On the second day, by the time the group had passed through the Devil City and returned to the Devil Sect’s headquarters, it was already approaching nightfall.
Seeing that he couldn’t deal with the Sect’s matters that night, Su Yang happily ordered everyone to go back to rest and leave all matters to be discussed the following morning.
After that, he summoned an attendant from Lian Hall and ordered him to clean up a side room in his courtyard for Gu Feidi to stay in temporarily, then he ordered for the bathhouse water to be prepared.
On the later part of their journey, there were no lakes and ponds, so there were no conveniences to bathe. His whole head and body were completely covered with dirt and dust. He just couldn’t tolerate it anymore.
“Prepare hot water as soon as possible. Oh, that’s right, prepare a set of clothes for him.” Su Yang pointed his finger at Gu Feidi and said, “He is about the same size as me. There should be new clothes for me. Give them to him.”
The Lian Hall attendant received the order, glanced at Gu Feidi who was standing next to Su Yang, nodded and retreated.
Soon, hot water was poured into the pool in the bathhouse and a change of clothes had been prepared. Su Yang cast off all his dirty clothing and leapt into the water. The combination of perfect temperature and pool water was an unparalleled enjoyment. Su Yang let out a sigh of contentment.
After an exhausting journey, nothing could compare to the comfort of taking a hot bath!
What’s more, he also had the Lian Hall attendant massage his scalp and wash his hair. The Devil’s Young Saint’s enjoyment of life’s pleasures was simply marvellous!
At the same time, in the side room of the Young Saint’s Residence on Iris Island.
A Lian Hall attendant knocked on the door and respectfully said: ” Young Master Gu, Young Saint had ordered us to prepare hot water, please go and bathe.”
Gu Feidi had been brought back by Su Yang alone without any no luggage. Earlier, his sword and dagger had already been taken away by the Devil Sect flower aide while he was being tied up.
Hearing that Su Yang had arranged a bath, he frowned and said, “Is there a change of clothes?”
The Lian Hall attendant replied, “Don’t worry, Young Master Gu, the clothes have been prepared.”
Gu Feidi nodded and motioned to the attendant to lead the way.
They headed towards the changing room of the bathroom. There was a bathtub in the bathroom. The water in the bathtub was warm and there were various kinds of flower petals and herbs in it, giving off a faint fragrance. It smelled faintly scented.
According to the rumours of the Jianghu, the Devil Sect had always been a representative of decadence and luxury. Gu Feidi was not surprised for long after seeing a bucket of bath water with petals in it.
He waved away the Lian Hall attendant, examined the wound on his palm and saw that it was alright. He undressed and plunged into the water by himself.
Unexpectedly, after washing for a short while, the Lian Hall attendant opened the door and handed Gu Feidi a piece of sheer garment and said: “Young Master, please follow me to the bathhouse.”
Gu Feidi: …
It’s so troublesome just to take a bath in the Devil Sect?
Fortunately, the bathhouse wasn’t far away, just inside the door on the other side of the changing room. Gu Feidi put on the sheer garment, walked a few steps, turned into a short corridor and then turned a corner. The full view of the bathhouse was revealed before his eyes.
The Lian Hall attendant stepped back and silently closed the entrance door of the bathhouse room.
This room was clearly a place to take a bath. The bathhouse was seven feet square but the depth unknown. The surface of the water was steaming, bringing the fragrance of flowers that could be smelled everywhere in the Devil Sect.
The water’s surface was naturally covered with flower petals. Gu Feidi took off his garment and walked to the edge of the pool, raising his feet to get into the water.
At this moment, a bare naked figure suddenly emerged from under the water, wiped his face and exclaimed, “Super!”
Gu Feidi froze immediately on the spot.
Just as Su Yang opened his eyes, his face was splashed by waves caused by an unknown, heavy object entering the water.
He turned his head angrily and saw Gu Feidi curled up in the middle of the pool. Only his head was showing and he was hastily gathering the petals on the surface of the water in front of him, trying to hide his figure under the water.
Su Yang: ……
Su Yang was stunned: “Why are you here?!”
Gu Feidi blushed and said, “Your attendant brought me here. How should I know that you’d be here too!”
Su Yang did not expect to be accused in turn and laughed angrily: “This is my bathroom. I will be in it whenever I like. But you saw I was here and still jumped in?”
Gu Feidi was tongue-tied for a while and said sullenly: “I don’t have any clothes.”
