Legend of Fu Yao

Meng Fuyao was angered. With a huff, she tugged forcefully. The jar was pulled towards her, but the contents inside the jar spilled onto her chest as well.

An intoxicating, rich, and sweet aroma filled the air, prolonging Meng Fuyao’s anticipation and excitement.

A thought suddenly struck Meng Fuyao. Her instincts were telling her to kick the jar since her action of pulling was too vicious, and the entire eight-treasures rack had begun to sway. There were many bottles on it, and if they were to fall off, it would be an earth-shattering disaster. Hence, she quickly reached out with one hand to stabilize the rack and caught the falling bottles with the other. A leg also shot up close to her head as it caught a certain bottle, but the tip of her foot toppled the pepper bottle onto her nose…

When both a person’s hands and feet are occupied, one’s body was basically at the mercy of others.

And this “other” person’s face was lit up in laughter as he sat upside down atop Meng Fuyao’s head, feeling extremely pleased with temporarily having control over Meng Fuyao’s body. He watched as the bottles smashed to the ground, then stuck his pinky out and began to sing slowly, “Long live… How do you like this concubine’s ‘Sitting Atop a Lotus’ style?”

Meng Fuyao’s left hand was holding onto the rack, her right hand holding bottles, her left leg supporting cans and her right leg kicking the pepper bottle. Huffing angrily, she shot back, “I don’t like it at all! I prefer the ‘Old Man Pushing The Cart’ style!”

“Oh, is that a new style?” The man clapped his hands together and pointed innocently at Meng Fuyao’s chest, drawing circles around them as he asked, “What kind of position is that?”

Meng Fuyao viciously flung the bottles in her hand and on her leg towards the man’s head and roared, “This style!”

‘Damnit, how dare you slap my chest, I’m still a growing adolescent girl and finally managed to get to a size 34B. If you flatten it into a 32A, how am I supposed to live on?’

The bottles smashed towards the man, and he flicked his sleeve and received the bottles easily. He did all this while still sitting atop Meng Fuyao. Then, he promptly placed the vegetable cans and vinegar bottles onto Meng Fuyao’s chest and asked, “How does the old man push the cart?”

Meng Fuyao was enraged.

It was truly a case of “I give you an inch, you take a yard”.

‘I didn’t dare to cause a ruckus here, but you’re getting from bad to worse. Nevermind, since I’ve been discovered by you, I’ll catch you and make you my slave!”

She gave an ear-splitting smile and reached out to grab the man’s throat, and then said threateningly, “You have two choices. Either follow me or be killed. Choose yourself.”

The corner of the man’s lips twitched. Meng Fuyao loosened her grip, and he said, “Why are they all dead ends?”

Meng Fuyao’s eyes flashed. Setting him down properly, she said less rudely, “Fine, don’t play anymore. Fancy seeing you twice in a single night. This castle is too small. Tell me, what do you want.”

Laughing, Xuanyuan Min looked at her and said, “What do you want? Do you think Xuanyuan Cheng is a pig? He knows that you haven’t escaped, and he also knows that you’re looking for food and medicine. He’s already stationed troops in the doctor’s manor and all the kitchens. Since this kitchen is the farthest from the Sixth West Palace and it’s the lowest ranked kitchen, it had just been forgotten by the imperial troops’ commander. Once he remembers, you still wouldn’t be able to escape.”

He laughed again and added, “Our Regent King is a kind man, the assassins we caught yesterday did not shed a single drop of blood; they were sent straight into a pot to boil.” He pointed towards the direction of the bamboo forest from earlier. “Do you smell that? The smell is quite special, right? Why not keep it boiling every day, one a day, a different location each time. By tomorrow it would probably reach the cold palace.” He eyed Meng Fuyao and said, “You’ll definitely be fresh and tender when you’re boiled…”

Meng Fuyao was speechless. She finally understood what the sour smell from earlier was and couldn’t help but scrounge her noise and frown. She knew that given Xuanyuan Cheng’s paranoia and wariness, he would definitely search the imperial palace one more time. Yet, before Shadow Blade had recovered from his wounds, she had no way of facing him directly. It looked like trying to protect two humans, and one hamster from the heavily armed imperial army and Xuanyuan Cheng was going to be a problem.

Meng Fuyao had been thinking for a long time and felt frustrated. “Then what are you doing hanging around here? Fool around and sing?” She snapped, glaring unkindly at Xuanyuan Min. She wasn’t worried about him being Xuanyuan Cheng’s agent—why would he spend so much energy? When she and Shadow Blade appeared the previous night, all he had to do was shout.

“Life is like a show, what’s wrong with singing?” Xuanyuan Min smiled and looked at her, running a dark-purple painted fingernail across her cheek. “I’m still short of an empress…” he added.

Meng Fuyao leaped up and retorted, “I’m still short of a princess!” With that, she kicked him away and headed outside.

Xuanyuan Min was sprawled on the ground as he watched her leave. Suddenly, he flicked his finger, and a little bead flew towards Meng Fuyao’s back. She quickly turned around to catch it with a hand, only to hear him say, “When you have a change of heart, come meet me at the back garden of the Fragrant Jade House.”

‘Change your grandma into a bear,’ thought Meng Fuyao as she roughly stuffed the candle bead into her sleeve and weaved past the guards, returning to the cold palace. First, she checked carefully that the strand of hair she had used to mark the door was still in its original place. Only then did she flip over the wall.

