Chapter 4: Luo Yunjian, how about being a gay for a while?
By then, the sky had completely darkened, the fog was thin, and a gentle evening breeze blew by. The boy's simply tied ponytail was blown by the wind, blocking a little of his vision. His small face, the size of a palm, was pale and miserable. The wide crane cloak on him made him look even more petite and helpless.
Yong Shaolan couldn't see Zhao Yan's expression, but after he finished speaking, the young man didn't respond. The air seemed to freeze. He cleared his throat and asked, "Brother Shen, are you surprised? Why don't you speak?"
Zhao Yan: “…………”
The man said this out of the blue, and he couldn't think of a response... How about comforting him? But being gay wasn't something to be ashamed of, right?
How about putting it on yourself so that he doesn't seem so special?
"Ah... well." Zhao Yan tugged at his crane cloak, lowered his head, and walked forward silently, mumbling, "This kind of thing, if too many people know about it, it's not good."
The young man walked forward on his own. Yong Shaolan's eyes fell on the handsome and blurry figure, and the corners of his lips unconsciously rose a little.
He is not.
But not excluded.
Maybe, just don't reject him.
"Yes, Brother Shen is right." Yong Shaolan followed the young man and walked side by side with him, holding the young man's medicine in his hand: "I have only told you about this matter."
Zhao Yan: “…………”
…
The two returned to the inn, and Yong Shaolan ordered a bowl of beef noodles for the young man and brought it to his room.
Guanyang is only a hundred miles away from Yujing, and it is as far north as it can be. It is not easy to find a place that makes noodles. Yong Shaolan walked in the dark for half an hour before he found one.
The porcelain bowl was so hot that it burned my hands. The white vermicelli was paired with the braised beef, and the aroma of sauce wafted out from the food drawer.
Yong Shaolan placed the noodles on the small table in the room, then went to the bed and called out to the sleeping boy, "Brother Chen, when I went to buy the medicine stove just now, I saw a place selling beef noodles nearby, so I brought you a bowl. Get up and have some."
"Ah?" Zhao Yan felt unwell and drowsy. It was getting late, and he thought he would not have to eat dinner.
The boy got up from the bed in a daze, walked to the small table, looked at the bowl of beef noodles, and immediately a taste of the food came into his mouth: "They actually sell beef noodles here?"
During the month he was in Yujing, he had been eating meals prepared by the chefs in Shuntian Prefecture. Although the food was to his taste, it was difficult for him to taste the authentic street snacks of Jinling.
Zhao Yan took a bite of the noodles and looked at the man sitting across from him. Yong Shaolan still had a bandage covering his eyes, but it made him feel like he was being watched. "Um, Brother Lan, have you eaten yet?"
"I packed it up and brought it back after eating,"
Yong Shaolan didn't eat. After accidentally arriving in Guanyang, he had no valuables and couldn't reveal his identity at will. He could only take off the soft armor he was wearing and pawn it with high-quality cowhide in exchange for dozens of taels of silver. He mostly bought tables, chairs, benches, books, and four treasures of the study. There wasn't much left. Now that there was one more person by his side, he had to spend the money wisely.
The vendor selling noodles asked for a few more cents when he saw that he was blind.
However, the young man would not be wronged for too long. At most one month, he would have to return to Yujing before or after Emperor Yuanwu’s birthday banquet, regardless of whether he could be found or not.
"Oh," that's good, otherwise Zhao Yan would have a psychological burden, eating and living in someone else's house. But when he finds out the whereabouts of his mother, he can make it up to her.
After eating half a bowl of beef noodles, Zhao Yan's belly was so full that he started to feel sleepy again.
Seeing that the young man was not feeling well, Yong Shaolan took the initiative to pour him some mouthwash and said, "Go to sleep after you're full. I'll boil some medicine for you."
Zhao Yan felt really bad. How could he keep ordering the blind man around? It felt like he was asking Tie Sheng to guard the door. "How about I accompany you..."
"No, you are sick, get some rest."
After saying that, Yong Shaolan put the unfinished beef noodles back into the food tray. Fearing that the noodles would get cold, he borrowed the food tray from the boss, paid some money, and boiled the medicine. He still had to walk for half an hour to deliver the food tray and bowl.
…
When Yong Shaolan returned to the room again, it was already midnight. He brought the prepared medicine in and found that the young man had woken up and was reading the book he had bought in the room: "Brother Lan is back."
Zhao Yan slept all the way here and just slept for another hour or two. He was not sleepy at all now. Not long after Yong Shaolan left, he woke up. Out of boredom, he took out the books he bought during the day to read. They were all booklets for children to learn to read, such as "The Analects of Confucius".
Seeing the man come in, he put down the book in his hand and got off the bed: "I just asked the waiter downstairs, and he said you went out. Where did you go?"
"I didn't go anywhere. I just went to deliver the bowl of powder." After that, Yong Shaolan handed the medicine to the boy: "Drink the medicine and get some rest early. We have to go back tomorrow."
"Oh," didn't you mean a nearby store? It took us almost an hour to walk there, right?
Zhao Yan sipped the bitter medicine and suddenly felt that the medicine was not so bitter. After taking the medicine, Zhao Yan did not let the man do anything else. He went downstairs to take the bowl away.
The town was very quiet at night. Only a waiter was busy calculating his abacus while delivering the medicine bowl to the inn's kitchenette. Zhao Yan approached the waiter and asked, "Shopkeeper, can I ask you something?"
Waiter: "Sir, please speak."
