Chapter 42

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“Princess… Gongzi! Are you alright?” The housekeeper asked anxiously.

Zhu Yan shuddered, and appeared to be reprieved by her voice; she did not look back at him, only raised her hand and waved it, then hurriedly put her finger over her lips in a gesture of silence.

In that moment, the housekeeper finally saw the guest standing behind the window across the room.

The benefactor who had tossed out ten thousand golden pieces, was sitting there with his back turned to them, without speaking. From the back, he looked quite young, no more than mid-twenties, and although he was just standing there quietly, his aura and demeanor suggested the presence of an immense and powerful force, like the turtle slave described earlier. Although the door had been broken by someone, the other person did not turn around, but only moved his fingers around the ice decorated celadon cup, making a slight “click” noise.

The housekeeper’s heart tightened and he rushed to pull Zhu Yan away, in case she was going to cause any more trouble in a fit of anger. However, the enraged young girl only looked straight ahead, her mouth open and her lips moving as if she had swallowed a gasp of surprise.

“Sorry to have disturbed Your Excellency! Beg for pardon, apologies!” The housekeeper was afraid that the counterpart would snap any moment and quickly made amends, then pulled Zhu Yan with a tug and said in a low voice, “Let’s go quickly, my lady… come on, I’m begging you.”

As if she had come to her senses, Zhu Yan took a step backwards without making a sound, but pulled his sleeve with all her might, turned around and ran away as quickly as she could. The housekeeper was confused by this brainless move of hers and followed her out.

The two of them ran along and retreated in one breath to the corridor outside, and only after seeing that the person inside had not turned his head nor came to chase after them, Zhu Yan let out a long sigh of relief and raised her hand, wiping her forehead – so much sweat had come out on her forehead in just that instant!

“What’s going on?” The housekeeper wondered, “Princess, are you alright?”

“There’s nothing, I’m fine… just, let’s go!” She blushed a little and hurried out of the door.

As soon as they turned back, a dark shadow moved outside, the window opened and a group of men leapt in without a sound, and as soon as they saw the housekeeper, they all bowed in unison, “Chief Steward!”

“What took you so long to get here!” The steward scolded them in a low voice, “It’s all fine now, let’s go!”

They walked several steps back and bumped into the turtle slave who was rushing to the scene. Seeing that the chaos had subsided completely, the turtle slave couldn’t help but sigh in relief and chased after them with a smile on his face, “Hey Gongzi, are you leaving now? It is a rare occasion to come here, there are so many beauties in the Star Ocean Cloud, would you like to see any more of them?”

Zhu Yan took three steps forward at a time and circled out from the corridor, ignoring the turtle slave’s chatter all the way, her face clouded with uncertainty, uneasy about what she was thinking.

Suddenly, she stood still again and stomped her foot violently.

“No, no way… he must have seen me!” Zhu Yan’s expression was terrified, as if the sky was falling, and she muttered, “It’s over this time! What should I do?”

“What is it?” The housekeeper was stunned and puzzled, “What’s wrong?”

Zhu Yan ignored him and circled in place like a headless mosquito for a while before suddenly turning around and taking out a stack of silver tickets from his arms and slapping them into the turtle slave’s hand, “Take these!”

The turtle slave was taken aback, “This… what is?”

“Everything else that the gentleman in the room is being charged for is covered by me!” Zhu Yan hurriedly said, throwing all the silver tickets over to him, “Whatever he wants, you shall give it to him! Make sure you serve him well and let him go home satisfied. Understand?”

“Huh?” Both the steward and the turtle slave were shocked.

Not even a few moments ago, she barged her way in so aggressively that everyone thought there was going to be a fight over the Flower Chief, but the situation has taken a sharp turn for the worse and suddenly she’s paying for her rival in such a humble and generous manner?

“Your Excellency is not joking, is he?” The tortoise slave held the money with an incredulous look on his face.

“Who’s joking with you!” She gritted her teeth and scolded in a low voice, “Why don’t you just hurry up?”

“Yes… yes!” With the money in his hands, the tortoise slave quickly turned around with a smile on his face and tried to run away in a huff – it didn’t matter who the Flower Girl would belong to tonight, since someone wanted to keep pulling in the money, how could he refuse?

However as soon as he turned around, he bumped into someone. That person appeared from nowhere and stood behind him without a noise. He was just about to speak in surprise when the other man’s finger lifted gently, and he was instantly rendered motionless and senseless as if he had been pinned down.

“Hey! What are you… doing?” The housekeeper on the side was just about to open his mouth to question him when he was remotely nudged by the man with another finger and was instantly held in place across the air as well.

When Zhu Yan became aware of the visitor, she couldn’t help but take a step backwards, her face turning white as a sheet of paper.

“What, do you want to pay for me?” The man looked at her and opened his mouth, “How generous of you!”

His voice was cold and soft, impossible to distinguish happiness or anger in his tone. However, as soon as it entered her ears, Zhu Yan’s legs went limp and she almost fell on her heels, saying nervously, “Master… is you, it is indeed you!”

Indeed, just now, the moment she rushed into the elegant room across the hall, she lifted the curtain and saw, to her surprise, her own master!

The Great Priest of Jiuyi Mountain, Shi Ying, was actually competing with her for the Flower Girl in the Star Ocean Cloud Pavilion! Like a thunderbolt, she was awestruck and could hardly believe her eyes.

