After His Demise, the Demon Lord's Doted Canary Finally Sees the Light - Chapter 64

Lanzhi had secretly sent a report. Qiu Fuxue  opened it and fell into deep thought.

The report stated that a demonic fiend had been sighted in a small town in the northern part of Moonrise City.

He committed the words to memory. A wisp of flame suddenly shot from his fair fingertips, and the thin paper was instantly incinerated.

Recently, the demons had been crossing the border more and more frequently. Remembering all that had happened before, he suspected that Ye Chu was also searching for these fiends.

Since the two of them were rivals, he couldn’t let the other side get ahead.

The sunlight cast a shadow in front of the door. Qiu Fuxue thought it was Liyun again and ignored it, but the figure lingered outside the door for a long time before carefully knocking.

Liyun never knocked.

“Come in.”

The person outside entered, walking with a slight, limping stagger. However, the plate of pastries in his hand was held steady.

Qiu Fuxue looked up at him, feeling that the other man’s condition was even worse than when he first brought him back.

“A-Xue, I was on my way down the mountain and passed a pastry shop. I know you like them, so I bought some.”

Jiufang Cangze  carefully placed the porcelain plate next to him, secretly observing the other’s expression.

Qiu Fuxue was also looking him over. “Your leg is like this, and you still feel like going down the mountain to play?”

Jiufang Cangze lightly closed his eyes. He felt that saying he “specifically went down the mountain to buy pastries” would sound overly dramatic.

His arm was starting to itch again. He wanted to scratch it, but the pain when he touched it made him pull his hand back.

Qiu Fuxue noticed his odd behavior. He glanced at the demonic mark on his forehead, which was covered by a scar, and then looked at his arm. “What happened to you?”

Jiufang Cangze covered the festering wound on his arm and said in a nonchalant tone, “I washed my clothes and hung them out yesterday. This morning, I put them on and they’ve been itching ever since.”

The area where the disciples hung their clothes was public, and anyone could enter and exit as they pleased.

Qiu Fuxue knew that the Thousand Thoughts Sect disciples didn’t like Jiufang Cangze. They had probably secretly sprinkled some kind of prank powder on his clothes.

If such bullying were to happen between other disciples, he would never tolerate it and would investigate it thoroughly. But since it involved Jiufang Cangze, if he made a big fuss, Liyun would likely be unhappy.

After weighing his options, Qiu Fuxue silently handed him a bottle of medicine. “In the future, don’t hang your clothes outside.”

Jiufang Cangze stared at the medicine. He had indeed come with the intention of complaining, but he hadn’t expected to get anything. He just wanted to express his frustration to Qiu Fuxue.

The medicine bottle felt smooth and cool. Qiu Fuxue saw that he wasn’t leaving and frowned slightly, sending him away. “Is there anything else? If not, you can leave.”

“No… nothing.” Jiufang Cangze clutched the porcelain bottle tightly and whispered a thank you.

But as he was leaving, he ran into Liyun, who was excitedly rushing in.

Liyun’s face was filled with disgust. He was very unhappy that Jiufang Cangze had been there. “A crippled toad trying to eat swan meat.”

The door slammed shut. Jiufang Cangze’s body trembled slightly, and he gritted his teeth.

The small interruption didn’t affect Liyun’s good mood. He squeezed in next to his brother and took out a pile of yellowed paper balls from his sleeve.

“Brother, guess what I found in my room?”

“This is…?” Qiu Fuxue unfolded a paper ball. It was a message that read, “I like Brother.”

“Class used to be so boring. I wrote so many of these paper balls, wanting to throw them to you, but those old people were so strict! I never got the chance to throw them.”

The plate of pastries was forgotten in the corner. As he unfolded the paper balls, which were marked by time, Qiu Fuxue’s eyes unconsciously curved into a smile. The words on them were silly, but they held the most sincere and pure love of a young man.

“I remember our seats were very far apart. You still had the audacity to think of passing notes during class?”

“I never got to throw them, though…” Liyun said, looking at his fingers with a hint of regret.

After rummaging through the pile of crumpled paper for a long time, Liyun suddenly grabbed Qiu Fuxue’s arm and said excitedly, “Brother, Brother! Look at this…”

Standing in front of the door for a long time, Jiufang Cangze still didn’t want to leave. He could clearly hear the laughter and joyful chatter coming from inside the room.

He wondered what they were talking about…

His body seemed to move on its own. By the time he realized what he was doing, he was standing outside the window.

He stealthily pressed his ear to the window, secretly convincing himself that he just wanted to hear A-Xue’s voice. Just this once…

But he didn’t hear the voice he wanted to hear. Instead, he heard that hateful voice laughing and saying, “Brother, how about we set our betrothal (jieqi,) for the day after tomorrow?”

The short sentence was like a thunderbolt from a clear sky, splitting his heart in two.

Jiufang Cangze didn’t hear a single word they said after that. His mind was filled with “the day after tomorrow, betrothal.”

Sure enough, the thing he didn’t want to face had happened.

He pitied his former arrogance and his tendency to use force to get what he wanted. Perhaps during those nights they slept together, Qiu Fuxue’s heart was always with his junior brother, and that’s why he endured.

He returned to his room in a daze, forgetting how he got back. His eyes were empty, and the blurry things in front of him were gradually covered in a layer of red.

A sharp pain came. He belatedly touched his face, and his fingers were covered in blood.

His eyes had not healed properly, so it was very difficult to see. Now, they were shedding tears of blood.

But even as he realized this, the tears wouldn’t stop. At first, he just sobbed softly. In the end, he buried his head in his damp blanket and cried bitterly.

He didn’t know how long he cried. When he was tired, he fell asleep. When he woke up, everything he saw was still red.

A day quickly passed. On what he believed was the day of the betrothal ceremony, Jiufang Cangze fled the mountain early in the morning, as if in a panic. He was afraid of seeing the Thousand Thoughts Sect decorated with lanterns and streamers, and even more afraid of seeing his beloved in wedding robes, with someone other than himself by his side.

The disciples who were practicing early in the morning saw his panicked state. Their disdain was mixed with a hint of confusion.

“What’s wrong with him?”

“Who knows? He’s crazy all the time!”

“He must be having an episode…”

The city was as lively as ever. Jiufang Cangze wandered aimlessly on the main street. He would stop and stare whenever he saw a loving couple pass by.

He had spent the first half of his life fighting through a world of fire and blades, and he had never complained about his fate. But now, he suddenly felt a hint of resentment.

If he hadn’t been born for slaughter, would he not have become strangers with Qiu Fuxue and ended up in this situation?

He passed a tavern. The rich aroma of wine wafted into his nose. He felt his pocket. All his money had been spent on pastries. He lingered in front of the door for a long time but ultimately didn’t go in.

Just then, a slovenly young man patted him on the shoulder from behind.

“Hey! Why the long face, brother? Don’t have money for a drink? I’ll buy you one!”