The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#285 - In-building dialogue

Lu Jing said to the mustached man, "Senior Brother, go down and hold off Guo Shaojian first. I'll help Miss Xuan Ji find a place to hide."

The mustached man nodded upon hearing this, "Alright, alright, I'll try my best to buy you guys some time."

After saying that, he took a deep breath, tidied up his clothes, and tried his best to make his face look like he wasn't panicking. Then, he stepped on the stairs and went all the way down.

Lu Jing then turned his head and asked Xuan Ji, "How far can you get away from this building?"

"I can't go out of that door downstairs," Xuan Ji said. "Every time I get close to that door, a strong sense of warning rises in my heart, as if there's a voice in the dark telling me that once I take this step, I'll immediately be annihilated, body and soul."

"What about the roof?" Lu Jing asked again, pointing to the window on his right. "If we climb out of here, we should be able to avoid Guo Shaojian on the roof."

"I... I don't know martial arts," Xuan Ji said helplessly.

"I can take you up there."

Xuan Ji obviously knew that this was not the time to be particular about the separation of men and women. Saving her life was the most important thing, so she nodded lightly when she heard this.

Lu Jing then took half a step forward and half-squatted in front of Xuan Ji, letting the latter climb onto his back.

However, just as Lu Jing walked to the half-open window and stuck half of his body out, he suddenly heard Xuan Ji exclaim, "Wait!"

"What's wrong?" Actually, Lu Jing had already noticed something was wrong before he even finished speaking. He noticed that one of Xuan Ji's hands resting on his shoulder had disappeared.

Guo Shouhuai stopped in his tracks upon hearing this, and after thinking for a moment, he said, "Oh, you are the new Secretary of the Library, named Yu..."

"I am Yu Qiuren, courtesy name Yutai, from Hanzhou. I have one older brother, one older sister, and a mother. I am twenty-nine years old and have not yet been married," Yu Qiuren said respectfully.

Guo Shouhuai was completely dumbfounded by this series of matchmaking-style self-introductions.

He stood there for a while before saying, "Alright, alright... If you have something to do, you can go ahead and do it. I'll find the book myself."

As he spoke, he started to walk forward again, but that guy named Yu Qiuren didn't step aside, but called out again, "Guo Shaojian!"

"Is there anything else?" Guo Shouhuai seemed to be preoccupied today as well. He frowned upon hearing this, but still suppressed his impatience.

"No, it's nothing important. I just wanted to ask, I've been working in this library for more than three years now. I wonder... when can the academy raise my salary again?" Yu Qiuren said with a stiff face.

"There should be precedents for this matter," Guo Shouhuai paused, but still said patiently, "Moreover, this is under the jurisdiction of Su Tixue. You can talk to him or Supervisor Huang."

"Okay, okay." Yu Qiuren responded verbally, but his feet didn't move. He was still thinking about how to find another reason to delay Guo Shouhuai a little longer.

Unexpectedly, the latter had already spoken, "I still have important matters to attend to. How about this, if you have anything else you want to say to me, just write it on paper and hand it to me when I leave."

"Guo Shaojian is indeed thoughtful." Yu Qiuren said bitterly, but he had no choice but to step aside.

Guo Shouhuai didn't say anything else after that, and continued to walk upstairs.

Leaving Yu Qiuren behind, he felt utterly hopeless and didn't know what else he could do for a moment.

Lu Jing didn't expect the mustached man to be so useless. He said he would try his best to hold off Guo Shouhuai, but he only managed to buy half a minute. Such a short amount of time was not enough to do anything.

In the end, Lu Jing had a flash of inspiration and decided to try anything, even if it seemed hopeless.

When Guo Shouhuai reached the fifth floor, his footsteps finally stopped again. He twitched his nose a few times, and then turned his gaze to a row of bookshelves on the southeast side.

There, a man and a woman were browsing in front of the bookshelves.

One of them was the student named Lu Jing that he had met not long ago, and the other was a woman with an unfamiliar face and strange clothes, which seemed to be in the style of the previous dynasty. However, judging from the wooden tag hanging on her waist, she should also be a freshman at the academy.

Guo Shouhuai turned his head and said to Yu Qiuren, who was looking lost behind him, "Didn't I send a messenger to you before, asking you to close the library for a day today?"

"Ah," Yu Qiuren shuddered. Fortunately, he didn't mess up at the crucial moment. "I... I didn't expect you to come so quickly. Lu Jing usually helps me organize books in the library, and I haven't had time to send him away yet."

"Then who is this person next to him?" Guo Shouhuai shifted his gaze to Xuan Ji.

Upon seeing this, the latter bowed to Guo Shouhuai, and then said calmly, "Chen Xuanji from the Laundry Department greets Guo Shaojian. I'm accompanying Senior Brother Lu to organize books, and also studying the 'Secret Power Enlightenment Chapter' written by Senior He together with Senior Brother Lu."

Xuan Ji felt that this lie was quite appropriate. She knew that Lu Jing was a student of the academy, and that students of the academy had to cultivate secret power. Among them, the 'Secret Power Enlightenment Chapter' was a relatively simple and easy-to-understand secret power classic, suitable for newcomers to read.

Unexpectedly, after she said this, the way the three people looked at her changed.

Yu Qiuren couldn't help but shout in his heart at the time that things were going to be bad!

What Xuan Ji said would not have been a problem for anyone else, but Lu Jing was a weirdo, the only person in the academy who didn't cultivate secret power. He usually didn't even bother attending secret power classes.

Fortunately, Lu Jing reacted quickly, sighed, and said in a heavy tone, "We always have to try to think of a way. I don't want to give up now."

Hearing his words, Guo Shouhuai's originally furrowed brows relaxed a little. He nodded and said, "You're right, you can't retreat as soon as you encounter difficulties. As long as you're willing to put your heart into finding a solution, there will always be a way. But it's not a good idea for you to always explore on your own. You should still listen to Professor Zheng's True Explanation of Secret Power, and you can ask him about any doubts you have in person."

Lu Jing could only agree when he heard this.

However, he then noticed that Guo Shouhuai's gaze towards him had become a little strange. It was a look of examining a scumbag, and then Guo Shouhuai's gaze circled between him and Xuan Ji.