Life Going Wild With Plug-ins

Chapter 20 - The small loyal dog’s old friend.

Although all the land under heaven belongs to the king1 , Helan was so closed off from news it was rather like the sky was high and the Emperor was far away2 . Inside the city, the common people practically only know the Helan Terrace and are unaware of the Son of Heaven3 . They actually rely on these visitors from the Jianghu to maintain order, and their awareness of the law is really faint.

On the inside of this city the fish and dragons mix toghether4 , as if there was something in the wind5 . Thinking back to the Eldest Young Master’s warning, it actually seems like something is being planned out.

Before leaving Changluo, I had only heard about Zhongli Court, it was only after arriving at this place that I realised my knowledge was superficial. During dinner, I asked about the situation in the Jianghu. The waiter threw out more than twenty different names, each one having different grievances with the others. I was so confused listening to this that I couldn’t actually remember any of it.

Afterwards, I was forced to borrow some pen and paper to write notes as I listened. I annotated and wrote comments for a long time, but it all became increasingly more muddled.

Pausing his dinner, Ye Tan greeted me as I returned and asked: “Master, how was your inquiry?”

“Too hard to remember. I don’t want to look into it.” I answered honestly.

Ye Tan nodded: “That’s fine.”


When we went back to the guest room, Ye Tan rolled out the bedding and set up the bed, then went back out to feed the horses.

After I ended up in this half-crippled state, he has never been more than half a step away from me during the day, we also have only one guest room. I refuse to give up on my evil designs6 and am looking forward to having him help me open up the Modifier Tool, so we always sleep in the same bed every night. Just like every time, he put me down in the middle of the room, and I lay down like a salted fish with my limbs splayed open7 . I felt like it was inappropriate, so I arched towards the side to leave some space for Ye Tan.

I hadn’t finished changing position when someone pushed the door open and came inside. Their footsteps were unfamiliar. I had never seen this person before.

He moved forward into the room while practically shouting: “Who are you? What are you doing in my room?!”

Taking a few steps, he stomped in front of my bed, grabbed my by the wrists, and dragged me out.

Looking like a floppy bedsheet as the person held me up, I spoke in bewilderment: “This is my room?”

The man was a strong swordsman, he looked me up and down as he held me up and after a long time said, “Oh, my apologies, I have the wrong room.” He stuck me back in place and strode out of the room again.


My wrists were already swelling up from being held up for a moment just now. I was rubbing at the redness when someone knocked twice on the door, and didn’t even wait for me to answer before pushing the door open and coming inside.

It was that blue-robed scholar who, beaming with happiness, said: “You’re too late, you’ve certainly kept us waiting!!”

I was still at a loss, the scholar sat down on my bed with an easy-going attitude, he leaned close to me and said: “It’s me!! Your master didn’t tell you?”

I doubted: “Where did I get a Master from? And who are you?”

The scholar lowered his voice and whispered into my ear: “Why are you still pretending? Our Taihangjian and Qilian Stronghold brothers have all been waiting for you for a long time.”

I felt even more stupid: “What is Taihangjian again?”

The scholar’s sharp eyes flickered, he narrowed his eyes and pushed himself away: “I got the wrong room. Sorry to have bothered you.” He also went out.


The door creaked open once again.

“Ah!!!” I screamed.

Ye Tan nervously rushed in front of the bed: “What’s wrong?”

“.....I’m just, really excited.” I stammered out an explanation.

He let out a long breath, and didn’t blame me for being frightened. Seeing the bruises on my wrists, he hurriedly asked: “How did you get this? Does it hurt?”

Ye Tan immediately went back to fetch a basin of hot water, and spread out a hot towel on the injury. As the sharp pain finally lessened a bit, I spoke: “Just now while you were gone a lot of people walked into the wrong room. Maybe this room has bad Fengshui.”

Ye Tan raised his head and asked: “Master, do you want to change rooms?”

“You don’t understand.” I shook my head, “I meant, any room where Ye Tan is not by my side has bad Fengshui.”


Just as I finished speaking, another person knocked against the door and came in. He was wearing a white brocade and spoke in a panicked voice: “Things aren’t good!! Quickly go report to the Second Young Master, they’ve captured Young Master Qin!!”

I looked at him indifferently: “Do you also have the wrong room?”

The brocade man was puzzled: “What do you mean by ‘also’....”

Ye Tan was rather impatient: “Get out.”

He struggled again: “Everyone here is from Zhongli Court, make things easy....”

Ye Tan glared at him, and the brocade man immediately shut up, then dejectedly left the room and closed the door behind him. His exit lines were not the same as the others, he said: “I’ll come back another time.”


I said bitterly: “It seems like this room doesn’t care whether Ye Tan is here or not, the Fengshui is bad either way.”

