Chapter 161: Life Is a Play

If that “husband” really was Master Dao, how was Master Dao supposed to feel?

Black Peony was a woman herself. Even looking at it from a woman’s perspective, if a man behaved like that with another woman in full public view, what wife could bear it?

All four knew Niu Youdao’s identity. The more they listened to his words, the more they sounded like mockery. The rumors were starting to feel very real.

Outwardly calm, Tang Yi looked at Niu Youdao and asked, “Eldest Young Master, this gentleman is...?”

Shao Pingbo made a brief introduction. “Zhang San, a subordinate of Lord Zhuge Xun, our envoy to the State of Zhao.”

A subordinate of Zhuge Xun, an envoy of the State of Han?

Tang Yi had no idea how Niu Youdao had somehow ended up under Zhuge Xun, but she knew at once that the name was false. She merely cupped her hands in greeting and said nothing.

Niu Youdao returned the salute without speaking further. His gaze swept over Su Po and Tang Susu. Since neither dared expose his identity, he relaxed.

“Clear everyone unrelated out of that restaurant.”

Shao Pingbo pointed toward a restaurant beside the river and gave the order.

Niu Youdao immediately looked over and assessed the terrain around it. Half the building stood on the bank and half extended out over the river. On the river-facing side was a raised terrace for viewing the water. The establishment was clearly of some quality.

Before long, every customer inside had been driven out. The people at the wharf moved into the restaurant, though only a limited number were qualified to enter.

The cook, naturally, was among them.

Shao Pingbo and Tang Yi entered side by side and went directly toward the viewing terrace at the rear overlooking the river. It was quite an elegant setting.

Niu Youdao entered afterward, quickly studying the interior as he went.

He was led straight to the kitchen.

Shao Pingbo really did intend to use him as a cook.

The restaurant kitchen was spacious. Five or six kitchen workers watched them enter. The plump head cook stepped forward and cupped his hands.

“May I ask which establishment this fellow master cook comes from?”

They had suddenly been told an outside cook had been invited and that they were to assist him. The man had a reputation of his own in this trade and was deeply unhappy about it. His tone carried the unmistakable flavor of someone asking for instruction while actually issuing a challenge.

Your grandpa!

You really do think I’m a damn cook.

Niu Youdao cursed inwardly.

He was unhappy too, and Tang Yi had made it worse.

Meeting her was one thing. But somehow he had ended up in the kitchen while Shao Pingbo and Tang Yi played at tenderness outside, and in a while he was apparently supposed to present delicacies to that adulterous pair.

How was he supposed to stomach that?

Shhk!

Niu Youdao suddenly drew his sword halfway from its sheath, a blunt warning for the man to open his eyes and understand who he was dealing with.

“...”

The head cook froze.

Then his neck shrank back. He hurriedly led his people away with their tails between their legs.

Niu Youdao sheathed his sword and turned toward the cultivator who had followed them in to keep watch.

“The kitchen is restricted ground. I’ll have to trouble you to step outside.”

The cultivator stared. “Since when is a kitchen restricted ground?”

“Our cooking methods are not transmitted to outsiders,” Niu Youdao replied. “If you refuse to follow the rules, then don’t eat.”

“...”

The cultivator did not bother arguing. He slowly turned to leave.

“Wait.”

Niu Youdao called him back.

“Bring me brush, ink, paper, and inkstone.”

The man turned around again. “What do you need brush and ink for when you’re cooking?”

Niu Youdao gestured around the kitchen. “This place lacks several seasonings I use. I’ll write them down so your people can buy them.”

The cultivator left.

Niu Youdao wandered around the kitchen, examining everything.

Before long, the cultivator returned with brush, ink, paper, and inkstone.

Niu Youdao ground the ink, picked up the brush, and wrote down several dozen items.

Then he lifted the sheet, shook it once, and handed it over.

“Go buy these.”

The cultivator took the list, looked it over, and left.

Black Peony and the others exchanged glances.

They had no idea what Niu Youdao was planning.

Did cooking really require that many seasonings?

“Don’t look at what you shouldn’t.”

