Chapter 253: [Dragon Blood Mountain] Assholes

"I've been waiting for you for a long time, so you're finally awake."

In the silence of the room, the voice was odd and distorted. If Chu Wanning had opened his eyes, he would have found his sister sitting on the edge of the couch, gazing at him with a smile, like a spider at a creature caught in its web.

"How was it, did you sleep well?"

Chu Wanning did not answer immediately, but after moving around a bit, he found that he had only recovered less than 20% of his spiritual power, and that he was still bound by the immortal rope and blindfolded with a black silk belt.

""

Chu Wanning had always been fearless, he knew exactly what he wanted, and he knew how to deal with it. In his two lives, he had only ever been bewildered in front of one person.

No one will let him soldier on but that man.

So Chu Wanning fell silent, slowly running through the shattered memories and circumstances of his pre-consciousness. He had heard some of the movements around him in the past, as he drifted in and out of consciousness, and now he tried to piece together the scraps of words.

Just then, the door to the chamber burst open and Nan Gongliu returned. He entered the door with a pile of fresh oranges and shouted: "Brother Best Friend, here are the oranges. I picked the ones with little circles on the bottom, these are extra sweet," he said before he saw Chu Wanning on the bed, "Ah, my favourite brother is awake.

Chu Wanning's already pale face turned darker and darker when he heard the name.

Queen Chu?

So the so-called best friend brother is

Shi Mei took the orange Nan Gongliu handed her, smiled and touched him on the head, and said, "You have done well. But this Consort Chu and I are having a talk, so go out first and play by yourself for a while."

"Can't I stay here and play I can help you peel the oranges."

"It's not good for you to keep it." Shi Mei said, "There are certain things adults can hear that children cannot."

Nan Gongliu then grunted in confusion and turned to go out.

The room was quiet for a while, only the sound of breathing could be heard, with the occasional crackle of candles.

Shi Mei picks an orange and skilfully peels it, removing the white threads. As he does so, he chats with Chu Wanning like a family man: "Did you hear who that man was just now?"

""

"His voice should be no stranger to you."

He peeled the oranges and brought them to Chu Wanning's lips, "Taste them, they are grown on Dragon Mountain by Xu Shuanglin himself, he is very good at this and they should be very sweet."

Chu Wanning turns his face away.

Shi Mei said slowly, "Look at you, when you wake up, you lose your temper."

Chu Wanning was silent for a moment and said icily, "Where is he?"

"Who."

"You know who I'm talking about."

Shi Mei raises her eyebrows slightly: "You want to ask Mo Ran?"

""

Seeing his silence, Shi Mei smiled gently: "You're really attached to him. The first thing you say when you wake up is to look for him, without even asking who I am first. It's not worth it for someone who's been trampling on you for half your life."

The man's lips pursed as he was blindfolded and bound, and the line of his jaw became more and more haggard and eloquent.

Shi Mei stared for a while, feeling the evil fire building in his chest. But he prided himself on being subdued and not doing anything too quickly.

One should eat gracefully, without showing one's teeth and without dripping scraps. Eating like the Fairy Tramper, where the flesh and bones are swallowed together, is too hasty and leaves an empty bowl before you can even chew on it.

That's a hungry dog, and Shi Mingjing doesn't see it.

So he's all fired up down there, but he's still slowly drizzling his own heavenly vegetables with fresh juices and rubbing the texture of the meat. Just waiting for it to cook until it's crispy and fragrant before taking a small bite into his belly.

"And a quick question. Wouldn't you eat an orange if it was offered to you?" Shi Mei laughed softly, "How did you serve the Fairy Tramper emperor when you were so stubborn?"

"Take it away."

"I think you'd better eat it, your lips are cracking from not dripping these days."

Chu Wanning, however, only said through clenched teeth, "What about Mo Ran?"

Shi Mei stared at him for a few moments, and slowly, stopped smiling.

"Whether in this life or the last, whether you have memories or not, you only have eyes for Mo Ran. Before the word "teacher" was out of his mouth, he knew he had lost his tongue and stopped immediately.

But it missed a shudder from Chu Wanning.

Shi Mei's eyes narrowed: "Tell me, Mo Ran, what's so great about him?"

He looked down at Chu Wanning and saw the last bits of blood fading from his lips.

"That man, who is impulsive and brainless, naive and ridiculous in his ideas, and not of the best character. What do you see in him?"

