Chapter 019: I Hate It

“Enough.” Du Fan released Xue Lan’s hand. Without even glancing at the dagger at his neck, he smiled lightly and said, “Miss Xue Lan, if you really wanted to kill me, I would have died countless times by now. So, please tell me—what exactly is your intention?”
“I want you to take us out of the city!”
“Us? It seems you’re not fighting alone, Miss Xue Lan.” A hint of surprise flashed in Du Fan’s eyes. “Weren’t your men either committing suicide with poison in the governor’s mansion or burning to death in your own house? How come they’re here now?”
“None of your business,” Xue Lan snapped. She tightened her grip on the dagger, nearly cutting Du Fan’s skin. “If you keep talking nonsense, I’ll kill you right away!”
Du Fan sighed softly. “Okay… okay… Miss Xue Lan, I won’t talk nonsense, I swear. But could you please move the dagger away? It’s really hard for me to speak with it pointed at me like this!”
Xue Lan stepped back two steps, but kept the dagger pointed at Du Fan. “I don’t care. Arrange a way to get us out of the city right now, or I’ll kill you immediately!”
“Miss Xue Lan, is this a threat?” Du Fan smiled deliberately. “But have you got the wrong person? If you want to threaten someone, you should threaten Governor Brandon! Or at least his generals. Leaving this city of Mordo shouldn’t take more than a moment. Why would you think of me, a powerless little nobody?”
“I know who you are,” Xue Lan said coldly, her smile gone. “You’re the third young master of the Green family, a priest in the Holy Church. Your status may seem insignificant, but right now, in this city of Mordo, no one has more influence than you. Even Governor Brandon probably wouldn’t dare let me go. No one other than you can do this!”

“Am I that amazing?” Du Fan smiled faintly. “By the way, don’t you have that magic where there’s a flash of silver light and then you disappear on the spot? That magic is really interesting. Why don’t you just use it to vanish from the city right away? As for your companions, since they dared to come on this mission, I’m sure they can do the same. You all could just vanish together, wouldn’t that do? At most, out of respect for you being a beauty, I’ll pretend I don’t know about today’s incident. You can run away, while those fools continue searching in the city. Miss Xue Lan, what do you think of this plan?”
“That magic can’t be used too often, and it’s not what you think…” Xue Lan seemed to force a wry smile. “When I was in the governor’s mansion, I prepared for a long time and paid a heavy price to achieve that. Now I can’t do it anymore. Besides, if I tried to run on my own, I’d probably already be nowhere in sight by now. Do you understand what I mean?”
“I understand,” Du Fan sighed. “So you want me to help send your companions away?”
Xue Lan nodded. “You’re smart… As long as you do that, I might consider not taking your life!”
“Haha… Miss Xue Lan, what do you mean by that? Is it a threat? Or coercion?” A hint of pity appeared in Du Fan’s eyes. “Do you really think that just by holding a dagger to my neck, you can force me to do anything?”
“My dagger is laced with deadly poison,” Xue Lan’s expression turned cold. “Although I’ve always disdained using such things, I can’t care about that now for other reasons. Young Master Du Fan, listen carefully—the poison on my dagger is highly lethal. Don’t test my patience. With a single move, I can take your life. Even if I don’t save my companions, just cutting off your head will mean I’ve completed my mission!”
Du Fan sighed slightly. “That threat is quite effective indeed. Alright, I admit it—I’m really scared, terrified… But Miss Xue Lan, do you really dare to cut off my head like that? Or should I say, do you really think you have the ability to do it?”
“Stop talking nonsense! Will you agree or not?”