Niu Youdao glanced left and right and made Black Peony and the others move away.

Then he picked up the brush again and rapidly wrote something on another sheet.

He set down the brush, blew the paper dry, folded it, and put it away.

On the riverside viewing terrace, the cultivator from the kitchen approached Shao Pingbo and handed him the list.

“They’re all medicinal herbs.”

Tang Yi sat nearby in silence, listening.

Shao Pingbo scanned the list. “The food we ate last time seemed to contain medicinal herbs as well, did it not?”

“Yes. I remember seeing things like ginger and garlic.”

Shao Pingbo handed the list back.

“Buy everything written on it.”

Back in the kitchen, someone who should not have been there walked in.

Tang Susu entered with a taut face.

“Master Dao.”

Black Peony gave a quiet warning.

Standing by the window, Niu Youdao turned his head.

When he saw who had come, he slowly turned around and rested both hands on the sword planted before him.

The faint smile on his face looked more like mockery.

The two stopped face-to-face.

Tang Susu asked heavily, “What are you doing here?”

“I go where I please,” Niu Youdao replied. “Is that any of your business?”

“You think I don’t dare kill you?”

“You’ve tried to kill me more than once or twice already. Which attempt ever succeeded? You can’t kill me this time either.”

Seeing anger surge onto her face, Niu Youdao continued, “What? You want to make a move?”

“You know what Dong Guo Haoran left on me. You can’t deal with me in one or two blows. The moment we make enough noise for Shao Pingbo to ask questions, I’ll have no choice but to reveal my relationship with Tang Yi in order to protect myself.”

“I would very much like to see whether the Shangqing Sect still wants any face after that.”

Tang Susu’s features gradually twisted with rage.

“Relax. Even if you people have no shame, I still do.”

Niu Youdao reached into his clothes and pulled out the paper he had written earlier.

He held it out.

“From this day forward, you walk your road and I walk mine. I have nothing more to do with the Shangqing Sect.”

“If you ever entangle yourselves with me again, I will erase the Shangqing Sect from the cultivation world.”

“I say what I mean.”

Tang Susu accepted the folded paper and opened it.

She froze for a moment.

When she looked back at Niu Youdao, her eyes were complicated.

At last she gave a slight nod.

“Good. So long as you keep your word, the Shangqing Sect will never involve itself with you again.”

“I will never go back on it.”

Tang Susu turned and walked away.

Niu Youdao turned back toward the window.

Black Peony and the others exchanged bewildered looks.

Was the Shangqing Sect’s sect leader really Master Dao’s wife?

“Master Dao.”

Black Peony suddenly warned him again.

Niu Youdao turned.

He was left speechless.

Su Po had walked in this time.

The two stood facing one another.

Niu Youdao said, “I already made everything clear to Tang Susu.”

Su Po’s expression was equally complicated.

Tang Susu had already told him what happened and shown him the paper.

He looked around at Black Peony and the others.

“Could we speak somewhere private?”

“These people are all mine.”

Su Po sighed. “There was no need to take things this far.”

“The Sect Leader has had a very difficult time carrying the Shangqing Sect. She is a woman bearing all of it alone. It truly has not been easy.”

“Shao Pingbo possesses great influence over Shao Dengyun. There are some situations where she has no choice but to deal with him politely.”

“Some things are not what they look like either. There is no improper relationship between the Sect Leader and Shao Pingbo. Do not misunderstand.”

Niu Youdao’s brow twitched.

Most of what Su Po said meant little to him, but the words “Shao Pingbo possesses great influence over Shao Dengyun” struck him sharply.

Combined with the suspicions he had formed earlier about Shao Pingbo, the implication quietly alarmed him.

Su Po continued, “Perhaps you do not know this, but the Sect Leader publicly acknowledged long ago that she is your wife.”

“She also told us old fellows that once the Shangqing Sect stabilized, she intended to find you and bring you back.”

“She even said that after she finished laying the road for the Shangqing Sect, she would yield the position of Sect Leader to you.”

“The Shangqing Sect has already survived its crisis and found firm footing. There is no need for us to treat you as we did before.”

