Chapter 301 - 158: White Moonlight (3)

"No matter how much money you have, you can’t be richer than the Hundred Treasures Association."

Tang Huayi said with a smile,

"Now that the Blood Saber Hall has shown up, do you think the Hundred Treasures Association will try to get a piece of the action? If we get the chance to snatch a few rare treasures, we’ll be set for the rest of our lives."

Gu Xizhi felt he couldn’t bear to listen any longer.

’What kind of Jianghu heroes were these?’

’They were nothing but a band of cutthroats!’

He wanted to say something to uphold the principles of a true hero.

But the words caught in his throat.

No matter how you looked at it, the Blood Saber Hall was in the wrong today. They had tried to steal from them, making threats and resorting to violence.

It was perfectly justifiable that Jiang Ran and the others killed them.

If he had to find fault, it was that Jiang Ran and his companions were excessively ruthless, leaving no survivors.

Finally, he sighed, turned, and walked away.

Jiang Ran watched his retreating figure and smiled faintly.

"So, people like him really do exist in the Jianghu."

"Elder Gu has always had an excellent reputation. In his prime, it’s said that friend and foe alike admired him."

Ruan Yuqing smiled. "It’s only natural that he can’t stand your methods."

"The older generation of Jianghu People, at their age, have their own principles they hold onto. It’s admirable, really."

Jiang Ran just smiled, not paying it any mind.

’What surprised him was that someone like Gu Xizhi could survive in the Jianghu to such an old age without being undone by some villain’s scheme.’

’That was no small feat.’

He turned back to Scholar Jingtan and said with a smile,

"Elder, Elder Gu has left. Aren’t you going with him?"

"Why would I go with him?"

Scholar Jingtan shook his head. "Besides, he may have left for now, but he’ll be back tomorrow. The man has been stubbornly old-fashioned his whole life, but there’s one obsession he can never let go of."

"Is that the Elder Jin Qiu you two mentioned?"

Jiang Ran asked casually,

"The two of you want to borrow the Jiaowei for her sake, then?"

"..."

After a moment of silence, Scholar Jingtan finally nodded.

"That is correct."

"These are old matters that shouldn’t be brought up, but since you are the Jiaowei’s owner, I dare not conceal them from you."

With that, he came over and sat down.

He glanced at the unconscious Man Shengming, a flicker of doubt crossing his mind.

He didn’t ask, however. Instead, he began to recount the tale of himself, Gu Xizhi, and Jin Qiu.

The story was actually rather cliché.

It was nothing more than a love story about two men who both adored the same woman, and in the end, neither succeeded in winning her.

If there was one unique detail, it was that Jin Qiu and Gu Xizhi were actually childhood sweethearts.

There was a five-year age gap between them.

Scholar Jingtan, meanwhile, was a full seven years younger than Jin Qiu.

The first time he met her, he fell hopelessly in love at first sight.

The three of them were caught in a web of love and resentment that spanned more than twenty years.

Then, seven years ago, the two men made a decision they would regret for the rest of their lives: they would settle the matter through a duel. The winner would be with Jin Qiu; the loser would die.

Neither of them were young men by then, which made it all the more astonishing that they could resort to such a childish measure.

As it turned out, the duel never had a winner.

They never finished it, because they learned that Jin Qiu had already married someone else.

She had sent them a letter while they were fighting their duel.

In it, she said she couldn’t bear to see them fight to the death for her sake. Rather than prolonging the painful entanglement, it was better for them all to part ways and forget each other.

By the time the two of them abandoned the duel and went to find Jin Qiu, it was already far too late.

What was done was done; there was no way to rekindle the past.

Heartbroken, Scholar Jingtan returned to Graceful Heart Lodge to mend his broken heart.

Gu Xizhi, on the other hand, roamed the Jianghu for two years before finally going to Graceful Heart Lodge to have a drink with Scholar Jingtan. They parted ways then, believing they would never meet again in this life.

Yet, unexpectedly, the two of them reunited here five years later.

The two hadn’t made peace five years earlier; at the time, they were both too heartbroken to even think about fighting to the death.

Meeting again five years later, with new grievances piled on top of old hatreds, the more they thought about it, the angrier they became. A fierce fight was naturally inevitable.

And yet, over more than twenty years of their tangled history, though they loathed one another, they had also, for one reason or another, saved each other’s lives.

In their spirited youth, they had once shared wine and laughter, passionately discussing the heroes of the world.

These old memories had fermented into the present, their emotions long since becoming too complex to unravel. Even when they fought fiercely, neither truly wanted to kill the other.

Tang Huayi and Ruan Yuqing exchanged a look, stunned. They never expected to hear such an intimate secret.

Luo Qingyi, on the other hand, was completely uninterested in any of it. In fact, she found Scholar Jingtan’s voice rather hypnotic.

She slept even more soundly, her snores growing louder and louder, overpowering the chirps of insects and birds in the woods.

Jiang Ran, however, wore a strange expression, unsure of what to make of the woman who was the idealized love of these two men’s lives.

’To stop them from fighting to the death, she went and married someone else.’

’This... was she afraid that if she married one, the other would be heartbroken?’

’So she decided to take them both out at once?’

’Besides, by the time things had gotten to that point, both men’s feelings were crystal clear. Unless this Jin Qiu liked both of them, she should have made a choice.’

’If she had just made things clear earlier, it never would have gotten to that stage.’

’And finally, the fact that she could just get married whenever she wanted... It seems there’s far more to this story than just the three of them.’

Of course, these were just Jiang Ran’s own private analyses.

It wouldn’t be right to say them out loud, so he changed the subject and asked,

"If you both went into seclusion five years ago, why have you re-emerged into the Jianghu five years later for the Jiaowei? And you say it’s for Elder Jin Qiu?"

"It’s because Jin Qiu suddenly sent me a letter."

Scholar Jingtan said softly,

"She said in her letter that she shouldn’t have disturbed my peace and quiet."

"But she has loved the qin her entire life, and now that the Jiaowei has surfaced, she wants to lay eyes on it to fulfill a long-held wish."

"Unfortunately, she has contracted a terrible illness and does not have long to live. Bedridden, she is unable to attend the qin-appreciation gathering at Sunset Plateau. So, she asked me to come in her stead and, for the sake of our past relationship, help her."

Jiang Ran opened his mouth, a thoughtful look on his face. ’I wonder,’ he thought, ’if Gu Xizhi received the exact same letter.’