Chapter 15 – Fourty Thousand: A Debt Collecting Ghost's Story
The female ghost had drifted in the palace for 11 years and, for the first time, she had found a mortal who could see her. She looked You Shu up and down, then asked, “Before you speak with Bengong, should you not report your name first?”
“I am You Shu. “ You Shu blinked his big, round cat eyes.
Blu: I am envisioning Puss In Boot’s eyes (from Shrek)
The female ghost waited for a long time before realizing that this person before her simply had no intention to continue speaking. Where would there be someone who would introduce themselves like this, only declaring their name, without a surname, and not even their identity and background. The female ghost rolled her long tongue and inquired, “And then?”
“And then what?”
Seeing the non-stop swaying scarlet red tongue in front of his eyes, You Shu’s face did not change at all, making the female ghost who intentionally scared him become disappointed. Facing the ferocious, frightening evil spirit and still being able to maintain such composure, this boy should not be an ordinary person. Thinking through this, the female ghost gained a little bit more interest in this so-called “deal”.
“You previously said that you want to make a deal with Bengong?”
“En, I help you take revenge, you help me answer a question.” You Shu nodded.
“Are you able to help me get revenge? Do you know who my enemy is?” The female ghost mockingly smiled. She wanted to kill, but that man was the most honorable under the Heavens, so this little eunuch before her was simply boasting shamelessly, saying that he can help her. How will he help? He probably isn’t even able to see the Emperor’s face.
You Shu earnestly explained, “It’s not to replace you to take revenge, rather to assist you in taking revenge. It seems that you have stayed in the Palace for a very long time? But you still cannot accomplish it, so it is clear that you don’t have enough skill. I can help you become stronger.” Although this ghost was more powerful than the debt collecting ghost, the person she wanted to deal with was the Emperor and so the difficulty of the process was naturally incomparable.
This speech stabbed the female ghost’s sore spot. She did not need other people to help her take revenge. The reason why she wanted to stay in the Palace despite risking the danger of her soul scattering was precisely to personally kill her enemy. Becoming stronger, even in her dreams, she thought of getting stronger. Often seeing her enemy idling about before her but only having the ability to harrass their mind and create a few superficial nightmares: that kind of helpless anger was a hundred times more agonising than the time she was strangled.
“How will you assist Bengong?” The female ghost sounded out. This boy was a bit eccentric, hearing what he wanted to say for now wouldn’t hurt.
“First answer a question for me, then I will tell you the method.” You Shu’s face was completely expressionless.
Otherwise, there’s nothing to talk about. You Shu shook his head and turned to walk towards Yangxin Palace. After standing on a rockery, they can see the open space in front of the Palace through a small hole. Calculating the time, Ji Changye should come out soon.
The one who wanted revenge was the female ghost, she was naturally more anxious than anyone else. Seeing the little eunuch wanting to leave after speaking halfway, her evil tendencies suddenly violently gushed out and she stepped forward, wanting to pinch the little eunuch’s neck and interrogate. The other party seemed to have grown eyes on his back and rushed towards the Imperial court of Yangxin Palace. Running up two three flights of steps in one go, that speed was even faster than a mouse.
For two lifetimes, You Shu had continuously been in the state of being weighed down by work. His armed strength value was really not that high - but his skill to escape had been perfected long ago. He reached the front of the Palace in the blink of an eye. His feet still didn’t have enough time to stop when he saw Ji Chanye slowly walking out. He promptly went to greet him and firmly grasping the lower hem of the other party’s clothes.
Ji Changye pointed to the fine sweat on his forehead and softly said, “Where did you go to be mischevious again?”
“Just standing in the Imperial garden for a while.” You Shu innocently blinked his big eyes.
Ji Changye habitually took out a handkerchief, wanting to wipe the boy’s sweat but suddenly realised that this place was the Imperial Palace with many people and various eyes, so he had to give up. There was nothing in the space outside Yangxin Palace. You Shu who stood under the scorchinig hot sun was truly having a hard time, running to the Imperial garden to hide under the shade was understandable. Thinking this, he felt distressed and also helpless. Taking the lead to walk out the Palace gates, he softly said “Quickly go back to drink soup to dispel the heat. I already asked you to not follow me earlier but you stubbornly refuse to listen. You’ve already grown up and cannot always stick to me. Someday in the future, when you have a wife and children, then what are you going to do? Don’t tell me that you want to follow me and cram inside the wedding night room?” He seemed to have thought of something and then shook his head and laughed in spite of himself.
