Chapter 6: Fallen Gentleman – Part 5
Translated by: Ritpoppy
Edited by: Ren
w.a.n.g ShaoShi was seized by the 13 Guardians and after a while was escorted back to the Bamboo House.
Ming ChangYan"s att.i.tude was stirred and was clutching onto a thigh, his pretty face tear-stained as he wailed, "I don"t want to go back to the Bamboo House!"
The emperor had always liked beautiful women, seeing that Ming ChangYan"s face was glistening with teardrops, he softheartedly said, "If you don"t want to return to the Bamboo House, then where do you want to go?"
Ming ChangYan, "As long as it"s not the Bamboo House, I can go anywhere else. Ming ChangYan caused two people within the palace to lose their lives, and had w.a.n.g JieJie scared senseless, I believe that the next person he"s going to harm will be me!"
The emperor replied, "You and Ming ChangYan have no grudges with each other, why would he harm you?"
Ming ChangYan urged, "How would I know? Maybe, he"s jealous of my beauty."
The emperor let out a hearty laugh, "You sure are interesting, it"s been many years since I ascended the throne, but there has never been a palace concubine who"s spoken to me like this before."
Ming ChangYan cupped his hands together and bowed with his hands held in front of him, "Your Majesty has a generous personality, please allow me to go live somewhere else. Apart from the Bamboo House, anywhere will do."
The emperor gazed at him in fascination, and said, "Anywhere will do?"
Ming ChangYan happily smiled, "Of course, even the firewood shack will do, I won"t complain."
The emperor replied, "Then tonight you and I…."
Imperial Concubine Yuan let out a delicate cry and fainted in the emperor"s embrace. This caused the other half of the emperor"s sentence to be cut off, wide-eyed, he shouted, "Call upon the Imperial Doctor! Yun Qing, come over here to take a look, see if the Imperial Concubine has been infected by the malicious gas!"
Yun Qing abided to his orders and stepped forward, with quick steps he stood in front of Imperial Concubine Yuan"s living room. He pulled out some rolled up red string from his chest, "Would the eunuchs who have no fixed duties at this time please go out? To avoid getting infected by the Imperial Concubine"s malicious gas. Your Majesty"s body possess a great number of gold*, you musn"t remain here, take care of your dragon body**."
(*TN: "万金之躯"; a term to describe someone who"s of value and is respected.)
(**TN: "龙体"; Chinese dragons symbolize power, wealth, prosperity, and strength. Often used on those who are worthy and have a high status in society.)
Ming ChangYan"s gaze was fixated on "The Common People"s Order" that Yun Qing was grasping on to as all sorts of feelings welled up inside his heart.
That blade has been following him for 18 years, nowadays it"s being held in the other"s hand. It seemed that just a few years ago Ming ChangYan was flushed with success, within a single day, he fell in the water and became a worthless dog. The fact that these days, he can"t even defeat an Imperial Bodyguard, really makes him want to sigh endlessly.
At 5 to 7:15* in the morning, Ming ChangYan carried his bags, and moved into Lotus Terrace"s small Listening Lotus Building.
(*TN: "酉时"; Could either be at 5:15 or 7:15 in the morning, whichever one you want to use.)
Peony plucked a few lotuses from Lotus Terrace and brought the wet lotuses into the Listening Lotus Building, "I"m going to place these lotuses in the room, ShaoShi likes the smell of flowers, and so do I. It smells better than incense."
He heard that this small Lotus Building has been uninhabited for ages. Palace eunuchs received orders and arrived an hour in advance to tidy up the Listening Lotus Building. Ming ChangYan pushed the door open and entered, ordered both Fu Ling and Peony to withdraw, and eagerly laid down on the bed. Resting his hand behind his head, while crossing his legs, his mind glanced over the information behind the ZhaoHe court matter, and thought:
This w.a.n.g ShaoShi is truly strange and bewildering, why insist that I"m the murderer? I"m 80% sure she"s just acting as a fool. This shaoxia is very well still here! Where did this ghost come from? How come I didn"t know! There"s definitely something weird going on.
He switched his legs, grabbed a steamed bun from his chest, and while chewing thought: That Moondrop Needle indeed looked quite like mine, not in least lacking in any aspects. If I wasn"t the person himself, I"m afraid that I too would blame this matter on Ming ChangYan. It"s a pity that I didn"t grab more needles a few moments ago, unlucky, unlucky.
