Chapter 106 Springtime Heart in Turmoil (XIV) A Twisted Brotherhood...

The clappers had sounded countless times, yet the candlelight inside the window remained lit.

Gu Lianzhou leaned against the couch, his long, slender fingers brushing over the words "A pretty prince disguised as a man" on the page. He paused slightly, then finally turned to the next page.

The book is still new, the pages are clean and crisp, and the paper feels stiff to the touch, as if no one has ever read it.

He couldn't help but frown.

Did your senior brother snatch the book away so impatiently that day that you didn't even get to read it once?

With a sense of doubt in his heart, he turned his gaze back to the paper.

[Episode 1: The Scarlet Makeup]

During the Yongchang era, there was a family surnamed Su in Jiangnan. They had a daughter named Su Yutang. This girl had almond-shaped eyes and cherry lips, and a graceful figure. However, she was also strong-willed and had a dislike for needlework and a love for poetry and books from a young age. She often lamented, "Why can't women achieve great things like men?"

Just then, her father was framed by a villain, and her family fell into poverty. To find out the truth, Yu Tang made a tough decision: she cut her hair, bound her chest and abdomen, changed into her brother's old clothes, and smeared her face with ginger juice to disguise herself as a man.

His gaze shifted downwards, landing on the last line: "[This disguise is incredibly difficult; the Adam's apple is hard to conceal, the gait hard to alter, and the voice hard to adjust! Yu Tang chewed coarse sand to hoarse her voice during the day, and practiced a man's walk under the moon at midnight, taking three months to perfect it.]"

Gu Lianzhou raised his hand and gently stroked the protrusion at the back of his throat, subconsciously recalling his senior brother's appearance.

Although my senior brother was dressed conservatively, he, like me, had an Adam's apple.

Looking at the Miss Su in the book, she only uses her collar to cover herself, a simple and easily exposed method. If someone is trying to test her, how could she not see through it?

As he was pondering this, the hand on his neck paused.

A hint of annoyance flashed in Gu Lianzhou's eyes.

What is he thinking about?

He quickly flipped through a few pages, his eyes sweeping over the words "The handsome prince consort can distinguish between male and female," and Gu Lianzhou's breath caught in his throat. He slowly sat up straight like a thief.

Ordinary men might have beards as thick as spears, or faces as dark as the bottom of a pot; even the most refined scholars would have some roughness. But the handsome prince consort, though she used ginger juice to coat her face, still possessed a "snow-white complexion with a rosy glow." The skin behind her neck and ears was delicate; when she bathed, the steam revealed her true feminine nature.

There are so many intricacies involved...

As he read on, he felt as if he had discovered some incredible secret, and his heart began to beat faster and faster.

The inscription on it was densely written: "The man's shoulders were broad as a fan, and his gait was as slender as a pine tree. However, the prince consort, due to his tightly bound chest, often unconsciously hunched over and turned sideways, resembling a 'slender bamboo in the wind,' yet possessing a delicate and refined air."

Those words seemed to have hooks, slowly pulling out the doubts in his heart.

My senior brother was already fair-skinned, and after being steamed in the hot spring, his skin became as tender as cream. Although he walked steadily, he occasionally revealed a deliberate stiffness.

My senior brother has a clear voice, but occasionally when he is flustered, a soft, inexplicable tone will emerge at the end of his voice. Not to mention that he never bathes with others and is always properly dressed...

Gu Lianzhou slammed the book shut and threw it onto the table as if he had been burned.

"Nonsense!" he muttered, whether refuting the story or trying to quell his own chaotic thoughts.

He's probably bewitched.

How could someone have such absurd speculations about their senior brother based on a folk tale?

Can……

The image of my senior brother's crimson ears lingered in my mind.

Does an ordinary man react this way when he comes into contact with others? Or did he first develop those filthy thoughts and then start projecting his own feelings onto his senior brother?

He suddenly fell backward into the bed, raised his hand to cover his face, and his breathing became labored.

As he tossed and turned in bed, the sound of the fabric rubbing against the mattress was exceptionally clear. He opened his eyes and watched as the dark patterns on the tent ceiling blurred into a chaotic river in the night, until his eyelids grew heavy, and the river actually began to ripple.

Amidst the cracks in the water, a shower of red silk emerged, and a woman in a wedding dress stood at the bow of the boat, a phoenix embroidered with gold thread carrying a string of pearls, jingling as she turned.

When the veil was lifted by the wind, he saw his senior brother with rouge at the corners of his eyes, giving him a bright smile.

"Junior brother, watch me set this pleasure boat on fire!"

The voice was not as deep as it had been in Pingkangfang; it was thick and sticky, like honey, which startled him so much that he staggered backward and almost fell into the cold, dark river behind him.

The chaotic red light shattered instantly.

Gu Lianzhou suddenly opened his eyes, bent his elbows and sat up, his forehead against the cold bedpost. The dull knocking continued, each sound like a blow to his throbbing temples.

The fishy smell of the river from his dream still lingered in the bed. He raised his hand and pressed it hard against his chest, as if trying to force that absurd scene back into his chest, but his fingertips touched a patch of cold sweat.

"Knock knock knock—"

"Junior Brother T, open the door!"

The senior brother's call traveled over the high wall and reached my ears.

After calming himself down for a moment by patting his chest, he got up, changed his clothes, walked out of his bedroom, and opened the courtyard gate.

As soon as he opened the door, he saw his senior brother carrying a food box, grumbling at him, "I've been calling you for ages, what are you dreaming about? Why didn't you open the door for me?"

What was said without malice may have been taken to heart by the listener.

