Black Belly Wife

byきつね-December 24, 2021

Continued from the previous chapter → Suddenly, Murong Yunshu opened his eyes, quietly gazed at the owner of that hand for a long time before asking, "Do you know what the boundary between love and hate is?"

Chu Changge was shocked, and his hand trembled fiercely. "I don't know."

Murong Yunshu looked at him for a moment more, withdrew her gaze and hung her head as she said softly, "I don't know either."

"Do you hate me?" Chu Changge asked, his voice trembling.

When Murong Yunshu heard his question, she looked at him again in surprise. "Why would you ask such a question?"

"You just asked me about the boundary between love and hate. I thought......" Chu Changge did not finish his words and looked down.

"You're thinking too much." Murong Yunshu explained, "I'm just curious. Why would someone love someone else to the point of hate? Obviously, to love is just to love, so how can it turn sour?"

Murong Yunshu spoke in a light-hearted manner, but Chu Changge listened with an upsurge of emotion. He was so excited that his back was faintly trembling.

He knew she hadn't changed. He just knew it!

Chu Changge pondered for a short while before he called out as if he was using all his strength, "Yunshu......"

For some reason, Murong Yunshu's eyes were wet because of his 'Yunshu', and her resentment, fighting spirit, and stubbornness......vanished instantly, leaving only her heart full of love. She was......yearning for him so much......

When she closed her eyes, tears slipped from the corners of her eyes and burned her cheeks.

"Chu Changge." Murong Yunshu leaned her head on his arm and said softly, "I can't bear to feel the sky falling apart and the earth splitting up again."

These words seemed like a needle piercing into Chu Changge's heart, and his heart ached so much that his eyes turned red. When would he stop making her feel that way......

*

The following day, a very peculiar scene appeared at the Jiugua House——

In the courtyard, a couple was having tea while playing chess, which looked pleasing to the eye from a distance but completely baffling when viewed up close.

Black piece. "Will you marry me?"

White piece. "No."

Black piece. "You'll marry me or not?"

White piece. "No."

Black piece. "You'll marry me or not?"

White piece. "No."

......

......

A group of onlookers looked confused.

East Guardian: "Did the Leader regain his memory?"

South Guardian: "It looks a bit like it, in full adherence to his shameless style."

West Guardian: "What concerned me more is——couldn't he have asked the question differently?"

North Guardian: "I don't think the Leader has recovered his memory yet."

"Why?" Li Wunai, who had just heard his statement, asked.

North Guardian: "If he has regained his memory, he should know that Madam will not marry out."

Then it dawned on everyone's mind. The only daughter of the Murong Mansion would never marry out. No wonder she kept on refusing.

"When do you plan to remind him?" Li Wunai asked.

The four people East, South, North and West, spoke in unison, "Remind him of what?" They all had a 'don't understand what you're talking about' tone, but the words 'understood' were clearly written on their faces.

Li Wunai rolled his eyes. "Just pretend I didn't say anything." None of the four guardians was the type of people who liked to keep the peace. If Chu Changge suffered a harmless setback, they couldn't have been happier, so how could they remind him? Hey hey hey, he had become much kinder after getting involved with Buddhism. If it wasn't for the four people, South, East, North and West, who acted as if the current situation was none of their business, he could have been considered a good guy.

Murong Yunshu couldn't stand a certain amnesiac brainless man disturbing and annoying her unreasonably——in fact, to say that he was disturbing and unreasonably annoying her would be an understatement, because he was neither disturbing nor being unreasonable with her, but just continuously annoying her with his non-creative ideas. She raised her eyes to a particular man, surnamed Li and stated, "I heard you are good at chess."

"What do you want?" Li Wunai asked, moving back a few steps warily. He felt that the clear sky above his head had instantly turned into nothing but a cloudy sky with a gusty wind blowing from time to time. According to his decades of experience in the jianghu, this was a bad omen.

"Play a game of chess with me." Murong Yunshu said indifferently.

In a moment, Li Wunai felt a harsh gaze piercing through the dark clouds over his head as it reached his temple. He didn't need to look to know where this murderous gaze was coming from. Li Wunai felt a burst of chill in his heart. How much do you hate me, Brother Chu? How dare you stab me in the temple as if a knife just had hit me? I thought we had burned incense and worshipped each other as sworn brothers back then! At this moment, I'm just standing around watching the excitement of your proposal. Do you have to be like this?

