[To Become a River of Stars] Dong Xiange - Chapter 66

Although He Chong had ultimately retreated from the room, driven by a fierce will to live, his deep loyalty to his fellow disciple still compelled him to press cautiously against the door crack, hoping to catch any sound from within.

Just as he was straining to hear even a whisper, a powerful hand suddenly clamped over his mouth and dragged him away.

He Chong was a trained fighter, but he had been caught off guard. Unwilling to make a commotion in the hallway, even his most exquisite grappling techniques could only be half-deployed. His sophisticated joint-locks and bone-breaking moves ended up looking as clumsy as a dog paddling in water.

It wasn’t until he was dragged around the corner that the person behind him released his grip. He Chong turned to see it was Jin Zhan, the attendant of Prince Ding.

Forgetting his own compromised position for a moment, He Chong hissed in a breathy voice, “You… what are you doing?”

Jin Zhan had merely been doing his duty, but seeing He Chong’s flustered state, and having recently been burdened with guarding the secret of his master’s “predilection,” he found himself blushing unnecessarily. Waving his hands frantically, he stammered in defense, “I just… I, towards you… don’t misunderstand, I don’t have those kinds of preferences… and neither does anyone else!”

The last part came out with a tone of protesting too much.

He Chong was utterly baffled. He had just been caught eavesdropping and was seizing on this excuse out of shock. Why was this guy more flustered than he was?

“What… what do you mean, anyone else?” He Chong asked, puzzled. Then his eyes widened as he glanced back towards the firmly closed door.

Jin Zhan, practically confessing without being pressed, looked panicked and moved to cover He Chong’s mouth again. This time, freed from restraint, He Chong easily blocked him with a small grappling move. The two began exchanging blows while interrogating each other.

“Are you saying Prince Ding is also in the habit of getting handsy like this?” A Black Tiger Plucks the Heart move.
“I said no such thing!” A White Crane Spreads Its Wings block.
“You let it slip! Your prince clearly…” The exasperated He Chong nearly tangled with Jin Zhan right there on the stairs.
“Our prince never acts like that with anyone else!” Even in such a moment, Jin Zhan felt compelled to defend his master’s virtue.
“Acting like that with Shiliu is even worse!” He Chong, furious, launched a downward axe kick, which Jin Zhan caught. They struggled, nearly tumbling down the stairs together.

Jin Zhan stubbornly held his ground, then reversed the hold, pulling He Chong into an awkward embrace, urgently warning him, “Affairs of the cut sleeve are not tolerated by public opinion. This must not be spread abroad.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he felt He Chong go still in his arms. He Chong looked at him with a strange expression, repeating, “Cut sleeve?”

Then, as if something were stuck in his throat—unable to be swallowed or spat out—a suppressed wave of laughter seemed to bubble up.

Jin Zhan watched He Chong’s increasingly odd demeanor, wondering if the shock of his junior brother’s… compromised position had unhinged him, blurring the lines between grief and joy.

Each harboring their own suspicions, talking past each other like a chicken conversing with a duck, they sat opposite each other downstairs for the entire afternoon, glaring.

After dinner, when Li Xuanci descended, his robes loose and his hair disheveled like a dissolute rake, personally coming down to order two portions of food to take upstairs, both men’s faces simultaneously darkened even further.

By the time they departed the next morning, He Chong still hadn’t managed to get a proper look at Shiliu. She was carried into the carriage, drowsy and dazed, by Li Xuanci. The curtain fell, not even revealing her profile.

Jin Zhan, looking like a fighter with a black eye, stared intently at He Chong. Sharing a simple blue-covered carriage, they maintained a tacit silence regarding Li Xuanci’s intimate actions that day.

Shiliu, ah, your senior brother has failed you, He Chong thought, stroking his aching conscience. Once this matter is resolved, if you have truly been dishonored, your senior brother will stake his life to make sure that Li Xuanci becomes a capon. He was thinking like someone locking the stable door after the horse has bolted, or the proverbial ostrich hiding its head in the sand.

The group traveled for several days. The hardships of the journey went without saying. Fortunately, Li Xuanci had prepared ample sweets and pastries, which kept Shiliu compliant during the long ride. He also spent considerable and rather “unique” effort, masked by the rumbling of the carriage, soothing Shiliu’s sore bottom from sitting for so long.

Her bottom may have stopped hurting, but after days confined in the carriage, her tender bre*sts suffered even more, held in his mouth almost constantly, never leaving them alone.

Of course, all of this was hidden behind the specially chosen thick curtain. Aside from the date-red horse pulling the carriage, no one knew what scenes unfolded inside.

After three days of travel, they were nearing a place where the woman had once appeared. But halfway there, rain began to fall, pattering noisily on the carriage roof.

They could have pressed on to rest in the city, but Shiliu, who had never heard the sound of rain on a carriage before, was frightened by the noise inside and became particularly restless.

Li Xuanci sent Jin Zhan out in the rain to scout ahead. He discovered a small temple up the road that seemed to have space for shelter. Thus, they decided to seek lodging there for the day and enter the city once the rain stopped.

Jin Zhan knocked on the temple gate, but received no response for a long time. Soaked through like a drowned rat, just like He Chong, who had also descended, he glanced back cautiously. Catching a glimpse of Li Xuanci’s eye through a gap in the carriage window curtain, he shivered and began knocking with renewed vigor.

Finally, the door opened. The one who answered was a handsome young monk, seemingly no more than sixteen or seventeen. After hearing their request, the monk was highly vigilant, politely but firmly refusing them.

The rain was too heavy, washing over everything in sight, blurring the scene like a meticulously detailed painting smudged into a mess by reckless water stains.

The raindrops hammered relentlessly on the blue carriage roof, the vibrations seeming to penetrate every inch inside.

Li Xuanci lifted the carriage curtain, watching. Suddenly, a bright flash of lightning pierced through the gap in the curtain, momentarily bleaching everything black and white.

“Brother, I’m scared,” Shiliu rushed forward, clinging to one of his arms. Her timid voice was drowned out by the ensuing thunderclap, but Li Xuanci’s gaze dropped slightly; he had still heard her.

His eyes shifted, then he resolutely pulled his arm free from Shiliu’s tight grasp, pushed open the carriage curtain, jumped down, and strode into the rain and mist.

He left Shiliu behind, sitting, feeling wronged by the curtain, her clothes slightly dampened by the drifting rain.

Li Xuanci didn’t look back. He walked straight to the temple gate and assessed the young monk.

In the next moment, the cold, gleaming tip of his sword was at the slender neck of the young monk. The sword’s reflection was brighter than the lightning in the rainy haze, pressing dangerously close to the prominent, pulsing blood vessel. One more fraction, and it would draw blood.

“Let us in, generous reward.”
“Refuse, I kill you, then enter.”

He spoke with concise coldness.

The world fell silent for a moment. No one had expected this sudden turn of events. He Chong, terrified by the display, muttered “Fúshēng wúliàng tiānzūn” (Blessed Infinite Heavenly Lord), only then remembering this was a Buddhist temple, and he should have said “Āmítuófó” to avoid offending their professional counterparts. But it was already said, so he simply shut his mouth.

And so, they smoothly took up residence in the temple.

The pitiful Shiliu, who had been waiting anxiously in the carriage, was bundled up in Li Xuanci’s cloak, carried inside completely dry and wholly intact.