novelhk #588 - You've been fooled.
#588 - You've been fooled.
The old fisherman's first reaction upon discovering that Lu Jing had kidnapped him wasn't panic, but rather a look of great joy, as if he had tasted some fine wine, every pore exuding the word 'comfortable'.
"You were fooled by me, right? Hahahaha!"
"No," Lu Jing said.
The old fisherman was stunned, but quickly laughed again, "You can't fool me. If you weren't fooled by me, why would you come looking for me in the middle of the night and tie me up like this? You must be angry."
"If thinking that way makes you happy, then think that way. I don't mind," Lu Jing said.
"How can you not mind such a thing? Being fooled is being fooled. Even if you can hide it from me, you can't hide it from yourself," the old fisherman said seriously, "Your heart will always remember that you were fooled by me, ow…"
He was halfway through his sentence when he saw Lu Jing jump onto a rock, causing him, tied behind, to leap up as well, only to accidentally hit his head on the Zen staff.
But before long, he asked again, "Did you go to that pool?"
"I went."
"Did you bring the fish?"
"I brought them."
The old fisherman's eyes lit up, "How many?"
"Two, one black and one white, as you said."
"Then did you throw the black fish into the pool?"
"I threw it."
"Hahahaha, you still say you weren't fooled. You must have been scolded by that white fish afterwards," the old fisherman said gleefully.
Then he urged, "Keep going, keep going. Did you beg him to let you embark on the path of cultivation?"
"No, I could cultivate long ago." As Lu Jing spoke, he made a hand seal and threw it onto a bunch of chrysanthemums next to him. Immediately, the chrysanthemums visibly grew taller.
The old fisherman's laughter stopped abruptly, and he was completely dumbfounded.
"You, how can you cultivate? When did this happen?"
"It's been a while," Lu Jing said. "Now, probably only Mirror Lake Valley in the entire academy hasn't received the news yet."
"But, but if you could cultivate, why did you still go to that pool?" the old fisherman asked in confusion.
"Oh, because there's a flying sword there that I want."
"Wait," the old fisherman finally realized something was wrong. "You want that flying sword, so why did you come to kidnap me?"
"Because I chatted with the thing in that pool and found out it's quite unhappy with you, so I suggested using you to exchange for that flying sword, and it agreed to my suggestion," Lu Jing said truthfully.
"You want to use me to exchange for a flying sword?" The old fisherman's face changed drastically, and cold sweat flowed down his neck. "But I… we don't have any deep-seated hatred, right? I only wanted to have some fun with you before."
"This isn't just my business," Lu Jing said. "People were doing well there by themselves, and you not only went to provoke them, but also tricked me into harassing them, causing them a lot of trouble. Now, it's only right that you go with me to apologize."
"… … … …"
The old fisherman's back instantly became wet, and after a moment, he said, "Can, can we stop for a moment?"
However, Lu Jing ignored his request and continued to walk forward.
Seeing that they were about to reach the lake, the old fisherman pleaded again, "I already know I was wrong, please have mercy and let me go. As long as you let me go, I will definitely repay you and tell you more secrets of the academy."
"This time it's for real, I really know the location of many good things, I can tell you and let you go get them."
Lu Jing finally stopped upon hearing this, and then said, "Are there any flying swords?"
"Yes, yes, yes, you should have said earlier if you wanted a flying sword," the old fisherman said. "I know the whereabouts of several unowned flying swords."
"Are there any within twenty miles of here?"
"Yes," the old fisherman said decisively.
"Then tell me a direction."
"East, there's one to the southeast."
Lu Jing took out a compass and looked at it. Then, without saying a word, he carried the old fisherman and continued to walk towards the lake.
The old fisherman cautiously reminded him from behind, "You, you're going in the wrong direction."
Lu Jing didn't bother to pay attention to him.
However, after arriving at the lake, he unexpectedly saw a figure behind a large rock.
"Young Marquis," Lu Jing went up and greeted the person.
The latter nodded to him and then said, "It's late at night, where are you going?"
"Just taking a casual stroll."
As Lu Jing spoke, he unobtrusively tapped the old fisherman's acupuncture point to silence him.
The old fisherman could only stare blankly, unable to shout for help no matter what.
However, the Young Marquis's words made him feel like he was hearing celestial music.
"You can go, but the person behind you has to stay," the Young Marquis said. "Supervisor Huang has ordered that he is not allowed to leave Mirror Lake Valley."
After a pause, she added, "Besides, you don't look like you're going for a stroll. Although he's full of lies and people in the valley don't like him very much, as the current Young Marquis, I have a duty to protect every paper figure in the valley. If you really want to take him away, you have to defeat me first."
"But I don't want to fight you," Lu Jing said. "And I can guarantee that it won't be long before I bring him back, safe and sound."
If the old fisherman could speak at this time, he would definitely shout not to believe this kid's nonsense!
As a master of lying, he could come up with lies of this level without even thinking, and he could say a thousand without repeating himself.
Fortunately, the Young Marquis was not fooled by Lu Jing. She shook her head and said, "The reason why everyone elected me as the Young Marquis is because I'm serious enough. Since it's within my term, I can't possibly watch you take him away, so there's no point in saying more, let's fight."
After saying that, she actually didn't wait for Lu Jing to answer and had already untied the tiger skin whip from her waist and lashed it towards Lu Jing's face.
Seeing this, Lu Jing could only step forward to meet the attack. Because the Zen staff still had the old fisherman hanging on it, he simply reached out, intending to grab the incoming whip.
However, the Young Marquis didn't give him this chance. With a flick of her wrist, the tiger skin whip made a flower in the air and actually bypassed Lu Jing's palm and shot towards his back.
However, before it could touch the old fisherman's body, Lu Jing turned around and changed his position.