Estranged - Chapter 111

Upon hearing the question, the dog woke up immediately.

After so many days, his damned shifu had finally realized that something was amiss.

The dog no longer felt dizzy and did not need the quilt anymore. He struggled to sober up completely, and started blaming Yun Weisi for everything he had ever done.

Listen—

I should start with the year when I rebelled against your sect.

Yun Weisi was duplicitous and scheming. He didn’t want you to accept more disciples, so any time he had a chance, he’d tell you that I was not gifted enough, that I was the so-called “ant hole that would eventually lead to any solid dam crumbling down”. Eventually, you started thinking badly of me and kicked me out of your sect. Yun Weisi used this treacherous scheme to cut you off from the others, which led to you reaching your current state in the end. Everything is his fault!

An ant hole would eventually lead to a solid dumb crumbling down: a small leak will sink a great ship: a bad apple should be discarded of

That’s not all! He seemed like he respected you on the surface, but in truth, he was deliberately planning to combine his efforts with the other sects to isolate and eliminate you. That’s how you were defeated on the Sacred Mountain Wan. Wounded, you wandered through the Yellow Springs half-dead for fifty years, but he refused to let you go even after you miraculously escaped your death! He used your trust to send you to the Wanlian Buddhist Temple and the Wanjian Immortal Clan, and because of this, you’re now suffering this much. It’s his fault all around!

Hey, are you listening to me!

Jiufang Changming, you blasted son of a bitch, I order you to listen!

“Bark! Hoowl!”

The dog had been barking for half a day in its unintelligible dog language, yet that damn shifu and the one surnamed Yun did not understand him at all.

“Shixiong, what’s wrong with him?”

“Perhaps he’s hungry.”

“You said he was my disciple. Has he always been like this?”

“He was very moody and used to cut down the people he disliked like weeds. He even called his own sect ‘Jianxue’ from ‘swear to fight till you see them bleed’. Large and small sects around this clan were overturned and destroyed if they didn’t obey him. His sect was a Demonic clan, and people from Demonic sects always follow their desires with no regard for their karma. He was like this too.”

Jianxue: see blood

The dog was unable to suppress its rage. He thought that Yun Weisi was again using the chance to slander him. But he could not speak human language, so after some time, his energy started to fade away. The roars his small body had been making turned into cute and delicate whining that would not even reach the room next door.

He felt a little helpless. He recalled his past self who had been the magnificent founder of the Jianxue Clan, who could look down on the world and whose single word weighed more than nine tripods. At the very least, no one had ever dared to act insolently in his presence.

Single word weighed more than nine tripods: influential

Yet now…

The dog licked the tip of its nose, whined a bit, and felt that its eyelids had gotten heavier. Its eyes closed, and the dog fell on the bed unconscious.

The two of them had not taken the dog’s incoherent barking seriously.

“Why are you asking this?” Yun Weisi repeated his question.

He had reached the conclusion that he had not accidentally revealed any information in front of Changming. All his mood swings had settled after so many years, and he was akin to the still waters of a lake, unperturbed by what was going on.

Only the one word, shixiong, had been his selfish desire to make the two of them closer.

“You’re always worried, as if you have a lot you wish to tell me, but I’ve forgotten everything, so you prefer to keep silent.”

Changming was sitting cross-legged on the bed, just like how he used to sit when giving his disciples sermons on the Dao.

What was different was his gaze. He was looking up at Yun Weisi who was standing next to the bed, and his expression was not an unfathomable one, but full of doubt and concern.

However, in Yun Weisi’s eyes, regardless of whether he was keenly mapping out a strategy, or he had a naive and perplexed look in his eyes, this was still the one and only Jiufang Changming. 

“But I don’t dislike you at all. In my heart, I’ve always felt that we’re close. I’ve been thinking, could it be that you’re not my shixiong?”

Has he guessed it?

Yun Weisi was not surprised.

His shizun was clever, so it was only a matter of time.

Originally, he wanted to abolish the distance between them by changing their relationship in the eyes of Jiufang Changming who had lost his memories. Nevertheless in the end, he had failed to achieve anything.

Yun Weisi was slightly disappointed, but not very sad. After thousands of failures, he had gotten used to losing hope.

It was not that he had not thought of taking the initiative to achieve what he wanted. However, his shizun would recover his memories sooner or later, and the two of them could reach the point of no return.

This person, Jiufang Changming, could eat soft food, but did not accept hard food. Yun Weisi could only plan his actions carefully and let the water boil itself.

Could eat soft food, but did not accept hard food: respond to persuasion but not to force

“Were we daoist partners?”

Yun Weisi heard Jiufang Changming ask such a question.

Yun Weisi: …

Were we or were we not?

Of course, Yun Weisi wanted to say that they were.

However, Jiufang Changming was likely to bring up old grudges in the future, before turning against him and never coming into contact with Yun Weisi again.

Knowing how heartless and ruthless his shizun was, Changming could just leave hastily in anger, and from this moment, the boundless Sky and the Yellow Springs would be void of Jiufang Changming for Yun Weisi.

The boundless Sky and the Yellow Springs: a line from a poem

However, if he answered that they were not—

It was an excellent opportunity, how could Daozun Yun miss it?

He neither denied, nor agreed with this guess, and only looked at Changming silently.

As if he could not put it into words, or could not find the right ones. Silence was worth more than speech.

“Shixiong?”

Yun Weisi’s silence was already an explanation, but Changming still needed a definite reply.

“I don’t want to influence your memory in any way or deceive you by letting you create false impressions. I will only say that you can trust me.”

Yun Weisi knelt on one of his knees and put his hand on Changming’s knee.

Now, he was looking up at Jiufang Changming.

