Chapter 68: The Great FengShan Feast – Part 2

“Although it’s still early, there may be other warriors who have also arrived at the Central Plains, Sir, you should be careful, after all, this time….”

“Heng! We let them go today, if they provoke us again next time, this great aunt will kill them!”

Sir Hai said, “It’s a pity, Ming ChangYan was in perfectly good condition, how could he just die? I really wanted to spare with him to see just how powerful the Central Plain’s number one is.”

She threw her finished apple core in her hand outside the street.

There came an “ouch,” and a man’s voice spoke, “Who threw that!”

Sir Hai walked out of the alleyway, patted her hands, raised her eyebrow, and shamelessly boasted, “I threw it, so what?”

She said this sentence in the Central Plain’s dialect, so it wasn’t as fluent.

When she looked down and saw the man in front of her, she was stunned for a moment before saying in a good mood, “I don’t put my hands on handsome men, leave!”

Upon hearing this, the “handsome man” was speechless, “Jiejie, you’re so unreasonable! You’ve already put your hands on me! How haven’t you put your hands on me, did you think that apple core was smashed by shaoxia himself!”

Hearing him address himself as “shaoxia,” Sir Hai asked with fascination, “You also practice martial arts?”

This person, who just came out of the Ninety-Ninth Palace and came to deliver his signature to Zhao XiaoLan, was precisely Ming ChangYan.

To get to Egret Academy, he had to walk through the main street. He had just been picking up a novel from a passing stall when he was unexpectedly hit by an apple core!

In the past, Ming ChangYan definitely wouldn’t have let his guard down so easily. But recently he’s been cared for by Huai Yu a little too well, so he’s felt somewhat lighter these days. However, another reason could be that Sir Hai hadn’t thrown that apple core with an intent on killing, so Ming ChangYan didn’t take it as seriously. It was his own fault for not being as conscientious enough!

Ming ChangYan said, “What’s wrong? I’m a practitioner of martial arts, does that deserve getting hit by you?”

Sir Hai said, “In that case, I’ll let you strike back. But let me tell you in advance, if I kill you, then it’s none of my business.”

Ming ChangYan laughed, “No way.”

Sir Hai withdrew her hand and asked, “Why not?”

Ming ChangYan randomly selected a book and joked, “Because I don’t hit women, and you don’t hit handsome guys, we’re destined to not fight.”

Sir Hai was slightly taken back.

After a while, she suddenly burst into laughter, “Interesting! Interesting! You Central Plain’s men are interesting!”

Ming ChangYan quickly corrected, “No. Jiejie, it’s this shaoxia who’s interesting, there’s no man in the Central Plains quite as interesting as me.”

Sir Hai thought about it, then nodded, “You’re right. The bald men in the Central Plains are very boring, smelly, rotten prawns that dared to molest me.”

Ming ChangYan gave this a brief thought before figuring it out.

It must’ve been the bald donkeys of XiaoHan Temple. With their dishonest limbs, when they saw a good-looking woman walking down the street, they must’ve decided to take liberties with her. However, now that the Great FengShan Feast is coming up, many foreign guests must have already arrived in advance. At this moment, with all the experts getting together, among them are hidden talents as well as masters coming in from all countries. XiaoHan Temple were self-righteous snobs who were accustomed to terrorizing the people of the Central Plains. They were only looking for trouble by running heads with experts from overseas!

For a while, Ming ChangYan chuckled at their misfortune, completely agreeing with Sir Hai’s statement, happily raining curses upon XiaoHan Temple’s bald donkeys.

The person beside Sir Hai whispered a few words into her and she cupped her hands at Ming ChangYan, “It’s inconvenient to talk today, let’s chat another day.”

Ming ChangYan waved his hand and turned around, leaving the matter behind him. The bookseller asked him, “Young master, you wanted to buy this book?”

Ming ChangYan didn’t even look at what book he bought, putting it straight into his bag, “What’s the matter?”

The bookseller shook his head and chuckled, “Nothing, nothing, I just never expected the young master to like these sort of things!”

Ming ChangYan said, “What, you sell books yourself and look down on people who buy them? Is it specified in the national law that I’m not allowed to read books?”

The bookshelf exclaimed, “No no no! Buy it! Buy it! Right, seeing that you’re quite handsome, I’ll give you another copy! Ai, to tell you the truth, these books are hard to sell!”

Ming ChangYan took the extra that the bookseller gave him and was about to open it. However, the bookseller suddenly raised his voice and yelled, “WAIT!!!! DON’T!!!!!”

Ming ChangYan was taken back by his abrupt shout, his hand pausing, “What’s the matter with you? If you have something to say, say it, don’t just start groping around.”

The bookseller patted off some non-existent dust from his clothes and whispered, “Just, just don’t open it here, young master do you understand!”

Ming ChangYan raised an eyebrow.

The bookseller also raised his eyebrows.

Everything was conveyed through the silence.

But in truth, Ming ChangYan didn’t understand at all, but didn’t want to show his ignorance. So he put the picture album away, placing it across his chest and making his way to Egret Academy.

On the way, Ming ChangYan flipped through the book and muttered, “Why didn’t he want me to see it? Didn’t you sell it to me for me to read? Just watch me read it!”

What he flipped through was the one he’d picked up from the stall, not the one that the bookseller had given him.

The first page was a colorful illustration depicting two men under the moon with flowers fluttering around them, extremely romantic.

Ming shaoxia didn’t look at the pictures when reading, often going straight to the content. The book begins with two shaoxia’s, one was as fragile as a willow, Pu Liu*,  and the other handsome and burly, Kui Wu*.

(TN: This is kinda funny, they address these two shaoxia’s as what they literally look like. Pu Liu means delicate/fragile willow, and Kiu Wu just means tall and sturdy.)

First of all, this Pu Liu shaoxia couldn’t walk two steps without softly panting with teardrops glistening in his eyes.

Reading up to here, Ming ChangYan commented: Why is his body so weak when they practice martial arts? He must not have learned it right, if he were to come to my TianQing, his body would strengthen and he’d be able to scale walls and vault over eaves in less than a month. 

Continuing on, it described how this Kui Wu shaoxia saved Pu Liu shaoxia from the hands of a traitor.

Ming ChangYan nodded and evaluated: Yes, what a chivalrous move! Pu Liu shaoxia must be extremely heartfelt over that experience. If someone were to treat me so sincerely, I’d become sworn brothers with him, I wouldn’t care repaying him with my life if I had to.

And sure enough, according to the plot development of the novel, at this moment, Pu Liu shaoxia was extremely moved and rendered speechless for a while. Kui Wu shaoxia carried him in his arms—reading up to here, Ming ChangYan rubbed his chin and thought: Carried him in his arms? That’s weird, it’s not like he’s poisoned, why carry him! Besides, isn’t it better to carry him on his back? This….always make them seem like a woman.”

After a second thought, he straightened out his thinking.

“It’s fine, besides Huai Yu’s carried me several times before, it’s common between friends to not care about those intricate courtesies!”

Ming ChangYan continued reading. In the book, that Pu Liu shaoxia was carried into a maple forest, and beside that forest was a brook with dead grass on its shorelines, perfect for resting.

Kui Wu shaoxia then took off his clothes—Ming ChangYan slightly widened his eyes and took a closer look, suspecting he had missed something, he flipped to the front to take a look then thought: Weird! He’s not injured, why is he taking his clothes off? Is this a second-hand book with missing pages?

Right after that, Kui Wu shaoxia seemed to have wanted to verify Ming ChangYan’s statement. Instead of taking off his clothes, it switched to him taking off his pants!

The more he looked, the more confused Ming ChangYan became, he began wondering whether he had read the book properly. Was his friend’s injury on his feet?

He frowned and continued on reading, this time even more thoroughly. 

The more he read, the more unsightly it became.

Ming ChangYan abruptly shut the book, his face quickly flushing red.

As he walked, he stumbled over a stone on the ground, hitting his chin and nearly bit his tongue. 

The book in his hand was like a fiery piece of coal, not only was it burning his hands, but it had also burned his face red.

What, what is this?? Between a man and a man….you can also…..

Right at this moment, a female voice suddenly called out, “Hey! Why are you here!”

Upon hearing this voice, Ming ChangYan was suddenly afraid of being found out, promptly attempting to hide the book in his hands. But his actions were too noticeable and in addition to that, he was too nervous. A-Jun spotted it at once.

“What are you hiding!”

Ming ChangYan’s hand trembled, causing the book to fall to the ground.

Sharp-sighted and quick with her hands, A-Jun immediately jumped down from Duan Min and picked up the fallen book, turning it over. She widened her eyes and became slack-jawed, watching Ming ChangYan with fixed eyes. 

Ming ChangYan, “….”

“Let me state first that….”

A-Jun lowered her voice and said excitedly, “So you like reading these too!”

Ming ChangYan, “Huh?”

A-Jun expressed, “My fellow kindred spirit ah! Ai, and I thought I was the only one who liked these things. I’ve already finished reading the book you have here a while back! I have some new ones, do you want to read them, I can lend them to you. But you’ll have to read it in secret, if by any chance Huai Yu-gege discovers it, he’ll confiscate it!”

Ming ChangYan was silent for a moment before saying, “It seems that you’re very experienced.”

A-Jun recalled a painful experience and sighed, “Don’t say it, Huai Yu-gege’s already confiscated quite a lot of these books. You have to be really careful, he doesn’t like these things!”

Ming ChangYan said, “Ok ok ok, since you like it so much, just take it! I’m going to look for Liu Kuang, yield the road for me.”

A-Jun went, “Gentlemen don’t take the love of someone else, you should hold onto it. Why are you looking for Teacher Liu, bring me along with you, I want to come too!”

Ming ChangYan said, “You’re already all the way here, why don’t you go up there yourself?”

A-Jun suddenly blushed and voiced, “If I told you to take me up, then take me up! You’re so annoying! Haven’t you heard that a sister-in-law is like a mother!”

Her words were astonishing after Ming ChangYan had just read that world-shattering, supernatural cut-sleeved*, piece of literature. His mind went completely blank, unable to even refute or tease A-Jun about it. His brain was in complete tangles, finally saying, “If you wanna follow then just follow!”

(TN: 断袖; cut-sleeves AKA homosexual. I’m adding this just in case people didn’t know)

A-Jun frolicked behind him, walking the “difficult journey” with him.

Ming ChangYan was ladened with worry, noticing this, A-Jun asked him, “What’s wrong? Was that the first time you’ve read this kind of book? Got scared?”

Upon hearing this, Ming ChangYan shook his head, “Not really.”

As the one with the experience here, A-Jun reassured him, “Actually, the first time I saw these kinds of books I was surprised too! But after the surprise, I felt that the love between two men was quite exciting! Compared to the love between men and women……all in all, there is something rather witty about it!”

Ming ChangYan exclaimed, “Hey!”

A-Jun continued, “That story there was written by QinYue-Jun! I like reading his stories, his stories are always written better than the ones you find elsewhere!”

Ming ChangYan was stunned for a moment, “QinYue-Jun? This guy again!”

He quickly took out the book and took a look at its cover. As expected, at the very bottom were the four words “By QinYue-Jun.”

While they were chatting, the two had already arrived at the entrance of Egret Academy.

Liu Kuang was currently eyeballing Zhao XiaoLan as he wrote his essay; in his hands was a piece of paper with the ink still drying, clearly something Zhao XiaoLan just recently finished.

A-Jun cheerfully shouted, “Teacher Liu!”

Liu Kuang set down his pen, looking up and smiling at them, “You’re here, sit, there’s tea on the table, please help yourself.”

Instead of drinking his tea, Ming ChangYan moved to face Liu Kuang and knocked on his table, “Let me ask you, is there a gentleman named QinYue-Jun working for your Jianghu Daily?”

Liu Kuang was a bit taken back before saying, “Yes. Why are you asking about him?”

Ming ChangYan gritted his teeth as he pulled out the book from his arms. Finding a relatively covert area, he gently placed the book down in fear of making too much of a commotion before fuming, “Do you not care that he’s writing this kind of stuff!”

Immediately after he laid eyes on the book, Liu Kuang’s expression became indescribable.

Ming ChangYan went on, “QinYue-Jun that menace, granted that I didn’t want to tell him off before, but now that there’s little to no regulations, he can go off and write nonsense like this! Has he not been disciplined enough by Xiu LingLong? If there’s ever a day that this shaoxia catches him, this shaoxia is tying him up and leaving him somewhere to hang for three days and three nights!”

While listening to him, an unnatural look flashed across Liu Kuang’s face. Changing the subject, he said, “What’s the matter with you, don’t you have Yun Qing? For you to read these books, aren’t you afraid of him getting jealous?”

Ming ChangYan’s words came to a spontaneous stop.

Shocked, he suddenly said in a stern and upright voice, “Don’t tell me that in your eyes, this is the kind of relationship between Huai Yu and me?”

Liu Kuang was also shocked, blurting out, “Isn’t it?”

This was translated by https://poppyscanlations.video.blog/, any repost of this is stolen and if you steal my work I’ll hang you up for three days and three nights

Chapter 68!! And on the day before Thanksgiving too!

I’m getting a much needed time off of classes, so I’ll start translating chapter 69 during this break!

If you see any grammatical/translation errors please notify me!! I only post these chapters at like 1-2 am in the morning so my brain isn’t functioning right (ﾟヮﾟ)

Anyway, I hope you guys are staying healthy! Have an amazing day~~~

 Chapter 67 : Table of Contents : Chapter 69