Cohabitation with Sword Spirit-Chapter 314 - 51: Truly Worthy of Being Qingming’s Aunt
Late night on January 27, 2018
The atmosphere in the silent alley became quite awkward.
Shen Yueying, revealing her true form, stood in chilling silence like an ice sculpture, emanating an astonishing cold aura. Shen City was already frigid in the winter, with its martial vigour preventing it from enjoying the perpetual spring-like ambience of Cyan Cloud City. Amplified by Shen Yueying’s cold aura, the surroundings were quickly enveloped in frost, a small world turned white.
The chill borne from the True Essence Fluctuation of a Mountain-Overturning Realm expert penetrated to the bone, overwhelming cultivators with lesser cultivation. Li Chaolu shivered right on the spot. Li Xinyu, seeing this, wanted to step forward and reason with Shen Yueying to tone down her martial display. However, after just two steps, he felt the pressure of the chilling wind increase drastically. Using his body mass to generate heat, he was not afraid of the cold but the wind pressure made moving nearly impossible for his bulky physique.
Grinding his teeth, the fat man prepared to summon his True Essence, attempting a forceful breakthrough with the famed technique he had used to gain renown in the Cyan Cloud competition—even if it meant losing the hard-fought fat he had gained back, he couldn’t think too much concerning his sister.
Yet, before he could steady his step, Shen Ying pulled him back.
"Don’t go over, you’ll provoke her."
Li Xinyu exclaimed, "But Chaolu, she..."
Before he finished speaking, the fat man turned back and was at a loss for words.
Stimulated by the cold, Li Chaolu, trembling incessantly, found herself enclosed in a warm embrace.
Li Wanqing gently held her sister from behind, infusing her own pure and concentrated True Essence, like rolling clouds, into Li Chaolu’s icy body... yet for some reason, Li Chaolu seemed to tremble even more than before!
"Don’t mind it, Chaolu’s young and shy," Li Wanqing explained openly.
Li Xinyu was left dumbfounded, opening his mouth, not knowing what to say.
Meanwhile, the cold aura and icy wind emanating from Shen Yueying increasingly showcased animosity, enough that even Li Wanqing had to furrow her brow, summoning her Yuqing Taoist Armor and retreating slowly.
Wang Jiu furrowed his brows, his waist-girt White Sword slightly raised like a reef standing firm against a huge wave, splitting the overwhelming tide to protect those behind him.
Yet Shen Ying secretly stopped Wang Jiu, "Don’t add fuel to the fire, Aunt Yueying is furious from shame. Each time she accidentally embarrasses herself, she gets shy, turning into this icy sculpture. Approaching now would only make things worse. The right way to handle it is to pretend nothing happened and find a chance to talk to her later."
"Eh, is there such a self-protection mechanism?" Wang Jiu, intrigued, wanted to see how much worse he could make the situation.
"Don’t try it, she might really explode."
As they spoke, suddenly someone stepped forward, breaking the impasse.
That person’s body technique wasn’t fast nor agile, yet neither Shen Ying nor Li Wanqing noticed or stopped the movement.
By the time they observed the petite figure standing upfront, facing the cold wind from Shen Yueying, it was a step too late.
Shen Qingming, dazed, stepped forward and spoke.
"Mother?"
Like thunder exploding in the silent snowy night, the cold wind abruptly halted.
Shen Yueying’s ice sculpture-like expression instantly turned into a stone sculpture.
The next moment, her color, like frost and snow or slaked lime, began turning pink, the flush on her cheeks resembling sunset clouds behind dark ones.
Then, the woman spoke, her voice trembling, unlike the steadfast posture, "You you you, what nonsense are you saying?!"
Shen Qingming suddenly awakened.
"Ah, sorry, I thought... you really look too much alike." Speaking thus, Shen Qingming lowered her head gloomily.
After Shen Yueying unraveled her disguise, revealing her true form, Shen Qingming felt as if dozens of bolts of lightning struck her head at once, with memories from her childhood keenly flooding back.
No wonder they are birth sisters, resembling each other exactly as the flawless feminine figure from memory. The eyebrows and pink lips, all reminded Shen Qingming of her mother.
However, Shen Yueying was not her mother after all.
Hearing Shen Qingming’s words, the blush on Shen Yueying’s face slightly faded, replaced by a deliberate layer of cold frost.
"Too similar? Ridiculous, you’ve stayed too long in Cyan Cloud City, catching your father’s blindness! How am I like that woman?"
Before she finished, Wang Jiu interrupted, "Facial similarity is 95.6%, with detail differences mainly due to unique plumpness from body fat percentage, and slight differences in eyebrow shape, which currently seem related to whether one has experienced sexual life or not."
"You!?"
Wang Jiu continued, "Furthermore, because Shen Yue’e has gone through childbirth and nursing, the differences in physique compared to you are even larger, primarily manifesting in..."
"Enough!" Shen Yueying coldly interrupted this comparison, "Let’s skip the family connections talk. Shen Yue’e severed ties with the family back then and married into Cyan Cloud City as a concubine, so she has nothing to do with us. Even if there’s some resemblance, so what? We are no longer on the same path."
