To Save a Life Only at the Cost of Another Life. Why is the World Being so Unfair?
Su Yang dreamed of something strange and preposterous.
It was the scene from the wasteland where he was searching for the sword sage’s tomb.
But it was different from what he experienced. In this dream, he wasn’t searching for the tomb, but making this trip especially for Gu Feidi.
Soon, he found his target and fought with him. Then, he restrained Gu Feidi by pushing the younger man against a boulder and kissed him through his scarf mask. His hands were even removing the other man’s clothes.
But he was immediately interrupted by the Tengyun Pavilion’s guards as Gu Feidi took the opportunity to escape.
After that, he had been attempting to get around the guards. For this reason, he fought with Gu Feidi and his party all the way to the cliff above the river.
Then, the E’Luo Gui Faction inserted themselves into the scuffle among several sects.
As the Young Master of the Evil Sect, Su Yang was naturally everyone’s main target. Gu Feidi led his party of righteous fighters to corner him step by step, as the lone man retreated closer and closer to the edge of the cliff.
Then, someone turned traitor behind Gu Feidi, just as Su Yang had experienced. The backstabber raised his weapon and unleashed a powerful slash toward Gu Feidi...
Same as before, Su Yang moved to intercept the attack, but what he didn’t expect was a sharp pain at the side of his abdomen at the same time he blocked the blow. He turned toward his attacker, Gu Feidi.
At this point, he was fuming with rage.
This anger came out of nowhere and with nothing to vent toward. Running on adrenaline, he parried the sword dyed with his blood away, locked Gu Feidi the best he could in his arms, and put his thin sword inches from the other man’s neck. With a glare toward the righteous crowd, he forced them away.
At that very moment, an arrow came from a distance. He had no choice but to dodge to the side with Gu Feidi from the deadly arrow aimed at their lives.
As a result, they fell off the cliff and into the water together. The surrounding icy river surged as it immediately shattered Su Yang’s consciousness.
After that, he floated and sank into the biting cold, which suffocated him in despair.
He wanted to struggle, but he felt that his limbs were bound by a tight rope, making moving them impossible. The fear of drowning made him want to cry for help, but no matter how he tried, no sound came out of his mouth.
He seemed to hear countless voices ringing in his ears:
“Shixiong, shixiong! Please wake up!”
“...Chen Suyang, the Evil Sect’s Young Master, is a very vicious person. You need to make your expression more…”
“Shixiong, wake up!”
“...Cut! Adjust Xiao Chen’s wire…”
“Don’t die, Su…Please…”
“...Congratulations on making it to the end! And Happy Birthday—”
“Shixiong—”
Su Yang suddenly opened his eyes, blinded by the room’s brightness. He frowned and closed his eyes.
After a while, he raised his hand to press on his twitching stomach. He asked in a hoarse voice, “How long have I slept? Why do I feel so hungry…”
Gu Feidi released a deep breath. He sat down by the bed and whispered, “You have been sleeping since yesterday afternoon.”
Su Yang squinted his eyes, trying to adapt to the light. Once he slowly opened his eyes fully, he glanced at Gu Feidi to ask his next question. “What time is it? Er, what’s the time periodIn ancient times, instead of using the twenty-four hours clock, they used the twelve, two-hour period. What pains me is both of them are pretty much ‘what time is it’.?”
Gu Feidi answered, “...It’s early afternoon.”
“Early…” Su Yang supported his body upward. But he was hit by a dizzy spell and felt it sap his strength. “I slept for that long?”
“Senior Luo said to let you rest.” Gu Feidi grabbed Su Yang’s hand. “Were you having a nightmare again…?”
Startled by the question, Su Yang recalled his dream upon the prompt and a smile appeared on his face.
“I won’t consider it a nightmare.” He raised his eyebrows and looked Gu Feidi straight in the eyes. “I dreamed of forcing a kiss upon you.”
The concern and sadness on Gu Feidi’s face was frozen for a moment, and a layer of helplessness replaced them.
He got up and picked the warm soup from the heated pot in the room and handed it to Su Yang. “Drink your medicine first. I’ll check when lunch can be delivered.”
Su Yang accepted the bowl and drank it like a good boy. His eyes followed Gu Feidi out the door.
Once he was finished, he moved his weak arms around for a while. He picked up the empty bowl from his lap, lifted the quilt, got out of the bed and planned to put the bowl on the table.
