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Chapter 84




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In which everyone hangs out together, but really only Ye You has fun.
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After Wei Jiangyue left, the private room turned quiet.
Ye You very much enjoyed the times he spent alone with his Senior Brother and was unhurriedly drinking his tea when he saw that his Senior Brother wasn’t speaking. He asked, “Thinking about the matter with Wei Jiangyue?”
Wenren Heng made a sound in acknowledgment.
Ye You said, “From your understanding of him, will he go?”
Wenren Heng said with certainty, “He will.”
Ye You said, “What will he do if he really finds something useful?”
Wenren Heng shook his head.
He paused for a moment before saying, “You’re also clear on how Manor Lord Wei usually handles matters, and the way that he conducts himself leaves others practically unable to find any faults in him. He’s also like that at home. The Wei family’s assets are large, with many branch families, but the family itself has always been harmonious, and there’s never been any major upheavals. Wei Jiangyue has been by Manor Lord Wei’s side since young and truly respects him. Their father-son relationship has always been quite good.”
Ye You said, “I know.”
Wenren Heng said, “Although Wei Jiangyue has always set clear lines between right and wrong, that is still his blood-related father after all. If he really is able to find some evidence, I can’t guarantee that he’ll immediately fall out with his father, but at least he won’t continue to turn a blind eye.” He gave the person next to him a look. “What’s more, since you’re here, he also won’t pretend that he doesn’t know. We’ll just have to see what choice he makes.”
Ye You was diligently listening, but when he heard those last words, he couldn’t help but look at his Senior Brother.
Wenren Heng said, voice mild, “Don’t tell me that you didn’t notice that he had a bit of those kinds of intentions towards you.”
Ye You said, “He does seem to have a bit, but I thought that it was ultimately just out of guilt.”
“There’s definitely guilt,” Wenren Heng said, “He’s the second young master of Fengxian Manor, with power and authority along with upright conduct and some decent martial skill, so he’s quite popular with the people. Since he started traveling through Jianghu, anytime he encountered something, he’s always dealt with it equitably. You are perhaps the first person whom he has ever felt that he owed. Actually, he had already been somewhat curious about you before, and then later, the matter with Wei Jiangrou happened, so now you need only to appear and he’ll take more notice of you. As time went on, he naturally began having those kind of thoughts.”
Of course, there was still something else he hadn’t said, which was that his Junior Brother truly caused too much disaster.
He thought that, even if Wei Jiangrou hadn’t interfered, Wei Jiangyue would’ve become interested in his Junior Brother sooner or later. Because Wei Jiangyue was somewhat arrogant, those that were able to catch that person’s eye were all incredible people. There was no need to talk about how outstanding his Junior Brother was, and the other was also often in control of the situation. As they interacted more and more, Wei Jiangyue’s heart would have definitely moved.
But right now his Junior Brother was also carefully stowing away that temper, so if one day the other regained Sect Master Ye’s identity, there was no telling whether Wei Jiangyue would receive a fright. Wenren Heng thought all of this in his heart before finally adding, “If this was like in the past, and I told him that there were problems with Manor Lord Wei, he would’ve most likely started a fight with me already. Now that there’s also you, everything’s different.”
Ye You considered his Senior Brother’s normal tone of voice for a moment before giving the other a look.
“What? You thought I’d be jealous?” Wenren Heng gave a slight smile. “I’ve long gotten used to it.”
He had indeed already become used to it.
Over these past few years, his Junior Brother had been far too ostentatious, and while the righteous faction were infuriated to the point of gritting their teeth whenever they thought of the other, there were still many people who very much admired this person, and there were even more men and women who were filled with adoration in their hearts. Just counting those he knew of personally, there was already ten — all this was quite understandable, as a person with such wanton confidence always had a charm outside of the ordinary.
His only consolation was that his Junior Brother hadn’t exposed that face, or else the people provoked would’ve definitely grown even more. But he also hadn’t attached any real importance to those ordinary pieces of trash. Those who could worry him were only a few, like Xie Junming and Lady Tao.
