Little Alpaca – Chapter 48

Volume 1: Little Alpaca

Bird woman stirs things up.

Under the candlelight, You Yan sat sideways on the ground, one arm holding the little alpaca’s neck, the other gently massaging the little alpaca’s somewhat swollen forehead, her fingertips glowing with a mist-like spiritual light.

Yi Qiu quietly shrank in You Yan’s slender arms, constantly thinking about her alpaca life.

Yes, she was thinking again.

Heavens know, in the past she only needed to think about three things every day—what to buy for breakfast on the way, what was in the cafeteria for lunch, what to eat when she got home in the afternoon.

But ever since coming here, she had been departing from everything she knew every day, trying hard to do some strange thinking.

She felt she had probably overused her brain, and was thus gradually being assimilated by the alpaca body, which had an initial IQ of twenty.

If not for this, she wouldn’t have done something as stupid as “hitting the wall to verify a dream,” letting the bird woman watch and have a big laugh.

Suddenly, You Yan dispersed the spiritual power at her fingertips, pushed Yi Qiu out of her arms, and forcefully patted the back of her head.

“Ooh…” The little alpaca whimpered aggrievedly.

“Stupid…” You Yan got up and walked to the table, poured a bowl of clear water, and placed it in front of the little alpaca.

Yi Qiu sniffled and stretched her neck forward to drink the water.

You Yan pulled a stool and sat down beside her, leaning forward, propping up her cheek, quietly watching the fluffy big white dumpling in front of her.

Yi Qiu finished the water, looked up timidly at You Yan, and unexpectedly met those slender eyes, becoming somewhat flustered for a moment.

“You, you, you were watching me the whole time?” The little alpaca suddenly started to stutter.

You Yan blinked and asked in return: “I can’t?”

Yi Qiu quickly shook her head.

You Yan let out a low laugh and asked again: “Does it still hurt?”

Yi Qiu closed her eyes to feel it. Her head, which had been throbbing with a dull pain just now, only felt cool and refreshed at this moment, and no longer hurt.

She opened her eyes and gave You Yan a smile that looked silly: “It doesn’t hurt anymore…”

“Next time you want to change the subject, you really don’t need to hit the wall,” You Yan said faintly. “If you don’t want to say it, I won’t force you to.”

“I didn’t!” Yi Qiu bounced up from the ground, stood ramrod straight, and brought her little head right up to You Yan’s face, saying seriously, “I wasn’t trying to change the subject!”

“Oh?”

“I, I was…” Yi Qiu hesitated for a good while before letting out a heavy sigh, dropping her little head, and saying in a strained tone, “I just felt that, I, I might be dreaming, and needed to wake myself up…”

“Dreaming?” You Yan seemed a little confused.

“If it wasn’t a dream, how could you be so good to me…” Yi Qiu muttered in a low voice, lowering her head even further.

She really didn’t want to admit at all that this was the reason she had suddenly hit the wall. It was simply too embarrassing.

Silence. After a brief silence, a light laugh came from above the little alpaca’s head.

Yi Qiu: “…”

As expected, this Demon Venerable, who was either bullying her or scaring her every day, would absolutely not let go of any opportunity to laugh at the little alpaca.

Hai!

Life is not easy, the alpaca sighs¹.

Seeing this, You Yan couldn’t help but reach out and pinch the back of Yi Qiu’s neck.

The little alpaca instantly shrank her neck, struggled to raise her head, shook it, and mumbled in a small voice: “Can you… not always pinch my neck…”

You Yan reversed her hand and randomly ruffled Yi Qiu’s head, squashing that pair of small, pointed ears, before finally asking: “So can you tell me now, what is it you still want to do?”

Hearing this, Yi Qiu quickly looked at You Yan and asked seriously: “Will you really help me?”

You Yan was silent for a moment, then curved her eyebrows and said: “Not necessarily…”

Yi Qiu thought for a good while, but in the end, she found a more reasonable explanation.

