Zu An was speechless. How could this silly girl know that those two whips were completely different concepts? However, he couldn't really explain it to her either, and could only say with a darkened expression, “Just change it. A woman having this name doesn’t sound great.”
“If brother-in-law doesn’t like it, I’ll change it.”
Then, 'Wei Wu’s Whip' was changed to 'Please Whip Me, Brother-in-law'.
Zu An was speechless.
Am I the weird one here, or is this young lady the weird one?
“Brother-in-law, you whipped me really badly back then. I’ll never forget that beating for the rest of my life.”
“Change it, or else it’ll be hard for you to explain yourself if your mother and sisters see this name.”
“Don’t worry, no one will see it. Mom said she wanted to look at my jade strip, but I didn’t give it to her. We all know how badly she wants it!”
Zu An was speechless.
“Right, brother-in-law, in the future, whether it's me or Youzhao, if anyone’s tone is a bit different, it might be mom secretly impersonating us. You can't tell her any of our secrets!”
“There’s no such thing to begin with anyway,” Zu An said with a scowl.
“For example, prodding me with that hard thing of yours back then, and how you touched every part of my body.”
“Stop, stop! The first one was because you deserved a beating back then, and the second one was when I helped you expand your meridians and aid in your cultivation. Why does it all sound so weird when you're the one saying it?”
“But I’m also telling the truth.”
...
Just then, another profile popped up, named ‘King of Thrusting Kings’.
When he saw the tall and slender, tan-skinned young lady in the picture, Zu An was really taken aback. Why were these women’s names getting worse and worse?
Now that he thought about it, back when he had first used the internet, he had made up a lot of names that he thought were cool and amazing, but now that he thought back to them, they were all incredibly cringy.
“Big brother Zu, are you there?” Murong Qinghe asked.
“What is it, little sister Qinghe?” Zu An replied.
“Oh, you're here! That’s great," Murong Qinghe sent before continuing.
"There was something bothering me and I didn’t have anyone else to talk to about it. In the end, I felt like I could only ask big brother Zu.”
Zu An was stunned. He really couldn’t figure out just what kind of trouble this young woman who acted like a little girl next to Youzhao, but was a tough and sturdy female warrior at all other times, had encountered. Besides that, she did have other womenfolk in the Murong clan. Why had she run all the way to him to talk to a grown man?
“What kind of trouble has little sister Qinghe encountered?” he asked curiously. Only after a long while did he receive a reply.
“I actually don’t know how to put it into words either, but when I thought about big brother Zu’s rich experience in romance, I wanted to consult you for advice.”
Zu An was speechless.
Are you praising me here, or cursing me?
“Big brother Zu should know about the situation between big brother Chu and me. Everyone already pretty much views us as a couple, and I like big brother Chu a lot too," Murong Qinghe explained, then continued.
“Still, even though big brother Chu is really good to me, I can still sense that he seems as if he's rejecting me me sometimes. It’s just hard for us to make any progress in our relationship. I've been wondering if maybe he doesn’t actually like me that much, and that's why things are like this.”
Zu An almost burst out laughing. So that was the situation. The answer was actually really simple, but he couldn't tell her.
Murong Qinghe sent another message. “Also, big brother Chu is working even harder than before. I thought our relationship would improve, but he only wants to compete with me and learn ways of beating his enemies. I really don’t know just what kind of person he sees me as now! Does he see me as a lover, or just a childhood sweetheart and little sister?”
“It might be that he has his own secret troubles,” Zu An replied. After some hesitation, he still decided to advise her, “Little sister Qinghe, there's actually no need for you to hang yourself to death on a single tree. Look around you. Who knows, you might find someone who is more suitable for you.”
In order for the Chu clan to pass down their noble title, they had to make Chu Youzhao the heir. That meant Youzhao had to publicly take in a wife to settle down. Making a woman who knew nothing about the truth go through that was a bit too cruel. After getting closer to Murong Qinghe, he really didn’t want her tender feelings to be turned in the wrong direction and ruin her lifetime of happiness.
However, who would have thought that after saying that, he wouldn’t receive a reply? Zu An almost thought that she had disconnected, but just then, he received a new message.
“Big brother Zu, I know that you’re really outstanding and that you’re much stronger than big brother Chu. But my heart already belongs to big brother Chu, and I really don’t have anything else to share with another person," Murong Qinghe sent, then continued.
“It’s a pity that the first one I met wasn’t you.”
Zu An was stunned. He had never expected that his advice would end up with him throwing himself under the bus!
She mysteriously received a good guy card, so she seems to have misunderstood and thought that I was hinting at something.
...
Meanwhile, inside the Murong manor, Murong Qinghe’s face was buried under her covers. She cried in embarrassment “Ahhh! Why did I have to send that message?!”
1. This is actually a line from a poem with the literal translation of 'exquisite dice, setting red beans at rest'. 'Linglong' means 'exquisite, detailed and fine'. The 'An' from 'Zu An' is also here through the word 'rest' ?