It was a quiet night and, after everything that happened, Liu Erlong preferred it that way. Their small school had won against all odds, had risen from scorn and dismissal to a veritable force to be reckoned with, and she couldn’t be more proud.
Her school. Her students. Her teachers.
Although, in all honesty, none of the fame belonged to her, of course. Shi Lan Ke wasn’t her creation, she merely provided them a place to settle, to build a new home. Perhaps they would even stay.
Yes. That would be nice.
She took a deep breath, held it for a moment, and then let it slowly out. He still felt bruised to the bone from Bibi Dong’s power and she could only imagine how the others felt. Lan De would probably be alright but Yu Xiaogang…well, Xiaogang was Xiaogang.
”Liu Laoshi?” a hesitant voice called from outside her room.
”Yes?” She said as she stood up.
”I—” The door slid open a bit, and Ou Sike peeked inside. ”I have this blend? It’s a herbal blend I picked up months ago, or, well, I didn’t pick it up literally because it was already made into a blend so the herbs—I mean. Uh.” He blushed slightly, then pressed his lips together and nodded decisively, bracing himself. ”I have a herbal blend that’s meant to relax sore muscles and relieve pain. I have dealt a batch to my team members and I set aside pouches for Tang San and Xiao Wu, so…here.” He held out his hand to her.
”That’s very thoughtful of you, Ou Sike,” Liu Erlong said with a smile and took one of the small pouches. ”How does it work? As tea?”
Ou Sike beamed under her praise. ”You can brew it into tea if you want but I was told it works best as a bath.”
She pursed her lips slightly. ”Oh.” A bath. I can work with that, she thought.
”So, when was the time you two spent time together?” she asked later that evening. They’d shared a simple meal and were now drinking tea.
Lan De huffed. ”What do you mean, ’spent time together?’ We spend time together all the time! We cooked! We ate! We—”
”Bah, you know what I mean,” she said and rolled her eyes.
”No? I don’t?”
She looked at Lan De from the corner of her eye and then cocked her head at Xiaogang. ”What about you?” she asked with a raised brow. ”Do you also claim you have no idea of what I mean?”
”I—” Xiaogang stuttered.
”What?” Lan De’s voice was annoyed. ”Speak sense, woman!”
”Men,” she said, letting out a long-suffering sigh. ”You two are lovers, and—” she held up a finger to keep them silent, ”—and it’s perfectly alright. You two have shared years of life I haven’t been privy to and it would be a shame to push all that aside just because I’m here, right?”
”Uh,” Lan De said.
”Did you honestly think I didn’t know?” she asked, incredulous. ”After settling down here, you’ve barely shared space outside teaching even though neither of you wants to be far from the other. You two are worse than Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing, stealing glances at each other and covering your longing with bluster and bickering!”
The men looked at each other and ducked their heads, both pretending not to blush.
Heavens. Were all men this thick?
”I—” Lan De started. ”You don’t like me.”
Liu Erlong stared. And then stared some more. ”…and?” she asked. ”Was that sentence going somewhere?”
”I didn’t want to be on your way!”
”Curious,” she said and cocked her head. ”Your mouth moves but I have no idea what the sounds mean.”
Lan De huffed and stood up to pace. It was a familiar habit she hadn’t even known she missed so much as she did.
”You and Xiaogang—” Lan De started and then paused, scowled at them from under his brows, and then turned again sharply. His hands were behind his back, right hand gripping his left wrist so hard his fingertips turned white.
”Yes, Xiaogang and I,” Liu Erlong prompted after a moment.
Lan De closed his eyes. ”I didn’t want to make things complicated for you,” he said quietly. ”Things have changed. We have changed. And I—” he shrugged and a small, self-deprecating smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. ”I’m an old, poor headmaster of a poor, ridiculed school. You two, on the other hand...”
The room was silent, the only sound the soft clinking of Tang San’s wind chimes.
”Are you quite done?” Liu Erlong asked. ”Actually, no, don’t answer that. You are quite done.” She drew a breath, held it for a moment, and then gave Lan De a cool look. ”You are such an annoying man,” she said quietly. ”You are annoying and frustrating and so, so dear to me. You are like an older brother I never knew I wanted and who drives me crazy but without whom my life isn’t just the same.
”And you,” she said, turning to face Xiaogang who had been trying to make himself smaller and more inconspicuous, as if he could ever hide from her. ”You are irritating and evasive and yes, you hurt me quite a lot in the past. But you are also so very dear to me and frankly, very good in bed.” She grinned when Xiaogang choked on his tea, bright red spots on his cheeks.
”We three? We work so well together in a battle situation and our spirit fusion is a clear sign of that. It wouldn’t happen if I detested you, old man.”
”I’m not that old,” Lan De muttered.
She ignored him. ”A fully functioning triad doesn’t mean we all need to share the bed. In truth, I wouldn’t even want to.” She inclined her head at Lan De. ”Not only would sleeping with you be like sleeping with my brother, which, no thank you, but I also know that your preferences don’t run that way. I enjoy sharing my bed with Xiaogang and I bet my spare robes that you enjoy the same, Lan De.”
”Wait—” Xiaogang said, flustered.
”And you,” she said, raising a brow. ”I have no idea how you manage to be such an efficient teacher but a couple of sweet words from a woman turns you into a blushing mess. It’s delightful!”
”What—I don’t—that’s—”
”She’s right,” Lan De said dryly.
”You’re not supposed to agree with her!” Xiaogang hissed, mortified.
”Of course I’m right!” she said brightly. ”Which is why I’ve drawn you a bath.”
Lan De blinked. Blinked again. ”A what.”
”A bath,” she repeated. ”A tub big enough for two grown men, full of hot water. With herbs.”
”Herbs,” Xiaogang echoed.
”You two are idiots,” she said with a smile. ”Ou Sike had a herbal blend that helps with sore muscles and pain. He’s been handing the pouches out to everyone and he brought me a couple. It’s most effective as a bath. So. I suggest you head to the bathhouse with clean robes and an open mind and spend some well-deserved quality time together.”
She stood up, set her long-empty tea cup on the tray, and bent to kiss Xiaogang on the cheek. ”I left a bottle of your preferred oil next to the bath,” she whispered into his ear, smirking at the furious blush that turned his face bright red.
Then she turned to Lan De who narrowed his eyes at her. She kissed him on the cheek anyway—not that either Lan De or Xiaogang needed the kiss for good luck. But she wanted to treat them the same. They were her cornerstones, the two points of their triangle, and she needed them just like they needed her. Literally pushing them to each other’s arms helped them not only to relieve the worry about Tang San and Xiao Wu but to ease the nearly palpable tension that had been building since...when, exactly? From the moment Xiaogang had walked into Lan De’s academy back in the village they stayed?
Hm.
About time they fucked it out of their systems.
The next morning, she didn’t point out the way both men sat down with slightly more care than usual. She merely smiled, poured them tea, and turned her face to the sun.