Chapter 60 Betraying One's Master and Ancestor (Bug Fix) Do you like watching disciples bully their masters...?
"Even if you do, it's fine to think about it, but you're not allowed to say it out loud, much less do it. Otherwise, I'll be very rude to you. Let me tell you, I've also learned a few moves from the Sword God. If we really fight, be careful, I'll beat you so badly that you won't be able to get out of bed for ten days, won't be able to get out of bed for a month, and won't dare to speak to me for a year."
"No, no! No!!" Han Shannan was so flustered by Li Chen's words that he almost jumped up and down, his face flushed. "Who, who said I had those kinds of thoughts?! I just felt something was a little strange when I touched your hand just now..."
Li Chenjin: "..."
Li Chen took a deep breath without making a sound, then took a big step back, causing Han Shannan to hurriedly explain, "You, you! No! I don't have those kinds of feelings for you! You like reading stories about disciples betraying their masters and falling in love with them, and you even force me to read them! I don't like reading them at all!!"
"...Why are you bringing up those storybooks now?"
"You, you didn't think I... I... Ugh, anyway, I definitely don't have those kinds of feelings for you, you're not my type! What I was trying to say was... I, I meant that when I met you, I suddenly felt a chill run down my spine, and it felt like something was watching me..."
Hearing Han Shannan's words, Li Chen felt a little relieved and asked, "When you met me, you felt a chill all over your body. Was there something watching you?"
Han Shannan nodded and said, "That's right! I thought someone was eavesdropping, or some evil spirit had sneaked into your room and startled me. I was in a hurry to see what was in your room, which is why I didn't take the cup you offered. I, I didn't do it for anything else!"
"Are they still available now?" Li Chen asked.
Han Shannan looked around, then walked to the door, peeked out, and after a long while, turned back and said, "It's gone. It must have been scared away by the sound of the cup breaking."
"They should just be some passing evil spirits, cowardly and lacking in cultivation. They must have been scared away by my profound cultivation and righteous aura as soon as they saw me."
Li Chenjin: "..."
This kid really dares to speak his mind.
Although Han Shannan's cultivation wasn't particularly profound, his intuition was at least accurate. He said he felt something watching him, so there must be something there, but she hadn't felt anything at all...
Strangely enough, ever since she had that hazy dream, she hasn't felt like she's being spied on.
This feeling shouldn't have disappeared so suddenly. If it could disappear just by changing locations, then she should have stopped feeling it long ago, since they were constantly traveling and changing places. Unless...
Unless it's just that she can't feel it anymore, the gaze is still there, it's just that someone else can feel it.
She pondered for a long time, then suddenly seemed to remember something and said, "Xiaoshan, hold my hand."
Han Shannan was startled by her sudden address and instinctively took a step back, saying, "Why, why are you suddenly calling me that? Why do you want me to hold your hand? I, I, I... I..."
Li Chen said helplessly, "Don't overthink it, it's just a handshake, come here."
Although Han Shannan was unwilling, Li Chenjin's stern face and silence were somewhat intimidating. Even if he was unwilling, he dared not say "no". He could only slowly move in front of Li Chenjin and tentatively hold her hand.
In that instant, the gaze that had flashed by earlier reappeared, and it was very close to him, as if it were right in front of him.
He subconsciously shook off Li Chenjin's hand. Li Chenjin was startled by his sudden action and was about to say something when he noticed that the other person's face was a little pale. He immediately asked, "What's wrong?"
Han Shannan looked at Li Chenjin, took a step back, and said, "No, I don't know. I just wanted to shake you off, but that thing that was watching me reappeared, it seemed to be right behind you, but I couldn't see anything..."
"Could it be that vengeful ghost from the cultivation world you mentioned before has come looking for us? I thought you were just making this up, since you always like to talk nonsense. Who would have thought it was actually true... What should we do? Should we go find someone to exorcise it for you?"
Li Chen frowned, looking at Han Shannan's worried face, then his brows relaxed, and he suddenly asked, "You said earlier that I'm not your type, so what type do you like?"
