"The Pavilion Master's use of personnel is always carefully considered. Since Ye Qinghua became a Gu poison assassin, the Pavilion Master has only assigned her one small task: to go south to the vicinity of Nan Chu Manor and kill the leader of a small sect that was originally affiliated with Nan Chu Manor."
"What exactly are you trying to say?"
"What I mean is, the reason the Sect Master hasn't let her do anything, and given Ye Qinghua's high level of martial arts—this can only mean that the Sect Master has other uses for keeping Ye Qinghua alive. Therefore, he wouldn't possibly kill her."
Hua Chongyang pondered.
Lan Cao took a step forward and lowered her voice again:
"I know you've been investigating Ye Qinghua's death. Actually, I think the timing of her death was very coincidental—it happened right after she revealed herself to be a Gu poison assassin from Lan Ying Palace. Therefore, I believe that the person who killed her wasn't necessarily her or your enemy, but more likely an enemy of Lan Ying Palace—"
Hua Chongyang interrupted her directly: "And who are the enemies of Nalan Shadow Palace?"
Lan Cao was taken aback by the question, and her gaze immediately began to dart away:
You're asking too many questions.
"If you won't tell me, I'll go ask Lan Wuxie."
"The Pavilion Master wouldn't tell you either," Lan Cao said with a bitter smile. "You don't know, do you? Ever since you two got together last year, he's secretly given us a forbidden order: you're not allowed to know anything about what happens in Lan Ying Palace. Remember when he was seriously injured at Lake Moon Manor, and you resented him for hiding your true identity and running away the next day?"
"I remember. How?"
"The kid from that wonton stall was later bribed by the martial arts alliance and secretly sent you a message to invite you out."
"You mean... Aba?"
No wonder she never saw him in Hangzhou again after that.
"Later, the Pavilion Master sensed something was wrong and sent people to follow him. They discovered he was with people from the Martial Alliance. He didn't tell you anything, and just had us deal with those guys." Lan Cao squinted at Hua Chongyang. "At the time, I asked him if he wanted me to tell you so you could handle that Aba personally. Do you know what the Pavilion Master said?"
"...What did he say?"
He said, "Don't get your hands dirty."
"……"
"Hua Chongyang, there are many things you don't know. When you were at Banlianzui, the Pavilion Master killed people almost every day. After each killing, he would soak in the pleasure boat for an hour, fumigating his whole body and clothes with incense before daring to return to Banlianzui to see you."
"……"
"Before you were with him, he almost never slept more than two hours a night. In the seven years you were with him, during that time you were half-drunk, this was the first time I'd ever seen him smile in front of others."
56. Lan Ji...
Lan Cao spoke so much in one breath, but Hua Chongyang remained standing sideways by the candlestick at the door. The candlelight illuminated her profile, and her eyes were half-closed. No matter how you looked at her, she seemed indifferent and only half-listening.
The orchid got a fever:
"Aren't you even slightly moved by what I'm saying?"
Before Hua Chongyang could speak, the sound of footsteps and casual laughter came from the stairs facing the door.
"Who is it that's so earnestly trying to persuade our thread starter?"
The orchid turns back.
Bai Lu, dressed in snow-white clothes with a light red belt around her waist, stepped down the stairs. Perhaps because she was wearing so little, her body looked unusually thin, and her black hair, which was dripping wet, hung down her back, probably from a recent bath.
For some reason, when Lan Cao looked into Bai Lu's dark, boyish eyes, she felt a sense of déjà vu.
As a result, Bai Lu slowly walked up to him, slightly raising her eyebrows:
"What, Brother Orchid, you really don't recognize me?"
Lan Cao was stunned.
She curled her lips into a smile, raised her face in front of the orchid, and slightly raised her pointed chin:
"When I was sent to Lanying Palace, you were the first person I saw. Are you really that bad at remembering things? Or am I just really that inconspicuous?"
After a long while, the stunned orchid softly cried out:
"...Yes, it's you? You're still alive?"
