Flying Dust - Chapter 16

“What are you looking at? We, these disciples, just need to eat our meals well!” On the side, Li Du knocked Mo Fei Chen’s head with his chopsticks.

“Hn, hn!” Mo Fei Chen nodded his head as he caught sight of Jun Wushuang who was not far away, watching him being hit on the head and there was a bad smile on his lips.

At this moment, one of the disciples of Mu Yun Mountain Manor ran in and seemed to say something in Wen Qian Liu’s ear, after listening to it, Wen Qian Liu smiled and seemed to say “Let him be!”

Li Du said in a small voice beside him, “It looks like we won’t be able to see Wen Qian Liu’s Shi Di, Lu Qingmo at the banquet.”

“Lu Qingmo? You mean the sword master of the ‘Dang Xiao’1[荡 dang meant swing/ sway/ wave/ shake/ to dissolute/ to move/to sweep away/ loaf about While 嚣 xiao meant clamour T.T, Can’t think of a good name if this two words combine. ]Sword?” Mo Fei Chen had heard of Lu Qing Mo, this person who had become famous at an early age, having been able to form his sword at the age of fourteen. At the age of twenty-four he had become one of the top ten swordsmen in the martial arts. Some people once said that his talent was far superior to that of his Shi Xiong, Wen Qian Liu and that the former Lord Manor had high hopes for him. Unfortunately, he was not the kind of man who would sit back in a chair and settle down.

Lu Qingmo was about 30 years old now, about the same age as Yu Jin. He heard that he did not spend much of his time at the Mu Yun Mountain Village. It was not easy to see him, if not for the Martial Arts Conference that he returned to the Mu Yun manor, yet he was still unable to see him. Mo Fei Chen suddenly felt a bit regretful over it.

After all, Lu Qingmo was the youngest of the Ten Great Swordsmen, so Mo Fei Chen was eager to see what kind of person he was.

The whole banquet was just a bunch of sect leaders flattering each other and exchanging pleasantries, but those with real prestige, such as Wen Qian Liu, Liu Feiying or Wu Liang Chanshi were all indifferent and couldn’t be seen from their expression whether they were happy or not.

This was what cultivation was really all about.

Mo Fei Chen didn’t care about the others, he just ate till full.

Until the moment the banquet was about to end, he heard the hall where it had been a bit lively; bustling with noise and excitement suddenly and slowly quieted down.

Mo Fei Chen was trying to swallow the last bite of his leaf mustard roll when Li Du kept poking him with his chopsticks.

“Quickly take a look! Look!”

“Look at… what…?” Mo Fei Chen turned around and looked at the place he pointed at.

To see a man dressed in white overall walking in the middle of the hall while holding a wine jug in his hand, raising his head, drinking heavily, his lapels folded up on one side, and his beige belt casually wrapped around twice.

The man’s slender figure was probably the reason why he was dressed in such a casual way, contrariwise giving him an unusual appearance and feeling.

When the bottle of wine fell in a natural way, a face like a landscape ink painting instantly caught everyone’s attention and made them ponder.

The corners of his mouth were sunken, the smile was three points sluggish, three points wilful, three points charming, and the remaining point was the imperceptible sneering.

It was precisely that flash of mockery that Mo Fei Chen caught.

“Lu Qingmo met all the guests here…” He seemed to be a bit drunk, his half-open eyes were inexplicably seductive and the bridge of his nose showed some heroism which was hard to ignore, “Your presence brings light to our humble manor!”

Although his voice was in off and on mode, each time it trailed off into a very long note, causing one’s heart to rise and fall with it.

Turning around, his sleeves arced across along with his body, he placed his wine jug on one table of disciples and without consulting others, he walked towards Wen Qian Liu.

“Shi Xiong, I’m coming.”

“Qingmo ah,” Wen Qian Liu seemed not angry at all toward his Shi Di’s drunken state, but pulled a chair beside him, “Sit down here! I thought that you wouldn’t come!”

Lu Qingmo patted his palm on Wen Qian Liu’s back, “I’ll certainly come if Shi Xiong wants me to come! It’s just that Xiao Zui from the Meng Hui Lou 2[Meng Hui Lou is probably the name of a tavern or restaurant . It’s meant ‘return or back to dream’]insisted that I try this and that wine, so I drank too much at once.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Wen Qian Liu reached out to straighten Lu Qingmo’s lapel, “As long as you are happy.”

Lu Qingmo reached out to hold the back of Wen Qian Liu’s hand and patted it, “Me too, Shi Xiong as long as you’re happy…I’ll listen to you.”

