Legend of Fu Yao

Meng Fuyao swung left and right, desperately staring into Zhan Beiye’s eyes as though she was concerned that her brother was deranged, when in fact she was glaring daggers at Zhan Beiye to warn him — I dare you to act up now.

Her head blocked Zhan Beiye’s sharp gaze. The soldier, originally filled with suspicion, revealed a moment of realization after hearing her words. That dangerous, bone-chilling and murderous gaze that sent pricks and cold sweat down his back were merely the gaze of a madman.

‘A madman’s gaze… indeed, it is this abnormal.’

Looking at Zhan Beiye in disdain, the soldier casually waved his spear and commented with a tone of contempt, “Which crazy woman gave birth to this madman and even let him roam about, being a disgrace? Scram!”

Zhan Beiye trembled slightly.

Meng Fuyao’s gaze turned cold.

As the two returned to normal, Meng Fuyao held Zhan Beiye’s hand and obediently went over. “Yes yes…” she thanked the soldier humbly as she bowed.

Meng Fuyao was hunched over, with a devilish smile, and she suddenly cried out in surprise. She stepped forward and picked up something from the ground. As she wiped the item with the corner of her sleeve, she mumbled, “… What is this?”

The soldier absent-mindedly glanced over and was momentarily stumped for words.

It was a huge pearl. Even though it was covered in dirt, one could still see its iridescence, as the glistening pearl peaked through the dirt. The pearl was akin to the beautiful eyes of a cat.

It was a high-grade jewel with the worth of a thousand pieces of gold.

Meng Fuyao stared at the pearl blankly and mumbled, “This stone looks so weird,” as she stretched her hand out and showed the soldier. “Sir, did you drop this?”

She raised her hand, and under the sunlight, the pure white pearl sparkled beautifully in her palms. The mesmerized soldier’s breath hastened.

He hesitated for a moment before slowly stretching his hand out to take the pearl. “Yes, thanks for spotting it,” said the soldier calmly.

Meng Fuyao chuckled cheerfully, “My pleasure, my pleasure.”

“You may leave.” The soldier gripped the pearl tightly in his hands and waved.

He initially wanted to conduct a body search on these two, but now with this pearl in the palm of his hands… this one pearl is worth three years of his pay.

Zhan Beiye supported Meng Fuyao as she limped over the city gates.

The gaze of the two changed almost immediately as they crossed the city gates.

Meng Fuyao laughed, slyly and sinisterly, with a hint of murderous aura.

On the other hand, Zhan Beiye remained silent as he looked at Meng Fuyao. “I’m sorry… I’m always letting you suffer.” He apologized after a moment of silence.

Meng Fuyao laughed, “Insults from such lowly people amount to nothing. Only when it is a matter of life and death, we cannot be humiliated.”

She fluttered her eyelashes with a self-satisfied smile and said, “Furthermore, I’ve given him a heavy punishment.”

“What poison was on that pearl?” asked Zhan Beiye.

“Zong Yue gave me three types of medicine: one causes death, one physically disables, and one mentally disables.” She waggled her eyebrows. “I initially didn’t want to make a fuss out of this but he was already starting to be suspicious, and for your safety, I could not take this lightly. Actually, I had already given him a chance. I put some poison under his horse, and if it was not for his greedy nature, he would be dumb at most… but since he wanted to take the pearl, he brought death upon himself… hehe.”

Zhan Beiye looked at her gently, “Fuyao, you are still very kind.”

“I am kind by nature, evil by nurture.” Meng Fuyao grinned, pulling Zhan Beiye’s sleeve as she ran towards a restaurant. “Treat me to dinner!” she shouted.

Zhan Beiye looked up and saw the two rows of shops lined up along a wide, long street. Various colors of signs filled up the streets.

One particular red sign with the words “Drunkard’s return” caught Zhan Beiye’s eyes. He pointed towards the sign and told Fuyao, “Let’s go, this is a good drinking spot.”

The wine from “Drunkard’s return” was good as expected. The aroma of the wine hit their noses the moment they stepped into the restaurant. And just as the name of the restaurant suggested, many returned to the restaurant the way a drunkard would — supporting themselves with the walls due to hunger — and returning home the way a drunkard would, because they were really drunk.

Zhan Beiye generously ordered a whole table of food, and with one leg up on the chair, the glutton Meng chewed loudly as she devoured the food. At the same time, she joined in the discussion on ‘wanted criminals’ with the rest of the customers. Prince Lie’s portrait would definitely not be in the wanted notice board in the restaurant, but Ji Yu’s portrait was. She pointed at the portrait and shouted, “Ay, that person looks very familiar.”

That statement turned heads from the crowd.

Meng Fuyao dragged Zhan Beiye over and said, “Like my brother!”

“Chey—” This anti-climatic continuation made heads turn back.

Meng Fuyao, satisfied, went back to drink as she giggled. She casually placed a cup of wine under the table, and as she drank openly, Lord Yuan Bao drank sneakily under the table.