Ye Tan: “......”


I slept soundly until the middle of the night, when someone tiptoed into the room, carrying a small fire stick8 , with a white piece of paper stuck to his chest that read: “Don’t cut me down, I’m on your side.”

Just by seeing this, I really wanted to cut him down.

“Are you in the wrong room again?” I haven’t had a moment’s rest since I got here.

“....I see, no one knows where you two come from, so it provoked suspicion, and presumably others came by to test you. During the day there were a lot of people mixed together, so I couldn’t say much.” He approached, and only then was I able to recognise him as that young man with the white brocade. He anxiously lowered his voice and said, “Young Master Jun, you seriously don’t remember? That day at the Ye Residence in Changluo, when you healed Brother Ye, I was helping carry the medicine box beside Mr. Wedding Clothes.”

“Is this true?” Ye Tan and I looked at each other, but neither of us remembered. At that time I was too eager to save people, and didn’t take others into consideration. I really wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings.

“Yes yes, you two only had eyes for each other, so naturally you don’t remember a minor character such as myself.” Brocade man seemed hurt.

“Name, origin, and what you’re doing here.” Ye Tan dryly asked.

He was overjoyed when he saw that we could have a conversation, and hurriedly said: “This humble one is Yun Jiangli, I’m in charge of the Second Young Master’s cloth business, so I often move all over the place. Today at the city gate I saw they had captured the Small Young Master, you two surely saw it too. But I request Brother Ye’s help, for the sake of the Seventh Young Master Qin Kezou, please lend me your ability to save him.”

When Yun Jiangli mentioned this name, Ye Tan’s expression became unclear. He frowned, but instead of directly refusing, he raised his eyebrows expectantly and looked at me.

Yun Jiangli spoke again: “I have already sent a messenger pigeon to Zhongli Court, but... Helan Terrace’s martial arts competition is about to begin, so after these two days the guards will be more on alert and it will only be more difficult to save him.”

“Why do you want to save him?” I was curious.

Yun Jiangli looked at me blankly: “If I don’t save him, then wouldn’t he just end up in the Yellow Springs9 ?”

That makes sense.

I tugged at Ye Tan’s sleeve: “A-Tan, what do you think?”

Ye Tan respectfully answered: “I will do as Master commands.”

He still seemed to have an indifferent attitude, so I said: “Then let’s give it a try, if it’s easy we’ll save him, but if it’s troublesome we’ll just forget about it.”

The corner of Yun Jianli’s mouth twitched: “......Many thanks.”

Of course it’s better to go back and save him. After all, I want to see how this new plot line goes.


Since we’re about to commit a crime on someone else’s territory, we can’t stay at Helan Terrace any longer. Ye Tan took me out of the city first. A horse cart was concealed under the shade of a tree, with tea, snacks and valuables already prepared.

“You’re very well prepared.” I said with satisfaction, flipping over a stack of storybooks on the carriage.

“Nonsense! I’ve been working on a plan to help Xiao Qin for many days.” Yun Jiangli took a picture book away from my hands and put it back where it was, “These are all his treasured objects, you can’t touch them.”

Surely this Xiao Qin and Ye Tan have a few things in common.

Ye Tan stared at me and suddenly said: “That’s not right. If there is a trap, leaving Master here alone is not safe.”

I wondered: “What would you say the chances of you winning are if it seemed like somebody was really about to strike?”

Ye Tan said: “Reasonable.”

Satisfied with that, he and Yun Jiangli swiftly left side by side.


Recently, communication with Ye Tan has become more and more efficient.

I am very pleased.

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1 from 普天之下，莫非王土，率土之滨，莫非王臣 Meaning: All the land under heaven belongs to the king, all the people are the king's servants.Top.

2 Chinese: 天高皇帝遠 idiom that refers to a place that is far out of the reach of central government.Top.

3 天子 lit. heaven son. Refers to the rightful emperor.Top.

4 Chinese: 魚龍混雜 idiom that means the mixing of good, honest people with evil or bad people.Top.

5 from 山雨欲來風滿樓 lit. rain coming down the mountain, wind filling the buildings. Refers to the feeling of anticipation that a major event is about to occur. Like the English saying “there’s something in the wind”.Top.

6 賊心不死 lit. evil intentions don’t die / thief’s heart doesn’t die. Means to not give up on bad thoughts and keep pursuing them instead.Top.

7 text says like the ‘大’ character, which looks like a little person opening their arms and legs lol.Top.

8 火褶子 lit. fire pleat. It’s like a candle made out of coarse paper. Image.Top.
9 In Chinese folklore, the 黃泉 Huangquan or Yellow Springs refers to the Underworld.Top.