“I won’t betray you. I want to follow you in the future, and I will give up my life to keep the promise I made to you.”

Changming was a bit dazzled.

In the depths of his heart, he seemed to see a person from his distant memories who was kneeling before him just like this, leaning on a sword, touching his knee and looking up at him with admiration.

Changming did not remember what that person had said, or what he himself had answered. However, the silhouette from his memories clearly overlapped with the man before his eyes, as if mirror images of each other.

“I understand. I won’t ask again,” Changming smiled lightly. “Let’s wait till I remember everything.”

But he was already certain about their relationship. He patted the bed near him.

“Shixiong, rest on the bed. Since there’s enough space, we won’t disturb each other.”

Yun Weisi knew Changming had misunderstood something, but he not only tacitly approved it, he also did not try to correct Changming’s thinking. He silently took off his shoes and got on the couch.

The dog that was in a daze from feeling sleepy was abruptly woken up by the new aura. When it saw its sworn enemy get so close, its hair stood up, and it almost jumped up on its feet again.

He always knew that this bastard had a wolfish nature, yet now it turned out that he would not spare even his own shizun. He would even disregard proper human relationships and was utterly devoid of conscience!

This won’t do! While it was not too late, he had to disclose Yun’s conspiratorial activities, and let Jiufang Changming see his true nature.

He had to…

Staggering, the dog came between the two of them. Changming rubbed the dog’s neck, and it closed its eyes from the comfort, lying down on the bed.

What was he going to do just now?

The dog frowned, looking painstakingly for an answer, yet it had subconsciously turned around to let that slender, beautiful hand pat its belly.

Why did Changming not let him simply die in the beginning? His souls would have scattered away, and everything would have ended at once. Yet, for some reason, Changming let him take over another body, retaining his memories, and the magnificent leader of a Demonic sect, the master of the Jianxue Clan, had turned into a dog. All day long, he was either dozing off, or drooling over food. He was extremely angry. His teeth sank into Changming’s hand. He did his best, but his bite did not even manage to break Changming’s skin. Quickly, another hand moved his chin aside, and stuffed something into his mouth.

The perfectly satisfied dog fell asleep while chewing on the quilt.

But he was soon woken up again.

Ah!!!!!!

A shriek broke the silence of the cold night.

It was shrill, painful, and prolonged. Perhaps, most people in the town heard it.

Two people woke up before the dog did.

Just as Changming was going to get up, Yun Weisi’s hand landed on his shoulder.

“Don’t move. I sense ghost qi.”

The moonless and starless night was dark, and only the flame of an almost burnt candle was vaguely outlining their silhouettes.

The two were sitting close to each other, and Yun Weisi’s hot breath lingered on Changming’s ears.

Changming felt that strange sense of deja vu again.

Changming thought, Even if we weren’t Daoist partners, our relationship must have been extremely intimate.

This was because not only was he not averse to this, he even thought that if Yun Weisi decided to kill him right now, Changming probably would not resist.

It was as if the both of them had been through countless mortal perils together and. had spent years in each other’s company. Not only that, it felt like they had always moved forward together fearlessly, and were never without each other’s company.

“Changming.”

The low voice whispered his name. It sounded ambiguously tender.

Changming hummed in response. He had also felt the trace of ghost qi.

It had stealthily slipped in through the window and quickly disappeared.

However, the shriek they had heard definitely sounded from far away, and had nothing to do with this ghost qi.

Everyone had been woken up by the scream. The guest house had been lit up with lanterns, and they could hear the rustling of people putting on clothes. Many people complained and were asking what had happened. At this time, no one was lamenting about the noise, and people had started to gather in the main hall of the front yard. People were looking around in amazement, trying to understand what had happened.

The hour of yin was nearing. Generally speaking, those who used to get up early should be heading out at this time, but the sky was pitch-black, and the blizzard had not stopped. A worker of the guest house had opened the door slightly. In a flash, harsh gales of ice and snow had flown inside the hall, and the people shouted at the worker to close the door immediately.

The hour of yin: 3 a.m. — 5 a.m.

The lanterns were lit. The sound of horsemen racing towards the inn came from outside. Some busybodies quietly slipped out to take a look, and soon returned to gossip with everyone in the hall.

“Have you seen it? There’s blood outside! The bloodstains are very long, as if a body was dragged somewhere! So terrifying!”

“Could it be that the person on that horse was dragging it?”

“Nonsense! The horsemen were our constables. I think that someone was killed again. Ai, stop talking about this, really! The blood will soon be covered with snow. Why is something like this always happening in Hongluo Town? Maybe it’s time to call it Hongxue Town!”

Hongxue Town: hongluo — “red radish” — carrot; hongxue — “red blood”

“Touch wood! Don’t be a crow’s beak!”

Crow’s beak: to jinx

“Enough! Look at the sky—we can’t leave today either. The snow is so deep that the carriages will simply sink in it!”

The crowd was talking all at once, heaving deep sighs. Some people refused to believe they had such bad luck, and left the guest house to check it personally.

However, under the dark sky, two large lanterns in front of the inn had vaguely lit the messy tracks of horse hooves in the middle of the street.

A conspicuous bloodstain stretched across the surface of the snow. The trace it had left was deep. Although it had dried up, and freshly fallen snow had gathered on top of it, almost obscuring it, the bloodstain was still a ghastly sight.

Yun Weisi got up first and left their room to find out where the ghost qi was heading towards, but Changming did not follow him.

Because Changming had heard his newly accepted sword hum melodiously in his sea of consciousness.

This clanging sound seemed both like a warning and like a reaction.

In a split moment, when he felt the sense of upcoming danger, Changming abruptly looked in the direction of Old He’s yard!

This is bad!