Chapter 141: Time Unending, Years at Peace
“Nan Xun?” Yan Han murmured her name a few times, and suddenly felt the blood in some part of his body strangely begin to boil.
For some reason, from that day on, Yan Han preferred to call her Xunxun rather than Yaoyao.
It was quite a long time later before news of the new emperor’s ascension finally reached this remote little town. It was said that the previous emperor had died suddenly of a violent illness, and that the empress, deeply devoted to her husband, had hanged herself and followed him in death. Prince Xian, supported by the court officials, ascended the throne in a perfectly legitimate manner and proclaimed a general amnesty throughout the realm on the day of his enthronement.
For ten years, under the governance of the new emperor, the Great Yan Kingdom enjoyed favorable weather, peace, and prosperity. The people praised him endlessly.
In a secluded town, inside the Yan Residence belonging to the eccentric Master Yan, Nan Xun lounged beneath a large tree enjoying the shade, while Yan Han practiced swordplay in the courtyard.
After cracking sunflower seeds for a while, Nan Xun once again heard Little Eight sighing mournfully.
“I thought this world would be the fastest one to complete the mission, but who would’ve thought… wuwuwu…” Little Eight whimpered.
Nan Xun was admiring the man’s sword movements. Hearing this, she replied leisurely, “I didn’t expect it either. The big boss is down to only 0.5 points of malice. But no matter how deep our feelings are, that 0.5 just won’t budge. I can’t do anything about it. Should we just give up and leave? If it were you, would you be willing?”
Little Eight immediately replied, “Not willing at all! Leaving now would mean everything we’ve done goes to waste.”
Nan Xun nodded. “Exactly. I’ve done everything I possibly can. The big boss has become extremely positive now—just yesterday he even went with Merchant Zhang next door to distribute porridge. All we can do is wait. Who knows, maybe one day that last 0.5 point of malice will suddenly disappear?”
Little Eight: …
Why did it feel like Nan Xun was fooling it?
That shouldn’t be possible. In the past, it was always the one fooling Nan Xun. How could Nan Xun be fooling it?
Nan Xun couldn’t help lecturing Little Eight. “It’s not that I want to complain, but why must you completely eliminate all of the big boss’s malice before you can get merit points? Who doesn’t have moments of dark thoughts? Even a chosen one would have fleeting moments of malice, right?”
Little Eight snorted. “That’s exactly why merit points are so hard to collect.”
“In these worlds, the villain big bosses start with full malice value. On the original trajectory, they’d just end up killed by the chosen one. Since I’m snatching the chosen one’s merit points, there are only two ways. One is to kill the villain big boss before the chosen one does. That’s way too blatant—it won’t work. If the Heavenly Dao Daddy finds out, I’m done for. The second way is to eliminate all of the big boss’s malice. Because he’s a hardcore villain boss, his malice value rebounds very easily. The demon king in the first world was a living example. So only by completely eliminating the malice and making the big boss genuinely turn over a new leaf can I obtain merit points.”
Nan Xun gave an uninterested “oh” and continued watching her man practice swordplay.
Little Eight was irritated by her attitude and suddenly said, “If the big boss still won’t give me that malice value, I really want to stab him to death.”
Nan Xun snorted. “You wouldn’t dare.”
Little Eight chuckled slyly. “I really wouldn’t dare kill him openly, but I’ve got plenty of poisons here. I could sprinkle them on you—if he does that thing with you, he’ll kick the bucket, hmph~”
Nan Xun’s seed-cracking slowed. “You’re a kind little beast. You definitely wouldn’t do that.”
Little Eight retorted, “Stop slapping a halo on me.”
Seeing that Yan Han had finished practicing his swordplay, Nan Xun stopped paying attention to Little Eight. She took the handkerchief she’d prepared earlier and walked over to wipe his sweat, scolding him as she did so. “Why are you sweating so much? It’s your own fault—practicing so early in the morning and tossing about like this. By the time you’re done, it’s already late, and the sun’s out.”
Yan Han pulled her into his arms and laughed softly. “All right, all right, it’s this husband’s fault. No matter how my wife scolds me, I’ll accept it.”
“Xunxun, I suddenly want to eat the mung bean cakes you make,” Yan Han said.
“I’ll make them for you right away,” Nan Xun replied with a smile, slipping out of his arms and heading toward the small kitchen.
After she left, Yan Han suddenly clutched his chest. The metallic sweetness that surged up his throat was forcibly swallowed back down.
At noon, Nan Yue from next door brought her five-year-old chubby little son to the Yan Residence.
Nan Yue was Cui Huan. After leaving together with Nan Xun all those years ago, she changed her name to Nan Yue. Nan Xun wanted to treat her like a sister, but for little Cui Huan, hierarchy was deeply ingrained, and she still insisted on calling Nan Xun “Madam.”
At first, Cui Huan absolutely refused to marry, determined to stay at the Yan Residence and serve the two of them. Four years passed like this. Nan Xun truly didn’t want to delay such a good girl any longer, so she swallowed her pride and hinted that with Cui Huan around, things were rather inconvenient for her and Yan Han.
Cui Huan never imagined she’d cause such trouble for her madam and was completely stunned.
But she soon realized that with her master around, Madam didn’t need to do anything herself, and she really was somewhat superfluous. Coincidentally, a certain Merchant Zhang had been persistently pursuing Cui Huan. She agreed to marry him on the sole condition that they live next door to her madam.
That Merchant Zhang adored Cui Huan immensely. He quickly bought the residence next to the Yan Residence at a high price, renovated it, and married Cui Huan in grand style.
Seeing the little chubby boy, Nan Xun scooped him up into her arms and teased with a smile, “Little Stone, haven’t you gotten even fatter? I can barely hold you anymore.”
The pudgy Little Stone pouted. “I said I wanted to eat less, but Daddy keeps making me eat more. Now even Auntie Xun is bullying me.”
Nan Xun burst into laughter.
Cui Huan brought it up again, “Madam, since you like Little Stone so much, why don’t I let him be adopted by you as your son?”
It was only later that Cui Huan learned that Madam had taken a sterilizing medicine and would never be able to conceive. She once resented Yan Han on Madam’s behalf and felt it wasn’t worth it for her. But Madam only smiled, winked at her, and made a shushing gesture. “I’m only telling you this secret—even if I hadn’t taken that medicine, I still wouldn’t be able to have children in this lifetime. Yan Han has always felt guilty toward me because of this. Even when I ruined his imperial throne, he wasn’t angry. If anyone should hate someone, it should be him hating me.”
Though Cui Huan didn’t quite understand Nan Xun’s words, she could tell that Madam didn’t blame Yan Han at all. She stopped dwelling on it, only curling her lips. “Madam, give it a rest. Just look at how much Master dotes on you—my husband can’t compare at all.”
Even as she said this, her face was full of sweetness and happiness.
Nan Xun watched her smile and suddenly felt that time stretched endlessly, and the years were calm and beautiful.
If such days could last a lifetime, that would be nice too—however, it was only an if.
Another year of peaceful living passed, and the big boss’s malice value still remained at 0.5. Little Eight was starting to feel like giving up.
And just at that moment, the big boss caught a cold—and suddenly, he never recovered.
