Life Going Wild With Plug-ins

Chapter 33 - See this small loyal dog? Give me a compliment! Really go for it! [Shocked sound


“I’m ashamed.”

Someone in the room faintly let out a long sigh.

The owner of this voice was a firm older man, sitting to the West facing towards the East, looking at his position, one could see that he was one of the most respected guests. This person was not angry, and had his disciples in a row behind him, each one with impressively graceful bearings, and a maximum show of extravagance.

When he spoke, everyone in the surroundings held their breath and listened with respectful attention in extreme reverence.

“My Qiu Manor has been a prestigious family for a hundred years, and we consider ourselves to be orthodox sword forgers, but until today I didn’t know we were merely mediocre people, clinging on to appearances, almost forgetting the heart of the sword. The point raised today by the Young Master was like enlightenment, this old man would like to thank you here.”

The old man finished speaking, and the disciples behind him reverently knelt for a bit. Seeing Ye Tan receive this special praise, I also made a sound of admiration.

Ye Tan flatly returned the salute: “Teacher Qiu, your praise is mistaken.” And he turned around, got off the stage, and went back to his seat.

The old man from Qiu Manor praised him: “You aren’t moved by favour or humiliation, like the paragon of a great man.”

Sitting next to Qiu Manor was an unrestrained loutish fellow by himself, cold and cheerless, crookedly reclining on his chair. He clapped and with a loud laugh said: “Ha ha ha ha! Delightful! Old man Qiu, how many times have I told you the same, your stubborn nose refused to admit it, but today you’ve finally been forced to!”

His words were unreasonable, the old man from Qiu Manor faintly laughed: “The One Sword Tomb came to bury swords, why not test it out just now? Or did you also know that you would feel ashamed from displaying you inferior skills before an expert.”

When the man heard this, he kicked the table and jumped up, moving to strike. Yang Qingzhou again rushed to block him and pacify the situation, dragging him away with great difficulty.

The competition had turned into such a mess, and it had also hastily been finished, so the host took the guests to participate in the dinner feast.

Ye Tan had still not returned to his seat. Along the way, every guest he brushed past very respectfully cupped their hands in salute, intending to chat with him, so Ye Tan was obstructed the whole journey, and had just now returned to my side with great difficulty.

“You said.... to try to avoid breaking the sword, turns out this is what you meant.” Ye Tan looked pensive.

I smiled and nodded, saying: “I didn’t have time to tell you before you left, and you weren’t afraid of going up and getting beaten.”

“That is also this subordinate’s duty.” Ye Tan said.

I held up my chin as I looked at him: “So this is how you see me.”

“It’s not....” Ye Tan wanted to argue, but he thought about it and was speechless in the end.

“Aren’t you happy?” I asked.

Ye Tan frowned: “This subordinate is a shadow guard, I can only protect Master by hiding in the shadows, so I’m not at all used to this......”

“But I am happy.” I held Ye Tan’s hand, and raised my head to look at him, “I want to let the whole world know about you, understand you, respect you.... I like seeing you standing under the sun, and I want everyone to know how good of a person A-Tan is.”

Ye Tan blankly stared at me for a long time, his pitch black eyes suddenly flickered, and he closed his eyes and knelt down on one knee in front of me, lightly resting his forehead against my knee.

He looked even more docile like this, and I couldn’t help stroking his head like a cat.

Ye Tan knelt for a while, and mildly asked: “You.... why are you so good to this subordinate?”

I thought deeply about it for a moment, and replied in good conscience: “Not bad, huh....? It’s also not that good.”

Ye Tan raised his eyes to look at me, and his eyes shone: “......you are too gentle.”

“Yes, that’s not bad.” I objectively evaluated and said, “Isn’t this how you’re supposed to treat others?”

Ye Tan said in a quiet voice: “It is. Because you are gentle by nature, if you take any person..... doesn’t matter if it’s this subordinate or not, you will treat them all in this way, right?”

“I don’t know.” I sincerely answered.

He silently laughed, then the corners of his eyes and brows suddenly became tired.

“Are you tired?” I asked as I stroked the top of his head.

“Yes.” He spoke quietly.