She stretched her limbs, then said in a small voice: “I think, I want Luo Mingyuan to leave this place.”

“Why?”

“The people here are not good to him. I’ve seen him several times, and he often has injuries on his body… but he clearly hasn’t done anything wrong, yet his senior and junior brothers hit him, scold him, and use unpleasant words to mock him.”

As Yi Qiu spoke, she couldn’t help but sigh softly, a bit of guilt in her eyes, “At first I hated him too, spitting on him, and pushing him onto the Trial Stage…”

As Yi Qiu spoke, she carefully observed You Yan’s expression.

You Yan said nothing, nor did her expression change much, just looking thoughtfully at the little alpaca before her.

Seeing that You Yan wasn’t angry, Yi Qiu continued speaking: “I just feel that I really hate what those people are doing, but I… I don’t seem to be any different from them. So I was thinking, if he could leave this place, would his life be a little better than it is now…”

Some things, half-true and half-false, are often the most deceptive.

Just like at this moment, as Yi Qiu spoke, she herself was about to believe it, the guilt in her eyes growing ever more intense.

But just then, You Yan suddenly asked a question: “Do you know who he is?”

“Huh?” Yi Qiu was briefly terrified for a moment, then her brain spun back at light speed.

Facing this question, any answer was risky. The best answer was to not answer at all.

So, the little alpaca tilted her neck, a bit of confusion in her eyes.

You Yan was silent for a moment, then said: “If he leaves Xianlu Sect, he might not be able to live.”

“Why?” Yi Qiu asked with wide eyes, “He hasn’t done anything bad, will he be killed just because he’s a half-demon?”

In the end, all the demons in this world covet the power of the Golden Crow. Luo Mingyuan had not cultivated any magical arts. Relying only on his martial arts, he would be unable to protect himself when facing more highly cultivated demons.

If not for this, his adoptive parents would not have sent him to Xianlu Sect at a young age.

She understood all the reasons, but she still had to play dumb.

If she wasn’t mistaken, You Yan probably only knew that she had a lot of little schemes in her heart, but didn’t know where she came from or what her purpose was.

Although she dared to swear to the heavens that she was definitely not from the Heavenly Realm, if she let You Yan discover that she knew Luo Mingyuan was the son of the Celestial Emperor, yet still intended to help him, she was afraid it would really be a car crash on the spot², and she would die without a place to be buried³.

But when people lie, they feel guilty.

In order not to let You Yan see her guilt, Yi Qiu tried extra hard to look directly at You Yan, not letting her gaze waver in the slightest.

And so, in the depths of You Yan’s eyes, she saw a very complicated look.

Although it was only for a brief moment, she was sure she hadn’t seen it wrong.

Finally, You Yan came back to her senses and asked seriously: “You really want to help him?”

“Mmm…” Yi Qiu nodded honestly.

You Yan pondered for a moment, then said: “Getting him down the mountain is easy enough, but he has his own feet. He’ll always run back again.”

“Ah…”

“How about we break his legs,” You Yan said faintly.

Yi Qiu once again sucked in a cold breath.

She could see that You Yan’s expression was very serious, not like she was joking at all.

To stop You Yan from thinking any further, Yi Qiu quickly opened her mouth and let out a big yawn.

You Yan: “…”

After a few seconds of silence, You Yan got up and walked to the bedside, saying faintly: “I’m tired. We’ll talk about this another day.”

The little alpaca couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief and trotted back to her little floor bedding.

After that night, You Yan never mentioned this matter again.

But Yi Qiu knew that You Yan must be making some preparations for it, otherwise she wouldn’t have suddenly started playing the disappearing act.

Yes, that’s right. For the past few days, that bird woman would disappear for a period of time every now and then.

Sometimes it was in the morning, sometimes at noon, and sometimes at night.

She never knew when she left, nor when she would return. In short, there was no pattern at all.

