Chapter 173 - Epilogue Volume 3, the Bright Red of that Day (II)
173 – Epilogue Volume 3, the Bright Red of that Day (II)
“Anyway, how long have I slept?”
“It has been six days.”
“Almost a week…”
At this time, the girl saw the clothes she is wearing. The simple and plain clothes fit her well, but they do not belong to her.
Whose clothes are these? Xihe feels bemused. These clothes cannot be newly bought, since they have traces of being worn.
“Where did these clothes come from?”
“These are the clothes of Senior Beiming. I originally intended to give you my clothes, but they don’t seem to fit you.”
Qi Qiqi’s voice became quieter and quieter.
“They don’t fit?”
Xi Qiqi looked at Qi Qiqi’s figure with curiosity.
In the end, her gaze involuntarily fell on the chest of the girl in red. Xihe’s chest is far from being big. Optimistically speaking, it can only be rated as proportional. Nevertheless, it’s much more impressive than Qi Qiqi’s.
“Wait, where are you looking! How disagreeable!”
Qi Qiqi protested emotionally in a loud voice. Xihe, while saying “sorry”, looked away.
“A big chest isn’t necessarily anything good! Qilin said that what really matters is the shape! Furthermore, she praised the shape of my chest very highly!”
Qi Qiqi seems to care about the size of her chest.
It’s no wonder. After all, her face and body can cause the downfall of a state. Her only flaw is that her “chest is too small”.
“… it seems that you are very close, you even showed her your chest.”
Xihe knows that she should comfort the Qi Qiqi, so that other party doesn’t take offense. But she has no clue of what to do. Since she doesn’t know where to start, she found some perfunctory excuse.
“Yeah, is that a problem? We occasionally take a bath together. We’re both girls, so shouldn’t it be okay?”
Qi Qiqi tilted her head and asked, looking like she did something wrong but didn’t know why it is wrong.
“It’s no problem, no problem at all. Um, so, is Big Sister Beiming here?”
“She is.”
For some reason, Qi Qiqi’s expression seems a little fuzzy. Only her eyes are growing more and more bright red. She uttered in a meaningful tone, “If it weren’t for Senior Beiming staying here, you wouldn’t be able to rest here. There are many people who want you dead. Although Qilin stands on your side, but there are now many Heaven Realm masters of the sects gathered here.”
Qi Qiqi carried on with certainty, “Only Senior Beiming can protect you from the many Heaven Realm masters. The Heaven Realm masters that have gathered here came to provide assistance to the trial by fire groups…”
Big Sister Beiming is willing to protect me despite of her position? This is really… After learning that Beiming Youyu stood up for her and protected her, Xihe felt incredibly warm inside, and the past grievances were swept away. She felt like weeping. But in the end, she endured it.
On many lonely, sleepless nights, she shed tears and accused fate of injustice. She cried enough — she had cried enough.
She doesn’t want to cry anymore, not even tears of joy.
Because the tear will remind her of her unhappiness. She doesn’t want to think of those things, of the unhappiness, of the pain, in this moment of happiness.
“… where am I?”
When she was looking for a topic to change the subject, Xihe suddenly realized that she still doesn’t know where she is.
“Leisure — Martial Demon Town’s Leisure Inn. Senior Beiming brought you here. I heard that when they saw you, everyone was scared. No one expected that Senior Beiming would bring you here, and then even live here herself. At that time, the faces of the people at the scene sank immediately. The Beggar’s Union’s Protector Jiang blew his top and blurted out you ‘bleep bleep bleep’. In the end –”
“Bleep bleep bleep? What’s that?”
“Er, this is something Qilin taught me… I don’t know the exact meaning. Basically, it’s something not nice.”
Xihe nodded, not surprised.
“As expected, the Beggar’s Union seems to dislike martial demons very much.”
“No, that’s not the case. It’s just that Protector Jiang particularly dislikes martial demons. Hmm… actually, it’s just that he’s rather prideful. He doesn’t want to admit defeat to a martial demon.”
Qi Qiqi sighed helplessly. Xihe shook her head firmly.
“It’s not only him. There are many martial practitioners who, as if possessed, won’t throw in the towel even when their life is on the line.”
The reason behind this is actually rather simple.
Because as long as they concede to martial demons, they will indirectly admit that they are not as good as martial demons — this is an unacceptable behavior in the mainstream society that regards martial demons as inferior.
In fact, this is a very contradictory thing. If they really didn’t care about martial demons, then why do they worry so much? It’s because martial practitioners cannot ignore the existence of martial demons and admit deep inside that martial demons are strong and they feel threatened by them, so they fool themselves due to a psychological self-preservation mechanism.
Xihe doesn’t understand the practicality of this self-deception.
Qi Qiqi laughed self-deprecatingly first, then smiled wryly.
“In fact, everyone knows very well that martial demons are not inferior to people. They just don’t want to admit it. We, who have dominated the world for a long time, cannot get off of our high horse lightly, not unlike emperors sitting on the throne won’t admit that there are individuals more capable than them in the world.”
Qi Qiqi, whose face suddenly flushed, looked away and rubbed her nose.
“Really, isn’t that embarrassing?”
“Qi Qiqi — can I call you that?”
Qi Qiqi answered sternly with a straight face, “No, you cannot.”
Xihe, who didn’t anticipate this answer, widened her eyes a little.
