hypocrisy
1.
There was a peculiar character in the Nine Schools: while others were weaving shoes, he was climbing on roofs to remove tiles and steal bird eggs; while others were begging, he was running taverns to eat and drink extravagantly; and while others were running trade routes, he would simply wrap himself in a blanket and sleep, considering it all over.
Even so, he still ranked first in performance and remained firmly in his position as the head of the workshop week after week.
Someone asked him what method he used.
Le Xu gave a wicked smile and said, "A heretical and unorthodox approach."
"Tch." Upon receiving such a reply, the junior sister stared at Le Xu with suspicion—you lazybones, you can barely walk two steps, yet you have the leisure to cultivate some "crooked path"?
She certainly didn't believe her senior brother's words, but where did Senior Brother Lexu get so much money?
So the junior sister decided to follow Le Xu to find out what was going on.
Following her senior brother through the bustling crowds of the city and out of the gates of Kaifeng, she then followed him through Maixiangji and Zijiangju... heading southeast. The junior sister was so tired that she wanted to plunge into the bushes. She wondered if Lexu had known all along that she was following him and was deliberately torturing her.
In this sweltering heat, instead of selling her goods at home, she followed her senior brother all this way to suffer for herself. Her junior sister thought she was incredibly foolish.
After resting in the shade for a while, the junior sister gave up and decided to stick to her honest business of trading and begging. She figured she might as well give up on this "crooked path"...
So he got up and prepared to head back, but after taking only two steps, he heard his senior brother's voice—"So you're here!"
"Huh?!" The junior sister was startled by Le Xu's words and turned around in a panic, but her senior brother was nowhere to be seen. Upon closer inspection, she saw two figures, one in green and one in blue, standing in the distance.
The two chatted happily, and on Lexu's face was a look that his junior sister had never seen before... fawning? Well, no, how should I describe that expression?
The junior sister hesitated for a long time, but still couldn't think of a suitable word.
She quietly approached and hid in the shadows to listen to the conversation between her senior brother and the man standing opposite him.
They were visibly close; the man in blue had an excessively tender expression on his face, and his senior brother was swaying around him, making the man laugh heartily.
When she saw Lexu suggestively hook her pinky around the man's hand, the two smiling intimately, and then saying goodbye, before parting ways, the man in blue pulled out a full money bag from his pocket and stuffed it into Lexu's arms, the junior sister's jaw dropped—Holy crap, what kind of crooked ways could make you earn so many merits? So you're selling your body to be with a rich man?!
Le Xu returned home under the blazing sun, his steps unsteady. His junior sister had no doubt that if Le Xu had a tail, it could wag like a propeller and carry her senior brother into the sky.
2.
Si Rui was on his way back to the Tianquan garrison when he suddenly heard two sharp, chiseling sounds behind him. Before he could turn around, a little girl was standing in front of him. Judging from her clothes... she seemed to be from a lowly sect.
The girl stood with her hands on her hips, staring at Si Rui with a mocking expression, as if she had discovered some new and exciting secret, circling around Si Rui and looking him up and down.
This behavior is exactly like someone else's. Si Rui thought to himself.
“Handsome guy,” the girl said, “you and my senior brother, are you two... really in that kind of relationship?”
"What kind of relationship?" Si Rui asked, mimicking her with his hands on his hips, feigning ignorance.
The little girl racked her brains trying to recall something from the storybook, "That's right, that's right, homosexuality...? Yes, homosexuality!"
"Hahahaha..." Si Rui couldn't stop laughing after hearing this, his bun at the back of his head bobbing back and forth. After laughing, he patted the girl's head, neither denying the relationship between him and Le Xu, nor confirming it either. "What you said is not wrong, but we are just getting what we need."
"A mutually beneficial arrangement? What do you want from my senior brother? Is it his youth or his good looks?" The junior sister couldn't understand.
Si Rui said meaningfully, "He is a very interesting person. I can give him what he wants, that's all."
Is that all?
The junior sister's eyes darted around, vaguely sensing the scent of canglang blood in the relationship between her senior brother Lexu and this Tianquan disciple... even more so than dog blood.
Watching the determined steps of the Tianquan people as they left, the junior sister shrugged—the adult world is truly complicated.
3.
Sometimes, looking at the crowded space with almost no room to step, the junior sister would think wearily: Why isn't there a single Tianquan disciple who's blind enough to play with me?
She had been thinking about it for several days but still couldn't figure out what was going on between her senior brother Lexu and her elder brother Sirui.
