Chapter 94

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In which Ye You and Wenren Heng have a good nap while Ren Shaotian is questioned on his feelings.

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Chenhong Fort was built near a mountain.

Behind the fort was a vast and flourishing mountain, while in front was expansive and boundless water, with countless boats lined along it, giving off a majestic and grand loftiness. Everyone in the righteous faction stared as they got close and couldn’t help turning inwardly speechless at the sight.

The Elder Mei whom those Sect Masters had been concerned about had already been kept waiting for a long time and, upon seeing the Sect Master, went over to welcome him.

She was wearing a flowing mist butterfly dress[1], carrying a face that was beautiful beyond compare, moving across the walkway step-by-step, a breeze blowing the hem of her dress like mist billowing in the wind, making her look like an immortal descended, so beautiful that it made people practically unable to look away.

Even though everyone in the righteous faction knew her identity, they were still unable to stop themselves from staring for a long while, having no choice but to concede that she truly was a beautiful person. And that, within the righteous faction, only Lady Tao was able to even compare to her.

Elder Mei walked to Elder Baili’s side. Only after first shooting a glance at the Sect Master did she then ask with a smile, “How is it? Am I beautiful?”

Ye You had still not “awoken” and, at this moment, was currently being carried by his Senior Brother.

Since he was currently acting as a vital “injured person”, he needed to rest well.

So this time on the way to the fort, for his sake, his Senior Brother didn’t refuse the Fort Master’s generosity and agreed to ride on the carriage that the Fort Master had left near the village entrance. Thus, when they got off the carriage, his Senior Brother, Xie Junming, and them ended up walking in the foremost row. Next to them, other than Xie Junming and Elder Baili, there was only the Fort Master, who had learned the truth of the matter from Elder Mei. He was thereby feeling quite at ease and, upon hearing this, opened his eyes slightly to look at Elder Mei, giving her a faint smile to indicate that, yes, she was very beautiful.

Elder Mei was immediately satisfied and secretly gave him a coquettish look.

Ye You smiled again before then immediately perceiving that his Senior Brother was currently looking at him extremely gently, and he immediately closed his eyes, having a clear view of things.

Wenren Heng held him tighter and shot a glance at these two scoundrels.

Without batting an eyelid, Elder Mei moved her gaze away to look at her colleague. Elder Baili hastily tried affecting the Sect Master’s usual tone to say a word of ‘beautiful’ and, after a pause, asked, “You aren’t cold?”

Elder Mei lifted her head. “For the sake of beauty, what does a little cold matter?”

Elder Baili was speechless, and upon seeing her unhurriedly moving to walk behind him, he then took the lead to enter the fort.

Chenhong Fort wasn’t a large place, though it was able to house everyone, with some difficulty.

The Fort Master first called for the doctors to look at those adventurers’ injuries before then instructing his subordinates to sail over to Beiyan Village in order to bring back both the drugged men and the adventurers who had stayed behind as guards.

Everyone stared at that extremely deceptive baby face of his, still feeling somewhat skeptical that he was the Fort Master. It was only when they heard the people of the fort respectfully and reverently refer to him as Fort Master that they finally believed it, mouths twitching.

The Fort Master was already used to such stares and did not pay the least attention to them. He arranged a first-rate room for Ye You and invited Wenren Heng over while also taking the opportunity to watch these two people, inwardly trying to guess at the two’s relationship.

Ye You was carried onto the bed by his Senior Brother, and without even opening his eyes, he said, smiling, “There’s no need to guess. This is my Senior Brother.”

The Fort Master was extremely surprised and, after connecting it with the major events that had been happening lately, ran over to sit at the bedside. “Big bro, can you talk about what’s going on this time?”

Ye You opened his eyes to look at the other. “You’ll learn about it.”

The Fort Master said, “Don’t tell me that I’ll learn about it only at the very end.”

Ye You said, “Not necessarily.”

The Fort Master then no longer continued asking and instead helped to tuck him in.

He and Sect Master Ye’s relationship was better than he and Xie Junming’s, and it was originally due to this person that he and Xie Junming even became familiar with one another in the first place. Although now he was able to guess that the reason Sect Master Ye had originally taken the initiative to get on good terms with him was perhaps due to the nearby Beiyan Village, the three of them had shared a deep friendship for many years already, and as he was still capable of discerning true sincerity from base hypocrisy, he remained willing to continue recognizing this person as a friend.

“Then you should first sleep a while.” The Fort Master stood up and said, “What do you want to eat tonight?”

Ye You didn’t stand on courtesy. “The fish soup that your cooks make.”

The Fort Master smiled and said, “Can do.”

Wenren Heng watched the other leave before looking at his Junior Brother. “How long have you two known each other?”

Ye You said, “Over three years now… Don’t look at me like that. I said before that I did a lot of things over these years.”

Wenren Heng declined to comment, instead pulling over one of his hands to play with. Ye You laid there for a while before he stopped being so well-behaved. Supporting his head with a hand, he narrowed his eyes to stare at the other. Wenren Heng raised a brow, “What?”

Ye You said, deadly earnest, “You’re too handsome by far, so I’m taking the time to look.”

Wenren Heng said, “How do I compare to that Elder Mei of yours?”

Ye You immediately laughed out loud. “Jealous?”

Wenren Heng was extremely calm. “No.”

This was the truth.

He had actually been jealous before, a long time ago.

Because he had once seen Elder Mei wearing a vivid and beautiful dress and asking his Junior Brother if she was beautiful. Thinking of cases of women dressing up for the sake of their beloveds, he naturally overthought it. But now he already had his Junior Brother in his hands, and he believed in his Junior Brother’s integrity, so even upon seeing his Junior Brother making flirtatious glances with another person right in front of his eyes, he wouldn’t get jealous. He simply wanted to give this scoundrel a bit of tidying up, that’s all.

Ye You didn’t know what he was thinking but still gave an explanation, “She’s suffered much hardship in the past, so she likes wearing beautiful dresses, and she also likes hearing others praise her. Every time she switches to a new dress, she’ll seek out someone to ask about it.”

Wenren Heng said, “Oh?”

“It’s a long story,” Ye You said, “They all more or less have their own stories to tell. Some are quite amusing, while others, if made into a play, would definitely leave many people in tears. I’ll slowly tell you about them in the future.

Wenren Heng made a sound in acknowledgment. “Do you want to sleep a while?”

Ye You said, “Sleep with me?”

Wenren Heng was naturally willing and turned over to get on the bed, pulling the person into an embrace.

 

At this time, those elders were still busily taking care of the matters of Beiyan Village.

They had found two letters while searching the village chief’s house, and Bodhi Prison, the hidden villa, and Ghost Gentleman and them were all implicated within. There were also a few mentions about a certain master, though it was a pity that the specific identity of this master was not explicitly written. They couldn’t help but let out a sigh of disappointment in their hearts.

Academy Master Ge said, “Could anything useful already have been burned?”

Xie Junming said, “These are useful.”

Academy Master Ge said, “How do you know?”

“A guess,” Xie Junming said, “Until now, none of you have managed to grasp the white piece’s tail, so it’s clear that he’s quite cautious. Thus, it’s highly improbable that the white piece’s name would come up in their letters, and it’s even possible that the village chief himself doesn’t know who the white piece is and is aware only that this person exists. The village chief probably left these two letters as a just-in-case measure.”

Everyone startled, understanding dawning.

So it turned out that the village chief had hidden some insurance. After all, if the black piece didn’t exist, then no one in the world would know what the white piece had done. At that time, no matter who the village chief gave these two letters to, it’d be able to stir up quite the commotion.

Academy Master Ge said, “Then do we still want to search one more time?”

Everyone discussed for a moment and decided that it was necessary to search carefully at least once more, but this wasn’t the most urgent matter currently; the most urgent matter was how to handle those drugged men. The number this time was quite large, and there was even a troop of drugged men who had completely lost all rationality. If they really sent all of these men to Shaolin, they’d need to also send many people as escorts, and they wouldn’t even be able to guarantee that nothing would happen en route.

Those elders’ brows furrowed deeply, and none of them had any good ideas.

At this time, a person from “Heaven’s Firmament” walked in and stooped down to whisper a few words in Manor Lord Wei’s ear. Manor Lord Wei’s brows then immediately furrowed even deeper. Pavilion Master Ding gave him a look, “What?”

Manor Lord Wei said, “They still haven’t found him.”

He stood up and said, “I need to go out for a moment.”

Everyone indicated that they understood.

Sir Yang had been personally raised to adulthood by Manor Lord Wei, and their relationship was practically like father and son. Now with Sir Yang’s life and death unknown, and Second Young Master Wei’s matters still unresolved, it was naturally difficult for Manor Lord Wei to take.

Ren Shaotian stood behind his young master, watching Manor Lord Wei’s disappearing back, feeling astonished in his heart.

Sir Xiao had stirred up the fishing village this much, and yet that person didn’t appear to care about the aftermath at all, actually going as far as to stay in his room and not appear. What exactly did he want to do?

But these thoughts of his hadn’t persisted for long before he pushed them back down. Because his young master needed to use the toilet, he and Wei Jin thereupon conscientiously followed as protection.

Upon seeing the young master enter the restroom, Wei Jin immediately turned to look at Ren Shaotian. “Why did you jump into the river today?”

Ren Shaotian said, “Since the young master is that concerned about Sir Xiao, naturally I have to save him.”

Wei Jin examined him closely.

As the Head of “Moon’s Shadow”, Wei Jin’s imposing manner was strong. However, carrying a smile, Ren Shaotian simply stared calmly back, meeting the other’s gaze, unmoved. Wei Jin said insipidly, “When you jumped, you weren’t taking the young master into consideration.”

“No,” Ren Shaotian refuted, “It’s because you were there that I jumped.”

Wei Jin said, “You didn’t think of the possibility that an even more dangerous situation could occur after you jumped in and that I wouldn’t be able to handle it by myself?”

This time, Ren Shaotian fell silent.

Wei Jin added some more weight to his tone, “The Pavilion Master wanted you to follow the young master in order to protect the young master from harm, not to protect Sir Xiao. You lost control today, right?”

Ren Shaotian was at a loss for words.

Wei Jin said, “Give me a reason.”

Ren Shaotian twisted his mouth and was just about to speak when he saw his young master come out.

“Done, let’s go back…” Ding Xilai spoke and then paused.

Wei Jin’s expression was far too grave, and even as careless a person as Ding Xilai was able to perceive that there was something wrong about the atmosphere between these two. He asked, “What is it?”

Wei Jin simply said the truth outright, “This subordinate was asking him why he jumped into the river.”

“Naturally it was for the sake of saving Sir Xiao.” Ding Xilai straightened, hands behind his back, and insipidly said, “Is this something that still needs to be asked? Brother Wei, what Shaotian did today was especially beautiful. If it wasn’t for him, then Sir Xiao might have been in danger.”

Wei Jin said, “But at the time, the young master was still on the boat.”

Ding Xilai said, “Didn’t I still have you, Brother Wei?”

Wei Jin fell silent for a moment, feeling a sense of deja vu abounding in this conversation. He then steadied his patience and explained once again about Ren Shaotian’s severe recklessness. Ding Xilai fell silent, taking a while to react, before saying, “I understand now!”

The two simultaneously looked at him.

Wei Jin asked, “What did the young master understand?”

“I remembered that, last time when Sir Xiao went missing, Shaotin was also extremely worried.” Ding Xilai looked at Ren Shaotian, and seemingly having no qualm at all about Wei Jin’s presence, he quickly threw aside his calm and grave image in order to grab Ren Shaotian’s hands with his own. “Shaotian, speak the truth then. Have you fallen for Sir Xiao?”

Ren Shaotian, “…”

Wei Jin, “…”

Ding Xilai looked left and right before pulling Ren Shaotian to fast walk to the stairs nearby and squatted down. He patted the other’s arm and said, sighing, “Sir Xiao is together with Wenren Heng right now, and you’re unlikely to win if you fight with Wenren Heng over this person. I know you’re probably finding this difficult to take, so if you have anything in your heart that you want to talk about, feel free to tell me, your young master. Do you want to go drinking? I can go with you.”

Ren Shaotian, “…”

Wei Jin, “…”

Ding Xilai felt quite a bit of pity and once again reached out a hand to pat Ren Shaotian’s arm. He advised, “I understand. With the way Sir Xiao is, that person is really capable of moving people’s hearts. Didn’t you see that even Wei Jiangyue has fallen? But there’s plenty of other fish in the sea, ah, Shaotian…”

Shaotian couldn’t endure it anymore, “Young master, I’m not…”

“There’s no need to speak. I understand.” Ding Xilai said, in deep remorse, “Let’s go, we’ll go drinking.”

Ren Shaotian twisted his lips. “I haven’t fallen for him.”

Ding Xilai said, “Then why did you jump into the river?”

Ren Shaotian fell silent for a moment before saying three words, “I don’t know.”

Ding Xilai said, “See? It looks to me like you really have fallen for him! Or else why would you jump into the river? Because you couldn’t restrain your emotions! Isn’t that right?”

Ren Shaotian, “…”

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[1] 煙雲蝴蝶裙 lit. cloudy mist/smoke butterfly dress. Apparently a specific robe/dress/skirt thing from ancient times. No English equivalent so I tried my best to work out a halfway understandable name. Open to better suggestions though!

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I feel like Ding Xilai is always convinced that someone is in love with someone else, haha. What does everyone else think? Does Ren Shaotian really love Ye You but is just being completely dense about it? Or is it something else?

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