The Yue Hongling in His Heart

"I told you not to wander around. If this really were a bandit den, how would you like to die? Luckily, these pits are new, and they haven't had time to plant spikes at the bottom. Otherwise, Yue Hongling, second on the Hidden Dragon ranking, dying here would be a real joke. Wonder if the Book of Troubled Times would crash..."

Zhao Changhe had enough sense not to let anyone watch Yue Hongling climb out of the pit. He chased everyone away before finding a way to pull her up, then gave her a thorough scolding once they were back inside.

"Other bandit dens don't have pits all over the ground! Besides, isn't this a bandit den? Tell me, what exactly do you mean by 'the chief's wife'?" Yue Hongling gritted her teeth, glaring at him so fiercely that she forgot the twisting pain of the Sword Qi inside her.

"What else was I supposed to say? 'There's a thief in my room! Boys, seize this woman who's tired of living'?" Zhao Changhe snapped. "My dear Sister Yue, you're injured. You can't fight back. A bunch of men poking spears into the pit could kill you. If I didn't say you were one of us, what should I have called you?"

Yue Hongling froze, unable to think of a retort.

There really was no arguing with that. He could only say she was one of his own. And a woman who was one of his own, in his room-was he supposed to call her an ordinary friend? To everyone else, that would only sound like he was trying to cover something up. All it would earn was a suggestive "Ohhh," which still made her the chief's wife...

"I didn't expect the Sword Qi to flare up right then, either. It wasn't doing that when I sneaked in earlier... It shouldn't have come to this..." Yue Hongling looked a little dazed.

It's over. My reputation.

I should never have come to this wretched place.

Zhao Changhe gave her a sidelong look. His established image of this woman had been turned completely upside down in almost an instant, yet, strangely, it did not feel shattered. Instead, he found her rather cute.

"All right, all right, stop looking like your world's fallen apart." Zhao Changhe handed her a cup of water. "Nobody knows you're Yue Hongling yet anyway. Just don't go to this bonfire feast. Stay in the room, and leave in a few days. Who'll know who you are? At most, they'll think I brought some woman back from a cheap brothel in town and had fun with her for a few days."

Yue Hongling said expressionlessly, "That would have been comforting if you'd left out the last sentence."

People imagining I'm some woman from a cheap brothel, hidden in your room for you to play with for days?

Drop dead.

Zhao Changhe did not know whether to laugh or cry. "Hiding won't do either, then what do you want, my dear sister?"

That was twice in a row he had called her "sister," and the teasing was unmistakable. It was outright mockery, as though he were saying, How was I blind enough to call someone like you my sister back then?

Yue Hongling clenched her pearly teeth in anger. "Find me a set of clothes from your stronghold. I'll disguise myself. What's wrong with going out openly to eat and drink with them? There are plenty of people in the world who look alike. Why must I be Yue Hongling? Can't I be called Lin Hongyue?"

What Luo Qi...

"Changing clothes and disguising yourself will work, but not so you can go drinking. You're injured. Don't push yourself." Zhao Changhe stood and patted her shoulder. "The disguise is so you can go about your day normally. Go out when you need to, beat someone up when you feel like it, without having to skulk around. That's not the Yue Hongling in my heart. We'll do that, then. I'll find you some clothes. Someone left without packing all his belongings, and he's about your size."

Watching Zhao Changhe rummage through the chest at the foot of the bed, Yue Hongling's expression grew somewhat strange again.

The Yue Hongling in his heart...

What was she like?

Soon, a set of clothes came flying over, carrying a faint fragrance. "Rest up. I'm going out to drink with them. It's New Year's, after all. It wouldn't look good if they thought their chief refused to celebrate with everyone because he was hiding in his room playing with a woman."

Playing with a woman, my ass!

Utterly vulgar.

Nothing happened at all, but these bastards make it sound as if we've done everything.

Wait, whose clothes are these? Why do they smell like a woman?

He really is a vulgar bandit chief. He must have played with women here before!

Yue Hongling rubbed her aching head, yet watching Zhao Changhe stride away, she could not work up any anger.

How interesting. He seemed to carry an imagined Yue Hongling in his heart, and when the real Yue Hongling failed to match her, he actually tried to preserve that imagined image.

Never mind all that. I need to pee before I burst. Yue Hongling's eyes darted around the room, and she rushed toward the chamber pot as though she had spotted a beloved relative.

Night deepened, and bonfires burned throughout the Mountain Stronghold, the revelry shaking the heavens.

There were not many small fry in the Mountain Stronghold, only three or four hundred in all. Yet the sight of three or four hundred people gathered for a drinking spree was still spectacular, a seething tumult of noise.

The chief's house stood considerably higher than the square. Yue Hongling draped a garment over herself and stepped outside, looking down at the revelry below.

A large banner stood at the edge of the square, fluttering in the night wind. She could just make out the words written on it: "Uphold Heaven's Justice."

Yue Hongling studied the banner with interest, thinking that those words were often an excuse for bandits. Yet he did not seem to have any intention of upholding Heaven's justice. He walked his own path.

Her gaze swept the gathering, and she quickly found Zhao Changhe. He stood out far too much.

Carrying a large wine jug, Zhao Changhe went around drinking with everyone, turning no one away. His voice was so booming that she could pick it out clearly even amid all the noise.

"That's only a few cups! Are you a man or not? Drink up, and quit playing dumb!"

