Chapter 32: So Lanshe would secretly call himself useless in his heart.

The Attached Form Technique allowed one to see and smell, but not eat.

If Wen Tingshu had done anything wrong, then the only two mistakes were both right before his eyes.

He had wronged Lanshe, and he had starved Lanshe’s son.

He had clearly examined Meng Nangnang’s yuan dan, yet he had never imagined the possibility of two identical yuan dan overlapping.

Just like that, right in front of him, he had tilted all his fatherly love toward one child. The other had nothing—no steamed buns, no sugar water, no praise.

No man was a sage. Everyone made many mistakes.

Wen Tingshu had been praised by the righteous path as its leader for hundreds of years, yet at this moment, he did not know whether to apologize to the older one first or confess his guilt to the younger one first.

“What is your name?” Wen Tingshu’s voice was full of restraint.

When the Immortal Venerable asked Meng Nangnang earlier, Meng Wowo had already prepared his answer. He quickly replied, “I’m Situ Wowo—mmph.”

Meng Baixu reacted quickly and covered Meng Wowo’s mouth, but Wowo’s mouth had still been too fast and had already said the name.

This sect leader came here to discuss cooperation with Wen Tingshu, not to anger him.

This one was also surnamed Situ…

Wowo, Nangnang?

Wowo-nangnang? Useless and cowardly?

Wen Tingshu: “…………”

In just four words, he was hurt once and scolded once.

Wen Tingshu finally understood the answer to the question he had never dared to think about—after his attempt to erase Meng Baixu’s memory failed, how had Meng Baixu viewed him as Shizun?

So Lanshe would secretly call him useless in his heart.

The gentleman’s face had been torn away, leaving a burning sting.

Meng Baixu saw that Shizun’s neck and the back of his ears had turned red. Because of his white hair, the redness was even more obvious.

Was he angry?

Wen Tingshu asked, “Why the surname Situ?”

Meng Baixu did not dare say this was a homophone joke like wowo-nangnang, otherwise his white-haired Shizun might truly fly into a rage.

He said cleverly, “Because it’s an alias for traveling the jianghu. I think the surname Situ is pretty good. I hope Wowo and Nangnang can grow into righteous, brave, fair pillars like Situ Nanchun.”

Hmph. Wen Tingshu would definitely like such a righteous answer, right? First, he would make Wen Tingshu mistakenly think the demonic sect planned to repent and return to the righteous path. Then he would not resist rescuing Meng Fuguang.

Wen Tingshu: “…”

The righteous, brave, fair pillar was someone else.

Wen Tingshu had no position to refute it. He half-crouched and looked Meng Wowo in the eyes.

“I’m sorry. These days, Wowo has been hungry.”

The Immortal Venerable crouched in front of him. His white hair almost fell to the ground behind him. Meng Wowo resisted the urge to grab a handful of hair to play with like Meng Nangnang had. He said politely and properly, “It’s okay, Immortal Venerable Grandpa.”

Hm?

Meng Baixu scratched the back of his head. Wowo, you’re too polite. Wen Tingshu looks handsome even with white hair, so why call him grandpa? At least call him Shigong.

Wen Tingshu had never imagined he would have to say the same thing twice. “Wowo, you cannot call me Grandpa.”

Meng Nangnang came over and copied Wowo-gege one-to-one. “You have to call him Immortal Shifu, oh.”

Wen Tingshu changed his words. “Call me Dad.”

Wu?

Meng Wowo and Meng Nangnang turned to look at their actual daddy.

Do they have two dads?

Meng Baixu said, “Two babies with two dads. Very suitable. You can call him Dad. Once you call him that, he’ll agree to anything you ask.”

For example, saving Grandpa.

Meng Nangnang did not hesitate. “Immortal Daddy!”

Meng Wowo did not immediately call him. Instead, he looked at Wen Tingshu with a pair of clear black-and-white eyes. Quiet, obedient, with baby fat hanging from his cheeks.

Wen Tingshu’s heart hurt.

Since ancient times, people did not resent scarcity but inequality. Because of his negligence, distance had grown between father and son.

