[This is an extra chapter which took place after Chu Changge became a waiter in the Jiugua House.]
That night. Chu Changge, who was back to his usual self, summoned the four South, East, North and West and asked, "Did you find anything in the coffin store?"
As expected, the Leader knew there was something fishy about the coffin store. "There was a five-element, eight trigrams formation mechanism. We were trapped in it yesterday and only managed to escape this morning." East Guardian replied back.
After hearing East Guardian's answer, Chu Changge was not surprised. After a moment of thought, he asked again, "Apart from that, are there any other findings?"
East Guardian shook his head. "No."
South Guardian added, "There must be a secret in the five-element, eight trigrams formation mechanism. It's just that we don't know how to calculate the five elemental technique, so we can't break through the mechanism and look into it much deeper."
"Mister Shi Er is proficient in mechanism, so he must have studied the five elemental techniques. Why don't we ask him to lead the way, and we will go back tonight to find out more about it?" West Guardian suggested.
The South and East duo nodded in agreement; having someone clear the way would make everything much easier. But North Guardian asked, "Wouldn't it be easier to find Madam? Madam knows everything. She can even break the small five-element mechanism."
His words gave them a wake-up call. The three of them looked at North Guardian with a look of worship. Sure enough, the greatest fool, in a thousand schemes, must hit once on the truth! Although the point is not whether Madam can break the mechanism, the fact that you can think of asking Madam for help is already much better than our ideas! You know, even if Madam can't break the mechanism, just seeing her stand there will give us no end of virtuous achievements.
Just as the three were thinking, Chu Changge became so refreshed and radiant that even his rigid, slanted eyebrows looked softer than ever when he heard North Guardian's idea. He glanced at the opposite door and saw that the candlelight was still. The corners of his mouth curled up, and he said, "If she asks where I am, you will take her to the coffin store to find me."
"What if she doesn't ask?"
"Then you'll find a way to make her ask."
"......"
After Chu Changge left, the four South, East, North and West immediately knocked on Murong Yunshu's door. "Madam, do you know where the Leader is?" East Guardian asked.
"I don't know." Murong Yunshu looked at South, East, North and West indifferently and began to guess their intentions in her heart.
"Then, do you want to know?" East Guardian asked with an excited look on his face.
"Don't want to."
"......" How could he continue? East Guardian looked at his brothers with a helpless face. This road is blocked! South and West duo were also at their wits' end. Madam was not interested in the whereabouts of the Leader at all. Just when the three of them had their hands bound and were unable to do anything about it, they heard North Guardian speak with one strong beat and one weak beat in a measure of music, "Madam, the Leader said that if you ask about his whereabouts, he told us to say that he has gone to the coffin store."
Murong Yunshu frowned at his words. "Someone died?"
"......no." The corners of the East Guardian's mouth twitched slightly as he truthfully explained, "We found a five-element mechanism in the coffin store, and the Leader thought there were secrets in it. So he went alone to find out what was going on. We were worried about his safety, so we wanted to ask Madam to go and help."
He has gone alone? Murong Yunshu's heartstrings instantly trembled, and she said, "Lead the way."
When South, East, North and West led Murong Yunshu to the coffin store, Chu Changge waited there for a long time. Seeing that he had not acted recklessly, Murong Yunshu secretly breathed a sigh of relief and gave him a faint glance as a greeting. When Chu Changge saw Murong Yunshu's dismissive attitude towards him, his heart felt uncomfortable. He knew she was angry with him for going to the brothel to drink flower wine, but he could not explain. He hadn't been drunk that day, and his visit to Mister Shi Er was just a pretext to find out who was behind the conspiracy. But he couldn't tell her this because he didn't want her to get involved with the jianghu's strife again. Please read this chapter at xinshou blogspot com.
Chu Changge was struggling with how to untie Murong Yunshu's heart without telling her the truth when he heard her ask, "Where is the five-element mechanism?"
East Guardian hurriedly pointed to the locust tree forest ahead and said, "It is just ahead."
Murong Yunshu glanced at it lightly and said, "Those are just irregularly planted locust trees, not the five-element mechanism."
"Are you sure?" South, East, North and West were greatly embarrassed. If they weren't the five-element mechanism, then why were they trapped inside for the whole night?
As if reading their confusion, Murong Yunshu stared at the locust tree forest in front of her for a while longer, making sure that it was indeed not any five-element mechanism, before saying, "I think you were just lost."
Lost, lost......lost?! The four people, South, East, North and West, instantly felt like they were being struck by lightning, unable to speak.
"Don't be too upset. Although this locust tree forest is not a five-element mechanism, the planting is chaotic. It is normal for people with low intelligence like you to get lost in it."