Lord Yuan Bao slept for a couple of days and finally regained his energy. He gulped down the wine and sighed with happiness. The only thing good about following Fuyao would be that it could drink as much as it wanted, unlike following its owner where it could not drink more than three cups.

In no time, both the guinea pig and the human got drunk.

As they drank, Zhan Beiye drank very little as he attentively refilled Meng Fuyao’s bowl with food and poured her wine.

Incidents happened in between when a man played the finger-guessing game with another man and lost painfully. The man who lost slammed the table and yelled, “I don’t have money today! Go to Ximen Hu where the fresh flowers are to collect the money tomorrow evening, after that time I will not be entertaining you!”

The other man scolded, “How the hell would I know what time you will be coming?”

“I work at the Yao family, the one with 300 workers. There are three shifts, and when I am done with my shift I will head over!”

“I don’t have the free time to wait!”

“Forget it! I might be free in the late afternoon, wait for me there.”

“Fine!”

This conversation, or rather fight, amused the customers sitting around as they laughed and continued drinking.

As the two continued quarreling while making their way out, the door to a private room suddenly opened. An old man slowly walked out, hunched over, as the waiter supported him, “Eunuch Hua, please be careful.”

Eunuch Hua’s vision was blurred from overdrinking, and he babbled, “Why is it so dark outside? It’s hard to walk outside at night. Quick, go and pack some wine. My Qiu Er is still waiting for a drink in the West Courtyard.”

The waiter quickly went to fill up the wine. The old eunuch staggered, making his way to the door and accidentally tripped over Zhan Beiye’s outstretched leg. “Aiya”, he screamed as he fell, “Which bast*rd dares to trip your grandfather?!”

Zhan Beiye leaned forward to catch him as he apologized, “I’m sorry, please forgive me.”

The old eunuch held onto Zhan Beiye’s hand, pulling himself up with much difficulty. Squinting, he grabbed Zhan Beiye’s sleeve and with a trembling voice, said, “Just an apology? My old brittle bones are going to fall apart from this fall, and you are just going to apologize? Say, how else are you going to show your sincerity?”

The crowd snickered as they listened — this old drunkard came here, got drunk, and fell every day. And almost every single time, someone tripped this “brittle bones” and ended up compensating him. This old eunuch most probably relied on the compensation to be able to afford drinking such good wine every day.

Looks of pity came from the surrounding customers — another victim!

This drunk eunuch grabbed onto Zhan Beiye and refused to let go. Helpless, Zhan Beiye searched his pockets and finally managed to dig out a silver coin and hesitantly placed in Eunuch Hua’s palm. “Here, for you to visit the doctor,” said Zhan Beiye.

The drunk eunuch weighed the silver in his palm and used his almost toothless mouth to bite the silver. “I’m going easy on you,” the eunuch sneered as he threw the silver Zhan Beiye just compensated him into the waiter’s hands, “Your tip,”

“Thank you!” The waiter beamed as he held the silver in his hands.

A uniformed “tsk” came from the crowd in disapproval as they found this old eunuch evil for extorting a broke person just for the fun of it.

After another few rounds of drinking, the sky darkened outside, and the waiter came to ask the two if they were planning to stay the night.

“Two… no, one room” he replied as he saw the surprised look on the waiter’s face.

He half-dragged, half carried the drunk Fuyao to the inn in the courtyard as he explained, “Everything about this brother of mine is good, it’s just that he really likes to drink.”

“That’s tough on you, would you like me to help you carry him?” The waiter offered.

“No, it’s alright,” Zhan Beiye smiled as he threw Fuyao over his shoulder, “It’s more convenient this way.”

He carried Meng Fuyao into the room, kicked the door shut, and ordered, “Bring a pail of water for washing!”

“Yes, sir!”

Zhan Beiye threw Meng Fuyao that was sleeping like a pig on the bed. She rolled around and hugged the blanket, murmuring, “Yuan Bao… why are you so big…”

Lord Yuan Bao rolled out, hugging the teacup, “Chichi, chichichi…”

A rough translation would be, “Meng Fuyao, why is your waist as fat as your butt…”

Zhan Beiye stood beside the bed and looked at Meng Fuyao for a while. Afterward, he sat down, took out her shoes for her, took off the mask and unfolded the blanket to cover her up with.

He was so serious, so slow and so careful when carrying out this series of actions, as though there would be no next time.

As the mask came off, the young lady’s breath relaxed and sweat droplets formed at the sides of her face. A slight flush appeared on her cheeks and forehead in contrast to her snow-like skin, like a hibiscus flower blooming beautifully in the snow.

A breeze entered the room, running through the young lady’s silk-like hair.

Zhan Beiye’s finger stopped right beside her cheek as he trembled that ever slightly.

The tip of his finger could feel the miraculously warm and gentle sensation. Looking at this stunning beauty, from his fingertips to his heart, he trembled with slight pain. It was as though Heaven’s Will had stopped him from touching her. The pain that stopped him lingered in his heart.