Thinking of this, he nodded in understanding.
Actually, judging by the looks of it, it wasn’t that Yan Yu’an had no feelings for them—it was just that he’d never understood this sort of thing before, which was why he thought he had no feelings for them.
Still, having three mutants like him all at once—Mu Shu still expressed great admiration.
“Just kill the others and be done with it, no?” Xie Chen said, a little puzzled.
Mu Shu: “…” His hubby went around with fighting and killing on his lips all day long. For a moment Mu Shu was a little helpless.
Xie Ji shook his head. He couldn’t quite explain why either. The old him would absolutely have been unable to resist having a proper fight with Ning Bingque and Shen Yuanzhou—and even if they died, it wouldn’t have mattered.
But now…
He lowered his eyes. He didn’t know when it had happened, but in his heart he’d come to treat them as good friends too.
Xie Chen didn’t understand. Though he had no feelings for this brother he hadn’t seen in years, he still felt an inexplicable sense of closeness to him in his heart.
So he thought for a moment and said: “Then lock that little white fox up, so he belongs only to you.”
Xie Ji: “…” He glanced at Mu Shu with some sympathy, clearly having misunderstood something.
Mu Shu: “…” He slapped Xie Chen hard on the back—that slap used all his strength, and before long a fiery red handprint appeared on Xie Chen’s back.
But Xie Chen wasn’t angry. Instead he nuzzled Mu Shu’s head, signaling him not to be mad.
“Don’t go getting any crooked ideas.” Mu Shu rubbed his forehead, a little helpless.
Xie Chen gave a glum “oh,” then followed behind Xie Ji.
As they spoke, they had already returned to the room. The moment they opened the door, they froze.
Yan Yu’an was crouched down studying this iron-made hoe, Ning Bingque was unilaterally cursing out Shen Yuanzhou, and Shen Yuanzhou, paying no mind at all to the chattering Ning Bingque beside him, was instead very calmly drinking a sip of water.
“You’re back!” Yan Yu’an shot to his feet—but because he moved too fast, his vision went a little black.
Shen Yuanzhou immediately stepped forward and steadied him, keeping him from falling to the ground.
Xie Chen narrowed his eyes. He looked at the eager Yan Yu’an with some displeasure.
This trace of displeasure was noticed by Shen Yuanzhou and Ning Bingque. Ning Bingque stopped cursing Shen Yuanzhou and instead let his gaze land on Xie Chen.
After a long while, Ning Bingque said to Xie Ji, who was standing to the side: “Keep your younger brother in check.”
Xie Chen frowned. His temper had always been explosive. He moved his foot, wanting to step forward and give Ning Bingque a proper beating, but Mu Shu held him back.
Mu Shu frowned at him, then shook his head slightly, and then nodded at Yan Yu’an. “Mm.”
Seeing how happy Xie Ji looked, Yan Yu’an knew Xie Chen was definitely his younger brother, and felt a little more at ease.
“Your iron-smelting technique is amazing. Could you teach me?” Yan Yu’an was a little embarrassed, and his fair face actually slowly turned red.
Mu Shu burst out laughing. He squinted and smiled, then nodded. “Smelting iron isn’t hard.”
He thought of something and hurried over to Yan Yu’an’s side, speaking in a voice only the two of them could hear. “Does the year 3050 not have iron anymore?”
Yan Yu’an shook his head. “Yes and no. The apocalypse broke out at the end of 3050, and usable resources were extremely scarce—never mind iron.”
“Apocalypse?” Mu Shu was surprised, his pretty eyes round and wide. “Like turning into zombies?”
Yan Yu’an nodded, then shook his head. “It’s a long story. When no one’s around, I’ll tell you in detail.” He paused, then continued, “But how do you know iron-smelting techniques?”
Mu Shu was a little proud. “I used to be a wilderness explorer!”
Yan Yu’an froze. At first he’d thought the youth was joking with him, but his expression was exceptionally serious, and Yan Yu’an couldn’t help believing him.
He hadn’t expected that this boy, shorter and thinner than himself, would actually be an explorer.
“You guys rest here for the night. Tomorrow I’ll teach you iron-smelting.”
Mu Shu didn’t plan to hold back his techniques from them—he just still had one question. He looked around, carefully observing each person’s expression, and raised his voice. “But what did you come here for?”
Yan Yu’an fell silent for a moment, and then Shen Yuanzhou spoke. Though his voice was very cold, he clearly didn’t want to hide their purpose in coming here: “We came to find God-Slaying Grass.”
Xie Ji and Ning Bingque exchanged a glance, then silently nodded.
“God-Slaying Grass?” Xie Chen raised an eyebrow. He glanced at Yan Yu’an, then said, “That’s not easy to find. You’ll probably have to put in quite some effort to find it.”
“You know?” Ning Bingque couldn’t help asking.
Xie Chen glanced at Xie Ji, unhurriedly sat down on the bed, gave a light cough, and said: “Of course I know. Opposite this small island there’s a stretch of forest. You have to climb the tallest peak over there—God-Slaying Grass is on the steep cliff.”
So the general direction wasn’t wrong after all. Yan Yu’an lowered his eyes, not knowing what he was thinking.
“But getting to that island won’t be easy. In between there will be many monsters not from around here protecting that grass.” Xie Chen added blandly.
Yan Yu’an understood, and thanked him quietly.
Mu Shu then said: “Come with me, you guys. Rest well tonight.”
Yan Yu’an nodded. He admired Mu Shu—to be able to cultivate crops on this barren land, and even smelt iron and make iron hoes and iron axes.
The four followed Mu Shu to another room. Mu Shu said quietly: “There’s only one bed here. If you don’t mind, just make do and stay here.”
Yan Yu’an gave him a grateful look, then heard him say: “There’s hot water here too. If you want to take a bath, you can pour the hot water in here.” As he spoke, Mu Shu patted a large tub.
He smiled a little embarrassedly. “But I usually use this tub to bathe. If you don’t mind, just make do with it.”
Yan Yu’an’s eyes lit up again. It had been a long time since he’d had a hot bath.
He hurriedly thanked him—he even took Mu Shu’s hand.
For a moment, the other four men in the room all felt a twinge of jealousy.
Xie Chen was the first to react. He pulled Mu Shu into his arms. “You all rest. We’ll be going first.” As he spoke, he walked out with Mu Shu, closing the door behind them.
After the two left, the room fell silent at once.
Yan Yu’an turned to look at the three of them, then at the single bed, and felt a little troubled. “How about… the four of us squeeze in together?”
Though this bed was fairly large, four grown men squeezed onto one bed would inevitably be cramped. For a moment Yan Yu’an felt a little vexed.
Xie Ji, Shen Yuanzhou, and Ning Bingque looked at each other, then all gave a scoffing laugh and unhesitatingly turned their heads to refuse.
Yan Yu’an: “…”
After thinking for a moment, he said: “Or how about I sleep on the floor, and you three squeeze in?”
“No!”
This time they reached a consensus at flying speed.
“…” Yan Yu’an was a little helpless. “Then let’s just sleep together.”
Shen Yuanzhou, not knowing what he thought of, nodded slightly. Seeing Shen Yuanzhou nod, the other two gave a cold laugh and didn’t refuse either.
Yan Yu’an paused, was silent for a while, then coughed uncomfortably. “I want to take a bath.” He said this a little embarrassedly.
The charm of a hot bath really was great. Yan Yu’an hadn’t had a hot bath in so long—he truly craved it.
Ning Bingque understood at once. He immediately said: “I’ll go fetch you hot water.”
“No, no need…” Before Yan Yu’an’s words could land, Ning Bingque had already gone out.
You three just go out and that’ll be fine… he silently added in his heart.
Though he was a grown man, having this many people watch him bathe would still make him embarrassed.
“Mu Shu and the others are really nice—knowing you wanted hot water, they’d already boiled it for you.” Ning Bingque cheerfully carried in a big bucket of water. “But it’s strange—he actually knows about fire too.”
He didn’t take it to heart. The bucket full of water was lifted easily by him.
Yan Yu’an pressed his lips together, wanting to take the water, but Xie Ji beat him to it. “I’ll do it. You go take off your clothes.”
Ning Bingque casually handed him the water, then went out to fetch a second bucket.
Yan Yu’an watched Xie Ji pour the water into the big tub, then fix him with a burning stare. “Go on, take off your clothes.”
Yan Yu’an twitched the corner of his mouth speechlessly. Why did he keep feeling something was off?
Shen Yuanzhou gave a cold laugh. After seeing Xie Ji take Ning Bingque’s bucket a second time and pour it into the tub, he grabbed Xie Ji with one hand and Ning Bingque with the other and headed out first, saying quietly before he left: “We’ll come back after you’re done washing.”
Yan Yu’an nodded, unable to keep from laughing inside.
“Let go of me, who wants to go with you!” Xie Ji’s discontented complaints reached his ears, along with Shen Yuanzhou’s voice unceremoniously cutting him off.
Yan Yu’an couldn’t help laughing again. He took off the animal hide wrapped around his waist, then gently stepped into the water.
After a while, he let out a comfortable sigh.
He didn’t know how long it had been since he’d had a hot bath. These days on the road he’d always rinsed off with cold water. Luckily the weather wasn’t cold now—otherwise he definitely would have caught a cold.
The warm water flowed over his whole body. Yan Yu’an leaned his upper body tightly against the wooden tub and poured water over his arms.
What a pity there was no soapwort, he sighed.
There were many things from the future world in Mu Shu’s house, and besides, as an explorer his hands-on skills were already very strong, so he was living fairly comfortably after transmigrating here.
He didn’t know how much time had passed before he wiped himself down with the cloth-like thing Mu Shu had prepared for him, then went to call the three who had been crouching at the door for who knew how long.
“Do you want to wash up too? I’ll heat some water for you.” Yan Yu’an scratched his head a little embarrassedly. He’d just washed his hair, and small water droplets hung at the ends of his hair, then flowed down his chest and finally into that mysterious place wrapped in animal hide.
The three of them sucked in a breath of cold air—especially Xie Ji, who even staggered.
“What’s wrong?” Yan Yu’an was a little puzzled. He tilted his head and looked at them uncomprehendingly.
His face was flushed pink from the steam, his pretty hair hanging smoothly behind his head. Seeing them staring at him all this time, he couldn’t help tugging at his hair, then said: “Is it strange?”
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