During the times You Yan was away, Yi Qiu had much more freedom. To keep herself from getting too bored, she went to watch the Trial Assembly every day.

When it was time to eat, if You Yan still hadn’t returned, she would brazenly find that little pig trotter, the only one she could talk to, to scrounge a meal.

These layered competitions were like great waves washing the sand⁴; those who could remain were all outstanding individuals. Naturally, the later it got, the more exciting it was.

In the novel, Luo Mingyuan defeated He Xiuzhu, and then had good luck, never facing Jiang Yuyao or Chao Yun. He fought his way into the top eight, and only then was he defeated by Chao Yun, becoming the center of attention for a time⁵.

But He Xiuzhu, because of this setback, buried resentment in his heart from then on. Later, deceived and used by the vicious female number three, he did quite a lot to push the waves and add to the billows⁶ on Luo Mingyuan’s path to darkness.

They say if a person acts up, they will die⁷. He Xiuzhu did many bad things in the beginning, so his end was naturally also tragic.

In the middle and late stages of the novel, at You Yan’s suggestion, he was subjected to having his tongue pulled out and eyes gouged out by the completely blackened Luo Mingyuan, had his four limbs cut off, and was buried up to his torso in the dirt, fed pig swill day and night, living unable to seek life nor seek death⁸ until his yang lifespan⁹ ended.

At the time, the author’s detailed description made Yi Qiu’s scalp tingle. She hugged her phone and shouted Wocao¹⁰, repeatedly sighing—

This villain and this blackened male lead, one could really think it up, and the other could really do it.

Now that the world line¹¹ had already changed, He Xiuzhu became the one who entered the top eight with ease, and was then defeated by Chao Yun by a small margin.

Such a defeat was not embarrassing for him, so naturally he would no longer harbor any resentment. Presumably, the subsequent plot would also have extremely large changes.

On the day the Trial Assembly ended, the list of disciples approved to go down the mountain for training was confirmed. You could know without even thinking about it¹² that there was no way Luo Mingyuan would be on it.

After Yi Qiu finished scrounging a meal from Luo Mingyuan, she wandered back alone to the guest house where she was temporarily staying.

She lay by the half-open door, waiting for You Yan’s return while thinking about some messy things.

If Xianlu Sect disciples did not get permission, they were not allowed to be away from the mountain for more than a day.

Now that the dust had settled, she didn’t know how You Yan planned to help her handle this matter.

For a moment, a strange thought occurred to Yi Qiu.

It seemed that from a certain point on, even if she no longer intervened, this world would continue to develop in a good direction.

If that was the case, then what was she doing now?

Trying hard to push the plot to a terrible node, to make everything that had finally gotten better become terrible again?

Suddenly, she felt so redundant.

“System…”

【I’m here.】

“I don’t understand, why must there be unavoidable plot nodes? You systems, don’t you just want a good ending? Now that everything is developing in a good direction, just letting them continue on naturally like this, isn’t that a good ending?”

【Does the host really think so?】

“Is it not?”

【Of course not!】

“How is it not!”

【For important plot points, please have the host explore on their own.】

The little alpaca couldn’t help but roll her eyes dramatically at the air.

Deep breath, don’t get angry, if you ruin your body with anger, no one will replace it¹³.

The sky outside had already darkened. Tonight, the moonlight was dim, and You Yan still had not returned.

The mountaintop was cold. After nightfall, a thin mist always obscured one’s vision.

She didn’t know if her eyes were playing tricks on her, but Yi Qiu felt that a layer of faint green mist was gathering above Changqing Pavilion, looking strange.

After a brief moment of doubt, she couldn’t help but stand up, stretch her neck, widen her eyes, and stare blankly in that direction.

It wasn’t an illusion! Nor was it some mist!

It was a bizarre spiritual light, exceptionally cold, yet peerlessly familiar to her.

It’s You Yan!

That bird woman is making such a scene, what is she trying to do?!

---

---