Chapter 65, "The Phantom of the Phoenix," had him speak while shirtless.
Five hours ago.
A violent tremor shook Mount Sixiang, and the demonic beasts that remained on the mountain scattered in terror, spreading demonic energy and causing strange occurrences throughout the mountain.
Wei Xiuzhu woke up with a start, her well-behaved face covered in cold sweat, her almond-shaped eyes wide open, filled with terror.
It's obvious that he just had a nightmare.
As his startled thoughts gradually returned, Wei Xiuzhu finally remembered where he was, his unfocused eyes taking in the bamboo house before him.
He habitually reached out and groped on the bed, his arm sweeping up and down the bed without finding what he was looking for, and he immediately became fully awake.
"Little snake!" He jumped up from the couch with a start, instantly breaking out in a cold sweat.
The bamboo couch was spotless, with nothing but himself and a quilt on the bed.
His little white snake has disappeared!
Wei Xiuzhu's face drained of color. He sat on the bed, breathing heavily. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead and down his neck.
Before he was even fully dressed, a small pool of sweat quickly gathered in the hollow of his collarbone, like the spider silk that had clung to him during their passionate encounter with the little white snake the night before.
But this shouldn't be happening...
Wei Xiuzhu looked up at the barrier on the bed. The water-colored, transparent barrier was as solid as a rock, and not a single crack could be found.
The little white snake had no spiritual power and could not possibly escape from the barrier it had set up.
Wei Xiuzhu forced himself to calm down, knelt up on the bamboo couch, and dragged his still somewhat weak and numb body inch by inch across the bed with both hands in front of him.
If the little white snake didn't run far, it probably hid under the blankets.
He shouldn't have expanded the barrier last night just to make things easier!
With a hint of regret in his heart, Wei Xiuzhu touched every inch of the bed, finally unfolding the quilt and searching for it bit by bit, before neatly folding the quilt to one side.
Surprisingly, there really wasn't one.
Wei Xiuzhu's face turned pale. In his anxiety, he couldn't help but look up at the barrier above again, and couldn't help but have a slight doubt about his own magic.
Could it be that there's something wrong with the barrier, and the little white snake escaped through a crack in it?
Thinking this, he quickly raised his hand and tentatively touched the barrier. He pressed both palms onto the barrier at the same time, and a sharp pain immediately came from his palms.
"ah!"
Wei Xiuzhu screamed and pulled her hands back with trembling arms. She saw that her palms were covered with blisters from the heat, and all ten fingers were red and swollen. She couldn't even sit down to make a light clenching.
Wei Xiuzhu brought his palms to his mouth and blew cold air upwards, while at the same time looking up at the barrier with disbelief.
He was actually burned by the barrier he set up!
That's strange. Is the barrier he set up really that powerful?
Just as Wei Xiuzhu was wondering if he was a hidden genius in the world of cloth who had not yet been discovered by Nanyu Mountain, a soft, sinister laugh suddenly came from the quiet bamboo house.
Wei Xiuzhu shuddered, raised his two hands (which he dared not bend) and rubbed them back twice, his back pressed tightly against the edge of the barrier.
He stared warily at the corner where the laughter was coming from, suppressing his fear as he asked, "Who?!"
A tall, slender figure was faintly visible behind a dilapidated screen, and then someone slowly emerged from behind the screen, holding a talisman.
She wore an old dress that she had somehow found somewhere, yet it made her look incredibly graceful. Her willow-leaf eyes were alluring, and her gaze seemed to gleam with a faint green light in the shadows. A faint smile played on her lips.
"Your talisman-drawing skills are getting more and more refined." He walked around to the bedside, exchanged a glance with Wei Xiuzhu, who was in shock, through the barrier, and then burned the Warm Sun Talisman in his hand to ashes amidst the child's shocked expression.
The room was filled with so many talismans that the temperature didn't drop at all even after the talisman disappeared. Fu Yusheng raised his narrow eyes and looked at the terrified child on the inner bed, and couldn't help but smile and ask with amusement: "What, don't you know how to greet people?"
Only then did a trace of color gradually return to Wei Xiuzhu's pale face.
