Chapter 4 Gu Tingchuan’s Excuse
I finished packing that night.
Before I left, Gu Tingchuan came to me.
He asked where I was going.
I looked at him without expression.
“Does it concern you?”
He frowned.
“Mingxi, why the sarcasm?”
“Yes, I slept with Yuan'er, but I was only saving her!”
“Was I supposed to watch her die?”
I watched his performance and suddenly laughed.
“Gu Tingchuan, have you forgotten we’ve known each other a hundred years?”
“You’re a medical cultivator—best at poisons and antidotes.”
“The secret realm was full of rare herbs. You could have chosen any detoxification method.”
“Yet you picked the most pleasurable one.”
“You really know how to treat yourself.”
His face twisted. He pointed at me.
“Mingxi, how can you speak so crudely?”
“Yuan'er was right—you do need to go there and fix that temper.”
I smiled.
“Then why pretend you didn’t know where I was going?”
He darkened.
“I was worried you’d suffer.”
“Last night Yuan'er and I discussed it. She was willing to share me with you.”
“But you’re so ungrateful.”
“You’ve let me down—and her kindness too.”
“If you don’t taste some hardship, you’ll never learn to behave.”
He flicked his sleeve and stormed off.
I watched his retreating back and felt only irony.
He had once knelt before me, eyes earnest, begging me to become his dao companion.
After a hundred years together, he still couldn’t see a person clearly.
I didn’t hesitate.
I mounted my sword and flew northeast.
I had heard the cultivation sects there were poor and rundown—
nothing like the warm, golden halls here.
But no matter how harsh the sect,
no matter how bitter the conditions,
it was a million times better than here.
At least I would never again see such laughable human nature.