If there is no way to obtain the Dragon Qi, then I will follow you my whole life, how would I take a wife and have children. Thinking as such, You Shu couldn’t help but to turn around and look back, but he saw that female ghost standing 10 metres away, madly shouting, “How can you walk away before you finish speaking? Come back, quickly return for Bengong! Tell Bengong how to take revenge!”
Her long tongue danced in the air, her face ferocious, and she clearly wanted to rush over to catch him, but didn’t dare to come close at all. It’s clear that Ji Changye really was the Son of Heaven and all evils kept out of the way. You Shu regained his gaze and moved the wide-sleeved gown to secretly pull on the youth’s big hand and lightly swayed twice. Master is really amazing!
Blu: Son of Heaven is another way the Emperor is referred to as.
Once Ji Changye slightly looked down and saw a little dimple squeezing on the boy’s face, his hands immediately itched, while poking it, he helplessly sighed, “You ah you, when will you grow up?”
The two people gradually drifted apart, the female ghost gave out a mournful shriek and disappeared.
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The new residence was extremely spacious. There were seven to eight buildings, a few hundred people could live here. Therefore, Ji Changye ordered the servant to cleanly tidy up the room next door so that You Shu could live comfortably. But he didn’t expect that when it was time to light up the lamps, You Shu was absolutely unwilling to go, dashing onto the bed and hugging the bed pillar, not letting go.
“Can you recall how old you are?” Ji Changye looked as if he was helpless as he complained, but his eyes were filled with deep laughter.
You Shu’s ears slowly reddened and simply turned his head away, keeping silent. Seeing the youth stride onto the bed and stretching his arms as if wanting to drag him off the pillar, You Shu hurriedly wound his legs around the bed pillar. This appearance of his made Ji Changye think that it was funny and ridiculous. He hugged his slender waist and pulled for half a day and couldn’t pull him away. So he scratched his armpit.
You Shu was extremely ticklish and immediately fell onto the bed, rolling about. He didn’t laugh out loud but his eyes were very wet, two little dimples were faintly discernible on his cheeks, looking absolutely sweet.
“No, no more.” He whispered as he gasped, and then he let out a chanting groan ng ng ah ah.
Because the boy suppressed his laughter, his face turned red and the originally wet eyes glimmered with glistening teardrops, and the greater part of his clothes were pulled open, hanging off his smooth and round shoulder, the delicate collarbone and his fair chest was bare and exposed, being somewhat hidden by his disorderly and smooth hair, the soft red cherries were also intermittenly visible. He was lovably, softly, powerlessly lying down on the purple silk mattress on the bed, using a pleading, begging, moving gaze to look at him, his mouth giving out chants that would provoke wild and fanciful thoughts. Ji Chengye looked and looked and felt as if his heart was beating like a drum. Quickly pulling out one side of the quilt, he tightly wrapped the boy from head to toe.
He pressed and kneaded his temples, feeling somewhat exhausted but also feeling somewhat confused and flustered. Right at this time, a carrier pigeon flew through the window and broke his complicated thoughts.
“Fine, today I will spare you for the time being.” Rubbing the boy’s dark hair, he walked over to catch the carrier pigeon.
Only then did You Shu relaxed. He was already 15 years old, and it really was a bit strange to sleep with the youth. It seems that he still has to find a way to protect himself. That female ghost has waited in the Palace for a long time and was not afraid of the Emperor’s Dragon Qi, there should be some way of doing something. She urgently wanted to take revenge and would very quickly take the initiative to look for him.
Thinking like this, You Shu slowly closed his eyes. After Ji Changye finished reading the secret letter, he let the pigeon fly away and saw the young boy wrapped in the quilt and curled up in the corner. He was already sleeping and his cheeks were still very red with beads of sweat on his forehead. Ji Changye smiled and lightly wiped the sweat for him and then puled the quilt to his chest and abdomen so as to avoid suffocating him. After that, he quietly stared for a good while, a slightly unfamiliar feeling lingering in the pit of his stomach, somewhat like satisfaction, but also close to yearning.
After a short moment, the lit candle in the room was extinguished by the airflow that burst from the youth’s fingertips. The two's long and steady breathing sounds gradually merged.
At midnight, a peal of sullen calls rose from outside the room, “You Shu, You Shu, You Shu…..” Incessantly on and on.
If other people could hear it, they would probably already be frightened, but the few hundred shadow guards inside and outside the courtyard simply did not perceive it.
