Chapter 3#

If You See SnowCh3 - May My Husband Live for a Thousand Years#

That evening, Su Ruhui shamelessly camped out in Sang Chiyu’s room. The crippled Sang Chiyu couldn’t shake off Su Ruhui who clung to him likedog skin plaster.The old dog that ate Su Ruhui’s food also couldn’t turn him away. Sang Chiyu refused to share a bed with Su Ruhui, so Su Ruhui had no choice but to spread a mattress on the floor and sleep alongside the old dog.

The system suddenly peeped:

Temporary Task Issued: Get into Sang Chiyu’s bed.

Task Description: Neither dog nor Su Ruhui may approach Sang Chiyu’s bed. That’s ok for the dog, but how can Su Ruhui accept this?

Time Limit: Fifteen minutes.

Task Reward: System permissions released by 5%. The host will be able to see the secrets of any person within your field of vision.

The lights went out inside, plunging the room into darkness. Sang Chiyu’s frame bed was shrouded in white gauze, obscuring the view within. Su Ruhui slowly stroked the old dog’s furry back. The dog shuddered and pricked up its ears warily.

Its instincts told it that the guy beside it was up to no good.

Su Ruhui sighed softly: “Wangcai, you poor thing, you have to share this bed with me. Who let me have such a heartless husband? I cook for him and he won’t even let me sleep in the bed.”

Old dog: “…”

Within the frame bed, Sang Chiyu slowly opened his eyes.

The man on the ground kept yapping:

“The ground is so cold, I’ll definitely catch a cold tomorrow.”

“Even though I’ll have a cold, I must still force myself to rise from my sickbed and cook for my husband, who is too frail to take care of himself.”

“Someone wants to kill me, but my husband doesn’t even care about me. Wangcai, my life is so miserable.”

The old dog yawned lazily. He wanted to tell the guy beside him that acting pitiful was useless. Sang Chiyu had a heart of steel and would never let him into bed. When it first arrived, the dog found the ground too hard and secretly sneaked up to sleep at Sang Chiyu’s feet. When it woke up, it found that Sang Chiyu had refused to sleep and sat there all night. The next day, he dragged his injured leg to change the bedsheets.

Sang Chiyu found even such a clean and cute dog repulsive, let alone this shameless little rascal of unknown origin.

Su Ruhui clenched a fist below his lips and coughed dramatically, feigning a cold from the chilly night breeze.

The old dog was expressionless. This acting was so fake it can’t even compare to a dog’s.

However, at that moment, they heard a low sigh from the bed, followed by the words: “Come up.”

The old dog was shook, eyes wide open.

Su Ruhui grinned happily as he hugged his pillow, slipped under the white gauge canopy, and climbed onto Sang Chiyu’s bed. He stopped messing around, crawling from beside Sang Chiyu’s feet to the inner side of the bed and settling down against the wall. A gap wide enough for another person to fit was left between them.

【Temporary task completed. System permissions upgraded. Current access level: 35%. The host will now be able to see the secrets of any person within your field of vision.】

“Sweet dreams, husband.” He said.

After speaking, he closed his eyes. Before long, his breathing evened out and he fell asleep.

In the darkness, Sang Chiyu did not close his eyes again. The night was extremely quiet, so quiet that one could almost hear the sound of time flowing. He gazed at Su Ruhui’s sleeping face shrouded in shadow and stayed awake until dawn.

Su Ruhui only woke up the next day when the sun was high in the sky. Turning his head, he saw Sang Chiyu seated against the bedpost. He was bathed in soft light that softened the contours of his face, making him appear calm and indifferent. Su Ruhui got up and said: “Hungry? I’ll make breakfast for you. What do you want to eat?”

Sang Chiyu calmly replied: “You should leave now.”

His hand emerged from beneath the thin quilt and handed Su Ruhui a divorce paper. The writing was elegant and refined, just like the man himself.

