Unsheathed

Dong Huafu had become wiser since the last time. Following Chen Ping’an’s departure from his previous visit to the Sword Qi Great Wall, Dong Huafu had once been drinking with Ning Yao during a period of respite between the two battles. In a rare state of inebriation, Ning Yao had let slip a bold declaration, which was that she could beat up a hundred Chen Ping’ans with just a single hand.

Amused by this, Dong Huafu had returned home and relayed what he had heard to Dong Bude on a whim. The story was instantly relayed to their mother, and anything that those two knew would soon be known by all of the women on the entire Sword Qi Great Wall.

Ning Yao had been furious with him in the aftermath, and he wasn’t even permitted to enter the Ning Manor during his next visit.

Fatty Yan and the others all strutted into the manor with looks of schadenfreude on their faces, and had Dong Huafu not been so earnest in his endeavor to make amends, telling Ning Yao that he was willing to stand still and allow her to take a few slashes at him with her sword as an apology, he would’ve most likely still been unwelcome in the Ning Manor even to this day.

Ning Yao rarely became truly angry, but when she did, there would be hell to pay for it.

With that in mind, Dong Huafu couldn’t help but feel a sense of admiration for Chen Ping’an. It seemed that even when Ning Yao became truly angry, he was always able to quickly defuse her.

Dong Bude refused to take no for an answer, looking borderline frantic as she urged, “Tell us what happened!”

In order to save himself, Dong Huafu pulled out his trump card, asking, “Don’t you like A’Liang? Why are you asking about Chen Ping’an? Have you had a change of heart? Even if you have, it’s not like you’ll be able to take him away from Big Sister Ning!”

Their mother prodded Dong Bude in the forehead as she smiled and encouraged, “You need to try harder, girl! You have to make A’Liang into my son-in-law!”

The thought of the perpetually unserious A’Liang having to formally offer up wine to her as his mother-in-law someday was enough to have the woman giggling like a little girl, and she pressed her hands to her face as she squealed, “I’m a little embarrassed thinking about it now.”

“Just you wait, Mother. Such a day will come,” Dong Bude promised with a confident smile.

All the while, Dong Huafu was rolling his eyes into oblivion.

It was common knowledge on the entire Sword Qi Great Wall that their mother had once been in love with A’Liang, and even to this day, there were some aunties who would intentionally bring up this matter in front of Dong Huafu’s father whenever they came to visit. Fortunately, his father was able to retaliate in kind because plenty of those aunties themselves or other women in their clans had also once harbored romantic feelings for A’Liang.

Furthermore, Dong Huafu’s father was the only swordsman who had been able to challenge A’Liang thrice in succession. Of course, on all three occasions, he ended up having to be carried back home on a stretcher. Apparently, this was how he had managed to win the heart of Dong Huafu’s mother.

In the wake of his success story, countless single men swarmed to challenge A’Liang in the hopes of finding the same success. To his credit, A’Liang was happy to entertain them, but he requested that a payment be made with each challenge. If one of them were to injure him, then the payment would serve to cover A’Liang’s medical costs. This ploy earned A’Liang a ton of money in a single day, allowing him to repay almost all of his wine debts overnight!

After that, A’Liang made his way onto the Sword Qi Great Wall, then cupped his fist in a salute as he loudly declared to everyone that he was admitting defeat, that all of his challengers were super strong, and that he wished them all well in their romantic pursuits. He told everyone that there was no need to thank him for playing his role as matchmaker, but if they insisted on displaying gratitude, then they could invite him to drink at their future wedding.

This declaration was met with a brief stunned silence, following which someone let loose a loud yell, and in the blink of an eye, countless enraged swordsmen emerged from all over the city, all with the objective of hunting down the shameless bastard to administer a beating. However, A’Liang didn’t give them the opportunity, fleeing into the heart of the Savage World to evade them.

All of the men who had been united in their fury were left staring blankly at each other atop the Sword Qi Great Wall, and upon their return to the city, they were met by a bunch of incensed women, who blamed them for forcing A’Liang to venture deep into enemy territory and threatened to make them pay should any harm befall their beloved A’Liang.

