The Demon Lord Always Tries to Hinder My Promotion - Chapter 4

Qi An was an orphan who grew up fed by a hundred families.

Ever since she could remember, she had been all on her own. Her home was always empty and hollow, and even the candlelight flickered with a sense of loneliness.

To cover up the bare, desolate walls of her humble abode, she began picking up things from the outside when she was ten everything from abandoned clothes and shoes to stray chickens, dogs, ducks, and geese. Over the years, she had harvested quite a lot, enough to keep herself from going hungry without having to beg for meals from the neighbors.

Perhaps she had developed a taste for the rewards of scavenging, as the things she picked up grew larger and larger, until one day, she picked up a person and brought him home.

That day, she was carrying a basket of eggs to give to Master Zhao at the private school.

Master Zhao was the most learned man in town. He had once traveled to the capital to take the imperial spring examinations; although he hadn’t been selected, he was the only juren (provincial graduate) in their entire town.

He had a kind heart. Seeing that Qi An had no one to look after her, he often invited her to his home as a guest, teaching her to read and write. Whenever the seasons changed, he would even have his wife prepare new clothes for her.

Because of this, Qi An was very grateful to Master Zhao’s family. Whenever the chickens and ducks at home laid eggs, she would send some over to Master Zhao’s house—it was the only way she knew how to express her gratitude.

As she walked, she pondered a question Master Zhao had asked her during her last visit.

“Man is molded by the Heavens and transformed by the Earth; we understand the Yin and Yang, the Five Elements, and the destined fate of Heaven. When one knows their destiny, if that destiny goes against their heart, should they act against their conscience to follow the natural flow of fortune, or should they engage in a futile struggle to seek peace of mind?”

Qi An had always been one to “go with the flow.” She had no heart for struggling against fate, so for her, there was only one choice.

However, after she spoke her true thoughts, Master Zhao shook his head and told her to go back and think about it some more.

She didn’t understand. Her temperament wouldn’t change in these few short days, so naturally, her choice wouldn’t change either. Moreover, after Master Zhao failed the spring examinations, he never went back to the capital to test again hadn’t he accepted his own fate?

Just as she was perplexed, a clamor from the street interrupted her thoughts.

She wasn’t someone who liked to join in the bustle. In the past, she would have bypassed it, but today, as if moved by some divine intervention, she couldn’t help but draw closer.

In the center of the crowd, the owner of the pastry shop was clutching a young man’s sleeve, cursing and swearing: “You look like a decent person, so why are you pulling such fraudulent tricks? You ate my pastries without paying!”

The young man frowned, looking thoroughly dissatisfied: “I asked for the money, and I gave you the money. Why do you still say I’m defrauding you?”

The shopkeeper threw a stone that glowed with a faint light onto the ground and shouted: “Do you take me for a fool? You’re using this deceptive trinket as currency?”

The young man said righteously: “Why is this not money?”

This definitive rhetorical question left the crowd in contemplation—this young man must be a fool.

But even if he was a fool, the shopkeeper wouldn’t let him take advantage.

He made a show of dragging the young man to the magistrate’s office. The young man’s expression grew impatient, and he exerted force to shake off his sleeve, actually pushing the shopkeeper until he stumbled.

Seeing that both sides were about to fight, Qi An knew the shopkeeper used to be a butcher; if they came to blows, the young man’s physique meant he would surely lose half his life. Unable to bear it, her legs moved before her brain.

She held up her basket to separate the two. The shopkeeper’s fist nearly landed on her forehead, but luckily, he held back in time.

The shopkeeper knew Qi An; he knew she was someone without a penny to her name, so he didn’t give her a pleasant look. “What are you doing, you penniless wench, jumping in here?”

Qi An said kindly: “Shopkeeper, please calm down. I’ll pay for this young man’s money; can you forgive him, please?”

The shopkeeper snorted coldly: “You have money?”

“…” Qi An felt her empty pockets and said sheepishly, “This basket of eggs should be worth a few coins. Do you think it can offset those two pastries?”

The shopkeeper eyed the eggs and calculated. In truth, his two pastries weren’t worth much; if he traded them for eggs, he would actually be the one profiting.

After thinking it over, he agreed to the trade. “Fine, seeing as you’re young, I’ll let you off this once.”

That was said as if he were the one taking the loss.

Qi An didn’t mind. After softly thanking him, she finally coaxed the shopkeeper away.

Once the crowd dispersed, she walked over to the young man and asked kindly: “Young master, how old are you this year?”

The young man replied: “Three hundred and nine years old.”

Hmm, he really is a fool.

Qi An looked at the young man’s face not handsome, but quite upright and felt a pang of pity. To have a broken mind at such a young age, what would he do for the rest of his life?

She asked again, without hope: “Do you remember your name? Do you have family? Where is your home?”

The young man was silent for a long time before saying: “Shang Ziliu.”

In other words, other than his name, he remembered nothing else.

Qi An sighed softly, not knowing what to do with this young man. Suddenly, she thought that since she had picked up so many things, she was still missing one that could talk and keep her company. And so, swayed by a selfish impulse, she picked the young man up and took him home.

She used an upright bamboo mat to divide her already small, single-room shack into two tiny chambers; she lived in the inner room, and Shang Ziliu in the outer one.

Although Shang Ziliu’s eyes revealed his disdain, he didn’t express it in his words; he simply obeyed her arrangements.

