Chapter 14: Love and Abandon
Fu Yunzhi had a dream. In the dream, he had become Xuanyuan Aolong, and Qi Xiao was Little Rose.
Qi Xiao took off his clothes, and rose petals fell out with a bling bling bling.
Qi Xiao flexed his pecs and six-pack abs and said in a delicate voice, “Yunzhi, come and fill my empty heart~”
“!”
Fu Yunzhi woke with a start. After he came to his senses, his whole body was covered in goosebumps, and he felt an urge to vomit, even though it was early in the morning…
What kind of terrible dream was that…
Fu Yunzhi subconsciously looked for Qi Xiao and saw that he had already left. Shrugging, he decided to go back to his manor to get his luggage and then set off for Yinshui City.
When he went downstairs, however, he saw Qi Xiao eating breakfast. The table was laden with all sorts of delicacies—crab roe buns, soup dumplings, shrimp dumplings… all the famous breakfast items from the Chen family.
Two other people were sitting beside Qi Xiao.
Qi Shaoling was silently chewing on a shrimp dumpling, while Duanmu Ling was enthusiastically waving at him. “Master Fu! Over here, over here!”
What is going on…
After Fu Yunzhi sat down, Qi Xiao, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, took out a bundle and handed it to him. “Here, I went to the Fu manor this morning and got your luggage for you.”
Fu Yunzhi glanced around and saw that the other three also had luggage beside them. It was as if everyone had one.
“Where… are you all going?”
“To Yinshui City with you, of course,” Qi Xiao said.
As if afraid Fu Yunzhi would get angry, he quickly explained, “Shaofeng is Shaoling’s older brother. They haven’t seen each other in years, so Shaoling wants to visit him. As for me, I’m on official business…”
With that, Qi Xiao took a piece of paper from his sleeve. “See, this is a letter of appointment from the Emperor, ordering me to go to Yinshui City to supervise the construction of a temple.”
Fu Yunzhi: “…”
The General of the South personally supervising the work. I can only imagine how “flattered” the local officials and foremen of Yinshui City will be.
Duanmu Ling silently lit a candle for Qi Xiao in his heart. He had actually found someone more pitiful than himself. No wonder he always felt a strange sense of camaraderie with Qi Xiao.
After the four of them finished breakfast, Qi Xiao bought a carriage, and he and Qi Shaoling took turns driving, heading towards Yinshui City.
Since Qi Shaoling and Qi Xiao had to drive, only Duanmu Ling and Fu Yunzhi were left in the carriage.
Fu Yunzhi’s original plan was to travel to Yinshui City alone, peacefully and leisurely. Who would have thought that now there were four of them? A crowd was one thing, but to have a particularly, particularly noisy person in the same small space with him…
“Master Fu… Ai, that’s too formal. I’ll just call you Yunzhi.”
“Yunzhi, what do you think of General Qi?”
“Have you been to Yinshui City before? What kind of place is it?”
Listening to Duanmu Ling’s incessant voice and laughter from inside the carriage, Qi Xiao couldn’t help but give Qi Shaoling a sympathetic look.
He’s pretty, but why is he so… “lively.”
But then again, Qi Xiao thought, it wasn’t easy to be that self-entertaining. He must have been terribly bored by Shaoling’s habit of cherishing his words like gold.
Seeing Qi Xiao’s gaze shifting between him and Duanmu Ling, Qi Shaoling said seriously, “If I told you that there is no romantic relationship between him and me, would you believe it?”
“Heh heh.”
“…”
Yinshui City was by the sea. Here, the men made a living by going out to sea and building boats, while the women wove fishing nets and made handicrafts from seashells. The items at the upcoming auction were also mostly treasures salvaged from the sea.
As they approached Yinshui City, they could hear the sound of waves crashing against the shore. Most of the stalls along the street sold seafood, making the fishy smell in the air even stronger. The houses here were simple, with no extra furniture, but every household had fishing nets and bamboo baskets drying in their courtyards.
“Shaofeng said in his letter that he would be waiting for us at the Sea Breeze Inn,” Fu Yunzhi said.
