"Aila, this King has come to see you," Xue Ranmei said shakily. He didn't know for sure whether Nage Aila would attack him or turn soft after perceiving the King to be in front of her.
Su Xiaonan looked at the situation and although he was confused for the nth time, he understood that his Sect Leader could deal with this situation, so he retreated his sword and watched from the side.
Nage Aila's face became more clear and it was revealed that she was actually a pretty beautiful female ghost. She had two phoenix eyes, a slim nose, and a delicate pair of red lips. Her skin, although pale and ashen, still reflected a fresh glow.
"My King...you have finally come here to see me!" Nage Aila cried out dramatically. Her form was now almost complete, the result being that she wouldn't continue to float around freakily.
Xue Ranmei swallowed, "Y-yes, uh...this King realizes that I have been too uncaring towards my Queen..." The level of meatiness[1] in this sentence was enough to make Xue Ranmei throw up, but he tried his best to ignore that.
More tears came out of Nage Aila's eyes, "My King!" she howled, making Xue Ranmei jump and want to run away. "You do not know! You do not know of how those other b*beep* bullied me and won't listen to me because they thought that I was out of favor!" She reached over toward Xue Ranmei.
'Uh-oh! She wants a hug?! I can't give that!' Xue Ranmei panicked. He quickly ducked to the side. Unfortunately, this seems to have angered the ghost.
Her eyes suddenly turned vengeful, "You! It's because of you! You abandoned me! You married me and took me as your queen just to get our Nage Clan's good warriors! You stole our top-class spiritual spells and recipes for elixirs! Then you threw me into the Cold Palace and tolerated the other women to humiliate and make my life a living hell! At last, you even took my life away!"
Su Xiaonan was immediately alarmed and launched an attack with his sword. Nage Aila easily dodged his attempt to slash her and grabbed his sword and twisted it like it was paper.
'Good Brat! Now you provoked her even more!' Xue Ranmei couldn't blame Su Xiaonan, since it was natural that he would want to protect his Sect Leader and knows nothing about how to handle Nage Aila.
Nage Aila laughed hysterically, "You still want to control me?! Hahahaha! You will never be able to! You created my infinite power! Now I will make you suffer as I did!"
A large black whirlpool sucked in Su Xiaonan, his sword falling onto the ground outside the hole.
"Xiaonan!" Xue Ranmei yelled. He jumped into the hole too and fell onto another 'ground' again. He was now inside a palace, the surroundings golden with detailed decorations on the walls and ceilings. The smell of flower wine and the sound of music picked up Xue Ranmei's interest. He opened his eyes and saw that Su Xiaonan was next to him, still unconscious. Su Xiaonan was now wearing the uniform of a servant in the palace. Xue Ranmei looked down at himself and saw that he was also wearing the same servant clothing.
Xue Ranmei concluded that they are currently in the Royal Palace of the little Handi Kingdom, guessing from his script. Women wearing exposing gauze costumes and jingling jewelry and ornaments danced in the center, twirling and moving their hips.
Now it was Xue Ranmei's turn to shake and wake up Su Xiaonan. "Little Brother, wake up!"
"Huh?" Su Xiaonan rubbed his head. "Sect Leader? Why are we here? And you—you are wearing different clothes!"
"It's okay, we have been sucked into Nage Aila's memories. She's that ghost," Xue Ranmei explained. "And also, please please don't call me Sect Leader again, my name is Xue Rui."
'Sect Leader is asking me to call him by his name? But that's usually considered very disrespectful...' "This disciple still thinks that it's more suitable if I call you Sect Leader..."
Xue Ranmei scrunched his face, "Little Brother, I know you want to be respectful and all that. But I won't be offended at all. Why should we always be like those ancient people when we're true friends? You are Su An and I'm Xue Rui. I don't want to be any Sect Leader, we are just common people living peaceful lives. From now on, we are good brothers and nothing more than that. Understand?"
Su Xiaonan nodded. "Alright, A'Rui."
"See? That's better—" Slap! A female in bright red and orange clothes walked over in a hostile manner.
'What the f*beep*?! Now I know that those friends on the internet complaining to me about being slapped by their girlfriends weren't kidding!'
