Chapter 122 - Extra—Intrusion (Part Three) (1/2)
Translated by K of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
“…” Young Master Qin pretended like nothing was wrong, “I’m not too sure about that. I don’t know how rough the servant who punished him went, but after all he used to be one of our servants too, so I never really intended to do anything to him. If he held hatred for me behind his back but didn’t dare say it out loud, I can’t do anything about it either.”
Listening to the conversation on the side, Lan SiZhui couldn’t hold it any longer, “Young Master Qin, this… this is just a bit too far… from your original explanation. When my two seniors asked you to explain things, why did you hide so much from them?”
Young Master Qin, “I thought swords and talismans would be enough to maintain the peace of my household. How could I have known that I needed to tell such an old, meaningless story?”
Wei WuXian spoke with a tone of dramatic emphasis, “No, no, no—it’s not an old, meaningless story. The situation is rather severe, Young Master Qin! Think about it. You scolded him and beat him up before he died, perhaps even breaking his legs. If he really didn’t sell the jade pendant, it would’ve been a wrongful death. Whom would he find if not you?”
Young Master Qin immediately replied, “Well I wasn’t the one who killed him! It wasn’t a suicide either! Why would he find me?”
Wei WuXian, “Hm? How do you know it wasn’t a suicide? Maybe he really took his own life by impulse, but it was perceived as an accident by everyone else. That’d be a worse case.”
Young Master Qin, “How could a grown-up man commit suicide simply because of something so insignificant?”
Wei WuXian, “Young Master Qin, assumptions are the most dangerous in our line of work. Each individual has different levels of tolerance and sensitivity. It’s hard to say whether a grown-up man would commit suicide because of ‘something so insignificant’. You have to know—the reason behind a corpse rising could be the hatred of a wife taken or a son killed, but it could also be a small matter like Person A refusing to play with Person B when they were young.”
Young Master Qin was still reluctant, “It definitely wasn’t suicide! If a person wants suicide, they can either hang themselves or take poison, but who would choose to fall off a mountain? You wouldn’t even know if you’d die successfully. It definitely wasn’t suicide.”
Wei WuXian, “You do make sense. But have you ever thought, Young Master Qin, about the possibility that he only fell from the mountain because you broke his leg and he couldn’t walk well? If this were the case, round it up, and wouldn’t it mean you killed him. Wouldn’t it be worse?”
Young Master Qin fumed, “What do you mean round it up and I killed him? If this were the case, it’d be called an accident!”
Wei WuXian, “Are you sure you want to persuade someone who died in such a way that their death was an ‘accident’? The fact that he’s back means that somebody has to be responsible for this ‘accident’, doesn’t it?”
The moment Young Master Qin said one thing, he followed up with another, his refutations making sweat seep from Young Master Qin’s darkened face. Wei WuXian spoke again, “But there’s no need for despair. I’ll tell you one last way of protection. You can do this for now.”
Young Master Qin, “Do what?!”
With just one glance at Wei WuXian, Lan WangJi knew that he was going to start blathering again. He shook his head.
Wei WuXian, “Listen carefully. You have to keep the two doors that have already been broken free of obstruction. You’ll no longer keep that thing out with closed doors, anyways.”
Young Master Qin, “Yes!”
Wei WuXian, “Keep out the remaining individuals of your household, so that the irrelevant is not harmed.”
Young Master Qin, “Most of them have already gone anyways!”
Wei WuXian, “Good. Then find a virgin boy of profuse yang energy to guard your bedroom on a long bench at midnight. He’ll deal with whatever that comes.”
“That’s it?”
Wei WuXian, “That’s it. The virgin’s here already. As for anything else, you can ignore them all, Young Master Qin, and sleep until the break of dawn.”
The one he pointed to was Lan SiZhui. The moment Young Master Qin heard the last sentence, his lips twitched uncontrollably as he glanced at the gentle-looking boy, “If he’s guarding the door, what about you two?”
Wei WuXian, “Of course we’ll be behind the door and accompanying you, Young Master Qin. If the door fails and the corpse barges inside, we’ll do something about it.”
Young Master Qin couldn’t hold it any longer, “Can’t this Young Master here directly help me guard the door?”
The one he pointed to was Lan WangJi.
And thus, Wei WuXian was flabbergasted, “Who do you mean? Him?”
He laughed so hard he almost fell over, “Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!”
Only with Lan WangJi wrapping an arm around his shoulder did Wei WuXian succeed in holding himself up, “No.”
Young Master Qin felt quite displeased by the curt refusal, “Why not?”
Wei WuXian’s face was solemn, “Did you forget what I said? It has to be a virgin.”
“…” Young Master Qin didn’t buy it, “What, he isn’t?”
Long after Lan SiZhui accompanied Young Master Qin out of Bamboo Cottage, Wei WuXian was still splitting his sides with laughter.
Lan WangJi glanced at him before suddenly hauling Wei WuXian over, onto his legs. His voice was calm, “Have you had enough?”
Wei WuXian, “No!”
Seated on Lan WangJi’s lap, he continued, “HanGuang-Jun, what a deceitful face you have. Everyone says you’re pure and chaste and ascetic. I feel extremely wronged.”
Lan WangJi lifted him a bit so that Wei WuXian sat higher and the two were closer, “Wronged?”
