Editor: SleepyCat<3
After lunch, Li Yan didn’t rest for long before his grandfather urged him to leave. In the early spring season, the mountain climate was still cool, but Li Yan had only worn a tight black vest. Though Huang Yuliang was a little concerned about him catching a cold, he extremely admired this outfit and couldn’t help but steal glances.
After Li Yan left, Grandpa Li brought a basin of medicinal water from the inner room. A cloth strip was hanging on the edge of the basin, and underneath it was a bundle of silver needles tied together. After bringing it out, the old man looked around the room and pointed to the dining table, saying, “Take off your clothes and lie down on the table.”
Alright, let’s play the role of Ziwei today. Huang Yuliang obediently complied, only hoping that Grandpa Li would be gentle.
Grandpa Li lit an oil lamp and placed it beside him. He took out needles, heated them, and then inserted them into several large acupuncture points on Huang Yuliang’s body.
“Sir, can you chat with me while needling to help distract my attention?” Huang Yuliang requested.
“What do you want to talk about?” Although Grandpa Li asked this, he roughly knew what Huang Yuliang wanted to inquire about.
“Li Yan said that the Li family never uses poison, but since you know the antidote for this poison, the Li family must have some connection to this poison.”
After placing a few needles, Grandpa Li applied force with his fingers on their head before responding, “I am the second son in our family. Traditionally, the title of ‘Swallow’ shouldn’t have fallen on me. Therefore, the expertise in poison wasn’t passed down to me. In the past, there weren’t as many high-tech methods as there are today; how could we avoid using poison? All sorts of poisons and aphrodisiacs existed. However, what you’ve encountered is a skill that only the true successor of the Swallow would possess.”
“Please don’t take offense, but based on your expression, you indeed seem very disdainful of this… technique.”
“Of course. This thing easily leads people astray. It’s not just me, even our ancestors felt the same way. They didn’t allow its casual use or practice. But within the Swallow clan, the techniques were passed down to the direct disciples of the family, who mastered its use and the antidote both.” The elderly man pulled out a few needles from some parts and inserted a few more in other parts. “With the Swallow’s influence on the decline, I thought to myself that if someone could continue the family line, that would be enough. Little did I expect that this technique would be recovered.” He sighed. “What a sin.”
When Li Yan returned home covered in sweat, he saw his grandfather preparing dinner ingredients. Huang Yuliang was sitting on the sofa watching TV, his face looking a bit pale.
“How’s it going? Feeling better?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Not so fast. Didn’t your grandfather say it would take a few days?” Although Huang Yuliang found Li Yan’s current appearance quite sexy, he couldn’t ignore the unpleasant smell of sweat. “Could you please go wash up? You’re all sweaty.”
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Li Yan was immediately flustered.
“You damn… pervert!”
“This is all your…”
“Ah!” Li Yan yelled loudly and ran away.
Grandfather Li heard his grandson’s shout and came into the room, asking, “What happened?”
“Nothing. He just knocked the corner of the table.”
After dinner, Li Yan carried the iron box back to his room for further research. Grandfather Li went out for a walk. Huang Yuliang had nothing to do, so he opened the door of Li Yan’s room.
“Any idea yet?”
“I’ve never seen this type of lock. But locks can always be opened as long as you spend time studying them. No matter how complex, they are built on a simple foundation.”
“Let me take a look.” Huang Yuliang took the iron box from Li Yan and also took the iron wires Li Yan used for unlocking before inserting one wire to probe the internal structure.
“Do you know how to pick locks?”
“Not really,” said Huang Yuliang as he listened to the sounds, then took another wire. “I’ve just seen things like this, which look like locks but aren’t actually locks. I had my doubts when I saw it.” As Huang Yuliang inserted the sixth wire, the rectangular lock body made a “click” sound, popping open.
“What the fuck?!” Li Yan didn’t expect Huang Yuliang to open it. He quickly leaned over to see what happened but realized it wasn’t truly opened. The thing that looked like a lock on the outside was just a latch. Opening this latch allowed the actual unlocking process to begin.
“As expected.” Huang Yuliang pulled out all six wires. Five of them had their bottoms bent at a right angle, while one was straight. “This is a plum blossom latch, actually very simple. In reality, I ‘pushed’ it open rather than twisted it. Inside, there are five petal-like grooves. Most people would think it needs to match the key’s… what’s the technical term? The serration. Then you push it to the appropriate level to turn it. But actually, it’s not about turning, it’s about pushing it inside. The most important part is the straight one, without which you can’t push it into position.”
Li Yan wasn’t really concerned about the plum blossom latch that had already opened. He pointed to the exposed actual keyhole and said, “What about this?”
“The principle behind this is somewhat similar, but isn’t as simple as a latch, which has only a fixed position. Inside this is a mechanism consisting of five facets each with a 3×3 magic square. Once you’ve locked in the correct numbers, you can then push along the five directions and it’ll be done.”
Li Yan was a bit confused. “So, how is the key for this thing made? I can understand the latch. You can just push it open with something shaped like a plum blossom. But this opening is fixed, so how is it that you can still push in all directions on the inside?”
“This is a combination key with four blades whose tips are equipped with teeth with preset code. First, slot in these four sheets in the four directions. There’s a square bit in the middle that corresponds to the facet directly facing you, and when you finally stick in this square bit, the tips of the surrounding four blades will naturally push open the inside.”