These words were vague, but Su Yang saw from his movements that he was still attempting to amass the petals from the water’s surface and then he glanced back at the shore where there were no dirty clothes. At once, he understood.
“Oh……” he smiled and dragged his tone for a long time, “You came in naked?”
Gu Feidi looked down and said nothing.
Su Yang raised his eyebrows and suddenly remembered that this Devil Sect’s Young Saint had a preference for men.
Seeing that now was the perfect time and if he didn’t seize this opportunity to tease the lil’ uptight Gu Feidi, then he wouldn’t be able to avenge the scares he’d suffered in the past two days.
Su Yang had a sly smile on his face as he moved in front of Gu Feidi, stretched his hand over Gu Feidi’s shoulder and supported himself on the shore of the pool.
Condescendingly, he leaned over to stare at Gu Feidi, intentionally making his voice dark and husky, he whispered: “Do you know what the attendant brought you here for?”
Gu Feidi’s expression instantly changed.
Su Yang was enjoying himself. He stretched out a finger to nudge Gu Feidi’s chin, touching the short layer of stubble that hadn’t been taken care of for several days and smiled: “Your face are quite handsome, but the shaggy beard is really unappealing. Why doesn’t this Young Saint personally help shave it for you?”
Gu Feidi’s body trembled slightly, whether because he was angry or scared, or for some other reason.
His deep eyes stared fixedly at Su Yang and he said in a low voice: “I advise you… don’t be like this.”
Of course, Su Yang didn’t heed to him and moved forward. Beneath the water, his lower leg made contact with Gu Feidi’s curled up knee. The feeling of skin touching skin was extremely smooth underwater.
Gu Feidi gave a jump and waved his hand to slap away Su Yang’s hand which had been holding his chin before evading to one side.
“Where else can you hide?” Su Yang smiled wickedly and chased after him. “You can’t manoeuvre your inner strength now, therefore you can’t escape me!”
As he spoke, he mischievously reached into the water and stretched towards Gu Feidi.
Gu Feidi grasped Su Yang’s wrists, his eyes narrowed almost to the point of bursting into flames.
“If you continue like this, don’t blame me for retaliating.” He said bitterly, “Even if the Gu poison hurts the heart, it’s not unbearable…”
Seeing that Gu Feidi was really getting angry, Su Yang also stopped teasing him. Otherwise, the wolf cub Gu Feidi, might actually activate his inner strength despite the Gu poison.
“Sheesh, seeing that you’re poisoned, I’ll spare you this once.”
Su Yang curled his lips, moved back and got out from the pool: “I’m leaving. You’re free to wash and bathe properly.”
He finished speaking. Since he was already used to the public bathroom when he went for dance practice, he didn’t take any notice and climbed out of the water without a single stitch on.
Gu Feidi immediately looked away, but suddenly frowned and looked at Su Yang’s body that clearly showed no signs of emotion, his eyes went wide with amazement.
Su Yang didn’t notice anything. He took out the water scoop from the side bucket, ladled the water to wash away the petals and herbs on his body, then took the bathrobe, put it on and pushed open the door leading to the dressing room to leave.
From beginning to end, he was relaxed, without the slightest shame or deliberate teasing, as if there was no second person here at all.
Gu Feidi sat alone in the middle of the bathhouse, his heart pounding for a moment, suddenly lowered his eyelashes, smiled and released a sigh.
The two attendants walked into the bathhouse, kneeled and sat down on the bank respectfully: “Young Saint ordered us to shave and wash hair for Young Hero Gu. Young Master, please.”
Although Tengyun Pavilion was not as elegant as the Devil Sect, after all, Gu Feidi was the Young Pavilion Master who was used to being attended to by servants. He didn’t say anything, closed his eyes, raised his head onto the shore and the attendants took care of his hair and stubble.
Su Yang had already changed into clean clothes under the attentive service of the Lian Hall attendant and was about to return to his bedroom. Suddenly he remembered something and asked the Lian Hall attendant: “Lian Jiu, was it you who let them bring Gu Feidi into my bathhouse?”
Lian Jiu was stunned: “My lord instructed this subordinate to place Young Hero Gu in your courtyard and ordered us to prepare water, wasn’t it…”
He was speaking halfway then realised something and immediately knelt down: “This subordinate has overstepped, requesting Young Saint to punish me!”
Su Yang was in a good mood, so he didn’t punish him, only telling him: “Gu Feidi is my guest, not a male lover and the like. You have to treat him as a distinguished guest and stop fooling around with these messy things.”