Su Ruhui didn’t take it, sighing and clicking his tongue: “Husband, you’re so heartless.”

Sang Chiyu maintained his hand stretched out posture, indicating that if he didn’t take it, he wouldn’t move either.

“If I leave, what will you do?” Su Ruhui glanced at the old dog who was sleeping with its belly up and drooling, “Are you going to rely on this thing to take care of you?”

“It’s none of your concern.” Sang Chiyu’s voice was cold and hard.

This appearance seemed somewhat familiar, reminding Su Ruhui of how he used to be.

Su Rughui saw that he didn’t expect to rely on anyone to care for him from the very beginning. He was just waiting to die.

Wasn’t it just getting your leg broken and getting your secret arts stripped? Su Ruhui had long since lost his secret arts and was no different from an ordinary person. At 18, he was expelled from the Secret Sect and wandered into the Underworld. At 25, he suffered from chronic poisoning, growing weaker by the day. Even so, he never gave up, and yet this guy was abandoning himself to despair like this. He really was a kid who never experienced life’s hardships.

Su Ruhui felt a headache coming and changed his approach, “Someone’s out to kill me. What if I step outside and get chopped before I even take a few steps? We’ve been husband and wife for four whole days. Don’t you care about me even a little?”

This time, Sang Chiyu didn’t utter a word. But after a moment, he said: “You will find a way.”

Su Ruhui raised an eyebrow, “And how do you know? You trust me that much?”

“You’ll always have a way, nothing can stop you.” Sang Chiyu placed the divorce papers before him. “But I am useless, only capable of becoming a burden to you. Leave. Don’t waste your time with me.”

Su Ruhui lowered his head to examine Sang Chiyu’s divorce papers. The top continued nothing but the usual platitudes like, “We part ways, each to our own happiness.” Only a few extra strokes were added at the end, which said:

“May my husband be healthy and strong, living for a thousand years.”

Su Ruhui couldn’t help but chuckle. Was Sang Chiyu wishing him to become a thousand year old turtle?

“Fine, I’ll keep this for now. But I’m not planning on leaving, and you can’t beat me anyway.” Su Ruhui tucked the divorce papers into his chest and climbed off the bed, “I’ll go make you breakfast.”

They’ve known each other for all those years. He couldn’t just let the kidfend for himself.

He slipped on his shoes and left without waiting for Sang Chiyu’s reaction. The rice in the kitchen was nearly out. Su Ruhui made a bowl of lean pork congee and placed it on Sang Chiyu’s bedside table. Then he kicked the old dog. “Come with me to buy groceries, or else there won’t be any meat for you today.”

Before leaving, Su Ruhui rummaged through Jiang Quexie’s quarters and sadly discovered the bastard hadn’t left much money behind. The silver he had on hand would barely last another ten days. As for Sang Chiyu, there was no need to ask. His room was bare from one wall to the other. Besides garbage, there was more garbage. You could tell he was broke at a glance. This garbage system was useless except for spouting trash talk. Why can’t it assign some tasks to let him earn money?

His gaze swept over the scattered iron valves, bearings, and balancers strewn across the floor. Su Ruhui stroked his chin. Perhaps he could use all this scrap metal. Oh well, let’s think about it later. Gotta go grocery shopping. The killer’s goal was Jiang Quexie. It was fine if Sang Chiyu was alone, or else he would’ve already died the night before. Su Ruhui pocketed some silver coins and set off for the city with his old dog. Heavy rain poured. There were no horses available, and the stable held only a broken wooden puppet horse. They had no choice but to walk. One man and one dog walked under an umbrella for nearly half an hour, only reaching the city gates just before noon.

