It all happened in the span of a moment.
Just before the door opened, Xue Ci suddenly tried to sit up, unaware that He Yi’s entire body had gone rigid with tension. As he shifted, the side of his buttock accidentally brushed the hand He Yi had braced on the bed. He Yi reflexively pulled his hand away, lost his balance, and planted his face straight into Xue Ci’s chest.
At that exact moment, the door swung open.
“So this is the child you were talking about?” The tall man, outwardly upright and refined, looked coldly at the seemingly absurd scene inside the room.
Madman Tang, or rather Tang Huai, rushed in right behind him and was greeted by the sight of two people on the bed: one completely naked, the other with his clothes in disarray, one person’s head buried against the other’s chest while their lower bodies overlapped…
Even Tang Huai, who had never possessed much of a moral compass to begin with, was struck speechless. “…Uh.”
Behind them stood a group of saber-bearing guards. Two of the more curious ones even rose onto their toes, trying to peek inside.
He Yi’s nose bridge ached from the collision and his head was still spinning, but from the corner of his eye he saw the two men planted in the doorway and remembered that Xue Ci was not wearing a stitch. At this rate, everyone would see everything. His temper flared at once. He yanked over the thin quilt beside him, wrapped Xue Ci tightly from head to toe, then snapped with a cold expression, “Everyone out! Close the door behind you.”
Xue Ci had been hit pretty hard too. He curled up slightly with a hand over his chest and complained that it hurt.
He Yi could only pat Xue Ci soothingly on the head through the quilt. Only after Tang Huai tactfully closed the door and dragged the unfamiliar man away with him did He Yi pull back the quilt and let Xue Ci out.
“Does it still hurt? Sorry. I hurt you.” He Yi pressed down his anger and asked softly.
Xue Ci immediately rubbed his own chest. He Yi hurriedly looked away, got off the bed, and found him something to wear.
With his back to Xue Ci, countless thoughts swept through He Yi’s mind. In the end, however, he asked nothing. Madman Tang and the others were still waiting outside. If they delayed any longer, who knew how much worse their imaginations would get.
After helping Xue Ci tie his sash, He Yi met his eyes and said, “I’ll hear you out when we get back.”
Xue Ci did not ask what he was supposed to explain. He merely nodded. “Mm.”
Once they had tidied themselves up, the two went to the main hall.
“They’re here.” Tang Huai had no interest whatsoever in drinking tea. He wanted nothing more than to pour two flasks of liquor down his throat, but Xing Zhaoyu had ordered someone to lock his wine cellar. At the thought, he clicked his tongue silently.
He Yi was still somewhat embarrassed when he first arrived, but the moment he felt the intense hostility Xing Zhaoyu was directing at him, his expression sharpened and his gaze turned cold.
Xing Zhaoyu raised an eyebrow, rather surprised that after being caught in such a scene earlier, He Yi now showed not the slightest fear before him. He could not tell whether the man was extraordinarily bold or simply extraordinarily thick-skinned.
But when his gaze landed on Xue Ci beside He Yi, even a man who had seen countless people failed to hide the surprise in his eyes. Xue Ci’s appearance was breathtaking.
How could Tang Huai possibly miss the change in Xing Zhaoyu’s expression? He clicked his tongue softly and took the initiative to invite the two of them to sit.
“Things weren’t what you thought.” He Yi did not sit. He stood there and went straight to the point.
He had not actually come up with an explanation. It was not that he did not intend to clear things up, only that this sort of situation was difficult to explain, and the more he explained, the guiltier he would look. So he seized the moral high ground instead, turning defense into offense as he challenged them. “I would like to know something. Although I am only staying here as a guest, why did you enter the West Courtyard without my permission, and even barge into my room?”
Tang Huai shot Xing Zhaoyu an annoyed sidelong glance.
