He and It Chapter 192: Inquire Here (20)

Chapter 192: Inquire Here (20)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

 

And so, despite how furious his family became, Yan Huan successfully insisted on his own way and stayed in the palace of Eastern Swamp with Liu Fuguang. He didn’t take up much space; wherever Liu Fuguang slept, he would transform into a sparkling ripple and silently swim under his feet, like a carp leisurely meandering under the lotus leaves.

Of course, if there was a comparison to be made, this would surely be the most terrifying and eerie koi in the entire world.

Liu Fuguang paid him no mind, and continued to treat him like air. It was Xi Ji who, several times upon entering her younger son’s chamber, found the once pristine white floor dyed a thick, midnight black. Upon closer inspection, she could discern countless densely intertwined, snake-like patterns that swayed and undulated beneath the surface. She felt a chill run down her spine and wished she could set it all ablaze.

During those days, they had been striving to adapt to the world six thousand years later, comforting their subjects, repairing the earth’s veins, and revitalizing the court. The more they tried to integrate and adapt to the current era, the more out of place they felt. Xi Ji began to understand more after learning about the origins and malaise of the poison of the turbid heart and seeing the condition of the people, as well as the situation with the so-called “undead.” Yan Huan’s evilness far exceeded their imagination. He was almost a collection of negative concepts, a chaotic blindness, an inevitable disaster.

Such a being was actually talking nonsense about “regret” and “love” in front of people…It was simply laughable!

Setting aside her thoughts, Xi Ji steadied herself and walked slowly toward the inner chamber.

Because they were together as a family, Liu Fuguang’s complexion and spirits had improved significantly these days. Regardless of what others said or thought, Yan Huan felt a rare sweetness seeing Liu Fuguang smile even once.

“Zhuolang,” Xi Ji smiled. “Look at what I brought. It’s your favorite from when you were little!”

Queen Xi Ji set down a jade basket overflowing with fresh lotus seeds, while soaking among them were peeled and sliced peaches, translucent mountain plums, and lychees preserved in honey. The ripe sweetness mixed with a refreshing lotus fragrance wafted over, like a colorful fruit ship leisurely docking in front of Liu Fuguang.

“Your elder brother spent several days at Yao Guang Lake, and finally managed to uproot an entire pond of lotus flowers. Look, he specifically picked the largest lotus pods and peeled several for you.”

Yan Huan swam under their feet, and his ears suddenly perked up straight at the mention of “favorite.” He focused intently, not missing a single word, and he almost jotted it down with a pen.

Liu Fuguang couldn’t help but reveal a delighted smile as he picked up a fragrant lotus seed and popped it into his mouth. The familiar yet unfamiliar sweetness seemed to return directly from his memories.

“Then I must thank big brother,” he joked. “Has father given him enough work to keep him busy? How did he find time to do this?”

Xi Ji chuckled. “There’s never an end to court affairs. I think he’s been tired of it these days. It’s better to let him relax at Yao Guang Lake and bring you some lotus seeds while he’s at it.”

Pausing, Xi Ji reached out and touched his forehead, feeling how it was still ice-cold. In her heart, she cursed Yan Huan silently but didn’t let it show it on her face. She asked with concern, “Is there anything else you want to see or do? Just ask, and your mother will arrange it for you…”

Liu Fuguang smiled gently. “This is already very good. I don’t have anything I want to play with or see. It’s a waste of money and resources, and not very meaningful.”

Xi Ji sighed. She knew her son’s temperament well and didn’t force it. The mother and son sat together, and chatted affectionately. Seeing the faint dark circles under his eyes, Xi Ji stopped talking and gently stroked Liu Fuguang’s head.

“All right, rest now. We’ll come see you again in the evening.”

Looking at his mother’s gradually disappearing figure, Liu Fuguang clenched his lips tightly and remained silent. It wasn’t until Xi Ji’s figure faded completely into the clouds and light that he suddenly felt a tightness in his chest, his throat constricted, and he made a “gulping” sound.

