Falsches Blumenmuster

Kapitel 12

“Women,” he suddenly stopped, turned to look at her a few times, and continued walking, “when he’s being pestered by Xiao Ling’er and the others, he comes here to make bets.”

So even playboys are afraid of being entangled with beautiful women. Yang Nianqing suppressed a laugh: "Isn't he afraid those women won't be able to get out and will starve to death here?"

Qiu Bailu actually gave a cold "humph," stopped in her tracks, and said angrily, "Most of those women just trampled over them, ruining so many of my flowers."

Seeing him become emotional, Yang Nianqing suddenly felt much closer to him. Thinking of her inner doubts, she finally asked curiously, "Can't you just keep stepping and walking to get there? How could you starve to death?"

“If you step over there, there will be more sleeping pills there, and she won’t be able to walk anymore,” he said in a calm tone as he continued walking. “She will starve to death without even realizing it, which is already more than enough for them.”

Yang Nianqing shuddered: "Aren't you going to save her?"

He said coldly, "Since you've trampled my flowers, why should I save them?"

"So, all those women are..."

Yang Nianqing unconsciously slowed her pace, her eyes secretly glancing around. A scene immediately flashed before her eyes—under the vibrant flowers, several unconscious women, and several skeletons...

Qiu Bailu glanced at her: "That's Li You's business. He wanted to make a bet to get rid of them, but those women trampled on my flowers and courted death. He couldn't bear to let them die, so he had to search for them one by one. Once he searched all forty-nine places and was exhausted."

When Li You's misfortune was mentioned, he seemed to feel much better, and his tone even carried a hint of schadenfreude.

Yang Nianqing laughed so hard her stomach almost burst.

After a moment, Qiu Bailu had put away her good mood, her face showing a mocking and disdainful expression, and she walked slowly: "Plants and trees are like people, they are all living things. If a person does not even cherish the life of plants and trees, why should you save his life?"

Yang Nianqing nodded in agreement, and thinking of her past behavior of tearing leaves, she couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

“If you didn’t trample the flowers, I will save you. But if you did the same as them, you’ll have to wait for Li You to come to you. Chrysanthemums are noble flowers, not something that vulgar people can trample on at will.”

Yang Nianqing wiped her sweat, thankful that she had suddenly had a "good thought" today, otherwise she would have been in trouble...

"Besides that strange woman, you are the second one."

"Strange?" Yang Nianqing became interested. "She didn't step on it either?"

"Stepped on it."

...

"So she also fell into the trap and got bewitched?"

"good."

"Was she ultimately rescued by Li You?"

"yes."

"That……"

“She is still very special,” Qiu Bailu said calmly, “because she is the only one who made four bets with Li You, stepped on my flowers four times, and fell into my trap four times.”

Yang Nianqing was shocked that someone who had suffered a loss once still hadn't learned their lesson. In this day and age, there really are such persistent, determined, and stubborn people who will go all the way down a single path, and they're even women! She admired them!

"who is she?"

"A Ballad of the Jianghu"

Who is Jianghu Yao?

"woman."

"Nonsense!" Yang Nianqing coughed. "What woman?"

“The woman Li You brought for the bet is naturally a beautiful woman,” he turned his head and glanced at her a few times, then said indifferently, “You’re not pretty enough.”

She was taken aback, then realized what was happening.

Damn, you're just fantasizing that I'm the same... Speaking of appearance, Yang Nianqing was quite confident in herself in modern times, but she never expected that she would be considered "not pretty enough" in ancient times. This was a real blow to her!

She tried hard to suppress the urge to explode and remained silent.

—We can't afford to offend him now. If we anger him and he leaves us here, we're doomed…

Unexpectedly, the bamboo forest was quite large. As the autumn wind swept through, the bamboo waves rippled and the bamboo leaves fell one after another. The deeper one went, the more it felt like swimming in the ocean waves.

Although the forest path was winding, it was still wide. Yang Nianqing followed it for about a minute, and then a clearing appeared in front of her. Hundreds of chrysanthemums were blooming in the clearing, some as big as a fist, some as small as a fingernail, in all colors and shapes. Each one looked to be an extremely rare variety.

Chrysanthemums surrounded a quaint and exquisite little wooden house. Two clumps of bamboo grew beside the house, their shade almost completely obscuring half of it, making the whole house look even smaller. Seeing this, Yang Nianqing couldn't help but recall the two lines of poetry Li You had recited that morning: "Chrysanthemums in the fragrance of green bamboo, a half-closed door."

The door was open, and an open carriage was parked outside.

Qiu Bailu frowned again and let out a long sigh, clearly displeased that He Bi and the others had trespassed into her home. Yang Nianqing chuckled inwardly and followed him towards the wooden building.

Sure enough, there was a coffin by the door.

He Bi and the other two were sitting in chairs talking when they saw them come in. Nangong Xue stood up with a smile, but He Bi remained seated without moving, while Li You continued to drink his tea.

Yang Nianqing just stared at Li You, a smug look on her face.

Nangong Xue glanced at the two of them, cupped her hands in a smile, and said, "Brother Qiu..."

Before he could finish speaking, Qiu Bailu impatiently waved her hand, interrupting him: "What do you want me to do now?"

“Look at him.”

As soon as the cold words fell, He Bi stood up, walked over and lifted the coffin lid. Instantly, the white cloth flew to the ground, revealing the hideous face inside the coffin.

Qiu Bailu was clearly used to it and wasn't angry. She just glanced casually at Zhang Mingchu's corpse in the coffin.

