"What on earth... are you doing..."
The moon cast a chilly glow over the scene, and Lou Chengfeng froze in place, staring blankly at the two people standing so close they were nearly pressed together.
He felt as if he were trapped in a dream—otherwise, how could he be seeing his son and the two Xiao brothers, Xiao Rangchen, lips locked?
He even tried to make excuses for what he saw, telling himself this must be some sort of strange, mysterious ritual.
That was until Lou Yue suddenly shoved the other person away, her gaze darting away to avoid meeting his eyes, while Xiao Rangchen stood beside her, his expression calm, but unspent possessiveness still lingered deep in his eyes.
His confusion instantly curdled into utter disbelief.
He pointed shakily at Xiao Rangchen, his voice cracking with shock: "You—you just kissed my son??"
"You're both men!"
The second the words left his mouth, Lou Yue flicked a cool glance his way.
Lou Chengfeng smacked his own forehead hard—
Oh right! This wasn't his son, this was his daughter!
The next second, he blew his top so hard his voice felt like it was going to pierce through the sky: "You two were actually KISSING?!"
The quiet night was torn apart by that roar. The shout was so loud it shook the treetops, sending leaves raining down and a whole flock of birds squawking into the air in fright.
That devastated cry of "You two were actually kissing!" echoed through the dark hills, loud enough for everyone on the entire mountain to hear.
Lou Yue's face went completely dark.
Lou Chengfeng was trembling all over with rage, and only one thought spun in his head.
His precious cabbage that he'd hidden away so carefully had just been stolen right in front of his eyes by a thieving boy!
He spun around, grabbed the wooden stick he'd tossed aside a couple days earlier, stormed across the wooden walkway, and roughly jabbed Xiao Rangchen away from Lou Yue with the stick. He planted himself firmly in front of his daughter, pointed at Xiao Rangchen and yelled sharply:
"Who gave you permission to kiss Lou Yue?!"
"I don't care what weird hobbies you have, but you are NOT allowed to mess with my Lou Yue!"
"Talk! When did you start getting those rotten ideas?!"
Xiao Rangchen's gaze drifted past Lou Chengfeng, landing on Lou Yue who was leaning against his back, raising an eyebrow clearly ready to sit back and enjoy the drama.
Then he turned his attention back to Lou Chengfeng, his tone steady: "It's not a weird hobby. I like Lou Yue."
"You call that NOT a weird hobby? She's a guy!" Lou Chengfeng thundered.
But as soon as the words left his mouth, all that greeted him was dead silence.
His heart gave a sudden lurch, and a terrible, foreboding feeling crept over him.
Lou Chengfeng spun around sharply, staring straight at Lou Yue behind him: "What the hell does he mean by that?"
Lou Yue looked him in the eye, and slowly said the last thing Lou Chengfeng wanted to hear: "He knows I'm not a man."
Lou Chengfeng ground his teeth together: "...How did he find out?"
Lou Yue looked at his face, which looked like he wanted to grind Xiao Rangchen into dust on the spot, and casually tossed the blame over to the man across from them: "He's asking you. How did you find out?"
Xiao Rangchen thought for a brief moment, then summed it up in two words: "An accident."
Lou Chengfeng was left completely speechless.
But in no time, he connected all the dots from the very beginning. He lifted the wooden stick up again, seething with rage: "You set your sights on Lou Yue from the very start, didn't you?!"
Xiao Rangchen answered openly and unapologetically: "Yes."
Lou Chengfeng's fury surged all the way to the top of his head, and he swung the stick down hard.
Xiao Rangchen didn't dodge. The stick landed with a heavy thud on his left arm, a dull sound that made one's heart clench tight.
Yet he still stood his ground, his gaze firm, his body straight and unyielding.
Lou Chengfeng glared at him, then swung the stick two more times with all his might—one blow to the right arm, the next to his right leg.
Lou Yue just watched calmly.
She watched Xiao Rangchen take every hit without flinching, not even blinking, as if no matter how much Lou Chengfeng lashed out, he would bear it all without a single word of complaint.
"Why didn't you dodge?" Lou Chengfeng demanded sharply.
"It was my fault for not stating my intentions clearly from the start."
The thought that he himself had brought this wolf into the house, and even praised him to the skies, made Lou Chengfeng so angry he lifted the stick again.
Lou Yue raised a hand and grabbed the stick before it could come down, her tone cool: "That's enough."
Lou Chengfeng got even more riled up. He threw the stick down hard, pointed at Xiao Rangchen and yelled furiously: "Get out! Get the hell out of here right now!"
Xiao Rangchen's eyebrows furrowed, and he was just about to speak when Lou Yue shook her head slightly at him.
He looked at Lou Chengfeng, his voice steady and solemn, every word clear and unwavering: "My feelings for Lou Yue are genuine. I love her, and I want to be with her."
Lou Chengfeng was so mad he crouched down to grab another stick, but Lou Yue held him back and motioned for Xiao Rangchen to leave first.
Xiao Rangchen pressed his lips together, stood rooted to the spot for a long moment, before finally turning and walking away.