"Alive." Bai Lu laughed, but her laugh was sinister as she looked at Lan Cao. "Thanks to your Pavilion Master Lan, I'm alive and well! Not only am I alive, I'm also cursing him to die soon!"
The orchid was speechless for a moment.
"You didn't expect that, did you, Brother Lancao—ah, should I still call you Sister Lancao?" Bai Lu smiled coldly. "Back then, when Lan Wuxie gave me to Grandmaster Lan Ji, turning me into something neither male nor female, neither human nor ghost, he certainly didn't expect this."
He turned to look at Hua Chongyang, a cold smile playing on his lips:
"How could someone like him be worthy of Chongyang? Go back and tell him that even if he dies, I won't let him taint my dear sister."
Now, the orchid was completely dumbfounded:
"So you...you are Hua Chongyang's...Hua Chongyang's..."
Bai Lu chuckled and asked, "Hua Chongyang's what? Younger brother? Or younger sister?"
The orchid was speechless.
She doesn't even know whether she's a man or a woman, so how can she talk about Bai Lu?
Back in Lan Ying Palace, the former palace master, Lan Ji, was almost fanatical about poison. She would stop at nothing to create new poisons. Lan Cao was one of the new disciples who was chosen to test the poisons. The result of the new poisons on them was that the boys became female and the girls became male.
From that time on, Lan Cao transformed from a boy into a girl, and finally into a "lady".
After he stayed by Lan Ji's side for a few months, several more children were sent there. He remembered clearly that among them was a tall girl who looked like a boy but was very beautiful. The disciples of Lan Ying Palace were used to bloodshed and few were normal people. She was young and stubborn, and she had been sent in from outside, so she was bullied almost every day. At that time, Lan Cao was older and couldn't stand it, so she stepped in to protect her.
I stayed there for more than half a year.
Six months later, Lan Ji went mad and went berserk due to some reason. She killed people everywhere in her own pharmacy in Lan Ying Palace, almost wiping out all her disciples. Lan Cao was lucky enough to be rescued by Lan Wuxie and has been following him ever since.
Those six months were a nightmare for him. Even now, when he dreams about that time at night, he still breaks out in a cold sweat.
Besides, Bai Lu is a few years younger than him.
Bai Lu approached the orchid with a cold smile:
"Back then, Yu Beiyan captured me and handed me over to Lan Wuxie to curry favor with Lan Ying Palace. Lan Wuxie was so heartless as to give me to that old hag Lan Ji. If my father hadn't killed her in the end, I'm afraid I would be even more like a man than I am now."
The orchid was even more surprised:
"Your father...your father is Yan Zhao? He killed Lan Ji?"
"What do you think?" Bai Lu took a step back and smiled. "Given Lan Ji's insatiable addiction to poison, how could she easily mix up the poison and cause herself to go mad? If it weren't for my father's intervention, you and I would probably still be in her hands, living a life worse than death!"
Bai Lu's voice was neither male nor female, and as she spoke these words, Lan Cao couldn't help but feel a chill.
Now, Lan Cao fully understood Hua Chongyang's predicament.
57. Yan Bailu...
Ye Qinghua's connection with Lan Wuxie began about five years ago. Although Lan Cao was by Lan Wuxie's side, she was merely a menial disciple, sweeping floors. At that time, Ye Qinghua was just an ordinary assassin in the brothel, accompanied by Bai Lu, who was only about ten years old. Because he didn't trust her, he secretly hid her elsewhere. The brothel owner, Yu Beiyan, first took a liking to Ye Qinghua, and later somehow learned that the Biluo Heart Sutra on Ye Qinghua's body was wanted by Lan Ji, the master of Lan Ying Palace. He wasn't very interested in martial arts manuals, and couldn't get them from Ye Qinghua, so he secretly kidnapped Bai Lu and sent her to Lan Ying Palace, intending to use Bai Lu to exchange for Lan Ying Palace's poison to control the brothel's assassins; in turn, Lan Ying Palace could use Bai Lu to exchange for the Biluo Heart Sutra with Ye Qinghua, thus achieving a win-win situation for both of them.