Li Wunai wanted to run away very much. But there was a woman who was even more terrifying than Chu Changge staring at him, making him unable to move his feet. One should know that women were much scarier than men when it came to revenge. Thinking of his days as a pimp in the brothel, Li Wunai could not help but feel sad. Although she had an ulterior motive when asking him to become the pimp, he did become a pimp in the bright lights of the night. Words about this matter had even spread throughout the jianghu, making him ashamed to return to the Shaolin Temple. Now, he had no other choice but to grow his hair and return to what used to be his everyday life.

Alas, he could only blame his ignorance during his youth for meeting and making a bad friend of the wrong person!

This lesson told Li Wunai that Murong Yunshu was a heavenly immortal who had descended to earth――an immortal of bad luck. If she didn't want to let you go, you couldn't escape even when you became a monk.

To offend this man or to offend this man's woman? It took Li Wunai only three seconds to make his decision.

"Brother Chu, I'm sorry." Li Wunai walked to Chu Changge's, not daring to look at his expression.

Li Wunai's choice was right. If he had looked at Chu Changge's expression at this moment, he was afraid that the gloomy wind wouldn't disperse from his dreams for three days.

Chu Changge did not want to give up his position, but he did not know why he listened to her so much. He obediently got up when she told him to give up his seat. He stared reluctantly at the man who had taken his place as his anger rose.

Li Wunai was tempted to yell at Chu Changge, what's wrong with your intelligence? Can't you see that I am also reluctant? If you want to stare, why don't you just stare at your woman? Why are you staring at me?

However, Li Wunai could only think about these words. It was because he knew Chu Changge's character too well. Whether when he was normal or in amnesia, whether it was anger or happiness, Chu Changge would never lose his temper in front of Murong Yunshu. If he were outraged, there were already people born unlucky to act as his cannon fodder. For example, there were South, East, North and West, and then there was himself. Of course, there were times when Chu Changge could not find any cannon fodder. At that time, he would most likely slash twice in the east and slap in the west, sulking by himself.

"Old West, I can't watch this anymore." North Guardian said quietly to West Guardian, with an unbearable look on his face.

West Guardian: "Can't bear to watch what?"

North Guardian: "Leader's infatuated look."

The West Guardian raised his eyebrows. "You're misjudging him. He looks like a grieving husband, which is different from being infatuated."

"......is that something you should emphasise on?"

"Yes."

"......" North Guardian glared at him breathlessly and nudged East Guardian with his elbow. "Old East, we are the Leader's Guardians. Isn't it too much of us to just stand by with our folded arms when the Leader is in trouble?"

East Guardian's mouth curled up in an unfathomable smile. "How can you call this as in trouble? This situation is called a blessing, a blessing in disguise. Our Leader is enjoying his blessing right now."

"......" Since when did being abused become a form of enjoying blessings? North Guardian blinked. Could it be that there was a generation gap between him and Old East as he grew older? When speaking of this, North Guardian thought that East Guardian was almost like a one-year-old child......

Inexplicably, North Guardian couldn't help but look at the East Guardian with a little more sympathy in his eyes. A man who was nearly thirty years old but never had a woman by his side and only been to the brothel a handful of times. No wonder his values were so distorted that he believed that being abused was a blessing as long as he could stay around women...... [T/C]

"What's with that look in your eyes?" West Guardian asked curiously.

"This is the look of a true man." North Guardian withdrew his gaze without looking startled or panicked, and his face was calm. The more you had a guilty conscience, the calmer you should be. He learned this trick from Madam.

West Guardian became speechless. When did this guy develop this skill?

North Guardian snorted proudly in his heart, then said, "This matter is not only about the Leader's sexual well-being, but also about the happiness of our brothers. You don't have to look at the fact that even though the Leader currently doesn't remember anything, he has a way of remembering what happens every day. If we don't give him a hand now, it will be no more joke when he comes out in the evening. By then, I'm afraid it won't be a matter of just going to the entrance of the brothel and pulling in the customers......"

These words woke West Guardian up from his dream. West Guardian remembered with a jolt that it was nighttime when the Leader himself had gone out to found them, but he was not at all surprised to see them the following day, and the first thing he said was——"You are my people?" At that time, the four of them were worried about how to persuade the Leader to trust them, only to find that he was the one who took the initiative to speak and gave them his complete trust. How on earth did the Leader remember that? Wait, that was not the point. The point was, what they had been doing all this time had clearly been known by the Leader?!

West Guardian instantly spoke in a trembling voice as if he had met his greatest enemy, "Old East, things have gone terribly wrong." During the period when the Leader had a split personality, as peasants who had been oppressed for a long time and rarely liberated, they had never stopped fighting with their landlord......