He moved his lips and found that his entire body, from his lips to his throat, was trembling violently, every inch of his skin spasming with the slight trembling. He managed to squeeze out a sound, but before he could finish speaking, tears streamed down his face.
Fu Yusheng was stunned for a moment, and for the first time believed that there were actually people who could cry with tears streaming down their faces.
Before long, Wei Xiuzhu's eyes were swollen from crying. Her beautiful almond-shaped eyes quickly became swollen. Then, she moved her knees and crawled to the edge of the bed, where she slumped down in front of Fu Yusheng and cried even more profusely.
Only when he got closer could Fu Yusheng finally hear clearly what the little pervert was saying in a whimpering voice.
"Senior brother..."
"Waaaaah, senior brother..."
"Tsk." Fu Yusheng glanced at him with a hint of disdain, feeling no sympathy whatsoever.
For the past six months, he has been tormented by this little pervert, and he can still feel the swelling marks on his neck from Wei Xiuzhu's pinching.
Now that the Qin Mirror has shattered and demons are in turmoil, he has finally regained his human form and naturally wants to get back all the suffering he has endured.
Seeing Wei Xiuzhu crying more and more intensely, she eventually forgot that there was a barrier between her and her senior brother, and actually stretched out both hands to hug Fu Yusheng.
Just as his palms, covered in blisters from the burns, were about to touch the barrier again, Fu Yusheng frowned and, before he could cry out in pain from the burns once more, he passed through the barrier and clamped his wrists.
Wei Xiuzhu hadn't realized he'd almost been burned again, and ignoring the burning pain in his hands, he rushed to Fu Yusheng's body along his wrist, crying out, "Waaah, Senior Brother, you're finally back!"
The little thing cried and whimpered, its body burning hot. Fu Yusheng felt as if there was a fire burning in his arms. He endured it for a while, but finally scolded it gently with good temper: "Alright, how old are you?"
"Knowing there was a barrier, you still rushed in. No wonder Master said you don't have a brain."
Wei Xiuzhu's mind, which had been clouded by tears of reunion, finally began to clear.
“So that’s why…” Wei Xiuzhu choked back tears, barely managing to hold back her sobs, “So the barrier was reinforced by my senior brother.”
Fu Yusheng let him stick his sweaty body to himself without responding to his words, thinking to himself that he wasn't too stupid since he could still see that.
The next moment, he saw the little creature with bloodshot eyes voluntarily withdraw from his arm, kneel up, look at him earnestly, and ask, "Then, senior brother, have you seen my little white snake?"
Fu Yusheng: "..."
He really didn't want to mention anything related to the "little white snake." Frustrated, he raised his hand and pinched the bridge of his nose. His effeminate face lifted slightly, and he raised his chin at Wei Xiuzhu. "There might be some trouble in the underworld. There's unrest in the Four Symbols Mountain. It's no longer safe here."
"Your little white snake may have already abandoned you."
Wei Xiuzhu was stunned for a moment, seemingly unable to believe what she had heard. Her tear-streaked face immediately scrunched up in a bitter expression.
As the blood drained from his face, he looked up at Fu Yusheng in a daze, and another tear rolled down his cheek without warning, clearly heartbroken.
How can that be?
Just last night, the little white snake had been clinging to him and doing very intimate things.
They clearly already...
"What did you do with that snake?" Fu Yusheng could tell what the little guy was thinking at a glance. He chuckled and crossed his forearms to look at him. "Look at you, so absent-minded and reluctant to part."
Wei Xiuzhu dared not say.
He knelt on the outer edge of the bamboo couch, his calves aching from the bamboo strips. He shifted uncomfortably, and his clothes, which he wasn't properly dressed in, slipped off.
Wei Xiuzhu had clearly forgotten about this incident. He only realized it when he felt a chill and hurriedly frantically tried to fix his clothes.
Two throbbing hands gripped a section of their collar, trying to wrap themselves up in their clothes despite the excruciating pain. But halfway through their effort, Fu Yusheng gently tapped the inside of their wrists.
Wei Xiuzhu groaned as his hands ached, his forehead covered in sweat, and two pieces of his clothes fell down.
