Receive punishment and what not, if it was the original host, that well-behaved child would definitely carry it out earnestly. However, now that the inside has been replaced with Baoyi, this smart fellow would naturally not suffer that hardship. The person in charge of punishments is Dao Shifu[1], also Thirteen's enlightenment Shifu. Although Uncle appeared to be stern, he's actually a pretty good person, especially towards Thirteen, his sole female disciple, he had always shown favoritism.
While limping, Baoyi arrived at the department of criminal prosecution but didn't mention the matter of receiving punishment. Instead, with a smile on her face, she said: "Shifu Shifu, give me a few Xue Ning pills!"
Seeing her sorry figure, Dao Shifu frowned deeply: "What do you need that for? If your old injuries have relapsed, I will prescribe another medicine for you. The Xue Ning pill is not a good thing, you should touch it less."
Xue Ning Pill is a top-notch healing medicine. If a person's meridians are broken, taking one pill will immediately restore the person's skills by ninety percent. Except that the medicine is too potent, forcefully exploiting the human body's potential, critically injuring the body. Taking the Xue Ning Pill is as good as drinking poison to quench one's thirst[2]. Unless if it was an absolute necessity, no one would be willing to use it.
Bao Yi smiled awkwardly, “Recently, there's a bitter taste in my mouth. That thing is pleasantly sweet, I want a few of them to eat as sweets.”
Dao Shifu stroked his beard repeatedly, "Nonsense!"
He walked towards Baoyi: "Sit down, let me take a look at your pulse."
A shadow guard must always keep their body in the best condition so there's a monthly checkup. Last month, Thirteen followed Zhou Shizi out, easily escaping a disaster.
The fact that she'd lost her martial art skills cannot be exposed. Baoyi took two steps back.
"There's nothing wrong. Just leave it."
Dao Shifu looked at Baoyi's unusual behavior with some suspicion.
After being stared at for a while, Bao Yi bowed, acknowledging her mistake.
"Shifu, I was wrong. Last night, I stole and ate half a watermelon from the kitchen and have been having diarrhea——don’t yell at me.
With a look of abandonment, Bao Yi covered her belly with a very weak appearance, amusing Dao Shifu. But quickly, the old man dry coughed before composing his face and said, “Serves you right!”
Baoyi lowered her head without a word, covering her stomach with a pained expression.
Dao Shifu sighed before walking to the dispensary to take two small bottles and giving them to Baoyi.
"The red one will warm up your spleen and alleviate diarrhea, to be taken orally. The green one cures injuries from falls, fractures, contusions and strains, to be applied externally."
"Ok." Baoyi nodded her head cutely, "Red one to be applied externally and green one to be taken orally."
"……"
"Hey Shifu! Don't hit me! It's painful! Don't hit my head, if I become stupid, how can I protect Shizi!"
"You're stupid even if I don't hit you!" Uncle snorted coldly.
Baoyi burst into a fit of mischievous laughter and suddenly replied: "Shifu, how did you know that I had a fall?"
Dao Shifu's gaze swept over her before laughing sarcastically, "There was such a huge commotion in the study room, do you think I'm deaf? How else did you think your Shifu has been taking charge of official missions these few years?"
The study room and prosecution office are separated by no less than three compounds!
You martial arts experts are truly formidable, Baoyi stuck out her tongue.
Upon reaching her own room, Baoyi rolled up her trousers and applied medicine on her knee. Her milky white calves had a green patch and the clotted blood on her knees had already turned black. Fortunately, it only looked scary and the bones weren't injured.
Baoyi massaged her knee while thinking of a way to deal with the situation next.
With her skills, the route of making of with the female lead is impassable. Perhaps she'll now have to start with Zhou Yunxi.
The easiest method is to actually attack Zhou Yunxi directly. As long as Zhou Yunxi had no interest in the female lead, sooner or later, there'll be a chance for the pair to rest and fly together[3].
But as an executor, Baoyi had a quirk.
She'd always felt that no matter the reason……it's wrong to use feelings. Feelings should bear the weight of responsibility and since she didn’t want to take that responsibility, she shouldn't randomly provoke others. Therefore, for all her previous tasks, she'd always intentionally avoided the romantic kind of scripts and chosen themes that were plot heavy, then crushed it with her IQ.
Strictly speaking, this was her first time coming into contact with a romance drama —— because of Zhou Yunxi.
She's unable to state the reason but through that face, she always seemed to see someone.
