Volume 2 | After One Stepped Down, Another Would Step Up
➖⭐T/N
Title 👉 Deadlock :
More accurately, the title translates to “killing by ko”. Ko describes a situation in Go where both the black stones and white stones are surrounding each other and a stone has to be removed from each side turn after turn, slowly depleting both parties. This impasse has to be resolved by an external rule.
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Gradually, the waxy yellowish-green colour of his skin was washed off. His lower jaw looked as though a layer of meat had been shorn away as he peeled off something that Wen Kexing had never seen before, and the bony, sharp-cut profile as if it had been chiselled by a knife was revealed.
Wen Kexing held his breath unconsciously, watching his deft fingers remove the disguise on his face–
Unlike the young master in Luoyang City who had a smiling face as pretty as a flower, or the popular, powdered beauty of the brothel upstairs in Dongting, this was a man’s face, where there was no colour but black and white–pale and gaunt cheeks, lips as thin as a line and bloodless, the hollows beneath his brow very deep, his thick eyelashes half-covering his weighty, startling eyes, eyes like thick, rich ink.
Yes, in that instant, Wen Kexing could only think of such a description–thick, rich ink. In those eyes there seemed to be a coalesced black that would not diffuse; only when the angle changed, did a barely-there, reserved lustre flow over them.
He suddenly discovered that even if the other person had kept his disguise on for a lifetime, in his own mind, he was always envisioning that Zhou Zishu should look like this. Seeing now that he was indeed identical to what he had imagined, it was like…he had known him for a very, very long time.
Wen Kexing swallowed involuntarily, opening his mouth to say, “A-Xu…”
Zhou Zishu made a distracted “mn” of acknowledgement, wiping away the last remaining bit of the disguise on his face. After wearing this thing for so long, he had almost thought of it as his own face, and wiping it all off so suddenly threw him off a little instead. Originally, he had intended to live with this face, but who would have known that this thing called trouble would follow him like a shadow? Did this mean that he would have to change masks every two to three days from now on?
He was instantly in a bad mood again.
Wetting his lips, Wen Kexing murmured, “Have…I ever mentioned that I actually like men?”
Zhou Zishu looked at him briefly with an expression that conveyed “bullshit, do you really think I don’t know that”, then, as if he had thought of something, fished a human skin mask out of his robes and lobbed it at Wen Kexing, instructing, “If you don’t want to keep running into trouble, put it on.”
That human skin mask was of great craftsmanship, and if this had been any other time, Wen Kexing would still have examined it with great interest. Now, however, he didn’t even glance at it, only stared insistently at Zhou Zishu, his tone severe and serious as he said, “Is this your attempt at seducing me?”
Having lived for so long, Zhou Zishu perceived himself as a man through and through, from head to toe, and had never experienced another man flirting with him with such a lecherous gaze and serious tone. He was of the constant opinion that if Wen Kexing had no problem with his eyesight, then it must be a problem with his heart1️⃣⭐ — either it was missing a couple holes, or that it was far too open. Otherwise, why would he forgo pestering those pretty lasses and lads milling about on the streets, in favour of badgering him specifically to disgust him for his own entertainment?
➖⭐1️⃣
心眼 actually refers to the ability to intuit and understand implicit insinuations, but the whole sentence plays on the word “heart”. Missing a few holes refers to the concept of 心窍, where an open hole means being enlightened about something—if Wen Kexing is missing a couple holes, it means that he’s too mentally underdeveloped to know what he’s doing.
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Thus he ignored him, extracting another human skin mask to put on as he kept walking.
Witnessing the transformation of a handsome man into a shifty-looking, slant-eyed middle-aged man like the great shift of heaven and earth2️⃣⭐, Wen Kexing felt his innards somersault with it, and desperately yearned to dunk his face in water and rinse his eyes clean. The sight in front of him was catastrophically tragic, and he cried, “It hurts the eyes too much, swap it for another!”
➖⭐2️⃣
乾坤大挪移: A martial art technique from wuxia novel The Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Sabre by Jin Yong, where the user can activate latent potential residing in them in a moment of crisis. Operating on the basis of “even the meekest and weakest can become the most ferocious beast”, it’s also used to describe a complete shift in traits/manner.
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As he spoke, he reached a hand out to do it for him, helping him to tear it off.
Thinking that he was making a fuss on purpose, Zhou Zishu tilted his face to the side and avoided his hand. But Wen Kexing, stubborn, chased after him persistently—and so under the condition of the external threat temporarily removed, the two who had just been united against external forces resumed their internal strife, and began to trade blows there and then.
Zhou Zishu sent a fist hurtling towards Wen Kexing’s clavicle, yet Wen Kexing did not duck or dodge it. Not intending to actually cripple him, Zhou Zishu abruptly shifted his fist two inches upwards, grazing Wen Kexing’s shoulder, but Wen Kexing took the opportunity to grab his arm and say with a wide smile, “Hey, let’s discuss something. I see that you’re also single, so how about the two of us make do with each other?”
