Chapter 21: Contemplation

After suffering a cruel blow from Shen Feixiao, Qin Kaiyi felt that his own liver was in slight pain,1 and he no longer talked. The two of them silently watched each other.

Shen Feixiao did not mind the awkward atmosphere. He sat opposite Qin Kaiyi and ate his own dry food with an indifferent expression, not revealing what he was thinking. Qin Kaiyi secretly observed Shen Feixiao through the mask, and the more he looked the more he felt guilty… at this moment he swore that he would absolutely 100% definitely never write novels again. This scene was undeniably too sad to look at. 

“Do you know him?” Just as Qin Kaiyi was stewing in his remorse, the creature of unknown species in his sea of knowledge spoke again. Qin Kaiyi saw that unruly flame and replied in an unhappy tone: “You always have something to say, what is it?”

Not expecting Qin Kaiyi to show such an attitude, Yan Gu became enraged: “You dare to be so fierce with me!!”

Qin Kaiyi laughed as soon as he heard this sentence. F*ck his sister, did he dare to be fierce with Shen Feixiao or did he dare to be fierce with this strange creature? With fear somehow morphing into anger he said: “Why don’t I dare to deal with you? Are you a soft sister, or are you a pretty girl? You’re so arrogant and yet you’ve been imprisoned in the mask for hundreds of years, if you’re so arrogant then come out of the mask and hit me, hit me!!! “

“You!!” Not expecting Qin Kaiyi to be able to say such a thing, Yan Gu was speechless from anger.

“You what, you what!” Finally having vented the anger he felt at Shen Feixiao, Qin Kaiyi heartily laughed: “Hurry up and tell me.”

“…” There was a silence.

“Hahaha, speechless huh,” Qin Kaiyi said with schadenfreude.

“Hehe…” suddenly letting out a low chuckle, Yan Gu’s voice was very soft: “I can’t get you right now, but Qin Shi, although I have insufficient strength, controlling a mask is still very simple.”

“Then?” Qin Kaiyi had a bad hunch.

“Say, if I make it so that you cannot take the mask off your face, what will that be like for you?” Yan Gu’s tone was full of maliciousness: “Would you still have the chance to see your shixiong and shidi? Even if you could see them, are you sure they wouldn’t just take you for something demonic and kill you?”

“What?” Qin Kaiyi was dumbfounded. He hadn’t thought that Yan Gu could be such a scoundrel!

“Since you dare to challenge my authority, you have to pay the price!!” Although the contents of the sentence were very majestic, Qin Kaiyi just felt that he tasted the meaning of the saying “an inferior person reaches a powerful position, becoming conceited and arrogant…”

The most terrifying thing in the world was not to offend a gentleman, but to offend someone with a nasty character. When Qin Kaiyi heard Yan Gu say this, he knew he would meet disaster and quickly changed his attitude: “I was joking with this senior; senior don’t take it seriously!! “

“Hmph.” “Senior, this humble one knows his wrong… I hope senior can give this humble one a new opportunity to change himself.” “Hmph.” “Hey, don’t win an inch and then want a mile. If you want to be like this then you and I will have to struggle to the death.” “Hmph!!!” “Hmph your sister, isn’t it just a mask, you really think I’m afraid of you, ai, why don’t you say anything? Yan Gu? Yan Gu? Fuck, at least hmph a few times more.” Blessings never come in pairs and misfortune does not come singly–this saying seemed to apply to these kinds of circumstances… Qin Kaiyi wanted to say that his balls really hurt a lot.

Fortunately, the mask covered most of Qin Kaiyi’s expression, so Shen Feixiao didn’t notice Qin Kaiyi’s abnormal state. But he felt that Qin Kaiyi’s gaze upon him became more and more strange, and now even more strange… 

The level of strangeness even made the always calm Shen Feixiao unable to stand it anymore, so he spoke again: “What are you looking at?”

“…” Qin Kaiyi was still entangled with Yan Gu on the side. Hearing Shen Feixiao’s question, he blurted out: “Looking at you ah.”

“…” Shen Feixiao was silent again, but this time, the expression he directed towards Qin Kaiyi became… somewhat strange.

The moment he let slip that sentence, Qin Kaiyi found that something wasn’t quite right. He temporarily put the difficult Yan Gu to the side and looked at the expressionlessly staring Shen Feixiao: “I’m kidding, don’t take it seriously.”

“En.” Shen Feixiao’s voice was very soft and his tone was very weak, as if he was indifferent to Qin Kaiyi’s explanation.

Qin Kaiyi saw Shen Feixiao’s reaction and didn’t know what to say for a while. In fact, he always admired Shen Feixiao. As a child who had been oppressed throughout his life, not only did he not have a self-abasing quality, but he instead had a tranquil and calm demeanor that was difficult for ordinary people to emulate. It was as if nothing could shake him, as if everything was under control. Of course, Qin Kaiyi’s deeply-moved feeling was quickly thrown to the back of his mind, because he suddenly remembered… Shen Feixiao is the protagonist.

Qin Kaiyi thought of this, and suddenly there was an unspeakable tiredness in his heart. He sighed softly, but he didn’t expect the sound of the sigh to be heard by Shen Feixiao.

