Chapter 8: extra 8

 

01]

Everyone knew that Ye Jun’s hearing was quite good, but very few people knew just how good it is.


He had keen ears and, needles to say, he paid particular attention to how people’s external and internal breathing, heart rate, and pulse1 influenced each other, and how they reflected a person’s mood and frame of mind. These subtle sounds, which were invisible in the eyes of others, could create impressions in his mind, some people were resolute and brave, like the bright sun on the Gobi desert, and others were sinister and disagreeable, like thorny bushes in the jungle.

Because of this special trait, he could easily judge which people were good to approach, and which people he should guard against; which actions would make people happy, and which actions they’d find repulsive.

When he was young, and Ye Jun had not yet obtained the title of “Ye Jun”, he had no family or friends since he could remember, and wondered about destitute on the streets. Fortunately, his skill of observing people’s words and gestures was first-rate, and he was born with a neat and cute appearance, so he’d actually lived pretty well. While others had to beg for spoiled leftover flour buns and fight against dogs, he could get boxes of exquisite pastries from the beautiful sisters of the magnificent pavilions, and every street urchin within a ten li radius regarded him as their leader.


In the 10th year of Tao Guang2, Ye Jun, who had just turned twelve years old, was captured by the Nightrunner without warning.

When he was captured, he was very surprised, because he didn’t sense any hostility or desire to attack from the person that caught him. He spent a lot of effort, but could not curry favour with them to get his freedom. It was only later that he found out these people were genuinely heartless and numb, like a stagnant pool of water. Just like stagnant water, they had no joy or anger to speak of.

The Nightrunner was the place where he, alongside the other young children caught together with him, would ultimately have the hot blood in their chests extinguished, and be ground down until they became just like lifeless stagnant water.

Among the young children caught with him there were beggars as well as kids from ordinary families. Shock, darkness, the fear of losing loved ones, and the dread of the unknown….. the children took all those negative emotions they couldn’t vent and turned them into hoarse wails and cries.

The confinement of the prison infinitely amplified the clamour of the noise. For Ye Jun, whose hearing was exceptionally sensitive, this was already the cruellest form of torture.

After being locked up for a few days, no one had the strength to cry anymore.

In the eyes of others, the atmosphere in the hidden room was stifled and oppressive, but not for Ye Jun. Their fear and dread was endless, and their heartbeats were still ear-piercing, relentlessly torturing Ye Jun.

It was the first time he’d begun to resent his special trait.

After all, aside from some nice-looking sweet cakes, this special trait had not brought him too many other benefits. He’d not had a single moment of peaceful sleep these past few days.

Ye Jun never anticipated that, in this most noisy and filthy place, he’d be able to hear the most pleasant heartbeat in the world.

Steady, gentle, clear, and bright….. like a flawless, clear jade spring.

He followed the sound to it’s source, finding a youth with pitch black eyes quietly sitting at a corner without a single trace of worry or fear.

“Can I sit next to you?” Ye Jun asked him. The other party looked at him silently, remaining motionless, neither agreeing nor opposing.

Ye Jun heedlessly squeezed past the surrounding crowd of children, sitting down closely next to him. Peacefully falling asleep to the musical, beautiful rhythmic sound of water flowing from a spring.


02]

By the time the show-of-force lockdown was over, the young children around rarely cried anymore. Having spent so long in the darkness, even the strings of their fear had already been snapped, and there was a lot more obedience.

Since they were taken away in groups, Ye Jun was forced to separate from that youth with the pleasant heartbeat. The future was unknown, and he had no reason to think fate would bring them together again.

They went through a series of tests and assessments to evaluate their foundation, and the Nighrunner assigned them a number according to their strength. From then on, that number would act as their name. He was assessed as “Yi Wei”, and recieved his training schedule alongside his accommodations.

Apart from physical fitness training, the Nighrunner also gave brainwashing lectures in which their brutally inhuman training was given a nice-sounding name and grandiosely praised. The lecturer’s mouth was filled with virtues and loyalties they didn’t believe, trying to embellish things as a way of covering them up. Ye Jun found it funny, and turned his head to the crowd to look for that person with the pleasant heartbeat.

Ye Jun was able to find him at a glance, but saw that he was listening very seriously, seeming to actually believe what he was hearing.

Ye Jun was dumbfounded: He shouldn’t be foolish enough to take all of this seriously, right?

Ye Jun stealthily glanced at his nameplate, which had the words “Geng Chen” engraved on it, and carefully recoded this number in the bottom of his heart.


03]

In the end, Ye Jun didn’t know if he was actually lucky or unlucky.

He seemed to be favoured by heaven, intelligent and beautiful, his reaction speed was far faster than that of an ordinary person’s, effortlessly achieving things others could not even after paying painful prices. He was a genuine martial arts genius, able to know all the styles and methods after seeing them just once, and never bothering to devote himself to practice, but still always coming out on top.