I was a bit surprised, Ye Tan consistently liked to push himself, so if he says he’s tired, he surely is so tired he’s about to faint. We hurriedly left the dinner as I dragged Ye Tan back to get some rest.

He was indeed very tired, along the way he did not say a single word, and by the time I stuffed him inside the quilt and tucked him in, he had already closed his eyes.

I also kicked off my shoes and got in, dozing off to sleep leaning against his shoulder.

Sometime between being half-awake and half-asleep, I heard him talking to himself:

“......am I being too greedy?”


I don’t know how long we slept for when someone came to knock at the door. I was afraid the noise would wake Ye Tan up so I, still half-asleep, reached out and covered his ears with my hands, then slowly stuck out my head from the quilt and asked: “Who is it?”

Yang Qinzhou’s voice came form outside the door: “The auction is halfway through, is Young Master Jun not going to go see?”

I lowered my voice: “We’re sleeping, we’re not going.”

Yang Qingzhou said goodbye and left, I took back my hands and shrank back into Ye Tan’s arms, immediately going back to sleep.

“Master, this subordinate hasn’t......”

I seemed to have heard someone speaking? Whatever, it can wait until I’m awake again.


When I woke up early in the morning the space next to me was empty, and Ye Tan had disappeared again, so I rolled over to that side and closed my eyes for a while. There was an undefinable scent lingering in the place Ye Tan had stayed, it wasn’t like the temperature or like a smell, but I thought it just felt a little more comfortable than the place I was sleeping in.

I got up from the bed after I was satisfied with rolling around, and went out of the room with my hair like a chicken coop and my wrinkled night clothes. Unexpectedly, Yang Qingzhou was writing in the courtyard, where there was a thick pile of books waiting to be evaluated on a stone table. When he heard movement, he hurriedly got up to salute, but a moment later the smile froze on his face.

“Young Master Jun.... don’t you want to make yourself presentable before coming out....?” Yang Qingzhou politely suggested.

“I don’t want to.” I calmly said.

Without Ye Tan, I am a grade 9 cripple.

“It was my oversight, Young Master Jun please wait a moment.” Yang Qingzhou called for two maidservants, and they took me back to the room.

The two young ladies were cute and intelligent, they combed my hair and tied it with a headband, then picked out new clothes and dressed me swiftly and neatly, I asked how to tie the belt and they were all smiles as they taught me. At no point did they mock me for being disabled, and it felt like a breath of fresh spring air.

When I went out I happily patted Yang Qinzhou on the shoulder: “Your house is really thoroughly prepared, and the young ladies of your house are very considerate.”

“Young Master Jun offers too much praise, serving food and drink and waiting on everyday life is what these servants are supposed to do.” Yang Qingzhou smiled.

I understood: “You’re saying that food and drink and daily life is a maidservant’s responsibility.”

Yang Qingzhou returned the question: “That’s correct, otherwise?”

“Then, what are a guard’s responsibilities?” I asked.

“Protecting, fighting, murder and arson.” Yang Qingzhou joked.

I thoughtfully nodded my head.

It turns out A-Tan is doing things that are not his responsibility.

“Oh, that’s right, I received something for you.” Yang Qingzhou remembered the matter, put the brush back on the pen stand, and from underneath his chair he picked up two long boxes, one exquisite and the other simple and unadorned, and opened them up. There was a sword inside each of the boxes, one was inlaid with jewels and precious stones, with brilliant lights and overflowing colours, and the other was unsophisticated and plain, gloomy and unremarkable.

Yang Qingzhou said: “These are presents from Qiu Manor and One Sword Tomb, Young Master Jun, please pick one.”


This just now reminded me of last night’s missed auction, I would never have thought that today someone would unexpectedly deliver it to my door. I took out the swords and looked at them at a time, both were exceptionally good, top-quality swords, and were a hundred thousand times sharper than all the swords I’d seen these past two days, I begrudgingly said: “I can only choose one?”

Yang Qingzhou smiled bitterly: “Qiu Manor and One Sword Tomb, naturally cannot coexist and serve the same master.”

When I thought about Ye Tan, I didn’t have any hesitation, so I weighted that simple, unremarkable sword in my hand: “This one.”

