Chapter 41#

He is the Center of Light#

Sang Chiyu’s heart turned cold, yet all of this was within expectations.

He first met Su Ruhui at the age of ten. At that time, Su Ruhui was a mischievous but upright youth, as agile and lively as a sparrow, chirping incessantly when he spoke. Like all children his age, he was carefree and happily foolish every day. Whenever Sang Chiyu was beaten by the instructor on the Mystic Sect’s drill grounds until he couldn’t stand up, he would think of the Su Ruhui from that time.

The time at Zhuluo Mountain was one of the few periods in his life worth reminiscing about. However, when they reunited at seventeen, Su Ruhui had already become a different person. Seven years is enough to turn a child into a young man, and enough to make a person unrecognizable.

Su Ruhui had become a bastard.

Fifteen years ago, Snow Realm, Tianlin Mine.

On the vast plateau, the long night seemed to have no end. Sang Chiyu stood in the cold wind, gazing at the starlight in the distant sky like grains of sand. The Mystic Sect’s Star Officials said that ancient mysteries were hidden within the stars, but Sang Chiyu always felt it was just a wasteland. The sky was like a vast snowy plain, and a star was a grain of sand tens of thousands of miles away, unnoticed and shining in solitude.

“They’re here,” the officer beside him said.

He withdrew his gaze and looked again at the deep mountain plateau. In the distance, a line of torches appeared on the greyish-brown mountain land. They were so tiny, like a line of ants, moving in a winding path, slowly crawling toward them. Sang Chiyu was seventeen years ago, serving in the Reclamation Guard. Like all ordinary Reclamation Guard officers, he wore a raven-colored robe, a meteoric iron saber, and a three-shot hand crossbow. But unlike other military officers who had a clear organizational structure, he had no superiors or subordinates; all his orders came directly from the Beichen Hall of the Mystic Sect.

This morning, he received an order from the Grand Sect Master. Dantai Jing commanded him to receive a team of prisoners from the border capital. It wasn’t strange for prisoners to come to the mine; miners were needed for excavation. The Snow Realm was freezing, and mining duties were heavy; every year, many miners died of typhoid and exhaustion. If the Black Street invaded, the number of dead miners would double. At such times, the border capital would send prisoners to fill the vacancies in the mine, mostly death-row inmates with inexcusable crimes, but occasionally rapists, thieves, and kidnappers. What was strange was that today Dantai Jing had him personally receive them. He was the sharp blade of the Mystic Sect; his usual opponents were either the most vicious bandit leaders of the Black Street or traitors of the Mystic Sect. Dantai Jing having him come meant there was someone difficult to deal with in this prisoner group.

“Do you know who’s coming today?” the officers behind him were whispering. “Why was this madman sent to receive people with us?”

They didn’t know that Sang Chiyu’s hearing was excellent; even though they lowered their voices, Sang Chiyu heard them clearly.

“I heard there’s a young master from a wealthy family in the prisoner group,” someone responded. “He has quite a background. Sending Sang Chiyu here is probably to suppress him. A fierce god to suppress a demon, a madman against a rogue.”

“A son of a noble family? How did he end up in a prisoner cart?”

“This gentleman is not simple. The Grand Sect Master personally put him on the cart. He was a prominent figure in the border capital, with an endless list of misdeeds. Last month, he fought with the young master of the Bai family from Jizhou over the top courtesan of the Rouge Pavilion and lost. This gentleman is bold; one day, when Master Bai was staying in his outer residence, this gentleman led a group of hoodlums with masks to break in, stripped Master Bai naked, and tied him to a pillar at the Caishi Market. Thus, having offended the Bai family, he was sent here to us. The courtesan sent him off with tears of blood, giving him a hairpin as a pledge before he left, saying she would marry no one else.”

“Impressive. What exactly is his background?” the officer asked curiously.

“He’s the Grand Sect Master’s biological nephew, the son of the late Princess Suwu. The Grand Sect Master has persistently refused to marry or have children, and the old ancestor of the Dantai family intends to call him to change his surname to Dantai and return to the clan. At that time, he will be the adopted son of the Dantai family and the successor to the Grand Sect Master. You must have heard his name,” he lowered his voice, “His name is Su, Ru, Hui.”

