Chapter 9

Chapter 9

In the night, the wind howled even more fiercely, as if to prove Shen Qingyu’s words-“We have a guest.” Following the sword’s shadow that appeared a step ahead of him, a young man arrived and landed steadily in the courtyard.

The young man carried himself with proper, upright grace. His face was strikingly handsome, and his bearing was calm and solemn. He wore a moon-white brocade robe, the hem stirring lightly in the night wind, his figure as straight and tall as a pine.

The man in white saw his longsword embedded in the tree, and surprise flickered in his eyes.

“Hey, Xue Heting, did you find the Evil yaoguai?”

Another bright, lively voice rang out. A nimble figure had appeared atop the wall.

It was a rather delicate-looking young gentleman, dressed in a dark red embroidered outer robe with teal-blue lining showing at his cuffs. A black belt cinched his waist, silver ornaments dangling from it. Beaded charms hung from his wrist, and he lounged against the tree with an idle smile.

The little green insect glimmered faintly in the night as it slowly approached the Youth in Blue, making itself very conspicuous.

Xue Heting looked at the Bixiu Demon Insect flying out. “This Demon Insect seems to be heading for that young master.”

Shen Qingyu’s tone was calm. “Is that so?”

But the Bixiu Demon Insect circled around Shen Qingyu and flew straight toward Qiao Ying.

Qiao Ying shielded her face and cried out, “Shen Qingyu!”

A hand reached over and caught the little green insect.

Qiao Ying lifted her eyes just in time to see Shen Qingyu withdrawing his hand. When he opened his fingers, the little green insect had already turned to powder and scattered into the air.

Xue Heting frowned. He raised his hand, and the longsword embedded in the tree flew back into his grasp, radiating a chilling edge.

Shen Qingyu met Xue Heting’s scrutinizing gaze without dodging. He even seemed unaware of the tense atmosphere and merely smiled at Qiao Ying. “It’s just a bug, and it scared you into shrieking like that.”

The corner of Qiao Ying’s eye twitched. Inwardly, she cursed, You’re the one who shrieks like that! Your whole family shrieks like that!

Xue Heting said, “The Bixiu Demon Insect only reacts to Yaoguai blood. Why, then, would it keep chasing this young lady?”

The young gentleman standing in the tree folded his arms, perfectly happy to stir up trouble. “Xue Heting, are you stupid? You said before that this insect tracks the trail of injured Yaoguai. Since it’s buzzing straight toward this girl, doesn’t that mean she’s very likely a Yaoguai? Hey, Xue Heting, I think you might as well fight them. Don’t worry, I absolutely won’t go around telling everyone that you bullied a blind young master!”

Xue Heting could bear it no longer. “Ming Caihua, shut up.”

The bracelet on the young gentleman’s wrist suddenly lit up. He yelped in pain and jumped in place, cursing, “Xue Heting, you hypocrite! If you’ve got the guts, undo my restriction and fight me fair and square!”

Xue Heting ignored the man fuming with rage. He lifted the longsword in his hand, his voice cool and clear. “I have been investigating an Evil Yaoguai that has injured people for some time. Who knows how many lives that Evil Yaoguai has taken? Young master, the Bixiu Demon Insect does not make mistakes. Please step aside. I would like the young lady behind you to give me an explanation.”

Yaoguai could take human form, and no small number of them were skilled at changing their appearance. They were cunning and fickle, so one could not be too cautious.

“And if I don’t want to step aside?” Shen Qingyu’s lips curved in a smile as his fingertips lightly stroked the Blind Staff in his hand. His voice was gentle and soft, his manner all kindness, yet Qiao Ying felt her scalp go numb.

She still remembered how, that night, Shen Qingyu had used this utterly ordinary Blind Staff she had given him to separate two Chang Ghosts’ heads from their bodies.

“Misunderstanding! This is all a misunderstanding!” Qiao Ying hurriedly stepped out and blocked Shen Qingyu. Facing the righteous young master in white, she said, “I’m not a Yaoguai. I’m human. As for why that Demon Insect was chasing me… I don’t know how to explain it either.”

Qiao Ying nervously clutched the corner of her clothes. The water on her hand dampened a patch of fabric. She lowered her head and looked at the hand she had dipped into the water jar, then suddenly realized something.

“It’s that water jar. There’s an injured fish in there. I touched that injured fish with my hand.”

No sooner had Qiao Ying spoken than the water jar abruptly exploded.

Qiao Ying instinctively tried to hide behind Shen Qingyu again, but Shen Qingyu grabbed her by the back of her collar. Her feet left the ground, and her entire body was lifted up, unable to move. The splashing water came pouring down and landed entirely on her.

Drip, drip. Water fell from her in droplets. Qiao Ying looked as though she’d been dragged out of a pond. She wiped the water from her face, then turned back and stared expressionlessly at the young man who remained perfectly dry and immaculate.
Shen Qingyu smiled. “You were the one who insisted on stepping forward.”

He was definitely getting back at her for stepping in and ruining his chance to go on a killing spree.

The gap between their strength was too great. Qiao Ying couldn’t beat him, so she could only dangle miserably in midair, strangled so tightly it hurt.

A puddle of water had fallen onto the ground. The black catfish landed in it, dodged the sword light, then actually followed the trail of water and burrowed down beneath the earth.

Xue Heting said, “My apologies for disturbing you both. I will certainly come another day to make amends!”

Long sword in hand, he left as abruptly as he had arrived, vanishing like the wind as he followed the faint remnants of demonic aura.

“Hey, Xue Heting, wait for me!”

The bracelet on Ming Caihua’s wrist was faintly glowing again. With the restriction in place, he couldn’t get too far from Xue Heting. He cursed under his breath, then hurriedly used qinggong to chase after him.

Qiao Ying finally landed as well. Soaked from head to toe, she looked at the wreckage strewn across the courtyard and instantly felt a headache coming on.

She scratched her head. “Shen Qingyu, clean up the court-”

“Oh, right. The table still hasn’t been wiped clean.” Shen Qingyu turned and went into the house. He was usually lazy and languid; this was the first time he had ever taken the initiative to do a chore Qiao Ying had assigned him.

Qiao Ying pressed her lips together and resigned herself to picking up the broom.

By midnight, everything had been cleaned up, and she had washed herself clean too. When she ran into the courtyard to hang up the laundry, she saw someone sitting on the roof.

His blue robes fluttered lightly in the night breeze, and snow-white hair spilled over his shoulders, made even more lustrous by the moonlight, like flowing moonbeams. A white silk blindfold covered his eyes, its ends tied loosely behind his head, making the skin of his forehead look even paler than snow, while the line of his jaw was clean and elegant.

He sat there in a lazy, careless posture. Somehow, he had found a few blades of grass, and as his fingertips turned them lightly, the rough shape of a little grasshopper had already taken form.

Qiao Ying set down the things in her hands and looked up at him. “Shen Qingyu, why aren’t you sleeping in the middle of the night? What are you doing sitting on the roof?”

He smiled. “Basking in moonlight.”

The night wind brushed past, and the white silk blindfold stirred slightly, but it did nothing to disturb his leisure.

Basking in moonlight? What kind of weird hobby was that?

Qiao Ying couldn’t be bothered to keep looking at him. She hung the freshly washed clothes on the clothesline and muttered, “Do you know how hard our lives are right now? Never mind that we have no savings-this whole household can only rely on me to make money. Yes, I found work now, but that job won’t last forever. For all I know, I could lose it any day!”

“If I lose my job, we won’t be able to afford food, and we won’t be able to pay rent either. Then we’ll really have to sleep on the streets and beg. I’m not missing any arms or legs, and I’m this pretty besides. I absolutely refuse to go begging.”

“But food costs money, housing costs money, everything costs money. If we really run out of money, I might as well sell you off.”

A short, light laugh came from the rooftop, as if he were mocking her for overestimating herself.

If she really had the ability to sell him off, she would have abandoned him and run far, far away long ago. Why would she still be here every day, living in constant fear and playing along with him?

Qiao Ying didn’t take issue with it. She patted the clothes she had hung up, still mumbling, “We finally managed to rent this house for cheap, and it’s really old. It can’t take much abuse. If you had fought that person just now, you definitely would’ve torn this place apart from top to bottom.”

The young man finished weaving the grasshopper, thinking to himself that she really did talk a lot. Once she started nagging, she never stopped.

“Shen Qingyu.” Qiao Ying suddenly turned back and lifted her face to look at him. “You don’t want the home we spent half the day cleaning up to just disappear either, right?”

Shen Qingyu’s fingertip, which had been touching the grasshopper’s wing, paused slightly. The careless smile at the corner of his lips faded a little.

Qiao Ying had no idea what this young man, who wore a smiling mask at all times, was thinking. She was very aware of her status as a weakling in front of him, and she couldn’t control whatever he was pondering anyway. So she picked up the wooden basin and went back inside.

In the moonlight, the Youth in Blue sat quietly for a long time. After a while, his fingertip poked at the helpless little grasshopper. It seemed playful, yet also like a cruel torment. In a voice of unclear meaning, he murmured,

“Silly little thing.”