Unexpectedly, before he could stand up, his legs suddenly softened, and he almost fell to the ground. Using the edge of the bed as support, he shook his legs, thinking this weakness resulted from poor blood circulation from his long sleep.
After moving his limbs a little, he went to the table and put the bowl down. Grabbing his clothes from the rack, he put them on, strolled to the door, and looked at the hot springs, seeing the lush green trees and the snow-covered roofs not far away.
Gu Feidi returned to the courtyard with lunch boxes. Seeing Su Yang standing by the door, he immediately came forward and pulled the man back. “Don’t stand out in the open, let’s go back to the room. Are you hungry? I brought our meals.”
Su Yang huffed, “I’m not made of some fragile glass…”
But in the end, Gu Feidi dragged him back into the house.
After the two cleaned their plates, Gu Feidi left with the empty lunch boxes. Once he was back, he saw Su Yang sitting behind his desk, holding and inspecting the line art he drew yesterday.
Su Yang admired the drawing on the paper, with its obviously meticulous style, thinking how Gu Feidi was really the original author’s favourite, having numerous masterful skills at his disposal. The drawing was nothing but strokes of a variety of thickness, but able to outline his facial features so closely.
“I feel like,” He looked up and smiled cheerfully at Gu Feidi. “You are really being held back by martial arts. Otherwise, you might have become the top artist of this generation. Your handwriting is very pleasing to the eyes, and not to mention your drawing…”
Gu Feidi shook his head. “My drawing can only capture less than twenty, no, ten percentFun fact, in Chinese, the percentage is backward. So instead of writing one over two (½), the number two is before one (二分之一). of your charm.”
Su Yang grinned. “You are being too modest.”
Gu Feidi denied, “Not really being modest.”
“Your every movement, every frown, every smile…Your happiness, your anger…” He stared into Su Yang’s eyes, as he listed out all the other man’s qualities slowly. “Your voice, the pitches in it, every lyric you sing, songs you hummed, and the way you dance…I can’t draw any of these.”
Hearing such deep words, a faint grievance slowly clawed out from within Su Yang’s heart.
He knew that Gu Feidi was actually trying to grab for something, in front of time that won’t stop for anyone. He knew that the other man used this last opportunity to leave some beautiful moments, something that could be remembered and cherished in the future.
Plus there was no such thing as photography or video in this ancient world’s background, even in the modern era of advanced technology, it was still impossible to preserve the warmth and touch of loved ones.
Therefore, to be separated from a loved one was one of the seven hardshipsSo, er, according to Baidu wiki, there are actually eight hardships. Separated with loved ones is one of them. See translator’s notes at the end to see all the hardships and their rough translations. of life. It held true for both the old era and the modern time.
For him, once he left the world, even if he could wake up to his own reality, he could not take even a portrait of Gu Feidi.
Suddenly, Su Yang remembered something. He turned to find his bag and shuffled out a folded paper the size of a palm. Unfolding the page, it was Gu Feidi’s altered lyrics he wrote.
Su Yang looked up at Gu Feidi and asked with a smile, “Let’s sing together, sing the song you created. How about it?”
Gu Feidi smiled gently. “Alright.”
Su Yang murmured, “I know a lot of lyrics. How about…you change all the lyrics for me?”
Gu Feidi sat down beside Su Yang and nodded. “All depends on you.”
They sat on the couch beside the table and sang a few songs. Su Yang requested for Gu Feidi to perform with his sword, which he naturally accepted. He took out Cherished Heart and practised his skill in the courtyard. While Su Yang suppressed the strong drowsiness with all his willpower, wrapped in a quilt and lay on the window ledge to enjoy the performance.
After Gu Feidi went through both of his swordsmanship techniques, Su Yang waved at the window to get the other to come and said with a smile, “Remember the things we talked about a few days ago? On how you want to create a set of techniques that synchronised my Drunkard’s Plum Wine Slash? How far along are you?”
“I haven’t started studying it yet.” Gu Feidi shared. “When you get better, we…can practice together, and create the technique together.”
Su Yang nodded with an enthusiastic smile. “Sure.”
Back in the room, Su Yang dragged Gu Feidi to chat. However, Su Yang couldn’t resist the urge to rest his eyes and quickly ended up falling asleep on the younger man’s shoulder.
Right now, the sky wasn’t even dark. The sun was slanted slightly to the west, staining the sky with a dark grey tone.
Gu Feidi carried Su Yang to the bed, covered and tenderly tucked the sleeping man in the quilt, and left the room.
