Le ciel au-dessus des rivières et des lacs est dégagé

Chapitre 25

Gengu had no choice but to sit back down and continue stirring the soup, muttering to himself, "He values beauty over friendship, and forgets loyalty when he sees a pretty face."

Zexiu gave him a light kick from behind, "Look at you! Are you even a man? You have the nerve to compare yourself to a woman! Why don't you go and compare yourself to a woman in having children?"

Gengu suddenly stopped being angry and nodded with a grin, saying, "Brother Zexiu is right. I was too ignorant." He took three wooden bowls from the bundle scattered on the ground, first filling one bowl with soup, then piling it full of wild pheasant meat and mushrooms, and respectfully presented it to Zexiu, saying, "Brother, please eat."

Zexiu took the soup but didn't eat it. He first smelled it, smiled, and then poured it on the ground. "I don't eat soup with added ingredients." He threw the bowl at Gengu's face, stood up, and said, "Don't try anything funny. If you do anything else, you won't get any food today."

Gengu's face paled, and he whispered, "You can smell it!"

Zexiu sneered, "Your sleeping potion is only good for fooling the little girls in the cave. If you run into a seasoned martial artist, they'll break your hand."

Gengu was speechless. He smiled sweetly twice and went back to stirring the soup as if nothing had happened.

Zexiu took the water bag, poured a bowl of water, went into the cave, pulled a dagger from his boot, and began to shave, saying, "From now on, you will follow me and never leave."

Xiao Man's eyes widened instantly. "Are you talking to me?"

"nonsense."

Xiao Man was overjoyed and tried to get up, but the movement aggravated her wound, causing her to fall back in pain. Despite this, she exclaimed happily, "You're willing to follow me and protect me?"

Without a mirror, Zexiu could only fumble around while shaving, his movements clumsy. He frowned and said, "You're the one who's been following me. You don't really want revenge, do you? From now on, I'll take you with me, and you mustn't have any more contact with the people from No Return Mountain." As soon as he finished speaking, he scraped his chin with the dagger, and a bead of blood quickly appeared. He clicked his tongue and casually wiped it away with his sleeve.

Xiao Man beckoned: "Come here, come here, let me shave you."

Zexiu gripped the dagger, looking at her with a half-smile: "Give you the dagger? Dream on!"

"My skills are very good! Why don't you believe me?" Xiaoman was still waving. "Consider it as repaying your kindness. You've saved me so many times, how could I accept that? Also, my right hand doesn't seem to hurt anymore, so don't worry."

Zexiu actually handed her the dagger, and with a gentle lift, helped her sit up. Xiaoman touched his stubble-covered face and chuckled, "I used to shear sheep, although their wool isn't as stiff as yours. Don't worry, I'll definitely satisfy you."

Zexiu pretended to hit her, but Xiaoman wasn't afraid at all and just chuckled.

"As a young master of Cangya City, living a life of luxury, how could you possibly be helping to shear sheep?"

Zexiu found it very strange.

Xiao Man paused for a moment, then chuckled awkwardly, "Uh... well... I do play around with it occasionally, but do you expect me to just sit there daydreaming like a rich young lady all day long?"

Zexiu smiled faintly: "From head to toe, you don't look like a rich young lady at all."

Xiao Man ignored him and focused on shaving him.

To be honest, her movements were quite practiced; she carefully shaved away the dark stubble with the dagger, the force just right. Ze Xiu felt her hands were soft and smooth, and as they touched his face, it was incredibly alluring. He couldn't help but gaze at her face, so close, her eyelashes trembling slightly, her eyebrows arched, her nose small and perfectly proportioned, and her lips small and pink—actually, she was quite pretty; if only her temperament weren't so fierce.

Just as I was lost in thought, those lips suddenly moved, revealing tiny silver teeth. She said softly, "Of course I'm happy to be with you. No one will bully me anymore. But I've been poisoned by that poison. If I don't go find the people from No Return Mountain, won't I die?"

Zexiu felt an itch on his face; it was from her breath, fragrant as orchids. He felt a similar itch in his heart, and became somewhat absent-minded. He whispered, "It's still unclear whether they poisoned you; we can't say for sure right now... Anyway, I'll find someone to detoxify you, so don't worry."

