Chapter 64
Note: Early chapter release, thanks to Sakuradahl's support on Ko-Fi ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝⋆˙⟡♡
Two people stepped into the courtyard. One was Qin Zhongjin's assistant, and the other was a tall, young man who looked about the same age as Su Yao.
It was this young man who had just spoken.
He had a charming appearance, and seeing Qin Zhongjin holding Mu Cai's foot, a small bulge formed on the cotton home-style clothes on his chest. His smile deepened, "This is truly a sight to behold, like an iron tree blossoming once in a thousand years."
Furthermore, according to his natural yin-yang eyes, the one who dared to kick Qin Zhongjin was not human but a very beautiful ghost.
After finishing speaking, the young man looked toward Mu Cai. The direction of the beauty's couch was not completely facing away from the main entrance, but indeed it could block more than half of the person lying on it. When he just entered, he only saw a corner of the red clothes and a lovely leg stepping on Qin Zhongjin.
Now, as the person on the couch turned around, the young man's eyes were instantly filled with amazement. He murmured, "No wonder... no wonder... even Qin Zhongjin can't resist..."
After Mu Cai saw the visitor, the faint blush on his face instantly disappeared. He coldly turned his head, ready to remove his leg from Qin Zhongjin's clothes.
According to the script, this young man was named Han Dan. In his previous life, he was Qin Zhongjin's left-hand man. He had slandered the original protagonist several times in front of the prince, causing the relationship between Qin Zhongjin and the protagonist to become more estranged. Ultimately, their relationship was broken, and the protagonist met his untimely end in exile.
According to the setup, Mu Cai would naturally not give any pleasant expressions to the opposite party. Among the three in the room, the original character disliked them all, but he detested Han Dan the most. After all, in his memory, Han Dan was a villain who sowed discord.
Han Dan's appearance immediately made countless unpleasant scenes come to mind within Mu Cai. Having grown up in a wealthy family and doted on, receiving so much malicious information so suddenly made Mu Cai just as angry as the original character would have been upon seeing Han Dan.
However, the moment Mu Cai moved, a slender but powerful hand gripped his ankle, stopping him from taking action.
Fuming, Mu Cai demanded, "Let me go!"
Qin Zhongjin didn't let go, but calmly asked, "You are angry. Can you tell me why?"
Mu Cai didn't want to talk to him, so he lifted his foot and forcefully kicked it down. Qin Zhongjin was unprepared for this sudden attack, and he stepped back slightly, coughed, subsequently loosening his grip.
The assistant, who had been standing by, immediately came forward to help, but Qin Zhongjin motioned for him to stop with a hand gesture.
He raised his head, and the red mark of a sword between his eyebrows flickered.
Having momentarily regained his freedom, Mu Cai's crimson robe fluttered as he leaped off the couch and dove into the densely packed peach blossom trees, disappearing in an instant.
The atmosphere suddenly became tense.
Han Dan's face turned pale.
Han Dan was a charming and handsome man with an air of elegance and was a bit of a rogue. Additionally, due to his background, he had never received clear rejections from others.
But now, this breathtakingly beautiful person in front of him, who made his heart stop for a few seconds, seemed to despise him particularly. The moment he saw Han Dan, he left without giving him any face. This caused a dull pain to rise in Han Dan's heart, as if being pricked continuously by silver needles, suffering a slow torture.
Han Dan was Qin Zhongjin's trusted friend, and they got along well. Usually, Qin Zhongjin would welcome Han Dan's visit. But now, Qin Zhongjin ignored his now pale-faced friend and stared at the peach blossoms instead, saying, "If you don't want to come out, that's okay. In the evening, I'll bring an empty painting for you. It will be better for you to recuperate your soul in the painting than in the peach tree. Don't hold a grudge against me for this, okay, Cai Cai?"
The peach blossoms were in full bloom, yet the rustling sound between the leaves disappeared. From top to bottom, the peach tree remained motionless, not giving Qin Zhongjin any response.
He stood beneath the tree for a long time.
The atmosphere was very tense, and no one spoke. Han Dan's face was ashen, and Su Yao clenched his fist at his side. Qin Zhongjin quietly waited, but in the end, all he received was the occasional breeze in the courtyard, and the simultaneous swaying of the peach blossoms and leaves.
