Chapter 12 (1/2)
Chapter 12: A n.o.ble Gentleman – Part 4
Translated by: Ritpoppy
Unedited (cause my sister is being a b*tch)
One day early in the morning, after the Colored Lantern Flower Festival had ended, Huai Yu was awakened by a soft knocking on the window sill.
He hesitated for a moment before walking to the window sill. Just as he was about to open the window a single branch of peach blossoms was thrust in front of his eyes. Behind the blossom was an attractive and charming face. Ming ChangYan smilingly looked at him, ”The peach blossom trees on the mountain had just bloomed, I went to go pick some, the branch even still has some dew drops on it. Come, come, come, stick this in a flower vase.” Pausing for a moment, he reached into his bosom and took out another branch of peach blossoms, handing it to Huai Yu, saying, ”I'll give you another one.”
Haui Yu stared at the peach blossoms pressed against his chest, asking, ”What is this?”
”Eh? Aren't they just the flowers I gave you? But don't go flaunt that I gave you more than them, or else they'll start bugging me again.”
After he finished speaking, he turned around and entered into the corridors running in the direction of the bedroom next door. After a short period of time, Huai Yu heard the voice of Zhong YuLou coming from next door.
After Ming ChangYan finished delivering all the flowers one by one, breakfast had already been served. Qin YuBao entered the dining room, and using his dog nose, he declared, ”Da s.h.i.+-xiong made breakfast today!”
Ming ChangYan replied, ”If you know then why don't you come over here and eat?”
When Huai Yu entered, LiMin-Jun was already spreading out his chopsticks. When he raised his head and saw Huai Yu, he turned his head around to wink at Ming ChangYan, ”Hey! Ming ShaoXia, your man's here!”
Huai Yu's paused his footsteps.
Ming ChangYan scooped up some of the soup and saw that LiMin-Jun still hadn't let the bet from back then go, his face full of self-righteousness. It was extremely hateful, but he was too lazy to care.
Zhong YuLou and the rest of the inner disciples all rushed in, sat in order, finished their food. Ming ChangYan opened his mouth and said, ”Did you guys recite the core teachings I told you to recite yesterday?”
Qin YuBao swayed his legs around and carefreely replied, ”Recited!”
Ming ChangYan took out a ruler, saying, ”Good, since Mister Zhou isn't here today, I'll be inspecting your writing. Everyone go wait for me in the library.”
The distance from the dining area to the library only took about half an incense of time, after everyone arrived, they all began to diligently write from memory. Only Huai Yu had nothing to do, sitting by the sidelines lost in thought. After a quarter of an hour pa.s.sed, Zhong YuLou halted his writing brush and blew away the remnants of the ink marks. Not soon after he set down his pen, the others had finished their writing as well. Since Zhong YuLou was the most distinguished among the inner disciples, the other disciples all one by one came up to take a look at his test paper.
”YuLou, what does this mean?” asked Yan YuNan who was the oldest and the most earnest among the inner disciples.
Zhong YuLou replied, ”I recently found some new sword foundation techniques, I wrote my thoughts about it on the paper! When Da s.h.i.+-xiong comes, I'm going to show it to him!”
Ming Yue had a stiff expression on his face as he said, ”We all learned our sword techniques from TianQing, why should we change it if you tell us to change it?”
Zhong YuLou craned his head to look at him, and inexplicably said, ”I never said that I wanted to change the sword techniques, I just said I thought of a better way.”
Ming Yue crossed his arms, sneering, ”Do you really think that yours is the better one? s.h.i.+-xiong just praised you a few times, yet you have the audacity to alter the sword techniques.”
Zhong YuLou frowned, pus.h.i.+ng YuBao aside, and questioned, ”First of all, I've already told you that I'm not changing the sword techniques. Second of all, Ming Yue, why do you insist on arguing with me?”
Ming Yue raised his voice, ”Who wants to argue with you! With your high talent and early start, you think everyone is just beneath you. And now you can alter the sword techniques as you like, in the future, wouldn't you think that if you want to become the sect leader, you can just become sect leader? All it is, is a new technique, in what way is it so amazing?”
After being stabbed by his words, Zhong YuLou yelled, ”You're right, I'm just so amazing. If it wasn't me, then do you think it would be you? s.h.i.+-xiong hasn't even said anything yet, so who do you think you are to lecture me?”
Immediately after, he deliberately sized up Ming Yue, smirking, ”But…do you even deserve to lecture me?”
Ming Yue was aware that his innate talent isn't comparable to him. This matter just so happens to be his sore point, at once he retorted, ”YOU!”
Yan YuNan saw that things were getting out of hand, he immediately soothed, ”Stop arguing, we're all disciples under the same sect, still considered family.”
