My Gentle and Pure Sect Leader Husband - Chapter 26.2

Yan Hongyin raised her hand gently, and the performers ran down the stairs as if granted amnesty.

A figure leapt through the window, followed by a gust of wind that slammed the street-facing window shut with a bang, cutting off the hidden gazes from the shadows outside—the night watchman, street cleaners, snoring clerks…all emerging from the darkness, standing in solemn readiness.

Yu Luocha sat across from Yan Hongyin. As the white mist released by inner strength dissipated, the face Yan Hongyin had grown accustomed to appeared.

The Gu butterfly that had landed on Yan Hongyin’s fingertip was pierced in half by a chopstick Yu Luocha flicked over, and it fell lightly onto Yan Hongyin’s lap.

With killing intent locked on her, Yan Hongyin’s body tensed slightly. Her finger slid along the rim of her cup. “Sect Leader Yu….can’t handle losing?”

Yu Luocha looked at the Jinyiwei sitting across from him, still with perfect posture and a straight back, and suddenly smiled, his killing intent dissipating.

“How could I not accept losing to my wife?” He smiled, flipping his wine cup and picking up the wine pot on the table, his tone intimate.

Only one chopstick remained in front of him on the table.

The next moment, Yu Luocha pressed his knee against the corner of the table, pulling and pushing to steadily move the table between them aside. He extended his toe to hook the leg of Yan Hongyin’s chair and pulled back forcefully.

Yan Hongyin wouldn’t let him have his way. She spread her legs to avoid Yu Luocha’s energy-infused calf, and similarly hooked her leg around the leg of his chair. As internal energy flowed, they brushed past each other, and in the blink of an eye, their seats had switched positions.

Yan Hongyin watched Yu Luocha fill his cup with wine, raising her arm with fingers slightly curved into a claw. She channeled internal energy into her palm, pulling the table back between them.

“This humble one has only met Sect Leader Yu three times; it’s more proper to talk with a table between us.”

During this pushing and pulling, the tea, snacks, and decorations on the table hadn’t moved at all.

“Wedded spouses who have shared a bed—Ah Yin, why be so heartless?” Yu Luocha sighed deeply, placing the wine pot back on the table. He rested his elbow on the table surface, sniffing the wine in his cup. “I merely wanted to ask Ah Yin where exactly you sprinkled that powder.”

“Wedded spouses?” Yan Hongyin was silent for a moment, seemingly recalling, or perhaps confused. “Has Sect Leader Yu mistaken me for someone else? This humble one’s marriage certificate doesn’t bear Sect Leader Yu’s name.”

Yu Luocha was taken aback for a moment, and then his voice became somewhat coldly detached.

“The Zhenfushi is correct.”

Then, changing the subject abruptly, he asked, “Zhenfushi, if common people have grievances to report, do the Jinyiwei handle them or not?”

Yan Hongyin remained unmoved. “Go downstairs, turn left, walk straight from the alley entrance, and there’s a grievance drum at the entrance of the yamen.”

“Oh…alright.” Yu Luocha raised his hand, his long finger lightly tapping his cheek, his tone filled with reproach. “Let me think… under the Great Ming law, what crime should I report for an imperial official flirting with and harassing a respectable man?”

Yan Hongyin was speechless, unsure whether to first question how Yu Luocha qualified as a “respectable man,” or when she had ever flirted with or harassed him.

Yu Luocha pressed on, insistently asking, “If we have no relationship, and I was never flirted with or harassed, how did the Zhenfushi sprinkle that powder on this Lord? This Lord changed clothes before coming here, so where did the Zhenfushi touch this Lord that would leave this fragrant powder lingering from dinner until now?”

“Was it the hair, or the arm, or the neck, or somewhere…under the clothes?”

His voice truly seemed to hook into Yan Hongyin’s ears, persistently boring into them.

Yan Hongyin couldn’t bear it anymore, her tone carrying a hint of outward harshness but inner weakness. “Yu Luocha, have you no shame?!”

“Hmm? Is the Zhenfushi….embarrassed to anger?” Yu Luocha let out a questioning sound from his nose, his tone rising and falling. Just moments ago, he had been a murderous fiend with killing intent, and now he seamlessly wore an innocent expression. “Central Plains people are just thin-skinned. We Western Region people don’t care about those…what are the words again? Propriety, righteousness, integrity, shame?”

Yan Hongyin: “…”

Taking a deep breath, Yan Hongyin silently recited to herself that this person couldn’t be killed yet, at least not in Lin’an Prefecture.

After closing her eyes to calm herself for quite a while, she opened them again and spoke coldly, “You lost. Where is the Tianyi Divine Water?”

“I lost?” Yu Luocha tilted his head. “When did the Zhenfushi catch this Lord?”

