I Just Won't Play by the Book - Chapter 38

Chapter 38: From Now on, Let Us All Go Back to Our Respective Orders and Not Interact Again
Even the Sisters were crying. Li Fucheng was certainly greatly moved after listening to Jiang Beiran’s life and encounters. Wiping away a handful of tears hard, Li Fucheng said with emotion, “No wonder I felt a sense of solidarity when I saw you, Brother Wang! I never thought we would have such similar encounters, I… Can you be my big brother?”

As soon as Li Fucheng got the words out, three more options popped up in front of Jiang Beiran’s eyes.

[Option One: Agree. Completion reward: Royal Method of Spiritual Attachment (Black Grade High Tier)]

[Option Two: Digress. Completion reward: True Flower of the Phantom (Yellow Grade High Tier)]

[Option Three: Reject directly. Completion reward: Random basic attribute point +1]

‘Not bad. Worthy of the man with the protagonist template. In two or three sentences, he triggered two dangerous options. Totally comparable to these beautiful Sisters around me.’

With no hesitation, he chose Option Three. Jiang Beiran shook his head and said, “I am not worthy of you addressing me as big brother. I’ve said it just now, we are just casual acquaintances and we do not have to have interactions that are too deep. Plus, let me give you some heartfelt advice; do not invest too much emotion in a person you just met, or even empty your heart’s content to them. Actually, you do not even know what my real name is.”

Hearing this reply from Jiang Beiran, the few people behind Li Fucheng all froze.

‘No way! The atmosphere had reached such a point, and he actually refused? And it was such a cold refusal,’ they thought.

However, even the Sisters, who had some understanding of Jiang Beiran, all froze, not to mention Li Fucheng’s companions. Although they knew that Brother was very cold and distant most of the time, he was actually quite nice to talk to. This time they really did not expect Brother to reject the other party so forcefully.

Li Fucheng, of course, also had not expected himself to be rejected so strongly. For a while, he did not say anything, but after carefully savoring Jiang Beiran’s sincere advice, he respectfully bowed and said, “Fucheng has understood.”

Nodding with relief, Jiang Beiran came close to Li Fucheng’s ear and said, “It is our destiny to meet. I have a suggestion for you. If you want to become stronger, you do not necessarily have to practice cultivation. The Qimen Dunjia also has great potential.”

Having said this, Jiang Beiran took out the Book of Eight Palaces and Four Rivers from his storage ring and handed it to Li Fucheng. “Try reading it. You might find it enlightening.”

Since he knew that the other party was likely holding the protagonist template, and the system had appointed himself to help the latter out, Jiang Beiran naturally wanted to generate good karma. After all, Jiang Beiran felt that he had probably met the young master of the demonic cult at the lowest point of the latter’s life, and further down the road the young man would likely start having a series of miraculous encounters.

Not waiting for Li Fucheng to refuse, Jiang Beiran shoved the book in his arms and then turned to leave, saying simply, “See you next time, if fate wills it.”

The five Sisters were still a bit confused, but they immediately turned around and followed their senior Brother.

Touching the Book of Eight Palaces and Four Rivers he held in his arms, Li Fucheng looked at the departing Jiang Beiran and lamented, “Brother Wang is really a strange man.”

“He said that this is not his real name,” Tang Tingshuang immediately pointed out from beside him.

“A name is just a code used to refer to someone,” Li Fucheng said. He then looked at Tang Tingshuang and said, “Let’s go. First, we will find a place to treat your wound.”

…

“Brother, why did you come over to save the members of the demonic cult this time?”

“Brother, how did you know that they were not from the Sect of Skies and Clouds?”

“Brother, what did you give him when you left?”

Meanwhile, Jiang Beiran had just walked away about a hundred meters. After shouting, “excuse me, sir,” the three Sisters of the Yu family couldn’t wait to ask him questions one by one.

“No comment.” Jiang Beiran answered the three Sisters’ questions with two words.

