Chapter 267 - 168: Battle of Wills

Chapter 267: Chapter 168: Battle of Wills

Xie Yunliu told Xiaotao to take Zheng Xiu up to see Xie Luohe.

Once Xiaotao had obediently helped Zheng Xiu on his way up, Xie Yunliu turned his attention elsewhere.

He crooked a finger at Chu Chengfeng in the cage.

Chu Chengfeng looked wary.

Xie Yunliu scratched his head and chuckled. "Getting restless in there? How about it? Wanna come out and spar?"

Wen Shishan immediately grew alarmed. "Don’t touch him! If you have to kill someone, kill me!"

Xie Yunliu looked at Wen Shishan, baffled. "What crazy ideas are you cooking up all day? Yunhe Village might be a bandit stronghold, but we’re not unreasonable. Why would I kill him for no reason? My hands are just itching for a spar, that’s all. Look at that Scholar—so calm. Not like you, always caught up in your own twisted plots. It’s boring."

’Reasonable?’

Wen Shishan and Xiao Buping stared wide-eyed, cursing him inwardly, but they didn’t dare to argue.

"Alright!" Chu Chengfeng thought. ’This is an opportunity. I might not be able to escape, but I have to at least try, right?’

Word of the second-in-command fighting a prisoner spread through the village in no time. Life in Yunhe Village was dull, and the Xie siblings kept a tight rein on everyone. Now that some rare entertainment had finally arrived, a crowd quickly gathered. Some even lit smoke signals to tell their brothers on patrol to hurry back and watch the show.

Bets were placed, wine was served, and melon seeds were cracked. An hour later, a large circle had been cleared in the stronghold, surrounded by a surging, densely packed crowd of fierce-looking bandits.

"Sir, your wounds... are they alright?"

Xiaotao stuck close to Zheng Xiu, supporting him firmly for fear the Scholar might fall, and asked with concern.

"Could I trouble you to bring me my Art Supplies?"

Zheng Xiu said as they passed his room.

"You still dare to paint?"

The color drained from Xiaotao’s face.

"Heh," Zheng Xiu chuckled. "Not only am I going to paint, I’m going to paint like there’s no tomorrow."

Zheng Xiu just chuckled, offering no explanation.

Xiaotao pouted, knowing she couldn’t argue with the Scholar. She obediently fetched Zheng Xiu’s bamboo basket and carried it for him.

Down below, the atmosphere was electric. Chu Chengfeng and Xie Yunliu were both bare-chested, having assumed their fighting stances.

As Zheng Xiu spiraled up the steps, he occasionally glanced down. He noticed Xie Yunliu habitually scratching his chest hair and running a hand through his thick head of hair. The familiar gestures made Zheng Xiu pause for a moment. A bold idea began to form in his mind.

When they reached the summit, climbing the rope ladder aggravated the wound on Zheng Xiu’s chest, causing him to grimace in pain. Watching from the side, Xiaotao was beside herself with anxiety, her eyes welling up with tears.

「On the summit.」

The wind carried the fragrance of flowers. Xie Luohe sat amongst the blossoms, her eyes half-closed as she listlessly toyed with a cyan-colored petal.

Xie Luohe didn’t spare Zheng Xiu a single glance, acting as if he wasn’t even there.

Zheng Xiu smiled, unbothered. He observed Xie Luohe from a distance, found a suitable spot, and set down the bamboo basket.

He crooked a finger at Xie Luohe. "Would you be so kind, Big Leader, as to move a table for me?"

Xie Luohe, who had been toying with the petals, finally snapped. She laughed, a sound born of pure rage. "You dare ask *me* to move a table?"

"Afraid you’ll lose?"

"Heh... And how do you plan to win? I am myself, Xie Luohe. I am most certainly not Feng Bei. I know the difference."

Zheng Xiu nodded upon hearing her words. "Got it. You’re afraid you’ll lose."

Xie Luohe was momentarily speechless. ’How has this Scholar become so shameless overnight?’ she thought. After a moment of silence, she waved her long sleeve, stirring up a furious gust of wind.

A writing desk that had been sitting outside the hut spun through the air, sailed over the flowerbeds, and landed steadily before Zheng Xiu.

"What do you intend to paint?"

"You. Xie Luohe."

"Didn’t you say the Gongsun Family has an ancestral rule: never to paint a Human?"

"Exactly. Which is why I’m not Gongsun Mo."

Xie Luohe froze at his words, but quickly turned her head away. "If you dare to paint *her* again," she said coldly, "I will kill you with my own hands."

Zheng Xiu sat down, pleased. "Xiaotao, grind the ink for me."

Xie Luohe arched an eyebrow. "Xiaotao is *my* handmaiden."

"And yet you sent her to my bed?" Zheng Xiu countered.

At the side, Xiaotao’s delicate frame trembled. She flushed crimson, her ears practically steaming.

"And that is precisely why I am not her."

At her words, understanding dawned on Zheng Xiu. ’So that’s it. Xie Luohe sent Xiaotao to my bed not to prove a point to anyone, and certainly not as some deliberate favor to Gongsun Mo. She did it to prove to herself that she wouldn’t be emotionally moved by it. To prove that she is Xie Luohe, not Feng Bei.’

Zheng Xiu frowned. ’For a reason like that, she would make Xiaotao, a girl of only fourteen, sleep in a man’s bed?’

’What if Gongsun Mo had actually been a beast that night?’

A sense of displeasure settled in his heart. This made Zheng Xiu even more certain that Xie Luohe and Feng Bei were not cut from the same cloth. In the silence, Zheng Xiu began to paint.

The moment his brush touched the paper, Xie Luohe closed her eyes. Her tone was cold. "Remember this. If you paint *her* again, your death is certain."

Zheng Xiu nodded and smiled. "Don’t worry. This time, it’s you, Xie Luohe."