Lian Jiu responded immediately.
That night, both of them rested peacefully in their respective rooms.
The next morning, both of them had a tacit understanding and lazily slept in. It was not until late morning that breakfast was brought under Su Yang’s orders.
Gu Feidi now had Gu poison in his body and it was inconvenient for him to use his internal strength. He had not rested well after falling off the cliff from the Wasteland. Therefore, it was rare that he could indulge for a while and sleep until late morning.
Su Yang was an expert at sleeping in. If he wasn’t worrying about detoxifying Gu Feidi, the first thing he would do after coming back would be to sleep for three days and three nights.
But the poison on Gu Feidi’s body couldn’t be delayed. Su Yang immediately got up as soon as he awoke, intending to deal with the affairs that had been accumulated during this time as soon as possible so he could quickly bring Gu Feidi to the Devil Sect’s Forbidden Area.
Breakfast had been laid out in the front hall of Su Yang’s residence, Gu Feidi followed the Lian Hall attendant through the door. Su Yang’s eyes lit up and he couldn’t help showing a surprised expression.
“You rarely dress so strikingly, you look really good!” He smiled and looked Gu Feidi up and down, “Young boys should still wear bright colours to look good. Your eyes are gleaming and sparkling. Your previous whites and grays don’t really suit you.”
The Devil Sect had prepared a set of sky blue clothing for Gu Feidi. It had bright colours and large magnolia flowers embroidered with silver thread, accompanied by a large robe with large sleeves and ribbons hanging with the artistic qualities of the Devil Sect. It made Gu Feidi’s originally inflexible and upright image softer and more graceful.
But Gu Feidi himself obviously didn’t like it. He frowned and said, “I’m not a young boy.”
Su Yang didn’t refute and asked him to hurry up to the table and eat.
Gu Feidi sat down at the table and raised his hand to pick up the chopsticks. Only then did Su Yang realise that he had actually tied the cuffs of the shirt with his wristband making the supposedly cascading and elegant clothing to be somewhat unremarkable.
Su Yang couldn’t help laughing: “Your way of dressing is really strange. It’s the first time I saw someone wearing a wristband in the sleeve of a robe. Moreover, the wristband is already worn out, why don’t you replace it with a new one?”
Gu Feidi threw a glance at Su Yang and said, “This wristband was made by my mother herself before she died.”
This was the first time that Gu Feidi had mentioned his family in front of Su Yang and it was also the first time Su Yang heard regarding the matter of Gu Feidi’s mother.
He couldn’t help but be dazed for a moment.
Regardless of the script of ‘Arch-Rivals’ or the rumours of the Jianghu, there was very little mention of Gu Feidi’s mother. It seemed that as long as he was the son of the Martial Alliance Leader Gu Ruohai, it didn’t matter who his mother was. Compared to Leader Gu who could be used as a token and symbol, Gu Feidi’s mother was more like an invisible person who didn’t need to exist.
Now hearing Gu Feidi mention that, apparently… his mother had actually passed away?
Su Yang thought he accidentally touched on Gu Feidi’s sore spot, he felt a little regretful and embarrassed, “Actually, a robe with a wristband is also very good, it has a type of mix-and-match quality… hehehe…“
Gu Feidi stared at Su Yang for a long while, the corners of his lips curled slightly and said: “You don’t have to take pity on me. It has been too long and I’m no longer upset. Compared to missing my mother, it’s my father’s behaviour that makes me deeply concerned in my heart.”
Su Yang was stunned: “Why?”
Gu Feidi was silent for a while, then said: “Mutual respect between a husband and wife, after all, cannot compare to being deeply in love. My mother’s expectations were too high, she was bitterly miserable and could only be melancholy at that time.”
This was the result of an ancient arranged marriage alliance. Su Yang understood clearly. In a marriage without an emotional foundation, if the man didn’t like his official wife, he could still take on a concubine, whereas the woman was destined to be trapped for a lifetime, which was indeed lamentable.
Su Yang’s lips quivered, but he didn’t know how he ought to persuade him.
Gu Feidi’s face didn’t show that he was disheartened. He was fiddling with the exquisite chopstick rest and after a moment, the corners of his mouth suddenly curled up.
He raised his eyelashes, his eyes shining brilliantly like stars and looked at Su Yang. He said softly: “So, if I want to spend the rest of my life with someone, I will undoubtedly find someone I want to take good care of for life, so that he won’t suffer even the slightest grievance.”