Crowds thronged around the small table below the banner. It seemed to be a jianghu fortune-teller’s stall. Behind the table sat a beautiful and sultry woman, radiating a thousand types of grace. With a toss of her fine hair and a lift of her lovely face, she met Shen Qingqiu’s eyes from a distance—and promptly looked like she’d swallowed a kilogram of arsenic.
But then her gaze turned and landed on the face of Luo Binghe, who stood beside him. Her love for this specific type of man came first above all, and her eyes shone with a sudden bright light. So, she took the initiative to greet him: “I trust that the immortal master has been well!”
“It’s been a while,” said Shen Qingqiu. “The madam is even lovelier than she was when last we met.”
This beautiful woman was Madam Meiyin.
She waved away the enamored male customers by her table, clearing out space for them while smiling delightedly. “The immortal master is radiant with happiness today. So? Did my words from our last meeting not all prove true?”
Though she was certainly talking to Shen Qingqiu, her eyes were turned in Luo Binghe’s direction, and her flirtatious air was both enchanting and seductive, making clear her true intentions.
It had been a long time since Shen Qingqiu recalled the fortune Madam Meiyin had told for him way back when, but the keywords had been: younger; illustrious status; outstanding talent; first-class beauty; often together; deeply in love… Shen Qingqiu realized with a shock that every single one had been dead-on.
“This Shen deeply admires the madam’s skill,” he said. “However, it seems that back then, you forgot to tell me the most important thing.”
She’d gone on and on, hyping it all up until it had practically been raining flowers, but she’d failed to say: “Shen Qingqiu, your fated partner is a fucking man!”
Luo Binghe blinked a little, then smiled. “Shizun, your relationship with this madam seems quite intimate.”
Though he was smiling, at these words, Shen Qingqiu felt a toothache coming on.
When he thought about it, Luo Binghe and Madam Meiyin had originally been meant to be a pair of cheaters who engaged in countless one-night stands. But now they sat very properly opposite one another as they each talked past the other, and the atmosphere was supremely uncomfortable. Indeed, it made for an extremely unsettling picture.
Shen Qingqiu gave a hollow laugh. “It’s not intimate. Not intimate at all. It has been many years since we met. I never thought we’d meet again in the jianghu, nor that the madam would have started this sort of business in Shuang Hu City.”
Madam Meiyin humphed. “Isn’t this all thanks to that cultivator who accompanied your distinguished self on your previous patronage?”
“Which cultivator?” Luo Binghe suddenly said.
Shen Qingqiu’s smile froze a second time.
Madam Meiyin commenced angrily complaining. “Don’t blame me for speaking badly behind his back, but when you came, we extended such a courteous invitation, and we treated neither of you immortal masters poorly. Yet he was truly incredible—collapsing half my cavern right off the bat and scaring away most of my sisters. The next few times we met, he wouldn’t leave me even the slightest bit of face! I’ve lived for a long time, but I have never met such an unfeeling man, one who understands neither romance nor tenderness, who only runs about fighting and killing. Pah!”
Your name’s been spat upon, Liu Qingge. You’ve actually been spat upon!
The kind of violent actions described could only be attributed to one person. Of course Luo Binghe understood, and he stared at Shen Qingqiu. “Shizun, was it Liu…-shishu? When did you leave Cang Qiong Mountain alone together?”
Shen Qingqiu saw the veins bulging in his forehead and coughed dryly. “That was…when you were absent.”
Luo Binghe pinched his palm hard. “Shizun, could you give a concrete explanation to your disciple as to what exactly happened between you, Liu…-shishu, and this succubus, who’s as beautiful as a flower?”
Coaxing Luo Binghe was already a piece of cake for Shen Qingqiu. The steps were:
First, calmly say, “Not as beautiful as you.”
Then, before Madam Meiyin’s spasming smile, promise, “Nothing happened, really.”
If this doesn’t work, repeat steps 1 and 2.
Madam Meiyin clearly thought the flames hadn’t been fanned high enough. “I did throw some of our succubus’s Mesmerizing Fragrance on that cultivator you were with before I left,” she said from the side. “Though given his frigid nature, I doubt it was much of a problem.”
A succubus’s Mesmerizing Fragrance; the name alone told you everything. An aphrodisiac!
Luo Binghe’s face was rapidly filled with rage. “‘Nothing happen-ed?’”
I swear to the heavens, really, nothing happened! I didn’t even have to jerk him off!
Luo Binghe was both jealous and bitter. “This disciple was in the Endless Abyss cutting his way through thorns, while Shizun was surrounded with green hills and crystal waters and enjoying himself with other men…”
What the hell do you mean, “other men”—can’t you use proper terms like “colleagues” or “sect siblings”?!
Shen Qingqiu waved his fan with incomparable integrity and humphed. “What do you mean by ‘enjoying himself’? In a desolate mountain full of frenzied monsters, one person kicks the other into a freezing watering hole and gives them pneumonia. What’s there to envy in something like that?!”
“That’s all?”
“That’s all.”
Madam Meiyin chewed her nails. “What do you mean ‘watering hole’!” she said hatefully. “That was my beloved rose pool…”
Since they’d come to Shuang Hu City, naturally they needed to look for something to do. For example, they ought to at least eliminate some pests for the civilians.
After asking around, it turned out that Chen Manor was yet again experiencing strange incidents.