Title: Did We Agree To Be Arch-Rivals?
Original Title: 说好成为彼此的宿敌呢[穿书]
Author: 轻风白杨 (Qingfeng Baiyang)
Translated by: ~PurpleLy~
After taking a bath and changing clothes, Gu Feidi used his internal strength to assist Su Yang in drying his hair. Then he picked up a comb to help him comb his hair.
After a moment, he said, “Your hair is a bit longer. It shouldn’t be too loose by the time you wear the crown.”
Su Yang nodded and raised his hand to cover his mouth as he yawned.
Although they hadn’t rushed throughout their journey and had even rested in Old Qi’s farmhouse for a night, the accumulated stresses from the continuous slew of major events recently still couldn’t be completely alleviated. Earlier in the bathhouse, both of them couldn’t help messing around over and over again for a long while. Su Yang was truly quite weary. His body slumped over, and he was about to sprawl down atop the bench in the changing room.
Gu Feidi lifted him and laughed in spite of himself: “If you are tired, then go back into the house and rest a while. I’ll bring you lunch.”
Su Yang’s eyes were closed as he sagged on Gu Feidi and mumbled, “Tired, don’t want to move. Carry me back……”
Gu Feidi smiled helplessly and shook his head. He carried Su Yang all the way back to their small house and placed him gently upon the bed in their bedroom.
Su Yang turned over, tugged the quilt, and carelessly wrapped it over himself. He closed his eyes and instantly became immersed in a dream.
Seeing that he was sleeping peacefully and since there were no dangers in Lesser Jade House, Gu Feidi dragged the quilt out from Su Yang’s arms and covered him properly. He then turned around, draped on a coat, and headed out in the direction of Wanjuan Pavilion.
That year, he received Su Yang’s tip-off that the Restoration Scripture: Return To The Nest was sandwiched inside the ‘Flawed Phoenix Craft Fire’ book at the top floor of Wanjuan Pavilion. Now, he still clearly recalled the original placement of that methodology book.
He strolled along the well-acquainted path all the way to the top of Wanjuan Pavilion. There was a sign with the word “Blazing” on a stand beside the corridor in the southeast corner. Gu Feidi didn’t pause and immediately walked to the innermost corner. He reached up to retrieve a phoenix tree wooden box at the top of the bookshelf.
However, when he took down the wooden box that originally contained the Flawed Phoenix Craft Fire, his hands couldn’t help stalling.
The box was fairly light and didn’t seem to contain any books inside.
Gu Feidi pursed his lower lip and opened the wooden box without delay, only to discover that the box was truly empty. The methodology book that was originally placed inside it was nowhere to be found.
Gu Feidi left Wanjuan Pavilion holding the wooden box and went straight to find Di Ling.
At the same time, Su Yang had only just fallen asleep, but he seemed to have dazedly discerned someone speaking into his ear.
Awakened by the buzzing whispers, Su Yang was somewhat irritated when he opened his eyes. He frowned and stared at the white ceiling.
He hadn’t seen this type of scene for a long, long time. White walls, no-nonsense ceiling lamps, a gently-humming air conditioner, and the source of the occasional voices that had awoken him—the TV hanging on the wall at the end of the bed.
Su Yang was befuddled for a moment, and then he abruptly realised something. He sat up with a start and gawked at the drama series playing on the screen in disbelief.
It was the costume drama ‘Arch-Rivals’ that he’d acted in! There’s no possible way he would mistake it for anything else.
But this couldn’t be.
Why was it that he’d just only fallen asleep and had returned to the modern era after waking up?
Moreover, this point in time clearly didn’t link up with the moment when he’d gotten drunk and transmigrated over!
This room is not the one he used to live in!
No, these were not the main issues.
The main issue was…… if he’d truly returned to the modern era, then…… what would happen to Gu Feidi?
His sleepiness instantly evaporated like smoke. Su Yang flipped open the quilt at once, staggered off the bed, and felt his way to the side of the desk to search for a mobile phone.
—He needed to determine what time it was now!
There wasn’t any mobile phone on the desk, only an open laptop displaying a webpage on the screen.
The cover of a book was visible at the top of the webpage. There were two words, ‘Arch-Rivals’ done in flamboyant calligraphy, and the author’s ‘Qingbo’ signature on one side. A substantial list spanning hundreds of chapters was indexed beneath the cover picture.