Zhao Yan: "Have you heard that the Empress recently brought the Seventh Prince back to the capital?"
Waiter: "I've heard of it before. A few days ago, the Empress and the young prince's guard of honor passed through Guanyang. I even took my wife and children to see it. Why are you asking this, sir?"
Zhao Yan's eyes lit up when he heard this. "Nothing much, it's just that a relative of mine is serving in the honor guard, and I want to go to Yujing to join him, hoping to follow him to the capital."
The waiter said, "Oh, this is difficult. The honor guard passed by three or five days ago. They should have passed Guanyang by now. As for where exactly they are, I really don't know. Sir, you should buy a horse and chase them yourself."
Zhao Yan: "Okay, okay, thank you."
…
Zhao Yan returned to the room dejectedly. Yong Shaolan had already made the beds for the two of them, with two quilts, one on the bed and one on the floor.
When Zhao Yan walked over, Yong Shaolan took off his cloak and said to him, "Come over and sleep when you're done. You sleep on the bed and I'll sleep on the floor."
"Ah?" Zhao Yan: "The ground is so cold, we can still sleep if we squeeze together."
Hearing this, Yong Shaolan raised the corners of his mouth inadvertently again, but he did not accept the boy's opinion: "You and I are both gay, so it's better for us to sleep separately, otherwise it will tarnish Brother Shen's reputation."
Zhao Yan: “…………”
Forget that he has temporarily become a homosexual.
As the man spoke, he lay down on the ground. Zhao Yan had no choice but to slowly climb onto the bed. Seeing that the other party had his eyes closed and remained silent, he didn't say anything more.
Before getting into the quilt, Zhao Yan leaned out to blow out the candles, and took advantage of the bright candlelight to take a serious look at the man under the bed.
I have to say that this brother Lan is really handsome with regular eyebrows, deep facial features, nice lips, and a good figure. He is at least 1.9 meters tall. He wears thin clothes in summer, and his chest is bulging, showing that it is full of muscles.
Zhao Yan blew out the candle, crawled back into the quilt, and touched his flat and somewhat concave belly. There was nothing but soft skin and flesh.
They are all men, why doesn’t he have abdominal muscles?
…
In the middle of the night, Zhao Yan was half asleep when he suddenly heard the man under the bed coughing a few times. He rubbed his eyes and got up. The man's lips looked pale and seemed to be a little cold. He called out to him softly, "Brother Lan, why don't you come up and sleep? It's not good to catch a cold."
Zhao Yan wasn't sure if the man was awake or not, so he muttered softly. But as soon as he finished speaking, the man on the ground sat up, put his fist to his lips and coughed a few times: "Cough, nothing serious, just a little cold, cough cough..."
Zhao Yan felt even more guilty now. The money was paid by others, and they were still forced to sleep on the floor.
He threw back the quilt, stepped barefoot on the floor, and grabbed the man's hand: "Brother Lan, you and I are both gay, there is nothing to be embarrassed about, come up quickly."
Yong Shaolan turned slightly and his eyes fell on the white ankle in front of him, although he could not see the details clearly.
But, very white.
“In this case, I’ll let Brother Shen down.”
…
Around the time of Yin, the people around him were already fast asleep. Yong Shaolan turned over, facing the young man sleeping on his inner side, and whispered: "Brother Chen, are you going to the toilet?"
The only response he got was the boy's steady breathing.
After confirming that the boy was asleep, Yong Shaolan raised his hand and removed the cloth covering his eyes. His charming eyes opened and his blurry gaze fell on the boy's lonely back.
He couldn't see clearly, so he could only feel with his hands. Then his slender knuckles gently touched the boy's white neck, and his fingertips with thin calluses gently squeezed it. Soon, the skin turned pink, and a faint fragrance spread through his nostrils.
After a while, Yong Shaolan curled his fingers in front of his nostrils and took a deep sniff.
But the smell that can be picked up by the fingertips is limited and will dissipate after a while.
A thin stream of moonlight streamed in through the paper window, hazy like a veil of darkness, falling on those deep, terrifying eyes. The man's nose was high, easily reaching down to the back of his slender neck, like a ghost sucking blood. The cool tip of his nose gently scraped against the boy's soft flesh.
After sucking enough of the taste, the man slid his throat with satisfaction.
…
The next day, Zhao Yan slept until noon. When he woke up, Yong Shaolan was sitting at the table in the room writing something. On the table was the food tray where the man had brought him beef noodles yesterday.
Seeing people getting up, Yong Shaolan picked up the things in his hands and said, "Brother Shen, come and eat when you wake up. I saw that you didn't eat much yesterday. Today I changed to mutton noodles, which is not so heavy. I think you will like it."
"...Okay," Zhao Yan simply washed his hands, walked over to the man and sat down, "I just saw Brother Lan writing? Your eyes..."
"I can't see clearly, but I was brought up with strict family education, so I've already formed the habit. I can write without looking," Yong Shaolan said. He brought out the lighter mutton noodles and took out the pepper that he had asked the owner to put in separately, pushing it towards the boy. "I didn't know if you like it, so I didn't ask the owner to put it in."
"It's okay, I don't have any dietary restrictions." Zhao Yan sniffed the light mutton noodles. Unlike the beef noodles with rich oil and red sauce, the noodles had a light meaty aroma. "It smells so good!"
"As long as you like it," Yong Shaolan said, raised the corner of his mouth, and asked tentatively: "Brother Shen, did you sleep well last night?"
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