Tome of Troubled Times

Chapter 28: A Kiss

That was something Zhao Changhe regularly used to tease Luo Qi. She was already used to it, but she did not know how much of it was a joke, how much of it he actually meant, and how much of it was him wanting to see his crossdressing senior martial brother in a helpless and embarrassed state as a sick prank.

Today, however, Luo Qi knew Zhao Changhe was completely serious.

His gaze was like fire, and with his intrepid body in front of her, she felt like she was bearing the full weight and might of Mt. Tai. All of her martial arts training seemed to have disappeared as she gripped the Azure Dragon Seal, petrified. She was at a loss as to what to do.

She knew why Zhao Changhe was like this.

After all that was said, no one had addressed the elephant in the room: Luo Qi wanted the Azure Dragon Seal to join the Four Idols Cult.

But it was not a guarantee that Zhao Changhe could follow her, especially now that he had accepted the jade pendant. It was not a good idea for him to go with her.

It would soon be time for them to say their farewells.

Sharing the same bed, leaving food and buying wine for the other, those small married-couple-like fights...none of it would ever happen again.

Luo Qi was suddenly stricken with panic and could no longer hold on to the Azure Dragon Seal, tossing it to the side. With even greater force, she drew herself closer to Zhao Changhe’s hips, as if afraid she would lose him if she let him go.

“Okay...” She muttered. “Wait a moment. I’ll take off my disguise and let you play with me as a woman...”

She did not know if Zhao Changhe even heard what she said, but he had already lowered his head and passionately kissed her on the lips.

Luo Qi did not even have time to take off her disguise. She slowly closed her eyes and slightly opened her mouth, submitting to his invasion.

She felt his hands rub against her neck, and then her face. Before long, her disguise had been thoroughly rubbed away.

Zhao Changhe knew where she had applied her disguise.

So he isn’t gay... At this moment, he only wants to see me as a woman, even though I doubt he’s even looking at me right now.

He’s...really overbearing.

Just like this kiss—forceful, and wild—in which he bit Luo Qi’s lip till she felt some pain. It was like he wanted to drown away all discontentment and dissatisfaction he felt towards the jianghu and the world since he had arrived here in this kiss.

His desires, which he had bottled up for a month, could no longer be suppressed.

He must have always wanted to do this. But because there were just too many things to do, he could only hide this desire deep in his heart.

The roaring of the waterfall obscured the passionate breathing of the two in the cave.

It was unfortunate that they had spent too long talking just now. Faint man-made sounds could be heard coming from outside.

Zhao Changhe, as if suddenly being awoken from his sleep, slowly broke away from Luo Qi’s lips.

Her lips had already been bitten till they were swollen. There were even small traces of blood on them. Zhao Changhe’s own lips were a little painful; they had a salty taste.

The two of them breathed gently as they looked at each other until the sounds of people got nearer and nearer. Luo Qi finally lowered her head, fixed up her messy clothes and covered the spots where her skin was blemished.

“Changhe...”

“Yeah?”

“Do you regret talking too much just now? If not, I might have really given my... to you.”

Zhao Changhe’s mouth twitched. He did not know if he regretted it.

When it came to matters between the sexes, perhaps whatever they had understood between them just now was more important.

But only an idiot would say that.

Luo Qi continued, “After a man kisses a woman, does he grow up a bit? Is he not as stupid as before?”

Zhao Changhe did not know how to answer her, but he was certain he had grown up a bit.

This was his first time kissing a woman, and he was immediately confronted with a farewell afterward.

A little virgin like him began to understand a little bit about love.

He had once thought that he and Luo Qi were like husband and wife. Was that love?

In reality, it was not. That was a deep friendship, the kind where their fates were intertwined, forged amidst being together in a foreign nest of devils. Luo Qi was a woman, so there was ambiguity mixed into it.

However, this was still not love. No real spark was lit between the two while they helped and supported each other.

That was why Luo Qi and Zhao Changhe could tacitly agree to let the former continue dressing as a man while the latter kept this secret. It was better for them to be brothers.

It was not until today, when she threw that dagger to the ground, that any love arose between them.

She gave up the thing she had been searching for since she was a child.

He gave up his hope of overcoming the limits of his cultivation.

If they were both men, their relationship would have still been one of friendship. But between a man and a woman, their relationship would only become one of lovers.

It was a pity that what had just started had to end so abruptly.

Did the difference between a boy and a man lie in the fact that the former had not experienced these things?

