Chapter 84-Charming

Translated by Snowfall77

——How could she watch you fall?

Memories unwillingly stirred……

An aloof person, superior to others, yet always on Xia Ge’s side.

Without Xia Ge even being aware……it’d already happened multiple times.

At the village of Mojia.  The Danfeng entry examination.  The black market.

Senior Sister was plainly……a young lady with a very cold appearance.

Yet when you held her hand, it did not match her icy demeanor.

Her hands were always warm.

Looking up at the sky full of stars, Xia Ge stood still for a long time.

The minutes slipping by.

Until finally: “Let’s get back, I’m tired.”

A couple of steps later, there was a faintly golden flash in the sky.  Xia Ge extended her hand, a familiar red ribbon naturally wrapping around her wrist.

It was little {acacia}.

“You’ve worked hard,” Xia Ge told {acacia}.  In response, the Yimei promptly kissed Xia Ge’s wrist, then tied itself into a beautiful bow, proudly fluttering its ‘wings.’

Xia Ge: “……”

Wasn’t it trying to show Xia Ge——‘Look, I can tie my own knot now?’

Xia Ge awkwardly praised it: “Aiya, little {acacia}, you’ve gotten so awesome.”

“You’re not bad yourself.”  A girl’s chuckle echoed demonically in the night.

Startled, Xia Ge turned her head and demanded: “Who is it?!”

Along the Danfeng path, there were many trees laden with snow-white blossoms.

Looking back, Xia Ge immediately spotted a girl dressed in blue, sitting on a flowery branch, jet black bangs covering her forehead, and large, round eyes glinting in the cold moonlight.

The petals fluttering to the ground could have made the mood romantic, but now their fall seemed to instead foretell the chilliness of winter.

……yes, you could avoid trouble for a short while, but you couldn’t hide from it forever.

Chu Yi.

“Ah, it’s the Jianfeng miss I just met,” Xia Ge regained her composure, “It’s very late, why haven’t you gone back yet?”

Chu Yi smiled lightly: “Isn’t it because I wanted to take another look at Danfeng’s famous special disciple?”

Xia Ge laughed: “Well, miss, you’ve taken a second look, so you can head back now.”

Gracefully leaping from the tree, her beautifully embroidered sleeves with the silver butterflies floating out in the breeze, Chu Yi silently landed on the ground.

“What’s the rush?” Chu Yi drawled, “Aren’t there still questions that haven’t been cleared up yet?

Xia Ge blinked innocently: “What questions?

With a small smirk, Chu Yi slightly raised one hand, and a silver butterfly descended from the distant sky, flaring with fluorescence, to land on her fingertips.  “For one, why did your Yimei suddenly appear in Jianfeng tonight?”

Then, before Xia Ge could answer, Chu Yi went: “Oh, or……should I ask why my silver butterfly followed your Yimei back to Danfeng’s senior disciple’s lodgings?”

A brazen Xia Ge readily spouted some nonsense: “No, ah Miss, you’re too good-looking, yet you’ve unfortunately made a mistake.  My Yimei is very well-behaved, it never hurts flowers or plants and it never brings anything strange home, let alone go running off to Jianfeng.”

Smile still fixed on her face, Chu Yi slightly moved her fingertips, the silver butterfly delicately hovering midair, “But my butterfly spirit tells me that it chased that Yimei you’ve got all the way from Jianfeng to here.”

“Really?”  Xia Ge’s smiley face matched Chu Yi’s, “Where is your proof?”

“Even if you’re a disciple of Jianfeng, you can’t just go around falsely accusing people with empty words.  You say your silver butterfly pursued my Yimei……”

Xia Ge exposed the little red ribbon on her wrist, “But where’s your proof?”