That wasn’t even the most infuriating part of all of this. Instead, it was something that they only found out after the event. As it turned out, the enraged yell that had kick-started all of this had been a staged stunt. The person in question had yelled, “Please don’t go, A’Liang! Even all of the men on the Sword Qi Great Wall combined can’t compare with you!”

These provocative words had come from a clueless little girl. Apparently, A’Liang had instructed her to say this on the night, and she did as she was told, even though she had no idea what it meant. The furious men couldn’t take their anger out on a little girl who didn’t know any better, so they could only swallow the bitter pill for now and eagerly await A’Liang’s return to the Sword Qi Great Wall.

For someone as shameless as A’Liang, there was no need to observe any code of honor by challenging him to one-on-one battles. Instead, everyone was going to gang up on him at once and hack him to pieces!

Eventually, A’Liang returned, but it was with several Ascension Tier great demons hot on his trail, forcing all of the sword immortals of the Sword Qi Great Wall to be deployed in full force to ward off the enemy.

A’Liang’s presence had brought a great deal of life and excitement to the otherwise dull and lifeless Sword Qi Great Wall.

Unfortunately, he had left not just the Sword Qi Great Wall, but the entire Majestic World altogether.

Since then, everyone had heard that he had once exchanged blows with the Daoist second disciple of the Heavenly World.

As for all of the women who harbored romantic feelings for A’Liang, none of them were particularly saddened by his departure because they knew from the very beginning that A’Liang wasn’t going to reciprocate any of their feelings.

Furthermore, it wasn’t long after A’Liang first arrived on the Sword Qi Great Wall that everyone realized that he would eventually leave. Hence, liking A’Liang almost became a fun pastime for many of the women on the Sword Qi Great Wall.

Some of the more bold and straightforward women would even go out of their way to tease him when they caught him drinking at a street-side stall, making flirtatious innuendos or even openly seducing him without making any effort to mask their intentions.

Whenever this happened, A’Liang would feign a shy and embarrassed demeanor, telling his female admirers that he was honored that they felt that way about him before urging them not to say such things to him in the future, as it only made him embarrassed and uneasy.

Only after the gate of the Dong Manor had swung shut did Chen Sanqiu finally depart.

He wasn’t all that saddened by the fact that the girl he liked didn’t reciprocate his feelings.

Prior to his departure from the Sword Qi Great Wall, A’Liang had invited Chen Sanqiu for a drink, and he had said some things that strongly resonated with Chen Sanqiu.

“If a girl doesn’t like you, then it must be because you’re still not good enough. Perhaps someday, when you feel like you’re good enough to be worthy of her, she may have already married someone else. In the blink of an eye, her children will be old enough to go playing out on the streets, and they’ll call you Uncle Chen when they see you.

“Don’t be saddened by this. You didn’t like the wrong person; it simply wasn’t meant to be. Make sure you don’t continue to harass and cause trouble for her after she gets married. Instead, hide your feelings and put all of it into wine. Whenever you’re drinking, pray for her to live a good life and be happy.

“Don’t constantly fantasize that she would come to resent her current life and choose you after having a change of heart. That’s not how a man should feel about a woman he truly loves.”

After recalling these heartfelt words from A’Liang, Chen Sanqiu decided to go to a wine shop instead of returning home, and before long, he was heavily inebriated as he loudly cursed A’Liang for telling him all of that. He would’ve much preferred not to have imparted these nuggets of wisdom.

That way, he would’ve been able to continue liking Dong Bude in a shameless and selfish fashion, instead of being bogged down by all these thoughts of maturity and doing what was best for her.

The people at the wine shop were already accustomed to this. It was just another drunken fit from the young master of the Chen Clan. No one was concerned, as he was always able to stumble back home on his own eventually.

Occasionally, he would begin knocking on a wall and yelling for the door to be opened, but none of the passersby on the street found this a strange sight.

Every once in a while, he would have an episode like this, such as when his good friend, Little Ququ, died in battle, or when his first guardian swordsman died to protect him, or when other seniors of the Chen Clan met their demise on the battlefield south of the Sword Qi Great Wall, or on instances like this one, when he was thinking of his beloved Dong Bude.

