Chapter 5#
Husband Covers His Eyes!#
Ying Qingye could almost imagine exactly how Yan Jianxiao would look when angry—the corners of his eyes turning red, his fists clenching.
He knew he should listen to his master and cut ties with this person who might bring him trouble and humiliation, but when he looked into those eyes, an inexplicable pang of reluctance rose in his heart.
It wasn’t as though his side couldn’t accommodate such a little mute servant, and the pitiful little mute, without him, truly would have nothing left.
“Don’t pay me back.”
Yan Jianxiao was still stewing in anger when Ying Qingye’s voice suddenly came from above his head. “Once the heart seal is lifted, we’ll divorce. But until it’s lifted, within that time, taking care of you is my responsibility. Not spending my money is you being irresponsible.”
In his past life, Ying Qingye had been born into a military-political family and had possessed a strong sense of responsibility since childhood. He didn’t think there was anything wrong with this, so he looked up to see Yan Jianxiao’s reaction.
Yan Jianxiao, however, was stunned by his words. Ying Qingye was the strangest person he had ever met—how could anyone force others to spend their money?
At the same time, he was somewhat puzzled. What was a heart seal? Could it be the thing that had grown on his wrist since he was young…
He extended his arm, where half a heart-shaped mark sat on his wrist.
—Could it be this?
Seeing that he had caught on, Ying Qingye smiled. “Do you know what this is?”
Yan Jianxiao shook his head in dazed ignorance, staring at Ying Qingye with longing, wanting him to explain.
Faint light from the sky outside spilled into the shop, and Ying Qingye suddenly noticed that Yan Jianxiao’s eyes weren’t pure black. In the light, they carried a translucent light brown, like a beautiful foreigner’s.
That tender white neck was like a fragile willow branch, stirring the ripples of a spring lake.
Watching him look so obedient and so dependent, Ying Qingye’s heart inexplicably quickened.
“This is the heart seal of the Fate Stone. It once represented that my engagement to Qiao Weiyang had passed through the Heavenly Dao. But he broke it, so both of us were to be punished. Yet he used some method to transfer the mark onto you, and now you and I are the ones being punished. To lift it, we either need to obtain the Seven Holy Treasures, or we…”
Fall in love? Ying Qingye paused, unable to say those two words out loud.
He didn’t think the two of them would ever fall in love—after all, Yan Jianxiao wasn’t his type.
But Yan Jianxiao’s pupils contracted at his words, and he suddenly understood why Ying Qingye had pushed him away when he was struck by lightning that day.
He had five spirit roots and couldn’t withstand the heavenly thunder, so Ying Qingye had been protecting him in that moment.
But he had lied to Ying Qingye, claiming he was a girl… Yan Jianxiao’s lashes trembled slightly, warmth gathering at the corners of his eyes. Sensing his own loss of composure, he turned around and raised a hand to wipe at his eyes.
But he hadn’t actually cried.
Yet the person behind him thought he truly had. Ying Qingye’s voice came over, tinged with helplessness. “Made of water, are you? How many times have you cried now?”
Yan Jianxiao turned back around and glared at him.
“Ah, wronged you, did I?” Ying Qingye amended with a grin. “Then after you change, I’ll punish myself by buying you something delicious, how about that?”
Yan Jianxiao nodded, then took his hand, looked at him seriously, and wrote: “Thank you. I’ll keep my promise. When the time comes, we’ll divorce, and I’ll make way for the one you love.”
Ying Qingye: “…Okay.”
Watching him agree so readily, Ying Qingye suddenly felt a bit disgruntled, though he didn’t know why he was disgruntled.
Maybe it was the aftereffects of being struck by lightning a few days ago.
Fortunately, the servant at the Immortal Garment Shop broke the silence, and Yan Jianxiao soon went in to change.
Perhaps having noticed that Yan Jianxiao was a mortal, the shop’s changing room for guests also contained a bath barrel filled with water. When Yan Jianxiao undressed, he looked around to make sure no one was there before removing his clothes and untying his undergarment.
To make his disguise as a woman more convincing, his chest was bound by the undergarment, stuffed with round cotton pads that his mother had sewn from two pieces of coarse cloth.
The fabric was somewhat rough, and the friction had reddened Yan Jianxiao’s originally flat chest.
Yan Jianxiao didn’t want to put it back on, but remembering Ying Qingye’s words about hating liars, he put it on again anyway.
In the end, they would divorce anyway. As long as he kept up the guise of a girl until then, he wouldn’t be discovered.
He sighed, brushed aside the long hair at his nape, and re-tied the undergarment’s straps. As he moved, the light green mark on the side of his neck was revealed—it looked like a plum blossom seal.
The plum blossom mark flickered, resonating with the diluted spirit spring in the bath barrel, as if the flower were devouring a great deal of spiritual energy.
But Yan Jianxiao noticed nothing at all, covering it with his hair once more.
Ugly birthmark. Hmph.
…
Outside the Immortal Garment Shop, Ying Qingye didn’t have to wait long before Yan Jianxiao came out.
As he emerged, Yan Jianxiao heard the shopkeeper saying with a smile, “This is your first time bringing a girl here to buy clothes. For the sake of our past business together, I added a bit of spirit spring to her bath. That way, when you get her into bed later, you’ll find her smelling sweet…”
“There’s nothing like that!” Ying Qingye cut her off before she could finish. “We’re not that kind of relationship!”
The shopkeeper refused to believe it, cackling with laughter. Her peripheral vision caught sight of Yan Jianxiao, and her eyes instantly lit up. “Oh my, how does this outfit suit you so well? Little miss, come over here! Let your Brother Ying take a look!”
