Chapter 71 A choice against one's will.

'I'll be back soon' made Jiang Zhaoyue wait for nearly three hours. When the sun was setting, Fu Lanting finally returned on the fiery clouds in the sky.

There were some burn marks on the corners of his clothes, and some bloodstains and fine cuts on his sleeves, almost blending with the clouds in the sky, but his expression did not change at all, and he still had a smile on his face when he fell.

Jiang Zhaoyue naturally couldn't wait for him in his room for three hours. When he came back, she was talking to her master in the yard.

Jiang Qiying sat on the other side and watched her talking to Lin Bozhou with a gentle look in her eyes.

Seeing Fu Lanting coming back, he didn't even pay a glance to his master.

Lin Bozhou glanced at the bloodstains on Fu Lanting's clothes and said in a calm voice, "Why don't you beat him to death?"

The uncle sat down, took a sip of the tea on the table, and said, "Since you're a rat, you're naturally good at escaping."

"You are also a waste."

Lin Bozhou held his disciple's hand, holding it like he did when they were children, holding her fingers, his tone still cold.

"Unrepentant bastard, I should have smashed his face last time."

He hated Fu Lanting, but towards Lian Yueqing, he simply hated her.

After saying that, Lin Bozhou warned Jiang Zhaoyue, "Xiaobao, Lian Yueqing is a hypocritical man with a warm front but a wicked heart. You can never tell the truth from his words. You must never believe him. He'll do anything to achieve his goals, and he's also extremely petty."

What he said was pretty accurate, which showed that he knew Lian Yueqing quite well.

Jiang Zhaoyue nodded, not knowing whether she had heard it or not, but she did not continue the topic. She just looked at Fu Lanting who had just returned.

His eyes swept down lightly, with some special meaning.

The intention is self-evident.

The headmaster was now very familiar with her gaze and could easily tell what she wanted to do.

He had a smile on his face, which seemed to indicate helplessness, but he didn't look unhappy at all.

He coughed lightly, glanced at Lin Bozhou with a cold expression, and his deep eyes caught Jiang Zhaoyue's sight.

It seemed like he was hinting at something, but he said nothing.

Jiang Zhaoyue's gaze was fixed on his face, lingering for three or four breaths.

After a while, just before she opened her mouth to speak, Lin Bozhou, who was still cursing Lian Yueqing in his heart, finally noticed the subtle glances between them.

Master’s face froze for a moment, but he quickly reacted.

He tightened his grip on his disciple's hand. When Jiang Zhaoyue turned to look at him, he glared at Fu Lanting with a fierce warning before speaking, "Don't wink behind my back, Xiaobao. You promised not to hide anything from me."

Jiang Zhaoyue then said obediently: "No, Master."

"snort."

The slightly dissatisfied hum was certainly not directed at Jiang Zhaoyue.

After all, in Lin Bozhou's eyes, no matter who is at fault, it is not the fault of his beloved disciple. Even if something happened, it must be the shameless seducer Fu Lanting.

The headmaster lowered his eyes and did not show any reaction to his hostility. He just took another sip of tea and praised with a smile, "Good tea."

Lin Bozhou resisted the urge to snatch the teacup back. Not to mention a sip of tea, he didn't even want to give Fu Lanting a drop of water.

He has been adapting, easing his stress, and convincing himself these past few days.

He told himself in his heart that no matter what, he had to accept everything now, because it was what his disciples liked. He could no longer act like a strict and old-fashioned patriarch, expecting his disciples to live according to his ideas in everything.

However, after several days, apart from forcibly suppressing the urge to beat Fu Lanting in the face many times, Lin Bozhou found that he was a little frustrated.

No matter how he tried to convince himself, he still couldn't accept it.

She couldn't accept that from now on her Taoist partner would replace him as her closest and most beloved person.

No matter who her future Taoist partner will be, whether it is Fu Lanting, Jiang Qiying, or someone else, he cannot accept it.

It hurt more than cutting a piece out of his heart.

Lin Bozhou even spent several nights looking at the moon and thinking carefully, wondering if he had done something wrong from the very beginning, had gone astray from the very beginning, and had poured too much attention that he shouldn't have, which was why he was so resistant to others getting close to him.

He asked several elders who had disciples.

They will not coax their disciples to sleep, will not sew new clothes for their disciples, and will not sleep with their disciples in their arms like a mother hugging her child every late night.

Therefore, they do not have such a strong possessive desire for their disciples, nor do they pay such excessive attention to them. They do not care so much about who their disciples make friends with or who they become partners with.

But he will.

Whenever he thought of this, he felt uncontrollable anxiety and impatience in his heart. This feeling had never been suppressed since he fell out with Fu Lanting.

So while Lin Bozhou told himself to learn to let go and let the chicks fly high on their own, he couldn't help but feel resentment.

He resented why Fu Lanting had to seduce his own disciples, and he resented why those shameless people had to deceive his own disciples.

If it weren't for them, if it weren't for these inexplicable people, he could have been with Xiaobao forever.

Just like before.

He is her master, her parent, and the only person she trusts and loves in her life.

A murderous intent suddenly emerged in his chest, but he suppressed it forcefully and did not show it in front of others.

