CH 094 Alluring Seaweed Soup

This crab crawls by…..The Teacher of the State succeeded in attacking…..Village head Nie was successfully caught in the midst of clever remarks, blowing winds, and breaking waves…..(TN: crab is homonym for censor in Chinese)

The Jellyfish arrived in Lianqing at night.

The ship was docked on the shore. After Tai Yan arranged the affairs, he went to find Fan Luo and Nie Bufan, and wanted to invite them to have a meal together.

After knocking for a long time, the door reluctantly opened a gap, revealing a half hidden face in the gap. A bunch of tangled hair hung in front of the face, the eyes under the hair flickered, and slender fingers clung to the edge of the door where they scratched back and forth with their nails, creating a screeching noise and adding a strange atmosphere to this dim and quiet environment.

“What’s the matter?” Nie Bufan asked in a gloomy tone.

“Uh…..” Tai Chi replied hesitatingly, “The ship has docked, do you want to eat something?”

Nie Bufan stared at him for a long time, then stretched out a bare hand tremblingly, grabbed his sleeve, and said equally tremblingly: “I must trouble you to get me a set of clothes first.”

“Clothes?” Tai Yan’s gaze unconsciously peeked behind the door through the crack of the door, trying to see what was in the part that was hidden by the door.

Nie Bufan closed the door tighter again, and said guiltily, “What are you looking at? Haven’t you seen what a man without clothing looks like?”

“Cough.” Tai Yan touched his nose, and said with a suppressed smile, “Okay, I’ll ask someone to give you a set…..”

Before he finished speaking, the hatch door closed with a “bang”, and Tai Yan couldn’t react for a while, freezing in place, but soon, the hatch door opened again. This time it was still a seam, except that there was no human head, only a scissor hand shaking, and then someone’s vague voice: “Two sets, we need two sets!”

Tai Yan left inexplicably, the curiosity in his heart bubbling like a fish with asthma. With Fan Luo’s character, sleeping in the same room with others was already an amazing thing in itself, let alone sleeping “unclothed”? What was their relationship? What did they do in the room?

In order to find out the truth, Tai Yan personally brought two sets of clean clothes and knocked on the door: “Lord Teacher of the State, Wei gongzi, the clothes are here.”

He had already planned that as soon as the door was opened, he would “accidentally” stumble, then “bump” on the door and “fall” into the room.

After simulating it for a moment in his mind, the door finally opened with a creak. Tai Yan prepared himself, and he fell sideways towards the door, and with a “bang”, half the weight of his person pressed on the door panel, and yet the door didn’t move at all!

Tai Yan was puzzled, and he reached out and pushed hard, but the door remained motionless and remained ajar firmly.

Was it stuck? Tai Yan continued to push with perseverance, but still it had no response.

At this moment, a chilly voice came: “Brother Tai, what are you doing? Testing how strong this door is?”

Tai Yan’s movements paused, and then remembered that his behavior was a bit idiotic. He straightened his posture and turned to look at Nie Bufan, showing an aristocratic smile and said: “The clothes are here, why don’t you see if they fit?”

Nie Bufan didn’t take the clothes immediately. Instead, he scanned him up and down with searchlight-like eyes, until the other person’s smile was distorted before he slowly retracted it, took the clothes, thanked him, and closed the door.

Tai Yan looked at the door with conflicted feelings, he still couldn’t find out the secret, what a pity!

What was going on with the door just now——behind the closed door, a row of chickens was standing in line at that moment, pressing against the door and guarding vigilantly…..

Nie Bufan, who was neatly dressed, walked down the ship and embarked ashore with a bright smile as always. Fan Luo, who followed behind him, walked with light steps and springtime in his eyes, the corners of his mouth raised slightly and his whole person was like a peony sprayed with morning dew, a peerless wicked beauty.

Tai Yan felt that the two of them were a little eye-blinding, and the gloomy night could not conceal the firefly light they gave off.

Tai Yan led the people to the shore while introducing: “There is only a small village here. Although the conditions are a bit simple, the food is not bad, so I must ask you two to put up with it.”

“I’m very ‘particular’.” (TN: word for putting up and being particular sound the same though they have completely opposite meanings) Nie Bufan said with his hands held behind his back and his head upright, “Forget about crude tea and rough food, but fish soup and the like are acceptable.”

Fan Luo said, “Second island master said to ‘put up with it’!”

Nie Bufan glanced at him and said solemnly: “Do you think I have a bad ear? I am a person who is both ‘particular’ and ‘unpicky’, flexible and able to move forward and retreat backward. This is the highest realm one can reach in life. Of course, with your ability you probably won’t understand this.”

Fan Luo and Tai Yan fell silent.

Don’t try to correct a certain someone’s mistakes and outlook on life. There would be only two results. One was to go crazy; the other was to be completely brainwashed and never step back on the road of return.

Lianqing was remote and almost isolated from the mainland. Except for waterways, land transportation was very inconvenient. It was not marked on the map of the Ming Kingdom and was only used as a temporary transit point for general sea ships to temporarily dock at.

But people from Qiyu Island traveled between the two places all year round and were familiar with the fishermen here. They even helped the fishermen build a stockaded village open to the outside world to provide water, food and accommodation for passing sea merchants.