Each time after he sobered up from one of his drunken fits, he would proclaim that he simply enjoyed wine, just like A’Liang.

Some people were destined to be around wine their entire lives. That was simply what fate had in store for them.

***

Whenever there was no battle taking place beyond the Sword Qi Great Wall, the bored young individuals in the city would frequently fight among themselves.

Many challenges were issued every single day, some for one-on-one fights, others for group battles. However, it was strictly forbidden to harm the opponent’s cultivation foundation. Outside of that, nothing was off-limits. Even Dong Huafu’s mother, who was renowned for adoring her son, wouldn’t say anything whenever he came back bruised and beaten.

At the very most, she would only encourage him to stay home and tell him that there was nothing fun about the outside world. She would tell him that their clan had plenty of money and that she could send out servants to buy whatever he wanted so he could play on his own at home.

This morning, Yan Zhuo and the others congregated in front of the entrance of the Ning Manor.

There was a dark look on Dong Huafu’s face because several groups of bystanders had appeared on the street, seemingly waiting for a certain someone to come out of the Ning Manor.

Chen Sanqiu was vigorously shaking his head from side to side. He had had too much to drink the day before, but thankfully, he had drunk some more wine this morning to help himself sober up. Otherwise, he would’ve felt even worse.

Die Zhang was the only one absent.

She had opened a small shop not far away from the alley where she lived, selling some general goods for minor profits.

After becoming friends with Ning Yao and the others, she was just as devoted to them as they were to her, and they were all willing to lay down their lives to protect one another. But one thing Die Zhang absolutely refused to do was accept money from any of her friends. Even if they were all rich, that was still their money, and she didn’t need or want charity from anyone.

Once upon a time, Yan Zhuo had felt very hurt by her refusal to accept his goodwill, arguing that she only had what she currently did because she had accepted financial aid from A’Liang in the past, so why was she unwilling to accept help from her close friends?

He told her that he wanted to help her, not because he looked down on her. Instead, he simply wanted to see his friend live a better life, so he felt fully justified and saddened by Die Zhang’s stubbornness.

At the time, Die Zhang had bit down on her own lower lip and said nothing.

After that, Yan Zhuo was pounced on by a furious Ning Yao, forcing him to run for his life. For a very long time in the aftermath of the incident, Yan Zhuo and Die Zhang didn’t speak to each other. Of course, Ning Yao didn’t speak to Yan Zhuo, either, and as a result, the atmosphere had been very tense and awkward whenever the group of friends met up.

In the end, Yan Zhuo decided, for some reason, to go and watch Die Zhang working at her shop in secret from around the corner. He watched her for a very long time that day, and only then did he come to understand why she refused to accept his help.

Ultimately, he was too prideful to go and apologize to her, but the next day, Die Zhang apologized to him, to his complete and utter astonishment. After that, he received a beating from Chen Sanqiu and Dong Huafu as well, but from that day forth, he and Die Zhang were back on good terms again.

The three of them entered the Ning Manor, and they just so happened to run into Ning Yao and Chen Ping’an, who were taking a stroll together.

“You see? I told you!” Yan Zhuo gloated in a quiet voice. “There’s no way they’d be holding hands in front of us.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll treat you to wine next time,” Chen Sanqiu conceded in a resigned manner.

“You really want to drink wine, I hear?” Ning Yao asked as she raised an eyebrow.

Dong Huafu immediately threw his two friends to the wolves, pointing at them as he explained, “I’m not actually interested at all, but they insist on treating me, so I have no choice.”

“You truly are a great friend,” Yan Zhuo scoffed.

“Indeed,” Chen Sanqiu agreed.

Dong Huafu was just about to reveal the contents of their bet to Ning Yao when Yan Zhuo threw a hand over his mouth, following which Chen Sanqiu slung an arm around his neck and dragged him backward as he smiled and said, “We won’t interrupt your stroll any longer. If you need anything, feel free to tell us.”

“What’s their problem?” Ning Yao mused with a perplexed expression as she watched the trio hurriedly depart.

