Love from the Male Protagonist’s Harem - Chapter 7
“Did you kill it?”
Unexpectedly, Chu Yao didn’t seem the least grateful for Xia Ge’s brave ‘hero saves the beauty’ act. On the contrary, Chu Yao appeared quite indignant.
“Kill it?” Xia Ge doubted that. “Its clothes were charmed.”
‘Yimei,’ or charmed clothing, had been in The Boundless Beauty of the Wind and the Moon, but Xia Ge couldn’t remember much about it. The book had been a little complicated and some stuff Xia Ge had skimmed over. Anyways, she did know that it was some kind of weird spirit that possessed clothes. If a person wore the possessed clothes, the spirit could lend its strength to the person. And a person with a firm will could turn the Yimei into a formidable weapon. On the other hand, someone weak-willed would be controlled by the charmed clothes and turn into a puppet.
The woman with rolling white eyes had clearly been controlled by the Yimei.
No……it looked more like the woman had already been dead.
“Of course I knew it was a Yimei!”
Xia Ge had thought the other girl might sob or be alarmed, not anticipating such bold words. But then Xia Ge saw killer girl’s pupils shrink, as if she’d sensed something. Chu Yao shot Xia Ge a ferocious glance: “—-I will remember you, and next time we meet I’ll settle my account with you!”
A black shadow flashed away before Xia Ge’s eyes, the dagger previously stuck in the floor gone.
“Even I don’t kill you, I won’t let you live easy!”
How could she, Chu Yao, allow others to take advantage of her?!
Xia Ge snorted to herself with a smile. Running off like a dog with its tail between its legs…how scary can you be?
More worthy of attention was the charmed clothing.
Jumping off the table, Xia Ge made her way over the gray-clad puppet lying dead on the ground, planning to rip away some bits of cloth.
However her internal FLAG hadn’t even been set for three seconds when…
—-There was a confusing scorched scent in the air, accompanied by the sound of something burning.
All at once, a bad feeling seized Xia Ge.
Somewhat stiffly turning her head, she looked to place where she’d originally been doing her copying.
The seat she’d sat in remained covered in darts.
And a small ball of paper still lay on the floor under the table. It’d hit her on the temple when Ye Ze had brought her food, then rolled onto the ground. There’d been no hurry to pick it up.
Only now the paper ball was burning.
The legs of the table were also burning…
Wait, wait-wait—–
“Aaahhhhhhhh—–”
The flames, as if they were aware of Xia Ge’s panic, consumed the table legs in a deliberate and unhurried manner. Yet now that Xia Ge had realized she needed to rescue her copying, like a hungry tiger pouncing on its prey, the fire reached up to the stack of paper atop the table—.
“Boom—”
The fierce blaze instantly exploded like glittering fireworks, devouring everything on the table until only ashes were left!
With a lick of the fire’s raging tongue, Xia Ge’s 300 pages were nothing but powder, disappearing in a flash.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck—-my work, ah, ah, ahhh—-”
Unexpectedly grabbed by the neck, Xia Ge burst into tears: “Don’t pull me back, my copying, ahhhhhhh—-”
She finally appreciated why moths fluttered straight to a flame.
She’s nothing but an insect now! She has to throw herself at the fire and extinguish it! Ahhhhh!!!!
…Wait a minute, who was holding onto her?
What the fuck? Was she being haunted or had the charmed clothes revived its body?
Impossible. The charmed clothes puppet was definitely dead. Xia Ge’s system had shown her exactly where to target the spirit and her aim had been true. No, she’d hit it dead-on a moment ago, it was impossible that she’d missed! So, haunted…was Danfeng haunted?!
Xia Ge’s body froze.
But if it wasn’t the gray puppet, and this place couldn’t be haunted, then…who was behind Xia Ge?
The conflagration abruptly died out, the smell of charred pearwood lingering faintly, and the voice in Xia Ge’s ear was as crystal-cool as a clear spring: “Xia Wuyin.”
Xia Ge: “……”
Oh come on…she’d just sent off one killer girl and now she had to deal with impossible-to-fool Senior Sister?
(Well, she did have a sweet-sounding voice and was as lovely as a flower. Perhaps Senior Sister wasn’t concerned with Siguo Pavilion but was in love?)
Xia Ge hadn’t yet organized her words and facial expression when Senior Sister spoke again, cold and indifferent: “A little bit ago…what were you yelling about?”
At a loss, Xia Ge prevaricated: “Huh, what? What was I…yelling? I wasn’t yelling anything.”
Gu Peijiu was silent for a very long moment.
But just Xia Ge thought she might’ve successfully bluffed her way out, she was surprised to be ruthlessly lifted up and turned around.
Under bright and beautiful moonlight, Senior Sister’s icy gaze collided with Xia Ge’s pupils.
“Xia Wuyin, were you not wailing previously about your purity being defiled?”
Xia Ge: “……”
Well, this was (all caps) AWKWARD.
The expression on Gu Peijiu’s face was so completely earnest and serious that the jest Xia Ge had been about to make died in her throat.
