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Chapter 121 Stone Bowl Bibimbap (d)
Translated by Gumihou
Edited by Gumihou
Beyond the sea of flowering shrubs and trees was a large fake mountain.
This fake mountain was so large that calling it a fake mountain range would not be an exaggeration. Shiyu had already scanned her eyes across the flower beds and did not see even a shadow of Xiao Qi’s person. Finally, she got out of the pavilion and began to look around the fake mountain range.
“Xiao Qi,” she called. Xiao Qi should not have gone far, but something made Shiyu uneasy enough to leave the pavilion to look for her sister. [1] The rest of the people at the pavilion did not seem anxious, they were sure that Xiao Qi could take care of herself.
However, being from the modern world and still seeing Xiao Qi as a tiny kid, she could not help but worry.
“Xiao Qi!”
A giggle answered her.
Shiyu whipped around but saw no little girl.
“Xiao Qi?”
“Up here, sister. I knew you couldn’t find me if I’m up here.”
Shiyu finally looked up. Her beloved little sister was perched on top of the fake mountain range, grinning mischievously at her.
A sigh of relief escaped her. The pressure in her chest finally loosened. In fact, Shiyu’s worries were not unfounded. If anyone wanted to deal with her little group, Xiao Qi would be their most vulnerable point. Despite being a prodigy, she was still the weakest amongst them. Luckily, her ‘disappearance’ this time was merely the impulse of a naughty little child.
“You scared me to death!” Shiyu scolded. “Don’t run around like this anymore, you hear? Especially in this kind of place. Jump down, I’ll catch you.” She must warn Xiao Qi about the potential dangers of places like the Imperial Palace where intrigue lurks behind every shadow.
She was so busy [2] reprimanding Xiao Qi and telling her about all the dangers in this place that they accidentally took a wrong turn and it wasn’t until the scenery changed that Shiyu finally noticed they were no longer making their way to the lakeside pavilion. A little embarrassed by her oversight, Shiyu steered Xiao Qi around and retraced their footsteps. They were making their way back in silence, Shiyu in embarrassment and Xiao Qi slightly abashed, when broken bits of conversation floated to their ears.
“…indeed, we must beg Esteemed Gentleman Wang to give face on this matter. However, we have no idea what gift is suitable…” the voice sounded rather distressed.
Something made Shiyu slowed their pace.
“It’s fine to just gift something according to Esteemed Gentleman Wong’s taste…” the voice of this second person sounded very measured and confident.
“Esteemed Gentleman Wang has no love for either gold, silver or jade. The precious herbs that could catch his eye are too expensive for us. I dare not gift something that would dirty his presence…”
“Esteemed Gentleman Wang has one other special interest. This one should not be particularly difficult or expensive to obtain,” said the confident voice. [3] “Let me give Brother Zhao a hint. There’s a rather special person attending the Imperial College, a very talented little prepubescent girl…”
Shiyu’s feet stopped.
“…only 10 years old, but her Cultivation is extraordinary…”
Shiyu turned her face towards the voices.
“…you should understand that Esteemed Gentleman Wang is the type who would appreciate this kind of gift best.”
[6] “You mean…”
[6] “By gifting this person to his bed, wouldn’t all your problem… disappear?”
Shiyu gritted her teeth and narrowed her eyes. She followed the sound of voices and found a small group of men seated on the second floor of a double-storey pavilion. Two of them were now saluting one with cupped hands.
“Brother Yang’s idea is not bad. However, those old masters from the Imperial College kept short leashes on their tempers. Would this not cause trouble?”
“So long as ‘Neither Gods nor Ghost Knows’ [4]. surely that’s not a problem? As I understand it, that child has no background. Furthermore, the Imperial Capital is such a large place that a number of people disappeared every year. So a child disappeared, what of it? Who could guarantee that the child had not merely… ran away? Don’t you agree?”
At this, the three of them laughed out loud.
That’s right. A child has the lowest rate of wariness and they tended to be a little naughty. It would not be difficult to lure a child away with the promise of food or toys.
Hidden under the flowering branches of a tree, Shiyu clenched her hand. Her whole body was shaking with anger. If reason was not holding her back, she would have leapt to the second floor and started chopping up those beasts into pieces.
Xiao Qi, sensing her sister’s anger, hugged her waist tightly.
After giving the people in the pavilion one last glare, Shiyu picked Xiao Qi up and ran off. She ran almost blindly through the garden and soon found herself by the lakeside. By following the lake, she eventually located the pavilion where Lin Fan and the rest were seated together.
When they saw her return, everyone was curious why it took her so long to come back. However, the moment they caught sight of her serious face, they knew something must have happened.
“What is it?” as one, they all stood up.
Shiyu stuffed Xiao Qi into Lao Er’s arms and said, “You wait here, I’ll be back soon.” After that, she ran off again.
