Chapter 43

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In which the scarred man really needs to be compensated more for his efforts.

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The private room’s door was open, so a man’s voice could clearly be heard from within, shouting himself hoarse, “What coming into the wrong room bullshit! All of you definitely did it on purpose, you little bastards!”

“Who are you cursing? Even my old man has never cursed at me like this. We’ve already compensated you but you still want…” Halfway through this sentence, Ding Xilai stiffened and changed his words, resuming his previous solemn tone before insipidly saying, “Yes, this matter certainly is our fault. Not being able to get it up because of other people, anyone would be displeased. I understand you.”

“Hahahahahaha…” The Junior Sect Leaders couldn’t stand it anymore, and they suddenly erupted in laughter.

“Shut up! What’s so funny about this!” The man flew into a humiliated rage and continued roaring, “It’s all because I was disturbed by all of you!”

“All right, all right, Uncle, if saying it like this will make you feel better, then, sure, let’s take it as our fault for disturbing you,” the Junior Alliance Leader interrupted with these words, and then he turned the conversation around, “But I know a pretty good doctor. You[1] really don’t want to get it checked out?”

“Hahahahahaha…” The Junior Sect Masters once again laughed themselves into a heap.

The man’s voice suddenly rose by another volume, and he seemed angry enough to start spitting blood. “Who are you calling ‘Uncle’! I’m not that old!”

The Junior Alliance Leader said in astonishment, “Really? But you look like it.”

“Nonsense, all of you little…”

After listening to these words, Ye You looked inquiringly at the scarred man.

The scarred man gave a bitter smile and simply explained, “They asked the entertainers if this place had any frequent guests, strange people, or peculiar incidents. From someone, they learned that there was a guest who would come here every month on the fifteenth. Since today was coincidentally the fifteenth, and they thought this suspicious, they decided to steal close to that person’s room. But in the end they made some noise and gave that person a fright, so it ended up in this argument.”

“Hm, not bad.” Ye You let out a laugh, and his tone seemed to carry a bit of contemplation.

It was because of this ruckus that those outside didn’t hear the movements within this room.

The scarred man was flabbergasted. “Not bad?”

Ye You laughed and said, “Young people should be enthusiastic, so even if they did something wrong, they still deserve to be given a ‘not bad’, isn’t that right?”

The scarred man felt that Young Master Xiao had a different sort of meaning, but even if he spoke now, it’d be useless, especially since the two parties had already started fighting. Right now, there was an even more important matter to take care of. He was currently carrying the idea that, “I’d rather offend the great Sect Master Ye rather than let our Sect Master be broken-hearted,” and was preparing to enter and take this person away.

He looked at that upsetting lead entertainer and found a reasonable excuse, “Young Master Xiao, if we want to redeem this entertainer, the price will definitely be high. We didn’t bring much money when we left, so why not first let him wait here while we return to Shaolin and have the Sect Master send people to take him back.”

Ye You said, “Don’t you know that this lead entertainer is very special? He sells only his art, not his body. If, in the future, he met someone he wanted to go with, then he’d go with them without needing a single coin. Don’t worry, we won’t need to spend money.”

The scarred man, “…”

Where on earth would you ever find so generous a boss!

At this time, Wei Jiangyue had also walked inside.

He had been afraid of seeing something he shouldn’t be seeing, so he had been standing hesitantly near the doorway all this while. It was only when he saw that the man from Shuangji Sect still hadn’t come out that he finally couldn’t take it anymore and went inside to investigate. He looked at the person on the ground and asked, “What happened?”

Ye You played down the situation and gave the other the same answer. He then also joyfully said that this lead entertainer had decided to accompany him.

Just as Wei Jiangyue had the thought that “Sir Xiao perhaps had some other goal”, it was immediately dispelled. He knitted his brows and stared at the unconscious Fuping, not knowing what it was about this person that had interested Sir Xiao.

Without paying the least bit attention to the other’s examination, Ye You pulled up the person on the ground and carried him over to the soft couch on the side, even helping him straighten out his hair. The scarred man felt his heart turning cold as he watched this.

At this time, the Ding Xilai outside had finally used up all of his patience, and he said, simply, “Shaotian.”

Ren Shaotian laughed and lightly poked a red pillar nearby. His entire finger went straight in, as if he was simply poking tofu.

That man, “…”

With a face full of righteousness, Ding Xilai said, “Uncle, you see that we’ve already compensated you already. And now since the time is quite late already, why not go to bed a bit earlier?”

That man looked at the pillar and, with one last breath of arrogance, resentfully walked away.

The Junior Sect Masters saw that Sir Xiao’s private room was open and so walked over. Just now, the boss had been busy trying to stop the fight, and upon thinking of his lead entertainer, he also hurriedly followed them into the room. When he immediately saw the unconscious Fuping, his expression changed slightly. “What happened to him?”

Ye You carried a smile on his face and, with great patience, repeated his words a third time.

The boss said, startled, “How could this be?”

