Why Am I the One Being Won Over? Chapter 23

Bai Jun lowered his head in discouragement, leaned against the roadside railing, and sighed. "Overtime... What are you laughing at?"

"Ah, nothing. It's just that hearing someone else suffer the same hardship makes me feel a little comforted. I wasn't trying to laugh at you."

Even so, the amusement at the corners of Hanya's eyes simply would not fade. In the end, she copied Bai Jun and leaned against the wooden railing by the road, sighing. "It's so nice to be able to stand here and do nothing for a while. The moment I think about going back to the Hall of Karma to go through mountains of crime records, I can't help wishing this moment could last forever, forever, forever."

"Don't say that. I want to get back to sleep as soon as possible. I don't want to keep standing stupidly in the street, freezing in the wind."

The night wind carried a trace of chill. Bai Jun pulled his coat tighter so the harsh gusts would not slip inside his clothes.

It was already past nine. Most of the Xianzhou's residents had entered peaceful dreams. Bai Jun, who had been busy all day, was growing sleepy as well. He stretched, wanting only to hurry back to his warm little home, take a comfortable bath, and sleep soundly.

"I won't keep you from your work. If you can, give your sister my regards. Well then, goodbye."

He had only taken a few steps after saying farewell when someone tugged at the hem of his clothes. Turning around, he saw Hanya looking conflicted, as though she wanted to say something.

"My sister..."

"Your sister? What happened to Xue Yi?" A bad feeling rose within Bai Jun. He stepped forward and asked seriously.

Hanya's lips moved a few times, but in the end, she said nothing. Forcing a smile, she shook her head. "N-Nothing. My sister is doing fine. Let's meet again next time... No, maybe it would be better if we never met again. After all, nothing good ever happens when people run into me."

Bai Jun hated this sort of cryptic behavior the most. Seeing that she refused to speak, he irritably smacked her on the head with his scabbard.

"Ugh..." Hanya covered her head, squatted down, and let out a cute little sound.

"Spit it out!" Bai Jun had no intention of going easy on her and continued urging her in an ominous tone.

"M-My sister was pursuing one of the Medicine King's Legacy's fiends. But the fiend used vicious methods, and her injuries were too severe, so her puppet body was destroyed again. And this is already the fifth time this month. I told her to hand the assignment over to another adjudicator, but after waking up, she insisted on continuing the pursuit..." Hanya's eyes darkened, and her voice trembled faintly.

Her sister had always been like that, utterly unconcerned about her puppet body or her soul. Though a mechanical puppet body could not feel pain, it was still the vessel that housed the soul. If it happened too many times, the damage and strain on the soul would become irreversible.

She and Huo Huo had nagged Xue Yi about this more than once or twice, but the effect had been pitifully small.

"Seriously, that idiot. Her brain is practically made of a single track. The type who won't turn back until she smashes through the southern wall."

Bai Jun irritably ruffled his hair. If Xue Yi had been standing before him right now, he would have pinched her cheeks hard and demanded to know what she was thinking. If she could not beat a Medicine King's Legacy fiend, then she should obediently hand the matter over to someon—wait, Medicine King's Legacy?

Bai Jun froze a beat too late, then suddenly asked, "Wait. You said a Medicine King's Legacy fiend just now, right?"

"Mm. A Medicine King's Legacy fiend stole a prescription from the Alchemy Commission. The Ten Lords Bureau is currently doing everything it can to track him down." Though Hanya had no idea why his expression had suddenly become so frightening, she answered honestly.

"This really is like wearing out iron shoes searching everywhere, only to find it without any effort..." he murmured as he walked away on his own.

Hanya was left standing there in a daze, silently watching his retreating back as her outstretched hand fell weakly to her side.

Asking him to deal with her sister's problem really had been too much... But then again, who would gamble their own life for people like them, who had long since bid farewell to the realm of the living?

So cold. How strange.

This shell had clearly lost its five senses long ago, yet for some reason, she felt cold again. She crouched down, buried her face in her arms, and curled into a ball, her body trembling slightly.