His chest and back were completely exposed in front of his senior brother. He was caught in a dilemma, unsure whether to put on his clothes or not. He could only open his mouth pitifully at Fu Yusheng and ask, "Senior brother?"
What are you doing?
Why did they have to make him speak shirtless for no reason?
Fu Yusheng smiled good-naturedly, took a step, and sat down on the side of the couch, directly across the barrier.
He watched for a while with a smile, then suddenly reached out and pinched the most conspicuous spot on Wei Xiuzhu's chest with his unusual fingers.
"ah!"
Caught off guard, Wei Xiuzhu ignored the burning pain in her palms, clutching her chest tightly with both hands and trying to pry Fu Yusheng's slippery finger off her body. "Senior...Senior Brother..."
"How much do you like that snake?" Fu Yusheng asked without looking up, pinching Wei Xiuzhu's nipple with one hand, a half-smile on his face. "Or rather, how much do you enjoy doing 'that' with it?"
Wei Xiuzhu was not yet of legal age this year. In Nanyushan's eyes, he was still a greenhorn, a naive little boy who had never known love before, and was now entangled by a mindless white snake.
Just thinking about it makes me feel incredibly embarrassed, and my earlobes and the back of my neck quickly turn red.
He didn't understand why his senior brother's demeanor had changed so much from before. He forced himself to sit on the bed, suppressing the shame that was about to engulf him. His two burning hands gripped the mattress tightly, and his whole body trembled like a leaf.
His cheeks were flushed, his chest heaved, and tears welled up in his eyes, but he dared not let a single drop fall.
"I'm not looking for snakes anymore." After a long while, Wei Xiuzhu raised his eyes and looked pitifully at Fu Yusheng, "Please, senior brother, let me go..."
Fu Yusheng paused for a moment while holding his fingers, then curled his index finger and used the back of his finger to scratch his most sensitive spot. Amid the man's suppressed trembling, he asked with a smile, "Really not looking anymore?"
Wei Xiuzhu lowered his eyes, not daring to look his senior brother in the eye. His ten fingers, swollen like radishes, clenched tightly on the mattress, his heart filled with increasing turmoil.
The little white snake and he were in love, and they had done *that* kind of thing. If he abandoned the little white snake at this time, how would he be any different from a heartless man in the common folk?
But... my senior brother seems to mind.
Fine, Wei Xiuzhu gritted his teeth and endured the waves of tingling sensations, panting heavily, and made up his mind—at worst, he would just sneak off to look for it when his senior brother wasn't looking.
He closed his eyes, silently convincing himself to lie to his senior brother this once, and said in a breathy voice, "Really not... ugh!!"
Fu Yusheng pinched him hard with his fingernails.
“Lies,” he judged.
Wei Xiuzhu's eyes narrowed, his mouth opened involuntarily, and he could no longer maintain his swaying figure, shrinking back and curling himself up.
Then she cried.
Seeing this, Fu Yusheng withdrew his hand, retreated outside the barrier, crossed his arms, and watched him, intending to teach the little guy a lesson when he had stopped crying.
The bamboo house fell silent, except for Wei Xiuzhu's extremely aggrieved sobs.
"Waaah..."
Suddenly, a gust of wind swept by, and the talisman paper on the door rustled in the wind.
Fu Yusheng raised an eyebrow alertly, his mind immediately on high alert.
The eerie aura carried on the wind...
not good.
He has been here in his snake form for so long, his presence has probably been detected by his own kind.
"Get up." Fu Yusheng's expression turned solemn. He took two steps forward and looked at the person who was still slumped on the bed. He said, "Come back to the Eighteen Realms with me."
Heavy breathing.
It took Wei Xiuzhu a long time to understand what his senior brother said, and he choked for a while before he finally spoke.
"Senior brother, I... I can't get up." He stared blankly at Fu Yusheng's shadow. "I'm going to die..."
Fu Yusheng chuckled, walked straight across the barrier, grabbed Wei Xiuzhu by the shoulder and dragged him up unharmed, hoisting him onto his shoulder. "Didn't you like how it treated you? When we get back, I'll let you like it to your heart's content."
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Author's Note: You can choose either the top or bottom character; don't worry about getting it wrong, either one is fine [dog head with rose in hand].
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