"I know." East Guardian also had a solemn look on his face. He had listened to North Guardian's words word for word. The problem that the West Guardian was thinking about, he naturally thought of it as well. But now, with the Leader's character, it would be too late to curry favour, so――"One way or the other, let's simply carry on the revolution until the end." East Guardian said righteously.

The three men, South, North and West, were infected by his rebellious aura that their blood started to boil.

After a long time, North Guardian was the first to come to his senses. "Old East, you're not trying to smash the already cracked pot, are you?"

"Don't make it sound so bad." East Guardian said, "We're calling it overthrowing hegemonism and abandoning the darkness for the light."

"Abandon the darkness for the light? You're not thinking of defecting to Madam's side, are you?!" North Guardian said the latter phrase in a particularly low voice. Nonetheless, it could still be heard by Chu Changge. Thus, the four received a cold stare from Chu Changge. There was no emotion in his chilly gaze.

What's up with this situation?

The four people, East, South, North and West, looked at each other. Was it a warning? It didn't seem like it! But it would be even more ridiculous to say that he was simply too tired to hold his pose and wanted to turn his neck to move his muscles......

"Maybe the Leader just thinks we're too noisy." North Guardian said with a sigh of relief.

North Guardian successfully earned blank stares for this statement.

"Lil North, sometimes I truly admire you."

"Admire me for what?"

"Your ability to get into a brainless state at any time."

"......Old West, if you want to blame me, then just blame me. No need to make a personal attack on me." North Guardian puffed his nose and glared at West Guardian with an accusatory face.

"Look, you're already out of your brainless state." West Guardian said with a smile and a surprised expression as if he had discovered a new world. [+]

"You......" North Guardian spoke of the word 'you' for a long time but could not think of anything to say in retort. When he had no other option, he finally said depressingly, "You're the brainless one. Your whole family is brainless!"

"You've gone into your brainless state again." West Guardian was incomparably calm without being angry or annoyed at him.

"......"

In the end, the four people from North, South, East, and West once again united and abandoned the darkness for the light as they threw themselves into Madam's embrace――not genuine embrace, of course. Even if they borrowed a hundred courage, they wouldn't dare rub themselves up against Murong Yunshu. It was not that they were afraid of Chu Changge's revenge, but they genuinely believed that they could not get too close to a woman like Murong Yunshu. This was because they might be forced to 'enjoy' her inhumane treatment at any given time, such as being sent to the frontier, to the brothel or were forced to go through mountains of daggers and seas of flames.

At the same time, Chu Changge also found a balance in his heart. That was――by kicking Li Wunai away and calmly sat back down on the chair. In the end, Chu Changge even said something just like what Li Wunai had said before, "Brother Li, sorry."

Li Wunai clutched his thigh and grimaced in pain, wanting to cry, but no tears came out. Which Gods had he provoked that he had to die because of it?

Murong Yunshu did not comment on what had just happened and continued to play chess without saying a word.

But Chu Changge did not make a single move, only asking, "Will you marry me?"

Li Wunai looked towards the sky. King Yan, can you please take back Chu Changge quickly?

East, South, North and West also had the same ambition to raise their eyes to the distant mountains. Leader, what you have lost is your memory, not your brain. So please don't be so brainless, okay?

Murong Yunshu, on the other hand, gave Li Wunai a silent look and gave him a 'sorry, brother Li' look.

When he received Murong Yunshu's look, Li Wunai immediately jumped away three meters and raised his hands in surrender. "Miss Murong, you are universally kind by nature, so please don't hurt the innocent, okay? He was just being courteous. This kick from him did not hit my vital parts. If you do it again, I'm afraid I'll be childless." After saying that, he looked at Chu Changge with a meaningful expression on his face. The implication was: if I were to grab the seat opposite you with him again, I can guarantee you that he would destroy my life before I could even go there.

"Weren't you already prepared to be childless when you decided to become the Abbot of the Shaolin Temple?" Murong Yunshu asked rhetorically.

"......I've decided to return to my normal life."

"Is that so?" Murong Yunshu raised an eyebrow. "I suggest you remain a monk."

"Why?"

"Your bonds of this world has ended, and returning to this world will only make you destined to end up alone." Murong Yunshu put down a white chess piece. Since she had no opponent to play with, she decided to play with both her hands.

The corners of Li Wunai's mouth slightly twitched as he gritted his teeth, "I didn't know that you had a connection with Buddha."

