Love from the Male Protagonist’s Harem

Chapter 50-Measure For Measure

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Translated by Snowfall77

 

 

 

Chu Yao gracefully landed on the ground with a soft thump, wide blue and white sleeves floating down behind her.  Sparing a glance for Gu Peijiu and the unconscious boy she held, Chu Yao snorted to herself before turning to walk away.

Then she caught the heavy scent of blood in the air.

She hadn’t noticed it when she’d booted the furnace.  It was only now that she belatedly detected the strong reek.  Brow furrowed, Chu Yao spun back around, spotting the blood stains wetting soil and stone.

Some of Danfeng’s field was paved with polished bluestone, and the blood that had dripped down from Xia Ge’s clothes was sharply distinct against the stones’ smooth surface.

Chu Yao knew that she’d just kicked the furnace away, and furthermore it’d landed at a safe distance.  No one had gotten hurt by it.  The table that’d been beside the now-exploded furnace remained in its proper place, sundry scraps of materials still on it.  That was where Xia Wuyin had been standing a moment ago.

And there was the small pool of blood on the ground.

Taken aback, Chu Yao looked at the table again and this time saw the blood slowly trickling, drop by drop, off its right corner.

Red blood, crudely bright in the daylight……

Chu Yao’s feet wouldn’t move, and her head craned round to stare anew at the back of the young lady in red and white with the small black bundle of a person in her arms.

Seemingly afraid of jolting the boy, the lady walked very slowly and gently, her steps cautious.

“Hey.”  Chu Yao’s thin fingers stroked the tassel on her scabbard before hooking around the sword hilt, chin slightly raised: “Halt, do you hear me?”

Gu Peijiu’s footsteps paused as she glanced over her shoulder, soft black hair wafting about her face as her quiet, pitch-black eyes met Chu Yao’s light brown ones.

The corner of her mouth curling up to reveal an eye tooth, Chu Yao casually pointed her sheathed sword at Gu Peijiu: “Are you Danfeng’s senior disciple?”

Still not turning her body around, Gu Peijiu gave Chu Yao a quick look and the barest nod.

“Don’t you dare let him die.”  Chu Yao licked her lips, eyes aflame with unconcealed insolence and greed, “That bastard is a future talent of Jianfeng.”

Gu Peijiu thoughtfully considered Chu Yao for a long time before saying: “He chose the path of Danfeng.”

Her head tilted, black hair and red ribbon lightly blown by the breeze, and her black eyes were implacable.  “He’s already past the point of turning back.”

“Mmm.”  Chu Yao held tight to her sword, smiling with half-closed eyes, white canines glistening in the sunlight, “We’ll see.”

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Indifferent to Chu Yao’s bluster, Gu Peijiu turned her head and left.

Because Xia Wuyin’s blood had already spread to the white of her own gown, Gu Peijiu had not deigned to fully face Chu Yao.  And even though unconscious, Xia Wuyin clung to Gu Peijiu’s lapel, his whole body shivering, ashen face etched with fear and despair.

Gu Peijiu believed that……

Such a weak appearance——

The conceited child wouldn’t want others to see him like that.

 

 

 

Having left the platform, Xiaoqing hurriedly rushed to Chu Yao’s side, sparing Gu Peijiu’s departing back an indignant glance: “What kind of manners are those?  Even if she’s……doesn’t matter, you’re the eldest daughter of the Chu family!”

Chu Yao’s smile faded and she stared the bloodstain on the table’s corner for a long time.

“Xiaoqing, be quiet.  Go back.”

 

 

 

 

Chiluan hovered in the sky, watching as 3 birds used their beaks to catch the 3 golden dan floating amongst the clouds.  Following Baili Qing’s directive, the 3 birds than brought the 3 dan to the designated table at the north of the field.

The heavy fragrance of dan drifted over the field, while the Danfeng disciples who’d been appointed to judge the examination results were in a quandary.

Given the fact that Xia Wuyin had perfectly refined the Sanshangjin dan, Xia Wuyin should place first.  However, he’d blown up his furnace.

Usually if a person exploded their furnace, they were automatically disqualified.

While the Danfeng disciples were awkwardly waffling about, unsure how to proceed, Gu Peijiu arrived back at the north platform, the boy still in her arms, the reek of blood now detectable under the redolence of dan.  Wide sleeves easily covering Xia Wuyin’s face, Gu Peijiu was approached by one of the Danfeng inner disciples that was judging, his expression confused: “Senior Sister……this……his performance, how should it be assessed?”

Tone serene, Gu Peijiu answered: “Judge the way you think it proper to judge.”

Then, before the judging disciple say anything further, Ye Ze anxiously jumped in: “Senior Sister, what’s happened to Xia Wuyin?”

 

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Great, Xia Wuyin had refined the Sanshangjin dan.  Yet Ye Ze didn’t feel the least bit happy.  Seeing Xia Wuyin battered and unconscious in Gu Peijiu’s arms, Ye Ze found the only emotion he could summon was an overwhelming sense of guilt.

——Why did he have to be so useless?
If he just could’ve been stronger……if he could’ve protected Xia Wuyin better……Xia Wuyin wouldn’t be in this condition.

Ye Ze’s fists clenched.

In fact he’d always known that Xia Wuyin was sly and clever.  Even without Ye Ze, even without being a Danfeng inner disciple, Xia Wuyin would find a way to survive, no matter if it was as a small fish in a big pond.

……but Ye Ze had wanted to be reassured.

That was why he’d finally gotten that promise out of Xia Wuyin.

——So that when Ye Ze went to Jianfeng, he could go with peace of mind.

