A Seductive Gentleman Chapter 39

Chapter 39: A Seductive Gentleman – Part 1

"In human life, accomplishment must bring joy, I spend a thousand gold pieces completely but they will never come back. Heaven made me – my abilities have a purpose; we must drink three hundred cups all at once!*"

(TN: Poem by famous Chinese poet Li Bai, our girl here mixed up the verses. She says some more lines of the poem later on in case you get confused. If you want to read it yourself here → )

Ming ChangYan was slightly surprised.

Huai Yu took out some of the hemostatic medicine that carried on him, tore off a piece of satin and temporarily wrapped it around the other's palm. In the end, he was still a bit worried, so he tied two extra knots.

The white fog scattered and on the streets came four beautiful men carrying a sedan. The sedan was lavished in jewels, and in it was a woman who was currently sitting slanted. In her hands, she carried an exquisite and fine wine jar and gave Ming ChangYan an unfathomable look.

"I'll sing a song to this gentleman, I ask you to lend me your ears."

Ming ChangYan let out a sigh of relief and said, "What wind blew you here?"

She replied, "The wind on the moon."

Ming ChangYan, "It seems that I must have received a great honor to have this heartless lady get out of the house for me."

This poised and luxurious woman is the renowned owner of the LingLong Pavilion and the world's most unscrupulous businesswoman in Ming ChangYan's eyes, Xiu LingLong.

Xiu LingLong's cheeks were in a drunken state, standing up she said, "Xiu LingLong merely came here to act as disaster relief, but unexpectedly ran into an acquaintance."

Ming ChangYan corrected her, "Your poetry's wrong."

Xiu LingLong gently chuckled, "Others read it wrong, so why can't I read it wrong. Is Young Master ChangYan not aware of a certain phrase among the people called, a woman's virtue is to have no talent?"

Ming ChangYan, "You are someone lacking in virtue."

After Xiu LingLong finished laughing, she stood up and left the sedan. Two good-looking guys that were stationed outside the sedan immediately carried in a huge rolled-up carpet and moved forwards till the carpet rolled to the edge of Ming ChangYan's foot before stopping. Another man held out a basket of flowers while walking he would spread a thick layer of petals on the carpet.

Xiu LingLong set her foot on the carpet.

Ming ChangYan had known about his friend's fussy temperament for more than ten years, so he wasn't surprised by the action. On the contrary, Huai Yu took a few more glances at it.

Zhao XiaoLan took in the full view of what was in front of him and was stupefied, ruefully saying, "After having lived for so long, I've never seen anyone's mannerism be more expensive than Huai Yu-gege!"

Xiu LingLong waved her fan and supported her forehead, "Waving this fan is so tiring."

Ming ChangYan grudgingly said, "If it's tiring then take off some of the gems on it, it blinds me every time the sun shines on it."

Xiu LingLong angrily exclaimed, "Women, even at death cannot renounce their beauty. Forget it, even if I explain it you wouldn't understand. I came here to ask you, how are you still alive?"

Ming ChangYan took a glance at Zhao XiaoLan and Zhu Rong, and said, "Let's talk over there."

Xiu LingLong once again mustered up her large forces and rolled out a second carpet. Only after the two walked a distance away did Ming ChangYan say, "That's exactly what I want to ask you. Who told you I was still alive?"

Xiu LingLong unhurriedly said, "Is there anything in this world that you wouldn't be able to conceal from my eyes?"

Ming ChangYan remarked, "You have a spy under Liu Kuang?"

Xiu LingLong softly complained, "It's unavoidable. If I didn't know that you were still alive, how would I be able to bestow upon you my assistance? Young Master ChangYan, you're truly hurting my heart. We've known each other for so long, but you didn't even tell me, you're twisting our friendship."

Ming ChangYan snickered, "Our friendship is you using me to earn you money after my death, give me 50 percent."

Xiu LingLong used her fan to cover up her face, "Now that I'm thinking about it, to Xiu LingLong the supremacy under Heaven, it wouldn't be that big of a deal if I lost a Ming ChangYan."

Ming ChangYan said, "I don't feel like talking nonsense with you. Since you're here, then help me with something."

Xiu LingLong, "When Xiu LingLong gets a job she never asks what it is, but how much money they give." She grinned, "However, on the account that we've known each other for so many years, I won't charge you for this matter."