Yan Jianxiao wore a grey-pink robe with a greenish silk sash draped over his arm. His slightly damp long hair hung loose, with only two simple little braids tucked behind his ears, each ending in a small silver pendant. His eyes, not yet fully matured, were soft and rounded, like amber washed in water—innocent and adorable.
No wonder Ying Qingye thought he was only fourteen or fifteen.
The moment he saw him, Ying Qingye’s pupils contracted.
“…?” Yan Jianxiao noticed him staring and couldn’t help raising a hand to wave, tilting his head and mouthing silently: “What’s wrong?”
Though he could only roughly make out simple lip-reading, Ying Qingye coughed, tugged at Yan Jianxiao’s sash, and sent spiritual energy instantly into Yan Jianxiao’s body. It flowed up to his hair, drying the damp strands.
“Nothing. I’ll take you to eat.”
Yan Jianxiao noticed that Ying Qingye was very particular about boundaries—if he said he’d pull the sash, he pulled only the sash, not touching a single finger of his. As a result, the moment they hit the street, their strange pairing drew many curious glances.
A man and a “woman,” not holding hands, and with a chasm between their cultivation levels.
Canglin Sect belonged to the upper cultivation realm. Nearly everyone here had spiritual power. They might not be able to tell Ying Qingye’s cultivation level, but they could clearly see that Yan Jianxiao’s was pitifully low.
Not to mention he had an extremely beautiful face.
Yan Jianxiao disliked those open and covert stares and appraisals. He felt as though he were bearing the blame for all the events that, in the original story’s plot, had happened to Ying Qingye’s harem.
If he remembered correctly, in this part of the plot, there should also be a female cultivator from Danshu Peak in Canglin Sect who liked Ying Qingye. She was the daughter of a sect elder, with a fiery temper, and she and Ying Qingye were like a pair of bickering sweethearts.
That female cultivator subscribed to the belief that hitting was affection and scolding was love, so she was always happily pounding on Ying Qingye, and Ying Qingye, used as her training dummy, got pounded very “wrongfully.”
That was how Yan Jianxiao understood “bickering sweethearts.”
After all, the book described that as the two of them fought, they ended up developing a childhood sweethearts romance.
“Don’t like the way those people are staring?” Ying Qingye suddenly leaned close to him.
Yan Jianxiao snapped back to reality, startled. He hadn’t expected Ying Qingye to be so perceptive, and he subconsciously nodded.
Ying Qingye then released his pressure, blocking most of the prying gazes.
Yan Jianxiao noticed, and instantly realized he had come off like he was tattling. His ears reddened again, and he grabbed the other’s hand, writing: “No need to waste spiritual power. I can endure it.”
Hearing this, Ying Qingye’s brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.
What kind of experiences would make someone say, at an age that should be full of brilliance and youthful spirit, that they could endure it?
He wanted to say something, but seeing that Yan Jianxiao had stopped asking for help and had instead grown somewhat distant, Ying Qingye fell silent.
He realized he seemed to be paying too much attention to Yan Jianxiao.
It wasn’t polite.
…
On the street stood a restaurant called the Joyful Immortal Tower, the liveliest place on the thoroughfare. The building had nine stories, and those coming and going were all cultivators bearing spiritual power.
The higher the floor, the more expensive it was. Thus, the first floor was packed with cultivators—some with weak spiritual power collapsed drunk in heaps on the floor, some too poor to afford more than a few plates of appetizers to go with their liquor, and some Outer Sect disciples of Canglin Sect who had plenty of coin but shallow cultivation. They hid behind the Canglin Sect name, flattering men and deceiving women, with beauties on both arms.
More than a few recognized Ying Qingye. From a distance, one called out to him: “Oh ho, isn’t this Young Master Ying? I thought I remembered you’d achieved inedia—why come here to eat mortal food?”
“Oh! I forgot—your Ying family’s already fallen into decline now, hahaha—”
“And more than that! Qiao Weiyang even broke off the engagement… and replaced him with a servant girl.”
Yan Jianxiao frowned at these words, displeased. His fingertips twitched, unconsciously tracing characters.
—Tired.
He didn’t even realize he was doing it.
The next second, the cultivator who had been shouting the loudest suddenly looked like a duck with its neck clamped shut. His face flushed bright red. Not another word came out as he clawed frantically at his throat—
“I… cough…”
The companions beside him panicked. “Brother Li?! Brother Li?! What’s wrong? Shopkeeper, come quick! Your food has killed someone!”
“What’s going on? Why does he look like he’s suffocating?”
“Is it a sudden attack of some illness? Impossible—he’s at Foundation Establishment. His body shouldn’t be this weak!”
In the chaos, no one paid any more attention to Ying Qingye or Yan Jianxiao.
Yan Jianxiao had never seen such a scene. He shrank toward Ying Qingye in fear, clutching at the man’s sleeve. Looking up at him, he mouthed silently: “What’s wrong with him?”
Ying Qingye paused as well, raising an eyebrow in surprise. He had long grown used to such gossip, but he hadn’t expected the man to receive his retribution on the spot.
“—Ugh.”
The man suddenly vomited a clot of blackened blood onto the floor, splattering everywhere. It was revolting.
In an instant, Ying Qingye raised his hand and covered Yan Jianxiao’s eyes.
His little mute still had to eat soon—how could he be allowed to see something so disgusting!
Yan Jianxiao didn’t see a thing. Darkness fell before his eyes, and the sudden blindness sent panic through him, freezing him in place like a silly little rabbit at someone’s mercy.