""

"Sweet mouth with a spiritual face"

After all, it was a beastly desire that had been held back for so long, and the fishy tone of voice became more pronounced the further he went on.

Especially when she saw Chu Wanning starting to bite her lip, as if trying to suppress some emotion, Shi Mei's mouth became increasingly dry.

Words began to run rampant in a more intimate direction.

"Or what he can do in bed."

Chu Wanning's pale cheeks rose in anger, reddening with rage: "Shut up."

Shi Mei had no intention of stopping. He said with a smirk, "Queen Chu still doesn't know that in a previous life, after you died, Mo Ran gave you the posthumous title of Qingzhen."

He catches any hint of expression on Chu Wanning's face with interest, his eyebrows curving wider and wider.

"It sounds a bit funny, but it's apt. In the end, it's true that in your last life, you were clean and only ever defiled by him. But in that case, there's really no comparison." Shi Mei said slowly, "You've never tried anyone else, so naturally you'll just think he's the best."

The fingertips slide down an inch.

Tip of the nose, lips, chin, throat knot.

Chu Wanning was trembling slightly and his wrists were bruised, trying to break free from the binding ropes, but in the end he could not move.

"Don't waste your breath. If you want to be untied, or if you want to know the whereabouts of Mo Ran, I can satisfy you." The conversation turned, "But then, you're at least my trophy, so you have to play a game with me first"

"What do you want to do."

Shi Mei laughed, "I want to take your mind off that guy for a little bit. Stop thinking about him and think about me, how about that"

"You are the one who put the parasite in your past life. What else is there to think about."

If you listen carefully, you can hear the stifling and pain in Chu Wanning's voice.

Chu Wanning seems to be trying his best to suppress some kind of emotion, but it can't be suppressed and is on the verge of spilling out.

Shi Mei smiled, "Yes, it's me. But Queen Chu, why don't you guess who I really am?"

"You can talk if you want to, but if you don't, forget it."

"Ugh, when will you stop being mean." Shi Mei sighed and said, "Let's do it this way, Your Highness Chu once said that a big bet hurts your body and a small bet is good for you, but let's have one that hurts your body. How about we take a gamble."

""

"But," Shi Mei paused, "before I start, I have to take a slight offense and take a look at how many dresses you are wearing."

Shi Mei's expression softened when he saw the lower half of Chu Wanning's face tense up in spite of his silence, and he counted them one by one, finally coming up with a total of five items of clothing and waistcoats.

"Then I will give you five chances, and if within five times you get it right, I will tell you the whereabouts of Mo Ran." After a pause, he continued, "But for every wrong answer, I will remove one of your clothes. If Queen Chu has not answered by the time all five garments have been removed, then"

He didn't go on, just smiled, the tip of his pale pink tongue licking his lips subconsciously. And then he sat quietly, waiting for Chu Wanning's speculation. When Chu Wanning didn't say anything, he didn't hurry and continued to wait, good-naturedly.

At the moment he is free, he has all the time in the world.

But as little by little time passed, Chu Wanning still did not respond. Shi Mei's eyebrows rose. He had all the time in the world, but not necessarily the patience.

"Guess instead."

Chu Wanning finally said, "Get out."

Shi Mei's face turned sombre: "You are in my hands now, you should know what you can and cannot do."

""

" Chu Wanning . You don't have the leverage to make a deal with me. The Fairy Tramper emperor is not in his right mind and may countenance but you and let you go sometimes, but I am not."

Shi Mei said coldly, "You're in my hands, so it's better if you behave."

He waited a while longer, but when Chu Wanning remained silent, his tone hardened: "Don't take the punishment for the wine. Don't think I can't do anything because you don't say anything."

With that, the slender, cold white fingers have stroked their way up and onto Chu Wanning's waistband. And then she stroked the seal, slowly, her fingertips sliding over it as if it were a knife blade cutting through fish.

"Listen, I'm going to count to three, and if you don't speak up, you're going to suffer the consequences." Shi Mei said, a thin light passing under her eyes.

He wasn't really sure whether he wanted Chu Wanning to guess or not. But whether he guessed or not, it didn't matter at this point. There was no turning back, and all he could think about was how to reveal his true colours.

It had to be exciting enough, bloody enough, after all, the man in front of him had been gaming himself for two lifetimes, and now that he had won, he wanted to carefully lick the fruits of his victory.

"One."

A floating light of victory seems to rise in front of your eyes.

