Close your eyes, it is dark; open your eyes, it is bright.
This sounds like a bunch of nonsense, but it is precisely the inner portrayal of Fang Jueqian at this very moment.
He opened his eyes blankly, surveying the brightly lit room and the impeccably dressed Daoist Lord standing three zhang away from him. He felt a sense of the absurd, much like watching the climax of a movie in a theater, only for the screen to jump straight to the end credits after a brief blackout.
Where did the time in between go? Was it stolen by someone?
This is a scam, my friend!
“I have already cleared away a portion of the lingering poison for you. Come over at the same time every day for the next half month.”
The Daoist Lord’s voice came from afar, carrying a strange sense of detachment.
In any case, it did not really look like the aftermath of anything intimate.
Fang Jueqian stood up with a swoosh, lowering his head to inspect his body. He found that although he felt somewhat fatigued, his body was exceptionally relaxed, and undesirable reactions such as irritability had basically all vanished.
The most crucial point was that his clothes were completely undamaged, and were even neater than when he had first arrived.
What on earth happened in between?
A myriad of question marks flashed through Fang Jueqian’s heart. He looked in the direction of the Daoist Lord and spoke hesitantly: “Husband, did we just do something?”
“Is there a problem?” the Daoist Lord said coldly.
Fang Jueqian swallowed the question back down, nodded obediently, and said: “No problem. Husband, see you tomorrow.”
“But his attitude is definitely problematic!” Fang Jueqian replayed the details of that moment over and over. “My intuition tells me there must be a hidden story behind this.”
“Crunch, crunch.” The background sound played continuously, providing the speaker with steady care and a powerful backing.
Fang Jueqian propped up a nonexistent pair of spectacles and assumed a calm and capable posture:
“There is only one truth. Let us review the course of the case from the beginning.”
“Crunch, crunch.”
“On year X, month X, day X, hour X, minute X, the victim, surnamed Fang, was supported into the room. Amidst his dizziness, he took the time to glance around his surroundings, discovering that the room was exceptionally tall, with heavy curtains hanging all around, and an incense burner lit in the corner. The smoke was dense, severely obstructing his vision. A few minutes later, or perhaps ten minutes later, the suspect, surnamed Su, appeared behind the victim surnamed Fang. What does this indicate?”
Detective Rabbit brought the carrot-shaped cigar to its mouth, took a huge bite, and then delivered its brilliant deduction:
“Crunch, crunch, Young Master, what does the suspect mean?”
Detective Fang waved his hand, indulging his new rabbit colleague’s minor self-indulgence:
“That is not important. What we need to do right now is analyze the case step by step. Did you not notice? According to the environment and lighting of the crime scene, one can deduce that there is still a large hidden space covered by curtains in the crime scene.
“This indicates that it is possible that when the victim, surnamed Fang, arrived at the room, the suspect, surnamed Su, was already inside! He had ample preparation time. It is possible that when the victim, surnamed Fang, collapsed dizzy and dazzled onto the soft couch, a pair of eyes was already silently watching him from the darkness.”
Detective Rabbit drew in a sharp breath, dropped its carrot cigar in shock, and quivered its split lip:
“The Daoist Lord actually did that? No, wait, Young Master, even if the Daoist Lord really had such intentions, you are his Daoist companion. Does he even need to go through all this trouble?”
Detective Rabbit questioned Detective Fang’s judgment.
Fang Jueqian decided to provide more evidence:
“According to the personal statement of the victim, surnamed Fang, he initially only felt irritable and did not feel drowsy. But after the suspect, surnamed Su, made him swallow an unknown pill, he immediately felt a heavy sense of sleepiness. After speaking for just a few sentences, he fell fast asleep and forgot everything that happened during his sleep.
“There is also another piece of evidence regarding the incense burner that kept burning in the room. The sweet aroma it emitted was extremely cloying, and the air inside the room was not circulating. After smelling it, the victim, surnamed Fang, found that his symptoms of discomfort did not decrease but instead increased, and because of this, his consciousness became blurred, leading him to say many things he should not have said.”
