Chương 112: Chapter 112: Shizun Is Not To Be Sullied
He was talking about what Mo Ran had done on the first day of his reborn life, when he was full of resentment.
Thinking back to it now, although Rong Jiu had wronged him in the last lifetime, teaming up with Chang-gongzi to scheme against his life, that happened in the past life. The Rong Jiu of this lifetime hadn't yet gone that far with Changgongzi, and there really was no way for Mo Ran to explain why he had taken his money and things back then.
"It was my bad." That being the case, Mo Ran didn't want to fight, only saying, "Everything I took from you that day, I'll give back to you in the future." "How would you do that?" Rong Jiu asked. "Or rather, what good would money and treasures do me now?" Mo Ran: "..." "You can give me back the bracelets and pearls, but what about my life?" "What?" Mo Ran was caught off guard. "Your life?" "Yes, my life." Rong Jiu's expression clouded over, as if a painful wound in his heart had been touched.
"Do you know how I died?" "....." He had probably been holding it in for a long time already, and now that the lid was abruptly lifted, the steam beneath burst out in an uncontrollable stream.
He continued on, wretchedly, before Mo Ran could say anything, his expression suddenly one of rage that slowly grew twisted.
"That Chang guy is ruthless. I had no more value to him once you stopped being into me, so he made up some lies about really truly liking me, but his family objects because I'm just a rent boy in a brothel, not clean, and it'd be best if we stopped seeing each other. I was blind back then, thought his feelings were sincere, that he had no choice, that his parents made him… bah! I can't believe I actually fell for his rubbish!" Mo Ran said, "But what are you blaming me for, shouldn't you blame the Chang dude."
Rong Jiu snapped angrily, "Why shouldn't I blame you? I had enough saved up to buy my freedom, and you stole it all. I was too despondent to stay at the brothel any longer, but I couldn't openly leave without money, so I had to secretly run away. If you hadn't stolen everything from me, I wouldn't have ended up like this!" "...You ran away?" "That's right, I ran away. I ran to his place," Rong Jiu said hatefully. "But that Chang guy wouldn't open the door for me, even while the people sent by the brothel were closing in. All my struggles were useless in the end. I got dragged back there, beat up and tormented, and locked back up." Mo Ran muttered, "But the Chang guy said you went to visit relatives at Butterfly Town and ran into the Ghost Realm barrier breaking, and that's how you died." "HAH!" There was a thread of mockery on Rong Jiu's androgynous face. "He sure is shameless. Relatives? What relatives could I have at Butterfly Town!" "..." "Didn't you say something about living under a knife? Let me tell you what it means to live under a knife!" Rong Jiu got more and more worked up, his features almost twisted, and in this moment, he really did look like a vicious ghost. "Let me tell you just how I died! You and all my other dear patrons! Haha ——patrons!" "I was locked up in the brothel for so long without any food, just being tormented. No one cared if I lived or died. Days passed like that, and I was just about to give up hope when that Chang guy suddenly turned up again, crying and saying that he couldn't let me in that day because his parents were in a bad mood and he was afraid that they'd have the servants beat me to death if he let me in!" Mo Ran shook his head; it was so obviously a lie. "Surely you didn't believe him." "No." There was a spot of light quivering in Rong Jiu's eyes. "I believed him." Mo Ran: "..." "I believed him." Rong Jiu forced out a smile in the midst of all that resentment, the corners of his mouth twisting. "Why wouldn't I? Doubt is the privilege of those who have a way out. What am I but a flesh peddler? I have to believe whatever people throw out, or else I wouldn't be able to even survive." He paused before continuing.
"The Chang guy said he'll be true to his word and take me into his home, but that his parents can't accept me just yet, and asked me to go with him to a nearby town and live there for a while first." "Butterfly Town?" "Yes. Butterfly Town." Mo Ran's expression darkened; he already knew where this was going.
Sure enough, Rong Jiu continued, "So I happily packed my things, well actually, there wasn't really much to pack, since you stole everything I earned selling my body all these years, just on a whim. But that's alright, I thought at the time, I have Chang-gongzi now."
