Would You Like to Have A Drink - Chapter 9.1

In fact, after meeting Yu Beizhou at the gate of the city, Zong Luo was already mentally prepared that he wouldn’t be able to hide from the other party at the beginning of their two-way fight.

As was to be expected, they knew each other too well.

If Zong Luo had really died in battle and would never appear again, it was estimated that this lifelong confrontation would at the same time cease to exist.

But he not only appeared and came back, his momentum of seizing the Crown Prince position also intensified. When the people’s reverence for the Third Prince was thoroughly fermented, Qixing Longyuan just so happened to appear at the city gate.

There were so many coincidences in this that a single sentence was not enough to explain them all.

Although Zong Luo was incompatible with Yu Beizhou, he was also well aware of his temperament. If the same thing had happened to Yu Beizhou, Zong Luo would also be the first one to have doubts.

However, the most important thing was that when Yu Beizhou made his move, he was full of killing intent. If he didn’t want to be killed on the spot, it was impossible for Zong Luo not to respond. However, once he did, he would not be able to hide the fact that he did not have amnesia. Even logically, in front of Yu Beizhou, the excuse of being blind also became precarious.

The last time, it was at the city gate. Now, he saw Yu Beizhou again, uninvited in the side hall. Zong Luo, who always had a good temper, was a little more angry.

It was said that enemies would be very resentful when they met, and it would really be difficult to end without a fight.

As for the disguise of blindness, since he had been completely seen through, what was the need for it? Covering the eyes would only serve as a hindrance.

Like in tacit understanding, they attacked at the same time again.

In all fairness, both of them were the proud disciples of the Ghost Valley. Even if one used the sword and the other used a heavy dueling sword, their foundational kung fu skills had still been learned together. Even if one didn’t use a sword in fighting against the other person, the difference still wouldn’t be that great.

As soon as they got closer, Zong Luo seized the opportunity and waved the whip in his hand towards Yu Beizhou.

Seeing this, Yu Beizhou directly rushed in, abandoned his defense, and changed to offense. He endured being whipped in exchange for a firm hold on the white-robed prince’s wrist with his backhand.

Tear

The whip tail barb made a tear-like scratch on his dark red lapel embroidered with golden threads.

Yu Beizhou’s long and narrow phoenix eyes squinted, but his brows did not wrinkle at the blow that took almost 70% of his strength. The end of his eyes was as red as the last time when Zong Luo pointed the tip of his sword against his heart, emitting a magnetic killing intent towards him. In his eyes, something floated within the bottomless pitch black, as he felt more and more pleasant inside.

“Senior brother, we haven’t seen each other for a year. It’s just reminiscing about the past. There’s no need to be so cruel, right?”

Zong Luo asked back indifferently. “The attack you made two days ago at the city gate was a killer move. What the master taught, you actually used it to mutilate your fellow sect member?”

“Senior brother, don’t wrongly accuse me.”

Yu Beizhou lowered his eyebrows and eyes. His dark eyelashes cast shadows against his cheeks.

“The life and death of the Third Prince of the Great Yuan are uncertain, and there has been no news for a year. When one suddenly appears, as a fellow sect disciple, naturally the person must be tested properly. How can we allow others to impersonate him?”

This was not the first time he had heard Yu Beizhou refer to a deer as a horse, reversing black and white, and it would surely not be the last time.

Zong Luo sneered, “You at least pretended to act when you were young, but now you don’t pretend anymore. Why? Have you let go of your true nature now?”

Seeing Zong Luo’s straightforward recognition, Yu Beizhou’s face became more and more full of smiles, “Where? Isn’t Senior Brother the most clear about my nature?”

Indeed, if he were not clear about his nature, how could Zong Luo go to the Ghost Valley and leave without saying goodbye? This was also the point that had troubled Yu Beizhou the most over the years. Most importantly, Yu Beizhou still couldn’t figure out where he had been exposed.

As he mentioned the old past, his fingertips carefully rubbed the slender wrist beneath his hand, following the lines of the other’s palm all the way down, and dodged away in time before Zong Luo drew the next whip.

However, even just a short moment was enough to find clues.

“Senior brother, you are injured.”

The long fingertips of the general in red were stained with scarlet, and the sticky color was particularly shocking against his pale knuckles.

He raised his hand condescendingly, placed his fingertips gently near his lips, licked the warm blood with the tip of his tongue ambiguously, and rolled it into his mouth, looking just like the ghosts recorded in the books that feed on fresh human blood. It seemed like he was trying to endure something, and his eyes were covered with a magnificent red glow.

This action gave Zong Luo an inexplicable illusion. It was obviously extremely cruel, but it made him blush for no reason.

Zong Luo asked stiffly, “What’s the matter with you?”

The white-clothed prince had his ink-black hair in a high ponytail, his face was as clear as jade, and his eyes stared at him coldly.

In order to stop the attack, he had grabbed the barb of Zong Hongjiu’s horse whip with his bare hand, which seemed to be an understatement. In fact, he was accidentally stabbed by the barb from the whip and had no time to deal with it.

He had covered it up very well along the way, but it was unexpectedly seen through by Yu Beizhou.

