Zhou Zi Shu looked at his disciple. They hadn't seen each other in over six months. He hadn't changed much ... or maybe his face, it seemed a little more ... adult. He would soon reach his sixteenth birthday ... the age of a man! I released a lock of hair in front of his eyes and put my hand on his forehead. He was slightly warm.

Next to me, Lao Wen had stopped dead in his tracks when he recognized our "guest. Knowing him, he must have been angry at him for disturbing our night...or more exactly our first night! But now, he looked frozen in place!

"Lao Wen, the blanket..." I held out my hand but he didn't seem to see it.

"Lao Wen!" I insisted.

He seemed to come out of his lethargy and handed me the object.

"We'll have to undress him completely so that he doesn't catch a cold, help me."

"Uh, A-Xu, I'll let you do it, I'll get him some underwear..."

He turned his back on me hurriedly and went to stick his head in one of my chests...but what was wrong with him? He looked... embarrassed. I wondered why? It wasn't the prospect of seeing Cheng Ling unclothed that made him feel uncomfortable? This child was like a little brother to us...I saw him look over his shoulder and dive back into the trunk. It would seem so...he was embarrassed!

Amused, I decided to take care of my disciple alone. His clothes were soaked. I wondered how long he had been buried under the snow? And what was he doing there? Had he come alone? Were there other people outside, buried under the white blanket? Surprisingly, the feeling I had had all day was gone, now that he was with us...

Once undressed, I covered him with the blanket. Lao Wen had still not brought me the underwear he had gone to get. I turned my head towards him. He was still rummaging in the trunk.

"Wen KeXing ... are you sewing these clothes? Our Cheng Ling will catch a cold!"

"Mmm... Ahhh, I have! " he did triumphantly as he lifted one of my underpants above his head ...

"Since you've explored this trunk in all its nooks and crannies, can you also bring a sheet?"

"A sheet? What for?"

"Do I have to remind you what happened in that bed a few hours ago and what we left there? "

I saw him turn as red as the robes he wore when he was the leader of the ghost valley! He promptly turned around and rummaged inside the trunk for a moment to pull out a sheet in addition to the clothes."

"Found it!!! "

When he proudly showed me that he had "found" what I had asked for, I stared at him and squinted my eyes to glare at him... Maybe I was the one with the wrong mind, but he had just used the same expression and tone as when he had... pleasure and I thought it was a bit inappropriate. He must have thought about it too because he started to blush... again! He got up piteously and came to bring me his "findings" with the air of a child caught in the act of foolishness!

"Help me!" I said to him a little abruptly.

He complied without reluctance. After dressing Cheng Ling in my underwear, Lao Wen took him in his arms while I changed the sheet. Then he put him down again and I folded back the blanket. I sat on the edge of the bed. Lao Wen came and sat behind me and put his arms around my waist.

"A-Xu, what do you think he's doing here?"

"I don't know, maybe he was looking for us..."

"In that case, he must not have come alone! "His arms tightened around me. We had had the same idea.

"Do you have ... another hunch?"

"No, nothing since we found him! We'll have to wait for him to wake up."

Lao Wen rested his chin on my shoulder.

"A-Xu, where are we going to sleep?"

"It's daytime, look at the light well" Indeed, one could see through it an orange color which was the reflection of the rising sun on the surrounding glacier.

"A-Xu ...."

"What?" I knew what he wanted to talk about... Cheng Ling's arrival had disrupted the normal course of our first night but especially our first "morning".

"A-Xu, did I satisfy you ?" he asked me in a worried tone.

I don't know why but I wanted to tease him.

"You were a bit long and it was laborious but you finally found ...."

"Laborious ?"

"Yes, seeing you searching like that, while I was waiting... it was frustrating!"

"Frustrating?" I could see him breaking down... I laughed inwardly.

"I even wondered if I shouldn't take matters into my own hands!"

"So ... you were disappointed! "

"Disappointed? No, you ended up finding what I asked for! "

"So, I'm slow... "He looked thoughtful.

"A-Xu, wait a minute, what are you talking about?"

"About the blanket...what about you?" I asked him with an ingenuous look. He stared at me with a frown.

"A-Xu, are you kidding me?"

"Yes!" I answered him with a smile.

"A-Xu ! " he exclaimed as he tickled my ribs.

I couldn't help but laugh. He grabbed my chin between two fingers and kissed me tenderly.

"A-Xu, seriously, have I fulfilled you? That's important to me."

I looked him straight in the eyes and raised my hand to caress his cheek. I kissed him back.

"You don't have to worry about your performance, I can assure you that you have fully satisfied me ... even if I don't have any references to compare it with" I felt him stiffen.

"But anyway, I'm not interested in that, you're my soul mate, so I'm sharing my bed with you.

"In this case, there is someone else in it!" he remarked teasingly!

I glanced at Cheng Ling, his fever! Lao Wen's antics had made me forget that Cheng Ling had a fever! I suddenly got up to get something to take her down. My soul mate seemed not to understand why I was leaving him so suddenly. I thought it best to explain to him while preparing the potion.

"When I touched his forehead earlier, I noticed that it was warm. I'm going to give him something to bring down his fever."

When I finished preparing it, I poured it into a cup and returned to the bed. I took Cheng Ling by the shoulders and raised him to a sitting position to drink. At first he spat out what I gave him, but when I pinched his nose, he finally swallowed his medicine.

I put the cup on the table next to the bed and laid my patient down. I pulled the blanket up over him so he wouldn't get cold. When all this was done, I came back to slip into Lao Wen's arms. After all, this was where I felt most at home, but I wasn't going to tell him that, at least not right away.

His lips landed on my neck and began to place a multitude of kisses. I sighed with relief as I tilted my head back so he could reach my throat. Once again, he grabbed my chin to kiss me. I turned around so I could put my arms around his neck. His kiss became more insistent and one of his hands strayed under my dress. In one night, he had managed to find countless points on my body to give me pleasure ....

"I knew you weren't dead!" came the voice of my half-asleep disciple. I turned to him and took my arms off Lao Wen's neck, embarrassed that he had caught us in this position!

"Master, what happened to ShiShu's hair (1)?" he asked, rubbing his eyes and sitting up in bed..

(1) Shishu = Young uncle, for any shidi (younger brother) sharing the same shifu (master)

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)