A Seductive Gentleman Chapter 35

Chapter 35: The God of the Yellow River Takes a Wife – Part 5

Translated by: Ritpoppy

Huai Yu said, "When did you find out."

Ming ChangYan, "I found out when I jumped on the boat. If you don't experience this kind of thing yourself, you truly wouldn't be able to discover it. No wonder the people on the riverbank didn't sense anything wrong with it. If not for either a space or a mechanism in the middle, how would the water be able to flow towards the middle."

Huai Yu held out his hand and attempted to push open the two stone doors.

Ming ChangYan asked, "Why did you fall down as well?"

Huai Yu shined the fire at the stone doors and replied, "How come you ask so many why's."

Hearing this, Ming ChangYan's heart felt happy, saying, "Don't be embarrassed. You came down because you were worried about me, weren't you? Having you as a friend is pretty great, I didn't become friends with the wrong person."

Huai Yu's paused his hands, "I found the entrance."

The stone doors let out a thunderous sound as it gradually pushed opened.

Ming ChangYan said, "Something's wrong. How were you able to open the doors? If there is a way, how come it made such a loud sound?"

Huai Yu answered, "The stone doors don't have a key, you can only push it open."

Ming ChangYan was alarmed, "You just directly pushed it open?"

He was astonished, coming back to reality, he said, "So fierce, Little Huai Yu. This stone door weighs about a thousand pounds and you pushed it open simply because you said so. It seems that even if this place was to be discovered by someone, it didn't plan to allow an ordinary person to just casually push the door open. Frankly, this isn't something accomplishable by human standards. Of course, the old me would've been able to easily do this kind of thing."

Huai Yu was too tired to pay attention to him, continuing to move forward. Ming ChangYan caught up to him, "No matter how much I praise you, you won't talk to me. Hello? Huai Yu! Don't walk so fast, I'm short now so my steps are small. I'm disguising myself as a woman right now, so I should at least be considered half woman. If this is how you treat someone of the opposite gender, there won't be any lady out there who'd want to spend their days with you."

The torch's flames were still too small, as Huai Yu moved forwards, he could only see faintly in front of him. In front of them displayed a simple house. Ming ChangYan took the candle and used a finger to wipe at the table. He twirled his finger, "There's no dust, someone's been living here."

He laughed, "Tell me, who do you think would live here? Don't tell me that it's really He Bo? Then this He Bo must be very poor and sick at heart to live here where there's no daylight while wasting no time to take a wife!"

Huai Yu said, "Stop moving. There are voices ahead."

Ming ChangYan's footsteps stopped, sure enough, a soft sob could be heard.

Not doing what the other wanted, Ming ChangYan passed through the corridor at once towards where the sound was originating from. Unexpectedly he was only midway there when a machete came straight for his face. Ming ChangYan leaned to the side, the machete falling in front of him. If he had missed half a step, he would've lost his life.

Missing its target, the person gripping the machete lifted the blade to strike again. Ming ChangYan took out a long needle, colliding with the blade, producing a very sharp sound.

Ming ChangYan pushed the needle forwards while his right hand wrestled over the control of the blade. The machete made of pure silver was stopped by two of his fingers. The person exerts some force to try moving it, but the blade remained motionless. He simply abandoned the blade and used his bare arms to strike back. Ming ChangYan gently tossed the blade. It made a few revolutions in the air before he caught it in one hand and swung it down.

Huai Yu said, "Wait, keep him alive."

At his voice, he rapidly changed the direction of the blade to face the handle. Ming ChangYan scored a firm hit on his shoulder, which caused the person's whole body to shake before falling to the ground.

Ming ChangYan gave the person a few kicks, bringing the fire towards his face, he was able to barely see that this person was a middle-aged, bearded man. His hair was bound up with a black rope and was wearing three silver hoops on his ears.

He was flabbergasted, "You're from the HaiKou Gang?"

Huai Yu slightly rose his eyebrows.

Ming ChangYan pondered, "How can friends from the HaiKou Gang be here?"

The person asked, "Who are you?"

Ming ChangYan smiled, "Who I am isn't important. Let me ask you, where did you take that girl?"

This man's entire body was covered in a fishy stench due to the river, on his clothes, there were coils of water plants, clearly, someone who'd just came out of a river. The male silhouette that Ming ChangYan had seen earlier resembled the figure of this man. Therefore the person who took the bride away is more or less the man in front of him.

The person from the HaiKou Gang responded, "No comment!"

Ming ChangYan clutched his neck, forcing him to allow air out, but not in. His entire face turned red while his eye sockets were almost splitting.

He smiled, "I respect the Leader Yan of the HaiKou Gang as a strong and courageous person, someone who handles things straightforwardly and upright, so I'll be a little lenient. I hope this friend will be sensible not to idle my patience away. Where is she?"

All of a sudden the man closed his mouth shut. Huai Yu noticed that something was amiss and quickly pulled Ming ChangYan into his embrace. Just as expected, just moments later black poisonous fluid squirted out of his mouth. As it came into contact with the wall, the stone rotted until there was almost nothing left. Ming ChangYan was apprehensive, "Such a fierce poison."