Ming ChangYan sat up, stuffed the half eaten bun back into his chest, and deeply pondered: Why would she cause trouble for me without a good reason and thinks of me this way? Is it possible that this shaoxia owes her a love dept, and had once disappointed her?
Ming ShaoXia believed that throughout his entire life, he never purposely chased after girls. The number of young ladies that he"s disappointed in the first half of his life, even just for the rich young ladies, if there isn"t ten thousand, then there would at least be eight thousand. Since he gets a headache from just thinking about other people"s faces, he might as well not think of them at all. He shouted towards the doorway, "Fu Ling JieJie, I"m thirsty, is there anything to drink?"
Fu Ling poured him a cup of flower tea, he drank the tea like he was drinking alcohol, undoubtedly wasting good tea. After drinking all of it, he wiped his mouth and asked, "Ai, Fu Ling JieJie, I"m so scared."
Fu Ling repiled, "Why are you scared? You weren"t the ones who killed them, injustice will be served and debts paid, even if they want revenge, it wouldn"t concern our ShaoShi."
Ming ChangYan, "Then those two people that died, where are they?"
Fu Ling answered, "If someone were to die within the palace, if they have a family, then they"d notify their family members to come pick up the body. If they don"t have any family members, then they"d find a time to drag the body outside and throw it in the river or the Burial Mounds."
Ming ChangYan sighed.
Peony helped remove hairpins from him, spotted that he lost half of his breast, hesitated and stopped all of a sudden, and said, "Both Aunt Chun and Li GongGong were murdered, and it involved supernatural beings. Imperial Concubine Yuan isn"t willing to let this matter go, and His Majesty spoils her, their bodies definitely haven"t been handled recklessly. This servant thinks that Aunt Chun"s body must be stored in ChangPing Palace Hall."
He yawned, stood up, and walked from the vanity table to the side of his bed. Ming ChangYan rolled down on the spot, hugged the quilt and bundled himself into a ball.
Ming ChangYan said, "Where"s ChangPing Palace Hall?"
Both Fu Ling and Peony didn"t reply, their movements seemed to stop as well.
Ming ChangYan said, "Oh, I just asked without thinking. I"m tired, I want to rest. These two good JieJie, there"s no need for you to serve me, I"m going to sleep."
After 4 hours, the night sky was dark, from the Listening Lotus Building, a window was pushed open.
ChangPing Palace Hall is located in the northernmost area of QiYang Palace, it"s the most desolate place and has the most heavy negative energy. This building was originally Imperial Concubine Xi"s palace, but after her death, it became the Cold Palace. All year round, it is used to store dead bodies, thus the resentful energy skyrocketed, the fog and gloomy clouds made people feel faint, and the cold air dense. Even palace eunuchs on night shift distanly pa.s.s by and quicken their pace to leave faster.
However, at this moment, there was a person fumbling outside of ChangPing Palace Hall, looking in all directions, finding an opportunity to enter: This person is precisely Ming ChangYan.
Even though Ming ShaoXia was a chivalrous hero, in his early years, because TianQing Sect was in poverty, he dragged a few youngsters, and in order to feed his family, he became skilled in sneaking around and stealing. When he was younger and used the needle to kill, after a wealthy family died, Ming ShaoXia had to look past the hardships and went to pick up the needles that he threw out, washed it so it could be used again later. Unless the needle broke itself, Ming ShaoXia was able to use the needle for up to 10 years.
The terrain within the palace was arduous, he did not have any weapons to protect himself with. This matter of stealing needles must be imperative.
Leaping over ChangPing Palace Hall"s high walls, with a whoosh, Ming ChangYan"s movements were not in the slightest bit sloppy, and as light as a feather, he landed on the ground. He patted his hands, stroked his hair coquettishly, and sighed in regret: Even though this ShaoXia lost all of his cultivation, his skill and agility are was still elegant, I"m so amazing.
Ming ChangYan lifted his skirt and quickly flipped it, realizing that more than half of the thin cloth was ripped from climbing over the wall. Realizing this, Ming ChangYan simply tied the remaining parts below his hip, revealing the pants within. After he finished handling the dress, he raised his head and saw that in the distant lobby, there were two corpses: This must be Aunt Chun and Li GongGong.
Ming ChangYan carefully walked over towards the table. The two"s corpses were closely covered using a white sackcloth, the dirty blood from their throats soaking through the cloth and creating a pool of blood. He promptly lifted the white cloth and found that the Moondrop Needle was no longer on their necks. The canthus of her eye as split open, her mouth and nose were opened wide, and in her mouth was filled with rotten flesh, making it hard to look straight at it. Anyone who saw this dead body in the middle of the night would be terrified. Ming ChangYan knitted his eyebrows together, set the white cloth down, and resolved to go find the Moondrop needle first.
