Ch71 - Difficulties

Qiu Chongyun crossed her fingers as she smoothed out a few tiny strands of messy hair at her temples. As she glanced over, she rebuked, “You also know that he’s my nephew, so how could I plot against him?”

“That’s why I’m curious,” Xie Zhiwei mixed up logic with what little he knew of the plot and adopted a profound air. “Even an outsider like me can tell your nephew’s been wanting to kill Chi Yan these days. That means he won’t let go of Red Lotus either. But back then you attacked ahead of time and accidentally forced Chi Yan to his death. I also stole Red Lotus, so you had no choice but to make me cooperate with you to hide the truth from the world.”

Qiu Chongyun paused before she laughed. “Annoying. I’m not used to it when you suddenly get serious. But…it’s indescribably charming. If not for your face…cough, you might have deeply fascinated me by now.”

This woman’s ability to talk about him was first-rate. If Xie Zhiwei hadn’t already understood the personalities of the novel females, he might have succumbed to her coquettish winks. His face remained unmoved. “Dare I ask maiden what you’re afraid of?”

“Then, what is your excellency afraid of?” Qiu Chongyun shot back.

“What do you mean?” Xie Zhiwei gave a start.

Qiu Chongyun smirked. “Don’t play dumb. You look like you’re much more afraid of my nephew.”

“He’s the Shizi of the King of Nine Provinces,” Xie Zhiwei blabbed, “His status, power, and cultivation are all very high. Who doesn’t fear him?”

Qiu Chongyun shook her head and said fervently, “No, your fear of him is different from others.”

“How is it different?”

“Ordinary people fear my nephew and don’t dare to meet his gaze. Even I won’t look straight at my nephew when he’s in a bad mood. But you’re an interesting one, staring at him all the time like you’re guilty about something…oh, right! It’s guilt. What’s gotten you conscience-stricken about my nephew?” Qiu Chongyun looked at him with relish, her face practically screaming “gossip.”

Xie Zhiwei didn’t change his tone. “Of course I’m guilty since I’m pretending to be Chi Yan.” Seeing Qiu Chongyun pondering the matter, he added, “This isn’t important, we can talk about it another day. Let me out first.”

But Qiu Chongyun waved her finger and threw a pebble beyond the bars of the stone cage. Immediately, layers of White Lotus light materialized into view, surrounding them airtight.

Frost coiled in Xie Zhiwei’s chest and chilled his insides. Qiu Chongyun shrugged and said, “I really want to release you, but you saw it yourself… Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of that little sister. I won’t ruin her looks.”

Dammit, who cares about her looks at a time like this?!

Silence stretched on in the stone cage before Qiu Chongyun comforted him. “You won’t be stuck here. Two days later, we’ll be changing to another location, so you can enjoy the scenery along the way and feel better.”

Hahahaha, sister, you really know how to comfort others. What kind of freakin’ logic is this?! If I said I was gonna pour acid on your face but gave you a mirror to admire your looks first, would you forget about the pain of the impending acid?

Xie Zhiwei waved a hand and sarcastically conceded. “Good idea.”

At this point, he knew it was hopeless to use Qiu Chongyun as an escape route. He didn’t understand why Mu He could give Bai Yu a quick death when they were all his enemies. Okay, so it wasn’t quick at all, but it was better than Chi Yan and Bai Jianzhu. Chi Yan was forced to suffer a psychological shadow from witnessing Bai Yu’s death, while Bai Jianzhu…for him, living was worse than death.

What was Mu He thinking, leaving Bai Jianzhu and Chi Yan alive. He’s not waiting for an auspicious day to kill us in a feng shui treasure land, right?

As an actor, the most important skill was to adjust one’s state. Xie Zhiwei felt like he could only take things one step at a time. Since he couldn’t escape now, then he would properly play the part of a prisoner to expand his acting paths.

Time passed in torment and not two days later, Xie Zhiwei was dragged out of his cell by two tall demonic soldiers.

The day had finally come.

Fine, let me listen to Qiu Chongyun first. After being locked up for so long, I can look at the scenery for a change of mood. I’ll run as soon as I find a chance.

The next instant, a strip of black cloth covered his eyes.

“…..” said Xie Zhiwei.

Don’t you know I’m already wearing a mask, ah pooh? Now you’re covering up the two holes that show my eyes? This means you won’t leave me any face, right? A villain needs to have face too!

Forget about scenery, he couldn’t even tell if it was a mule or a horse pulling the prison carriage now. Uncertain of the situation and unwilling to use his divine sense rashly, this made him no different from the blind.

Nearby, someone laughed charmingly with tones of intentional sweetness. After all these days, Qiu Chongyun had finally shown her face again. Xie Zhiwei was about to attract her attention with some noise when his heart lurched. He heard someone say softly, “Nothing, I just lost something.”

