Chapter 21.2 Plucking Flower
Yanluo Hotel, third-floor private room.
“Oh, look who decided to pay me a visit today,” Cui Jue teased. “Usually, you’re always with Lao Xie, never have the time to bother with us.”
Fan Wujiu sighed. “I got kicked out.”
Cui Jue raised an eyebrow. “I figured as much. Did you two have a fight?”
Fan Wujiu didn’t want to talk about it. He silently drank his alcohol, lost in his thoughts.
“You two get along so well, what could you possibly argue about?” Cui Jue said, puzzled. “Didn’t you just come back from a Meizhou Island trip? Did something happen on the way?”
Fan Wujiu took a large gulp of his drink. “It’s a long story.”
He felt frustrated and needed someone to vent to, so he decided to tell Cui Jue how Xie Bian had been struck by Cupid’s arrow, how he’d fallen for him, and all the turmoil that followed.
After hearing everything, Cui Jue looked at him and asked, “So you’re saying you like him, huh?”
Fan Wujiu nodded, admitting it.
In any case, he had already been upfront with Lao Bai, so telling his friends about it didn’t seem like a big deal.
Fan Wujiu thought he had just revealed something important, but Cui Jue reacted nonchalantly, as if his feelings for Xie Bian were no surprise at all.
Cui Jue shrugged. “Isn’t that a good thing? You like him, he’s been struck by the golden arrow and is madly in love with you. Why not take the opportunity and make things official? Opportunities like this don’t come around often.”
Fan Wujiu frowned, growing a little angry. “I can’t take advantage of him like that. Lao Cui, Xiao Bai is your friend too. How can you be so disrespectful of his feelings?”
Cui Jue was speechless. “No wonder King Yan calls you a blockhead. Even now, you’re still acting like a saint? No wonder you’re never going to get the good stuff. If Lao Bai didn’t like you too, do you really think I’d be suggesting this?”
Fan Wujiu felt deflated. “Xiao Bai only likes me because of the golden arrow, that’s different.”
Cui Jue looked at him like he was an idiot. “What? You really think Lao Xie only started liking you after being struck by a golden arrow?”
Fan Wujiu: “Isn’t that the case?”
Cui Jue’s tone was filled with disbelief. “You seriously don’t know he likes you?”
He stood up in shock, slapping the table. “Everyone knows you like him and he likes you. Me, Zhong Kui, Granny Meng, and the others, we’re all betting on when you two will finally announce it. And you didn’t know he liked you this whole time?!”
Fan Wujiu: “???”
Fan Wujiu was confused. “What do you mean? Wasn’t Xiao Bai and I just brothers before?”
Cui Jue retorted with a series of sharp comments. “Open your eyes and look at the world. Do Ox-Head and Horse-Face post eight hundred photos a day of only each other in their Moments? Do they stay inseparable even outside of work hours? Do they talk to others and constantly bring each other up in every conversation? Do they wear matching clothes from head to toe? Our group chat is buzzing with conversation, but you two have both muted it. If either of you says something, the other is sure to reply immediately, like you’ve set up special notifications. The stench of your romance is so thick it’s choking us. And you still think it’s just brotherly love? If it were really just brotherhood, would I be making small couple jokes about you two?”
He thought the two of them had already secretly gotten together, only waiting for the official announcement and the last step to move forward. But instead, he was shocked to find that they were so oblivious, they hadn’t even noticed each other’s feelings.
Fan Wujiu missed the point entirely. “What did Ox-Head and Horse-Face do wrong for you to use them as an example?”
“Your brain…… ah, forget it. Your emotional intelligence is truly living up to your name. It’s beyond salvation,” Cui Jue sighed, settling back down. “But Lao Xie shouldn’t be like this. His emotional intelligence is much higher than yours, and he’s always liked you. Yet, he didn’t tell you.”
Fan Wujiu still didn’t understand. “How can you tell he’s always liked me?”
Cui Jue, frustrated by his friend’s cluelessness, replied, “This happened a long time ago. Back then, we were still in the underworld. One day, Lao Xie suddenly came to me for a drink……”
Fan Wujiu interrupted him. “Impossible! Xiao Bai never drinks. You’re lying.”