"Huh?" Han Shannan looked somewhat dazed upon hearing Li Chenjin's sudden question. "Why are you suddenly asking this kind of question? Isn't that vengeful ghost more important right now? Or are you already possessed? If it's possessed, why are you asking me what type of person I like? Could it be that it has taken a liking to me?"
Li Chen said, "Then you are really overthinking it. The people who are best at exorcising evil spirits are the cultivators, and among them, the sword cultivators, magic cultivators, and Zen cultivators are the most skilled. I come from the Zen cultivators and am also a disciple of Zen Master Mingcun. Dealing with a little evil spirit is a piece of cake for me."
"I just suddenly remembered, and since I'm your master, shouldn't I hear your thoughts so I can keep an eye out for you later?"
"How can I possibly say that..." Han Shannan said, "I haven't thought about it carefully, but if I had to say... first of all, she must be good-looking, gentle, cute, and lively, able to play with me, about my age, and like small animals."
Li Chen let out a long "Oh" and asked, "Then it seems that what I said is similar to what you said. Except that I may be a little older than you, there is no difference in other aspects."
"Who, who said that?!" Han Shannan exclaimed. "You're not! You're only good-looking for your face, but you have a terrible temper. You're only gentle to others, but you're always ordering me around, treating me like a beast of burden!"
"And another thing, you're not cute either. Not only do you sometimes scare me, but you also scare little kids! You're not lively either; you always sit in one place and don't want to move. You're always sleeping during rest time, and you leave all the housework to me, the cultivator! Apart from liking small animals, what other trait of yours does it fit?"
Li Chen exclaimed, "So I'm really that bad in Han Xiushi's eyes?"
Hearing Li Chenjin's words, Han Shannan immediately fell silent again, looking at her cautiously, as if worried that his words had hurt her. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Actually, you're not that bad, you're quite good..."
“You always remember to leave a light on for me every day, and you even come downstairs at night to check if I've kicked off the covers. You teach me principles, instruct me in swordsmanship, and pour me water when you see I'm tired so I can rest. Before, when I saw some children abusing a kitten, I tried to reason with them but couldn't win the argument. You just grabbed the kitten and snatched it away, then casually sprinkled itching powder all over them. When their parents brought the children to you for treatment, you even tricked their parents into beating them up to vent my anger…”
"You...you're actually a really nice person."
Li Chen nodded. "I am truly gratified to hear what Cultivator Han has to say. To express my gratitude for your thoughtfulness, I will reward you with this scripture."
Han Shannan: "..."
Seeing the man's expression suddenly freeze, Li Chen kindly reminded him, "It's getting late, Cultivator Han, you should go back to your room and rest. There's no rush to read this scripture. I'll give you six days to memorize it slowly, okay?"
Han Shannan: "..."
Han Shannan: "You're a bad person!!"
After shouting those words, Han Shannan grabbed the scriptures she had given him and stormed out the door without looking back, clearly furious.
After Han Shannan left, Li Chen leisurely closed the door, then walked to the table, sat down, and pondered for a while.
However, as she pondered, she picked up the half-read storybook on the table. It happened to be about a disciple forcing himself on his master, which was quite interesting.
Starting tomorrow, I'm afraid I won't be able to read storybooks for a while, so I'd better read as many as I can now.
As she turned the pages, she muttered to herself, "Oh dear... I've read too many stories about master and disciple, and I've become a bit prejudiced. I really shouldn't have, I really shouldn't have..."
………………
Li Chen stayed up late studying until midnight last night, so he got up late during the day. He originally planned to leave at Chenshi (7-9 AM), but he didn't leave until the end of Sishi (9-11 AM).
They wanted to investigate the matter of the Weeping Dew Pavilion, so naturally they had to go and take a look around the vicinity of the pavilion first. However, they never expected that when they arrived near the pavilion, they would see someone being carried out of it, which attracted passersby to stop and watch.
Li Chen and Han Shannan exchanged a glance, then stepped forward and squeezed into the crowd, becoming bystanders.