Meng Baixu could tell Meng Wowo was not as relaxed as Meng Nangnang. He seemed a little nervous. Probably because a small saintly father had met a big saintly father, and he was spiritually shaken by how much greater the other was.

He picked Meng Wowo up and directly placed him into Wen Tingshu’s arms.

Why be polite?

Wen Tingshu held Meng Wowo. Meng Wowo’s fingers naturally grabbed a bundle of white hair. Shyly, he said, “Wowo is also very good, oh.”

Wen Tingshu’s throat tightened. “You’re both good.”

He held Meng Wowo and looked at Meng Nangnang. No matter how he looked, Meng Wowo seemed a little lighter, his face a little smaller, his hair a little grayer—well-nourished babies grew hair quickly, so more black roots had grown out on Meng Nangnang’s head.

His crime was enormous.

“What do you want to eat?” Wen Tingshu asked.

Meng Baixu said, “Meat buns!”

Meng Nangnang said, “Red bean buns!”

Meng Wowo said, “Cornmeal buns!”

Wen Tingshu accepted their orders. “I’ll make them immediately.”

There were already cornmeal buns steaming in the pot. So those were what Meng Wowo loved to eat. Meng Nangnang had ordered them for his brother.

Nangnang thought of his brother, and Wowo endured temptation. These twin cubs had been able to hide it for several days without exposing themselves. Both cubs had a resilience beyond their age.

These were his and Lanshe’s children. So adorable, so kind.

The cornmeal buns were ready. Wen Tingshu took them out first and used spiritual power to quickly cool them a little. He handed one to Wowo.

“Wowo fir—”

Wen Tingshu paused and hurriedly took back the word “first.” Instead, with one in each hand, he handed them to the two little cubs separately.

“You two eat the cornmeal buns first.”

The two little cubs sat side by side. Finally, they could eat cornmeal buns together again!

This cornmeal bun smelled even better than before!

Meng Wowo and Meng Nangnang took a bite of each other’s bun back and forth. They were the best brothers in the world.

Seeing the two cubs immersed in eating cornmeal buns and unlikely to run around, Meng Baixu wandered behind Wen Tingshu.

“Are you making the meat buns first, or the red bean buns first?”

The former was what this sect leader wanted to eat. The latter was what Meng Nangnang wanted to eat.

Savory or sweet—what came first?

Wen Tingshu said, “Meat buns.”

Meng Baixu lightly curled the corner of his mouth. He was now a mature demonic sect leader. He would not be happy just because Wen Tingshu was making meat buns for him.

He glanced at Wen Tingshu. After two and a half years apart, Shizun did not seem angry about him betraying the sect, and he had accepted Wowo and Nangnang. The plan was a great success.

So Meng Baixu returned to his old habits. He reached out, grabbed Wen Tingshu’s hair, and tugged.

“Turn your hair back.”

Wen Tingshu did not make a sound.

Meng Baixu tugged again. “Turn it back. Do you like being a grandpa that much? Did you learn from He Shangxian?”

Wen Tingshu kneaded the dough open, divided it into small pieces one by one, rolled them out, and wrapped the filling.

“I’m five hundred years old. Having white hair is normal.”

Meng Baixu frowned. “What’s normal about that? We live forever.”

Wen Tingshu asked, “Do you want diced bamboo shoots added? You can go to the bamboo forest and dig up a spring bamboo shoot.”

Meng Baixu heard him changing the subject. The worry that had been faintly lingering in his heart became reality.

“It isn’t dyed, right?”

Wen Tingshu said, “You dyed Wowo and Nangnang’s hair quite well.”

Meng Baixu stared at him. “Is it because one day your cultivation dropped greatly, so your hair turned white?”

Wen Tingshu wrapped the meat filling in the soft white dough and pinched out a beautiful circle of folds.

“Lanshe, it’s because there was a disturbance at Helan Mountain two years ago. I sent puppets to deal with it, but unexpectedly fell into a trap and sacrificed all of them. The puppets were formed from my black hair. Can you understand it this way?”

“Puppets?”