The several people were greeted into the stockaded village, arranged rooms, and then had a meal together.

Nie Bufan’s chicken ran away as soon as they got ashore, seeming to have been cooped up too long on the boat. In the end, only Wukong remained by his side.

The servant placed the hot meals out one by one. Everyone was tired and hungry from the journey so they did not make extra polite talk and started to enjoy themselves after picking up their chopsticks.

Nie Bufan distributed food to Wukong first, and then began to eat himself.

But after only two bites, he threw his chopsticks into the bowl and shouted: “There’s poison!”

The expressions of Tai Yan, Fan Luo and the others changed. The former was somewhat skeptical, but the latter was undoubtedly convinced.

Although Nie Bufan was often unreliable, he never made jokes about important things.

Fan Luo stood up quickly and stared at Tai Yan seriously.

Tai Yan frowned and looked around, keenly aware that the expressions of several fishermen not far away were indeed strange, and he quickly ordered an investigation into the situation.

However, the subordinate fell down without warning as soon as he took a few steps.

Before Tai Yan even had time to be stunned, he saw other people in the hall also faint one after another. There was a ping-pong-pong-pong noise, and the scene suddenly fell into panic.

“What’s happening?” Tai Yan shouted angrily, and at the same time felt dizzy as well.

At this time, a fisherman was dragged in and fell to the ground. He cried and said, “I’m sorry, second master, we really had no choice!”

“What do you mean ‘no choice’?” Tai Yan asked with gritted teeth trying to resist the effects of the drug. 

“A group of pirates came to our village the other day. They took the women and children and forced us to help them rob passing merchant ships.”

Tai Yan slapped the table abruptly and said angrily: “Pirates? What kind of pirates are so bold and dare to rob even the ships of Qiyu Island?”

The fisherman was trembling and unable to say a word more.

Tai Yan looked around, only five or six people were still standing, including Fan Luo and Nie Bufan.

He waved his hand and told the rest to return to the ship immediately. But as soon as the order was given, a group of men dressed in various styles poured into the village.

“Hahaha…..” The black-faced rough looking man at the head laughed arrogantly, “I finally caught a big fish this time!”

Tai Yan stared at him coldly.

“Don’t look at me like that, I’m not afraid.” The rough man said leisurely, “After we finish this trip, we will run away. The sea is vast and no matter how capable Qiyu Island is, you won’t be able to catch us.”

“Good, very good.” Tai Yan sneered, “I want to see if you really can escape from the pursuit of Qiyu Island.”

“I’m afraid you won’t be able to see anything anymore.” The rough man stepped on the stool and laughed triumphantly.

As he spoke, he waved: “Fellows, go! Tie them all up and lock them up in batches, we will throw them into the sea together tomorrow to feed the fish.”

“Boss, why not just directly…..” A wretched-looking guy leaned in and made a cutting gesture.

The rough man waved his hand and said, “They are all sea merchants. It is most suitable for them to die in the sea. How can an elegant person such as I not give them the ending they deserve?”

“Boss is wise.” The bandit gave a thumbs up.

A group of pirates heckled noisily as they rushed towards Tai Yan and the others.

The several people who had been drugged fought hard to resist, but could not restore the situation, and were eventually taken down one by one.

At this moment, the rough man suddenly noticed the gloomy-faced Fan Luo, and his eyes widened, revealing a covetous light.

In a few steps he walked to Fan Luo’s side, rubbed his chin and looked him up and down, and said: “What a rare beauty, it seems a pity to kill.”

Fan Luo’s eyes flashed sharply, his fists clenched tightly. He was born into a noble family, when had he ever suffered such treatment? And how could he tolerate such a look? He had thought that with the second island master of Qiyu Island escorting them, there would be no danger along the way, but he didn’t expect to fall into the hands of a group of pirates!

Tai Yan was obviously also in a rage, believing himself to have lost face, and wished to kill these people immediately.

Seeing Fan Luo glaring at him, that pair of alluring eyes appeared to be even more enchanting, the rough man couldn’t help but stretch out his hand, wanting to molest him.

At this time, a bowl of alluring seaweed soup was poured from the sky, landing directly on Fan Luo. The seaweed hung on his head and face, and instantly and ruthlessly destroyed his beauty.

“What the hell?” The rough man returned to his senses, looking at the beauty who had become a seaweed head, and flew into a rage out of humiliation.

“It’s this…..this kid.” A pirate cautiously pointed to Nie Bufan, who was re-bound and still holding an empty bowl in his hand.

“Do you want to die?” The rough man glared at Nie Bufan fiercely.

Nie Bufan said innocently: “I was so hungry. I just wanted to drink some soup. But your subordinates were so rude and caused me to spill all the soup. What a waste.”

“You’re damn lying!” The rough man roared in a bad tone, and then ordered, “Okay, lock them all up. Let’s count the spoils and leave here tomorrow morning.”

Such an interruption wiped out the lust after it had just been aroused.

Fan Luo looked at the calm and relaxed Nie Bufan through the pieces of seaweed and smiled back at the other, his eyes soft.

For some reason, his anxious mood just now gradually calmed down..…