I Just Won't Play By The Book
I Just Won't Play By The Book - Chapter 11: In Cliches, the One That Seems the Least Likely to

"Ahem… I see now that the junior Sister must have fallen for you, Brother, because she saw your hidden capabilities. Alas, I was unable to see it," Wu Qingce said, lying on the ground with a bitter smile.

Beside him, Jiang Beiran was pulling needles out of his body with a twisted expression while teaching Wu Qingce what love was by example. Finally, he wrapped up the lesson with a sentence famous throughout the ages.

"Brother Wu, there are plenty more fish in the sea," Jiang Beiran said.

"There are plenty more fish in the sea… Plenty more fish in the sea? What a good sentence, there are plenty more fish in the sea!" Wu Qingce repeated.

After laughing out loud for a bit, Wu Qingce forced himself to get up, clasped a hand over his fist in a salute towards Jiang Beiran, and said, "Qingce has learned from your knowledge and wisdom, Brother, and I am very impressed!"

After that, he even apologized profusely for his recklessness and said that he was willing to do anything to make up for his offense.

Seeing the lost sheep turn back from the wrong path, Jiang Beiran was also very pleased. He patted Wu Qingce's shoulder and said, "It's just sparring between Brothers. No offense is taken. But I do indeed have a favor to ask you. That is, don't let word of today's incident get out. Just treat it as a secret between you and me."

Having already known that the system could not always provide an option that would allow him to get away scot-free, Jiang Beiran also understood that he would have to be more low-key. Otherwise, the world would be too malicious to him.

"Brother, you really do have a big heart. Qingce has learned a lesson," Wu Qingce replied.

After saying this, Wu Qingce made a vow, promising that he would never tell anyone about the matter.

"Alright. Now hurry and lie down. I'll help you to expel the poison and heal your injuries," Jiang Beiran said.

"Brother, you are also skilled in medicine!?" Wu Qingce asked, incredibly surprised.

"I know a bit of medicine, a bit," Jiang Beiran said as he opened a leather pouch and took a golden needle out from it.

But just as he found the right acupuncture point and was about to stick it in, Wu Qingce suddenly shouted loudly, "Brother, be careful!"

Immediately, Jiang Beiran felt himself being yanked downward violently, while a sharp pain came from his chest.

"Brother? Brother!? Brother, hang in there!

"Who's the coward out there! Show yourself and fight me for 300 rounds if you are capable!"

These were the last words Jiang Beiran heard before he passed out.

When he woke up again, Jiang Beiran found himself lying in a room full of herbal fragrance and quickly learned some of the story.

The first thing was that the arrow he had been shot with was poisoned, and if Wu Qingce had not sent him to the Order of Clear Heart in time, he would most probably have died.

Then there was the fact that the Order of Punishment had sent someone to investigate the matter and told him that the truth would soon be revealed.

However, Jiang Beiran knew in his heart that them saying that the truth would soon be revealed or something was just to comfort him. Although he had only been in the Sect of Returning Hearts for a year, he had heard about no less than a dozen of these kinds of incidents where disciples were secretly attacked. And that number was only counting the cases he had heard of.

There was nothing that could be done, in this era with no fingerprint technology, no probes, and no Conan [1]. The cost of committing a crime was just too low.

Just as Jiang Beiran was thinking by himself for a while about who the culprit could be, the Yellow Grade Low Tier quest suddenly popped up. At the same time, it showed [Wu Qingce (√)] [Lin Jiuge (√)].

After thinking about it for a moment, Jiang Beiran understood that the ticks meant that he had dispelled the hostility of these two people towards him, so he was only left with Wang Yu'an as a possible culprit.

"It's true that you may know people's faces but not their hearts!"

It must be said that, prior to the incident, Wang Yu'an really scored a very good impression with Jiang Beiran. First of all, he had the image of a modest gentleman, and his father was an official loved by the people, so his family education should have also been very good. Furthermore, when he spoke, he would blush and appear shy.

All kinds of things concerning Wang Yu'an really made him seem totally harmless.

Before seeing the system prompt, Jiang Beiran had first analyzed whether or not Lin Jiuge was just agreeing to his newspaper plan for show while still secretly plotting his demise.

‘The one that seems the least likely to be the culprit is usually the culprit. How could I forget this cliché?!' Jiang Beiran thought. He let out a long sigh of frustration, lamenting that he was still too young.

At the same time, he also understood that, although his current capabilities were indeed much stronger than they had been back when he was in the mine, the system also based the difficulty and reward of the quests on his present capabilities. This meant that, as long as he made a slight mistake, there was still the possibility of losing his life.

After a good bit of introspection, Jiang Beiran began to think about how he should fight back. After all, the tables had been turned at the moment, and he was the one with a huge advantage.

As the system had given him a hint, Wang Yu'an's act as a pure virgin boy had been revealed, but he did not know that Jiang Beiran had targeted him. Because of this, his vigilance would instead be relatively low at the moment. Jiang Beiran even believed that Wang Yu'an was ready to follow up with his act.

‘Next time I'll just ask him to meet me in a deserted corner and stab him to death with a sword,' Jiang Beiran thought.

After two months of h*llish life in the mines, Jiang Beiran was no longer a soft-hearted person. When it came to the sort of person who wanted to kill him, he would never hesitate when fighting back.

"But I'm afraid that his father will come looking for me…"

If a county lieutenant who specialized in law and order was looking for his son's murderer with all his might, it would be totally different from a normal constable trying to solve a case.

‘So, this fella is the biggest challenge in the Yellow Grade Middle Tier quest…'

After that, Jiang Beiran spent half a month in bed recuperating. During that time, he did a lot of thinking. He had already come up with a plethora of ideas on how to fight with Wang Yu'an, both mentally and physically, after he recovered.

But just as Jiang Beiran was thinking about everything so intently that he was losing a lot of hair over it, one day at noon, the system's prompt suddenly popped up and told him that the quest had been failed.

"Fail!?"

Jiang Beiran, who was just thinking about the best way to destroy the corpse so that it would be unlikely to be found, was totally confused. How had he failed?

The previous two quests also ended in failure, but at least he knew why. This time he was really quite confused. He hadn't even had an actual fight with that Wang Yu'an. How had he failed!?

It was not until two days later that Jiang Beiran learned the reason from Wu Qingce, who came to visit him.

Wang Yu'an had died. He had died on the way back to his hometown from unknown reasons.

‘Dead!? How did he die!?' Jiang Beiran wondered.

In an instant, Jiang Beiran had a mental breakdown. He had spent a lot of effort to settle the cases of Wu Qingce and Lin Jiuge and had to lie in bed for half a month because this son of a b*tch had secretly plotted against him. Furthermore, according to Master Zou of the Order of Clear Heart, it was extremely difficult to completely remove this poison from him. He could not cultivate or exercise vigorously for three months afterward, or he would likely be left with some lingering effects from the illness.

After paying such a huge price, Jiang Beiran was determined to complete the quest and obtain the Yellow Grade Middle Tier reward, but this was the result!? Such bullsh*t!!

Standing beside him, Wu Qingce saw the extreme sorrow in Jiang Beiran's expression that he was forcibly kept from showing. He could not help but lament in his heart that Brother Jiang was really a caring and righteous person. Despite only serving once as their Iron Seal, hearing the news of the death of Brother Wang caused him such heartache.

‘Indeed, the Brother I consider perfect in my heart!' Wu Qingce thought.

[1]: Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock.