Chapter 15

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[vibrates with excitement]

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Because there have been continuously no progress in the past few days, Elder Miao became incessantly worried, so he was extremely conscientious regarding the matter of infiltrating Dingtian Academy, and his expression was especially grave.

The other three considered his expression, remembered this person’s way of doing things, and thought that he would come up with a “recite poetry to a group of scholars and get welcomed in as an esteemed personage” kind of method. And they had already prepared a “you haven’t even fucking memorized all of Sanzi Jing[1], don’t even think of reciting poetry” to persuade him otherwise. Who could have guessed that he wouldn’t say a word, only coldly stare at the Academy’s gates.

They were suddenly anxious. “How do you want to do this?”

Elder Miao coldly laughed, and his laugh had the manner of one looking down from up high. He said, “Once I let out my poisonous insects, how could a mere Dingtian Academy stop me?”

Hearing those kind of words was really too intense!

The group immediately moved and covered his mouth before dragging him away to a side corner.

Elder Miao, “…”

Following that, they started tackling the problem of, “We can’t cause too big a disturbance,” and “The poisonous insects that I’ve set will definitely not be discovered,” eventually turning into an intense fight. After, some brought up the fact that the space Dingtian Academy occupied was too big, so if they couldn’t find the way and ended up getting lost, then they might be taken as suspicious people and captured. Only with this did they finally come to an agreement to wait outside.

Elder Miao said, “I’ll pretend to be a peddler carrying his wares and try getting close for a bit.”

Now that was a decent idea! These people were truly moved this time. They were about to give some words of praise when they heard him propose selling flowers and unconsciously asked, “You’re selling?”

Elder Miao nodded. “I can.”

The group collectively turned to look at each other. Feeling somewhat apprehensive, they decided to draw lots. In the end, it was Elder Baili who was honored with victory. And so, by those wicked colleagues of his, he had his appearance changed, painted with crimson rouge, and even stuck into a tattered skirt, before being sent on his nervous way.

Now that he was looking at this young sir up close, he was more and more certain that this was the Sect Master. His heart was beating so fast that he had practically forgotten all that he wanted to say.

Ye You knew how to be polite and said, “Not buying.”

This voice, it’s really the Sect Master who’d been missing for several months!

Sect Master, we’ve missed you so much! Elder Baili was instantly incredibly moved, with a thick feeling of heartache bubbling up. What happened to leave the Sect Master’s face so bandaged? What happened for him to have the scent of Hundred-Grass Dew on his body? Was he actually injured or simply trying to pull the wool over other people’s eyes? Please don’t actually be injured! Their Sect Master was so incredible, how could he possibly be injured!

After Ye You finished speaking, he and his Senior Brother walked past the peddler. But after two steps, the faint impression behind him remained, and so he couldn’t help but turn back and look. Seeing the other’s eyes turning red while staring at him, Ye You secretly thought that this kind of livelihood was probably not easy, and feeling his heart going soft, he went back. “I’ll buy it all. Give them to me, then.”

Elder Baili distractedly handed the basket over to him and unconsciously responded, not remembering to cover up his voice, resulting in an emotional, masculine howl of, “You’re such a good person, young sir!”

Ye You, “…”

Wenren Heng, “…”

Instantly regretful, Elder Baili was afraid that he’d be in for a spanking if his identity being revealed delayed the Sect Master’s plans and so hastily covered his face shyly. Not daring to even ask for money, in one move, he twisted his waist and took a small step, running away as fast as possible.

Ye You, “…”

Wenren Heng, “…”

The stone bridge was deathly quiet for a moment. Wenren Heng motioned his subordinates to go stop that person and then his eyes ended up on the flower basket at practically the same time as his Junior Brother. Sensing one another’s movements, they raised their heads, their lines of sight colliding.

Ye You gave a laugh, taking a flower and handing it over. “Senior Brother likes flowers? Then I’ll gift you one.”

Wenren Heng accepted it and gave him a look. “Let’s go back.”

Ye You said, “All right.”

Wenren Heng pinched the flower and softly sniffed it, guessing that the man just now was probably one of the Demonic Sect’s. But before they have confirmed his Junior Brother’s identity, they probably wouldn’t randomly place things for him, so that basket probably won’t have anything strange inside. Ye You was at this moment thinking that it was very possible that that man knew him. When they returned to the Wang family residence, he turned the basket inside out but didn’t find anything strange about it and secretly wondered if the other party simply wanted to get close for a bit. Thus, after he had gathered all the flowers into a pile, he gave them all to his Senior Brother.

When he was looking through the basket, he was sitting right by his Senior Brother’s side, not hiding anything from Wenren Heng. This put Wenren Heng in an extremely good mood, and he asked, “What?”

Ye You said, “Gifts for you.”

Wenren Heng looked at him, and the tenderness in his eyes seemed like it wanted to wrap him up layer by layer. “Senior Brother is truly blessed.”

Ye You naturally could hear the additional layer of meaning. He said, “In any case, as Senior Brother said before, anything I want to know, you’ll tell me, so naturally I trust you.”

Wenren Heng nodded.

Ye You immediately didn’t bother with courtesies. “Who was that person just now? Did Senior Brother recognize him?”

“He was disguised, so even I couldn’t tell, but I’ve already sent people after him. Let’s wait until he’s brought back, then we’ll see,” Wenren Heng said. “But I have one thing I want to say in advance. That person probably knows you, and since we’ve been separated for ten years, I most likely won’t recognize the friends you’ve made.”

Ye You didn’t force the issue, simply making a sound in acknowledgement.

Not very long later, the scarred man returned and told his Sect Master that they weren’t able to capture the person.

He couldn’t help but be apprehensive. Although that “aunt” looked strange, their martial arts was frightfully strong. Ever since he joined Shuangji Sect and started following the Sect Master, he had been counted amongst the experts of Jianghu. But when he went up against that person, after not even two moves, the other party had run away.

Wenren Heng had already suspected that the people who came were the Elders of the Demonic Sect, and upon hearing this, he knew he’d guessed correctly. He inwardly thought that if they were an Elder, then his subordinates would inevitably be unable to catch them.

Those Elders of his Junior Brother were each one stronger than the last, though all of them had some issues with their personalities, so it was probably only his Junior Brother who could restrain them. But since one already came, then even if the others weren’t nearby, they would definitely also hurry over in the next few days. Just in time for him to get them to check what exactly is the issue with his Junior Brother’s internal energy, and saving him the trip to find them himself. It’s only that they might take the person back with them that he felt so reluctant.

What if he thought of a way to kick them out when they’ve finished examining him?

He dropped his head to look at the flower his Junior Brother gifted and the corners of his mouth rose. He leisurely lifted his hand and tidied the delicate leaves.

 

Those Elders whom Wenren Heng had in his sights had already returned to their temporary lodgings. Not even caring to shed his makeup, bearing heaps of red on his cheeks, Elder Baili said, “No mistake, that’s definitely the Sect Master!”

The group took a deep breath, opening and closing their hands in excitement; they finally found their Sect Master!

Only heaven knows how worried they were this whole way, afraid that their incredible and beautiful Sect Master had truly fallen prey to a villain and been locked into a small, dark room or sold to the Imperial Palace after being castrated. Now that they’ve found him, everything was good again.

Elder Miao asked, “Those bandages on his face, did he get injured?”

Elder Baili said, “It’s not clear, but his body has the smell of Hundred-Grass Dew. Hopefully it’s not injuries… But, really, what is the Sect Master thinking?”

Elder Mei used the hand sporting red fingernails to brush through her hair. Mouth quirking, she said, “Now, following this, we should think about how to deal with Wenren Heng.”

The others, “…”

Why suddenly so savage!

“Why are you suddenly all looking at me like that? Where did your thoughts go?” Elder Mei said, “I’m talking about slipping by Wenren Heng and privately meeting with the Sect Master. Think about the brocade bag that the Sect Master left behind. I don’t think he’d take the initiative to come out himself, so we need to manufacture an opportunity.”

The moment it’s brought up, the group immediately opened up that brocade bag. Within it was only a few sentences. The first one was that if they found him, don’t act as if they know him, simply secretly follow behind.

“Perhaps he’s assumed a new identity right now,” Elder Mei said, “He said he has something to do, but I still feel uneasy, so it’s best to ask properly after all.”

“Then how do we slip by Wenren Heng?”

Elder Miao said, “Kidnap his subordinates?”

“…He’s that terrifying. If he investigates, then won’t we be exposed?”

“Then what do we do?”

“Wait a moment. Let’s put this matter to the side for now. Look at what the Sect Master wrote. The first two things are still easy to accomplish, but what does the third mean? Which of you dares to do such a thing? I certainly don’t.”

The guest room turned quiet. The group collectively looked, but not a single one opened their mouth. It was clear that no one dared. But perhaps the Sect Master predicted this situation would happen, so he wrote four big words underneath this sentence, even using cinnabar, making it look almost like blood: You. Must. Do. It.

Help! They’d rather the Sect Master let them commit suicide than do this thing!

The group sunk into silence. As one, they turned to look at the one with the strongest spiritual energy, Elder Mei.

Elder Mei stiffened. With lips turned down, from her sleeves, she pulled out a handkerchief to dab at her eyes. “With the way I brought you all up, I didn’t expect that when things became difficult, this crowd of men would make this feeble woman do this kind of work! I really misjudged all of you! I don’t want to live anymore!”

She suddenly stood up and, clutching the handkerchief, with exaggerated crying sounds[2], ran away.

The others, “…”

 

The city of Suzhou was still lively.

Since Elder Wang had dragged himself outside to clear his name, there had been no further movements from the poisoner, and more and more people started believing in Elder Wang’s innocence, believing that the poisoner had already slipped away. But for now, they[3] hadn’t left; every major character still remained. They wanted to wait for an explanation, and they also knew that a few days ago those people suddenly left for a trip to Dingtian Academy, which gave off the scent that something was about to happen. So they continued to wait.

In these past few days, Dingtian Academy was once again noisy because of thieves. Academy Master Ge calmly checked that things hadn’t been lost and even hummed a small tune as he left the room. There was not a trace of his fretful appearance from a few days prior, leaving his disciples extremely baffled.

The people at the Wang family residence also weren’t idle.

The Alliance Leader and Manor Lord Wei got together to discuss what explanation to give the Wang family and how to resolve this matter. Although they were all suspicious, the only reason was that they all had the ability, and there were many other people in Jianghu who met these requirements, not all of whom had come to the Wang family residence. So it was currently still difficult to determine who was the actual culprit.

Finally, it was still the Wang family head who said, “Then I’ll also go this time. No matter who the poisoner is, they’ll definitely follow along with everyone.”

The Alliance Leader naturally agreed.

Seeing that this discussion was finished, Wenren Heng asked, “How has Elder Wang been recently?”

The Wang family head said, “Already greatly recovered.”

Wenren Heng nodded. When his Junior Brother went accordingly as per usual to Miracle Doctor Ji’s place, Wenren Heng asked about when exactly the poison would be completely cleared from Elder Wang’s body.

Miracle Doctor Ji gave him a look. “There’s no use thinking about it. There’s still some days left to go. By that time, you’ll have already left.”

Wenren Heng’s face didn’t change. “Then after that, does elder have some other obligations?”

Miracle Doctor Ji stroked his beard. Looking at Ye You, he still wanted to find out what exactly happened to the other and said, “None. After, I’ll come find you two. Before that, I’ll write a letter to my disciple and have him follow you. Will that ease your worries?”

Wenren Heng praised, “If it’s elder’s beloved disciple, then of course we’ll be at ease.”

The results of Miracle Doctor Ji taking Ye You’s pulse were the same as the previous times, still no issues. The two followed along the route they had taken to get there, along a winding passageway. Looking at the color of the sky, Ye You said, “Senior Brother, last time I asked Miracle Doctor Ji if I could drink wine, and he said I could.”

Wenren Heng made a sound in acknowledgement.

After the flower-buying incident, he knew that his Junior Brother had wanted to contact those people and had held his temper, waiting for a few days, until now, finally unable to sit still anymore.

He asked, “Do you want to drink wine?”

Ye You didn’t want him to say, “Senior Brother will accompany you to drink,” and so said, with a smiling face, “Yes, I’m planning on going to a male brothel[4] to drink wine. I’m not coming back tonight, so Senior Brother shouldn’t wait up for me and instead should go to sleep early.”

Wenren Heng, “…”

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[1] 《三字經》Classic Chinese text. Used to be the book to teach to children, and for the children to recite passages from. They don’t really require complete memorization now, but back in the day, every child could probably recite this book cover to cover.

[2] The text uses 嚶嚶嚶 which is essentially an onomatopoeia for obviously fake crying lmao. Couldn’t really think of an English equivalent.

[3] Since I mentioned pronouns last chapter, I just wanted to point out that 他們 (“they”) is actually used here. It’s ambiguous right now who “they” actually refers to here.

[4] Ye You uses 小倌館 here, which specifically refers to a brothel for male sex workers. Wikipedia informs me that these types of places are clunkily referred to as “male brothels”, so blame the English language for this, not me. <del>Well, OK, you can blame me for mistranslating this initially, I guess.</del>

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OK, so it’s kind of a blink and you’ll miss it detail, but this chapter reveals that there’s a total of four Demonic Sect Elders hanging around <del>stalking</del> looking for Ye You. So far, three of the elders have been named: Elder Miao, Elder Mei, and Elder Baili (not to be confused with Elder Bai, who was left back on the mountain in chapter 1 because he moved too slow).

Also, just a heads up that updates might (or might not) slow for a bit since I have some family members over from Taiwan visiting.\n

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