What do you mean by people with low intelligence like us?! North, South, East and West looked at Murong Yunshu with bruised faces. Madam, you'd better continue to hit us. We seriously can't afford your comfort.
"Next time you encounter such a situation, don't jump around. Just burn it with fire. That way, the view will be open." Murong Yunshu said.
"......" Can you be more savage?
"Setting fire to the forest will attract too much attention." Chu Changge said, not quite agreeing.
Murong Yunshu raised her dark eyebrows and said, "That's a method for them to think of. Of course, I won't need to do that."
"Then how do we get past them?"
"Just walk through."
"......"
As a result, with Murong Yunshu leading the way, the crowd walked bravely into the locust tree forest. Along the way, South, East, North and West secretly prayed in their hearts that Murong Yunshu would get lost so that she would become a person with a low IQ just like them. Unfortunately, things didn't work out as expected. The results showed that there was indeed a difference between people with their IQs. People with high IQs even had better luck than others. Yes, good luck. They had wandered around the woods all night and found nothing. She just took a few steps and found the tunnel. What was this if it was not luck?
"Why would a coffin seller dig a tunnel in the store's backyard?" Chu Changge questioned while gesturing to South, East, North and West to move the wooden boards at the tunnel entrance.
Murong Yunshu: "How do you know it's a tunnel? It might just be a cellar."
Chu Changge: "Then there's no reason for him to dig a cellar. If he has any hidden treasures, he might as well put them directly inside a coffin. I can guarantee that no one will dare to steal them."
Murong Yunshu: "That's hard to say. These days, there are all kinds of weird people, and there are not a few who are good at cutting coffins. That owner might have expected someone to go through his coffins, which is why he didn't dare to hide his belongings in them."
On the side, the corners of South, East, North and West's mouths silently twitched a few times, and they looked at Chu Changge in unison, saying with their eyes: Leader, Madam is not talking about us this time. After all, we are just following orders.
But Chu Changge ignored it and said with a smile, "That's true. Unfortunately, the Mojiao Sect has a few guardians who love to dig up people's ancestral graves and cut down their coffins."
South, East, North and West looked at the sky and sighed. Once you enter the Mojiao Sect, you will be wrong for life!
Murong Yunshu pondered for a moment and said leisurely, "It should be unfortunate for the members."
South, East, North and West immediately nodded their heads heavily and looked at Murong Yunshu with a face of 'meeting a soulmate at the end of the world'. Madam can genuinely see the downy feathers of autumn clearly! With Madam around, the Mojiao Sect will be able to unify the jianghu in no time.......eh, unifying the jianghu is a bit too far. Recovering the demons should be the most urgent task.
Chu Changge, on the other hand, said with an aggrieved look on his face, "Madam, are you not afraid of getting a cramp if your elbow turns outward?"
Murong Yunshu raised her eyebrows and requested, "Let me see your elbows turn inwards."
Chu Changge hurriedly turned both elbows inwards and looked at Murong Yunshu with a smug expression. He had practised bone shrinking, so he had no problem turning his elbows inwards.
He's really getting into it. Murong Yunshu looked at him with a look that said she just saw an idiot as she asked, "Aren't you afraid of getting cramps if you do that?"
"No, I'm not afraid. I have practised shrinking bones, and now my bones are very flexible." Chu Changge smilingly said.
Murong Yunshu looked at him speechlessly for a long time. Seeing that he was still doing the funny act of smugly turning his elbows inwards, she sighed lightly and walked towards the tunnel while muttering in a voice everyone could hear, "Probably his brain has been damaged from all that practice."
South, East, North and West hurriedly agreed, "Madam misunderstood the Leader. His brain has always been bad. It has never been good and has nothing to do with excessive practising." After saying that, they fled for their lives and followed Murong Yunshu's footsteps, leaving Chu Changge alone in the wind.
Murong Yunshu's guess was correct. This was just a cellar, but what was stored inside was not gold, silver or jewellery, but a coffin. The coffin was placed on a round stone platform, with many talismans attached, and oil lamps were burning around it.
Chu Changge: "Open the coffin." Before the words left his mouth, a cold wind blew, eerily creepy. The atmosphere in the cellar suddenly seemed extraordinarily eerie. Chu Changge looked around vigilantly and found nothing strange, so he urged, "Open up." At that moment, another gust of gusty wind blew.
Having travelled the jianghu for many years and killed many people, South, East, North, and West had never been afraid of ghosts and gods, but at this moment, they were somehow frightened to the point that their legs went weak. "That, Leader, opening the coffin of the deceased without the dead person's consent is a great disrespect to the deceased and will......be condemned by heaven." East Guardian said timidly.
