CH 67

The moment he saw the bone whistle, Big Beardy’s gaze erupted with keenness.

However, at the next moment, he murmured subserviently : “I, I, I… I don’t know! He… he may be an Elro Ghost Tent spy planted in my Wujiangmen! Yes, a spy! I don’t know anything!”

Gu Feidi lifted his sword, placing the sharp edge on Big Beardy’ s neck and angling it up. He said to Fan Qi, “Come and help me search him.”

Finally, turning his head to look at Su Yang: “Dearest, withdraw for a moment?”

Su Yang: ……

You’re having such a good time that you’ve become addicted to play-acting?

But what could he do? They wanted to search the body of a burly man, so ‘she’ could only withdraw obediently.

Su Yang went behind the folding screen and spied through the gap. He saw that the two had quickly suppressed Big Beardy who wanted to retaliate and trussed up him and his companion back to back. They found Eluo Ghost Tent’s bird-calling bone whistle, a small bamboo piece for communication, a tiny engraving knife and several black ghost owl feathers glued to their clothes.

Seeing the pieces of evidence laid out before his eyes, Big Beardy became passively uncooperative. No matter what Gu Feidi asked, he refused to speak; even threats were useless.

Gu Feidi snorted, stunned him unconscious with a blow and said to Fan Qi: “As such, we have to trouble Little Bro to deliver these two to the nearest Alliance Hall on my behalf. Is it possible?”

The Alliance Halls were organisations established by the martial arts circles all over the Central Plains. They were used to transmit information, deal with disputes and so on. At present, the leader of the Martial Alliance was Tengyun Pavilion’s Gu Ruohai, therefore, most of the people in the Alliance Halls maintaining the operations were from Tengyun Pavilion and should be trustworthy.

Hearing that he had been entrusted with this task, Fan Qi was taken aback: “Aaa? Why me? It was clearly you Bro, who had caught these two spies.”

Gu Feidi shot a glance at the folding screen, “It’s inconvenient for me to escort them to the Alliance Hall as I have a female family member accompanying me. I would like to earnestly request Little Bro to do me a favour. Your room charges will be on my account.”

Fan Qi considered it, nodded and hauled the two unconscious men away.

Gu Feidi watched Fan Qi leave in the middle of the night and returned to the room to Su Yang: “I’ve finally met someone who’s easier to deceive than you.”

Su Yang had just sat cross-legged on the upper part of the couch. He gave an eye roll and said angrily: “Ha! How am I easier to deceive !”

After asking, he instantly felt something didn’t feel right: “Wait, you deceived me? Quickly, tell me the facts!”

Gu Feidi wiped his hands and put the cloth towel on the basin rack. He turned around, walked to the couch, gently pinched Su Yang’s chin and moved closer.

Su Yang retreated backwards: “What are you doing?”

Gu Feidi didn’t do anything and chuckled, “Dearest should rest.”

After speaking, he released Su Yang’s chin and sat cross-legged next to him on the couch.

Su Yang raised his eyebrows and lowered his voice to ask, “You’re suddenly treating me so enthusiastically, you probably liked women to begin with? Seeing how I look in women’s clothing, you can’t control yourself?”

Gu Feidi laughed in spite of himself: “If you weren’t dressed up as a woman, I would’ve kissed you just now.”

Su Yang didn’t know what frame of mind he should be in.

Gu Feidi moved closer to Su Yang’s ear, “You’d better dress up as a woman all the time, if not… I don’t know how to continue sleeping in the same bed with you like this. I really won’t be able to control myself one night.”

Su Yang: ……

No, how did the topic abruptly move towards such a dangerous direction?

Su Yang silently shut up, sitting a little farther away from Gu Feidi and refusing to continue such ambiguous midnight talk.

“Actually…” Gu Feidi said all of a sudden, “…I discovered that I prefer men to women when I was fourteen years old.”

Su Yang could say nothing in reply. His inner thoughts were a mess: What’s Gu Feidi doing now? He wants to talk to him about pubescent youths’ change of heart when they discover their sexual inclinations?

Gu Feidi’s next words were: “So you don’t have to worry about me liking women. If the ‘woman’ in front of me isn’t you, I won’t even spare you a glance. Are you reassured?”

