Where is Our Agreement to be Each Other’s Arch-Rivals?

After spending New Year’s Day in the small courtyard at the foot of Junyou Mountain, Su Yang and Gu Feidi packed up their bags and hastened to Lesser Jade House.

Shortly before the year end, they’d received news that Gu Ruohai and Su Huaizhu had returned to Tengyun Pavilion together after settling the matters in the Devil Sect.

Since the Devil Sect battle on Winter Solstice, Su Huaizhu had never made any public appearances. As such, the Jianghu rumours still persisted at the moment when he had fallen into the blaze of the Devil Sect headquarters after being pierced through the heart with a sword by Gu Ruohai.

Also, when Gu Ruohai had recently gone to the Devil Sect to assist Su Huaizhu in settling matters there, it was mentioned in the Jianghu rumours as Tengyun Pavilion annexing the Devil Sect forces in an attempt to expand their growth as they intended to dominate the martial arts circles in the long-term.

As for the Sword Sage’s Legacy, Wujiangmen disseminated fake news that Tengyun Pavilion had obtained a duplicate from within Eluo Ghost Tent, but was unwilling to hand it over to the major factions.

As they both rode abreast, Gu Feidi explained to Su Yang on the news delivered by Tengyun Pavilion: “Fortunately, Luo Yin had discussed this with Chi Tong and it was subsequently announced that Eluo had handed in the Sword Sage’s Legacy manual to the Imperial court. It’s being kept by the Great Inner Defense of the Imperial Palace. Until now, those from the martial arts circles no longer suspect and dare not to covet it either.”

Su Yang frowned and said, “Then how will Wujiangmen be dealt with? They can’t be let off just like that, right?”

Gu Feidi said, “They’ve been entrenched in the Central Plains for a long time. The profit network of their information trade is spread all over each of the minor factions and are difficult to eliminate. Currently, they’re aware that they are in peril and their movements have been temporarily diminished. We can’t control the situations that can influence the entire martial arts circles. At the moment, we can only pass it off as our reluctance to investigate and drag it out slowly. There’ll be a martial arts circles’ general assembly next autumn. Presumably, my father will handle it in due course.” 

Once he’d spoken, he glanced up at the distant snow-covered mountain range.

After passing those mountains, they would arrive at Qingwu County’s borders and it wouldn’t be far from Lesser Jade House.

“Am I a little too headstrong?”

Su Yang said all of a sudden: “You were brought up in Tengyun Pavilion and ought to have received all the chivalrous sort of teachings since childhood. I reckon that you would have always been groomed to be regarded as Tengyun Pavilion’s Leader. I abhor the Jianghu disputes and desire to return to live in seclusion in Lesser Jade House. At first, it was my own concern. But now, I’ve dragged you to along to accompany me, making you to abandon so many things……”

Gu Feidi smiled: “I’m willingly accompanying you, so how can you say that you’re headstrong? Clearly I’m even more headstrong in comparison.”

Su Yang looked at Gu Feidi and said, “You could’ve become the master of Tengyun Pavilion. Perhaps, you could even be the Martial Alliance Leader…… in the future, would you regret squandering away your youth having mixed with the likes of me, this Devil Sect’s Young Saint?”

Gu Feidi raised his eyebrows to glance at Su Yang and replied, “Who can tell what happens in the future.”

Su Yang: “…Aai?”

Gu Feidi: “But if you didn’t mix with you, I don’t have to wait for the future. I know for a fact that I will regret not being frivolous in my youth.”

Su Yang was pleased.

Gu Feidi smiled and said, “Why do you love hearing sweet words so much?” 

Having his thoughts busted, Su Yang was somewhat embarrassed and flatly denied it: “What? I’m just not assured with you! Men are all big pig trotters*……”

(*TN : to tease men who are dense / slow to realise things)

Gu Feidi was entertained by him, laughed for a moment and asked, “What are pig trotters alluding to?”

Su Yang: ……

They finally arrived at Meizhu Mountain a day later.

After entrusting the horses to an Alliance Hall in the vicinity, Su Yang and Gu Feidi entered the mountain holding hands and headed in the direction of Lesser Jade House.

Fortunately, they managed to reach the farmhouse halfway up Meizhu Mountain by dusk and dropped in to visit Old Qi who had been living there all the while.

Old Qi was in the midst of clearing away medicinal herbs that had been dried during the day. When he caught sight of the two juniors, he wasn’t ceremonious and straightaway directed them to help with the work. Together, Su Yang, Gu Feidi and Old Qi put away the medicinal herbs properly, chopped them up and ground them into powder. It was already late at night by the time they’d finished all the tasks.

