Joy of Life


Joy of Life
(Fan Xian)
The Legend of Chu Qiao

The Legend of Chu Qiao (Princess Agents)
Love like the Galaxy

Love
like the
Galaxy
Offering Salted Fish to Master

Offering
Salted Fish
to Master
The Princess Wei Yang


Princess
Wei Yang
Faraway Wanderers

Faraway Wanderers
(Word of Honor)
Ancient Gods


Ancient Gods
(Mo Yang)
Supreme God Emperor

Supreme God Emperor
(Mu Yun)
Mesmerizing Ghost Doctor

Mesmerizing
Ghost Doctor
(Feng Jiu)
National School Prince is a Girl

National School
Prince is a Girl
(Project)

Joy of Life - V1C7





 Chapter 7 

 Master Fei Jie



Danzhou City had begun to wake up, but the unremarkable shop showed no signs of being open.

Hidden in a secluded room within the shop, Wu Zhu eyed Fei Jie coolly. “What is that old cripple up to?”

Fei Jie could be considered a great expert in more ways than one, but he was nervous when faced with the rumored cold-blooded viciousness of the blind youngster. “The young master will one day be a grown man,” he replied, “and he’ll face many problems in the capital. The earlier he is prepared for them, the better his chance of success.”

Wu Zhu lifted his head to face him.

Fei Jie made a startled expression. Although he always saw Wu Zhu with a black cloth covering his eyes, Fei Jie felt as if Wu Zhu was glaring at him with murderous intent. "If you object, Master Wu," he said, "I will return to the capital. I'm sure the master will take your complaint seriously."

Wu Zhu shook his head. “I think the old cripple sent you for more than that. It’s not that simple.”

“Correct.” Wu Zhu was the only one who dared to speak about the master that way, thought Fei Jie. “The master has never found the black chest that her Ladyship left behind,” he said, bowing his head as he spoke. “He is very worried that someone may find it, so he has asked that you advise him on the matter, Master Wu.”

“It’s no use looking,” said Wu Zhu flatly. “Her Ladyship destroyed it before she passed away.”

Fei Jie nodded and turned to leave. Stopping, he frowned. “There’s something odd about the young master. He’s only four years old, yet you’ve let him study such a powerful form of Zhenqi cultivation. Are you not worried something might happen?”

“What’s odd about it? " Wu Zhu replied as he stared at the man who was soon to be the young master’s teacher. “I never taught him any Zhenqi.”

Fei Jie rubbed the wound on his head, which was beginning to ache. He had a bad feeling about all this. Forcing a smile, he took his leave.

After he had left, Wu Zhu entered a secret room within the shop. In the corner stood a dusty black chest. Although a length of black cloth obscured his eyes, his actions suggested he could see everything perfectly.

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

Later that day, a strange middle-aged man came to the Count’s villa. Giving his name and the name of his master, he received an audience with the Old Mistress. And , he gained her trust and was invited to serve as the second tutor for the young master of the Fan family.

The servant girls quickly spread this strange news. How could this roguish-looking old man, his head covered in bandages, be qualified to tutor the adorable young master?

Fan Xian kneaded his tutor’s back in the library, massaging it with his fists. Considering the ugly business with the porcelain pillow that had transpired the night before, he felt that he had best get back in Master Fei’s good books as soon as possible.

“It wasn’t my fault, sir!” He said in a voice so sweet and childish that even he felt repulsed. “You had a knife, and I’m just a little boy, so I was scared…”

I had the knife because I had to pry open the door, thought Fei Jie. I just wanted to take a peep at what the fabled bastard child had grown up to look like. How was he to know you suffered from insomnia?

It was an inevitable misunderstanding, and unfortunately, it had left him with an aching head.

“I thought you were going to teach me something in secret,” said Fan Xian.

“That’s right,” Master Fei replied. “In many folk tales, a young child encounters a strange traveler and learns a mystical art, often without anyone around them realizing what’s happening. This type of story occurs quite frequently,” he said with a touch of irony.

Fan Xian fixed Master Fei with a stare as he talked.

“But there are more than just fools in this world.” Fei Jie stared sternly back at the young boy. “Given that I’ve pretended to be a teacher, it is better to use this as an opportunity to teach you.”