Yunzhou was the largest province in the Great Jing. Not counting the 39 counties and towns under its jurisdiction, the main city alone boasts over fifty neighborhoods and markets. The vertical and horizontal sky district divided each neighborhood, arranging them like neatly stacked blocks of tofu. A towering statue stood in the city center, its immense iron grey face radiating compassion and silence like a god. That was the statue of Sang Chiyu’s shizun/master, also known as Dantai Jing, Kunlun’s grandmaster. On the old man’s 60th birthday, the head of the Jiang family, Jiang Huicang, mobilized tens of thousands of laborers to complete this stone sculpture. All the buildings surrounded the statue, radiating outward from its base. Because of overpopulation, the buildings were stacked upon each other like towers, blotting out the sky and sun. Countless skywalks connected them. Pedestrians scurried beneath the stone statue, as tiny as ants.

Su Ruhui walked under the skywalk, where a group of prostitutes with thickly powdered white faces and pomegranate red skits were gathered. Their playful laughter pierced through the rain. Beneath the tavern eaves, multicolored lanterns swayed in the breeze. Candlelight filtered through the colored paper, casting multicolored hues that fell upon the women’s pale faces, making them look like demons.

Some of these “women” had eyes like glass beads, rolling orbs shimmering with the azure light of embedded spirit stones. They weren’t living people, but rather mechanical puppets. Despite not being human, their prices far exceeded those of real people as wealthy young men, driven by novelty, drove their prices sky high.

A vendor in a straw raincoat approached him, pushing onto him a book titled《Phantom Puppets》. He rattled off a sales pitch: “Authentic goods leaked from the Kunlun Secret Sect. Ten times the money back if it’s fake! The appendix also details the love-hate relationship between Su Ruhui and Jiang Xueya, the Jiang family’s young miss. Would you like to buy a copy, sir?”

“Su Ruhui and Jiang Xueya?” Su Ruhui was stunned.

The vendor spoke with a glib tongue, “Sir you don’t know? Su Ruhui and Miss Jiang were a match made in heaven. When two military officers from the Secret Sect’s Dragon Guard stole Miss Jiang’s undershirt, Su Ruhui flew into a rage for his beloved and killed the two lechers. Murder being a grave sin, Su Ruhui had to bid farewell to his beloved and fled into the Underworld. Then Sang Chiyu came in and persuaded the Grandmaster into arranging a marriage between him and the Jiang family. Su Ruhui spent his days in gloom and despair, eventually succumbing to illness. Thankfully, heaven had eyes. Sang Chiyu reaped what he sowed and became crippled… Hey, hey! Sir, why are you leaving?”

What the hell was all this and that? Su Ruhui dodged the vendor and turned into another alley. The walls were plastered with posters soaked through with rain. “Grade A Dual Cultivation Puppets, Grade B Humanoid Puppets.” “Iron Ban: Death penalty for unauthorized sale of spirit fire guns, swords, or ironware”…

“Dual cultivation puppets?” Su Ruhui stroked his chin.

【Information Unlocked: Dual cultivation puppets are the best selling puppets on the market, demanding high prices. Even secondhand ones cost a hundred gold coins. The system recommends the host seek out Sang Chiyu for dual cultivation instead. It’s free, and the experience is even better than using dual cultivation puppets.】

Su Ruhui: “Scram.”

Numerous stalls covered with waterproof tarps stood along the wall, where the vendors inside were dozing off. They sold puppets discarded by noble families and the Secret Sect, incomplete sword manuals, martial arts collections, and secret arts talismans. Su Ruhui knew that if even one of these talismans were useful, he’d thank the heavens and earth.

He walked to another neighborhood to buy vegetables without pause. Then he entered a dog meat shop to sell the old dog.

“Sorry Wangcai.” He grinned, strolling away leisurely under the old dog’s furious gaze.