He deeply pondered: The Moondrop needle is an important object, they wouldn"t carelessly place it somewhere, I need to look closely.
This was translated by , any repost or translation of this work is stolen. If you steal translations, I hope you get eaten by a feral ghost.
If Ming ShaoXia said he"d do it, he"d definitely do it. The already messy ChangPing Palace Hall, after being disheveled by him, became even more disorganized and dirty. Finally, he found the needles in the southern corner of the lobby on a worn down table. It was evident that the Moondrop Needle was pulled out from the corpses with force, the needle had the remains of both flesh and blood, making it very nauseating.
Yet Ming ChangYan ignored that fact and happily stored the needles away into his bag. The needles were still his weapon of choice, and seeing it at this moment, he had an exceptionally amiable feeling inside him. While Ming ShaoXia cleaned the needles, at the same time, he removed the strings on the needles, looking like what he picked up was a treasured object.
Suddenly, his ears picked up a faint voice: "What do you think of this needle?"
From head to toe, all of Ming ChangYan"s body hairs stood up, his scalp began to feel numb, and he jumped 3 feet in the air. He hurriedly took five huge steps back, resulting in him sliding a few meters backward, unable to properly stabilize his body in time, he dropped to the floor. In this room, besides himself, there are only two corpses. It can"t be zombies, right? Is this place haunted?!
He lifted his head to take a glance, but all he saw was a young man standing in front of him, flamboyantly wearing bright golden clothing in the middle of the night, obviously very confident with his cultivation skills. After looking again, this person…seems familiar.
The night was dark and the wind was extensive, no one bothered to light the lamps within ChangPing Palace Hall, Ming ShaoXia could only rely on the feeble moonlight to look at the baseless figure of the young man.
He was still in shock and in doubt, but after figuring out that the person was alive, he let out the breath he had been holding in.
Immediately, Yun Qing walked towards Ming ChangYan, "It"s pitch black in here, and you"ve decided to come to this sort of place to steal."
After Ming ChangYan heard this, he diffidently thought: Steal? How is this called stealing? The Moondrop needle was originally mine, I"m taking my stuff back, how is that stealing!
Ming ShaoXia said, "Who stole? Why are you also here?!"
Yun Qing gently snorted, "Why are you asking about me?"
He bent down and looked down at the tattered Ming ChangYan, and while carrying somewhat of a smiling expression, said, "How daring of you to be able to steal stuff from a person"s corpse, are you not afraid that the feral ghosts will come eat you?"
"Feral ghosts? Who? You? Hahahaha, if a peony flower died*, wouldn"t that be beautiful?"
(*TN: "牡丹花下死"; this beginning part of the phrase is from a Chinese saying called "牡丹花下死，做鬼也風流" The peony that"s stated in this sentence describes beauty that attracts the attention of many people. What this basically says is (in a more understandable way) is "Wow look at this beautiful woman, even if she kills me, I"d still be a content ghost." I guess what Ming ChangYan is saying in that sentence is how even if this handsome young man was a feral ghost and kills/eats him, at least he"d die in the hands of a pretty person.)
"Hand over the items."
Although Ming ChangYan feels guilty for being a thief, when he"s trying to take something, he"s bold and self-confident. He could guess that 80% of his body is no match for this man, deciding to use his ident.i.ty as a female to trick this man. The "Da" in the word "DaGe*" had just come out, before footsteps could be heard from the doorway.
(*TN: "大哥"; an older brother. I"m wondering if I should change it to older brother or have it just stay ping yin. Anyway, older brother in Chinese is similar to Korea"s "Oppa" or j.a.pan"s "oniisan". Used when wanting to affectionately talk to someone.)
His expression went cold, he pounced forward, immediately bringing Yun Qing down with him, and hid behind a coffin.
It turned out to be the 13 Southern Guardians striding into ChangPing Palace Hall, Baili ordered, "Go check out the situation inside."
Suddenly, a dim yellow light faintly flared within ChangPing Palace Hall, Ming ShaoXia heart began beating rapidly, promptly withdrawing half a step back.
Ming ChangYan was concentrated, staring intensely at the lantern that the guard was holding. After walked around the area, stopped by the entrance, the guard holding the lantern began conversing with Baili.
