"Who are you?" Fu Chengfeng asked.
"Chu Murong."
His name took Fu Chengfeng by surprise. He had been searching for Chu Changge for many years and knew very well that Chu Changge had a son with Murong Yunshu, whose surname was Chu and named Murong. Chu Changge had only one son and one daughter. If Rong Yi had not lied to him, then the young man in front of him should be the current His Majesty.
In terms of seniority, Chu Murong should call him 'Senior Uncle'. In terms of social rank, he had to call him 'Your Majesty'.
This situation made things difficult for Fu Chengfeng. He actually wanted to call Chu Murong 'eldest brother-in-law'.
While Fu Chengfeng was still undecided about where to place his chess piece1, Chu Murong spoke up. "I give you two choices: never appear in front of Yi-er or in this world." He said coolly.
Fu Chengfeng had already seen from Chu Murong's sour expression that this conversation would be unpleasant. Still, he had not expected the other party to be so direct and not take him seriously at all. This demand made Fu Chengfeng, who was naturally proud, very unhappy. If he were unhappy, he would not make the other party happy either, even if the other party was his future brother-in-law.
Fu Chengfeng laughed disdainfully and asked, "What if I don't choose any?"
Chu Murong: "Then I'll choose it for you."
"Okay. It's rare that someone is willing to make decisions for me. I..." His voice stopped abruptly, and Fu Chengfeng's face instantly turned pale. He suddenly found it difficult to breathe, as if he was being strangled by an invisible hand. But he could clearly see Chu Murong standing motionlessly in place, not using his qi2, let alone making any movement.
Fu Chengfeng suddenly remembered what his master once said: "The highest state of movement is stillness. When you can restrain your enemy without moving, you have completed your training."
Unexpectedly, Chu Murong attained this state of movement at a young age, allowing him to kill people invisibly.
With just one move, Fu Chengfeng knew he had lost the battle and had no room to manoeuvre.
But accepting a loss was not the same as giving in.
"Then I'll also give you two choices: don't interfere with what's going on between me and Yi-er, or just kill me." Fu Chengfeng said with his head held high, neither haughty nor humble.
"Are you really not afraid of death?" Chu Murong asked.
When Fu Chengfeng heard this question, he burst out laughing. "When I came to this world, I had no intention of returning alive."
Chu Murong's handsome face revealed a few moments of surprise with a hint of appreciation. "I have heard these words from another person I greatly respect." Chu Murong said.
"I hope your respect for that person can make you choose the former." Fu Chengfeng was referring to the choice he had just given Chu Murong.
Chu Murong raised his thick, slanting eyebrows slightly and pressed, "Do you think you're worthy of Yi-er?"
"Between me and her, there is no question of whether we are worthy of each other or not." Fu Chengfeng replied confidently.
Chu Murong curled his thin lips into a faint smile and said, "That's not the answer I want."
In an instant, Fu Chengfeng felt as if the force at his throat had increased tenfold, and the scene before him began to blur.
"I'll ask you again: do you think you are worthy of Yi-er?"
Fu Chengfeng resisted with all his might. When he finally caught his breath, he replied stubbornly: "Even if you kill me, my answer will not change. Between me and her, there is no question of who is worthy of whom."
Chu Murong frowned and stated, "I don't like you."
"I'm glad we finally found a tacit understanding. I don't like you either," Fu Chengfeng countered.
Chu Murong laughed out loud. "I'm beginning to admire you."
Chu Murong had come here for two purposes: to bring Rong Yi back to the palace and to test Fu Chenfeng's character to see if he was worthy of Rong Yi's trust.
So far, Fu Chengfeng had not let him down.
Such a result made Chu Murong very happy. He couldn't wait to start beating the gongs and drums and setting off firecrackers to immediately marry off his meizi3. If he didn't marry off that demon, he would sooner or later go down in history for having 'excessive wasteland'.
He genuinely didn't understand why that demon enjoyed picking a consort for him and never got tired of it.
