My Disciple Wants To Tease Me Every Day Chapter 32

Chapter 32: Third Lady Que 

Ji Liuran did it on purpose. Borrowing the flow of the crowds, she separated Di Jiufeng and Ning Guang.

After being shuffled back and forth, Di Jiufeng had long left the street in front of the inn. She peered around. It was narrower here than before, but there were not any fewer people, moving in an even more of an unceasing flow.

But nearly all the people here were men. Most of the girls like her were wearing thin gauze clothing, collars left hanging wide open, dudou of all colors and tender pale skin on show.

Seeing this scene, Di Jiufeng became a bit suspicious, a muddled idea rising in her mind. But it was just for a moment, not yet apparent.

Walking a few more steps in the direction many people were going and turning another corner, the scene suddenly opened up before her.

It wasn't a narrow alley before her eyes anymore. To both sides of the wide street, extravagant buildings stood shoulder-to-shoulder, all suffused with red gauze and flickering candles. Even under the light of the sky, the red candlelight leaking from the windows brought out some gentle charm. Cultivators had good ears, and standing at the mouth of the street, Di Jiufeng could faintly hear the lovely laughter of women and the panting breaths of men in the buildings.

At this time, how could she not know what kind of place this was. She wanted to leave right then, but a rather heavy-footed dandy behind her blocked her retreat, waving his fan.

"Which house does this beauty belong to? I've been coming here for a while and never saw such a heavenly character."

Having been led here by Ji Liuran, she was already upset. Now, being molested by an oily-haired and powder-faced dandy, Di Jiufeng's face immediately darkened and Hong Shang unsheathed with a clang. When she resheathed it, that man already sported seventeen or eighteen new sword marks on his body.

Di Jiufeng was a Nascent Soul cultivator. When she wanted to dispatch a common person, naturally it would not even take the effort to blink.

Seeing her attack, and even draw blood, the people who wanted to join in on the commotion immediately dispersed. Those who went out the doors retreated back inside, those who wanted to enter gripped the walls as much as possible. Everyone trembled, afraid to accidentally draw the b.l.o.o.d.y scene upon their own selves.

Di Jiufeng didn't want to cause a scene in the first place. After dealing with that one person, she looked around.

Beside the building at her left, there was a pillar which stuck straight up into the clouds, she didn't know for what use. On it were carved many sparrows with ornate wings. It was probably the same one, sometimes flapping its wings, sometimes circling, sometimes resting, sometimes diving.

Di Jiufeng wanted to stand on it and look around. One could only know the whole layout of Zhong Zhou City when standing very high.

With a turn and press of her toes, she flew like a phoenix soaring into the ninth heaven, scarlet sleeves more splendid than immortal robes, rippling in the dome of the sky, more eye-catching than the bright sun.

The pillar was tall enough to climb into the sky. Di Jiufeng, standing at the top, was enveloped in an ocean of clouds, like she could reach out her hand and touch the round sun above her head.

She looked down, wanting to examine the layout of Zhong Zhou City, when she heard a sigh beside her ear. A soft and low sigh, dissolving in the fog-like sea of clouds before she could catch it.

"Who is it!"

Di Jiufeng knew she had not misheard. She turned to look all around, but other than clouds, nothing was there.

"Come out!" Di Jiufeng called.

"… I'm below your foot." After a moment of silence, that melodious woman's voice sounded again.

Di Jiufeng followed the sound to see an exquisite mirage of a sparrow slowly appear at her feet, exactly the same as the one carved on that pillar. Ornate wings gave a slight flutter, shooting off thin sparkles of colorful light.

"You brought my dudou, the dudou she gave me." The sparrow at Di Jiufeng's feet circled for a while, suddenly transforming into a spectre of a woman. Her brows and eyes were very beautiful, elegant and refined, a spiritual air about her.

This sparrow brought up the dudou. Di Jiufeng thought for a bit, then said, "You are Third Lady Que?"

[T/N: 雀 (que4), meaning 'small bird' or 'sparrow'.]

She pulled out the dudou from the System s.p.a.ce and handed it over.

Third Lady Que waved her hand, that lotus-patterned dudou with a white base falling at her chest. "I am, I am Third Lady Que, this dudou… you could find it, I thought it would have died in fire long ago with her."

Her gaze grew a bit muddled, like she was reflecting on something.

An affectionate and warm smile first grew on the corner of Third Lady Que's lip, then slowly cooled, transforming into a hatred which could nearly overturn the heavens and the earth. But this hatred didn't linger very long, in the end falling to an unspeakable misery.

"It was I who shouldn't have, shouldn't have left her alone in that place. I should have known, these etiquettes and customs which pushed people to death wouldn't have let us slip by, it was I who failed the trust she had given me…" Lowering her head, she couldn't speak for a long while.

Third Lady Que stared straight at the dudou in her hands, her face bone-white, lips trembling.

"It was I who harmed her, it was I who destroyed our future, it was all me! It was all me ah…" Tears poured down her bone-white cheeks. Her despair was so deep that every word was steeped in blood. Third Lady Que couldn't stand any more, kneeling trembling on the ground, hiding her face deep between her knees.

