Love from the Male Protagonist’s Harem - Chapter 38-2

Chapter 38-My Name Is Lei Feng Part 2

Translated by Snowfall77

Even if there was a next life, a person couldn’t know who’d they’d turn out to be or what they would and wouldn’t like.  In this life, you might like this one, but in the next, you might like that one.  Maybe you’d encounter the same soul, however your experiences would be different, making your thoughts and opinions different.  Therefore, your hates and your loves were highly unlikely to be the same as they had been.

That was why Xia Ge found all Ah Tang’s blithering about last messages and next lives a little ridiculous.

Xia Ge had never believed in past lives.

And she figured the afterlife was just losing your way in the present.

Ah Tang’s eyes bulged, watching the young man wielding a huge black sickle, black hair flying free, as he cut through the tangle of thorn and vine to get to her.

Bewildering images flashed through her mind, the last of a woman with a bone flute at her waist, lazily speaking.

“Isn’t believing in past lives and afterlives nothing more than a way of saying you’re lost your way in this life?  Instead of pinning your hopes on what isn’t real, isn’t it much better to live in the here and now?  Having wine and good food today, that’s the right path……”

Going from one side of the chamber to the other, cutting vines as she went, Xia Ge managed to find the golden dan where it’d accidently dropped on the floor amongst the thorny tangle.  A swing of the sickle, the flash of a short figure, and the dan was swept up—-

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh——

The sharp sickle blade did its work and the vines holding Ah Tang prisoner suddenly fell away.  No longer bound against the wall, the beauty fell like a red butterfly with broken wings, leaving a thick trail of blood on the stone!

Clang!

Piercing the wall right by Ah Tang’s ear, the speed of black sickle blade made the beauty’s black hair flutter.  Ah Tang gaped dumbfounded at the young man in black, sickle now over one shoulder.  The vines that had held Ah Tang dropped heavily to the floor, dissolving into ashes before disappearing completely.  Pulling Ah Tang up off the ground, the young man next carried Ah Tang on his back!

“Hold tight to me!”

Jade-like hands instinctively tightened around the young man’s thin shoulders.  The black clothes weren’t thick, but the fabric was still soft and somehow warm to Ah Tang’s touch.

This was……what it was like to be protected.

Something Ah Tang hadn’t experienced in a long time.

Ah Tang almost lost her senses for a moment.

Meanwhile, the night pearls were again radiating more dazzling light, blinding the eyes through the mass of vines, and where Xia Ge had cut down vines, new vines were bursting forth!

It was the night pearls, they were the problem!!

Shifting her sickle, Xia Ge kicked herself off the wall for momentum and flashed over to the entry of the next stone passage, setting Ah Tang down there: “Give me your hand.”

Ah Tang gave Xia Ge a questioning look, but obediently extended a hand.

The pale jade-like hand was like some exquisite masterpiece carved by the most eminent sculptor.

Trying not to stare, Xia Ge hastily placed the golden dan in the beauty’s palm: “So that it doesn’t get dropped again, please eat it quickly this time.”

Ah Tang grasped the dan, the sweet fragrance of it faintly detectable.

“You wait here,” Xia Ge told the beauty, before making to go back into the chamber.  Yet before she could, her hand was caught by Ah Tang’s.

The beauty’s hand was ice-cold to the touch.

Shuddering, Xia Ge shook the hand off without thinking, then was embarrassed by her reaction: “Sorry……I didn’t mean……”

A split-second gleam shot through Ah Tang’s gaze, but she shook her head, saying in a low voice: “……I was being presumptuous.  Thank you for saving this humble servant’s life just now.”

“No, no, please be safe and stay here a bit.”

“Young man, you’ve rescued me so hastily, aren’t you afraid of me being a wicked person?”  Ah Tang was seated on the ground, her posture graceful, and her red dress elegantly laid about her. While her face was pale, her eyes were bright, not an iota of her feminine charm lost.

But Xia Ge glanced towards the wildly spiraling vines viciously rushing towards the two of them.  Heart afraid, Xia Ge faced them, her sickle flashing as it sliced this way and that—–

Leaving Ah Tang to believe her question would go unanswered.