He looked at the two eyes exposed on his Junior Brother’s face and pinched the other’s chin, scooting slightly closer. “Anyway, right now you’re mine. Others can’t steal you away.”
Ye You’s heart trembled slightly, and he couldn’t help saying some cheap words, “What’ll you do if another person steals me away, or I run away with someone else?”
Wenren Heng said, “I won’t give you that opportunity.”
Ye You said, “Will you be able to stop me?”
“I won’t.” Wenren Heng let him go. “Never mind. If that day really comes, I won’t stop you. I’ll just find someone else who suits me and get married. At that time, remember to come drink at your Senior Brother’s wedding feast.”
Ye You let out a laugh. “Who will you look for? Lady Xiao-Rou?”
Wenren Heng didn’t answer, instead replying with a question, “Speaking of her, you seem to have found her quite pleasing to the eye when your memories were missing? So much so that you even wanted to play matchmaker for us?”
Ye You reminded, “…Senior Brother, you’ve already collected on those past debts.”
Wenren Heng said, “I can collect them again. Who let you insist on saying some things that I don’t like to hear.”
Having a clear view of things, Ye You thereupon stopped speaking and waited for the other to finish drinking that cup of tea before returning to the previous topic and asking, “Over these years, you seemed to have a good relationship with Wei Jiangyue?”
Wenren Heng understood what his Junior Brother was implying the moment he heard this.
He and the Wei family had been friendly for about ten years, and he and Wei Jiangyue had also known each other for almost ten years. They’d practically never had any major disputes, and their relationship was also not bad. Now with Wei Jiangyue having entered this kind of situation, his Junior Brother wanted to ask him what he thought about it.
Ye You looked at him. “Hm?”
Wenren Heng pulled over the other’s hand and slowly played with it. He said, “Over these years, I’ve never opened my heart to him.”
Ye You said, “Why is that?”
Wenren Heng said, “Because of you.”
From that sudden parting ten years ago, he had always been thinking of his Junior Brother’s matters.
He remembered that, at the time, after Manor Lord Wei had finished helping them handle Master’s funeral arrangements, the other had invited them to Fengxian Manor while also offering to get a doctor to look at his Junior Brother. But his Junior Brother had suffered too much shock and would insist on sitting by Master’s gravestone every day for a long while. He thus pushed off those matters and patiently accompanied his Junior Brother. Later, when his Junior Brother returned to the Central Plains, he felt even more that his Junior Brother was concealing something from him and so had meticulously maintained his distance from the Wei family. Although he had known the family for a long time, he conversely had a better relationship with Qin Yuemian than with Wei Jiangyue and them.
Ye You startled slightly, internally thinking that Senior Brother truly is difficult to deceive, before asking, “You weren’t afraid that you had misunderstood?”
Wenren Heng said, “My relationship with them also wasn’t bad. By the time I’m able to get you to open your mouth, if it truly turned out to be a misunderstanding, it still wouldn’t have been too late to become truly close to them.”
Ye You was left unable to respond. At this time, he heard the echo of footsteps from outside, which appeared to be rushing towards them. He thus waited for a short moment and, sure enough, ended up hearing two knocks upon their room door. Immediately following, Qin Yuemian and Lady Tao entered.
Wenren Heng looked at his good friend.
Qin Yuemian still maintained that prodigal son appearance of days past and, laughing, explained, “I was dying of boredom, so I came out with Lady Tao to drink some tea. When I came upstairs, I saw your Shuangji Sect’s people and so came over.”
Ye You laughed and said, “You came at just the right time. In a while, let’s eat together.”
Qin Yuemian said, “What is it?”
Ye You said, deadly earnest, “Nothing much. It’s simply eating a meal together. This time, I narrowly escaped from death, and I can now finally put the past few days to rest. It’s certainly worth celebrating.”
Qin Yuemian didn’t say a word in response, but since this person spoke like that, he just took those words as a pretext and so stayed behind.
