CH 13.1

By the time the carriage reached their destination, the moon was rising on the river and the night was dark. Ting Yun Lou was located beside the river. It was originally a restaurant, but tonight their business had been taken over by Leng Zui and the others. A dozen or so carriages with horses were already parked in front of the building. It was very lively. It seemed like quite a lot of people had come. Leng Zui was dressed in a pale blue outfit, still dressed as a man, and was standing at the door to greet everyone.

After greetings, Lei Lei went upstairs with the young master. The upstairs room was originally quite spacious, about 50 to 60 square metres. It seemed a bit crowded at the moment and it was warm. More than 20 people were standing or sitting around. The oldest of them was about 50 years old, and the majority of them were young, looking like the gentle and polite scholars or like respectable noble young men. They all greeted each other and chatted, waves of “Brother Wang, Brother Zhao” ringing out in unison. There were six or seven other women, all quiet and proud.

The seats were already set up with about a dozen or so small tables next to them with several plates of dried fruit. Due to the strong wind, only two windows had been opened and the carved railing outside could be seen, reflecting the moonlight like it had a light layer of frost.

The young master already had a special temperament to begin with and dressed like this, he was even more eye-catching, immediately becoming the focus of the audience. All the people he knew came over to greet him and those who did not know him also came over to meet him after hearing about him. Lei Lei was very proud.

The young master replied with a few words, then sat down on a chair.

Lei Lei carefully searched around for Qin Liu Feng, but unexpectedly after looking around every corner, she did not see the figure of the talented scholar.

She tugged at the young master, “Qin Liu Feng didn’t come.” Her tone was not without disappointment.

The young master looked at her and remained silent.

Soon after, Leng Zui came upstairs. Her expression was clearly unpleasant. Lei Lei snickered, it seemed like she had also looked forward to Qin Liu Feng coming. With the number one talent in the world of martial arts absent, the poetry meet was not so exciting. Moreover, Qin Liu Feng had promised to come earlier so now he had stood her up, it was pure arrogance, not giving face to the talented woman. However, it was alright. In fact, it did not matter whether the talented scholar came tonight or not. “Xiao Bai” and I came in support and I’m prepared too!

Leng Zui walked to the middle and everyone automatically quietened down. Lei Lei praised, this was the demeanour of a talented woman, her charisma was really strong. I really should become a talented woman!

Her red lips parted slightly and Leng Zui said, “You have all come a long way. I, Leng Zui, am deeply honoured. It’s almost time now and everyone has arrived…”

Immediately, someone interrupted her inquiringly, “Miss Leng, didn’t you say Brother Qin will come too? He hasn’t arrived yet so why are we starting instead of waiting?”

Leng Zui said lightly, “No need. I think he may have matters to attend to and cannot come. So many people are waiting for one person and the delay is happening over a trivial matter. Customs must not be broken.”

Lei Lei followed the crowd and stood to curtsey.

The gentleman in the first seat was an old man with a goatee. He cupped his hands with a smile but did not stand up. He had an enigmatic appearance and his status was obviously quite high.

Everyone sat down.

After introducing the authoritative experts, Leng Zui began to introduce the special guests, “There are two distinguished guests attending today, Young Master Xiao Bai from Bai Sheng Shan Village…” She paused.

Although the young master rarely attended such occasions, who did not know of Xiao Xiao’s Phoenix Crying Blade? It was respected by all. Old Mr Cai also nodded, “With a righteous heart, heaven and earth in the chest, if one does not understand good and evil and abets one’s enemy, then having talent and knowledge is in vain.”

The young master said a few words of humility and did not continue talking.

Leng Zui continued to introduce, “And… Miss Lei Lei.”

Hearing the name, Old Mr Cai was visibly moved, “Is it possible that she is the one you mentioned, the Miss Lei Lei who wrote a poem about sympathising with farmers?”

Leng Zui bowed slightly and replied respectfully, “Precisely.”

Everyone looked at Lei Lei in surprise and praised her with phrases like “a teacher among women” and “a gifted female scholar”. Old Mr Cai also nodded vigorously and stroked his beard, exclaiming this was “rare”.

The stolen poem was really useful. Lei Lei was pleased with herself and put a humble expression on her face. She secretly speculated, it turned out that her poem, “Hoeing the grass under the sun at noon,” had already spread around. Could it be that the talented scholar was afraid she would feed him chives again so did not dare to come?

Suddenly, she heard Leng Zui say, “In today’s meeting, you don’t need to restrict yourselves. Show your true self as much as you can. Talent is respected.

Lei Lei sat up straight.

Leng Zui turned to the side, nodded, and said, “Please introduce the poetry topic.”

A servant in the corner immediately stepped forward and pulled a rope. A scroll that was originally hanging high on the eastern wall unravelled in an instant. Two to three lines of beautiful and elegant characters were written on a snow-white scroll.

“It’s the 15th, so the topic is the moon. The format is five or seven characters in a line, with four or eight lines in total, or various ditties.”

Everyone cheered that it was wonderful, “The moonlight outside just happens to be very beautiful, this topic is well timed!” Someone rhymed.

Leng Zui frowned, “I’ve never liked restraint. Those words are always repeated again and again. On the contrary, it’s hard to have a clever sentence.”

Everyone agreed.

Leng Zui said, “Everyone please do as you wish. There will be a stick of incense burning here. Once the incense has burnt out, come back for the outcomes.”

The incense was specially made and would take about an hour to burn out. Everyone stood up and headed out to moongaze for inspiration.