Just then, a warm coat was draped over her back.

It was Bai Jun, who had returned after leaving. His face was full of confusion. "Why are you still standing around like an idiot? Hurry up and lead the way!"

You Seem to Be a Little Disloyal to the Reignbow Arbiter

Somewhere in a public restroom at Liuyun Crossing.

The Vidyadhara man lit a cigarette. Its faint, flickering glow resembled fireflies in the night. A gust of wind could have extinguished that fragile warmth, but after briefly filtering through his lungs, the momentary comfort made him feel as though he was still alive.

He crushed the cigarette butt beneath his toe and stepped out of the public restroom. An annoyed expression immediately appeared on his face, as though a chill had seeped into his body and driven away the slight warmth he had so painstakingly gathered.

This was the season when cold and warmth alternated. Even if the temperature difference at night was great, there was nothing to be done about it. Still, he could not understand why the Xianzhou people insisted on preserving such meaningless things as seasonal changes aboard their ships. Wouldn't it be best to keep the environment at the temperature most comfortable for people forever?

"As expected, I'm not the same kind of person as those Xianzhou folk. Sigh, it's cold again today."

Leaning against the restroom wall, he spoke as he looked up at the sky. The stars seemed unusually large, but it was otherwise the same night sky as always.

Liuyun Crossing beneath the dark night was utterly silent. Other than the docks operating and circulating on their own, there seemed to be no sign of life. Even so, the Vidyadhara man's composed manner suggested he had long grown used to such things.

If he were an ordinary person, appearing here alone in the middle of the night would have seemed suspicious enough. More than that, neither his body nor his face resembled those of an ordinary office worker. Instead, he carried the air of someone accustomed to violence, while the broad saber clinking at his waist seemed to confirm it.

The public restroom wall behind him was a weathered, scorched brown. Huge patches of plaster had fallen away, and parts of the wall had even collapsed. It was clearly abandoned long ago. Yet strangely, the passageway outside the entrance had been swept exceptionally clean, and the fluorescent lights still provided decent illumination at night.

Clearly, this place was not as simple as it appeared.

A bell tied to the bars of the restroom's iron window was connected to a corner somewhere inside. If anything happened, the guard only needed to ring it, and the people inside would quickly receive the message and support from their companions.

That said, the Vidyadhara man guarding the entrance did not believe anything would happen. He had spent several years repeating the same work, and he assumed it would continue forever.

Growing tired of the future while eagerly awaiting his shift change, he was bored out of his mind when he suddenly heard steady footsteps approaching from afar.

The Vidyadhara man at the entrance immediately perked up. He widened his eyes at the young figure approaching. Clearly, that person was not on tonight's guest list.

"Hey, kid, are you blind? This place is—"

Before he could finish, he felt something icy resting against his neck. Looking down, he saw a long saber gleaming with cold light. He could faintly sense that the sharp aura radiating from the person before him was far beyond anything he could contend with.

In his own words, the only reason he had survived the first three hundred years of his life in peace was because of three words—"know the times."

Professional ethics, honor, morality—those were all bullshit. Was that little bit of money worth throwing away his life for?

So he immediately stepped aside, opened the door, and said with a flattering smile, "Haha, you're in a hurry to see the boss, right? Then I won't stop you. Please, go right in!"

With that, he fled the place in an utterly comical posture, looking back every few steps in utter misery.

Bai Jun had no interest in dealing with him. He simply used his scabbard to lift the filthy cloth curtain before the restroom and walked inside at a measured pace.

Beyond the curtain, an intense smell assaulted his nerves. The analysis came a second later—it was not ammonia, but sodium hypochlorite so concentrated it stung the nose.

Perhaps most law-abiding Xianzhou residents would never imagine that someone would open a clinic inside an abandoned public restroom.

"Let's see where the rats like to hide in the sewers..."

After scanning the room, Bai Jun quickly fixed his gaze on the crack between the third tile and the red brick within the partition wall.

