CH 61

Chapter 61: I Wonder If His Highness Has Any Ink And Brush In His Room? I Would Like To Borrow Them.

The two men asked for directions along the way, but they had to search for a long while before they could find the place where the scholar lived. The scholar’s house was really remote and far away, deep inside an uninhabited forest.

With great difficulty, they finally found the wooden house of the scholar. Both men saw a small courtyard in front of the house, surrounded by a wooden fence. However, at a single glance, the small courtyard was filled with broken tiles and weeds, looking desolate and barren. If they didn’t know already that this was the scholar’s house, they would have thought that this place had been abandoned for a long time.

At that, Bian Zhonghua couldn’t stop himself from muttering: “How can a scholar whose hands don’t even have the strength to grab a chicken1 live in such a remote place….?”

After saying that, he went to push open the door of the fence, but was surprised to find that it wasn’t locked at all, so they walked in easily. The two men crossed over the courtyard and soon came to the door of the house. Bian Zhonghua then reached out to knock on the wooden door, but after a while passed, no one responded.

Qi Ci shouted softly: “Is anyone there?”

After another while of silence, the sudden sound of a cough was heard from the inside of the house. Then, the door was opened gently.

At that moment, the strong smell of herbs floated out of the house, as if several bitter and unpleasant herbs had been lit as incense to permeate the whole house with its smoke. It also looked as if this house had been sealed for a long time since the windows around the house were tightly closed without any visible gaps, making the interior of the house look completely dark…. It didn’t look like a place where an ordinary person could live.

At the door stood a man with his long hair scattered all over. His body looked as thin as firewood, and his slightly bulging belly looked very out of place, given his bony figure. Although he looked so miserable and depressed, at a closer look, one could see that he was a very beautiful man who had good facial features.

“Who are you?” The man’s tone of voice was very sickly, and his eyes showed the disappointed look of a misanthropist2. 

“From what Master Lu Ren said to me, your surname should be Lu and your name Yu, right?” Bian Zhonghua lowered his voice, in order to not arouse the man’s disgust and displeasure.

Lu Yu nodded extremely slowly. As if understanding the hidden intention of the two men that came all the way to his house. He said calmly: “You don’t have to save me, I don’t want to live anymore. There’s no need to waste your energy on me.”

Qi Ci said: “When we get rid of that monster, your body will return to normal. Why don’t you want to live?”

Lu Yu turned his gaze to Qi Ci and stared at him closely, as if he found Qi Ci ridiculous and naive. Lu Yu then asked: “Then, when you get rid of that demon’s curse, will you be able to give me back my merit?”

Qi Ci was stupefied.

Lu Yu’s voice was as cold as ice: “I studied hard for ten years until I could finally build a reputation, but because of this!” He pointed to his bulging belly, burning with anger: “Because of this! I’ve become a dirty man! A monster! I even lost my hard-earned honorary title!”

Qi Ci opened his mouth to speak again, but his voice had lost its original strength: “When your body recovers, you can enter the Capital and take the exam again. I’ll finance your—”

Instead of calming down, Lu Yu looked at Qi Ci and said: “It’s already too late.”

After saying that, Lu Yu raised his hands, and on each one, he was missing the index and ring finger! With hands like these, he could no longer hold a brush! Lu Yu then smiled coldly: “That demon crippled me like this, making me live without a meaning, so you two should leave me alone too.”

As soon as Lu Yu said this, he viciously slammed the door shut.

Then, the house fell into a complete darkness, where a glimpse of light could barely penetrate through the closed windows. However, through the limited light source, the figure of three creatures could barely be seen in the corner of the room. These creatures had their hands above their knees, their backs were bent, and the corner of their mouths were split to the root of their ears!

They were just staring straight at Lu Yu, with huge smiles on their faces.

Right the next second, Lu Yu smiled as bizarrely as them. As he lowered his head, he gently stroked his stomach and murmured in a low creepy voice: “Really, the iron shoes were so hard to find, but I never thought I would find them without any effort3. Who would’ve thought that the Prince would deliver himself to me….?”

Outside the house, Qi Ci was almost caught by the door because he was standing close to it. However, Bian Zhonghua reached out and pulled him away. Qi Ci then rubbed his temples and asked Bian Zhonghua in distress: “What should I do?”

Bian Zhonghua was very calm, so he simply shrugged and said: “I don’t save people who are determined to die.”

“But…” Qi Ci didn’t know what to say next, so he simply gave up and went back to Master Lu’s Residence with Bian Zhonghua.

For the next few days, Bian Zhonghua and the two Secret Servants took turns guarding the Residence, but the rich Gongzi were tormented by the full-term ‘baby’ snake in their stomachs. They all looked like they were in so much pain they could die, but the figure of the feathery man never appeared.

Master Lu Ren was so anxious that he was sweating as he asked Bian Zhonghua: “Is it because Lu Yu is not here? Is that why that demon isn’t coming?!”

Bian Zhonghua shook his head: “I’ve seen Lu Yu, the snake in his belly is at most three or four months old, while the Gongzi here are full-term with their pregnancies. That monster wants to take the snake baby away, so it’s impossible for him to go find Lu Yu first.”

“Then why is the demon not showing up yet?” Master Lu was like an ant on a hot pot4. With his hands behind his back, he was spinning around anxiously.

Bian Zhonghua thought for a bit and then said: “I think he must be aware of our intentions. It seems that we will have to force him to make an appearance.”

Master Lu wanted to ask Bian Zhonghua how he would try to force that demon to appear, but when he was about to do so, he saw that Bian Zhonghua had already walked in the direction of the wing rooms.

At that moment, Qi Ci was packing the white glutinous cakes he bought into boxes. For the past few days, everyone in the house had been busy dealing with the feathered man, while he, the Prince who didn’t know how to catch demons, became the most leisurely person in the Residence.

The winter chill caught the tail of the late autumn, sweeping through the gentle waters of the south of the Yangtze River with freedom.

In the morning, a maidservant went to the street to buy winter clothes and other things. Because Qi Ci was really bored, he decided to go with her and buy some pastries.

As Qi Ci wondered whether Bian Zhonghua would like them and if he should put more in the food box for him, there was a sudden knock on the door of his room.

Qi Ci got up quickly to open the door, only to see Bian Zhonghua standing outside his room.

The corners of Bian Zhonghua’s mouth were slightly raised, while the bottom of his eyes were filled with a bright smile. Then, he asked: “I wonder if His Highness has any ink and brush in his room? I would like to borrow them.”

Waaahh noooo the scholar is the bad guy??? Don’t you fcking dare touch Qi Ci! BZH must protect him at all cost ヽ(`⌒´メ)ノ