The man who was thrown out was about twenty-three or twenty-four years old. He was dressed like a wealthy person, but his skin was a dark wheat color. He didn't look like a pampered young master who had been living a life of luxury at home all year round. Instead, he looked like someone who was often out making a living.
Beside that man were three other people, their faces bruised and swollen, groaning in pain, lying on the ground, unable to get up for a while.
Those people were all dressed in short clothes, and it was obvious at a glance that they were servants who did rough work. One of them dragged his injured leg to the man's side, crying out in pain and asking him if he was hurt.
The man appeared to be unharmed and quickly got up, attempting to rush into the Weeping Dew Pavilion. However, he was naturally pushed back by the burly men. "What kind of thing is this? You dare to cause trouble at the Weeping Dew Pavilion? In the eyes of our Pavilion Master, your family's meager wealth is not even a fraction of the Weeping Dew Pavilion's daily income! Someone like you thinks you can steal our Weeping Dew Pavilion's dancers?"
The man had been punched in the face, and one of his eyes was half-closed, but he didn't back down. Clutching his wound, he pointed at the group and shouted, "Bullshit! That's clearly my sister! It was you! You kidnapped my sister! Give her back to me!!"
The thugs didn't expect that this man wouldn't stop after being punched several times. Just as they were about to deliver a few more punches, a few people suddenly squeezed out from the crowd.
Those people quickly stepped between the man and the thugs, pulling the man who was shouting for Qilu Pavilion to return his sister while apologetically saying to the thugs, "We're sorry, we're sorry! Please, gentlemen, have mercy. Our young master has some mental illness and did not intend to cause trouble at Qilu Pavilion!"
"Gentlemen, gentlemen, this little bit of money is our way of showing our respect to you. We'll take our young master back right away. Please, gentlemen, don't take any action!"
As he spoke, the man took out a money bag from his pocket and stuffed it into the hand of the person opposite him.
Seeing this, the thugs stopped attacking. One of them waved his hand and said, "Keep the madman locked up at home! The people outside aren't his parents. If we let him run wild outside, he might get beaten to death one day!"
"Yes, yes, yes..."
The men responded in unison, and then grabbed the man and the others who had been lying on the ground, trying to leave.
The man was tilting his head to look at the person grabbing him. After recognizing who it was, he immediately pulled his hand away and said, "No, who are you? You're the crazy ones!"
After finishing his rant, he turned to the thugs and shouted, "What Weeping Dew Pavilion? Bah! Give me back my sister!!"
The men's expressions changed drastically. Before the thugs could make another move, one of them covered the man's mouth, while the other two lifted him up and ran out of the crowd.
After those people ran away, the onlookers, seeing there was no more drama to watch, dispersed one by one. The thugs, looking in the direction the people left, spat and cursed a few times before turning back into the Weeping Dew Pavilion.
Li Chen stared thoughtfully in the direction those people had left.
Han Shannan said, "They don't seem to know each other. Could those people be human traffickers?"
“It doesn’t seem like it,” Li Chen said. “But those people must know something, otherwise they wouldn’t have suddenly appeared and stopped those troublemakers. Let’s go, let’s follow them and see.”
Han Shannan asked, "So what should we say when we get there? Are we going to lie to people like you again?"
Li Chen glanced at Han Shannan, clicked his tongue, and said, "What do you mean by lying? I call it being adaptable, doing extraordinary things in extraordinary times. How can you get close to people if you don't make up some identity?"
Han Shannan glanced at her sideways, "What 'adapt to circumstances'? What 'extraordinary measures for extraordinary times'? Isn't it all just a lie?"
Li Chen was so angry she laughed. She raised an eyebrow and said, "Fine. Then it's up to you, Han Xiushi. You're the one who can get this information out of me. Let me make this clear: if you can't get anything out of me and you mess up my plans, I'll have to kick you out."
Han Shannan paused, then said hesitantly, "Then... then what you said before does seem to be about improvising..."