Broken suppressed sobs poured into Di Jiufeng's ear. Though she didn't understand anything at all, she was still infected by this remorse become essence.

She thought, then crouched, lightly patting Third Lady Que's back.

Because she was only a remnant of lingering desire, her hand pa.s.sed straight through her back. But this interruption allowed Third Lady Que to recover a bit. In the end, it had been too long, mortal life had already ended, and all regrets had been ground into ash by the apathetic flow of time. No matter how much reluctance, no matter how much regret, now there was only heart but no strength.

She was already dead. All of the loneliness of before, even her consciousness, had nearly been ground clean. She already had no power to reverse the wheel of fate. If not for this girl carrying the dudou, carrying an affection as if cut from the same cloth, she would not have even awoken another time.

Looking gently at the one before her, it was like she could see the shadow of her younger self.

Third Lady Que couldn't resist any more. She wanted to let all her own unresolved regrets achieve fulfillment through this girl.

"If there is a day when you and the one you love are condemned by the customs of the world, I only request that you do not leave her alone. No matter what kind of calamity befalls you, as long as someone is with you, it will not matter. What can harm people was never hards.h.i.+p, but your own apathy."

A sound without anything to rely on, holding too many regrets and melancholies, finally froze the air like crystals of frost.

Di Jiufeng looked at her, eyes clear yet determined, like a pilgrim reverently walking step by step to kowtow at the golden peak, both knees bleeding, feet numb, all strength long dissolved into air, but unshaken determination even harder to look away from than holy light. "You can relax, I will not become like you.

If I love someone, I will do everything to make them become the most fortunate person in this world. I will not let myself regret. Even if condemned to eternal d.a.m.nation, as long as she likes me, I would betray the whole world for her."

It was like time stopped for a split second.

Third Lady Que looked through the ocean of clouds at that young face, hazy under the light of the sun. She suddenly thought, if time went upstream, if the years flowed backwards, if she had the same courage as the girl before her, would everything have been different?

But how could time flow backwards? Those missed regrets had long been buried in the sands of history. Just like this Zhuanlun pillar connecting city and mirage, it had long been forgotten.

Third Lady Que smiled. Those lingering desires haunting her heart finally dissolved into mist like droplets of dew in the slowly rising morning sun.

　　She could finally set down her burden. She looked back a few times, Di Jiufeng didn't know what she had seen. The next time she looked at Di Jiufeng, in addition to the dudou in her hand, she held a hairpin. "At that time, I made this hairpin myself, but unfortunately failed to give it away. Now, I am only a lingering desire and have no way to visit her burial mound. Do me a favor, go see her in Shen City and give this hairpin to her on my behalf.

　　The words I didn't say at that time, there's no need to say them anymore. There's only one thing I definitely have to say for her to hear. I was wrong, help me tell her, I was wrong…"

Transforming back into her original sparrow form, she spiraled into the air, circling around the Zhuanlun pillar.

With her movements, the drawings on the pillar all transformed into living creatures. Small little sparrows, one after another, spilled out to fill the sky like stars. The sparrows circled for a while, then coalesced into a bridge at Di Jiufeng's feet, stretching out endlessly into the horizon.

"Shen City is a magic realm I constructed for her using all of my yao energy. It was intended to be a betrothal gift, but in the end she could not make it to that day…"

After a long sigh, those long-ago years dissipated in the empty air with that quiet sound.

Third Lady Que brushed aside her sleeves, suddenly pus.h.i.+ng her onto the sparrow bridge. "All right, there's no use talking about these things now, you and I are also connected by fate, go visit her for me. Afterwards, this Shen City will be a gift to you.

Shen City has many magical features, but I do not have the time to explain in detail. I will leave it to you to slowly discover them."

Taking a step onto the bridge of sparrows, Di Jiufeng felt a huge suction, impossible to resist even with her Nascent Soul cultivation. Her body was dragged into the realm, her mind growing a bit fuzzy with the shock.

But, in this haze, she seemed to hear Ning Guang's call.

Shouting herself hoa.r.s.e, a howl frightened to the extreme: "s.h.i.+fu——!"

"Feng——!"

Notes:

This chapter was translated by Lily. The Chinese word I've been translating as "eye-catching", 夺目, could be more literally translated as "eye-stealing". I enjoy the almost forceful imagery of some sight stealing one's eye, refusing to let you look away. As you've likely already heard if you've read enough Cnovels, the modern Chinese masculine and feminine third person p.r.o.nouns (他/她) sound the same when spoken. Technically, neither of them knows the gender of the person the other is speaking about in the conversation near the end, but the text uses feminine p.r.o.nouns so I just translated as such. They all gay, folks. Shen City: 蜃城 (shen4 cheng2), with the shen that means 'clam', 'sea serpent' or 'mystical animal'. Yao energy: 妖 (yao1) is one of those Chinese fantasy creature terms for monster/spirit/fae/demon that doesn't translate well, I am going to deal with it by… well copping out and going with the pinyin ¯_(ツ)_/¯ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaoguai <- relevant="" wikipedia="" article,="" j.a.panese="" yokai="" are="" somewhat="" similar="" from="" what="" i="" understand.)="">