江湖路弯弯:Jianghu Road is Curved! Chapter 11

_{(translated by anniaxx)}

^{(edited by xia0xiao1mei)Art by: 伊吹五月}

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Supreme Chief Gu Xi Ju

Pang Wan’s steps were somewhat staggering when she returns to Bai Xiao Sheng’s side.

She still has not woken up from the moment everyone was looking up to her, three-kneels-nine-knocks, deep-bowing-devoted-worship^[1], all these are the respect that people only give to divine fairies! She, Pang Wan, is the highly condemned Sheng Gu of an unorthodox sect in Jiang Hu, how would she ever get the chance to be this respected by the orthodox people?

Hehe, the feeling of pretending to be a white lotus flower really isn’t bad.

She quickly walks back to the original road, where Bai Xiao Sheng holds the reins of two horses, quietly waiting for her under the tree.

“Returning with victory?” Seeing her coming back without losing a single hair, he smiles with clear understanding.

“…mountain bandits are really weak, and I just happen to have some basic martial art skills…” Pang Wan does not know how to respond at this time, and uncomfortably scratches her hair.

Bai Xiao Sheng silently smiles, handing the rein to her, “Let’s go, the sun is about to set.”

——He is always so understanding, never leaving Pang Wan in an awkward position.

Pang Wan practically wanted to hug him and give him a kiss.

—

As they walk down the road painted in the light of the setting sun, Bai Xiao Sheng suddenly says, “Lady Wan Wan, you don’t suit the colour white.”

Pang Wan is stunned by this comment of his that just suddenly flied out. She lowers her head to look at her white chiffon dress, unable to comprehend his deeper meaning.

“I just saw that lady’s martial arts skills of leaping in and killing the bandits are indeed sharp.” Bai Xiao Sheng gently continues his comment behind her, “White is clear yet shallow, incapable of suppressing your vibe, lady should choose a much richer colour, such as……” His gaze lands on the arm, blood-red sun nearby, the look in his eyes darkens, “Red.”

In Pang Wan’s ears, these words are just indirectly judging her for having an overbearingly evil vibe. Pang Wan thinks: I did not even kill a single bandit, only had them losing an arm or two, how is that having an overbearing evil vibe? And so, unsatisfied in her heart, she unhappily sounds an “oh”.

Bai Xiao Sheng sees her unwilling look, and knows that his words have not sunk into her mind, so he changes the topic with a light smile, “Lady, do you want to approach the Supreme Chief?”

Pang Wan’s eyes immediately brightens. She turns her head and shows the sincerity in her eyes, “Naturally!” The jade dragon token is still in that guy’s hands!

——Even though finding the jade dragon token is not that urgent, she still has not figured anything out since leaving the sect one month ago. What if one day sect leader suddenly stops providing financial support to her? So no matter what, she needs to at least pretend to be working. After all, the eyes of the unorthodox sect are everywhere!

Bai Xiao Sheng nods and says, “According to my knowledge, Supreme Chief will go rest in the black bamboo forest in the outskirts tomorrow at noon. You can go meet him there.”

Pang Wan opens her eyes wide, “No ambush?”

Bai Xiao Sheng laughs, “Ambush you for what?”

Pang Wan thinks it makes sense, so with three points of happiness and seven points doubt, she purses her lips, “Xiao Sheng, why are you so nice to me?”

Bai Xiao Sheng facepalms. He wanted to say “Bai Xiao Sheng is only my nickname, my surname is not Bai, nor is my given name Xiao Sheng”^[2], but……he shakes his head, and gently lifts the corners of his lips: “You will find out later.”

Pang Wan gazes at him with squinted eyes for a long time, then all of a sudden, she gets the chills, “Xiao Sheng, you listen to me! We are not meant to be!” I’m someone who needs to marry the male lead, but be it based on your name or your martial arts, you are fated to be a supporting character!

Bai Xiao Sheng has really been put at a loss this time.

“I know. I know. Your heart is set on loving Supreme Chief. How could I dare to have thoughts that I shouldn’t be having towards you?”

He pats Pang Wan’s shoulders to put her at ease.

