155 A Joyful Nigh
A somewhat drunk Hai Yang noticed that Xiang Qing had returned and ran to him at lightning speed. He hugged Xiang Qing and continued hugging Xiang Qing as he poured out his sorrows. I annoyedly ran over to them and firmly continued kicking him until he ran off to the side to whine about his pain.
One after another, the other people stood up to propose a toast to Xiang Qing. Xiang Qing drank to the point that he couldn't tolerate it anymore and almost threw up. I hurriedly poured and offered a cup of tea to help dissipate the alcohol and ordered everyone to stop toasting.
Xiao Zi helpfully put some pollen into the tea that would help him sober up, and then she curiously asked, "Xiang Qing daren (title of respect towards superiors), where did you go to drink?"
Hearing this question, Xiang Qing suddenly blushed.
He held my hand and said, "Your older brother is too excessive. He actually took me to a brothel to drink."
"Oh, was the wine any good?" I curiously asked.
"How could I drink that wine?!" Xiang Qing somewhat ashamedly said, "When I saw those women, I wanted to drag your older brother to leave there without delay. But, he wouldn't leave no matter what and he even held onto a pillar. With one of us pulling and the other one holding onto the pillar, we accidentally caused the collapse of the brothel. After we went through a long hassle with the brothel's owner, your older brother was the one who paid the compensation money. Otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to return home."
"That's okay. My older brother has money. His concubine is even richer. Besides, if the two of you really wanted to leave, those people wouldn't have been able to stop you." I hurriedly consoled him. I didn't want to him to worry.
Shao Zhong was also drunk and with slurred and derisive words, he said to Xiang Qing, "Heh heh... men... true men... it's not a big deal for men to go to a brothel to drink. When we descend to the mortal world for missions, we would also occasionally go drink a few cups of wine..."
A cup was fiercely thrown at his head. Xiao Zi was seething in anger. She pounced on him like a tiger.
She grabbed his ear and cursed, "You dared to go to a brothel to drink and hide it from me!"
Shao Zhong immediately tried to clutch his ear because of the pain and said, "You shrew! Why did you use so much strength?!" Ahhhhh! Stop twisting! I admit I was wrong! Although I went to a brothel to drink, I didn't go there looking for women or did anything that would have wronged you! Quickly let go!"
"You damn liar! You said you were going to the mortal world for work! You were actually going there to do that type of thing! I won't be merciful to you today!" Xiao Zi lifted up a stool. She was preparing to carry out domestic violence on the spot.
I saw that things were going to end badly and quickly rushed over there.
I protected the stool from her and said with a smile, "If you want to hit someone, go fight at the spot where we cut firewood near the entrance. Xiang Qing built all the furniture here. I can't bear to see any of it damaged."
Xiao Mao very considerately brought a weapon to Xiao Zi. Shao Zhong ran around in circles to avoid being hit and didn't dare to retaliate against her.
Shao Zhong barked out, "Xiao Mao, you wretched brat. Next time, uncle won't save you! Xiao Zi stop hitting me! I spoke the truth. I definitely haven't gone there looking for other women!"
"If you dare go look for another woman, this old lady will go look for a hundred men! You'll be the king of green hats!" Xiao Zi hit him harder without any mercy.
Their one-sided fighting was fierce. Everyone laughed while avoiding being accidentally hit. Only Tang Sanzang tried his best to convince them to stop. I was extremely anxious. What if they destroyed the furniture? I hurriedly carried out some of the important items outside.
By this point, Zhu Bajie understood that even in the Heavenly Realm there were dark secrets and hidden details. He focused on eating and drinking as he looked at Han Jing. During a break, he asked if Chang'e (lady that lives on the moon) was well.
Han Jing ignored his question. After she rolled her eyes at him, she pulled the happy and excited Xiao Cha and Bai Cai to the orange tree outside, then she started predicting their futures.
"Elder sister Han Jing, you're an immortal so your fortune-telling will definitely be accurate!" Xiao Cha fawned over her like a lackey. "Could you tell me when I'll meet my peach blossoms and how many of them will I have? What will they look like? Are they handsome? Are they rich?"
Bai Cai smiled and said, "You're going to go so far as to want a bundle of peach blossoms. So greedy."
