“Despicable! Shaless! Underhanded!” “Exactly, scaring us with that kind of drawing.” “Fight us fair and square if you’re true warriors,” cried the maidens I immobilised when their shock distracted them.
You two really are too young, too naïve. If this is despicable and shaless, I don’t think you know what despicable and shaless really entails.
“Feizhen, they said my painting is ugly!”
You still haven’t gotten over that?!
“Is my painting nice or not? Does it resemble you?”
I clutched my fist tight and extended a thumb: “It does resemble ! Not even twins bear such a striking resemblance.”
“Lies. I haven’t even finished it. Look, I still need to fix the fingernails here.”
I don’t see no fingernails! Are you sure this is the person you’ve been spending your days with? No vendor would dare to accept paynt from this man! That’s a plague!
“Is it really bad?”
“It isn’t bad… if we’re using stick figures as the standard to beat.”
Besides , even the two assassins were relieved to see Young Shiyi stow away her painting. The elder of the two asked , “Hey, you’re her cauldron, aren’t you?”
The man accompanying The Demoness in her legends was , but I had no idea how the claim that she cultivated with n to obtain her skills.
“Being a cauldron is la. Release , and you can have anything you ask for.”
“I want three hundred thousand taels. You have?”
“… I can hook you up with beautiful won.”
I pointed to Young Shiyi: “More beautiful than her?”
The assassin stared hopelessly at Young Shiyi’s face: “… Can I get a discount on the three hundred thousand?”
Is selling Luo Clan’s martial arts manual really the only solution? Why do people these days not have any empathy? Why can’t they carry around a few hundred thousand for us desperate pickpockets? What a sad era.
“Why’d you knock them out?” Young Shiyi questioned. “I still need them.”
“If you want to know their objective, interrogation won’t get you far.”
“I wasn’t going to interrogate them.”
“You plan to pose as them to et up with their client, correct?”
“How’d you know? Their mission stated they were to et up with their client in Nanjiang yesterday, but they must’ve rearranged that since they ran off to Beggars Sect’s place for so reason.”
“It’s between nine to eleven tonight, and the eting point is here. I think your idea is clever. Thing is, will we be able to pass off as two female assassins?”
“That won’t be an issue. Skyrealm Palace is known for their secrecy, and Autumn Water Sword Sect is relatively unknown. Their swords are their badge. It took a long ti and a lot of effort to learn that much. By the way, how did you know the ti and place?”
Triumph flickered across my face: “Assassinating us was an impromptu decision. That’s why I overheard them scheduling their et up.”
“You an you heard everything they said on the way?”
“Of course. It’s we’re talking about here.”
“You sure you heard them clearly?”
“Guaranteed.”
Young Shiyi grabbed by the ear: “Your ears are notorious for misbehaving. You’ve been eavesdropping on the female constables of Liu Shan n, haven’t you?”
“I have not! I only paid attention to the two because they’re dangerous! Besides, there are no secrets at Liu Shan n? What is there to eavesdrop on?”
I couldn’t tell if it was a smile or not that ca to Young Shiyi’s lips. Either way, she scrutinised my facial muscles as she interrogated, “Do you listen in to your busty Miss Shen soaking her luscious skin in her tub every morning?”
“No.” I scoffed, “She washes up at night. You trying to fool ? You’re underestimating my elite-ness.”
Wait, what did I…
“Ow! Ow! Ow! I accidentally purposely overheard her when I passed by her room to pinch food and wine in the middle of the night!”
“Accidentally purposely? I see how it is. All right, if I f-”
“I’ll save you! I’ll save you no matter which river you fall into!”
Amused, Young Shiyi loosened her hold on my ear a tad. “That wasn’t what I was going to ask. I was going to ask, if your Boss Shen and I were to wash at the sa ti at your pl-”
“I’ll watch both?”
“-ace, who will you watch? Eh? Why?”
What do you an why? It’s a foregone conclusion.
Young Shiyi pouted: “You can’t watch both at once. You can only watch one of us.”
“Why?”
“Because we’ll kill you right after, so you can’t look the other way.”
Don’t ask to watch at all, then!
“If you don’t peep, we’ll die from humiliation. Are you going to peep or not?”
Why are you doing this to ?! Also, what’s with your logic? You’ll be humiliated if I don’t watch? Have all my EQ training sessions for you been for naught? I don’t recall raising you to be so unreasonable!
“Who are you going to watch?”
Stubborn won are scary. Stubborn won with Young Shiyi’s wits can’t be reasoned with.
If I will die after peeping, yet I have to peep, hmph, there’s no need to think about it.
“I’ll peep on both even if it costs my life!”
“Feizhen, your resolute tone makes feel that all my EQ training session for you have been for naught. I don’t recall raising you to be this sort of child.”
Where have I heard that before?
“Since you can’t answer, you shall sleep on my bed tonight as punishnt.”
“Hell no! If Shifu finds out, he’ll murder .”
“Sleeping on my bed ans you have to pay for a bigger bed for . What did you think I was saying? You… wanted to cook with tonight?”
“Cook what?”
“Raw rice into cooked rice.”
Can you stop with the sexual innuendos?!
