Spring Trees and Sunset Clouds

Though Nan Ge Er didn’t have any interest in a place like Guang Tian, under such prolonged exposure, he conservatively estimated that at least half of the people in this county weren’t ordinary civilians at all. Some even had strength, agility and other extraordinary physical capabilities that couldn’t be compared to that of an average person. Anyway, Guang Tian was indeed a place full of hidden talents. Somehow, many intrepid fellows gathered in this small remote county, each of them busy with their daily business.

It would definitely seem impossible in the eyes of the past Nan Ge Er, but he lived together with them now, so what qualifications did he have to deem it strange? Actually, he himself couldn’t be considered ordinary either; hence he didn’t find it bad at all. Everyone’s background might not be simple, but so what? At least they are living a normal life here now.

The afternoon of his first day of staying in the government office, Mo Shu couldn’t tolerate it anymore, so he brought others out to stroll around for an hour before carrying a huge white-long-furred animal back – of course, dinner would be roasted meat again. During the roast, Nan Ge Er personally witnessed the gallant ways of those martial artists again. He calmly ignored it nonetheless…

As Nan Ge Er was curing the unfinished meat and organs into preserved dishes for the new year, yet again, he got showered with the women’s praises. Truthfully, Nan Ge Er felt that he had currently turned into a role model for the housewives. Thus, he felt depressed…

Also, he realized that the power that everyone revealed occasionally wasn’t accidental at all, they just didn’t plan on hiding anything … Are they confident that I won’t snitch on them? Alright, even if that is the truth, don’t you think that it’s too condescending? Nan Ge Er felt depressed again.

In the morning of the third day, that Xia Jia Fu rushed in, yelling as he ran, “Xiansheng Xiansheng, I’ve picked a person up.”

Nan Ge Er who was coincidentally watering the vegetable garden, sweatdropped. Does this fellow go around picking people up when he had nothing to do?

“Where are they? Where are they?” Mo Shu, who was captured by Zhu Xi to approve documents in the hall, came hopping out.

“At the river shore!” Xia Jia Fu exclaimed.

…Does Guang Tian’s river possess some kind of magnet, that could continuously attract people to get stranded?

“What an emergency, I must investigate it myself,” Mo Shu announced pretentiously.

“Daren~~” Zhu Xi who was still inside stretched out his tone as he walked out, “My dear old man, you are going to flee just when I went to the toilet, hmm?” He took a look at Xia Jia Fu, “Xiao Xia¹, what’s wrong? You picked up another person again?”

The “again”! It’s seriously…Nan Ge Er had no words.

“Yup, Zhu Xi Ge, let me bring you guys there.” Like a puppy, Xia Jia Fu looked at them with glimmering eyes.

Nan Ge Er silently took the bucket and walked back to the kitchen. He didn’t really want to get involved with these fellows’ meaningless conversation.

“Xiao Nan.” The situation was perfect for Nan e Er when he didn’t move, but as soon as he did, Zhu Xi immediately noticed him.

“Ah?” Nan Ge Er looked back in dismay. Whether he was willing to listen or not, Zhu Xi still continued on.

“Do you like to eat fish?”

“Hah?” Nan Ge Er looked at Zhu Xi, baffled.

“We can catch fish along the way!” Mo Shu immediately continued, “Nan Ge Er is too skinny.”

“… You don’t have to go specifically for me…”

“We still have to investigate.” Mo Shu made a righteous pose.

“That’s our xiansheng.” Xia Jia Fu made an idolizing pose.

Nan Ge Er pretended that those two idiots were invisible.

Zhu Xi twitched his mouth, waved his hands, “Two hours; hurry back.”

The moment they got permission, they swiftly vanished, afraid to lose a single second of break.

Nan Ge Er looked at Zhu Xi with sympathy, “Xiansheng, it must have been tough for you.”

Zhu Xi stroked Nan Ge Er’s head as he mused, “Xiao Nan, Mo Shu is great at everything, knowledgeable and clever, but he’s just a bit unreliable.”

Nan Ge Er nodded as well; he wholly understood it from experience. Mo Shu wasn’t only ‘a bit unreliable’, Nan Ge Er suspected he had absolutely no idea what the heck reliable meant.

