088 Yu Ling’er is Angry
“Qin Ren, Cheng Siyu, she’s becoming more and more like her sister now, isn’t she?” As soon as she got home, Gu Qing’s question left Qin Ren, who had just changed his clothes, completely bewildered.
“You saw Cheng Siyu? When?”
“Aiya, I just suddenly thought of it…”
Gu Qing smoothed the wrinkles on her little brother’s T-shirt, once, twice…
Mmm, it’s a bit addictive.
Qin Ren’s firm pectoral muscles didn’t seem to have slackened from his hard work. As her delicate fingertips brushed over his strong physique, Gu Qing felt her heart beat a little warmer.
“…Just tell me, is she or isn’t she?”
“She is, but she isn’t.”
Qin Ren thought for a moment and said carefully.
“That girl’s hairstyle and stuff are indeed more like Siyun now, but if you look at her at the company, her style is still quite different.”
“What style?”
“Just the workplace style of a newcomer. A small ponytail, a small blouse, a small jacket, small trousers, small silk…”
“?”
“Cough cough.”
Qin Ren looked down and frowned.
“Aiya, my shorts seem to have shrunk. They’re a bit tight. No wonder I feel uncomfortable…”
Gu Qing glanced at them, and her face turned slightly red.
They were indeed a bit tight…
Qin Ren was possessive and didn’t let his sister wear the one-shoulder dress outside. Then Gu Qing could also be possessive and not let her little brother wear such tight shorts on the street.
This was the age of male beauty. There were already enough birds and bees in the house. Her little brother’s body couldn’t be seen by any more bad women.
————————
After changing into a looser pair of shorts, Qin Ren was about to go out on an errand and had to call Yu Ling’er.
Knock, knock, knock—
He knocked on the bedroom door.
“Master Yu, are you ready?”
“In a minute.”
A moment later, Yu Ling’er came out, having changed into her ancient costume as Qin Ren had requested.
It wasn’t the hanfu he had given to Yu Yourong, but the flowing white robe she had been wearing when she first came to Earth.
Yu Ling’er didn’t know what Qin Ren was taking her to do, but after so long, changing back into this outfit actually made her feel a little embarrassed.
“It’s not too strange, is it?” Her delicate hand gently fiddled with her collar. Yu Ling’er’s almond eyes were shy, and she looked around the room with her long eyelashes blinking.
“No, it’s very beautiful.”
Beautiful?
Yu Ling’er had heard Qin Ren praise many people as pretty and good-looking. Gu Qing, Luo Yao, and Yourong, he had praised them all. But this was the first time the word “beautiful” had come out of his mouth, and she didn’t expect it to fall into her own ears.
“It’s… it’s not that great…”
She said so, but what woman doesn’t like to be praised? Yu Ling’er gently tucked her hair behind her ear, hiding the happiness in her eyes.
“No, I really think it’s very beautiful.” Qin Ren looked her up and down, showing a rigorous academic attitude.
The first time he saw Yu Ling’er, this outfit was a bit shabby, and so was she, so she had the air of a more common little wife.
Now that she was properly dressed up, she looked more like an immortal Sect Master.
The little wife had also become a great wife, the kind of temperament that an empress, empress dowager, or a prince’s wife would have in ancient times.
“As graceful as a light cloud emerging from a mountain peak, her immortal air is elegant, and her gaze is full of brilliance, with a unique charm.”
Qin Ren was very smug, shaking his head and giving a thumbs-up.
“Master Yu, your clothes suit you very well… hey, hey?!”
As he was speaking, Qin Ren felt a strong force from under his feet, almost pushing him over. He looked down in astonishment and saw a mop handle poking at his feet.
“Ge, move.” Classmate Yu Yourong stared at the mop, her tone a little sullen.
“No, no, Yourong, don’t work. You just mopped yesterday.”
Qin Ren went to take the mop from her hand, but Yu Yourong stubbornly turned her head and went to mop the other side.
“Hey, Yourong?”
“Yourong?”