"Two."

How Chu Wanning will be angry, mournful and frightened

He watched, his lips flicking open.

"Three's good, Queen Chu is so chaste, it's no wonder Fairy Tramper wants you to get hooked." Shi Mei was half-joking, half-serious, "Since you're not guessing, let's get rough. You."

" Hua Binan ."

The voice is cold.

Shi Mei's fingers gave a slight flicker and the movement to unseal Chu Wanning's waistband froze before he smiled, "Half right. Go on."

""

He exudes a fox-like cunning that might have appeared lewd to others, but Shi Mei is as elegant as a lotus flower at all times.

He was confident that Chu Wanning would not guess the final layer of truth, and he was confident that he

"I'd rather you were really dead."

Shi Mei's face froze in a smile. After a moment, he asked, "What did you say."

The voice of the man on the bed was cold, without any semblance of heat.

"In my last life, that time when the sky split, that snowfall. I'd rather you were really dead."

Shi Mei stared at him, her prepared words suddenly having no place to pour out, and she was lost for words.

His half-raised hand just hung in the air, not knowing where to go, suddenly at a loss.

" Shi Mingjing ." A soft sigh, but like a bee sting hitting the trance, "Is it you."

""

Although it is a questioning sentence, there is not a single star of upward speech.

Shi Mei's eyes were lowered and no one could see his expression for a moment. After a moment, he laughed softly, "I'm not dead, to your disappointment."

He didn't want to concede, but there was already something in his tone.

Shi Mei said, "I am indeed Shi Mingjing from another life. From your previous life, the world of Fairy Tramper. It is not the same child who has been with you in this life." After a pause, "As promised, I will untie you."

He said that he untied the binding rope, and then he put his hand over the Chu Wanning silk belt covering the eyes and removed it with a slight force.

The peach blossom eyes meet the phoenix eyes, and the two look at each other with an ancient well.

"Greetings to the Master."

Chu Wanning was prepared for this, but at this point it only grew more sombre as he looked at him, "And you know that I am your master."

When he said this, Shi Mei smiled gently, but it was only then that she realised what a sharp dagger lay beneath his gentleness.

"Well, of course I know. You hold my umbrella for me and I have not forgotten it."

Chu Wanning looked weak, but that didn't change the natural stubbornness in his brow. He stared at Shi Mei for a long time, his lips opening and closing, his words crushingly cold: "You are an asshole."

Shi Mei smiled and said, "Thank you." After a pause, she asked, "But when did your master guess who I was in my last life?"

Chu Wanning doesn't answer, just looks at him coldly.

There was indeed indignation in those eyes, but most lush of all was disappointment.

Shi Mei pondered, "No, it can't be a previous life. If you knew in another life that I was Hua Binan, you would have told Huai Zui when you ripped open the space-time rift."

He lifted his ciliary feathers, "It was this lifetime. Or rather, it was the conversation you more or less overheard between Mo Ran and me when you were at Dragon Blood Mountain not too long ago."

""

"Never mind, it doesn't matter." Shi Mei smiled, "Anyway, no matter what, you're in the palm of my hand now and you can't escape."

Chu Wanning has become increasingly silent.

Of the three disciples, Shi Mei was the one he did not see eye to eye with. He was willing to take on Shi Mei because she was obedient, gentle, anxious and worried about others, and gentle and kind to others. These were the qualities that Chu Wanning admired so much. He could not do so himself, so he admired her and accepted her as his pupil.

There are times, however, when he feels that something is not quite right. For example, Xue Zhengyong says that Shi Mei was an orphan he picked up during the war, but Shi Mei occasionally talks about her life in a way that doesn't quite add up. The gesture is very much like someone telling a lie and then forgetting the details.

There are also times when Shi Mei's attitude towards things is suddenly odd, as if she were a well-trained dog, seemingly obedient but unable to resist the slightest whiff of blood.

But after observing Shi Mei for several years and never seeing any injustice, Chu Wanning felt that he had been mistaken, that he had taken the flowers for the green face.

He was a man like a hedgehog, sharp all over, except for his belly, which was soft.

He hid under his soft belly all those who treated him well, whether they were his disciples or not.

Concerning Shi Mei, he had been torn between trust and distrust, he had been reserved and tentative, but then he had chosen to trust. And so the knife plunged through the hedgehog's abdomen, shedding hot blood.

Shi Mei interrogated, "How much of the past do you remember?"