Seeing this, Qi Qiqi put her hands on her hips and imitated Xue Qilin’s tone when she’s dissatisfied, saying, “You should call me by my name. To call me by my full name, that’s too cold, isn’t it [1]?!”
Xihe was taken aback at first, and then covered her mouth, and beautiful laughter leaked out from between her fingers.
“Xue Qilin.”
“Um, do you think there’s a resemblance?”
“I do. That speech habit, you clearly picked it up from her.”
“That’s right. How very strange. Are there people who use the character ‘咩’ [1] as a final particle?”
Xihe chuckled twice.
“There are. In the southern dialect, it seems that the character “咩” is often used as a final particle… Is Xue Qilin a southerner?”
“I don’t know. She didn’t mention her homeland specifically, she only said that she is from far away.”
Perhaps dissatisfied with Xue Qilin, who didn’t give her a straight answer, Qi Qiqi puffed up her cheeks subconsciously.
Xihe’s smile froze suddenly.
After a long silence, she said dejectedly, “Did you consider that her homeland may no longer exist.”
“Eh, is that so? Is that the case?” Qi Qiqi panicked, “What do I do? I often ask her about it!”
“If a person is unwilling to talk about their homeland, there are only two possibilities — the homeland no longer exists, or they can no longer go back.”
“Is that so…” Qi Qiqi showed a pitiful expression, “I’m really… stupid.”
“No, you aren’t stupid. You’re just happy.”
“Happy? Me?”
Xihe and Qi Qiqi gazed at each other.
In the blank eyes staring quietly, Xihe’s ashen face and the gentle smile engraved on it are reflected.
“You may have lost a lot, but you still have people who love you dearly, who will go crazy and throw caution to the wind for you. Isn’t this something to be happy about?”
Qi Qiqi lowered her gaze and said with a smile, “It is.”
Thinking of something, her smile grew softer, and finally even radiated brilliant tenderness.
Such a dazzling smile, it must be an expression of happiness — it must be.
Can I also smile like that? Xihe asked herself, but didn’t get an answer. She still needs time to find the answer.
However —
“It’s not only me. Xihe, you’re happy as well.”
After raising her head in surprise, Xihe saw Qi Qiqi smile softly at her.
“It’s been settled.”
What has been settled? It can’t — on Xihe’s collected expression, for the first time, emerged disharmonious eagerness.
“Are you referring to the trial by fire?”
“Mhm. Remember what I said a short while ago, that the Heaven Realm masters of the sects have gathered here?”
In order to save time and get an answer as soon as possible, Xihe didn’t speak. She only nodded to indicate that she remembers, and then urged Qi Qiqi to continue with her eyes. That said, is Qi Qiqi being a chatty?
“Okay, okay, I know. In short, when they detected the anomaly, the trial by fire groups each appear to have sent a ‘Dark Crow’ to notify their sect. In any case, the sects sent Heaven Realm masters to clarify the situation — of course, some small sects could only send Earth Realm experts. In short, except for the Shadow Gate, whose Heaven Realm masters never show up, almost half of the Five Great Sects’ Heaven Realm masters have gathered here. There’s the One Dao Church’s Ancestor Immaculate Violetcloud, the Beggar’s Union’s vice-Union Master, and your Big Sister Beiming — ah, there’s also our Merak Temple’s unreliable Qilin.”
After taking some to breath, Qi Qiqi went on to say, “As soon as Qilin learned that they are the ones in charge, she jumped out and proclaimed that she wants to cancel the Martial Demon Realm Trial by Fire. You wouldn’t know, but when I, who was just able to get out of bed not long ago, heard Qilin say this, I was immediately scared half to death. Originally, I wondered how to deal with the backlash from the other Three Great Sects. But do you know what the outcome was?”
The outcome… Although Xihe is afraid of learning the answer, yet she still fixed her gaze on Qi Qiqi’s eyes, not looking away. She cannot escape.
Qi Qiqi showed a meaningful smile.
“They agreed readily.”
How is that possible? Xihe couldn’t hide her surprise. Although she agreed to negotiate with the Five Great Sects and even prepared herself mentally to come forward. However, she never imagined that everything would be resolved during her coma.
“… you aren’t lying to me? How can it be that simple?”
Xihe, with her lips trembling, tried to make sure she didn’t mishear Qi Qiqi.
Unconsciously, a tear slid down her face.
If what Qi Qiqi said is true, then Xihe feels that this must be the last time she sheds tears.
— it must be.
“What a headache…” Qi Qiqi revealed a troubled smile, “The reason behind it is not a sense of compassion or sympathy. I don’t want to be the one to tell you the truth… But if I don’t tell you, you won’t feel relieved.”
“That’s right, so please tell me everything. This is something I should know, I must know.”
Qi Qiqi sighed.
Then, she turned her head and looked out the window. Her delicate face suddenly cast a shadow. She is looking in the direction of the city of Chang’an.
“… the vestiges of 5 years ago have not been wiped out by time.”
“The thing of 5 years ago? Do you mean that the Imperial Court has taken action?”
Xihe frowned and asking probingly.
“That’s right.”
Qi Qiqi nodded and said with a gloomy expression.
“Great General Gong, who has been stationed at the northern border all this time, was transferred back to Chang’an.”
At this very moment, Xihe suddenly realized and predicted something.
— the Hua dynasty’s Martial World seems to be in upheaval again.
[1] – Qi Qiqi use the final particle 咩 (mie), which is a final particle that transforms statements into questions that indicate doubt or surprise (Cantonese)