“Whatever happened in the past, consider it the sect’s wrongdoing toward you. Let us find some way to bring today’s matter to an end.”

“Come back.”

Niu Youdao smiled. “I have already made myself perfectly clear.”

“Even if you refuse to consider our feelings, you should at least consider your master’s.”

“It is precisely because I considered his feelings that I yielded again and again.”

Niu Youdao’s voice remained calm.

“I owe the Shangqing Sect nothing anymore.”

“Elder Su, everything is in the past now. Let each of us walk his own road.”

Su Po still wanted to persuade him, but Niu Youdao raised one hand and stopped him.

Su Po sighed.

“How is Wei Duo?”

“Don’t know him.”

Niu Youdao waved one hand.

“Elder Su, please don’t interfere with my work.”

Black Peony and the others stepped forward and firmly escorted Su Po out.

Outside the restaurant, several riders arrived.

A few generals in armor jumped down and strode directly toward the riverside viewing terrace to meet Shao Pingbo.

Seeing them, Tang Yi took the opportunity to excuse herself and leave the terrace.

The moment she returned inside the restaurant, Tang Susu, who had been waiting, drew her aside.

She handed over the folded paper and said quietly, “Sect Leader, it’s over.”

Tang Yi opened the note.

In an instant, her teeth bit hard into her lower lip.

She fixed Tang Susu with a cold stare.

“You forced him?”

Their relationship was no longer what it had once been, with one strong and the other weak.

After Tang Susu’s authority had been stripped away, it had never been restored.

And after weathering one storm after another, Tang Yi was no longer the timid young woman she had once been.

She now held the Shangqing Sect’s power firmly in her own hands.

She had become forceful.

In some respects, that was exactly what Tang Susu had wanted to see.

Tang Susu lowered her eyes.

“Sect Leader, you wrong this old woman terribly. He handed it to me the moment we met. He had obviously written it beforehand.”

“If you do not believe me, ask him yourself.”

“Where is he?”

Tang Susu bowed slightly.

“In the kitchen.”

Tang Yi immediately headed there.

So many people kept coming to the kitchen that Niu Youdao had already ordered the door closed.

Inside, he and the others were making a show of washing vegetables.

Black Peony and the rest could already feel that something was wrong.

Did any of the vegetables before them have anything to do with the red-braised pork they had been told to make?

Whenever Niu Youdao began doing things no one else could understand, those who had traveled with him long enough had learned to suspect trouble was coming.

Tang Yi pushed open the door.

Niu Youdao and the others all looked back.

He was holding a knife and cutting meat.

Their gazes met.

In Tang Yi’s mind, one scene after another flashed past in an instant.

Bowing to Heaven and Earth.

The bridal chamber on their wedding night.

The peach trees beneath Peach Blossom Spring, blazing like rosy clouds.

The Shangqing Sect had never imagined Shang Chaozong would establish himself so quickly.

News had already reached them that he had taken Qingshan Commandery.

Naturally, they had also heard how Shang Chaozong severed ties with Niu Youdao after Niu Youdao killed an envoy of the State of Yan.

Tang Yi could never have imagined that the lazy young man beneath the peach blossoms would one day do something that shook all beneath Heaven.

The pressure that followed could easily be imagined.

How could the State of Yan possibly let him go?

His hidden name and false identity were probably connected to that.

Tang Yi did not know what he had gone through during this period.

But seeing him standing there with a knife, reduced to working as a cook, she felt an inexplicable ache in her heart.

She slowly walked up to him and asked softly, “Since coming down the mountain... have you been well?”

Black Peony and the others furtively watched the pair.

One scene after another kept unfolding.

It really did feel like watching a play.

“By Sect Leader Tang’s grace, I’ve been well.”

Niu Youdao smiled, set down the knife, and pointed with greasy fingers at her clothes.

“This is a place for lowly people like us. It isn’t suitable for Sect Leader Tang.”

“Please go back and wait. Once the dishes are ready, I’ll send them over for you and Lord Shao.”

[End of Chapter 161]