Gu Lianzhou recalled the absurd dream from last night, his gaze sweeping uncomfortably over his senior brother's face, and said guiltily, "I had some strange dreams."

Looking at her junior brother with suspicion, Song Qiling squeezed in with the food box in her hand, saying, "What are you doing blocking the way? Let me in quickly."

“I saw that you only drank a bowl of thin porridge last night, and I was worried that you were too hungry to sleep. It turns out I was overthinking it.” She stepped aside to walk past her junior brother, and subconsciously picked up the food box to hold it in front of her chest, only to find that Gu Lianzhou was staring at her blankly, looking like he was in a daze.

"What? Overwhelmed with emotion?" She smiled and walked forward, completely unaware of the turmoil in her junior brother's heart.

Gu Lianzhou turned around stiffly, looking at his senior brother's thin back and the food box hanging by his side, his brows furrowing.

Senior brother just now...

Why deliberately avoid him?

Song Qiling walked quickly to the stone table in the center of the courtyard, deftly opened the food box, and took out steaming buns, golden fried dough sticks, two bowls of soft and sticky rice porridge, and several plates of refreshing side dishes, which she then laid out on the stone table.

"What are you daydreaming about?" She turned around and urged her junior brother, "Go wash up, the porridge will get cold soon."

Gu Lianzhou then seemed to wake from a dream, groggily responding and splashing cold water on his face, the chill slightly suppressing the indescribable turmoil in his heart.

“The bed from last night was completely broken, so there’s no need to repair it.” Song Qiling swallowed a mouthful of steamed bun and glanced at her junior brother. “After dinner, I’d like to go to the woodworking shop in the east of the city. Would you like to come with me?”

"Okay." Gu Lianzhou readily agreed. After washing up, he lifted his clothes and sat down at the table. His gaze swept over his senior brother's slightly moving throat, and his hand holding the chopsticks paused.

As the first rays of dawn fell upon Song Qiling's slender, fair neck, her Adam's apple swayed gently with each swallow, its curve subtlely different from the "protruding Adam's apple" described in stories...

"Why aren't you eating? Is the food not to your liking?" Noticing his gaze, Song Qiling looked up, touching her face in confusion. "Why are you looking at me? Is there something on my face?"

"No." Gu Lianzhou hurriedly lowered his head, picked up a small steamed bun, took a bite, but couldn't taste it.

The words from the storybook lingered in his mind like a ghost.

The skin behind the ears and on the sides of the neck is delicate and translucent, like snow with a rosy glow...

His gaze involuntarily drifted to the back of his senior's ear.

The skin there was indeed exceptionally smooth; the sunlight could almost penetrate it, and you could even see the pale blue veins.

When the senior brother lowered his head, a slender neck was revealed from the tightly closed collar, with smooth and supple lines, unlike the rough and hard bones of a man.

He's gone mad, he's truly gone mad.

In broad daylight, I was hallucinating.

Who says men have to be muscular and strong?

Does being slender and flexible mean you're not a man?

Such a hasty guess—where does it place the senior brother? Is it merely to satisfy his pathetic fantasy?

His feelings for his senior brother...when did they become so twisted?

He stuffed his mouth full of steamed buns, and only when his senior brother waved his hand vigorously in front of him did he come back to his senses.

"Have you gone crazy from being hungry for so long?" A hint of worry flashed in his eyes, and he quickly poured a cup of tea and handed it to him. "That's not how you eat. There's plenty here. You can eat more if you're still hungry. Don't choke yourself..."

Gu Lianzhou took the teacup in a daze, obediently tilted his head back and drank it, but out of the corner of his eye he saw his senior brother raise his hand and slowly stroke down his back.

"Poor thing, it was I who mistreated you." Song Qiling suddenly remembered how much her junior brother had suffered following her all this way, and how he had almost lost his life because of her. Her conscience ached.

She simply put down her chopsticks and pushed the full bag of steamed buns and dumplings forward, saying, "From now on, don't hide anything. Eat whenever you're hungry. Although the demonic energy isn't there every day, there's still plenty of food."

Gu Lianzhou: "..."

He wasn't actually that hungry.

Warm, soft fingers stroked my back, bringing a strange, soothing sensation wherever they touched.

Gu Lianzhou lowered his eyes to hide the turmoil in them. "Senior brother, I'm not a three-year-old child. What kind of behavior is this, trying to coax me like this?"

Song Qiling chuckled: "I wasn't trying to coax you. I was just worried you'd choke."

She withdrew her hand, rested her elbow on the stone table, and watched her junior brother eat slowly and methodically, her smile never fading.

After being stared at for a while, Gu Lianzhou looked up uncomfortably, his eyes flickering. "What's wrong?"

Song Qiling smiled and couldn't help but say, "Junior brother, I'm very happy to have you by my side."

The courtyard fell silent instantly, with only the soft rustling of leaves in the wind.

Gu Lianzhou slowed his chewing, his dark eyes widening slightly, as if he hadn't expected her to say such a thing.

He forced himself to remain calm, but his voice involuntarily tightened at the end: "What, Senior Brother, are you used to having someone by your side now?"

She used to refuse him in every way, eager to settle the deal quickly and leave, but now she's like this...

Is it because you like having someone with you, or because the person with you is... yourself?

Thinking of this, my heart began to pound wildly.

Unexpectedly, Song Qiling was stunned for a moment when her junior brother asked such a question. Feeling inexplicably guilty, she simply turned her head away from him and said, "It's just that eating alone is really lonely. With you by my side, it makes the meal much more enjoyable."

That's a novel reason.

Gu Lianzhou suddenly burst out laughing: "So, Senior Brother thinks I'm nothing special."

Song Qiling: "..."

You can interpret it that way if you want.