Mobei-Jun used his expression to say: Kneel down, cry, and admit you were wrong, and then I’ll pardon you.
The corner of Shang Qinghua’s mouth twitched. “To tell the truth, you shouldn’t have brought me,” he continued. “I can’t do anything at all. I can barely serve as a punching bag for you to beat up from time to time. You saw me just then—I was thrashed this badly and I only bought you a bit of time. But you seriously injured your uncle and he probably won’t dare come back again. You’re almost done digesting it, right? So I’ll just…leave first.”
Mobei-Jun’s expression had eased a bit, but upon hearing this last sentence, cold light beamed from his eyes. “You’re still leaving?! You dare!”
Having suddenly been bellowed at, and still hurting from head to toe, Shang Qinghua was overcome with rage. He slapped the ground and yelled, “What don’t I dare?!”
As one would expect, this strike couldn’t scare Mobei-Jun, and it only made his own shoulder and arm explode with pain while stars burst in his eyes. Either way, Mobei-Jun couldn’t move a limb, and Shang Qinghua grew bold in his fury, pointing at him. “I’ll tell you the truth, then! I’ve endured you for too long, you pampered, spoiled young master! You vile-tempered demonic second-gen!”
This was a monstrous degree of audacity. Mobei-Jun’s face was full of disbelief.
But Shang Qinghua’s many years of accumulated grievance continued to spew out in this moment with the power of an arcing rainbow: “You saw that I had a good temperament, that I was easy to push around, and also that my cultivation was lacking—so I was fun and satisfying to torment, right? You thought I was really this…this…ah?!
“What are you looking at? You gonna argue with that?! I’m your dad! Call me daddy! I was just indulging you! Go on and try this with someone else, huh? Bing-ge would beat you to death, and the original flavor Shen Qingqiu would shade you to death!
“No one likes getting beat up every day, and no one would actually be all cheery after getting beat up every day! I’m not actually a dog! Even with a dog, if you kicked it twice a day, given enough time, it’d learn not to bother with you anymore!”
Mobei-Jun said, “Do you want to die?”
Under the circumstances, the intimidation factor of these words had suffered a huge loss in value.
“I don’t,” said Shang Qinghua. “And not only do I dare leave, I dare do other things, would you believe it? This peak lord will, right here, right now, beat you back for every time you beat him before!”
“You!” Mobei-Jun said angrily.
“‘You’? ‘You’ what? ‘You dare’ again? I’ll tell you what, right now, I really do dare. Come at me!”
With this, Shang Qinghua rolled up his sleeves, eagerly shaking a fist in front of Mobei-Jun’s ashen face. Cold blades shot from Mobei-Jun’s gaze, but Shang Qinghua wasn’t frightened in the slightest. His fist swung in a strike straight toward Mobei-Jun’s head.
On instinct, Mobei-Jun averted his face, only to feel the skin of his cheek tighten.
It was a very unfamiliar feeling. A bit itchy, a little bit painful, but entirely not the expected strike.
Two of Shang Qinghua’s fingers had pinched his cheek on one side and forcefully pulled. “How’s that—does it hurt?!”
While pulling, he thought, This is not what I was fucking thinking of doing!
Beat him! Yeah, beat him while he can’t move! Tugging on his face and letting him off with just that? No matter how you look at it, you’ll be getting the short end of the stick!
But there was nothing to be done. Sure enough, Shang Qinghua still couldn’t bring himself to beat that face.
Cheek being pulled as it was, Mobei-Jun’s words were unclear, but he persisted to say, “You’re done!”
Shang Qinghua cackled. “You have backbone! You can still threaten me in this state—Daddy admires you.”
His other hand joined in, pinching the other side of Mobei-Jun’s face. Sometimes he pulled those cheeks in opposite directions, sometimes he pressed them together. Mobei-Jun’s formerly aloof and noble image was wrecked, utterly exterminated by his treacherous pair of hands. All through it, Shang Qinghua was repeating, “Does it hurt yet? Does it hurt?”
Mobei-Jun refused to yield his lofty air. But it was to no avail; things like physiological tears could not be suppressed by lofty airs alone, and in the end, his cheeks were pulled until tears emerged at the corners of his eyes.
“It hurts…? That’s right!” Shang Qinghua released his claws. “When you were beating me all the time, it was at least ten times as painful as that! How does it feel getting tugged on? Spoiled!”
Mobei-Jun’s face went white with fury at this contemptuous “Spoiled!” and his cheeks were covered in green and red fingerprints. It really was a sight to shock the eye and astonish the heart.
When it came down to it, Shang Qinghua was in truth a coward. He had just committed a crime of passion and had his bit of fun, but after the fact, he began to fear being sent to the crematorium—especially when Mobei-Jun’s face had recovered its normal shape. His expression was truly…was truly…
Shang Qinghua’s heart quailed at the mere sight of it. He hurriedly patted his hem, preparing to break into a run and leave. He had skidded a few large steps away at meteoric speed when Mobei-Jun shouted at his back.
“If you want to keep your legs, stay there and don’t move!”
On reflex, Shang Qinghua obeyed the order. He didn’t dare turn around. “My king, I really am leaving.”
“Shut up! Come back!”
Shang Qinghua continued, unimpeded. “Even if you’re angry, don’t come looking for me. After I return, you absolutely won’t be able to find me again, so don’t spend energy on a useless effort. So, my king—bye, then.”
Mobei-Jun was nearly roaring. “If you have the guts to leave, then never let me see you again!”
Shang Qinghua turned a deaf ear. After a few steps, he added one more line. “I was very happy to meet you. Really. You’re even cooler than I imagined!”
At this moment, he was in high spirits, radiant with delight, and wearing precisely the same expression he had worn in the split second he first set pen to paper to describe this character’s first appearance.
When he reflected on his true emotions and honest feelings toward the character under his pen, this really was embarrassing. Although with parting near at hand, embarrassment was but a fleeting thing.