Where was this jianghu?
For Chu Changge, everywhere he went, that was jianghu. And for Murong Yunshu, jianghu was where there was Chu Changge. [T/N]
As the sun sets, the noise around them gradually returns to calm. On the empty narrow path, the stallion slowly wandered away. Meanwhile, Murong Yunshu and Chu Changge clung to each other on top of the stallion. On the ground, their long shadows were overlapping.
"Looks like we'll have to sleep in the wilderness tonight." Chu Changge lazily said as he pulled the reins with one hand and hugged Murong Yunshu with the other.
Murong Yunshu smiled faintly and asked, "How many times have you walked on this path?"
At this question, Chu Changge also smiled, "I don't remember."
Murong Yunshu asked again, "How many times have you stayed out at night?"
"Not even once." Chu Changge was still smiling. He was smiling very openly.
Murong Yunshu sighed and said, "It was me who had dragged you down and made you stay out at night."
"......" What did it mean when your mouth said yes but your heart said no? Her act was the perfect example of what it meant to have your mouth said yes, but your heart said no.[+]
"Tomorrow, we'd better go separately to save you from being dragged down by me again......"
Without waiting for Murong Yunshu to finish, Chu Changge surrendered first, "I did it on purpose." After a pause, seeing that the person in his arms was still reacting calmly to his confession, he continued, "It was me who deliberately slowed down the journey so that we would have to stay out at night."
"You are fond of using the sky as your quilt and the ground as your mat?" Murong Yunshu asked.
Chu Changge pulled the corner of his mouth in embarrassment. What a grand lady. Even the matter of sleeping on the ground could be said so elegantly by her. "The moon is stunning tonight." As he said that, he looked up at the sky and found many stars, but there was no moon. He suddenly felt greatly embarrassed. He coughed dryly twice and said instead, "Don't you think that it is very romantic to look at the stars together under the night sky?"
Murong Yunshu pursed her lips before saying, "Don't you think that feeding mosquitoes together in the middle of nowhere is a very self-abusing thing to do?"
"..." She was really not a romantic type of person.[T/N]
*
Whether Murong Yunshu was willing or not, it was destined that she would have a romantic moment of feeding the mosquitoes with Chu Changge.
In fact, Murong Yunshu's heart was very calm. As long as she could be with him, everything was good.
"I'll chase away the mosquitoes for you." Chu Changge very attentively lifted his broad sleeve and fanned around Murong Yunshu. That action would have been regular for others, but on him, it was hilarious. It was like the Jade Emperor had come down to earth to be a waiter, a very peculiar one that was.
Murong Yunshu did not know whether to laugh or cry. She wanted to tell him to stop but then swallowed her words and said, "Then, if you insist. Good night." After saying that, she simply tilted her head and fell asleep in his arms.
Chu Changge stared blankly at her for a few moments before returning to his senses. As it turned out, she intended to leave him to have a romantic moment with the mosquitoes?
Madam, you are so heartless!
A big word of bitterness hung on Chu Changge's face. When he raised his eyes to look at the starry sky again, he suddenly felt that the shining stars were emitting a hidden bitterness.
In the night breeze, Chu Changge carefully took off his coat and wrapped the person in his arms in it. Then he let go of the reins and let the horse stroll at will.
At this point, Murong Yunshu, half asleep, slightly hooked up the corners of her mouth.
She had a dreamless sleep that night.
*
When Murong Yunshu opened her eyes again, what she saw was not Chu Changge but a somewhat terrifyingly white drapery. The decoration was not like an inn. With a start, she slowly sat up and found that she was still wearing last night's clothes, while the clothes that Chu Changge had covered her with had disappeared, replaced by an exquisite cotton quilt embroidered with mandarin ducks playing in the water. She lifted the curtain and looked at the furnishings in the room. There were books, a qin and an embroidery stand. At first glance, she was in a woman's boudoir.
How could she, of all people, wake up in someone else's boudoir?
She clearly remembered falling asleep in Chu Changge's arms last night. So how could she wake up in such an unfamiliar place?
Chu Changge would never leave her alone in such a strange place without saying a word unless......
Suddenly, Murong Yunshu's heart came up with a stampede of speculation that gave her a cold sweat, denying them all afterwards. No, his martial arts skills were so high. Nothing would happen to him. What was more, if something had happened last night, there was no way she wouldn't have felt it.
Murong Yunshu tried to recall, trying to find a few clues from her blank memory, but she couldn't remember anything. The last memory she had was the feeling she had when Chu Changge covered her with his clothes. Afterwards, she went to sleep smiling and had a good night's sleep.
But this lack of impression made her feel all the more frightened. Since she was not a deep sleeper, she would have been awakened by the slightest wind movement around her. Under normal circumstances, if Chu Changge had put her to bed, she would have felt something. Even if she wouldn't be fully awake out of trust in him, she would at least have the slightest impression of not having slept soundly. But on the contrary, there was nothing in her mind. As if the memories of that time had been erased by someone.
Just as Murong Yunshu was filled with suspicion and anxiety, the door opened, and a woman in purple dressed like a maid from a wealthy family walked in.
When the woman in purple raised her eyes and saw her sitting on the edge of the bed, she stopped in shock and was stunned for a moment, then turned away.
Murong Yunshu's dark eyebrows wrinkled slightly. She originally wanted to ask where this place was......
After a while, the woman in purple returned. However, this time, she came with another woman in white, looking as gentle as water.
"You're awake." The woman in white smiled as she approached.
Murong Yunshu nodded lightly, sizing her up while waiting for the woman to continue.
The woman in white was surprised that Murong Yunshu could be so calm. She gave her a startled look, then changed her expression to be as calm as water and smiled softly. "Won't you ask who I am?"
