Chapter 71 Drunk Regret

"Are you alright?"

Bai Yuheng still remembered that this person couldn't hold his liquor. One year, he secretly drank her wine and got drunk for a whole day and night. He fell asleep under a tree on the back mountain. She searched the entire Tianyan Sect but couldn't find him. She was so scared that she thought he had been captured by some demon and was planning to go to the demon's stronghold.

It turned out that the person was sleeping soundly under the tree.

She was so angry that she wanted to punish him severely.

What happened next?

Bai Yuheng thought back carefully and realized that she hadn't punished him at all. Seeing that he was quite drunk, she even carried him back. When he woke up, she saw him looking at her with those innocent and clueless eyes, and the fire of worry, fear and anger in her eyes was extinguished instantly.

She didn't know how to be a mentor, but she knew that she treated Pei Yuan like her own child, spoiling him rotten.

Even the other elders felt that no master should act like her, lest she spoil the child.

Bai Yuheng looked at the tall young man in front of her, whose hazy, dark eyes, devoid of any emotion, were fixed on her.

She thought that he hadn't been spoiled by her.

On the contrary, he was good-looking, tall, and skilled in magic. He did not neglect his cultivation because she was not by his side and was able to maintain his position as an elder.

Bai Yuheng smiled and, seeing his hazy eyes, knew he was quite drunk. She took his hand and led him into the house.

Pei Yuan froze, his throat tightening as he touched her, and he grabbed her wrist and held it firmly in his hand.

The warm, smooth touch under his palm made Pei Yuan feel as if he had lost track of time.

It had been a very long time since I had been so close to her.

Bai Yuheng did not break free from his increasingly tighter grip, but pressed him down into the chair, holding his hands behind her back.

Suddenly she realized that he had really grown up. His hands were large, and he could wrap them tightly in one hand. His white finger bones were strong and powerful, long and slender like jade bamboo, with blue veins beneath the white skin.

Bai Yuheng led him into his room and coaxed him for half a day until he let go of her hand. Only then did she have a little free time to pour him a cup of cold tea to sober him up.

The cool rim of the cup pressed against his lips.

Pei Yuan frowned and turned his face away.

She even started acting childish.

Bai Yuheng laughed.

Seeing that there was no one outside and only the urgent chirping of cicadas, they clamped his jaw and fed him the drink.

"Drink the tea, sweetie, to sober up so you can wash up and go to bed."

Pei Yuan's eyes were hazy as he listened to the gentle voice in his ear and drank it down.

After she finished drinking, before she could put the cup down and leave, he grabbed her around the waist and hugged her.

"..."

Bai Yuheng touched his forehead; it was a little hot. She wanted to coax him a few more times to help him sober up and drink some hangover soup.

But the person in her arms remained unmoved, and Bai Yuheng breathed a sigh of relief.

Bai Yuheng nudged the person buried in her stomach and hesitated, "Master? Master?"

No one responded for a long time.

"She's really quite drunk," Bai Yuheng murmured, her eyes lowered as she stared at the tip of her nose pressed against her stomach. Her thick, slanted eyebrows furrowed slightly, her long, curled eyelashes fluttered uneasily, and her red lips, stained with tea, were pressed tightly together...

You can tell he's not feeling well.

Seeing his increasingly furrowed brows, Bai Yuheng's heart softened. She turned away from leaving, making it more comfortable for him to hold her. With a slight movement of her fingertips, she closed the wide-open door to prevent anyone from seeing them.

"Hmm..."

Bai Yuheng's heart skipped a beat. She lowered her eyes to look at his expression, gently pressing her fingertips against his forehead.

"Don't push yourself if you can't drink that much next time."

Her fluttering eyelashes gradually calmed down, and Bai Yuheng sighed, unable to stop nagging him, even though he couldn't hear her.

Perhaps he heard someone speaking to him, Pei Yuan hummed a few times with his tightly pursed lips, and Bai Yuheng leaned down to listen.

"Master, Master..."

"..." The whispered words in his ear made Bai Yuheng freeze in place, and the hand pressing on his forehead trembled slightly.

Bai Yuheng pursed her lips, looked away, and felt a mix of emotions.

Noticing a flying ant brushing against her cheek, she raised her hand and waved it, getting her hand wet.

"..."

Bai Yuheng's nose stung with tears. It was late at night and no one was around. Only the chirping of insects knew her thoughts. Countless tangled emotions, which she had ignored, were like a fine net capturing her.

A vast and inextricable network, impossible to ignore.

Do you regret it?

Bai Yuheng asked herself this question in her heart.

Since learning about that secret technique, she has not felt a single trace of regret, neither before nor now.

So where did her tears come from?

Bai Yuheng lowered her eyes to look at Pei Yuan, whose sleeping face showed pain and unease.

She thought that her only regret was not taking good care of him, dying in front of him, and even saying those words to make him wait for her before she died.

This has made him uneasy for the past century.

Her warm fingertips tried to smooth his furrowed brows, but a subtle, sharp pain welled up in her heart, like being pricked by needles.

"Do you hate me?" Bai Yuheng asked softly, her voice barely audible in the quiet room.

Having said that, she didn't expect any reaction from him, and chuckled self-deprecatingly, placing her finger on his forehead.

Whether you hate him or not, treat him a little more while he's still around, as a way of making amends.

