CH 17

Gu Feidi’s breathing suddenly paused.

He gritted his teeth and stood still for a while. Then suddenly, he gave a laugh, “I was feeling a little pity for you, but since you don’t seem to care, it’s my fault for asking so much.”

Taking advantage of the darkness, Su Yang didn’t bother maintaining his character and rolled his eyes.

Di Ling quickly returned to the mountain trail bearing a lantern.

Now that there was light, Su Yang and Gu Feidi no longer had to exert so much energy walking. They tacitly didn’t mention the earlier conversation they had in the dark and were silent all the way.

After walking for about fifteen minutes, the three of them passed beneath a looming, weeping flower gate in the bamboo forest and came to a small courtyard full of flowers and trees. The trees in the courtyard were lush, the early summer roses and cloves blooming right at that moment and a faint, warm fragrance had been blown in by the cool night breeze.

The courtyard area wasn’t small, but most of it was occupied by the garden and a winding corridor. There were only two rooms; one under the north wall and the other at the east wall of the courtyard.

“This is Zhichun Garden.” Di Ling hung the lantern on the light stand at the entrance of the small courtyard and said, “The rooms should have been cleaned up at Shizun’s order. You two will be staying here in the east room tonight. Tomorrow morning, I will take you to Wanyuan Pavilion to select advanced mental cultivation methods. From now on, we will live together in this courtyard and discuss martial arts together.”

When she finished speaking, she did not wait for Su Yang or Gu Feidi to reply. She turned around and left the small courtyard, leaving them to stare at her cold back.

After waiting for Di Ling to walk away, the two people in the courtyard looked at each other. They both suddenly felt a little awkward.

Su Yang reflected on the Devil Sect’s Young Saint character for a moment and decided to speak first.

“*Cough*…Since this is already the case, this Young Saint shall bear this slight inconvenience of sleeping with you in the east wing.” He tilted his chin up and continued with an arrogant tone, “If you dare to grind your teeth and wake me with your snoring in the middle of the night, this Young Saint won’t forgive you!”

Gu Feidi was angry but also found it laughable and he was too lazy to argue with Su Yang, so he turned around and walked straight towards the east side of the courtyard.

Su Yang thrust hand through his hair and followed Gu Feidi into the room.

Although the area of ​​the east wing was not large. After entering from the main hall, there were two bedrooms on each side. There were folding screens at the entrance of the bedrooms, which gave them both their own private space.

Seeing such a setup, Su Yang breathed a sigh of relief, randomly chose a room and went in without saying another word to Gu Feidi.

Groping about in the dark, Su Yang put his things on the desk next to the bed, then flung himself onto the bed and stared dazedly at the high roof and beams of the antique house.

Even until this moment, he still felt a little surreal.

——Why had things become so bizarre, pushing him step by step to actually be selected by Lesser Jade House?

The plot clearly shouldn’t be like this. Even if he traversed through the original storyline instead of the script, being arch-rivals, he and Gu Feidi shouldn’t be experiencing this period of being classmates in Lesser Jade House.

So, what should he do next?

If he ditched Lesser Jade House, which part of the storyline would the both of them encounter each other again?

Autumn, two years later.

Wasteland, the Dubious Tomb of the Sword Sage.

Su Yang remembered.

In the script, he had forcibly broken into the stone forest formation and injured his meridians, so he had no other choice but to return to the Devil Sect to recuperate for two years. The time he reappeared again coincided with the story arc where unfounded rumours were spreading in the Jianghu, saying that someone had found dubious traces of the Sword Sage’s Tomb in the Wasteland.

So he had led the Devil Sect’s troops to the Wasteland in an attempt to locate the Tomb of the Sword Sage and gain whatever legacy the sage had left behind.

It was in that episode that Gu Feidi, who had graduated from Lesser Jade House in just two short years, met up with Su Yang again. In that battle, he united with the Devil Sect’s flower aide and those from Qinglian Sect to force Gu Feidi and Pu Lingyun to a cliff—then the protagonist and heroine managed to find the Tomb of the Sword Sage under the cliff after having fallen off it. Not only did they obtain the Sword Sage’s legacy, but had also developed a budding romantic relationship.

Su Yang was a little irritated, so he started chewing his nails as he manually calculated in his heart: Two years…very good, at least he has two years time left.

As long as he can graduate from Lesser Jade House within two years like Gu Feidi, it would not delay his journey to the Wasteland. There should be a chance to bring the storyline back on track!

With this in mind, Su Yang felt that he must really make an effort to diligently work hard. If he wants to leave Lesser Jade House within two years, he can’t continue like this: lying down like a dead fish!

He turned over and got up from the bed. Using the faint moonlight streaming in from the window, he felt his way to the fire stick beside the candle lamp on the desk.

He had seen this thingy before while on the set and had witnessed the flower aide using it. Just open the tube cover, blow on it lightly and it would ignite. It seems quite convenient from the looks of it.

Within the darkness, Su Yang took a deep breath and blew out a puff of air at the dim red light of the fire stick.

The fire stick… did not ignite.

Su Yang: …

He didn’t believe his luck and blew on it again—the fire stick would still not ignite.

“Tsk, you’re being disobedient, right?”

Su Yang muttered, grasping the bamboo tube tightly and blowing at it in short bursts several times.

However, that fire stick seemed to be teasing him, its dark red light was glowing in the bamboo tube. It became brighter as he blew, but no matter how he huffed and puffed at it, the stubborn flame would not appear!

After trying for a good while, Su Yang finally lost patience. ‘Paak!’ he snapped the bamboo tube cover back onto the fire stick and then threw it onto the desk where it made a ‘peng!’ sound as it landed.