“You must believe my words; I really don’t want to hurt you!” Pang Wan remembers the youth in grey at the restaurant; she could not resist sighing emotionally.

Bai Xiao Sheng waves his hand, signalling her that there is no need to say more.

Pang Wan sees a sense of unhappiness on his face, so she does not continue to admonish him, as long as the message gets across, then it is okay.

So these two people with different thoughts and worries in their hearts say farewell to each other and depart.

—

The next day, Pang Wan rushes to the black bamboo forest when it was only nine o’clock, two whole hours earlier than what Bai Xiao Sheng has said.

She has always been a person who prepares early.

Because of arriving early, she wanders around in the forest in order to get familiar with the terrain. As she strolls, she comes across a bamboo house.

“Is the Supreme Chief still bathing?” She suddenly hears someone say from behind a rock.

“He still is.” Another voice responds, “Supreme Chief has ordered me to bring the clothes in first and place it there.”

Pang Wan instantly shudders in realisation.

She remembers what the fake Wang Gang said on that day——important treasures should be carried by one’s side at all times.

So without making a single noise, she uses light-body skill to follow the maid from behind.

—

In the luxuriant black bamboo forest, a creek peacefully flows. Looking from afar, in the creek, there grows out, oh that’s not right, it should be there stands a long hair, half-naked youth.

Pang Wan does not have time to look at the sexy scene. She seizes the chance to knock the maid unconscious and takes the clothes from her hands to search.

Search and search, after searching every pocket, and even opening the interlayer, she still finds nothing.

“Could it be that he has it on him?” Pang Wan frowns, then sneakily walks towards the bamboo forest near the creek.

She decides to peek without a face_{(unashamedly)}^[3] .

—

Stream water gurgling, blazing sun scorching, she doesn’t know if it is on purpose or just a coincidence, but whenever she changes her angle, that Supreme Chief also slowly turns, always keeping his back toward her. Under the reflection of sunlight, Pang Wan could not see the details on his body no matter what she does, just feels that he is standing there embellished with water drops all over his body, like a luminous statue.

“He actually carries his own light reflectors?” Pang Wan becomes annoyed and impatient. Finally, she could not endure to wait any longer and leaps on top of the black bamboos; she plans to peek at him from the top in the air——Supreme Chief would definitely not hold his breath and lie on his stomach in the creek water, right?!

In this moment, as swift as lightning striking and firestone igniting, Supreme Chief suddenly lifts up his head and looks toward her direction.

His gaze is as bright as a torch.

The moment their four eyes meet, Pang Wan’s eyes widens and her mouth puffs; she loses her breath, and just falls straight down into the water with her limbs brandishing in the air, making a loud “pu-tong” sound.

After choking on several mouthful of water, she finally succeeds in crawling out and meets that person’s face with his slightly pursed lips.

“How come it’s you?” She stares at him stupidly.

“It is me.” That person studies her awkward drowned-rat appearance with a faint smile on his face.

“You are the Chief?” Pang Wan’s chin is about to drop from her face, “You betrayed him?”

The veins on that person’s forehead twitches twice, then he asks, “From whom did you hear that the Supreme Chief has changed to a new one?”

Pang Wan expresses astonishment on her face, “Could it be that maid deceived me, Supreme Chief is not bathing here?”

The veins on that person’s forehead twitches two more times, then he slowly says, “Wan Wan, I, myself am Gu Xi Ju.”

Pang Wan pushes her dropped chin back up, takes a deep breath, and roars, “You deceived me! You deceived me! Bai Xiao Sheng, how dare you deceive me!”

Bai Xiao Sheng, no, he should be called Gu Xi Ju, has no choice but to cover her mouth, “When have I ever deceived you? Not like I ever admitted to be Bai Xiao Sheng.”

——You did not admit, you just silently confirmed! Pang Wan is both resentful and furious, so she starts to try hitting and kicking Gu Xi Ju in the water; however, he is strong in flesh and rough in skin, the resistance in water is also big; therefore, her attacks are as ineffective as scratching an itchy foot while wearing shoes.

Gu Xi Ju does not talk and lets her hustle.

After struggling for quite a while, Pang Wan finally exhausts all her energy and gets defeated.