Yan Huan instantly took human form, stood by the bed, and bowed his body. He raised his hand to Liu Fuguang’s lips, who only coughed softly, and refused to spit into Yan Huan’s palm. With no other choice, the Dragon God took a small bowl so that he would regurgitate all the lotus seeds he had swallowed earlier.

He continued to cough persistently, and Yan Huan, torn between heartache and fear of touching his back, could only hurriedly use spiritual dew to soothe his mouth.

“When you’re better, you can eat whatever you want,” Yan Huan whispered softly.

Liu Fuguang caught his breath, but remained silent. After a long time, he whispered, “…don’t speak.”

His body was slowly recovering, which was not an easy task. Being able to live harmoniously with his parents and sibling was already a great blessing that he hadn’t dared to dream of when he first woke up. There was no need to disturb his family because of minor illnesses.

Yan Huan was stunned. Finally hearing him speak those two words was as joyful as receiving an imperial decree. He didn’t understand why Liu Fuguang wanted him not to speak, but since he had spoken, Yan Huan promised without hesitation not to utter a word.

However, that flashy plate was still there.

Yan Huan hesitated for a moment, his gaze shifting to the fruit boat brought by Queen Xi. It was simple in design, with a round pile of lotus seeds on top, humorously shaped like a pagoda… This craftsmanship didn’t seem like it came from the palace cooks. It looked more like something Queen Xi made herself.

Should he dispose of it or discreetly remove it? After all, Fuguang couldn’t eat it, and it was just a distraction sitting there, causing discomfort…

After pondering for a while, Yan Huan felt there might be something wrong with what he was about to do. Logically, the fruit boat wasn’t worth much, and its materials were commonplace. Making such a thing took little time and effort. Wasn’t it a form of torture to have such a fragrant thing placed in front of someone who could only look and not eat?

As he thought about it, ready to act and remove the thing, Yan Huan hesitated again, like a wild animal facing a trap, unsure whether to dive in or turn away.

The longer he hesitated, the more the lotus seeds, vibrant with spiritual energy, began to darken rapidly. Liu Fuguang’s brow furrowed, his eyes showing signs of displeasure. Yan Huan’s heart pounded, and he blurted out hastily, “This is both fragrant and beautiful. Having it here will improve your mood, right?”

With the divine decree uttered, backed by his divine power, the fruit boat, which had wilted, immediately perked up, its fragrance and colors more vivid than before.

Seeing Liu Fuguang’s brows relax slightly, Yan Huan breathed a sigh of relief. He reverted to his old tricks, and discreetly slipped the bowl he had just used back into his body and snuck back into the underground palace, all the while observing Liu Fuguang’s every move and reflecting on the near-disaster that had just occurred.

Apart from the love Liu Fuguang had once shown him, Yan Huan couldn’t comprehend any positive feelings toward anyone or anything. In an effort to understand Liu Fuguang’s emotions, he had tried to learn and appreciate normal human emotions, but the results were always disappointing.

Hovering below, Yan Huan’s nine eyes singled out one and stared at the small fruit boat.

Why didn’t you want me to inform him about your condition? If I had just been impressed with that middle-of-the-road thing, how could he be upset? Yan Huan sharpened his claws and thought back and forth, finally a thought rushed into his mind, making him feel refreshed.

What if that fruit tray is the thing Fuguang sent to me, and many others are busybody, throwing it away for me?

By putting himself in another’s shoes, Yan Huan finally understood the feelings that Liu Fuguang might have. It was as if the first light of creation had illuminated his mind, making everything clear, and he let out a long breath.

So that’s how it is! Such empathy and consideration were actions he had never taken before. Yan Huan felt both relieved and intrigued.

I finally learned, he thought contentedly. Now, getting along with Fuguang shouldn’t be a big problem, right?

Feeling he had mastered a new skill, Yan Huan was very happy. He nestled contentedly underground. In the evening, the family of four gathered in Liu Fuguang’s room, talking and laughing, sharing their thoughts. Yan Huan didn’t interrupt with the excuse that “Fuguang should rest,” considering that if it were his private time with Fuguang, he wouldn’t want anyone to spoil it.