He twitched his nose and picked up a lovely and beautiful fragrance. This fragrance has disturbed Ming ShaoXia for many days, it seems to be here, yet at the same time not, continuing to linger beside his body.
What kind of perfume was this person wearing, that smells so nice?
Ming ChangYan twirled his thumb, and pinched the other"s clothes, once again regretful: What kind of material, so soft?
If this "feral ghost" was a female, and at this moment, Ming ChangYan was over here, informally leaning towards this tender fragrance, not knowing a reason why. He couldn"t stop himself and caressed a few more times. Suddenly, the other person grabbed his hand, catching him red-handed.
The warmth from the other person"s palm steadily flowed into his own, Ming ChangYan felt that his hand was about to be sautéd alive, his face burning up, hastily trying to shake the other off. Who would"ve thought that even after trying to shake the other person off, they wouldn"t let go?!
Yun Qing solemnly gestures telling him to be quiet, "Shh."
The breath was blown beside Ming ShaoXia"s ear, causing his head to turn to mush, his brain completely crashing.
Outside the entrance, Baili and the guard haven"t left yet. The two were unwilling to give up, after walking around the hall again, and couldn"t find anyone, the guard said, "It must"ve been one of the palace"s feral cats."
Baili nodded his head, "Let"s go."
Ming ChangYan looked like he had just come in contact with green vitriol*, using all his might to pull his hand out. Yun Qing abruptly ceased his strength, causing Ming ShaoXia to fall heavily backward. Before he could get a headache and his eyes the time to blur, he stuttered, "You, You, what are you grabbing my hands for!"
(*TN: A ancient Chinese medicine that"s still used today and is mainly used to treat iron deficiency and Chlorosis/Anemia. It"s a small poison and is said to taste sour.)
Yun Qing said distainly, "I"ve already grabbed them, why are you still asking for a reason why?"
Ming ShaoXia had a breath of frustrations pent up in his heart, immediately becoming aloof, unexpectedly unable to find a reason to refute.
Yun Qing stood up, Ming ChangYan looked towards him, only now discovering that this person was very tall, and with is current height, he could probably only reach his chest. If he was to fight him—he"d most definitely lose. He clenched his teeth together, his heart in distress, thought that even though this Ming ShaoXia was a distinguished and accomplished individual—he wasn"t very well-behaved. After living for so long, he hasn"t even held hands with a girl, let alone intimately touching someone in this way.
For a moment, he was a bit sullen and depressed, but he suddenly made a stern expression, "You touch me? You"re here in the pitch dark, touching me, aren"t you womanizer?!"
Yun Qing replied, "If I"m a womanizer, then what are you supposed to be?"
Ming ShaoXia doesn"t bother with trifles when putting on air, completely ignoring his reply, tearing up his clothes till there was little left, and happily smiled, "This Young Prime Minister had an affair with a palace concubine, if people were to find out about this matter, both of us wouldn"t end up well. From what I see, wouldn"t it be better if the two of us pretend that tonight"s matter never occurred, how about it?"
Yun Qing slightly narrowed his eyes, and said, "You"re threatening me?"
Ming ChangYan crossed his arms around his chest, "If you don"t say anything, I won"t say anything."
He was pleased with himself for a long time before Yun Qing suddenly rose in revolt, grabbing his right hand, dragging him out of the palace hall. Ming ChangYan"s smiling expression became rigid, stumbled, the half-eaten steamed bun that was used as a breast rolled onto the ground. He turned pale from fear, unable to struggle free.
Yun Qing ceased his footsteps, turned around, shot a glance at the steamed bun on the floor, and raised the other"s arm. The two stared at each other"s face, Ming ChangYan shifted his neck and took a step back.
At last, Ming ShaoXia was able to clearly see his face. Beneath the moonlight, there was a distinct chill as his face had the look of frost and snow.
Ming ChangYan made the mistake to be terrified, squeezed out a smile, and said, "This Young Prime Minister, what are you trying to do?"
Yun Qing replied, "Didn"t you say you wanted to have an affair with me?"
This was translated by , any repost or translation of this work is stolen. If you steal translations, I hope you get eaten by a feral ghost.
…and scene.
What did you think of this chapter? I personally loved the ending ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Sorry, this took so long! But it"s out now.
If you see any translation/grammatical errors, please comment down below. We love reading your comments!
Anyway, I hope you have an incredible day and let us meet again in Chapter 7~ (*ゝω・)ﾉ