Chapter 447: Between Siblings
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花吱 update:2022-08-17 13:54
Dao Xun didn't bother being polite and started instructing Baili Yiling on what to do. The two of them soon covered Jun Xin with the arcane ice armor.
After securing the last thread of the armor, Baili Yiling peeked at Dao Xun before asking discreetly, "Senior Dao Xun, has Big Brother decided on the people that will be bringing Jun Xin to the cold location?"
"I've talked to your big brother about it earlier. Since these needles must be reinserted every seven days, this old man has no choice but to make a personal trip. What is it? You also want to go?" Dao Xun glanced at Baili Yiling meaningfully.
Dao Xun's bluntness didn't make Baili Yiling uncomfortable. On the contrary, she felt like she didn't have to be as reserved when facing him as she did other seniors. After all, he was Baili Yu's master and also Jun Xin's master. That was why she wanted to get close to him but also didn't dare, so there was a feeling of distance.
However, after interacting with him this time, she felt much closer to him.
"Hehe, nothing can be concealed from Senior Dao Xun's eyes." So she thickened her skin and didn't consider her words as much before she spoke. Her true nature which contained the craftiness of a little fox was revealed.
When Dao Xun saw her like this, he nodded in satisfaction. He could tell from her gaze that her personality wasn't the way she acted in front of him, which was why he purposely changed how he interacted with her. As he had expected, her true personality had been revealed after he provoked her a little.
As expected his disciple’s younger sister. Their personalities were seriously too similar.
After successfully getting Baili Yiling to act naturally around him, Dao Xun returned to his usual aloof manner. After a moment of silence, he said, "It's fine if you want to go. That way I’ll have someone to help with changing Jun Xin's arcane ice armor."
"Alright!" Baili Yiling was happy enough to start jumping when she saw that Dao Xun agreed.
"However, your brother has to agree."
Big Brother had to agree?
But would he agree?
Baili Yiling pouted. "You're Big Brother's master. Big Brother will definitely listen to you."
"Then you've bet on the wrong idea," said Dao Xun with a laugh. "There are several thousand disciples studying under me and over a hundred core disciples. There are only eight full inheritance disciples. All of them listen to me with the exception of these two."
Baili Yiling had also heard of this. It was precisely because Baili Yu and Jun Xin hadn't listened to Dao Xun's advice that they ended up angering the master of Wind Cloud Island. The Wind Cloud Island master wanted them crippled, so they left Wind Cloud Island.
However, Dao Xun didn't seem to mind this matter much. He didn't try to get revenge for his disciples, nor did he help Wind Cloud Island stop them from leaving.
So this matter just faded with time.
But would Big Brother agree?
She felt that Big Brother didn't really like her being too good to Jun Xin. He seemed to mind the fact that she liked Jun Xin, but she couldn't understand why.
She was also aware that Jun Xin liked Sister-in-Law, but she didn't feel like there was anything wrong with this. Even though he liked Sister-in-Law, he still maintained an appropriate distance. He treated Sister-in-Law really well and didn't ask for anything in return. She knew how infatuated and selfless Jun Xin was, that’s why she wanted his heart even more, and she also had confidence that she could make Jun Xin fall in love with her!
But Big Brother's reaction was strange. Since he was Sister-in-Law's husband, shouldn't he be happy to have one less person pining for Sister-in-Law?
Could it be that he wasn't aware of Jun Xin's feelings towards Sister-in-Law…… That wasn't possible. There was no way that Big Brother could miss something that even she had been able to notice.
Haaa. He was seriously unreadable.
"What if Big Brother doesn't agree?" Baili Yiling had a premonition that Baili Yu wouldn't agree to her going. After all, she wasn't someone that needed to go and she couldn't help Jun Xin the way Senior Dao Xun could. Anyone could help Senior Dao Xun with changing the arcane ice armor.
Dao Xun laughed as he stroked his beard. "That will depend on your own abilities."
After leaving the room, Baili Yiling turned to gaze at the sky. How was she supposed to convince Big Brother?
She walked very slowly to the pavilion. When she got close, she glanced over, then hastily hid behind a tree with a strange expression. What were Big Brother and Sister-in-Law doing?
As she wondered this, she peeked towards the pavilion again.
However, the more she watched, the more her ears heated up and her face reddened…… So it was possible to eat grapes this way?
However, from the looks of things, she wouldn't be able to discuss anything with Big Brother right now.
Baili Yiling blinked and lowered the branch in front of her face so that the scene was blocked. She turned around and was just about to leave when she accidentally stepped on a roof tile. There was a distinct crack that was especially conspicuous in the silent surroundings.
Baili Yu, who was dressed in alluring red as always, was currently feeding Tang Doudou a sparkling translucent grape with his slender jade-like fingers. When he heard this sound, the grape changed directions and left his fingers to shoot towards where Baili Yiling had been hiding.
The speed was extremely fast. It reached Baili Yiling's back almost at the same time as the tile shattered. Fortunately, her senses were sharp and she immediately dodged the grape when she sensed danger.
Then she sighed in relief.
She looked towards where the grape had landed and saw that it had stabbed into a nearby tree trunk. A drop of fragrant juice was currently flowing down the bark.
Baili Yiling couldn't help but gulp. It was fortunate that she had dodged in time. If she had gotten hit, she would've suffered a severe injury or perhaps died.