"...Heh," he was silent for a bit, his lips twitching with a snicker, then hatefully spit out the name again, "Chang-gongzi." "Did he trick you into going to Butterfly Town and kill you there?" "...No." Rong Jiu wore a savage smile as bitterness flickered in his eyes. "It wasn't him that killed me, it was all of you that blocked off my paths one by one until I had no choice but to go with him on that shady venture. It was all of you, it all of you that killed me." Rong Jiu breathed in and continued, "We got to Butterfly Town and I followed the Chang guy into a large manor. It was quiet and empty inside, and there weren't any servants. He said he hadn't had a chance to decorate yet, and told me to stay there and rest for a bit while he goes out to buy some stuff. So I stayed and waited, and then a short while later I saw him come back with some man——" Hearing that, Mo Ran's expression changed abruptly. "Did you see that man's face?" "No," Rong Jiu said, "He wore a mask and had a cloak on, I couldn't see his face at all… And then I saw the Chang guy kneel in front of that man, simpering harder than even I do while taking guests. He really should've looked in the mirror just then, disgusting. He told that man I had residual wood elemental spiritual essence or something on me, that I'd been intimate with you before—— a good offering. Something like that, who knows, I'm not a cultivator nor do I want to be one, I don't know what they were talking about." But Mo Ran felt his scalp go numb.
It was true that he had been intimate with Rong Jiu before, and so there would be traces of wood elemental spiritual essence remaining in Rong Jiu's body. That fake Gouchen was looking for a suitable replacement, and although the lingering spiritual energy would've been very faint, it nevertheless would've been pure, indeed suitable for use in spells.
"There's not much to say about what happened after that." There was a bone-chilling coldness in Rong Jiu's usually easygoing expression. "As Mogongzi can see, I died." If it had been the Mo Ran of the past life, or the Mo Ran that had just been reborn, he would've scoffed and mocked, "So what if you died, what's that got to do with me?" But the current Mo Ran couldn't find it in him to laugh.
He did loathe Rong Jiu, and Rong Jiu was unscrupulous, and had even gone so far as to plot against his life in the last lifetime. But although he had been physically intimate with Rong Jiu before, they never once had an open, honest talk. To suddenly hear such plain-spoken admissions from Rong Jiu now, down here in the Underworld, Mo Ran felt a hundred mixed emotions.
He mulled it over and decided that there was no way to sort out all these countless threads of bygone things; might as well just let it go.
He sighed and said, "Rong Jiu, I'm sorry about it all." Rong Jiu had gone his whole life without anyone ever saying sorry to him.
Caught off guard, he looked Mo Ran over with wide eyes like he didn't recognize him at all before saying, "Even if you say that, I'm still not going to tell you where the person in the drawing is." Mo Ran said, "This has nothing to do with the drawing."
Rong Jiu was quiet for a while, with his head lowered. Then he suddenly spoke, "Mo-gongzi, did you know, Chang-gongzi was plotting with me to kill you and steal your cultivation?" "I know." "You… you know?" Mo Ran nodded. "I know." Rong Jiu stared blankly for a while, then said resentfully, "That Chang guy must've ratted me out!" Then his head snapped back up, eyes flickering with hatred. "If I'd known things were going to end this way, I should've just listened to him and killed you.
At least then I might have had a good life, instead of dying miserably like this." Mo Ran gazed at him. "Do you always do whatever other people tell you to?" "So what if I do?" Rong Jiu said. "I just wanted to live a good life. For instance, I sold my body, but what's wrong with that? How is it any different from selling fish or selling meat? It's just a way to make a living. I know all the young masters like yourself looked down on me, but that didn't matter. What's the point in things like reputation and dignity? I'd rather have good wine and good meat.
That's why, if I could've saved myself by killing you back then, why wouldn't I?" Mo Ran's lips moved slightly; he was going to make a retort, but then he remembered what he himself had done in the past life, and found that he couldn't deny what he had said.
Rong Jiu spit angrily, "People kill animals and eat their flesh in order to live,
so what's wrong with killing people in order to live?" Mo Ran let out a sigh, asking in a murmur, "Is there any meaning in living like that?" Seemingly directed at Rong Jiu.
But also seemingly directed at his past self, sitting high up on his throne a lifetime ago.