"You don't understand." Xiao Cha and her joked around for a bit, and then she continued pleading with Han Jing.
Han Jing took out the copper mirror she used for fortune telling. She gently touched the surface of the mirror with her hand.
After a while, she gently shook her head and sighed, "It's not good."
"What wrong?" Xiao Cha became nervous and tense.
This translation belongs to FuyuNeko. Please use an ad-blocker, mew.
Han Jing explained to her, "You'll meet your peach blossom soon. You'll only have one in this lifetime. Your husband won't be tall or handsome. His temperament will be nasty. Although he is very rich, he is stingy. And he won't treat you nicely. Every day, he'll scold and bully you in every possible way. Your days... probably won't be very good."
"It can't be that bad..." Xiao Cha turned pale with fright. Soon after, she firmly said, "Men are all bad as expected."
"If worse comes to worse, I don't want peach blossoms or men in this lifetime. Anyways, I rather die than marry that type of man!"
Bai Cai comforted her, "Don't worry about this too much. Han Jing always only predicts the bad parts of futures and its only 80% accurate."
Han Jing sneered and said, "What do you mean by those words?"
"En," Xiao Cha didn't seem to be listening to their words. She kept muttering to herself, "A woman should strive for self-improvement. At worst, I'll open a store to earn money and live by myself. Brothels are the most profitable, right?"
Bai Cai heard her talking about business and rushed over to interject, "Brothels and gambling places are both profitable businesses. Unfortunately, Heavenly Realm forbids us opening stores in the Mortal Realm. Otherwise, I would definitely open a store."
The three of them were very spirited in their discussion. Inside, Shao Zhong had already been beaten unconscious by Xiao Zi. Hai Yang had turned a deaf ear to his calls for help and had been talking to Xiang Qing about experiences with putting away demons. Tang Sanzang had given up on persuading Xiao Zi, and had asked for a place to rest. I arranged for him to go Yin Zi's room.
Soon after, the color of the sky became the marble white color of the dawn sky. Everyone saw that it wasn't early anymore and one by one, they said their goodbyes. The drunk, conscious and unconscious ones flew back up to Heavenly Realm together.
The ones who had ridden horses weren't awake yet. Zhu Bajie had fallen asleep directly in the kitchen and was comfortably asleep at the moment. Sha Wujing was sleeping in the shed. Sun Wukong wasn't droopy, so he woke all of them to continue going on their journey and left behind a messy house for me to clean.
Xiang Qing, that low alcohol tolerance fellow, was already deeply unconscious.
At Bai Cai's encouragement, Xiao Cha had also drunk one cup of wine to bid them farewell and the alcohol had gone to hear head almost immediately. She had hunkered down at doorway to sob. As she cried, she said words I didn't understand.
She said she had just graduated middle school when a car hit her. Right now, her parents were definitely grieving and feeling unwell over her. She also said she missed her friends and classmates a lot. What's so great about transmigrating? It wasn't good at all. It was very unlucky. She missed her dad, mom, friends, computer, Kentucky Fried Chicken, frozen treats, and the novel she didn't finish reading... but she couldn't go back... she wanted to go home. She didn't want to stay here...
Although I didn't really understand, when I saw how sad she looked, I couldn't bear it and my heart softened. So, I walked over to hold her head while comforting her for a while until she stopped crying and had fallen asleep.
Xiao Mao was also exhausted. He had gone to sleep early on. I went inside Xiang Qing's room and saw that he hadn't even taken off his shoes, so I helped him take them off. When I looked at his sleeping appearance, my heart was secretly joyful and delighted. I climbed onto the bed to poke his face a few times. He was deeply asleep as expected.
En, what if a villain were to come by in the middle of the night? I should stay here to protect him. I found an entirely justifiable reason to stay and cheerfully took off my outer robes and lay down next to him.
The sound of his heartbeat was better than heavenly music. His embrace was warmer than the quilt. I kissed his face a few times, gently held onto his waist, and stumbled into dreamland.
But in the middle of the night, I wasn't good. I had kicked off the quilt...
(T/N: I thought it was funny that Miao Miao was super jealous about other cats sitting on Xiang Qing's lap, but doesn't have any reaction to him going to a brothel.