Yang Qingzhou voiced his misgivings again and again: “You..... don’t want to seriously consider it again?”

“That sword is too flashy, it won’t match the clothes.” I said.

Yang Qingzhou let out a deep breath: “Young Master Jun, these words absolutely cannot be spoken where people from Qiu Manor might hear.”

“Okay.” I amicably took his hand and shook it, Yang Qingzhou had a complicated expression as he carried the other sword and left.


This was a six-sided Han sword1 , the entire body was pitch-black, tall and slender, the blade was a sharp and narrow pointed rectangle, the whole body lacked any unnecessary decorations, and it didn’t have a tassel, only the scabbard had a small pine cypress tree embroidered on it. Very skilfully crafted, with a hidden blade, it really suited Ye Tan, and the more I looked at it the more I liked it.

I kicked the sword and went around everywhere looking for Ye Tan, I turned over half the garden and was still unable to find him.

It was almost lunchtime, and I bumped into Yang Qingzhou again, I hurriedly tugged on his sleeve and asked: “Have you seen Ye Tan? I’ve been looking for him since the morning.”

Yang Qingzhou looked at me, dumbstruck, and pointed towards a tree: “Isn’t that him?”

I raised my head and adjusted my vision, then indeed saw Ye Tan, sitting cross-legged between the branches, holding his sword.

“A-Tan!” I hurriedly called for him to come down.

“He also has been following you from the rooftops since the morning. What are you two playing at.....” Yang Qingzhou awkwardly sighed, and slipped away holding a book.

“Turns out you were here, why didn’t you tell me anything.” I’ve been running around all morning, exhausting my strength, and can only support myself on the wall to catch my breath.

Ye Tan jumped down to the ground, and respectfully said: “As a Shadow Guard, this subordinate should naturally always be around Master, when Master calls, I’ll be there.”

So it’s like this, I nodded, and handed the sword to him: “A-Tan, One Sword Tomb gifts this to you. Do you like it?”

Ye Tan knelt on one knee and took the sword with both hands, responding: “I thank Master for this gift.”

“Then you didn’t like it.” I sighed.

“No. The sword..... is good.” Ye Tan said.

I didn’t know if it was my imagination, but I felt like the efficiency of communication with Ye Tan had once again dropped back down.

I leaned on the corridor until my breath finally evened out, wanting to beckon Ye Tan to come sit with me, but he declined.

“Master and servants have different social ranking, I’m afraid people might misunderstand.” He said.

I wondered: “Why should I care about other people? Come sit.”

“This subordinate might misunderstand.” Ye Tan said.

When I heard this, I couldn’t help but look at him. It was already late autumn, and most of the lotus flowers in the lake had withered, leaving only duckweed scattered about. Ye Tan quietly stood under the shadows of the veranda, his expression was elsewhere, and I also didn’t know where his thoughts were headed.

I didn’t understand.

Lately, Ye Tan has always been saying things that I don’t understand, what on earth am I missing?


“A-Tan, am I interfering with your training?” I asked.

“Why would Master ask such a thing?”

“Just today I heard that food and drinks and everyday life should be handled by maidservants, and A-Tan is a guard, so you originally shouldn’t have to take on these responsibilities. Up until now, A-Tan has been doing all these things outside of his duties, and I have taken it for granted.... I’m sorry.” I lightly apologised, rubbing against his side and holding his fingertips, “From now on I will learn as much as possible by myself, and I won’t disturb your training.”

Ye Tan stared blankly, and didn’t reply.

I again pulled on his sleeve: “I’m hungry.” Then stopped, and spoke again, “Can’t walk.”

Ye Tan crouched in front of me, indicating I should climb up.

I hesitated: “You’re a guard, you shouldn’t do these things.....”

Ye Tan only said: “Come up.”

“Oh.”

While I leaned on Ye Tan’s back I thought, this world is really troublesome, why can’t guards wash clothes or cook meals or warm beds, and would I be able to convince him with overtime pay?

 

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1 A type of sword whose blade has a squished hexagonal shape, picture. There are also four-sided and eight-sided swords with corresponding blade shapes.Top.