TBIP: Chapter 11

Tianming Continent might be a world of cultivation, but its wedding process wasn’t at all simpler than the ancient times that Lou Xingyao knew.

It was the first time that Lou Xingyao knew that putting makeup on a man could be so delicate and complicated, including trimming the sweat hair on his face and spraying him with incense and water.

The two shi chen periods (one of the 12 two hour periods of the day in traditional Chinese timekeeping) of being washed and combed by the He family’s maid were simply the saddest four hours in his life.

After an unknown amount of time, several maids finally stopped their actions. They stood aside and looked Lou Xingyao up and down, revealing a satisfied look.

Seeing this, Lou Xingyao secretly sighed with relief. He could finally end this inhuman torture.

However, the red brocade handkerchief in the hand of one of the maids made him feel worried again. “What is this?”

“The veil. The bride must use it when getting married.” The maid said with a flick of the wrist, unfolding the veil in her hand.

On the square red silk, there were auspicious patterns embroidered with gold thread. In the middle, there was a big double happiness character. Around it were patterns similar to lotus flowers. The embroidery was neat, the stitches were fine, and even the materials were of excellent quality.

Lou Xingyao couldn’t find a single flaw in the veil, but what he couldn’t understand was, “I’m a man. This veil…”

Lou Xingyao didn’t finish his words, but the nanny quickly understood the meaning and laughed. “The young master is getting married for the young lady. You naturally have to use this veil.”

“It can still be seen through at a glance…” Lou Xingyao didn’t believe that a simple wedding dress and veil could deceive the eyes of cultivators.

“Don’t worry, Young Master. Madam has already arranged it.” The nanny said while taking a jade pendant from the side and tying it to Lou Xingyao’s waist. As she tied it, she explained, “This is a hidden breath pendant that can hide the human breath. Even a golden core cultivator can’t see through it.”

Lou Xingyao looked down and saw that the hidden breath pendant on his waist was much better than the soaring dragon pendant that he got from Housekeeper Lou in terms of material.

This type of magic weapon that hid the breath had always been expensive in Tianming Continent. It seemed that Mrs. He had spent a lot of money to ensure that the marriage could go smoothly.

In this case, Lou Xingyao stopped talking and let the nanny cover his head with the wedding veil.

The material of the wedding veil was very solid. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that it was airtight. Lou Xingyao’s vision was instantly covered by a piece of red. He could only barely judge the movements of the maids around him by sound.

No wonder why those girls in ancient times were so obedient when they got married. With this visual condition, they couldn’t struggle even if they wanted to.

At this moment, Lou Xingyao felt like a puppet and could only let the maids manipulate him.

Fortunately, in order to ensure that everything went well, Mrs. He didn’t let him participate in the process of picking up the bride. She chose to let him get on the sedan chair for He Wanqing when the bride left, which saved a lot of effort.

Not long after, Lou Xingyao was led by the maids to the sedan chair prepared for He Wanqing.

From the noise coming from outside the sedan chair, it wasn’t difficult to see that the Zhou family seemed to attach great importance to this marriage. Not only did they play all types of music, but the auspicious words were passed into Lou Xingyao’s ears one by one.

In addition, what Lou Xingyao heard most was the gossip from people watching the excitement on both sides of the road.

“I didn’t expect that the He family would really marry their eldest daughter to Young Master Zhou.”

“Yes. Just looking at Young Master Zhou’s face, why does he feel like he is unhappy?”

“Who knows? Young Master Zhou didn’t like to smile much before, and his temper has become even stranger since he was injured. Even the people of the Zhou family can’t see through what he is thinking. How can we tell?”

……

These words seemed to open the chatterbox of passersby. Everyone immediately listed the various absurd things that Zhou Hanshan had done since he was injured.

First, he drove out all the maids who had served him since childhood. Even the people rearranged by the Zhou family later were all driven out by him.

In addition, teasing cats and dogs, beating cousins, destroying the family’s finances… The dandy behavior had been learned by Zhou Hanshan.

From time to time, people could see Zhou Hanshan spending a lot of money in the market, spending a lot of money to buy some junk that no one wanted.