“Why would I lie to you?” Cui Jue shot him a glance. “Let me tell you what happened first. This was probably eight hundred years ago……”
Eight hundred years ago, at the underworld’s Home-Viewing Terrace.
Cui Jue was sitting in the top-floor pavilion, sipping his wine, gazing toward his distant homeland. He drank cup after cup, enjoying the taste. A cool breeze blew through, and a figure in white, with an otherworldly aura, entered the pavilion and sat across from him. “Judge Cui, could you spare me a few cups of wine?”
“It’s just a few jars of fine wine. Feel free, Bai Wuchang,” Cui Jue said cheerfully.
Xie Bian thanked him, poured himself a drink, and downed several cups in a row, covering his sleeve as he drank. Soon, a blush appeared on his face, showing signs of tipsiness.
Cui Jue: “It seems like Bai Wuchang’s tolerance for alcohol isn’t that high.”
Xie Bian lowered his gaze. “I don’t drink often, so I truly have little tolerance for alcohol.” Yet, he poured himself another cup and continued drinking.
Cui Jue was curious. “If you can’t hold your liquor, why drink so much?”
Xie Bian sipped his wine in silence. “It’s just a way to drown my sorrows.”
Cui Jue, even more intrigued now, asked, “Bai Wuchang, with your bright and open-minded nature, are you really troubled by something?”
By now, Xie Bian was slightly tipsy. He mumbled softly, “The Buddha speaks of the eight sufferings of life: birth, aging, illness, death, separation from loved ones, enduring grievances, unfulfilled desires, and the inability to let go. I have become an immortal, free from birth, aging, illness, and death, but I am still tormented by unfulfilled desires and the inability to let go.”
Cui Jue paused for a moment, then asked, “Does Bai Wuchang have someone he loves?”
Xie Bian’s voice dropped low. “Yes.”
“Separated by the realm of yin and yang, with humans and immortals on different paths, it is likely difficult to meet again in this life,” Cui Jue sighed. “I only hope Bai Wuchang can let go of this soon.”
Xie Bian shook his head. “The one I love is also an immortal, and we see each other every day.”
“Isn’t that perfect, being so close to the water, you get the moon first? Just confess to her directly,” Cui Jue said, still thinking in a straightforward, old-fashioned way. He assumed that Bai Wuchang was talking about Granny Meng. After all, she was the only beautiful immortal in the underworld, and it was hard not to be drawn to a beauty when surrounded by ugly ghosts. Cui Jue could understand that.
Xie Bian let out a low laugh. “The Buddha says, ‘All love is fleeting and impermanent. From love arises worry, from love arises fear.’ My heart is afraid, so I dare not speak.”
Cui Jue sighed inwardly, thinking to himself that Meng Wan, that spirited girl, had somehow managed to make Bai Wuchang, a man as gentle and refined as jade, fall for her.
At that moment, Xie Bian collapsed onto the table, mumbling two words under his breath, “Brother Fan……”
Cui Jue’s hand trembled, spilling the wine from his cup instantly.
……
Later, when he met Bai Wuchang again in the underworld, Bai Wuchang was as cold and noble as ever, as though the drunken incident in the pavilion had never happened.
One day, unable to hold back his curiosity any longer, Cui Jue casually asked, “Does Hei Wuchang’s surname happen to be Fan?”
Xie Bian: “Why do you ask about him, Judge Cui?”
Cui Jue: “That day in the pavilion, Bai Wuchang mentioned ‘Brother Fan’.”
Xie Bian’s expression didn’t change. “What else did I mention?”
Cui Jue, unable to hold back the truth any longer, told him everything.
Xie Bian nodded and then said, “It was just drunken ramblings. Judge Cui, please forget it.”
From then on, Xie Bian refrained from drinking.
He feared that alcohol would make him speak the truth.
Fan Wujiu was left stunned after hearing this.
“Wait, why didn’t you tell me something this important sooner?!”
Cui Jue also felt wronged. “Brother, back then you two had only been working in the underworld for two hundred years, and I wasn’t close to you. Lao Xie told me to forget about it, so what was I supposed to tell you? Later, I also forgot about the matter and assumed you two had already understood each other’s feelings. Who would have thought that even now it hasn’t been cleared up, which is why I’ve only just remembered it again.