As far as she could remember, such a noble and ascetic person like her Master is like the snow on the top of the mountain, who seems to have abandoned the seven emotions and six desires, and yet he would actually come to visit the same places as those vulgar men? You really can’t judge a man by his appearance… Or, are all men in the world the same?

While her Master was still facing away from her, she suppressed a frightened gasp, stumbled backwards out of the room, and ran without a second thought. But before she could take a few steps, she realized that there was no way she could have escaped unnoticed under his eyes with the weak power of her cultivation! So, she took it upon herself to pay the expenses for him. Instead of waiting for the next day to be lectured by him, she should take the opportunity to please him, so that he might be in a good mood and let her go without a fight.

However, upon seeing Shi Ying’s cold gaze sweeping over, a cold sweat broke out all over her body. Having been together for so many years, she naturally knew that those kinds of glances only occurred when his anger reached the extreme.

This time, she was afraid that she might have went too much overboard, and the things might not end as simple as being beaten!

“The one who was bidding against me just now was actually you?” Shi Ying looked at her, his tone unpredictable, “Why do you want to see the Flower Girl? What’s your involvement with her and how did you end up here?”

“I… I didn’t mean to! I… I just came here to enjoy the fun!” She was so frightened that started to stammer badly and couldn’t even speak smoothly, “If I was given… a hundred more guts, I would never dare to snatch the woman you have your eye on, Shifu…”

“…” Shi Ying’s eyebrows knitted together, “What did you say?”

For a moment there was an obvious anger gathering under his eyes, like a hidden lightning bolt.

Zhu Yan was so frightened that her legs went weak, and before her Master could brood in anger, she hurriedly made a long speech saying something in the lines that she fully understood that although her Master was a Great Priest, he was also a grown man, and it was not wrong for him to come here to meet the Flower Girl in private, in a disguise. The Jiuyi Temple has strict rules and regulations, she will definitely keep it a secret for the honorable one, if she dares to reveal a word, she will be struck by lightning!

She incoherently vowed to make use of the heaviest curse she could find, but as she continued to speak, Shi Ying’s face grew increasingly grim, and he suddenly struck out, squeezing her jaw and shouting, “Shut up!”

Zhu Yan’s chattering mouth finally stopped, and with a violent shiver of fear, she almost bit her tongue.

“What are you babbling about?” He cupped her jaw and frowned at her.

“Really… I’m telling the truth! I didn’t see anything! I don’t know anything!” Zhu Yan’s body shuddered at that look, and she quickly pointed at the two people next to her who were immobilized, “I’ll use my magic to erase their memories later, and will never reveal a single word! No one, no one will ever know that you have been to the teahouse to look for the Flower Girl…”

In that instant, she felt a sharp pain in her jaw and was suddenly unable to utter another word.

“Shut up!” Listening to her nagging, the anger in Shi Ying’s eyes finally flared up and he snapped in a low voice, “What do you think I’m here for? I’m here to do my job!”

“Ah… ah…?” She was in too much pain to speak and could only open her mouth wide and nod haphazardly – Master had just lost control of the force in his extreme anger and had actually dislocated her jaw by cupping it!

What the hell. What else could you do when you come to a brothel and compete for a courtesan? Did Master mean to say that he came here to enjoy the Moon with the Flower Girl? After all, she was a woman who had married a husband and was widowed, why did he still treat her like a child?

Zhu Yan did not dare to say a word, neither she could, she was in so much pain that she could only nod her head desperately, in agreement.

However, she forgot that Master had the ability to read minds, so at this time, even if she didn’t say anything, the sarcasm in her mind could obviously be detected by him. The anger in Shi Ying’s eyes deepened instantly and he said in a stern voice: “Don’t think nonsense! There’s absolutely nothing going on! You just don’t…”

He raised his hand, at which Zhu Yan shivered in fear and closed her eyes. But in that very moment, a sudden rattling sound came from the window behind him. Zhu Yan’s eyes glanced over, only to see a shark hurrying in from the courtyard below, leaning down and whispering something into the Flower Chief’s ear. The Flower Girl immediately stood up and glanced at the elegant room upstairs, her face suddenly taking on a slightly different expression.

“Not good!” Shi Ying blurted out, his face changing instantly, “Did he sensed it?”

Without bothering to say anything else, he immediately let go of Zhu Yan and swept around, heading towards the courtyard.

Only then was Zhu Yan freed from his suffocating confinement and let out a long sigh of relief, rubbing her painful shoulder and putting both hands on her dislocated jaw to put it back in place with a “clack”. Lifting a finger, she quickly erased the memories of the two men around her, relieving them of their entrapment, then pulled the housekeeper forward and started to run.

The sequence of movements was incredibly fast, as if a hungry pack of wolves were chasing after her – yes, at this moment, all she wanted to do was running away – she had to escape! Otherwise, she had absolutely no idea how she would be able to face her Master if she remained there.

She pulled the housekeeper along and trotted, darting from the small courtyard all the way to the large courtyard outside, flying past the elegant rooms and boxes along the way. All around her the sound of laughter filled her ears, the sight of pairs of patrons and courtesans, with ambiguity and desire flowing everywhere…

The young Princess of the Red King’s Clan ran recklessly through the golden cave, trying to escape from the filthy, greasy atmosphere and take a big breath of the fresh air outside.

She ran as fast as she could, her heart racing, but her mind was blank. In the void, fragmented moments gradually emerged, like paintings so remotely placed that they were almost buried in the ashes of time, scrolling silently from one to the other.

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