When the people around him struggled day and night to just barely be able to survive, he basically had nothing to do to pass the time.


His methods of passing the time were very limited, he just harassed Geng Chen.

Apart from going to the training grounds, Geng Chen only ever did two things: meditate, or practise the sword. Geng Chen’s innate talent was limited, and was barely able to draw against himself, so Geng Chen never relaxed even for a moment.

Geng Chen’s method of using the sword was steady and calm, and his process of practising tedious and boring. Ye Jun leaned against the railing of the winding corridor to watch him, frequently falling asleep after just a short while. When Geng Chen meditated, he just crouched down next to him and leisurely started chatting. Geng Chen rarely opened his mouth, but fortunately he didn’t need Geng Chen to respond to him, he only wanted to hang by Geng Chen’s side to avoid the ear-piercing, distracting noises of others.

You are reading story Life Going Wild With Plug-ins at novel35.com

Ye Jun quieted down and took a moment to slowly appreciate it, realising Geng Chen was not just a clear spring.

He was a secluded spring in an empty valley, filled with the mellow cries of orioles and the fragrant scent of orchids. The flowing water was calm and pure, yet firm and indomitable, like an irresistible force.

He was the world’s most tender Pure Land3.


The extremely lazy Ye Jun intentionally collected many prize tokens and switched his bunk to be by Geng Chen’s side. When the person sleeping next to him was replaced with Ye Jun, Geng Chen didn’t seem surprised, and he never asked him about it. Ye Jun used his light sleep and fear of noise as the reason to hang out in the courtyard every day and wait for Geng Chen to finish meditating, before dragging him off to go to sleep together.


Many years later, Ye Jun won success and recognition, and was able to live a comfortable life filled with brocade garments and jade meals.

But he never again had that beautiful, calm, orchid-filled spring to send him into his dreams.


04]

Geng Chen told him on many occasions that he wanted the title of “Ye Jun”.

He did his utmost to practice martial arts, and had the strength to pull himself to the top, but that was all he ever wanted.


But, unfortunately, more than loyalty, what Ye Jun needed was to be a flower vase that knew how to please people.

Ye Jun knew this path very well, and was unbearably bitter.

He was afraid the pure Geng Chen he treasured would ultimately be betrayed by the filthy ways of the world.


05]

As expected, Yi Wei was crowned “Ye Jun”, and from then on they went their separate ways.

They met once again when Yaksha killed his master, murdering Qin Qi with his own hands. Under the Second Young Master’s orders, he personally destroyed the evidence and shifted the blame onto him.

At that poplar forest north-west of a barren desert, separated by a river, he was once again able to sense Yaksha’s heartbeat.

The flowing, clear spring was still there, but the orchids had already wilted.


06]

After that, Yaksha was taken into Zhongli Court by the Second Young Master, guarded against and kept out of sight by all possible means for three years, and finally had his inner power abolished and was driven out the door.

Ye Jun was the Second Young Master’s most capable assistant, and he personally supervised the punishment from beginning to end. After it was over, he very carefully took the blood-drenched Yaksha down from the rack.

This heart was trampled on and vilified by countless people.

It was a treasure he never dared to ask for from the start.


Yaksha curled up in his arms, his life seemed to hang by a thread, and he was no longer that high-spirited, tenacious youth he remembered.

Ye Jun held him up, pressing against his chest, trying his hardest to make out that faint heartbeat.

It wasn’t even stagnant water anymore. But rather the grand, continuous, endless remains of flowers and birds, and the ruins of pine and cypresses brunt to ashes.


“Nobody will ever want me again.” His weak voice was buried by a powerful current of pain, going unheard by anyone.

He said: “Yi Wei, I regret it.”

The last clear spring in the world was finally dried up.


[A world that isn't concerned with you.]

✦✧✦✧✦✧

1 Similar but different things: 呼吸 is regular (external) breathing, 吐納 is a type of (internal) breathing technique used in qigong, 心律 heart rate measures the heartbeats, 脈搏 pulse measures blood pressure. Top.

2 韜光 tāoguāng as a word means ‘to hide one’s talents’, but I think in this case the author is using it as a made-up regnal year to mark the date (e.g. in the X year of XX emperor’s reign). Top.

3 A Buddhist concept, the celestial realm of a buddha. Top.

 

You can find story with these keywords: Life Going Wild With Plug-ins, Read Life Going Wild With Plug-ins, Life Going Wild With Plug-ins novel, Life Going Wild With Plug-ins book, Life Going Wild With Plug-ins story, Life Going Wild With Plug-ins full, Life Going Wild With Plug-ins Latest Chapter