Su Yang retorted angrily: “I’m not worried about this!”

Gu Feidi smiled, raised his finger to lightly graze Su Yang’s face and said, “Rest.”

After speaking, he actually closed his eyes despite Su Yang staring daggers at him and began manoeuvring his inner strength and meditating.

Su Yang had no choice but to sit cross-legged and cultivate together.

Early morning the next day, Gu Feidi brought Su Yang out from the room and immediately received everyone’s attention in the hall of the inn.

Gu Feidi instinctively stood as an obstruction between Su Yang and the crowd. Su Yang shortened his steps and let him assist him down the stairs. He walked slowly out of the inn’s gate and was protectively assisted onto the horse.

Unexpectedly, someone under the shack outside the inn immediately began to ramble: “Ai, I say, Lil’ Bro. Your lady wife is so delicate, how can you let her ride a horse? Based on the way you dress, it doesn’t look like you can’t afford it, so why not rent a carriage?”

Someone immediately chimed in:

“True, true! You’ll be exposed to the elements riding on horseback. This little lady has delicate skin. You cannot compare with us, rough men. It’s most important that you don’t get yourself hurt!”

“Also, this horse doesn’t look gentle, what if your lady wife cannot handle it……”

“It’s inconvenient to drive a carriage if you’re hurrying on your journey. Lil’ Bro, why don’t you share the ride with your wife, then you can better care for the both of you.”

Gu Feidi: ……

Su Yang was having a hard time trying not to burst out laughing, he only curled the corner of his lips and cast a sideways glance to Gu Feidi.

This flirtatious glance immediately caused a round of gasps from all those around him.

Gu Feidi disregarded the heckling from the crowd around him, took the reins and said, “Let’s go.”

Su Yang raised his eyebrows, nudged the horse with his heels and sped away on the horse skillfully. Gu Feidi spurred his horse and immediately caught up. Both of them quickly disappeared from the view of everyone at the inn, leaving behind exclamations of awe:

“Tsk tsk, this little lady wife has the beauty of an immortal and her riding skills are so exquisite!”

“Her stature isn’t lacking and her actions are poised, she seems to be from the Jianghu. That Lil’ Bro is really fortunate!”

“I wonder if she’s a young mistress from whichever sect or school, would she have an older or younger sister…”

……

Gu Feidi and Su Yang travelled on the official road for half a day, they found a roadside tea-stall to sit down and rest while waiting for Mei Shisan to catch up before setting off again.

They continued travelling in this way for another two days until finally arriving at Lanyang City where Tengyun Pavilion was located without any further hassles.

The further southward they journeyed, the more townspeople who were familiar with people from Tengyun Pavilion there were, so Gu Feidi had to put on a drapery hat to cover his face.

However, even so, he was discovered by Tengyun Pavilion’s undercover guard as soon as he set foot within Lanyang City.

Fortunately, Tengyun Pavilion’s undercover guards were well-trained. Seeing his Young Pavilion Master pavilion in disguise, he understood that he didn’t wish his return to the Pavilion to be conspicuous. As such, he pretended to be a peddler and approached with some wares.

“Aai, this customer, come have a look at these, why don’t you buy it for your lady wife?” The undercover guard brought over a string of silk flowers, edged nearer to Gu Feidi and hastily whispered, “This subordinate greets Young Pavilion Master. If Young Pavilion Master does not wish to be exposed, please follow this subordinate to the jewellery store on Twelfth Street and take the carriage back to the Pavilion from there.”

Gu Feidi glanced at Su Yang, was silent for a moment and replied, “My lady wife doesn’t like silk flowers. Do you have any jade hair clips here?”

The Tengyun Pavilion guard immediately understood and smiled: “We have all sorts of styles in our store, please follow me!”

Gu Feidi brought Su Yang and Mei Shisan all the way to Tengyun Pavilion’s jewellery shop on Twelfth Street and was directly led by the undercover guard to the VIP room on the second floor to have a seat.

Immediately afterwards, the jewellery shop owner, workers and guards all came forward to greet Gu Feidi.