Xiao Man stopped what she was doing, looked at his face with a long silence, and after a long while, said, "You...you are actually very good to me."

Ze Xiu suddenly came to her senses, her face flushed, and she spat out, "You are the young master of Cangya City, the last remaining bloodline of Cangya City... I don't care whether it's good or bad, I'm just doing what I should do."

Xiao Man smiled and said in a low voice, "Yes, because I am the young mistress of Cangya City."

She didn't say anything more, shaved his stubble clean, and then smiled and said, "Okay, feel it yourself."

Zexiu touched her chin and found it was indeed as smooth as before. He gently put her back down, stood up, and said, "Thank you."

Xiao Man stared blankly as he walked out of the cave, ladled a bowl of soup, brought it in, and picked up a spoon to feed her. Suddenly, she said, "I've thought it over. I can let go of the revenge, but I must find all five corners. I can't let Tian Sha Shi Fang steal the treasure. It's mine... it belongs to Cangya City."

She was actually reluctant to part with the treasure. Alas, a leopard can't change its spots; forcing her to watch the treasure go undiscovered would be torture worse than death.

Zexiu nodded and said, "I had the same idea. Let's find all five corners first. By the way, where are the five corners hidden?"

Xiao Man shook her head: "I don't know, no one has told me."

Zexiu sighed, "I don't know this, I don't know that. How exactly are you holding this position? Are you really an imposter?"

Xiao Man didn't speak for a while before saying, "I have a pocket in my coat with a map inside that's related to the Five Corners. You can take it and we can study it together."

Zexiu indeed rummaged through her coat and pulled out several bright jewels and gemstones. Xiaoman exclaimed anxiously, "Not that! Don't touch that!"

Zexiu sneered, "Loves money more than life itself!" He then pulled out a map, unfolded it, and saw that it was covered with lines of various colors, all mixed together in a messy jumble, like a tangled mess that made one's head spin.

Treasure Scroll, Chapter Fifteen: Scattering (Part Three)

Updated: 2008-10-04 15:09:15 Word Count: 4273

This is the first of two updates today.

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Xiao Man glanced at it and wanted to throw it away; she couldn't possibly understand such a messy map. Ze Xiu unfolded the map and laid it flat on the ground, examining it carefully before saying, "So that's how it is. Although it's chaotic, there's order within the chaos. Although there are many lines of various colors, after counting them, there are only four colors: black, red, blue, and silver, which are the colors of the five elements."

Xiaoman knew nothing about the map, so to avoid letting something slip, she pretended to be mute and focused on looking at it. She saw that each line had two characters written on it at intervals, which were nothing more than the arrangement of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, such as Jiazi and Yichou.

Zexiu sat down beside her and said in a low voice, "Cangya City has always revered the north, so the Jiazi cycle naturally starts from the north. Zi belongs to the Yang water of the north, and its color is black. Let's start counting from the Jiazi of the black line, and count nine times to see where we are."

Xiao Man stretched out her finger and touched the black line, drawing it downwards little by little until it stopped at the Ren Shen position, where it intersected with the red line. Ze Xiu took out a brush from his pocket, dipped it in the water in the bowl, and gently drew a circle on the spot. Unexpectedly, the ink immediately seeped in, staining the surrounding area terribly.

Xiao Man cried out and hurriedly picked up the map, gently blowing on the ink stains, hoping it would dry quickly. When the map was illuminated by the light at the cave entrance, the area stained with ink became transparent, revealing another layer of drawing on it, its lines mottled.

Both of them were stunned. It turned out there was another map hidden beneath the first one! Only by splashing ink on it could the true form be revealed. Since Mount Bugui had obtained this map unintentionally, it must have studied it meticulously. Yet, no one had thought to cover it with ink, so this simple secret remained undiscovered.

Xiaoman said urgently, "Do you have ink? Quickly pour it on!"

Zexiu shook his head and said, "Don't rush, there might be something fishy going on. Let's first figure out where each of the five corners is hidden, make a rubbing of this map, and then we can talk about splashing ink."

The two quickly traced the four colored lines, each simulating a hiding place at one of the five corners, and drew circles with their brushes. Xiao Man, hearing him constantly mention "yang water" and "yang wood," casually remarked, "I've heard that things are divided into yin and yang. Why are you only talking about yang? Aren't there any yin ones?"