Her sudden departure left everyone speechless.
Everyone, “… …”
[5] Feng Luo, “What the- come back here and explain yourself!!”
[5] Well, almost everyone.
[5] Feng Luo turned his attention to the only other person who could tell them what had happened. “Well? Just what made your sister so angry?”
Xiao Qi stared back at Feng Luo and the collection of silent, but manacing, calabashes. She was really not sure why her sister was so angry. She scratched her head and finally said, “Elder Brother Feng Luo, what is the meaning of [6] ‘gifting someone to their bed’?”
The silent calabashes immediately bristled with anger.
“Fxck!” as though receiving the emotions from the rest, Feng Luo exploded into passionate curses. “Who is the fxcking fxcker who said this motherfxcking thing?!”
Lao Er straightened up. Lin Fan snarled. Xuan Yin, recalling the scenes of her past, descended into deep gloom as she clenched her fist. Her solemn face taking on a deadly beauty. As for Qing Chen, well, he was long gone, having disappeared after Shiyu.
Only Wen Xian was a little slow on the uptake. Even so, the sight of everyone’s angry faces was enough to convince him that something Very Bad had happened.
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Seeing that his goal had been achieved, the man with the confident voice straightened his sleeves, bid the other party success in their endeavour and waved good-bye to the grateful duo as they scuttled away from the double-storey pavilion.
[7] He settled down in his chair to enjoy the scenery. I’ve already received my reward, so whether the two actually succeeded in their mission has nothing to do with me. Moreover, I am just the messenger.
Once the other two people were out of sight, he made to leave the pavilion. He still had to schmooze and make more connections with other important people here. After all, only by making connections and being useful to those above him could he climb the slippery pole of social elevation.
Humming a little tune, he left the pavilion and was about to pass a particularly impressive looking fake mountain when a hand covered his mouth and his choked scream was cut off by a swift strike to the back of his head.
When he next blinked awake, he found that he had been stuffed inside a small hole inside a particularly large fake mountain. A young girl glared at him, next to her a black cat blinked lazily at him.
“Who are you?” the man was very displeased. However, his displeasure soon turned into shock when the girl pressed a knife against his throat.
“I do the asking here,” Shiyu was so angry that her eyes nearly spat fire. “I heard your entire conversation at the pavilion. I have only one question for you. Who is the person behind you?”
The man paled. He tried to resist, but he soon found that his entire person had been suppressed by his opponent. Shock transformed into fear and he stammered, “N-no one…”
“Clearly you won’t shed tears until the coffin is before you!” Shiyu grabbed his arm and twisted. There was an ominous crack and the man shrieked with pain.
“Augh!!”
“Speak, who was it?” Shiyu glared at him. She has no mercy for someone who would help perpetuate evil!
“Alright, alright, I- I’ll speak!” the man was sweating now, his face pale and contorted with pain. “A-a steward from the Xue Clan came looking for me. All they said was to bring this girl to that person’s attention. That’s all! I don’t know about the rest. Please, please let me go. I beg you…”
At the words ‘Xue Clan’, the fire in Shiyu’s heart flared up.
That crazy motherfxcker! To think that she’d even involve a child!
The man was still babbling for mercy, so Shiyu cut off his arm. Shocking him into silence.
“When cutting grass, you must also get rid of the roots,” Qing Chen’s cool voice sounded from behind Shiyu. Shiyu whipped around in shock, but all Qing Chen did was calmly waved his hand and the body within the hole instantly froze, before shattering into a thousand pieces. The pieces eventually collapsed into fine frost.
Shiyu was taken aback, but mostly from the thought of being discovered. She has no sympathy for people with wicked thoughts. With a wave of her sleeves, she quickly got rid of the disintegrating frost and erasing the presence of the corpse with fire.
Once the evidence was gone, Qing Chen asked, “What next?”
“The Xue Residence. I won’t rest until they’re dead!”
[Gumihou: Uh oh, Xue Qingge just pissed off the world’s most powerful group of calabashes…]
[1] Plot Hole 1: … what were the other people doing while Shiyu is looking for Xiao Qi?
Patched it with ‘local people don’t see Xiao Qi as a kid anymore’
[2] Plot Hole 2: … how could you get lost?
Patched it with ‘too wrapped with scolding Xiao Qi’
[3] Reduce the number of ‘another voice’ characters, there were 4 I think? Anyway, 3 people are talking now.
[4] Neither Gods nor Ghosts Knows – As long as no one knows
[5] Prevention of OOC: Kind of hard to imagine Naggy Mama Feng being speechless under these circumstances
[6] Missing information: Author-san may have deleted a bunch of sentences without connecting the information.
Gumihou patched it by putting extra dialogue in the previous thingy.
[7] Added More Details for Dramatic Purpose: Minor character is going to be beaten up by Shiyu, give him a little more screen time as compensation