When Gu Feidi arrived at Luo Yu’s courtyard, he knocked lightly on the door. “Junior Gu Feidi has something to ask of senior Luo.”
Not long after, the distant sound of the door opening could be heard and a disciple appeared. The student guided Gu Feidi to his teacher’s study.
Luo Yu was studying a medical manual. When Gu Feidi entered the room, he asked without looking up, “What is it?”
“Senior,” Gu Feidi murmured, “Su…he…”
After a pause, he asked, “What can I do to save him? As long as he can recover, I’m willing to do…anything.”
Luo Yu put down the scroll and finally glanced at Gu Feidi.
After a long silence, he insisted, “There’s nothing else for you to do but to stay with him during these days.”
Gu Feidi was shocked. “These days?”
Luo Yu reminded, “You saw the curse on his back. That’s the Faction’s Blood Curse. Because of the extremely demanding conditions, there has never been a failed promise.”
After a moment of silence, Gu Feidi whispered, “Isn’t the biggest threat he is facing now the Apparition and the Half-Withered Crimson? If we can solve that, the curse…might not come true.”
Hearing Gu Feidi’s question, Luo Yu raised an eyebrow. His gaze hovered on Gu Feidi’s face for a moment, making sure that the other really knew something and was not making a bluff. In the end, he sighed.
“You knew.” He uttered. “Did you hear it from Su Yang or was it your own deduction?”
“Although it was my guess, he didn’t refuse when I asked him.” Gu Feidi lowered his eyes. “He made contact with those two things for me. As long as there is a way to save him, I’m willing to do it, no matter what it takes.”
Luo Yu stared at Gu Feidi for a long time, his eyes moved to the table as he picked up the manual. “Go back, I have nothing to share with you.”
“Senior…”
“Qin Jianyue, see him out.”
Qin Jianyue, who had been standing on the side with his arms crossed, sighed, went to Gu Feidi and patted him on the shoulder. “Return first. Su Yang is weak from the Gu removal process for the time being. But he will surely recover soon…You should spend more time with him.”
Gu Feidi’s eyes locked with Luo Yu, refusing to leave.
“His uncle really doesn't want to see him die at such a young age. He is already trying his best searching for a solution.” Qin Jianyue reassured the younger man. “Please leave, for the time being, I don’t want to use force on you.”
With no other choice, Gu Feidi finally turned to leave Luo Yu’s study.
After sending Gu Feidi out of the courtyard, Qin Jianyue returned to the study. Noticing the sky getting dark, he helped Luo Yu light a candle.
“A-Yu, you just told Gu Feidi you have nothing to share with him.” He chuckled. “Or, you already thought of a way to help your nephew to suppress the Apparition and the mental skill, but you don’t want to tell Gu Feidi?”
Luo Yu tossed the scroll in his hand on the table. The emotion on the doctor’s face was profound, and the tone he used was unkind, “So what if I thought of something? Su Yang saved Gu Feidi recklessly. Why should I let Gu Feidi risk his life for Su Yang? Do you think this is some sort of fun drama?”
“I knew it…” Qin Jianyue said. “The way to save Su Yang…has to be none other than dual cultivation?”
Luo Yu was silent for a moment and said in a low voice, “I only assumed that dual cultivationTeo: So, among the front page of me searching if I spelt dual cultivation correctly, I found ...That Su Yang is hot ヽ(✿ﾟ▽ﾟ)ノ Also remember, Author did warn there are Xuanhuan elements in this Wuxia world 🙂
might save Su Yang…But I’m not fully sure yet.”
“Moreover, the Apparition and the Half-Withered Crimson are both too dominating. If the person who is dual cultivating with Su Yang doesn't have an unworldly object or special mental skill to protect them, I’m afraid they will be the one getting hurt.”
He sighed and added, “Even if the person knows sun mental skill or has objects that are just as dominating…I can’t say for sure if dual cultivation could save Su Yang. If Su Yang couldn’t withstand the curse in the future—Gu Feidi, who practised such dominating intense mental skill, will be worn out by the skill. What’s waiting for him would be a bad ending.”
Finally, Luo Yu looked Qin Jianyue in the eyes and said with a bitter smile, “To save a life only at the cost of another life. Why is the world being so unfair? How can I push my old friend’s son to a road of no return with my own hands?”
Of course, it’s dual cultivation xDD
Thx for the ch (ㅅ˘ㅂ˘)