Awkward moments…
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Ch. 48 | Sleeping in separate rooms
He had possibly become aware that his own feelings towards Dandan were slightly irregular although he was not sure how; whatever the case, they had gone beyond how Guardians felt about their spirit beasts.
‘Dandan,’ Song Lin called his name without realising it.
‘Hm? What?’ Dandan turned his head enquiringly.
‘…’ But Song Lin didn’t know what to say after that because he had only felt a sudden impulse to call his name. Rubbing his nose a little awkwardly, Song Lin recalled a certain matter and asked, ‘Just now you mentioned that your father died after being forced to evolve?’
‘Yes, what about it?’
‘Don’t you feel any hatred? Towards those Guardians who captured your father to experiment on him?’
‘… Probably. That was a very long time ago, so long ago that I don’t really remember what it feels like to hate.’
‘What about when Yu Huan died? That wasn’t so long ago.’ Song Lin frowned. ‘The Crone’s killing of Yu Huan and stealing of your spiritual power happened a mere hundred years ago. To a spirit beast, a century is merely a moment in a very long life so don’t tell me that you don’t remember what it feels like to hate.’
Dandan hesitated and asked, ‘What are you trying to say?’
‘Nothing much. I’m just curious about why you seem so indifferent about the tribulations you’ve gone through.’
‘Well all right, since you’ve realised it; the truth is, I’ve taken a dose of suppressant.’
‘A dose of suppressant?’
‘I was out of control the day Yu Huan died. They said that I knelt for a long time on Dragon Ridge, holding Yu Huan’s corpse, behaving as though I wanted to destroy anything and everything. Feng Chulian rushed over and made me drink a syringe full of a suppressant. There are five types of such suppressants in total, each one can suppress a different emotion.’
‘Which emotion did you suppress?’
‘Hatred.’
‘Why did you suppress that?’
‘Because I couldn’t have borne it otherwise,’ Dandan half-mumbled as he stopped and looked up at the moon, a faraway look in his eyes. ‘Feng Chulian said that if I hadn’t taken that dose of suppressant, I would most likely have done something terrible.’
Something terrible… meaning what? Just because you lost your owner, you lost your mind? That fellow meant so much to you? Right at that moment, Song Lin had a sudden urge to pull him round and demand some answers. But he had just reached out a hand when Dandan turned away and began walking ahead. Song Lin’s hand stiffened slightly in mid-air before he withdrew it as if nothing had happened¹.
¹ 若無其事. If you’re not reading this chapter at hiding in plain sight, it has been stolen and reproduced by novelscraping sites.
They both entered the bedroom one after the other. Dandan looked at the beds which were two metres apart and said suddenly, ‘I should move out and sleep elsewhere.’
‘Hm?’ Second Master Song had been deep in thought about something else and when he suddenly heard ‘sleeping in separate rooms’ being suggested, was highly taken aback and asked, ‘Why?’
‘Back then, you had me move here because you wanted to keep a closer eye on me, right?’
Song Lin recollected the matter. Actually, I had you move here so that Wanyan Fu couldn’t steal you away. Strictly speaking, it was done so that I could better protect you.
Not that there was any need for the rabbit to know this.
Dandan took his silence as a tacit admission and said, ‘You don’t need to keep an eye on me any more; after all, I don’t have any other secrets left. A spirit beast sleeping in the same room as its master is a bit inconvenient anyway so why don’t I move out today?’
‘Oh, really…’ Song Lin appeared to muffle a cough, sat down on his bed and pondered for a while before saying, ‘I think it’s quite convenient.’
‘Listen to me, Second Master. Two big men staying together in the same room is rather weird, no matter what.’
Song Lin looked quizzically at him. ‘Two men?’
‘Yep,’ Dandan pointed at him, then at himself and held out two fingers. ‘Two.men.’
‘You? … A man?’
Dandan could make out a trace of derision in his eyes and asked with some rancour, ‘What? You’re not convinced that I’m a man? Want me to pull it out as proof?’
‘At best, you can only be described as a little male beast,’ Song Lin concluded coolly.
‘…’ After hearing this, Dandan inhaled deeply and moved closer all of a sudden. Since Song Lin happened to be sitting while he was standing, he felt he could intimidate the former from that height and said, ‘Do you know, from the first time I met you when you called me a powder puff and up till now, I still have the most intense urge to bite you to death!’ His nose was nearly brushing Song Lin’s as he enunciated every word clearly: ‘Most, intense, urge!’
Song Lin lifted a finger, placed it on Dandan’s chest and pushed him away slightly. ‘Yeah, I can feel it, very intense.’
‘Do you know how much you despised me back then in the storehouse?’
Song Lin stroked his chin. ‘I did?’
Dandan said, ‘I really wanted to kill you with just one bite.’
‘You? One bite?’ Song Lin sounded sceptical and withdrew the finger that had been resting on Dandan’s chest. ‘You can’t even swallow one of my fingers.’
Dandan was so incensed by this that without further thought, he suddenly opened his mouth and clamped down on Song Lin’s finger, even waggling his brows proudly and saying indistinctly, ‘Shee zat (See that), ai bikit (I bit it)!’
Song Lin: ‘…’ As he gazed at his finger between Dandan’s pink lips, that indefinable feeling deepened.
Time seemed to stop in that moment.
But by the time Dandan realised what exactly he had done, it was already too late. His internal screaming erupted like a volcano: Why the hell is this happening!!! Why do I have this fellow’s finger in my mouth!!! Wwwhyyy!!!
Both of them stared awkwardly at each other for a few seconds before Song Lin gave a low cough and suggested, ‘Why not, let go first?’
