Chapter 41

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To let someone down

Before even letting her finish her sentence, Ye Xiudu had already appeared before her eyes and reached his hand to cover her lips giving her that warning in a low voice.

Yu Qingluo and Ye Xiudu had never stood so near each other. At this moment, she frowned uncomfortably as she could feel this lingering scent coming from his body, so she attempted to move away from him to put some distance between them.

“Keep quiet.” Ye Xiudu’s voice lowered a few tones as his gaze went first towards the roof and then towards the front entrance.

Yu Qingluo restrained herself from moving again, not saying a word.

A soft knocking sound was heard, followed by a slow-paced, sweet and gentle sounding, feminine voice: “Mr Ghost Doctor. Mister?”

Yu Qingluo kept silent and didn’t move a single bit. She could probably guess what was going on.

Ye Xiudu’s eyes narrowed as he stared at the door with a gloomy expression. This person had soundlessly come down from the roof. So she must not be one of those people in the dining hall that came seeking treatment.

“Mr Ghost Doctor, can I come in? My little sister has been inside for a long time so I’m a bit worried.” The person on the other side of the door seemed to be trying to figure out the situation inside.

Yu Qingluo and Ye Xiudu glanced at each other and simultaneously looked towards the unconscious Wu Dong in the corner of the room.

It seemed that the woman outside was the one who kidnapped Wu Dong and brought her here.

Ye Xiudu released Yu Qingluo and walked towards the unconscious woman, dragging her body behind a screen to hide it. This crude action made Yu Qingluo inwardly want to ‘clap’ in praise and say ‘bravo!’, but at the same time, she felt even more sympathetic towards Wu Dong inside of her heart.

However, in the next second, an arm circled her waist and she felt her feet lift off of the ground as Ye Xiudu jumped onto a bean in the roof and their bodies glued together in a hidden corner. ‘Instead of using his martial art skills to get rid of the woman outside, he rather use it to bully me?’

She could climb on the bean with her own two feet and didn’t need to undergo this bullying of his when trying to help her. This Qi Gong[2] skills of his or whatever it was called, were too loathsome. [1]

Yu Qingluo turned her face to glare at him. She was not satisfied with his attitude in the least, to actually just go and grab her without asking her opinion first.

Unable to bear calling out without getting an answer any longer, the woman outside finally had her patience extinguished. Her sweet and soft tone changed in a flash, becoming austere and cold: “Mr Ghost Doctor, I’m sorry to bother, I’m just worried about my little sister, I hope you don’t take offence.”

Those words were followed by the cracking noise of a door being open.

From the moment that woman had changed her tone Ye Xiudu managed to figure out who she was. He didn’t expect to come face to face with an enemy. After not seeing her for many days they actually ended up bumping into each other here. It looks like Yu Qingluo’s guess wasn’t off, this woman most likely came for him.

Covering the place where the healing wound was in his chest, Ye Xiudu’s eyes sharpened instantly, filled with frost.

Yu Qingluo didn’t take long to notice the changes in the atmosphere. She shot him a confused look before turning her attention to the woman that had just pushed the door open and entered the room.

After casting a glance, she couldn’t help but let out a sigh in amazement. Such a bright and charming person, such an alluring bearing. If she was a man, it would probably hard for her not to give herself up to this beauty.

As soon as Shuang Ke crossed the door, both her legs stopped in place and her whole mind went into a state of full alertness. Her body tensed. She doubled her focus and attention, then cautiously scouted her surroundings.

The whole room was scarily quiet and it seemed like no one was inside, even Wu Dong was gone.

Shuang Ke couldn’t hold herself from pursing her lips into a straight line and frowning, showing her present displeasure. If it wasn’t for the fact that she saw Wu Dong enter this room more than half an hour ago and not come out again, she also wouldn’t think of searching for her in here. She couldn’t help but think that Wu Dong had probably met with misfortune and was unable to make the Ghost Doctor agree to see her alone at another time to continue the treatment.

Fortunately, her subordinate came to report that they found a gap in the watertight defence of the backyard, which allowed her to sneak in while avoiding being noticed by Shopkeeper Jin.

However, she hadn’t expected the current situation, never mind not seeing the Ghost Doctor, she wasn’t even able to see another person’s shadow inside the room. Even that woman, Wu Dong, whom she threatened in order to entrust her with an important mission, was also nowhere to be seen.

The people that were in here, just where did they go to?

Shuang Ke took some steps in retreat as she had a bad premonition cross her mind.

But, before she managed to exit the room, she heard a loud banging sound and noticed that the door had suddenly closed behind her, cutting her retreat route and leaving her isolated inside of the empty room.

“Who is it? Come out!” Shuang Ke’s hands went straight to the flexible sword she kept around her waist and readied herself for combat.

Ye Xiudu sneered, and finally unwind the arm he had around Yu Qingluo’s waist. In just a few moves, he had already dropped to the ground onto his feet.

Shuang Ke turned her head, as she had been facing the door before, and when her eyes spotted Ye Xiudu, they widened in surprise. She drew the flexible sword out of the scabbard around her waist with a ‘swoosh’, pointing it to Ye Xiudu’s nose.

On the other hand, Ye Xiudu revealing himself also exposed Yu Qingluo’s hiding spot. The latter rubbed her brows as she was faced with the problem of finding a way to sneak out so she wouldn’t get caught in the crossfire of their bloody deathmatch.

She was just a benevolent and kind-hearted physician who couldn’t bear seeing blood being shed, so she would just not be here to see it.

“Ye Xiudu, you came, just as I expected.” when Shuang Ke saw him her eyes couldn’t help but glint, even a faint excitement flashing through them could be seen.

Although she couldn’t understand why would Ye Xiudu show up inside of the Ghost Doctor’s room, that didn’t make a difference for her, since all that matters was that the person had shown up in front of her. Today she must take his life so she can report this mission as a success to the mistress.

Shuang Ke’s free hand went to her waist and she brought out a finger-long bamboo tube which she aimed towards the open window and…

‘Thump!’

‘Chii~’

The two sounds were almost simultaneous, the first happened when the support which held the window open was knocked down and the shutters fell, causing Shuang Ke’s flare to hit against it and then fall on the floor, spinning twice before rolling under Ye Xiudu’s foot. The second was the sound of him extinguishing its wick, stopping it from exploding.

Shuang Ke’s eyes promptly narrowed as she focused on Yu Qingluo who was over one of the room’s beans.

Yu Qingluo shrugged her shoulders innocently “Excuse me. I wanted to hit that flare of yours. But, oopsie, I didn’t expect my skills to be this bad. I ended up missing and hitting the stick holding the window shutters up. It was my bad, sorry!” Letting her call in for reinforcements would be too troublesome, if there were too many people coming in here, they’d wreck everything around. They might even end up wrecking her plans.

Ye Xiudu wanted to laugh, this woman, really…

Shuang Ke gritted her teeth, but after a while, she ridiculed: “No big deal, even if I’m alone, it would still be more than enough to deal with you two. Ye Xiudu, you better look out for your injuries as not to repeat the scene from last time. Otherwise, you might not be able to keep escape death twice.”

Ye Xiudu’s expression was cold. He didn’t answer Shuang Ke’s provocation but the imposing aura surrounding his body became even stronger, his fingers spread open slightly.

Shuang Ke sneered, a sharp and cold glint flashed as the tip of her sword flew towards Ye Xiudu, without hesitation, aiming at his chest… towards the wound that extended through the right side of his chest to his waist.

Ye Xiudu took a step backwards and then bolted in her direction, appearing behind her in a flash. He raised his hand and attacked aiming at the back of her head.

Shuang Ke was startled, her body bent in an effortless movement, and standing on the tip of her feet, she lifted one of them to kick him backwards as her wrist rapidly pressed against the spot his wound was in his chest.

Sitting on the beam, watching from above, Yu Qingluo’s eyes were bright, she could feel her blood boiling. Ye Xiudu’s fierce and decisive movements showed no clues about the gravity of the open wounds she had treated not even two days ago. That woman’s body was so flexible and her movements so nimble, no wonder she dared to be so confident in fighting against Ye Xiudu.

Yu Qingluo was feeling euphoric, holding her breath as she watched the fight.

However, before she finished assessing the skills of each of them, Shuang Ke took a jump, aiming her sword at Yu Qingluo’s throat.

Translated by C, The Apostle of Coffee

Edited by NoveLeo, Life is a Drama

Translator’s Notes

[1] I and my ED tried to make sense of this phrase, it was so weird in the raws. I read it several times, then tried MTL, then went to search for words and expressions on Baidu…. Well, I just re-wrote it with what I think she actually wanted to express.

[2] Qi Gong – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qigong. Nowadays that’s what Qi Gong is seen as. And if you heard about it or practice it, that’s all that is. But when talking about ‘ancient era’, ‘martial arts’ novels, then it’s that kind you see in movies, people flying in the air, jumping in roofs, dancing with swords in a battle… Here the author uses in this more general and fantasy-like way. Although this novel is not a fantasy, ancient martial arts is often depicted in a fantastic manner.