The Godlike Jade Rabbit Chapter 39 🎂 🎶

Bumper update #3
 

The Untamed Ep 10, screenshot by 12.

 
A rude awakening…

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Ch. 39 | Estrangement

 
‘Eh?’

‘Compared to others, you are indeed my cup of tea looks-wise.’

‘Oh.’ This sudden praise left Dandan at a loss for how to respond.

‘I remember that that was the main reason for letting you remain here in the manor back then.’ Song Lin changed his sitting posture. ‘What about you?’

‘… Me what?’

‘The reason you chose me as your owner.’

‘… I thought I told you before.’ Dandan sat down on his own bed, a roasted lamb leg in one hand, his legs crossed. ‘Because you were Second Master Song, from one of Ridge City’s celebrated Five Great Houses. Following you would mean a meteoric rise in my career¹ and lots of meat to eat.’

The warmth in Song Lin’s eyes plummeted by several degrees. ‘Really?’

‘Really.’

‘But Ridge City has other families besides the Song clan. If you had chosen any of the other Four Great Houses, you would also have enjoyed a meteoric rise in your career.’

Dandan’s eyes darted around before he answered, ‘They aren’t as handsome as you.’

_{¹ 飛黃騰達 fēihuáng-téngdá. If you’re not reading this chapter at hiding in plain sight, it has been stolen and reproduced by novelscraping sites.}

By now, Song Lin’s expression resembled a thundercloud and his tone had reached freezing point. ‘Oh, it seems we both share the same criteria when it comes to picking partners.’

Dandan nodded. ‘Looks are important.’ He tossed the eaten lamb leg into the bin, licked his lips and fished out a kitchen towel from the bedside table to wipe his hands.

Song Lin stayed where he was, watching him stonily. ‘Do you know, sometimes I find myself thinking how nice it would be if even one word coming out of that mouth of yours were true.’

‘…’ Dandan stopped what he was doing suddenly. ‘Huh?’

Song Lin stared at him, eyes blazing with anger. ‘You’re still lying even now.’

‘… Song Lin, what’s the matter? Everything I said was true,’ said Dandan.

Song Lin found this reply ludicrous and as he gazed at the bunny-eared youth, lost all interest in continuing the conversation.

He suddenly recalled that night when Dandan had accidentally eaten steamed fermented rice cakes and drunkenly pinned him down while declaring ‘I’m the most qualified one to make a pact with you’ and also how he had mumbled, ‘You smell like him’. He had not known whom Dandan meant by ‘him’ back then but now it looked like he had been talking about Yu Huan, hadn’t he?

Ha… really…
Damn irritating somehow…

He remembered how Dandan had burst into the bathroom and grandly announced to him, ‘From this day on, I’m your rabbit’; how the rabbit had sprawled beside the bathtub and firmly insisted, ‘Hurry up and make the pact with me, do it now’. Most of all he remembered Dandan sobering up late at night in the bathroom and telling him, ‘Everyone else may betray you but I never will’ and how he had pointed at his own heart while declaring, ‘After making the pact, a spirit beast lives for its owner. I now live for you’.

Thinking about it now, was he, Song Lin, ever the intended recipient of all those declarations?

Live for me? Ridiculous.

Song Lin got his breathing under control and clenched his fingers which were shaking slightly. ‘By the way, I was at Crescent Moon Ridge just now where I met the High Priest and heard something really ridiculous.’

There was a dangerous edge to his flat tone of voice.

‘What?’ Dandan sensed the tension in the air and straightened up unconsciously.

‘The High Priest told me that recorded in the Ancient Book of Spells is a forbidden technique which can resurrect a dead Guardian.’

As soon as he heard this, Dandan’s heart began pounding suddenly and he instinctively reached out and felt under the pillow for those few pages from the Ancient Book of Spells. There was absolutely nothing under the pillow however.

He was instantly dumbfounded.

‘Looking for these?’ Song Lin held out those few pages. ‘The servant found them while cleaning and not knowing what to do with them, passed them to me instead.’

Dandan hurriedly tried to take them back, but Song Lin withdrew his hand and the papers remained in his grasp.

He began reading aloud the words on the pages: ‘The Transmigration Spell… A Guardian leaves behind a Soul Crystal upon death which can attach itself to the body of a newborn and be reborn from there…’

Dandan’s heart was sinking with every word Song Lin read aloud and by the time the latter was done, Dandan’s heart had hit rock bottom and even his breathing had become laboured.

Song Lin said deliberately, ‘Don’t you find it ridiculous?’

Dandan stood up, snatched the papers from him, thrust them behind his back, lowered his head and said in a low voice, ‘Not in the least bit ridiculous.’

‘Then you haven’t got a sense of humour.’ Song Lin also stood up and walked over, using his height advantage to loom over him and said, ‘Let me tell you another joke.’

‘I don’t want to hear it,’ Dandan rushed to say.

Song Lin didn’t give a damn whether he wanted to listen or not. His icy tones were forcefully penetrating. ‘Rumour has it that there’s a spirit beast whose owner has been dead for close to a hundred years, but the beast still believes he lives and even thinks he can use this Transmigration Spell for his rebirth.’

Dandan’s chest rose and fell rapidly for a while and he prevaricated, ‘I’m… feeling a little tired. Can we talk about this tomorrow?’

Song Lin caught hold of Dandan’s chin and forced the latter to look up at him, saying with a hint of malice, ‘The dead can’t come back to life, not even if it’s a Guardian, fool.’