Ming ChangYan uttered, "Bring Ming Yue's body back and hand it over to his family."

Xiu LingLong took a look at the corpse on the ground and clicked her tongue, "The last time I saw him, he was only 15 years old."

Ming ChangYan was unwilling to continue talking. Xiu LingLong watched his expression, with a knowing smile she immediately stroked her hand three times. In a short period of time, a few figures in black appeared on the streets. They worked efficiently and after Xiu LingLong instructed them with a few words, Ming Yue's body was taken away.

Ming ChangYan questioned, "Did you see the King of Hell Adorned in a Wedding Dress just now?"

Xiu LingLong fanned herself, smiling, "What King of Hell Adorned in a Wedding Dress, never heard of them."

The two walked back a few steps, Ming ChangYan saw that Huai Yu's mood wasn't very good and all the thoughts about the King of Hell Adorned in a Wedding Dress was cast aside and onto Huai Yu. He thought: How come he's unhappy again?

Ming ChangYan said, "It's not convenient to talk on the streets, let's go back to the inn first. And you, Xiu LingLong, put away your habits."

In a quarter of an hour, four people sat in an inn.

Zhao XiaoLan kept thinking about his bowls of congee and him together with Zhu Rong went back to fulfill those good deeds.

As soon as they arrived at the room, Huai Yu went and took out the medicine box, going forth and treating Ming ChangYan's wounds.

In the inn, Ming ChangYan was the first to begin speaking, "I want to ask you about something."

These words were directed towards Xiu LingLong.

Xiu LingLong replied, "I know nothing but words."

Ming ChangYan seemed to be dodging something, unnaturally tapping the table a few times before he finally asked, "TianQing…what's the current situation at TianQing?"

Xiu LingLong said, "What Young Master ChangYan wants to ask is whether or not anyone else has died in TianQing, right?"

Ming ChangYan's expression changed.

Xiu LingLong was trying to sell a few more tricks to him to play with him a bit more, but unexpectedly after being coldly glared at by Huai Yu, she straightened up and answered, "You can rest assured, except you, the rest of TianQing has been great. It's just that, after you left, more than half of the outer disciples left. Now there's no more who's better or who's worse in your sect, although it's not as grand as before, you could still get by."

She said, "Besides, what hasn't TianQing undergone? I remember back then, in order to eat and drink, you would go out and sell your skills?"

Ming ChangYan's heart relaxed, feeling much more relieved, "Naturally, life is still difficult to maintain."

Huai Yu opened his mouth, "The fight just now wasn't something done by Ugly Guanyin, there seems to be someone else behind it."

Ming ChangYan, "I'm aware. Little Huai Yu, have you heard of the King of Hell Adorned in a Wedding Dress? Mixing weddings and funerals together is their notable feature. Arranged by the King of Hell, those who don't arrive; at the fifth of five they want you dead and at midnight there's no one left behind."

Huai Yu, "Based on the skills of that Ugly Guanyin, they aren't half-hearted."

Ming ChangYan said, "It's true. Except this King of Hell only takes the path, but never sets up a banquet. They didn't take our lives but instead knew when to stop, truly nothing at all like the rumors about their styles of execution. My guess is that they were trying to protect Ugly Guanyin, but I don't know what kind of relation the two have with each other. But the only thing we can guarantee is that they have something to do with this whole He Bo taking a wife affair."

Xiu LingLong said, "Based on what you're saying, there's a behind the scenes in He Bo taking a wife?"

Ming ChangYan, "Now this isn't something that you need to know."

Xiu LingLong inexplicably sized up Ming ChangYan, "Just a moment ago I heard that pretty little youngster call you Yan-jiejie, what, you got tired of being a man and now you're becoming a woman?"

Ming ChangYan smiled, "You already have a spy on Liu Kuang, so why are you putting on an act and asking me?"

Xiu LingLong gossiped, "So you really went to become the wife of the emperor? HAHAHAHAHA! Ai, this truly is the most comical thing under Heaven! No matter how you look at it, this sort of prodigal act is only something you would do, but hearing you admit to it will always be funnier than hearing about it! This rotten idea was given to you by Lady Hua, right? I know what kind of person she is, on the surface she's gentle and quiet but has a bellyful of evil tricks! If you two weren't both prodigies then you wouldn't have been deserving of the title childhood sweethearts! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Ming ChangYan kicked her stool, "What are you laughing for!"