Bai Yuheng's kneading movements were skillful. She glanced around the room with boredom, then looked through the half-open window at the dark night and the half-moon about to set.

The person in his arms couldn't help but tighten his grip, and a voice inside him clamored to meld her into his body, to merge and grow with his bones and blood.

Beneath half-closed long eyelashes, a clear mind prevails.

*

"Young Master!! Young Master!!!"

A man in black rushed inside, shouting that something terrible had happened.

A voice, neither clearly male nor female, called out to him, "Why are you in such a panic?! The young master is receiving guests in his study!"

The man in black abruptly stopped, panting heavily. Before he could catch his breath, he hurriedly replied, "Young...Young Master, something terrible has happened! Xu...Xu Huaji and the others have been...captured!"

The hooded man addressed as "Young Master" stiffened upon hearing this, and asked coldly, "Who? Who captured you?!"

"Officials, government officials..."

The young envoy narrowed his eyes, seemingly lost in thought. Taking advantage of this moment, the man in black caught his breath and said, "Xu Huaji's stronghold was raided by the Jiangzhou government. All the tributes were sent to Jiangzhou and then returned to their respective homes... Xu Huaji has been imprisoned and his fate is still unknown. I received the news and immediately set off to report to you."

The young envoy, with a cold, androgynous voice, asked, "Do you know who reported this to the authorities?"

Although he had a suspicion in his heart, he was still reluctant to believe it.

"I heard...I heard it was..." The man in black looked up at him and stammered, "It was the Wise Prince. The Wise Prince personally came to Jiangzhou and ordered the Jiangzhou prefect and others to send troops to annihilate Penglai Island..."

As he spoke, his head drooped, unable to withstand the rage.

"Oh."

The man in black heard an extremely contemptuous snort and lowered his head even further.

"The Wise Prince?" the junior official said coldly. "He's also in Jiangzhou?"

As he spoke, his gaze swept toward the closed study, a look of disdain in his heart, but he said nothing. He couldn't say anything, but his master would never know.

"It's in Jiangzhou, in those four cultivators you asked Xu Huaji to capture!"

Shao Shi frowned in displeasure, inwardly cursing Xu Huaji as an idiot who couldn't even catch four people. Not only that, he exposed their affairs to the authorities, and who knows if he even implicated them all!

They should swear under their breath. If the higher-ups found out, they'd all be in trouble and wouldn't get anything good out of it!

Thinking about it this way, he became angrier and angrier, wishing he could rush into the study and tell everyone what had happened.

They also resented that the young master insisted on entrusting the task of capturing those four cultivators to that idiot Xu Huaji, causing them to be exposed and suffer countless losses!

Even if they regret their decision now, it's useless. What's done is done. Now they can only think of a solution: first, to deal with the people in Jiangzhou; second, to handle this matter well so that their superiors don't find out and make things difficult for them; and third...

The young envoy pursed his lips, his hands trembling slightly beneath his wide sleeves.

After taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down, he said, "Have you contacted him? Did you find out anything about what Xu Huaji said in prison? We can't let him ruin our grand plan!"

The man in black gave a wry smile: "Those people in Jiangzhou are keeping a close watch. Before we even made a move, we noticed that there were quite a few spies watching us. They're probably all waiting to catch us like fish in a barrel! So we didn't act rashly. We came back to inform you first so that we could prepare a countermeasure!"

Shao Shi frowned, about to say something more, when he heard a creak and the long-closed study door opened.

Two men walked out one after the other.

They were all fully armed and their faces were covered, so no one could tell what was going on.

The young envoy and the man in black bowed respectfully to the person walking in front, not daring to look up, until the footsteps faded away and then disappeared again, at which point they breathed a sigh of relief.

But they weren't completely relieved. The thought of the trouble Xu Huaji had caused them brought a surge of anger to their hearts, and their eyes burned with fury.

"What's wrong? Why are you looking so gloomy? Who upset you?"

The tall woman who came out from behind the study noticed his strange expression and pressed him for an answer.

"Shaoling, is the master inside?"

The young envoy asked cautiously, "Are you in a good mood? Never mind, I'll go in and report myself!"

Before anyone could react, he stepped into the study, knocked on the door to remind him, and then said sullenly, "Young Master?"

"Speak." A soft voice came from the study, along with a strong smell of medicine and a few alarming coughs.

“I have urgent news to report,” the junior envoy paused, gritted his teeth, and spoke despite the tingling sensation on his scalp, “It concerns Xu Huaji and the others… as well as the Prince Xian.”

"..."

The sound of turning pages inside the room paused, and the tone involuntarily turned cold, like the icy cold of the heavens, chilling to the bone, as if the gentle voice just now was an illusion: "Come in."

The young envoy turned around and let the man in black go in with him. After the two went in, the door closed, leaving the tall woman in the corridor, frowning and deep in thought.

The fact that the young envoy is so hesitant, uneasy, and anxious suggests that this matter is quite troublesome.

Before she could figure out what was going on, a series of loud crashes came from inside the room—the sharp sound of porcelain shattering on the floor.

Shaoling's eyelids twitched.

I recalled the words the young envoy had just spoken when he went in to report.

Xu Huaji, the Wise King...

Wise King!

Upon hearing this name, Shaoling thought to himself, "Oh no!"

Of all people to mess with, why did I have to mess with this one...?

He couldn't help but silently light candles for the young envoy and the others.