Zexiu was stunned. He really hadn't thought of such a simple question. But if that's the case, then each of the four directions has its own yin and yang. What would be placed in the yang direction?

“I think that perhaps Cangya City… uh, my ancestors didn’t put the treasure in one place at all. Most people think of treasure as a huge mountain of treasure piled up there. Maybe my ancestors separated them to prevent them from being stolen all at once. Don’t you think so?”

Xiao Man was just talking nonsense, but to her surprise, Ze Xiu actually nodded: "That makes sense. As expected of the young master of Cangya City, you know your family's treasure best."

Even someone as thick-skinned as her felt guilty. She coughed and urged him to quickly mark the yin elements like fire and water, then made another map. Only then did she carefully apply a layer of ink to the original map. After the ink dried, the two of them held up the map and looked at it against the light at the cave entrance, only to find that the map hidden inside had no secrets whatsoever. Simply put, small families who liked to show off would spend money to buy a map and stick it on the wall to show that they cared about national affairs. The map hidden underneath after the ink was splashed was of this type.

"What's so special about this? It's so well preserved. It's something you could see anywhere." Xiaoman was a little disappointed.

Zexiu shook his head: "You can't say that. We just marked the hiding place of the Five Corners. Only by referring to this map can we know the exact location."

He put down the map, took out his dagger, and poked a small hole in each of the four places where the five corners were placed. He then looked at it again and found that the northern corner was located near Mount Taibai, the southern corner was near Mount Wuyi in Fujian, the eastern corner was located in the Suzhou-Hangzhou area, and the western corner was in the Western Regions of the Uyghurs.

Upon hearing that the western horn was near the Uyghur territory, Xiaoman's face turned pale, and she hesitated before saying, "I... don't want to go to the west."

What a joke! Mount No Return is right there. If she went to find the Five Corners, wouldn't she be walking into a trap? Besides, she has a pact with Yelü Jing. If the people of Mount No Return find her, they'll definitely want to tear her to pieces. She'll never go there in this lifetime.

Zexiu said, "It's your property, so you get to decide what to do with it. Just don't cry and complain about it falling into other people's hands in the future."

Xiao Man didn't speak, but then she heard him whisper, "It's just a little strange..."

What's strange? She looked at him curiously. Zexiu pointed to the map and said, "There should be five corners of the five directions, but why are there only four marked on the map? Even the various colored lines only have four colors, so there's clearly one missing."

Xiao Man laughed and said, "We've got everything from east to west, north to south, so the last one is naturally in the middle. Is that so strange?"

Zexiu scoffed, "Yeah, you're really smart. Look at how big that piece in the middle is, and search for it inch by inch. You'll never die from searching."

Xiao Man snatched the map with a skeptical look, stared at it for a long time, and finally gave up in despair, sighing, "Forget it, I'll study this map again later. Let's start by looking in the other three safer places. Oh dear, we've been talking for so long, the soup's getting cold. When are you finally going to let me eat?"

Zexiu had no choice but to pick up the spoon and feed her the soup. As Xiaoman drank the soup, she kept glancing at him with her eyes darting around. He had taken off his cloak, revealing a long robe underneath. His chest was slightly open, revealing a gold chain about the thickness of a thumb. In Xiaoman's eyes, which was obsessed with money, it was definitely real gold. What was even more astonishing was that hanging from the thumb-thick chain was a piece of mutton-fat white jade the size of half a palm. After Xiaoman had scanned it countless times, she was quite certain that it was real jade, and the kind that was extremely precious.

Unbelievable! This guy is actually rich! Normally, nobodies or big shots can't afford such luxury!

Getting a little closer, wanting to examine the gold and jade more closely, she suddenly caught a faint fragrance, with a hint of coolness. Xiaoman was quite certain she didn't have the extravagant habit of wearing sachets. Looking up more closely, she noticed that around his neck hung not only a gold chain and mutton-fat jade, but also a small silver plate. Embedded in the silver plate was a transparent stone, barely larger than a teardrop. With every movement of his neck, the stone emitted a dazzling, multicolored light, incredibly brilliant. Besides this, there was a red string tied around his neck, from which hung a silk sachet. The cool, pleasant scent was emanating from that—the legendary sachet.

