Owl

Weekly regular 2/2
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They continued wandering through the streets like that. In the evening, the place seemed to become even more active. More and more people were walking around.

Wei Lan was closely observing the circumstances, waiting for good timing. As soon as the chance showed itself, she made a startled noise at being pushed and fell right towards Xie Yi.

The youth, feeling all of his hair rise, steadied her before she got pushed into him but was also pushed by the tide of people and stumbled, falling into another’s chest on his own.

Tense, he tried to push the person away but found that the rather powerful man was half holding him to keep him upright.

Xie Yi got ready to struggle.

“Oh my! A beauty right into my arms! What a great evening.”

Oh. Friend.

Xie Yi stopped himself.

He glanced up into the flirtatious eyes of the cultivator who was regarding him with appreciatively.

“Beauty, are you al-... hmm?”

Huo Cheng tilted his head. From a bit farther away, Lu Han could be heard calling out for him desperately. With a wave of his hand, Huo Cheng ordered a few of his bodyguards to help get the little guy over to them.

“Isn’t this…”, the prince muttered, leaning closer towards Xie Yi who, at recognizing the man he had decided was somewhat of a friend, turned very obedient and allowed himself to stare be stared at.

Xu Yan stressed about it, though. “Excuse me, can you please let go of-”

“You are Shi Yue’s disciple, are you not!” The prince ignored Xu Yan and opted to gripping Xie Yi’s shoulders to turn him around. Looking all over him, he hummed in delight. “Just as beautiful as I imagined! Look at that! Beauty, I am your master’s friend, so I am also yours! What a fortunate meeting!”

He turned to Lu Han and snapped his fingers.

“Book a restaurant for us. I’m taking him out for a meal. Since we met, this is fated, and we should use the chance.”

Lu Han’s face twisted as he wanted to ask for his master to reconsider, but his status wouldn’t allow that…

“Excuse me!”, Xu Yan shouted. “Please let go of him!”

Xie Yi lightly tugged at the hands wrapped around his shoulders, testing to see if he could get them off. Meanwhile, Wei Lan had been steadied and saved by Zhi Nan, who brought them over.

“Who are you?”, Zhi Nan asked, keeping somewhat polite at the sight of Huo Cheng’s overly expensive clothes.

“I have so much to talk to you about”, Huo Cheng beamed at Xie Yi, turning a deaf ear to the words. It was amazing how efficiently he managed to ignore anyone other than the youth he was interested in. “Don’t worry, we will have a lot of fun! There will be good food and wine and-”

“Oh no, you don’t”, a very dark voice snarled, breaking off Huo Cheng’s words as a hand wrapped around the prince’s throat.

Stunned, all bodyguards grabbed their weapons, but they were unable to intervene considering the danger of the situation.

Huo Cheng swallowed. He hadn’t noticed this one coming close.

A dark-skinned, angry face moved right next to his, speaking with an animalistic growl. “Hands. Off.”

The prince obeyed. The hand around his throat loosened as well.

As he rubbed his neck gingerly, he gave a smile towards the muscular person who was circling around him to tug Xie Yi into his arms.

“Wu, long time no see. What a surprise. Is Tiankong around as well?”, he asked carefully, his eyes switching between little puppy Xie Yi and big dog Wu.

“No. I’m here just to make sure that my little brother does not get dragged off by you”, the canine growled unhappily.

Xu Yan and the rest watched quietly, shutting their mouths. The situation felt a bit dangerous and tense despite being in the middle of the street.

“You talk like I’m going to do something to him”, Huo Cheng humpfed offendedly. At the same time, he kept staring at the beautiful disciple who was like a little version of Tiankong, especially with that nonchalant face. It was adorable! He only wanted to get to know him a bit better!

“Stay away from him, pervert prince.”

“Per-...” He sucked in a breath, his eyebrows lowering. What in the world had happened?

First, Shi Yue wrote him a letter saying that even if he met little Xie Yi he would not be allowed to interact with him, and now Wu was acting like this, too?