Taking another look, the man on the floor's mouth was already rotting away, taking a final breath before dying.

"He actually killed himself."

Huai Yu said, "Suicide means that there's someone behind all of this. Moreover, this person is someone that absolutely cannot be named."

Ming ChangYan rubbed his chin, "Who is someone that absolutely cannot be named? He's wearing three ear hoops so he truly is a disciple of the HaiKou Gang. Besides Leader Yan behind his back, who else is there?"

Huai Yu stated, "If it was the leader of the HaiKou Gang, he wouldn't be inclined to commit suicide."

Ming ChangYan said, "You mean it could've been someone else?!"

Huai Yu replied, "Let's continue, there are voices up ahead. He just took the bride away, there's no way he could've moved her far in such a short amount of time. Besides, this person already knew that we were following closely behind him, that's why he stood here waiting for us to mount a sneak attack."

Ming ChangYan laughed out loud, "Well didn't he just steal a chicken but lost the rice to lure it*! This ShaoXia is number one under this world, wasn't he just courting death!"

(TN: Trying to gain an advantage but only ending up worse off.)

Huai Yu glanced at him. Ming ChangYan coughed and promptly said, "Ok ok ok, former number one. Right now it's you, you! You're the world's number one's Dge!"

Huai Yu humphed and evaluated, "Eloquent."

Crossing through the corridor, it turned out at the end of it was a naturally formed karst cave. The moment Ming ChangYan stepped inside he was shocked with the horrible sight laid before him. Above the cave there suspended countless cages, with a girl locked in every one of them.

There were those who were unconscious, weeping, dazed, and shrieking. After they saw Ming ChangYan come in, they all began to tremble, sliding to the back of the cage.

Huai Yu said, "All the brides of He Bo are locked in here."

Ming ChangYan said, "Not exactly. Look at this, and this, there's a portion of the cages that are empty."

He paused for a bit, "There's no time to lose, let's save them first."

The iron cage was suspended from mid-air, Ming ChangYan circled around the cave before he found a switch. After he lowered the cages, he took out another needle and began picking the lock. When Huai Yu saw this he asked, "Didn't you run out of needles?"

Ming ChangYan pried the doors open then tucked his needle away, "You're right, I plucked this needle from that dead person's body. A person like you who uses gold beads as weapons will never understand the feelings of someone like me."

Huai Yu indifferently asked, "Well why don't you tell me, what kind of feelings?"

Ming ChangYan chuckled, "Such a bad temper."

With the iron doors opened, the girls were all terror-stricken as they crawled out. Ming ChangYan supported her shoulder, soothing, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid."

Huai Yu crossed his arms and coldly watched from a distance.

Ming ChangYan said, "How long were you guys locked up in here?"

For a short while, everyone began talking at once. There were girls who'd been here for two days, four days, even five days.

Ming ChangYan tentatively muttered to himself, "None of them have been here for over seven days."

One person said, "On the seventh day, there's someone who comes to open the door before taking us away."

Ming ChangYan, "Where do they bring them?"

The person shook her head, her teardrops dripping down, "I don't know, but, but of the people taken, none of them ever came back!"

Ming ChangYan said, "That's weird. But I opened the cage for you, are you not afraid that I'm actually here take you away?"

This time, everyone's complexion turned deathly pale, like they just saw a terrible sight.

The girl with somewhat of a bigger backbone continued, "That's impossible. The person…..the person that came to take us away…..was, was a paper doll!"

Ming ChangYan paused, "Paper doll?"

"A paper doll! In the beginning, it was too dark so we thought we were just seeing things. But then there was once when it came and took a girl away. The girl struggled so hard that she struck down a candlestick. The flames fell on its body and it caught on fire. And just like a piece of paper, it burned till there was nothing left of it!"

Ming ChangYan questioned, "Do you still remember what it looked like?"

The girl thought for a bit then recalled, "It was a red paper doll, it had a skirt drawn with red ink on it. Its hands were tucked within its sleeves and its hair was made from scraps of black paper. The doll's facial features were drawn on. It was very rigid when it walked, just like…"

Ming ChangYan tipped, "Just like a puppet under control right?"

He continued, "Alright, I understand. Now could to tell me, where did it take you?"

As the women realized they were saved, they were wild with joy, and quickly pointed towards a secret passageway.

Ming ChangYan walked through the passageway in the time it took to burn an incense until finally arriving at a staircase. They ascended and opened the wooden plank at the very top, the glare of the outside world irritated his eyes. He closed his eyes for a bit then jumped out. As soon as Ming ChangYan landed on the ground, he observed his surroundings. Unexpectedly, at the end of the passage was a lady's private chambers.

The place had a muddled fragrance that drifted through the air, decorated with red gauze. The design of it was bold and blatant while still being welcoming, definitely not the chambers of a lady from a respectable family. Soon after Huai Yu walked out, he appeared to not be accustomed to the extravagant and aromatic room, slightly furrowing his brows.

Ming ChangYan questioned, "Where do you think this is?"