"Fight and drink? Good, good, good! That'll work. Split into teams. I'll put up the prize money. Winners get paid, losers drink!"

"'Boss' doesn't sound good? What do you want to call me, then? Your Majesty? Quit joking, will you? Uh... head chief? You might as well call me the Joker."

"When will I reach the second level of the Profound Pass? No idea. Who gives a damn?"

Yue Hongling also heard words concerning herself. Someone seemed to ask, "Boss, Yue Hongling passed through earlier. Could she still be nearby? What if someone that powerful comes to wipe us out?"

Zhao Changhe waved a hand. "No problem. I'll handle her!"

Yue Hongling: "..."

"Hey, boss, what about the missus you've hidden in your room? The more I think about it, the more she looks a bit like Yue Hongling."

"How little food did you have to get this drunk? If Yue Hongling really were in my room, would I still be shooting the shit with you? I'd have fucking gone in to play with her already."

Yue Hongling: "..."

"Aw, I wasn't saying she actually is Yue Hongling. Just that she looks a bit like her. Boss, don't tell me you picked the missus for her resemblance to Yue Hongling?"

"So what? What's wrong with picking someone who looks like Yue Hongling?"

"So that's the boss's type..."

Someone else nearby joined in. "No shit. Yue Hongling's that beautiful-ask anyone in the jianghu who wouldn't want to pin her down on a bed!"

Yue Hongling: "..."

"Hahaha, too right!" A whole group began buttering him up. "I reckon the boss is good enough for Yue Hongling, too. Sooner or later, he'll get the real thing!"

Zhao Changhe, who had handled everything effortlessly until now, suddenly found himself struggling. "Drink, drink! Quit your fucking pipe dreams! If you can't drink, go sit at the dogs' table!"

Of course he was struggling. Heaven knew whether Yue Hongling could hear all this. The five senses of someone at the eighth level of the Profound Pass were no joke!

Then someone even more tactless piped up. "If the boss gets Yue Hongling, what about Saintess Xia... uh..."

"Fuck..." Zhao Changhe's face was scarlet, though it was hard to tell how much was the wine and how much was panic.

Someone quick-witted hurriedly said, "Boss, you should drink less, too. The missus is waiting alone in her room... All that about Yue Hongling and the Saintess was just us talking nonsense. Don't take it seriously."

Amid the roaring laughter, Zhao Changhe beat an awkward retreat. "Enough. I'm going back to check on her. Can't be bothered with you lot. Have fun."

As soon as he reached the house, he saw Yue Hongling standing outside. Her beautiful eyes glanced his way, holding who knew how much embarrassment and anger.

Zhao Changhe nearly turned tail and ran. Apparently, she had heard every last word... And the Sword Qi inside her was not acting up constantly. If she really lashed out in embarrassed fury and slashed at him, he would not last a single exchange...

Fortunately, Yue Hongling did not coldly ask something impossible to answer, like, "How exactly do you intend to play with Yue Hongling now that she really is in your room?" Instead, she suddenly smiled. "This pond is too shallow. I looked through the entire Mountain Stronghold, and you really are the only person at the first level of the Profound Pass. I truly don't understand. You clearly hold hills and valleys within your breast, and your ambitions aren't small. Why are you content to muddle along here? Besides, your path and the Demon Cult's are like heading south while driving north. How can you bear staying?"

Zhao Changhe let out a breath. This Yue Hongling was much closer to the Yue Hongling in his heart. His spirits lifted, and he answered earnestly, "In the short term, it still suits me... Hmm, call it a safe starting point? The people nearby at the first and second levels are just right for practice... At my current level, if I rush out into the jianghu, I could run into anyone and die without knowing what hit me. As for the Demon Cult..."

He paused, then suddenly smiled. "Only rotten fish and stinking shrimp have come looking for trouble. No real demonic cultivators have come to challenge me, and no bounty hunters have shown up either. That's because I belong to the Blood God Cult... Not everyone dares to provoke the Blood God Cult."

"True..." Yue Hongling nodded. "After all, you've been practicing martial arts for less than two months. What you've achieved already is remarkable... Perhaps your presence is too imposing. You always make people feel as though you're an expert who's been famous for years."

At that, her fine brows knitted slightly. "Your fortunes are strange, too... The authorities have you on their wanted list, so the Righteous Path has no room for you. If you rashly leave the Demon Cult, they won't tolerate you either. You'd have nowhere left to stand."

Zhao Changhe smiled. His path was indeed troublesome. He was suspected of being a prince, and even if First Seat Tang knew, he would not dare revoke the wanted notice. Otherwise, to anyone watching closely, that might seem to confirm something, putting him in even greater danger. In other words, until he formally acknowledged that father who had appeared out of nowhere, the wanted notice would probably remain in force.

If he did not want to take that path, then, as things stood, betraying the cult and venturing into the jianghu really would leave him rejected by both righteous and demonic factions, every step tangled in thorns. That was one reason he had kept hesitating and had not left this little pond.

Of course, with enough strength, none of that would be a problem.

"So..." Zhao Changhe suddenly smiled. "Could I learn martial arts from you, sister?"

Yue Hongling's eyes flickered.

They gazed at each other with complicated expressions, beneath the moonlight and amid the clamor, like a painting frozen in time.

After all those twists and turns, they were still as they had been at their first meeting.

After a long while, Yue Hongling smiled, too. "All right."