Unexpectedly, Yu Beiyan had chosen the wrong person and delivered Bailu to Lan Wuxie. At that time, Lan Ji was in Lan Ying Palace, and Yan Zhao, the head of Zhaoyang Pavilion, was still alive. Lan Wuxie was just a minor character, so Lan Ji asked him for a few poison-testing children by his side and offered to exchange them for the lower volume of the Yellow Spring Martial Arts Manual. He immediately chose the Yellow Spring Martial Arts Manual.
"So," Lan Cao said, "the Pavilion Master has no idea who you are; and even if he hadn't agreed to Lan Ji's request back then, with Lan Ji's martial arts skills, the Pavilion Master might not have been able to defeat her."
"He doesn't know who I am! Doesn't he know what kind of person Lan Ji is?!" Bai Lu wouldn't allow him to utter a single word in Lan Wuxie's defense, glaring at Lan Cao and screaming hysterically, "If it weren't for him! How could I have become this inhuman, ghostly state! I'll never let him go in this lifetime!"
The orchid was startled.
Bai Lu's expression changed too quickly, almost abnormally so. One moment she was all smiles, the next she was roaring with a ferocious expression.
Hua Chongyang quickly stepped forward and pulled Bailu into his arms, loudly comforting her:
"Alright, alright! It's all over now! Aruru! Nobody can bully you anymore!"
Bai Lu seemed not to hear, her movements becoming increasingly exaggerated, staring intently at the orchid and growling:
"Lan Wuxie! And that old hag Lan Ji! Don't even think I'll let you go!"
She suddenly thrust her palm to the side, unleashing her inner force along with the force of her palm strike. The table next to her, which held a candlestick, was shattered by her blow. Her headband snapped off abruptly, and her waist-length hair came undone, spreading out over her body.
The orchid suddenly took a step back.
This was the first time he had ever seen someone's palm strike nearly match Lan Wuxie's. Bai Lu seemed almost in a frenzy, randomly unleashing her palm strikes, smashing everything in the room to pieces in just a few moments. Hua Chongyang dodged left and right, trying to get close to her but afraid of hurting her, so he could only let her rage. Lan Cao watched from the doorway for a while, then seized the opportunity to leap forward and hug Bai Lu from behind, striking several of her acupoints.
Bai Lu slowly turned her head, glanced at him, and then collapsed.
Hua Chongyang stood beside the half-shattered staircase, letting out a long sigh as he approached:
"Give her to me."
Lan Cao glanced at her without saying a word, then picked Bai Lu up and carried her in her arms.
"I'll take her upstairs."
Hua Chongyang was taken aback.
She had always felt that something was off about the orchid, and after hearing what Bailu had said earlier, she finally realized what was different about it:
"Orchid...your voice..."
Her style has also become much more androgynous than before. Could it be...?
Lan Cao carefully carried Bai Lu up the stairs without looking back.
"Go up and talk."
Bai Lu has been settled.
She found a chair in the room and sat down, casually smoothing a strand of long hair that fell across her forehead.
"You should know the legendary healer, Zu Xian, right?"
Hua Chongyang paused in his pouring of water:
"He...does he really exist?"
Ever since Lan Wuxie impersonated Zu Xian and tricked her once, she had never thought about it again.
"Of course there is such a person. The Pavilion Master met him once more than four years ago. By chance, he saw me and found the poison I had been given strange and interesting—" Lan Cao smiled bitterly, "so he casually wrote me a prescription and asked me to try it."
"Have you eaten?"
"I took it once or twice, but it didn't work much. Plus, I was young and hot-blooded, so I stopped taking it in a fit of anger. Then last year I remembered that prescription again, so I found it and took it on and off for a year. I never expected—" He looked down at his chest and chuckled sheepishly, "that it actually worked."
Flowers bloom on Double Ninth Festival, then turn to White Dew.
Lan Cao understood what she meant and shook her head directly:
"Impossible. Judging from her personality, she would never take medication, let alone take it year after year."
"Yes," Hua Chongyang sighed, "you're right."