Chapter 221 - Appearance in the Mirror

“If he doesn’t accept it, then I’ll give him a better place to go to. However, once he feels aggrieved outside, suffers, and gets bullied, he would probably think about how well I treated him. When he grows up a little more next year...”

Lin Xuanzhi didn’t finish talking. He walked over to the mountain wall and used it for support, taking some time to settle down as if he couldn’t continue standing any longer before continuing, “There are a lot of misunderstandings between us, and they only grow deeper with the passing of each day, so I can no longer continue just being brothers with him. I don’t want to deceive myself or let him be unaware of anything, much less misunderstand me. He wants to know what I think, so I let him understand it thoroughly.”

Naturally, he knew that his relationship with Yan Tianhen wasn’t stable right now, as if they were walking on a tightrope with the risk of falling off at any time. It would be most suitable to say it in a few years, but he couldn’t hold it back anymore.

Soul Bead was speechless. He only said after a while passed, “You’re on your own.”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

From Yan Tianhen’s reaction, Lin Xuanzhi’s future seemed worrying ah!

Yan Tianhen ran out desperately; his heart was about to jump right up to his throat. His lips seemed to be filled with the sensation of the gentle yet overbearing kiss Lin Xuanzhi planted on him, and there was even a little bit of a cold rosin fragrance that belonged to his Dage alone.

“Ah Hen!” When Duan Yuyang heard the noise, he stood up at once and rushed over impatiently to grab him. He looked him up and down to see how he was doing.

Yan Tianhen looked at Duan Yuyang, his mouth opening and closing yet without speaking a single word.

Duan Yuyang frowned. “Why is your face still so red? Have the effects of the medication not waned yet?”

Yan Tianhen rubbed his own face — it was so hot that it seemed like it was burning, and he was instantly reminded of Lin Xuanzhi’s action.

“N-nothing.” Yan Tianhen stammered.

Although Duan Yuyang was a little doubtful, he was relieved to see that there wasn’t much of an issue with his arm or neck.

“Fortunately, this small face has returned to normal.” Duan Yuyang said while feeling greatly comforted, “If you were to feel any discomfort next time, you have to say it in advance. Otherwise, if anything were to happen, I’d be so frightened that my heart and liver would explode.”

Duan Yuyang patted his chest with some lingering trepidation.

Yan Tianhen could vaguely recall what he seemed like before and scratched his head, embarrassed. “It won’t happen again in the future, thank you Yuyang Gege and Yuan...uh.”

Under Duan Yuyang’s askance stare, Yan Tianhen swallowed his remaining words.

But Yuan Tianwen tossed Yan Tianhen a friendly smile.

“What happened to your face?” A crisp female voice traveled over.

Yan Tianhen looked opposite; a girl adorned in a light yellow robe walked over.

Beside her was Wan Linghua, who was frowning slightly. She yanked the girl’s arm. “Fangfei, don’t be rude.”

Jin Fangfei stuck her tongue out. “Isn’t Shijie curious? All those things on his face look like he had been poisoned, can’t I be concerned?”

Wan Linghua was a little embarrassed as she said to Yan Tianhen, “I apologise.”

It wasn’t Yan Tianhen’s first time being pointed at by others inquiring about the things on his face. Although Jin Fangfei was frank, she had no intention of humiliating him, so Yan Tianhen didn’t think much of it.

Wan Linghua’s glance swept across Yan Tianhen’s face and her heart couldn’t help but jerk — he was the one who responded most severely to the medicinal rain, but now, not even a trace of the medicinal rain could be found. His skin was both radiant and delicate, as if it had been reborn, though the cracks on it showed no improvement.

But other people’s faces still don’t seem to have changed much even after a day and a night had passed. Lin Xuanzhi must have spent quite a bit on Yan Tianhen. But what wonderful method did that Lin Xuanzhi use?

“It has been like this ever since I could start recalling things.” Yan Tianhen rubbed his face. “I don’t know what it is either.”

Lin Xuanzhi said that it was because a huge array sealed in his body was combined with pill poison that these things were formed, but Yan Tianhen would certainly not reveal his secrets to outsiders.

“Does it hurt?”

“No.”

“Is it itchy?”

“They’re not itchy either.” Yan Tianhen smiled. “Aside from it looking a little ugly, there’s no sensation to it.”

Jin Fangfei objected, “Don’t say that. All external displays are the manifestations of the body’s internal conditions. There must be poison within your internal organs.”

“Poison?” Duan Yuyang’s expression changed slightly.

He has always thought that Yan Tianhen was born like this, or he could have suffered some kind of injury. He simply did not think that those uneven scar-like cracks on his face would actually be caused by poison!

