After the Stand-in Hugged the White Moonlight's Thigh Tightly - Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Couldn’t Resist a Kiss

Song Chenxi’s lips moved. Ruan Mingyu thought he was about to say something, so he leaned in closer, his face near Song Chenxi’s.

Unexpectedly, Song Chenxi pinched his chin and kissed him on the cheek.

He tilted his head to look at Ruan Mingyu, giggling: “A little drunk.”

“It happened years ago. Why are you still holding a grudge? You’re so petty,” Ruan Mingyu thought he was getting revenge for the time Ruan Mingyu had kissed him when he first arrived at the mountain. He wiped his cheek and didn’t take it seriously. “You can’t hold your liquor, but you love to drink. Don’t fall asleep now. We still need to rush back to Seven Stars Sect later.”

Song Chenxi looked at him with a half-smile, unsure if he was truly drunk or faking it, and then leaned his head on Ruan Mingyu’s shoulder.

The arrow wound on Ruan Mingyu’s shoulder blade hadn’t healed yet. The pain made him quickly push Song Chenxi away.

Song Chenxi lifted his head and sat up straight: “You’ve been so lively these past two days, I forgot you were still injured.”

Ruan Mingyu: “I haven’t been lively at all. Look at my face, I have no color.”

Song Chenxi moved closer to him: “Truly uncomfortable?”

Ruan Mingyu nodded.

Song Chenxi lowered his head and kissed him, passing a breath of spiritual energy to him: “Is that better now?”

His movements were very gentle. Before Ruan Mingyu could even process what had happened, he had already pulled away. If it weren’t for the soft sensation on his lips, it would have seemed as if nothing had happened.

Ruan Mingyu’s face was now flushed with color, completely red as if he had applied rouge.

“Song Chenxi! How long are you going to keep messing with me?”

Song Chenxi raised his index finger to his lips: “Shhh.”

“Everyone’s looking over,” he whispered. He asked, “Just tell me, do you feel a little better?”

Ruan Mingyu was so angry he turned his head away, ignoring him and focusing on eating.

After a while, his anger subsided a little. Fine, he did feel a little better.

Halfway through the full moon banquet, footsteps were heard at the door, and a group of uninvited guests suddenly burst in.

Song Chenxi gestured to Ruan Mingyu to look toward the door: “Time for a show.”

The Ruan family, as a local prominent family, was bound to have rivals. The intruders were the Zhou family, who had a vested interest dispute with them. The middle-aged man leading the group brought in a man dressed as a Daoist priest.

The Ruan family had not invited them, so Ruan Mingyu wondered what mischief they were up to this time.

“Old Master Ruan, how could you not invite me, your old acquaintance, to such a joyous occasion?”

“All visitors are guests. Someone, offer them seats.” Old Master Ruan greeted them with a forced smile, instructing them to be seated.

“For the full moon banquet of the Ruan family’s eldest son’s child, how could old acquaintances like us not come? And having come, how could we not bring a gift?” He signaled the Daoist priest. “This is Celestial Master Zhang, a registered Daoist priest from the Celestial Master’s Residence. I specially invited him to pray for the Ruan family’s young lady.”

With guests all around, it was hard to refuse him.

“Please.”

The Daoist priest stepped forward, muttering a series of incantations they couldn’t understand. He shook his handbell, making a clanging sound. Before long, the baby held by her mother began to wail loudly.

The ringing of his handbell grew louder, and the child’s cries became higher pitched.

The cousin stepped forward to stop him: “Enough! Where did this charlatan come from? You’ve made my daughter cry!”

The Daoist priest stroked his beard, feigning profoundness, and raised his peach wood sword, pointing directly at Yun Niang, who was holding the infant.

“It is not the sound of my handbell that causes the infant’s cries, but an inauspicious presence in this place.”

The cousin’s face changed color. He ordered someone to drive him out: “Nonsense! Guards, throw this stinking Daoist out!”

The Daoist priest waved his peach wood sword, warding off the crowd, and shouted, “Do you force this old man to explicitly state that there is something unclean here!”

The cousin’s brows furrowed tightly. He placed one hand on Yun Niang’s shoulder to comfort her, and the other hand, hidden in his sleeve, clenched into a fist.

The Daoist priest’s eyes widened like brass bells: “There is not just one ghost in this room!”

His peach wood sword then pointed in Ruan Mingyu’s direction.

Ruan Mingyu, who was in the middle of picking up food, stopped his movement. Indeed, he was also a wandering spirit in a foreign world. He smiled mischievously at the Daoist priest. Perhaps having spent too much time with Song Chenxi, he couldn’t help but adopt some of his habits.

“You have a ghost in your heart, which is why you see everyone as a ghost.”

Song Chenxi subtly glanced at Ruan Mingyu, then used his uneaten red-dyed egg to hit the stinking Daoist priest on the head, making him yelp “Ouch!”

“Shameless thing, daring to question if my Junior Brother is a ghost.”