The man spread his arms and shook them, showing off his freedom of movement.

Yan Hongyin coldly smiled, kicking the table away, and striking as fast as lightning with a palm toward Yu Luocha’s chest.

Yu Luocha raised his hand to block Yan Hongyin’s wrist. In their exchange of moves, Yu Luocha’s body was half-pressed against the window.

Yan Hongyin raised her foot and directly kicked him out the window.

Yu Luocha floated down with the wind, landing lightly on the roof across the street. White mist once again concealed his form as he sighed. “Honestly, you need to fix this habit of kicking people.”

Before his words faded, Yu Luocha’s toe pushed off the tiles, flipping his body backward in midair, precisely avoiding an arrow that embedded itself in the tiles.

“Zhenfushi,” Yu Luocha knew when to stop and didn’t continue to provoke Yan Hongyin. His figure rapidly retreated backward, and his last words were transmitted into Yan Hongyin’s ear. “Remember to come home for your wager prize~”

The final sound curved with laughter, creating a feeling that made one’s hands itch.

Truly infuriating.

Yan Hongyin’s pride in her patience had repeatedly broken down in front of Yu Luocha. She stepped on the windowsill and flipped onto the eaves, with three arrows nocked on her bowstring.

Narrowing one eye, drawing the bow, Yan Hongyin infused internal energy into her fingers. The three arrows, carrying a whistling sound, cut through the night and shot rapidly toward the fleeing figure!

Yu Luocha naturally heard the whistling sound from behind. Running, he borrowed momentum from a stone wall to rise several feet, arching his back like a swallow piercing through clouds to avoid two arrows coming simultaneously from above and below. As he descended, his toe lightly touched down, and the third arrow brushed past his nose, its sharp and rapid edge breaking through Yu Luocha’s protective energy barrier, leaving a trail of blood on his face.

“Tsk, so fierce.”

Yu Luocha wiped the blood beading from his wound, clicked his tongue with a smile, and in a series of seven or eight leaps and bounds, instantly traveled dozens of yards away.

……

In the courtyard of a tavern in the north of the city

The manager of Fengsheng Pawnshop noticed the blood mark on Yu Luocha’s face when he turned around, and couldn’t help but catch his breath.

Yu Luocha raised his hand to stroke his cheek, his brows slightly furrowed, looking at his subordinate who was covered in cold sweat, and smiled faintly, “My wife is fierce. Excuse the embarrassment.”

“No, no, no…wouldn’t dare, this subordinate wouldn’t dare to presume about the Sect Leader…” The manager’s legs trembled, and he almost fainted. He suddenly realized something, and extreme fear made his whole body shake. “Sect Leader, have mercy… Sect Leader, spare this subordinate’s life…”

“Spare your life?” Yu Luocha repeated the manager’s words in confusion, stepping closer to him, his long finger pressing against the center of the manager’s forehead, forcing him to raise his head. His handsome face now looked like a death-bringing demon to the manager. “This Lord is not going to kill you, so what life sparing?”

But the manager couldn’t speak, his lips and entire chin trembling in fear.

Seeing that red mark, the manager finally realized that what he had seen several times was actually the Sect Leader’s true face.

…No living person had ever seen the Luocha’s true face…

After some time, the finger pressing against his forehead moved away. The manager fell to the ground as if all his strength had drained away, his eyelids twitching uncontrollably.

“In consideration of your meritorious service, return to the sect with your wife and children immediately.”

The manager’s eyes brightened with hope. He dragged his heavy body and prostrated deeply toward the departing figure, but his vocal cords, not yet recovered from the shock, could not utter a single word.

****

The complicated and busy night ended at the moment of sunrise.

The sun leapt out amid the red clouds, slowly rising, with dawn bringing along clouds, mist, and fine rain.

Yan Hongyin returned to Yan Hong Hall, meeting the nanny who had been waiting all night in the courtyard.

The nanny immediately recognized that Yan Hongyin was wearing the Jinyiwei’s flying fish uniform under her wide cloak, and was momentarily stunned.

They looked at each other, and the nanny didn’t ask any questions. She walked over and held her umbrella over Yan Hongyin’s head, softly asking, “Why did you come back in the rain?”

Yan Hongyin took the umbrella, shaking her head slightly. “It’s just a light rain, it’s nothing.”

“As long as you know what you’re doing. Yan Hong Hall has this nanny here. People sometimes need to be a little willful to feel good,” the nanny patted Yan Hongyin’s hand holding the umbrella, then turned and walked toward the house.

Yan Hongyin watched the nanny’s figure turn into the room, then walked through the courtyard corridors with her umbrella, again entering the bamboo path, stopping at the fence outside the yard.

She coldly looked at Yu Luocha who was sitting on a swing in the courtyard, swaying back and forth in the rain.

