Chapter 205 - Change

Xu Yuan froze for a moment, then hurriedly grabbed hold of that great lump of ice. “Don’t rush.”

Ran Qingmo looked at him in confusion. Her eyes seemed to be asking, Wasn’t that what you meant just now? That I should go kill Bai Zhao?

Xu Yuan said nothing. He blinked.

Ran Qingmo blinked back in confusion.

Xu Yuan glanced at her seat.

Ran Qingmo obediently sat back down.

After that was settled, Xu Yuan turned his eyes back to Xu Xinyao. “I die, or he dies. Choose.”

A long while passed.

Xu Xinyao spoke with some difficulty. “Third Brother, this isn’t just a simple choice between two options. He has no reason to betray you at all, and besides, no one would believe him.”

Xu Yuan nodded and said quietly, “You’re right. With my current reputation, it’s not enough to make the whole world believe the words of some gang leader. But Xinyao, you seem to have forgotten one thing.”

“What?” Xu Xinyao asked.

Xu Yuan said, “Those friends from before have seen me. They know what kind of person I am now.”

Xu Xinyao’s pupils shrank slightly.

Xu Yuan continued, “Yellow Dragon Market is too close to both Sageridge and Myriad. The timing matches. The people involved match. Add this information on top of that, and do you really think they won’t give such a coincidence some thought? And once they do, do you think they won’t tell their elders?”

At this point, he smiled in a way that was hard to read. “Of course, you could also say that all the people you befriended are idiots and won’t think that far.”

Xu Xinyao fell silent.

Xu Yuan looked straight into her eyes. “Xinyao, I only just told you how Second Brother died. With something like this, even the possibility cannot be allowed to exist. Even if I agreed, Father would not. Because if it happened, I would be dead.”

He sighed and turned his gaze toward the sky beyond the pavilion. “If this were ten years from now, he could say whatever he liked. By then, I would be confident that my cultivation had surpassed the current Xu Changge. But not now. Right now, I’m too weak.”

Xu Chang’an had not become a second Xu Yinhe, because he was dead. In this world, cultivation could not decide everything. But without cultivation, there were many things you simply could not do at all.

When he finished speaking, Xu Xinyao stayed quiet for a long time.

Xu Yuan waited for a while. Seeing that she still gave no answer, he decided not to keep persuading her. He withdrew his gaze, picked up his chopsticks, and said in a low voice, “Forget it. Let’s eat first...”

“He dies.”

“What?” Xu Yuan froze for a moment, then looked at Xu Xinyao in disbelief.

Xu Xinyao’s hands were clenched tightly on her lap. She raised her eyes, and they were a little red. “He dies. I... I don’t want you to die.”

This time, it was Xu Yuan’s turn to fall silent. His expression grew rather strange. He sat there stunned for a long while. Then, all at once, his face broke into a smile. He raised a hand and wiped away the tear that was about to spill from the corner of Xu Xinyao’s eye.

“Don’t cry. I was only teasing you just now. I wasn’t lying to him earlier. I really do plan to speak to Father about his case. He’ll probably be placed under house arrest, but his life should be safe.”

Hearing this, Xu Xinyao’s expression shifted for a moment. Then she turned her face aside and bit her lip. “Third Brother, you only know how to bully me...”

Xu Yuan withdrew his hand, poured himself a cup of fragrant tea, then pointed at the other human-skin mask lying in the compartment of the box on the table. “Put it on. Don’t let anyone else see you, or I’m afraid someone else may have to die.”

“Mhm.” Xu Xinyao nodded quietly.

Once that was settled, Xu Yuan suddenly noticed that Ran Qingmo was still staring at him from the side. In a fine mood now, he leaned a little closer and asked with a soft laugh, “You’ve been staring at me this whole time. Does this mask look good?”

As the man’s presence drew near, Ran Qingmo instinctively straightened her back and leaned slightly away. She looked at him seriously for several breaths, then answered, “Mhm... not as good-looking as you were before.”

“Oh?” Xu Yuan gave a soft sound of surprise. After pondering for a moment, he asked in a grave voice, “That’s too vague. Help me describe exactly where I looked better before.”

Hearing that serious tone, Ran Qingmo’s eyes narrowed slightly. She stared at Xu Yuan with great focus, as though searching through her mind for the right adjectives.