When he spoke, he always had that cheeky grin: his eyes curved, as if he was purposely preventing others from reading the look in his eyes, or as if he was purposely preventing others from knowing if he truly meant it or not. Thus Zhou Zishu asked, annoyed, “What would I want you for?”
Wen Kexing came close to him, raised Zhou Zishu’s hand to the height of his own jaw, and gently grazed his hand with the point of his chin. Then he waited for Zhou Zishu to snatch his hand away, as goosebumps rose all over his body, to pluck the mask off Zhou Zishu’s face and toss it to one side, lowering his voice to ask, “What do you think?”
Zhou Zishu rolled his eyes and looked expressionlessly at Wen Kexing for a moment before he started to laugh. The pale regions of his face were far too pale, the striking regions too deep, always giving off an impression of cold-heartedness. It was only when he laughed that his brow relaxed, lines appeared by the corners of his mouth, and faint colour surfaced on his pale lips; for some unknown reason, he came off as slightly adorable. Following suit, this adorable man lowered his voice as well, asking him in reply with a pause after each word, “Keep you, so that I can slaughter you for meat when a famine hits?”
When his low voice like a murmur sounded by his ear, Wen Kexing’s hair stood on its ends; even before he could finely savour what Zhou Zishu had said, he suffered a hard kick, his weakened knee nearly pitching him face-first onto the ground. Zhou Zishu strode away from him, fishing another human skin mask to put on–this one, uglier than the previous, was unsightly enough to anger the heavens.
He swaggered away smugly.
•••••
While these two old masters left carefreely to flirt with each other, Zhang Chengling was sitting on the steps alone, contemplating life. He did not know what had happened; when he had finally returned to his senses, Gu Xiang had grabbed him and tossed him to the side. Immediately afterwards, warm blood splashed his face, and screams exploded all around him. On Gu Xiang’s pretty face was a murderous expression, the dagger in her hand dripping blood. By her feet was the hand of the black-clothed musician who had been walking around playing her instrument…and the two halves of a small, brightly-patterned, venomous snake.
With a ghastly pale face, the musician leapt out of the window and fled. Knowing that it was no longer safe to stay in this place for long, Gu Xiang hauled Zhang Chengling up and told Cao Weining, “Go, let’s get out of here!”
Just as she finished speaking, about ten black-clothed men emerged out of nowhere, each one of them armed with a hook–the second suicide squad of the Poisonous Scorpions had arrived!
Everyone in the tavern, including the waiter, retreated before the situation took a turn for the worse, their meals unpaid for in their haste. Cao Weining asked in a single breath, “What’s going on? Why did these people suddenly appear? What are they going to do?”
Gripping her dagger in hand, Gu Xiang slowly surveyed the Poisonous Scorpions. Feeling her palms sweat a little, she flipped her dagger around in a slight arc, internally bemoaning the situation. They had run into the Poisonous Scorpions suicide squad now, out of all possible times; it was easy to kill their way out, but what if something bad happened to this little tyke while she was babysitting him? With her master’s style of doing things, wouldn’t he skin her alive?
The Poisonous Scorpions seemed to be cautious of Gu Xiang as well, slowly closing from all directions. Out of the corner of her eye, Gu Xiang spotted Cao Weining, his expression dazed, and Zhang Chengling, who visibly had no fighting ability, and felt hopelessly close to death. This was the most unfortunate moment of her whole life.
So she told Cao Weining simply, “Did you forget? The suicide warriors of the Poisonous Scorpions want to kill the little tyke.”
Cao Weining said “Ah,” as he recalled that the few dead people at the Gao Family Manor were dressed like this, and instantly raised his guard. Brandishing his sword, he instructed Zhang Chengling, “Don’t leave my side.”
Gu Xiang’s fine brows knitted. Deciding to strike first to better control the situation, she gathered a bunch of concealed weapons in her hand, and cast them out like they cost her nothing. The skirmish began–
Zhou Zishu suspected that Gu Xiang was “Purple Danger of the Ghost Valley”; this maiden was young, but had many tactics, and her martial ability was undoubtedly strong. Although Cao Weining’s talent in poetry and songs made one’s balls ache a little, he was, after all, the most outstanding disciple of this Qingfeng Sword Sect generation, and had never compromised on gongfu training just because he skimped on reading. Teaming up, their combined prowess was indeed out of the ordinary; even if the opponents were the suicide warriors from the Poisonous Scorpions, they could still put up a fight giving it their all.
Yet they were doomed, because they still had to protect a little deadweight named Zhang Chengling.