“Eh, Brother, tell me. I’ll give you a back massage.”

“I’ll massage your shoulders!”

“I’ll massage your legs!”

Seeing that the three Sisters were about to fool around, Jiang Beiran said, “I’ll count to three, then I’ll deduct points from the score of whoever is still fooling around.”

“One.”

The three Sisters were defeated upon hearing this and immediately lined up neatly behind Jiang Beiran.

With a satisfied nod, Jiang Beiran led the Sisters out of the woods.

On the way back, they did not encounter any more accidents. Without making any more stops, Jiang Beiran took the five Sisters to the foot of the mountain of the Sect.

“Before going back, I want to set up an agreement with you,” he said.

Under the stone archway of the Sect of Returning Hearts, Jiang Beiran turned to look at the five Sisters and spoke.

The five Sisters stopped in unison after hearing this and looked at Jiang Beiran.

“First, you may share about what you have learned in an appropriate manner, but do not tell others what I have done.

“Second, do not recommend me to others as an Iron Seal.” As he said this, Jiang Beiran glanced at Liu Zijin.

‘I’ve once again been glared at by Brother… It’s so scary, but again…’ Liu Zijin thought.

She couldn’t help but press a hand on her chest because her heart was beating very fast.

Seeing Liu Zijin tremble in fear, Jiang Beiran was satisfied in his heart. He thought that the effect of his gaze complemented the mental pressure he could produce very well.

Then he continued, saying, “Third, after returning to the Sect, let us each go back to our own Orders and not interact anymore if there is nothing else.”

“Eh!?” the five Sisters shouted at the same time after hearing this. The first two requests were a bit strange but they could all accept them. However, this third one was too heartless.

“Of course, I do not have any means to force you to comply. I just hope we can respect each other and separate on a good note. I don’t want to end up not even being able to consider you all my acquaintances,” he said.

The five Sisters listened and felt another shock in their hearts. They thought to themselves that apparently, they were just acquaintances in the eyes of the senior Brother, not even friends.

“That’s all. I hope you can keep the above three clauses in mind. Let’s go back to the Sect.”

The atmosphere was quite dull when they went up the mountain. Although they didn’t talk much during the journey just now, the previous atmosphere had not been this depressing.

In this silence, they climbed to the top of the mountain, and Jiang Beiran brought them to the pavilion where they had stayed before they had left.

“Give me back the straw hats, shoes, and scorched cloths.”

The Sisters did not show any reluctance, because they knew that these things were not ordinary, and could even be said to be very powerful. So, they answered, “yes,” in unison and returned the Three-Piece Suit of Blending In to Jiang Beiran.

After placing the Suit of Blending In back into the storage ring, Jiang Beiran took out the jade vial they had seen before. “Before we left, I said I would give the best performer a bottle of Honey of Various Flowers as a reward. But, to be honest, all five of you performed much better than I expected. Especially Sister Liu.”

Jiang Beiran finished speaking and handed the vial with the Honey of Various Flowers to Liu Zijin. “You behaved like a captain all the way, and you were also very proactive when you encountered a problem. This quality is rare and valuable. I hope you can keep it up.”

“Eh? For me?” Liu Zijin was surprised. She had thought that the senior Brother must have hated her, but she never thought that he would give such a compliment to her in the end.

“Yep.” Jiang Beiran nodded and looked at the other four then said, “I believe all of you have no problem with it, right?”

“Not at all!” The four Sisters all shook their heads vigorously. The whole time it had been Sister Zijin who was getting scolded for them, which made them feel bad.

“Then… I will respectfully accept it. Thank you, Brother.” Liu Zijin finished speaking and took the jade vial with both hands.

But in her heart, she felt weird. Although she had clearly been praised, she didn’t seem to feel much happiness.

Without bothering to observe Liu Zijin’s slightly complicated expression, Jiang Beiran walked out of the pavilion and shouted, “Well, let’s go. Go to the Order of Law Enforcement to report the completion of the trial.”