"I don't know. I don't know what meaning is," Rong Jiu said without any feeling. "I was sixteen when I was sold into the brothel, and my first customer was a fifty-something cultivator. I don't know what it means for something to have meaning. When I was alive, all I wanted was money, I could buy my freedom if I had money, and then I won't have to bow and simper to other people anymore. But I never got my freedom, even until death, all thanks to you beasts." Mo Ran said nothing. A long moment passed before he asked, "So if you could do it over, you'd work together with that Chang guy to kill me?" "That's right." Mo Ran said, "Alright, then if I could do it over, I'd still turn around and swipe all your money just to screw you over." "YOU——!" Rong Jiu was so angry that the faint blush on his cheeks from the primula flower seemed even more vivid. His body swayed for a while before slowly calming back down.
A few moments passed. Rong Jiu knew he had lost his composure; he reached up to tuck away a few stray strands of hair, then pulled himself together and schooled his features back into his usual coy smile, but anger flickered still in his gaze.
"You can say what you want. I have my own way of living." "Enjoy your time down here in the Underworld then." Rong Jiu narrowed his eyes. "I fully intend to. All I have to do is lie back on the bed and I'll be spared the misery of reincarnation for the rest of eternity. I know what a good deal it is, unlike those idiots in the room, I'm more than willing." Mo Ran's lips tugged in a brief smile. He said, "But Rong Jiu, these people work for the Fourth Ghost King, so whether you get to live, whether you get to stay, it all hinges on his word." Rong Jiu flinched, then immediately put on his guard, staring at him with those pretty eyes of his.
"What are you trying to say." Mo Ran didn't really want to keep quarreling with him like this, if not for the situation being what it was. But although Rong Jiu had a docile temper, he was unrelenting once he began to hate someone, so Mo Ran could only maintain his calm as he spoke, "You may think the person in the drawing is only average, but I think he's great. Everyone has a different eye for beauty, who's to say the Ghost King won't take a liking to him?" "With frigid looks like those, who'd be into him?" "You never know," Mo Ran said. "If the Ghost King liked the soft type, then why didn't he pick you?" "..." Rong Jiu fell silent, but his expression darkened somewhat.
Mo Ran pressed, "He has a fierce temper; if he gets picked, he'll probably end up flipping the entire Underworld upside down. Then when the time comes to pin the blame, the Fourth Ghost King's people definitely won't be let off easy —some of these soldiers getting executed is a sure thing. If you wanna make like a climbing vine, at least make sure the tree you climb is sturdy. If the tree topples over when you've only just coiled around it, losing your support would be the least of your concerns, chances are you'll get uprooted alongside, and that'll be a soul-scattering kind of end." Rong Jiu's already pale face seemed to blanch some more.
But he still insisted, coy yet vicious, "I doubt any of that will happen." Mo Ran: "..." "Mo-gongzi, let's bet on it. I just can't stand to see you being better off than me." A few moments passed in silence, and then Mo Ran suddenly became vicious as well, eyes fixed on Rong Jiu as he said, "I'm not betting with you.
Rong Jiu, I will rescue this person. But if that's how you wanna play, then I'll put my life on the line." Rong Jiu tilted his head back, something flickering in his gaze as his hand shot out abruptly to press against Mo Ran's chest like a serpent strike, the sting of a scorpion. "Who is he to you? How long have you been lovers for? Longer than with me? Is he better than me in bed? Is it that he knows more tricks, or that he cries out prettier?" He paused, eyelashes slowly drooping. "Mo-gongzi,
you're not the kind of lovestruck fool who would risk your life for another; you hold no affection in your heart, you can't fool me." He barely got to finish before Mo Ran pinched his cheek painfully.
Mo Ran pulled him off of himself, inky black brows inclined and fire glinting in his eyes. "I didn't have a heart before. I do now." Rong Jiu's eyes snapped up, locked onto his face. He suddenly noticed that this person was scorching hot, and even a little unfamiliar.
The person still seemed to be that free and easy Mo Weiyu, but something seemed different about the soul inside.
Rong Jiu flinched like he had been burned by this kind of Mo Ran. He wanted to turn and run, but was firmly held in place.
