Chapter 45: Choose Me or Him
As the person being questioned, Yue Ji not only did not feel guilty at all, but was calm and almost justified.
He lazily sank into the warm bed, gently stroking Qi Qing's back with one hand, and said calmly: "Brother is drunk, so I will stay and take care of him."
"Who is your brother?" Qi Qing threw back the quilt and said angrily, "Go back to your room."
Yue Ji said nothing, but quietly withdrew his hand, turned over and pretended to be asleep, and his breathing soon became even.
This bed was originally narrow and small. It could barely accommodate Yue Ji, who looked like a child back then. Now with two adult men squeezed together, it seemed even more cramped.
Qi Qing belatedly remembered that when he just woke up, the two of them didn't know how they were lying there, but they didn't feel crowded at all.
Could it be...
"Get up." He pushed Yue Ji a few times, and his palm touched a piece of burning skin, and then he pulled back as if he had been electrocuted.
Yue Ji didn't move at all, but his breathing became heavier.
Qi Qing clenched his hands, his ears felt hot, and he turned over and got off the bed: "If you don't leave, I will."
There was still a trace of cold sweat on his back. The nightmare just now was too real, so real that he didn't even realize when he fell into the dream.
He got out of bed and poured himself a cup of tea. The slightly bitter taste of the cold tea calmed the restlessness in his heart a little.
Qi Qing opened the door, held the teacup in his hand, and stood under the eaves to enjoy the breeze for a while.
There is no moon tonight, and there will definitely be wind and rain tomorrow.
The young man drank his tea in a disjointed manner, and at the end he couldn't help but let out a long breath of hot air.
He suddenly remembered the thought that flashed through his mind before he returned in the afternoon - the plot of the original novel.
In the past two years, Qi Qing had countless opportunities to unlock the follow-up, but he always stopped at the last minute.
He told himself to wait a little longer, wait a little longer, long enough to dilute the traces of the years of getting along between master and disciple. He deliberately didn't want to pay too much attention to Yue Ji, as if as long as he did so, he could casually say "take care" when that person left, and then leave Tiandu Sect without any worries.
But just two days after leaving the quarantine, he realized that he still cared.
——Care about the fate of “Yue Ji” in the original novel.
The tea was almost gone. Qi Qing put the cup down with a heavy heart, intending to unlock the plot directly. He just raised his hand and stopped.
He glanced sideways at the shadow cast behind him: "What? You don't want to continue pretending to sleep?"
Yue Ji had quietly stood behind him without anyone noticing. Qi Qing felt a warmth on his shoulders, and then his outer robe was put on him.
"Brother, didn't you have a nightmare?" Yue Ji smiled.
"You are so disrespectful." Qi Qing turned around and walked into the house, his sleeves blowing in the breeze: "You take a lie I made up seriously?"
Yue Ji still smiled: "Didn't Master personally allow me to call you Brother?"
He followed slowly, closing the door and bringing in the oil lamp, a halo of warm light lit up the room.
Yue Ji sat down, picked up the teapot, and casually brushed his palm across the bottom: "Master, tell me what nightmare you had."
As he spoke, the tea that was poured out was already steaming slightly.
He handed over the teacup, the temperature was just right, ironing Qi Qing's palm soothingly.
Qi Qing sat there holding the teacup for a while before lowering his head to take a sip and asking, "When did I get drunk?"
“I don’t remember.” Yue Ji said, “Master fell down so suddenly that I got shocked.”
Qi Qing was puzzled: "Strange, why don't I remember being drunk at all?"
The warm tea made his stomach feel better, so he started talking: "I was drinking in my dream, but you weren't by my side. A man in black pushed the door open and sat next to me, trying to steal my drink. It was so annoying."
Yue Ji also poured himself a cup of tea and asked, "Man? What does he look like?"
Qi Qing tried hard to recall and found that he had never seen the man's appearance clearly: "It's hard to say... He should be good-looking, like someone I know, but I can't remember his specific appearance."
He continued, "That person said a few words to me, and seemed to call me... Senior Brother?"
"Senior Brother?" Yue Ji's hand holding the teacup suddenly tightened.
Doubt flashed across his eyes, but when he saw Qi Qing's expression was normal, he suppressed it without showing it, his Adam's apple rolling, "What else did you say?"
Qi Qing did not notice anything unusual, and said with his chin propped up: "Then he suddenly turned into several black air and attacked me when I was not prepared. I woke up before I could react."
He ignored the embarrassment of being suppressed and unable to move, and secretly changed the subject: "That black energy is very much like demonic energy. Could it be that... some nightmare ghost dared to come to Tiandu Sect and run wild?"
Yue Ji's fingers trembled slightly, his face was calm, and he narrowed his eyes and said, "...Master, don't worry, I will go to investigate the area thoroughly tomorrow and I will find out everything."
He deliberately emphasized the last few words. Although Qi Qing felt strange, he did not ask any more questions and just said, "Let's talk about it tomorrow."
He put down the teacup and drank the hot tea. The tense feeling brought by the nightmare gradually dissipated and the sleepiness came back.
The young man rubbed his brows and said, "I'll take a nap."
Yue Ji blew out the oil lamp consciously, but still sat in the dark without moving.
"Not going back?" Qi Qing took off the outer robe from his shoulders and asked him casually.
In the dark blue night, Yue Ji seemed to look up at him, then lowered his eyes to look at the extinguished lamp in his hand, with a faint light flashing in his eyes, like some kind of nocturnal animal.