Qin Ren and Yu Ling’er looked at each other, both a little helpless and confused. In the end, it was Qin Ren who chased after her and stopped her on the balcony.
“Yourong, don’t work so hard. Take a rest. Why don’t you go for a walk with Luo Yao?”
“You know I’m working hard, yet you and Master still stand there blocking my way…”
Yu Yourong leaned on the mop, glanced at Qin Ren, turned her face away, and looked at the green potted plants on the balcony, her expression blank.
…
Why haven’t I seen brother use such literary words before? It’s just an ordinary heavenly silk embroidered robe. What’s the big deal…
Yourong originally had that kind of clothes too. If she wore them, she might be even more beautiful than “some people”…
…
“Blocking the way was unintentional, but you’re cooking, washing dishes, and then immediately mopping the floor. That’s deliberately not taking care of yourself.”
Qin Ren took the mop from her.
“You don’t have spiritual power now. You also have to eat and sleep and you’ll get tired. Rest.”
“But I still have internal energy.”
Yu Yourong took the mop back.
“With internal energy, I’m more capable than an ordinary girl. I don’t need to take care of myself.”
“Aiyo, if you don’t feel sorry for yourself, I do…”
Qin Ren snatched it back again, then looked back at the living room. After confirming that his sister was in the bedroom, he mysteriously leaned over to Yu Yourong’s ear.
“Which older brother doesn’t feel sorry for his younger sister? Qin Ren feels the most sorry for Xishi… but you have to keep it a secret. Don’t let Qing’er know.”
After speaking, he even deliberately winked. Yu Yourong’s face turned slightly red, and after her eyes darted around, she muttered in a low voice.
“Then what are you going to do with her this afternoon…”
“Her?”
Qin Ren’s thoughts stalled for a moment. Yu Yourong glared at him.
“Yu Ling’er.”
“Oh, right, right… sigh, it’s nothing.”
If he remembered correctly, this was probably the first time Yu Yourong had glared at him. It was a cute and annoyed glare. Qin Ren was quite happy about it. It meant that the girl was integrating more, which was a good thing.
“We’re going to get some gold coins back this afternoon.”
“What?” Yu Yourong didn’t understand these messy slang terms.
“It’s just something from before. I’ve been so busy with overtime that I’ve forgotten about it. It’s been delayed for a long time…”
Qin Ren was being mysterious at first. In fact, he was thinking of the jewelry Yu Ling’er had sold for food before.
It had been some time since then. Some of the more serious small business owners might have already had them appraised and might not be willing to hand over the jewelry anymore.
But for this situation, Qin Ren also had a way. It was just that from the legal perspective of an exorcist, it was not very ethical…
————————
“Mama, look, a sword immortal sister.”
After going out with the immortal-like Yu Ling’er, besides the children, they actually didn’t attract too many gazes on the way.
After all, as a “big city for cosplay,” ancient costumes and the like were always quite common in Rongcheng.
And the reason why many children would look over was in large part because of the sword Yu Ling’er was holding.
“Master Yu, why are you holding this sword?”
Qin Ren had always been quite puzzled.
“Aren’t they usually carried on the back, or at the waist?”
“Mmm… I know that’s how it is on Earth, but…”
Yu Ling’er hugged the sword in her arms. From Qin Ren’s angle, he could see that the soft groove on her body was squeezed a little deeper because of this. Under the white thin gauze, the two rabbit sisters, whose health was second only to her disciple’s, also bounced slightly.
“…But on the Myriad Demon Continent, at least in the Flowing Cloud Sect, we don’t have a habit of using swords, because we don’t need to.”
“Oh?”
Qin Ren’s eyes lit up.
“Do you have a Qiankun bag, a storage ring, or something?”
“No…”
Yu Ling’er’s brows furrowed. She didn’t even understand these words.
“When we have spiritual power, we all stick our swords in our bodies.”
“In your bodies?”
That sounded so awesome. Qin Ren did a tactical lean back.
“Tell me in detail.”