Zhong YuLou jumped up and said, ”Who'd want to be family with this little ying-yang* faced person! Wearing this face as if somebody owes you eighty thousand taels! All you know how to do every day is to just be an eyesore with your a.s.sorted way of speaking! I've known for a long time that you were out of the sorts!”
(TN: Ying Yang faced means to have two different att.i.tudes based on who you're with. Like you're nice to this person, but mean to this other person. Should I use the word hypocritical instead, or just leave it be? Would two-faced fit better in this scene? Please tell me.)
Ming Yue's complexion was deathly pale, his eyes bloodshot as his entire body trembled, cursing, ”And what are you supposed to be?!” He suddenly pointed his finger at YuNan, ”And you, you're in it together with him. You think you're so cool, what right do you have to scold me! You're nothing but a worthless piece of trash that doesn't have any face, hiding behind Zhong YuLou to try to reconcile with him! Your talent isn't even comparable to Qin YuBao. You're the oldest yet the most useless!”
Zhong YuLou made a threatening expression, adopting a posture that seemed like he was about to begin fighting. Ming Yue coldly unsheathed his sword, ”Who's afraid of who!”
With such a huge commotion, it finally caught the attention of Ming ChangYan. He pulled the two apart, giving each of them ten slaps with a board, inquiring, ”Why are you guys fighting?”
Zhong YuLou ferociously wiped his face but didn't utter a single word. Ming Yue also stood by the side, his head lowered and silent.
Ming ChangYan continued, ”Do you see Huai Yu sitting over there moving, he's the same age as you guys but more well-behaved than any of you.”
Zhong YuLou turned to look at Huai Yu like everyone else, the other party was sitting there watching the conflict transpire in front of him, and hadn't moved an inch. The TianQing youngsters were all fl.u.s.tered, each one apologizing, ”Da s.h.i.+-xiong, we were wrong.”
Ming Yue hatefully glared at Huai Yu, closed his eyes, and stopped speaking.
After Ming ChangYan finished giving them a whip, he coaxed them a few times and collected the youngster's papers to examine. When Zhong YuLou saw that he had left, he said, ”Such bad luck! I'm going to go down the mountain to walk a lap to dispel my anger!” He turned to face Yan YuNan, ”Little s.h.i.+-xiong, wait for me to bring you something tasty when I come back. Inform Da s.h.i.+-xiong about this, I'll be going!”
This was translated by , any other repost of this is stolen work and if you steal my work, I will punish you in the name of the moon.
Yan YuNan responded, ”Be careful on the road, remember not to pick up random stuff you find on the road!”
Zhong YuLou had already sprinted out of sight, only his voice could be heard, ”I know, don't worry, I won't!”
Who knew that as night fell, XianYue Mountain began pouring with rain as Zhong YuLou showed up at TianQing Sect's doorstep carrying a man dripping with blood.
With the birth of this unseen event, Ming ChangYan set down the teacup in his hand, abruptly ending the conversation he was having with Huai Yu.
Zhong YuLou tried several times to explain, but in the end could only hesitatingly say, ”Da s.h.i.+-xiong…I brought a person back!”
LiMin-Jun arrived from the west room and saw the situation. He blanked out for a while before roaring, ”Zhong YuLou! You brat, what the f.u.c.k did you pick up this time!”
Zhong YuLou pursed his lips, feeling extremely wronged as he uttered, ”I…”
LiMin-Jun pinched his ear and dragged him inside, ”Did your mother send you here to TianQing to learn martial arts or for you to collect junk? Eh?! If you're so good at collect this stuff, then why don't you go join the Qixi Festival gang? Their entire group is known to gather rubbish. Looking at your level of skill, just by going there once, you could be their leader!”
Zhong YuLou cried, ”Er s.h.i.+-xiong! My ears hurt!”
”It hurts? If I don't pull on your ear till you learn from your mistakes, then my surname might as well not be Li. Picking up a few rodents here and there would've been fine, but now you're venturing out and picking up humans?!” LiMin-Jun continued to twist his ear as he proceeded to shove Zhong YuLou into the water basin, swearing while he gave him some honey locust.
Ming ChangYan and Huai Yu crouched down, observing the pa.s.sed out man on the floor.
Huai Yu reached out his hand, landing on his wrist to check the other's pulse. After contemplating for a while, he said, ”Poisoned.”
Ming ChangYan used his fan to poke the other's clothes, ”There's not a single piece of good flesh on him, his wounds look like he's been cut by some sort of thread.”
He cast a glance at Huai Yu, abruptly asking, ”You're experienced in the art of healing?”
Huai Yu didn't answer.