2: Keeping My Beloved at Home

Chapter image (Chinese version)

Chapter image (English version)

## Summary

Three days later, Liu Jianghe has recovered enough to leave bed, and complains to Lu Jiu about the quality of the clothes he was put in. Lu Jiu responds without looking up from the papers he has on his desk, and Liu Jianghe comes over to look at them and asks what they are. Lu Jiu says that they're accounts that he hasn't had time to look at over the past three days. He then says if Liu Jianghe is bored, he should go get Little He from the front hall. When Liu Jianghe protests, Lu Jiu threatens to not add anything sweet to his herbal soup, which gets Liu Jianghe to agree and run off.

With Liu Jianghe gone, Lu Jiu wonders to himself if someone who acts so spoiled and rude could really be Liu Jianghe. He then recalls Liu Jianghe placing the life and death contract on him. Because the life and death contract is one of Paradise Pavilion's four demonic arts, there isn't anyone else the teenager could be. As Lu Jiu thinks, Liu Jianghe runs back to him carrying a nauseous Little He.

After he's recovered, Lu Jiu questions Little He about some of the buyers that they had. He notes an order from three days prior and another one from two days prior and asks who bought them, and Little He reveals that Linglan from the Hundred Flower Pavilion bought both of them. Lu Jiu points out the rangoon creeper fruits in one of the prescriptions and mentions that Linglan now has a poison to use on a cultivator. Little He panics and apologizes and Lu Jiu says it must have been a mistake, which Liu Jianghe finds to be an unbelievably strange coincidence. Lu Jiu decides to go to the Hundred Flower Pavilion himself to make sure everything's alright. Liu Jianghe says he wants to go too, but Lu Jiu denies him and dismisses Little He.

Once done with the accounts, Lu Jiu addresses Liu Jianghe by name. He reminds him that his spirit core is gone, and his body is barely withstanding the internal forces from his cultivation, but he's still forcibly circulating his qi using his damaged meridians. Once his body can no longer withstand it, he'll die, possibly at any moment. Lu Jiu says he doesn't care if Liu Jianghe dies, but because they're bound by the life and death contract, he wants Liu Jianghe to stay in the medical hall and not get into trouble until Lu Jiu finds a way to restore his spirit core. He forbids Liu Jianghe from leaving, to which Liu Jianghe gets in close, tilts Lu Jiu's chin up, and says that Lu Jiu likes to keep his beloved at home. Lu Jiu wonders if Liu Jianghe's head is injured and pushes him to the table and pulls out a knife, saying he wants to examine his head. Liu Jianghe flirtatiously protests.

Later, as Lu Jiu leaves, he reiterates that Liu Jianghe isn't to go out. Once he's gone Little He says that Lu Jiu is just saying it for Liu Jianghe's own good, because Peach Blossom Wharf isn't a safe place. Liu Jianghe gets a serious look on his face and asks for Little He to explain, which gives Little He a feeling like he just turned into a different person, but he agrees anyway.

## Future Information

*The information detailed here comes from future chapters. If you're reading the comic for the first time, consider skipping this section!*

* The first time Liu Jianghe drank Lu Jiu's medicine, it was so bitter he spit blood and passed out.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 4: The Rising Wind Forebodes the Coming Storm (Part 2)