Looking more closely, the crack was clearly separated from the floor, as though it was... a door?

With that thought, Bai Jun immediately raised his foot and stomped down.

First came the sound of metal parts breaking. Then a huge hole appeared in the wall. The damaged door panel made an exceptionally loud clattering sound as it slid all the way down the sturdy stairs, setting off panicked shouts from the guards below.

"So that's how it is. It's exactly like something out of a movie. Can't these people come up with something more original?"

Bai Jun muttered softly as he descended the stairs. First, he needed to clear out the troublesome people in his way.

At the deepest part of the "clinic" was a rather small room. The empty room contained only a table and a screen.

A man who looked like a physician was speaking with the burly Foxkin in front of him.

"Tch, cut the crap. This is a forbidden Alchemy Commission prescription, one used by the Vidyadhara to recover memories of their past lives. You should know its value." Zhan Guang tapped the tabletop impatiently, his eyes full of dissatisfaction with the black market dealer's offer.

Rather than a clinic, this place was more like an exchange.

The physician calmly took a sip of tea, a composed smile still lingering on his lips. "Naturally, I know its value. But you also know that things have been very tense lately. The name Medicine King's Legacy is quite taboo."

"No need to worry. I'm not with the Medicine King's Legacy anymore."

"I have no interest in your personal affairs. I only know that the notice posted by Shence Mansion says, 'A Medicine King's Legacy fiend stole a prescription. The crime is unforgivable.'" The physician set down his teacup and smiled as he shook his head. "Do you understand? My workers and I are only trying to earn a living. We do not wish to provoke Shence Mansion or the Ten Lords Bureau."

That was complete fucking bullshit. This bastard had made enough money running a black market here to get beheaded eight hundred times over, and now he was pretending to be a law-abiding citizen?

Zhan Guang clenched his fists, his teeth itching with rage, but he could do nothing to the physician. He had betrayed the Medicine King's Legacy and provoked both the Ten Lords Bureau and Shence Mansion. He needed to escape the Luofu as quickly as possible, so it was unwise to cause more trouble.

"Fine. Five thousand credits it is."

"Deal. You truly are a hero, sir." The physician's smile grew even smugger. He turned to retrieve the money, completely failing to notice the murderous resentment in Zhan Guang's eyes.

Just as he took out the money, shouts of combat and the tremendous sound of objects crashing together suddenly erupted outside. Startled, the physician immediately shouted toward the room beyond, "What happened out there?!"

But outside was deathly silent, as though the sounds from moments ago had merely been an illusion.

Yet the cold sweat pouring down the foreheads of both the physician and Zhan Guang proved that this was no dream. Without hesitation, the physician took out a full ten thousand credits and handed them to Zhan Guang, quietly stepping back several paces.

"S-Sir, could you please take a look outside and see what happened? Maybe the boys have gotten drunk and started fooling around again."

"Of course I can... You son of a bitch, you mangy dog! You're trying to trick me into taking a blade for you?"

Taking advantage of the physician's inattention, Zhan Guang slammed a fist into his face. Then, sweeping up the box full of Xun Di, he spat at the physician groaning on the floor. "You think I don't know you're planning to sneak out through the hidden door?"

With that, he overturned the screen in the room, kicked open the concealed door behind it, and hurriedly fled.

"Fuck you, you bastard!"

Ignoring the piercing pain in his broken nose, the physician forced himself to stand and tried to flee as well—

With a click, the door slowly opened.

"Ah!"

The physician hurriedly looked toward the door. A very young silver-haired man appeared in his vision. Through the half-open door, he could see corpses strewn across the hallway. His heart sank to the bottom.

He crawled across the cold ground like a dog and began begging through tears and snot.

"Is the prescription with you?" Bai Jun tossed out a question without context.

"P-Prescription? I don't know what prescription you mean..."

The physician hesitated for only an instant, but that fleeting reaction gave Bai Jun his answer. "How many interrogation methods used by Ten Lords Bureau adjudicators have you heard of? I'll ask one last time. Where is the prescription?"