The group chatted until noon before changing locations to the largest restaurant in the city. As a result, they ended up meeting Xie Junming.
Xie Junming just knew that a certain person wouldn’t neglect feeding the stomach, so when he didn’t see the person at the inn, he then left for the restaurant to try his luck. And, right now, with matters proving that his luck was quite good, he said, smiling, “What a coincidence, are all of you also here to eat?”
Wenren Heng said, “Temple Master Xie also?”
“Yes, why don’t we eat together then.” Xie Junming looked at the Elder Baili next to him. “What do you say, Darling?”
Elder Baili stared at his Sect Master’s gaze, which seemed deep in thought, and obediently continued to put on the act, saying with a smile, “All right. This lord just so happens to want to get to know Sir Xiao. Let’s go.”
The adventurers in the lobby all followed these people upstairs with their gazes, and then immediately boiled over.
They couldn’t help but whisper to each other, the topic of conversation practically all revolving around Qin Yuemian, Lady Tao, Xie Junming, and Ye You. The reason being, at Shaolin, Qin Yuemian was always with Lady Tao, and later when Xie Junming came and saw these two people together, that person had made no mention of his own opinion, and even later, when Ye You brought people over, that person had then quickly taken up with Xie Junming.
They felt that, within these events, there were definitely some secret entanglements unknown to anyone!
“I feel that Xie Junming insisted on eating with them because he saw that Lady Tao was there.”
“That couldn’t be, right? If I managed to get a wife, and I met that wife’s old lover on the road, I’d definitely try to think up a way to have them stay as far apart as possible.”
“Yes, I’ve always felt that it was because Ye You wasn’t able to win over Lady Tao that he’s together with Xie Junming, just to see if Lady Tao would be jealous.”
“Sect Master Ye doesn’t seem to be that childish…”
Everyone’s opinions differed, and they finally slowly turned onto the topic of Xie Junming and Ye You. They felt that if these two people were truly together, then in the future, they’d probably often have to see these two scoundrels, who were both in need of beatings, come together to harass people. But, very quickly, there was someone who said that Sect Master Ye’s tongue didn’t seem to be so poisonous anymore, that he seemed to have restrained his temper by no small amount, and that perhaps it was all due to finding a lover; looking at it like this, he and Xie Junming’s matter wasn’t as terrible as they all feared.
The rest of them were very hesitant. “…If only that could be true.”
The people who were being discussed naturally didn’t pay attention to the gazes of others.
These people ate this one meal all the way until dinnertime, and in that time, they also found a waiter to bring in a mahjong table, huddling together to begin playing mahjong. This waiter originally thought that they were also going to eat here at night, but in the end, when the time came for dinner, he saw them leaving and immediately became speechless.
Xie Junming asked, “Sir Xiao has just recovered from a major illness. Are you planning on returning to rest?”
Ye You laughed and said, “I feel that the day is still early. Why don’t we go listen to some music?”
Xie Junming and Qin Yuemian and the others had already accompanied him in wasting an entire afternoon, and upon seeing this, they felt more and more that there was something fishy, deciding to play accompaniment until the end, and so followed the two to an opera house.
Shengyin City was a bustling town, and now that there was even a contingent of people from Jianghu, the opera house’s business was extremely prosperous.
Under the curious gazes of an entire crowd of people, the group asked for seats on the second floor. They ate as they listened to the songs, leaving only when the business was just about to close. Xie Junming and Qin Yuemian collectively turned to look at a certain person.
Ye You feebly said, “Senior Brother, I’m tired.”
The group, “…”
Wenren Heng considerately supported him. “Then let’s return to the inn.”
Ye You said, “All right.”
“Wait,” Xie Junming said, “What was the act we were putting on today?”
Wenren Heng was very calm. “My Junior Brother just escaped from a crisis, and I wanted to accompany him. Many thanks to everyone for honoring us with their presence.”
The group suspiciously stared at them.
Wenren Heng said, “Let’s go back.”