Whenever she recalls that scene, the junior sister always wonders: What exactly did her senior brother's expression mean that day? And why did Brother Si Rui say that his relationship with her senior brother was "nothing more than that"?
What she learned from storybooks was not enough for her to unravel the complexities between the two of them.
so……
Why don't you ask your senior brother?
"...Huh?" Le Xu, who was bored out of his mind and looking for something to do, was genuinely stunned when his junior sister asked him why he liked that Tianquan disciple. "Tianquan disciple, you mean Si Rui?"
"Do you know anyone else from Tianquan?"
Le Xu: "I know a few, but I wouldn't say I'm close to them. But if you're asking about Si Rui... I don't like him."
"Huh?" The junior sister's eyes widened in disbelief. "Impossible!" she retorted instinctively. "If you don't like him, why are you acting cute and smiling at him?"
"..." Yue Xu stopped wiping the dart rope, narrowed his eyes after hearing the girl's words, "You were following me?"
"Who told you to be so stupid? You didn't even realize you were being followed," the junior sister scoffed. "You didn't like her, yet you still flirted with her. I thought you two were so in love, you liar! You scumbag!"
She stormed off, leaving Lexu alone in the courtyard to be baked by the scorching sun.
Le Xu blinked slowly, and after realizing what her junior sister had just said, a sarcastic smile crept onto her lips. "Love? Me and Si Rui? How naive." How could he possibly like me...?
4.
After that incident, the junior sister completely ignored Lexu. Lexu hadn't seen her for several days. After asking another junior brother, he finally found the little girl listening to music at the opera house.
"Still angry?" Le Xu grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds and cracked them open as he spoke. "I didn't kill anyone or betray my sect, so why are you so angry?" Children are the most unpredictable.
The junior sister's lips curled down into a half-circle. "Senior sister told me that relationships should be built on the foundation of sincerity between both parties, but you lied to Brother Si Rui. Your relationship is very fake."
"..." For some reason, Lexu suddenly felt like laughing. "Instead of condemning me here, why don't you go and ask him what he thinks?... Senior sister is right, but reality is not as pure as fiction. There's no need for two people to be together because of some so-called 'true love.' Listen to less of this kind of drama. If it's too wholesome, you'll get snatched away by some scoundrel one day."
Just as the girl opposite was about to retort, she suddenly remembered what Si Rui had told her.
She said sullenly, "...Actually, I also think that Brother Si Rui is wrong. He said before that you two were together because 'you each got what you needed, nothing more.'"
Each gets what they need, that's all...
Knowing full well that the person would give a similar answer, and having prepared herself mentally, Le Xu understood and had been waiting for Si Rui to tell her personally. She didn't know what she was stubbornly clinging to, but today, unexpectedly hearing those words from her fellow disciple, Le Xu felt a little uncomfortable. That moment felt really unpleasant, as if someone had suddenly hit her with a stick, pounding her hard on the back.
Le Xu: "...Did he say anything else?"
"He said you're very interesting. He can give you what you want. Senior, are you talking about money?"
In a daze, Lexu felt the money pouch hanging at his waist become unbearably heavy. He lost his appetite for sunflower seeds and stared intently at the white porcelain cup in his hand. "...Yes." He squeezed out a single word. "He's right. Each gets what they need, that's all."
5.
The Tianquan garrison has been quite lively lately. A girl from the Jiuliu Sect, who's a head shorter than them, has appeared out of nowhere and keeps coming to the garrison every few days.
The guys were absolutely thrilled; it wasn't easy for the kids to come all this way, and besides—
"Girl, aren't you afraid of catching a cold with your belly button exposed?" Sister Quan took off her white fur collar and wrapped it around her junior sister's bare abdomen, rubbing the girl's stomach through the fur collar.
Another disciple from Tianquan came over and wiped the mud off his junior sister's face, saying, "How could such a pretty young girl like Elder Cheng be so filthy?"
Surrounded by a group of Tianquan sisters who exude a natural fragrance, the junior sister felt as if she were in heaven, floating on air, and blurted out, "I put it on when I was begging, and forgot to wash it off."
These words immediately drew gasps from the Tianquan disciples. They stopped practicing their swordsmanship and chatting, and all gathered around their junior sister.
So when Si Rui saw this incredibly stubborn little girl again, she had several money pouches bulging in her pockets, and even her pet big-eared mouse was struggling to hold up a purse.
The junior sister found Si Rui sitting on the roof, panting. He looked at her with great amusement, "You're very popular. All my fellow disciples like you. Your senior brother can't compare to you."
