Love from the Male Protagonist's Harem

LFTMPH Chapter 60-You Can’t Afford to Pay What You Owe Part 2

Translated by Snowfall77

A slightly unnatural expression came over Chu Yao’s face.  Fortunately, night shadows helped obscure it: “……didn’t you lose consciousness at the Danfeng entry examination?”

The question only increased Xia Ge’s astonishment: “You went to watch Danfeng’s entry examination?  Aren’t you one of Jianfeng’s senior disciples?”

If Xia Ge correctly remembered the past Danfeng entry examinations that she’d failed at, there’d never been any Jianfeng spectators on the big field.

Had the sun started rising in the west?

Chu Yao: “……”

A moment later, Chu Yao grumpily spat out: “I wanted to go.  Do you have a problem with that?”

Xia Ge: “……no, no problem.”

If Chu Yao wanted to go, then Chu Yao wanted to go.  Xia Ge wasn’t trying to block anyone.  No need for Chu Yao to be so fierce about it.

“So, is your injury is healed?”  Chu Yao impatiently asked again in a brusque tone.

“Ummm.”  Xia Ge prevaricated, “It’s almost there……”

Chu Yao recalled the blood dripping down from the corner of that table.  She also recalled the way this little bastard had had her running around in circles.  Should she be angry or find it all amusing?  Snorting to herself, Chu Yao considered the boy’s words: “Just a couple days and it’s already almost there?”

“If it doesn’t hurt, doesn’t that mean it’s almost there?  Scratching her head, Xia Ge added sardonically: “You brought me here just to ask me that?”

“Of course not.”  Eyeing the runt in front of her, Chu Yao didn’t know why she felt so  irritable.  “Your name is Xia Wuyin?  Why did you tell me before that it was Xia Ge?”

Chu Yao’s eyes narrowed dangerously: “You were lying to me at that time?”

Exposing someone’s lie right on the spot……embarrassing.

Xia Ge’s smile was tinged with mockery: “I wasn’t lying……I gave you my nickname.”

……nickname?  Chu Yao considered.  Really, a nickname?

Tsk-tsk, far more likely that the little bastard was simply trying to deceive Chu Yao again.

“Nevermind.  Tell me why you came to Jianfeng.  And don’t tell me it was to blow off steam, cause I won’t buy it,” Chu Yao said, “Give me a reason that makes actual sense, and maybe I’ll let the matter of the council hall’s roof tiles go.”

Xia Ge thought it over.  Her visit to Jianfeng had nothing to do with the Lingxi ancestor’s tomb, so she might has well tell the truth: “I came to Jianfeng to see a senior brother, but he said harsh words to me.  That put me in a bad mood, so I went up to the rooftop to cool down.”

Wanting to be sincerely contrite, Xia Ge added: “I honestly never intended to wreck the roof of Jianfeng’s council hall.  I had no idea the tiles would do that.”

“Do you know how much money you made fall?”  Chu Yao’s big round eyes had now widened, “Those tiles had been enduring for centuries, they were part of the symbol of Jianfeng!”

Xia Ge was suitably distressed: “……right, how much money do I need to pay back?”

When she’d stomped on those tiles, it had been quite an invigorating moment……now she was destined for the debt-paying crematorium!

Looking Xia Ge up and down, Chu Yao saw a painfully thin figure that exuded poverty.  Best to be blunt.  “Tsk, you can’t afford to pay what you owe.”

Xia Ge: “……”  Just how much money had fallen off that roof?!

“We’ll drop it for now.”  Chu Yao didn’t know to explain her thoughts.  Deciding to change the subject, her lips curled up: “Stay and have a chat with me, and perhaps I’ll be generous enough to not make you pay back the huge amount you owe.”

Hadn’t Chu Yao just said a minute ago that if Xia Ge gave her a reasonable explanation, Chu Yao would let the matter go? Liar.

Xia Ge: “It’d be better if you just told me how much I owe……”

“Oh?”  Chu Yao casually held up 3 fingers, “About 3 million silver ingots.”

Xia Ge about choked to death: “……were those tiles made of gold?!”

Chu Yao: “What they were made of doesn’t matter, the important part is that they were the roof tiles of Jianfeng’s council hall.”

A pause, as Chu Yao’s smile grew bigger and more enigmatic: “It’s the pride of Jianfeng, and that means you’ve slapped Jianfeng’s face, Xia Wuyin.  Such an impressive talent.”

Xia Ge: “……”  That’s not……

Ack, she had no way to refute.

Raising an eyebrow, Chu Yao registered Xia Ge’s silently honest appearance: “Go on, tell me, who did you come here to visit?”

Xia Ge gloomily answered: “A senior brother.”

“The one come over from Danfeng?”  Chu Yao asked.

“Mmm.”

Chu Yao snickered, light brown eyes gleaming with chilly moonlight: “He’s going to have a very hard time.”

Xia Ge was startled by Chu Yao’s jeering tone……

“……you know it?  Why don’t you care about it?”  Clenching her hands, Xia Ge knew her questions were unwarranted and unwise.  Yet when she thought about Ye Ze’s bruised and battered face, his cold rejection of her gift, Xia Ge couldn’t stop herself from asking anyways.

“Why should I care?”  Chu Yao found Xia Ge’s query both ridiculous and amusing, “In this world, the strong bully the weak in many different ways, must I concern myself with them all?”

It took Xia Ge a very long time to get her next words out: “No one would expect you to solve the bullying that goes in the wider world……but you are one of the senior disciples of Jianfeng, shouldn’t you manage Jianfeng’s affairs at the very least?”