So far, his harem could no longer be described as 'three palaces, six courtyards and 72 concubines'. In order to provide a safe haven for women he had never seen in the harem, he had extended the palace four times in the past three years. For this reason, he was scolded by the Imperial Censor for two years. In the third year, which was this year, the Imperial Censor stopped scolding him and found another way to vent his anger——by writing it down in the historical record.
What a lifetime of fame he had!
God knew he was so busy being a hard-working citizen that he didn't even have time for ***!
The more he thought about it, the more his heart ached, so he might as well not think about it.
Chu Murong firmly suppressed the things on his mind and continued gloatingly, "It's just a pity that my admiration can't change Yi-er's opinion of you."
By this time, the force that was choking Fu Chengfeng's neck had disappeared. He took a deep breath to ease the feeling of oppression in his body, then asked, "What does she think of me?"
Chu Murong: "She thinks you are not good enough for her."
The corners of Fu Chengfeng's mouth slightly twitched as he denied, "That was just her illusion."
"That is the real her." Chu Murong gave Fu Chengfeng a meaningful look and continued, "If you can't accept this fact, give up on her as soon as possible. I can't bear to kill you anymore, so don't make it difficult for me."
"......" Do all members of the Chu family speak so arrogantly? Even if he weren't as good as Chu Murong in martial arts, he wouldn't let him kill him just because he could. Since he couldn't fight, he could still escape, right? Fu Chengfeng endured his rising blood and swallowed his dissatisfaction as he calmly said, "I know that she has two personalities, and I've seen both of them before."
Chu Murong: "She doesn't have two personalities."
Fu Chengfeng looked confused. "But I have clearly seen a different side of her."
"That is the real her." Chu Murong repeated these words.
Fu Chengfeng was slightly dazed and pondered momentarily before saying uncertainly, "Are you saying that the latter personality is the real her, and what I saw before was just her pretending?" That girl was pretty good at pretending if that was the case.
A noob translator, きつね, translated this noob translation. Please read this chapter at xin-shou.site. If you read this in another location other than site stated, it has been taken without the translator's permission. Please don't support this kind of act.
"It wasn't a pretence; it was an accident." When Chu Murong said 'accident', his expression was unusually unnatural.
Fu Chengfeng did not miss the change in Chu Murong's expression. His eyes narrowed slightly, and he asked, "What accident?"
Chu Murong: "You should ask her about this. She should be close to remembering it."
At that moment, a resentful, murderous voice came from afar, "It's not that I'm about to remember. I've already remembered!" Along with this voice, a flaming red silhouette flew in from not far away. Her unpowdered beauty was tinged with a layer of innate demonic charm. At the same time, her elegance and delicate figure carried an oppressive aura that could trample the world beneath her feet.
Fu Chengfeng was stunned by Rong Yi's appearance, and his eyes fixed on her in fascination, unable to move.
Rong Yi did not notice Fu Chengfeng's gaze. At that moment, she only had Chu Murong in her eyes.
Her beautiful eyes curved slightly into the shape of a crescent moon, and her pink, tender cherry lips hooked up into a pleasing arc. Rong Yi smiled as she approached Chu Murong and leisurely asked, "Imperial Brother, do you think I won't rebel?"
Chu Murong could not have been more familiar with this kind of expression. It was a harbinger of her retaliation. Chu Murong was not afraid of Rong Yi's revenge, but he was scared of her choosing a new consort for him. He was terrified. "There is no need for you to rebel. If you want to sit on the Dragon Throne, I will immediately write an edict to abdicate in favour of someone more worthy." He had a 'let's discuss this' look on his face.
"Writing an edict to abdicate in favour of someone more worthy? How boring that would be. I enjoy the process of palace mutiny." Rong Yi casually said as she cracked her fingers.
Fu Chengfeng's face was full of black lines. Was this person truly the naive, simple-minded girl he knew?
Chu Murong's face was also streaked with black lines, and he said bitterly, "Imperial Sister, there are outsiders here. Can't you give your xiongzhang4 some face?"
