“Sigh ….”
The familiar sound of sighing can be heard in the kitchen, Granny Li set down a bowl of ginseng chicken soup in front of Bao Chun. Staring at the delicacy before her, she let out another heavy sigh.
“Haven’t you heard that one sigh adds three years? You’ve aged at least thirty years today from sighing.”
Granny Li has finally heard enough and decided to stop Bao Chun from aging herself.
“But I’ve got things on my mind.”
“You’re worried when The Master’s sleeping, yet you’re still worried when he’s awake. Little Bao Chun, you sure are hard to understand.”
“A chicken’s worth fifteen copper coins, a fish was worth at least thirteen copper coins … ginsengs! Oh my G.o.d! Ginsengs were as expensive as gold bars, and I’ve lost track of how many gold bars I’ve eaten.” Bao Chun had a troubled look on her face, mumbling as she counted the large sum of money she owned Huangfu. She couldn’t even finish counting the most basic amount she owned for food and drinks, not to mention the shockingly high treatment and accommodation fees.
“What chicken fish and ginseng? Hurry up and drink the bowl of ginseng chicken soup on the table. It’ll taste really oily if you drink it cold.” Granny Li couldn’t understand what Bao Chun was talking about, and only urged her to eat more.
Bao Chun swallowed and said with much integrity, “I can’t let myself sink deeper into debt. I’ve decided to only drink water from now on!”
“What nonsense are you drivelling on about?!” Granny Li scolded her.
“Huangfu said that he’s settling accounts with me, all the things that I’ve eaten, drank, used, along with the treatments all cost money!” Even if she sold herself off she wouldn’t be worth the price of a single ginseng!
“If The Master really was going to calculate everything in detail, then he’ll have to measure and weigh the amount of air you breathed in the mansion! Rest a.s.sured, The Master won’t be happy to see you starve yourself to death. Also, if you starve yourself half to death, The Master will have to put in efforts to treat you, and that treatment fee will be enough for you to eat three cows and ten chickens.” Granny Li simply sat down next to her, picked up the chicken soup and started to pour it into Bao Chun’s mouth, blocking any words Bao Chun was about to speak.
“Also, didn’t you say that The Master has agreed for Miss Chi Shao to come back? Isn’t this more important than your meal fees? Although The Master has agreed, but whether or not Miss Chi Shao was willing to come back was yet another problem.” Granny Li said to Bao Chun as she fed her, “The biggest challenge currently at hand is inviting Miss Chi Shao to come back.”
Bao Chun gurgled down the chicken soup and asked, “How will we get in touch with Miss Chi Shao?” They have to at least find her first, then, they can talk about what to do next.
“The young miss was always the one to reach out to us, we’ve lost contact with her in recent years, but it’s a good thing that the messenger that delivered her letters is still here in the mansion.”
“And who’s that? Nineteen?” There’s not that many people here in the mansion, Nineteen was the only possible candidate.
“Does Nineteen look like a messenger pigeon?” Granny Li wiped away the oil from Bao Chun’s mouth and said, “I’m talking about the two in the lake.”
“Those big fat geese?!” Bao Chun’s tone was filled with surprise, “They’re the messengers? But they don’t look like pigeons!” If there was a way to feed pigeons and have them grow to an impressive size like that, then she definitely will have to ask Granny Li to teach her how. A pigeon that can be eaten as a goose? It’s pretty worth it no matter how she thinks about it.
“I didn’t say they were pigeons, those two are snow geese, very precious snow geese. It took Miss Chi Shao a lot of time and effort to finally hunt them down.” Granny Li smiled as she watched Bao Chun’s surprised expression, she looked like she had just swallowed ten eggs. “It’s just that they were fed a little too well and ended up as big fat geese. In my opinion, those two priceless snow geese has probably forgotten how to fly by now, having lived in such peace and comfort for so long.”
“But how can that be?! Without them, we won’t be able to find Miss Chi Shao!” Bao Chun slammed her hand down on the table and stood up, her eyes shone with determination.
For Huangfu’s sake, she will figure out a way!
“I’ll make those two big white geese remember their true ident.i.ty and mission!” She shouted loudly.
“What are you planning to do?”
“The most important thing right now is to make those two white geese … I mean snow geese fly again, otherwise everything else is empty talk.” She declared, even though she still couldn’t accept the truth about the ident.i.ty of the big white geese.
“Alright, you can do it, I am supporting you mentally.” Granny Li cheered Bao Chun on.
“Thank you!” She can’t continue to waste her precious time eating ginseng chicken, she has to take care of those two big white geese first! Bao Chun looked around and had an idea. She got up and took two hot steamed meat buns from the steaming basket. “I’ll use this as bait!”
“Little Bao Chun?” Seeing how Bao Chun was busy searching left and right in the room for some rope and a wooden stick, Granny Li’s eyes were filled with giant question marks.
“I’m going to fish for geese!” Bao Chun replied and quickly ran off to the lakeside.
