Spectating the Angsty Romance of the Master and Disciple from the Sect Next Door Chapter 34

Hunting was a skilled task. The difficulty lay in truly hitting lively wild pheasants that could even fly over people’s heads, how to protect one’s fiancée, and simultaneously maintaining a relaxed and easy posture to appear reliable and dashing.
Instead of being covered in pheasant feathers, disheveledly sneezing from the stench, and completely losing all image.
Although Li Jin’an had no experience interacting with a fiancée, she knew that being pecked by a wild pheasant and then whining and leaning on her fiancée for comfort was a bit unseemly.
But despite it being unseemly, she didn’t get up.
“An’an is already very capable, managing to hunt two wild pheasants at once. That’s enough for us to eat for a long time.” Xie Huaixue gently comforted her fiancée, who insisted on being the older sister.
Li Jin’an coughed, quickly detaching herself from Xie Huaixue’s warm embrace. Expressionlessly, she tried to keep a straight face. “Don’t call me An’an.”
That didn’t sound like a term of address between fiancées; it sounded like an elder calling a junior to ask her to pour a cup of water or fetch something. Not appropriate, not appropriate.
“Okay, I won’t—”
“Just call me Jin’an.” Calling me An’an always feels too flashy.
Li Jin’an couldn’t stand to see Xie Huaixue speak with lowered eyes; it especially made her feel like she was making unreasonable demands and bullying her. Was she really that overbearing of a person?
Moreover, she always felt that the phrase ‘don’t call her X’ had been said more than once. Did that happen before I lost my memory?
Xie Huaixue broke into a smile. “Okay.”
Li Jin’an felt this person was truly good at changing expressions.
They picked up some dry kindling, edible wild vegetables, and mushrooms, and Li Jin’an chopped down a bamboo pole with her sword. Only then did they end their hunt and return to the leaky and dilapidated temple.
Just as Li Jin’an was agonizingly considering whether to use her sword to make fire by rubbing sticks, Xie Huaixue took out a tinder from her satchel.
Li Jin’an’s attention immediately shifted. She began to rummage through the satchel. What if Xie Huaixue’s satchel contained a large amount of silver notes or jewelry? Wouldn’t they be rich!
A few clothes, documents and account books, a few sword tassels, a water flask.
“Is this our entire fortune?” Li Jin’an asked blankly.
Xie Huaixue honestly replied, “Yes.”
Li Jin’an fell into deeper thought. She knew she was a poor swordsman, but she wasn’t so poor that she couldn’t even support her fiancée!
Wait, these things are all Xie Huaixue’s, so Xie Huaixue is supporting her?
Li Jin’an suddenly realized this serious problem. While slaughtering and bleeding the chicken, she leaned closer to Xie Huaixue, who was washing mushrooms. “Can you afford to support me?”
“We can use the account books to exchange for money,” Xie Huaixue said. “Those are evidence of Grand Tutor Zhang and his cronies embezzling bribes and intercepting disaster relief funds. They will definitely sell for a good price; you won’t go hungry.”
“…”
Things are that difficult, huh! Also, am I some kind of glutton in Xie Huaixue’s eyes who’s always hungry?
Li Jin’an waved her hand, gritting her teeth as she said, “No need, no need. I can afford to support both of us.”
As she spoke, a sense of responsibility naturally arose within her.
This sense of responsibility made her actively urge Xie Huaixue to descend the mountain after eating the very unpalatable meal. She felt that even with her injuries, she could slaughter the pursuers, leaving no one behind.
No one can stop us from eating!
Having descended the mountain, Li Jin’an and Xie Huaixue did not enter the small village at its foot. They walked and rested, traveling for two days and two nights, finding an empty Daoist temple to stay in at night, until they finally arrived at the prefectural city.
They had trekked directly over several mountains to reach the other side, so the pursuers likely wouldn’t find them in a short time.
Li Jin’an found it curious. As a swordsman, her good stamina was normal, but how could Xie Huaixue, a young lady from a prominent family, have such good stamina? Even when asked if she was tired and wanted a piggyback ride, she refused.
“…”
At a tea stall outside the city, Li Jin’an, wearing Xie Huaixue’s clean clothes, used her good eloquence to chat idly with other customers, inquiring about the prefectural city’s situation. For instance, she asked if any people with foreign accents, fierce expressions, carrying swords, and clearly not good people had passed through.