Qiu Chongyun snorted. “Anything that nephew bothers to remember can’t be ordinary. It’s fine if you actually lost it, but if someone stole it, that’s too daring. Don’t be softhearted oh, nephew.”

Xie Zhiwei’s scalp tingled. He never expected Mu He to come “personally send off the prisoners,” leaving his chances of escape very slim. But according to Mu He’s current half-dead personality, he was only missing a cloak to ascend into some emotionless immortal. Even seeing Bai Yu being tortured to death gave him no joy. Why would he care about something going missing?

Xie Zhiwei thought over the question while seeing nothing but black before his scalp tightened further. There was a big, heavy bag tied around his waist, covered by his wide robes so it wasn’t very obvious. But wasn’t the “thing” inside it exactly what Mu He had lost?

He really wanted to grab Qiu Chongyun by the throat and shout, “Stop making a fuss! Your nephew will never be softhearted, all right?!”

The next second, his thoughts came true.

A force resembling an invisible snake wrapped tightly around his neck, eerie and cold even through his mask. The hero was going crazy and venting on him again. Kill if you must, can’t you get to the point? It was his weakness too. The real Chi Yan would probably be biting his tongue by now after getting so stimulated. Xie Zhiwei saw stars in front of his eyes before hearing Mu He’s voice resounding around him.

“Was it you?”

The hero was no fool, so of course he’d think of this. After discovering that the Qingping Sword was ineffective against him, he probably didn’t want to lose and ran to Blood River Lake to steal the blood agate. The hero thought of his fake Chi Yan as being too powerful, so it wasn’t out of the question for him to sneak into the boundary field of the Qingping Sword and its small sheltered compound. In short, it was a plot where you thought you were fine today, but punished tomorrow, right?

MMP!

“I have no interest in learning why you don’t fear the Qingping Sword,” Mu He’s voice was flat, as if he was discussing something inconsequential. “Hand it over.”

“He’s not afraid of Qingping Sword? Such a thing exists?” Qiu Chongyun couldn’t believe it, but when Mu He continued to ignore her, she turned to Xie Zhiwei instead. “Hand over what? Nephew, what happened between you and this…and Chi Yan? Is it just me, or are things a little strange with you two?”

Xie Zhiwei’s feet slowly left the ground as he began to lose his ability to breathe. For a second he genuinely wished that Mu He could kill him already. Intimidating threats like these were too damned suffocating. Although he always compromised in order to properly steal the scenes, he was a bigshot too, all right?!

“We’re almost at the daoist sect,” Qiu Chongyun added in a rush, “Nephew, don’t be impulsive, ah.”

Xie Zhiwei’s ears perked up beneath the entanglement of Black Lotus.

What the hell? Daoist sect? Why is the hero taking me and Bai Jianzhu there? To bring them to my grave and play a round of Fight the Landlord?

Heh, that’s not funny at all.

Xie Zhiwei’s face grew serious, but right now he couldn’t even give Mu He a look like death because of his blindfold. This was too much of a failure as a villain. Qiu Chongyun’s expression grew grave too as she stopped talking. The three of them were locked into silence while tendrils of Black Lotus split up like tiny serpents to burrow into Xie Zhiwei’s robes. He felt a chill as he recalled the torture back at Blood River Lake.

Fortunately, Mu He didn’t make things difficult for him this time. After a few rounds of searching, Black Lotus relaxed the pressure around his waist and the bag containing Dog fell on the floor. Right after that, the stranglehold on his throat loosened and the cold air against his skin disappeared. He was then thrown back into the prisoner cart, feeling as if his bones had been jumbled apart.

Mu He turned his palm to face the sky and the bag flew automatically into his hand. He looked up. “Sure enough, it was you.”

The rope tying the bag closed automatically loosened before Dog sleepily meowed at Mu He and hopped to the ground for a lazy stretch.

Qiu Chongyun finally recovered and asked, “Nephew, this Chi Yan…why did he steal your snow civet?”

“Keep an eye on things here, Aunt Yun. Don’t let Bai Jianzhu die.” Mu He tossed back expressionlessly. Then he tapped against the ground and flew towards his own carriage, as if staying here any longer would dirty his white robes.

Qiu Chongyun watched the curtains of the distant carriage drop down to cover Mu He completely before the fake smile on her face faded. She drew close to Xie Zhiwei and murmured, “You’re actually not afraid of Qingping Sword?”

—

Translator’s Note: Psst, psst, if you’re a reader who likes to write BL as well, heads up that BL Palace over on Scribblehub is hosting its 2022 Summer Anthology! Check it out if you’re interested.

You’re also welcome to read my entry “Caeruleum” from their 2021 Spring collection. It’s a 14k word oneshot of an idiotic gangster x cold scientist love story with a happy ending~👊👓

(Character art by our very own val!)