He wandered through the crowd for a while, trying every trick to find out about Sang Chiyu’s expulsion, but came up empty handed. The Kunlun Secret Sect has always kept a tight leash on information leaks. It looked like he wouldn’t be able to find anything unless he ventured into the Underworld. However, entering the Underworld required a pledge of loyalty. In his past life, he had killed two disciples of the Secret Sect in broad daylight, and the Underworld had opened its doors to him on their own initiative. He didn’t want to kill anyone in this life. He only wished to be an honest citizen diligently supporting his disabled husband. Now this was troublesome.p08Bw

He didn’t find out anything, and now he was being followed. Su Ruhui had no idea where he’d slipped up and drew attention. Could it be… the killer who murdered Jiang Quexie? Turning into a narrow alley, he glanced back to see a man standing in the rain.

“Why didn’t you come find me? We were supposed to meet yesterday per our agreement.” A man’s voice came from somewhere, sounding aged.

He was someone the original owner knew. Su Ruhui instinctively looked at his feet, but he couldn’t make out their size through the blur of rain, so he was unable to compare them to the shoe prints in his memory.

Was this guy from the Jiang family, or someone else?

【Li Baocai, the original owner’s direct superior. Hoped to use the original owner’s looks to climb to the top of his career.】

Is this the damn “little secret no one knows” the system was talking about? Might as well not have said anything. Su Ruhui wanted to beat the crap out of the system.

Jiang Quexie’s identity was still unknown, and Su Ruhui refrained from speaking too much to avoid exposing himself. He did not directly answer the man’s question, merely stating, “Someone attempted to assassinate me the night before.”

“Someone tried to assassinate you!? Did you see their face?”dBo1Z

“No.”

The man calmed down. “It might be someone from the Great Compassion Temple. They are also monitoring Sang Chiyu. You don’t need to worry about this, I’ll investigate. You don’t need to contact me the next few days. Just play the role of Jiang Quexie well and do whatever it takes to pry everything about the Kunlun Secret Sect out of Sang Chiyu’s mouth.

Breaking news: Jiang Quexie was a fake. Su Ruhui let out “wow” inside his head.

The Great Compassion Temple, the largest sect in the Underworld, had always been shrouded in mystery. He had interacted with them a few times in his previous life. The old Dog had mentioned “Hei Guanyin,” so must be the dog of the Great Compassion Temple.

【Correct guess. Information unlocked: The old dog’s monastic name is Jiwu. Sent by Hei Guanyin to get information out of Sang Chiyu. He possesses the secret art of shape shifting. To disguise himself, he chose to transform into an old dog. But he never expected that Shang Chiyu hates dogs the most.】

The man added, “Get ready tonight. Han Ye will come find you.”

Hearing this name, Su Ruhui understood. Turns out that this fake Jiang Quexie was actually from the Underworld’s Paradise Pavilion. Paradise Pavilion was the largest gang in the Underworld, and Su Ruhui had the honor of being the head of the house once. Of course, he preferred being called “boss” over “house head”. House head was too old fashioned and sounded like he ran a brothel, not even good enough to be a novel’s male lead. Fortunately, this title didn’t last long. In his second year as boss, a traitor emerged in the Underworld and sold its secret passage to the Kunlun Secret Sect.

And Han Ye was the one who handed him over.

Ah, an old enemy. Should they have a warm up fight? Han Ye was a secret arts user with the power of “Black Fire.” He was bound to lose without his phantom puppet. Oh well, he’ll just play it safe and be a little brother. He’ll get him back in the future.

Seeing his silence, the man seemed to misunderstand something and said, “What, you’re backing out now? We’ve already agreed and I’ve reported your name to the higher ups. It’s impossible to change it now. Don’t worry, your face after reconstruction looks a lot like Su Ruhui. Han Ye will definitely like you. You’re sensible. If you please Han Ye, you’ll rapidly rise through the Paradise Pavilion’s ranks. I’ll reap the benefits too. Don’t even think about resisting. Jiang Quexie is your warning. That kid’s already dead.

【Information Unlocked: The real Jiang Quexie has already died since being abducted into the Paradise Pavilion half a year ago. The cause of death was from aphrodisiac overdose.】

Su Ruhui: “…”

What the hell is all this?