Xiao Man stretched her neck like a goose, trying to get a closer look, when suddenly someone gently patted her on the head: "Your eyes are not honest, what are you looking at?"

Xiao Man said in a serious tone, "I'm researching a rich person who's pretending to be broke. Tell me, isn't being rich a wonderful thing? Why would anyone want to come out and suffer in the wind and sun as a poor wretch?"

Zexiu pulled her clothes up a bit to cover the expensive ornaments. Hearing her say that, she couldn't help but sneer. After a while, she said in a low voice, "Who told you that being rich equals happiness? According to that logic, wouldn't the emperor be the happiest person in the world?"

Isn't that how it is? Xiaoman couldn't understand.

Zexiu stood up with the empty bowl in his hand. He seemed to remember something, and his face turned terribly dark. He took two steps, then suddenly stopped and said, "You should know that there are always things in this world that money can't buy, and those are often the things you want most."

Again with those arrogant words, Xiaoman turned away to wipe her sad and self-conscious tears, and sighed, "This principle is too profound, I don't understand it. You have to let me become a rich person first."

Zexiu looked at her mockingly: "You have always been a wealthy woman, both then and now, why pretend?" After saying that, she walked out and went off to do something else.

Xiao Man lay blankly on the fur, thinking about what he had just said: There are always things in the world that money can't buy, and often those are the things you want most.

What in this world can't be bought with money? Is it gourmet food, expensive clothes, or the envious and admiring gazes of others?

Just thinking about this sentence makes my heart ache for no reason. There are some beautiful yet fragile things in this world that you are destined to never have, whether you are rich or poor. After they are gone, what you don't have, you still don't have. If you become rich, at least you can comfort yourself: I possess gold and silver, which will never disappear. They truly belong to me, and only to me.

*****

Lianyi carried Yelü Jing, who looked like he was wearing tattered rags, for several days in the mountains. Later, she was still fine, but Yelü Jing, his face turning green, grabbed her hair and weakly said, "I need to relieve myself, eat, and sleep."

Lian Yi asked in surprise, "You're amazing! Can you do all three things at the same time?"

Yelü Jing was speechless, wishing he could bite her fair neck—of course, not in a flirtatious way.

Once they reached a flatter spot, Lianyi finally put him down. Yelü Jing didn't even have the strength to unbuckle his belt. Looking up, he saw her standing there blankly, and couldn't help but reveal a typical rogue's smile: "Aren't you going to find something to eat? Do you want to watch me pee?"

Lianyi blushed suddenly, realizing what had happened. She quickly turned and left. When she returned a while later, her hands were full of things, including dry branches and leaves, two pheasants that had been plucked, cleaned, and gutted, and a leather bag of spring water.

Yelü Jing leaned weakly against the tree, watching her take a flint, light a fire, and then put the pheasant on it to roast. Her movements were very skilled, and he couldn't help but praise her: "You should come and be my guard. None of my lackeys are as capable as you."

Lianyi shook her head: "I am my master's guard, and I have to take care of her for the rest of my life."

Yelü Jing laughed and said, "How can you manage with two women? She's so skinny, you two won't have any sexual happiness."

Lianyi exclaimed urgently, "I'm very happy! How can you say I'm not happy? You're the one who's not happy!"

Yelü Jing just smiled, his eyes darting over her face, chest, and thighs. Lianyi felt uneasy under his gaze and became even more convinced that he was a bad person. She couldn't help but complain that her master insisted on taking him with him.

After the pheasant was roasted and they had a hearty meal, he didn't just look at it anymore. As the saying goes, when you're full and warm, you start to think about sex. He grabbed her hand and said softly, "Honestly, if I had a beautiful, capable, and loyal guard like you by my side, I wouldn't trade it for being an emperor for a thousand years."

Lianyi quickly pulled her hand back, moved far away from him, and whispered, "No one can be an emperor for a thousand years. Besides, I am my master's person, not your guard."

Yelü Jing shook his finger: "Don't be so definitive. The world is in chaos these days, and there aren't many good men like me who are handsome, considerate, and gentle. You'll know this later, and you'll definitely regret saying this today."