Huai Yu pushed opened the windows, causing the air outside to float in. With the windows opened, one could hear the flirtatious and soft voices of the women outside. It was all a bunch of lewd dirty talk, unbearable to listen to.

Huai Yu answered, "Brothel."

Just as he finished speaking, the door was pushed open. After the brothel keeper who was greeting a guest opened the door and saw tens of unsolicited guests in the room, her voice stopped. Immediately afterward, she let out a shriek that broke through the skies.

When Zhu ChuanKang heard the news, he promptly arrived at the brothel and took the rescued girls back to their respective families.

When Zhao XiaoLan rushed over, it was like a bush of flowers just passed by as he found Ming ChangYan.

He was very familiar with the brothel, like he was simply taking a quick stroll. The moment he arrived, all the girls greeted him in a sweet manner, causing Zhao XiaoLan's face to turn red. Ming ChangYan teased, "XiaoLan, a regular customer!"

Zhao XiaoLan said, "Sometimes, sometimes."

He quickly diverted the subject, "Yan-jiejie, how did you and Huai Yu-gege end up here? When you jumped into the river this morning, I thought….."

"You thought we were dead?"

Zhao XiaoLan shook his head, "Probably not to that extent. You have Huai Yu-gege so how could things go wrong? I just thought it was weird why you guys didn't come ashore. Now I finally get it."

He was only halfway done when Zhu ChuanKang stepped forwards, "I've already assigned people to examine the cell at the bottom of the river. This time it's all thanks to the two of you that we were able to eliminate this whole theory about He Bo taking a wife. But how this whole epidemic emerged, do you two Daren have an idea?"

Ming ChangYan glanced towards Huai Yu. Huai Yu said, "This epidemic is not limited to GuangLing."

"YuZhou, LouJiang, and YuLin all have been affected by this same epidemic. I accepted the emperor's orders to take a look at these areas, and although the symptoms of the epidemic were different in each area, they all emerged abruptly and had little effect on neighboring cities."

Zhu ChuanKang seemed to remember something and inquired, "According to Daren's words, you've already investigated this matter. Then may I venture to ask what position this Daren has in the imperial court?"

Ming ChangYan said, "Position? Huai Yu, what position do you have?"

Zhao XiaoLan responded, "Zhu-daren, he's the nation's Prime Minister, Immortal Yun Qing."

Zhu ChuanKang was stunned, not anticipating the imperial court's Prime Minister to be so young. When he finally snapped out of it, he was already kneeling on the ground, showing courtesy.

"I failed to realize who you are and didn't expect that the Young Prime Minister would personally come to GuangLing."

Ming ChangYan thought: Huai Yu's position really is that high. In any case, Zhu ChuanKang is still an important state official in the government. His position is high, but for him to show such courtesy, really, his spoiled temperament didn't just come out of nowhere.

He said, "Stop kneeling, stand up and speak."

Zhu ChuanKang didn't move.

Ming ChangYan thought: Weirdo, I tell him to stand up but he still doesn't stand up. Don't tell me you'd rather just continue kneeling?

A moment later, Huai Yu said, "If he told you to stand up, then stand up."

Zhu ChuanKang stood up and exclaimed, "The Young Prime Minister must save the innocent people of GuangLing!"

Huai Yu nodded his head, Ming ChangYan continued, "According to your words, this epidemic has been frequently appearing these past few years but even though it doesn't make a commotion, there are still a lot of deaths. If these epidemics aren't coincidental and deliberately placed there by someone, then for what reason would they do this for?"

Zhao XiaoLan opted, "What reason? Doesn't an epidemic only cause death! Right? What do you think Zhu-xiong?"

Zhu Rong smiled, "How would I know?"

Ming ChangYan said, "Death, you're right, it's exactly because of death. Zhu-daren, may I ask, how do you take care of the corpses of those that died from the epidemic?"

Zhu ChuanKang replied, "We give the families two silver taels to buy a coffin, carry them to a small valley and bury them."

Ming ChangYan commented, "Okay, I understand."

He asked Zhu ChuanKang a few more questions before dispatching him away. Zhao XiaoLan said, "Yan-jiejie, I have to go pass out congee to people on the streets so I won't stay here too long."

Zhao XiaoLan cupped his hands together in respect then departed with Zhu Rong to help with victims of the epidemic.

For a moment, only Huai Yu and him remained in the room, the atmosphere suddenly turning tranquil.

Only after quite a while did Huai Yu respond to the gaze beside him, "What are you thinking about now?"

Ming ChangYan smiled and walked closer.

"Young Prime Minister, I'm going to have to thank you for your trouble tonight…."

This was translated by , any repost of this is stolen and if you steal my work I'll spit black goo over you.

Also, the audio drama for this novel came out like 2 weeks ago and I forgot to mention it, oops. Honestly, the quality of it could be better and it's all in all just super dry. The supporting actors sound like they're reciting sutras. The only positive thing about it is that the ED is very good. I'll give them that.

Here's the link (if you wanna give it a go):

Here's the cover for it in case anyone wants it:

Anyway, I hope you have a good Thanksgiving! And if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, then I hope you have a great day~~

Chapter end