Wan Linghua nodded. “When I felt his pulse, I could sense an overbearing poison Qi piling up in his meridians and heart, but pray forgive my ignorance, I couldn’t determine what was happening. If there’s a chance, my Shifu could take a look at him.”

“Xuanzhi.” At this moment, Shen Rubing’s pleasantly surprised voice rang out.

Everyone looked into the depths of the cave, only to see Lin Xuanzhi walking over with his usual expression.

Yan Tianhen immediately turned his head away, feeling as if there was nowhere to place his limbs as he was extremely nervous.

Yet Lin Xuanzhi merely cast a glance at Yan Tianhen before turning to Lin Zezhi. “How do we plan to move next?”

Before taking Yan Tianhen in with him to treat his wounds, he instructed Lin Zezhi to decide where to go next for the time being.

Lin Zezhi felt valued. “This mountain is both tall and steep, and there are apparently a lot of fierce beasts in the mountain, so I’m afraid it won’t be easy to cross. But on the way back, it’ll be easy to encounter that strange rain again, so after our discussion, he decided to temporarily...be on standby where we are.”

Lin Xuanzhi laughed softly. “Standby where we are probably wasn’t something you thought of ba?”

Lin Zezhi wasn’t someone who would wait in place. If it were up to him to decide, he would definitely rush into the mountains to take the risk.

“It was my decision.” Shen Rubing coughed twice and covered her mouth. “A lot of us are affected by the poisonous rain and have not recovered. With our low morale, it’s not suitable for us to go on a long journey by foot, so we might as well rest here for a moment first.”

Lin Xuanzhi nodded. “That’s good too.”

Wu Shiyin, who was next to Shen Rubing, scratched the itch on her face and was utterly discomfited. “Lin Dage, at the very least we’re all on the same boat now. If you have any methods of alleviating this thing, why don’t you say it out to share it with everyone?”

When Lin Xuanzhi heard this, he knew what she was trying to say. “I only have one bottle of medicine that can be used to alleviate the pill poison.”

“Who would believe that?!” Wu Shiyin was used to taking care of her appearance. After seeing how her face was festering, she turned quite unstable. “Even if you only had one bottle, it would be a waste to give it to that ugly kid!”

With a “pa”, Wu Shiyin was smacked in the stomach by something heavy. She was just about to jump up and chide someone when she heard Yan Tianhen say, “Who did you call ugly? Shouldn’t you look in the mirror to see how you look like now? And you still dare to say that of others!”

It turned out that Yan Tianhen had thrown a small bronze mirror at her.

Wu Shiyin subconsciously looked down and just so happened to see the magnified face in the mirror — a festered face filled her vision, and there were even maggots crawling all over her ferocious-looking face. It was utterly hideous, and would make people want to puke upon seeing it!

“Ah–!” When Wu Shiyin saw it, she instantly shrieked. Both her eyes rolled up and she actually fainted straight away.

“This mirror...” Lin Xuanzhi found it interestingly odd, so he picked up the mirror and looked at his face.

He had thought that he would look like a fierce ghost, but he didn’t expect to see eyebrows that looked like they were drawn with “dai”, fair and glossy skin, lips as red as cinnabar — it was clearly his original appearance.

Shen Rubing approached Lin Xuanzhi out of curiosity as well. She leaned against his arm and peeped out to see what she looked like inside — her face was distorted with yellow teeth, a dark face and bulging eyes, seeming just like an ugly ghost.

Shen Rubing’s expression darkened and she immediately moved away. She scolded, “What kind of thing is that, isn’t it too horrible?!”

Everyone’s interest in the mirror was piqued one after another. For a moment, every one of them moved over to look at their reflections.

Some people saw their original appearances, while others looked ugly to the extreme.

Duan Yuyang held the mirror and looked at himself happily. “Ah Hen, why would this mirror of yours reflect ugly appearances sometimes, and beautiful ones at others? What’s the trick to it?”

Yan Tianhen nodded. “There’s my soul imprint on this mirror. My Daddy said before that as long as the person likes me, their reflections would look good. If anyone’s a bad person who detests me and even scolds me, their reflections would turn into a pig head fierce ghost.”

Duan Yuyang, “...”

This was a little fucking amazing.

Yuan Tianwen also took a look at himself in the mirror.

He saw a pig-headed self.

Yuan Tianwen, “...”

Duan Yuyang looked at Yuan Tianwen silently. Yuan Tianwen said calmly, “Ah Hen must not have told the truth. I can swear to the heavens that I have never been discontent with you, and have never said anything bad about you.”