That night, Yan Huan closed his eyes and took a nap.

Since reuniting with Liu Fuguang, he could always smell his lover’s scent and feel his presence and weight. Sleep, which he had both feared and longed for, had become a trivial matter.

The Dragon God’s breathing was long and continuous. He slept in his true form, surrounded by a vast and powerful divine force, like an unstoppable sea of stars, continuously rolling up and nourishing Liu Fuguang, who lay sideways on the bed.

In the past six thousand years, Yan Huan had many dreams.

Aside from the later repeated delirious dreams, his first dream should have been after he used his methods to bottle up Eastern Swamp.

At that time, Yan Huan had first killed a large number of true Immortals, then swallowed the purest primordial spirit. With no external enemies and no internal worries, his path was perfect, and the will of heaven was flawless. It was a time of great triumph. Eastern Swamp, dominating Tang Valley, was originally a place of abundant sunlight. If Eastern Swamp had sought to punish the evil god, it would have been a considerable trouble, but Yan Huan didn’t care. With one move, he reduced an entire nation to the size of a chessboard and locked it in his treasure trove while the many worlds watched.

What a majestic and powerful ancient descendant, a great god across time and space!

For a while, Yan Huan had everything. No one could restrain him anymore, and no one dared to hate him. If he wished, he could even take over the Dao and merge heaven and earth back into a state of undivided chaos, for he was a Dragon God who embodied both purity and filth, good and evil.

However, extreme revelry was followed by extreme fatigue. Having enjoyed and adapted to all beings’ fear and submission, Yan Huan felt tired. He thought, maybe I should sleep for a while. When I wake up, the many worlds will have a multitude of new things waiting for me to joyfully destroy with my power.

So, he swaggered into Tang Valley and made it his nest, he let the poison of evil fill every corner of the land of sunrise, and thus fell into a deep sleep.

The first dream was very fragmented and disjointed. Yan Huan only caught glimpses of Liu Fuguang’s figure and heard his former partner speaking to him in a vague manner, with only a gentle tone that could warm one’s heart, a tone he was once familiar with.

Strangely, in the first dream, one detail was exceptionally clear—Yan Huan saw Liu Fuguang’s sleeve.

This noble prince, born of royalty, loved to wear clothes that were half perfect and half worn. In the ever-changing dreamscape, his bamboo-green sleeve had fuzzy edges, revealing the pale azure threads beneath, contrasting with the soft white skin of his wrist, making one feel inexplicably comfortable and just wanting to gently rub their face against it.

Decades of dreaming passed in an instant. Yan Huan opened his eyes and couldn’t help but laugh silently.

Interesting, he thought with great interest. Somehow, I dreamed of that charming fool.

The Dragon God reached into his own belly, casually kneading the primordial spirit he hadn’t completely digested. The act of secretly attacking Liu Fuguang, making his Dao-heart fall and crashing down Bell Mountain, seemed as if it happened just yesterday. Calling him “charming fool” with a chuckle was effortless for Yan Huan.

But…

Yan Huan unconsciously furrowed his brows.

Liu Fuguang’s light “ah,” which sounded like a mixture of surprise and a cold shiver, still echoed clearly in his ears, inexplicably irritating him.

He wiped the smile off his face, let go of the warm, stubbornly resilient little trinket, and got up to walk outside.

He had thought too much about things he shouldn’t have. It was time to find some other amusement.

The second dream came even more abruptly than the first.

Since his godly powers allowed him to traverse worlds, Yan Huan always returned from his outings, having satiated himself on flesh and blood, and his power grew endlessly. His dragon body could no longer contain his immense strength, and he had to rely on external forces to reshape himself each time, just to keep up with his advancement.

This time, Yan Huan dreamed of much clearer scenes.

Yan Huan’s approach to life was always to indulge freely in bed but to stay far away once out of it, not to show himself in front of others. But Liu Fuguang was different. His tender affection was like slowly boiling water, making one bleed without realizing it. Whether in bed or out, he loved physical touch—hugs, caresses. Living with him, Yan Huan often felt he would be driven mad eventually.