After saying that, he felt he had gone against his conscience. He subconsciously looked up at the sky above, as if worried that lightning would strike him down. He touched his chest, looking uneasy. "Li Chenjin, can you tell me where the Sword God is?"
"These past few days, I've been doing whatever you tell me to do. I've been very obedient and I certainly won't cause any trouble for the Sword God..."
“Sword Goddess…” Li Chen said as he followed the direction the people had left, “She is currently recovering from her injuries, and it is uncertain whether she will fully recover. It is not convenient for her to be disturbed. If she recovers from her injuries one day, it will not be too late for me to let you meet her.”
"Oh, by the way, the sweet fermented rice ball is the dog that the Sword God keeps. The Sword God entrusted it to me because he couldn't take care of it. But, I'll be busy helping Zen Master Mingcun, so I'm afraid I won't be able to take care of it. You'll have to take good care of it from now on."
"Alright, then you absolutely mustn't forget," Han Shannan said with a worried look. "You've said you'd take care of the sweet fermented rice balls so many times already. Don't worry, I'll definitely take good care of them. These past few days, haven't I been the one feeding them, bathing them, and taking them for walks?"
"And what did you do? You just washed your hands of everything and didn't help at all. I needed to give the sweet rice balls a bath and asked you to boil some water, but after waiting for ages, there was still no water. When I turned around, I found you asleep by the stove. You had just finished your afternoon nap. I can tell you just didn't want to do anything..."
Li Chen said with embarrassment, "You've had a hard time these past few days. I really wanted to help you, but seeing so many patients every day is exhausting, so I inevitably need to sleep a little longer."
"But think about it, sooner or later you'll be the only one taking care of the sweet fermented rice balls. The reason I'm not helping you now is so that you can get used to it in advance and avoid being overwhelmed later, right?"
Han Shannan snorted and said, "I don't believe it! You're just spouting nonsense!"
The two of them followed the group at a distance, until they reached a secluded inn far from the city.
The inn didn't look very big, but it seemed to be quite old and had fallen into disrepair. From the outside, it looked rather dilapidated, and it would probably have a hard time attracting guests.
But in this small inn, the people inside opened their doors after hearing the commotion outside. After those people entered the inn one after another, they immediately closed the doors again, which seemed very strange.
The strangest thing was that the man who had been so resistant earlier, somehow heard something along the way and stopped resisting. Instead, he obediently entered the inn.
Han Shannan said, "An inn, with its doors and windows tightly shut during the day, yet it forcibly brought so many people in... Do you think it might be a shady inn? Like those shady inns in those storybooks you read, selling... human flesh buns, human flesh dumplings, and things like that?"
“That’s not impossible,” Li Chen said. “However, I advise you to read less of these kinds of stories. You can ask me for some other stories. Don’t read those scary ones at such a young age.”
Han Shannan angrily said, "I don't want it! All the other novels you have are indecent! The one you gave me last time, the female lead and the male lead, and there were even pictures inside, you...it...I...anyway, I'm not reading it!"
"In those stories, the female protagonist not only forces herself on the male protagonist, but in the end, the male protagonist even gets pregnant and gives birth! You, you! You like reading those kinds of stories? You're shameless!!"
"ah……"
Li Chen let out a long "Ah!" and then said apologetically, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It was the middle of the night, and you came to me asking for storybooks instead of sleeping. I was half asleep, so I just gave you one without even looking at what it was. It was my fault."
"But the storybook you mentioned is quite interesting. I haven't read it yet. Where did you put it?"
Han Shannan roared in fury, "I threw it away! I threw it away!!"
Li Chen sighed, "That's a real pity..."
"What a pity? What exactly are you regretting?!" Han Shannan raised his voice immediately, "From now on, if you want to buy any storybooks, you must let this cultivator see them before you buy them. You are not allowed to buy all kinds of storybooks in the store without even looking at them!"
Li Chen shook her head and sighed, unsure whether she was lamenting her inability to freely buy storybooks in the future, or regretting the storybook she hadn't even read before it was thrown away.