Xiu LingLong laughed till she was leaning forwards and back, her face flooded with tears as she slapped the table, "The emperor's wife….THE EMPEROR'S WIFE! HAHAHAHAHA! Only you two would think of something like that! Good, it's too good!"

Ming ChangYan oddly glanced at Huai Yu before continuing, "Alright alright, are you done laughing? If you're done laughing then let's discuss some proper business."

Xiu LingLong cheerfully fanned her fan and put away her smiling expression, asking, "What proper business do you want to discuss with me?"

Ming ChangYan thought for a bit before he declared, "None. You should quickly leave!"

Xiu LingLong gave him another unfathomable look, staring at Ming ChangYan for a bit before she smugly exited.

Only he and Huai Yu remained in the room.

Ming ChangYan began, "The person responsible for the murder of GuiFeng sect two years ago must also be behind this epidemic, in addition, the supernatural occurrences in the palace ought to be them as well."

He continued, "The epidemic occurred for the purpose of a large death count and the killings in GuiFeng sect was to consign me to eternal damnation, but what's the purpose of all those events in the palace? Could it be that they leaked out the news of me being alive?'

Huai Yu said, "If that's the case, then it's a bit too quick."

Ming ChangYan, "That makes sense. This person definitely wouldn't just put an end to their plans. We stopped this epidemic but they'll definitely begin using other methods to collect dead bodies. What method, besides an epidemic, would tally up a large death count? What do they want with these dead bodies? For an evil cult or for sacrifice?"

Huai Yu ventured, "Both are possible. In addition to dead people, they also want living people." After having said that, Huai Yu paused for a bit before continuing, "This isn't the first time that similar occurrences happened, there were some previous instances where someone had planted poison in a well. It's just that even though we eventually captured the person responsible, we couldn't find anything else."

Ming ChangYan threw himself on the bed.

He thought: The events that keep popping up one after another in Jianghu and the palace were all clearly directed towards me. I'm afraid that the operator behind the epidemic isn't related to that female priest that responsible for GuiFeng sect. What's the point of doing all this? It would've been fine if I'd just died like that two years ago, now I've practically become a handicap. I'm neither a person nor a ghost, I'm honestly useless.

When his thoughts reached there, Ming ChangYan asked, "Huai Yu, do you have any sort of way for me to regain some more of my cultivation?"

Huai Yu replied, "You just have to use all your heart to take care of yourself. If you continue to act so recklessly, even immortals wouldn't be able to save you."

When Ming ChangYan heard this, he began to tease, "Aren't you an immortal! You're the little Yun Qing that descended from the Heavens, is there anything that you can't do?"

Huai Yu was already accustomed to the other's flattery, merely humming twice, "Then you should properly do what's told."

For a long time, no one spoke.

When Huai Yu looked over, Ming ChangYan had already closed his eyes and in a deep slumber. He was just about to say something when the person lying on the bed flipped over and rolled themselves into a little ball, tightly wrapping the quilt around their body.

Ming ChangYan slept for a very long time, after waking up, the clothes on his body had already been changed and the sky was shining brightly. Only after Huai Yu had helped him change his bandages and boiled some more medicine for him to drink did he ask, "How long was I asleep?"

Huai Yu collected the bowl, "Two days and one night."

Ming ChangYan was alarmed, "Oh no oh no, how did I sleep so long? I still wanted to question those rescued brides!"

Huai Yu stopped him, "I went to question them for you, their statements were all the same. Apart from the information about the paper dolls, they didn't have anything else."

Ming ChangYan pondered for a bit, "The King of Hell Adorned in a Wedding Dress won't be able to escape from the responsibility of this matter. The people of Jianghu deem them to be the King of Hell, but how could they truly be the King of Hell!" He paused for a bit before asking, "Right, are there improvements to the epidemic situation?"

Huai Yu replied, "It's under control. The health of patients whose symptoms have eased up a bit improved after taking some medicine."

Ming ChangYan suddenly said, "Don't you not want others to know that you're experienced in the medical field? Why are you being so generous this time?"

Huai Yu calmly said, "I put the medicine in the congee that Zhao XiaoLan's handing out."

Hearing this, Ming ChangYan exclaimed, "You're so sly! Wouldn't this cause them to jump to another great deity and begin manifesting the thought that the Young Prime Minister has the boundless power of God?"

