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After all, now wasn't the time to start pointing fingers at other people. Besides, Bai Rui had saved his life before so Cheng Nuo closed his mouth and rested on a stone.
Whenever he spent time with Liu Guang things were always noisy but Bai Rui barely spoke. Cheng Nuo tried to find some topic to talk about to forget the pain. However, Bai Rui rarely answered one in ten sentences, rendering Cheng Nuo speechless in the end. Bai Rui was still young now. If he grows up like this, will he become a robot in the future?
They rested for a while then the two continued walking. Cheng Nuo's stomach had begun to hurt and he also felt dizzy, either because of the pain or because of hungry. The leg injury seemed to be more serious. The pain was terrible but Cheng Nuo gritted his teeth and endured it, not wanting to lose out to a child.
He had eaten the drugged bowl of congee a long time ago, thus it was normal for him to feel hungry. Now that he thought of it, he was actually lucky that Chang Chun had used a sleeping drug instead of poison. As he struggled to climb the mountain road, he looked around carefully and finally found a jujube tree.
He hurriedly yelled at Bai Rui and limped over to the jujube tree which was covered in small thorns. It was quite difficult to pick the fruit. He spent some time on it then threw a jujube in his mouth. It was sour and sweet but each fruit only had a little edible flesh. He estimated that he would have to eat a few pounds to fill his stomach.
Bai Rui was not there to help him. Cheng Nuo asked him to come over and gave him a sour jujube. "Eat first and pad your stomach."
Bai Rui paused then reached for it after a lot of time had passed. He usually wouldn't eat this troublesome thing at all.
Cheng Nuo picked another fruit and saw that Bai Rui only looked down at the fruit but didn't eat it. He suddenly laughed. Bai Rui's face still had a hint of baby fat. He was looking at the jujube in his hand with a look of disappointment in his eyes and, for once, he looked rather childish.
Bai Rui was unable to make heads or tails of it. He looked up and saw a brilliant smile, with two prominent tiger teeth.
Cheng Nuo smiled and said: "Eat."
After saying that, Cheng Nuo put one in his mouth and chewed on it a few times. He spat the pit of the fruit far away.
Bai Rui's beautiful eyes narrowed then put the jujube in his hand away. He took up his stick and went straight ahead. Cheng Nuo hurried to catch up to him. Speechless, he rolled his eyes. What a fussy child…
However, what Cheng Nuo didn't see was that Bai Rui still secretly left one in his hand, and put it in his mouth when he wasn't paying attention. Bai Rui chewed a few times, and once again confirmed that this fruit's edible part was too small to bother with.
The path was shorter than he expected. After walking for a while, in the afternoon they stopped and saw the familiar mountain of trash.
Cheng Nuo was exhausted. He leaned happily on the stick but his thoughts were heavy. Since he had come to this strange world, he hadn't become close to a lot of people. There was a feeling of being betrayed. Also, how should he deal with Chang Chun? This was a problem. Strictly speaking, this was called attempted murder!
He can't kill Chang Chun but beating him up was too light a punishment. Whenever he thought of Chang Chun's vicious tone and expression at the cliff edge, Cheng Nuo felt cold. This abnormal child wasn't the same one he had taught!
Cheng Nuo estimated that it will take Liu Guang two or three days to return. It might be better for them to find a safe place to recover from their injuries. Cheng Nuo believed that Liu Guang would be on his side but he wasn't sure about Cao Tuo and the others. These children had grown up with Chang Chun. Their feelings towards each other were much stronger than their bond to Cheng Nuo. Chang Chun will lie and pour the waters of oblivion on them.
(TN: 迷魂汤 - lit. waters of oblivion; mythological magic potion to bewitch people. In this case, just a metaphor saying Chang Chun might be able to talk/persuade the others to his side.)
He thought it over for a time. Recalling Chang Chun's vicious methods, Cheng Nuo hurriedly grabbed Bai Rui: "Wait, isn't it dangerous to meet Chang Chun now? Wait until it's dark before we go back."
After all the various misfortunes they had gone through, two people are now venting more than air, more dead than alive.
Bai Rui looked down at his short sword that was on his waist said softly: "No problem, he is not worthy of my sword."
"Huh?" Cheng Nuo couldn't process this. "What is not worth it?"
Bai Rui rarely explained: "Do you go to kick dead dogs on the roadside?'
He calmly continued to walk forward. If he had to be afraid of even the mole cricket and ants, then he should just completely abandon his martial arts.
(TN: 蝼蚁 - mole cricket and ants. Meaning "insignificant people with no power" and Chang Chun in particular.)
Cheng Nuo finally understood, but almost couldn't accept it - this child is too proud, right? Does this mean that Chang Chun is not worthy of his revenge? They almost lost their little lives, okay?
He silently said to Bai Rui's back: "Then you almost died foolishly, at the hands of an ant? Never look down on someone who is weaker than you!"
Argh! This person was proud to the extreme and became a kind and generous Holy Mother!
Gnashing his teeth, Cheng Nuo straightened himself up and walked back openly and honestly! He didn't believe that Chang Chun wouldn't have a guilty conscience when they came back alive!