The dancing girls and other servants were scared to death, their reaction as if some monster entered. They all dropped to their knees, their foreheads touching the ground. "Please have mercy on us servants, Your Ladyship[6]!"
Su Xiaonan blocked in front of the woman, "You're too bold! You even dare to slap Sect Leader!"
The woman kicked Su Xiaonan to the side. Surprisingly, Su Xiaonan seemed to have lost all his spiritual power and defensive ability. That didn't make Xue Ranmei surprised or worried since when people are sucked into a temporary, abstract time existence like this replay of Nage Aila's memories, they will be abnormally weak. Su Xiaonan climbed up, holding Xue Ranmei's arms protectively.
"What do you think you are doing, you dare to fall asleep while serving?" Bei Yan shrieked.
Xue Ranmei looked up. 'Nope, I don't recognize this person, I definitely didn't write her. Probably some new woman in that King's harem.'
Seeing Xue Ranmei, she scoffed. "Ha! So it's you! You're that...let me think...you're the son of that old b*beep*, right?"
If Xue Ranmei wasn't wrong, that 'old b*beep*' this woman mentioned was Nage Aila, which meant that at this time, Nage Aila was already out of favor. To be realistic, she never was in favor. That King only pretended to favor her so she would give him the secret spells and the deployment right of the cultivator warriors of the Nage Clan.
"Please watch your words. Na—Queen Mother is not someone that you can insult at your wish," Xue Ranmei warned coldly. It was time that he should start doing some good stuff for the good people in this story.
[APP Reactivated. You did the following correct things: making friends with Su Xiaonan, sympathizing with Nage Aila and speaking up for her.]
'I almost forgot about you damn APP! Wait! So saving my own life was not a good thing?! Just because I'm not the protagonist or a good guy in my own script, my life is so worthless?!'
[This APP has never said those words. Please respect yourself and stop doubting.]
Xue Ranmei rolled his eyes. Pia! Another slap.
"You dare to talk back to me and roll your eyes?! Just look at how I will teach you a lesson today!" Bei Yan summoned her spiritual weapon—a whip—and raised her arm. Someone caught her arm and stopped her from lashing Xue Ranmei.
"My Dear Noble Consort, don't waste your effort and time on these lowlives. Come, this King has a gift for you." The young man who stopped Bei Yan smiled. He was Handi Ge, the bastard king. 'That Turtle Egg[3]! His words still earned himself deserving of a good beating.' Xue Ranmei restrained himself from saying or doing more. "You are permitted to leave," Handi Ge announced to the servants, music masters and dancers. They quickly scurried out of the Palace Hall like rats who just got whammed by a broom.
"My King, look at him! His b*beep* mother is already like that and he even dares to talk back to me! This is clearly not putting your divine authority into his eyes[2]!" Bei Yan whined, laying her body all over Handi Ge.
Handi Ge seemed a little annoyed, but he remained smiling and sweet-mouthed, "Of course, Yanyan, a punishment is indeed necessary. But don't bother yourself."
Bei Yan, "Then, my King...what do you have planned for this bastard?" She put her arms around Handi Ge's neck. Bei Yan didn't seem to mind acting like this in front of the public and contaminating the other people's eyes, which clearly makes Handi Ge frown a little.
'Too much! This is too much! Hurtful to morals and manners!' Xue Ranmei turned away his embarrassed face. Su Xiaonan, who was clearly a little naïve boy, didn't seem to get what he was seeing, although he frowned a little due to an uncomfortable instinctive feeling.
Xue Ranmei pulled Su Xiaonan to make him turn his head, "Still looking?! Have you had enough of the dog food[4]?!" Xue Ranmei hissed.
Su Xiaonan quickly lowered his head to stare at the ground.
"But Yanyan," Handi Ge's voice turned serious, "you can't be so disrespectful next time. Aila is the Queen, remember?"
Xue Ranmei didn't expect that Handi Ge would even care to mention it, but he remained skeptical. 'So fake. If you really cared about whether she was being respected, then why are you throwing her into the Cold Palace and later even trying to kill her?'
"Fine fine fine!" Bei Yan snapped in a complaining tone. "When are you going to make me the Queen as you promised?! Are you still thinking about that b*beep*?"
As if this final insult really displeased Handi Ge, he shook her away to the side. "This King doesn't want to repeat my words."
