Nie HuaiSang’s eyes brimmed red. He didn’t even make a sound. Jin GuangYao added, “It’s alright even if the things are gone. Next time I can find you more…”
Nie MingJue interrupted, his words like ice, “I’ll burn them each time he brings them back into this sect.”
Anger and hatred suddenly flashed across Nie HuaiSang’s face. He threw his saber onto the ground and yelled, “Then burn them!!!”
Jin GuangYao quickly stopped him, “HuaiSang! Your brother is still angry. Don’t…”
Nie HuaiSang roared at Nie MingJue, “Saber, saber, saber! Who the fuck wants to practice the damn thing?! So what if I want to be a good-for-nothing?! Whoever that wants to can be the sect leader! I can’t learn it means I can’t learn it and I don’t like it means I don’t like it! What’s the use of forcing me?!”
Chapter 50—Part Five
He kicked his saber off to the side and ran out of the field. Jin GuangYao shouted from behind him, “HuaiSang! HuaiSang!”
Just as he was about to chase over, Nie MingJue ordered in a cold voice, “Stop!”
Jin GuangYao stopped in his tracks and turned around. Holding in his anger, Nie MingJue glared at him, “You still dare come?”
Jin GuangYao answered in a low voice, “I came to acknowledge my mistake.”
Wei WuXian, What a face—it’s even thicker than mine.
Nie MingJue, “Have you ever acknowledged your mistakes?”
Just as Jin GuangYao was about to speak, the disciples who had gone to bring medicine came back, “Sect Leader, LianFang-Zun, Young Master has locked the door and won’t let anyone inside.”
Nie MingJue, “Let me see how long he can lock himself up for. How dare he defy me?!”
Jin GuangYao spoke to the disciple with a kind countenance, “Thank you. Give me the medicine. I’ll take it to him afterwards.”
He took the bottle of medicine. After everyone had left, Nie MingJue turned to him, “Just what are you here for?”
Jin GuangYao, “Brother, have you forgotten? Today is when I play the guqin for you.”
Nie MingJue gave him a straightforward answer, “There’s no room for discussion as to Xue Yang’s matter. You don’t need to flatter me. It’s not working at all.”
Jin GuangYao, “First, I’m not flattering you. Second, if it’s not working, Brother, then why would you care if I’m flattering you or not?”
Nie MingJue was silent.
Jin GuangYao, “Brother, these days you’ve been stricter and stricter towards HuaiSang. Is it the saber spirit…?”
After a pause, he continued, “Does HuaiSang still not know about the saber spirit?”
Nie MingJue, “Why would I tell him so soon?”
Jin GuangYao sighed, “HuaiSang is used to being spoiled, but he can’t be Qinghe’s idle Second Young Master for his whole life. One day he’ll realize that you’re doing this for him, Brother, just like how I realized that you’re doing this for me.”
Wei WuXian, Bravo, bravo. I wouldn’t be able to say such words even if given two lifetimes, but Jin GuangYao can adjust his tone so that it doesn’t sound strange at all. It even sounds a bit pleasing to the ears.
Nie MingJue, “If you really do understand, then come see me with Xue Yang’s head in your hand.”
Yet, Jin GuangYao replied almost instantly, “Yes.”
Nie MingJue looked toward him. Jin GuangYao stared back, then repeated, “Yes. Brother, if you give me one last chance, in two months’ time, I’ll come see you with Xue Yang’s head in my hand.”
Nie MingJue, “If you’re unable to do it?”
Jin GuangYao’s tone was firm, “If I’m unable to do it, Brother, you can do whatever you want to me.”
Wei WuXian was almost starting to respect Jin GuangYao.
Even though he was always scared of Nie MingJue, in the end, he could still use a myriad of verbal techniques to make Nie MingJue give him another chance. The same night, as though nothing had happened, Jin GuangYao began to play Sound of Clarity in the Unclean Realm again.
His oath was as solemn as could be. However, Nie MingJue wasn’t able to wait the two months.
One day, the QingheNie Sect was hosting a martial arts conference. As Nie MingJue passed one of the annexes, he suddenly heard the hushed voice of somebody, possibly Jin GuangYao. Yet, a second later, he heard another familiar voice.
Lan XiChen, “Since Brother chose to make the oath with you, it means that he has indeed approved of you.”
Jin GuangYao spoke with dejection, “But, Brother, didn’t you hear what he said in the oath? Every sentence meant something more. ‘Face a thousand accusing fingers, be torn from limb to limb’—this was clearly a warning for me. I… I’ve never heard of such an oath before.”
Lan XiChen replied in a gentle voice, “He said ‘if one were to think otherwise’. Do you think otherwise? If not, then why should you worry over it so much?”
Jin GuangYao, “I don’t, but Brother has already decided that I do, so what can I do?”
Lan XiChen, “He has always cherished your talent, hoping that you would choose the right path.”
Jin GuangYao, “It’s not that I don’t know what’s right and what’s wrong, but that sometimes I really can’t help. Nowadays, I have it bad no matter which side I’m on. I have to ensure that I’m on everyone’s good sides. I wouldn’t care if it were someone else, but have I mistreated our eldest brother in any way? Brother, you heard as well. What did he call me?”
Lan XiChen sighed, “His anger was simply too great for him to have thought before speaking. Brother’s temper cannot compare to how it was in the past. You must not provoke him again. These past few days, he has been deeply troubled by the saber spirit, and HuaiSang has argued with him again. They still have not made up yet, even today.”
Jin GuangYao was almost sobbing, “If he could say such a thing when he was angry, then just how does he think of me on a daily basis? Is it that because I couldn’t choose my background, because my mother couldn’t choose her fate, I’ll have to be humiliated by others throughout my whole life? If so, then how is Brother different from the people who look down on me? No matter what I do, in the end, just a sentence and I’m ‘the son of a prostitute’.”
Jin GuangYao was, at the moment, complaining to Lan XiChen, yet just last night he had been all soft and innocent as he talked with Nie MingJue, playing the guqin. Hearing how Jin GuangYao spoke ill of him behind his back, Nie MingJue burned with anger and kicked the door open. The raging flames within his head traveled throughout the entirety of his body. A thunder-like roar exploded in the air, “How dare you!”
Seeing him enter, Jin GuangYao immediately panicked and darted behind Lan XiChen. Standing between the two, Lan XiChen didn’t even have the chance to speak as Nie MingJue lunged with his unsheathed saber. Lan XiChen blocked the attack with his sword, shouting, “Run!”
Jin GuangYao dashed out the door. Nie MingJue shook Lan XiChen off, “Don’t get in my way!”
He chased outside as well. As he passed a long corridor, he suddenly saw Jin GuangYao stroll toward him. He slashed with his saber and blood splattered out within an instant. But Jin GuangYao had clearly been running for his life. How could he have been walking back with such leisure?