Chapter 3: The Nature of the Devil
Durian immediately wanted to cry. He realized that Qin Jiu wanted to shoot herself.
It wasn’t that he looked down on her; it was just too hard to hit. He didn’t care if she could make it. The question was: why did she want him to stand under the lantern? If she didn’t aim well, she would shoot his head! But he had to obey her order. Slowly standing under the lantern, he was scared to even look at Qin Jiu, moving with graceful steps to three hundred steps away.
For the first time, he sincerely prayed for her to hit the string of the lantern.
Qin Jiu stood on the street, looking down at her bow.
The bow was brought by the man in charge of Linglong pavilion. It was a large iron bow. The range of this bow was longer than the average one.
Qin Jiu slowly put the arrow on the bow and took a look around, seeing more and more people attracted by what was happening here. They whispered louder, “Who is this woman? How can she be so bold and dare to challenge His Highness Anling?”
“Don’t know, maybe she is from a place outside the city and never seen the fierceness of His Highness!”
Whispers came to Qin Jiu in the wind.
Qin Jiu raised the bow slowly, her two pomegranate-red wide sleeves naturally falling, revealing her white wrists. She put her hand on the bow string and slowly aimed.
Her eyes narrowed and her face was coquettish with a smile.
The process of aiming was a little long.
The bow went left, then pointed right, then up and down.
As soon as she moved down, Durian was scared into cold sweat on his forehead and shouted, “Too low, too low!” Don’t aim at his head, please!
A few times, the arrow was aimed at the head of His Highness Anling. Qin Jiu saw his profile, as well as the gentle curve of his smile. He whispered to the woman on the side, “Don’t worry, the lantern is yours, no one can take it away!”
At this time, she wanted to just release and let the arrow fly out like that.
After a long time, Qin Jiu finally took aim at the lantern’s thin line– to be exact, at the lantern’s upper part, whether it was the thin line or not.
Qin Jiu’s bow finally stopped moving and she began to pull the string little by little.
The murmur went low and finally there was silence. All wanted to see whether the woman could hit the string, but they all thought she probably couldn’t.
“Smelly!” A strange noise appeared as all the people were paying attention to the bow and arrow.
The sound came from Qin Jiu’s red-mouthed parrot on her shoulder.
This parrot was beautiful, with a red head, white feathers and a few yellow feathers fluttering like a crown. It stood proudly on Qin Jiu’s shoulder, its black eyes staring straight at Durian.
It wasn’t uncommon for a parrot to talk, but everyone didn’t know why the parakeet was shouting ‘smelly’!
Durian wanted to cry again!
Only he knew why the parakeet called him smelly.
After he served Qin Jiu as a master, this evil woman named him Durian. At first he thought it was a good name, but later he knew that his name was the same as loquat, cherries and lychees, fruits said to give off a bad smell. Later, most likely she had taught the parakeet to call him that way. Every time as soon as it saw him, it would shout ‘smelly’!
Is there anyone worse than him? The master insulted him; even her parrot did too.
He bit his lip and shouted, “Yellow Hair!”
The parrot’s name was Phoenix, and the name was derived from its red head. It also had a name only Qin Jiu could call, ‘Yellow Hair’, because it had a few yellow feathers on top of its head.
“Yellow Hair!” Durian angrily said.
“Smelly!“ cried the parrot, flapping his wings.
“Yellow Hair!”
“Smelly!”
“Yellow Hair!”
…
Finally the man in charge of Linglong pavilion couldn’t stand it, so he walked forward to ask Qin Jiu, “Girl, are you still going to shoot?”
Qin Jiu smiled, “Of course!”
She reached out her hand and patted the parakeet softly, “Yellow Hair, be quiet!”
Parakeet folded his wings and raised his head.
Qin Jiu again took aim with the bow. The wind blew through the night, fluttering her wide and elegant dress. She looked like red begonias in the night. She squinted, and the beautiful smile faded with a cold killing atmosphere around her body.
Durian’s legs trembled and he thought that if she shot, he would squat down.
Everyone was nervous.
At this time, Qin Jiu put down the bow.
“I can’t draw the bow!” she said, rather sadly.
The people around her gave a coaxing laugh. The sweat was dripping from Durian’s forehead. Can he say he didn’t know this woman? The man in charge of Linglong stuttered, “You you… then don’t shoot.”
Qin Jiu ignored his words.
She threw the bow ‘smack’ on the ground, and pulled out from her wide sleeves a embroidery frame about the size of a fan, on which stretched a white handkerchief and the embroidering of a blossoming Datura.
Smiling, she pulled out the bamboo sticks that held the strings, bent them into the shape of a bow, and twisted the threads at both ends to make a bow. Put that arrow on the string of the silk thread and declared, “I use this!”
“You think this is playing doll house?” Before the man in charge finished his words, Qin Jiu already drew the bow, without aiming, and the arrow went out.
With a snap, the lantern fell into Durian’s arms.
The onlookers were silent.
Only Phoenix flapped out, dropped above the lantern, and began to pace.
The result was so unexpected, and it happened so quickly they hadn’t realized what had happened. After a while, the onlookers couldn’t help cheering loudly.
Qin Jiu walked with graceful posture amongst the cheers.
“Durian, take the lamp. Let’s go!” she smiled.
“Wait a minute!” a cool voice came from behind.
Qin Jiu looked over and saw that His Highness Anling was walking quickly towards her.
No matter how fast he walked, his steps were always steady, as if he was a man who was always confident, as if everything was under his control. With his approach, there was a strong pressure.
Qin Jiu slightly raised her lips. Here came His Highness Anling.
He seemed to only smile at his loved one.
Others saw him as a cold judge. Once he wanted your life, he would never let go until you died!
“How may I help you?” Qin Jiu turned back, strings of red beads and flowers on her head swaying slightly with her movements.
Yan Su raised his eyebrow slightly and asked in a cold voice, “This lantern is yours now. Will you sell it?”
“Of course!” Qin Jiu answered quickly without thinking.
“How much?” Yan Su asked.
Qin Jiu looked at the lantern in Durian’s arms and said hesitantly, “How much shall I sell it for? It’s such a nice lantern.”
Yan Su coldly raised his eyebrows, ready to accept Qin Jiu’s expensive price.
“Regrettably, I don’t want money, so I don’t want to sell it!” Qin Jiu replied.
“What do you want?” asked Yan Su.
“What do I want?” Qin Jiu asked Durian next to her.
“You want men!” said Durian without thinking.
Qin Jiu stared at Yan Su and smiled, “You heard that? Will you exchange yourself for the lantern?”
The parrot had played enough on the lantern and suddenly flew to Qin Jiu and repeated her words, “Will you exchange? Will you?”
(DL Scanlations)
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