“Why are you sighing?” Shen Feixiao had finished eating his dry food. His right hand propped up the drowsy eggplant in his arms, while his other hand gently touched its fur.

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“I sighed thinking of what to do about this nonstop rain.” Qin Kaiyi leaned against the rock wall, and the voice that he had changed with a spell sounded coldly apathetic due to his absent-mindedness.

“What is the mystery behind this rain?” The outer tips of Shen Feixiao’s eyebrows raised. “What □ do you know?”2

□? Qin Kaiyi felt a bit like laughing when he heard this word. He didn’t hide anything and directly told Shen Feixiao what would happen next in the secret realm: “If the rain lasts for a month, the accumulated rainwater will open the mechanism of a hidden treasure pavilion, and this secret realm’s most precious items will appear. “

“…” Not expecting to hear such words, Shen Feixiao went silent again. His expression made it seem as if he was trying to discern whether Qin Kaiyi was telling the truth.

Qin Kaiyi ignored Shen Feixiao’s suspicion. He knew that this rain would not last long, because the treasure trove opened in the secret realm half a year later, not when they first entered the secret realm. Well… didn’t Shen Feixiao use these six months to improve quite a bit? Qin Kaiyi himself definitely couldn’t waste that precious time either.

“How do you know all this?” Shen Feixiao gazed at the weirdo in front of him. He was wearing a gray robe and his hair was loosely tied behind his head with a rope. The pure gold mask on his face should have made him seem more majestic, but the black lotuses outlined on its surface instead added an alluring quality. Coupled with that icy voice and out-of-sorts temperament… Shen Feixiao narrowed his eyes. He now became even more curious about the identity of the person in front of him.

“I’m talking nonsense.” Qin Kaiyi said, with something that resembled a smile but was not one.

“I don’t believe it.” Shen Feixiao’s expression told Qin Kaiyi his answer; he really didn’t believe Qin Kaiyi’s words.

“What don’t you believe? The secret I told you before or my assertion that it was nonsense?” Qin Kaiyi actually felt that it was a bit fun to tease Shen Feixiao.

“I, don’t, believe, everything.” Shen Feixiao said one word at a time. “You clearly could learn ‘Mountain Cloud Notes’ by yourself but you gave me the sable, you obviously could have helped me avoid entering the secret realm, but did not stop Qin Shi. Who are you? What do you want to do? “

“… what if I say I just think it’s fun.” Qin Kaiyi didn’t take Shen Feixiao’s suspicion seriously at all. In his thoughts, he was going to leave the plot and this world behind sooner or later, so he didn’t have to take responsibility for what he said… Of course, Qin Kaiyi would never realize how much he would have to pay for his carelessness in the future. 

Shen Feixiao heard this answer and said nothing. He stared at Qin Kaiyi in silence. That gaze made Qin Kaiyi feel uncomfortable for a while.

“Just kidding.” Qin Kaiyi waved his hand: “This question about giving you ‘Mountain Cloud Notes,’ I don’t want to discuss with you anymore. You also don’t need to know my thoughts. I’ll only tell you that you won’t die in the secret realm. Not only that, you will make even more gains.”

“How do you know I won’t die here?” Shen Feixiao didn’t believe Qin Kaiyi’s words at all.

“Because…” Qin Kaiyi paused, thinking that he couldn’t tell him that it was because he’d written him into existence with his own pen, so he changed his statement: “Because I will protect you.”

“Why?” The still waters of Shen Feixiao’s gaze seemed to reveal a ripple. “Why would you protect me?”

“…” I can’t escape this plot if you die, Qin Kaiyi thought silently. On the surface, his expression appeared to be like a smile yet not a smile: “Because if you die, I will be very bored.”

“Is that it.” The ripples in his eyes smoothed, and Shen Feixiao’s gaze turned back into a calm and deep lake: “Hopefully your promise is true.”

“Does it really affect you?” In other words, you’ve been given an inch and want a mile. Qin Kaiyi, still pretending to be cool, continued: “You won’t die anyway, if you die… “

“If I were to die, what would you do?” Shen Feixiao picked up after Qin Kaiyi’s words.

“If you die, I will accompany you to die.” Anyway, the system would not let him alone live. Qin Kaiyi was very sincere when he said this. He was really speaking his heart!

“Is that it.” Shen Feixiao lowered his head, making Qin Kaiyi unable to clearly see his expression: “Then I will wait and see.”

Qin Kaiyi no longer talked to Shen Feixiao. He turned to look at the endless downpour of rain within the woods. He felt that his mood became very calm at this moment. In fact, from the first day he woke up in this world, he felt like he was in a dream, an endless dream… maybe death would be an opportunity for him to wake up. However, this opportunity was a challenge that no one dared to attempt. If you failed this challenge, you would actually fall into an eternal dream you would never escape… death. 

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Notes

小心肝, lit: small heart liver, figurative: small darling. So QKY could be referring to himself as a little darling feeling pain □ is a placeholder for an unknown word–that’s all I have for you, folks. I’m also confused.

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