“It’s late. Both of you rest here for a night. You can leave early tomorrow morning and still make it in time.” Old Qi stored away the medicinal powder before personally fetching them some bedding and saying, “Go ahead and stay in the room where Su Yang stayed in that year.” 

After speaking, he laughed twice and said: “Back then, both of you squabbled when you were here. Who could have expected that you two are so close now.”

Gu Feidi received the bedding and said, “I would also like to thank Old Qi for your lesson that day, if not……Feidi fears he would have missed out on the love of my life.”

Old Qi waved his hand: “That may not have been. Since it is fated, no matter how many times you’ve missed out, you’d still be able to meet again until you can be together. At that time, I just wasn’t willing to see you save a little to lose a lot and be afflicted by inner demons, that’s all.”

Gu Feidi: “At any rate, Feidi is still utterly thankful to Elder.”

After chatting a little more with Old Qi, Su Yang and Gu Feidi went into the house to rest.

When he remembered the circumstances in this farmhouse back then, Su Yang was inevitably curious and asked: “Everyone said you were a ‘whatever’ Young Tiger Young Eagle and that your character was upright and honest……But when you saw me practicing swords at night, why did you still consider hiding the truth and not telling Lesser Jade House? Back then, you didn’t want me to be selected?”

Gu Feidi looked down and laughed, “It’s not because you made me resentful with your harassments. There were some negative thoughts for a while. At that time, I was still young and it was hard to stifle my anger, so I didn’t want to let you enter Lesser Jade House together with me.”

Su Yang roared with laughter.

He contemplated for a while, then used a finger to lift up Gu Feidi’s chin. He raised his eyebrows, closed in and flaunted the Devil Sect’s Young Saint’s evil charming tone from the script as he recited his lines from back then: “Young Hero Gu is such a prominent individual. If you don’t mind, how about I split half of the bed with you?

Gu Feidi’s eyes narrowed a little, the corners of his lips curled slightly and he leaned forward to capture Su Yang’s lips.

“Only splitting half the bed? Isn’t that too little?” He embraced Su Yang, lowered his voice and spoke in his ear, “How about you give me half of yourself instead?”

Su Yang shoved him away and mumbled: “Don’t stir up trouble here, Old Qi’s hearing is pretty good……”

Gu Feidi smiled, hauling him back into his arms and hugging him quietly.

Before the sun rose the next day, Su Yang and Gu Feidi bade farewell to Old Qi, left the farmhouse’s small courtyard and hurried over to Lesser Jade House.

When they passed through the Stone Forest Bewilderment Array, Su Yang became playful. He held onto Gu Feidi’s hand and said: “We won’t use internal strength to stifle the array, we’ll just hold hands like this and walk through it again like we did during the time we had the assessment. Let’s see if this stone forest formation still works, how about it? Even so, I want to see if it can probe each person’s different minds if we’re holding hands and not letting go.”

Naturally, Gu Feidi had no complaints. He reached out and intertwined their ten fingers, then they set foot into the stone forest formation together.

Both of them held hands and walked a few steps. Then turned round a corner piled with huge boulders and saw a perfectly straight path ahead. There were tall boulders on either side facing each other, as if two rows of honour guards were standing at attention.

And at the end of this perfectly straight tree-lined path, there was a natural stone archway, which resembled……

……which resembled the venue of a Western wedding ceremony.

Su Yang: ……

Su Yang’s heart was trembling. All the more he wanted to see Lesser Jade House’s master—his own Shizun—to find out where such an extraordinary person like her had surfaced from.

Gu Feidi didn’t know what was going through his mind and swung his hand as he asked, “At that time, you’d managed to exit this heart bewildering array this easily within a stick of incense’s time?”

“Ak, I……” Su Yang tugged at the corners of his mouth, “During that time, I didn’t want to enter Lesser Jade House, so when I noticed the exit for the first and second time, I didn’t walk ahead and changed my direction. Ultimately…….I was delivered to the main exit by this faulty formation and then I gave up. Even so, it still didn’t take a stick of incense’s time.”

They walked through the arch hand-in-hand, flew over the chain bridge to arrive at the mountain where Lesser Jade House was located. Su Yang and Gu Feidi came face-to-face with Di Ling who was walking over slowly.

Di Ling’s appearance was completely unchanged. She was still totally dressed in white, her long hair flapping about, with a rolled-up book in her hand and a small green bird perched on her shoulder.

She strolled over to stop in front of them and said with a smile: “Shizun delivered a letter this morning saying that you will arrive early and instructed me to welcome you.”

Gu Feidi and Su Yang cupped their fists and gave their greetings. Gu Feidi spoke again: “Shizun’s still like she used to be; predicting with supernatural accuracy.”