Crack—–

There came the clinking sounds of night pearls shattering, their blinding radiance began to fade as the young man’s shadow erratically flickered through the fractured light.  Without hesitation, Xia Ge was using her sickle to smash every night pearl in the chamber—–

“You have to stay alive first.”  The thorny vines were crumbling into ash as the night pearls were extinguished, and finally the young man landed steadily on his feet in front of Ah Tang, black hair floating, voice a little hoarse: “Only then can I know whether or not you’re a wicked person.”

Ah Tang said nothing.

The light from the stone chamber was gone, and the figure of the young man was dim against its darkness.  While the night pearls in the passageway shined gentle light on the beauty in red, illuming her like she was an immortal in a painting.

Sickle in one hand, Xia Ge walked up to Ah Tang and stretched out her other hand: “Now, can you get up?”

Ah Tang contemplated the hand offered her.

Kind of small, but white like warm jade in the soft light of the night pearls, and somehow indescribably tender.

——You have to stay alive—only then can I know whether or not you’re a wicked person.

This young man faced the possibility of unlimited regrets in the future, but he would not give himself a chance to regret in the present.

“Saving me, this young man will regret it later.”

Still not taking Xia Ge’s hand, Ah Tang laughed lowly before adding: “I will only be a burden to the young sir.”

Exasperated, Xia Ge rejoined: “Hello, ‘burden.’  I’m the one who chose to save you, and whether or not I’ll repent of it in the future is my business.  So I don’t know what you’re going on about.”

Ah Tang gave a small smile, splendid like a red lotus, endlessly charming and coquettish: “This young man is truly a kindhearted person.”

Xia Ge nodded: “Yeah, you’re right, I feel I am too.”

System: [……]

Ah Tang finally put her hand in Xia Ge’s proffered one.  The beauty’s five fingertips were stained with cinnabar, but the rest of her hand was white like lotus root, and under the soft light of the night pearls, the shape of it seemed even more slender and lovely, like a dream.

With a light squeeze, she wrapped her hand around Xia Ge’s.

Feeling that ice-cold grip, Xia Ge froze for a second, a chill running through her body.  It felt like the cool of a midsummer night had permeated her, yet Xia Ge found it oddly comfortable.

“The young man’s hand is a little small.”  The beauty smiled up at Xia Ge, her eyes and tone softly gracious, “But very warm.”

Xia Ge pulled Ah Tang up and carried the beauty on her back: “Warm, huh?  It’s probably sweaty……let’s stop talking……we gotta keep moving.”

System: [……]  Your hand is sweaty?!  Hey, is that how you’re supposed to talk to such a beauty?!!

But Ah Tang, tactfully ignoring such things, commented: “This young man is also very strong.”

Xia Ge: “Mmm, that’s just the way I was born, supernaturally strong.”

Born with innate divine strength?

Another gleam shot through Ah Tang’s eyes: “Oh……speaking of which, this humble servant doesn’t yet know the name of her benefactor.”

“”

“My name?”  Xia Ge kept walking, still bearing Ah Tang, “You needn’t be so formal about it, and no need to consider me your benefactor.  After all, your Master Ji is still waiting for you……but anyways, my name is Lei Feng.”

System: [……]

However, apparently hearing the words ‘Master Ji’ made the beauty despondent.  Her inflection turned rather mournful: “Thank you, Master Lei……but I don’t know if I’ll make it out of here alive.”

“What?  Of course you’re going to get outta here alive,” Xia Ge’s tone was offhand, “If we can’t find the way out, we can just chisel our way through.  We’ll make our own way out if that’s what we have to do.”

Ah Tang: “……I see.”

Attempting to be comforting, Xia Ge replied: “Nothing to worry about, after all you ate my golden dan, right?  You’re not going to be hungry for a whole year.  If I accidently croak, you take my sickle and keep hacking your way out.  All you have to remember is to keep going in one direction and eventually you’ll be able to get out.”

Ah Tang glanced down at the golden dan in her other hand, then silently tucked it in a sleeve.

Meanwhile, the system decided to be honest with Xia Ge: [Host, I Don’t Think She Was Comforted By Those Words.]

Xia Ge: “……stop talking shit.”