“Mmm… actually, it’s a bloodline inheritance. The snake clan has an ancient ancestor called the Ba Snake. The one who came to Earth before. Do you know, Qin Ren?”
“I do. The Ba Snake swallowing an elephant.”
“Yes, yes.”
When Yu Ling’er nodded, the round bun on the back of her head trembled, very cute.
“The Ba Snake ancestor’s elephant-swallowing divine ability is one of the bloodline inheritances left to our snake clan. So when we’re not using our swords, we usually swallow them and keep them in our stomachs.”
“Huh?”
Sword swallowing? Qin Ren thought of those acrobatic performances from before. There was one who swallowed a sword and even went on Into Science, getting an X-ray while swallowing the sword.
But coming from Yu Ling’er’s mouth, it felt a bit more mysterious.
But mysterious as it was, it wasn’t anything too strange. The basic operation of [spitting out magic treasures] was a common sight from classics like Investiture of the Gods to the current xuanhuan and xianxia.
In recent years, what Qin Ren remembered most about this was probably a web novel author called Chen Yigeng, where all kinds of great powers would open their mouths to spit out magic treasures, sword qi, and even a mountain, a world, and so on, until the Great Dao was worn away.
“You just… swallow it whole?”
“Pretty much. You don’t know, Qin Ren. Our snake clan’s throats are very deep.”
“How deep?”
“About…”
Yu Ling’er touched the middle of her collarbone.
“About here. When we have spiritual power, we can swallow any sword, no matter how thick, and make it formless. Then when we need to use it, we just spit it out and make it tangible.”
“Then without spiritual power, you can’t demonstrate it?” Qin Ren was a little disappointed. He really wanted to see it.
“Actually, I can. But I can only swallow it up to here.”
Yu Ling’er pointed to her collarbone.
“I can’t do the formless thing, so I just hold the sword. It’s not very comfortable to wear it at my waist or on my back.”
But speaking of this, Yu Ling’er was also puzzled.
“Qin Ren.”
“Mhm.”
“Why did we have to change clothes and bring a sword to redeem the items?”
“It’s obvious at a glance. It’s convenient.”
According to Yu Ling’er’s memory, Qin Ren went to those small restaurants one by one in the afternoon. It had only been about a week, so most of the owners could quickly remember Yu Ling’er with just a glance at her outfit. When Qin Ren asked, most of them directly admitted that Yu Ling’er had indeed exchanged things for food before.
Then Qin Ren started to make things up. One moment he said he was a lifestyle vlogger on Bilibili, doing some xxx challenge. The next he said he was from a TV variety show crew, and the jewelry he had given before was a prop, and it was a mistake. It was rented by the crew, and now he wanted to buy it back with the meal money.
And so, one earring, one jade pendant, one pendant, and a bracelet of unknown material were all successfully recovered.
There was no other way. To be successful, you had to be a little fancy, to make these small business owners feel that they were not “alone and weak,” that Yu Ling’er was not just a one-time mistake, and that those things were not very valuable.
From the results, the necessity of doing so was there.
Because in the end, there were still two owners who, after getting the jewelry appraised and finding that it was made of top-grade materials, refused to exchange it back.
This included another jade earring and a jade pendant.
It was difficult to make someone spit out a big bargain they had picked up. So at that time, Qin Ren changed his face.
“To be honest, I’m actually an exorcist.”
The exorcist Qin Ren was talking about here was, of course, not his real identity. He was starting to play the role of a charlatan, reminding these two owners that the jewelry they had gotten was full of “bad luck.”
“Bad luck?”
“Haha!”
The two owners were, of course, staunch materialists. They had been educated and couldn’t possibly believe it. So here, Qin Ren had to use a less ethical method.
“Let’s go, Master Yu. Let’s go back.”
“We’re going back?”
Yu Ling’er pattered along, following him with swaying, light steps.
“Are we not getting those two back?”
“Don’t worry. They’ll call and deliver them to our door in a while.”