Su Yang realised then and there that this webpage was the original novel of the web drama he’d been involved in.
But he wasn’t in the mood to read novels right now.
Everything here was too strange and too irrational. He was mindful that perhaps this wasn’t the real world, but merely his dream.
Su Yang reached the door of the room in two steps. Upon trying to open it, he found that it was tightly locked. He then headed over to the window and noticed that the window casements in this room were all sealed up. He swung a chair to smash window glass, but it was also futile.
After attempting all sorts of things, Su Yang at last had no choice but to concede that, as a matter of fact, the only means of breaking away from this dream was already right before his eyes.
He took a few deep breaths to pacify his state of mind, then stifled his temper before sitting back down at the desk and clicking into the first chapter of the ‘Arch-Rivals’ novel.
……
Gu Feidi carried the phoenix tree wooden box all the way to Di Ling’s residence, but could find no trace of her. Then Gu Feidi went to find Mo shixiong and Wang Ke shixiong. They didn’t know where Di Ling had gone, nor did they know the whereabouts of the ‘Flawed Phoenix Craft Fire’ book.
Seeing that it was about to be noon, Gu Feidi had no choice but first head over to the dining hall and fetch food back to Zhichun Garden.
The methodology was missing, but he could search for it again next time. For Su Yang to go hungry after waking up from his nap was absolutely out of the question.
After placing the food box on the dining table, Gu Feidi went upstairs and slowly pushed open the bedroom door.
Inside the door, a woman dressed in light-green clothing was standing before the bed with a jade-green bird perched on her shoulder. Just then, Su Yang was still sleeping soundly and peacefully on the bed.
“Shizun!” Gu Feidi blurted out in a low voice, then straightaway cupped his fists to make his salutations, “Disciple Gu Feidi greets Shizun!”
Qingbo raised her hand and gestured for him to stand up. Gu Feidi paused and asked, “How did Shizun come here? Perhaps you have some instructions?”
Qingbo opened her mouth for a second, then said, “……Just to come and call upon Su Yang.”
After she spoke, her gaze fell upon the phoenix tree wooden box in Gu Feidi’s hands, and sighed, “As expected, you went to seek out this methodology.”
Gu Feidi nodded and spoke in a low voice: “Shixiong’s body has the Cold Pond Ice Spirit and Half Withered Red. My body only possesses the White Firework Gu. If I wish to dual cultivate without being harmed, the only way for me is only to practice an extreme Yang technique.”
Qingbo was silent for a moment and said, “Despite your body harbouring the Fire Gu, if you don’t practice the extreme Yang methodology, you’ll still have the means to continue living on when Su Yang leaves you in the future. But if you practice this methodology and once Su Yang unexpectedly leaves you, the only path left to you is death.”
Upon hearing Shizun utter the two words “leaves you”, Gu Feidi couldn’t help trembling.
He held his fingers in his palm, and his voice became hoarse. “Why would he leave? Shizun…… Doesn’t Shizun have a way to remove his body’s…… curse?”
Qingbo glanced at Gu Feidi, paused for a moment, and said, “It’s not important whether or not the curse can be removed. If he desires to stay, I have a way to allow him stay. But if he’s insistent on leaving, I can’t force him to stay.”
Gu Feidi didn’t understand: “What does that mean?”
Qingbo smiled and said, “You and I will only know about it when he wakes up.”
Gu Feidi instantly stepped forward: “I’ll wake him up right now……”
Unexpectedly, Qingbo raised her hand and held him back.
“You won’t be able to wake him up now; you’ll need to wait for him to awaken.” She said softly, “Won’t be long now from the looks of it.”
As she spoke, Su Yang’s eyelashes trembled a little. Then his eyes snapped wide open.
“Gu Feidi!” He sat up hastily, sprung out of bed and was putting on his shoes halfway, when he realised that the person he was looking for was right before him.
Su Yang was dazed for a moment and subconsciously asked, “How long did I sleep?”
Gu Feidi’s brows knitted, sensing that something was amiss, but still replied, “It’s already Wu period*.”
(*TN: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.)