Murong Yunshu replied, "Why should I ask when I'm going to know you sooner or later."
The woman in white was surprised once more. She introduced herself soon after, "My name is Bai Yefeng."
Bai Yefeng? Yefeng? It sounded like a man's name. Suddenly, Murong Yunshu's face showed surprise as she said in astonishment, "You......" are a man? She did not utter the last three words because the other party's eyes had already given her an affirmative answer.
Murong Yunshu was genuinely amazed. She thought that Chu Changge was already beautiful, but she did not expect other men in this world to be even more beautiful than Chu Changge. He was attractive enough to make women feel ashamed of their inferiority.
This was not the first time Bai Yefeng had been mistaken for a woman. Thus he was not angry at all. He still had a good-natured look as he pointed out with a bitter smile, "My voice doesn't sound like a woman."
"I know." Murong Yunshu said, "But the person who sees your face for the first time will never pay attention to your voice." If she didn't think his name was very masculine, she wouldn't suddenly realise that he had a low, magnetic and manly voice.[+]
"That's a true statement." Bai Yefeng accepted her explanation. He then turned the conversation around by saying, "Ah Chang left last night after dropping you off."
It's Ah Chang again.
But since he could call Chu Changge 'Ah Chang', he must be extremely close to him. "How did he look when he sent me here?" Murong Yunshu asked.
At those words, Bai Yefeng cast an appreciative glance at her, "You have a sharp mind. With just one question, you have just hit the target and done real damage."
Murong Yunshu pursed her lips, indicating her acceptance of the compliment.
Bai Yefeng added, "He came in a hurry, dropped you off and left."
"He didn't leave any words behind?"
"There is." Bai Yefeng said, "He asked you to stay in Wuhua Valley for two days. He will come to pick you up once he is done with his business outside."
At these words, Murong Yunshu's face changed slightly. The light in her eyes went cold for a few degrees, but it was only fleeting. She lightly said soon after, "Bai Gongzi, this joke is not even funny."
Bai Yefeng was slightly stunned. "I'm not joking with you."
"Is that so?" Murong Yunshu raised her dark eyebrows slightly as she said, "Chu Changge knew full well that I would never sit idly by if he ran into trouble. So how could he leave such useless words behind?"
"So, what words do you think he should have left behind?" Bai Yefeng asked with a smile.
Murong Yunshu thought for a moment and said, "He would not have left any words behind."
"What makes you think so?" The smile on Bai Yefeng's face grew wider.
Murong Yunshu looked at the door for a moment before answering with a smile, "If he had anything to say, he would naturally say it to me personally. There is no need for him to trouble other people."
When she had hardly finished speaking, Bai Yefeng had already clapped his hands and said in a raised voice, "Truly a woman with the nature of fragrant orchid and the heart of the noble orchid! Ah Chang, after all these years of sinning, you still manage to find a treasure. You are truly worthy of being the number one scourge of the jianghu that you are even blessed when you're already so rotten."
"That's for sure. After doing too many bad things, one can always stumble upon a few good things." With this laugh, Chu Changge walked in through the door with an air of calmness. "Bai Yefeng, my sinful friend."
Hearing the word 'sinful friend', the corner of Murong Yunshu's forehead jumped as she asked sarcastically, "Are you done with your business?"
"Er..." Chu Changge smiled bitterly and then said to Bai Yefeng with a proud face, "Do you believe it now? I, Chu Changge, have a brilliant wife. She is not someone that can easily be deceived by people with your intelligence."
"......" Bai Yefeng totally despised a particular Chu's act of showing off his wife to him! If Chu Changge wanted to brag, he would just let him. But what with the personal attacks on him? Chu Changge made it sound like his intelligence was very low.
Chu Changge, however, was enjoying himself quietly as he said to Murong Yunshu, "Last night while wandering around, I suddenly remembered that Wuhua Valley was nearby, so I came here——" At this moment, Chu Changge glanced at Bai Yefeng while saying, "to see if he was already dead or not. "
"......" Bai Yefeng looked up at the roof. His heart let out a big sigh. He could only blame the year when he was still young and ignorant when he had mistakenly befriended a lousy friend!
Chu Changge added, "I told him that you were the smartest woman I had ever met, but he laughed at me for being ignorant, so we set this up to see if you could see through it."
After hearing what had been said, Murong Yunshu stayed silent for a moment. Then she raised her eyes and inquired, "What was the prize?"
"The prize?" Both Chu Changge and Bai Yefeng looked at Murong Yunshu with puzzled expressions.
It seemed that there was no prize. Murong Yunshu questioned, "What's the point of betting if there's no prize?"
"Uh......" Chu Changge was speechless. This was a question that he had indeed not thought about. What he sought in betting was the thrill of victory. As for things like the prize, no matter what it was, if he wanted it, it would be his without the need for him to do any betting.
Bai Yefeng, on the other hand, followed Chu Changge in being speechless. Were all girls nowadays so materialistic? Or was this character of hers influenced by silver......
------Off-topic Remarks (Author)------
囧, nue is actually a banned word......
Noob Translator's Musing
Ah...no wonder the Author used the pinyin of nue 虐 in this part "你不觉得,在荒郊野外,一起喂蚊子,是一件很自nue的事吗?" ("Don't you think that feeding mosquitoes together, in the middle of nowhere, is a very self-abusing thing to do?").
A simple way to remember how to write orchid / lan 兰 in Chinese
Image credit to Sinisterkey.com. That site has a lot of Chinese words explained in simple, cutely innocent drawings. It helps a lot in remembering the words enjoyably.
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Black Belly Wife