Qin Yan opened the front door only to have Song Heqing stumble on top of him.

“…Qin Yan, I apologize for my lateness…”

His breath was saturated with alcohol and his tone a little sweet and silly. He wrapped his arms around Qin Yan’s shoulders, clinging to him like a koala. Pretty much all cultivators had a decent amount of physical strength, so Qin Yan could easily hold Song Heqing up by the shoulder. He sighed. To Song Heqing would get drunk when he was usually so prim, proper, and polite…what had gone wrong?

There was a snicker on the path outside, and Qin Yan turned his attention to Cui Luoyang with a look of questioning.

Cui Luoyang spread out his hands out innocently.

“I suggested we go out for drinks and he became like this. Ah, how troublesome…”

Qin Yan, regardless of whether he believed this or not, replied, “Thanks to senior Cui for bringing him back. Have a nice evening.”

He promptly shut the door on him.

In the meantime, Song Heqing had buried his face into Qin Yan’s shoulder. He was half dragging him to the bedroom when Song Heqing mumbled, 

“You smell good…like leaves. How do I smell that in a dream?”

“It’s not a dream,” Qin Yan emphasized. “Okay?”

Song Heqing gave no response but looked confused.

Once they reached the bedroom, Qin Yan felt Song Heqing’s bright red forehead. Really, really too hot. He shared some Wood Qi, letting it cool down the drunken fever. Song Heqing grabbed his hand afterwards and proceeded to stare dumbly at Qin Yan’s wheatish colored fingers.

“Good…”

Qin Yan's eyebrow twitched. He ignored that ambiguity and laid him on the bed, tugged off his boots and socks, the outer robe, and pulled out his hair pin thinking that there were too many extra pieces of clothing in the ancient times…as he was about to pour him some water, but Qin Yan found that he couldn’t move away from the bed.

Song Heqing was clenching onto his sleeve.

“Don’t go…”

Qin Yan pulled back. “I’m just walking to the table to pour some water. It’s two feet away.”

“No!” Song Heqing refused to let go and spoke in his irresistibly soft tone, “Don’t go. I miss you…you don’t cuddle with me anymore…” he was already reeling Qin Yan in close like a large fish.

It wasn’t as though Qin Yan would put up a fight with a drunk. He patiently sat on the bedside with Song Heqing and instead reached out a vine to wrap the handle of the kettle and bring over a cup of water. He placed it on Song Heqing’s lips.

There are different kinds of drunks that one can meet. It's sort of like collecting trading cards. Some are angrier, happier, violent, most of them looser-lipped. In this case, Song Heqing seemed to be a strong mix of sad and clingy.

Song Heqing's voice was forlorn, features downtrodden as he said, “You…are so distant lately…I must be annoying.” 

Qin Yan felt like little hooks were latching into his heart.

“I never said that,” he whispered.

Song Heqing suddenly pulled Qin Yan onto the bed. He raised a hand and began to…rub Qin Yan’s head. It was a very slow and methodical head pat, and Qin Yan wondered if Song Heqing thought he was a dog…but despite the innocence of the gesture, their bodies were still closely pressed together. He could feel Song Heqing’s warmth, the strands of his hair that fell on his neck, and the fast beat of his heart. Oh, and all the well-defined muscles.

It was a dangerous position!

And yet somehow comforting. This feeling of having his head pet in this position was…Qin Yan had to admit, as good as sitting in the garden. Even if the garden was a safe space for him, he was but a lone eggplant in this fantasy world, at least being with Song Heqing made him feel that he had someone to rely on. Qin Yan almost wanted to be closer¹Yes this is a sexual innuendo—

He swallowed down those urges in an instant.

Still, the moment was one to savor.

At some point Song Heqing finished petting his head then just continued to hold him, not speaking another word, but thanks to the link from Starlight on Obsidian Qin Yan could interpret this silence; Loud and clear, Song Heqing currently felt ‘overjoyed and content’.

So this was all it took…um…Qin Yan felt his heart speeding up.

Unfortunately, he was distracted by unnecessarily capitalized letters flashing through his brain.

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VERDANT EGGPLANT SWORD SPIRIT Qin Yan may view his stats now.

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Every fiber of his plant-y being was irked.

“After all the times I tried to get it to come up?” Qin Yan rolled his eyes and figured he’d just check them a little later, opting not neglect Song Heqing despite how curious he was about this f*cking system.

__

__

This opportunity expires in 5…4…3…

Qin Yan hurried, “Fine! I want to view them."

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Element Type: Wood…

Status: Paranoid young-adult...

Buff: Undying Affection—

                                 Receives a pillar of mental support from Dao companion Song Heqing…

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Qin Yan frowned. Sure he appreciated that, but wasn’t that implied even without a ‘buff’? 

The next line left him stunned.

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                                 Dual cultivation will yield enhanced results…

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Dual cultivation will yield enhance results…enhanced…results…it echoed in Qin Yan’s mind. As Song Heqing gently squeezed Qin Yan’s body on the bed, a metaphorical cold sweat began to break out along his neck. There was a sort of inherent fear of the stallion protagonist’s usual endless stamina and 24 hour horny-ness that haunted him…

E-even if they end up ‘dual cultivating’ at some point, if he ever fell to the cheesy trope of ‘oh, we better dual cultivate everyday to “enhance” our cultivation’, he will have to end himself right there…

Qin Yan decided not to think about that.

