Font Size:
Chapter 412: It’s Him; He’s the One! Our… (3rd Update)
Mo Ziqian sighed in relief, while the man looked ashen and terrified of what was about to happen. The Chief simply stepped forward, effortlessly picked him up, and threw him over her shoulder.
“Please, Chief, don’t!” The man cried out, but no matter how he struggled, the Chief carried him farther and farther away, making it clear to Ye Wenxin what kind of fate awaited him in this lair of female bandits.
Noticing that Ye Wenxin seemed a bit shaken, Mo Ziqian smiled and explained, “Don’t worry, Chief has different tastes from us.”
Ye Wenxin nodded, and suddenly regretted posing as ‘Ye Liangchen’, which got her into this predicament. If it weren’t for ‘Ye Liangchen’, however, she might not have been able to infiltrate the bandit hideout at all. Once Ye Wenxin settled down, Mo Ziqian then proceeded to explain why they were kidnapping people.
Mo Clan Village was originally a matriarchal society where women were superior to men, and maintained their foundation as bandits over generations. However, with changes in the village, the bandits had to adapt, shifting from robbing for money and treasures to capturing men for marriage.
“But with the country now at peace, there’s really no need to be bandits,” Ye Wenxin said, unable to understand. Mo Ziqian gave a wry smile and replied, “After doing it for so long, it’s hard to change overnight. But now it’s better; we can capture men, and our Third Deputy, for instance, already has three husbands.”
Ye Wenxin smiled, but said nothing more about the custom. Instead, she asked, “So you brought me here to marry me?”
Mo Ziqian smiled shyly and said, “I would have liked that, but mainly I brought you here to participate in the beauty contest coming up in a few days. I hoped you could help promote the unmarried sisters in our Mo Clan.”
Ye Wenxin was quite surprised. She had thought they truly took her away for an unspeakable purpose, but her treatment turned out to be much different than expected. However, she was genuinely curious about this so-called beauty contest. Considering her mission here, she continued to ask, “So who exactly participates in this contest?”
Mo Ziqian patiently explained, “Only locals of the Mo Clan. According to the village rules, everyone must participate, so it will be quite lively.”
Ye Wenxin was even more delighted to hear this key information. Since this was an event that everyone in the village had to attend, if the mysterious man she was searching for was still in the village, he would have to show up. At that point, she could simply wait for him to appear, without having to go through the trouble of searching.
She pondered whether to agree to participate, but was also worried that by then, the Jiangshi King might have already eloped with the mysterious man. This left her feeling quite conflicted.
“Is there something troubling you, young master?” Mo Ziqian noticed Ye Wenxin’s furrowed brow and began to feel anxious again.
Ye Wenxin nodded. “Indeed, I have some concerns. I’m here to find someone. Participating in the beauty contest is fine, but I can’t afford to delay in my search.”
Mo Ziqian’s expression turned a bit peculiar, but she still responded, “That’s easy. You can tell me what you know, and I’ll send people to help you search.”
Ye Wenxin gave an awkward smile. “The problem is, I don’t have much information. That’s why I was asking around earlier. I didn’t expect to get dragged to your home like this.”
Mo Ziqian also appeared troubled, furrowing her brow before quickly relaxing. She suggested, “How about this? I’ll accompany you over the next few days to help you search. The villagers respect our Mo Clan, so we might be able to find the person faster with their help.”
Ye Wenxin considered the suggestion and found it practical. She was secretly pleased but still made a few polite refusals before finally agreeing to the plan for the next few days…
With Mo Ziqian’s help, it didn’t take long for Ye Wenxin to uncover a lead about the mysterious man.
“The young master was truly extraordinary. I still can’t forget his eyes, his smile…” The old woman recounting the story seemed lost in a dreamy nostalgia, recalling events from about a decade ago.
The man named Mo Niancheng had suddenly appeared in the village and settled down for a few months. One day, Mo Niancheng returned with a mysterious woman, breaking the hearts of the women in the village.
Hearing the name, Ye Wenxin couldn’t help but smile wryly. ‘Niancheng1’ seemed to indicate ‘longing for Demon Lord Gu Qingcheng’. However, when paired with that surname, it somehow carried an opposite meaning.
“The young master was indeed an extraordinary person, but the woman he brought was strange… After she arrived, people started losing livestock, and some even claimed to have seen her drinking chicken blood. We tried to warn the young master, and he seemed to take it well. But then, one day, he just disappeared without a trace…”
The old woman’s eyes grew misty as she recalled those days, feeling sorrow and regret, as if she truly believed the Jiangshi King had killed the man. However, Ye Wenxin didn’t quite think so. If that man had truly died, the Jiangshi King wouldn’t have come seeking vengeance.
Perhaps, in some unknown twist of events, the man named Mo Niancheng had gone on to chase after Demon Lord Gu Qingcheng, abandoning the Jiangshi King in the process.
As the outline of the story became clearer, Ye Wenxin asked more questions, but the old woman could only recall a few things. She vividly remembered that the young man was unparalleled in appearance, and possessed an aura of nobility.
As the woman continued to describe him, her half-closed eyes suddenly widened. She pointed into the distance and exclaimed, “There! He looks somewhat similar to that young man!”
Following her gaze, Ye Wenxin indeed spotted a man in flowing white robes. His beauty rivaled that of Ye Liangchen, with a small smile on his face, looking every bit like a noble young master out on a leisurely journey.
“Wow, why are there so many unmatched young masters lately?” Mo Ziqian exclaimed in surprise and rubbed her eyes, trying to etch the man’s features into her memory.
The young master noticed Ye Wenxin and her companions, but merely nodded politely as he passed by, as if he were merely in the area by coincidence.
Ye Wenxin didn’t approach him, but observed as the young master seemed to be searching for something nearby. Soon, he crouched down, took out some tools, and began digging.
The old woman nearly fainted from excitement, shouting, “That’s him! That’s him!”
As she spoke, a group of dark figures appeared first. They were dressed in black robes that covered them completely, but their expressions were stiff, as if they had lost all self-awareness.
Noticing the people nearby, the dark figures opened their mouths, revealing sharp fangs. The young master looked panicked, completely unaware of the black figure closing in from behind.
Footnotes:
D[Translator]
Hello, I'm D. I mainly translate yuri stories. My language pairs are CN-EN and JP-EN. If you want to commission/request me to translate a story, ping @D in Shanghai Fantasy's Discord server. I don't translate stories over 1 mil character/word count, or ones that contain many NSFW scenes. Support me at ko-fi only if you're able.