Two hours later, Mo Shu stepped into the government office. Xia Jia Fu, who was following behind humbly, carried a massive string of fishes while smiling towards Nan Ge Er, “Nan Ge Er, look, Mo Shu xiansheng caught so many fishes.”

Nan Ge Er was standing in front of the wooden tub in the courtyard, flipping the preserved meat, leg and sausages so that they would be better immersed in the salt. He lifted his head, looking at both of them, “Ah, that’s great, you’ve worked hard.” He thanked them without any sincerity.

Xia Jia Fu didn’t notice the insincerity in it at all, smiling widely as he replied, “Don’t mention it, Nan Ge Er. Full credit goes to Mo Shu xiansheng, I only helped a little.”

“It’s thanks to you too.” Nan Ge Er’s lips twitched as he answered.

Mo Shu instructed Xia Jia Fu to bring most of the fishes to the kitchen, before carrying a few wider-headed fishes as he walked towards Nan Ge Er, passing the straw rope that was attached to the fishes to him.

“Huh?” Nan Ge Er looked at Mo Shu without a clue.

“It will still taste great when preserved, right?” Mo Shu glanced at the preserved meat unfinished from that day’s dinner. Without telling Nan Ge Er, he raised his hands, implying for him to catch it.

You sure are sensitive about anything related to food. Nan Ge Er explained rather feebly, “Erm, they can only be preserved after their organs are removed.”

“Oh, is that so?” Mo Shu calmly removed the straw rope from Nan Ge Er’s line of sight in a clean-cut manner. Slashing sounds of meat being cut arose, followed by a pattering sound of something being dropped.

“Here.” Mo Shu passed the items over to the bewildered Nan Ge Er.

Nan Ge Er’s eyes were as wide as saucers. This fellow can simply open the fishes’ bellies, fish out and throw the innards to the ground in an instant.

Helplessly watching the “maimed corpses” that started dripping blood with a pattering sound, Nan Ge Er’s eyebrows jumped up as he swallowed with effort. He did know that no matter if one was equipped with a knife, some technique was still needed to cut open a soft and smooth but tough fish belly, but in a blink of an eye, Mo Shu was able to open the fishes’ bellies, using only two strokes, and even scooped out the innards cleanly.

If he didn’t see that Mo Shu’s fingers were still dripping with fish blood, and that a bunch of innards was on the floor, he would have suspected Mo Shu had already prepared the fishes earlier before handing them to him. That method, together with the fast speed, made Nan Ge Er think that the fellow might have done a lot of bloody, criminal activities before…Those hands of yours, what were they made of?

“What’s wrong?” Mo Shu still looked composed as ever, seemingly unaware of how shocking his actions were in the eyes of others.

“Mo Shu…” Zhu Xi probably heard the commotion outside, so he went to them. After glancing at the stunned Nan Ge Er and then at the poised Mo Shu, he glared at Mo Shu and made a face, “Can you stop scaring Nan Ge Er?!”

“Huh?” Mo Shu was shocked at first before he looked at Nan Ge Er who kept his eyes on him. A sudden smile spread across his face before he reached out to pat Nan Ge Er’s head, “Don’t worry, I only know a bit of kung fu.”

“…$&&%…” Nan Ge Er’s body froze as he emitted a string of unintelligible sound.

“Huh?” Mo Shu was puzzled as he looked at Nan Ge Er, still stroking his hair. This kid has a small stature. Although he is thin, his head was really round. Rumors had it that big-brained kids are smart, right?

“Get …those … paw- … off…”

“Oh my,” Mo Shu rubbed Nan Ge Er’s head, which was just right for his hands, even harder, smiling, “Speak up; I won’t do anything. I forgot about it then, so I conveniently chopped the fishes with my hands. Don’t be scared; I won’t harm you.”

Nan Ge Er’s body began to tremble a little.

“Hey.” Zhu Xi’s eyebrows furrowed, “Don’t scare him, come back quickly. Xiao Nan’s body is frail in the first place. Don’t make matters worse by scaring him.”

“Get those stupid bloodied paws of yours off me!” Nan Ge Er jerked his head up and screamed. Bastarddddd! Forget about the fact that this fellow carried fishes with one of his hands, and had the other bloodied from the chopping of said fishes; but how dare he carelessly rub his claws on my head. Great, there is definitely a strong fish stink on my hair!

