Bone Painting Coroner

Mo Ruo was forced to stand up but didn’t neglect to take the other flask of wine away with him. Anything else could be broken and he wouldn’t care; just not his wine.

“Crazy lass, are you ill?” His words came out slurred.

The woman raged, “How dare you say I’m crazy? Do you not want to live any more?” As she spoke, she felt around her waist and drew out a silver-coloured whip. It was as if a nimble water snake had emerged from her body. She then lashed forcefully in Mo Ruo’s direction. Crack!

Though forceful, the whip only hit the ground and raised a few clouds of dust. Intimidated, the surrounding people immediately cleared a circle around them.

Mo Ruo eyed the whip in her hands and mocked, “What a forceful strike! But little lady, you shouldn’t causally wave around a whip. It’s fine if you hit me, but if you’re the one who will suffer if you hit someone innocent.”

“Enough with the nonsense! You seem to be a jianghu practitioner, not one who is too feeble to even truss up a chicken. Why not display some of your skills and duel with this lady? Let me show you the might of my killer whip!”

“Don’t joke around, little lady.”

“Too late.” The minute the last syllable was uttered, the whip was again flung forcefully outward.

Mo Ruo did not retaliate, only relaxedly dodging left and right while even finding the time to take a few sips of wine. Time after time, the whip landed either on the ground or the pillars with sharp cracks.

“Rascal, why aren’t you fighting!”

“This gentleman doesn’t quibble with little girls. You better tuck away that whip or I’ll burn it.”

“Great! Why don’t you try? Let’s see if you have the ability to do that!” The two continued fighting.

At first, the surrounding crowd hid away in fear, but seeing the back and forth, they started to cheer and treat it as a performance instead. “Nice moves! Good one!”

“Come on, fight!” Some people even took out coins and tossed them onto the ground in appreciation.

The atmosphere at the lantern festival was invigorated by this spectacle, and many more people started to gather. Wei Yi was also bouncing excitedly at the side, holding his own pumpkin-shaped lantern and cheering, “Go, Brother Mo Ruo! Beat her, beat her!” The scene was too comical.

Of the pair, one kept attacking, the other dodging. Ji Yunshu just couldn’t stand watching it anymore and asked Jing Rong, “Aren’t you going to go mediate?”

He sipped his wine without even batting an eye, only replying, “Outsiders shouldn’t interfere in matters pertaining to a man and a woman.” His implications were clear.

“If they go on fighting in public like this, what would happen if someone dies?”

“All the better if someone dies; We can then arrange a ghost marriage for Mo Ruo to prevent him from being as lonely in hell as he was in life.”

“...” She now intimately understood the pain Mo Ruo endured growing up with him. This prince was too cold-hearted!

Ji Yunshu was about to wipe the sweat off her forehead when Jing Rong asked seriously, “If I died, would you go through a ghost marriage with me?”

Pfft... “Ghost ...” your head!

Before she could finish speaking, the sounds of fighting behind her suddenly diminished. They saw Mo Ruo stop that silvery whip with a forceful tug, causing the girl on the other end to stumble a few steps forward.

“Let go!” She demanded arrogantly.

Mo Ruo’s expression remained tranquil. He gave a light laugh and doused the whip with wine from the bottle in his other hand before turning to glance at Jing Rong. Taking the hint, Jing Rong hit the table to bounce the lit candle upwards. Waving his sleeve, he sent the candle gently twirling through the air into Mo Ruo’s hands.

Miraculously, the flame didn’t even flicker.

Mo Ruo pointed the flame at the end of the whip and threatened. “Miss, if you are still not willing to put away your whip, I really will burn it into cinders.”

The girl was both infuriated and flustered. “If you dare to burn my whip, I’ll have your life in return!”

“Then you had better watch yourself. This gentleman is known to be chivalrous towards women, but you’re particularly hard-headed. Now that I’m in a bad mood, much less burn your whip, I might even throw you entirely into the stove.”

“You...”

“Let me ask you again. Are you going to put away your whip or not?”

The girl hesitated for a long while, gritting her teeth. Mo Ruo was never a patient man; he was about to touch the flame to the whip....Whoosh!

Out of nowhere, a small pebble came flying to extinguish the candle flame. The girl took the chance to draw back the whip from his hands, preparing to lash out once again. Before she could take action however, a second pebble had already struck her wrist and caused her to drop the whip.

The ‘guilty party’ walked out from the crowd and a melodious voice rang out, “Miss, today is the annual lantern festival. Why must you make everyone unhappy? Why not let it go? If you would like to continue drinking, I would gladly welcome you.” It was Mu Jin! Who would have thought that she knew martial arts too?

The girl winced and cradled her injured wrist, glaring at Mu Jin. “Who are you?”

“I am Mu Jin. I was having a poetry duel. The atmosphere was ruined by the commotion created by Miss.”

“I fight my duel, you say your verses; why interfere with me? My duel has yet to declare a winner.”

“But Miss, you are clearly not this gentleman’s match. Why would you make things difficult for yourself? Isn’t it said that friends are made through their fists? Why don’t I order some well-aged wine and we can sit down together, admiring the lanterns while we drink?”

In fact, the girl was not foolish enough to think that Mo Ruo was fighting seriously. If he had not held back, she would have been eating dust a long time ago. After a moment of hesitation, she decided to accept the olive branch and not embarrass herself further. Pursing her lips, she began stiffly drawing back the whip and winding it back around her waist.

“Alright, this miss will let you off for now.” She didn’t forget to threaten Mo Ruo again, “Listen up, I’m not afraid of you; if it weren’t the lantern festival, I definitely would have killed you!”

Mo Ruo was a little tired of this spectacle and did not argue with her. He smiled to himself, thinking that the little brat was actually rather adorable.

Not long later, Mu Jin bade her subordinates serve up several jars of wine. “These jars of wine were personally made by me, and have been aged for a year. Everyone, please have a taste.”

She specially placed a bowl of wine in front of Jing Rong. “Master Jing, please also taste it.”

Staring at that bowl of wine, Jing Rong secretly glanced at Ji Yunshu and replied flirtatiously, “Great! Let me taste how good the wine distilled by Miss Mu Jin is.”

After a sip, he praised, “Oh, it’s not bad! The fragrance of the wine is thick but not nauseating. There’s a slightly sweet taste paired with the sharp alcohol. It is a perfect answer to those two lines of Li Liang’s poem: The lonely know not their drink is wine; the wind knows not if it’s foul or fine.”

“The gentleman knows Li Liang?”

“Why wouldn’t I? Li Liang is a wanderer at heart who scorns restrictions; his poems are similarly lively and carefree.”

“The gentleman is truly intelligent and well read, to even know of this hidden talent.”

“Doesn’t the lady also know him?” The two beamed at each other; the girl with an additional touch of bashfulness.