"I'm here to protect Master." His voice was so soft that Qi Qing felt like he was hallucinating. Otherwise, how could he hear a tone that sounded like a sneer? "What evil demons and heretics, they will never dare to come again."
Seeing that he had no intention of getting on the bed again, the young man let him go. He slept exceptionally soundly that day and did not wake up until dawn.
Originally, Qi Qing planned to slowly investigate the rumors about the secret realm of Yunzhou and inquire about the people from the Alchemy Association, but things did not go as planned.
At noon that day, an urgent letter was delivered to Qi Qing.
"The secret realm of Yunzhou is about to open, come quickly."
The signature is senior brother.
Qi Qing sat in the cafeteria, reading the letter over and over again in surprise.
He didn't expect it to be such a coincidence that the secret realm his senior brother went to explore was Yunzhou, and the secret realm hasn't even been explored yet, and it's really causing trouble everywhere.
Senior brother didn’t know that he had already come out of seclusion - this letter should have been sent to Yue Ji.
After completing its mission, the carrier pigeon turned into a wisp of powder and disappeared. Qi Qing folded the letter paper again and put it away. He drank the porridge in two or three mouthfuls and prepared to go back to discuss it with Yue Ji.
As soon as he stood up, he saw the young food chef named Ji Chunfeng suddenly take off his apron and walk towards him, looking hesitant and seeming to want to say something.
"Something?" Qi Qing stopped.
Ji Chunfeng smiled awkwardly and said cautiously, "Just now I accidentally saw the contents of Senior Brother's letter... Is it related to Yunzhou?"
Seeing that Qi Qing didn't answer, he immediately explained: "It was really just an accidental glimpse, don't misunderstand me, Senior Brother! I, I don't want to find out anything, but... if Senior Brother wants to go to Yunzhou, can you help me find someone?"
"Looking for someone?" Qi Qing asked, "Who are you looking for?"
"Jiang Chenqiu from the Spiritual Medicine Garden."
Qi Qing said "Oh" in understanding.
Isn’t this the chief disciple of the Spiritual Medicine Garden who was entangled with Ji Chunfeng for several years because his first work was accidentally picked by Ji Chunfeng?
"He also went to the Yunzhou Secret Realm?" Qi Qing was a little surprised: "Why don't you go find him yourself?"
"We had a fight before."
Ji Chunfeng stammered, "Brother, you know that he and I don't usually get along, but... Anyway, we had a quarrel! He ran off to the secret realm out of anger, and now there is no news from him."
He raised his head, pleading in his eyes: "Brother, please help me. I haven't finished my work here yet, so I can't go down the mountain without permission. He rarely goes out, and I... I'm afraid he'll get into danger outside."
This was not a difficult task, Qi Qing agreed immediately: "Leave it to me."
When he returned to the courtyard, Yue Ji was squatting outside the fence, setting up the formation meticulously by referring to ancient books.
Hearing footsteps, he looked up at Qi Qing and said with a curved lip: "Master is back?"
"Hmm, what kind of formation is this?" Qi Qing casually glanced at the page and couldn't understand it.
Yue Ji closed the book, stood up and said, "It drives away nightmares."
"Put it away first." Qi Qing said, "Your uncle has received a letter. We probably need to go to Yunzhou. Let's go back to the house and pack up."
Yunzhou is only two hundred miles away from Tiandu Sect. There is no need to borrow a crane from the sect leader, one can easily get there by flying a sword.
The master and the disciple were men of action. They set off as soon as they said they would, and arrived outside the city of Yunzhou in the evening of the same day.
Yunzhou was indeed bustling. As it was not a big place, it seemed even more crowded than during the alchemy conference. The inns were packed everywhere, and even the expensive top-level rooms had been booked in advance by some wealthy individuals who were not short of money.
Fortunately, Qi Qing had his senior brother's communication talisman, and after getting in touch with him, the few of them soon met outside an inn in the east of the city.
"Junior brother, have you come out of retreat?" The elder brother looked at Qi Qing in surprise, and touched his pulse. After a moment, he raised his eyebrows and said, "What have you been busy with these days in retreat? I see that you haven't changed your equipment, your realm hasn't improved, and you don't have a Taoist partner."
“…”
It's a critical hit.
Qi Qing angrily slapped his hand away: "I'm in the secret realm now!"
He also wants to improve!
The senior brother shrugged and turned to Yue Ji and said, "I thought only my nephew was coming, so I booked one more room. Now you and your disciple have to squeeze in."
Upon hearing this, the corners of Yue Ji's lips slightly raised.
Without waiting for him to agree, Qi Qing said to his senior brother, "Can't I live in the same room with you?"
"Okay," the senior brother said as he walked into the inn, "If you don't mind living with others."
Qi Qing followed him and asked, "Are there others? Your friends?"
"You know him." The senior brother kept walking and explained to him, "Jiang Chenqiu from the Spiritual Medicine Garden, the chief disciple, is out gathering information now. You can see him when he comes back in the evening."
"He's here with you?" Qi Qing asked in surprise, "Wait, your friend is him?"
It really was a piece of cake. He found the person as soon as he arrived. It was so smooth that he could hardly believe it.
The senior brother said, "That's right. Thanks to him, the prices of spiritual herbs and elixirs in the city have skyrocketed these days, but my little money has not been drained out."
Going up to the second floor, the senior brother pointed to the doors on both sides and said, "I live in this room, and the one reserved for my nephew. You can choose where you want to live."
"I……"
When the words came to his lips, Qi Qing was stuck.
He subconsciously looked towards Yue Ji and met the other person's faint gaze.
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