Chu Changge: "Haven't you done many things condemned by heaven?"
"......" Can you not be so direct?
"It's just because there were so many immoral things done before that we have to accumulate virtues now." South Guardian spoke while pretending to be calm.
At this point, Murong Yunshu said airily, "With your current sins, it's already too late to do any good deeds. So, why not just become a completely and utterly bad person? Maybe you can even reign in the underground after death and re-establish the Mojiao Sect to continue to plague King Yan."
"......" Is there such a way to persuade people? East, South and West's faces were full of black lines, but North Guardian seemed to be thinking about the feasibility of this suggestion. After a short period of silence, he said, "To set up a Mojiao Sect underground? That would only be possible if the Leader was present." The East, South and West trio almost didn't spit out a mouthful of blood. Is this the point you should focus on?
Murong Yunshu raised her left eyebrow and nodded slightly, with the word 'indeed' written on her face. Chu Changge sighed helplessly. How much do you want me to die, Madam? When he finished lamenting, Chu Changge raised his eyes. His mouth curved as he said with a smile, "You will first go underground and wait for this Leader, and then wait for this Leader to come to you after a hundred years."
Was this his way of asking them to die? South, East, North and West froze. Although the ruler wanted his subjects to die, and they had no choice other than to abide by it, they hadn't lived long enough! "Leader, since you're not dead yet, how dare we die first! As Guardians, we will guard you until you die." West Guardian responded with a forced smile on his face. [+]
The corners of Chu Changge's mouth hooked up in an unusually spring-like smile. "Are you cursing this Leader to die before you?" His voice was also exceptionally easy-going and amiable.
However, West Guardian could not feel any warmth but only felt a cold wind cascading down his back, chilling his bones and hair on his body.
"Leader, you have misunderstood. Lil West would never dare to curse you, Leader. He wishes to live and die with you." East Guardian stepped in to defend the West Guardian.
"Yes, yes, to live and die together." West Guardian gave East Guardian a grateful glance. It was still the Old East who had a quick turn of mind, worthy of being born a few years earlier than him.
Chu Changge said, "To live and die with you, won't that be the same as reducing this Leader's allotted life span?"
Reducing his allotted life span...... South, East, North and West's mouth twitched slightly, thinking, how do you know your life will be reduced? Maybe it is our life. You know, what we have done is not as much as what you have done when it comes to harming people and angering god! Of course, they could only think about this in their minds. After they had finished thinking about it, they were carefree, and it was time to resign themselves to their fate. The four came to the coffin, looked at each other, reached a tacit agreement and then used the winds from their palms to lift the lid. The coffin lid was knocked off and landed on the floor with a loud clang. The air did not smell like a rotting corpse as they expected, and a woman was lying in the coffin. The four men gasped, a wave of heat forcing its way through their chests, and they couldn't take their eyes off the woman any longer.
When Chu Changge saw the four men staring at the coffin with a foolish look, he jumped onto the stone platform full of doubts to see what was inside the coffin. Unexpectedly, at the moment he laid his eyes inside the coffin, his eyes kept on looking straight at it. Chu Changge thought he had seen countless people, but he had never seen a stunningly beautiful face that could evoke men's spirits and arouse men's desires without any spoken words. But Chu Changge was a man of great self-control, and he only froze for a moment before coming back to his senses and sighing, "I'm afraid this is not just a cellar."
After listening to Chu Changge's words, Murong Yunshu, who originally had no interest in dead people, could not help but glance into the coffin and instantly understood why South, East, North and West were as silent as if they had been possessed. "You have a good concentration." Murong Yunshu suppressed the joy in her heart and praised Chu Changge seemingly unintentionally.
Chu Changge raised his sword eyebrows and said proudly, "I am not a superficial person!"
Murong Yunshu pursed her lips in amusement and turned the conversation back to the woman in the coffin, saying, "Unless a woman with such a face has never left home, it is unlikely that you and I have never heard of her."
"That's right. There is a lot of trouble in the jianghu. A woman with such breathtaking beauty can't be a nobody. But I have never heard of such a person in the jianghu." Chu Changge said.
Suddenly, the sound of footsteps could be heard coming from the top. "Someone is coming." Chu Changge hurriedly swept Murong Yunshu into his arms and hid in the shadows. South, East, North and West were also awakened by Chu Changge's low cry and immediately covered the coffin and found a place to hide.
A short while later, someone came into the cellar, a man carrying an oil lamp in his right hand and a packet of things in his left. He put the oil lamp on the edge of the stone table, then opened the coffin and said to himself, "Daughter, the weather is getting cold. Father has come to put on some clothes for you." With that, he took out a white dress from the bag. After about a quarter of an hour, the man said again, "Sleep well. Father will see you tomorrow." Then he stared inside the coffin for a while longer before closing it up and carrying the oil lamp away.
