The moment Yao Wu pushed the door open, the expression on Lu Yan's face froze. Not from fear, but because his brain was spinning so fast it crashed.
At this moment, the three ultimate questions of life flashed through his mind: Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing? And more importantly, how did they get here? Lu Yan's lips twitched. He put the spoon back into the bowl, reached out, and pinched Jiang Ci's cheek. “Does it hurt?” Jiang Ci didn't think it hurt much, but she felt she should say it did at a time like this, so she nodded. “It hurts~”
Watching the two of them flirt right in front of him made Yao Wu's teeth ache with jealousy. “You two—I'm still standing here, you know!”
Only then did Lu Yan snap out of it, turning his head toward Yao Wu. “Wait, how did you two find this place?” Yao Wu began playing dumb, looking at the ceiling, then at the floor, and whistling in an attempt to play it off.
“Mmph...” A soft groan escaped Hong Jiu's lips, trailing off with a slight quiver. Yao Wu instantly perked up, remembering the task at hand. “Shiyi, do you have any Heart-Clearing Pills on you? Hong Jiu's cultivation technique backfired! I'm completely out of pills, hurry up and look!” He secretly praised his own quick wit, glad that Hong Jiu had a “sudden medical emergency” at this exact moment. Otherwise, there would have been no way to dodge the question.
Hearing that Hong Jiu's technique was acting up right next to him made Lu Yan's scalp tingle with dread. According to Du Qi, the last time Hong Jiu's technique went out of control, not a single man in the Abandoned Guest Hall—whether mortal or cultivator—had walked out with their spine straight. Except for Lu Yan, of course. Still, that was widely considered the darkest hour of the Abandoned Guest Hall.
“Heart-Clearing Pills? I have two bottles here! Hurry up and feed them to her! Quick, I also have some Focus-Stabilizing and meridian-sealing ones, should I give her those too?” Lu Yan was so nervous he was practically babbling, pulling bottles out of his pockets one by one. He couldn't help it; there were four people in the room: two were women, and one was literally a blade of grass. Knowing Yao Wu, that bastard would absolutely revert to his true form as a herb and leave Lu Yan to take the heat alone. Lu Yan's lifelong reputation could not be ruined here!
“Enough, that's enough.” Yao Wu grabbed the Heart-Clearing Pills and shoved the bottle's contents straight into Hong Jiu's mouth. He didn't even offer her water, literally force-feeding her dry.
“Mmph, mmph!” Hong Jiu's mouth was stuffed full of pills. Heart-Clearing Pills were incredibly bitter—so bitter she felt she would have preferred letting her technique run wild. Fortunately, the cool, bitter medicinal power quickly suppressed her agitated blood and qi, and the deep-seated yearning slowly receded. She panted heavily. “You bastard! Are you trying to choke your mother to death?!” But as soon as she spoke, the bitterness flared up in her throat again.
“Blech!” Hong Jiu quickly grabbed the nearby teapot. Ignoring the lack of a cup, she raised the spout directly to her mouth and poured, using the light floral tea to desperately wash down the bitter medicine.
“Shiyi, did you put too much coptis in this medicine? It's bitter enough to kill me!”
Hearing her energetic complaint, Lu Yan knew she was mostly fine. He finally breathed a sigh of relief and rubbed his temples. “Good medicine is bitter. Besides, your technique was perfectly fine, so why did it suddenly backfire?” Now it was Hong Jiu's turn to stammer. She cursed Lu Yan in her heart—isn't this all your fault? But she couldn't say that out loud; that would be admitting she was eavesdropping. She could only wink frantically at Yao Wu, hoping he would help cover for her. Instead, Yao Wu just shrank back, keeping his mouth shut like Xu Shu in Cao Cao's camp—without uttering a single word. Hong Jiu's eyes were practically twitching from winking so much, yet Yao Wu stood there like a wooden post, completely unresponsive.
Seeing Lu Yan's brow begin to furrow, Hong Jiu decided that since Yao Wu was being disloyal, she shouldn't be blamed for throwing him under the bus. She pointed the finger directly at him to secure her own leniency. “Yao Wu told me you might be in trouble and wanted to come see if we could help. Who knew that in broad daylight, you'd be in your room doing...” Her face flushed slightly as she trailed off. “...that kind of thing.”
Lu Yan nearly choked on his own spit. He pointed a trembling finger at Hong Jiu. “That's slander! I'll sue you for slander! Jiang Ci and I are completely innocent. We haven't crossed a single line!” Though he felt a little guilty saying this—after all, he had held her, touched her, and seen her. Saying they hadn't crossed a single line felt slightly off. No, wait, he was saving a life! He had been forced into the role of a makeshift doctor out of sheer necessity. It wasn't because he had wicked thoughts. Thinking this way, Lu Yan banished the last trace of guilt from his heart and stood up straight, puffing out his chest.
Yao Wu let out a sigh. “Shiyi, look, as grown men, we have to take responsibility for what we've done. You can't just pull up your pants and deny everything, can you?”
Lu Yan was so shocked by his words that he slipped off his chair and fell to the floor. “Bullshit! I didn't! I haven't done anything! I'm innocent! The two of us are completely innocent! You dirty-minded old bastard, measuring a gentleman's heart with your own petty mind. Your own mind is filthy, so everything you see looks filthy to you...”
Yao Wu cast a disdainful glance at Lu Yan before turning to Jiang Ci, his face softening into a warm smile. “Don't worry, young lady. If he took advantage of you, we'll get justice for you! Just speak up. How far have you two gone?”
Ever since those two started talking about Lu Yan and her having “that” kind of relationship, Jiang Ci's brain had been lagging. She tried to comprehend the connection between these two and Lu Yan, but unfortunately, Little Jiang's social experience was practically nonexistent. Even after analyzing it for a while, she couldn't figure out how these sudden intruders were related to Lu Yan. In fact, she still hadn't figured out what her own relationship with Lu Yan was. Savior? Creditor? Or something else? Finally given a chance to speak, she asked her first question.
“What is your... relationship with Lu... Shiyi?” This question would determine how she should answer the herb-scented young man before her.
Two voices spoke in unison. “I'm his father!” “I'm his father!”
Their voices collided, and Yao Wu quickly corrected himself, “I'm his son—no, no, no, he's my son!” Lu Yan was still spewing insults from the side. But Jiang Ci was already lost in thought—at least their relationship was very close. After pondering for a long time, she finally squeezed out a sentence: “Then is he my... master?”
Lu Yan looked as if he had been struck by lightning. “Seriously, bro, what are you doing?” Yao Wu stared at Lu Yan with a bizarre expression—thirty percent disdain, thirty percent jealousy, and forty percent admiration. You really know how to play, don't you, kid?
Ever since she heard the name “Jiang Ci,” Hong Jiu had been trying to place it. She felt like she had heard it somewhere recently. The bounty orders in the Abandoned Guest Hall, the wanted lists Yao Wu had read aloud, the black ink on Du Qi's scrolls... Ten thousand spirit crystals, capture alive, last seen in the Northern Border. She snapped her head up.
“Holy crap!!???”
Rate on N.U.