Huai Yu felt disinclined to give him any attention, saying, "You should keep sleeping."

Ming ChangYan promptly waved his hand and got off the bed, "No sleep no sleep, I've already slept enough! If I keep sleeping I might die!"

"Then lie down to rest."

"That won't do, my bones are about to fall apart by how much I've been lying down! Besides, lying down by myself without any books to read is too boring."

When he mentioned books, Huai Yu immediately thought of those melodramatic novels that he read last time. His complexion changed as he humphed, "The books you read are a bunch of vulgar and dull works."

Ming ChangYan defended himself, "Hey, how are they vulgar, how are they dull? I myself wrote a few of them back then for Xiu LingLong, and not to mention they were very well-received!"

This all happened back when Ming shaoxia was 19 years old. When he arrived at the Central Plains, besides loving to fight and practicing his martial arts, he also had a love for novels about love affairs and romance. For example, a sly and treacherous scholar and a devilishly beautiful woman, one who isn't sincere and one who doesn't think too much. Afterward, Ming shaoxia was unable to contain his desire of creating a work of his own, so not only did he read them he also began to learn from them. Thus he created himself an elegant pen name called 'Gorgeous Little Playboy' and began writing extremely passionate, romantic, and melodramatic stories. Although it was somewhat prominent that his writing style was immature, he still wrote a lot, which helped him prevail over his opponents and earn a small reputation.

It's just that every time 'Gorgeous Little Playboy's' works got on the LingLong Pavilion newspaper, it didn't lack its fair share of people who would cry to their fathers and yell at their mothers over it. This person's writing always concentrated deep emotions in their works and wrote about the love between men and women. The plot was always full of mishaps and all in all a confused and hideous mess. The sequences were always incorrect and a load of crap. In short, it was obvious at first glance that this 'Gorgeous Little Playboy' was certainly a young maiden writing all this in their bedroom. And furthermore, this maiden must've never had any access to human affairs since it seemed that even a meeting between a man and woman was an outright mess of lies.

As Ming ChangYan reminisced about those books he'd written, he suddenly realized that truly was brimming with talent and an incomparable genius, and couldn't help but be astonished by himself.

He drank a bowl of tea and said, "Don't say that you've never seen them before! If not then your knowledge and experience are way too shallow."

Huai Yu snorted, "Of course I…."

He was only halfway done with his sentence when Ming ChangYan attentively gazed at him. Huai Yu realized that he had taken the bait and as a result, refused to speak.

At this exact moment, from downstairs came the shouts of a book-seller. Ming ChangYan pushed opened the window and decided that he wanted a copy of the Jianghu Daily.

The book-seller said, "Young Master, the Jianghu Daily has already been sold out, but there's still some copies of the LingLong Pavilion, do you want them!"

Ming ChangYan, "Throw up a copy of the LingLong Pavilion!"

Even though the newspapers from the LingLong Pavilion aren't as orthodox as the Jianghu Daily, they still covered major events. Ming ChangYan took the newspaper and sat in front of the table. He poured himself another cup of tea and began to slowly sip it down.

Opening the newspaper, on the front page there two rows of words in bold: The Full Moon Attracts the Immortal to Move Down, The Young Prime Minister's Love Affair with a Beautiful Lady.

"PFFFFFTT!"

The tea that was in Ming ChangYan's mouth sprayed all over the front of a piece of his robes.

The author has something to say:

Huai Yu: There's been a recent rumor going around about Ming ChangYan and I having an affair. Let me clarify that this is not a rumor.

Let's go back to the imperial palace for a year and have a few chapters of love~

This was translated by , any repost of this is stolen and if you steal my work then you'll become the flower petals I step on.

Okay I lied, this is the last chapter of 2019. Sorry, I couldn't help myself cause when I get excited to translate, I don't stop. Plus I'm on break for this whole week so I might just be spamming out chapters so be on the lookout for that.

To anyone asking who the Moon and who the Immortal is. I mean….it's not really subtle, is it?

And yes, the next series of chapters are some of my all-time favorites so buckle up everyone it's gonna be a hell of a ride  Ψ( ｀▽´ )Ψ

If you see any translation/grammatical errors, please tell me! I'm translating these chapters like sonic right now.

I'm currently freezing my toes off but I hope you're having a gorgeous day!

Chapter end