What the people at Jianfeng had witnessed was a golden, orb-shaped Yimei.  Besides, with it being at night and with {acacia} having been covered with mud at the beginning, the Yimei’s true appearance would’ve been virtually impossible to identify.  So long as Xia Ge staunchly declared that the Yimei Chu Yi’s butterfly had chased wasn’t hers, along with Senior Sister providing the alibi ‘Xia Wuyin is here with me,’ it didn’t matter how convinced Chu Yi was.   In the end, Chu Yi couldn’t do anything about it.

Even if it was found out that the Yimei that’d been at Jianfeng was {acacia}, Senior Sister’s testimony meant it would come to nothing.

Chu Yi was quiet, her thoughts probably going along the same lines as Xia Ge’s.  Under silver moonlight, Chu Yi’s expression stayed blank for a long while, until she finally looked back up at Xia Ge, her smile pasted back on: “Xia Wuyin, have anyone ever told you that you’re very charming?”

Xia Ge: “……not that I can recall?”

Rather than charming, Xia Ge viewed herself as being quite annoying.

But, widening her eyes incredulously, Xia Ge added: “Miss, you like me.”

It couldn’t have been exposed already, right?  There was no way, right?  It was way too soon, wasn’t it?

Chu Yi spoke decisively: “I don’t like you.”

Xia Ge breathed a sigh of relief: “Oh, good.  Cause I’ve got somebody else who likes me.”

Chu Yi: “……”

Her gaze at Xia Ge icier by the second, Chu Yi’s tone was just as glacial: “Do you think yourself worthy?”

Not knowing why, Xia Ge vaguely felt she’d caught onto something crucial.

Could it be……

No, it couldn’t be……

“Whether the Yimei tonight was yours or not,” Chu Yi had a smile on her lips and stone-cold eyes, “I’ll advise you to watch out for yourself.”

Saying no more, Chu Yi shook her sleeves and left.

Before long, her figure was out of sight.

System: [Her Tone Of Voice Towards You……Did You Steal A Man From Her?]

Xia Ge: “……”

Although it wasn’t about stealing a man……Xia Ge felt the system’s guess wasn’t that far off.

When Xia Ge didn’t reply, the system turned disbelieving: [You Really Stole Her Man?]

Xia Ge: “How are you so stupid?  I thought you were supposed to be smart?  Kindly shut the fuck up.”

System: [……]

= =

After the Jianfeng crowed returned from Danfeng, they were all too restless to go back to their rooms.  Instead they kept searching everywhere, leaving no stone unturned.

Especially those who were in Chu Yao’s guard.

“We can’t miss a single place!”

“Except for the guard, who wasn’t in their room tonight?”

“……”

Because of the spy incident, Jianfeng was hopelessly chaotic. Nervous Jianfeng disciples were milling around everywhere, vowing that not even an insect would slip past them.

And, at such a critical time, Ye Ze was lost in his own thoughts.

Looking down at the jade in his hands, his mind was in disarray.  Two moments were warring against each other: finding the jade on the ground and seeing the delicate young man coming out of Gu Peijiu’s quarters with damp hair.

“Ye Ze, Senior Chu told us to investigate,” Li Liu’s voice sounded in Ye Ze’s ears, “C’mon, let’s go.”

Ye Ze came back to his senses, acknowledging Li Liu’s words with a low: “Yes.”

The two young men drifted further away from the others.

“You don’t look so good, Ye Ze,” Li Liu pushed aside a branch, scattering leaves onto the ground, his tone casual, “Is there something bothering you?”

Ye Ze didn’t respond for a moment, but finally spat out: “There’s nothing.”

“I see.”

Realizing Ye Ze wasn’t going to say anything further on the subject, Li Liu tried a different topic: “Ai, the Demon Sect has been making a lot of moves lately, too arrogant.”

“Mmm,” Ye Ze answered, “Although I don’t understand what it is they want.”

“It’s anyone’s guess.”

Then Li Liu seemed to suddenly notice something off to the east: “Ai, I think I saw some movement over there……Ye Ze, you wait here, and I’ll go take a look.”

Ye Ze: “Brother Li, you don’t want us to go check it out together?”