When her thoughts reached this point, Baili Yiling hastily spoke to stop Baili Yu from attacking again. "Big Brother! It's me!"
However, she didn't get any response.
Just as she was getting confused, she heard Tang Doudou's surprised call from behind her. "Yiling, why are you here?"
Baili Yiling turned around and looked towards the pavilion and saw that it was already empty. When she looked to the side, she saw that Baili Yu was standing next to Tang Doudou with his usual faint smile as he looked at her.
"Did you scare her too much?" When Baili Yiling didn't say anything for a long time, Tang Doudou glanced towards Baili Yu worriedly.
How was she scared? She just didn't know what to say. After all, there was no way she could say that she had been spying on them eating grapes, right?
Ahem, based on Big Brother's expression, if she really said this, she would definitely be punished by the family rules even though she didn't know what the family rules were.
"Uh, it was Senior Dao Xun that had me come!" However, she reacted quickly and soon come up with a good excuse.
"Senior Dao Xun told me to ask Big Brother when they could set off. When I almost got near, I saw a very cute cat, so I wanted to play with it and ended up stepping on a tile. What's wrong, Sister-in-Law? Does that cat belong to you?"
She didn't have anything like a cat. She only had a monkey, but she still didn't know where it was.
Tang Doudou silently replied as she peeked at Baili Yu. This guy had just promised that no one would come and that was why she had agreed to…… Ahem. So the cat Baili Yiling was talking about definitely wasn't a cat. This girl had probably been secretly watching and was using this as an excuse since she got caught.
However, this excuse was pretty good. It resolved their awkwardness with one stroke.
Tang Doudou was just about to play along to get this over with when Baili Yu suddenly said, "In the future, you must watch in the open. Stop sneaking around, it’s not proper for a lady."
Although he said this with a smile, Tang Doudou could tell that he was serious. She was speechless. Baili Yu himself was always indecent and doing things as he pleased, but he was so strict towards his younger sister.
And she was also speechless about the fact that he had brought up the awkward matter when it was just about to pass. How the heck were they supposed to respond to this?
Watch in the open!?
Tang Doudou looked towards the sky speechlessly. He seriously had no shame.
Baili Yiling's expression was also awkward. She had no idea what to say.
Fortunately, Baili Yu didn't continue talking about this and switched to talking about what Baili Yiling had mentioned earlier. "Tell Master that he can set off at any time. However, the journey will take a while, so he has to prepare something to keep Jun Xin's body from rotting……"
"There's no need for Big Brother to worry about this. Senior Dao Xun already had me help put the arcane ice armor on Jun Xin earlier so his body won't be in danger of rotting."
"You helped put it on him?" Baili Yu's facial color darkened. If his memory was right, Jun Xin had nearly been completely naked.
Crap! She accidently let it slip due to her relief.
Baili Yiling's thoughts whirled and she quickly added on, "I was putting it on with Senior Dao Xun. When I went over, Senior Dao Xun was already putting it on. However, in his old age, it was difficult for him to find some of the smaller threads so he asked me to help with that."
Phew, it should be fine like this, right?
But she had evidently underestimated how strict Baili Yu was with her. His expression didn't relax in the slightest upon hearing this and he called a maid over. "Bring Eldest Miss back to her room and have her face the wall to reflect!"
Face the wall and reflect? How could she? She still needed to go with Jun Xin and Senior Dao Xun!
"Big Brother! I'm not going! I don't want to face the wall and reflect!"
"Can it be that you're not going to listen to me anymore?"
"Yiling doesn't dare to disobey Big Brother, but Big Brother should at least give me a reason! You can't tell me to face the wall and reflect without a reason! I don't understand what I did wrong." Since she really didn't want to be forced to reflect in her room, she gathered up her guts to argue.
Baili Yu started laughing when he saw Baili Yiling demand an explanation. "Are you really not aware of what you've done wrong, or just pretending?"
When Baili Yu laughed, Baili Yiling was inwardly crying in fear inside. However, since she had already chosen this path, she could only grit her teeth and go on. "I don't know. If you're saying that I was wrong in helping Jun Xin put on the arcane ice armor, then that's a great injustice!"
"Ha. Injustice?"
They all say that guts grew bigger from being scared. Right now, Baili Yiling was feeling that for herself. The more she spoke, the less afraid she was of Baili Yu being angry. She felt that since he was already angry, more would be no different. "Isn't it so? Is it wrong to do things out of good intentions?"
Baili Yu's eyes turned cold like a blade as he looked towards Baili Yiling. "Out of good intentions?"
"That's right! Wasn't it simply out of good intentions? I only helped because Senior Dao Xun was struggling with it! It was also for Jun Xin! If the arcane ice armor wasn't put on right and his body started rotting, even if we find a way to deal with the soul-devouring bug, it'd be useless!" Baili Yu's gaze was too scary, so Baili Yiling stopped looking at him and just looked towards an empty space while silently praying for herself. Lord, please let her succeed in muddling through!
As for the fact that she argued back at him, she'll apologize to him once she got back from sending Jun Xin over.
The atmosphere grew increasingly tense with these siblings’ exchange. Tang Doudou saw that Baili Yu's expression was becoming worse, but she didn't know how to interrupt their conversation. She was getting anxious over things and also slightly annoyed with Baili Yu's attitude. Why was he being so strict towards his younger sister for no reason?