Chapter 132 - 131: Is Ye Qingyao’s Favorability Important?
The words had barely left his mouth when a series of clicks from high heels echoed from the end of the corridor.
At first, the steps were slow and leisurely, but then the person seemed to have spotted something, and their pace suddenly quickened.
Yang Shen turned his head and saw Xu Bamboo’s mother, Ye Qingyao, whom he had met once before.
She came jogging over, not looking at her own daughter, but instead nodding to Xu Mo first.
"Patriarch..."
"Don’t... I don’t care, but someone else will get angry."
Ye Qingyao lowered her eyes meekly. "I’m sorry... I failed to raise my daughter properly and have troubled you."
Xu Mo glanced at his watch. "Allow me to remind you, according to our agreement, you are not supposed to enter Jianghuai City. You’ve surely come in secret before, but me running into you like this is a breach of our contract."
Yang Shen saw a trace of undisguised disgust in Xu Mo’s eyes.
Directed at Ye Qingyao.
It was a complete departure from the gentle and refined manner he had when speaking with him earlier.
Ye Qingyao nodded. "I’ll take her back and discipline her right away."
Xu Mo waved a dismissive hand and left without a second thought.
Only Yang Shen and Xu Bamboo’s mother-daughter pair remained in the corridor.
The moment Xu Mo turned his back, Ye Qingyao shot a hateful glare at Xu Bamboo, then immediately cast the same glance toward Yang Shen.
Her eyes were filled with disgust.
Yang Shen met Ye Qingyao’s gaze calmly, not backing down in the slightest.
’Doesn’t matter who you are. Showing hostility is like revealing your health bar.’
The first time they met, Yang Shen had been at Zhou’s funeral, feeling down and busy, so he hadn’t checked her Life Chart.
"Ye Qingyao: Qi Cultivation, Level One"
"Life Chart: Hurting Officer & Competing Shoulder, The Paranoid"
"Hurting Officer & Competing Shoulder: Uses unscrupulous methods in her schemes and is not afraid to walk a crooked path."
"The Paranoid: Stubborn as a rock, her nature is difficult to change."
’Putting her Life Chart together with her conversation with Xu Mo...’
Yang Shen figured some things out—some very bad things.
Ye Qingyao just stared at Yang Shen, not bothering to hide her displeasure and malice from a high school student.
Until Xu Mo, who hadn’t gone far, stopped in his tracks again and said without turning his head:
"This is my friend, Yang. Ms. Ye, please don’t cause him any trouble. Otherwise... I’ll cause you trouble."
His tone was calm, but the meaning was perfectly clear.
Ye Qingyao’s expression stiffened, and she bowed toward Xu Mo.
Even though Xu Mo wasn’t looking at all.
Only after he had completely left did she take a deep breath and say to Yang Shen with a blank expression, "Well then, as her guardian, I’m taking my daughter to leave. You shouldn’t have any objections, should you, Yang?"
Yang Shen let out a short laugh.
"I do have an objection. Let her wake up naturally."
...
At two in the morning, Xu Bamboo’s eyes fluttered open in a daze.
"I... I fell asleep?"
The surprise in her voice made it sound as if sleeping wasn’t a human instinct, but some kind of special power.
As one of Jianghuai City’s top hospitals, the emergency building was still bustling at night, which had muddled Yang Shen’s sense of time. He subconsciously glanced at his phone.
Yang Shen: "You did. But only for three and a half hours."
Xu Bamboo pursed her lips. The thought of having slept on Yang Shen’s shoulder for so long made her cheeks flush slightly.
"Why didn’t you wake me?"
"Your Uncle said you needed to rest."
"My... Uncle?!"
Xu Bamboo’s face suddenly darkened, and just then, a cold voice cut in right on cue: "Since you’re awake, come home with me."
When Xu Bamboo saw her mother, Ye Qingyao, her expression grew even more rigid.
She had a rough idea of what happened and cursed herself for being so stupid. ’How could I not have considered that I might run into *that* person at the central hospital!’
Yang Shen looked at the cold-faced Ye Qingyao. In the past four hours, the two of them hadn’t exchanged a single word. He couldn’t move because he had his arm around Xu Bamboo, and Ye Qingyao had absolutely no desire to communicate.
Honestly, in any normal situation, this "holding the daughter in front of her mother" scenario would have been enough to make anyone’s toes curl in embarrassment.
And he had held her for three and a half hours straight; Xu Bamboo had even started to sweat.
But Yang Shen had already guessed that Ye Qingyao was the main culprit behind Xu Bamboo’s memory loss, and possibly even the cause of her Early Death Life Chart.
’Xu Mo said she wouldn’t die, but who would believe that?’
’If she really did die, Xu Mo would just say, "Low-probability events are bound to happen."’
’What good would that do?’
Yang Shen moved to block Ye Qingyao and said to Xu Bamboo, "Three and a half hours? Who can get enough sleep in that time? People might think we can’t afford to sleep. You should sleep a little longer."
Xu Bamboo shook her head.
Yang Shen tried a different approach. "Is the hospital uncomfortable? Let’s go to a hotel. You can sleep a little longer there."