“Ai, no need for that.  Why don’t you go look over there?” Li Liu pointed in a different direction, “I don’t think anyone’s searched there yet.”

Watching Li Liu’s back disappear into the shadowy forest, Ye Ze silently stood in place, again staring down at the dragon jade with its missing corner in his hand.

——“Hahaha, Ye Ze, look at my dragon jade!  Now I don’t have to be afraid of being haunted by evil spirits anymore!”

——Hey, Ye Ze, this wine is strong and really effective.  I drank it until dawn.”

……

After frowning at the jade for a long time, Ye Ze finally put it away quietly and walked off in the direction Li Liu had pointed to.

The forest was dark, moonlight barely able to penetrate its thick foliage.  Walking for a ways, Ye Ze abruptly heard the faint ring of a bell.

Clear and continuous, one sweet tinkle after another, it rang like a bell a camel might wear to wander the desert, yet was strange and eerie in the quiet night.

……why was it ringing again?

He thought of the little bell that ‘wouldn’t ring.’

Brow furrowing, Ye Ze put his hand on the hilt of the sword he wore at his waist and walked towards the sound.

One minute, the charming ring was sharp, the next minute it was indistinct.  Ye Ze made seven or eight turns, trying to find the source, making his way through a tangled forest of wild fruit trees.

Stepping on rotten persimmons, swatting away buzzing insects, Ye Ze’s frown deepened.  Still, seeing the trees heavy with apples and persimmons, Ye Ze couldn’t help thinking that if Xia Wuyin came to this place, he’d be very happy.

Ye Ze paused for a second, clearing his mind.  Passing through the trees, he came onto an area of thorns and bristles, the ringing sounding like it was coming from just beyond it.  But he also saw Jianfeng disciples standing guard.  Apparently, no matter the bedlam elsewhere on Jianfeng, these disciples had stayed at their post.  Faces solemn, bodies rife with lingqi, it was obvious that they were disciples with a high level of cultivation.

Looking around, Ye Ze had a rough guess at where he was.

He knew there were thickets of brambles and thorns in front of Jianfeng’s mountain prison.

Back there would be the……Jianfeng prison.

And the bell was still ringing, just barely audible.

Standing there, it wasn’t long before Ye Ze was discovered.

“Who is it?!”

Ye Ze didn’t move, waiting on the other disciples.

A square-jawed disciple walked up to Ye Ze; his expression unsightly: “Who are you?  You’re not allowed to wander around here!”

Taking out his identifying pendant, Ye Ze showed it to the other disciple: “I’m from Jianfeng’s guard.”

“Guard?”  The other disciple glanced at Ye Ze’s pendant, then gave it back at him, heavily frowning, “Then this still isn’t where you belong!  Go back!”

“Who’s being held in the prison?” Ye Ze tucked his pendant back away, “Why is a bell ringing?”

“You want to know who’s being held?  Who do you think you are, bastard?”  The disciple gave Ye Ze a shove.  “But I’ll tell you if you want to know so bad.  A crazy old woman who’ll murder without blinking an eye!  That bell you say you hear is her demonic bell!  Whoever hears it is going to have eight lifetimes of bad luck!”

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——Bells……slaughtering people in cold blood……

Pushed backwards, Ye Ze stumbled, his heart tightening at the disciple’s words.

The other disciple was unapologetic, saying coldly: “Get the hell outta here, this isn’t the place for little assholes like you!”

Silently pursing his lips, Ye Ze patted his clothes, glanced at the layers and layers of thorny growth behind the watchful Jianfeng disciples, and then departed.

——Who was locked up in there?

躲过初一，躲不过十五

Avoid the first day of junior high school, but not the fifteenth day

Refers to avoiding for a while, but after all, you can’t escape at all

Chapter 51 of Ma Feng’s “The Legend of Luliang Heroes”: “Look for opportunities to catch him in the future! If you escape the first day of the junior high school, you will not be able to escape the fifteenth day. There will always be a chance to catch him in the future!”