Murong Yunshu raised her eyes. "Are you suggesting that I become a nun?"

"Don't slander people with your words!" Li Wunai jumped back three metres again with a fearful face. "I haven't offended you. Why are you always looking for trouble with me? Let me tell you, Chu Changge and I have worshipped each other to be sworn, brothers. You won't easily provoke him."

"I've also worshipped heaven and earth with him. Didn't he still forget about me?"

Ugh. That was true. Li Wunai ran out of words. It took a long moment of anger in his heart before he could squeeze the words out of his teeth. "It is not the work of a gentleman to sow discord." He knew she wasn't a gentleman, but he couldn't think of anything offensive to say......

Murong Yunshu shrugged. "First of all, I'm not a gentleman. Secondly, I'm not sowing any discord. Lastly, a gentleman can sometimes sow a discord." 

It's not like you will die if you can't be calm for once! Didn't she know that many men in the world were less calm and collected than she would be ashamed of themselves after saying something like this? Li Wunai took a deep breath and said, "You said you didn't sow any discord. So what are you doing now?"

Murong Yunshu frowned and thought for a moment, then faintly spat out these words, "Using my power to bully others."

"......you......" Li Wunai almost could not catch his breath. He once again took a deep breath and said, "You are so justified in using your power to bully others. Are you still a human being or not!" This woman certainly didn't have a semblance of right and wrong in her heart, for sure!

Murong Yunshu frowned disapprovingly and questioned, "If you scold me for not being human, then what does he, who is my ex-husband, count as?" After saying that, she looked at Chu Changge.

Ex-husband? Chu Changge was very unhappy with this word, but he would bicker with her over this matter later on. What he had to do at this moment was unconditionally unite his front with Murong Yunshu. "You scolded me for not being human?" Chu Changge asked coldly.

"......" Li Wunai deeply felt that this world was full of child prodigies and weak-minded people.

After being depressed for a long time, Li Wunai decided to switch from defending into attacking mode. In the twinkling of an eye, his expression was no longer as depressed as before and was full of fighting spirit. Humph. If you can't let yourself tolerate me, don't blame me for being unjust! "Brother Chu, I want to tell you something." Li Wunai spoke meaningfully.

Chu Changge: "Not interested." He now hated this person immensely.

Ugh. He just lost his first battle. Li Wunai squeezed out a fake smile in frustration, "You'll be interested in this." Jealous men had truly zero IQ, totally zero. He suddenly missed the old Chu Changge. Although the old Chu Changge was a bit darker, at least he was a normal person. He was also a bit overbearing, but at least once in ten times, he would be willing to be reasoned out by others――even though he was always the one who made sense in the end.

"The reason Murong Yunshu won't marry you is that the daughter of the Murong Mansion doesn't marry out. If you want to get close with her, you should marry into her family." Li Wunai did not care whether Chu Changge liked to listen to him or not, as he finished his words in one breath. At the end of his revelation, he even looked at Murong Yunshu with a smug expression. Hmph, you've seen how I've just revealed the truth to him, right?

Murong Yunshu, on the other hand, did not say anything but smiled.

Seeing Murong Yunshu's expression, Li Wunai suddenly realised! It turned out that Murong Yunshu had been fanning the flames of war towards him, not because she was displeased with him, but because she was forcing him. She was forcing him to tell Chu Changge about it. Since she was the one who had divorced her husband, if she informed Chu Changge about it herself, it would be like slapping herself in the face, which was too humiliating for her. The four people South, East, North and West, who were Chu Changge's Guardians, prefer to watch and keep their mouths shut. As a result, he became the cornered dog that would jump over a wall and prod through this layer of a ditch.

This time, Li Wunai felt extremely frustrated, thoroughly defeated and depressed. He began to spurn himself in his heart. Li Wunai, Li Wunai, unexpectedly you also do this kind of stupid thing of being the one who is sold but still helps people to pay for it......

On the other side, South, East, North and West heard the sound of the upcoming storm. According to their years of experience, if they didn't leave at this moment, they could no longer walk away in one piece again.

It was only a pity that it was already too late for them.

"Don't move!" Chu Changge's words were like a sudden clap of thunder, and South, East, North and West immediately showed them being struck by lightning. Not only did their feet not move, but even their hands also did not move either. They remained in their original position, waiting for their sentence.

At that moment, Lu-er came rushing from the front yard and exclaimed, "Miss, a matchmaker has arrived at the door. She is carrying several boxes of things. She said she was here to propose marriage. What should we do?!"