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Debuff: Misfortune—

                                 Scales with anger points…

…i-it’s still all right. His anger points haven’t increased in forever…he only got kicked off a mountain once so far. Qin Yan was barely recovering from these bizarre discoveries when a strange message popped up.

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Would VERDANT EGGPLANT SWORD SPIRIT Qin Yan like a helpful tip?

“Uh…yes…?”

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‘Blue Lady’ could see the true nature of your soul instantly²Refer to ch. 'Curious Eggplant'…

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Qin Yan was surprised. “Are you saying she’s an expert in sensory abilities?”

If so, then she’d be able to track System S’s demonic Qi.

The interface faded away without answering.

Qin Yan had thought about it before and always felt like he should thank the Blue Lady for letting him sleep on her coffin. Sure he got a hole through his stomach afterwards, but he was pretty sure he only maintained his sanity until the end because of what she did. Looking into it couldn't hurt.

He heard slow, even breathing from Song Heqing who’d fallen asleep while he was occupied, and the earlier mood of tenderness seemed to have faded. Qin Yan carefully lifted Song Heqing’s arm and escape back to his own room since he didn’t want any bizarre accidents³mOrNing WoOd to occur by the time they woke up tomorrow.

Who could have guessed that when Qin Yan was about to climb into bed there was a loud THUMP outside his door.

The source of the THUMP was naturally Song Heqing. He was holding his forehead and there was a red mark. He looked aggrieved, who knows if it was because Qin Yan left him or because he ran into the door. Or both.

Qin Yan felt slightly guilty. “Weren’t you sleeping?”

Song Heqing seriously replied, “In the end, you don’t want to be around me anymore…is it that I…disgust you? What am I doing wrong?”

Now Qin Yan had an acute guilt. “N-no. I’m not annoyed or disgusted with you.”

Song Heqing attacked Qin Yan with a hug, squeezing him half to death. Clearly, he was sulking. Qin Yan was at a loss. Is this how Song Heqing has been feeling lately?

The crickets outside chirped incessantly.

Qin Yan realized that he’d barely paid Song Heqing any mind the past two months…  

“…I accept defeat.”

He brought Song Heqing into his room and they sprawled out on the bed together. This time Qin Yan had no intentions to leave. It was quiet for a while, the two were closely packed on the bed.

Qin Yan finally said, “I’ve been too inconsiderate lately. There are just…things.”

“I’ll accompany you.”

“Huh?”

Song Heqing put his mouth close to Qin Yan’s ear and murmured, “No matter what, I’ll accompany you. You can always talk to me...I’ll accompany you wherever. I’ll accompany-”

Qin Yan gently put a hand over his mouth and was blushing slightly; regular harem girls would definitely go weak from the smooth timbre of that voice.

“You’re being repetitive. Go to sleep.”

This time Song Heqing was distrustful, squeezing Qin Yan in his arms as though to check he was there frequently. He didn’t fall asleep for a long time, but finally his arms relaxed and breathing went steady.

Qin Yan closed his eyes too, but could not help but think about what Song Heqing said.

These past months he’d been focused on cultivating. He was the type of person who would get involved in his own world and was used to spending long periods in solitude. For him it didn’t feel strange to spend most of his time in the garden and minimal other time interacting with other humans.

He was also impatient.

Ominous feelings that seemed to follow him into his dreams at night. Everything had been too peaceful. There was the line of corpses he’d left behind, the misfortune debuff, and System S’s haywire attacks. Although these things currently seemed to cause little difference right now, he was paranoid and became obsessed with becoming stronger.

His feelings for Song Heqing?

He didn’t want to face them. Now Qin Yan felt like a coward for that. He just sort of side-lined Song Heqing out of nowhere, so it was no wonder that Song Heqing was having doubts.

Life was usually like this. There will always be stress, other matters to attend, hurdles to jump. This would not be the first time Qin Yan lost a relationship because he was too involved in his own world to spend a bit of time on someone else. If he ever wanted a good relationship, he’d have to take the opportunity despite the difficulties surrounding him…even though the difficulties right now really couldn’t compare to his mundane first-world problems back in his old life!

Qin Yan glanced at Song Heqing’s sleeping face.

It was very peaceful, still faintly red from drunkenness, and his lips were slightly parted.

S-so many good opportunities are being missed⁴Yes, this is sexual innuendo. Aaaa, he was just going to have to try to say something tomorrow. He can’t let this nebulous ‘brotherhood’ between him and Song Heqing continue. Brotherhood? Please. When do two guys casually blush at each other?

The protagonist had 99.91% gone bent for him. Qin Yan had been a bisexual eggplant from the start.

W-w-what is there to stop them?!

These thoughts were just Qin Yan's way of mustering his courage.

Although he wasn’t good at talking about his own personal issues, he was sometimes good at bluntly stating his feelings. Once he had ~certain~ thoughts towards a person he felt like it was better to get that off his chest. The only problem was that Song Heqing wasn’t being straightforward about anything either, so Qin Yan wasn’t used to giving a ‘confession’ like in all those shoujo manga.

But sure! Tomorrow.