When the two arrived at the inn, Han Shannan's face was still flushed with anger, and she was so angry that she didn't even want to look at Li Chenjin. However, at Li Chenjin's instruction, she stiffly knocked on the door.
Soon, footsteps could be heard from inside the door. Then, the door of the inn was opened a crack from the inside, and a person's face peeked out slightly, looking at the two people in front of him and saying, "Gentlemen, all the rooms in our inn are full. Please go somewhere else."
Li Chen said, "We didn't come here to stay. We just wanted to ask about the Weeping Dew Pavilion. A friend of ours said that his sister works at the Weeping Dew Pavilion. We heard that you seem to be able to find out about the Weeping Dew Pavilion, so we came to ask you."
As she spoke, she took out a money pouch from her bosom.
The man glanced at the money pouch in her hand but did not take it. Instead, he looked the two people up and down for a long time before opening the door of the inn and saying, "Come in and talk."
Although the doors and windows of the inn were tightly closed, a faint light still managed to see through, barely enough to make out the dim room.
The inn was just as dilapidated and shabby as it appeared from the outside. The tables and chairs were quite old, and you could hear them creaking when you sat down.
The four people who had been brought in earlier were now sitting at the table. The man who was leading them was holding his head and sobbing softly, as if he had learned something extremely sad.
Li Chen noticed that everyone's eyes were on her. If she continued to lie, it would backfire. So, after sitting down at the table, she got straight to the point: "I don't know any friends here, but I'm here on the behalf of Zen Master Mingcun from the Zen community. I want to investigate the matter of the Weeping Dew Pavilion."
Everyone in the room looked at her, but no one spoke.
After a long while, a boy who looked very young, about fifteen or sixteen years old, came over and said, "So you are the Hermit of Dustless Realm. I have seen your portrait before."
Upon hearing this, Li Chen looked at the person who had come. He saw that the person was dressed in the black disciple's robes of the Dharma Cultivation Realm, with his hair tied up in a bun. He had a handsome appearance and although he looked young, his every move was very steady, showing a maturity that did not match his appearance. Moreover, his cultivation level was about the late Nascent Soul stage, and he had already stepped into the Mahayana realm with one foot in the door.
Clearly, although this person looks young, he is definitely not young in real age.
Before Li Chenjin could speak, Han Shannan exclaimed, "Are there still portraits of you for sale outside? I haven't seen any of them on my way here."
Li Chenjin: "..."
She ignored Han Shannan and instead said to the approaching young man, "That's quite a coincidence. But I heard that the Pavilion Master of the Weeping Dew Pavilion is a close friend of your ancestor. May I ask if this cultivator is here to investigate matters concerning the Weeping Dew Pavilion, or to do something for the Weeping Dew Pavilion?"
Author's Note: I've struck it rich! I met another author, and we started talking about writing, but then we started discussing how to make a living, exchanging survival tips, haha. In the end, neither of us got any advice. [doge]
My suggestion to her was to buy a large tub of pure oatmeal and soak it in hot water; that would solve her three meals a day problem. As for vital signs, she could rely on those vitamins that cost three or four yuan a small bottle at the pharmacy; one bottle contains 100 tablets and would last a long time. Plus, they're cheaper online, only a little over two yuan.
Then she said the vitamins were fine, but she couldn't get used to oatmeal because it hurt her throat.
Her advice to me was to buy a large bag of pickled vegetables and eat it with white rice on Pinduoduo (a Chinese online shopping platform), eat that one meal a day, and take some vitamins and drink water the rest of the time, and that I could just tough it out.
Then I said that although I've eaten so much oatmeal that I feel like throwing up at the sight and smelling it, pickled vegetables with white rice are a bit more expensive than oatmeal, so oatmeal isn't as cost-effective, hahaha.
Life is truly fascinating, so fascinating that even making up stories about it is beyond my imagination. Art really does imitate life, but life transcends art. I'm completely convinced. God, could you please love me a little more? [heart emoji]
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