“If you ask me, you’re a classic case of ‘an outsider can see things more clearly than those involved’. Lao Xie already said that a thousand years ago he died for love. Can the arrow of love really transcend time and space? He clearly loved you deeply in his past life, to the point of dying for you! It’s just a pity that you two are such tight-lipped individuals…… It’s only now that I understand what Lao Xie meant when he said ‘from love arises worry, from love arises fear.’ You two care too much about each other, yet you’re both too shy to speak up, which has led to this situation today.”
Fan Wujiu felt as though a sudden realization had struck him.
For all this time, he had suspected, no, hoped, deep down, but he had never dared to believe it for certain.
Cui Jue’s words were like a shot of adrenaline, lifting the weight of doubt from him and replacing it with excitement and the thrill of being favored by fate.
He grabbed Cui Jue’s hand tightly. “Lao Cui, I should have come to you sooner. I wasted a thousand years…… I’m such a fool!”
Fan Wujiu grabbed his coat and rushed out of the hotel. “I now know what I must do!”
He returned to Yanluo Apartments at a speed faster than he’d ever moved before, almost as if he was floating.
Throwing open the door to Room 201, he saw several jars of wine on the coffee table. Xie Bian was sitting on the sofa, drinking steadily, his face flushed. His eyes had a slightly reddish tint, likely from the alcohol, though it could also be from the tears.
Fan Wujiu immediately recognized the wine. Venus had sent it, and he’d hidden it under his bed. After he left, it seemed Xie Bian had gone to his room.
None of this mattered now.
When Xie Bian saw him, he briefly looked up, then lowered his eyes indifferently. “Why are you back? Didn’t I tell you to leave?”
Without saying a word, Fan Wujiu stepped forward, scooped Xie Bian up in his arms, and walked toward the bedroom.
Xie Bian struggled slightly in surprise. “What are you doing? Put me down, Lao Hei…… Fan Wujiu!”
Fan Wujiu gently placed him on the bed, then leaned over him, fully in control of the situation, their roles completely reversed from just hours ago.
As Xie Bian felt his clothes being removed one by one, he stopped resisting. Looking up at Fan Wujiu, he asked with steady eyes, “Fan Wujiu, what do you think of me? Are you doing this out of pity or guilt? You don’t need to do this for a brother……”
“It’s not pity or guilt, and you’re not just a brother to me.” Fan Wujiu looked down, his forehead resting against Xie Bian’s, their noses almost touching. His voice was low as he whispered, “Xiao Bai, I’ve wanted this for a long time. A thousand years ago, I wanted to defy the world and marry you. A thousand years later, I want to disregard our friendship and be with you. I’ve been pretending for a thousand years, but now, I want to be honest with you. I’ve always loved you, always wanted you.”
Xie Bian froze.
Fan Wujiu’s kiss landed gently on the tear at the corner of Xie Bian’s eye, carrying infinite tenderness and deep care.
“Xiao Bai.” Fan Wujiu asked with the utmost sincerity, “Will you allow me to love you?”
Xie Bian remained silent for a long moment, his fingers trembling slightly, as if he couldn’t believe what he had just heard. He closed his eyes. “It’s exactly what I needed.”
……
Xie Bian’s long hair cascaded over his shoulders, hiding his porcelain-like skin, his long legs flawless without a hint of imperfection. Fan Wujiu dared not even tighten his grip in fear of causing him harm.
He had always thought of the young man in his arms as a delicate, beautiful porcelain doll. Porcelain needed to be handled with the utmost care, so he meticulously wiped every inch of the porcelain vase, hoping that its opening would allow him to insert a flower — he was about to pluck his beloved bloom.
Just as Fan Wujiu was about to pluck the flower he so deeply cherished, he didn’t notice the slight clarity that suddenly passed through Xie Bian’s drunken eyes.
Xie Bian’s gaze held a fleeting look of confusion, as though he was lost, not fully comprehending the scene before him. Before he could process it, the sudden clarity quickly faded due to the sudden and overwhelming intensity.
But soon, without hesitation, Xie Bian wrapped his arms around Fan Wujiu’s neck and kissed him deeply, a kiss full of love.
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