Just then, Xu Xinyao rolled her eyes from the side and simply handed over a bronze mirror. “Stop making things hard for Sister Qingmo. Look for yourself.”

“Tsk.” Xu Yuan clicked his tongue and shot his little sister a glare. Still, he sat up straight and casually took the bronze mirror for a look.

A handsome, refined-looking young man appeared in the mirror. He raised a hand and touched his face. There was not the slightest sense of a foreign object there.

It was far more natural than the technology from his previous life, and it could even be taken off and put back on. Proper sci-fi nonsense.

After thinking for a moment, Xu Yuan smiled and raised his eyes toward Xu Xinyao.

By then, she had already put on her mask as well. Though she now wore the mask, the calm, gentle grace about her still could not be hidden.

Xu Yuan looked at her without speaking.

Xu Xinyao asked, a little puzzled, “Why are you staring at me?”

Xu Yuan slowly rose to his feet and replied, “The higher-ups of the Myriad Manifestations Sect have seen you before. This mask may be able to fool soul sense, but your manner is too similar.”

Xu Xinyao froze slightly. Looking at Xu Yuan as he came up to her, she asked in a low voice, “Then what should we do? Find someone to disguise me?”

Xu Yuan walked behind his sister and lifted a lock of her long hair where it fell over her shoulders. “Your face has already changed completely. What kind of disguise are you still thinking of? Changing your hairstyle will be enough.”

“Hairstyle?” Xu Xinyao froze.

“Give me a few hair ties,” Xu Yuan said with a smile.

Xu Xinyao’s eyes were full of doubt, but she still handed them over.

Xu Yuan thought back for a moment, then gathered up Xu Xinyao’s glossy black hair and began working with practiced ease.

For a while, the pavilion fell silent.

Ran Qingmo sat across from them, watching Xu Yuan tie Xu Xinyao’s hair with a faint, lingering gaze.

About a quarter of an hour later, Xu Xinyao stared without blinking at the rather unusual hairstyle reflected in the mirror. Then she turned her eyes through the mirror to look at Xu Yuan standing behind her. Her gaze grew a little strange.

“What kind of hairstyle is this...?”

“A hairstyle that changes your whole air.”

Xu Yuan smiled as he looked at the slightly cool and aloof Xu Xinyao in the mirror.

He had learned it in his previous life from a girlfriend who loved dressing herself up. A different hairstyle every day, and every time she would make a fuss until he helped her. After a while, he had learned whether he wanted to or not.

Xu Xinyao fell silent for a moment. Then the corner of her lips lifted, and her tone turned teasing. “It seems you did learn a few things over the years about pleasing girls.”

“If you don’t talk, no one will think you’re mute.” Xu Yuan gently tugged the high ponytail at the back of Xu Xinyao’s head and quietly instructed, “When we go to the Myriad Manifestations Sect, remember not to wear this outfit. Change into something sharper and cleaner. Something like Ran Qingmo’s would be good.”

After saying that, he placed the remaining hair ties on the stone table and turned away, paying no attention to his sworn younger sister’s pained little reaction.

Then, he met Ran Qingmo’s faint, lingering gaze.

They stared at each other for two seconds.

Xu Yuan asked with a perfectly calm expression,

“You want one too?”

Ran Qingmo glanced at Xu Xinyao’s hairstyle. After a brief silence, she shook her head. “No. A hairstyle like that would come apart the moment I moved too fast.”

“You could buy a few hair ornaments engraved with formation patterns. Or just have Xu Xinyao give you a couple. As long as they don’t take a direct hit from the front, it won’t come loose.” Xu Yuan suggested.

This iceberg of a woman always wore black, and even her hair was left to fall naturally over her shoulders. She had never bothered with dressing it up.

In the end, Ran Qingmo still shook her head. “Waste of time.”

“All right.” Seeing this, Xu Yuan stopped trying to persuade her. Instead, he sent Ran Qingmo a voice transmission. “With the hairstyle and clothes handled, the only thing left is her figure. Remember to tell Xinyao later to bind it down.”

Ran Qingmo looked puzzled.

Xu Yuan’s gaze slowly drifted downward, then stopped.

Ran Qingmo’s hand shot up at once and grabbed her ink-black sword.