Qi Xiao looked around. “We don’t know where the Sea Breeze Inn is. Let’s look for it as we walk around.”
Yinshui City had very few shops, but stalls were as numerous as ox hairs. Most of them sold handicrafts and seafood, with a few selling fruits and vegetables at prices that could rival the gold and silver jewelry in the capital.
Duanmu Ling sighed. “It seems we won’t be eating any fresh vegetables for a while.”
The cries of vendors rose and fell on both sides of the street, selling fish and shrimp, octopus, seaweed, and…
“Come on, come on, sea monster right here! Freshly fried to order! Eat it to ward off disaster, eat it and the Sea God will bless you, good fortune will come your way!”
Sea monster?
Seeing the vendor shouting so wildly, the group curiously approached the stall.
When the owner saw someone coming, he yelled even more enthusiastically, “Aiyo, you must be from out of town, right? Then you absolutely cannot miss Yinshui’s specialty! This is an extremely rare sea monster, something you only see once every few years! I bet you can only eat sea monster in Yinshui in the entire Langxuan Kingdom!”
Fu Yunzhi leaned in for a closer look. He thought he would see some kind of sea monster, but it was just slices of dark gray raw meat.
He shook his head. “It’s too fishy.”
Although Fu Yunzhi wasn’t interested, Duanmu Ling was clearly eager to try.
“Shaoling, I want to eat it!”
Qi Shaoling: “…”
If you want to eat it, then eat it. What does it have to do with me?
Duanmu Ling said pitifully, “I don’t have any silver.”
Qi Shaoling handed his purse to Duanmu Ling. “Take this. Buy whatever you want to eat.”
Qi Shaoling’s intention was actually to avoid having to repeat the strange and easily misunderstood conversation with Duanmu Ling every time he wanted to eat something. However, it clearly backfired…
Seeing Fu Yunzhi and Qi Xiao looking at him with the admiring gaze one would give a model husband, Qi Shaoling found that he had actually come to terms with it, despaired of it, and no longer wanted to offer any unnecessary explanations.
Qi Xiao sighed. “It was really the right decision to come out with you and Young Master Duanmu. I feel like I’ve gotten so much material…”
Qi Shaoling gritted his teeth. “You’re dead if you dare to write us into your storybooks.”
Qi Xiao shrugged. “Mm-hm, I won’t, I won’t.”
Qi Shaoling: “…”
After Duanmu Ling paid, the owner took a piece of raw meat and threw it into the hot oil to fry.
After it was cooked, the fragrant aroma of the sea monster meat filled the air, tempting even Fu Yunzhi, who had found it too fishy, to buy a piece to try.
“Delicious! It’s so fragrant!” Duanmu Ling took a bite and was full of praise.
The owner said cheerfully, “Young master, if you like this flavor, there’s a stall opened by a friend of mine just around the corner. They sell mermaid meat there. You’re from the big city, so you must have heard the legend of mermaids, right? Eating it can grant you immortality!”
Fu Yunzhi whispered, “I can still believe the sea monster, since I’ve never tasted anything like it before. But mermaid meat, that’s absolutely impossible.”
“It’s precisely because I know it’s impossible that I have to go see what kind of trick the owner selling mermaid meat is pulling!” Duanmu Ling said.
With that, he rushed off in a flurry to find the mermaid meat.
Qi Xiao turned to Qi Shaoling. “Aren’t you going to follow him?”
Qi Shaoling shook his head. “His martial arts are no weaker than yours or mine.”
It’s not about martial arts. Could he be assassinated just walking down the street? Qi Xiao was puzzled. According to his calculations, shouldn’t Qi Shaoling and Duanmu Ling be in the honeymoon phase of their new relationship, the kind where they had to be stuck together twenty-four seven? He really couldn’t figure it out.
Seeing that Qi Shaoling wasn’t concerned, Fu Yunzhi said, “Then let’s continue looking for the Sea Breeze Inn.”
Meanwhile, Duanmu Ling searched around and finally found a stall with a sign that read “Mermaid Meat.”
“Come on, come on, mermaid meat, mermaid meat! Five taels a slice, ten taels a bag!”
