Where Passion takes Root

Chapter 3

Shen Qingqiu did his best to look as good as he possibly could when the day of the banquet came up, meaning he changed clothes in front of Yue Qingyuan until he found the robe that made the man look the most entranced. Like this he was sure that even if Yue Qingyuan thought about not cooperating, he had a higher chance of succeeding anyway. This became a bit difficult when Yue Qingyuan's reaction to him in his undergarments did surprisingly surpass any other, but he couldn't exactly appear in those, could he? He decided that he couldn't and went with the second best option, a robe that cost ten times more than he had when Qiu Jianluo had bought him.

Or perhaps more since that man had always mocked him with the fact that he had been rather cheap, though he had left out that it had been compared to female slaves and that he had been the most expensive compared to the other boys. Whether that was good or bad, he didn't know, but he didn't want to think about it either today.

He got his fan ready, pinned his little dragon broach to his robe and took a hold of Yue Qingyuan's arm before walking with him into the big hall at the heart of the building. When he looked up, he saw that Yue Qingyuan did look rather nervous when they stepped under the eyes of their sect siblings and he was a bit pleased. He himself didn't really feel embarrassed. There were way more things that could tarnish his reputation than to appear with Yue Qingyuan by his side and by the end of the evening everyone would know anyway.

A couple of the other peak lords looked a bit puzzled, some just neutral, but there was one who seemed to partially celebrate internally at this sight. It was Wei Qingwei, who was barely able to hide his grin as he nodded them a greeting. Shang Qinghua next to him appeared to be rather bewildered. Perhaps the rumors had completely passed him by, otherwise he wouldn't look about to pass out just from seeing the stone-faced Shen Qingqiu walk on Yue Qingyuan's arm like he was the man's wife.

For Shang Qinghua it was actually like you had taken him into space and shown him that the world was actually the head of a giant dancing bear, because this had the same impact on his worldview as that might have had, making him sit in the corner with his own personal jar of wine, staring at the couple for hours.

The reaction of some of the more senior members from the previous peak lords' generation was also not completely positive, involving a lot of frowning and beard rubbing, but nobody actually showed animosity towards them. Merely a bit confused and trying to somehow make this coexist with their traditional beliefs, since they had a lot of sympathy for their younger sect leader.

For a moment during the banquet, Shen Qingqiu had to separate from the other. Yue Qingyuan had to hold a speech about the greatness of whatever anniversary or something they were celebrating and then Shen Qingqiu had to play music together with a few sect elders. The only thing that made the act of playing the guqin less boring was that at least he could see Yue Qingyuan gaze at him as if he was some deity from the other side of the room and he had to concentrate really strongly to keep his face neutral at best.

His play, despite all, was gracefully as could be. The notes of his instrument drowning out any other sound that dared to even try and compete. Despite the other's and him being meant to be a team, he had always been a loner, fighting people who gave him their hand and he didn't care if that made people resent him. His play was powerful, frightening, awe-inspiring. Who cared if the other people were drowned out and made into nothing more than a background noise accompanying or serving his music. He had been given the lead instrument just for this purpose, else the piece would have sounded off. Whether the other's had yielded him this out of admiration or frustration, he didn't care.

There was only one person's admiration he wanted and this person's eyes were glued to him, his lips slightly open in an inability to think straight. Like bewitched his eyes tried to follow Shen Qingqiu's slender fingers as they brushed over the strings, plucked, tore them in a frantic rhythm. The quickness of those eyes moving made Shen Qingqiu fantasize once, would this man be able to keep up with him and make himself into a worthy partner even in the arts of music?