Ye You said, “Whether it is or not, you can clearly just ask him.”

The boss choked, and internally thinking that this made sense, he said, “Then why don’t all of you return to your rooms.”

Ye You said, “No need. I’ve taken a liking to this room, so I’ll just sleep here for tonight.”

The boss hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he didn’t object and instructed people to bring over a bed before leaving. Ye You waved his hand at the remaining people, indicating that they could also leave.

There was one Junior Sect Master who couldn’t help but say, “We didn’t find out anything useful. Does Sir Xiao have any ideas?”

Ye You was silent for a moment before indistinctly letting out a sigh and saying, “Then go and search Fuping’s room and see if there’s any hidden rooms, hidden paths, and so on in there.”

Everyone was startled.

The scarred man saw a trace of hope. “Young Master Xiao thinks there’s a problem with him?”

“No, I’m just thinking that in this male brothel, only Fuping’s situation is special. Just now, he so happily agreed to go with me, so I don’t know if it’s that he wants to use me to infiltrate Shaolin.” Ye You paused and then softly said, “Since my martial arts was lost, I’ve been wanting to find a person to spend my days with quietly and steadily, and now that I’ve finally met someone I like with much difficulty. But he didn’t lie to me.”

As soon as everyone heard, all of them no longer really felt like searching.

The scarred man grimly decided to go take a good look, even thinking that he might as well dig a secret passage himself in order to frame Fuping.

“You should go. There’s no need to worry about me. Under the righteous causes of Jianghu, what does passionate love matter.” Ye You spoke very earnestly, and in the end, he implored, “If he really has a problem, the boss probably also isn’t clean. When you search, don’t let the boss know. With all of you and this one boss, you should know how to keep an eye on him, right?”

Everyone nodded and then turned and left. The scarred man naturally also followed along. As he was leaving, he called for the Shuangji Sect members to come and instructed them to guard Young Master Xiao carefully so as to not let any accidents happen. Those people said a word of, “Understood,” and were originally planning on entering the room but was then kicked out by Young Master Xiao with a few sentences. So the only thing they could do was keep their ears open and stand outside at the door.

The room was once again quiet. Ye You pushed aside Fuping’s long hair and shot a glance at the two shallow thumbprints on his neck. Pulling out the Hundred-Grass Dew, Ye You applied a layer and thought that the marks could probably disappear overnight.

He returned to his seat, tidying up his thoughts as he waited for news. When he had drunk his third cup, the scarred man returned to report back, full of joy and expectation.

Ye You asked in a low voice, “So there’s a problem?”

Seeing Young Master Xiao’s bearing, the scarred man tried to let his tone appear somewhat perplexed and said, “Yes, there’s a secret passage. Sir Ding and the others originally wanted to discuss how to use it, but they were stopped by Ren Shaotian and them.”

Ye You was not in the least bit surprised.

His people had already been watching Li Hua for a long time, and he had known that Li Hua had a residence in Xiangxing City. Every once in a while, she’d come for a visit, so it was very possible that the residence had a secret passage. The only thing was that it was unclear where it lead to. That residence was located in the east of the city, while the male brothel was located in the west; the distance between them was too large. His people had certainly heard the lead entertainer’s name before, but after inquiring, they learned that he had some kind of familial relationship with the boss, so they had never thought to look in this location.

What’s more, the fact that the person sent by the white piece to oversee Bodhi Prison was a male entertainer was truly something that left people somewhat skeptical. It was also only because he had heard what Ding Xilai said that he had finally become conscious of this situation and then brought people to come here.

He closed his eyes. “Yes, I know.”

The scarred man said, “Then him…”

“Let’s treat it as beating them at their own game,” Ye You said, “Since he wants to go to Shaolin, I’ll take him there. It’d be fine if we then just tie him up.”

The scarred man finally felt as if he had some peace of mind and advised, “Young Master Xiao should sleep earlier.”

Ye You said, “You should go. I want to stay here and accompany him.”

What was so good about this entertainer? How could he possibly be better than our Sect Master?

The scarred man completely didn’t understand, but he still calmly stayed on the side as a guard, only changing shifts when dawn was about to break. He prepared to rest for a while, so as to hurry on the road during the day.

As usual, Ye You made the person guard outside the room. He walked over to sit on the soft couch and then picked up a strand of Fuping’s hair to play with before saying, “If you still won’t wake up, I’m no longer going to be so polite.”

Fuping opened his eyes. “What did you feed me?”

“Do I still need to say it? Of course it was poison. If you don’t eat the antidote within three days, you’ll die.” Ye You amiably asked, “Like this, every time you use your internal energy, don’t you feel a sharp pain in your stomach that’s hard to endure?”

Fuping didn’t speak.

When he awoke, the reason why he didn’t raise his voice to call for help was that he had felt that something wasn’t quite right with his body. Thus, he didn’t dare to act rashly. He asked, “What do you want to do?”

Ye You said, “I’m inviting you to Shaolin. Abbot Ciyuan has always treated people quite well, so he most likely won’t want your life.”