‘… Obeh (Okay).’ Dandan let go of his finger but he didn’t expect that while opening his mouth, a glistening string of saliva from his lips would be left dangling from Song Lin’s finger.
Dandan: ‘…’
Song Lin: ‘…’
The bedroom was thus plunged into another spell of silence.
‘Erm, how about, I clean it off for you…’ Dandan pulled a long face and asked.
‘… All right.’ Song Lin transferred his gaze elsewhere.
Dandan used his clothes to anyhow clean the saliva off Song Lin’s finger, doing his utmost to appear calm while doing so. Internally though, he was on the verge of breaking down. Deuce! This is so embarrassing, I’ve utterly lost face…
As a result, the question of sleeping in separate bedrooms somehow² got shelved and both of them fell asleep quickly, strangely enough. Well, whether they really were asleep or not was debatable but whatever the case, neither of them said anything and appeared to have fallen sound asleep.
² 不知不覺. Translation belongs to theresanother(DOT)wordpress(DOT)com.
The next day, Dandan decided to pay a visit to an old friend to ask if there was a way to defeat the lu-shu’s ability to manipulate time.
Styx asked doubtfully, ‘You actually have friends in Ridge City?’
Dandan sniffed. ‘I have tons of friends, it’s just that I’m too lazy to visit them normally.’
Seeing Song Lin walking over, he beckoned to him and asked, ‘Hey, want to come with me, Second Master Song?’
‘Whom are you going to visit?’
‘Phantom, another of Yu Huan’s bonded spirit beasts.’
Song Lin and Styx exchanged glances. ‘You know where he is?’
‘I’m not sure if he’s definitely there, but whatever the case, I’m going to take a look.’
Styx asked, ‘Why look for Phantom? Does he actually know how to defeat the lu-shu’s ability?’
‘A very long time ago, Phantom fought the lu-shu and experienced its legendary ability to control time. Yet he was able to escape unscathed, so he must have found some way to do it.’
Song Lin thought for a moment before saying, ‘That being the case, I’ll come with you.’
‘All right.’
Song Lin thought that Dandan was going to take him to some mysterious Shangri-La³. Instead, he was brought to that most plebeian and vulgar of places — the Exchange. This was the most bustling but also the most chaotic spot in Ridge City, hence very few nobles stepped foot in there.
Every year, large numbers of spirit beasts were brought here to be sold. Of course, besides spirit beasts, many other things such as weapons were also sold here. There were around three to four mountain villas where swords were forged. A portion of the weapons they produced was supplied to the nobility and another portion was transported to the Exchange for itinerant Guardians. Of course, some weapons were not forged in the sword workshops but had instead been retrieved from dangerous places by beast trappers. Every year, there would always be Guardians or spirit beasts dying in battles which meant the weapons no longer belonged to anyone. Beast trappers would gather these and sell them for quite a considerable sum each time.
³ 世外桃源. Please consider reading from theresanother(DOT)wordpress(DOT)com rather than from novelscraping sites.
Besides weapons, there were variety stores specialising in pet food for spirit beasts because certain species could only eat certain types of food. For example, feline spirit beasts only ate river fish and since their Guardian owners could hardly go fishing every day, they had to rely on buying the food instead. To give another example, some insect spirit beasts only fed on pollen and it had to be pollen from certain places as well so if a Guardian had to pick pollen every day, he would certainly be exhausted. There were many spirit beasts with even more peculiar tastes and the food they liked was very hard to obtain so it made more sense to buy food from the Exchange.
Song Lin followed Dandan, picking his way carefully over the muddy puddles, twisting his body aside to avoid the dirty carts which were piled high with goods, all the while covering his nose and mouth with his sleeve to avoid inhaling the mouldy smell coming from goodness knew where. He slitted a glance over at Dandan. That fellow was certainly happy and pleased with himself, those two ears of his wiggling in a carefree way.
‘Are you sure Phantom is here?’ He poked the rabbit in the back.
‘Not sure,’ the rabbit was looking about him, ‘but there’s a pretty strong possibility that he is because this is the quickest place to make a buck and that fellow loves money.’
At last, both of them stopped in front of a small shop entrance on a street corner.
Song Lin took one look at the shop window, then at the gaudy pastiche haphazardly adorning the signboard which said ‘Pink Romance’. He took a step back and said in a slightly hostile tone, ‘No, please tell me this is not the place.’
(Approx. 1844 words)
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Translated and edited by 12
hiding in plain sight 
Not sure how his feelings are irregular. Uh huh. I believe you Song Lin. So believable. 8|
Omg… Dandan. ;O; So he doesn’t feel hatred at all? That’s interesting. Also, kind of foreshadow-y. ALSO SONG LIN, OF COURSE YU HUAN MEANT SO MUCH TO DANDAN. It doesn’t mean Dandan was in love with the guy! You idiot!!! Let the rabbit mourn!!!!!
I’m dying. Dandan lets it all out finally, but Song Lin remains the repressed melon that he is. Until Song Lin starts to be less of a melon-head I’m going to always firmly be on Dandan’s side! But hoooly crap, Dandan with the finger grab. I’m dying. I’m a dying fish. You both are ridiculous. I love them. ;O;
I’m so glad we’re going to meet Phantom! But uh, what… what are you doing Phantom…
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😂 I bet you could hear a pin drop in the silence when they went to bed!
Haha, Song Lin as a 🍈 🤣
The suppressant is quite a good idea and at least it explains why Dandan didn’t go bonkers all this time.
Ah Phantom, now I wonder what was in the shop display window 🙈😆
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