The Endless Promise

104. Invitations

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Back at the Yan House, Luoyin sneezed as a few maids passed by him, giggling into their hands.

'Face...' He mused, glaring after them with no small bitterness. 'I've... I've lost all face!'

Face was one of the most important things to most mortals, immortals, and even demons.

(*Face here is like respect, pride, esteem, steeze, that kind of thing, so terms like 'saving face' means to save oneself from disgrace, or, 'He's not giving me any face' means he's not respecting or acknowledging me, or 'what face do they have?', which means the 'they' in question have fallen from grace or should be too ashamed to take a certain action, etc!)

One's face was almost as important as their life, and the nobler the figure, the more important their 'face'.

Half a year ago, no one would have batted an eyelid if the name 'Zhang Luoyin' had popped up in some embarrassing tale. What was new?

From his mother's death, Zhang Luoyin had lost one battle after another, followed by the false rumors that he damaged his own cultivation, and by his sorry state in general.

But now, though it wasn't his intention, a few grand things were associated with Zhang Luoyin- often welcomed with disbelief, but grand nonetheless.

So his name could be said to be 'nobler' than before...

Which only made this worse!

"Heh! Did you see those fireworks last night?!" A few scholars discussed.

"Who didn't?! I even wrote down all the words!"

"Let me see!" They crowded around.

"Was it deliberate?!"

"Is it? If you replace a few characters in *'Pig soup warms the soul', then it might be 'Love for you warms the heart'...? And when you do the same for that poem...!"

(*猪汤暖心 - Pig soup warms the soul\heart, a stretch, but looks similar to: 爱你暖心 - love for you warms the heart. The poem has similar misunderstandings!)

"My brothers! Isn't this a grand confession to Xu Weiyan...?!"

And thanks to those scholars, and the drunken ones from the previous night, word had spread around the city, dashing Luoyin's hopes of claiming it was all some elaborate joke...

"Heh! At least he knows he's the pig who dug up the cabbage!"

"Ahahaha! I'm suddenly craving something fried!"

"Fried Swallow!"

And the jokes hastened to jump from one end of Yue City to the other.

Even at the Yan house, Luoyin had to endure the amused glances of the servants, and when he escaped to his room, Yinying awaited to tease him mercilessly.

His friends didn't spare him, and over the next few days, he heard everything from,

"Zhang Yin! Fancy some pig soup for lunch? Or...?"

To,

"Yin gege, hope your 'twisted desires' won't really 'fry' Weiyan Jie!"

To which even Xu Wen blankly asked,

"Shixiong. Would that be stir fried or deep fried?"

Not to mention the Immortals who teased him endlessly. Old man Bao and Immortal Kai still hadn't agreed on whose disciple he was now!

But there was a bright light which eclipsed the shameful horizon.

He was much closer to Weiyan, and spent as much time as possible with her.