Qin Zhongjin finally lowered his head, turned, and looked at Han Dan and said, "Mr. Han, as you can see, my family members are not welcoming to you. If you have any matters today, we can discuss them at a later time. Alternatively, you can communicate with my assistant online, and he will forward the message to me."
Han Dan hurriedly nodded his head, then turned and stumbled away as Qin Zhongjin saw him off.
He was distraught now, his mind filled with a profound sense of failure caused by being detested by the beauty. Despite just a few seconds of eye contact and a brief meeting, the other party's casual glances, the departure of the red-clad figure flitting like a butterfly, even the furrowed brows and disgusted expression, brought him pain and obsession as he replayed those scenes in his memory over and over again.
In front of the gate of the Qin family, Han Dan's muddled mind cleared a bit. Looking at Qin Zhongjin who had come to see him off, he finally asked, "I want to know what I did wrong?"
Han Dan tried to recall, remembering nothing more than a casual joke and a face-to-face meeting with the other party. Why did the red-clad beauty detest him so much? He was even unwilling to stay in the same space as him. If the other party dislikes something, he can change it!
Qin Zhongjin paused for a moment, then finally said, "You might want to ask your previous incarnation."
Han Dan was stunned, then a look of defiance appeared on his face.
He had no idea what he had done in his past life. But if it was because of the mistakes of his past life that the red-clad beauty treated him this way in this life, was it not too unfair to him? However, if he were to ask the red-clad beauty to let go of the past, it would be even more unfair to the beauty.
After all, the red-clad beauty had not reincarnated, so his suffered pain couldn't just disappear. It's normal for him to resent Han Dan.
Yet Han Dan couldn't accept this!
With these thoughts in mind, he became even more distraught and could only turn and leave.
Qin Zhongjin did not immediately turn back to his own courtyard, instead, he turned to his assistant who had followed him out, "Is there anything to report?"
The assistant immediately replied, "The money you asked me to transfer yesterday, sir, I have already sent it to Mr. Jin."
The price was indeed astronomical. If it were an ordinary person, using such a large sum of money just to buy a no-name painting, most people would think he was crazy.
However, thinking about the appearance of the red-clad beauty, the assistant feels that the money is well spent. Besides, Mr. Qin is not short of money. After all, there are many people who want to ask him for help to solve problems. Only those who are wealthy and prestigious can connect with Mr. Qin.
Qin Zhongjin nodded, then asked, "How about the matter I asked you to investigate?"
The assistant replied, "There is very little information about this painting, and I haven't found everything yet. Currently, all we know is that the painting was brought out of an unnamed tomb in Yong area, and was immediately taken into custody. A rich merchant used some methods to get the painting. After his death, the painting was passed on in turn to the capital."
Qin Zhongjin nodded thoughtfully and said, "It seems to be related to Yong area. When was the unnamed tomb from?"
The assistant replied, "According to archaeologists, based on the patterns of the burial objects, the tomb should be from the time of the Eightfold Battle. The style of the clothing resembles that of the Da Liang period."
Hearing this, Qin Zhongjin nodded and said, "I see, you can go now."
The assistant retired as instructed.
________________________
Mu Cai, transformed amidst peach blossoms, was contemplating the script for this performance.
After stepping into the energy field this time, the script in Mu Cai's mind was as simple as ever. There were no specific dialogues or actions, just an outline-like plot and brief character settings.
However, just when Han Dan had just entered, more and more specific memory fragments emerged in Mu Cai's mind. Although these memory fragments did not blend directly into his memory, they played through in his mind like watching a movie, making him feel as if he had witnessed someone else's life moments. But overall, the worldview of this energy field has been slightly refined.
Mu Cai had never encountered such a situation before. He checked the system warning lights in his brain and found that the energy field was working normally, so he temporarily put his concerns aside.
This planet has many energy fields, all of which are psychic energy fields. Entering these fields is like stepping into someone else's dreams or joining a stage play. In the energy field, to perfectly stimulate energy, Mu Cai and the others usually have to play roles to advance the plot, with some room for improvisation.