Qin Ren’s method was actually to go and find A-Cui again, the chicken-headed Demonic Scion who had helped him find Yu Ling’er’s whereabouts before. He would just ask her to find a few harmless but scary Demonic Scions to cause some supernatural disturbances at the two owners’ homes and scare them. Then they would naturally believe in the “bad luck” of the jewelry.
As for the jewelry he had gotten today, Qin Ren took it to a jewelry store and sold it all.
This was, of course, with Yu Ling’er’s consent.
“Sell it all!” Master Yu was very generous. “Anyway, they’re just decorations. And after being taken out and tainted by so much worldly air, they have no soul anymore.”
The word “no soul” was something Yu Ling’er had just learned, and she used it appropriately. It was just that Qin Ren was a little curious.
“Master Yu, you cultivators, you still wear so much jewelry? Yourong doesn’t seem to have any.”
“Yourong, she… she’s still young. She doesn’t understand jewelry at all…”
Yu Ling’er’s eyes darted around. She lowered her head with a red face, her jade-like hands nervously picking at the pattern on her scabbard.
“This kid is quite boring. She doesn’t wear any herself, and if others wear a little… she even calls them pretentious…”
“I see…”
Qin Ren looked at Yu Ling’er’s rosy face with interest, wanting to laugh a little.
Yu Ling’er looked up and also noticed Qin Ren’s faint smile. Her heart panicked, and she couldn’t help but stomp her embroidered shoe lightly, her delicate brows furrowed as she emphasized to him.
“Qin Ren, the one she called pretentious was not me. I’m her master. She wouldn’t dare.”
“Right, right.”
Qin Ren nodded with a grin.
“She wouldn’t dare to scold you. She would only dare to hit you.”
“She… you…”
Now that it was out in the open, Yu Ling’er felt that she had lost a lot of face. The blush on her skin spread all the way from her long neck to the tips of her ears. She held her sword in one hand and covered her bottom with the other. She turned around in a shy and angry huff and quickened her pace towards home.
Qin Ren chased after her from behind with a smile.
“Hey, hey, Master Yu, don’t be angry. It’s nothing. I was just saying.”
“…”
Yu Ling’er ignored her.
“You don’t want the money from selling this jewelry either?”
“…”
Still ignoring him.
Hmph, insincere…
He clearly knows that he’s the one in charge at home, yet he still talks to her about money…
“Alright, alright, Master Yu…”
Actually, Yu Ling’er was a cultivator, after all. When she got angry, her steady feet, with their graceful lotus steps, were not slow at all. Qin Ren had to run a couple of steps to catch up.
“Master Yu, Master Yu, I was wrong.”
“…”
Yu Ling’er pursed her lips and said nothing. Her delicate and soft face was still tinged with a faint blush. She held her sword in her arms, her watery eyes looking at the floor tiles on the side, as if she would rather count the cracks in the floor tiles than pay attention to Qin Ren.
And so, the immortal-like Sect Master had also “shown her true colors.” The appearance of a resentful neighborhood wife was revealed, with a hint of grievance.
“Master Yu, actually, I don’t know if you’ve learned a common saying on Earth these past few days, called ‘everyone has a love for beauty’.”
Yu Yourong turned her head faintly and glanced at him.
“What are you trying to say…”
“I’m trying to say, a joke is a joke, but knowing about jewelry is not a pretentious thing. People who know about jewelry know how to dress up. I think it’s very feminine.”
Qin Ren was not grinning. He was gentle and serious.
It seems… he’s being sincere…
Yu Ling’er’s nose twitched slightly, and she let out a few small hums. She was willing to look at Qin Ren a little more.
“Feminine… what is that…”
“It’s a woman’s charm.”
“Charm…”
Yu Ling’er did not, like she had with the word “beautiful,” decline Qin Ren’s compliment. She blinked her puzzled eyes slowly.
“Which ‘mei’ is ‘mei’?”
“This one.”
Qin Ren typed the two characters for “charm” on his phone and showed them to Yu Ling’er. Yu Ling’er glanced at it and shrank her neck, spitting softly in embarrassment.