Bei Yan, "...!"
Handi Ge reached out a hand to stroke Xue Ranmei's face, but Xue Ranmei turned away to avoid it. 'Disgusting. You still have the guts to consider yourself as Nage Aila's son's father?!'
"A'Ji, how should I put this, Bei Yan is your Consort Mother[5] regardless, so you should watch your attitude in front of her. But considering that this is your first time and you are still young, just apologize to her and this Father won't punish you." Handi Ge said in the demeanor like a real parent.
Xue Ranmei, "I won't."
"My King, can't you see?! He's doing it on purpose to be disrespectful!" Bei Yan wasn't about to give up accusing him.
"A'Ji, don't listen to Bei Yan, your Consort Mother just has a little bad temper. Just apologize." He sounded almost as if he was pleading.
Xue Ranmei repeated decisively, "I. Won't. Apologize."
'Why would you care? Just punish me then. I won't apologize to someone like you, especially when I didn't do anything wrong!' Xue Ranmei thought angrily.
"Guards!" shouted Bei Yan.
Two sturdy men stomped in. Their faces were fierce and their physique was huge and muscular. Just one look at them was enough to make any regular person shudder and think about running away.
"Take him to the Reflection Hall and handle him the old way! Oh and don't forget his little friend either!" Bei Yan ordered. 'The old way,' although Xue Ranmei had no idea, was probably just beating for a regular amount of times.
"Don't you dare!" Su Xiaonan said grimly.
The guards came over to grab Xue Ranmei and Su Xiaonan. Xue Ranmei was prepared for whatever harsh beating or another way of torture that he will be facing. Usually, he wasn't a person with such courage, but that was only because there were little things that he found worthy. But this case of Nage Aila was different. Xue Ranmei somehow felt that it was already his fault—if he hadn't written such a tragic fate for Nage Aila, then she definitely wouldn't end up like this right now—so he definitely couldn't apologize to this woman who very likely abused her horribly, an action that would be a literal insult, just to escape physical pain.
Then, Handi Ge's voice spoke again, "Let them go."
Two people were shocked. Bei Yan, 'I thought that my King was already tired and disgusted of that old hag, why is he still protecting her son?!'
Xue Ranmei, 'Why did you just tell them to stop? I thought that you didn't care what the other women did, as long as you can please them!' Although theoretically, what Handi Ge just did was the right thing, Xue Ranmei still couldn't take back any despise at all. 'Such a little thing still can't be compared to what you did to Nage Aila before!'
Handi Ge, "Just punish him to copy down the rules three hundred times. He is not allowed to eat until he is done." Handi Ge prevented himself from looking at Xue Ranmei, his face twitching slightly, almost as if he was holding back a heart-ache.
The guards let go of Xue Ranmei and Su Xiaonan, saluting once before they returned to their spots next to the doors.
Considering that Xue Ranmei had to think of a way to get out, he decided that he shouldn't be stubborn anymore. At least this time it's only his punishment.
"Yes." Xue Ranmei bit his tongue. Su Xiaonan followed Xue Ranmei towards the outside. They went down the long staircase from the Palace Hall to the Outdoors Court, which has no officials currently, since it was near evening. What kind of maniac official would be meeting the King at this moment? This was not a crappy office where pissed white collars had to work numerous extra hours into midnight. The officials would probably all be at home, practicing calligraphy, or outside socializing at taverns and bro—*ahem*—thels.
"Se—A'Rui, what should we do?" Su Xiaonan looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings with a hopeless face.
Xue Ranmei didn't know what to answer this time. These kinds of new details was definitely not in the script that he wrote. Who knew that things happened like this, beyond the scope of his writing? Xue Ranmei was originally ecstatic when he found out that this was his script, thinking that he can predict and manipulate things easily. But now he realized that every world was too complicated, including the one that he wrote of and so he couldn't have thought of and controlled everything even if he wanted to, which means that he will still have to find out things the hard way. First on the list, he needs to find out where the hell is the 'Reflection Hall'.
Xue Ranmei shook his head, "I have my APP that might help."