A customer at the next table looked at her strangely. “Aren’t you one of them?”
Foreign accent, sword at her waist, clearly not a good person. Perfectly fits the description, practically describing myself.
Li Jin’an: …
Fine. That makes sense.
Xie Huaixue turned her head, letting out a short, soft chuckle, then lowered her head and took a sip of the not-so-tasty barley tea.
Although Li Jin’an had a ‘fierce’ expression, Xie Huaixue was born as white as snow, and with her sitting there, customer traffic soared. To keep them, the tea stall’s owners, a married couple, didn’t charge them and even gave them two bowls of barley tea and a plate of peanuts, hoping they would stay longer.
As she spoke, Li Jin’an realized that the examples she gave were too common for Huai’an City. The people who entered and exited the city most frequently were precisely this type of individual, jianghu martial artists, and they were also the ones who caused trouble daily.
However, Li Jin’an didn’t identify with the identity of a jianghu martial artist, which was why she hadn’t understood.
After each managed to drink a large bowl of barley tea and eat some peanuts, the two were about to enter the city. Li Jin’an wouldn’t let Xie Huaixue sell the account books, so Xie Huaixue planned to pawn the gold hairpin and bracelets on her person to exchange for some silver, so they could find a place to stay.
Li Jin’an felt it was more worthwhile for these ornaments to remain on Xie Huaixue; only then would they not be wasted.
Just as they were about to enter the city, Li Jin’an stopped Xie Huaixue and walked over to the bulletin board near the city gate. Her eyes immediately lit up as she flipped through one poster after another.
She turned her head to Xie Huaixue and said, “We’re going to make a fortune.”
Amidst the stunned gazes of others, she tore down all the bounty posters, not even letting go of those that offered only half a string of copper coins for clues.
Under the shocked gazes of the city gate guards, Li Jin’an excitedly led Xie Huaixue to find the first unlucky soul who would be struck by a bolt from the blue.
Li Jin’an only trusted herself and the sword in her hand, so she didn’t plan to settle Xie Huaixue elsewhere. The safest place was by her side; she didn’t feel at ease leaving Xie Huaixue with others.
To avoid dirtying Xie Huaixue’s clean clothes, Li Jin’an specifically changed into her bloodstained clothes, truly being extremely thrifty.
When the first bearded man she tracked down was flipped onto the ground with a single sword strike, Li Jin’an specifically took a strip of cloth and blindfolded Xie Huaixue.
Bloody scenes, my fiancée can’t see this.
Under the shocked and bewildered gazes of the yamen runners, Li Jin’an walked over with unhurried steps, one hand holding the beauty, the other carrying the unconscious bearded man. She threw the bearded man down and left a message.
“Wait, don’t rush to count the money yet.”
The citizens of Huai’an City truly had their eyes opened today. They saw a ragged, bloodstained woman in red leading a beautiful woman in white, massively apprehending wanted criminals. As long as she made a move, a wanted criminal would surely be caught; she never returned empty-handed.
She took down a total of twenty-six bounty posters, completing twelve of them. The remaining wanted criminals were either dead or not in Huai’an City, completely untraceable, so she had to give up on them for the time being.
However, the Huai’an City Prefectural Yamen didn’t mind this small issue at all. They promptly gave Li Jin’an all the bounty money, and because she was dressed so raggedly, they even pocketed a bit less, afraid that Li Jin’an would cause them trouble.
Li Jin’an was unaware of the hidden intricacies behind the scenes. She joyfully took Xie Huaixue to rent a small courtyard, with no one watching her or trying to swindle her.
“I told you, you didn’t need to sell your jewelry at all.”
Xie Huaixue didn’t reply, silently decocting medicine. On the way back, she had insisted on going to a medical hall, and this was the medicine prescribed after the doctor checked Li Jin’an’s pulse.
When Li Jin’an wasn’t looking, Xie Huaixue, with a cold expression, told the doctor to add more Coptis root. A little bitterness is also good, lest someone fail to learn their lesson.
The doctor understood and nodded, promising that the medicine would cure the illness while also giving a jolt of bitterness.
So, when Li Jin’an faced a pot of dark brown medicinal liquid, she pinched her nose and said muffledly, “You didn’t secretly put poison in it, did you?”