Qi An had originally thought that with another person in the house, the chores would be easier. But Shang Ziliu had never done a day’s work in his life; his hands were even fairer and more tender than Qi An’s, who was a girl. Every time she had him do chores, she had the eerie feeling that she was forcing someone upright into illicit work. After making him do chores twice, she truly couldn’t bear to make him work, so she just let him stay by her side and talk to her.

After spending some time with Shang Ziliu, Qi An came to understand him—his folly didn’t stem from low intelligence, but from a biased understanding of everything in the world.

For example, when Qi An caught chickens with her bare hands, he would ask from the side why she had no magic power, yet could subjugate the offspring of the Phoenix clan.

Or, he would question why horses, as mounts, couldn’t fly through the air and ran so slowly.

At the time, Qi An didn’t believe in gods, demons, or immortals, so hearing this, she just thought he was foolishly cute.

However, not everyone could see that side of him.

Not long after Qi An picked up Shang Ziliu, gossip spread in the town.

One day, they went to Master Zhao’s house to deliver things together. When a few small children saw them, they surrounded them, jumping and singing: “Poor wench without father or mother, picked up a fool for a house-husband. How shameful, how shameless, drilling into the bed-curtains in broad daylight…”

These words were extremely ugly. Even as broad-minded as Qi An was, she couldn’t help but feel a bit hurt.

She just wanted to leave quickly, but unexpectedly, Shang Ziliu grabbed the collar of one child and hoisted him up with one hand.

He asked chillingly: “What were you singing just now?”

The child was instantly frightened to tears.

Qi An knew he was angry because of the lyrics in that nursery rhyme, so she stepped forward to dissuade him: “Don’t mind them; they are just children. How would they know what that means?”

Shang Ziliu’s tone was icy: “Precisely because they don’t know, I must make them learn early what should be said and what should not.”

Qi An was stunned. She hadn’t expected the usually well-mannered Shang Ziliu to lose his temper.

Just as she was about to persuade him further, the child’s family ran over, grabbed their child away, and pointed at Shang Ziliu’s nose, cursing: “What are you doing to my child, you fool!”

Shang Ziliu looked frost-bitten: “You might want to ask your child what he was singing.”

As Qi An had said, the children didn’t fully understand how hurtful the words were—these had been taught to them by their parents.

Those who could think up such lyrics to bully others naturally wouldn’t think they were in the wrong.

“What were they singing! It’s all just facts! If you had the face to do it, why be afraid of people saying it?”

Qi An had heard many heart-piercing words since she was small, but none had ever felt as uncomfortable as this moment.

If not for Shang Ziliu, she would have certainly argued with them, but seeing Shang Ziliu’s tightly clenched fists, she took a few deep breaths and finally pulled him away.

The other side had strength in numbers; if a real fight broke out, Shang Ziliu would get hurt.

At first, Shang Ziliu refused to follow quietly, especially when they turned around and heard those people still aggressively hurling insults from behind—he couldn’t suppress his fire.

But when Qi An begged him not to turn back in a choked voice, he restrained his impulse to fight.

When they reached Master Zhao’s house, Master Zhao saw their gloomy expressions and asked the reason, only then learning what had happened today.

Master Zhao said objectively: “They were in the wrong, but you were also inappropriate. Unmarried men and women living under the same roof in the end, it does not conform to propriety.”

Qi An had originally wanted to receive some comfort from Master Zhao, but she hadn’t expected him to say this as well. It seemed she really had done wrong.

Who would have thought that after a moment of silence, Master Zhao added: “However, you did this out of kindness, so this impropriety is insignificant.”

Mistress Zhao wiped Qi An’s tears and smiled: “Actually, we have discussed matters regarding you two. Shang Ziliu is a man; he can stay at our house temporarily and sleep in the same bed as Yue’er, then go to your place during the day to help. That way, his food and lodging are settled, and it saves you some trouble.”

Qi An was dumbfounded; she hadn’t expected the Zhao couple to consider her so thoughtfully.

She nodded immediately, happily saying: “Many thanks, Master! Many thanks, Mistress!”

Qi An was sincerely happy at the time, as she had found a place for Shang Ziliu to stay. But when she returned to her lonely shack by herself and looked at the bamboo mat that divided the rooms, that feeling of happiness vanished.

Used to the days of having someone’s company, she was unable to adapt to returning to the way things were before.

She didn’t sleep all night and got up before dawn.

The moment she opened the wooden door, she saw a familiar figure immersed in the night.

She couldn’t see the person’s face clearly, but by instinct, she called out his name: “Shang Ziliu…”

Shang Ziliu turned around at the sound, strode up to her, his emotions unfathomable: “Did my staying here cause you trouble?”

“How could it?” Qi An bowed her head, shaking it, her voice filled with bitterness. “It’s just that by staying here, you get dragged into my affairs and people gossip about you, just like today. You were so angry earlier you must be unable to stand hearing those words.”

Who would have expected Shang Ziliu to say: “I was angry today because they made you unhappy.”

Qi An looked up, stunned.

Shang Ziliu asked again: “If I said I didn’t care what they said about me, would you still be willing to let me stay?”

In the end, Qi An couldn’t bear to cast away that companionship. She nodded and whispered: “Mm.”

The golden sun emerged, staining the horizon red.

“I don’t want to see you sad; you worry that I will get hurt.” Under the morning sun, Shang Ziliu revealed the most beautiful smile she had ever seen: “Our feelings are the same.”

That day, for the first time, Qi An gave her heart away.