Su Xiaonan was already used to not being able to understand what Xue Ranmei says and only listened, trusting that Xue Ranmei wouldn't be wrong. So far, even though Xue Ranmei's behaviors had scared and baffled him, they all worked in the direction that they were supposed to.
'Damn APP, where is the Reflection Hall?'
[…]
'I'm asking!'
[…]
'What the hell is wrong with you?!'
[Please use respectful language.]
'Respect your a*beep*! Respect you?! You can't even tell me where something is! If I had my iPad right now, I would delete you damn APP right away and possibly think about prosecuting your designer!'
Su Xiaonan sighed and sat down at the bottom of the stairs. It seems that ever since when they were in the forest, the only job left to Su Xiaonan was to offer some physical protection and be called 'Little Brother'. Before, almost everything had to be organized and taken care of by Su Xiaonan and Xue Ranmei was someone who only focused on his mysterious cultivation stuff (that was by the way only one step away from pure witchcraft) and wouldn't even pick up a dropped oil jar[7].
[My creator specially employed a self-protection system in this APP, just in case this APP gets abused by users.]
'Ha right, so what your creator did to solve that problem was to employ a user-abusing system?'
[This APP is sorry. This APP will quickly scan the area and simulate a map.]
'Thank you!' Xue Ranmei replied in his mind sarcastically. He wanted to add, 'You better,' but was afraid that this Young Mistress Tempered APP might run into 'technical difficulties' again (more like passive-aggressive retaliation) if he provoked it in any way.
An actual map actually appeared in front of Xue Ranmei after a few seconds and what's best about it? It was not one of those ancient maps drawn on animal skin with only a few vague lines indicating 'building,' 'mountain,' or 'river'. The user-friendliness and amount of information could almost be prepared to google maps.
'What am I thinking? There's a big Google logo there! Ha, this really is google maps! Hey APP, looks like your creator has some conscience after all!'
Su Xiaonan turned his head to check on Xue Ranmei, who was smiling in satisfaction. "Okay, Little Brother, we can go!"
Xue Ranmei first made sure that he was in the right direction, indicated by the arrow and dot on the digital map. Because Su Xiaonan wasn't a designated user of the APP, he couldn't see anything and could only stare at Xue Ranmei, who seems to be scrolling and clicking the air.
The route was pretty successful and they soon got to the Reflection Hall. What's even great about this map is that it even marked where people were, their dots all in black, also with arrows, while Xue Ranmei's dot was green. When Xue Ranmei clicked onto someone's dot, a name would pop up. Most of the names were ones that Xue Ranmei couldn't recognize.
Xue Ranmei didn't bother to copy down the rules at all, while Su Xiaonan did it carefully. In Su Xiaonan's mind, as long as trouble didn't find them, they should be thankful and do what they had to do. Xue Ranmei played with the map and clicked on one dot.
His heartbeat almost stopped when he saw the name.
Qin Conglin.
He didn't even need to click the dot next to Qin Conglin to know who it was.
Qing Qingxian.
Xue Ranmei's voice shivered, "Heh...aren't these little buddies a little...uh, too loyal?"
'How did they get trapped into Nage Aila's whirlpool anyways? It can't be that he was so bored that he wanted to visit a half-prisoner in one of the worst places on earth!'
"Anything wrong?" Su Xiaonan looked up.
Xue Ranmei, "...Depends. I don't want to risk it, so let's go."
"Where?" Su Xiaonan set down his brush, picked up his sword and quickly followed.
"To somewhere where we can avoid the Plague God[8]."
[1]Meaty (肉麻) is a Chinese way of saying that something sounds too intimate or even insincere that it could cause goosebumps.
[2]'Not putting [something] in his eyes' means that that person doesn't care or respect something.
[3]Turtle Egg (王八蛋) is a derogatory term.
[4]Eating dog food (啃狗粮) is means seeing a couple being too lovey-dovey.
[5]In Chinese harems, all consorts and concubines are Consort and Concubine Mothers of the princes/princesses.
[6]Your Ladyship (娘娘) is what people of lower rank would call an empress dowager, empress, consort, or a concubine.
[7]'Wouldn't even pick up a dropped oil jar' (油瓶倒了也不扶} is describes someone who's very lazy and irresponsible.
[8]'Plague God' (瘟神) means someone that you really don't welcome or even dread seeing.