Chapter 138
Chapter 138
Shang Yan’s threat worked-but not completely.
Although the Ghosts outside dared not enter, they continued lingering by the door.
Qiao Yu gritted his teeth. “Move. Let’s fight our way out!”
Shang Yan stared at Qiao Yu’s profile without blinking. “Wait.”
Sensing his gaze had changed again, Qiao Yu raised a fist in warning. “I’m telling you, forced fruit isn’t sweet.”
Shang Yan remained unmoved. “Sweet or not, I want to taste love’s bitterness.”
No one could beat Qiao Yu in a verbal battle. Even now, he had an answer.
“Sorry. Weak stomach. I can’t share hardships with you.”
Shang Yan thought, then recited something completely unrelated. “Hard stone shatters. After midnight, dew grows heavy. Rest holds no appeal. Dullness consumes me.”
Qiao Yu blinked. “What? What nonsense are you spouting?”
What the hell was that?!
Shang Yan did not answer. He pressed Qiao Yu harder against himself.
When Qiao Yu’s lower back met something rigid, he went numb.
Fuck!
He could have just said he was hard. Why make an acrostic out of it?!
“Are you a fucking terrier?!”
Like a giant golden retriever, Shang Yan buried his head against Qiao Yu’s shoulder and rubbed it, almost whining. “You can’t blame me, Qiao Yu.”
As he spoke, Shang Yan dug hard into his own palm. Despite commanding himself to endure, he could not stop touching Qiao Yu.
A wicked voice inside even tried to persuade him that by trickery or force… he could surely get Qiao Yu into bed.
But his subconscious held him back, insisting he could not do that.
There were no champagne roses here, no grand pavilion or villa, and no magnificent proposal…
It would show Qiao Yu no respect.
And it was… unworthy of his Qiao Yu.
“Does it really feel that bad?”
Qiao Yu’s cautious question sounded beside his ear.
Those words burned through Shang Yan’s last thread of reason. If…
“It must be awful.” Qiao Yu looked at his reddened eyes and nodded sympathetically. Then he removed his thin outer robe…
And draped it over his own head.
Only his eyes showed, brimming with innocent mischief. “Is this better?”
Shang Yan: “…Thank you. Much better.”
Crude as the method was, it genuinely worked.
Current Charm: 60%
After brief confusion, the Ghosts outside dispersed in small groups.
Qiao Yu smacked his head. “Why didn’t I think of that earlier? Come on, let’s go. Ren Yan hasn’t returned. I’m worried.”
Keeping his head covered, he grabbed Shang Yan’s arm and ran out.
Behind him, Shang Yan’s mouth twitched as he silently questioned the heavens.
When they reached the courtyard, they found the Pen Spirit and Bridal Ghost locked in a standoff, with an innocent Luo Yunmeng trapped between them.
Bian Feibai and Zuo Qingquan hid behind the jujube tree, eager to help but too afraid to move.
The moment Bian Feibai saw Qiao Yu, his eyes lit up. “Boss Qiao!”
When Qiao Yu looked over, he asked, “Why did you wrap your head?”
It looked strangely beautiful.
There was no helping it. His Charm remained at sixty percent. Even with his head covered, Qiao Yu was attractive, though no one understood why…
Qiao Yu could not understand either. His face was hidden, so why did he still have sixty percent Charm? Ridiculous!
Seeing the admiration in Bian Feibai’s eyes, Qiao Yu snorted. “What’s so surprising? Your dad has a thousand forms.”
Bian Feibai: “…”
Before Qiao Yu could gloat, Shang Yan bumped his shoulder. “Why can’t you stop making yourself everyone’s father? Do you know how much it costs to raise a child?”
“Thanks, but I only accept the respect that comes with seniority. Forget the raising part. I can’t even support myself.”
Everyone: “…”
Many wished to be shameless, but only this man had truly achieved it.
