My enemies became my companions

Chapter 423 I’m Afraid You’ll Like Me

A bowl of Tremella soup fell on the table in the lobby. Chen Yi wiped off the spilled water and waited for Yin Weiying to get up and enjoy it.

Judging from the time, he should go visit Wei Wuque.

"Where are you going?"

Chen Yi straightened his belt and when he turned around, he saw Lu Ying standing outside the door.

Lu Ying stood very straight, as if he was upright and had no fear of his shadow being crooked.

"I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to Yingxiang Garden to discuss something with Master Wei."

Chen Yi noticed that she glanced at her belt. Perhaps it was because of her small action of smoothing her belt that she realized she wanted to go out.

She noticed her little movements.

Chen Yi noticed this detail, but didn't know what to say.

Lu Ying hesitated for a moment and said, "I'll go with you."

“…Yingxiang Garden is a brothel.”

"I...I've been to another brothel with you before," Lu Ying paused and said, "Do you dislike me?"

Before Chen Yi could answer, she said quickly:

"Why do you have anything to dislike about me? Although you are the guardian, I am Jianjia's first disciple. In terms of understanding the way of the sword, I may be better than you. What's more, are you definitely better than me? Even Confucius took a seven-year-old boy as his teacher."

Chen Yi was speechless for a while, and finally he just spread his hands and said:
"Okay, let's go together?"

He agreed quickly. Lu Ying's breath paused and he suddenly felt like he had punched cotton.

She still remembered what she said before she left yesterday. Not only did she feel free and easy, she was also indifferent to fame and gain, and didn't care what others thought... She didn't know if he saw it that way?
Thinking of this, she straightened her back a little.

The two of them stepped over the threshold, and the undulating streets of the mountain and city came into view. Looking further up, they could see yellow sand covering the edge of their vision.

After asking for directions, Chen Yi headed towards Yingxiang Garden. Yingxiang Garden was built near the west gate. When the Jinmen Mountain Road was not yet abandoned, the merchants who transported Sichuan brocade to the Central Plains would often stop by brothels as soon as they entered the city. They would spend huge sums of money to compete for the most beautiful women, not with gold or silver, but with silk and brocade. There were traces of silk wrapped around the peeling red paint on the pillars.

Lu Ying stopped on the way and almost got separated from Chen Yi. When Chen Yi turned back to look for her, he saw her handing him a mask.

It was a big pig face.

"When traveling in the martial arts world, it is much more useful to wear a mask. I bought it casually as a thank you gift from the guardian."

Chen Yi's eyes were dim and he took it in his hand calmly.

Lu Ying followed Chen Yi past the towering city wall and saw the rugged mountains outside the city. They were gray and hazy, with rumbling sounds, as if sandstorms were approaching, but no one could tell for sure. Lu Ying kept stopping and looking. Shantong City was located on the border of Dayu. Outside the border to the north was the desert. Walking alone, with only yellow sand to accompany him, he felt lonely.

thump.

There was a tap on the forehead.

Lu Ying turned his head and glared at him angrily.

"Why are you so sad at such a young age?" Chen Yi said with a smile.

Hearing these familiar words, Lu Ying became annoyed, but he calmed down and said, "You will understand when you reach my age."

Chen Yi almost burst out laughing, but he managed to keep calm.

He guessed, "Are you thinking about being lonely again?"

Lu Ying remembered that he had told him his true feelings before, and he felt a little regretful for revealing his feelings at that time, but he still asked curiously:
"Aren't you lonely?"

"I party every night, do you think I'm lonely?" Chen Yi pointed at himself and said.

Lu Ying glanced at him, thinking that this guy might have never spent a lot of time alone, so he scolded him:
"No wonder you're not a master."

"I am a fourth-rank martial artist."

“Not high enough.”

Chen Yi shrugged and said, "Okay, okay, I never worry about being lonely, but I'm afraid you'll be lonely now."

"…Why?"

After hearing his words, Lu Ying felt empty in his heart.

"I'm afraid you'll be too lonely and fall in love with me, breaking the rules of Yinjian Mountain." He had a smiling face.

Lu Yingdeng was annoyed. He blurted out the words before he could think of anything:
"Who would fancy a pig?"

After she finished speaking, she was still worried whether these words were too much and too hurtful. She turned around and saw Chen Yi's face full of emotions. He was not heartbroken, nor was he full of joy. Instead, he was... afraid?
"I am scared."