Seeing that Tang Huai was not speaking up for him, Xing Zhaoyu pressed down the corners of his mouth, then lifted his eyelids and said, “This is my residence. Tang Huai lent it out without my consent. And even if I had agreed, you still would not be the one calling the shots here. Where I go on this property is entirely up to me.”
Seeing that the man not only had no intention of apologizing but was even provoking him, He Yi decisively gave up on continuing the discussion. He merely said, “I see. Then it seems I am the one who overstepped.”
“Brother Tang, my house has already begun taking shape. I was planning to move out in the next few days anyway, and now seems like the right time. Thank you for looking after me all this while.” He Yi cupped his hands to Tang Huai. His tone was slightly stiff, but Tang Huai could see the genuine remorse in his eyes.
In truth, every word of that was a lie. He had only just finished the woodshed. Fortunately, it was large enough that even after storing the earth and lumber inside, there was still room to spread out a sleeping mat. The rent he had paid Tang Huai would have covered his stay through the end of the month, and because he was supposed to watch the house for Tang Huai, he had never planned to move out this soon. But now that things had come to this, lowering his head to this man merely so he could continue staying in the residence was impossible.
Xue Ci sensed He Yi’s displeasure and guilt. He shot Xing Zhaoyu a sidelong look, and his hand shifted slightly.
He Yi suddenly felt as though a wave of cold air had invaded the space beside his hand, the temperature dropping sharply. Looking down, he saw Xue Ci’s hand trembling less than three inches away from his own. He hooked it closer and lightly scraped his fingertip across Xue Ci’s palm.
He Yi immediately startled. Why was Xue Ci’s hand so cold? It felt like he had been gripping a block of ice.
Xue Ci’s palm tickled. He instinctively shrank back and pulled his hand away.
When Tang Huai heard that He Yi was moving out, he immediately wanted to kick Xing Zhaoyu. But he was afraid Xing Zhaoyu would grab his leg and then, in all likelihood, start acting lovey-dovey with him right in front of everyone. After thinking it over, he decided against it.
Tang Huai waved a hand and ordered several guards to help He Yi move his things.
He Yi understood at once. The man beside Tang Huai clearly held a high position. If even someone as unruly as Tang Huai did not dare openly oppose him, there was no reason for He Yi to keep butting heads with him. He Yi patted Xue Ci on the shoulder. “Come with me.”
Xue Ci looked up at him, then glanced back at Xing Zhaoyu and Tang Huai before saying seriously to He Yi, “I’m going with you.”
He Yi smiled from the bottom of his heart. He reached up to stroke Xue Ci’s head, then led him out of the main hall.
“Are you satisfied now?”
“No.” Xing Zhaoyu dismissed all the guards, pulled Tang Huai into his arms, then buried his face in the hollow of Tang Huai’s neck and murmured softly to him.
The helplessness between Tang Huai’s brows gradually faded beneath the other man’s nibbling.
*
Without He Yi noticing, he had accumulated quite a few more belongings than when he first moved into the Tang residence.
The more troublesome part was moving the chicken shelter. The guards could handle the rest of his things.
It took some effort, but he and Xue Ci finally dismantled the chicken shelter and transported it to the new property on a handcart.
The big goose, meanwhile, took it upon itself to lead the chicks and hens to their new home.
By then, night had fully fallen. The guards lit several lamps for them and stood to one side watching.
The lamplight was not especially bright, but there were enough of them that putting up a chicken shelter was no problem.
With his earlier experience, He Yi soon rebuilt the shelter and even set up the fencing around the chicken pen.
Just then, Xue Ci returned carrying two buckets of well water. He Yi felt sticky with sweat, so he gave himself a quick wipe-down. Beside the woodshed, he had rigged up a temporary bathing enclosure using bamboo strips and long burlap sacks as screens.
The rest of their miscellaneous belongings had all been placed inside the woodshed. After Xue Ci washed up as well, the two went inside and spread out their sleeping mats. By then it was very late, so He Yi told the guards they could leave.