Everyone fell silent. Qiao Yu felt no embarrassment. Looking around, he asked, “Why are there only three of you? Where are the other two streamers?”
They had barely seen those two since entering the Instance…
Zuo Qingquan shook his head. “No idea. Probably hiding.”
Useless at everything except hide-and-seek.
Qiao Yu clicked his tongue and prepared another jab, but the Pen Spirit roared nearby.
“Let her go!”
The Bridal Ghost roared back without yielding. Her mouth could not open, but her momentum suffered not at all.
The Pen Spirit grew tired of it. She looked expressionlessly at Luo Yunmeng. “Then there’s nothing I can do. Blame your bad luck.
“Don’t worry, though. It doesn’t matter if you die. I won’t devour your soul. For Qiao Yu’s sake, I’ll make it quick.”
Luo Yunmeng paled and reached out dramatically. “No! I want to live!”
“I wanted you to live too, but the one behind you refuses.”
The instant the Pen Spirit glimpsed Qiao Yu, she touched her chest.
The money was still there…
Such security.
Suppressing her fear, Luo Yunmeng looked at the Bridal Ghost. A growl still fermented in the ghost’s throat as she shook her head.
What did that mean?
She refused to let Luo Yunmeng live?!
Fuck it. I’ll fight you!
Her blood rushed to her head, and she reached back to gouge out the Bridal Ghost’s eyes, only for the ghost to catch her wrist effortlessly.
“Fuck! Just kill me, then!”
She gave up.
Caught between two high-level malicious ghosts, a clean death was better than freezing between them.
But the Bridal Ghost only roared again.
Qiao Yu tilted his head thoughtfully at the stalemate.
“What is she trying to say?”
Shang Yan shrugged. “No idea.”
“You don’t know either?”
“Should I?”
As Qiao Yu’s curiosity peaked, the Bridal Ghost suddenly looked at him. Her eyes had no pupils, only suction-cup-like fields of white. Qiao Yu seemed to develop Alice in Wonderland syndrome as countless white specks filled his vision.
The specks expanded from microscopic to vast, spreading from points into complete scenes.
“Tao Zhuyue! Tao Zhuyue!”
Cheers rose below the stage, and pieces of silver flashed through the air. Onstage, the woman wore the blue robes of a virtuous opera heroine, her face accented with black paint.
When her song ended, she dipped toward the audience and went backstage.
A young man in a python robe waited there, his face indistinct. Even blurred, he carried such elegant charm that he could hardly be unattractive.
They leaned together and spoke for a while. After the man left, another man in a short outfit hurried in.
Qiao Yu heard Tao Zhuyue call him “Senior Brother Qi.”
Senior Brother Qi’s expression darkened. He seized Tao Zhuyue’s wrist. “You’ve truly fallen for him, haven’t you?”
Tao Zhuyue froze, then immediately denied it. “I haven’t.”
“Good. Don’t forget we came with a mission, not so you could indulge in romance.”
He handed her a token. “The princess commands that tomorrow evening, during the lantern banquet at the Prince of Lanling’s Residence, you assassinate the prince.”
“What?” Tao Zhuyue’s fingers trembled. The token carved with Nanzhao patterns fell.
Senior Brother Qi crouched to retrieve it and narrowed his eyes. “Zhuyue, you lost your composure.”
Tao Zhuyue quickly lowered her head, hiding the reluctance in her eyes.
The scene shifted to night. The brilliant Prince of Lanling’s Residence overflowed with guests and wine. The prince-the man who had met Tao Zhuyue backstage-held up a white lantern. “This is the legendary merfolk-silk lantern.”
Then Qiao Yu watched a crowd of idiots gather around a lantern woven from gauze and praise it extravagantly.
Merfolk silk?
Heh. What an imagination.
Onstage, Tao Zhuyue sang The Peony Pavilion, clutching the knife hidden in her sleeve. Yet even when the song ended, she did not strike…