Book 8: Chapter 72

Ming Feizhen helped the weeping beauty rub her cheeks, expressing, “I worked so hard to find you… yet you brutally bludgeoned me…”Moments ago…While Ming Feizhen did expect to get clocked for smooching Shen Yiren for a good fifteen minutes, he didn’t expect the inkstone to two-hundred-hit combo his face. He couldn’t expect the light punishment of a verbal lashing after stealing a kiss.Ming Feizhen seized Shen Yiren’s arm as she went for the 201st whack: “You done yet?!”Ming Feizhen recoiled as soon as Shen Yiren shot him a glare.With her only functioning arm seized, Shen Yiren drove a heel into Ming Feizhen’s chin, laying him flat on his back: “No!”She’s not embarrassed. She’s completely lost it! I nearly bit my tongue off!“Wait! Listen to -”“Listen?!” Shen Yiren grabbed Ming Feizhen’s collar then leapt off the bed, using the momentum to slam his face onto the ground: “I’ll listen after I’m done!” Shen Yiren then proceeded to slam Ming Feizhen’s into the floor eight more times, resulting in his head swelling up. Obviously, he didn’t use his qi armour.“I didn’t mean to!”“Go to hell!” Shen Yiren launched Ming Feizhen onto the bed with a back kick. She sauntered over to him and grabbed his hair to unleash another beating before lifting it back up, staring straight into his eyes.“All your steam gone…? L-listen to me…”Shen Yiren titled her head and tugged up the corner of her lips. “Not listening.” Shen Yiren pulled his head down and drove her knee up.“Ah! Hah! Hah!”The girls listening in outside, face ashy, questioned, “He’s going to die?! Who’s the tigress? She’s going to kill her husband!”“Nah, those two are probably just going at it hard, though that’s pretty intense.”“St-stop! I’m done!”“Get over here!” Shen Yiren thumped and wrestled Ming Feizhen against the furniture in the room while he groaned, screamed and grunted.“It’s not as if they’ve been apart for a decade. Do they need to go at it so intensely?”“Intense? It’s life threatening.”“Get lost!”Those eavesdroppers outside careened upon hearing Shen Yiren bray, while two of the girls burst into tears.Shen Yiren kept up the assault for approximately another hour before Shen Yiren ran out of energy and had to guzzle the tea on the table to soothe her dry throat. As for Ming Feizhen, he crawled to his feet and didn’t dare to utter another word.“Phew.” Shen Yiren threw aside the empty teacup then wiped her mouth before glaring at Ming Feizhen again.Ming Feizhen scuttled backward, inwardly praying, “She’s not going to go for another round is she?”Shen Yiren gave Ming Feizhen a friendly pat on the shoulder and conveyed, “All right. Ming Feizhen, let’s write it off with that since I don’t think you mean it.”“… I told you I didn’t mean it an hour ago! Why didn’t you listen?!”“Different situation.”“How?!”Shen Yiren flashed a corner of her white pearls: “I was angry.”You have to be kidding me… I probably shouldn’t ever anger her again.Still simpering, Shen Yiren scanned Ming Feizhen from head to toe: “Bruises but no blood. I didn’t know you were so robust.”“Thank you for holding back, Boss.”“I didn’t hold back.”“Did it never cross your mind to hold back?”Shen Yiren did neck circles, wrist circles and so forth to check up on her body: “No, I just wanted to bust your head open.”“What if something worse happened to me?!”“Yeah, yeah, you’re fine now, aren’t you? You think it doesn’t tire me or make me sore? I’m a girl, yet I’m not complaining, so stop whinging when you’re a grown man.”In Proprietor Qian’s mind: “He does his old man proud. Even his wife is amazing in bed. That’s what you call going all out with total disregard for safety. She’s the idol of women. This old one will probably have to buy their kid a present soon.”Shen Yiren, aware she was in a brothel, blustered, “Those eavesdropping outside, get lost. Eavesdrop again and I’ll burn your kennel down.”Proprietor Qian slipped down the stairs, nearly killing himself as he hurtled.“What happened to… those two?” inquired Shen Yiren, referring to Mountain Monster and Poison King standing awkwardly by the door.I remember River Monster fed me a pill against my will. Some sort of force then stopped the flow of time of something, and I lost awareness of everything for a split second. Since the pill was in my mouth and Ming Feizhen stuck his tongue in…Shen Yiren shot Ming Feizhen a glare as fiery as her face, sending him teetering back.River Monster and Poison King should’ve been by my side before that sensation. Did someone move the two over to the door? I surmise their accupoints are sealed.