Out of the blue, Liu Qingge said, “Don’t believe her.” Shen Qingqiu was baffled. “Huh?” “That thing before! She was just messing around!” “Don’t be so agitated. I never believed her.” Great Master Liu’s behavior was awfully strange; Shen Qingqiu couldn’t help glancing at him.
He’d barely done so when Liu Qingge met his eyes and snapped, “Don’t look at me!” The more insistent he became, the more Shen Qingqiu wanted to look at him. Only then did he realize that—whether because of anger or for some other reason—Liu Qingge’s face, from the corners of his eyes to his cheeks, was now dusted pink. His always indifferent gaze seemed like a frozen lake that had been shattered into a thousand fragments, and the fragments now surged about in his eyes.
Shen Qingqiu kept staring at him, then suddenly reached over to feel his pulse.
As soon as he grasped Liu Qingge’s wrist, he realized that Liu Qingge’s temperature seemed slightly high. He counted his pulse for a while, then said sternly, “Liu-shidi, tell Shixiong the truth. Have you dual-cultivated with someone before?”“Why are you asking this.” “Just asking. You know how dual cultivation works, right?”
Liu Qingge exhaled, then said through gritted teeth, “Shen. Qing. Qiu.” “All right, I’ll ask something else. Liu-shidi, right now… how do you feel?” Could he endure until they got back…? “Not good,” said Liu Qingge.
Of course not.
Even if he was Great Master Liu, being poisoned by the succubi’s natural, innate Mesmerizing Fragrance—or in other words, their aphrodisiac, was profoundly…not good!
Shen Qingqiu sprang to action. “Liu-shidi, do your best.
Shixiong has things to do and will be going on ahead!” Liu Qingge grabbed the back of his collar. “What do you mean ‘my best’?!” he snapped. “What do you mean ‘things’?!” Shen Qingqiu looked back and jerked in shock. If Liu Qingge’s face had only been a soft red a moment ago, like the clouds at sunrise, now it was like the clouds above a fiery blaze, flooded with a terrifying crimson as the veins in his neck began to bulge. “Don’t be rash!” he said hurriedly. “Liu-shidi, calm down!
You sit here. Shixiong will go free the young masters, thenreturn and find you. Rest easy, I absolutely won’t be back for a while, so you can do whatever you want. No one else will know.”
With that, he turned on his heel and tried to leave, but Liu Qingge clasped his shoulder with a hand that felt more like a fine iron claw. “Why are you running?!” Motherfucker, he’s still at it! Liu-shidi, Peak Lord Liu, blood brother! I’m giving you the time and space you need to resolve your problem! Don’t tell me you can’t even take this kind of hint? Have you lived all your years doing nothing? Did your core consume your brain?! “Even if Shixiong stayed, he would be useless,” said Shen Qingqiu.
Liu Qingge laughed coldly. “Let me beat you up. Help me vent. That’ll be plenty useful!” This wasn’t a problem that beating him up would solve. “Shidi, why are you so irritable? If you go on like this, the succubus poison will take over your mind.” Liu Qingge’s handsome face was splotched with red and white; it seemed like he’d been worked up into true distress, but he had no idea what to do with it. He clung helplessly to Shen Qingqiu, simply unwilling to let go.
At the sight of him being so pitiful, Shen Qingqiu couldn’t help but think of how Bai Zhan Peak was a gang of thugs who knew only violence, and about how everyone there was obsessed with cultivating and fighting. Perhaps LiuQingge, who’d grown up with such traditions, really was mentally deficient with regard to this sort of thing and didn’t even know how to jerk off. A deep pang of sympathy struck him.
When it came to coaxing others, Shen Qingqiu was an expert. Unfazed, he said, “Liu-shidi, come, come. Do you remember how we first met?” As was to be expected, the original novel had never explained in detail how these two cannon fodder characters had become nemeses; Shen Qingqiu was only rambling as he tried to distract him.
Normally, you could never have so easily messed with Liu Qingge, but now he let himself be pulled along, barely managing to keep his focus in his confused daze. As they walked, he ground out, “I remember. I hit you at the Twelve Peaks’ sword trials terrace!” Silence.
So that’s how it was. It takes a good fight to forge a true friendship. Could it be that, at the time, Liu Qingge had found hitting Shen Qingqiu so enjoyable that he had asked for another round moments ago so he could vent?
Shen Qingqiu replied, “Oh,” and led him deeper into the cave before asking, “Did I manage to hit you back after?” Even while running a high fever, Liu Qingge remembered to let out a conceited humph. “Of course not.”Excellent. Shen Qingqiu placed a hand on his shoulder and patted it. “Then today, Liu-shidi, Shixiong shall get his due.”
And then— He kicked Liu Qingge into Madam Meiyin’s rose petal-filled bathing pool.
Water splashed nearly six feet up. Even though Shen Qingqiu had the foresight to cover his face with his fan, icy coldness managed to splash all over his head.
A soak at this temperature would assuredly cure Liu Qingge. Shen Qingqiu got down on one knee, half-kneeling at the poolside, and said gingerly, “Liu-shidi, how are you now?
How do you feel?” A long time passed without any response. Ever since Liu Qingge had sunk beneath the surface, not even a string of air bubbles had appeared.
Does he not know how to swim? Shen Qingqiu wondered. That didn’t seem right. Then had he passed out from the fever? Had Shen Qingqiu managed not to kill Liu Qingge back in the Ling Xi Caves only to drown him here instead?
The more he thought about it, the more likely this seemed. Shen Qingqiu hurried closer. “Liu-shidi? Liu-shidi!” Red rose petals covered the entirety of the water’s surface; he couldn’t see beneath them clearly and could onlycontinue to approach. Suddenly, something seized his ankle and a hand dragged him into the pool.
Abruptly submerged and slammed in all directions by the icy churn of water, Shen Qingqiu’s face almost turned blue from the cold. With great difficulty, he managed to grab onto the poolside before turning his head to see Liu Qingge, soaking wet and floating behind him with a deadpan expression. There were even a couple of rose petals in his hair.
“Liu-shidi, that was wrong of you,” said Shen Qingqiu. “Shixiong submerged you to remove the Mesmerizing Fragrance; how could you retaliate like that?” “You asked me how I felt, didn’t you?” asked Liu Qingge. “However you feel right now, that’s how I felt.” His thinking was clear; his counterattack had strength.
Seemed like he was fine now.