He Yi thought about how he had benefited from Tang Huai’s household in so many ways, from daily firewood and having water fetched to countless other odds and ends. On top of that, they still needed Tang Huai’s connections to secure Xue Ci’s foreign-resident papers. Being too calculating about things would only make future dealings awkward. He decided to let the remaining rent go.
Late at night, with the dew heavy outside, the woodshed was packed with miscellaneous belongings. In a corner surrounded by clutter, a tiny oil lamp burned with a faint, wavering flame. He Yi and Xue Ci sat shoulder to shoulder on their mats, talking in fits and starts.
“From now on, I guess we’ll have to make do here for a while. There’s quite a bit of dust in the woodshed, and I never cut a window into it, so the air doesn’t circulate very well.”
“Aren’t you going to ask me about what happened today?”
“…” It was not that He Yi did not want to ask. The problem was that once he did, he would have to face the fact that Xue Ci really was the snow leopard.
Now that he thought about it… the same eye color, both encountered on the mountain, both coming down from the mountain, even both going back up there to spend the night. The similarities were absurdly obvious.
But who would randomly leap to something so supernatural? His own transmigration was already supernatural enough, but he had long since settled into life in Chongzi Village and into his current identity. He rarely remembered that he had transmigrated at all, nor did it feel especially remarkable anymore. Life here was so peaceful and ordinary that, compared with his previous life, it was almost like recuperating.
Xue Ci was the snow leopard. The snow leopard was Xue Ci.
Then all those forward things he had done to the snow leopard, kissing it and taking deep sniffs of its belly… didn’t that mean he had effectively done the same things to Xue Ci?
He Yi could no longer look Xue Ci in the face. He could barely face himself. He had truly died of embarrassment.
When Xue Ci received no answer, he asked again.
He Yi could only seize on something unimportant to change the subject. “Where’s that green outfit of yours?”
Xue Ci pointed toward the mountain. When he realized He Yi was not looking his way, he patted He Yi on the thigh and pointed again.
“Can’t you transform your clothes too?”
“I’ve tried. At most I can make myself a pair of underpants.”
“Then you…” Why didn’t you? He Yi thought about the scene earlier and decided that, under those circumstances, whether Xue Ci had been wearing anything below the waist probably would not have made much difference.
Xue Ci understood what He Yi had left unsaid and replied, “I was inside the room. I wasn’t outside.”
“…” That almost made a tiny bit of sense, but not really. He Yi had been in the room too!
But compared with that, He Yi cared more about something else. “Why did you turn into… a human right then?”
“Huh? Weren’t you the one who told me to change? You didn’t know I could do that?” Xue Ci’s eyes went round. He grabbed He Yi’s sleeve, his expression slowly shifting from astonishment to blank disbelief.
“I didn’t know. I just blurted it out.” Who could have guessed Xue Ci really could hide his snow-leopard form? It was just that transforming like that… might actually have made getting out of the situation harder than simply staying a leopard. He Yi genuinely had not expected that.
“…” Moisture slowly welled in Xue Ci’s eyes. He released He Yi’s sleeve little by little and remained silent for a long time.
Seeing Xue Ci’s watery eyes, He Yi wanted to wipe them with his sleeve, but no tears fell for quite a while. In the end, he could only pat Xue Ci on the shoulder and reassure him. “It’s fine. I won’t tell anyone else. I have a secret too. Do you want to hear it?”
Xue Ci immediately blinked. Only then did the tears spill down his round cheeks. He casually wiped them away himself and nodded. “Okay.”
*
The next day.
Now that He Yi had moved out, building the main house could not be delayed any longer.
But plans could not keep up with changes. Tang Huai said they would apply for Xue Ci’s foreign-resident papers today and wanted to take Xue Ci into town. He Yi had already been planning to go there to ask around about He Jie, so he caught a ride with them and took the opportunity to head into town as well.