“You shouldn’t let those disciples……act like tyrants.”

“It’s easier to move mountains than to alter a person’s character.  A crow is never the whiter for washing itself,” Chu Yao laughed sarcastically, “Perhaps I could manage it once, but I can’t manage it 100 times.”

“In the end, people are bullied because they’re too weak.”

Fiddling with her hands, Xia Ge said not a word.

“I might rescue someone with no strength in their body,” Chu Yao’s voice was careless, “However, if your friend was capable enough to be recommended by Danfeng’s senior disciple to be a disciple of Jianfeng, that means he has the capacity to grow stronger, right?”

“When I arrived at Jianfeng, I immediately understood that if I wasn’t powerful enough, I would be bullied.”  Chu Yao continued, “I won’t reach out a hand to him.  He has to understand it for himself.  Now that he’s a Jianfeng disciple, the only one who can save him is him.”

“Your Jianfeng is a harsh place,” Xia Ge noted dully.

Regarding what Chu Yao had said, Xia Ge wanted to argue——

But yes, she did understand where Chu Yao was coming from……though that didn’t mean Xia Ge could accept it.

Xia Ge thought of Guilongyu resting on yellow silk in its box.

There were ways to solve the problem.

Raising an eyebrow again, Chu Yao asked: “What, you don’t agree?”

“No, no, no, you’re correct.”  Snapping back to attention, Xia Ge decided to change the subject: “I was just noticing……umm, your eyes are really pretty.”

Had Chu Yao just gotten jabbed in the ribs?  Her aura abruptly became so cold, that for a split-second Xia Ge thought ice-shards had to be falling from the sky.

Xia Ge eyed Chu Yao in bewilderment.  What’d happened to cause such a sudden change?

Chu Yao’s lips thinned, her light brown eyes frosty and stern as the silence stretched out, then she shook her sleeves with a snap and turned her back to Xia Ge, saying: “I’ll let you off.”

Xia Ge: “……?”

Letting her off just like that?  And why was Chu Yao acting so offended?  All Xia Ge had done was praise Chu Yao’s beautiful eyes.

“Eh……”  Chu Yao truly wasn’t going to make Xia Ge compensate for the council hall tiles?

Trees swayed gracefully in the mountain breezes, a full moon hung overhead, and far off was the sound of Jianfeng disciples running about in a clamor, trying to find a culprit.  Eyeing Chu Yao’s frigid back, Xia Ge pulled on a strand of hair, finally managing: “Well then……thank you.”

The soft ‘thank you’ drifting away on the wind.

Inwardly roiling with irritability, Chu Yao left the forest.  Out on the bluestone path, a hard-pressed disciple was approaching Chu Yao, and as soon as he saw her, he ecstatically exclaimed: “Sister Chu!  The council hall……”

Not feeling particularly tolerant at the moment, Chu Yao snapped: “I know, the tiles fell off the council hall roof, right?  The wind was too strong tonight and blew them down.”

Jianfeng disciple: “……those, wind…….”  Being that far away from the council hall……how could you have seen……

Chu Yao threw the disciple a harsh glance: “What?  Do you have a complaint?!  I’ve told you that it was the wind, and that means it was the wind!  Get back to your regular patrol!  All this fuss in the middle of the night and what for?!  Too noisy!”

Repeatedly nodding his head, the berated disciple parroted: “It the strong wind, it was the strong wind, yes, yes……”

Watching as the Jianfeng disciples who’d come to investigate the incident gradually returned to their respective posts.  Chu Yao snorted to herself, trying to ignore her inward agitation.

——Your eyes are really pretty.

Chu Yao sneered at both herself and that boy.

She knew it’d been nothing more than a casual remark from that runt, but Chu Yao couldn’t contain the unwanted flames burning away at her heart.

“Ah, hello elder sister.”

The sound of a girl’s voice rang out: “It’s the dead of night, and yet you’re out here getting angry over silly little trifles?”

Chu Yao cast a cold look at the speaker and the disciple behind her, then walked away.

The girl, dressed in a thin gown, and a small cloak embroidered with silver butterflies, followed Chu Yao on the mountain path, her pure-black round eyes alight with a smile: “Sister, I saw you with that boy.”

Chu Yao halted, her body slightly stiffening.

“Haha, I’m just teasing.”

Gracing the Jianfeng disciple whom Chu Yao had already told off earlier with a gentle smile, Chu Yi asked: “Hasn’t Sister Chu already told you it was the wind?  Why haven’t you stopped searching?”

“Yes, yes……”  The disciple wanted to cry bitter tears; he’d already stopped……

Speaking to the disciple, Chu Yao’s voice was ice-cold: “I told you to go back.  Don’t let me see you again tonight.”  The chastised disciple again departed.

“Elder sister, you’re not treating me right.”  Embroidered cloak gently flapping in the chill night air, Chu Yi sauntered past Chu Yao on the path: “Sister, I was simply passing by, although……it was quite rewarding.”

Chu Yao couldn’t be bothered to give Chu Yi any further attention. A small movement of the feet, and Chu Yao had disappeared like a ghost.

Making her way back towards the council hall, the runt’s aggrieved words kept echoing in Chu Yao’s ears.

——You shouldn’t let those disciples……act like tyrants.

When her feet landed on the branch of a fir tree, Chu Yao inexplicably stopped, her canines gleaming in the night.

tn-many thanks to ‘somebody’ for the ko-fi!

https://ko-fi.com/snowfall77