At this point, Detective Fang covered his face with his hands, seemingly deeply saddened by the agonizing complexity of the case.
Detective Rabbit was startled: “Ah! So this was a drugged entrapment!”
Detective Fang immediately retorted:
“Ahem, do not phrase it so unpleasantly. Whether we slept or not is still unclear. It is possible he really was just giving me, giving the victim, surnamed Fang, a detox treatment, it is just that the method was slightly easy to misunderstand.”
After barely salvaging a shred of reputation for both the victim, surnamed Fang, and the suspect, surnamed Su, Detective Fang asked for his colleague’s opinion:
“Bagel, what do you think?”
Detective Rabbit thought cautiously for a moment: “Young Master, I think you might as well just ask the Daoist Lord.”
Detective Fang broke character in a single second:
“Ask the Daoist Lord?”
“Crunch, crunch. Yes, just ask him directly.”
Detective Rabbit once again irresponsibly started munching on a small snack. “Young Master, did you forget what you said yesterday? You must be brave, and the Daoist Lord is not going to eat you. Just ask him directly! If you do not dare ask him face-to-face, you can ask on the communication jade talisman.”
Fang Jueqian thought about it and had to admit that Bagel made a lot of sense. And indeed, if Daoist Lord Lingxiao was not standing right in front of him, it would not be all that hard for him to speak up. After all, they had chatted for a bit before and had a decent foundation. Of course, it was only a foundation.
He took out the communication jade talisman with some trepidation.
First of all, chatting with the Daoist Lord definitely could not start with blunt and boring questions like are you there, but it also could not be too straightforward by asking whether or not they had slept together. That would be far too awkward.
Fang Jueqian decided to take a roundabout approach like yesterday, starting with a seemingly important question.
【A Happy Rice Cake: Husband, I have a matter I would like to consult you about. Why does this treatment process have to last for more ten days? I heard from others that it used to wrap up in just a few days. Dragging it out for so long, would it not be too much trouble for you?】
According to Bagel, whenever this stage was reached in the past, Daoist Lord Lingxiao would arrive early to channel energy for him, and during those times, the doors of the room would remain closed for several days, forbidding anyone from entering or leaving during the period.
Yet none of those sessions had ever been extended beyond ten days.
After a moment, the communication jade talisman lit up.
【As Open-Minded as a Valley: Taking one day of leave is not enough, and you still want to take several days?】
So that was how it was.
Fang Jueqian wiped his face. So, the Daoist Lord had split the energy-channeling process into multiple sessions entirely so that he would not miss school.
Coupled with the Daoist Lord’s usual style, such a response was truly not surprising at all.
Fang Jueqian incidentally remembered that he had failed to complete his homework for two consecutive days.
However, “You must be brave.”
Fang Jueqian resolved to temporarily push these unimportant matters out of his mind. Next was the time to bravely march toward the truth.
Fang Jueqian glanced at the rabbit, finding a bit of support from its exceptionally resolute gaze while eating.
【A Happy Rice Cake: Husband, I have another question I want to ask you.】
“You must be brave.”
【Is it true that we did or did not…】 Repeatedly edited and deleted.
Half a minute later, he gave up struggling.
【A Happy Rice Cake: Is it really impossible to ask for leave from school?】
Asking for leave was naturally out of the question; he had only been saying it for the sake of it. Early the next morning, Fang Jueqian appeared punctually in Class Wu.
His classmates extended a warm welcome to him for taking a day of sick leave, and quite a few of them expressed concern about his physical condition.
During the break between classes, Fang Jueqian buried his head in his desk, yawning while listening with one ear in and one out as his classmates enthusiastically discussed the latest developments regarding a certain elder and his newly taken mortal concubine.
Someone ran over to ask him about pills.