After the man left, South, East, North and West quickly opened the coffin, and the woman was covered with an additional white robe. "The man just now is the owner of the coffin store." East Guardian said.
Murong Yunshu frowned slightly at his words and pondered for a moment before saying, "In that case, it makes sense that this woman is the daughter of the coffin store's owner and was placed here."
Chu Changge said, "It seems this trip was in vain." His tone was full of regret, but there was no sign of regret on his face. His brows and eyes were slightly crunched together as if he was thinking about something.
Murong Yunshu glanced at him lightly and said, "It wasn't a waste of time. At least, I've had my fill at seeing such beauty."
Chu Changge smiled gently, put his arm around Murong Yunshu's waist, and said with a smile, "I don't need to go this far to get my fill. I just look at my wife."
Murong Yunshu pushed him away and said, "It's Miss Murong." After saying that, she turned around and walked towards the cave entrance.
Chu Changge touched his nose, but he was not discouraged, nor did he feel disheartened. He caught up with her as he leisurely said with a smile, "That repudiation letter has been torn to shreds by me. Madam must not take it seriously again. Otherwise, I will continue to tear things up."
"Do as you like." Murong Yunshu had an indifferent look on her face.
Chu Changge said, "Since Madam is so cooperative, this husband feels very relieved."
Without waiting for Murong Yunshu to understand the meaning of his words, he already raised her body by picking her waist up. Murong Yunshu was startled. "What are you doing?"
"Tearing something."
Tearing something? Murong Yunshu was flabbergasted for a couple of moments before she understood and instantly felt ashamed and angry. "Put me down!"
"Madam, don't be anxious. After we return to your room, your husband will put you down."
"You......" Murong Yunshu's face turned red at his flirtatious tone. After pulling herself together, she coldly said, "You and I are no longer husband and wife. It is not proper for you to treat me like this."
"Madam has long known that I don't care about etiquette, hasn't Madam?" Chu Changge smiled wickedly and added, "If you want to talk about etiquette, then don't mention the matter of repudiating your husband again so that this will be heaven's law and earth's principle."
"......"
"If you insist on repudiating your husband, that's fine. If you repudiate once, I will marry you once more. Since you will be mine sooner or later, what is the harm in exercising my rights as the husband now?" It's too much of a risk to marry into her family. If he's not careful, he can be kicked out of the house again. My role as her husband will be too passive. I will definitely find an auspicious day to marry her and bring her to the Mojiao Sect. The more Chu Changge thought about it, the more pleased he became, and his face was full of smiles.
The corners of Murong Yunshu's forehead jumped slightly, and she asked back in a salty manner, "You're going to die sooner or later anyway. Why don't you exercise your right to die in advance?"
"Fine, I'll die tomorrow."
"......" When a man thought with his lower body, his brain would suddenly become a mere ornament.
Not far behind him, South, East, North and West's faces were full of black lines. A married man really has no moral integrity, truly no moral integrity!
"But Old East, the Leader clearly said that he first noticed the coffin store because he once tracked a man to here, and that man disappeared. That means there's something wrong with the coffin store. Why did the Leader suddenly get in heat instead of pursuing it?" North Guardian muttered in disbelief.
"On that subject ......" East Guardian thought for a moment, "It can only be explained by the fact that⸺when a man is in heat, anything else can be postponed. " At the end, he added, "You won't understand this truth."
North Guardian grumbled with immense sorrow to the most reasonable South Guardian, "Old South, Old East has cornered me again and called me stupid."
The corner of the South Guardian's mouth twitched severely as he said, "He didn't call you stupid this time. He really didn't."
"He didn't?" North Guardian scratched the back of his head. Why did he always feel like Old East was scolding him?
"Stupid!" West Guardian gave him a blank look.
"You're the stupid one. Your whole family is stupid!"
"My whole family only has me."
"......"
------ Off-topic (Author) ------
After revising the content, this is the added part, where the published manuscript will be placed as the body of the content. But since it involves the VIP word count problem, Mo Feng can not post it into the original content. Thus, it can only be published in the form of extra. I apologise for any inconvenience caused to your reading.
I'm unsure how to thank the people who understand and wait for Mo Feng to finish the chapter. I will sign the actual book and send it to a random selection of ids in the comments section after the physical book is released (if you don't mind). Limited to ten copies. Thank you.
Noob Translator's Musing
I don't know if this should be an extra or not, but the 'dead woman' will make her appearance in the final chapter of the main story. Yes, you read that right. She will make her appearance.
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