You Shu wrinkled his brows and woke up, quietly sliding off from the edge of the bed and walked over to the half open window. The female ghost was dragging her long tongue up and down the corridor. Catching sight of the young boy, she beckoned, “You come out, Bengong has something to say to you.” She seemed to be afraid of the sleeping youth and would crane her neck to peep from time to time.
The female ghost seemed as if she was speaking, but in fact, her voice was being directly transmitted into people’s head. You Shu talked to her in his mind, “You come in.”
One person and one ghost started to carry out their silent exchange, and the shadow guards who toured around inspecting actually never noticed any abnormalities, just that it was hot that day and You Shu couldn’t fall asleep so he walked to the open to window to feel the cool breeze.
“You come out!” The female ghost glared with her blood red eyeballs.
“You come in.” You Shu sluggishly blinked his cat pupils.
“You come out for Bengong!” Before her death, the female ghost was a favoured Imperial concubine and was used to bossing people around, her tone unconsciously arrogant.
It was a pity that You Shu simply did not bit her bait and expressionlessly shut the window and went to go back to sleep. He just walked halfway when he heard the female ghost urgently yell, “Fine, fine, let’s both take a step back, Bengong won’t enter inside, you also don’t have to come out, let’s talk through the window.”
Only then did You Shu bend the corner of his lips, squeezing out the dimple on his left cheek. Previously, that debt collecting ghost never dared to come within a 20 metre range of Ji Changye. This female ghost’s skills were quite high but could only maintain a seven to eight metre distance from Ji Changye. Any closer and she would probably be swallowed by the Dragon Qi. Only after You Shu calculated this point did he dare to meet with the female ghost.
“You have an enmity with Ji Zhengze?” Know yourself and know your enemy, only then can you emerge victorious in every battle. You Shu talked to the female ghost once he opened the window.
The female ghost had died for 11 years and already hadn’t communicated with anyone else for a long time. She suddenly became a chatterbox and told her past. You Shu was stunned, completely not expecting for it to have involved his Master.
When she was alive, the female ghost was the Emperor’s most favored Imperial Concubine. Her looks enough to cause the downfall of a country, exceptional and unparalled. As soon as she entered the Palace, she was titled as the fourth rank Zhao Yi, but half a year later, she was promoted to third rank Imperial Concubine Lan. This Imperial favor directly pressured Imperial Consort Xiao. Imperial Consort Xiao’s heart accumulated jealousy and hatred and constantly cursed Imperial Concubine Lan in front of her son. The Fourth Prince’s nature was overbearing, unbridledly domineering and was very fond of women, and had long coveted after Imperial Concubine Lan. So they had set up a venemous scheme, intending to remove Imperial Concubine Lan together with the Third Prince.
Blu: Zhao Yi means clear appearance or smth like that/// Lan - orchid /// Imperial Consort is a highest-ranking Imperial concubine. If I remember correctly.
The mother and son pair originally planned to slowly work out a strategy, but they didn’t expect Imperial Concubine Lan to be diagnosed to be 2 months pregnant, causing the Emperor’s dragon heart to be extremely delighted. It’s said that if a boy was born, he would be titled a Qinwang and if a girl was born, she would be titled a Gongzhu. Such Imperial favor already faintly surpassed Imperial Consort Xiao and the Fourth Prince’s influence. The two people were anxious and hastily dealt a vicious attack.
Blu: Qinwang & Gongzhu are the highest titles a Prince and Princess can receive. Below Qinwang is Junwang and below Gongzhu is Junzhu (if I remember right). I don't trust myself haha
THE CORNER
“No, no more.” He whispered as he gasped, and then he let out a chanting groan ng ng ah ah.
Because the boy suppressed his laughter, his face turned red and the originally wet eyes glimmered with glistening teardrops, and the greater part of his clothes were pulled open, hanging off his smooth and round shoulder, the delicate collarbone and his fair chest was bare and exposed, being somewhat hidden by his disorderly and smooth hair, the soft red cherries were also intermittenly visible. He was lovably, softly, powerlessly lying down on the purple silk mattress on the bed, using a pleading, begging, moving gaze to look at him, his mouth giving out chants that would provoke wild and fanciful thoughts. Ji Chengye looked and looked and felt as if his heart was beating like a drum. Quickly pulling out one side of the quilt, he tightly wrapped the boy from head to toe.
Blu: *nosebleed* (*° ་། °)=3
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