Yu Luocha had changed back into Ah Yu’s clothes, his long hair unbound, trailing over his shoulders.

Some useless medicinal flowers that Yan Hongyin had attached to the swing in her idle time were drooping due to the rain, and Yu Luocha held them between his fingers, gently stroking them with his fingertips.

Even though it was just a fine drizzle, having been in the rain for a while, Yu Luocha’s hair was also soaked through, sticking to his clothes and cheeks.

On his handsome face was a barely healed scar, the flesh still slightly open, giving him a shockingly beautiful, battle-damaged appearance.

“You’re back?”

Yan Hongyin held her umbrella, moved the fence aside, and slowly walked into the courtyard, eyes straight ahead as she stepped under the eaves, folding up the paper umbrella and leaning it against the doorframe.

The bowls and plates in the room had already been tidied up, and on the table were only teacups and teaware inverted on a tray, as well as a round, smooth porcelain bottle.

Yan Hongyin looked at the porcelain bottle, suddenly raising her hand, palm turning to shoot a flying dart toward the outside.

Yu Luocha somewhat helplessly raised his hand to catch the dart that was flying straight toward the swing rope, stepped down from the swing, placed the pitiful flowers on the wooden swing seat, and walked in.

Yan Hongyin untied her rain-soaked cloak and draped it over the chair back, reached out to turn the chair around and sat down, took the porcelain bottle containing the Tianyi Divine Water, and shook it lightly.

Yu Luocha raised his hand to brush the wet strands of hair from his forehead, revealing his originally deep and sharp eyebrows and eyes, diluting his rain-soaked forlorn appearance.

Gathering his long hair and wringing out the water, the man went to get a dry towel and sat on the bed to wipe himself, noticing Yan Hongyin’s action, he kindly reminded her, “Tianyi Divine Water can turn into mist when exposed to air. Inhaling it can cause poisoning. The toxicity is intense and can cause the victim’s body to fester, resulting in death after fifteen days of pain. There is no antidote.”

Yan Hongyin had only seen the once-famous Tianyi Divine Water in intelligence reports and records, but this was her first time actually encountering it. She moved her lips, saying, “You seem to know the details well.”

Yu Luocha replied casually, “Someone once tried to assassinate me with it.”

Yan Hongyin became interested, slightly narrowing her eyes, her cheek turning slightly, “And then?”

Yu Luocha let out a mysterious laugh, answering, “The best defense is a good offense.”

“So, you don’t have a way to deal with this either?” Yan Hongyin held the porcelain bottle between her fingers, lowering her eyes as if contemplating something.

“There’s indeed no method to counteract the poison, but that’s not why the Luocha Sect wants the Tianyi Divine Water.” Yu Luocha knew what Yan Hongyin wanted to ask, and when he was in a good mood, he wasn’t averse to answering, but how much he revealed depended on how good his mood was.

Yan Hongyin was also aware that Yu Luocha was tempting her.

However, with the world’s last remaining Tianyi Divine Water in her hands, knowing who had made a deal with the Luocha Sect wasn’t an urgent matter for her.

The sound of clothes rustling came from Yu Luocha’s direction, as if he was changing, but his voice didn’t pause, “Why did Ah Yin become a Jinyiwei?”

“Since childhood, it has always been so.” Considering the favor of the Tianyi Divine Water, Yan Hongyin didn’t mind answering some trivial questions.

Yu Luocha’s return here was, in Yan Hongyin’s view, both unexpected and expected.

Since last night, the Luocha Sect disciples who were openly in Lin’an Prefecture had begun retreating towards the outskirts of the city. The Fengsheng Pawnshop manager’s family had moved out without any concealment—this was the Luocha Sect’s outward concession to the imperial court.

Regardless of Yu Luocha’s reasons for choosing to yield, Yan Hongyin would not provoke a dispute at this time.

Yu Luocha changed his clothes and walked behind Yan Hongyin, placing a folding fan on the table and slowly pushing it into Yan Hongyin’s line of sight.

“That Jinyiwei…ah, called Ji Qing?” Yu Luocha pinched his chin in recollection, evaluating, “Good martial skills, quite clever too, just a bit slow in reaction.”

Yu Luocha had indeed shown restraint; Ji Qing wasn’t unconscious as Yan Hongyin had told Yu Luocha, but had awakened after sleeping for just over two hours at the medical hall.

It wasn’t difficult to uncover the cause of how he was ambushed.

Ji Qing had discovered the connection between the Fengsheng Pawnshop manager and the Luocha Sect, and then began to suspect the Yu Luocha beside Yan Hongyin. But when he confronted Yu Luocha, Yu Luocha was holding this fan that Yan Hongyin had personally given, representing the Jinyiwei’s protection, which made him lower his guard, allowing Yu Luocha to strike first.

