If Only There Were a Second Chance

Standing at the academy gates.

Watching Xiao Wu follow several meters behind Tang San, Ye Qiu couldn't help smiling faintly.

Once the hairs standing on his arm had settled back down,

and Tang Hao's probing presence had moved away,

Ye Qiu finally turned and left. He headed in the exact opposite direction from Xiao Wu.

He was going to Sunset Forest to enter the Celestial Herbs extraction code.

That was right.

Ye Qiu planned to fool Dugu Bo—or, rather, help him suppress the poison in his body.

After all, he was a man with no one to rely on now.

So what if he'd eaten Celestial Herbs?

When you made your way in the world, talent alone wasn't enough. How could you get by without connections?

Your status out in the world was something you had to fight for yourself.

Dugu Bo was an excellent choice: a Titled Douluo who belonged to no faction. His only family was his granddaughter, Dugu Yan, whom Ye Qiu was more than capable of saving. Ye Qiu felt he could easily get Dugu Bo firmly on his side.

Ye Qiu remembered that Dugu Bo's symptoms sounded a little like rheumatism, so he'd managed to commit the details of this code to memory.

Besides, most fanfics mentioned it at some point.

Celestial Herbs extraction code:

Whenever the weather turned overcast or rainy, Dugu Bo would feel an itchy, numb sensation under his ribs. It would gradually intensify and last for more than an hour, striking once at noon and once at midnight.

Every night, at around three in the morning, Dugu Bo would feel needle-like pains in the crown of his head and the soles of his feet. His whole body would convulse, and the pain would last for at least half an hour.

Ye Qiu was still new to the area, after all.

Even though he had a clear destination, he remained extremely cautious on his journey to Sunset Forest.

For most of the way, he had to rely on himself for protection.

Things were much easier once he reached a city. He could use his status in Spirit Hall to get free food and lodging, along with a free night watchman, and sleep peacefully.

It took Ye Qiu half a month to reach Sunset Forest. He then began searching for the poisonous fog deep in the forest's center, and was spotted by Ten-Thousand Year Soul Beasts several times.

Fortunately, Ye Qiu activated Martial Soul Possession in time. He was smashed into a puddle of black fluid and trampled mercilessly by the Soul Beasts, then slowly found a place where he could recover.

Hard work paid off!

After three days of searching, Ye Qiu finally found the poisonous fog outside the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well.

Notting Academy.

Each year consisted of a single school term, followed by a break of nearly two months.

In the blink of an eye,

it was time for school to start again.

This year,

would be Ye Qiu's final year at Notting Academy.

Xiao Wu and Tang San had returned to the academy from Holy Soul Village early.

"Xiao Wu, want to go eat together?"

In Dorm Seven,

after Tang San had finished packing his things, he walked over to Xiao Wu and invited her.

Xiao Wu had already finished unpacking. She sat by the bed, staring without blinking at the doorway to Dorm Seven. When she heard Tang San, she looked up at him, then turned her gaze away and gently shook her head.

"Xiao San, I'm not hungry. Go ahead without me."

"All right."

Tang San knew she was waiting for Ye Qiu to come back. His expression turned a little awkward, and he tried to reassure her. "Don't worry. Ye Qiu promised he'd come back, so he definitely won't break his word. He might already be on his way."

"Mm, I know he'll come back."

Xiao Wu nodded slightly and smiled. Without even looking at Tang San, she continued watching the doorway.

"..."

Tang San opened his mouth, then sighed helplessly and turned to leave, his expression downcast.

Xiao Wu was the only girl in Dorm Seven. After all these years together, even the "pure and incorruptible" Tang San couldn't help feeling a little tenderness toward her. But Xiao Wu had given her whole heart to Ye Qiu. No matter how he tried to show her kindness, he couldn't get any closer to her.

While Ye Qiu was away,

Tang San often wondered:

If, back then, when Xiao Wu had looked at his blanket, he'd invited her to share it with him, would he be the one Xiao Wu missed now?

Too bad there was no second chance.

With Ye Qiu still around, all Tang San could do was think of Xiao Wu as a younger sister.

After Tang San left,

Dorm Seven fell completely silent.

Xiao Wu stared at the doorway, looking dazed. Her lips puckered in a pout as she walked over to Ye Qiu's bed and began straightening the bedding she'd made up for him earlier.

Several kilometers outside Notting City,

Ye Qiu, with short black hair and dressed in black, was being carried through the air by someone.

The man holding Ye Qiu had dark green hair and a matching beard. He wore a gray robe, and his dark green eyes sat above a tall, straight figure as rigid as a spear. A hint of an evil grin played across his face.

"Senior Dugu, you can drop me off here. Sorry for the trouble." Ye Qiu looked at the small city in the distance and forced a smile. Dugu Bo flew too fast; Ye Qiu had been choking on wind the whole way.

"Ke ke ke!"

Dugu Bo let out a strange laugh, landed in a small grove below, and tossed Ye Qiu onto the ground.

"Kid, I really don't understand why you'd come to this backwater. If you ask me, you should've gone along with my Yan'er and enrolled at Heaven Dou Royal Academy."

"Seriously! Couldn't you have been a little gentler? You're going to break me."

"If you keep this up, I'll complain when we get back."

Ye Qiu rolled twice in the air to dissipate the force, then regained his footing. He gave the Poison Douluo, a mischievous old man who seemed both righteous and wicked, a resentful look.

"Haha. With your constitution, even a higher fall wouldn't hurt you." Dugu Bo stood on a treetop, stroking his dark green beard as he lectured him. "You didn't even die when you tried to steal medicine, fell off a cliff, and landed in Yan'er's bathtub."

"Don't bring that up! And speaking of Sister Yan, I still haven't called you out on what you did. Even if you were in a hurry for grandchildren, you shouldn't have drugged us." Ye Qiu rolled his eyes. He hadn't expected the old poisoner to be such a character that he'd even drug his own granddaughter.

"Hmph! What's wrong with getting you two together sooner? Watching young people fawn over each other makes my liver ache!" Dugu Bo remembered how his granddaughter had first looked down on Ye Qiu, then threatened to beat him to death for seeing her naked, only to later stick close to him herself. It made his liver ache.

The most infuriating part was that Ye Qiu had actually dared to keep his granddaughter hanging, acting as though he were already married and making Yan'er pine for someone she couldn't have. The nerve of the kid!

That "married man" was stuck to his granddaughter every day, claiming it helped him cultivate faster and made it easier to clear the poison from her body. And somehow, he'd ended up wrapped around her legs in black stockings.

What kind of married man did that?

Seeing Dugu Bo's hostile gaze, Ye Qiu guiltily looked away. Wasn't he just worried Dugu Bo would turn the tables and trap him instead?

If that happened, what would become of the bunny he'd worked so hard to win over? How could he give her a warm home in the future? So of course he had to get Dugu Yan to make her position clear. He wanted to take responsibility, but he didn't want to suffer through a love rivalry. It might make others jealous, but it would wear him down and leave him exhausted—not worth it.