Eventually Xia Ge managed to pull it together, looked Gu Peijiu straight in the eyeballs, and said in a conscientious tone: “……I was just playing around earlier.”
Therefore…Senior Sister, can’t you put me down?
FLAG
“立flag”
A plot or words of a character in an animation, etc., that would usually lead to a specific outcome or event, not logically or causally, but as a pattern of the animation, etc., for example the words like “I will stop doing evil after this one last job” from a character, who usually would not survive the “job”. Also figurative.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%AB%8Bflag
It simply means to set a goal (定目标), in younger net-slang parlance (网络语).
Evidently, Senior Sister couldn’t decipher Xia Ge’s inner yearnings. Instead Gu Peijiu stared deeply into Xia Ge’s eyes, obviously unconvinced by Xia Ge’s explanation of ‘just playing around.’
However, Xia Ge’s expression was undaunted. Gu Peijiu knew that nothing would come of asking any further. So she kept her grip on Xia Ge, carrying the outer disciple over to the Yimei that still lay on the ground in neither life nor death.
“You killed it?”
Expertly playing dumb, Xia Ge prattled: “Uh? I don’t know, it wasn’t me—-”
[Ding! Congratulations On Receiving The Impression Of ‘Outer Disciple Who Likes To Lie’ From Gu Peijiu, A Senior Disciple Of Danfeng. This Impression Will Result In Your Credibility To Drop By 60% To The Target. Please Pay Careful Attention.]
Xia Ge: “……”
Under the cold, cold scrutiny of Senior Sister, Xia Ge spoke with a guilty heart: “It really wasn’t me……”
Could her system’s prompts be any more useless?!
“Oh?”
Gu Peijiu again fixed her attention on the boy who that all glib tongue and not an ounce of truth, her black eyes slightly narrowed: “You mean to tell me that the Yimei came in by itself, knocked into all these desks and tables, threw itself against the wall, and then finally committed suicide?”
“Why would it do so many unnecessary things all on its own……”
Xia Ge spat out mocking words without thinking, before catching herself and promptly shutting up.
With an expressionless face, Gu Peijiu lifted Xia Ge even higher, until they were eyeball to eyeball: “I too find it improbable that it would do such unnecessary things.”
“……”
Xia Ge uttered weakly: “I really don’t wanna tell the truth……”
Gu Peijiu: “Speak.”
Expression filled with suffering, Xia Ge said: “There was a perverted killer girl just here, she……”
Hesitating, Xia Ge bit back the rest of her words.
Gu Peijiu frowned.
Xia Ge went on in a whisper: “……she touched my chest.”
Gu Peijiu: “……”
“She was too much! Terrible and a pervert too! This ‘biu’ slammed the Yimei into the wall with one kick! She’s the one who broke the table! Don’t ask me to pay for the damages, I don’t have the money!”
Gu Peijiu’s visage remained wooden: “……”
“And she’s the one who killed the Yimei!! Then she burned my copying, trying to cover up the true story! But I guess she ran away with her tail between her legs when she knew Senior Sister was coming! How embarrassing!!”
Covering her face with her hands, Xia Ge continued in a tearful voice: “Senior Sister, to tell the truth, I wasn’t just ‘playing around.’ So please give me your support! I……not only did she defile my purity……Ow, Senior Sister!! I’d copied the Danxun 3,000 times, but she burned them all up too!! What an asshole killer!!!”
Gu Peijiu: “……your purity is a separate matter, but you’re saying you finished 3,000 copies today?”
Xia Ge wailed: “Uh-huh, three thousand—-”
[Ding! Congratulations On Receiving The Impression Of ‘Outer Disciple Full Of Lies’ From Gu Peijiu, A Senior Disciple Of Danfeng. This Impression Will Result In Your Credibility To Drop By 100% For That Subject. Please Pay Careful Attention.]
Xia Ge: “……”
Of courses she knew Senior Sister wouldn’t believe her! Garbage system! No need to rub it in her face!
However, Senior Sister, there’s no evidence otherwise. Even if you don’t believe, it’s useless.
It’s all burnt up anyways! Who could know how many copies were reduced to ashes—-
Nah. With no proof left, it didn’t matter if Xia Ge fudged numbers a little……right?
Gu Peijiu gave Xia Ge an icy, detached look, and letting go of her hold, threw the smaller disciple to one side: “It takes about 300 pages to copy the Danxun once. 3,000 copies of the Danxun would take about 900,000 pages.”
Pointing at the charred pearwood table where black ashes were fluttering in the breeze, Gu Peijiu went on: “Xia Wuyin, considering the fact that there wasn’t enough blank paper in Siguo Pavilion to begin with—-do you still claim that you wrote 900,000 pages by this evening?”
Senior Sister had visited Siguo Pavilion earlier that day, Xia Ge belatedly remembered, when Xia Ge had been joking around with Ye Ze. Senior Sister had probably gauged Xia Ge’s true progress at that time.