Dandan suddenly jerked his head away, struggling free from his grasp and demanded, ‘What are you doing?’

‘Both these jokes aren’t funny? Then I’ll tell you one last one.’

‘Not listening.’ Dandan shoved him in the chest with both hands.

Song Lin completely ignored his resistance and caught hold of his chin again but this time the strength of his grip threatened to crush Dandan’s jawbone. ‘That spirit beast who believes so fervently in human reincarnation is so damn stupid, he actually thinks I’m the reincarnation of his former owner.’

‘Song Lin! Don’t you go too far!’ Dandan burst out.

‘Who’s going too far?’ Song Lin also raised his voice. ‘When you first approached me to borrow my Blood Weapon, I didn’t even blink before bestowing it on you. You think a Guardian bestows his Blood Weapon on just anyone?’

His finger jabbed forcefully at Dandan’s heart. ‘So who was out of line, who was the one playing the other for a fool? Damn well get it straight!’

Dandan was stupefied by this. He opened his mouth a few times but no words came out.

‘I was really crazy to set myself against my brother, against the entire League, for your sake!’

‘… The League?’ Dandan wanted to question him about this but his lower jaw was being held captive.

‘You’ve done nothing but lie ever since you came to me but I didn’t care. It didn’t even bother me that you might possibly be a spy sent by the other clans. But you actually sought me out for this kind of goddamn reason — and you expect me to tolerate it²?! So much for the Supreme Jade Rabbit of Dragon Ridge. Let me tell you this, I’m not that sickening Yu Huan’s reincarnation so you can damn well stop dreaming!’

Song Lin released him and flung the papers at Dandan’s face. The papers flicked past Dandan’s head, fluttered down and lay scattered on the floor. Dandan stood staring blindly for a very long time, feeling as if the world were spinning, as if he had been slapped awake.

_{² 情何以堪 qínghéyǐkān. Translation belongs to theresanother(DOT)wordpress(DOT)com.}

Styx and Troy happened to walk past at this point and hearing the commotion, hurried over and saw their tense stand-off. For a moment, they didn’t know whether to go in or not and so remained where they were in the doorway.

‘You knew long ago that I was Yu Huan’s spirit beast?’ Dandan mumbled.

‘Yes, I knew long ago. Just because I chose to turn a blind eye to all your lies didn’t mean that I knew nothing…’

When Styx and Troy both heard the name ‘Yu Huan’, they exchanged thunderstruck looks like they had just heard something exceedingly serious but so earth-shattering they did not even dare react aloud.

Dandan was silent for a very, very long time. At last he squatted down, slowly picked up every piece of paper and folded them before hiding them in his sleeve.

After that, he raised his head to look at Song Lin and said slowly, ‘Every Guardian leaves behind a Soul Crystal after they die… but Yu Huan didn’t… only those Guardians who have transmigrated and been reincarnated will not leave behind any Soul Crystals.’

Song Lin: ‘Shut up.’

Dandan: ‘Your blood tastes like his, I can sense it…’

Song Lin: ‘One more word and I’ll cut off your tongue.’

Dandan took a deep breath. ‘You don’t have to believe me, but please don’t reject me.’

‘Get out.’ Song Lin cut him off with this glacial command.

‘No matter what the reason, all I want… is to stay by your side, that’s all.’

‘Whose side do you want to stay by? Mine or Yu Huan’s? If it’s Yu Huan’s, then you can damn well get lost to where his corpse is and stop pestering me!’

Dandan looked at him and after a while, said softly, ‘… If you don’t want to see me, I can leave for the time being.’

‘I’m not telling you to leave for the time being, I’m telling you to get lost, do you not understand?’ Song Lin’s eyes were like a dark abyss.

‘… Okay,’ Dandan finally managed to say with much difficulty.

His eyes were downcast and even his ears had wilted to his shoulders as he prepared to leave when suddenly —

‘Wait.’

‘??’

Song Lin lifted his hand and abruptly stripped the Qingling Sword pendant from Dandan’s neck, saying, ‘I’m taking this back. You’re not fit to wear it.’

The necklace scratched out a trail of blood on Dandan’s neck. He sucked in his breath sharply, seemed to realise something and finally endured the pain as he nodded. ‘Okay.’

This night, Dandan vanished.

Head throbbing, Styx took out a map and asked, ‘Second Master, shall we look for him with the Soul Tracking Technique?’

Song Lin: ‘No need, let him die where he came from³.’

Troy and Styx gazed at each other in blank dismay — this… this was… they had really fallen out?

Both of them did not dare to speak and withdrew quietly from the room.

_{³ 自生自滅 zìshēng-zìmiè. Please consider reading from hiding in plain sight rather than from novelscraping sites.}

In the corridor, Troy tugged at Styx and asked, ‘Why did they quarrel?’

‘Based on my understanding of Second Master, he was either angry about being betrayed or about being lied to. But… to be honest, Second Master is not in the habit of treating others as his comrades. Take me for example: even though I’ve accompanied him since his childhood, he treats me as a subordinate only. He’s never cared about anyone else besides himself. But I’ve never seen him behave as he did today so I’m guessing that what Dandan did has already gone well beyond betrayal, gone well beyond lying.’

Troy looked blank for a few seconds before asking, ‘Then what should we do now?’

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_{(Approx. 1906 words)}

🎶	Theme: Estrangement Words That We Couldn’t Say by Steve Conte

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Translated and edited by 12

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