Xie Junming immediately laughed handsomely. Grabbing a certain person’s hand in one move, he said, with deep emotion, “Ah-You, then let’s go back. Just now, I was so enchanted with the opera that I forgot to say a few words to you. Don’t worry, I’ll make up for all of that tonight.”
Elder Baili, “…”
What does that have to do with me! Can you not pour out your anger on me when you failed to glean anything interesting from the Sect Master and the Madam’s side? I’m also completely and utterly baffled, all right!
He couldn’t help but give the Sect Master a look full of grievances.
Ye You laughed inwardly and finally found a bit of conscience, enough to say, using a voice that only they could hear, “Sleep earlier today. All of you will know at either midnight tonight or tomorrow morning.”
Only then was Xie Junming and the others satisfied, thus turning towards home.
When they returned, a crowd of Junior Sect Masters, with arms around each other’s shoulders, had also returned to the inn. With one look, Ding Xilai saw Sir Xiao and so scooted over. He was just about to speak when he discovered that the other was being supported by Wenren Heng and so asked, worried, “What’s wrong with Sir Xiao?”
Wenren Heng said, “He played a bit later than usual, so he’s now tired.”
Ding Xilai said, “Then you should hurry and go upstairs.”
Wenren Heng nodded and took his Junior Brother away.
Putting on an image of weakness, Ye You obediently followed his Senior Brother. At a corner of the staircase, he suddenly felt something and turned his head back to look, coincidentally meeting Ren Shaotian’s line of sight. Seeing the other nonchalantly avert those eyes, he felt somewhat perplexed in his heart.
Wenren Heng said, “What?”
Ye You said, “When something happened to me last time, did there seem to be anything wrong with Ren Shaotian?”
“Ren Shaotian?” Wenren Heng thought back. “No, he simply said that if there was any news about you, to tell them. What is it?”
Ye You said, “It’s nothing. I’m just randomly asking.”
Wenren Heng gave him a look.
Ye You continued leaning against him. “Senior Brother, tired.”
Wenren Heng was speechless, and when he saw that there were only a few more steps before they reached their destination, he simply decided to carry the person into the room.
 
The next morning, Ye You was awoken by a spate of clamorous noise.
At this time, the sky had not yet brightened, and he couldn’t help but burrow his head into his Senior Brother’s neck, refusing to open his eyes.
Wenren Heng laughed and held the other in his arms. “Not going out?”
Ye You said, “My body is weak. It’s normal for me to sleep a bit longer.”
Wenren Heng naturally acceded to him and laid there with him for a while, as the movements outside became noisier and noisier. Upon seeing that his Junior Brother still had no intentions of getting up, Wenren Heng could only drop a kiss down on the other’s forehead and leave the bed alone to go outside.
Right as he had just stepped downstairs, he heard Ding Xilai and a crowd of Junior Sect Masters say, “Brother Wei and Brother Han and them got drunk last night, and they said they weren’t coming back, so we left.”
Manor Lord Wei said, “Were there others around?”
Ding Xilai said, “I wasn’t paying attention to that.”
Pavilion Master Ding said coldly, “Didn’t I tell you to be more well-behaved? Why did you run out to go drinking?”
Ding Xilai tensed up his expression. “Understood, Father, I won’t go in the future.”
He was also feeling very wronged. Although he knew that he had to do his best to get Sir Xiao to accept him as a sworn brother, he didn’t actually know what he should do. Right as he was getting frustrated, Wei Jiangyue had coincidentally returned from going out, appearing to be very unhappy. They thus decided that they might as well go out to drink. Who could’ve known that something would happen when they did?
Wenren Heng walked over. Standing next to Academy Master Ge, he asked, “What happened?”
Academy Master Ge sighed and said, “Last night, Jiangyue was kidnapped by someone. There were traces of a fight at the scene. No one knows who did it.”
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So many kidnappings in this story, haha. At one point, it’ll just be like, “So-and-so was kidnapped!” and “Oh, so it’s a Tuesday.”
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