Dream Lover

"Because of Jin Banhua?"

Fang Yunhua nodded slightly.

This made Chu Liuxiang feel an ever-growing affinity with him, for the help he had requested was for a friend's sake.

Then he nodded and said,

"It will take some time. Within seven days, I'll send someone to deliver the White Jade Beauty to Mount Hua."

"Good."

Fang Yunhua took out a thick stack of banknotes. At a rough estimate, they were worth enough to buy three White Jade Beauties.

Chu Liuxiang shook his head and moved to push the banknotes back across the table, but before he could voice his refusal, Fang Yunhua spoke.

"I know your character, Master Chu. Even if you took the White Jade Beauty, you only meant to exchange it for some money to help impoverished families, orphans, and widows. Since I'm the one asking to redeem it now, I naturally can't let you bear that expense.

"Consider it Mount Hua's humble contribution to the common people caught in the turbulent tides of the martial world."

Chu Liuxiang fell silent.

He could no longer refuse. The other man had made it clear that this charitable act represented all of Mount Hua. He could refuse Fang Yunhua's money in a personal capacity, but he had no right to speak on behalf of all those impoverished families.

Finally, he sighed deeply and said as he put away the stack of banknotes,

"I wanted to make amends, but somehow I feel as though I only owe you more and more."

"Why would you say that, Master Chu? That little misunderstanding between us was settled long ago, when you helped me gain insight into the Thirteen Forms of the Clear Wind."

Fang Yunhua looked at Chu Liuxiang with feigned puzzlement.

Chu Liuxiang hesitated, words hovering on his lips. Since the other man was willing to spend a considerable sum redeeming the White Jade Beauty for his friend, he naturally wanted to do something on behalf of his own unreliable friend, for the woman whose finest years had been wasted.

Moreover, the banknotes Fang Yunhua had just offered to redeem the White Jade Beauty were worth three times its original estimated value. That was yet another favor.

And yet neither matter seemed to have much direct connection to Chu Liuxiang.

After all, it was Hu Tiehua who had let Gao Yanan down, and the banknotes would certainly not be used to support Chu Liuxiang himself.

But a gentleman could all too easily shoulder such responsibilities. As Chu Liuxiang silently considered how to repay this debt of gratitude, Fang Yunhua suddenly steered the conversation back to his original reason for coming here.

"Master Chu, perhaps you should tell me why you disguised yourself as Jin Banhua. Quite a few of our Mount Hua disciples saw us sparring earlier, and some of them have very loose tongues.

"If word of this happens to get out, Old Jin, who's already beside himself over the theft of the White Jade Beauty, will probably stamp his feet in fury on the spot when he learns you wore his face to meet me."

Fang Yunhua chuckled, looking as though he were eager to enjoy the spectacle.

Chu Liuxiang rubbed his nose helplessly again. After engraving that inexplicable debt of gratitude in his heart, he began to explain his circumstances in detail.

He told him about the five floating corpses.

He told him about the cause of the Divine Water Palace disciple's death.

And he told him about the one-month deadline he had agreed upon with Gong Nanyan.

At this point, Chu Liuxiang held nothing back from Fang Yunhua. Clearly, not a trace of suspicion remained in his heart-a world of difference from when he had first come up the mountain and immediately singled him out as the prime suspect.

To turn around that less-than-favorable first impression, Fang Yunhua had done nothing more than spar with him and chat a little along the way.

"Your conjecture was correct."

After three minutes of silence, Fang Yunhua's sudden words startled Chu Liuxiang.

"By correct, you mean..."

"Your initial personality profile of the murderer who seduced that Divine Water Palace disciple. He must be eloquent, clever, skilled at winning girls' hearts, and quite the ladies' man. Young girls truly find men like that impossible to resist."

"Personality profile... a very apt description."

Even as Chu Liuxiang inwardly breathed a sigh of relief, the new term Fang Yunhua had used caught his interest.

Fang Yunhua continued,

"But that man isn't me."

"I believe you." Chu Liuxiang answered without the slightest hesitation.

Perhaps he had already come to regard Fang Yunhua as a friend without realizing it. A man like him would never suspect his friends unless stark, undeniable evidence lay before his eyes. Another fellow who fit that description was Lu Xiaofeng.

"Then, with me ruled out, and you ruled out as well... I wonder whether you've heard a certain rumor circulating in the martial world these past few years."

Fang Yunhua gave Chu Liuxiang, who had raised his teacup again, a meaningful look. After slowly sipping his tea, Chu Liuxiang understood what he meant.

"Autumn Clouds, Spring Blossoms; Fragrant Thief; Peerless Monk. Those are the top three whom countless heroines and young ladies now call their dream lovers."

Speaking of this, Chu Liuxiang rubbed his nose rather awkwardly. The rumors in the martial world were nowhere near as restrained as his account. The bolder version claimed that if a woman never enjoyed a sweet romance with one of those three in her lifetime, then however much she stirred the winds and overturned the clouds of the martial world, she would still have lived in vain.

"That rumor is far too exaggerated. I don't even know who started it."

Chu Liuxiang felt under considerable pressure. Influenced by the rumor, quite a few women who collected lovers like stamps had him in their sights. Yet he was a man who cherished and treasured flowers; even when refusing them, he did everything possible to preserve their dignity.

That, too, demanded a great deal of care and effort. After all, a single misstep might inflict immeasurable hurt on girls filled with romantic dreams.

Fang Yunhua, however, said nothing, silently laughing to himself.

For he was the very person who had created that rumor. Looking back over his past actions now, he realized that, perhaps under the influence of lingering memories from his previous life, some of his behavior had been out of step with this entire era from very early on.

For this particular rumor, he had deliberately selected Wuhua and Chu Liuxiang, both already illustrious at the time, and hitched himself to their fame to raise his own profile.

Once his title of Amorous Young Master began to overshadow the rumor, no one would bother to question which reputation had come first.

In truth, this plan to gain fame through public opinion had been highly successful. Rather than hearing about the spread of someone's heroic reputation, people in the martial world preferred gossip-and through it, they had firmly remembered his name, Fang Yunhua.

Now, after bringing up that rumor, Chu Liuxiang also understood what Fang Yunhua had been implying earlier.

"Not you, not me. So you suspect Wuhua."

"Just as you suspected me first, Master Chu. I thought your earlier deductions and personality profile were quite sound. Following that logic, if the person capable of doing this in the martial world is neither you nor me, then the only one left is the Peerless Monk, whose name stands alongside ours."

Fang Yunhua shrugged innocently, prompting Chu Liuxiang to shake his head helplessly.

"No. It couldn't be him."

Of course, he showed no displeasure at Fang Yunhua's suspicion. He knew Fang Yunhua and Wuhua were unacquainted. Since he himself had suspected Fang Yunhua earlier, why should Fang Yunhua not suspect Wuhua?

There was no grievance or enmity between the two. A little conjecture amounted to nothing.

But what Chu Liuxiang did not know was that Fang Yunhua and Wuhua did have a feud-or rather, Wuhua's mother, Stone Guanyin, and the whole of Mount Hua were bound by a blood feud over the slaughter of an entire clan. That hatred had endured, and she had already put quite a few measures of revenge into motion.