Although I had been sleeping on the beam so that Young Shiyi could have the entire bed to herself, I waited on her while living with her, so there was no shortage of heart-pounding monts.
Young Shiyi cackled without sparing decorum a thought: “I’ve laughed more tis the last few days than the last few years added up. If I get wrinkles, it’s your fault.” And then she hamr fisted my chest.
“It’s my fault for making you happy?!”
“I never asked you to.” Young Shiyi wrinkled her nose and then suddenly covered her mouth in exasperation. “Ti flies. It’s all your fault. We don’t have much ti now.”
My fault again?!
“Fetch so water. We need to rinse the rice.”
Young Shiyi queried, “Why rinse the rice?”
“I’m going to cook tonight!”
Caught off guard, Young Shiyi bit down on her lip to control her reaction. Nevertheless, the temperature between us soared. “… You think I’m scared?”
I couldn’t help pulling Young Shiyi in at the sight of her beauty and thereupon planted my lips on hers. For the reason that she was dressed in thin clothing reminiscent of a negligee, I could feel the heat emanating from her shoulders and globes. Had it not been for the two mountains, we would’ve had our bodies entwined. By the ti we separated, both of us were taking fast and shallow breaths. The sweat from her body enhanced visibility of her body.
“… I won’t get jealous anymore… I won’t get jealous if another girl wants to like you or marry you.”
I didn’t keep silent because I was out of breath but because my brain was second guessing what just ca through.
“Your shifu has lovers all across the land, not to ntion all his wives, yet I’ve never seen your shiniangs unhappy about it. As long as you… think of , I don’t care. I must be main, though.”
“So that’s what you ant by ‘main’.”
“What else were you thinking? Hehehe, you better put in the effort to keep happy. Otherwise, if I change my mind, I’ll spank your Yu’er, Yi’er, Hong’er and Xiao’er.”
Okay, stop before you say anything more insane. Minus the one you can’t even beat, one is my superior. One is a Princess, and the last one is a man!
After a while of lazing in my embrace, Young Shiyi complained, “Ah, I forgot again! All your fault!”
“Again? All right, let’s rinse our rice.”
Young Shiyi shoved away and poked her tongue at : “Trying to take a yard when given an inch? Behave yourself.”
“Yes, yes.”
“It’s best to rember so information in order to convincingly pass off as mbers of Autumn Water Sword Sect.” Young Shiyi directed my gaze to the two on the ground with her finger. “The two are sisters. The elder one is more assertive and not afraid to voice her opinion, while the other is innocent. You play the elder sister, Sister Feizhen.”
“Shouldn’t that be ‘brother’?!”
“Okay, Brother Feizhen, listen up.”
Hearing Young Shiyi, whom I waited on since childhood, refer to as brother was the equivalent of a spell chant that could make bend to her will.
“All of their mbers use Qiu, as in autumn, as their na. None of them have surnas. From my research, their patriarch is Qiushiu - autumn water - while the others all start their nas with Qiu. The one you are posing as is Qiuyi. The other one’s n-, damn it. Soone’s coming. Hurry up.”
Young Shiyi shoved one of the swords into my hand a second before a knock ca from the door in what was obviously a coded rhythm.
“Co in.”
The muscular, tanned man outside ca in with a sack. Though his average height and build were hallmarks of Nanjiang’s natives, he, in fluent Central Plain’s Chinese, conveyed, “It is an honour to et you. This one is Baimu State’s Wu Ba. The two on the ground are…?”
I answered, “The clients of this room. Borrowing the room of another will ensure we do not leave behind any traces,” whilst flicking signals to Young Shiyi for her to move the bodies, lest Wu Ba see anything.
“This one must learn from your attention to detail. May he ask for your nas?”
I only knew what my na was. Young Shiyi had yet to tell what her character’s na was!
Calm down, Ming Feizhen. Their nas must have “Qiu” in them, and the two are sisters, so their nas should be related. Since my na is Qiuyi… Qiuyi, Qiuyi, which “yi”, man?! Oh, I got it!
“I am Qiuyi. She is Qiuku.”
Glossary
Raw rice, rice and human making - Cooking rice can be used as a reference to producing a human. Cooked rice ans she’s pregnant.
Rinsing rice - Washing up.
Cooking rice - Transferring white tadpoles over to the racing field, where they race to the egg.
Hearing Young Shiyi, whom I waited on since childhood, refer to as brother was the equivalent of a spell chant that could make bend to her will. - It’s akin to a level up to a relationship between a man and woman. If you’re familiar with Korean, it’s the equivalent of “oppa”. It’s a big deal to Chinese and Korean people (generally speaking)
Qiuyi and Qiuku - The original “yi” in Qiuyi is “one”. Ming Feizhen uses the “yi” for “clothes”. If you haven’t forgotten the nickna he gave for Jin Wangsun, Kucha (underpants), the Qiuku here is the sa “ku” in “Kucha”. In other words, their nas are Autumn Shirt and Autumn Undies.
The ‘er suffix as seen in Yi’er etc. - in this context, they act as a form of showing intimacy. For those familiar with Korean, we use “our” as a prefix before a na to show intimacy in the sa way. If you had to translate it to English no matter what, you could translate it as “Dear (insert na)”.
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