The Daoist priest angrily retorted: “I see you’re a cultivator too, yet you dare to shield a ghost!”

Song Chenxi scoffed: “I see you’re a person too, yet you start talking nonsense about ghosts in broad daylight!”

“You’ve slandered my cousin-in-law enough, and now you want to slander me,” Ruan Mingyu said. “You’ve falsely accused my perfectly normal cousin-in-law of being a ghost. Today, you must provide some evidence, or we will not let you leave peacefully.”

The Daoist priest looked at Ruan Mingyu with suspicion.

“Your cultivation is deep, so you naturally don’t reveal yourself,” he said, pointing his peach wood sword at Yun Niang. “If you say you are not a ghost, do you dare to wait until noon and stay in the bright sunlight for a full hour?”

Yun Niang looked troubled.

Ruan Mingyu: “Are you out of your mind? Who has nothing better to do than play this game with you? Get out of here the way you came, or don’t blame us for being rude!”

After saying this, he immediately hid behind Song Chenxi and poked his head out: “My Senior Brother can throw you a hundred thousand miles away with a single move. You’d better watch your words.”

Song Chenxi couldn’t help but laugh: “Why are you behind me, Junior Brother? If you’re going to stand, stand in front of me.”

Ruan Mingyu refused: “It’s cooler behind Senior Brother.”

Song Chenxi indulged him and didn’t pull him out from behind: “That’s true. It’s nice and shady under a big tree.”

The Daoist priest pulled out a yellow talisman: “There is another way. Do you dare to let this old man paste this talisman on your forehead? I guarantee your true form will be revealed. Whether human or ghost, it will be clear at a glance.”

Song Chenxi: “How utterly shameless, immediately trying to touch another man’s wife’s face.”

The Daoist priest was furious and called out to Ruan Liquan: “You paste this yellow talisman on her head, and you will know whether the person next to your pillow is a human or a ghost.”

The cousin was reluctant to take it: “I know better than you whether she is human or ghost. I don’t need you to remind me.”

The situation was deadlocked.

The Zhou family member said: “We are helping your Ruan family! Don’t be fooled by demons and monsters!”

Song Chenxi took the talisman paper and handed it to Ruan Liquan, urging him to paste it on Yun Niang’s head.

“Since they want to see, let them see enough.”

At this moment, the cousin hesitated.

Song Chenxi: “Go on.”

The cousin’s fingers trembled slightly. So many eyes were watching him.

Yun Niang didn’t want to make things difficult for him and gently called out: “Husband, come here.”

He hesitantly walked up and pasted the yellow talisman on Yun Niang’s forehead.

The Daoist priest declared with certainty: “It won’t be long before she reveals her true form and turns to ashes!”

However, the yellow talisman stayed on her for almost an incense stick’s time, and Yun Niang remained unchanged.

Ruan Liquan quickly tore the talisman off Yun Niang’s head: “Are you trying to bully our Ruan family? Allowing you to make such a scene. Guards, throw them all out! Never let them step into the Ruan family again!”

The Daoist priest shouted: “Someone tampered with it!” He pointed at Song Chenxi, “It was you, you tampered with it!”

Song Chenxi didn’t have such a good temper. He waved his hand, and a gust of wind swept the unwelcome guests out the door.

After the banquet dispersed, Ruan Mingyu held the yellow talisman that had been torn from his cousin-in-law’s head, examining it repeatedly.

“How did you do that?” he asked Song Chenxi.

“Idiot, can’t you see that?”

Ruan Mingyu held the yellow talisman and searched carefully again. Finally, in the ink of the writing, he found faint traces of red blood.

“You put your own blood on it?”

Song Chenxi didn’t answer. He took the yellow talisman and suddenly stuck it on Ruan Mingyu’s forehead.

What nerve was he striking now?

Ruan Mingyu raised his hand to pull the thing off his head, but Song Chenxi pressed his hand down.

He looked at Ruan Mingyu, his expression ambiguous: “That Daoist priest said you were a ghost. Tell me, is it true or false?”

Ruan Mingyu’s heart tightened: “What if I am a ghost?”

“Why are you nervous?” Song Chenxi tore off the talisman and burned it to ashes. “If you’re a ghost, you can only be the Ghost of Sleepiness.”

Ruan Mingyu: “…”

After eating and drinking to their fill, it was time to return to the sect. He summoned the immortal crane. Before long, a giant immortal crane circled in the sky.

Before leaving.

The cousin, cousin-in-law, and Aunt Man remained silent.

Only after getting on the immortal crane did Aunt Man finally say:

“Xiao Yu, since you are cultivating, don’t keep thinking about home.”

Ruan Mingyu lowered his eyes, his heart filled with deep feelings. He waved his hand to bid them farewell.

The immortal crane slowly ascended. Ruan Mingyu kept his head down and said nothing.

Song Chenxi couldn’t bear to see him like that, like a disheartened little sparrow. He couldn’t resist, and rubbed his head.

“You just came back from home. Don’t mention missing home again for a while.”

“Let’s go, back to the sect.”