Her past is a blank to her. Who she was before she became an executor, where she came from, what she wanted to do, she had no memory of them all. The instant she saw Zhou Yunxi, she seemed to have caught onto something and couldn't move her line of sight. She has a premonition that the answers she want is on this person. Was he someone she once knew? Could this space be where her original life took place before she became an executor? With these questions, she accepted this task with mixed feelings.
She didn't expect to run into a difficult problem at the start.
Baoyi was at a loss.
If it's Zhou Yunxi, she's willing to give it a try. The question is —— can she do it? She had no memory and her experience with love is like a blank space! If she fell for the mission's target but the mission's target remains unmoved, that'll be too humiliating! When she returned, she'd definitely be ridiculed by her colleagues. Worse still, if it circulates around the whole department and all of them criticise her, her face would be thrown to outer space[4]!
As she was tangled in her thoughts, a knock came from outside.
"Thirteen Guniang[5], it's…it's me, Qingluo."
Baoyi was startled. Her room was not far from Zhou Shizi's. Fearing that the movement here would alert Zhou Shizi, she forgot to even unroll her trousers and hopped to open the door before pulling the surprised female lead inside.
"Qingluo Guniang, is something wrong?"
Don’t run all over the place if you have no business! Isn't this causing more trouble? What are you going to do if Zhou Yunxi sees?
Lu Qingluo certainly didn’t know the thoughts in Baoyi's heart and only saw that the usually serious young lady was presently staring at her with concern. She could not help but to feel warmth in her heart.
She supposed that that day's trouble was really not a misunderstanding and that she intentionally saved her. This is a good and kind-hearted young lady —— Baoyi, who was in the midst of a mental journey, was oblivious that she'd already been given the "Good Person Card".
Hence Lu Qingluo gracefully thanked: "I came to thank Guniang's kindness for rescuing me."
The female lead was rather beautiful, a daughter raised by a wealthy family and she had a remarkable temperament. Wherever she went, she attracted people's gazes, completely different from a wild monkey like her. Lu Qingluo now lowered her eyes and brows, gracefully curtsying. Her every action seemed to have a magical air to it, calling to Baoyi.
"Beauty, get up quickly……" Baoyi was smug but had forgotten that she was supporting herself on one leg and immediately lost her balance.
"Be careful!" Lu Qingluo hugged Baoyi.
Lu Qingluo had a cold personality and even with family, was rarely close to them. This was her first time hugging someone like that. Her only thought was that the girl in her arms was more petite and frail than she looked, probably due to practising martial arts, even her frame was soft. Thinking of such a young lady serving beside the ruthless and tyrannical Shizhi, her heart grew pity for Baoyi.
"Thirteen Guniang, it's inconvenient for your legs, let me help you to apply the medicine."
"Okay, Thank you very much!"
Baoyi could feel the necessary "Special Fragrance" on the female lead and deliberately snuggled against her for a little while, feeling like both her mind and body had been cured.
Oblivious that she was being taken advantage of, Lu Qingluo helped Baoyi onto the bed, carefully rolling up her trousers before spreading the medicine onto her hands and gently massaging her.
She's indeed the female lead, that strong grip, that touch……if it was Zhou Yunxi or the Third Prince, she reckoned they would've immediately transformed into wolves and coldly toss a line "Woman, the fire that you've stirred up, you'll have to be responsible for it.". Fortunately, she's not that kind of two-faced fellow[6] and Baoyi merely narrowed her eyes like a cat and enjoyed it with a smile.
"Thirteen Guniang, is your name Thirteen?"
"Of course not, it's just a code name." Baoyi replied with a smile, "My surname is Huo, Huo Baoyi."
After speaking, she turned her head in despair.
Oh no! She's the kind of person who's easily carried away by her success.
Why did she say all these to the female lead? Couldn't she have said something useful?
"I'm older than you, can I call you Meimei[7]?" Lu Qingluo raised her head to look at her.
A certain enforcer, who hadn't learnt from her mistakes, "accidentally" leaned on Lu Qingluo again and softly said, "Qingluo Jiejie."
Lu Qingluo had no sisters so this was the first time she had the feeling of being depended on. Her heart softened even more, especially when she saw the scar on Baoyi's leg.
That long mark is very hideous. How could a young lady suffer such an injury that left a long scar like this.
"Did you get this injury from protecting Shizi?"
"Oh, this?" Baoyi laughed, "This was from my childhood when I climbed over the wall and got scratched by twigs."
"……" The female lead was silent for a moment before continuing to apply the medicine.
"This was from getting hit by Shifu for being lazy during practice."
"This was from the collision when I fell from the roof beam yesterday."
"……" Lu Qingluo laughed helplessly, "Meimei has a really lively temper."