Just before he walked out of the mountain of garbage, Cheng Nuo was stopped by a voice. Cao Tuo ran over and said, with surprise in his voice: "Cheng Nuo, where have you been? Brother Guang came back early this morning. When he saw that you weren't there, he and Chang Chun went out to look for you… What happened to you?!"
Cheng Nuo's bare upper body was all scratched and bruised. His skin was green, purple, and red all over. It looked extremely painful.
"Liu Guang is back?" Cheng Nuo was surprised and a little anxious.
Indeed, Chang Chun was probably pretending to know nothing to make Liu Guang suspect that Cheng Nuo had stolen the jade and was now making his escape.
He gritted his teeth: "Cao Tuo, go to Liu Guang, tell him that I'm back. Don't talk about my injuries. Remember, it's important for me to find Guang."
Cao Tuo was still easily convinced by his words so Cheng Nuo was willing to believe in him. Sure enough, Cao Tuo didn't ask why and simply ran off quickly.
Cheng Nuo breathed a sigh of relief, only to find that Bai Rui, that blasted child, had actually left without waiting for him. He ground his teeth and continued to move forward with his stick.
Before bypassing the woods in front of the mountain of trash, one can see the slums. Cheng Nuo covered his nose and tried to speed up his pace, but when he passed a corner he was shocked - Chang Chun was standing there coldly, holding a sharp knife in his hand!
"I didn't expect your life to be so hard to take." Chang Chun slowly walked over. Under his disorderly and fluffy bangs were two fierce and venomous eyes. "You shouldn't have come back."
After he threw those two people from the cliff he always felt restless. When Liu Guang and others went out to look for him, Chang Chun waited near the village. He found out that those two were still alive!
Cheng Nuo only had that stick in his hand. The white light reflected by the blade flashed in his eyes, and he subconsciously moved back two steps.
"Bai Rui?" Cheng Nuo tried to calm himself.
"That Bai boy?" Chang Chun sneered. "He saw me and walked away. Hmph, he's just putting on an act. I'll kill him sooner or later! But you, today you will die!"
He originally wanted to take care of the seriously injured Bai Rui, but somehow, his feet wouldn't move at all. After Bai Rui passed him by, Chang Chung discovered that he had broken out into a cold sweat. He hated the other person's arrogant gaze to the extreme. Anyway, he must kill Cheng Nuo today!
Cheng Nuo couldn't help but swear. He really "admired" Bai Rui! But there was no time to complain about it now because the sharp knife was moving towards him!
Cheng Nuo paled. He was quite some distance from both the village and the garbage dump. No one would hear them! All he could do was to hold the stick in his hand and wait for Chang Chun to pounce. He had to fight Chang Chun! Even if he died, he would drag him down to hell! Chang Chun doesn't have any fear of killing? He tried to cheer himself up.
"Stupid." A boy's familiar voice suddenly rang then Bai Rui slowly came out from behind a tree and frowned. "You're too slow."
His eyes went straight to Cheng Nuo as if Chang Chun were basically a nonexistent passerby in his eyes.
Cheng Nuo was both pleased and dumbfounded. Was Bai Rui unable to see the current situation? Cheng Nuo almost fell down on his knees! Although he thought that Bai Rui, who was seriously injured, only has about one percent of his normal combat power now, the fact that there were more people now was good.
Chang Chun's face changed color and the hand on the knife trembled slightly. After a moment's hesitation, he suddenly shouted and sprang towards Bai Rui. He thought that it would be better to kill Bai Rui first because Cheng Nuo was no different from a chicken or a rabbit in his eyes, but the chances of Bai Rui being injured was rare.
Even though Bai Rui was seriously injured, his movements were extremely fast. He didn't even draw his sword. The stick on his hand moved and its tip struck Chang Chun just below the ribs. Chang Chun felt that half of his bones were numb and his knife fell to the ground.
Bai Rui took two steps back from Chang Chun, the stick on top of him, and still didn't look at him. He said in a calm tone: "Go."
"…" How can he leave? Cheng Nuo didn't understand it all all. He saw Chang Chun jump backward. The scream was still in his throat and the stick in his hands was still in the air. His heart was beating fast like a motor.
Looks like Bai Rui really didn't intend to do anything. Cheng Nuo gritted his teeth and put down his stick. He's not so neurotic! Of course, he was injured right now so he wouldn't be foolish enough to try to get his vengeance by grappling with Chang Chun in hand-to-hand combat. If he tried to fight, those annoying wounds would undoubtedly tend to split open again.
He passed Chang Chun vigilantly, grinding his teeth and saying, "I'm not going to let you go!"
Chang Chun's face was already pale. His thoughts were a mess as he tried to think about how to handle Liu Guang. He knew how much Liu Guang trusted that outsider.
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Translator's Notes:
This is the jujube fruit. The plant has a lot of thorns. Photo credit: Frank C. Müller from Thank you for reading and please leave a comment if you can.I thought I liked Bai Rui more than Liu Guang but now that Liu Guang is absent from the story, I miss that stinky little brat! I guess I really like both of them.