If in ordinary times, someone like Lu Qingmo was as drunk as a lord like this to meet the guests, that would really be too impolite. But Lu Qingmo was not only a member of the Mu Yun Mountain Manor, but also one of the ten famous swords. No one would casually come to accuse him, not to mention that even when he was drunk, he had a kind of aura that made people couldn’t help but keep looking at him.

“I’ve heard, although Lu Qingmo became famous at such a young age, he has a debauched and unruly personality. He likes good wine, beautiful scenery and beautiful women. He is simply as different as it can be from the gentle and simple Lord Manor Wen.” Li Du whispered in Mo Fei Chen’s ear.

“Oh, I quite like (admire) him. This person says what he wants to say and does what he wants to do, without looking at other’s expressions and not caring about many complicated trivialities of the world. It’s also enviable to be so ‘true to oneself’.” Mo Fei Chen touched his mouth, originally wanting to leave the table, but once Lu Qingmo came, those who had already finished their exchange greetings had no intention to leave anymore.

Lu Qingmo staggering and stood up as he brought another bottle of wine. Wen Qian Liu behind him tried to help him stand up, but he was already walking towards the door, starting from the table at the entrance and toasting all the way to Wen Qing Yuan’s table. During the toast, many martial artists said good things about him, such as his youthful fame, his unrestrained elegance and so on and so forth, some female disciples even indescribably blushed as they looked at him.

Lu Qingmo also didn’t answer but he kept nodding his head. However, Mo Fei Chen saw that every time he lowered his face, the mocking smile on the corner of his mouth deepened.

Until he toasted Wen Qing Yuan and yet he said this instead, “Unfortunately, Lord Manor Wen will take this drink on behalf of He Yunfeng for me!”

Although these words were a toast to He Yunfeng, it sounded disrespectful to Wen Qing Yuan. Wen Qing Yuan was not angry and just smiled thinly as he drank the wine.

The other disciples also raised their glasses to toast, so Li Du immediately elbowed Mo Fei Chen who was taking out the meatball with a spoon.

Lu Qingmo seemed to have caught sight of him as he bumped Mo Fei Chen’s soup spoon with his wine bottle, “Little brother, have a good meal!”

Mo Fei Chen raised his head and for the first time, he was so close to that man.

His eyebrows were raised and even the air became relaxed.

“You need to be happy and enjoy your life to the most, if not you will only hold the golden wine bottle toward the moon3[人生得意須盡歡，莫使金樽空對月(rén shēng dé yì xū jìn huān, mò shǐ jīn zūn kōng duì yuè): It’s an ancient poem titled “Drink Wine”, by Li Bai, a famous poet in Tang Dynasty.  Literally mean one should enjoy his success to the most, lest he would only hold a golden but empty cup under the moon. ‘Do enjoy life while in prime you run high; Not to the moon just your empty cup ply.’]…” Mo Fei Chen awkwardly thought of this poem and read it out in a small voice.

“He he…” Lu Qingmo smiled depressedly, “I like it …”

Mo Fei Chen followed his suggestion and ate the meatballs in the spoon.

“You still have something that you want to say in your heart…I can see that.” Lu Qingmo pointed his finger at Mo Fei Chen who was in the middle of chewing.

“I eat to my heart content, you drink to your heart content, very good.” Mo Fei Chen smiled, and knowing that he would not continue to say what he wanted to hear, Lu Qing Mo swayed back to Wen Qian Liu’s side.

The feast did not end until midnight.

Mo Fei Chen held his full stomach and returned to his room.

“Li Shi Xiong…I feel uncomfortable…” Mo Fei Chen said as he lay under the quilt.

“The bed is so comfortable and the quilt is so soft, how can you still feel uncomfortable?”Li Du was very sleepy and did not want to pay attention to him.

“I ate too much ……” Mo Fei Chen was lying stiffly on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling of the room.

After a little while longer, someone knocked on the door lightly. Mo Fei Chen didn’t have any strength so he hummed softly.

The door opened. Looking at that figure was precisely Jun Wushuang. The other party smiled yet it was not a smile. He sat down on his bedside.

“Why don’t you go to sleep yet?” Mo Fei Chen said lazily.

“There’s nothing to do tomorrow and the young students’ sparring session doesn’t start until the day after tomorrow, so it doesn’t matter if I sleep later than usual.” Jun Wushuang’s hand went under the quilt and Mo Fei Chen grabbed it immediately.

“Jun Shi Xiong o, I really can’t today, I don’t have the strength to play with you…”

“I know you eat…to the point of bursting. Everyone else is talking, drinking, and so on, but only you who continuously eats non stop.” Jun Wushuang’s hand was placed on Mo Fei Chen’s stomach and slowly rubbed it.

His technique was really good and Mo Fei Chen suddenly felt his upset stomach had gotten a lot better.