Why do you say that?
“Every time he comes, he either provokes this person or that person. The disciples of Tianquan are all annoyed by him.”
"And what about you?" the junior sister asked. "Do you find my senior brother annoying too?"
"..." Si Rui lowered his eyes and slowly shook his head under the girl's gaze. "Le Xu isn't a good person, but..."
"But you think he's good?" his junior sister interrupted him.
“Well… that’s right.” The person next to her replied, “He always brings me very novel experiences. Every experience he’s involved in makes me feel very strange and interesting. And Lexu himself also brings me different feelings, so no matter how I look at him, I think he is a multifaceted, fresh, and interesting person.”
The junior sister became increasingly suspicious as she listened. "Brother Si, are you sure you're talking about my senior brother...?" This lazy bum would use such tricks?
Upon hearing this, Si Rui's bun swayed gently as he laughed heartily. After he had finished laughing, he turned to look at his junior sister, who looked puzzled. The sunlight in his smiling eyes revealed a hint of something unfathomable.
“He can do it.” Si Rui’s voice still carried the lingering laughter, but he became inexplicably serious. “For example, even though he was penniless, the last time he saw an old woman in Maixiang Market who had her purse stolen and was crying so hard she was about to faint, he rolled his eyes and said, ‘I hate this kind of trouble,’ while quietly stuffing the purse he had just ‘tricked’ from me, which he hadn’t even had a chance to warm up, into the old woman’s shopping basket.”
The junior sister's eyes widened—what about the money that Le Xu had tricked her out of to indulge in a big meal?!
“For example—” Si Rui continued, his fingertips unconsciously tracing the roof tiles, “Have you noticed those stray cats in the back alley of your Nine Streams Sect’s territory?” His junior sister shook her head. “Not at all. We’re busy enough as it is, how could we have the time to pay attention to them?”
Si Rui said, "Some people care. He fed all the cats until they were shiny and healthy. He even built a small shelter for the lame tabby cat, using scraps that he had complained about countless times before finally buying cheaply from Zijiangju."
The junior sister listened, stunned. These trivial details were completely different from the carefree, money-grubbing senior brother she knew. She murmured, "...Senior brother never mentioned these things. Hehehe, he's so lazy that he'd rather sit than stand, and lie down than sit. Except when he's throwing the dart rope, he's always asleep with his eyes closed, so I never knew anything about him."
“Of course he wouldn’t say.” Si Rui’s smile contained a hint of knowing teasing, and perhaps a very faint, almost imperceptible indulgence. “He’d rather the whole world think he’s a heartless bastard than let anyone know the soft spot in his heart. ‘Trouble,’ he always says.”
The junior sister suddenly remembered Senior Brother Lexu's sarcastic smile in the sunlight and his words, "Too naive." She also remembered the profound meaning behind Si Rui's words, "Each takes what they need, that's all."
She seemed to understand a little.
“So… Brother Si,” the junior sister began hesitantly, trying to sort out the complicated relationship, “what you ‘need’ for him is money. And what he ‘needs’ for you… is these ‘interesting’ and ‘novel experiences’?”
Si Rui gazed at the distant figures of the Tianquan disciples training, remaining silent for a moment. The wind ruffled the stray hairs on his forehead, bringing with it his soft yet clear answer.
“That’s right. But it’s also companionship, it’s vibrant, it’s another way of looking at the world.” He paused, then laughed again. “In a sense, Lexu is actually quite naive and has a shallow perspective—after all, he has never seen another ‘need’ in me.”
Her tone was tinged with weariness and helplessness. The junior sister pursed her lips, and the scene of seeing Si Rui's tender face when she followed her senior brother that day flashed before her eyes. She mustered her courage and asked tentatively, "You remember everything that Senior Brother Lexu has done so clearly... Brother Si, you're not just looking for novelty from my senior brother, are you?"
Si Rui fell silent again, turning to look at the girl. "I told you Le Xu was naive; he doesn't even understand as much as you do." He couldn't forget how this girl had come to him earlier, repeating what her senior brother had said—
"I don't like him."
"Si Rui is right, that's all."
A pang of sorrow welled up in the latter's heart, and she subconsciously squeezed the heavy purse in her arms. It was a gift from her older brothers and sisters in Tianquan, filled with pure kindness and care. But what flowed between her senior brother and Si Rui seemed to be something else, something heavier and more subtle.
“The adult world…” the junior sister sighed again, but this time, her tone was less critical and more filled with bewildered contemplation and sadness. “It is indeed very complicated.”
6.