Holding hands gently, twiddling the gold ring on his earlobe, the daily kisses on the cheek and lips—Yan Huan could tolerate these. But one thing he could not: Liu Fuguang loved to comb his hair.

He didn’t use a comb, just his fingers, slowly and gently running from Yan Huan’s roots to the tips. This body, used as a disguise, had hair that suited his personality—each strand was thick and coarse, as black and dense as ink that could strangle someone.

During these moments, Liu Fuguang would laugh softly, whispering in his ear, “Dragon Lord has such good hair, so thick and dense.”

In the entire world, only he would call Yan Huan “Dragon Lord.”

At such times, Yan Huan would usually shut his eyes and lips tightly, refusing to make a sound. But once, Liu Fuguang braided a strand of his hair, giggling non-stop. When Yan Huan opened his eyes with a terrifying expression, ready to burst into anger, Liu Fuguang wasn’t afraid. He simply bent down and placed a kiss lighter than a petal on the dragon horn on his forehead.

“Sorry,” he said with a smile, “I’ll undo it right away.”

In that instant, Yan Huan felt as if struck by lightning. Half his body went numb from the kiss, not knowing if it was from softness or intense pain.

Whatever Liu Fuguang said after that, Yan Huan didn’t hear a word. Until the young man pushed him up, the Dragon God was in a daze, unsure of the time or day.

After the second dream, Yan Huan woke up with a rather grim expression.

What kind of cursed dream was that…

He felt discontented and wondered if he should find some company to alleviate his loneliness. As thoughts formed, actions followed. Yan Huan, thinking that, decided to act on it. Mere mortals, akin to ants, were unworthy to accompany him and couldn’t even withstand a single gaze of his majesty. The beings he casually summoned were demigods, celestial demons, and otherworldly divine beasts from various realms. These were beautiful men and women, unparalleled warriors, and geniuses, all like scattered wine cups floating on winding streams, available for his arbitrary selection.

However, what perplexed and puzzled Yan Huan was that no matter the type of being, they always feared him far more than they respected him, hated him far more than they loved him. He could smell the ambition, dissatisfaction, greed, and scheming on them. But qualities like kindness, generosity, and courage, which he once found cheap and now wanted to revisit, he could not see any of them.

He was very frustrated, so much so that the carnal pleasures he once enjoyed now seemed as bland as plain water. Yan Huan gave up, curled his pinky finger, killed some, and let others go, continuing to wander through various worlds.

After wandering enough, he thought, it was better to return to his lair and sleep. Compared to these uninteresting people, dreams were much more entertaining.

The dreams that followed came like soft, warm illusions, completely enveloping Yan Huan.

He kept dreaming about his past with Liu Fuguang, those warm and peculiar scenes and things.

Liu Fuguang arguing with him about the Dao, debating for days and nights without rest;

Saying they wanted to see the snow and actually running to the Mortal World, and rowing a small boat to the center of a lake in the heavy snow;

Burying jars of wine under the pear trees, promising to dig them out when the flowers bloomed the following year. Yan Huan, mischievously, drank them all first, waiting for Liu Fuguang’s reaction the next year. But when the pear flowers bloomed the next year, Liu Fuguang’s “what are you talking about, I forgot all about it” look made Yan Huan dig up the jars himself in anger. Since he was the one who dug them up, he had to explain where the wine went, so he secretly refilled them and placed them heavily on Liu Fuguang’s table…

When the third dream ended, Yan Huan woke up smiling.

It wasn’t a cold, sinister, mocking, or malicious smile…It was a genuine, joyful, and nostalgic smile.

He even laughed out loud in his dream, so much so that when he opened his eyes, he turned over and reminisced happily for a long time.

Forget it, he thought, and continued to sleep since the dreams made him happier.

In the fourth dream, as an observer, Yan Huan noticed Liu Fuguang’s every move and discovered a secret he should have noticed long ago.