Just as he finished speaking, the convoy had arrived. The soldiers stepped forward, while Sang Chiyu stood firm like a reef, the crowd surging past him toward the prisoner carts. He stood behind, quietly watching. A man was leaning lazily in a cart, chewing on a piece of wild grass. With just one glance, Sang Chiyu recognized him. It couldn’t be helped; among the disheveled prisoners, he alone occupied a prisoner cart like a lord, making him too conspicuous. He looked like a prisoner, but no one really dared to treat him as one. Furthermore, his rank and position in the Reclamation Guard had already been determined; while other prisoners were here to suffer, he was here for a tour.

The soldiers respectfully invited him off the cart, and one soldier knelt on the ground for him to step on. Su Ruhui didn’t even look at him, grabbed his bundle, and jumped straight off the cart. A small officer followed behind him, rubbing his hands and chatteringly introducing the Reclamation Guard and the Tianlin Mine to him, “Commander Jiang has arranged a welcome feast for you. In a while, you should take a hot bath first, and I’ll send someone to bring you a change of clothes. Oh, right,” the officer slapped his head, “Master Sang came personally to welcome you, right over there.”

The officer pointed toward Sang Chiyu. In this instant, Sang Chiyu and Su Ruhui’s gazes met from afar.

Su Ruhui was a striking man, tall and looking like a poplar tree from a distance. He inherited all the good traits of his parents; even with a listless appearance, the brilliant radiance in his eyes could not be hidden.

He only looked at Sang Chiyu for a moment, then quickly looked away.

Su Ruhui looked lazy and said, “Don’t know him. No matter who it is, I’m too lazy to socialize even with the Heavenly Emperor. Take me directly to see my senior sister.”

Sang Chiyu lowered his eyes as Su Ruhui brushed past him. Jiang Xueya had come to pick him up; she had come to the Reclamation Guard two years ago because she offended her eldest brother and was driven to this barren Snow Realm as a marginalized member of the Jiang family. Reunited with an old friend, they embraced, talked and laughed loudly, and collectively forgot the boy who lived in the small cave of Zhuluo Mountain seven years ago.

Su Ruhui had forgotten him.

Sang Chiyu gripped his saber and turned to leave.

At the midnight hour, Jiang Xueya hosted a feast in the tower to welcome Su Ruhui. There was a camp in the Reclamation Guard specifically for noble sons who were either exiled or here to gain experience. Jiang Xueya was considered their leader. This group probably planned to stay up all night; the sounds of flutes and laughter drifted from the tower to Sang Chiyu’s tent. Sang Chiyu sat at the entrance of his tent, washing his saber with snow water and then carefully wiping it with white linen. Drunken men and women passed by him, kissing and rolling in the snowdrift not far away.

He frowned deeply. Just then, he received a compass transmission from Dantai Jing:

“Yuer, has Huier arrived?”

“He has.”

“Watch over him for me. From this day forward, your precepts shall be his precepts.”

He sheathed his saber and walked toward the tower. Stepping up the moss-covered stone steps one by one, the intoxicating smell of wine in the air grew stronger. The cold wind outside was biting, but inside the tower, the bonfire blazed, and it was as warm as spring. Under the dazzling lights, men and women bustled, all dressed provocatively with collars open all the way to their navels, revealing large areas of fine white chests. They were heavily made up, drinking strong wine and consuming Wushi Powder, their limbs soft and floating in bliss.

The laws in the border capital were strict, and nocturnal gatherings with singing and dancing would lead to imprisonment. The Snow Realm had become a perfect place for these noble sons to release their nature. To many, coming to the Reclamation Guard was not exile but pleasure. Even though they might die in battle tomorrow, this thrill of being on the brink of death made their blood boil even more.

People in the hall were shouting “Su Ruhui’s” name, each call louder than the last. Su Ruhui sat in the center of the crowd, his smile lazy. An enchanting dancing girl sat on his lap, her smooth thighs under the lights looking as if they were coated in oil, lustrous and dazzlingly white. The crowd was urging him to drink. On the black lacquer table in front of Su Ruhui were ten bowls of strong wine, each containing live goldfish. These delinquent youths proved they were brave men by drinking wine with live fish, even if they would wet their pants on the battlefield.

Sang Chiyu was submerged in the crowd. In front of him, delinquent youths shouting with excitement like they were injected with chicken blood blocked his path. He pushed these people aside, struggling to move forward while thinking about how to convey his master’s order to Su Ruhui later. He wasn’t a man good at speaking and didn’t know how Su Ruhui would react.

Would Su Ruhui remember him?