Lou Chengfeng glowered at Lou Yue, roughly yanking his arm out of her grasp.
"Wait."
Xiao Rangchen turned back to look.
The next second, two big, fluffy creatures came flying at him.
Xiao Rangchen had no choice but to catch one in each hand.
"Take your spirit beasts and get out with you!"
The two marmots had been curled up together in their new nest, sleeping so deeply they were out cold. They had just been roughly dug out and thrown out by Lou Chengfeng, and now they stared around, completely dazed and confused.
Once Xiao Rangchen's figure, carrying the two dumbfounded spirit beasts, had vanished from sight, Lou Chengfeng whirled around to face Lou Yue.
"Do you have feelings for that boy?!"
Lou Yue was the daughter he had raised with his own hands. The way she had stopped him just now clearly showed she cared about him.
If she didn't care, she wouldn't have bothered stepping in at all, and would have already gone back to her room.
No, it was more than just caring—she was probably already in love with him.
After all, with her personality, how could she have let that boy kiss her if she didn't want him to?
Lou Yue yawned lazily: "It's very late, Dad. You're not young anymore, you should get some rest."
"Don't play dumb. You have to explain this to me clearly today."
"What else do you want me to say?"
Lou Chengfeng asked her seriously: "How far have you two gone? Since he knows you're a woman, does he know about your cauldron body too?"
"Mm-hmm."
A vein throbbed on Lou Chengfeng's forehead. "Mm-hmm what? I asked how far you two have gone."
Lou Yue crossed her arms, leaned against the wall behind her, and just looked at him without saying a word.
Lou Chengfeng's heart sank. "...Don't tell me you two have already—"
Lou Yue stayed silent.
Lou Chengfeng swore under his breath, and turned to storm down the mountain: "I'm going to go beat the crap out of him!!"
"I did it of my own free will," Lou Yue said calmly from behind him.
Lou Chengfeng burst out: "What do you mean you did it of your own free will? Can you say for sure he's not after the power of your cauldron body?"
"He broke through from the Great Void peak stage to the Nascent Soul mid-stage in such a short time, didn't he get that power from you?"
"How can you be sure he won't keep using you to raise his cultivation level later on?"
"You know what's the easiest thing to fool people with? Half-truths!"
"He might have real feelings for you, but when that real love is mixed with fake intentions to use you, you'll be too close to the situation to see it clearly."
"You're smart, but you don't understand men—especially men who have reached his level of power!"
"When a man's cultivation and all he owns reach the peak, women just become accessories. They'll forget all the promises they made, and all they'll see is their own goals."
A girl like you will be drained of every last bit of value you have!"
"Listen to your dad. Break up with him, and stay far away from him."
Lou Yue's gaze swept over Lou Chengfeng's tightly tensed face, and she said: "Do you really think I'm that stupid, that I'll just let someone use me?"
Lou Chengfeng's chest heaved up and down, and he slowly sighed. "Daughter, it's not that I don't trust you. It's that I don't trust people's hearts."
Lou Yue stared right back at him. "There have been at least a thousand people with the Lou clan's cauldron body over the generations. Mine isn't that special."
Lou Chengfeng was left speechless for a moment.
Lou Yue continued: "Don't you think your reaction today has been a little too extreme?"
"Truth be told, I've never quite figured it out. Why did you use the Formless Disguise the very moment I was born? You even made Xuanba give up half his inner core just to make me live my whole life as a man. If all you wanted was to keep the Lou family from forcing me into a random marriage, that seems like such a massive overkill, doesn't it?"
Lou Chengfeng stared at her, but could not find a single word to refute her.
Lou Yue waited for a moment, then shrugged. "If you don't want to talk, I'm heading back."
"Stop right there."
Lou Chengfeng forced a gentle look on his face, trying to play the emotional card. "Tell daddy, what's so great about that annoying boy? I can't stand a single thing about him. I noticed it long ago—he looks quiet and reserved, but he's actually full of tricks, as slippery as they come. Look, he's only been here two days, and he's already wrapped your old man around his little finger."
"Even someone as sharp as me got fooled by him. You're so innocent, he could wrap you around his finger even easier."
"Let me tell you, all those rotten men out there are no good."
Lou Yue glanced at him sideways. "You're a rotten man too."
Lou Chengfeng immediately defended himself. "Daddy's different! My love for you is wholehearted and selfless! Those others are only after your good looks, and your cauldron power!"
"Sure." Lou Yue yawned and started walking towards her room.
"Hey, did you even hear a word I said!"
Lou Yue pushed the door shut behind her, blocking Lou Chengfeng who had rushed right up to the door from the outside.
Lou Chengfeng stared at the door, his shoulders slumping dejectedly.
"Don't keep it from her anymore."
Xuanba, who had watched the whole scene, climbed down slowly from the roof.
"And you have the nerve to say that! Did you know about their relationship all along?" Lou Chengfeng turned his anger on Xuanba.
Xuanba said calmly, "I only saw Lou Yue take the initiative to kiss him one scene earlier than you did."
"..."
"But you seemed pretty satisfied with him before."
