Dao Of The Salted Fish (Salted Fish Cultivator)

36. His lips were soft...

The wind rushed fiercely around him, causing his robes to flare out.

Wen Zhihao took a deep breath and breathed out, dissipating his annoyance into the air.

It had been a while since he faced someone so impolite. Wen Zhihao was serious about growing mangoes and other tropic fruit. He had even thought about giving that old-looking herbalist cultivator some fruit as thanks.

Tch, not anymore! Wen Zhihao didn’t want to waste any more time (nor fruit) on such a person.

Dusting that man’s qi off of him, Wen Zhihao decided to visit the Equipment Hall. There was an entire section in the Hall dedicated to spatial devices. Among these devices, there were a number of spatial pendants that had a mini space complete with grass, sky, sun and spiritual water spring… but he had to leave empty handed, because they were much too expensive and he was much too poor.

Wen Zhihao went to the forest outside the sect to brood think. Look at all these trees growing so easily! It shouldn’t be hard.

Wen Zhihao was too poor to buy one of those special spatial devices meant for growing herbs. He was not a crafting cultivator, so he couldn’t make one himself.

He could make talismans that mimicked sunlight (the glowing flowers) and rain (his new shower talisman). But making time pass? What did that even mean? He was no physicist nor philosopher, and back at his time on modern earth, the scientists still hadn’t figured it out…

Forget all the complicated cultivation methods. If he can’t get land in the sect, then he could just buy some normal pots and fill them with good soil and plant the seeds. And if they grew well, he could find a nice clearing in the forest.

Wen Zhihao smirked. He was going to plant such good fruit and that old herbalist Zhao won’t get any of it.

Since he was in the forest, he decided to prepare one of the durian. They needed to eat it so he could extract the seeds, anyway. With the new knife he now kept in his spatial ring, he split the spiky durian apart and placed different fruit pods inside the empty water bamboo tube and inside the empty food box. He stuck some shield talismans on them to form an airtight bubble around them and placed everything back inside his spatial storage.

With that sense of accomplishment, Wen Zhihao decided to reward himself with a nap.

Buying plant pots from the nearby mortal town was easy. Wen Zhihao sold more of his glowing flowers and some of the smokeless heating talismans. He made more than enough money to purchase half a dozen large clay plant pots, which he stacked inside his admittedly getting-very-full spatial storage.

The next day, Wen Zhihao met Sun Fuyu at the kitchens as usual.

“Have you planted the mango seeds yet?” Sun Fuyu asked, eyes shining.

Wen Zhihao grinned. “Today, we will!” He took out the six large pots. “We’ll fill these with soil and plant the seeds. Aunty Liu~,” Wen Zhihao called out.

Liu Jing internally rolled her eyes at Wen Zhihao’s coaxing tone. “What is it, Xiao Wen?”

“Can we leave the pots and plants to grow here? They shouldn’t take much space, and this means you can pick the fruits first.”

Liu Jing’s lips twitched up. “Isn’t this just asking us to help you look after them?”

Wen Zhihao nodded. “Yes,” he said shamelessly. As a mature adult, he knew when to put down his face for more important things.

Old Tang spoke out first, “Aiy, of course we can help you!”

“Thank you,” Wen Zhihao said. He took out the durian next. “Everyone, come try this fruit so that we can get the seeds too. Can someone bring some plates?”

Just like that, all the kitchen staff and Sun Fuyu crowded around Wen Zhihao. A number of plates were passed to him.

“The smell is a little strong, but I assure you that it tastes very strongly sweet.” Wen Zhihao took off the shield talisman on the hollow bamboo and tipped out a few durian fruit pods.

The sweet, strong, custardy scent spread immediately. Wen Zhihao immediately salivated. Durian really deserved its title as the king of fruits.

“Eat, careful of the seed in the middle.” As demonstration, Wen Zhihao pulled some durian flesh from one fruit pod and popped it in his mouth. The sweet tropical flavour filled his mouth.

Sun Fuyu gulped. As a cultivator, his sense of smell was very good. This was one reason why many cultivators ate such light-tasting food compared to mortals. However, because he spent time with Wen Zhihao, he was able to eat all the foods that he had missed out in his childhood and eat completely new foods made by Aunty Liu Jing and the other kitchen staff. It made Sun Fuyu more appreciative and more adventurous when it came to food compared to the usual Golden Sun Sect cultivator.

Not to mention that, if Wen-ge said it tasted good, then it definitely had to taste good! It was just that the smell was a little strong...

“Here,” Wen Zhihao said, when he noticed Sun Fuyu hesitating. He held out a piece of durian close to Sun Fuyu’s lips.

Sun Fuyu’s lips parted in shock. His heart thudded in his chest as his mind sped up. What does Wen-ge mean, what does Wen-ge mean? Does he want to feed me, or should I take it with my hands, but what if he wants to hand-feed me, and if I rejected him then, no, that would be terrible—

Wen Zhihao was a little alarmed at how Sun Fuyu’s brows were drawing together in distress.

“Xiao Yu, if you don’t want to eat it, then that’s okay—”

Sun Fuyu leaned forward and ate it from Wen Zhihao’s fingers.

Wen Zhihao quickly let go, but his fingers ended up brushing Sun Fuyu’s lips.

They were soft.

Wen Zhihao’s chest inexplicably tightened, even though the qi in the air was not exerting any unusual force.

Sun Fuyu slowly chewed, hyper aware of Wen-ge’s gaze on him. He was only able to taste the durian through his embarrassment because the durian was so strongly flavoured. He swallowed and licked his lips.

“Good?” Wen Zhihao’s voice was a dry whisper.

“En,” Sun Fuyu stared back into Wen Zhihao’s eyes and agreed.

“Aiya, let me try some!” Old Tang said, reaching out for a durian pod. “You’re right, it tastes even better than it smells!”

Liu Jing restrained herself from hitting Old Tang up on the back of his head. Could he not see that the two young cultivators were sharing a moment?!!

Just like that, all the other kitchen staff helped themselves. Wen Zhihao took out the food box with the rest of the durian so that everyone could have some. He handed a whole fruit pod to Sun Fuyu on a plate. Sun Fuyu lowered his head and accepted it.

Even though Wen-ge had given Sun Fuyu a plate this time, that fact that he had fed him a moment ago still remained.

The corners of Sun Fuyu’s lips curved up as he slowly ate the durian. Wen-ge likes me! He peeked up at Wen Zhihao, who gave him a small smile. Sun Fuyu’s eyes dropped again. He likes me!

Wen Zhihao thought that Sun Fuyu’s eating posture was too cute. Anyone would think that, right? Look, even the stern Aunty Liu Jing liked Sun Fuyu…