Once she entered the dark room, Meng Fuyao’s eyes scanned the surroundings and located the previously arranged close stools. To her shock, the arrangement of the close stools had been changed. She immediately unsheathed Destiny Rebellion and treaded carefully towards the close stools, searching for any sound of breathing in the surrounding. She glanced at an empty space among the close stools from the corner of her eye—sure enough, there was nobody.

Meng Fuyao’s heart began to beat swiftly—where had Shadow Blade gone? Had he encountered some guards? Was he caught by Xuanyuan Min? Shit, if she had known she wouldn’t have left him earlier… She thought of the sour smell and involuntarily shuddered.

Just as she was about to run outside to find Shadow Blade, she suddenly heard a voice from above. “Come up.”

She raised her head to see Shadow Blade sitting atop the highest point of the close stools. He was surrounded by close stools, yet he still managed to maintain a distinguished look. Even close stools could turn into a throne when he sat on it.

Meng Fuyao’s heart relaxed for a moment, but was almost instantly replaced by anger as she couldn’t help but lash out, “Why did you run up there, you scared me.”

Shadow Blade sat lazily on the wall of close stools and used his chin to indicate at a small sky window near the ceiling. “This position is higher than the courtyard gates. You can see all outside movement from here,” he said.

Meng Fuyao carefully clambered up and glanced out the window. Sure enough, it was as he described. “This time, we can expect the enemy. Trust you to find such a hidden window,” she said gleefully.

Shadow Blade’s eyes glinted, and he smiled but did not say anything. Meng Fuyao retrieved a biscuit from her chest, and her face instantly turned black—the biscuit had been completely squashed by Rabbit Lord, and it now looked like Lord Yuan Bao’s feces. Was this fit for human consumption? It was probably more suitable for a rodent!

“Damn it, that godforsaken scoundrel!” Meng Fuyao cursed under her breath.

Shadow Blade turned around and asked, “What?”

Meng Fuyao shook her head and said, “Fill your stomach first.” She thrust the biscuit at him and batted her eyelashes, hoping that if Shadow Blade ate it, then it would motivate her to eat it as well. Shadow Blade stared at the unsightly, squashed biscuit and frowned slightly. In the end, he still took a piece and slowly began to eat.

Meng Fuyao rejoiced internally with tears in her eyes—Heaven knows how ugly this thing had been squashed into. If it were Zhangsun Wuji or Zhan Beiye or any of those nobles, they would rather starve to death than eat it. Truly, commoners were still the best, being both practical and accommodating.

When the biscuit was brought before Lord Yuan Bao, the noble magical hamster was extremely angered and disappointed—its food had always been nothing but the best grain, and the imperial chefs would only select the best and most expensive ingredients and spend hours meticulously creating rare and exquisite dishes for it. Since when did it have to eat this kind of peasant fare? And something that had been squashed and looked like Meng Fuyao excreted it? Was this fit for rodents? More like it was fit for humans!

How disappointing… Ever since it followed Meng Fuyao, its status had dropped, its future had become bleak, and even its quality of life sank so low it was underwater…

It had already forgotten that just days ago Meng Fuyao had just invited it to the Heavenly Restaurant to eat bear’s claw with bird’s nest…

After a long and arduous battle with its pained and confused heart, Lord Yuan Bao finally reached out with its paws and picked up a piece of the “feces”. Shutting its eyes tightly, it stuffed it into its mouth…

When both of them had finished eating, Meng Fuyao finally retrieved the second piece of biscuit in perfect condition from her robes and began to eat it slowly and deliberately.

What a despicable move!

It ignited the ire of the other human and one hamster; thus Lord Yuan Bao lunged at her. ‘I’ll scratch you! I’ll scratch, I’ll scratch, scratch, scratch…’

Shadow Blade gave Meng Fuyao a deep look. ‘This girl really never forgets how to have fun in life despite whatever dangerous situation she is in; what a fearless and brilliant girl!’

She would worry, but never mull over things; she would get anxious, but she would become even more careful next time; she had so many flaws, yet she bravely confronted them.

She was afraid of what she was meant to be afraid of, but not because of the difference in strength, but rather that in her fear, she would not forget to be rational—to be brave but wary, ruthless but reserved, every step must be a perfect balance on the tightrope of combat. Even more, she shouldn’t show any emotion to the opponent, nor overlook the opponent’s emotions.

Her strength was her ironclad will.

Shadow Blade sighed lightly. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He turned around and caught a whiff of a sourish smell drifting from below.

Meng Fuyao had smelled it too, and she nearly lost her appetite because of it. Nonetheless, she closed her eyes and stuffed the biscuit into her mouth—the situation was critical; they were surrounded, and she was the only real power left among the little group of two humans plus one hamster. She had to maintain her strength.

The two of them sat atop the close stools in silence. After a while, Meng Fuyao asked, “Do you know what smell this is?”

Shadow Blade’s eyes held a mild hint of amusement as he replied, “Yes.”

Meng Fuyao turned to look at him sharply. With an ashen face, Shadow Blade said emotionlessly, “When I was very young, I smelled something like this before. My wet-nurse was killed this way.”

Meng Fuyao stared at his peaceful expression and couldn’t resist asking, “That was your subordinate, I heard earlier that Xuanyuan Min will boil all of them to death. Perhaps today, or tomorrow, we will be boiled to death on this pile of close stools while looking out this sky window.”