However, some settings inherent in the energy field itself cannot be changed. Nor can they self-access specific plot details that have occurred before.
And now, the detail of Han Dan mocking the original character was seen by Mu Cai, who was annoyed and also a bit intrigued. He was curious as to where this clip came from, since the system would not show it to him. So was it the energy field that actively gave it to him to supplement the worldview and details?
Previous energy fields had never had such an occurrence. Was it because the energy field this time was stronger, with higher psychic energy, and the character to be played was of a higher difficulty level? So it gave him some clips to make him feel more empathetic?
After all, having experienced two energy fields, Mu Cai could be considered an experienced veteran, so it's reasonable for the department to assign him a harder task.
As Mu Cai sat quietly in the small peach tree, pondering away in his flower form, he saw Qin Zhongjin coming from a distance with a scroll in hand.
The red sword mark between his brows flickered in the dusk, breaking through the dim light.
Qin Zhongjin came to the bottom of the peach tree, raised his head, in the direction of the flower in which Mu Cai was incarnated. His eyes were closed, but Mu Cai felt as if Qin Zhongjin was looking at him.
Qin Zhongjin's deep voice was particularly gentle in the evening breeze, "Cai Cai, are you still angry?"
Without waiting for Mu Cai's reply, he slowly unfurled the scroll and said, "If you don't want to see me, you can enter this painting. You are a ghost, and it's important to cultivate your soul, so don't be self-punishing."
In fact, Mu Cai wasn't really angry at Qin Zhongjin. Although Qin Zhongjin was unfaithful in his feelings towards the original body in the previous life, this was, after all, a situation where one was willing to fight and the other to endure. Qin Zhongjin hadn't done anything excessive to the original body in other aspects, so neither the original body nor Mu Cai himself harbored substantial hatred towards him, at most, just dislike.
The reason why he was ignoring Qin Zhongjin today was mainly because Mu Cai was agitated at the moment and Qin Zhongjin had grabbed his ankle. The slight coercion in that act, forcing Mu Cai who didn't want to see Han Dan to stay put, to continue to face a person he despised, naturally he didn't want to pay any attention to him.
Although Mu Cai was not angry anymore, he was very interested in the scroll painting in Qin Zhongjin's hand. The foreground of the painting depicts fallen flowers in the courtyard, with mountains in the distance. A red sun is reflected between the mountains, and wild geese are flying in the sky.
The scenery in the scroll painting was lifelike, each detail captured perfectly, even the grass on the courtyard ground showed a tender quality. It would definitely feel amazing to sleep on it.
Mu Cai was eager to give it a try.
Seeing Qin Zhongjin unfurling the scroll in his direction, he promptly emerged from the flower he was attached to and turned into a streak of light, diving into the scroll.
As soon as Mu Cai stopped, he was stunned by the scenery in front of him.
A two-story building with green bricks and red tiles stood in the courtyard, where a magnolia tree made of white jade stood, with a pair of bunnies romping on the grassy ground. The bunnies ran and bounced towards Mu Cai, nudging at his feet.
Behind the small house was a clear pond, overshadowed by clever water-holding contraptions made from bamboo. As water flitted past, the contrivances fell down one after the other. A dazzling expanse of bamboo grew on the edge of the pond.
In front of the yard, a path stretched out towards the undulating mountains in the distance. In the sky, wild geese were honking and flying towards the red sun.
It was so much better than the painting he was in before!
After a particular flower on the peach tree twitched a little, a lady in red suddenly appeared on the scroll painting in Qin Zhongjin's hand.
The lady in red was sitting on the tender grass in the courtyard, looking up at the wild geese flying overhead, with two white bunnies snuggled at his feet.
There was a trace of surprise shining in his eyes and twinkling at the ends of his eyebrows, his pupils bright like morning stars. The corners of his dazzling red lips curved into a beautiful arc.
Qin Zhongjin had his eyes closed, the red sword mark on his brow flickered slightly.
He reached out and gently touched the snow-white cheek of the person in the painting.
It was very soft and carried a subtle warmth.
Mu Cai, who was in the painting playing with the two bunnies, suddenly felt something pass across his face. He couldn't help but look up.
Could there be wind inside this painting?
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