Fan Xian giggled and climbed onto his lap. “Teacher, do you know my papa? What is he like?”

Fei Jie’s face went red. He knew this young child was ruthless, no matter what innocent act he committed, yet he was filled with powerlessness. On hearing the question, he paused in thought for a moment. “The Count is a friend of my boss’, so he asked me to come and teach you. You can call me ‘teacher’.”

As Xian jumped from his lap, he cupped his hand and made a small bow. “Teacher, what are you going to teach me?”

Fei Jie laughed, and his brown-flecked pupils flashed with an unusual light. “I am a master of poisons. I have come to teach you how to use poison to kill and how to avoid being poisoned by others.”

He thought his words would frighten the young boy to tears, but he quickly realized that the little boy standing before him was no ordinary child, so trying to scare him this way would be pointless.

Sure enough, Fan Xian’s big eyes were excited, and he fluttered his long eyelashes as he blinked with fervent interest. “What are we waiting for? Do you want me to catch some rabbits to experiment on? Or maybe some frogs?”

Fei Jie turned away, dumbfounded. Was this kid only four years old?

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

Several weeks later, a faint dawn began to break in the pale eastern sky at a burial mound a dozen miles from Danzhou Harbor. It spread across the gloomy cemetery, making it seem even ghastlier.

With his hands tucked into his sleeves, Fei Jie stood outside the cemetery, looking at the young master, stooping into an open grave with a trembling brow.

Fei Jie had taken Fan Xian away from the Old Mistress for several days under the pretext of going out. They had gone to the cemetery to dig up corpses to study the structure of the human body.

He knew that the Young Master Fan was an unusual child, and as he watched him acclimatize so quickly to the gloom of the graveyard, steady his mind, and dissect the corpses as he had been learning that month, he couldn’t help but feel rather horrified.

Fei Jie was a professional who dealt with corpses all the time. But he had never encountered a four-year-old boy who was so calm around dead bodies.

The handsome boy, surrounded by the fetid stench of death, wore a face mask as he yanked the entrails out of a half-rotted corpse.

It was an utterly ghoulish scene. Fan Xian thought horribly that this second life was as miserable as the first one.

Pulling down his face mask and washing his hands with clean water, Fan Xian started recording the features of the corpses. He analyzed the diseases the deceased might have contracted, taking detailed notes in a black, leather-bound notebook Fei Jie had given him.

After he finished, he stood up, his face pale, his long eyelashes fluttering incessantly. “Is there anything else to do, sir?”

Looking at him, Fei Jie frowned. He hadn’t expected the kid to have such guts.

Before he could open his mouth to say anything, the nausea had finally gotten to Fan Xian. He ran to the edge of the graveyard and began to vomit violently. When the nausea had finally passed, he stood up again.

A soft look of pity glanced across Fei Jie’s face. Had he been too harsh, ordering a four-year-old boy to get up close and personal with such terrible things? As he watched Fan Xian vomit, Fan Jie suddenly realized that this was the first time he seemed like a child rather than an old soul in a young body.

“It’s okay. You’ve got some first-hand knowledge now. We can discuss it another time.”

Fan Xian's young voice interjected before Fei Jie could finish his sentence.

“It’s a shame Danzhou’s such a small town. Not enough dead people. Otherwise, we might be able to find fresher corpses.”

Fei Jie’s heart skipped a beat, and he slowly turned his head to look into Fan Xian’s innocent eyes. He wasn’t sure exactly what he was expecting to find in them. After a long while, he spoke distantly. “Why…”

“Huh?”

“Why aren’t you scared? Why aren’t you angry at me for making you do these things?” Fei Jie fixed the young boy with a bewildered frown.

Fan Xian lowered his head. “Teacher,” he said respectfully, “You said you could poison someone, and I needed to watch and learn. I’m scared, but I understand that we must dig up corpses.”

“So, are some things in this world that frighten you?”

“There are.” Fan Xian looked piteously at his teacher. “I’m only five years old.”

"Age is just a number," Fei Jie said, nodding before shaking his head again. "Even though you’re young, there are some things you may not understand now, but you will have to learn eventually. As a nobleman’s illegitimate child, you will encounter many plots and attacks. Sometimes, misplaced sympathy can lead to one's own downfall."