In her whole life, Gu Xiang had never had such a handicap while committing murder—occupied by a suicide warrior, Cao Weining, with his guard down, let another warrior circle past him and pounce at Zhang Chengling. Under duress, Cao Weining grabbed Zhang Chengling and flung him at Gu Xiang. With an “aiyo”, Gu Xiang caught him, but that was still a person that weighed about a hundred and ten pounds regardless; the momentum knocked her three, four steps askew, and it took her some effort to steady herself. At the same time, she stabbed to death a Poisonous Scorpion who had nearly caught her hair on his hook, and a concealed weapon sprung out from the tip of her shoe into the stomach of another Poisonous Scorpion. The latter didn’t die instantly, still persistent; with another supplementary stab from her, he finally went to meet the god of death.
The glare of the blades and the flash of swords whizzed over Zhang Chengling’s head and past his ears; every once in a while, he would suspect that some body part of his had been sliced off, and had to extend a hand to feel if it was still there, and then he had to suffer Gu Xiang and Cao Weining throwing him around like a gunny sack. Whirling through the air, he was dizzy beyond measure.
By the time there was a temporary halt to the chaotic skirmish, the hem of Gu Xiang’s trousers had already been dyed red by the blood of her opponents, and she had taken a hook to the waist. Fortunately, she had dodged quickly enough, otherwise the little beauty would have become two halves of a little beauty. Her pretty face had lost all colour, and Cao Weining, extremely dishevelled, was no better off.
It was as if they were the only three living creatures left in this place.
Gu Xiang ordered decisively, “Leave now! Otherwise there’ll be more trouble, quick!
Cao Weining and Zhang Chengling looked at each other. Though the trouble had passed, they shuddered to think of what they had just experienced, and made to leave with her. At this moment, a moan came from the corner of the wall; Zhang Chengling turned his head to see that old beggar crawling out of the pile of corpses, who had nearly pissed his pants from fright. The chipped bowl containing the copper coins crashed to the floor, the coins scattering, soaking in blood. The old beggar could not even stand, his voice changed in pitch as he croaked, trembling, “M-murder!”
Cao Weining was, after all, from an influential, orthodox sect, and had been educated in the four cardinal virtues since he was a child. At present, he frowned, feeling that it was terrible of them to have caused this elderly person trouble due to their moment of negligence. So he went up to ask, “Senior, are you injured?”
That old beggar raised his head to look at him with unfocused eyes. Half a beat later, he uttered, “Ah…”, as if his words had been frightened out of him.
Zhang Chengling walked up to him as well, saying in a soft voice, “Grandpa, you should run away quickly, the bad guys are coming soon.”
He had just given the old beggar a copper coin, and the other still recognised him now, uttering “Aiyo, aiyo, somebody’s died!” as he grabbed Zhang Chengling’s elbow. Watching coldly off to one side, Gu Xiang’s gaze suddenly hardened, and like lightning, she leapt over, her dagger falling to hack at the old beggar’s arm.
Aghast, Cao Weining shouted, “A-Xiang, no!”
But it was too late. The dagger in Gu Xiang’s hand drove towards that old man with explosive power; as if he was frightened, the old man retracted his hand. He was quick enough, but Gu Xiang didn’t spare him this chance, abruptly changing moves—sending her dagger upwards in a backhand, she plunged it into his neck, stabbing through his aorta, blood spurting two feet high.
Cao Weining and Zhang Chengling stared wide-eyed at this blood-drenched girl, a living Asura, in shock, completely dumbfounded.
Expressionless, Gu Xiang yanked the dagger out from that old man’s corpse, and casually raised a sleeve to wipe at the blood on her face. Lifting her gaze, she saw the slightly fearful, horrified, even inscrutable expressions on the faces of those two people, and asked, “What?”
Cao Weining pointed at the old man’s corpse, his tongue in knots as he stammered, “He…he was only…only an old beggar, you…you killed him…”
Hmph, influential orthodox sects—the look in Gu Xiang’s eyes grew chilly in an instant. Without explaining herself, she turned to sheath her dagger, picked Zhang Chengling up and left.
Yet, Cao Weining cautiously caught up with her. Half a beat later, he mumbled, fumbling with his words, “I didn’t mean it like that…A-Xiang, I’m not saying that you are wrong, I don’t…I also don’t think that you kill at random, it’s just that what if you’re wrong, what if he’s an ordinary old beggar, what if…you realised these in the future? I’m worried that you’ll feel troubled over this.”
Gu Xiang paused in her steps almost imperceptibly. She was silent for a while, before saying brusquely, “Bullshit, what do I have to be sad about?”
Cao Weining sighed lightly, saying, “It’s always upsetting, it’s just that you aren’t aware of it yourself…sigh, let’s leave quickly, we don’t know where Zhou-xiong and Wen-xiong went, and if another bunch of Poisonous Scorpions arrive, it’ll be others who’ll have to feel sad for us!”
Gu Xiang pouted and remained silent, thinking, This Cao Weining…even though he’s a little bit of a simpleton, he’s actually a decent person.
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Fragrant Incense 8 