She wasn't easily fooled. She knew that Baoyi's words weren't the truth but this young girl's optimism and tenacity called for people's sincere respect and admiration.
"I'm just used to being shameless. After all, I'm Shizi's servant and with his bad temper, if I were to be serious for every matter, I'd have been angered to death by him already!" Baoyi didn't forget to smear Zhou Yunxi's name in front of the female lead.
At the mention of Zhou Yunxi, Lu Qingluo recalled that day's matters again and fear lingered in her heart.
"I heard that you've been by Zhou Shizi's side since childhood?"
"Yes."
They could be regarded as green plum and a bamboo horse[8]. It's unfortunate that there's too much difference in their status. She, the green plum, had always served as firearm. Wherever Zhou Yunxi pointed, she'd fire at and whoever Zhou Yunxi looked at, she'd copy the guy and cut down anyone without objection.
"Has he been this temperamental since childhood?" Lu Qingluo couldn't help but to sympathise with Baoyi.
Baoyi searched Thirteen's memory before saying relaxedly, "Actually he hasn't. He was very kind-hearted when he was young and was very considerate of others. He was a good……good master."
She wanted to say good friend but recalling the disparity in their rank nowadays, she dropped it.
After a pause, Baoyi laughed, "Actually, I wasn't the shadow guard that was originally assigned to him. I'd pestered Shifu about having to come. Therefore, don't look at Shizi who's like this now. In any case, it was I who snatched him."
Lu Qingluo couldn't refrain from asking: "You……have never regretted? Have you never thought of leaving?"
Hua Ping had previously said that Thirteen's skills, even after surveying the whole capital, there aren't many worthy matches. She's so impressive, if she wished to flee, it should be easy for her.
"Leave?" Baoyi was shocked. "Why would I leave? If I left, who would protect him?"
She also wished to leave, but with the mission incomplete, it's useless even if she committed suicide.
Lu Qingluo watched Baoyi for a while and said thoughtfully, "Mei mei, it can't be that…….can't be that you……like him?"
The more Lu Qingluo thought about it, the more certain she felt. Liking someone like Zhou Shizi, and with his status, it's really too pitiful.
"Like?"
Baoyi thought about it, doing her best to search through all of the original host's memory, not finding any ripples.
No, till her death, the original host was only loyal towards Zhou Yunxi. This loyalty had nothing to do with love.
Zhou Shizi was such a pitiful child. Till his death, there was no one who really loved him. Even his biological mother felt that she'd been implicated by him and treated him coldly. All these years, Zhou Shizi had never experienced being loved and the feeling of being treasured.
"I probably," Baoyi's mood sank a little. Sweeping the window out of the corner of her eye, she seemed to have seen a shadowy figure outside the window. She softly said, "like him."
……his face.
If not for that face that made it difficult for her to resist, she wouldn't have been crazy enough to chose such a deceptive story!
The author has something to say:
Because I haven't changed the series, this story cannot be on the list yet so I have to accumulate the number of words first.
In addition, the other story is about to finish soon, so I posted three chapters first. For the next three days, I'll focus on《专家》and after it's complete, I'll focus on this side. XOXO=3=
If you liked this, please don't forget to bookmark!
This translation is brought to you by:
Iluska & Maelani Translations
Translator: Iluska
Editor: Sugakookie
1. [1] 刀师父 (dāo shīfu) Dao is his surname and shifu is his title. A shifu is a master of something and a teacher.↩
2. [2] 饮鸩止渴 (yǐn zhèn zhǐ kě) Literal translation is to drink poison in the hope of quenching one’s thirst. Meaning, a supposed remedy that only makes matters worse.↩
3. [3] 双宿双飞 (shuāng sù shuāng fēi) Literal translation is rest and fly together. Meaning, to be inseparable.↩
4. [4] Meaning that it's very disgraceful.↩
5. [5] 姑娘 (gū niáng) means young lady. So she's calling Baoyi 'Young Lady Thirteen' as she doesn't know Baoyi's real name yet. 'Young Lady' is a polite way of addressing a lady in the olden days.↩
6. [6] 人面兽心 (rén miàn shòu xīn) Literal translation means "human face, beast’s heart". Can also mean 'malicious and duplicitous'.↩
7. [7] 妹妹 (mèi mei) means younger sister. Doesn't have to be blood related.↩
8. [8] 青梅竹马 (qīng méi zhú mǎ) Literal translation is green plums and a bamboo horse. It's an idiom that can refer to 'childhood sweethearts' or 'a couple who grew up as childhood friends'.↩