"Wait a minute." Le Xu, having just woken up, almost doubted her ears upon hearing her junior sister's words. She propped herself up from the roof tiles. "Say it again. What did you just say?"
The junior sister cleared her throat, feigning a tense expression, "Brother Si Rui was sent on a dangerous mission and he's injured! He's unconscious now, you need to go check on him quickly!"
Le Xu narrowed his eyes, trying to find a flaw in his junior sister's face. But he forgot that the skills learned from the same sect were all the same. Begging and disguise had long since honed the little girl's acting skills to perfection, to the point that Le Xu couldn't tell whether it was real or fake.
Recalling Si Rui's martial prowess, Le Xu said, "Do you think he's weak? What will happen to the others if even Si Rui gets injured?" This statement was far-fetched, and it was unclear whether he was refuting or trying to convince himself.
Seeing that the man was about to collapse again, the junior sister gritted her teeth and threw the rope at Le Xu. "Aren't you afraid that with this attitude, Brother Si Rui will find someone more interesting and caring than you? If that's the case... you might as well not go! I'll go find someone better for Brother Si!"
"Come back." Whether it was because he had been whipped and changed his personality or something else, Le Xu suddenly changed his mind, but his eyes still looked at his junior sister with disdain. "Troublesome." As he spoke, he had already taken two or three steps, and when he turned back to see that his junior sister had not followed, his tone became even more impatient. "Didn't you want to go? Come on."
"They're here!" The junior sister quickly ran ahead to lead the way.
7.
The path that his junior sister led Lexu on was one that he had never walked in all his years of life.
"We're not there yet?"
"Almost there, almost there, it's just ahead."
"We agreed, I only came with you because you were worried about him."
"Yes, yes, you're worried about him."
Le Xu: "..." Never mind.
However, the further Yuexu walked, the more she felt something was amiss—she hadn't noticed it earlier because she was too concerned, but the Nine Streams Sect hadn't received any news lately, let alone news of a dangerous mission that could injure Si Rui...
The junior sister stopped in front of an open space, but there was no one in sight. She frowned in confusion, "Strange, didn't Brother Si and I agree to meet here—" Realizing she had let something slip, the junior sister quickly shut her mouth, praying that Le Xu wouldn't hear her!
But when she turned around, Le Xu was staring at her with a gloomy expression, the corners of his lips slowly curving upwards to reveal his menacing white teeth. He said in a sinister tone, "You and Si Rui conspired to deceive me."
The affirmative tone made the already guilty junior sister even more apprehensive. "N-no, nothing."
"Then explain what you just said."
Junior sister: "..."
Le Xu took a deep breath, his gaze sharp, and gritted his teeth, saying, "Even if you're lying to me, you shouldn't make up such a clumsy excuse!"
"But if I said that Brother Si Rui wanted to see you, would you come?"
“No!” Le Xu said, “How many times do I have to say it? I don’t mean it—we just got what we needed. He has what he wants and I have what I want. Don’t you understand?!”
"I don't understand!" the junior sister shouted. "You have no idea what Brother Si wants. You say you don't like Brother Si, so why did you come along? Everyone in the Nine Streams Sect knows your personality inside and out; you're the only one deceiving yourself! You two have clearly opened your hearts to each other—"
"Open your heart?" Le Xu interrupted her with a cold laugh. "What do you mean by opening your heart? Do you have to spell it all out, to say that he doesn't even care about me and that he's just playing around with me?"
"Are you really that unwilling to believe that Brother Si Rui likes you?"
"I don't believe it!" Their chests heaved violently, the junior sister's eyes reddening with anger. "What if?!"
Le Xu closed his eyes, "...There's no 'what if'."
The junior sister didn't say anything more and left angrily.
...
After calming himself down, Yue Xu was about to leave when someone called out to him, "Are you a disciple of the Nine Streams Sect?"
"Yes, what's wrong?"
The person who came looked relieved and handed a piece of paper to Le Xu. "A disciple from Tianquan asked me to give this to you. He said he was sorry, but he didn't break his promise on purpose. Something came up and he couldn't come."
"I understand, thank you."
After the messenger left, Lexu unfolded the paper, completely bewildered—
"I should have listened to your senior brother. He's a bit superstitious and always asks me to 'avoid prophecies'... I never expected that the excuse I made up would come true, and I came back with a bruise after going out. It's alright, don't worry. But I'm sorry, our plan today might be found out by Lexu, so all your hard work will have been for nothing."
After reading these words, Lexu was stunned for a long time.
What's this?