— Liu Fuguang’s gaze, from the very first meeting, was always fixed on his true eyes, the nine eyes symbolizing ultimate evil.

This meant that from the very first meeting, he saw through Yan Huan’s true form. When he said “I like you,” he was directly looking at the real Yan Huan. When he said “I love you,” he was still directly looking at the real Yan Huan!

The Dragon God woke up from the dream, drenched in cold sweat, unable to smile anymore.

He stopped dreaming and instead delved into his own memories, trying to uncover the truth. He then left his lair and rushed to the celestial abodes where the true Immortals once resided, seeking any records related to “ultimate goodness.”

In the end, Yan Huan received only one answer.

— Supreme Goodness was the heart of clarity for the world; all illusions were exposed, and all worldly affairs were as clear as fire.

He thought blankly about his memories, then looked blankly at that clear statement.

“I…I don’t understand.” The Dragon God wanted to laugh but could only manage to twitch the muscles of his mouth. “I don’t understand. I really…no, I don’t understand, I don’t understand!”

For some reason, Yan Huan felt extreme fear and panic in his heart. He swore never to sleep again, never to enter dreams to probe into the past. He even sealed the almost fully digested Dao-heart in another space.

He just wanted to completely forget Liu Fuguang, to quickly forget Liu Fuguang!

Gradually, everything in the world lost its allure. Extreme evil loved absolute power, destruction, and crushing beautiful things, but all of that became unbearably dull. No color, no smell, no distinction between soft and hard…The Dragon God endured in a daze for an unknown amount of time, until time gradually lost its meaning.

Finally, one day, Yan Huan wandered back to Tang Valley. Back to his lair in a state of bewildered confusion.

I…I want to sleep, he thought. My heart is so cold, shivering with cold, my strength is exhausted, I’m so tired, I want to sleep so much.

So, he once again fell into exhaustion, into his dreams and memories, into that evening when Liu Fuguang fell off Bell Mountain.

In the dream, Yan Huan forgot everything. He forgot it was just his dream, forgot it was an unchangeable fact, forgot it was the sin and killing he committed many years ago. He shouted and dashed down Bell Mountain, trying to save Liu Fuguang’s body, tears of pain breaking from his eyes, dripping into the mist-covered cliff.

From that moment on, he obsessively wandered in his dreams, and shed six thousand years of tears, regret, and madness.

Until tonight, as he slept beneath Liu Fuguang, Yan Huan dreamed again.

In that dream, he didn’t encounter internal demons or the pervasive fog. In a field of bright light, he saw the back of Liu Fuguang, walking forward alone.

“I found you! I caught you!” Yan Huan shouted joyfully, running forward, wanting to grab his lover’s arm and pull him into his embrace…

The moment his fingertips touched Liu Fuguang’s arm, Liu Fuguang’s slender figure collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, and fell immediately into Yan Huan’s arms. Yan Huan’s joyful expression froze instantly. He stared at his lover’s body, as his lips trembled with fear.

—Covered in wounds, Liu Fuguang was torn to pieces by the Kui beast, his blood-soaked robes still clinging to his body, eyes wide open in eternal sorrow, as if unable to rest in peace forever.

Yan Huan was completely stunned, a string in his mind snapping abruptly. He held his lover’s broken body, crying madly, howling in despair. There was no greater pain in the world! He wished he could die right now, to die immediately!

He then began to vomit violently, vomiting blood, flesh, and organs, anything to alleviate this intense pain, to take upon himself all that Liu Fuguang had suffered, he would give anything! He…

Just as Yan Huan was on the verge of death in his dream, crying until his throat was hoarse, a cool sensation, like thin raindrops or water droplets, pierced through the nightmare, drizzling on his head.

The evil dragon was startled awake. He slowly opened his tear-filled nine eyes, still trembling as he looked up.

What could it be that woke him from his endless dream?

The Dragon God focused and was completely stunned.

Liu Fuguang stood barefoot on the ground, looking tired, and holding a handful of lotus seeds in his hands.

“Don’t make noise,” he said wearily, “You’re waking up everyone in the entire palace.”

“…”