Although they seemed to be standing casually now, in fact, both sides were in a very delicate state. As long as the other party moved slightly and showed even a trace of murderous intent, each could only defend against the other with their best posture.

In the end, it was Yu Beizhou who broke the silence first.

“Alas, I clearly care about senior brother, but senior brother is so indifferent, it really makes this junior brother feel cold.”

“But since the senior brother is injured, let’s just leave it for today. Anyway, the future days are still very long.”

The general in red turned over to the windowsill, and his expression became dull again, like a child who didn’t get candy.

“When I heard the news of what happened at Hangu Pass, I tossed and turned and couldn’t sleep every night, it’s really a pity.” Yu Beizhou’s voice was like a sigh as though he felt a little regret. “It’s fortunate that senior brother is not dead, otherwise, I would really hate that kind of trouble.”

He stared at the face that he thought about every day, and thought to himself, this is really a big surprise.

Zong Luo only looked at him calmly, and retorted, “From junior brother’s words, I will only live longer than you.”

Hearing this, Yu Beizhou’s throat was full of laughter. His jet black eyes looked down at him, and suddenly he fell back. A clean and fierce back somersault as he jumped out of the hall. Immediately, his figure disappeared.

Zong Luo frowned slightly in doubt and confirmed that Yu Beizhou had really already left. Then he picked up the white silk on the ground again, lowered his eyes and pondered in silence.

In the beginning, the misunderstanding between them had stemmed from Zong Luo’s unannounced farewell when he was seven years old.

It’s just that Yu Beizhou, although he took it step by step, still had smooth sailing in the end, just like what was written in ‘Would You Like to Have A Drink’. This ‘proud son of heaven’ was on the rise. No matter what he wanted to do, it was like he had God’s help, which made it possible for him to do whatever he wanted.

This made Zong Luo, who had been fighting against him from the very beginning, an eyesore.

Fierce-hearted and vicious. High-minded and arrogant.

Even their master in the Ghost Valley did not know Yu Beizhou as well as Zong Luo. This alone was enough for Yu Beizhou to want to kill him. Perhaps coupled with the accumulation of old grudges, the secret competition with each other, the many stumbling blocks, which was mixed with some unclear hatred.

However, the glance that Yu Beizhou threw at him just now was not without these things, but rather, it was obscure and complicated. From floating on the surface to sinking to the bottom of the deep pool, and even the killing intent changed from cold to unpredictable.

Zong Luo felt like he had missed something.

Two years into this life, one year of supposed death after being reborn, perhaps because of the time, he no longer remembered how Yu Beizhou’s eyes had looked at him in his previous life. He could only be sure that they were not as strange as they were now.

“Could it be because of the dream when nine stars linked like beads in the sky…?”

While guessing, he sank his hand into the basin and let the cold water wash over the wound, then hastily wrapped the torn white silk around it and took a spare piece to wrap around his face.

The day of Zong Luo’s rebirth happened to be the night when the great witch calculated the nine stars phenomenon. It was clearly night, but the sky was as bright as day.

The sun, moon and stars all existed in the same sky. All the people felt inexplicably sleepy, unable to lift their spirits all day long, and just wanted to fall asleep.

That day had also existed before his rebirth, but it was not like this life. The world fell into a dream. At the same time as the world dreamed, Zong Luo also ushered in his own restart.

Everyone thought that in that dream, the Third Prince led troops to support Hangu Pass, and died when he was besieged on all sides. In fact, only Zong Luo himself knew that what they dreamed was actually the scene of him committing suicide using Zhanlu in despair when he received an imperial edict from Emperor Yuan ordering him to commit suicide after he returned to the Great Yuan alone and helpless.

Perhaps it was in this dream that Yu Beizhou saw something. After all, the appearances of Qixing Longyuan and Zhanlu were very different. As long as one had seen these two swords with their own eyes, they would never mistake them.

Zong Luo looked at the calm water and felt that a storm was coming.

When Zong Luo returned to the Baijia Banquet again, he found that there were three or four layers of scholars around Gu Ziyuan. Looking at it from a distance, he seemed to be arguing with another student.

No wonder he hadn’t noticed that Zong Luo had been gone for such a long time—it turned out that something had happened.

Literati normally contended in the most elegant way. Even if they argued until their faces were flushed red, they could still sit on their knees in front of you with a posture that was not necessarily crooked. It was rare to see them directly stand up and argue.

When Zong Luo saw that there were several princes standing there, he immediately stopped to watch the excitement. He immediately wiped the hem of his robe, sat quietly on the futon, grabbed a tea ball made of tea buds, put in some oranges, green onions and ginger, and slowly ground them with a stone mill. An attendant drew water from the winding river of the water pavilion, knelt down in front of the charcoal stove with a palm fan, and when he saw that the water was boiling, he immediately brought it over and poured the boiling water in.

The popular tea drinking procedure in Great Yuan was to take a bamboo tube or roasting pot, put the tea leaves in it, and put it over the fire and stir continuously. After frying until the edges of the tea leaves turned slightly yellow and emitted a burnt aroma, they would add boiling water for drinking, and it was done. The method of cooking tea porridge was now popular in other countries.