The moment their eyes met, the high curve at the corner of Bu Quegan’s mouth froze, as if someone had pressed the pause button.
After an unknown length of silence, Jinshu took a deep breath. How was she supposed to handle stumbling upon someone else’s hidden secret? Having been bedridden for years and rarely interacting with others, Jinshu was so embarrassed she wanted to prostrate herself on the ground. She turned around, ready to flee.
“Hahaha, what a coincidence, little junior sister.”
“…” Jinshu stiffly halted her steps.
“Actually, it’s not a coincidence. I was waiting for you.” Bu Quegan forced out the words stiffly.
Did anyone understand how amusing, how utterly laughable it was to encounter the aloof, untouchable senior brother—the dream of countless young maidens—in the middle of the night in a desolate wilderness, putting on a falsetto voice to impersonate a woman and swindle money?
In The Sword God Chronicles, the insignificant supporting character, the dream of millions of girls, the sect leader’s personal disciple and senior brother Bu Quegan was described as follows: “Senior brother’s robes fluttered gracefully, pure and detached from worldly affairs. He possessed a stunningly icy demeanor, standing atop a high tower at this moment, his gaze profound and indifferent, carrying three parts aloofness and seven parts arrogance, as difficult to approach as a banished immortal.”
Comrade Bu Quegan didn’t have many scenes in the original work, and Jinshu didn’t have a deep impression of him. She only remembered that he seemed to be a cold, aloof male god. Who would have thought that the seemingly unapproachable senior brother was secretly engaged in such shady dealings?
The banished-immortal-like senior brother stood there composedly, as if nothing disgraceful had ever happened, and said, “Little junior sister… if you still want to stay here, I advise you to forget about today’s events.”
“Senior brother, shouldn’t I be the one saying that? If you don’t want everyone to know about today’s affairs, then I advise you to obediently listen to me.” Jinshu had always been more responsive to soft approaches than hard ones. Hearing Bu Quegan’s stiff tone, she couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. After considering the possible consequences of offending the senior brother, she still chose to fight back.
The senior brother clearly mistook her for the original body—that arrogant, willful little junior sister. Her words happened to be exactly what the little junior sister in his memory would have said.
The two stubbornly stood opposite each other, staring intently at one another. In this standoff, Bu Quegan quickly gave in, his face falling as he lunged toward Jinshu. While trying to grab her arm to plead, he said with a bitter expression, “Little junior sister, I’m begging you, please don’t tell anyone, okay? As long as you don’t say anything, I’ll give you anything except money. If you tell, I won’t be able to face anyone!”
It had rained just two days ago, and the soil by the small river was still damp. If he had approached gently, it would have been fine, but Bu Quegan lunged with too much force. As soon as his foot landed on the soft, muddy ground, he immediately tumbled into the river in an extremely bizarre, limbs-flailing position.
“Junior sister, save me, junior sister—I can’t swim!” A heart-wrenching scream pierced the sky. Bu Quegan flailed in the river with his eyes closed, still managing to quip with his mouth: “If I die, how many people will go mad? How many will throw themselves off cliffs? Will the medicine cultivators be so busy they won’t even touch the ground? Will the clinics be overcrowded? How many girls’ hearts will be broken tonight? Can you imagine it, junior sister? Save me—”
Ji Jinshu was greatly startled, with no time to consider anything else, she hurriedly leaned over the bank and reached her hand toward Bu Quegan. Bu Quegan flailed his limbs, his face contorted. Struggling in the water, he finally managed to grasp Jinshu’s hand and was half-dead as she dragged him ashore.
“Little Junior Sister, you have to take responsibility for me,” Bu Quegan lay on the ground, soaked and covered in mud. His face was pale and devoid of emotion, lacking the exaggerated, fierce expression he wore when speaking. At a glance, he truly appeared to be a man with refined features and an ethereal demeanor.
“Senior Brother, isn’t the ground cold? You should get up before speaking,” Jinshu said somewhat helplessly.
Bu Quegan closed his eyes, acting shamelessly: “If you don’t promise me, if you don’t keep what just happened a secret, I won’t get up.”
“But Senior Brother, isn’t this wrong? Isn’t this just deceiving people? What if that person’s family is struggling, with little money to begin with, and you swindle them like this? How will they survive?”
Bu Quegan sat up straight and explained: “No, no, no, I have a conscience, Little Junior Sister. Don’t misunderstand. When I first met him, I made sure to find out about his family’s situation. That kid’s family is quite wealthy—he seems to be the young master of some chain store. And I only asked him for a little money a few times, just to buy hairpins and flowers.”
A flicker of doubt crossed Jinshu’s face. Bu Quegan forced out a few more words with difficulty: “Only this time did I ask for a bit more, and I was planning to find someone else to deceive after this. To be honest, this is the first person I’ve ever tricked. I had no choice but to take this wrong path.”
“How did you end up in such a state?” Jinshu asked, both puzzled and cautiously probing.
Bu Quegan gritted his teeth and blurted out as if constipated: “I’m short on money. You definitely aren’t, so you wouldn’t understand.”
Jinshu took two steps back, furrowing her brows as she looked him up and down. No matter how she looked, she couldn’t see how this person before her could be so poor as to sacrifice so much. He was also far too different from the pure and lofty image described in the books.
Could it be…
Bu Quegan’s jaw tightened. The young girl before him stared with wide eyes, her right hand resting on a sparkling bracelet on her left wrist. Instinct told him that Little Junior Sister seemed to harbor some inexplicable hostility toward him.