Fei Jie had the odd feeling that the child fully understood everything he’d just said. At that moment, rays of daylight found their way into Fan Xian’s eyes, setting them off with a shimmer of gold.

Fei Jie was briefly taken aback. There was something wholly otherworldly in the boy’s eyes. Over the years, his poisons had killed countless people. During the year of the late Emperor’s northern conquest, his poisons killed thousands of soldiers from the Northern Wei Empire. His crimes would undoubtedly damn him to hell. Then why did the sight of this innocent child cause him such unbearable unease?

After putting right, the nameless grave they had disturbed, the odd master and student pair walked eastward toward the dawn. “You must have many questions,” said Fei Jie as they descended the road.

“Mm,” Fan Xian grunted in affirmation, a sweet smile spreading shyly across his face. “You’re very good to me, Teacher.”

Fei Jie hadn’t expected the child to answer so tactfully. “If you can smile about something like this,” he said, laughing bitterly, “I wonder how mature you are.”

“Better to laugh than to cry.”

“That’s true.” Fei Jie stared at the city walls in the distance, furrowing his brow. “Your father owns a great estate in the capital. Many people will struggle to take it from you, so you’ll have to become strong and learn as much as possible.”

Fan Xian remained silent, deep in thought. He had always heard that his father, Count Sinan, was well-trusted by the Emperor and lived in the capital.

The year before last, a significant political upheaval occurred in the capital, resulting in the deaths of many nobles during a coup. In the end, His Majesty regained control of the situation, purging the aristocratic houses of countless individuals. Despite being one of those nobles affected, Fan Xian’s father maintained the Emperor's trust and enhanced his standing.

Yet, Fan Xian still couldn’t comprehend what kind of estate could put his life at risk. Why would this lead his father to recruit such a formidable intermediary from the Overwatch Council to become his teacher?

“I understand. One day, someone will try to kill me, so you’re teaching me to use poison. Really, I’m scared someone will try to poison me.”

“Right. Killers have many methods, but poison is the easiest and least likely to arouse suspicion.” Fei Jie rubbed the crown of his head. “My job is to teach you about such matters so that no one can kill you by poisoning one of your meals.”

“But why only now? Surely, you’ve been worried that somebody might poison me for the past few years.” Fan Xian needed clarification, so he continued asking questions; all the while, he couldn’t help but worry that his teacher would sense a maturity beyond his years.

Fei Jie smiled, but his words were grim. “Because Count Sinan’s concubine gave birth to a son last month. In other words, you already have a rival for Count Sinan’s estate. And that concubine has connections within the Overwatch Council. Your father was worried something might happen to you, and it wouldn’t be convenient to dispatch someone to guard you for a long time because that would arouse suspicion. So, he sent me to teach you.”

Fan Xian noted that Fei Jie said, “Count Sinan” and “Your father.”

“I’m a bastard,” said Fan Xian, smiling. “By law, I have no right to inherit my father’s title. So, the concubine shouldn’t worry about me.”

“One can never be too certain of anything in this world,” Fei Jie responded sharply. “Even though you have Master Wu looking out for you, he can't always act as your guardian. Poison in your food might not affect him, but it could still be fatal for you. And if you were to die, you don’t know how many others might perish alongside you.”

Fan Xian's doubts intensified. What kind of power did his father possess, a man he had never met? It seemed far greater than what someone of his status should normally have.

The morning sun was bright, and as Fei Jie led his charge toward the walls of Danzhou, their shadows—one tall, one short—stretched out upon the ground. Fei Jie observed Fan Xian’s face, still rather pale. “Truth is that dead people are nothing to fear.”

“Alright.”

“And don’t use Zhenqi to control your emotions. If human emotions aren’t given the proper outlet, even if your powers of Zhenqi control are at their peak, you’ll become a murderous monster.”

“I understand.” Obediently, Fan Xian scattered the Zhenqi within his body and stopped suppressing the disgust and smell he felt at handling corpses.

At that moment, Fei Jie suddenly spoke. “There are still some rotten entrails in your sleeve. You take them home for breakfast?”

“Yuck!” The child’s disgusting shriek and his teacher's sinister laugh pierced the rustic dawn's quietude.