Chapter 189: I’m Tired, Just Let It All Be Destroyed

Yun Huizhou looked at him calmly, but his eyes betrayed a look that said, You understand.

Lian Li: “Holy shit! They’re really that shameless? I see it now—even after you refused, her Martial Uncle still tried to persuade you.”

Yun Huizhou nodded, indicating that was exactly how it went. “So, Grandmaster couldn’t take it anymore. He gave a very blunt and direct refusal, saying it wasn’t necessary. Then he hauled me back to the room and slammed the door shut.”

“And then?” Lian Li pressed. “Did something else happen after that?”

After all, looking at it from this perspective, Zhang Ning hadn’t really done much yet. It shouldn’t have been enough to make Yun Huizhou find her this annoying—and hadn’t he said she pestered him for two years?

“A lot happened afterward. Anyway, from that point on, they kept following us. Every single day, Zhang Ning would come by once to ask if I wanted to spar. Midway through, they even tried to interfere with the bounties I took, claiming they were ‘helping.’ But Grandmaster stopped them. We said some very blunt, unkind things back then, but they still didn’t give up. They just kept following us, though they stopped interfering with my missions,” Yun Huizhou said.

Lian Li even saw him roll his eyes. To actually make him roll his eyes—he must have been truly, deeply irritated.

Lian Li: “…They followed you for two years?”

It sounded like they had a lot of perseverance, but if you put yourself in the shoes of the person being followed, it was honestly just annoying. To have someone stick to you like a piece of gum even after being rejected…

“Yeah.” As if recalling those two years, Yun Huizhou’s brow furrowed again. He said, “It was truly exhausting. Her Martial Uncle wasn’t with her the whole time; they swapped out for other Martial Uncles midway through. And sometimes, after following us for a while, her Martial Uncles would leave and let her follow us on her own, certain that we wouldn’t completely ignore her.”

“Zhang Ning still asked to spar once every day. I refused many times, but it was like she couldn’t understand human speech. She was convinced that finding a suitable opponent to spar with was beneficial for both parties. She felt that sparring with me was for both my sake and hers, so she just kept pestering me.”

“I really… Unfortunately, we were both only twelve or thirteen at the time. Grandmaster was also extremely annoyed, but because she was just a child, it wasn’t easy for him to lose his temper with her. As for her Martial Uncles and their ilk, they appeared less and less frequently later on.”

“Thinking back on it now, I still feel so disgusted. Yet, she hadn’t actually done anything concrete, so I really… do you understand?”

At this point, Lian Li saw that Yun Huizhou was clearly starting to feel frantic.

He understood all too well how Yun Huizhou felt. If Zhang Ning and the people from Maple Leaf Valley had actually done something malicious, it would have been easy for him and Grandmaster to just strike; whether they ended up dead or injured would have been down to their own lack of skill.

But the other party stayed right on that line—it wasn’t enough to justify attacking them, but it was incredibly frustrating.

Yun Huizhou: “Later…”

“There’s more?” Lian Li asked in surprise.

Yun Huizhou nodded and said, “That’s right, there’s more.”

He continued, “Later, when the New Year approached, Grandmaster took me back to celebrate. Zhang Ning didn’t follow us back to Drunken Dream Island. The people from Maple Leaf Valley probably knew that doing so might truly enrage Grandmaster, so they took Zhang Ning away.”

“But just after the New Year ended, an Elder from Maple Leaf Valley brought Zhang Ning to visit. They said that during the half-month of the New Year, Zhang Ning had practiced martial arts very diligently at Maple Leaf Valley, and since they heard Zhang Ning had found a very suitable opponent, they specifically brought her to Drunken Dream Island to visit and spar with me…”

Lian Li: “I’m tired, just let it all be destroyed. Didn’t you say they were an orthodox sect? Why does it feel like they have no shame at all?”

“Ghost knows what they were thinking. They don’t pester anyone else, they just pester me. Aren’t Zhao Honglan and Miss Qu about the same as me? Why don’t they go find them? I’m truly fed up,” Yun Huizhou said, his tone carrying a hint of fire.

Lian Li quickly reached out to gently stroke his back to soothe his anger.

He felt his own blood boiling just listening to it, let alone Yun Huizhou, who had experienced it firsthand.

“After we returned, I told Martial Uncle Xi about this. Martial Uncle Xi was laughing at me at the time, saying that’s just how Maple Leaf Valley is—they don’t understand human speech. In the end, after the New Year, when that Elder brought Zhang Ning over, Grandmaster took me away directly to avoid seeing them. Martial Uncle Xi, however, went to meet them, and then he had a ‘good spar’ with that Elder.”

Yun Huizhou emphasized the words “good spar.”

Lian Li understood instantly. In all likelihood, Martial Uncle Xi had given the person a brutal beating. So he asked, “Was this Elder the one who doesn’t get along with Martial Uncle Xi?”

“No, that one probably wouldn’t dare to come. If he had, I think Martial Uncle Xi wouldn’t have just given him a beating; he likely would have killed him or crippled him directly,” Yun Huizhou said.

Lian Li let out an “oh,” sounding a bit disappointed.

His impression of Maple Leaf Valley was now extremely, extremely poor. He was even starting to regret that he had been too light on Zhou Yu when they fought, giving the other party too much dignity.

“Anyway, after that time, they quieted down for a while. Later, Master took me to the grasslands to catch a horse, but who would have thought we’d run into them again?” Yun Huizhou leaned against the back of the chair, speaking with a face full of exhaustion.

Lian Li: “…”

Is this really not some kind of cursed fate? Lian Li felt a bit panicked. Surely Zhang Ning didn’t actually end up having something with Yun Huizhou later in the original novel, right? Otherwise, how could they run into each other even after going all the way to the grasslands?

But… if that were the case, then the original author of this novel must have really hated Yun Huizhou.

“Did she still pester you?” Lian Li asked.

“Yeah.” Yun Huizhou nodded, then said through gritted teeth, “When I was catching Ice-Treader, Zhang Ning really ‘helped’ me out a few times.”

Lian Li clicked his tongue in annoyance and said, “Are they ever going to stop?”

Seeing him get this angry over his own affairs, Yun Huizhou actually felt less annoyed.

He hooked a strand of Lian Li’s hair and said, “It’s almost over.”

Lian Li tilted his chin up, signaling for him to continue.

Yun Huizhou went on, “Her goal was very obvious: she just wanted to spar with me. But I simply didn’t want to spar with her. You should understand what I mean—it was no longer about whether sparring would improve my martial arts; I just purely didn’t want to deal with her anymore.”

“So, to get me to pay attention to her, she harassed me while I was looking for and catching the horse. At the time, I was focused on tracking Ice-Treader’s herd and had no interest in dealing with her. I finally managed to lead Ice-Treader away from the herd and get him to lower his guard around me, but while I was out hunting, she tried to sneakily take Ice-Treader away.”

Hearing this, Lian Li could no longer hold back a curse, and for the first time, he directly insulted Zhang Ning: “Holy shit! Is she sick in the head? She doesn’t think she’s being ‘cute’ or ‘quirky’ or ‘attention-grabbing’ by doing this, does she?”

If things had reached this point and there was still a romance arc between Yun Huizhou and Zhang Ning in the original novel, it would truly only prove how much the original author hated Yun Huizhou.

He felt that based on the Yun Huizhou he was interacting with now, Yun Huizhou was a very normal person. Unless he suddenly became incredibly masochistic, it was impossible for him to suddenly fall for Zhang Ning.