A Pair of Shoes by the Bed

"Before my bed, the moonlight shone; I thought it was frost upon the ground. I raised my head to gaze at the moon; I lowered it and thought of home. Although he plagiarized this poem from me, its imagery is decent. In particular, by looking up at the moon, it captures that feeling of the moon being full in the sky while people remain apart, laying bare the longing countless wanderers feel for their hometowns. A faint homesickness, like soundless heavenly music, lingered in the heart for a long while. Such feelings and scenery could only be understood, not spoken aloud—the ultimate embodiment of silence speaking louder than sound... But if you listen to my original work, you'll be even more amazed. My original is a masterpiece crafted by gods and ghosts, enough to shake heaven and make spirits weep! I dare say that once I recite it, you'll leap up in excitement and forget yourself as you beat upon my body..." Yue Yang stressed that his work was the original, and that its contents were so earthshaking they could move gods and ghosts to tears.

This piqued Bright-Eyed Thief's curiosity.

Could this kid really write poetry?

"Fine, then tell me your 'Quiet Night Thoughts' too." Bright-Eyed Thief did not think the kid could write poetry, but decided to give him a chance.

"Stand steady and listen carefully. Here comes my poem: Before my bed, a pair of shoes; my clothes lie on the ground like frost. I raise my head to gaze at the moon; I lower it to think of girls..." Before Yue Yang could finish, Bright-Eyed Thief sent him flying with a punch.

Bright-Eyed Thief felt that this guy ruined every good thing he touched.

After hearing "Quiet Night Thoughts," he had found its imagery beautiful—simple and easy to understand, yet capable of stirring the soul, more moving than those ornate and gorgeous poems.

At first, he had even planned to forgive him. Who could have known this kid was born asking for a beating?

Yue Yang was thick-skinned and did not care in the slightest. He sprang back up, grinning from ear to ear. "Actually, that was only a first draft. You should know that good poems are all revised. As the saying goes, 'Picking through lines and phrases is an old trifling craft; the dawn moon hangs before the curtain like a jade bow.' Don't rush me—I have a revised version of 'Quiet Night Thoughts.'"

Bright-Eyed Thief sneered. "Don't tell me any more nonsense about a pair of shoes by the bed. Keep it to savor by yourself!"

If the later line, "Picking through lines and phrases is an old trifling craft; the dawn moon hangs before the curtain like a jade bow," had not been so wonderfully written, Bright-Eyed Thief would have stabbed him to death and left long ago.

Now, however, there seemed to be a turn for the better.

Could he have merely been deliberately teasing him earlier?

Did this kid truly have a talent for poetry? Was he simply born with such a frivolous and unruly personality?

Yue Yang immediately protested, "It's revised, so of course it's no longer a pair of shoes by the bed. It's two pairs of shoes by the bed, clothes tossed upon the floor; I raise my head to gaze at the moon, lower it to kiss a girl! Whoa, heavens, let's talk this out! A gentleman uses his mouth, not his hands!" Yue Yang ran as soon as he finished, because Bright-Eyed Thief had already drawn his dagger, determined to stab this shameless bastard who had mangled a classic to death.

They chased each other through nine streets, yet Bright-Eyed Thief still refused to let him go.

In the end, Yue Yang had no choice but to use his ultimate move. He shouted, "Everyone, come look! There's a beautiful woman running naked through the streets!"

That shout made countless mercenaries poke their heads out to watch. Bright-Eyed Thief could not bear it anymore. He caught up, delivered a flying kick to Yue Yang's ass, then flashed away and disappeared.

Yue Yang rubbed his ass and muttered to himself, "That old Daoist kicked my ass, so he gave me his granddaughter, the Sword Spirit big sister, as my wife. Now that I've taken a kick from you, I can't make an exception. Though you can't compare to the sword-energy big sister, I'll reluctantly take you in as a little wife... All right, it's about time. Let's go see whether Iron Frenzy has died from exhaustion!"

Originally, Yue Yang had only intended to spend some money to hire a few girls and make Iron Frenzy wear himself out until he fell into a deep sleep.

There were many ways to kill someone. Among them, "'A beauty of sixteen was soft as pastry, a sword at her waist to slay a fool. Though no head was seen to fall, secretly his marrow dried away'" was one of the most effective and terrifying methods.

An old saying also went: wine is a sword that pierces the bowels, lust is a knife that scrapes the bones.

Yue Yang estimated that if Iron Frenzy had taken both the bowel-piercing sword and the bone-scraping knife, then if he still was not lying down by now, he could play Superman Tu'ao-man directly without makeup.

Thus, Yue Yang strolled over with a whistle, swaggering as leisurely as if he were taking a walk through his own garden.

When he reached the large house where Iron Frenzy was staying, he suddenly discovered an exceptionally busty woman hiding in the darkness by the door, quietly waiting for him.

"Young master, not only did we get Iron Frenzy drunk and put him to sleep, we have already tied him up. You can go in and kill him whenever you wish!" The busty woman dropped to her knees and knocked her head heavily against the ground.

Her words gave Yue Yang quite a fright.

How did these prostitutes know he wanted to kill Iron Frenzy?

Fortunately, they had not warned Iron Frenzy. Otherwise, waiting for him when he entered would have been a massive trap.

Judging by what the busty woman said, did they hold a grudge against Iron Frenzy? Yue Yang was secretly amazed at his luck. Good thing he had stumbled into the right thing by accident!

The busty woman kowtowed with tears in her eyes. "This humble woman will keep watch outside. Please hurry in and kill Iron Frenzy, young master. If too much time passes and he wakes up, things may change. Iron Frenzy's summoned beasts are extremely powerful, so please be careful!"

"How did you know I wanted to kill him?" Yue Yang found it strange. These prostitutes did not seem to be all breasts and no brains after all!

"Iron Frenzy wants women—he would never pay for them. Our husbands were all killed by him, and many of our sisters were forced by him into this pit of fire to become prostitutes and earn money for him. We are merely tools for him to make money. Tell me, would he pay when he wanted women? Earlier, when you said that mercenaries from the Berserk Beast Mercenary Corps had sent you to hire prostitutes for Commander Iron Frenzy and have us all serve him, we knew it had to be a lie... And when I looked into your eyes, you did not seem like a servant. You had neither the arrogant air of a servant nor the obsequious humility of one. Your gaze was clear and pure, yet it held a deeply concealed, unspoken pride, more like that of a young master standing above all others! So how could someone like you run errands and hire prostitutes for someone like Iron Frenzy over a little money? That was simply impossible! The only explanation was that you were an assassin plotting to kill Iron Frenzy, a killer who had come to carry out a Revenge Hunt against him, a great hero unafraid of power and devoted to defending justice, here to help the families of weak and helpless victims like us... Young master, you need not doubt us. The families listed on Iron Frenzy's Revenge Bounty Board are us sisters. All these years, we have never given up our Revenge Hunt against Iron Frenzy. We have only hoped that a great hero like you would appear!"

The busty woman's face was streaked with tears as she repeatedly kowtowed to Yue Yang in thanks.

Her keen powers of observation startled Yue Yang again.

It seemed he had underestimated the people of the Dragon Soaring Continent a little. From only such scant clues, this busty woman had made such a bold deduction—and one so accurate. She truly was no ordinary person!

Now he somewhat understood why they had not tipped Iron Frenzy off.

They were Iron Frenzy's avengers. Iron Frenzy was the murderer of their husbands, an enemy they could never coexist with under the same sky!

Still, he remained puzzled. "Since you got him drunk and tied him up, why didn't you kill him yourselves? Wouldn't that have been easy?"