TDFM Chapter 115

Lingering Ghosts

The two wooden horses glided along the river channel for a while. There were fewer and fewer people on the ice surface. After a short time, Jiang Baiyu saw a group of people gathering ahead, so he slowed down and stopped.

It appeared to be a group of high-ranking officials and nobles, with quite a few knife-wielding guards around them. Those people had their backs to them, sitting on ornately decorated ice beds with food and wine laid out on tables. At the head of the ice beds, people were performing ice dances.

Yun Qing sat on her small wooden horse with a low line of sight, unable to see very clearly. She could only hear the sound of string and wind instruments playing, along with faint sounds of conversation and laughter.

Cheng Suiyan caught up and pushed Fu Xue’s wooden horse to ram into Yun Qing’s, laughing as he did so. “Are you still going to be arrogant?!”

Yun Qing and Fu Xue giggled and laughed together. Fu Xue suddenly said, “Senior Sister, I can smell the aroma of roasted meat.”

Yun Qing pointed to the high-ranking officials and nobles who were drinking and making merry on the ice not far away, saying, “Over there, there’s not only roasted meat but also dancing.”

“Oh, I’ve never seen ice dancing before!”

The two of them got down from their wooden horses and jumped up to watch the ice dance. If it weren’t for fear of being too conspicuous, Yun Qing would have directly risen into the air to watch.

Cheng Suiyan laughed. “If you want to watch, let’s go closer to see. We can also ask for a cup of hot wine while we’re at it.”

Yun Qing asked curiously, “Do you know those people?”

“I’m not sure who’s there, but even if I don’t know them, I can get acquainted with them.” Cheng Suiyan said as he walked.

After walking a few steps, they suddenly saw an ice bed being pulled toward them by seven or eight sturdy women, with more than ten guards following on both sides of the ice bed. These people all wore beast hide shoe covers for traction on their shoes.

The ice bed drew closer and closer. There were four people on it in total—three standing and one sitting.

When Cheng Suiyan saw the person who was sitting, he turned around and walked away. “Never mind, I don’t know them. If you want to watch ice dancing, I’ll find someone to dance for you tomorrow.”

Yun Qing was baffled—this change of expression was too sudden.

The person sitting on the ice bed saw them turning to leave and hurriedly called out loudly, “Brother Suiyan!”

It was a crisp female voice.

Yun Qing raised an eyebrow and turned to look.

The young woman had already stood up and was now standing at the front of the ice bed, with the other three women clustering around her. She waved at Cheng Suiyan while repeatedly calling “Brother Suiyan,” her tone quite excited.

Cheng Suiyan had no choice but to helplessly turn around to face her.

The young woman urged several times, and the ice bed picked up speed, quickly stopping in front of them.

Yun Qing looked carefully. This young woman was about sixteen or seventeen years old, with a graceful figure and delicate features. Her watery eyes sparkled as if they could speak sweet words.

Unfortunately, there were dark circles under her eyes. Although she had applied rouge and powder, they still couldn’t be concealed, and her complexion was also far too pale.

She wore a bright red dress embroidered with hundreds of butterflies among flowers, draped with a crimson cloak, and adorned with a gold-inlaid jade longevity lock, pearl earrings, and a golden phoenix-spreading-wings hair ornament.

In her black hair bun, she had pinned a large peony flower made of light pink and white silk gauze. Beside the peony flower was pinned a dragonfly made of gold wire, with red gems set in the dragonfly’s eyes—both noble and playful.

Cultivators were very sensitive to qi. At first glance, Yun Qing felt that this young woman seemed to have some imbalance of yin and yang, with excessive yin qi. Either there was something wrong with her body, or she had encountered something unpeaceful.

The young woman looked happily at Cheng Suiyan, the hair ornament on her head swaying slightly, the dragonfly’s wings trembling elegantly. “Brother Suiyan, it really is you! You’ve come back?!”

Cheng Suiyan nodded and said, “Yes. Princess, long time no see.”

Fu Xue whispered in Yun Qing’s ear, “She must be the legendary Princess Anping, right? She’s quite pretty.”

Not only were they observing Princess Anping, but Princess Anping was also observing them.

When Princess Anping saw that there were two beautiful women beside Cheng Suiyan, her expression became somewhat unpleasant. Then she suddenly raised her chin with a disdainful look, her voice changing from the earlier coquettishness to become authoritative. “Who are you people? Why don’t you kneel when you see this palace?”

Yun Qing casually crossed her arms and smiled. “We cultivators only have yin and yang, not noble and base.”

“How dare you! You even dare to contradict this princess! Someone, slap her face!”

Of the three women standing behind her, two stepped down from the ice bed. They also wore beast hide traction covers on their shoes and now walked steadily toward Yun Qing and Fu Xue with stern faces.

Fu Xue cursed. “Crazy.”

Cheng Suiyan extended his arm to block the two palace maids. He frowned at Princess Anping. “What are you going crazy for? Hurry up and apologize.”

Princess Anping looked down at Yun Qing from her high position and suddenly sneered coldly. “Brother Suiyan, the Imperial Preceptor said you’ve been deceived by two demonesses. Could it be them?”

Cheng Suiyan’s face darkened. “What nonsense are you talking about? Who are demonesses? I think that Imperial Preceptor is clearly the demon priest, always acting tyrannically and full of evil qi.”

“Brother Suiyan, the Imperial Preceptor is currently refining immortality pills for Father Emperor. You should be cautious with your words.”

Cheng Suiyan was already quite impatient. He cupped his hands and said, “I understand. Thank you for the Princess’s reminder. It’s windy here, please return. Farewell.”

With that, he turned and walked away.