Meng Baixu suddenly remembered that when they had first met, Wen Tingshu already had one white hair. That meant before then, Wen Tingshu had already sacrificed a puppet.

Puppet Wen Tingshu had died blocking a sword for him, and another hair had turned white.

Wait.

He stared at Wen Tingshu’s jade-like fingers. These hands making wheat foods, these skillfully controlled movements…

“You were Li Hengnian, and also Li Changye! Right? All those bun sellers along the way were you, right?”

Wen Tingshu did not deny it. “It was me. I was afraid you wouldn’t eat enough on the road. In any case, I had nothing to do on Hengxue Mountain.”

Meng Baixu’s eyes reddened all at once. He turned his head away and glared at the cucumbers on the kitchen rack.

Li Hengnian had actually been Wen Tingshu. Wen Tingshu had already died twice to protect him.

Why did he not say it?

When he came to Hengxue Mountain to become his disciple, why did Wen Tingshu not recognize him?

Wen Tingshu was the proper gentleman revered by the righteous path, while Li Hengnian was a market peddler wrapped in malice. Everyone looked at Wen Tingshu with respect and admiration, but they slandered and framed Li Hengnian.

They were as different as clouds and mud. How was he supposed to connect the two?!

“Wouldn’t it have been fine if you stayed properly on the mountain? Why did you always go down and let people bully you? Why did all of them bully you?! And you still didn’t tell me!”

Meng Baixu’s eyes reddened, and killing intent actually rose in him again.

If he had known earlier, he would not have let a single one of them go!

Wen Tingshu wiped the corner of Meng Baixu’s eye with the back of his clean hand. “Puppets are extremely yin objects. They easily provoke the evil in people’s hearts. There is no reason to it. Trouble comes to me. I cannot leave, so it is also cultivation of the heart.”

Meng Baixu asked, “Then what happened with the puppets at Helan Mountain? How could you fall into a trap? Who under heaven could deceive you?”

Shizun was powerful and omnipotent. How could he be schemed against by petty people until he sacrificed all his puppets?

Wen Tingshu said, “Even the wise lose once in a thousand considerations.”

Meng Baixu said, “You couldn’t have lost. Was it because when you were fighting someone, you just happened to lose most of your cultivation again?”

Wen Tingshu said, “It was only a little cultivation.”

Meng Baixu’s chest felt stuffy. When he had left, he had clearly told him not to participate in any disputes and to just stay on Hengxue Mountain in seclusion.

Why was Wen Tingshu so disobedient?

If he had told Wen Tingshu in advance that he would lose cultivation, would Wen Tingshu not have been killed until not a single puppet remained?

When puppets died, the pain they endured would not lessen by even a fraction.

The dignified Sect Master of Hengxue Sect had been killed dozens of times, killed until all his hair turned white. The world had gone bad.

Meng Baixu picked up one little cub in each hand. “How can your hair turn black again? Why don’t you absorb the cultivation from these two little cubs back?”

Meng Wowo and Meng Nangnang held their cornmeal buns, both faces dazed. They had no idea what was going on and had been grabbed by Daddy.

Wen Tingshu said, “Lanshe, white is white.”

Meng Baixu said, “They’re at late Golden Core. Leaving them with Foundation Establishment is enough. Anyway, they’re too small to control spiritual power. Even when playing with toys, they have to be careful not to crush them…”

Wen Tingshu interrupted him. “I only wish I could give even more to Wowo and Nangnang, so they have enough to protect themselves.”

Meng Baixu said, “There must be another way.”

Wen Tingshu said, “It does not affect anything. Put the children down first.”

Meng Nangnang’s clothes had already been torn. After being lifted by Daddy, a large tear split open under his armpit, and the whole cub slid downward.

Meng Baixu gently put him back on the ground. “Nangnang, do you want to change clothes?”

Meng Nangnang said, “I want to wear the same as Wowo-gege!”

Meng Baixu: “…”

Look at yourself. Are you the same?

Meng Baixu still had a little saintly father cub in his hand. This one’s cultivation was of the same origin and might merge more easily.

“What about this one?”

Wen Tingshu said helplessly, “Then what would that make me?”