Chapter 179
Chapter 179
“You don’t have to do this. I’ve never clearly expressed how I feel about you, and there are still many secrets I’ve kept from you.”
Shengsheng Zhou bit her lip and lowered her head.
Her mind was in turmoil. She was plainly furious that Fusheng Duan had been Pecky, yet after hearing his confession and seeing him like this, her anger inexplicably ebbed a little.
“But if I hadn’t said anything, were you planning to walk away and sever all ties with me forever?”
Shengsheng, whose little scheme had been predicted perfectly: “…”
“Then what would you have done if I really had?”
She flexed the hand he was still holding and looked up at him.
Fusheng’s eyes were dark as ink. A gentle smile curved his lips as he answered without hesitation, “Catch you, bring you back, and break your legs.”
Shengsheng knew he was not joking.
After all, in the original novel, he had nearly killed the heroine out of impatience.
Yes. Exactly.
Impatience.
He would grow irritated because the heroine had either gone to meet Siran Ming in secret or been abducted by Weiqing Song.
He thought she caused too much trouble and figured he might as well kill her so he would no longer have to be annoyed.
Shengsheng patted Fusheng on the shoulder and nodded with sudden feeling. “I forgive you.”
Compared with the time she had discovered his secret and been sentenced directly to death, Fusheng had now made progress at rocket speed.
The heroine had merely spent time with Siran Ming or Weiqing Song, and he had grown impatient enough to want her dead. Shengsheng, meanwhile, had intended to break up with him outright and never associate with him again for as long as they both lived, yet he had actually coaxed her with such patience.
Immersed in her anger at being deceived and kept in the dark, she had completely forgotten one thing.
Fusheng Duan had never bothered hiding such useless emotions inside. If that were truly what he thought, he would have openly mocked her for indulging in wishful thinking long ago. He would not have pretended to know nothing, concealing every clue like an actor counting on this performance to win him Best Actor.
Put simply, most of the time, he could not even be bothered to conceal his emotions.
Shengsheng’s sudden enlightenment cleared her mind as thoroughly as if someone had pumped an entire box of enemas into her brain.
Fusheng: “…” He did not know why, but he had the uncanny sense that her reason was definitely nothing good.
“But, um, there’s one last question.” Shengsheng clutched her skirt and gave him a coy glance.
Fusheng lifted her onto his lap, rested his head against her shoulder, and tilted it toward her. “Mm?”
“When you heard me say all those things–those things about you–what were you thinking?”
Fusheng thought back, his hand stroking the curve of her waist. “I felt smug.”
Shengsheng: ???
Is that how you comfort someone?
Seeing her expression sour, he tried phrasing it differently. “At the time, I thought, as expected, there isn’t a woman in this world who wouldn’t like me.” He attempted to make his wording a touch more humble, but clearly failed.
Shengsheng knew he was not showing off. He genuinely believed it.
That did not stop her from getting angry.
“Heh.”
She pried his arms away from her waist and slipped from his lap like an eel.
Fusheng said, “Every treasure in these ruins is yours.”
Shengsheng Zhou, age seventeen, bachelor’s degree from the University of Still Suffering Poverty Syndrome Even After Becoming a Princess.
“Do the pearls count too?” she asked softly after clearing her throat.
Fusheng replied thoughtfully, “Would you like me to dismantle this throne for you?”
…
Weiqing was beside himself with anxiety, as though Fusheng were eating people in there. He was one step away from seizing Qingbai by its innocent neck and demanding to know what its master was doing inside.
Qingbai: You’re asking me??
Xiaosui stood silently on a small branch off to the side. No one knew what thoughts were turning in his mind.
When the door opened, humans and birds alike could not help turning to look.
The first to emerge was Shengsheng Zhou, her arms and legs all intact, though her face was somewhat pale and her body swayed unsteadily. Her expression held grief… joy??
“Brother! I’m rich!!”
Shengsheng shouted excitedly at Weiqing Song as he hurried toward her, his face full of worry.
Weiqing pulled her around in a circle to inspect her, then scolded with exasperation, “Look at your pathetic little face! Has Father ever deprived you of anything, or have I?”
As he spoke, he shot a vicious glare at Fusheng Duan, who had returned to normal and stood behind her.
Fusheng pretended not to see it.
A brother and a future brother-in-law.
Shengsheng let Weiqing’s words pass in one ear and out the other. Her mind was filled entirely with thoughts of how to arrange all that treasure.
Though life as a princess was certainly rich and luxurious, she truly did not own many assets besides jewelry, imperial rewards, and the like.
That did not include Zhou Daifu, of course.
But this time, she was truly wealthy enough to rival a nation.
“Brother, we never have to fear Siran Ming invading again. I can crush that bastard to death with money.” Shengsheng grinned, showing all her teeth.
Weiqing could hardly bear to look.
He desperately wanted to tell her that these were no more than a drop in the ocean of the Qing Kingdom’s treasure.
The truly valuable thing now was Fusheng, standing behind her with the key to the “final” treasure already in his possession.
But he said nothing. Damn you, Fusheng Duan. If I ever act as your wingman again, I’ll be the greatest fool alive!
“So that monster used to be a great general of the Qing Kingdom?”
Come on! A great general who wielded an axe as his weapon was insanely cool, all right!
Before they left, they built a grave for the nameless general whose mind had been brutally stripped away by special means, turning him into a monster condemned to guard this place for a thousand years.
Perhaps when he had emerged and tried to perish together with her, it had not been out of anger.
He had lived in chaos for far too long and had wanted to end his agonizing, protracted life long ago.
Mm. It was definitely not because of the line, “Grandson, Grandpa’s done paddling.”
Definitely not.
As for transporting the treasure out, Fusheng said he had his own methods and that Shengsheng need not worry.
Even if Shengsheng thought with her toes, she still could not imagine how a flock of birds could carry out so many valuables.
Fusheng lowered his gaze to the tattoo-like mark in his palm, his eyes flickering.
They had all been wrong.
They had assumed the final map to the treasure would be stored together with the royal seal in the box beneath the bird that looked charred all over.
But it was not. The box was empty.
The bird he and Weiqing had seen was nothing more than a dead bird.
The real problem was the gu parasite living inside its body.
The instant Fusheng touched it, it released an odor no one could perceive, casting everyone nearby into hallucinations.
Weiqing, for example, had seen a phoenix, while Fusheng had seen only a pitch-black worm.
It disgusted him so much that he could no longer maintain human form and reverted directly to his atavistic bird state.
The two men had sent Shengsheng away precisely because they feared an accident like this. Neither had expected her to return without their noticing.
The Qing Kingdom’s gu arts had been lost long ago with the fall of the dynasty. Instead, a fragment or two had been inherited by the barbarian tribespeople once enslaved by it.
Fusheng was no expert, but thanks to the fragmentary gu manuals he had once been forced to study, he had still noticed something wrong with the bird at first glance.
And that went doubly for Weiqing, who had read Fusheng’s fragmentary manuals like storybooks more times than anyone could count.