The four of them had only taken two or three steps when Princess Anping suddenly shouted, “Someone! The demonesses are here! Quickly arrest them!”

The surrounding guards responded by drawing their swords. The ice surface filled with the clanging sound of blades being unsheathed—cold and murderous.

Cheng Suiyan’s expression immediately changed. He ran back onto the ice bed, covered Princess Anping’s mouth with one hand, dragged her to a corner of the ice bed, and pushed her into a chair.

Princess Anping didn’t resist, only looked at him with teary eyes. The others, seeing that the princess wasn’t struggling, didn’t stop him and silently pretended to be invisible.

At this moment, Cheng Suiyan had his back to Yun Qing and the others, and everyone was more than ten feet apart. He released his hand and lowered his voice. “They are my friends. Don’t go too far.”

Princess Anping blinked her eyes. “Brother Suiyan, your friends are very beautiful. Tell me, who is the most beautiful—me or them?”

Cheng Suiyan: “?”

Was this really the point?

Princess Anping didn’t get an answer and gnashed her teeth in hatred. Her fingertips, dyed with red nail polish, pointed at Yun Qing: “Do you like her?” Then she pointed at Fu Xue: “Or do you like her?”

Cheng Suiyan turned back to glance. Cultivators had good hearing, so even though he deliberately lowered his voice, his conversation with Princess Anping was still overheard by them.

Yun Qing and Fu Xue both had expressions of watching the excitement, while Baiyu’s expression looked a bit dangerous, as if he would go on a killing spree if Cheng Suiyan answered that he liked Yun Qing.

Princess Anping cried while beating his chest. “Tell me, tell me!!”

Cheng Suiyan grabbed her wrists to stop her from making a scene. He frowned and said:

“Of course I like them. They are both kind and righteous people. Having such friends makes me laugh even in my dreams. How could I not like them?”

“Good! You admit you like demonesses! You’ve been seduced by demonesses!”

“…” This was what they called talking at cross purposes. Cheng Suiyan said angrily, “You seem unable to understand emotions other than romantic love?”

“I want to kill her!” came the voice through gritted teeth.

Cheng Suiyan laughed coldly. “The fact that you can sit here in one piece is entirely thanks to their kind hearts. Hurry up and go home to find your father!”

He jumped down from the ice bed with a dark expression and kicked the bed frame hard. The ice bed whooshed away into the distance.

The group of sturdy women pulling the bed, the guards who had drawn their swords, and the two palace maids who had tried to slap faces but failed, all called out “Princess!” while hurriedly chasing after it.

Yun Qing watched the crying woman on the ice bed and was ultimately curious. She quickly formed a yin-yang incantation, opened her yin-yang eyes to look, and—good heavens.

Behind this princess crouched the soul of an old woman. No wonder there was some heavy yin qi about her.

The old woman appeared to have died recently, as her soul was still relatively bright. At this moment, she seemed to sense Yun Qing’s gaze and turned her face to grin at Yun Qing.

Most of her front teeth were missing, and when she smiled, her mouth was a black hole, looking very eerie.

“Senior Sister, what are you looking at?”

Yun Qing came back to her senses, dispelled the yin-yang incantation, and shook her head. “Nothing. Let’s go.”

On the way back, Jiang Baiyu and Cheng Suiyan had the honor of riding the wooden horses.

Both of them were tall and large in stature. Sitting on the small wooden horses, they looked like they were riding little sheep, which was quite amusing. Yun Qing found it delightfully funny. Jiang Baiyu reached back, found her wrist, and gave it a punitive pinch.

Yun Qing pushed Jiang Baiyu while Fu Xue pushed Cheng Suiyan. They slowly made their way back like this. After walking for a while, Yun Qing said, “Suiyan, you didn’t run away to escape an arranged marriage, did you?”

Cheng Suiyan’s face reddened with embarrassment.

Fu Xue was delighted. “Hey, when we first met, didn’t you say your family supported your cultivation? Well now, so you actually ran away from home to escape marriage? You young master sure can brag!”

Cheng Suiyan sighed. “Don’t mention it.”

Yun Qing pressed, “Tell us about it—how are your feelings toward that little princess?”

“How could they be anything? I’ve always regarded her like a younger sister. When I was small, my father was her father’s teacher. Sometimes when my father went to the palace to give lessons to her father, he would bring me along, so I often played with her.

Since I didn’t have any real siblings, I truly treated her like a real sister back then. Later, when we both grew up, she changed and I changed too. Gradually, we had nothing in common to talk about.”

Yun Qing nodded after listening. “It seems you still have some affection for her.”

“If there’s affection, it’s sibling affection. I can always treat her as a younger sister who doesn’t understand things, but as husband and wife? How could that be possible? Yet everyone else thinks we two are a match made in heaven. It’s completely baffling.”

Fu Xue clapped her hands and laughed. “I know who you’re a match made in heaven with.”

“Who?”

“Ci Li! I think you two are quite well-matched.”

Cheng Suiyan said gloomily, “To be honest, I’d rather have a male affair with Ci Li than be together with her.”

Ci Li, who had been slowly sliding on an ice bed to find them and happened to hear exactly this sentence: “???”

Ci Li: “You want to have what with whom?”

Cheng Suiyan was so embarrassed he wanted to dig an ice hole and crawl into it. “Misunderstanding, misunderstanding, misunderstanding!”

Ci Li: “I’d rather die.”

Ci Li: “No, why should I die? I’ll kill you first!”

Bang, crash, clang.

Fu Xue laughed cheerfully: “Oh my, Lord Mimi, show mercy!”

“What did you call me?”

Yun Qing laughed happily. “Lord Meow Meow, show mercy!”

“You all can go die!!”