It really didn’t sound very convincing…
Just as Duanmu Ling was about to approach for a closer look, someone bumped into his left shoulder.
He had been a thief, after all, so he was extremely sensitive to such things. He subconsciously glanced at his waist. Sure enough, his purse was gone.
Furious, Duanmu Ling chased after the person who had bumped into him, shouting, “Stop, thief! Stop, thief!”
The street was crowded, making it difficult for him to catch the pickpocket. Just as he was about to use his lightness skill to leap onto the rooftops, he saw the pickpocket being subdued by a man and handed over to the patrolling officers.
The man was dressed in white, tall and handsome, with a strange smile playing on his lips.
“Little brother, is this your purse?” the man asked, holding it out to Duanmu Ling.
Duanmu Ling quickly thanked him and reached out to take it, but the man said, “Huh?” and pulled his hand back.
He examined the purse carefully and saw that the character “Ling” was embroidered on it.
“Little brother,” the man asked, “do you happen to know someone named Qi Shaoling?”
Duanmu Ling was startled and quickly said, “No.”
He had long heard that as an inspector, Qi Shaoling had offended many people. Last time, he had saved him from the leader of some One-Eyed Dragon Gang. He never expected to run into an enemy in this remote Yinshui City!
The man smiled gently. “No need to be afraid. I was the one who embroidered this character on the purse for him.”
Duanmu Ling’s mind exploded.
Could this… could this be an old flame?!
He immediately puffed out his chest and said in a firm voice, “Shaoling and I share a bed.”
He had been a thief, after all. His ability to lie with a straight face was second to none.
The man was surprised. “Aiyo, what a coincidence! Me too! Shaoling even wrote me a letter, saying he was coming to find me to catch up.”
Duanmu Ling: “…”
Just as they were speaking, Qi Shaoling and the others approached.
Qi Xiao shouted from a distance, “We heard you yelling for a thief! What happened? Are you okay?”
Duanmu Ling immediately spun around and threw himself into Qi Shaoling’s arms, howling like a wolf. “Qi Shaoling, you heartless man! You love and abandon, you have no shame! You flirt around, you have no shame! You cast aside the old for the new, you have no shame!”
“Whoa,” Qi Xiao said. He goes out to buy some meat, and comes back to being loved and abandoned? Is there a drama about to unfold that I can watch?
Seeing Qi Xiao eagerly take out his little notebook to take notes, Fu Yunzhi was immediately reminded of that book, The Evil Prince’s Dainty Little Male Wife.
Fu Yunzhi: “…”
Qi Shaoling, on the other hand, was completely bewildered by the shouting. Setting aside whether he had been flirting around, he hadn’t even “loved” anyone, so where did the “abandon” come from?!
Fu Yunzhi’s head was starting to ache from the noise. He said sharply, “Calm down and tell us who Inspector Qi was seducing.”
Qi Shaoling was speechless. Don’t just throw around words like “seducing.”
Duanmu Ling, with a pained expression, pointed at the man. “It’s him! He said he and Shaoling share a bed.”
Everyone had been so startled by Duanmu Ling’s howling that they had only just now noticed the man.
When Fu Yunzhi saw the man’s face, he fell silent.
“Pfft—” The man finally couldn’t hold it in anymore and burst out laughing.
“Shaoling, why is your wife so cute!”
Qi Xiao said helplessly, “Shaofeng, can’t you change that bad habit of yours? These kinds of pranks aren’t funny.”
Duanmu Ling: “…”
That’s… Shaoling’s older brother?
Seeing Duanmu Ling’s face turn from white to red, then from red to black, Qi Shaofeng said, “I wasn’t lying, you know. Shaoling and I really did share a bed when we were little.”
Qi Shaoling said helplessly, “Can you let go of me now?”
You’re strangling me…
Duanmu Ling awkwardly released his grip, feeling that this was definitely the most embarrassing moment of his life!
How can Qi Shaoling’s brother be so different from him! Both in personality and looks. It’s no wonder I made a mistake…
Qi Shaofeng smiled. “Come on, I’ll take you to the Sea Breeze Inn and welcome you.”