Jun Wushuang poured him half a cup of tea and poured out a pill from a small porcelain bottle, “Take this, take it, it helps digestion. I asked the doctor at the manor for this.”

Mo Fei Chen swallowed it and lay on the bed looking at Jun Wushuang. He frowned and asked, “Jun Shi Xiong, you’re always pretending (behaving in an affected way), making people think you’re such an upright and decent man…”

“I’m not an upright gentleman at all, but if people think you are, then you are.” Jun Wushuang rested his head under his arms and lay beside Mo Fei Chen.

“Then if you’re not an upright gentleman, then you don’t have to take pleasure in helping people, so why do you still treat me so well? ‘One who offers unsolicited hospitality must be harboring evil intentions’4[Tl: I laughed at this idiom’s detail description,Mo Fei Chen is really ‘sharp’ actually;  無事獻殷勤，非奸即盜:  *The literal meaning of this idiom is when a person is suddenly being so diligent out of nothing or to be particularly attentive to attractive young lady or man etc or to fawn upon an influential politician etc), that person is neither an adulterer/ fornicator/ raper or a bandit/robber. ‘one who is unaccountably solicitous, must be up to something /has ulterior motives/ has a hidden agenda.’]. ”

Jun Wushuang shot a quick glance at him, “You, this heartless and lazy monkey, I think you’re cute and silly, so I’m treating you well, just take it as if I’m raising you!”

“Tsk…” Mo Fei Chen also rolled his eyes, “This heartless and lazy monkey hopes that you can win all the way to the end when you spar with those young disciples!”

“Thank you for your kind words!” Jun Wushuang turned to his side, “Hey, today when you look at ‘that Lu Qingmo’, did you think that he was exceptionally good-looking, so much that you were so dumbfounded by it?”

“He indeed looks…quite making people jealous. You don’t see the eyes of your ‘Shi Jie and Shi Mei’ from the Xiushui Palace that keep looking straight at him…” The food gradually went down in his stomach so he started to get sleepy.

“He looks like an ink painting, wild and unrestrained.”

Mo Fei Chen smashed his mouth, “As long as you don’t pretend to be a good person, you can also be wild and unrestrained.”

Soon after that, there was a steady breathing sound.

Jun Wushuang sighed, “If everyone is as ‘true to themselves’ as you are, everything will be simple.”

The next morning, Li Du woke up, he immediately dragged Mo Fei Chen to accompany him to practice the sword with him. He had no choice, Mo Fei Chen did not have to participate in the match but Li Du, as an older disciple, had to go up to the stage for a sparring session.

Mo Fei Chen’s sword techniques were extremely good. In the courtyard, Li Du and Mo Fei Chen went back and forth, in the course of frequent contact, before then in less than an hour, Li Du had lost at least seven or eight times yet he did not let Mo Fei Chen lose the game intentionally. This really made Mo Fei Chen keep whining.

Jun Wushuang already woke up too. He leaned against the doorway of the room as he watched the two of them fighting. His eyes gradually narrowed, staring at Mo Fei Chen’s skill and step, as if he was trying to figure something out.

Mo Fei Chen was pestered by Li Du and couldn’t argue against him, he then reverted to his former way of life and simply lay down on the ground, “I’m tired! I haven’t even eaten breakfast yet. Shi Xiong, you better ask Jun Shi Xiong to accompany you to practice. He’s much better than me!”

Being mentioned by him, Jun Wushuang laughed lightly, “Li Shi Di, since we are going to fight tomorrow, why don’t you take a good rest for today and calm down your state of mind? So tomorrow, you will be able to remain calm in the face of adversity. If you are injured today, what else can you do to compete tomorrow?”

Li Du stood still while gasping for breath and thought for a while, “Jun Shi Xiong has a point. It’s indeed not bad to take one day of rest from sword training. It would be better to take a good rest and avoid injury.”

“Yes,that’s right.” Jun Wushuang walked over and pulled Mo Fei Chen up from the ground, “Lazy monkey, let’s go strolling around Mu Yun Town today!”

When it came to playing and having fun, Mo Fei Chen was so energetic that he immediately got up, “Okay, sure, then Li Shi Xiong, you stay in your room, preserve and nurture your strength and spirit. This Shi Di will go out for a stroll, it’s a rare occasion since we go down the mountain so I have to widen my knowledge and experience!”

After saying that, he dragged Jun Wushuang and ran out. The two of them ate breakfast in the manor and then headed for the market.

Translator’s Note:

Lu Qingmo is quite pitiful, unrequited love is painful.

Ow, Lu Qingmo is almost or around 30 years old so the youngest ML will be Jun Wushuang while He Yunfeng is in the age of Mo Fei Chen’s grandpa or ancestor, pfft…