The reason Yan Hongyin had given Yu Luocha this credential was initially because, with the turbulence in Lin’an Prefecture, she worried that someone might target Ah Yu because of her identity when she wasn’t around. She never expected it to become evidence for Yu Luocha to probe her identity.

The Jinyiwei lowered her chin, and the lines that should have been soft on her face appeared particularly cold under the flying fish uniform.

Yan Hongyin remained silent for a moment, closing her eyes to dismiss him. “Get out. Leave from here, and we’ll call it even.”

Outside, the fine drizzle continued unabated, with a faint mist pervading the bamboo grove.

Yu Luocha looked toward the courtyard, pointedly saying, “But it seems someone doesn’t want me to leave.”

Yan Hongyin had also opened her eyes by now, looking toward the rustling bamboo grove outside the courtyard. “How much trouble have you caused in the Central Plains?”

Yu Luocha pretended to think for a moment. “…That depends on what period Wife is asking about.”

Yan Hongyin was speechless, about to say something when her expression suddenly turned grave.

—Something’s wrong!

Uninvited guests silently emerged from the bamboo grove in the fine rain, landing outside the fence, inside the courtyard, on the eaves of the house…surrounding the small yard and blocking all escape routes.

Her hand gripped the hilt of her sword, and she enunciated word by word, “Jin-yi-wei.”

Jinyiwei who had bypassed her orders and come to her manor to arrest someone.

Yu Luocha didn’t show any nervousness at all, and even had the leisure to playfully contemplate and provoke Yan Hongyin. “It seems Wife doesn’t have very good relationships in the Jinyiwei.”

“Perhaps….consider abandoning the light for darkness?”

Yan Hongyin coldly replied, “First survive today, then we’ll talk.”

……

With bodies scattered at their feet, Yu Luocha hefted the Embroidered Spring Blade he had seized from these “Jinyiwei” hands, tossing it to Yan Hongyin, complaining, “This is worse than the waist tablet I forged before.”

Yan Hongyin split in half the “Embroidered Spring Blade” swinging at her face with one stroke, her face as somber as water.

Rainwater mixed with blood formed bloody puddles on the ground. Yan Hongyin’s hair strands clung to her cheeks, wet with rain and sweat.

There were two groups of people.

One group of assassins came to kill Yu Luocha, and another group disguised as Jinyiwei…came to test her.

Yu Luocha squatted by the pond, scooping water to wash the blood from his hands. “Does Ah Yin know… someone wants Ah Yin’s life?”

Yan Hongyin let out a cold laugh. “You?”

“Of course not.” Yu Luocha noticed a fat carp floating up in the pond and, unable to resist, gave it a tap, watching with satisfaction as the fat carp flipped belly-up. “Just today, the Luocha Sect received a bounty—someone offered three hundred thousand taels of gold to buy the life of the Lin’an Prefecture Jinyiwei Zhenfushi. By the way, as far as I know, this bounty has been sent to almost all forces in the jianghu.”

Three hundred thousand taels of gold was no small sum, yet it was used to buy the life of a mere Jinyiwei Zhenfushi… which seemed excessive.

But if it was someone who knew that Yan Hongyin was this Zhenfushi—three hundred thousand taels of gold to buy the life of the Jinyiwei Dark Division Commander would be fitting.

Yu Luocha held his hands with an expression of watching the fun. “Has Ah Yin guessed who this person is?”

“…Zhenfu Division Jinyiwei Commander, Lu Gang.” Yan Hongyin pronounced each word with difficulty.

“Mmhmm.” Yu Luocha stood up and turned to look at Yan Hongyin. “Ah Yin is indeed intelligent, a perfect match for me.”

Yan Hongyin’s answer was to fling a flying dart that grazed Yu Luocha’s cheek, cutting off a small lock of hair from the quickly dodging Yu Luocha.

Yu Luocha touched his hair, continuing as if nothing had happened, raising his eyebrows with a slight smile, asking Yan Hongyin, “Want to cooperate, Wife?”

Cooperate? What cooperation could she have with the Luocha Sect?

However, before Yan Hongyin could ask, Yu Luocha, who had just been standing there with a leisurely, confident demeanor, suddenly changed expression and collapsed with a thud.

Yan Hongyin: “…?”

Walking a few steps closer, Yan Hongyin looked down to see the stunned fat carp in the pond, belly-up, swaying.

She kicked the fallen Yu Luocha over, stepping on the Luocha Sect leader’s chest, slightly bending down and tilting her head to observe the battle-damaged beauty with a still-healing scar on his face, now a mess of blood and mud.

—I told you not to catch fish from the pond. This person’s hands are truly asking for trouble.