No amount of tears can express the despair he currently felt.

He always resented the hygiene products of this world. Even though he had the position of a prince back then, the situation was no better. Despite having a fair degree of extravagance in the palace, tragically, the hygiene standards were still far from the twenty-first century that he knew and loved.

He didn’t bother too much about hygiene in the past only because he was too busy with the power struggles. However, he had a lot of time to himself now and would usually be careful not to get so dirty that he couldn’t get himself completely clean. Awesome. Mo Shu ended up directly covering my head with fish blood! He felt that he was almost boiling with rage. He couldn’t care less about the usual fake attitude and bellowed on directly.

“Oh god, who knows how long it will take to wash it away!” Noticing zero response from Mo Shu, he swatted off Mo Shu’s hands quickly, gloomily hugging his head as he rushed into the kitchen to ask the kitchen aunty for hot water.

“Be careful not to get cold.” Mo Shu yelled from behind.

Why don’t you scram! Nan Ge Er furiously screamed in his heart.

Noting that Nan Ge Er had run away in a hurry, Mo Shu finally couldn’t hold back the smile in his eyes.

Standing at the door of the hall, Zhu Xi shrugged helplessly, “You’re so…”

“But it’s really amusing.” Mo Shu laughed, “That kid looks quite cute when angered.” As he walked, he casually threw the fishes in his hands into the wooden tub.

“…He would definitely spit in your tea if he knew about it.”

He laughed dismissively, “Children should be more energetic.”

“Look at you, is he your kid?” Zhu Xi eyed him.

“Because… it’s fun.” Mo Shu chuckled, “When I turned that despairing, panicked and confused expression, as if a small animal was being chased to its wit’s end by a hunter, into such an energetic look, I feel quite a sense of accomplishment.”

“Yes, yes, yes, Mo Shu xiansheng, you seriously have nothing better to do.” Zhu Xi sighed, before asking, “Then, what about the person Xiao Xia found?”

“That fellow had ulterior motives.” Mo Shu stated lightly.

The expression he wore on his face that moment returned to its usual indifference, “People who come here purposely when they still have places to go to are totally asking for death.” He had a calm expression as he uttered those icy words.

“Ah, look at you,” Zhu Xi was helpless, “Don’t tell me you killed that person?”

“Not this time.” Mo Shu smiled suddenly. “I just told Xiao Xia to push the person back into the river.”

“The person is as good as dead then.” The corner of Zhu Xi’s lips twitched.

However, Mo Shu refused to continue the topic, grinned while reaching his hands out to Zhu Xi, “Actually, Nan Ge Er’s head is really round and great to touch.”

“Is that so?” Zhu Xi waved his hands, using internal force to move over the cup of tea that was filled halfway, letting the flow of water splash onto Mo Shu’s hands.

Mo Shu rubbed his hands, while commenting, “I thought he would plan on something when his injuries recovered.”

“Are you disappointed that he ended up doing nothing?” Zhu Xi folded his arms as he looked at Mo Shu.

“Nope.” Mo Shu smiled, “I’m joyful.”

“Everyone loves Nan Ge Er, and he doesn’t have any ulterior motives.” Zhu Xi spoke faintly.

“Mm, Nan Ge Er looks dumb, but his heart is as clear as a mirror.” Mo Shu washed his hands clean before lifting his head up while talking.

“Everyone is pretty much the same.” Zhu Xi said with a humph, as he took over the cup, “You guys are seriously…”

“Hm?”

“Nothing” Zhu Xi shook his head, “I only hope that… this era doesn’t need people like us.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Mo Shu spoke faintly, “There isn’t any difference in killing one or a thousand men to us.”

“Tsk.” Zhu Xi furrowed his brows, “How immoral.”

“Let’s go, my immoral advisor.” Mo Shu smiled dismissively, “Didn’t you say that there are records?” He added as he stepped in through the door.

¹Xiao Xia: Similar to last chapter, Zhu Xi shortened ‘Xia Jia Fu’ to ‘Xiao Xia’. He seems to like shortening others’ names into Xiao ___