After saying this, Shen Yueying smiled again, "Moreover, since you recognized my identity only after I lifted the illusion technique, the supposed letters sent to the news agency were probably just idle talk. Haha, in Shen City, those who dare to speak so glibly about me, Shen Yueying..."
Before she could finish, Wang Jiu interrupted, "That’s true."
"...What?"
"The letter thing is true. I did send a letter, although it didn’t state the identity, but I can always add it with connection paper. And at the moment Shen Ying recognized you, I already wrote it."
Saying this, Wang Jiu proactively displayed a piece of white letter paper, indeed showing Shen Yueying’s name.
"It’s fortunate that your first reaction was anger, and you didn’t use an array to isolate communications here, otherwise, I would have had a hard time sending the message out." Wang Jiu shook his head, commenting.
Shen Yueying’s face turned red with embarrassment immediately, and after a moment, the cold wind rose again...
Wang Jiu, recalling the method to counter the cold wind before, hurriedly nudged Shen Qingming, "Quick, call her mother."
"Hey!" Shen Yueying herself couldn’t withstand such teasing and yelled in exasperated anger, "What do you want me to do?"
Wang Jiu said, "Here’s the thing, we’re here to resolve the old enmity between the two families."
"Daydreaming!" Shen Yueying unceremoniously interrupted, "After committing such acts back then, now you pretend to want to resolve old enmity? Do you think family grievances are child’s play?"
Wang Jiu said, "Children’s conflicts should not be overlooked! Many people’s lifelong shadows stem from not receiving the complete love of their parents in childhood! Ignoring reactions from children, assuming they are jokes or tantrums, is the root cause of many tragedies!"
Shen Yueying was taken aback by the justified rebuttal, "Sorry...wait, don’t change the subject! That’s not even the point!"
Wang Jiu said again, "The point is, if you refuse to help resolve the enmity, your identity as a book club area moderator will become known to everyone."
Shen Yueying was furious, "Just as expected, there’s no good person in the Li Family; all are deceitful and malicious!" The more she thought about how she had been fooled into revealing her identity with a few words by this person, the angrier she became, clenching her teeth in frustration.
Wang Jiu said, "So, will you help?"
"You!? Dream on! The Shen Family will never be coerced by anyone! We will not negotiate with terrorists!" Shen Yueying answered resolutely, "Expose it if you must! It won’t affect me at all!"
"I see, understood." Wang Jiu admired this upright character and was ready to let the matter go.
Yet he didn’t notice that, in the moment he turned his head, Shen Yueying’s expression became urgently embarrassed and nearly tearful on the spot.
Fortunately, there are always people here with sharp focus and sensitivity.
Li Wanqing, most sensitive to a woman’s tears, quickly took a step forward, sincerely saying, "We implore you to lend a helping hand!"
Shen Yueying was momentarily stunned, a hint of joyousness flickered in her eyes, but she quickly suppressed it, turning instead to a face full of frost, saying deeply, "What did you say!?"
Li Wanqing said, "We, those despicable and cowardly Li Family members, deeply feel the shame of our past actions, and now earnestly implore the generous and upright Vice City Lord Yueying of the Shen Family to have compassion and give us a chance to make amends."
Shen Yueying’s eyes almost sparkled, yet she kept her head high, coldly saying, "If you really feel shame and want to mend relations, why have you children come, and not the real leaders!?"
Li Wanqing, ever nimble, replied immediately, "Feeling too guilty, hoping for the forgiveness of former acquaintances is too shameful for especially the City Lord... Whenever he thinks of Shen City’s past, he becomes lost in thought."
This speech left Shen Qingming, Li Chaolu, and others dumbfounded, watching Li Wanqing express such nonsense with confidence in front of a Mountain-Overturning Realm master, they admired her immensely.
Seeing their expressions, Li Wanqing quickly used True Essence secret communication, "Did I say something wrong?! Isn’t Uncle lost in thought all the time?!"
"He’s just daydreaming, isn’t he..."
"Don’t focus on such details!"
"Lost in thought..." On the other side, Shen Yueying, unaware of the children’s exchange, subconsciously murmured softly but soon put on a serious face, saying, "Alright, since you’re sincere, then I can at least point you in a direction."
"The real obstacle before you isn’t me. Although I do dislike the Li family, I’m just the Deputy City Lord in charge of managing Shen City; I have no decision-making power on this diplomatic strategy."
"The one who holds the authority to decide is the City Lord, who has long ignored mundane matters. The actual person in charge is Shen Jinghai."
"If you can’t persuade Shen Jinghai, talking to me alone is useless."
"Considering your sincerity, I can offer a small tip."
"Shen Jinghai considers himself the City Lord’s left hand and right arm, striving for perfection in everything. In fact, he is indeed flawless—if there were flaws, someone would have acted against him by now. Hence, I cannot assert any weaknesses on him—but perhaps, like me, there might be private matters that could be used."
"I can only think of one thing: Shen Jinghai, till this day, has never had any romantic life, not a bit."