“Little brat, dare to deceive me again next time, and I will dig out all your organs to feed the wolves!” She clenches her teeth at him, like a vicious little monster.

Gu Xi Ju just smiles and caresses her head.

—

In the end, Pang Wan still forgives Gu Xi Ju, moreover, this “in the end” came really soon, in like about one third of the burning time of a stick of incense _{(five minutes)}.

Because Gu Xi Ju says, last time, the person in white who she mistook for “Gu Xi Ju” is actually the real Bai Xiao Sheng. He found it interesting so he did not correct her; inviting her here today is because he does not want to lie anymore and plans to tell her all the truth.

Pang Wan ponders: first of all, it seems like he really never admitted to being Bai Xiao Sheng, at least he has some remnant of conscience; secondly, he had already deceived her, so what can she do now? Wail and demand the Supreme Chief of Wu Lin to give her compensation for mental damage?

Pang Wan is obviously not that kind of girl, so she quickly accepts the fact that she has been deceived and takes the opportunity to explain why she mistook Bai Xiang Sheng for him——She indicates that her glimpse of him years ago was wrong.

Gu Xi Ju appears to not care about these kind of things, treating it as a little girl’s joke. But he mentions a suggestion, hoping that Pang Wan can come and be his maid.

He says, his own maid had been easily ambushed by her, hence clearly showing that her martial arts is inferior to Pang Wan’s, probably unable to guard him in the future. On the other hand, Pang Wan’s martial art skill is really high, being of help at crucial moments is definitely not a problem.

Pang Wan thinks: firstly, being a maid can observe Gu Xi Ju from a close distance; secondly, she can spy on the whereabouts of jade dragon token, maybe she will also have a chance to meet Sang Chan, also making some money. There really is nothing bad about it. So after hesitating for not even three seconds, she joyfully accepts the offer.

She believes the maid of Supreme Chief of Wu Lin is just being a hatchet man and a bodyguard; the style of this job is very silly and very simple.

En, we have to say that her way of thinking, is also very silly and very simple.

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Translator’s Note: Hello, this is Annie~ How is everybody? First of all, sorry that it took me longer to post this chapter…phew, life has been kind of crazy~~sorry for the long wait…I have to say that I am so proud of finding the perfect picture, hahaha… And, I hope this chapter has made you laugh a lot ^0^ So what do you think about Gu Xi Ju? Any prediction of how the story is gonna go? Being a maid, hum, is Pang Wan going to do well?

Found an even better picture today~When I saw it, I was like: this resembles Gu Xi Ju perfectly, purple cloth, handsome, and beautiful~~ 05/16/2016

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[1] “three-kneels-nine-knocks, deep-bowing-devoted-worship“/三跪九叩，顶礼膜拜/Sān guì jiǔ kòu, dǐng lǐ mó bài: “three-kneels-nine-knocks” basically means kowtow(磕头), a ritual consists of kneeling and knocking one’s forehead on the floor for three times, then get up and repeat it for two more times; this is a common action performed when facing the emperor to show respect and submission. “Deep-bowing-devoted-worship” is the highest ritual that buddhists use to worship Buddha, kneeling with two hands on the ground and placing their foreheads on Buddha’s feet.

[2] Remember the meaning of his name written in the Character List?

[3]Without a face/不要脸/Bù yào liǎn: I was going to directly translate it to “unashamedly”, but then I decided I should introduce this saying to you. Like “having a leg” in chapter 9, “no face” is another Chinese saying that is commonly used, interesting and somewhat funny, and perhaps more well known. In Chinese culture, there is this concept of “face” which means appearing good in front of other people. When you “lose face”, you are bringing disgrace to yourself. When you “save someone’s face”, you are helping them to escape an embarrassed situation. When you “do not want a face”, like Pang Wan, you are purposefully doing shameful things and not caring if that will make you look bad. I often hear Chinese parents say to their kids, “You did so bad on your exams, I have ‘no face’ to go to the parent meeting.” I personally think “face(脸面/面子)” is different from dignity(尊严), because dignity is rightfully standing up for yourself while “face” is trying to not look bad no matter through good ways or bad ways.