What is this?!
"What if?"
"There's no 'what if'!"
There's absolutely no chance of even one in ten thousand. How could Si Rui possibly be interested in someone like me!
Le Xu crumpled the paper into a ball and clenched it tightly in his palm. He, who had never liked sports, was now running through the streets of Kaifeng, bumping into several people and drawing a chorus of curses.
Even more chaotic than Lexu's breathing was his restless state of mind, so chaotic that he couldn't think straight.
Get out! Get out, get out, get out! All of you, get out! It's so annoying!
8.
The night was quiet; not even disciples guarded the Tianquan outpost. Le Xu, like a thin cloud, silently swept over the layers of bricks and tiles, heading straight for Si Rui's residence.
When he climbed in through the window, Si Rui was lying on the bed with his eyes closed, as if he had fallen into a coma. In the past, no matter how soundly he slept, he would turn over and jump up at the slightest sound, a long knife pointed directly at the intruder's throat.
Lexu was in great pain after witnessing Sirui's diminished perception due to his injury.
He sat on the floor by the headboard, observing the unconscious man lying on the bed by the dim light of the oil lamp in the room, trying to see where Si Rui was injured.
After scanning back and forth, he didn't see any obvious wounds or bandages. Lexu finally remembered that he could still breathe, and his chest immediately felt clear after opening his nostrils.
Si Rui's hand was hanging down on the edge of the bed. Seeing this, Le Xu, as if possessed, took his hand and slowly held Si Rui's hand.
"...Is there really such a one in ten thousand chance?" he murmured, lightly kissing Si Rui's fingertip with his thin lips. "Actually, I don't want it to be 'just this' at all." In the end, Le Xu couldn't keep up the act anymore after deceiving himself for so long.
He's really immature; he wants it, yet he's afraid of getting it.
As he hesitated, the fingers that had been blown by the night wind for a long time and were now held in Le Xu's palm curled up slightly, trembling almost imperceptibly.
When Le Xu looked up again, he met the gaze of two burning eyes in the dim light.
Si Rui's eyes held a smile. He said, "Alright, it doesn't have to be that bad."
——
When the junior sister carelessly kicked open Lexu's room door, she caught the two of them being intimate.
The little girl quickly covered her eyes, "I didn't see anything!" She then hurriedly closed the door, but where Le Xu didn't notice, she and Si Rui exchanged a glance.
My junior sister thinks she's a genius!
After chatting with Si Rui that day, she realized that he had feelings for her lazy senior brother. She felt really sad for Si Rui for a while - how could he fall in love with my senior brother?
However, considering what Si Rui said about what his senior brother had done, and recalling the expression on Le Xu's face when she looked at Si Rui, the junior sister made a bold guess.
But when she told Si Rui her guess, he did not agree.
...It must be admitted that, in this respect, the couple are equally stubborn.
After much pleading and cajoling from his junior sister, Si Rui finally agreed. But before putting his plan into action, he was still a little worried: what if Le Xu found out?
"Don't worry about that," the junior sister assured her. "Only a play within a play can convince Senior Brother Lexu. I'll pretend to let something slip, argue with him, and then leave first. I'll find someone to deliver the letter to him—he'll definitely come to the camp!"
Then everything went exactly as they planned, and Lexu really did arrive.
As for Le Xu, Si Rui felt that the people of the Nine Streams Sect were all a bit stubborn. Just like how his junior sister could come to see him for two or three weeks in a row in order to find the answer, Le Xu was also starting to doubt the possibility that Si Rui had fallen in love with him.
So Si Rui kept repeating it, until all four mice inside and outside the door were moved to tears.
Watching their smiles from afar, the junior sister suddenly realized that the relationship between her senior brother and Brother Si Rui might not be as black and white as depicted in storybooks. There was no passionate love, but it was certainly not a cold transaction either. It was a more complex, more mature, and more difficult-to-define entanglement. However, this entanglement now also contained elements of love and affection.
She looked at her reflections with satisfaction, then remembered that it was time for the merit rankings to be released.
My junior sister has earned a lot of money these days, and compared with other fellow disciples, she has earned more than me.
In other words, the position of the next sect leader...
My junior sister was grinning from ear to ear. She hurriedly pushed through the crowd in front of her and counted from the bottom up. She was actually... second in line?!
Why is it second?! And the first place is still Lexu!
Just as the junior sister expressed doubt about the result, Mr. Le strolled by, tossing a money pouch in his hand, and said, "Having a boyfriend is great..."
Junior sister: "..." Go to hell!
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