Oh. My. Fate?! (BL, Volume #1)

58 I Don't Need to Hear That

In the Nine Heavens, Hong Baostumbled out of the scribe's palace in a daze. She didn't knowwhat to think let alone do. Would Shun Tao ... really die? Because ofher? Because she had told someone about the assignment he had givenher? That couldn't be! She had to do something to prevent this!

Hong Bao went back to her room,without noticing anything around her. Like all the gazes that werefollowing her, for example. All her thoughts circled around theproblem at hand. Back in her room, she paced up and down and tried tothink of something she could do. She had to help him somehow! Afterall, this was partly her fault.

First of all, they had to make surethat nobody found out about this! For now, the only people who knewabout the assignment were Shun Tao himself, her as his helper andLeng Jin Yu.

So the first thing to do was to goand tell Leng Jin Yu that he definitely couldn't talk about thiswith anyone else!

After not even five minutes in herroom, Hong Bao hurried to the courtyard of the idle gods.Unfortunately, nothing could be seen of Leng Jin Yu. Hong Bao grewanxious. Why wasn't he there when she needed him so urgently?!

What to do? What to do? She paced upand down outside the courtyard in the hope that Leng Jin Yu wouldcome back soon. Unfortunately for her, he was still in the God ofWar's palace and as long as he didn't have to he wouldn't comeback so soon. This was his chance to establish a relationship withthe God of War. He would be an idiot if he didn't use thisopportunity.

Hong Bao stopped near the entrance,lifted her hand and bit her fingernails. Notifying Leng Jin Yu wouldhave to wait. Then how about after that? What else could she do tomake sure that nothing would happen to Shun Tao?

Maybe she could somehow help him tofinish his trial fast—

Hong Bao slapped her forehead.Right! She had totally forgotten to tell Shun Tao what she knew aboutthe gods in the courtyard! She didn't wait for Leng Jin Yu anylonger and hurried back to the scribe's palace instead. Once againshe was too preoccupied with her own thoughts to notice that she wasobserved by quite a few people on the way.

"Fate's Scribe!"Thankfully, Hong Bao still had enough of her thoughts with her toremember that she couldn't casually call him by his name if otherpeople might be around.

Shun Tao looked up from Jing He'sscroll of fate and raised his brows when he saw Hong Bao storm in.Hadn't he been direct enough before?

"I forgot to tell you what Ifound out!"

"Ah." Shun Tao furled thescroll of fate and put it down. There was nothing he could do anyway."So, what do you know?"

"You only cared about Zhi Haoand Wen Xia, right?"

Shun Tao nodded. They were the mostlikely candidates from that patch of young gods. He just didn'tknow which one of them was the culprit.

"Wen Xia really did monitordifferent people each time. I don't know much about the tasks ofthe scribes but it seemed like he was watching those mortals entirelives in a short amount of time."

"That doesn't sound as if ithas anything to do with the crown prince." Shun Tao frowned. Inthat case, it should be the other one. "Then what about Zhi Hao?He should have observed more than one person."

Hong Bao nodded. "There weren'tthat many people though. The first one was a woman of about thirtyyears of age."

Shun Tao narrowed his eyes. Thirtyyears? That could be Zhong Jing Yi's mother, Madam Zhong.

"Then there is another womanwho is a little younger. Sometimes, they even spent time together."

Shun Tao nodded again. That shouldbe one of the women from the village. Since she was younger thanMadam Zhong it could be Madam Shen, Lian Mei, who had lived in thehouse next to the Zhongs before she married.

"There's a third woman."

"Did she have a relationshipwith the other two?"

"Not as far as I know. At leastthey never appeared together. The same is true for the other twowomen he observed."

"Two other women?!" ShunTao's brows lifted. Where did all those women come from?

"Mn!" Hong Bao nodded. "Heobserved five women altogether."

"Then ... was there anythingthey had in common? Like ... did they appear in the same places? Evenif they themselves didn't meet?" That could very well be thecase. In fact, not monitoring Zhong Jing Yi but the people in hissurroundings instead was brilliant. If the Heavenly Emperor hadsomeone from the scribe's palace watch over his son, he wouldn'tneedlessly alarm them while still being able to find out everythingthat happened around the boy. After all, there were a lot of women inZhong Jing Yi's village and the surrounding ones. Selecting some instrategic positions would be easy.

"Mn, something like that. Itwasn't exactly the same place but really similar ones. And thethings these women did were similar too."

"Oh? They were probably workingin the village?"

"No, no. The places they wentto were mostly ones with water, like the river or a room in the housewith a big bucket." Hong Bao tried hard to remember every detailLeng Jin Yu had told her. "And they mostly did things likewashing their hair or —"

"Alright!" Shun Tao lifteda hand to interrupt her. "I don't need to hear that. I can ...imagine what else he was observing there."

"Really?!" Hong Bao wasimpressed. As expected of the man she fell in love with! He was justso smart!

In regards to Hong Bao'sworshiping gaze, Shun Tao could only smile wryly. Yes, he couldvividly imagine why a young idle god was monitoring a bunch of womenin the mortal realm.

Shun Tao massaged his temples. Howcome this whole mission had ended in disaster without yielding anyresults? Could it be that he had been wrong? Was the culprit not oneof the idle gods? But then ... who was it?

He sighed. "It seems I'llhave to confess to the Heavenly Emperor without being able to give anexplanation."

Hong Bao leaped to her feet. "No!You can't! What if he really ..."

Shun Tao shook his head. "Goingand admitting my mistake is at least a bit better than waiting untilhe finds out himself."

"You can't. Give me a while.I'll find a solution!"

"Hong Bao ..." Shun Taowanted to advise against it but Hong Bao had bent over the table andgrabbed his hand, squeezing it as if they were incredibly familiarwith each other. "Don't you worry! I'll find a way, Ipromise!"

Shun Tao stared at her hands thatwere clutching his and suppressed a sigh. Ah, why was all this sotroublesome? "I can't wait much longer. At most wait anotherday. After that, I have to tell His Majesty."

Hong Bao nodded. One day was enough.She would find a way to rescue him in that time. She certainlywouldn't allow for anything to happen to her one true love!