In the corner, Lei Lei’s mouth was already twitching with laughter.

There were so many poems praising the moon, it would be enough to bring out any random one. Today, she would definitely sit on the throne of the “number one talented woman”!

Seeing her being foolishly happy by herself, the young master next to her was very surprised. After watching her carefully for a long while, he finally said, “You… Are you alright?” The implication in his words was that you haven’t gone crazy, right?

I am a normal heroine, so I would definitely never recite such simple things like “Moonlight in front of the bed”. Lei Lei immediately returned to normal and pulled him, “Come, let’s go moongaze!”

The bright moon was thousands of miles away and the river was flowing silently. The water and the sky were the same colour, both above and below were clear and empty. The wind was strong near the railing and the heavy chill in the air against their faces was painful.

Of course, this could not spoil Lei Lei’s spirits in the slightest, “The moon is so beautiful tonight! What a pity, what a pity…”

The young master asked, “What’s so pitiful?”

Lei Lei shook her head and sighed, “It’s a pity that Qin Liu Feng didn’t come!” He would not be able to admire her appearance!

The young master glanced at her, then looked away.

Since she already had a poem, Lei Lei began to think about matters on her mind.

She could not betray her handsome elder brother and she could not forsake “Xiao Bai”. How could she satisfy both parties? She had been thinking about it these days and had really come up with a plan — her handsome elder brother just wanted the cultivation method as proof to make Chuan Qi Valley bow their heads and unify the Xing Yue sect, but he would not practise it himself and definitely would not give it to someone else to practise. Without anyone practising it, who would find out if there was a problem with the cultivation method? Why not just put a fake one there to copy? Besides, her handsome elder brother had never seen the real one before.

She touched her chin. The more she thought about it, the more feasible she thought it was. Even if she was discovered, she could blame “Xiao Bai’. On TV, aren’t there always backups of unmatched secrets? She could not be blamed for making a mistake and stealing the wrong one.

But there was also another problem.

To deceive her powerful brother, things had to imitate the real thing. It was obvious that she could not accomplish this by her own skills. To say nothing of the fact that Lei Lei did not know anything about martial arts terminology, she did not even know how many bones there were in her body. Besides, it was a big deal to have the Phoenix Crying Blade’s cultivation technique stolen, so she would need “Xiao Bai”’s cooperation. If something important was stolen and Bai Sheng Shan Village did not respond at all when the time came, it would be strange if her handsome elder brother actually believed it!

Yet, “Xiao Bai” abhorred evil. Could she tell him about this?

Lei Lei looked at the young master hesitantly.

Under the silver moonlight, his face became more and more handsome. The straight and firm bridge of his nose was very candid, plus his tall and straight posture gave his whole body an aura of righteousness.

I’m sorry, handsome elder brother. She held onto her hope, “Xiao Bai, I have an issue…”

The young master turned to look at her.

Lei Lei probed, “What would you do if you met someone from the demonic cult?”

Hearing the words “demonic cult”, the young master’s expression suddenly turned cold. Looking over the mountain and river, there was a faint murderous aura in his eyes. He said lightly, “The demonic cult harms the world of martial arts. It is the duty of the descendants of the Xiao family to eliminate harm from civilians. You still need to ask?”

Lei Lei deliberated then said, “Then if by chance your friend is from the demonic cult, will you still kill them?”

The young master’s eyes flickered.

Lei Lei concealed her guilty conscience and acted nonchalant, “By chance, it’s just by chance.”

The young master snorted coldly, “Stop talking nonsense!”

“Why?”

“It’s completely different, there’s no collusion. How could I have such a friend?!”

Lei Lei argued, “There’s also good people in the demonic cult, what if you killed the wrong one?”

The young master said, “What a joke! How could there be good people in the demonic cult?”

“Who said there can’t be? Could it be that everyone in the demonic cult has done bad things?”

“If they haven’t done it yet, they will eventually. Letting them be will be a disaster!”

“If you have to get rid of them, wouldn’t innocent people be hurt during the back and forth fighting?”

The young master did not hesitate, “Without sacrifice, how can there be justice?!”

Dedicated to justice? She guessed that this person had been indoctrinated with this kind of mentality since childhood. It had been ingrained and it was too impractical to change it now. Lei Lei gave in desperately, “What if they break away from their evil ways and return to the path of justice?”

The young master was stunned, “Naturally that would be good.”

Talking about things was easy. Lei Lei regained her confidence and emphasised one sentence, “But she’s murdered people before, what then?”

The young master frowned, “It’s natural and proper to pay with one’s life after murdering someone. Having already repented, they should understand this more clearly and take responsibility for what they’ve done by committing suicide and seeking forgiveness.”

Commit suicide and seek forgiveness? Lei Lei trembled and all the words she had prepared were rescinded in fear.

Was this not nonsense? No wonder nobody was willing to repent and change, it turned out that the premise was suicide! Who knew how many lives had been taken by Shang Guan Chun Hua, and among them was his wife, Young Miss Hua. Now that Chun Hua was dead, this life belonged to her. Although she had the heart to abandon evil and turn to justice, what good was it if she lost her life?!

It seemed like “Xiao Bai” would not cooperate and might just persuade her to “suicide and seek forgiveness”. That would not do, she still wanted to hang out with her handsome elder brother. As for “Xiao Bai”, she would not hurt him either but would just find a way to find the cultivation method first then imitate it.

Alas, with the identity of a little devil, it would be very difficult to win “Xiao Bai” ove