“How can it be this ‘mei’… those foxes from the Acacia Sect all have this character tattooed on their bodies. I… I don’t want to be feminine.”
“It’s different. Charm on Earth is a good word. Those most heart-stopping women, everyone praises them for having charm, for being feminine.”
Qin Ren explained to Yu Ling’er with a straight face.
“Charm, charm, it refers to a bright attraction, not a seductive temptation.”
“…”
This explanation sounded quite plausible. Yu Ling’er accepted it and ran behind Qin Ren again with her sword.
“Then let’s go home. You go first, I’ll follow…”
“We’re going back, but to show my sincerity in apologizing, Master Yu, let me treat you to a drink.”
Yu Ling’er thought to herself, what’s so good about drinking water? She looked in the direction Qin Ren was pointing and saw a shop called “Hey Tea.”
“Many girls on Earth like to drink this. They have all kinds of fruit juices and drinks, hot and cold. Oh, and milk tea. Want to take a look?”
“Mhm…”
It was good to take a look. Yu Ling’er was quite interested, and her mood quickly warmed up.
Because this was Qin Ren’s apology to her. This nature made the Sect Master quite happy.
Didn’t that unfilial disciple also often make her angry? Even she had never apologized to her master.
But after really entering the shop, Yu Ling’er was a little repulsed by those colorful fruit teas and milk teas. Just the appearance was a bit hard to get used to.
The most typical discomfort was something called “Full Cup Passion Fruit,” which had dense little beads inside that gave Yu Ling’er goosebumps.
This scene also appeared in the pearl milk tea that Yu Yourong liked to drink, so Yu Ling’er also never drank pearl milk tea.
“Not a single one you want to drink?”
“Mhm.”
Yu Ling’er nodded, then felt that some people in the shop were secretly taking pictures of her with their phones. She timidly pulled on Qin Ren’s pocket.
“Qin Ren, I’m not angry anymore. Let’s go out first. They’re all…”
“Alright, let’s go out.”
The little fairies in the milk tea shop were lucky enough to see a real fairy. It was understandable that they were stunned. Qin Ren led Yu Ling’er out of the shop. Yu Ling’er’s eyes then lit up, and she pointed at a small stall not far away.
“Qin Ren, soy milk!”
“Alright, let’s buy it.”
The first time the two met, Yu Ling’er had drunk soy milk. It was clean and pure white. A gentle lick. This was what people should drink.
This time, the soy milk was the kind that was sold in a plastic bag when he was a child. It was quite nostalgic. You needed a bit of an angle and skill to insert the straw. When he was a child, Qin Ren and his sister often drank this. His sister would always ask Qin Ren to help her insert the straw.
“Is it good?”
“It’s good.”
Yu Ling’er didn’t know how she drank it, but her mouth was all white. Qin Ren took out a tissue to wipe it for her.
“Then, Master Yu, you’ve forgiven me?”
“I wasn’t really that angry. I forgave you just now…”
Yu Ling’er said shyly, then looked at Qin Ren seriously.
“Qin Ren, you’re a good person.”
“…”
This was the third or how many times Qin Ren had heard Master Yu evaluate him like this.
***
Translator’s Notes
-
Xishi (西施): One of the renowned Four Beauties of ancient China. “Tofu Xishi” is a term for a beautiful woman who sells tofu.
-
Dongshi imitating a frown (东施效颦): An idiom from a story about an ugly woman named Dongshi who tried to imitate the beautiful Xishi’s pained frown, only to look even uglier. It means to blindly imitate others with ludicrous results.
-
In the eyes of Qin Ren, there is a Xishi (秦仁眼里出西施): A play on the idiom “情人眼里出西施” (qíngrén yǎnlǐ chū xīshī), which means “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Qin Ren replaces the word for “lover” (情人, qíngrén) with his own name (秦仁, Qín Rén).
-
Mei (魅): The character for “charm” (魅力, mèilì) is composed of “ghost” (鬼) and “not yet” (未). It can also mean “demon” or “seductive spirit.” Yu Ling’er is wary of its negative connotations.
