The Love Gu - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

This grudge had gotten completely out of hand.

After going through untold hardship and fleeing all the way back to Buzhou Mountain in a miserable panic, I breathlessly told my senior brother what had happened.

Qunyu had been pouring wine. When he saw me come running back covered in dust and blood, he jumped in fright.

The wine barrel tipped over and crashed to the ground. Clear liquor soaked into the dirt, its fragrance drifting into the air. I immediately took a huge sniff.

Qunyu pressed a hand to his forehead in agony.

“I never should have agreed to let you go out in the first place.”

“Come on, don’t say that!”

I righted the fallen barrel and gave it a shake. There was less than half left.

I poured myself a big bowl, chugged it all down in one go, and only then sat down to catch my breath.

“How was I supposed to know those bugs belonged to him? Ignorance is no crime.”

I complained with an aggrieved look on my face.

“Yao Tai, do you know who Cang Guan is?”

“He’s from Wanjiang Sect. So what?”

I was already planning to head back to my room later and sleep for three days and three nights, to ease the nerves I’d kept taut for so long.

“You were right, Senior Brother. Boys from the Miao Territory really aren’t to be trifled with. He’s unbelievably petty and narrow-minded.”

“He’s the Young Master of Wanjiang Sect.”

Qunyu let out a hollow sigh. He clearly didn’t even want to bother with me anymore.

“Oh. Ah?”

The bowl fell from my hand onto the stone table with a clang.

“Then… the fact that I managed to escape from him means my half-baked skills are actually pretty decent, right?”

I looked at my senior brother hopefully and tried to smile, hoping to lighten the mood and get at least a little comfort from him.

But his smile looked even worse than mine.

“Yao Tai, there are only two of us on Buzhou Mountain.”

“Hm?” I didn’t understand what he meant.

“If Wanjiang Sect comes knocking one day, Master’s legacy will end with us.”

We just stared at each other, wide-eyed.

“I’m begging you, ancestor-just get out already! Spare Buzhou Mountain and leave us a way to live!”

“Otherwise even Master won’t be able to rest in peace in the underworld!”

I pouted.

Tch. I really hadn’t expected that on the very first day after escaping back to Buzhou Mountain, my timid-as-a-mouse senior brother would already be trying to drive me away.

But I couldn’t really blame him. When he was little, he was kidnapped by traffickers and nearly sold into a brothel. Master was the one who saved him.

Because of that, he was full of fear toward the outside world and avoided leaving home whenever possible.

He lived like an old Daoist recluse.

Now that this grudge existed between me and Cang Guan, the continued existence of Buzhou Mountain was hanging by a thread.

Wanjiang Sect was the largest sect in the Miao Territory. Its disciples walked the jianghu with ruthless methods, always taking revenge for the slightest slight. They relied on gu poison and were extremely hard to deal with.

Among them, the Young Master of Wanjiang Sect was the leader of the younger generation in the sect, highly skilled in martial arts and exceptional at gu techniques.

Ah, what was I supposed to do now?

There was still one thing I didn’t dare tell my senior brother.

I was afraid he’d faint from fright.

I had stripped Cang Guan’s clothes off him.

And kicked him into the river.

That was in the second year of my thousand-mile flight after eating Cang Guan’s bugs.

One day, I came across a tavern. The proprietress brewed wine so fragrant its scent carried for miles.

To me, that was irresistible.

If life had no fine wine for company, then why fear death?

I sat by the window. Outside, the long river surged onward beneath autumn waters and an endless sky.

The scenery was magnificent. If only there were a beauty to drink with me, and none of the world’s troubles, then it really would have been paradise on earth.

Just as I was drinking to my heart’s content, a man in black sat down across from me.

He wore a mask. He was tall and straight, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist.

A feast for the eyes.

I stared at him without blinking, looking him up and down with outrageous boldness.

“Have you had your fill, miss?”

That voice was so familiar.

It felt like my head had been smashed by a hammer.

Buzz.

Oh no.

What was Cang Guan doing here?!

That sobered me right up.

There were countless fine wines under heaven, and I had no desire to die here.

To save my life, I suddenly shot to my feet and let out a shrill scream.

Everyone in the tavern was drawn over, all eyes turning our way.

I threw myself bodily at Cang Guan, nearly knocking both him and his stool onto the floor.

It had happened so suddenly that he actually failed to dodge.

With reddened eyes, I raised my voice in accusation, sounding as though blood and tears were pouring from me.

“Husband!”

His body jolted, and he immediately reached into his robe for something.

I inwardly cursed. With a ripping sound, I yanked open the front of his robe. A scatter of tiny bottles fell out, and at the same time I shouted,

“You heartless bastard! You abandoned your newlywed bride at home to go fool around with some seductress!”

As I shouted, I kept tugging at his clothes and pounding him with my fists, every inch the hysterical, pitiful wife.

His chest was now fully exposed to the air. If I’d had a sword in my hand, killing him would have been easy.

“You!”

Even through the mask, I could see a flash of confusion in his eyes, though there was far more killing intent boiling underneath.

Ha. I wasn’t raised to scare easy.

“Let’s see what kind of marks that vixen from the Southern Frontier left on you!”

My sobbing accusation rang through the entire tavern.

I was threatening him. If he killed me here, then before my last breath, I would make his identity known to everyone.

The Wanjiang Sect didn’t have a particularly good reputation in the jianghu to begin with. If one of its members openly murdered someone in public, that would be the conduct of a demonic sect, and everyone would have the right to punish him.

“Fine! Let’s look, then! Look! Such obvious marks from that little seductress!”

“And you still dare deny it, husband? Huh?”

When he’d hunted me down before, I’d slashed him across the chest. Now only a faint red mark remained, but it really did look like a woman’s nails had scratched him.

Every word I cried was steeped in grievance, as if I had suffered some towering injustice.

The drinkers’ looks toward him changed too, filling with contempt.

Cang Guan finally snapped and tried to draw his sword and run me through.

I seized the hilt with all my strength. My knuckles went blue and my face turned pale; I was using every last bit of my inner strength.

“Since my husband is faithless, there’s no point in this wife going on living!”

I laughed like a madwoman, tears soaking my clothes.

“I might as well die together with you!”

Dragging him with me, I crashed straight out the window at high speed, and with my back to the crowd, I slammed a fierce palm strike into his chest.

Just before I fell into the water, I kicked off his body for leverage. Thankfully, my lightness skill wasn’t terrible, and I flew back to the riverbank.

As for Cang Guan, I kicked him straight into the river.

Then I ran for my life.

Behind me, I left a tavern full of stunned drinkers, and the Young Master of Wanjiang Sect in the water, pale with rage.

Served him right for trying to kill me over a bowl of bugs.

I might not be able to beat him, but when it came to running away, I was second to none.

When I was little, my master once taught me that the most precious things in life were wine and your life.

Everything else was an illusion.

Later, the old man rode off into the heavens.

Leaving behind a Qunyu who cherished life and feared death.

And a Yao Tai who loved wine like madness.

So as far as I was concerned, what was a little dignity worth?

Besides, Cang Guan still didn’t know who I was.