Chapter 8

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That woman set a fire!

The man’s gaze followed the sound of that childish voice. Soon all the cold aura surrounding his body vanished. His expression turned… complex, as he saw that little kid walking in an unsteady gait, drunkenly swaying from side to side.

Setting a warning: Don’t let young kids drink. They are still growing and it’s not good for their brain and body development overall! This is merely a fantasy story, it shouldn’t set a bad example around.

Hearing the man’s entrance. Nannan opened his misty eyes and let out a burp. With a giggle, he asked: “Who are you~?”

“You are drunk.” the man motioned with his hand and the panther ran outside to stay put by the boulder to the side of the gate.

“Drunk? Excuse me, but this young master can drink a thousand cups without getting drunk[1], you’re bullshiting me.” Nannan hugged the wine jar like a koala, his cheeks were flushed in red as if they had been delicately dyed by rouge. “I already knew that the white-clothed uncle had some good wine hidden in his place. My poison wasn’t used in vain, my dog-like sense of smell is veeery sharp~ Hehehehehe, hic.”

The man let an annoyed expression. His eyes swept through the wine cellar, after, the stern facade finally was showing signs of cracking. He crouched and grabbed Nannan by the back of his collar, lifting him up he said: “I’ll take you outside.

This little devil seemed to be only 4 or 5 years old but he managed to put into his belly most of the contents of the cellar. Honestly, he wasn’t sure if this should be considered an ability or not.

Nannan turned his head to look at him, narrowing his eyes he reached a hand to pinch the man’s cheek. “You’re so handsome. Almost half as handsome as me. Not bad, not bad, ah~”

“…” The man felt his eyelids jump. Flickering away the boy’s hand with his free hand, he said in a lower tone: “If you touch me again, I’ll chop your fingers off.”

“Chop, chop off?” Nannan tilted his head. As his consciousness wasn’t completely clear, he took a long time to grasp the exact meaning of those words. After a while, his eyes went wide with terror, his voice turned angry: “Why chop my fingers off instead of my toes? Why should you discriminate against my toes? Don’t think that just because my toes are hidden inside my shoes that they should be ignored. My toes are also made of flesh and blood and are worthy of respect. You, you… I’m going to sleep.”

As soon as he finished speaking, his head tilted to the side. Eyes closed; the boy fell asleep.

The man was… left completely speechless.

He reached a hand to rub his own forehead. Although the boy he was holding in his arms was young, he was still somewhat heavy, and the man was injured. So, his action of carrying him up caused his wound to split open again.

He frowned, a bit annoyed by the blood seeping out through his clothes and soaking through its front. So, without further delay, he turned to go out of the cellar.

Mo Xian and Shen Ying rushed towards the wine cellar and felt relieved when they saw the unconscious little guy in their Lord’s arms.

However, the moment their noses caught a bloody scent in the air their expressions underwent a drastic change. Hurrying their steps, they called out: “Lord.”

Shen Ying’s forehead was crumpling when he reached out his hands to receive Nannan from the man’s arms: “Lord, leave the kid to me. Ah-Shan, you go and call Wu Dong to come over.”

“Yes.” The servant standing by Shen Ying’s side nodded in acknowledgement and then left in hurried steps.

Mo Xian looked worried seeing the state of the child hugged in Shen Ying’s arms. So, he moved to look inside the wine cellar, without caring about anything else any longer. Soon a fierce shout resounded: “The wine I had just brewed! It’s all gone!!”

The Lord outside seemed indifferent, but Shen Ying’s expression was startled by the shout. Looking down at the Nannan who was unconscious from all the drinking, he whispered to himself “If I remember correctly, Mo Xian’s brews were enough to fill an entire shelf. How could such a small kid drink them all?”

If this naughty kid drank that much, wouldn’t he get sick or something?

(TL note: RIGHT! YOU put this irresponsible author in check, Shen Ying!)

Mo Xian was still feeling heartbroken over his wine. But Shen Ying clicked his tongue as he looked at his expressionless Lord, asking him: “Lord, was it really this kid that…”

“When he poisoned Mo Xian, he should have smelled the wine’s scent on his body. So, his ultimate goal in coming here was actually to drink this wine.” The man’s cold eyes warmed a bit as he stared at the little kid’s drunken appearance. He thought that this little kid was really an interesting one.

Shen Ying laughed, shaking his head helplessly at the same time. Raising his eyes to look at Mo Xian who was still throwing a fit inside the cellar he hurriedly backed off some steps holding the boy protectively: “Lord, I’ll take this guy to rest first. Before he gets done in by Mo Xian.”

“Hm” the man nodded, summoning the panther to his side. He gave Nannan a meaningful glance before leaving.

The previously lively cellar soon became silent. Only Mo Xian gritting his teeth in anger was left behind in front of the stone gate. As for the culprit? He was actually taken to sleep in a comfortable bed earlier on, so he wasn’t aware of anything that happened after he entered the dreamworld.

When Nannan woke up again, the sky was already bright and the warm sun rays were coming through the cracks of the window. The little boy gave a lazy stretch still reluctant to open his eyes.

It wasn’t until he felt an itch on his face and moved a hand to scratch it that he finally opened his eyes, feeling unsatisfied.

Seeing a familiar scorpion laying in his little palm, Nannan’s drowsiness was gone in an instant.

Sitting up in the bed with a fearful expression he asked the scorpion “Little, little Lily? Did my mother ask you to come? Oh no, it’s all over!! I was gone for an entire day and night. I’m sure that if I go back, she’ll strip me of my skin… I have to go and drop on my knees, [2] begging for forgiveness!

He rolled over the bed while mumbling to himself. The little feet reaching into his shoes just stopped, and after shaking his head, he muttered “That won’t work. And I also drank some wine… I just can’t not give that uncle in white the antidote, it’s just that I don’t know where he is. Sigh…” He lowered his head to speak with the small scorpion in his palms “Little Lily[3], you go give mother some reassurance of my safety. Sigh… Just blame me for being too kind. There’s no other way since I’m just a boy with a beauty that surpasses all my predecessors, unlike that poisonous beauty of my mother’s.”

The scorpion moved its tail, reacting to his words.

Nannan nodded satisfied: “Do you also think I’m right? You are really my intimate friend, Lilly. Ok! Then let’s just do it like this.”

He got out of the bed and, after finding his small purse, he took a small porcelain bottle from inside and opened it, taking a bit of the green powder inside, and smearing it onto Little Lilly’s back “Go. You must transmit to mother this kind and beautiful boy’s indignant inner thoughts”

The scorpion flickered its tail again. As soon as it was let go, it turned around and left at a fast speed. His speed was so fast that even Nannan that stood behind understood its urgency.

Little Lilly ran at an amazing speed and not long after she returned to Yu Qingluo who was still laying on the flat stone, with her eyes resting closed.

She opened her eyes sensing the movement near her, seeing the green powder smeared on the scorpion’s back she turned relieved. Since Nannan is ok, then she won’t need to worry and can just leave this damn place at once.

The problem was – she doesn’t know single a thing how to break an array.

However… she DOES have a lot of experience in luring other people out.

Raising her head towards the sun shining brightly on the sky she could determine that by now it should be almost noon. The sun at this time was hot enough to make one sunburned. She gazed towards the direction in which the leaves and flowers swayed and fell towards, with her eyes becoming brighter.

In front of her was a small and exquisite, beautiful lake. Which was, of course, was the most important element for her plan – water.

Yu Qingluo jumped into the lake in a swift motion and, using a small mirror held in between her hands, she started to focus the reflection of the sunlight into a bunch of dry leaves. It wasn’t long before it was set ablaze and the fire started spreading, consuming the flowers in the southwest direction as the breeze blew through in that direction, carrying it over.

Not long after, the secret guard once again broke into the main hall of the residence with an anxious expression on his face: “Lord, the woman trapped inside the Hundred Flowers Array just set it on fire!”

Translated by C, The Apostle of Coffee

Edited by NoveLeo, Life is a Drama

Translator’s Notes

[1] – He’s using the wording “千杯不醉” (Qiānbēi bùzuì), which literally means ‘after a thousand cups won’t be drunk’ to say that he can hold on his liquor really well and won’t be drunk. I decided to leave it as it is~

[2] – What he actually says here is: “去找根荆条负荆请罪才行” which means “To find some brambles so he can beg for punishment”.

According to my research, this is an idiom that came from the famouus Shi Ji (Records of the Great Historian, by Sima Qian), in the biography’s section. For the ones who are curious about the records, you can read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Records_of_the_Grand_Historian

And the original text in chinese of this passage can be found here: https://ctext.org/shiji/lian-po-lin-xiang-ru-lie-zhuan/ens

But, for those who want the rundown… Basically there’s a spat between the General and The Prime Minister, the first saying bad things about the minister without knowing the whole situation. In the end, finding the truth of a matter he feels ashamed and uses this method described in the idiom to show humbleness when delivering a sincere apologize. (I’m sorry for history lovers all around, for my rough, unellegant synthesis).

A picture with the scene, for a image speaks a thousand words: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS2ZELCynIvfR20sihsj67akPDsxTiG0PG5IAgqnncVFQw8oQRQzDK5f6DqDQGf7mdaycc&usqp=CAU

[3] – TL note: There’ll be Big Lilly and Little Lilly, they are the scorpions belonging to Nannan and Yu Qingluo, respectively. And oh, Nannan like to ramble nonsense all the time, so not understanding him sometimes won’t be unusual. He’s young, smart and unruly~