Who knew—

A hint of surprise suddenly flashed in his sharp eyes, and an expression of astonishment appeared on his usually calm face. In a moment, he swiftly bent down, extended two fingers to test the clear image of the corpse, and then picked up the body's hand.

His eyebrows slowly furrowed.

"Strange... how could this be..." she murmured.

In a short while, Li You and Nangong Xue were also standing beside the coffin. Seeing him like this, the three of them were very surprised. Mr. Chrysanthemum always had a high opinion of himself and could accurately determine the cause of death with just one glance at the corpse. He had never lost his composure like this before.

Although puzzled, no one interrupted his observation.

Half a day.

After wiping her hands with the tan silk scarf, Qiu Bailu finally straightened up, regaining her composure, and uttered four words indifferently: "It's not poisoning."

Not poisoning?! Everyone was stunned for a moment.

The renowned Mr. Chrysanthemum would never be wrong.

He Bi glanced at Li You, his eyes flashing, and slowly said, "As far as I know, there is no martial art in the world that can turn a person into this."

Qiu Bailu chuckled, a hint of arrogance and mockery in her voice, and said, "I didn't expect you to be so ignorant. Could it be that you've forgotten a palm technique?"

Everyone was stunned.

Nangong Xue frowned: "You mean the Myriad Poison Blood Palm?"

He Bi's expression also changed slightly.

Li You shook his head: "The Myriad Poison Blood Palm technique has been lost for many years..."

Qiu Bailu stopped explaining and slowly walked away, seemingly very impatient: "If you don't believe me, why bother looking for me?"

silence.

Although Yang Nianqing didn't know what the Myriad Poison Blood Palm was, seeing the disbelieving looks on the others' faces and hearing that the martial art had been lost, she couldn't help but have some doubts as well. She slowly moved closer to Qiu Bailu and whispered, "Brother Qiu, shouldn't you take another look..."

Upon hearing this, Qiu Bailu's expression immediately darkened, as if she were displeased.

“In that case, it must be the Myriad Poison Blood Palm,” Li You suddenly smiled and interrupted, “Who in the world would dare not believe what Mr. Chrysanthemum says?”

Qiu Bailu's complexion improved somewhat.

A hint of doubt flashed in her phoenix eyes, and Nangong Xue shook her head: "It is said that after the Ten Thousand Poisons Demoness committed suicide thirty years ago, the Ten Thousand Poisons Blood Palm technique was lost. How could it suddenly reappear in the martial arts world?"

“Now that you know, what are you still doing here?” Qiu Bailu frowned impatiently. “You can leave now. I have never been interested in these things.”

It was clearly an invitation to leave.

"You're kicking your friend out like that?" Yang Nianqing had been walking through the formation for most of the day and was already a bit hungry. Hearing this, she couldn't help but feel deflated—this Qiu Bailu was really too inconsiderate!

Looking to the side, He Bi remained expressionless, while Nangong Xue smiled wryly and remained silent.

Li You stared at him for a long time, then sighed, "It seems that in the future, I must make friends with more generous people. The number one divine doctor is also the number one miser. He can't even afford to treat his friends to a meal."

His tone sounded helpless, yet his long, narrow eyes were full of joy.

Qiu Bailu said calmly, "Friends can't just eat for free."

Li You blinked, seemingly feeling regretful: "Strange, why don't you become an assassin?" Before anyone could speak, he shook his head and muttered to himself: "If I were to become an assassin, I would definitely be known as 'Half-Pound Assassin,' not Black Fourth Brother."

Qiu Bailu wasn't angry; she just glanced at him and said, "Even a divine doctor can kill."

Li You coughed and nodded: "That makes sense. If a divine doctor wanted to kill, he could kill just as many people as a quack doctor."

Before she could finish speaking, Qiu Bailu's face was already full of black lines.

This aloof and composed person has actually been provoked by someone's words, and it seems like he's about to explode! Yang Nianqing chuckled inwardly, looking at Li You, who was standing next to her with a sympathetic yet gloating expression—does he even know how he died?

It turns out that Qiu Bailu, who was known as Mr. Chrysanthemum, was always proud and arrogant, and very confident in his medical skills. He couldn't stand it when others questioned his medical skills. So when he heard Li You say that, even though he knew that Li You was doing it on purpose, he still couldn't help but get angry.

At this very moment—

He Bi suddenly cupped his hands and said, "Thank you."

His tone was very sincere.

After saying that, he stopped talking, flipped his hands over, and the coffin lid on the ground immediately flew into the air and fell down with a "bang," sealing the coffin tightly. Before Yang Nianqing could even see clearly, the coffin had inexplicably flown out of the door and landed directly on the carriage with only a slight sound.

Is this the legendary master with profound skills? Yang Nianqing came back to her senses and secretly admired him.

So hungry...

It's a bit slow to warm up, haha.

Book One: Why Look for Excuses? Beauty and the Witch

"Tears of the Chrysanthemum," a magnetic and curious voice said, "have you heard of it?"

"No." A gentle voice replied.

"Yes, it was that patch of tear chrysanthemums, and that's when I met Mr. Chrysanthemum." Thinking about how he had driven her away, Yang Nianqing was still a little unhappy. She stopped calling him "Brother Qiu" and started calling him "Mr. Chrysanthemum."

Li You thought for a moment and shook his head: "I've never seen this kind of creature in the formation before."

Yang Nianqing gestured, trying her best to explain: "A very beautiful chrysanthemum, about... this big, with white petals and red spots on them..."