During the quiz in today’s class, the fact that Fang Jueqian had advanced to the eighth layer of Qi Refining was exposed, drawing countless envious gazes.
Although the process of cultivation was painful, the results it brought were self-evident.
The upper limit of Class Wu was slightly low. From then on, purely in terms of cultivation level, Fang Jueqian could basically walk sideways through the class without a care in the world.
However, more people grew curious about which specific longevity or cultivation-boosting pills he had taken to let a young man who had just entered the Daoist path a few months ago rocket straight to the eighth layer of Qi Refining.
Fang Jueqian rubbed his eyes, knowing there was no way to dodge this question anymore.
Actually, quite a few people had asked him this over the past period, but no matter how much he claimed he had not eaten any pills, nobody believed him.
So he had no choice but to give them the answer they wanted.
Fang Jueqian recalled the storage bags the Daoist Lord had sent him, which contained quite a few rare and precious pills. Although the Daoist Lord had later strictly forbidden him from taking them for the time being, he had crammed enough knowledge over this period to look up the names and efficacies of those pills.
He picked out a few and rattled them off. Every time he named one, it sparked a wave of discussions all around.
Some had never heard of them and asked around everywhere, while others had occasionally heard or seen them somewhere and cried out in shock.
Later on, even the other classmates in the class who had been discussing the elder’s gossip stopped their discussions and all ran over to listen to him list the pill names.
Fang Jueqian reined it in just in time: “That is pretty much it.”
Class Wu instantly exploded into a frenzy:
“I have only ever heard of one of these pills, and that was in an ancient text. It is said they can only be traded using top-grade spirit stones. That is a top-grade spirit stone! I only ever touched one when I was seven years old. Junior Uncle Qiu is truly so good to you.”
Spirit stones were indeed divided into low-grade, middle-grade, high-grade, and top-grade, but Fang Jueqian had not expected top-grade spirit stones to be so precious. Recalling the storage bag sent by the Daoist Lord that was packed to the brim with enough top-grade spirit stones to fill an entire room, he instantly felt a mountain of pressure:
“Really?”
“Of course it is really!” Classmate A exclaimed excitedly. “Fang Jueqian, you do not look like Junior Uncle Qiu’s distant nephew; with treatment like this, even a biological son could not ask for better!”
“Exactly, exactly! Does Junior Uncle Qiu still lack a nephew? If he doesn’t lack a nephew, a son is fine too.”
“A grandson wouldn’t be bad either.”
Everyone immersed themselves in the wonderful fantasy of becoming relatives with Qiu Haoqing. Meanwhile, Fang Jueqian for the first time truly realized what a priceless fortune the Daoist Lord had bestowed upon him, leaving him feeling somewhat apprehensive for a moment.
When school was dismissed, he arrived at the side hall, staying alone in the room to wait for the Daoist Lord.
This time, he clearly saw that the Daoist Lord did indeed step out from the depths of the curtain directly facing him.
Fang Jueqian stood up from the soft couch and, with the mindset of paying respects to the God of Wealth, gave him a bow: “Husband, you are here.”
The youth glanced at him and ignored this boring question. With a wave of his sleeve, a crimson pill was levitated by invisible force right in front of him: “Swallow it.”
It looked like the Daoist Lord intended to directly repeat yesterday’s routine.
Fang Jueqian stared at the pill that allegedly turned people into sleepyheads, and his face slowly turned bitter.
He mustered his courage: “Can I not eat it?”
“No.” The youth’s expression grew even colder.
Fang Jueqian deftly swallowed the pill right away.
The moment the pill entered his stomach, sleepiness washed over him like a tidal wave.
This medicine was actually quite good for treating insomnia; it would definitely never lack a market.
Fang Jueqian yawned and leaned against the soft couch. A dozen seconds later, when he was so sleepy that his eyelids began to droop, his peripheral vision finally caught the figure of the youth walking toward him slowly.