Wei WuXian, “It’s absolute nonsense. You see, you’re clearly not a virgin anymore, yet when people see your face, they say you are one no matter what. In my previous life, I’ve never touched a girl’s hand except when I’m trying to save someone, but not a single person believed that I was a virgin.” He began to count, “Night-hunting while at school! Everyone gossipped about me playing around with girls. Up on Burial Mound! Everyone gossiped about me being a satyr of anarchy. How bitter is the silence in which I’m doomed to suffer.”
In silence, Lan WangJi put his hand over Wei WuXian’s, an unnoticeable smile rippling through the depths of his eyes.
Wei WuXian, “And you’re smiling. You’re such a cold, heartless man. After all, I rank fourth on the list of young masters, yet in that one life I’ve only kissed someone once. I’ve always thought that it was a pretty maiden who had a crush on me, thinking that I, Wei Ying, lived a life not wasted. But who knew it was actually you…”
At this point, Lan WangJi finally couldn’t sit any longer.
He spun around and pressed Wei WuXian onto the bed, “Do you not want it to be me?”
“What are you so anxious for? Hahahahahahahahaha…”
When the time came, Lan SiZhui had been waiting for quite a while, standing in the courtyard with Lil’ Apple reined, when Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi finally sauntered out of the house.
He wanted to tell him, Senior Wei, you accidentally wore HanGuang-Jun’s clothes again. But after some thought, he still swallowed the sentence.
After all, Wei WuXian wore the wrong clothes every couple of days. If he reminded Wei WuXian every single time, wouldn’t he die of fatigue?
And every time Senior Wei would wear it anyways because he thought it was too much trouble to change. Feeling that there was no point in reminding him anyways, Lan SiZhui decided he’d much rather pretend he saw nothing.
Wei WuXian mounted Lil’ Apple and fished out an apple from the girdle pouch, taking a crisp bite. Lan SiZhui stared at the apple, finding it familiar. He spoke after some hesitation, “Senior Wei, is that one of the fruits Young Master Qin brought over?”
Wei WuXian, “That’s right.”
Lan SiZhui, “… A fruit brought over by a fierce corpse?”
Wei WuXian, “Exactly.”
Lan SiZhui, “Is it really alright to eat it?”
Wei WuXian, “Of course. It just fell on the ground, after all. You can eat it after some washing.”
Lan SiZhui, “Would the apple of a fierce corpse be poisonous…”
Wei WuXian, “I can answer this question for you—no.”
Lan SiZhui, “How do you know, Senior?”
Wei WuXian, “Because I’ve already fed half a dozen to Lil’ Apple… Stop, Lil’ Apple! Don’t kick!! Help me, Lan Zhan!!!”
Lan WangJi grabbed the rein of the mad donkey with one hand and with the other took away the apple next to Wei WuXian’s mouth, “Leave it be. We can buy some tomorrow.”
Wei WuXian held his shoulder, finally managing to steady himself, “Well I’m trying to save some money for HanGuang-Jun, am I not?”
Lan WangJi, “That will never be necessary.”
Wei WuXian scratched his chin, grinning. Suddenly, it seemed as if he remembered something. He asked casually, “Oh, right, SiZhui, are you a virgin?”
He asked as naturally as ever, yet Lan SiZhui burst with a ‘pfft’.
The act was truly not very ‘Lan’. Having noticed that Lan WangJi glanced at him, Lan SiZhui fixed his composure at once. Wei WuXian added, “Don’t be so nervous. I made up everything I told Young Master Qin. Some spells and such do need to be carried out by virgins, but since you’re cutting a fierce corpse with a sword, there’s really not much different whether you’re a virgin or not. But if you aren’t, I’ll be quite surprised…”
Before he even finished, Lan SiZhui already began to stammer, face flushed, “O-O-O-Of course I am!!!”
In the middle of the night, the empty Qin residence was wide-open as expected. Young Master Qin had long since been waiting for them.
Lan SiZhui stood before Young Master Qin’s door, appearing quite reliable despite the lack of any armor. Seeing his spirit of youthful fearlessness, Young Master Qin stopped frowning so grimly, but still he didn’t ease up. After he entered his bedroom, he shut the door and turned around, “Is it really alright to let the young master guard the door? What if the exorcism fails and on top of that another life is lost in my house…”
The other two had already sat down at the table. Wei WuXian replied, “No lives will be lost. Young Master Qin, think about just how long the corpse has been haunting—has a single life been lost in your household?”
Young Master Qin sat down as well. Wei WuXian put one of the corpse’s pears on the table, “Have some fruit to calm your nerves.”
Under the days of pressure, Young Master Qin was already in somewhat of a haze. He picked it up and took his to his mouth. Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly heard a series of ‘thump thump’, ‘thump thump’.
At once, it seemed as though a cold gust of air swept inside the room. The candlelight on the table flickered.
The pear in Young Master Qin’s hand dropped to the ground, rolling to the side. Once again, he put his right hand to the sword hilt by his waist.
‘Thump’, ‘thump’, ‘thump’.
The noise grew louder, closer. Each time it sounded, the flame trembled as though it felt fear.
The sharp swish of a sword being unsheathed came from beyond the door. A faint shadow glid past the paper window. The noise disappeared immediately, and what replaced it was the sounds of sleeves flapping as well as the crash of wooden furniture being broken.
Young Master Qin’s complexion darkened, “What’s happening outside?!”
Wei WuXian, “They’ve only started fighting. Don’t mind them.”