Xia Ge: “……”
Beneath the soft moonlight, the corners of Gu Peijiu’s mouth curled slightly as she considered Xia Ge: “Such ability.”
Xia Ge possessed nothing but shamelessness: “Senior Sister is very good at counting numbers. Honestly, I only finished 30 copies…”
“Xia Wuyin.”
Gu Peijiu interrupted Xia Ge’s words, black pupils still as stone: “I promise you, if you lie to me one more time, I will have you copy the Danxun 300,000 times.”
“You will remain here in Siguo Pavilion for a lifetime.”
Xia Ge: “……”
“It wasn’t my intention to investigate how many copies you’d finished.” Seeing that Xia Wuyin was looking quite scared, Gu Peijiu slightly softened her tone, “It’s true that you were frightened by a killer today, and I am at fault for not watching over you properly.”
“However, since you are trying to become an inner disciple of Danfeng, you have to remember that the younger generations of Danfeng must shoulder morality and justice, keeping in mind the whole world; courage and knowledge, next propriety and integrity, and most important, if you are to serve the world, earning trust by being honest. Without truthfulness, there is no trust.”
Gu Peijiu’s words were very clear.
Her eyes were tralucent, her voice like flowing water: “I don’t know what you’ve gone through before now, and I don’t intend to judge you as a person, but from where I stand—you must tell the truth.”
Xia Ge was left with no alternative.
(Senior, must I? Based on my 0% credibility with you, even if I tell the truth, will you believe me?)
Only after knowing she was bankrupt in Gu Peijiu’s eyes, did Xia Ge pause to worry about it.
“Now, give me an answer when I ask.”
Xia Ge: “ ……ask.”
The thought of copying the Danxun 300,000 times was still a little terrorizing……
Gu Peijiu stared in Xia Ge’s eyes, cleanly enunciating every word: “Who killed the Yimei?”
“……”
There a lump in Xia Ge’s throat.
That was really……—‘drawing blood with one prick,’ just going straight to the crucial point.
“Speak.”
“”
“……I killed it.”
Now Xia Ge spoke in all earnestness: “The puppet was trying rush over and kill me, so I snatched the killer pervert’s dagger, threw it at the Yimei and it died.”
Glancing at Xia Ge, Gu Peijiu saw that Xia Ge was like a ‘dead mouse that fears no cold.’ There was no point in questioning the obvious holes in the outer disciple’s story—-
Such as the killer’s dagger. It was so easy to steal?
And……
Gu Peijiu eyed the lifeless charmed clothing and the corpse wearing it laying on the floor.
The shoulder was where the spirit of the Yimei had been located, and by cutting a small bit of cloth, a sharp weapon had wiped it out.
What kind of strength and accuracy was this?
How could someone who possessed such force and control not pass Danfeng’s very minor Bigu Dan-making examination?
Gu Peijiu’s brow slightly furrowed.
This kid……
[Ding! Congratulations On Winning The Impression Of ‘Cunning Bastard’ From Gu Peijiu, A Senior Disciple Of Danfeng! This Impression Will Result In A 10% Rise Of Credibility With The Target. Please Pay Careful Attention.]
Xia Ge: “……”
Garbage system! She really and truly didn’t want to know what impression this high-grade Senior Sister had of her!
……what the hell, ‘cunning bastard?’ And why did being a ‘cunning bastard’ increase her credibility by 10%? Senior Sister wouldn’t have any unusual desires, surely……
Internally slandering Senior Sister, Xia Ge snapped back to attention when Gu Peijiu said flatly: “I won’t ask you anymore superfluous questions.”
Xia Ge’s inner bullet screen of trolling comments paused—-huh? What that a good thing or a bad thing?
But fun times never seem to last more than three seconds.
“Now, I’ll give you two choices.”
“First choice, you finish the rest of your copying here in Siguo Pavilion.”
A gleam of light flashed through Gu Peijiu’s beautiful black pupils as she gave Xia Ge a sidelong look: “I know you only finished one copy today.”
Xia Ge: “!!!”
Seeing the dressed in hemp cunning bastard’s deeply pained expression, Gu Peijiu knew her guess had been correct.
—Enough to give one a bit of a headache
Unbelievable. Just one copy……
This little bastard’s deceit apparently knew no end.
“The second choice, if you’re interested……” Gu Peijiu felt her headache intensifying, but continued on: “Consider it as compensation for the fright you’ve gotten—you don’t have to copy the Danxun anymore and your monthly salary will be paid to you in full……”
Dumbfounded, Xia Ge asked: “Why is the second choice so good?”
“Mmm, I lack a youngster to serve me. And looking at your wonderful bones, I think you’re a good seedling.”
Xia Ge: “……”
Sending another sideways glance Xia Ge’s way, Gu Peijiu’s voice was soft: “Or will you keep copying the Danxun?”
清奇-wonderful 骨骼gǔgé bones / skeleton
Qingqi, pronunciation qīng qí, a Chinese word meaning a style of poetry; it is a fresh and wonderful state; wonderful and strange; delicate and extraordinary.