"And," Mo Ran said, "between him and I… from here on out, there will be no impropriety. I respect and love him without a single impure thought. Don't you dare sully him." He shoved Rong Jiu away as he spoke. Rong Jiu knocked into a colonnade,
staring incredulously at the person in front of him, too much in disbelief to notice how strangely worded "from here on out, there will be no impropriety" was. If he had his senses then, he would've surely realized the subtle implications behind those words.
No impropriety from here on out meant that there once had been impropriety.
But Rong Jiu didn't catch that.
"He isn't your… isn't your…" Mo Ran said, "No, he's my Shizun." Rong Jiu fell silent, but someone like him could always sniff out even the most subtle of sentiments hidden in the words of another, feelings that even Mo Ran himself might not know about, but Rong Jiu could smell it.
He was almost certain that Mo Ran loved the person in the portrait. As someone who never could obtain anyone's affections, he felt bitter jealousy at the thought.
So even the philandering Mo-gongzi would willingly risk life and limb to save a person.
He suddenly wondered, if he had been more sincere toward Mo-gongzi back then, if he had been earnest and wholehearted, then might Mo Ran have also…
shown him some real, genuine feelings?
He was still in the midst of wondering when Mo Ran spoke again in a cold,
vicious voice without the slightest hint of jest, "Rong Jiu, I will ask you one last time where he is. If you still claim to not know…I'm a cultivator, and there are plenty of drugs and spells to make someone talk. And besides, do you think I won't take the plunge and go see the Ghost King myself?" Rong Jiu was completely dumbfounded now. "You…" "I committed all kinds of transgressions all my life, but now I want to lead a proper life. However, if no one will lend me a hand, then I'm still that same Mo Weiyu," he said softly. "Rong Jiu, think it through before you answer. I'm not afraid to die, nor am I afraid of having my soul scattered. If you insist on being obstinate, then I won't hold back either." Neither spoke for a while.
They stared each other down, the resolute against the resentful, the unshakeable against the unresigned, the fiery against the frosty.
Then the ice in Rong Jiu's eyes melted, like he had been defeated by the wildfire in Mo Ran's oppressive gaze. His envy and hatred ran deep, but Mo Ran's obsession was no shallow thing either. In a face-off like that, he was no match for Emperor Taxian-Jun.
Rong Jiu's face was so ashen that even the vibrancy of the primula flower couldn't cover its gauntness like ruins and wreckage.
"Why would you go this far for him?" "He treated me the best, but I tormented him like he was my worst enemy. I owe him." "..." "I really haven't seen this person," Rong Jiu whispered after a long moment,
and then, seeing Mo Ran's expression, slowly added, "I'm not lying. But I do know that all the newly captured ghosts are kept in the biggest hall on the east side, separately locked in small, cage-like rooms with patrolling guards. You should be able to find him there." Mo Ran wasn't going to wait even a second longer, already turning and rushing off into the night. Rong Jiu stared after him in a daze from where he was rooted in place. Some kind of bitter feeling flooded his chest, and he suddenly yelled toward Mo Ran's back despite himself, "Mo Weiyu, you——you want to lead a proper life now? Who gets to do that! You and I are both people covered in mud! Neither of us gets a do-over for a proper life!!" "Mo Weiyu! Just you watch, I'm going to live a good life, I'm going to do whatever I have to to cling to life, I'll sell my body and my soul, but I'm going to live lavishly even if my whole body rots away! Just you watch! You think you can just wipe off the smell of blood? You wish! The filth's already in your bones! You can go ahead and play at being reformed, and I'm going to keep whoring, we'll see who gets to live a good life! Mo Weiyu!" He yelled until even the back of Mo Ran's silhouette was gone from sight.
Only then did he drop into a crouch, hands coming up to cover his face as he choked back his sobs.
"How come you get to do things over, how come even someone as rotten as you gets to have someone who treats you well… how come…"
Author's Notes I know you miss Shizun, Shizun comes online next chapter2333 And...this is not the first time that the novel's title has been flamed, clutches face. This name sounds naturally cute? And doesn't seem to fit the style of the novel?
So I'd like to ask for everyone's opinion, should I change it back to "This Venerable One Has Been Reformed", or just name it "Reformed"? May you all point the way for this useless one who is bad at naming things, thank you! Lies down...
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