“You?”“Me what?” Ming Feizhen decided to play the fool since he dealt with the two thoughtlessly.“Did you subdue the two?”“They were already, like that, when I came in.”Who could subdue Poison King without me noticing when I was paying attention, not to mention along with River Monster? I only know of four living people who could pull it off.“Big Brother?” Shen Yiren uttered in a happy and anticipatory tone. She grabbed Ming Feizhen by the arm to ask, “W-was it Big Brother? I mean, did you see anyone else around?”“What Big Brother?”Shen Yiren opened the windows as though she urgently needed oxygen and swept her gaze over the streets before surveying the interior of the room again. Sadly for her, the traces she hoped to find weren’t there.“… You… didn’t see a bald man…?”Ming Feizhen hadn’t forgotten Shen Yiren’s mumbling when he saved her from Zhong Ning. Assuming the monk was her crush, he curled his lips: “What bald monk? You have daoists and nuns in town but no baldy monks. It’s bad luck for me to run into baldies when I sometimes gamble, Boss.”“What baldy? He’s handsome!”She’s never minded something so trivial so much before. I came all the way from the capital to find you. Yeah, I accompanied His Majesty, but… I’ve been searching high and low for you day and night. You beat the snot out of me for saving you, and you’re worried about some bald monk, Shaolin abbot or something before you even praised me once…“Did you see one or not?”“No.”Shen Yiren’s shoulders rolled forward: “I see… It might not have been him even if there was one.”“Would the baldy have been able to save you?”“Stop calling him a baldy.”Ming Feizhen crossed his arms, grumbling under his breath, “All I know is that someone switches between friendly and hostile unpredictably. I came all the way here from the capital, foregoing sleep, yet all I got was a beating after saving her. As soon as she recovers, all she cares about is some bald monk, some glossy-head big brother.”“I’ve been eager to see him for a long time.”“Of course, of course, I cannot fathom what your great self can fathom. I’m no big man. Wakes up to her saviour and beats him up.”“Ming Feizhen!”Ming Feizhen raised his hands to his head: “Wh-what?”Shen Yiren raised a hand to hit Ming Feizhen but stopped herself upon seeing the stains on his clothing, his injuries and his shaky hands. Her fiery gaze turned to a tender gaze as she cracked up, stupefying him. “You angry?”“N-no.”“Yeah, yeah. You’re angry I hit you, correct?”“I didn’t say that. You said it.”Wryly perking up the corner of her lips, Shen Yiren folded her arms, jiggling her rack: “You had your kiss and your touch. So what if I hit you? How petty.”Ming Feizhen’s eyes made their way to Shen Yiren’s lips, while his attention drifted back to his memories, prompting her to raise a hand and playfully threaten, “Still thinking about it? Want to get hit?”“I wasn’t thinking of anything,” Ming Feizhen pleaded as he wagged his hands. “Boss will always be my wise, mighty leader.”Shen Yiren giggled at the sight of Ming Feizhen’s foolish act: “Better be that way. If you do that again, I’ll skin you.”“Oh, man, I’m going to need to layer myself with extra layers of skin, then.”Shen Yiren gently whacked Ming Feizhen on the head: “Stop showing off your glib tongue. How about figuring out what happened to those two. Anything out of the norm happen when you come in? Also, how did you find me?”Shen Yiren did think of someone who could’ve done what she inferred took place, but said individual was way too far from Jiangnan.Shen Yiren giggled again at the sight of Ming Feizhen’s derp face, feeling relieved. Thanks to her giggle, Ming Feizhen had a spark of inspiration.“Probably some adept. I recently met a sage-like adept. Man, he is an exceptional man. He’s also the one who told me you were here,” Ming Feizhen replied in the most sincere tone he could fake. “He’s an incredible daoist with knowledge that rivals the heavens. I headed to Luo Clan’s place when I heard from Bai Yeshuang that she located you. As luck would have it, I met the daoist. All he needed to do was perform a divination on his fingers to pinpoint your whereabouts.”