Though he was still worried that his loose-lipped junior sister might reveal his secret, an inexplicable surge of caution urged him to leave quickly.
He forced out two awkward laughs: “It’s getting late, Junior Sister. I’ve already told you the reason. I just beg you not to say anything, if only for the sake of you still calling me Senior Brother. If there’s nothing else, I’ll take my leave now.”
With that, Bu Quegan hurriedly tried to leave.
But in an instant, a sharp aura pressed against the side of his face, startling him so much that his features twisted slightly. Trembling, he asked, “Junior Sister, what are you doing?”
Jinshu held the Banyu Sword pressed against his neck, her expression suspicious: “Who are you, impersonating my Senior Brother?”
Bu Quegan was so anxious he wanted to stomp his feet, but he was afraid of moving and bumping into the sword. His words began to stumble: “What impersonation? I am your Senior Brother, genuine and authentic!”
Jinshu remained unmoved: “How could Senior Brother possibly do such a disgraceful thing?”
Bu Quegan lowered his eyes, glancing at the sharp blade emitting a chilling aura, beads of cold sweat forming on his forehead. “Junior Sister, be careful not to cut me. My neck is quite precious, you know. Of course, I have a way to prove I’m your senior brother.”
Jinshu frowned, half-convinced and half-doubting. “Speak first.”
Bu Quegan cautiously replied, “When you were in seclusion before, you bought several bottles of pills worth a fortune from me. The Soft Heart Pills and Soul Attachment Medicine among them can only be refined by me and the Sect Leader. You said you had no money at the time, and the IOU is still tucked in my robe. The purchase of the pills and this IOU are secrets only the two of us know. You can’t deny that, can you?”
As he spoke, he gently pressed against Banyu, trying to push it away a little. Hearing his words, Jinshu was already mostly convinced.
Although she had no memory of buying pills, her senior brother was indeed one of the top medicine cultivators in the world. Moreover, the original owner was known for spending lavishly, often borrowing money with IOUs before repaying.
Seeing that the logic matched up, Jinshu sheathed her sword.
Bu Quegan rummaged in his robe for a while before pulling out a few crumpled pieces of paper. Squinting, he unfolded them, flipped through them for a moment, and finally handed one to Jinshu. “Here, see for yourself if it’s your handwriting. Besides, you promised you’d only be in seclusion for two weeks, but you ended up staying so long! You completely messed up my spending plans. The interest rate is definitely going up.”
Jinshu examined the IOU and finally confirmed that the person before her was indeed her senior brother and not some impostor.
But his earlier behavior didn’t quite match the refined and noble senior brother from the books or her memories. Could there be another reason?
Jinshu steadied herself and hesitantly lowered her voice. “My fate is in my hands, not in the heavens.”
Under his junior sister’s expectant gaze, Bu Quegan looked utterly confused. “Junior Sister, what’s wrong with you? Are you determined to study hard now? Elder Xuan Qing will surely be very pleased.”
Could it be that her senior brother hadn’t heard this reference?
Jinshu persisted. “Five words float in the sky.”
Bu Quegan furrowed his brows, looking at his junior sister’s encouraging expression, and tentatively uttered five words. “Junior Sister, hurry up and repay the money?”
Jinshu’s face fell instantly. It seemed her senior brother was still the same person, not someone from the modern world who had taken over his body.
She tucked the IOU into her robe and pouted. “I never expected you to be like this, Senior Brother. You hid it well all this time. I thought you were a gentleman.”
“But shouldn’t medicine cultivators be very wealthy?”
Everyone knew that compared to sword cultivators and music cultivators who needed to care for their Spiritual Artifacts, or beast cultivators who tended to spirit beasts, medicine cultivators were always flush with money. After all, pills were priceless treasures for ordinary people and indispensable for Cultivators. Bu Quegan was a one-in-ten-thousand genius medicine cultivator who also practiced medicine. If he needed money, he could simply sell a few pills or treat illnesses. How could he possibly be short on funds?
“Those pills of mine are no ordinary goods! They can’t be refined with common ingredients. The better the ingredients, the harder they are to obtain. No money, no medicine.” Bu Quegan passionately defended himself, only to see his junior sister’s skeptical expression.
“Then what about the money from selling those pills? Can’t it be used to buy ingredients?”
Bu Quegan was momentarily speechless, then scratched his head and defended himself, “The pills I refine aren’t very common, so no one uses them. But only a genius like me could refine these pills. Even though no one really wants them, the difficulty shouldn’t be underestimated.”
Jinshu twitched the corner of her mouth, once again revising her definition of the senior brother. She sighed and said, “Alright then, how much money do you need? I’ll give it to you. Just stop deceiving people.”
Bu Quegan was momentarily incredulous. “Junior sister, are you joking with me?”
“I can’t just watch my senior brother become a swindler out there. Anyway, I’m not short on money. You have to promise me you won’t deceive people anymore.” Jinshu folded her arms.
Bu Quegan beamed with joy and quickly agreed. Jinshu waved at him in farewell and turned to leave.
But then she heard Bu Quegan call out from behind, “Junior sister, you won’t report me to the elders, will you?”
Jinshu waved her hand. “As long as you swear to stop deceiving people, I won’t say anything.”
He called out again, “Alright, I’ll definitely turn over a new leaf. So when will you give me the money? I still need to pay for the medicinal herbs I owe someone.”
The girl’s skipping figure paused, as if she suddenly remembered something. She turned back with a look of alarm and said, “Senior brother, could you accompany me somewhere tomorrow? I’ll give you the money when we return.”
And so the two of them went together to find Li Xingdao.