Du Fan smiled and said in a low voice, “Miss Xuelan, the issue now isn’t whether to agree or not. The point is, since you’re asking for help, you need to adopt the right attitude… You don’t need to look at me like that. Although your dagger is pressed against my neck, as if you could kill me at any moment, we both know you’re not threatening me—you’re asking me for help… Yes, exactly, asking me for help. So, Miss Xuelan, I want to tell you something: when asking for help, you need to have the right attitude. Your current attitude, in my view, is completely unacceptable… Instead of using that strength to glare at me, why not think about how to properly ask me for help?”
Xuelan wore a strange expression as she stared intently at Du Fan, filled with astonishment. Logically, anyone in such a situation should be terrified, but he remained calm, with an outright smile in his eyes, as if looking at a clown. Her threats seemed utterly meaningless in front of him. Suddenly, Xuelan felt her heart pounding—whether from nervousness or fear, she wasn’t sure. Looking into Du Fan’s smiling eyes, she suddenly had a feeling: it wasn’t her threatening him now, but him threatening her!
Uncomfortable under Du Fan’s gaze, Xuelan couldn’t help but twist slightly and said, “What! What do you mean?”
Du Fan replied calmly, “Nothing much. I’m just telling you the only viable path. I’m the kind of person who yields to softness, not force. If you ask me for help, I might forget that you tried to assassinate me and almost killed me. Even letting you all go, as if nothing happened, isn’t impossible. But if you threaten me… I’m a peculiar person. No matter what others do to me, I’ll always return the favor. Dear Miss Xuelan, are you afraid that I might suddenly restrain you and do such things to you?”
“Or? Even for your companions, you refuse to ask me for help?”
Du Fan slowly set down the teacup in his hand and began rubbing his hands. He ignored the dagger at his neck completely!
“I’m telling you! Stop wasting words with me. You have to agree now, whether you like it or not. If you can’t, I’ll take you as a hostage and leave. I believe Governor Brandon will value your life more than my companions’!”
“Is that so?”

Du Fan laughed. His gaze swept recklessly over Xue Lan’s entire body, lingering especially on her striking chest and slender waist for a longer time. After a moment, he shook his head and sighed, “What a shame. So beautiful, with such a great figure, but why is she just a ‘embroidered pillow’? The philosophers say big breasts mean no brain. Big breasts mean no brain—looking at your huge chest, it seems your brain isn’t very good either!”
Xue Lan was furious at Du Fan’s naked gaze and sarcastic tone. She couldn’t help but shout, “What did you say?”
“Nothing. I just wanted to tell you a few things,” Du Fan said slowly, raising three fingers. “First, I hate it when people threaten me to do anything—really hate it. If someone put a knife to my neck and threatened me, I’d hate it even more. So, I have to congratulate you, Miss Xue Lan—you’ve successfully angered me… Normally, since you’re beautiful, if you were willing to compromise a little and give me an advantage, I might actually let you go. But sadly, you missed the chance I gave you, so… you no longer have a chance. Second, I’ve never liked fools, so I make sure others die clearly before they die. Dear Miss Xue Lan, think about it—just now I tried to assassinate you, but now I’ve gone back to my room without any preparation. Please use your little brain to figure out—could this possibly happen? Was it me who deliberately gave you a chance to appear, or did you seize the opportunity to try and assassinate me again? I think you can figure that out. As for the third point, I, Du Fan, have experienced life and death these past days. If I really had no skills to save my life, I’d probably be dead countless times by now. But the frustrating part is that although my survival skills are excellent, I must keep them secret. Under no circumstances do I want others to know, because if word gets out that I know these skills, I’ll be in big trouble… So under normal circumstances, I only use combat energy and throw magic scrolls—just like any worthless noble young master… But when I’m facing just one person… well, congratulations, that person will be very unlucky, extremely unlucky, because to keep it secret, I’ll definitely take their life…”

Xuelan was infuriated by Du Fan’s tone. She was about to retort when Du Fan smiled slightly, looked straight into Xuelan’s eyes, and said in a low voice, “Enough with the nonsense. So, Miss Xuelan, don’t you think it’s tiring to carry this dagger? After throwing it away, can we have a proper conversation?”