Chapter 139

Ke Xingzhou slapped him, and the air suddenly became still for a moment.

Lian Cheng didn’t expect Ke Xingzhou to resist him so strongly, and he stood frozen in place for a long time without moving. Soon after, Nie Chen finally felt he had regained control over his body.

He immediately went to the bathroom, got some cold water and a towel, and came back to lift the blanket and wipe Ke Xingzhou's body, especially his forehead where Lian Cheng had touched, wiping it several times with force.

Ke Xingzhou was somewhat awakened by this, groggily opening his eyes. After recognizing it was him, he was still somewhat surprised: "Nie Chen? How did you come back?"

Nie Chen didn’t answer, he just kissed his forehead: "You have a fever. Sleep for a while, I'll help you cool down."

Ke Xingzhou nodded, and for some reason, he tried to keep his eyes open and looked around. Not seeing anyone else, he then groggily fell back to sleep.

Nie Chen knew Lian Cheng was still there. While wiping Ke Xingzhou’s body, he spoke in a low voice: "His personality seems awkward, but he's actually easy to understand. He'll directly reject what he doesn't like, and if he hesitates, it means he likes it."

Every time, Nie Chen gave Ke Xingzhou the chance to reject him. If Ke Xingzhou truly wanted to sever ties, he could leave at any time.

But Ke Xingzhou not only accepted Nie Chen as a disciple, he even allowed Nie Chen to appear in his room without permission, to wipe him down and change his clothes.

Lian Cheng knew that Nie Chen was intentionally showing off, and he also understood that Nie Chen was just a part of his own soul that had been separated. In a certain sense, Nie Chen was himself—but he couldn't help feeling jealous.

The fact that Ke Xingzhou only accepted Nie Chen’s closeness couldn’t be blamed on Ke Xingzhou. Lian Cheng could only coldly retort: "I understand him better than you. During the three years you two were apart, if it weren’t for the people I sent to stay with him, do you think you’d still be able to see him?"

Nie Chen was silent for a while. After wiping the last part of Ke Xingzhou's body, he threw the warm towel into the cold water.

"Ke Xingzhou left because he was worried about me, and what happened to me, you know better than anyone." Nie Chen stared at himself in the mirror. "You keep saying you understand him, but what about him? He doesn’t remember you at all. The one who grew up with him, who went through everything with him, was me, and only me. You’re nothing more than 'a strange ghost' in his words."

Lian Cheng was silent for a moment, his voice colder: "I have my reasons."

Nie Chen sneered: "Guarding the boundary between the living and the dead for 'him'? That’s 'his' dying wish, not Ke Xingzhou's."

Recently, Nie Chen had been experiencing many memories that seemed to come out of nowhere, all transferred from Lian Cheng. He naturally understood what Lian Cheng had gone through.

Thousands of years ago, the Demon Clan launched a massive attack on the human world, causing incalculable damage to the realms of humans, ghosts, and demons.

The Demon Clan, ambitious and ruthless, refused to retreat until almost all of them were slain. The other beings in the three realms, however, were unwilling to perish with them.

It was an extremely brutal war, with the human world in ruin, mountains of corpses, seas of blood. Countless great beings disappeared, divine beasts were brutally killed, and even many gods fell. Yet, they still couldn't drive back the Demon Clan.

Until Lian Cheng, the owner of that bow—who had once been Ke Xingzhou—used all of his cultivation and blood essence to shoot a single arrow, sealing the demons and suppressing all the Demon Clan beneath the Demon Sealing Array, finally halting the long-lasting war.

However, the damage to the three realms could not be healed overnight, so each realm began a long period of recovery, and only now had they begun to heal.

As the weapon created by Ke Xingzhou in his previous life, Lian Cheng, the only surviving weapon spirit after the war, took on the responsibility of guarding the three realms as a fulfillment of Ke Xingzhou's dying wish. He could not leave the place where Ke Xingzhou's previous life had fallen, and even the remnants of Ke Xingzhou's soul were painstakingly collected by Master Chen, who slowly pieced it together and nurtured it.They spent countless years, and only managed to barely piece together a complete soul more than twenty years ago, sending Ke Xingzhou into the cycle of reincarnation.

Lian Cheng was supposed to follow Ke Xingzhou, but his soul was too powerful to fit into the body of a small human. He had no choice but to split his soul in two to stay by Ke Xingzhou's side, becoming the current Nie Chen.

Nie Chen came out with a cool towel and continued to physically cool Ke Xingzhou down.

He looked at Ke Xingzhou with an unbelievably soft gaze: "When you separated me out, did you never think that one day, when you wanted to return, he wouldn’t be willing to accept you?"

"It wasn't separation." Lian Cheng pressed his lips together. "You are me, just without most of my memories."

"But he’s unwilling to accept you." Nie Chen pressed his cheek to Ke Xingzhou's, who habitually rubbed his face against him, looking very peaceful.

Nie Chen glanced at the bow on the bedside table: "You missed his entire life."

Lian Cheng was silent for a moment. He manifested his true form at the edge of the bed, looking down at Nie Chen by the bed and Ke Xingzhou, who was delirious from the fever.

He tugged at the corner of his mouth: "You think if it weren't for me, you'd be able to inherit the Nie family so quickly, have the chance to get close to Ke Xingzhou, and test his limits?"

Nie Chen, who clearly hadn't sorted out all the memories, was a little surprised when he heard this: "It was you? No wonder."

He had thought the old man was in good health, and according to the original plan, he should have controlled him for another two years, only letting go when his marriage was settled. But recently, he had started ignoring some of his probing actions.

For an elderly man who had lost his whole family except for his only grandson, making Nie Chen have a child had almost become his obsession.

But Nie Chen had always refused to compromise.

Nie Chen had thought the two sides would have a tug-of-war for some time, until the old man either came to terms with it or couldn't continue to be stubborn. However, he hadn't expected that after the old man failed to arrange a marriage for him, he actually delegated the group’s power to him.

Lian Cheng: "You should thank me."

"I really do thank you." Nie Chen took the conversation, holding Ke Xingzhou’s hand, their fingers tightly intertwined. "I heard that the Matchmaker has disappeared. You might be able to take his place."

Lian Cheng: "......"

Nie Chen didn’t want to waste any more words with him. Ke Xingzhou's attitude had already made everything clear. He pressed Ke Xingzhou’s hand down, which was trying to undo his buttons, and glanced at Lian Cheng: "Do you still want to keep watching?"

Lian Cheng paused, about to say that he and Nie Chen were one entity, and that in his past life, he and Ke Xingzhou were also intimate companions.

However, before he could approach, Ke Xingzhou seemed to sense something and opened his eyes, half-awake, staring in their direction, warily asking: "Nie Chen, is someone there?"

Nie Chen kissed his eyelid: "No, it’s the Matchmaker. Say thank you to the Matchmaker."

Ke Xingzhou: "?"

He didn’t understand, but still followed suit: "Thank you, Matchmaker."

Lian Cheng: "............"

--

Ke Xingzhou felt unbearably uncomfortable, but he also noticed the strange presence in the room had disappeared.

At that moment, he didn’t care about that. After realizing only Nie Chen was still there, he relaxed, letting Nie Chen handle his body and continue cooling him down.

After finally lowering the temperature, Nie Chen was drenched in sweat. He touched Ke Xingzhou's forehead and felt his temperature had returned to normal, then got up to take a shower.When he returned, as soon as he got close, he was immediately hugged by Ke Xingzhou.

Ke Xingzhou unconsciously rubbed against his neck: "So cool..."

Nie Chen was usually warm, but now the temperature felt just right for him. He clung to Nie Chen like an octopus, drawing the faint coolness from Nie Chen's body.

Ke Xingzhou, who was sick, was a bit restless. As he rubbed, he tried to bite him, but was stopped by Nie Chen, who held him down.

Nie Chen's breath was a bit unsteady as he pinched his cheek, his eyes darkened: "Zhou Zhou, Master. Do you recognize who I am?"

Ke Xingzhou was slightly woken up by the latter title, and in fear, he opened his eyes, carefully holding Nie Chen's face to examine him. Finally, he sighed in relief: "Nie Chen."

Nie Chen's lips seemed to curl up, but the force in his hands didn't lessen as he pulled Ke Xingzhou's hands down and leaned in to ask again: "Really? Take another good look."

Ke Xingzhou truly stared at him for a while, then suddenly pulled his hand up and laughed: "You are Nie Chen, I won’t mistake you."

He rubbed Nie Chen’s fingertips, feeling the old calluses on them, his eyes lowered. He traced the new and old marks on his hands, his expression filled with guilt.

Nie Chen was both warmed and pained by how Ke Xingzhou treated him so carefully, but still asked, "Won't you mistake me for the person who gave you that bow?"

Even though he had seemed so certain before, Nie Chen had to admit that the words Lian Cheng had said were indeed his deepest concerns.

He and Lian Cheng came from the same source, more similar than real brothers. Lian Cheng even had all the memories of him growing up with Ke Xingzhou and could always replace him to control his body.

If—he was saying, if.

One day, if Lian Cheng erased his existence, could Ke Xingzhou recognize that it wasn’t him?

Nie Chen had never felt such strong unease, even more than when Ke Xingzhou suddenly got admitted to the Daoist Academy and went to study in a place he knew nothing about.

Watching Ke Xingzhou blink and think, his heart nearly leaped out of his chest, and his chest tightened from holding his breath for too long.

Then, Ke Xingzhou spoke in confusion: "What’s there to compare between you and Lian Cheng?"

"Can't compare?" Nie Chen's eyes darkened, "Is he better than me?"

Ke Xingzhou shook his head: "He's just a stranger, you're different."

"How am I different?"

"You are Nie Chen." Ke Xingzhou took Nie Chen’s hand, placing it on his face, closing his eyes to rub against it, "I only have one Nie Chen."

"....."

The room suddenly became quiet for a moment. When Ke Xingzhou lifted his head in confusion, he met Nie Chen's flashing gaze.

The next second, familiar warmth pressed against his lips.

Nie Chen's lips seemed to tremble a little, urgently rubbing against the corner of his lips, pulling away, carefully looking at him again, then pressing against him lightly.

"I am too." He rested his forehead against Ke Xingzhou’s, sighing softly, "Zhou Zhou, I only have you."The next morning, Zhu Chu came to pick up Ke Xingzhou to go to the Gu family's house for a ritual. As soon as he entered, he found that his junior brother was also there.

"I said, junior brother, you see, the master is really keeping an eye on you. Didn’t you say you were going to work overtime yesterday?" Zhu Chu teased. "If Liu, the assistant, hadn’t told me that you went back in the evening, I would have thought you stayed here overnight."

Zhu Chu had let go of his earlier concerns.

In the past, he always felt that his junior brother was calculating and always sticking to the master, doing all sorts of flashy, superficial things without contributing much to the sect.

—Of course, the money his junior brother gave was still generous.

But after what happened yesterday, with the situation in the Wang family unclear, even he couldn’t help but hesitate, not sure if he should follow. But his junior brother, the head of a top-tier conglomerate with billions, went in without hesitation.

Zhu Chu's opinion of his junior brother changed that day.

The way his junior brother treated the master wasn’t just to gain favor—clearly, it was sincere, a heartfelt master-disciple bond!

After thinking it over all night, Zhu Chu reconciled with his junior brother. His previous sneaky actions were surely unintentional. Maybe he just lacked care?

Being from a rich family and a domineering CEO, it was understandable.

So when he came today and saw his junior brother sticking close to the master as usual, he no longer felt resentful, instead, he found it quite pleasing to the eye.

He joked to Ke Yuanbai, who was nearby: "Look at how well-matched my master and junior brother are. If we go out, others might think they are a couple."

Ke Yuanbai: "..."

Zhu Chu saw Ke Yuanbai slowly turn his head and give him a complicated, speechless glance. The complexity in his gaze was deafening.

But in the end, Ke Yuanbai didn’t say anything. He walked past the breakfast table and silently put on his headphones, heading out for a run.

Zhu Chu: "?"

Confused, he turned around to ask the others what was wrong with Ke Yuanbai, only to see the Ke family members sitting at the table, all staring at him with strange expressions.

Ke Chenyi put down the bowl of porridge he’d only eaten two bites of: "I’m going to work."

Jiang Wanru hadn’t woken up yet, so she wasn’t at the table, while Ke Zhengye was so angry he looked like a pufferfish, breathing heavily and glaring with wide eyes.

Luckily, his anger wasn’t directed at Zhu Chu.

Ke Zhengye glared angrily at Ke Xingzhou and Nie Chen: "I told you, I wasn’t the only one who noticed! You still want to argue? You ungrateful son, playing tricks on me, huh? You just sent one away and brought another back? And an apprentice! Even your apprentice said your relationship isn’t normal! Let’s see how you’re going to argue now!!"

Ke Xingzhou: "..."

To be honest, Ke Xingzhou was still muddled from yesterday. He didn’t even know what had happened.

When he woke up in the morning, he found Nie Chen was only wearing a bath towel, standing in the bathroom washing up.

The morning sunlight leaked through the slightly open curtains, casting light on Nie Chen's side profile, making his sharp features even more perfect and unwittingly captivating.