Su Yang blinked and mumbled, “Wu period……”
For the sake of returning to here from within the dream just now, he’d forgone food, drink, and rest, forcing himself to read the online novel from head to tail, all the way through. He’d been in a haze for approximately two or three days. He didn’t expect that it hadn’t actually been that long since he’d fallen asleep. Besides, he wasn’t aware of what kind of circumstances were involved in the time difference between the dreamworld and this world.
As he contemplated, Su Yang’s eyes travelled around, and only then did he notice a young woman in green standing beside Gu Feidi.
“……Qingbo?” Su Yang muttered cluelessly.
Gu Feidi was shocked when he heard him blurting out the name and was just about to remind him, but he was interrupted by Qingbo.
“It’s me.” Qingbo said with a smile.
Su Yang took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and smacked his forehead with his hand.
After some time, he glanced at Qingbo again and asked, “Shizun?”
Qingbo smiled and nodded: “It’s me.”
Su Yang: ……
As expected, this ‘now-you-see-me-now-you-don’t fortune-telling Shizun was truly the original author who’d written this kind of outlandish story!
Now that he knows the original storyline, Su Yang’s mind was practically on the verge of going berserk. However, he was also embittered by the fact that Gu Feidi was here, so it wasn’t appropriate to ask further in the meantime—Initially, he believed that everything he’d experienced were the circumstances from the original storyline after breaking off from the adapted film script. Remarkably, he’d actually deviated from the original storyline right from the start!
He really had to thank his lucky stars that he was able to survive until now……
Seeing that Su Yang wasn’t speaking and his complexion wasn’t that good, Gu Feidi couldn’t help being worried. He approached to take hold of Su Yang’s hand and asked, “Is there anywhere that you’re not feeling well? Just now…… a nightmare?”
“Ak, it wasn’t really a nightmare……” Su Yang released a sigh and massaged his forehead, “Give me a moment to recover……”
Gu Feidi didn’t press him anymore. He continued to hold Su Yang’s hand and sat down by the bed to accompany him.
Qingbo eyed both their dispositions and couldn’t conceal the happy expression from the corners of her mouth and eyebrows.
Just then, she looked at Su Yang and said, “Since you’re now awake, I know what you want. You can let me know if you have any requests.”
Su Yang looked at Qingbo and recalled the final screen that had emerged in his dream earlier.
—When he clenched his teeth and braced himself to finish reading the ‘Arch-Rivals’ novel, a dialog box popped up in the centre of the laptop screen.
“Chen Su Yang, you’re presently faced with a choice: make a wish to return to your reality or remain in the book world you’ve experienced?”
“If you choose to return to your reality, you’ll be sent back to the time when you were drunk and unconscious. Everything will progress in accordance with the original timeline and will not bring about any effect on your life henceforth.”
“If you choose to stay in the book world you’ve experienced, you will wake up in Lesser Jade House’s Zhichun Garden bedroom and completely turn into the Devil Sect’s Young Saint, Su Yang. You may request the original author, Qingbo, to add a new setting for you.”
“Please consider diligently and answer carefully.”
At that time, Su Yang was so anxious that his thoughts were all of Gu Feidi, so he wasted no time at all to ponder. He chose to stay in the book world.
The dialog box still reappeared, popping up over and over again to confirm. Finally, it acknowledged that he’d continued to maintain his selection, and there was a flash of white light…… When he opened his eyes again, he’d woken up.
Now that he’d thought about it, he wasn’t sure what the dialog box had said. Ultimately, he didn’t know if it was true that Qingbo could add a new setting for him.
“Before the crowning ceremony. There’s still time for you to think it over carefully.” Qingbo said, “When you’ve decided, come and find me at the Veiled Pearl Pavilion.”
Once she’d spoken, her figure gradually dissolved, and after a moment, she vanished like mist.
Gu Feidi’s expression changed. He straightaway got up, cupped his fists, and nodded, saluting in the direction where Qingbo had disappeared.
Su Yang’s esteem for Lesser Jade House’s master had long since evaporated like smoke since he learned of her identity. Seeing her use this method to leave and fooling Gu Feidi until he was thunderstruck, he couldn’t countenance it and rolled his eyes.
Ahhhh I was having a suspicion but now I’m proved right.
THANK GOD SHE SEEMS NICE!!!!! It was obvious she’d be the author or system, but I was anxious whether or not she was a hidden villain