The smile on Rong Yi's face intensified as she twirled her index finger through the hair scattered around her shoulder with interest and asked, "Did you ever think of saving me some face when you poisoned my tea?"
"It wasn't poison." Chu Murong corrected, "It was just a medicine to make you slightly less active."
"I know." Rong Yi, still smiling, said, "You could have said it more subtly; it's a drug that turns people into idiots."
That wasn't subtle at all, okay? The corner of Chu Murong's mouth slightly twitched as he continued to defend himself, "You haven't turned into an idiot, though."
Rong Yi: "That's because I have a good foundation and can still be so smart after taking that drug."
"......" It was a statement he could not deny.
Rong Yi and Chu Murong continued to argue, listing and settling old scores one by one. Meanwhile, Fu Chengfeng, listening to the conversation from the side, felt like he was in the middle of the clouds and fog5. He had always been confident in his intelligence, but he was still at a loss when faced with a dialogue that involved such a large amount of information. "Before you two settle your account6, can you give me some background on the story first? There have been too many unexpected events lately, and my brain doesn't have enough room to take it all in." Fu Chengfeng interjected.
At that moment, Rong Yi suddenly realised that Fu Chengfeng was also there, and she immediately shed her arrogance. With a rare little girl's sorrow on her face, she said: "I was blinded by hatred just now that I didn't see that you were here. I'm sorry."
"Imperial Sister, the word 'hate' is too much." Chu Murong reminded, and in his heart, he was deeply disgusted by the behaviour of his own meizi3, who turned from a demon into a good girl when she saw her future husband.
"You almost turned me into an idiot." Rong Yi also reminded her own xiongzhang4 that this was not just a simple hatred but a bitter and deep-seated hatred where they could not even live under the same sky7.
Seeing the two about to argue again, Fu Chengfeng quickly interrupted, "Background of the story?"
Rong Yi gave Chu Murong an irritated look and said, "Here's the thing."
"Wait a minute." Chu Murong interjected, "Before you tell the details of what happened, I want to make one thing clear. I have done a lot to make you the good girl you are today. Please don't let hatred blind you to my goodness."
Rong Yi's lips curled into a smirk upon hearing these words. "Imperial Brother, are you afraid Big Brother Fu will avenge me after I tell him what happened?"
Big Brother Fu... that was a quick change of address. Chu Murong was a little upset. He felt as if his little girl had just grown up and become someone else's family member in the blink of an eye. "He is not my opponent," Chu Murong pointed out.
Rong Yi: "But if he were to join forces with me, we could turn you into an idiot."
"Yi-er, that was an accident." Chu Murong once again defended himself.
Rong Yi was about to say, 'I can also make you an idiot by accident', when she heard Fu Chengfeng take the lead by saying, "I can avenge you first, and then listen to the story's background."
Footnotes Full List
- Chinese idiom: hesitate
- vital energy
- (dialect) younger sister
- a respectful form of address for an elder brother
- (fig) puzzled
- to get one's revenge
- Chinese idiom: absolutely irreconcilable
きつね's Recommendation
There's a donghua (Chinese animation) that I'm watching right now. It's called Link Click, produced by LAN Studio and Haoliners Animation League, and released in Bilibili and Funimation. It has become one of my favourite donghuas after Fairies Album (I love the art and the stories), God Troubles Me (I love the humour) and No Doubt In Us (I love the manhua).
It told the story of Cheng Xiaoshi, who could travel back in time through photos and Lu Guang, who could track what happened to whoever took a photo 12 hours after it was taken.
At first, I gave it a chance because it was well drawn, and I had nothing else to watch at that time - no good anime (I've watched Demon Slayer so many times already), C-drama, K-drama or J-drama. Who would have thought that I got sucked into the story and cried a few times because of it? And I love the ending song of the first season and the opening song of the second season. Apart from the opening of the second season, I love love love the short scene of the main characters in 3D.
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Black Belly Wife