Unfortunately, Ke Xingzhou didn’t have time to admire him for long before Ke Zhengye's roar came from downstairs—

He had noticed a pair of men's shoes by the entrance.

Ke Zhengye wasn’t so meticulous as to remember everyone’s shoe sizes, but that apprentice of his, the one who looked like a disaster to the nation, had worn the same pair of shoes before leaving. Even if it turned to dust, he would recognize them.Since finding out that Ke Xingzhou liked men, he has been extremely vigilant about the men around him, especially Nie Chen, because he looks very much like the boyfriend that Ke Xingzhou had been with for several years according to the rumors. Nie Chen is his main target for vigilance.

Now, discovering Nie Chen’s shoes downstairs, when he should have already left, how could he not lose his mind?

Before Zhu Chu arrived, Ke Zhengye had already thrown a huge tantrum. Now that it had finally calmed down, Zhu Chu’s comment had reignited the anger.

If it were any other day, Ke Xingzhou would have been confident and completely indifferent to him.

But with what happened last night, Ke Xingzhou still hasn’t figured out what exactly occurred, and he doesn't even know where his bow was thrown.

His mind was occupied, so his attitude inevitably softened.

This gave Ke Zhengye endless confidence.

With a look that screamed “I’ve caught you two red-handed,” his gaze at Ke Xingzhou and Nie Chen was filled with so much hatred that he could almost launch two rockets—one to Mars and the other to Pluto.

In contrast, Nie Chen’s expression was remarkably calm.

He glanced at Zhu Chu briefly, not even giving Ke Zhengye a look, and only showed concern for Ke Xingzhou’s pale face and furrowed brows: “It’s too noisy here. You didn’t sleep well last night. How about moving to my place?”

Ke Xingzhou: "…"

Ke Zhengye: "???"

He screamed, "Ah! So you’re not pretending anymore! You little brat, still saying you didn’t sleep well, moving to his place… Do you think I don’t know what you’re planning?! You dare to seduce my son? And right in front of me! Get your parents here now!!"

Zhu Chu, listening to the almost throat-tearing yelling, couldn’t help but feel sorry for Ke Zhengye’s throat.

However, being the foster father of his own master, even though there were no great merits, there were still many years of hard work. He hurriedly stepped forward to mediate: “Mr. Ke, please calm down. I was just joking. My master and junior brother have nothing going on. If there were anything, how could I not have noticed! You can rest assured, I’ll guarantee with my life that their relationship is pure and absolutely not what you imagine!”

As soon as he finished speaking, Ke Zhengye indeed quieted down.

Before Zhu Chu could breathe a sigh of relief, he felt three intense gazes fall on his neck.

Zhu Chu: "???"

Is there something on his neck?

--

Despite Ke Zhengye's best efforts, he couldn’t separate Ke Xingzhou and Nie Chen.

Amid his angry cursing, Ke Xingzhou grabbed the milk cow head from the old butler and, along with Nie Chen and Zhu Chu, got into the car heading to the Gu family.

The car was a business car that Liu, the assistant, had arranged from Wanli Group. It was spacious, stable, and even Ke Xingzhou, who usually got carsick, didn’t feel as uncomfortable.

He put the dried tangerine peel candy that Nie Chen handed him in his mouth, then turned around and met the curious gaze of his eldest disciple across the seat.

Ke Xingzhou nearly choked on his own saliva: "…Disciple, what are you looking at?"

Zhu Chu shook his head, sighed, and turned to look out the window with a look of deep betrayal: "Master, I really didn’t expect that what they said was actually true…"

Ke Xingzhou’s heart skipped a beat: "What?""Master, you really are a bit biased," Zhu Chu said with a trace of grievance, turning around and taking out a piece of dried tangerine peel candy from his pocket. "Junior Brother just took the dried tangerine peel candy from me."

Master had clearly said that this batch of dried tangerine peel candy was too sour and that he didn’t like it!

Although Zhu Chu was now a successful person earning several hundred thousand annually, he still couldn’t break his old habit of being frugal. The candy his master didn’t like, he kept for himself to munch on whenever he had nothing else to do.

Didn’t! Expect!

It turns out that Master didn’t dislike the dried tangerine peel candy, and it wasn’t because the batch was different—Master only ate the candy that Junior Brother gave him!

Zhu Chu almost cried out with a "Woof!" but had to cover his mouth and look at Ke Xingzhou accusingly.

Ke Xingzhou: "…"

Ke Xingzhou really didn’t know how to explain this to his disciple.

He turned his head, looking at the increasingly gloomy weather outside. "It looks like it’s going to rain."