Su Yang, who was sitting beside Gu Feidi suddenly became a little anxious——why did it feel like he was meeting with his future in-laws.

Fortunately, these Tengyun Pavilion people were the ones running the shop and not Young Pavilion Master’s personal guards, so no one had seen him before and no one recognised his face.

“It’s good that you’ve returned, Young Pavilion Master. Although the Pavilion Master doesn’t show it, he has been worried about you all this while.”

The jewellery shop owner was a senior subordinate of Tengyun Pavilion and he was less intimidated when facing Gu Feidi; rather more like an elder.

He cast a look at Su Yang: “Miss Pu also returned to the Pavilion fairly recently. Now both you shixiong and shimei can be reunited and Pavilion Master will definitely be pleased. However, I don’t know if this young lady…… did Young Pavilion Master encounter her on your way back to the city?”

Gu Feidi smiled and looked at Su Yang and asked, “Would you like to go back to Tengyun Pavilion with me?”

Su Yang was startled and thought inwardly that he had to meet his future in-laws right now? Nonono, it’s a bit too early, he wasn’t mentally prepared yet!

So he hurriedly shook his head, indicating that was it for the time being.

Gu Feidi said, “I’ve been to your home, but you’re unwilling to visit mine, I’m a little heartbroken na.”

Su Yang hadn’t had time to react to these words, but everyone around from Tengyun Pavilion was in shock——What? Since when had their upright and rigorous Young Pavilion Master actually dared to go visit a lady’s home?!

“Alright, since you’re not willing…” Gu Feidi smiled and said to the jewellery shop owner, “Go and make arrangements for an upper room in the Seventh Street inn to be made available for him and his guard to stay in temporarily. If he needs anything, please put in the effort and assist me to take care of him.”

The shop owner wore a complicated expression as he looked between Gu Feidi and Su Yang a couple of times, “Young Pavilion Master, this…”

Gu Feidi raised his eyebrows: “What?”

The owner said: “This young lady… Young Pavilion Master, you… this, this this…”

Gu Feidi was overjoyed.

He moved towards Su Yang and said: “The inn on Seventh Street is the property of my Tengyun Pavilion. It is tightly guarded and assassins won’t be rash to provoke. I’ll send over some guards who are familiar with you to protect you, so there’s no need to worry about someone creating difficulties for you. You can get rid of this disguise.”

Seeing Gu Feidi winking at him, Su Yang breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Thank you very much.”

Everyone from Tengyun Pavilion: !!!

The shop owner said in surprise: “This young lady… ak, this, this young hero… “

“This is my dear friend, if it weren’t for him, I would have died a long time ago. You all must remember not to slight him.”

After Gu Feidi finished speaking, he looked back at Su Yang, “It’s inconvenient for me to delay any further, so I have to return to the Pavilion. They will protect you and Shisan to the inn. Once my affairs there have been settled, I will come to look for you; it shouldn’t take too long.”

Su Yang nodded: “Relax. At any rate, I’m also half a martial arts master and not actually a pretty lady, so I’m not that frail.”

Gu Feidi patted Su Yang’s shoulder and solemnly said: “Keep the flower hairpin securely. If by some chance I come across some unforeseen developments … I’ll do my utmost to send someone in my stead. No matter what, your journey to Snow Mountain can’t be put off for too long. It’ll be even more difficult to travel on mountain roads once winter arrives, your cold symptoms…”

When he brought up the cold symptoms, all of a sudden he was unable to finish what he wanted to say. He paused for a while before saying: “I’ll do my best to come back out as early as I can. If there was really… any mishap… I will ask Yunzhan to accompany you. He… still has a mutual affection for Lesser Jade House, at least… he will do his utmost.”

Su Yang smiled: “What are you doing aaa, you’re saying as if we’ll never see each other again. I’m not a child anymore, so why do you need to nag on and on like this! Besides, Mei Shisan is also here?”

Gu Feidi cast a glance at Mei Shisan, nodded and smiled at Su Yang: “Take good care of yourself.”

Su Yang couldn’t get up and hug Gu Feidi while everyone around was watching, so he could only give a wave of his hand, “You too.”