Emboldened by Xu Mo’s borrowed authority, Yang Shen made another bold proposal: asking to take Xu Bamboo to a hotel right in front of Ye Qingyao!
Xu Bamboo’s face instantly turned red, and she jabbed an elbow into Yang Shen’s side...
Thankfully, she didn’t use too much force. Otherwise, it wasn’t clear if Xu Bamboo would be leaving, but Yang Shen would definitely be staying in the hospital.
However, to Yang Shen’s frustration, when Xu Bamboo was asleep, he could use Xu Mo’s lingering authority to ignore Ye Qingyao.
But now that Xu Bamboo was awake, the girl’s own thoughts inevitably got mixed in.
"No, Shenzi, I’m going home."
No matter how suffocating the relationship between Xu Bamboo and her mother was, she could never just ignore Ye Qingyao.
Xu Bamboo stood up. "Mom, I’m sorry... I shouldn’t have run off."
Ye Qingyao said calmly, "Your entire cram plan for the college entrance exams has been thrown into chaos. If you want to sleep, there will be plenty of time for that after the exams are over. Come home with me."
Xu Bamboo nodded and got up to leave.
Just as Yang Shen was about to speak, Xu Bamboo bent down and whispered in his ear:
"Please, Shenzi."
"...She’s my mom... and I’m her daughter."
It was a statement of the obvious, but Yang Shen understood with a sense of helplessness.
Xu Bamboo secretly stuffed something into Yang Shen’s hand, then put on a smile and said, her expression back to normal, "See you at school... Bye-bye."
After the two of them left, Yang Shen looked down at the object in his hand.
It was Xu Bamboo’s wallet.
Calling it a wallet wasn’t quite right. It was a small, orange-red pouch shaped like a persimmon, with a green leaf on the zipper.
It was printed with a phrase that was a pun on ’persimmon’, wishing for good fortune.
Yang Shen opened it and saw it was stuffed full of cash...
’That girl.’
’Was she trying to leave me money for a taxi or a hotel?’
’No... it seems like there’s more to it.’
Inside the pouch were a few other small items.
A tube of lip balm, a stack of sticky notes...
And a set of keys with an access card.
The name of a residential complex was on the access card.
————
Just before dawn, Yang Shen finally returned to Jinshui District.
In the end, he didn’t spend the night in Jianghuai City. Not only was it expensive, but he would have had to rush back the next day anyway, right?
Although his finances were much better now, Yang Shen didn’t use the money in Xu Bamboo’s wallet, planning to return it to her on Monday.
Yang Shen walked through the morning dew to the Celestial Platform and tended to his Window Spirit Field.
Then, with his hands in his pockets, he waited for the sun to rise.
Only 18 days left until the college entrance exams...
Honestly, at this stage, countless high school seniors were competing as if their lives depended on it.
Huang Gang spent over ten hours a day on Body Forging. Having given up on his academic classes, he would secretly lift dumbbells in the back of the classroom.
Tian Zihan’s family of six was squeezed into a 20-square-meter rented room. Everyone except him was frugal with their food expenses, saving every penny.
There was another girl in their class who, with no hope of advancing in Martial Arts, had started cramming for academics. She did 20 practice tests a day, just hoping to get into a junior college.
The high-pressure selection system created warped people.
Aside from Yang Shen himself—who could obtain a sufficient source from Cultivation and whose Buddha Sound Body Refining Technique was equivalent to 24/7 Body Forging—wasn’t everyone else fighting for their lives?
If Yang Shen hadn’t known about Xu Bamboo’s Life Chart, he would have had neither the reason nor the right to blame Ye Qingyao.
Since the beginning of their senior year... no, since they were children, everyone had been instilled with the fundamental logic of "give it your all for the college entrance exams." Now, at the final step, any extreme effort, regardless of the consequences or the cost to one’s health, was considered acceptable.
But, as it happened...
Yang Shen knew.
And because he knew, he couldn’t just turn a blind eye.
Even if Xu Mo said this condition wasn’t fatal.
As for the strange relationships within the Xu Family, that wasn’t Yang Shen’s concern for now. Xu Mo was very powerful and mysterious, but he clearly had no intention of interfering in the lives of Xu Bamboo and her mother.
It was more like annoyance and deliberate avoidance.
He could be almost certain that Xu Mo had little to do with Xu Bamboo’s potential early death.
’Primary plan: When I’m with Xu Bamboo, find a way to make her sleep... That Xu Mo guy said it’s not an illness, but a psychological symptom.’
’I don’t know why Xu Bamboo was able to fall asleep last night, but I can replicate a similar scenario.’
’It won’t cure the root cause, but it’s an indispensable method for her recovery.’
’Backup plan: Intervene completely. A forceful intervention, playing the third party between mother and daughter.’
’Ye Qingyao is Xu Bamboo’s mother. That’s an unbreakable blood tie.’
’But... is Ye Qingyao’s favorability score really that important?’
’Like I give a damn!’
’As for the final option... yes, a Martial Artist always has a final option.’
But Yang Shen hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
Yang Shen weighed the small pouch in his hand. The things a young girl often used always carried a faint, pleasant scent.
It smelled nice, but it also carried weight.
’I can’t let Zhuzi down, then.’
==Portal==
[Monthly Ticket]