Li Yan imagined it, and indeed, it was a clever design. If the component parts of the combination key were kept separately, even if it couldn’t prevent someone from opening the lock, it’d still cause trouble for the person who opened the latch.
For four consecutive days, Huang Yuliang underwent acupuncture, herbal baths, and blood circulation treatments from Grandpa Li. Although his complexion was slightly pale due to anemia, the bluish-black traces of poisoning had almost disappeared. Not only were the two young men delighted, but Grandpa Li also felt a sense of redemption for his sins. After all, it was his own son who’d practiced such sinister martial arts that led to this, so he’d felt really uncomfortable.
On the fifth day, Li Yan returned from his training on the mountain. When he entered the living room, he saw Huang Yuliang naked with red characters written all over his body, resembling gibberish. Candles were arranged in a circle around his feet, and his grandpa was muttering some prayers while holding a whisk and a peach wood sword in his hand.
It was like seeing a feudal era Daoist priest’s performance.
“What… are you doing?”
Huang Yuliang felt embarrassed being seen in this state, not because he was naked, but due to the situation. “You go out first…”
It was rare to see Huang Yuliang blushing, so Li Yan didn’t want to go out. He sat on the sofa with a look of enjoyment, looking like he was watching a good show.
Huang Yuliang glared at Li Yan with shame and anger. “Just wait for me…”
Li Yan had to admit that Huang Yuliang had a rather impressive physique hidden beneath his modest clothing. His body was well-proportioned, with a particularly striking frame and tall stature. From Grandpa Li’s perspective, Li Yan’s current height of 5.81 feet was already somewhat large and unwieldy for the family’s inherited martial arts. Nonetheless, he still couldn’t help but envy, then get jealous and hate Huang Yuliang’s height.
Li Yan glanced at Huang Yuliang’s private parts that he was covering with his hands. “Did he write anything there?” Before the words could settle, Grandpa Li abruptly turned around. “Swoosh!” He struck Li Yan’s face firmly with the whisk, silencing him.
After reciting a lengthy incantation, Grandpa Li swept Huang Yuliang from head to toe with the whisk, then took a candle, and extinguished the remaining candles with sword wind. Carrying the candle, he stepped outside, using it to set the whisk ablaze until it turned to ashes.
“Can I come out now?”
“Come out.” Grandpa Li continued to gesticulate with his peach wood sword outside the house and returned to the house after a while.
Huang Yuliang had already gone to take a shower. Li Yan, after observing his grandfather’s actions, was puzzled. “What were you doing just now?”
“This is the final step of the detoxification process,” Grandpa Li replied while picking up a purple silk thread from the table to wrap around the peach wood sword and whisk handle. “It’s said that this Poison Hand Technique involves using the soil from a corpse’s tomb, and the poison will thus contain the malevolent aura of ghosts. I wasn’t a firm believer of this, but since it was mentioned, I followed the procedure. After all, you’ve encountered demons, so encountering ghosts isn’t that surprising.”
“Grandpa, why have I never heard about our family using poison?”
“Because I didn’t want you to know. This kind of thing harms others and oneself. It’s better to eradicate it.” Grandpa Li massaged his sore shoulder. “I just didn’t expect that even though almost the entire village was extinguished, it’d managed to survive. It seems like I have to teach you the detoxification method. I wonder how many people, aside from your father, learned it.”
Hearing this, Li Yan felt uneasy. “Grandpa…”
“Speak your mind.”
“Grandpa, I’ve been thinking, and I really don’t want to believe it, but…”
“Do you think your father, after learning of that legend about becoming an immortal or a Buddha, secretly collected stone statues, and then went mad and killed your mother?”
The thing he least wanted to believe in his subconscious was casually spoken by his grandfather. Li Yan suddenly felt a bit of a sting in his eyes. If it was really like that, Li Yan didn’t know what to do.
Grandpa Li patted his grandson’s shoulder. “The human heart is the most unpredictable. If Li Feipu brings shame to the name of Swallow, you definitely know what to do. You don’t need me to teach you this. You are the heir of the Li family, and now the Swallow tattoo is on you. Make your own decisions.” The elderly man, holding the purple silk-wrapped items, stood up and turned towards the inner room. Then, he stopped in front of the door and said, “If you also bring shame to our ancestors, even if I am old, I’ll absolutely not spare you.”
Bahahaha why is Li Yan trying to disgust a shameless person. Huang Yuliang is so thick-skinned, it will never work hahaah
Thanks for the chapter!
Huang Yuliang’s ability to turn any situation into a dubious one needs to be studied. ie : sweat accident. this man’s goal is to always find a way to get back at Li Yan.. and he does it well. 😭⭐️
Li Yan running away after letting out a yelp was too funny 😂🫶 ML knows exactly which buttons to push for him to act out of character.. with his greatest weapon : teasing!!
Their ship dynamic in a nutshell :
a. Huang Yuliang: long n throughout explnation.
b. Li yan : kk bud, listening. ♡
on another note, danmeis authors will forever impress me with their descriptive sceneries. Here, the author went on with a deep latch description and..
did I understand? no.. am I impressed n appreciative? yep!
Thank you so much Pia, as per usual!! ☆