Luo Qi lightly stroked her messy hair and let it flow freely. Even like that, her beauty could wreck hearts like nothing. She laughed lazily and gently. “Your appearance when you kissed me—that’s what you should look like...strong and overbearing. A woman is something to be taken and claimed. I might never see that block-headedness of yours again.”

Zhao Changhe returned with a question. “Something to be taken and claimed—do you really believe that?”

Luo Qi thought for a moment, then laughed. “You’re right. ‘Don’t do to others what you do not want others to do to you’... That’s why I’m not a good woman. In the future I’ll be even more like a witch from a demonic cult... I’m glad that your first impression of the jianghu was the chivalrous Yue Hongling and not me.”

“...You remembered how I praised Yue Hongling. You can even recite it.”

“Can’t I be jealous of her? The ‘me’ right now, that is.”

Zhao Changhe shut his mouth.

Luo Qi did not continue on the topic. She sighed softly. “After I leave, if you want to find another woman... Promise me that you’ll only play with her. Don’t trust anyone. Don’t expose your back to anyone anymore. The jianghu is dangerous. I don’t know if the next woman you meet will throw away her dagger.”

Zhao Changhe scratched his head. What Luo Qi said made him feel like the Back Eye was something his future self had gone back in time to give him...

“I’ll be going ten thousand li away, across mountain passes and rivers. I don’t know when we’ll...” Luo Qi slowly headed toward the exit and suddenly glanced back at him, smiling. “When we next meet in the jianghu, I don’t know what you’ll call me.”

...

With her beautiful hair draping over her shoulders, Luo Qi, with her disguise rubbed away, appeared beside the pool. The bandits searching here looked at her, dumbfounded.

Beside a moonlit pool, a fairy approached the waves. It was pitiful. Have these bandits ever seen so beautiful a woman?

What’s more, they could even tell that, even though her face was slimmer, her features were the same as the Luo Qi they all knew. Her clothes were also the same as what Luo Qi wore.

Is this her sister? No...

They stared at Zhao Changhe, stupefied, as he walked out of the cave. They all understood.

That was Luo Qi.

Luo Qi wasn’t his male lover!

For fuck’s sake, Boss Zhao. If you told everyone in the stronghold that you had such a woman with beauty that could devastate cities and countries hidden in your room to warm your bed, we could’ve just had a bitter laugh about it. But this? Where is the trust between fellow men?

Wait, what were they doing in the cave just now? Huh? They looked at the love bites on Luo Qi’s neck and the blood on her lips. What were you two doing?!

The whole lot of them beat their chest and stamped their feet in sheer dismay. For that reason, it took a while before anyone realized that there had never been any kind of cave behind the waterfall. Where did it come from?

Such was the destructive power of a true beauty.

Swoosh.

A fragrant wind blew over. Venerable Vermillion Bird suddenly appeared with her fiery red ceremonial robes and phoenix half-mask.

“The Azure Dragon Seal...” She took a deep breath and looked at Luo Qi with pleasant surprise. “These jade bones and icy flesh—the inheritance of the Four Idols! Haha, ‘tis the will of heaven. Young woman, what is your name?”

There were indeed no flaws in Luo Qi’s understanding of the Four Idols Cult. When she presented herself with the Azure Dragon Seal and her purified Azure Dragon qi, Venerable Vermillion Bird knew the treasure had not been used by some random nobody. Her joy at this unexpected development was practically showing up in her words.

Luo Qi threw Zhao Changhe a look before calmly replying, “Xia Chichi.”

Venerable Vermillion Bird said, “Are you willing to return with me to the Head Altar and participate in the test to become a saintess?”

Luo Qi bowed deeply. “I am willing.”

Venerable Vermillion Bird glanced at Zhao Changhe. Seeing the blood on both of their lips, she grinned. “Don’t blame me for not warning you... If you wish to become a saintess, you must forgo all thoughts you have about being with a man.”

Luo Qi kept silent for a moment before quietly responding, “I know.”

Venerable Vermillion Bird smiled. “Oh... I believe we’ve met before, Zhao Changhe the Manslayer.”

Zhao Changhe looked at her calmly. Until now, he had not spoken a single word. Then, he slowly said, “I am deeply honored that Venerable Vermillion Bird remembers someone as trivial as myself.”

“With you and the storm you’ve found yourself in, you’re no longer a trivial character. Did the both of you discover this place?”

“Yes.”

“Even though the destiny of the Four Idols is not yours to claim, you have accomplished a great deed. What do you wish for?”

Zhao Changhe remained silent for a while before finally saying, “I simply wish to join the Blood God Cult... As for the destiny of the Four Idols, it will come someday.”