"What are you afraid of?" "I'm afraid you'll fall for this pig of mine."

As he said that, Chen Yi put on the pig-face mask she had given him.

Lu Ying paused when he heard this, and felt bitter for no reason, but then he smiled happily and said:
"Who would like a pig like you?"

"That's true," Chen Yi said sullenly, "In fact, someone liked me and asked me to dress up as a pig, but I refused."

"I know who that is."

"Who?"

Lu Ying said: "Blind man."

As she spoke, she quickened her pace and walked forward without looking back.

Chen Yi put away the mask and breathed a sigh of relief imperceptibly.

The Yingxiang Garden was getting closer and closer. The eaves of the luxurious five-story pavilion could be seen from afar. Building a five-story building in this brothel was undoubtedly a violation of Dayu's etiquette, but the emperor was far away and no one cared about it. Not to mention that the building was not high, so how could it show the pomp of a brocade merchant? The garden gate was half-covered and half-opened, the threshold was painted with vermilion, but the door frame was original brown wood, just like a woman who wanted you to come but also didn't want you to come.

As soon as they entered the door, they told the servant the secret code. They were led by the servant through a corridor and arrived at the main hall. They saw tables and chairs in groups of three or four, each with a drinker and several prostitutes accompanying them. When Chen Yi looked around casually, he heard one of the idle prostitutes shouting loudly:
"Which brother-in-law is here?"

"New brother-in-law." The servant said with a smile.

"Hey, why do you bring a companion?"

The idle prostitute came forward and was about to hold hands, but Chen Yi rejected her with a slap.

The prostitute stepped back awkwardly and said:

"Then find an empty table and sit down. If your brother-in-law takes a fancy to any of the sisters, just let us know."

The prostitutes in Yingxiang Garden do not call their husbands "benefactors" but "brother-in-law", which shows the customs of the Northwest.

When Lu Ying saw that woman approaching and trying to hold Chen Yi's hand, he couldn't help but feel unhappy. He couldn't help but spit in his heart: "Northwest barbarian, you don't know your limits, just like Ruo Shu."

Donggong Ruoshu: “?”

Fortunately, Donggong Ruoshu was not in the lobby.

The servant went upstairs to look for someone. Chen Yi sat down at random, looking around and listening to the gossip at the drinking table in the lobby.

"There are so many masters in the martial arts world today. Yesterday, someone caused a big disturbance in Yuanfeng Tower. A group of masters including Liuyang Zhaigong came out to deal with it, but they still managed to get away. How cool!"

"He is still a young man. I heard that he looks no more than 20 or 30 years old."

"I heard that he was an old ghost in his seventies or eighties, with white hair and a youthful face, and he looked like a young man again."

"Where did you hear that? Do you think it's from Liao Zhai?"

A prostitute joked with him, "He is indeed a young hero, but in my opinion, he is not as handsome as his brothers-in-law."

"Miss Hanyu is too embarrassed to say that we are not handsome in front of us."

"How can that be possible? I dare not lie to anyone."

"Then Miss Hanyu, tell me, who in the world is more handsome than us?"

The prostitute rolled her eyes and then said with a smile: "I heard that the Taihua Goddess of this sixty years is prettier than my sister, and my Taoist partner must be more handsome than my brother-in-law."

"Look at you, a talkative person. You compare yourself to the Goddess of Taihua, and you compare us to Captain Chen."

At this point, one of them remembered something and said:

"It is said that Captain Chen only rose to prominence after he met the Goddess Taihua."

"I also heard that he was a cauldron for women. Without the Goddess Taihua, he was nothing." Someone sneered and said, "Isn't this like a toad trying to eat swan meat?"

"I'm so jealous! I'm also a toad, why can't I eat swan meat?"

"That Captain Chen might be a three-legged golden toad, and you are really a toad!"

Chen Yi: "..."

It turns out that what Yin Weiying said was right, it really does have benefits, and some people really envy it!
Lu Ying, who was standing by, also overheard the drinkers' idle chatter. Thinking of how Chen Yi, this toad, had climbed up to Yin Weiying, she was slightly touched. Her eyes flickered, and the girl's thoughts were hard to fathom, but Chen Yi was so perceptive that he noticed her changes immediately.

Originally Chen Yi didn't take it seriously, but accidentally, out of the corner of his eye, he caught two or three prostitutes glancing over here...

He put his hand on the hilt of the knife and said loudly:

"Master Wei, please stop testing me!"

(End of this chapter)