“Chen Sanqiu and Yan Zhuo must’ve been betting on where I slept last night,” Chen Ping’an said with a chuckle.

“Do they have a death wish?” Ning Yao asked in a menacing voice, but she was glowering directly at Chen Ping’an as she spoke.

Chen Ping’an wiped at the sweat that had suddenly begun to bead up on his forehead as he replied, “P… Perhaps.”

Ning Yao continued strolling along as she casually asked, “Don’t you want to go out and take a look? You were able to take so many punches from Granny Bai, so I’m sure you won’t lose too badly even if you get challenged.”

“Being liked by you is not something I should use to show off,” Chen Ping’an replied with a serious expression.

Ning Yao gave a cold harrumph as she turned to depart, and Chen Ping’an followed along.

One of the perks of having a large manor was that it provided more than enough space for a walk, and even a second trip through the premises didn’t feel repetitive.

Nearby, the old woman was sweeping the yard, and she took a glance at Nalan Yexing, who was very clearly eavesdropping on the young couple.

A combination of exasperation and amusement appeared on her face as she scoffed, “Do you not have any shame?”

“There’s no way he would say or do anything out of line in broad daylight,” the old man replied. “Having said that, it seems like he really does know what a woman likes to hear.”

“What did he say to Young Mistress Ning?” the old woman asked, unable to suppress her curiosity.

The old man was just about to build some suspense, but it was clear that doing so would only earn him a beating, so he immediately came clean and relayed what Chen Ping’an had just said.

A pleased smile appeared on the old woman’s face, and she said, “This has nothing to do with saying what women want to hear; Young Master Chen is simply a good man with pure intentions and good morals.”

The old man shook his head in a resigned manner, and he was just about to return to his eavesdropping when he was struck by a broom to the side, so he could only sheepishly hobble away in silence.

Meanwhile, Chen Ping’an had just heard about the general goods shop being run by Die Zhang, and his eyes immediately lit up as he said, “That’s great! I’ll find a chance to speak to Die Zhang, and we could work together as business partners.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Ning Yao discouraged with a shake of her head. “Die Zhang is a very sensitive girl, and this is the kind of thing that she hates the most. She had almost had a permanent falling out with Fatty Yan in the past over something like this.”

“I can already tell what the problem with Yan Zhuo’s approach was, even if you don’t go into detail,” Chen Ping’an said with a laugh. “Don’t worry, I’m not the same. I came up from Clay Vase Alley, and I’ve been going around everywhere as a traveling salesman for many years. I can promise you that Die Zhang will be able to earn more profits and feel great about working with me, and I’ll also be able to earn some money through her shop.”

“Oh? It sounds like you understand women really well,” Ning Yao remarked with a side-eyed glance. “You must’ve learned a lot through your travels. Don’t misunderstand, I don’t mean anything by that. I’m just commenting on what I’m observing.”

Chen Ping’an immediately began to sweat again, but thankfully, Ning Yao let him off the hook as she chuckled. “I’m just kidding around. I’ll be very happy if you can help out with Die Zhang’s business without making her feel bad. Die Zhang loves money more than just about anything else, and right now, her biggest wish is to be able to earn herself a bigger house through her efforts.”

Chen Ping’an had only just heaved a sigh of relief when Ning Yao clasped her hands behind her back and cast her gaze forward as she mused, “Why are you worried if you haven’t done anything wrong?”

Chen Ping’an stared at her side profile for a moment, then suddenly stopped in his tracks and pounced on her like a starving wolf.

Ning Yao hurriedly sprang away as her complexion quickly reddened with embarrassment.

“Chen Ping’an! Keep your hands to yourself!”

“Don’t be so loud,” Chen Ping’an hurriedly urged in a quiet voice.

Somehow, Ning Yao seemed even more afraid of being caught than Chen Ping’an, and she hurriedly pursed her lips.

By the time she realized that she had just been swindled, Chen Ping’an was already making a swift retreat.

Initially, her first thought was to pursue him, but all of a sudden, she found herself momentarily entranced.

As she gazed upon the warm and affectionate smile on Chen Ping’an’s face, it occurred to her that he was quite a handsome guy, something that she had failed to notice in the past.