The crowd erupted again. Sang Chiyu looked up and saw the dancing girl on Su Ruhui’s lap holding a bowl of wine to his hand. He raised the wine to toast the crowd and then drank it in one go. The hall was like a boiling pot, everyone shouting “Su Ruhui.” He continued to drink, bowl after bowl of strong wine with goldfish taken from the dancing girl’s hand, drinking each one in one go. The dancing girl picked up the last bowl, but didn’t hand it to him. She drank the wine herself and then leaned down to kiss Su Ruhui’s lips.

It was as if all the light in the world was focused on the two of them, with everything around them dimming. Sang Chiyu stood in the greyish crowd, watching the dancing girl pass the wine to Su Ruhui. They kissed passionately and intensely, as if no one else was there.

Sang Chiyu thought he shouldn’t have gone over. What would he say if he went? Should he tell Su Ruhui: The precepts for Mystic Sect military officers are: no drinking, no debauchery. You drank wine from a woman’s mouth, breaking two precepts at once; I have come to take you under the Grand Sect Master’s order. It would be utterly stupid.

He didn’t want to disturb Su Ruhui, and even less did he want to appear in Su Ruhui’s world.

From that banquet fifteen years ago until now, he had always felt this way.

There were many people who loved Su Ruhui: the top courtesan of the border capital, that unknown dancing girl, Jiang Xueya, Han Ye, and a large group of brothers and sisters in the Bliss Pavilion. While Sang Chiyu stood in the darkness, among the boiling crowd, watching him and seeing his brilliance. Perhaps one day Su Ruhui would forget him just as he forgot the top courtesan and the little dancing girl. Instead of reaching that stage, it was better not to have any pointless emotional entanglements from the start.

So, now, Sang Chiyu slowly pulled back his robe hem and said nothing.

Su Ruhui gritted his teeth and said, “I killed Su Gou. Aren’t you afraid those guys from the Demon Clan will do something to me?”

Sang Chiyu said in a low voice, “You will be safe and sound.”

“Sang Chiyu, do you have no conscience? Can’t you feel my kindness toward you?” Su Ruhui said angrily. “Do you think I’m just bored and meddling in your business all day?”

Sang Chiyu paused and clenched his fist. He looked back, his gaze not softening in the slightest, but instead turning a bit colder.

“Stay? Fine. I’ll go kill Han Ye first.”

Su Ruhui was confused, “What does this have to do with Han Ye? Okay, I admit he’s quite punchable and once betrayed me, but I feel his betrayal might have another hidden reason… Anyway, his crime isn’t worthy of death. Why are you having issues with him?”

“If I want to kill him, I will,” Sang Chiyu said coldly.

Su Ruhui couldn’t refute this reason and asked again, “Han Ye is a secret technique user of the Dongxuan Realm. Don’t fight him until both of you are wounded.”

There was contempt and coldness in Sang Chiyu’s words, “Killing him is no problem.”

Su Ruhui felt a headache. In the past, colleagues in the Reclamation Guard secretly cursed Sang Chiyu as a fierce god. Su Ruhui didn’t believe it then, thinking they were jealous and slandering his reputation. After all, Su Ruhui had spent so much time with Sang Chiyu, and apart from being a bit quiet and having a bit of a ruthless hand, there was really nothing else to criticize. He only ever killed the people designated by Dantai Jing.

Now Su Ruhui realized that peeling off the skin of a gentleman, he was indeed an out-and-out fierce star. Without the restraint of Dantai Jing’s precepts, he killed people based only on his likes and dislikes. If he really wanted to kill Han Ye, Han Ye would certainly lose his life. Su Ruhui’s mind raced, how could he make Sang Chiyu give up the idea of killing Han Ye?

The look of hesitation in Su Ruhui’s eyes appeared as anxiety and reluctance to Sang Chiyu. Sang Chiyu’s heart slowly sank. He turned his face away and said, “Su Ruhui, stop making excuses. You’re not worried about my safety, but rather cherishing his life.”

After saying that, he pushed open the side door, crossed the threshold, and walked away without looking back.

Su Ruhui stood dazed, gazing at his ink-black back as it gradually disappeared into the pale snow.

The person was gone, and the courtyard seemed to have emptied a lot in an instant; Su Ruhui’s heart felt empty too. He went back to the room listlessly and sat on the edge of the k’ang, dazing. He took out the glazed vessel Xia Jing had given him; the star array inside the lamp emitted a soft glow. He wondered how to use this thing, and at the same time, he muttered to himself: Why did Sang Chiyu say he would definitely be safe and sound? If those monsters from the Demon Clan wanted to assassinate him, he wasn’t sure if he could escape unscathed.

