After a moment of silence, Mo Xi sat up suddenly: "You sleep, I’ll go out first--"
He had not even finished his words when Gu Mang tugged him down lazily. Gu Mang’s hair was loose, and the soft dark hair hung down by the sides of his face. Gu Mang pushed himself up and presses against Mo Xi’s chest. He grabbed Mo Xi’s wrist, his half closed eyes watching him carefully, holding him. It was likely returning to a familiar battlefield and being able to adopt a new persona, fighting battles he was more willing to fight. Gu Mang’s mood was much better than it had been in the past.
He was really teasing Mo Xi, and smiled, his sharp, tiger like canines showing:
"Mn? How are you going to go out like that?"
Mo Xi:. "......Let go."
"What are you hiding?"
Mo Xi turned his face into the pillow, unwilling to look at him, his elegant, handsome face, faintly red and whispered: "Stop talking."
Gu Mang smiled, still lying on his chest, watched Mo Xi’s long eyelashes shake. They were as long and dense as cattails[1], so much so that Gu Mang longed to blow them. Gu Mang smiled and said: "Baby, didn't you say that you wouldn’t be mean to me anymore? You’re being mean to me again."
Mo Xi opened his eyes in surprise. It had been a long time since he had seen his shixiong this shameless. He’d obviously teased him first, but this rebuttal was too piercing, this was really too shameless.
As soon as he opened his large phoenix shaped eyes, those eyelashes prodded at Gu Mang’s heart. Gu Mang leaned over and blew on them, Mo Xi instinctively closed his eyes quickly, and turned his head away helplessly: "Gu Mang, can you not--"
The words became a sigh.
Because Gu Mang shut his eyes and leaned over, bowed his head, and kissed his cheek.
Mo Xi opened his eyes immediately, his eyes dark. His gaze as he watched him was both somewhat uneasy and astonished.
His Adam’s apple bobbing, Mo Xi said in a low voice:. "Don’t make trouble, think about your body’s injuries."
"It’s almost all healed now." Gu Mang said, "The demon wolf’s blood isn’t tempered for nothing."
"Almost healed isn’t enough. If you get hurt again, Jiang Fuli is not here."
Gu Mang dropped down, leaning against his forehead: "If you keep holding out, and you get all bipolar[2], there’s also no Jiang Fuli here."
"... ..."
"Gu Mang!"
Gu Mang would naturally ignore him, and he could not keep Gu Mang pressed to the bed. IMo Xi’s eyes took on a worried, anxious expression. Even besides the ***, there was an ocean of other concerns.
Gu Mang sighe and straightened up. He raised his hand and gathered up his hair from it’s coil, bunching it into a soft ball: "Really! If you don’t believe me, see for yourself?"
As he spoke, he pulled half his white robe open.
While they were on the subject, since Gu Mang had returned to China, it wasn’t the first time that Gu Mang had seen his upper body, but most of those times had been accompanied by anger, horror, sadness, etc., and the light was low, so he had never looked closely at Gu Mang’s body from such a close distance.
The scars on Gu Mang’s body were indeed old wounds. Although the new wounds had left traces on him, they were obviously slowly fading.
"Although I can't remember too many details, but Liao country merged my blood with that of a Demon wolf, and it should imitate the blood magic of the animal." Gu Mang said, "Isn't it the blood of a monster that actually never dies? As long as it hasn’t been sealed, when it dies, after a few hundred years, the spirit and the flesh will naturally reunite,which means it regenerates like the phoenix. "
Mo Xi: "That’s just hearsay."
“Yep, no one knows whether it’s true or not, after all, after all, no one’s lived for hundreds of years, right?" Gu Mang said, catching Mo Xi’s hand, "But the demon wolft's self-healing ability is really strong, and they gave me the blood, so…”
He took Mo Xi’s thin, calloused hand and placed it on his cool skin.
The scars left by Sizhu Terrace could still be seen, but he could not feel them anymore.
Gu Mang whispered: "I’m better now."
Gu Mang’s hand was held against the lean muscle underneath his stomach, held there. Mo Xi was unable to speak for a while. It was comforting to know the wounds were fading quickly. But his heart ached because he knew that much of the deeper pain he’d felt was invisible to him.
"These old scars have always been there though." Gu Mang said, "For example, the scars I got as a child fighting Murong Lian, and more... In fact, I’ve always thought these scars were ugly, I wish they would fade. "
Gu Mang said, "Unfortunately, the demon wolf’s blood can only heal wounds after it’s activated. It can't heal prior wounds."
Then he touched his shoulder, and the sword wound on his chest.
"How ugly..."
Mo Xi pulled him down in response, holding him in his arms, pressed himself against his soft lips. In the soft, warm kiss, Mo Xi whispered to Gu Mang: “What are you thinking."
"No matter how much more you’re hurt, no matter how many more scars you receive, you’ll always be beautiful."
Gu Mang was kissed, and he leaned backwards. Their tongues met, the noise rising in the quiet room, the desire they shared uncontainable.
But Mo Xi is no longer a young man of 20[3]. He could retain his reason. He knew that Gu Mang Gege had always indulged him, loved to say “no big deal" to him, liked to say "very good" to him, and loved to teach him how to "relax." When they were together, that was how Gu Mang was like, and he hadn’t changed much.
The only difference was that, ten years ago, Mo Xi believed it to the letter. The rash young boy did not know the gravity of things, did not know not to throw his everything onto his shige’s body.
After ten years, Mo Xi was no longer so naive.
In the end, that rash youngster would become the pillar and hero of Chonghua, and the kind of man Gu Mang Gege would never have the same ease of fooling.
Mo Xi turned him over and whispered: "Close your legs together."
Translator’s Notes:
[1]蒲 refers to various monocotyledonous flowering plants including Acorus calamus and Typha orientalis; common cattail; bullrush
[X] 宝贝 Means, literally, treasure. Often translated as baby because of similar sound.
[2] 躁郁症 bipolar disorder; manic depression
[X] fbwxc has put the word in as ***. I assume it means the English equivalent of [redacted], or a glitch...JJWXC is having issues with my firewall right now so inform me if the original is written otherwise and I’ll change it.
[3] 《礼记·曲礼上》：「人生十年曰幼，学；二十曰弱，冠。」古代男子20岁举行冠礼，表示已长大成人。后用「弱冠」指男子20岁左右的年龄。It’s a poem that uses 20 year olds to mean “weak crown”, 弱冠.
Dante’s Notes:
Thank you so much @linkxs for sponsoring this chapter!