The key was that it was hard to say anything. IF the head of the Zhou family scolded him, Zhou Hanshan would refute it with a solemn oath, saying that the things were bought by him for healing. The head of the Zhou family didn’t let him buy them and was reluctant to spend money because they couldn’t bear to see him get better.

Over time, even the head of the Zhou family couldn’t scold him.

But after one or two years, Zhou Hanshan had spent a lot of money but his injuries didn’t improve at all. His original qi condensation level nine had fallen back to qi condensation level eight.

There were even people who made a rough calculation. In the past two years, Zhou Hanshan had spent nearly 100,000 taels of gold in the market.

100,000 taels of gold!

Even in Canglan City, the money of most cultivators combined was less than 1,000 taels of gold.

100,000 taels. Even if this money was given to a young cultivator who just introduced qi into his body, the resources that could be purchased were enough for him to successfully build his foundation.

But Zhou Hanshan spent a lot of money. Forget building a foundation, but even his original qi condensation cultivation had regressed a level.

Today’s Zhou Hanshan was indeed no longer the number one genius on the continent. He was the number one wastrel on the continent!

Passersby seemed to hate Zhou Hanshan’s ability to spend money. The resentment in their words seemed like what Zhou Hanshan spent was their money.

Lou Xingyao’s focus was different from that of passersby.

From the words of these people, it wasn’t difficult to hear that Zhou Hanshan’s current temper was indeed not good. Even the Zhou family couldn’t get any good expressions from him.

But even if he did so many absurd things, Lou Xingyao didn’t hear words of killing innocent people or bullying men and women. The maids and servants who were driven away by him were all alive and well.

Out of eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling, Zhou Hanshan only ate and drank. He never set foot in places like gambling houses and brothels.

There was even a person who wanted to take Zhou Hanshan to experience the wonders of gambling houses and brothels, but didn’t get a good response from him. Not only was this person beaten up by Zhou Hanshan, but all contact was cut off.

This was currently the only advantage that Zhou Hanshan had in the eyes of the passersby of Canglan City.

This Young Master Zhou didn’t sound like a good person to deal with, but it wasn’t completely impossible to communicate with him. Not going to brothels showed that this Young Master Zhou wasn’t a lustful person.

“It seems that both my life and innocence can be saved…”

This thought had just flashed through Lou Xingyao’s mind when the originally swaying sedan chair finally stopped.

The next morning, Lou Xingyao heard the voice of the matchmaker, who had been saying auspicious words all the way.

“Please ask the groom to kick the sedan door!”

But after a long time, the sedan door in front of Lou Xingyao was quiet, and there was no movement.

It wasn’t until the matchmaker’s voice was heard a second time outside the sedan chair that the sedan door was slowly kicked open.

Immediately afterward, a piece of red silk was stuffed into Lou Xingyao’s hand.

The following process was similar to the process of ancient Chinese weddings that Lou Xingyao knew, such as crossing the brazier, entering the door, worshipping heaven and earth…

The only difference from an ancient Chinese wedding was the contract.

In the beginning when He Wanqing and Zhou Hanshan were engaged, their marriage certificate was also a contract. Now to complete the contract, they needed to drip a drop of blood on the contract.

This was the last procedure to complete the contract and could also test whether both parties had fulfilled the contract in accordance with the regulations.

“Contract!”

At the words of the wedding matron, the marriage contract signed by the He family and the Zhou family was handed to Lou Xingyao.

Lou Xingyao looked down through the gap of the wedding veil and quickly scanned the contract. Thank god that Tianming Continent and Chinese traditional characters shared the same set of fonts, so that he wouldn’t be blind.

The contract was indeed as Mrs. He said. It only stipulated that the He family needed to marry the dual spiritual roots genius of the clan to Zhou Hanshan as a wife. It didn’t specify that this person must be He Wanqing.

Lou Shaohui’s wife was born in the He family, so the Lou family could be regarded as the same clan as the He family to a certain extent. Lou Xingyao, who was born in the Lou family and had the surname Lou, could naturally be regarded as a member of the He family.

This type of thing of finding loopholes in the text had almost become a compulsory course for every staff member of the city bureau. In an instant, Lou Xingyao made a judgment.

The contract could be signed!

But for some reason, Lou Xingyao always felt that Zhou Hanshan beside him seemed to pause and hesitate when Lou Xingyao handed him the marriage contract.