""

And again, "Why did you have to stand by and do nothing back then?"

""

Shi Mei is unwilling to stop asking, "Why didn't you finally kill the Fairy Tramper emperor and help him to be reincarnated?"

At the last sentence, Chu Wanning finally raised his eyes, "He's not like you."

Shi Mei paused: "What's the difference. If I am evil-minded, how is he not full of blood"

Chu Wanning stared at him, "You know the compulsion you put on yourself."

"So what? Even if it was me who put the parasite there, didn't he kill the people?" Shi Mei said, "You saw it with your own eyes in a previous life, half of the rivers and mountains, Xue Zhengyong, Wang Chuqing, Jiang Xi, Ye Wangxi, these people were Xue Zhengyong, Wang Chuqing, Jiang Xi, Ye Wangxi, who were the men who died?"

He lifted his hand slowly and deliberately, looking at his ten narrow fingers and rounded nails.

What a fine, clean pair of fingers, soft and delicate, immaculate.

Shi Mei squinted and laughed, "Is it me?"

""Anger flared up and he was speechless for a moment.

"I don't want to slaughter the Confucianism School, nor do I want to kill Xue Zhengyong. That's why I shouldn't be the one to collect a debt and demand a life." Shi Mei said, "All I did was to plant a compulsion flower for him. In all my life, I have never killed anyone with my own hands."

Shi Mei continued with a smirk, "So in the end, he held the knife and he stabbed the man. It has little to do with me, and that eight bitter long-hating flower will not bring him any new hatred. All his desires are his own, and the compulsion spell merely amplifies them. If this is to be counted on me, I am so aggrieved."

With every word he said, Chu Wanning's heart grew more and more disgusted.

"He did it, so who is the master to blame me?"

"Don't you know what kind of man he is in his own right?"

Shi Mei said, "Of course I know exactly what kind of person he is, but I'm afraid it's you, Master, who don't."

A strand of white silk got stuck in his fingers, and Shi Mei, disgusted by the dirt, took out a white handkerchief and wiped it carefully, then raised it in one hand: " Why did Mo Ran slaughter the Confucianism School because he had hatred in his heart. Why did Mo Ran kill Xue Zhengyong because he had fear in his heart? Why did Mo Ran humiliate you because he had desire in his heart."

Shi Mei said, glancing up at Chu Wanning: "When someone stabs him, he can't forgive. When someone offers him a favour, he can't refuse it. He can't refuse a favour when it is offered to him.

Chu Wanning said through clenched teeth, "Shi Mingjing. Don't you think you're being ridiculous when you erase his purest good thoughts, multiply his hatred and desire ten thousand times, and then say that what he did was his own desire?

"Shi Mei laughed and said, "If he had a heart like a naked son and had never had any bad intentions, the long-hated flower would not have been able to make any waves. So it's his fault for not having a clean mind. He's just a commoner."

At this point Chu Wanning's face was already very ugly and he was about to say something else when Shi Mei added.

"One is responsible for one's own desires, there's nothing to argue about."

""

If Chu Wanning had wanted to speak to him earlier, by this sentence it suddenly seemed unnecessary and not worth saying anything. Chu Wanning turned his face away.

Seeing his expression, Shi Mei shook her head, "Master, you are too biased towards him."

""

"In your eyes, he has a reason for everything he does, it's all understandable."

"Then you tell me who I should understand." Chu Wanning ice-cold to the core, "You?"

"" Shi Mei was quiet for a moment and smiled, "So the Master still likes him"

Chu Wanning's gaze is like a frozen lake reflecting the moon.

"So, in my previous life and in my present life, I have played with my master for two lifetimes, and even if I win, I am still no match for him."

Chu Wanning coldly: "What are you comparing him to."

Shi Mei narrowed her eyes, "Is that really all you have to say about me and nothing more?"

Chu Wanning did not reply to him immediately, and by the look on his face he seemed to be thinking hard for a moment, before he lifted the curtain of his eyelashes, extremely cold and quiet.

"There is."

Shi Mei just laughed: "What is it?"

You don't need to compare yourself to Mo Ran, you can't even compare yourself to Xu Shuanglin," Chu Wanning said, expressionlessly. At least he still has the love and the courage to admit it. He's not like you, Hua Binan."

In the end, he didn't even refer to him as Shi Mingjing anymore.

Chu Wanning said, "You're an asshole."