The problem is, if Xie Huaixue did put poison in it, I wouldn’t be able to tell.
Xie Huaixue glanced at her. “Drink.”
What an attitude! Li Jin’an, displeased, also said a single word: “Oh.”
Fine, I’ll drink it. Why are you so fierce?
Honestly, with that attitude, if it weren’t for the engagement, she dared to guarantee that Xie Huaixue would definitely be a lone wolf for life.
After pinching her nose and downing it in one gulp, she felt her spirit was about to leave her body. Before she could wonder what a ‘spirit’ was, a piece of malt candy appeared at her lips.
Li Jin’an lowered her brows and took the malt candy from Xie Huaixue’s hand with her mouth. Her warm lips touched icy fingertips, making her shiver from the cold. She kept her head down for a long time, daring not to look up at her, though she bit the candy with loud crunching sounds.
They had dinner at a restaurant. After a whole day of hard work without even a sip of hot water, she was so hungry her stomach was sticking to her back, so naturally, they had to eat well.
Xie Huaixue put food in her bowl, and she buried her head in eating, her ears filled with discussions about her grand feats of the day.
On their first day in Huai’an City, Xie Huaixue and she became famous.
One was beautiful enough; the other was beautiful enough but fierce and capable of fighting.
In the evening, as Xie Huaixue counted money under the oil lamp, Li Jin’an was still self-satisfied, lying on the small wooden table and looking up at her. “Do you want to buy any jewelry? How about a new hairpin with dangling ornaments? A hairpin? How about gold-inlaid jade earrings?”
She was lying down, but her tail was practically wagging up to the sky.
“Don’t you need to buy a new sword?”
Because it had been used too frequently today, her sword was already chipped and reeked of blood. If the yamen saw it, it would have to be taken as evidence.
“No need. With how I use it, even the best sword wouldn’t withstand the abuse.” Li Jin’an’s heart fluttered for a moment, but she still refused.
Mainly, she always felt she should have a best-in-class destined sword, and she couldn’t care less about other iron swords. It was better to just make do with this one and save money to buy Xie Huaixue jewelry.
At this moment, Li Jin’an felt she was quite profound and reserved, and very responsible.
“Then I won’t buy anything either.”
Li Jin’an continued to lie there, watching her.
“If the pursuers discover us here, we’ll have to change places. We can’t stay in Huai’an City indefinitely; we need to save some money for emergencies.”
Doctor’s fees, medicine costs, courtyard rent, daily expenses… All in all, it wasn’t yet time for them to spend freely.
Li Jin’an looked thoughtful.
Xie Huaixue clearly understood her very well, predicting her thoughts in advance. “Don’t act strong, and don’t go alone to deal with the pursuers and the mastermind.”
“Oh.” Li Jin’an looked away and responded unhappily.
Behind Xie Huaixue’s back, her phoenix eyes shifted with a cunning, playful glint.
‘Oh’ meant ‘oh,’ simply indicating she knew about it. Whether she agreed or not was another matter entirely.
Li Jin’an felt that Xie Huaixue was still too trusting of her, so she decided to make Xie Huaixue a little worried.
They quickly settled down in Huai’an City. Xie Huaixue was even introduced to a job by a neighboring old woman, teaching young children literacy and arithmetic. Everything was thriving, immersing them in the simple and warm daily life, no longer trying to recall the incongruities in her memories.
After recovering from her injuries, Li Jin’an rented a horse, left a note, and without saying goodbye to Xie Huaixue, led the horse out of the city.
Before leaving, Li Jin’an asked the neighboring old woman to take good care of Xie Huaixue. She also asked the yamen runners she knew to patrol their alley more often, as the local ruffians had been suppressed by her, leaving none. She didn’t forget to instruct the restaurant’s waiter to deliver two meat and two vegetable dishes every evening.
This last arrangement was because Xie Huaixue taught children literacy and only returned home in the evening, so she wouldn’t have to cook or wash dishes.
Her arrangements for clothing, food, housing, and transportation were meticulously clear, without a single flaw.
Li Jin’an, who usually acted more than she thought, diligently pondered how to protect Xie Huaixue during her absence.
At the same time, the documents and account books from the satchel also disappeared.
Nine days later, Li Jin’an returned leisurely on horseback.