turned red and yellow, whooshing as he pulled back his finger, "Improper."
Zhong Ming took his hand and kissed it, "I don't specifically mean that. There are also our souls, all of us... everything will be united as one."
Jiang Xingzhi cupped his face with one hand, "Oh."
He was filled with longing by Zhong Ming's words, involuntarily becoming urgently expectant, making even seven days seem extraordinarily long. He sighed, "What on earth were we doing for the past few hundred years?"
Having secretly loved each other for so long, if they had spoken up, they should have been together long ago!
Zhong Ming said, "I always thought you hated me."
Jiang Xingzhi muttered, "You were always teasing me. If you had shown even a little bit earlier, why would I have kept pretending?"
Zhong Ming suddenly paused, smiled and said, "I did show it."
Jiang Xingzhi immediately sat up straight, "When?"
"You're calling me stupid and unable to understand hints." Zhong Ming scored a point back, "Think it over carefully yourself."
Jiang Xingzhi began to rack his brains: Xu Jian had shown his feelings to him? When was this? How was that possible? If he had really shown it, how could he himself have remained unmoved?
He thought and thought, but what kept floating through his mind were only provocations from Zhong Ming:
"Jiang Xingzhi, is your brain filled with the great rivers and mountains of Jiuzhou?"
"Why?"
"Not only are there ravines and gullies everywhere, but also vast oceans."
"......"
"Xu Jian, what are you staring at me for?"
"Looking at the sleep marks on your face that haven't faded yet. Did you sleep well during cultivation?"
"Jiang Xingzhi, I brought you some East Sea hibiscus fish today."
"Why are you suddenly so nice?"
"After all, you need to supplement your brain."
Jiang Xingzhi recalled for a long time but couldn't find that emotional confession. Instead, the more he thought about it, the angrier he got, and his gaze toward Zhong Ming gradually became profound.
Zhong Ming quickly tried to smooth his feathers, "There really was one. If you remember it, I'll give you a reward, okay?"
Jiang Xingzhi perked up, "What reward?"
Zhong Ming leaned close and whispered a few words by his ear. Jiang Xingzhi immediately turned red and yellow again, cursing "improper" under his breath, but still honestly nodded, "Okay."
****
Sitting at the riverside tea shop basking in the afternoon sun, the leisurely day quickly passed.
Jiang Xingzhi packed up some pastries to take back to Kunlun to eat slowly.
Given last night's "hurting the enemy one thousand, losing eight hundred" mutual torture, today Jiang Xingzhi refused Zhong Ming's request to share a bed, insisting on monopolizing one bed.
Zhong Ming stood at the doorway, looking down at him, "Yesterday newlyweds, today the seven-year itch?"
Jiang Xingzhi, "......"
He held onto the door frame, "Don't talk nonsense. I'm storing up energy for our honeymoon."
The gaze falling on him deepened a few degrees.
Jiang Xingzhi acted as if he hadn't noticed, saying seriously, "Besides, only when I'm alone can I calm down and think carefully about when exactly you made that emotional confession?"
"You can think slowly during the day."
"No good. If I can't figure it out, my heart will be restless."
"......"
Bang, the door closed cleanly and decisively.
Jiang Xingzhi shut the resentfully gazing Zhong Ming outside the door, curling up alone on the bed, wrapping himself in the blanket while carefully searching through his memories.
One hour passed.
Two hours passed......
The sky outside gradually darkened, moonlight spilled through the window lattice into the room, shifting bit by bit as time flowed.
The area in front of the bed was completely quiet, without a sound. Jiang Xingzhi curled up in his blanket with vacant eyes, frozen like a sculpture.
Until dawn broke and the new day's sun rose from the east, he suddenly realized: he had unknowingly spent the entire night thinking!
A whole night without sleep.
When Jiang Xingzhi emerged from the sleeping chamber, his whole person seemed to be floating.
Zhong Ming saw his blank stare, nearly stepping into the planted roses, and quickly pulled him aside, "Didn't rest well last night?"
Jiang Xingzhi nodded dully, "Mm, thought all night."
Zhong Ming didn't know whether to laugh or cry, saying helplessly, "Forget it, I'll tell you."
"What about the reward?"
"Naturally there isn't one now."
"No way!" Jiang Xingzhi refused, "Then I want to figure it out myself."
Zhong Ming had no choice but to set up a chair for him, prepare hot tea, and place yesterday's pastries on the table, letting him eat while thinking.
The secluded mountaintop with its tea fragrance, flower fragrance, mixed with pastry aroma was very pleasant.
Jiang Xingzhi absent-mindedly bit into pastries, not even noticing that pastry crumbs were falling all over him, even sticking to the corners of his mouth.
Seeing this, Zhong Ming reached out to wipe away the crumbs for him, "You really are......"
The fingertip with its thin calluses gently brushed across his soft lip corner, instantly like a spark of electric current. Jiang Xingzhi's spine trembled, his gaze suddenly turning toward the person wiping his mouth------
The other's expression overlapped with a certain moment in his memory.
Jiang Xingzhi stared blankly at Zhong Ming. He remembered a long time ago during a sparring match, Xu Jian had narrowly defeated him. That hand with sword calluses had gripped the skin of his neck, the fingertip brushing across his neck side, bringing up a spark of electricity. Then his mind went completely blank! In his vision remained only those thin lips so close at hand opening and closing......
Blurry images flickered through his mind frame by frame.
Jiang Xingzhi was completely stunned: At that time, Xu Jian seemed to have said something to him - could it have been those words?
Thump thump, his heartbeat suddenly accelerated.
He grasped Zhong Ming's approaching hand, looking anxiously at the person before him, "That time! When we sparred in Nanling... what did you say to me?"