While he was thinking, a fluffy white cat suddenly squeezed through a gap in the window that wasn’t tightly closed.

Sang Baobao crouched on the windowsill and shook the snow off his body. He jumped off the windowsill without a word and landed on Su Ruhui’s k’ang table. To Su Ruhui, the Demon Clan, the Black Street, and the Mystic Sect were all potential threats. Su Ruhui was a trouble-maker and even more so the center of trouble. Whether something was happening or not, trouble would surely find him. Sang Chiyu couldn’t leave him all alone in the treacherous border capital.

Since Sang Chiyu was unwilling to face Su Ruhui as Sang Chiyu, he would be a little cat instead. Sang Chiyu looked down at his fluffy paws, his heart full of bitterness.

Su Ruhui wanted to pet Sang Baobao, but Sang Baobao dodged him, hissing at him like a chaste and fierce cat, not letting him touch.

“One big, one small, both have no conscience.” Su Ruhui’s forehead throbbed with anger. “They say a gentleman stays away from the kitchen. Although I’m not some gentleman, I’m at least a young master. I’ve cooked for him for so long, and with such a hot meat burger, why can’t I warm his heart! He even called me promiscuous. When did I ever…”

Su Ruhui suddenly cut himself off. If time were traced back over a decade ago, to his days as a young playboy, his conduct was indeed quite despicable. Alas… Su Ruhui lay down on the bed like a dead fish. Time cannot be reversed; those old matters, even if he wanted to change them, he couldn’t.

Feeling unhappy and unable to pet Sang Baobao, Su Ruhui insisted on petting him. He grabbed Sang Baobao into his arms like a tiger catching a yellow sheep. Su Ruhui held his four legs with one hand and mumbled, “But he cried for me, so why does he still hate me so much? It doesn’t make sense…” Su Ruhui plucked Sang Baobao’s fur, plucking one tuft for each sentence, “He hates me, he likes me, he hates me, he likes me…”

Sang Baobao couldn’t take it anymore. He suddenly lunged and bit Su Ruhui’s finger. Su Ruhui felt a sharp pain in his fingertip as Sang Baobao bit out a few drops of blood. Sang Baobao struggled out of Su Ruhui’s arms and fled to the foot of the bed in a flash, staring warily at Su Ruhui. His ears were folded back and his back was arched, as if Su Ruhui were his natural enemy.

Ungrateful brat of a cat. Someone who can’t be befriended. Su Ruhui stared dazed at his fingertip.

Suddenly remembering something, Su Ruhui sat up, took out the glazed vessel, and placed it on the k’ang table. Sang Baobao grew curious when he saw the softly glowing glazed vessel. While keeping an eye on Su Ruhui, he tentatively approached the k’ang table, putting his two paws on the table edge and sticking his cat head out from under the table.

Su Ruhui pushed Sang Baobao away, “Don’t touch, baby. This is daddy’s lifeblood. My memories that were extracted are in here. I suspect that five years ago, he and I had already shared a bed, but I don’t know how it happened. It wasn’t easy to share a bed once, yet I don’t remember it; that’s too much of a loss.”

Is this the glazed vessel containing Su Ruhui’s memories? Sang Baobao stiffened.

The star array glowed inside the glazed vessel, its pale blue radiance looking like fine starlight. Su Ruhui moved it around—how were the memories to be absorbed? He couldn’t just chew on the star plate, could he? He couldn’t figure it out, so he turned to touch the communication compass to ask Jiang Xueya. While Su Ruhui wasn’t paying attention, Sang Baobao slowly raised his paw and pushed the glazed vessel off the table. With a crash, the glazed vessel shattered.

Su Ruhui turned back and saw only a pile of glass shards. He immediately gasped. Sang Baobao fled from the k’ang table like a bolt of lightning; Su Ruhui didn’t even have time to catch the tip of his tail. Su Ruhui crouched down, touching the shards on the floor, speechless and choked up. Truly nothing was going right today; that heartbreaker Sang Chiyu left, and Sang Baobao was also causing trouble for him. Fire rose in Su Ruhui’s heart. He swung a feather duster and struck the k’ang table heavily, shouting in anger:

“Stinking cat, get over here! I’m going to spank your stinking butt!”