"I was blind back then!" Lou Chengfeng huffed heavily. "I thought he had a steady, upright mind, but turns out he was here from the very start to go after that fresh, tender little cabbage growing right in my field!"
Xuanba: "Are you going to break them apart?"
Lou Chengfeng's eyes flared up immediately. "Who says they're a pair? I'm doing this to uphold justice!"
Xuanba: "..."
"Keep an eye on Lou Yue for me, don't let her go down the mountain to find that scheming thief!"
Lou Chengfeng flicked his sleeves and stormed off towards the tallest house at the peak of the mountain.
Xuanba glanced in his direction, then looked away and slowly climbed back up to the roof.
Meanwhile, halfway up the mountain.
Xiao Rangchen was sitting casually on the grass, with the chubby Blackfur and the dazed Whitefur squatting in front of him.
One person, two beasts, six pairs of eyes all staring at each other.
He sighed softly. "Next time, try harder not to get thrown out again."
In the cold, shivering wind, they sat there facing each other, each lost in their own worries.
As dawn was about to break, a figure suddenly landed right in front of them.
Lou Chengfeng glanced at Blackfur and Whitefur, who were curled up fast asleep at Xiao Rangchen's legs, then looked at him with a cold face and huffed, "Who said you could still stay on my mountain?"
Xiao Rangchen stood up.
"You don't owe me any explanations. I'm here to tell you that I will never agree to you being with Lou Yue. You leave this place right now, and never show up in front of Lou Yue ever again."
Xiao Rangchen was silent for a moment, then said in a low, steady voice, "I'm sorry, Uncle, but I can't agree to that."
Lou Chengfeng had expected this. "It doesn't matter to me whether you agree or not. I'm just here to give you a notice. I have my own ways to handle Lou Yue." *Not really! He had no idea what to do, that's why he came here to threaten him.
But Xiao Rangchen didn't know that, and he asked sharply, "What are you going to do to Lou Yue?"
"I'm her own father. I'll only do what's best for her, unlike you, with all your hidden schemes."
Xiao Rangchen said, "It was wrong of me to hide my real purpose for coming up the mountain, but my feelings for Lou Yue are completely genuine."
"She's the only person in my life that I've ever decided on, the one I want to spend the rest of my life with."
"Spend the rest of your life together?" Lou Chengfeng scoffed, full of disdain. "What makes you so sure? Just some empty, vague line about liking her? Who knows how long your so-called feelings will last?"
"I know Lou Yue's temperament well. Without you, she might be sad for a while, but she'll never be completely broken by it."
Xiao Rangchen clenched his fists. After a long moment, he said slowly, "What do I have to do to get you to agree to us being together?"
"I will never agree." Lou Chengfeng told him plainly. "No one is good enough for her. You can forget that idea."
Xiao Rangchen frowned. "Is it because of the cauldron power?"
"You're smart enough, but don't use that cleverness on the wrong people." Lou Chengfeng warned him sharply.
"I fell for Lou Yue before I knew she was actually a woman, and I had no idea about the cauldron power at all."
Lou Chengfeng's flared up even more. "Then dare you say you haven't benefited from it? How else did your cultivation level shoot up to the middle stage of Nascent Soul in such a short time? Don't think I don't know you two have done dual cultivation!"
Xiao Rangchen fell silent.
Lou Chengfeng looked at him, and was quiet for a moment too, his tone softening a little. "You're not a bad catch yourself. You don't need our Lou Yue. Just let her go."
With that, he turned around to leave without another word.
"I will not let her go."
Xiao Rangchen's voice came from behind him. "She means more to me than my own life."
"I don't care at all whether Lou Yue is a special cauldron or not. If you don't believe me, I can swear on my soul that I will never engage in dual cultivation with her ever again."
Lou Chengfeng stopped in his tracks.
Xiao Rangchen raised his hand. "I, Xiao Rangchen, swear on my soul that from this day on, I will never do dual cultivation with Lou Yue, never take advantage of her, and will protect her with my life. If I break this oath, my soul will be—"
"Stop, stop, stop!" Lou Chengfeng spun around immediately to interrupt him. "Soul oaths are not something you can just throw around carelessly!"
Xiao Rangchen looked calm. "As long as I don't break it, nothing will happen."
Lou Chengfeng: "..." He realized now that this boy was not just clingy and impossible to shake off, he was also a reckless man who didn't even value his own life.
He asked suspiciously, "You really can hold back from dual cultivating with Lou Yue?"
Xiao Rangchen's tone was firm. "I can."
"What if Lou Yue is the one who takes the initiative? Can you still hold back then?"
Xiao Rangchen paused slightly. "...I can."
Lou Chengfeng's face darkened. "What did you hesitate for?"
Xiao Rangchen: "I didn't..."
Lou Chengfeng raised his voice. "I saw that! You paused! Do you think I'm blind?"
Xiao Rangchen simply changed the subject, his gaze earnest. "Uncle, does that mean you agree to me being with Lou Yue now?"
Lou Chengfeng was so mad he laughed. "In your dreams."
Xiao Rangchen: "..."
Posted a bit late, the first ten commenters get a red envelope