“I only want to invite him for dinner and talk to him for a while. He is my good friend’s disciple, how is that too much? Aren’t you being too overprotective over this pair of father-and-son?”

Assumed. Anyway, family.

Wu’s eyes narrowed. “That is none of your business.”

“You’re allowed to be”, Xie Yi said in his arms, looking up at him. It seemed that Mingtian tensed at hearing the other say he was overprotective, but Xie Yi did not mind at all.

The beast looked down at the cute little face, then hugged him tighter and lifted him. Turning his body away so that only his face was towards Huo Cheng, he left Xie Yi dangle in his arms. “As you hear, I am allowed to be as overprotective as I want. You, on the other hand, have no right to try and drag him off.”

“What is this child’s play”, Xu Yan whispered to his friend who was hanging in the man’s arms.

“For some reason, Master and Wu are worried that he might drag me into a brothel.”

Xu Yan forced his curiosity back down. “...That sounds like there’s one hell of a story behind it.”

“I guess.”

Huo Cheng and Wu kept on bickering.

The prince did it out of the pure habit of always getting what he wanted and Wu because talking was still better than physically hurting someone who was acquainted with his little brother.

Wei Land and Zhi Nan looked rather lost, uncertain of what was going on.

Xie Yi was getting tired. “I’ve got enough for today… I want to go back.”

“Okay”, the beast instantly said, setting him down. With a glare back at Huo Cheng, he protectively hid Xie Yi from his view. “He’s tired. We are going back.”

“Going back to where? The sect? I’m coming along, I’m staying there too, right now.” Huo Cheng followed them obstinately.

“Keep a distance from the kid!”

Lu Han awkwardly trudged behind, not as good as going through the crowd as the cultivators.

When he stumbled, Huo Cheng was at his side in an instant. Wrapping an arm around his waist, he pulled him back up and then carefully let him walk half a step in front of him. “Xiao Han, you’ll get squashed.”

Lu Han made a small sound and lowered his head in embarrassment at being picked up so easily.

Only at the sect did everyone finally find out about Huo Cheng’s identity and made awkward half-bows due to not knowing the correct courtesy between cultivator and royalty.

Everyone was shocked to realize that the playboy had blue blood.

Xie Yi stared at him, sitting opposite in a room that was like a living room for the dorm.

Everyone else had been thrown out, since only they could be called acquaintances. Huo Cheng appeared to be trying to forge a relationship with Xie Yi, but he was subconsciously distracted.

Every few seconds, he would glance over to Lu Han. Sometimes he would push the bowl with snacks a bit closer, or would check what the attendant was looking at, or would do something like pick a hair off his clothes.

Xie Yi had seen Huo Cheng do very similar things back then in the brothel, but it wasn’t the same.

Now that he had gotten a lot of explanations, he had his theory.

Into the middle of a conversation about the royal palaces, Xie Yi threw a bomb. “Huo Cheng, do you like Lu Han?”

Mingtian hid his appreciative cry behind a cough.

Huo Cheng’s face did a weird twist but Lu Han gave him a patient smile.

“You are misunderstanding. The prince is very caring towards all of his staff, there is no strange meaning behind it.”

The prince’s face tensed a bit more at the word ‘strange’.

Xie Yi frowned lightly. “I’m quite sure, though.”

Because Mingtian was loving the scene, he refused to help the prince out and merely tilted his head to see where things would go. He agreed with the kid’s opinion.

“Maybe it’s because you aren’t used to me”, Huo Cheng laughed. “I guess I am a bit touchy-feely?”

“I’m bad with feelings and stuff”, Xie Yi admitted readily. Huo Cheng relaxed, about to agree that it would be hard to differentiate the nuances, when Xie Yi continued.

Owl

Big Bro MingMing was always following them, but he honoured his promise and did not interfere until Huo Cheng appeared. He did nearly break his teeth from clenching his jaw when he watched the outdoor bath scene, though. He likes Xu Yan even more now.