Before he could confirm, the person next to him had already dripped blood on the marriage certificate.

Lou Xingyao no longer hesitated. He used his finger to scratch the blade that the He family’s nanny had prepared for him in advance. The blood oozing from his fingertips finally dripped into the marriage contract.

The moment Lou Xingyao’s blood dripped on the marriage certificate, Zhou Hanshan’s blood, which was originally like a ball, slowly merged with Lou Xingyao’s blood like ice and snow melting. Finally, it gradually seeped into the marriage certificate.

After absorbing the blood of the two people, the marriage certificate suddenly glowed with a golden light. The handwriting on it, along with the marriage certificate, gradually melted away. In just a moment, it turned into two golden lights, one after another, sinking into the top of Zhou Hanshan and Lou Xingyao’s heads.

The next moment, Lou Xingyao felt that there seemed to be an inexplicable power in his body. He could sense the origin of that power with a slight touch.

This was the power of the contract between him and Zhou Hanshan.

The words of the matchmaker presiding over the wedding rang out again.

“The contract is concluded!

“Send the bride to the bridal chamber!”

Immediately afterward, Lou Xingyao was led to the backyard of the Zhou family.

It wasn’t known how long it took, but Lou Xingyao was finally brought to a room. As soon as he sat down by the bed under the guidance of the maids, he heard the maids’ voice of apology.

“This is the eldest young master’s house. The eldest young master doesn’t like outsiders to serve him, and it isn’t convenient for maids to stay for long. I hope you will forgive me.”

How could Lou Xingyao dare to speak now? He could only nod slightly to show that he understood.

Soon, there was the sound of the door closing in the house, followed by silence.

Lou Xingyao sat for a long time before calling out twice tentatively. The moment he confirmed that there was indeed no one in the house, he slowly lifted the wedding veil on his head.

After looking around the house and making sure that no one else was there, he was completely relieved and started to observe the current environment.

Lou Xingyao originally thought that the house the He family prepared for him was very carefully decorated. Now that he saw Zhou Hanshan’s house, he knew what it meant to be pale in comparison and what true magnificence meant.

From the exquisitely carved tables and chairs in the house to the ornaments on the table whose materials couldn’t be seen, the exquisitely crafted vases in the corner, and the crystal clear jade footrest beside the bed… all of them revealed the breath of money.

Every plant, tree and object in the whole house seemed to be saying the words: I am expensive!

At this time, Lou Xingyao finally felt the reality of ‘wasting money’ mentioned by the onlookers on the streets. For a moment, he didn’t dare to touch any of the items in the room out of fear he couldn’t afford them if they were damaged.

Just as he was about to find a place to sit obediently, a roar of anger rang in his ears like thunder.

“He Zhengyan, Xu Xiangya, your He family is simply too much!”

Then there was a movement like the earth shaking the sky. Lou Xingyao immediately staggered towards a vase beside him.

Fortunately, before touching the vase, Lou Xingyao relied on his strong willpower to control his body to deviate a few points to the side. He didn’t break the vase that was obviously valuable at first glance.

At this moment, the movement just now seemed to have stopped. The inside and outside of the house fell into silence again.

He waited a moment to make sure that the earthquake-like feeling just now no longer appeared. Then Lou Xingyao slowly stood up from the ground.

He Zhengyan and Xu Xiangya were the names of the head of the He family and Mrs He. So the angry shout just now was because the substitute marriage had been exposed?

But if the substitute marriage was exposed, why didn’t anyone come to check on him?

Just as Lou Xingyao was feeling confused, the door slowly opened the next moment.

The first thing he saw was a bright red wedding dress. This made him confirm the identity of the visitor. It should be the eldest son of the Zhou family, Zhou Hanshan.

His eyes moved up. Then the next moment, a stunning face with eyebrows like swords, eyes like stars, and a defined nose entered Lou Xingyao’s eyes.

This face could be said to have perfectly hit all of Lou Xingyao’s aesthetic points. Even in his dreams, he didn’t dare to dream of such a face. Now it appeared directly in front of him.

For a moment, he even forgot how to speak.

Zhou Hanshan was the first to break the silence. He slightly raised his eyebrow and smiled. “Don’t you want to introduce yourself, Madam?”