"It's... it's..."

The reason the physician could maneuver between the Alchemy Commission and the black market, living freely beyond Xianzhou law, was not merely because his planning was meticulous. It was because he knew what to do and when to do it at critical moments...

The instant Bai Jun stepped closer, he bent his knees and lunged forward. Power surged through his heels, while a purple electric arc faintly flickered in the centers of his palms.

"Fucking magnetic field rotation!"

An electrical pulse network had been implanted beneath his artificial skin. He rarely showed this trump card to anyone.

Forget any Xianzhou Long-lived species, forget any Artisanship Commission mechanism... Under a full-power strike, they would all become nothing but charred lumps.

However, Bai Jun moved far faster than he did.

The physician had originally planned to use conversation to distract his opponent, then seize an opportunity to deliver a fatal strike. Yet the moment he leaped up, a scabbard strike far swifter and fiercer than Zhan Guang's punch came crashing into his face.

Thud—!

Before he could react, his nose had suffered a devastating blow. Immediately after, the unsheathed long saber pierced through the physician's hair knot and nailed him straight to the wall.

Amid the surging pain, the physician forced open his tear-blurred eyes and saw the saber above his head.

It was an unremarkable long saber, with a pale white blade forged in a seamless, single-piece style. It bore no elaborate carvings or flashy artistic markings. Its entire hilt was flawless snow-white, while the blade was laced with streaks of tempered blue, like transparent flames extending along the sharpest line of the blade before vanishing into the guard.

It looked heavy and sharp, as though it had only recently been polished. The light reflected from its edge reminded one of the moon over Yaoqing.

It was a weapon worthy of being called a work of art—if only it were not nailed through his head.

"Long story short, I don't want my reasonable sleeping hours occupied... Tell me, where are the prescription and the Medicine King's Legacy members?" Bai Jun asked the physician coldly. No, perhaps it sounded more like a mechanical command.

If anyone familiar with Bai Jun had been present, they would certainly have found his current state unfamiliar. Yet for some reason, even this Bai Jun did not seem out of place, as though this was how he was supposed to be all along.

"Cough... I'll talk! I'll tell you everything! Spare me, hero! Please spare me!"

The physician knew perfectly well that there was no point in arguing anymore. So, while maintaining the posture of "a sword hanging over his head," he confessed for an entire minute.

The young man withdrew the saber that resembled a work of art, took out his Jade Omen and tapped it a few times, then vanished from the spot, leaving only faint rustling from the hidden door.

The physician suddenly felt as though all strength had vanished from his body. His legs gave out, and he collapsed to the floor. When he finally recovered and tried to flee, he discovered that a woman dressed like an adjudicator had already pressed the spear-like tip of her staff against his throat.

His eyes rolled back, and he fainted from fright. In the end, he seemed to hear the adjudicators speaking.

"Big Sister, shouldn't you be recuperating inside the coffin? Why are you here?!"

"It's fine. Leave this place to Little Sister. I'm going to help him..."

"Big Sister!"

Thoughts on Launching Premium

As the title says, premium chapters will be available at noon.

It has almost been a year since I wrote my first novel last year.

Compared to when I first entered the industry, I have more experience now. Still, this is my first time trying a style that interweaves the main plot with daily-life chapters. The emotional interactions between characters and control over the story's pacing are both major challenges. Honestly, I still feel a little uncertain.

But no matter what, I truly want to thank all of you readers for your support up to this point. I will work even harder to write lighthearted and enjoyable daily-life content.

As for Bai Jun's past and the stories of the other characters, they will also gradually unfold in the coming chapters. I hope everyone can be patient and keep reading.

I will raise the update speed as much as possible and guarantee more than 6,000 words a day. After all, I have early morning classes every day, and the details of the work need polishing too, so there is no point getting impatient.

Ah, writing novels really is a painful marathon. Every day, I check the comment threads and reviews many times, worrying about whether I wrote poorly or not... That constant feeling of anxiety is not pleasant, especially when I see certain utterly baffling comments.