Don’t light the lamp!

Piss off!

Read what book!

Don’t read!

Su Yang turned around angrily. He was about to go back to the bed and continue lying down. Suddenly, he was startled by a shadowy figure standing next to the folding screen.

Earlier, he was so focused on blowing the fire stick that he didn’t pay attention to the approaching footsteps.

Gu Feidi stood beside the screen with a complex expression. He glanced at the desk, his eyes falling on the fire stick which had just been thrown away by Su Yang.

“What are you doing here?”

Su Yang felt that he had lost face and scrambled to speak first to assert his authority: “Although we will be living together in the future, consider the effect and don’t simply rush into my room. A single man and a single wom—two single men, *cough* …Whatever, you shouldn’t be barging into someone else’s room. It’s not appropriate.”

Gu Feidi eyed Su Yang lightly, said nothing, turned around and left.

Su Yang stared at his back as he walked away and suddenly felt a little annoyed.

What did he just say? It didn’t fit the personality of the Devil Sect’s Young Saint at all! How can the awesome, crazy, fearsome Devil Sect’s Young Saint say such lines?!

Sure enough, his skills were not yet up to par. Ad-libbing and impromptu performances were too severe as an evaluation technique to test his spontaneous exhibition abilities!

After censoring himself with a few words, Su Yang had no way to change what he had already said. He could only regretfully turn around and take out the ‘Blooming Lotus Sword Technique’ from his bundle of belongings. He planned to go into the yard and grudgingly try to read it under the moonlight.

Who’d have thought that once he’d retrieved his book and was about to step outside, Gu Feidi came back in with a lamp.

Gu Feidi put his lit lamp on Su Yang’s desk and then took the unlit one: “You really are so accustomed to being pampered, you don’t even know how to use the fire stick. It’s already late now. If you want to read a book, you can use my lamp first. Tomorrow, you should learn how to light the fire stick properly, so as not to be shamed while you’re at Lesser Jade House.”

After speaking, he took Su Yang’s lamp, turned and walked out of the room.

Su Yang held the book in his hand. He opened his mouth several times, but he couldn’t come up with anything suitable to ridicule or mock Gu Feidi with.

It wasn’t until Gu Feidi’s figure had been completely blocked by the screen and the glow of the lamp in his own room had brightened, Su Yang finally let out a breath of resignation and turned to sit at the desk.

.…..no big deal.

He thought to himself: It doesn’t matter if Gu Feidi occasionally wins some banters, anyway, sooner or later he would die under Gu Feidi’s sword and return to the modern world.

In the modern world, there were matches, lighters and gas stoves. Which of those were as troublesome to light as a fire stick?

Humph! What’s so great about being able to ignite a fire stick!

With the light nearby, Su Yang opened the ‘Blooming Lotus Sword Technique’, his mind gradually became immersed and his imagination finally stopped running wild.

While referring to the internal force route in the swordsmanship booklet, he got up and made some moves with his sword, then finally managed to get the basic idea of how it was supposed to go.

When his state of mind was stimulated, Su Yang’s original night owl routine became more chaotic and it was not until the east horizon was slightly suffused with white that he finally couldn’t hide his fatigue and decided to go to bed.

Gu Feidi had just straightened out his morning exercise clothing and walked out from behind the folding screen, when he saw the lights in Su Yang’s room go out.

He frowned and finally said nothing, then walked into the courtyard alone to start his daily routine exercises.

It wasn’t until the sun had risen and Gu Feidi had just finished the last set of his swordsmanship routine, that he saw Di Ling setting foot into the courtyard.

An emerald-green bird perched quietly on her shoulder and she was holding a stack of books. She walked along the pebbled path in the courtyard until she was at the east wing.

Gu Feidi stepped forward and gave a salute: “Ling shijie.” 

Di Ling nodded and handed Gu Feidi the books in his hand: “Shizun sent a letter this morning, saying that Su Yang was practicing the whole night again. She told me to deliver this set of skill mental cultivations and not to disturb him. Help me put the books in his room and I will take you to the dining hall for breakfast. After that, we’ll go to Wanyuan Pavilion to find the advanced mental method you need.”

Gu Feidi took the stack of books from Di Ling and saluted her again before turning around and entering the room.

When he arrived in Su Yang’s bedroom, Gu Feidi’s eyes were immediately attracted to the figure on the bed before he even had time to put the books down on the desk.

The youth had twisted around on the bed and was lying on his stomach, his jet-black hair spreading over him like a cloud.

He held the quilt in his arms, half pressed under him and a slender leg had been extended out. His trouser legs had been slightly pulled up by this action, revealing his delicate ankles and a white calf. His naked, pink feet were resting on the edge of the bed and the tips of toes were a pale healthy pink and they appeared incredibly clean.

The thin and transparent undergarments on his body were originally woven from extremely smooth silk and the hem of his clothes was half lifted by his sleeping position, revealing a section of smooth waist skin. The bottom edge of the white garment was covering his skin, faintly revealing a bright red hidden underneath—resembling a cluster of flame-like red flower tattoos.

As if scalded by the red mark, Gu Feidi suddenly turned his line of sight away, pressed his lips tightly and quickly walked to the table to put down the books he was holding. He then used his light footwork and left Su Yang’s room without looking back.

Su Yang was disrupted by the noise. He muttered once, turned over and rolled to the inside of the bed and fell deeply asleep.

Because of his movements, the hem was turned up again to reveal a bunch of bright red flowers branded on his back. They were Queen of the Night flowers (Epiphyllum oxypetalum) that were a brilliant, flaming red that did not exist in the world.