Fuping stared at him. “What about the antidote?”

Ye You said, “In a while, tell your boss that you’re willing to leave with me. When we leave the city, I’ll give it to you. It’s a deal.”

Fuping said, “How can I believe you?”

Ye You laughed. He put down the other’s hair and rather tenderly stroked the other’s face. “Darling, right now you don’t have the right to choose anything, so the only thing you can do is believe me.”

Fuping fell silent.

Ye You unsealed his acupoint and then threw him aside, uncaring.

 

The next morning, Ding Xilai’s party saw the lead entertainer look at the boss and say that he had fallen in love with Sir Xiao, that he believed that Sir Xiao was his predestined love, and that he forever wanted to follow the other to the ends of the earth, to live out their lives together happily.

The boss opened and closed his mouth but didn’t try to stop the other. “Then that’s good.”

From yesterday night’s events, Ding Xilai and the others knew that Fuping was just using Sir Xiao, but for the sake of the bigger picture, they didn’t expose him. The only thing they could do was to put on a mask of ignorance while they prepared to bring Fuping to Shaolin. Anyway, this person was the white piece’s subordinate, so it still counted as them having done a great service.

But… They couldn’t help but look at Sir Xiao, and their gazes carried a certain amount of sympathy.

Ye You calmly looked at Fuping, his gaze complex, and there was even some faint traces of anguish.

Everyone immediately felt their hearts ache for him and, one after the other, motioned for him to get on the carriage first.

Ye You said, “No need. I’ll sit in the same carriage as him.”

Ah, no, how painful could that be!

Everyone couldn’t help but try and advise him otherwise, but Ye You had already made his decision. Disregarding their attempts at obstruction, he climbed onto the carriage that the boss had prepared for Fuping.

Fuping coldly and indifferently looked at him. “What did you say to them?”

Ye You laughed and asked, “Why don’t you guess?”

Fuping didn’t care to pay the other any more attention and decided simply to turn away. It was only when the carriage had left the city did he once again look at this person. Ye You understood and took out a medicinal pill for him. Fuping hesitated for only a short moment before eating it. After a while, having found that he indeed felt better, he asked, “Since you exposed yourself yesterday, you aren’t afraid that my people have already sent that information back to Shaolin?”

Ye You gave a slight smile and didn’t reply.

The people at Shaolin Temple were all of the same mind to capture the white piece, and those Sect Masters were all mutually watching each other. The white piece was blocked from every direction and naturally wouldn’t dare to receive information carelessly. Meanwhile, the commander in Xiangxing City had been captured, so they were currently a group without a leader. For now, they most likely wouldn’t act recklessly without thought. What’s more, the city gates were already closed last night, so even if they wanted to hand over information to the outside, the only thing they could do was send a letter via pigeon. But he also had many subordinates within Xiangxing City, and they definitely wouldn’t allow a single pigeon to escape.

The most important thing was that Fuping said himself this morning that he wanted to leave with them. The boss would definitely think that Fuping wanted to infiltrate Shaolin so was even less likely to rush to act.

Fuping waited for a long while but didn’t receive a reply. He shot several glances at the other before changing the way he asked, “Since you captured me back, aren’t you afraid that I’ll reveal that you’re the black piece? You…”

Ye You suddenly reached out a hand and hit his acupoint. Fuping was again unable to avoid it this time, and knowing that it was due to this person’s martial arts being far too high, he couldn’t help but close his mouth, wanting to know what this person wanted to do. Ye You once again smiled at him and then pulled him into an embrace, making to take off his clothes.

Fuping stared, eyes wide.

“No need to be so tense,” Ye You said, “I’m just checking if you’re keeping anything useful on your person. If I’m able to pull out a jade pendant, then it’d be just the thing to take to draw out Li Hua. She’s far easier to trick than you.”

“…” If Fuping was able to move, then he’d definitely be struggling for his life right now.

When the two spoke, they both used their internal energy to suppress their voices, so the scarred man sitting outside wasn’t able to hear anything at all.

He simply felt that it was too quiet and couldn’t help but turn back to open the window curtains and secretly take a peek. Upon seeing Sir Xiao holding this person in an embrace, he immediately felt aggrieved.

Ye You shot a glance outside.

The scarred man bitterly let go of the curtains.

At the same time, the boss found a symbol calling for help on Fuping’s qin. His expression changed, and at once, he sent people in pursuit, ordering them to save and bring back Fuping at any cost.

Those shadows immediately made like the wind and, from the direction where the Junior Sect Masters had left, followed in pursuit.

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[1] 您 Polite ‘you’ here. And, no, he doesn’t use this polite ‘you’ anywhere else, so this comes off as extra sarcastic lmao.

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Chapter 45 is where it gets really interesting, and chapter 47 is where I’m aiming for right now, so… fingers crossed that I can keep this pace. Since I’m speeding through translating and editing right now, if anyone notices any errors, as always, feel free to point them out!

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