#theres a lot different in the revised ver of qi rong's lair arc but its still very very good

[jimingyue]

translated my favorite scene from the revised ver of book 1 :3 qi rong's lair arc!

--

“Don’t chase him, give him some time to calm down. At this moment, he won’t listen to any reason.” Hua Cheng said.

It wasn’t that Xie Lian didn’t understand this. He stood there for awhile before calmly saying, “Why did you have to do this?”

Xie Lian felt a sudden burst of anger surge up. He didn’t even know who the anger was directed towards.

Hua Cheng reached out, seemingly wanting to put his hand on Xie Lian’s shoulder, but Xie Lian brushed him off, saying, “Before, he only hated me! If he hates me then he hates me, do you know how many people despise me? He’s far from the only one！Now everything’s great, he knows that the person that he so worked hard for was cursing him! Must he now believe that everything I’ve taught him was all fake, all in vain, all lies?”

Hua Cheng didn’t say anything. Xie Lian suddenly felt like he couldn’t stand it. Couldn’t stand anything, couldn’t stand how he had senselessly lost control, couldn’t stand how Hua Cheng was just quietly watching him. He covered his face. “You should leave.”

Hua Cheng didn’t move. Xie Lian clutched his head. “You should leave! Think of it as me begging you to leave, alright?”

Only then did Hua Cheng speak. “Alright.”

He seemed to disappear without a sound.

Xie Lian finally felt more at ease, but he didn’t know if there was anything else he could do. He harshly swept his arm out, wanting to release the ugly knot of emotions that had built up in his chest. However, a small golden object ended up flying out of his sleeve.

Watching it fly out of the entrance of the Royal Tomb and down the cliff, Xie Lian was alarmed. Silently crying out, ‘Oh no!’, Xie Lian didn’t think twice before reaching out and jumping down. Who knew, while he was in mid-air, a hand abruptly pulled him back. As soon as his feet touched the ground, Xie Lian saw who had arrived and blurted out, “San Lang, I lost the flower!”

Hua Cheng’s arm circled his waist. “If it’s lost it’s lost, it’s not like it was anything valuable.”

That speck of gold had already disappeared, but the grip on his waist grew tighter. Xie Lian fretted, “I can’t lose it, it was…”

It was the flower that Hua Cheng had won at the temple fair for him.

Xie Lian was anxious enough that his whole body had broken out in cold sweat, and his soul was pulled back into his body. At this moment, he suddenly realized that he didn’t know when Hua Cheng had actually left and then come back. Thinking about the nasty way he had treated Hua Cheng before, Xie Lian said blankly, “San Lang, you…didn’t leave.”

Hua Cheng was silent. Xie Lian thought about the undue words he had said to him and felt even more guilty, unable to say any more.

After awhile, Hua Cheng sighed delicately. “Since gege doesn’t want me, why would he want a flower that I gifted?”

Xie Lian immediately rebuked. “It’s not that I don’t want you! It’s absolutely not.”

“But gege just told me to leave.”

“…”

“It was like this before too. No matter how many times I called for you, you cast me aside and ran away.”

When he phrased it like this, Xie Lian thought that Hua Cheng must feel extremely wronged by him, and that he himself had gone way too far. He whispered, “I’m sorry…”

“I didn’t wish for His Highness to apologize to me.”

Particularly because of that, Xie Lian felt even more regretful. He sighed.

Hua Cheng said, “It was my fault.”

Xie Lian was shocked. “How is it your fault?”

Hua Cheng said, “I originally wanted to stay with gege until his injury had healed, and let Lang QianQiu come and find the Green Ghost. That worthless trash Qi Rong is unable to keep his cool, with some pushing and pulling he would’ve ended up revealing everything. But I didn’t expect gege to have a tracking talisman that led to Lang Qianqiu’s position, and even send you here as well. And now it’s become like this.”

Xie Lian sighed again. “What did you have to do with it? It was me who messed things up.”

Hua Cheng said, “It wasn’t your fault. If you hadn’t taken the blame, past and present grudges would’ve pushed the country into perpetual turmoil. One life in exchange for generations of peace, what wrongs did you commit? If it was me, I would’ve been far more ruthless. Listen to me, it wasn’t your fault.“

Xie Lian sat on the ground. After a long while, he finally whispered, “I just think, it shouldn’t have been like this.”

Hua Cheng listened quietly. Xie Lian muttered, “I just think, if someone were to extend their hand in kindness, it shouldn’t end in this way. I’m afraid he won’t be able to handle it, I’m afraid he’ll change. I just…”

He himself had already suffered this enough, and didn’t want others to go through the same.

As the State Preceptor FangXin, he had no past and no name, and taking responsibility for the Gilded Banquet Massacre would lead Lang QianQiu to believe that he had been betrayed by only a single person. But if the culprit was in fact the resentful spirits that Lang QianQiu had worked so hard to cleanse, then it would’ve been the ultimate disillusionment.

So when Qi Rong gave him that suggestion, Xie Lian could only heed his threat and pick up the sword to fight Lang QianQiu and provoke his unfettered retaliation.

However, Hua Cheng said, “But you can’t pull the wool over his eyes forever. He would’ve eventually seen the true nature of this world.”

He sat down next to Xie Lian. “Besides, if you truly value him this much, then why can’t you trust him?

Xie Lian lifted his face from his arms. Hua Cheng continued indifferently, “If he’s really the one that you’ve chosen, then he won’t lose himself to resentment. Even if he wished to destroy the whole world before, in the end he’ll still do what he must do.”

Xie Lian looked at him, then suddenly said, “I think you should still go.”

“Why?”

Xie Lian spoke without any rhyme or reason. “Actually…I’m a pestilence god. If you get close to me you’ll experience misfortune, so I think that it would be better if we didn’t remain friends.”

Hua Cheng looked at him and sighed. “Gege, you’re being silly.”

Xie Lian insisted. “Have you not noticed? Since we’ve gotten to know each other, you’re always bringing me good fortune, but I’ve been inflicting nothing but misfortune on you.”

“No.”

“I’m being serious, if we keep going on like this, I’m afraid that one day…”

All of a sudden, Hua Cheng gripped his hand hard. He said, almost tenderly, “Your Highness, it’s not your fault.”

He continued, “You’ve already tried your hardest. No one else is able to surpass you, I know this.”

Whether or not he was right, Xie Lian didn’t know. But he knew for a fact that no one had ever comforted him in such a warm and resolute way.