Di Ling nodded: “Come with me. Shizun had instructed for Zhichun Garden to be completely refurbished. That is where you both will be staying from now on.”

The two of them walked the familiar path back to Zhichun Garden where they’d once lived together. Even though it was wintertime, the courtyard was still lush with flowers and plants, especially the red plum tree’s flowers which were in lively bloom. They appeared to be thriving in the refreshing early morning sky.

Except for the flowers and trees that had remained unchanged, the buildings originally in the courtyard were substantially different.

The initial Zichun Garden had only two big houses without a kitchen or bathhouse. The main house was Di Ling’s residence at that time. Su Yang and Gu Feidi had stayed together in the side house.

Currently, the main house had been totally torn down, flowers and trees had been moved over, and the side house they’d once lived in had been remodelled into a small two-storey building. A winding corridor stretched out from the small building, supported against the courtyard walls, connecting to the kitchen and bathhouse at the corner of the small courtyard——this place had been transformed into a standalone and fully functional courtyard, which was just right for two people to live in.

It wasn’t until Su Yang and Gu Feidi entered the two-storey building that they understood what the extensive courtyard renovations was for. The internal adornments in the rooms of this small building were mostly red and gold, practically……akin to a wedding room.

Su Yang: ……

Gu Feidi: ……

Su Yang held his forehead and said, “Di Ling shijie, did Shizun instruct on the decorations of this room?”

Di Ling gave a thin smile and replied, “Shizun instructed it and it was personally decorated by Li shijie together with Zhu shixiong, Wen shixiong and Yang shijie. When both of you were cultivating here, they were either in seclusion or had left the mountain to travel and didn’t have much contact with you. Henceforth, you will live here and you’ll definitely have interactions with them. This is also a demonstration of their regard.”

Su Yang and Gu Feidi threw each other a look and murmured under their breaths: “To have done it up in this colour is too——”

Di Ling was quizzical: “Colour?”

Gu Feidi couldn’t help curling the corners of his mouth and said, “It’s all right. The colour’s great.”

Di Ling didn’t comprehend, so she just nodded and said: “Both of you have had a long, arduous journey. You can rest and refresh here this morning. Clothing and other articles have already been readied in the space between the bathhouse and changing room. Wait until You period*. The dining hall will prepare a welcome dinner banquet for you two.”

(*TN : 5 – 7 pm)

Gu Feidi and Su Yang cupped their fists at the same time: “Many thanks, shijie.”

Once Di Ling had left, Su Yang finally couldn’t keep it in. He laughed and tumbled onto Gu Feidi.

“What the heck’s all this aaa!” He laughed heartily, “If this colour was also the Shizun’s instruction, then I really want to see this Shizun of ours…… Aai, it feels like she truly wants us to get married on the spot! “

Gu Feidi gave a laugh and asked: “Do you want to?”

Su Yang was taken aback: “Want to what?”

Gu Feidi said: “Get married to me.”

When he heard this, Su Yang initially wanted to poke fun. He turned his head with the intention of teasing.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he turned, he collided directly into Gu Feidi’s expectant twinkling gaze, as if an entire galaxy of stars had fallen inside them.

Su Yang’s throat quivered and he instinctively replied: “I do.” 

Joy instantly filled Gu Feidi’s eyes, like the sudden appearance of a nebula’s blossoming brilliance.

He smoothened his lips, removed both their travelling bags, casually flinging them onto the chairs at the side and gathered Su Yang into his arms.

Su Yang only realised after the fact that his earlier answer had been too stupid, as if had been captivated by Gu Feidi’s beauty…… How does that word go? Yes, Yan Gou*.

(*TN : yan = colour/ face/ prestige, gou = dog; internet slang for someone who treats good-looking people especially well)

He floundered somewhat, trying to correct it: “What if I don’t want to? What kind of relationship are we already? We’ve already done everything that we should and shouldn’t have. You’re only proposing marriage now? It’s too late already!”

Gu Feidi didn’t let go and hugged a little tighter.

Su Yang went on rambling: “Besides, what’s the point of you proposing? Has there ever been a precedent for a man to have a wedding with a man? Can I be naturalized with you in the Ministry of Households and subsequently be included in your family’s genealogy book?”

After being silent for some time, Gu Feidi said in a low voice: “If you desire it, I’ll find a way to satisfy you.”

Su Yang rolled his eyes and was pleased by these words: “I’m not that unreasonable. Instead of having a wedding, why don’t we……go take a look at the bathhouse and do some of the most reasonable post-wedding-life things? Ng?”

Upon hearing him say this, Gu Feidi muffled a laugh. He reached out and picked him up horizontally, turned around and walked out the door.