After Yan Tianhen was exposed, he didn’t feel awkward and chuckled instead. “Or it could be that whoever I like would look good, while whoever I dislike would look ugly lo.”

Other pupils who had ugly reflections had expressed their disdain for Yan Tianhen in various ways; especially Shen Rubing, whose expression turned even uglier as her dissatisfaction with Yan Tianhen grew.

Even if one knows that the reflection in the mirror was fake, after looking at such a “countenance”, one would naturally be in a bad mood.

On the contrary, Lin Zezhi was quite elated, though he felt a little guilty as well — he had always looked down upon Yan Tianhen, but he didn’t expect Yan Tianhen to not hold a grudge against him and not dislike him in the slightest.

He decided to treat Yan Tianhen better in the future.

Lin Xuanzhi walked over. “Daddy gave you this?”

Yan Tianhen hid the mirror behind him. “Yeah, so you can’t take it away.”

Lin Xuanzhi smiled slightly, “Looks like it’s not that Ah Hen doesn’t like Dage.”

Yan Tianhen’s face turned as red as a tomato at once. He muttered, “I was just spouting nonsense just now. I don’t like you, I hate you!’

Lin Xuanzhi just smiled and didn’t reply to that. “Won’t Ah Hen take a look at your own reflection?”

Yan Tianhen seemed to recall something and his body instantly stiffened, red clouds still scattered over his face. “What’s there to see about myself? Wouldn’t it just be the same as always.”

Lin Xuanzhi chuckled softly. “I don’t believe that.”

Duan Yuyang was extremely curious as well about what Yan Tianhen would look like in the mirror, so he moved over to join in the fun and coaxed, “Ah Hen, take a look ma. I want to know what you look like too. It can’t be that the Ah Hen in the mirror is too unpleasant so you don’t dare to let us see ba?”

With eyes full of expectation and encouragement, Lin Xuanzhi stared at Yan Tianhen. Coupled with Duan Yuyang’s coaxing, he gritted his teeth and took the mirror out. “Take a look then, who’s afraid of you guys? Don’t let it frighten you!”

He aimed the mirror at himself.

In the mirror, a beautiful face that seemed androgynous because it had not yet matured appeared; with graceful brows, a fair face that glistened beautifully, a charming pair of bright eyes; the reflection looked like it was smiling even without smiling, while the slightly uplifted corners of his eyes and lips looked like they were seducing people’s souls at all times — he was truly an extraordinary beauty that made others find it difficult to hold themselves back.

Lin Xuanzhi’s gaze turned a little darker, and the corners of his lips involuntarily turned upward.

Duan Yuyang looked utterly baffled, and even Yuan Tianwen was stunned for a while.

Yan Tianhen flipped the mirror and kept it in his storage bag, saying with a red face, “I already said that I didn’t want to show you guys. How is it? Shocked? Do you feel inferior? You’re scared now ba?”

Author’s gossip:

Yuan Pighead Tianwen: Wifey wifey what should I do to get you to forgive me QAQ!

Duan Handsomeass Yuyang: We’ll talk again when you don’t look that idiotic in Ah Hen’s mirror

Yuan Pighead Tianwen: ...

After using all sorts of good things to please Ah Hen, the next day, Scummy Yuan saw a doghead in the mirror.

Yuan Doghead Tianwen: ...

—

Announcement from Zryuu!

Hi everyone! This might be a bit sudden, but I’ve actually been considering this for quite awhile now.

I’m quitting translating. There are a few reasons contributing to this reason, but long story short, I just don’t find translating worth it anymore

I won’t be gone immediately cause I’m still sitting on my stockpiles (I’ve actually been sitting on my stockpiles for abt 1-2 months now lmao...), but once they run out, that’ll be it.

Thank you to everyone who has been supportive, I honestly wouldn’t have continued for this long without you guys. But, and idk how many times this has been reiterated, translating is very tough and time-consuming without getting much in return. Readers might spend just 1 minute, 2 minutes or 5 minutes reading through one chapter, but translating, editing, proofreading, formatting and uploading that one chapter takes hours. And hobbyist translators do this mostly FOC, which is amazing in and of itself. Yet they may sometimes receive flak not just from readers, but also other translators as well. I have not personally been involved in such cases, but I’ve seen enough to know that I don’t want to make my life even more difficult by suffering from any of this. It’s like giving out free lemonade at your own cost and having people come up to you saying that you’re not giving out enough or that your lemonade isn’t good enough.

I’ve said a lot, but I guess the main takeaway I want people to get from this is to cherish fan translators more. They’re probably the main reason for the surge in the BL community growth in the past 1-2 years, and they’re doing all this of their own volition and at the expense of their own precious time.