Lin Bozhou glanced at Fu Lanting, who had a faint smile on his lips, and Jiang Qiying, who had lowered her eyes and a gentle expression on the other side, and finally fell on his own disciple.

No one knew the murderous intent that flashed through his mind. They could only see him pursing his lips slightly in frustration, and his voice became a little lower.

"Xiaobao, you can't help him. Master will be sad."

In Jiang Zhaoyue's heart, of course, Master is the most important.

Seeing his expression and tone, she immediately stretched out her other hand, and both hands were held in the master's palms.

She then spoke softly, "Master, don't be sad. Master is the most important to me."

Lin Bozhou felt a little better after hearing such a simple sentence, and he could suppress the murderous intent that was rising in his heart a little more, not knowing whether it was perfunctory or serious.

This time, without looking at Fu Lanting, he said in the same low voice: "Don't go to him secretly tonight."

"OK."

Jiang Zhaoyue agreed without hesitation.

Although she did have some special plans for tonight.

But Master is always special.

Lin Bozhou then smiled a little and touched the top of her head, "That's great, my little treasure is so good."

As for what Fu Lanting next to him thought, whether he was happy or not, he didn't care at all, and even a glance at him was too much.

However, Jiang Zhaoyue, as expected, received a slightly dark and deep look from the master when they separated at night.

That glance was like a hook, carrying both a hint that she liked him and a feeling of wanting to say something but not being able to.

He said nothing, yet it seemed as if he had said everything.

Jiang Zhaoyue was indeed attracted by this hook-like gaze, but in the end he still failed to live up to his uncle's "good intentions".

Even the system praised her: "Host, I didn't expect you to be so sincere."

Jiang Zhaoyue answered it cheerfully, "You've been with me for so long, and you still haven't learned how to speak, baby. I'm really worried that I'll strangle you to death one day. After all, I hate stupidity."

“…”

night.

Because she had promised her master, Jiang Zhaoyue did not go to her uncle to discuss the wearing process of the jewelry. Instead, she sat cross-legged on the small bed that Lin Bozhou had set up for her and practiced very seriously.

It is called a small bed, but in fact it is only a little smaller than Lin Bozhou's bed. Fortunately, his bedroom is relatively large, otherwise there would not be room for two beds.

Two beds pushed together.

While Jiang Zhaoyue was meditating and regulating her breathing, Lin Bozhou sat on his bed beside her and watched her silently.

He looked a little dazed, not sitting in his usual dignified posture. Instead, he bent his arms and legs, sat on the edge of the bed, and rested his hands on his knees. Combined with his thin plain clothes and handsome face, he looked a bit ignorant and fragile at first glance.

But this feeling only lasted for a moment.

He quickly came to his senses.

Lin Bozhou stretched out his bent legs, changed his sitting position and leaned against the head of the bed, returning to his normal appearance, his eyes still fixed on his disciple.

It wasn't until Jiang Zhaoyue opened her eyes from meditation that the first thing she saw was his slightly dark eyes.

She smiled, got up from the bed, and threw herself into his arms while he was momentarily stunned.

"Master, what are you thinking about? Why are you so stunned?"

Lin Bozhou naturally couldn't tell her that he was thinking about her and his disciples, so he looked away and asked in a concealing tone, "Are you done with your training?"

This is obviously nonsense.

Jiang Zhaoyue did not answer this question, but just threw herself into his arms, her eyes fixed on his face. She spoke in a playful tone, the same as before.

"Is Master jealous? Is he unhappy that I've been spending too much time with Uncle Master recently?"

Her words were so frank that it was hard to believe that she would just say that. After all, the master is the master, but the uncle is not really the 'uncle'.

Lin Bozhou was stunned for a moment and subconsciously denied: "No, I just..."

After a pause, he continued, "I was just thinking, you're a grown-up kid after all. It might not be good for me to keep you around all the time. I asked the Sixth Elder and the others, and they all refuse to sleep with their disciples..."

His words were vague, but Jiang Zhaoyue understood them.

So she blinked and said to him in a coquettish tone, "If Master really feels this way, then of course I can obey you. Master, do you want me to leave? As long as you give the order, I will return to my previous residence."

She left the choice to him, without even a hint of embarrassment or bias in her tone, like a true, obedient disciple.

Everything is up to Master.

Lin Bozhou opened his lips slightly, but when the words came to his lips, he swallowed them back.

Jiang Zhaoyue obviously didn't make things difficult for him. She was such a considerate person. No matter how her master jumped around and hesitated, she was still willing to listen to everything he said and obey all his instructions. She never thought that he was capricious.

But Lin Bozhou couldn't bring himself to ask her to leave.

When he realized that men and women were different and he could no longer sleep in the same arms with his disciple, the struggle of forcing himself to separate was already making him extremely painful.

He couldn't imagine what would happen if he continued.

He didn't want to.

He knew it very well.

Jiang Zhaoyue looked at him seriously. At such a close distance, Lin Bozhou saw his own clear reflection in her eyes. He was clearly frowning and was obviously extremely reluctant, but he still had to say those words and make those choices, against his will.

"Master?"

His disciple still looked at him with a smile, as if he saw through everything, and seemed to be just waiting for him to admit his unwillingness in person.