“Xia Wuyin was already injured before the examination started,” Gu Peijiu paused, her fine eyelashes ebony like raven feathers against her pale skin, “I’m going to go get him treated.  Lu Mi, I leave the rest to you.”

Lu Mi, the bewildered Danfeng judge, was unnerved by the responsibility, yet nodded all the same: “Yes, Senior Sister.”

Gu Peijiu made to leave and Ye Ze went to follow her.  However she gave him a glance with those still, deep black eyes: “Ye Ze, there’s no longer any reason to delay.  It’s already been arranged, go to Jianfeng.”

Ye Ze looked back at her, his adam’s apple bobbling, yet he couldn’t seem to move or speak.

Seeing this, Gu Peijiu calmly consoled: “You can leave him to me.  Be at ease knowing that I will take good care of him.”

Finally unclamping his lips, Ye Ze managed: “……yes.”

 

 

 

 

 

Outside the Danfeng field-

 

Mao Qing, who’d been unceremoniously dragged off the field, eventually came back to her senses: “That was Sanshangjin dan……”

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Huo Bai frowned: “Sanshangjin dan?”

His face clearly expressing ‘what the hell is that?’

Mao Qing: “How could you not know this?”

Huo Bai shrugged: “I’ve only just started learning.”

“To even be able to see those 3 dan is rare, to be able to refine them—that’s freaking awesome.”  Mao Qing stomped a foot, but looked quite forlorn, “Xia Wuyin refined Sanshangjin dan, he’s definitely gonna place first ……”

Huo Bai: “Oh.”

“Don’t be sad,” Mao Qing continued, “I might not have gotten first place, so I won’t buy you a meal, but I’ll definitely buy you some candy.  You might not know it yet, but the best sweets from that shop are the cherry-flavored ones, not the peppermint……”
His face flushing an embarrassing red, Huo Bai angrily swung his sleeves as he walked away: “I don’t eat sweets!!”

“Hey, you dropped one!”

Huo Bai’s steps paused, and without thinking he turned his head to look at the ground behind him.  But there was no candy to be seen——

“Ah, whaddya know, you do want!”  Hugging her shoulders, Mao Qing raised her eyebrows and smirked.

Huo Bai: “……” Should he tear this girl into pieces with his bare hands?!

……no, no, pratice self-restraint.

Watching Huo Bai stomp off with a gloomy face, Mao Qing’s mouth twitched: “Bah, too phony.”

Then Mao Qing eyed her own gold dan, more than a little unhappy with it now.  Huo Bai and other outer disciples were already handing in their dan though, so Mao Qing bit her lips and got it over with.  She put her dan in the correctly numbered box and handed it over to the Danfeng judges.

 

= =

 

 

“Really?”

Observing the weak sunbeams stretched thin by smoky clouds, a girl with silver butterflies embroidered on her blue sleeves was perched atop a roof.  One slender, elegant hand twirled a plump cherry, the fruit’s redness offsetting her alabaster skin.  “You’re telling me that my dear older sister thinks an outer disciple of Danfeng is a promising recruit for Jianfeng?”

The setting sun glowed in the distance.

Down on ground, the person speaking sounded rather apprehensive: “To answer Miss……yes.”

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“And just who was it that received this rare honor?”

The girl’s eyes were large and round, their black pupils reflecting the sublime hues of sunset, and her smile was ever so innocent: “When I first came here, my eldest sister didn’t even spare me a glance.”

The person below only grew more nervous: “……from Danfeng, the disciple is named Xia Wuyin.”

Chu Yi’s smile froze.

A long moment later—

“What name did you say?”

Any amusement in her tone had vanished, replaced by a sharp maliciousness: “Tell me the name again.”

One moment she played a virtuous young girl, the next second she became a demon straight out of the fiery pits of hell.

Again came the exceedingly fearful answer: “An outer disciple of Danfeng named……Xia Wuyin.”

Its sweet smell filling the air, the red cherry burst, profanely staining Chu Yi’s pale fingertips an eye-catching pink.

——Xia Wuyin.

“Hmm, seems everyone is fond of this boy.”  Chu Yi tossed aside the crushed cherry like trash, and licked her fingers clean, tasting the sweetness as the juice stained her tongue.  Unfortunately, it brought her no pleasure, and although her eye shape might resemble her sister’s, Chu Yi’s gaze overflowed with a depressed anger all her own: “Do you dare to think that if you call yourself this name, you can win everyone’s favor?”

The person below had no idea what Chu Yi was talking about, so they prudently lowered their head and stayed quiet.

“Ha.”  Chu Yi’s eyes narrowed as she gave a little laugh, “……but it won’t matter.”

She hadn’t heard the name ‘Xia Wuyin’ for many, many years.

Only to unexpectedly hear it again and have her heart ache with hatred.

Those who made her happy were nowhere to be found……while the ones she hated, the ones she wanted to see die like dogs, turned out to be right under her nose.

“It’s too merciful just to kill……”  Chu Yi slowly pulled out a silver chain from her lapel.  Hung on the chain, carefully set in silver, was the small right corner that’d broken off of Guilongyu.  The same dying light that turned the clouds rosy also dyed the jade red, and Chu Yi’s lips curled up coldly: “I’ll let him eventually reach great glory, and then I’ll make him fall.  I’ll crush him into the mud for eternity, giving him no way to escape.”

The person listening below felt their heart thump.

“By the time I’m done, not one person will like him.”  Much happier at that thought, the girl’s delicate eyelashes fluttered as she tenderly kissed the piece of Guilongyu, “Brother Ze.”

“When that time comes, you won’t like him anymore either.”

The girl stared at jade in her hands, expression abruptly full of loss.

“But how do I find you……”