The two unsuspecting snow geese were still swimming leisurely in the lake waters. Having gotten accustomed to their happy and carefree life as white geese, they can’t immediately realize their true ident.i.ty as snow geese.
“Hey there, do you wanna eat steamed buns?” Bao Chun shouted towards the centre of the lake, where the two snow geese looked up at her as if they understood her words. The delicious smelling meat buns moved along with her waving hands and shone in front of their eyes. Finally, unable to hold back any longer, they were lured in and approached Bao Chun.
Seeing how the geese were getting closer and closer, Bao Chun put the meat buns down on the ground a step away from her. The two geese saw this and followed it to sh.o.r.e.
As soon as the geese’s mouths touched the skin of the steamed buns, Bao Chun immediately took out the rope from behind her and tied the two gluttonous snow geese up. The two snow geese honked miserably and Bao Chun felt guilty and a little bad for them, but remembering that Huangfu needed them to save his life, she forced herself to toughen up and ignore their pleas for mercy.
“Just hang in there guys, I won’t do anything to you. I just want you guys to please remember how to fly.” She squatted down by the two snow geese, lifted her hands up horizontally on either side of her body, and imitated a bird flying in the sky, flapping her “wings” as she talked. “Just like this, do you remember now? Do you know how to do it?”
It’s just as the saying goes, “Talking to a brick wall is a waste of one’s time and effort”. But in actuality, talking to a goose isn’t in any way better.
They honked at her in reply, as if to say, “Who the heck cares about what you have to say?! We just can’t fly!” “Or maybe it’s that your bodies are too heavy to fly? It’s ok, I stole somelaxatives[1] from Huangfu’s alchemy room.” Bao Chun held up two large jars of medicine and waved them around in front of the geese’s terrified eyes.
The geese honked in complaint to the cruelty, “Help, this is manslaughter! … No, this is ‘geeseslaughter!’ Help!”
Due to the graphic nature of the following scenes, Bao Chun closed her eyes and poured the laxatives into the snow geese’s mouths.
“Amitabha, amitabha, please don’t blame me for doing this ….” Bao Chun chanted as she did so.
“Honk, honk honk! HONK HONK HONK HONK!” “This is injustice, this is heartless! I don’t want to p.o.o.p until I collapse!”
Drawn over by the noise near the lakeside, Nineteen walked over and saw the hilarious scene of Bao Chun reciting Buddha’s name as she tortured the two snow geese.
“You aren’t really planning to capture these two and eat them right?” Nineteen spoke out and interrupted her as he picked up the two tied up snow geese. He really didn’t expect Bao Chun to have the guts to actually do it.
“No, it’s not like that. Granny said that these two snow geese knew where Miss Chi Shao lived, and we could use them to deliver the message and ask Miss Chi Shao to come back.” Bao Chun tried to take back the snow geese, but Nineteen raised his hand up and held them out of her reach.
“Give them back to me!” Bao Chun jumped up and down beside Nineteen.
“No matter how hard you try, these two snow geese won’t be able to deliver your letter to Miss Chi Shao.”
“No, as long as they are able to fly there will be a way.” She had confidence in them. Nineteen looked at her and smiled in mockery, then looked up and looked the two snow geese in the eye and asked, “Do you two even remember the route?”
As very intelligent animals, they immediately shook their heads.
“See?” Nineteen untied the rope around the snow geese and let them escape Bao Chun’s evil clutches. “These two geese are too used to the luxurious lifestyle in the mansion, they’ve long forgotten the route by now. Plus, Miss Chi Shao lives at the borders, did you really think that these two dumb geese can fly safely to Miss Chi Shao? Why don’t you try and ask them to lay a few golden eggs to play with, you’ll have more success with that.”
Bao Chun’s face changed to a look of depression, and could no longer hold back her tears, “What do I do then? Huangfu’s going to die! Sniffle sniffle … these two dumb snow geese, living in comfort and eating all the good food at Huangfu’s mansion, but they’re so useless when you need them …. All they know how to do is swim around and honk ….” She started to blame and criticizing the two geese.
Nineteen shook his head and handed something white to Bao Chun. Bao Chun thought it was a handkerchief for her to wipe away her tears, so she took it and dried her tears, blowing her nose along the way.
“Thank … thank you.”
“That’s Miss Chi Shao’s address.” Nineteen suddenly said.
“What?” Bao Chun didn’t hear him clearly, so she raised her head and asked again.
“I said, that piece of paper was Miss Chi Shao’s address.”
“What paper?” Bao Chun furrowed her brows and asked. Why can’t Nineteen ever give a certain answer? She could never quite understand his point. They really do have difficulties communicating.
“The one you just used to wipe away tears and blow your nose.”
✧ ✧ ✧
After much effort, having finally sent out the letter asking Chi Shao to come back, Bao Chun collapsed on the table.
Not noticing that her hands were covered in ink, Bao Chun wiped her tired face, staining her face black. She bent down to pick up the dozens of cotton paper on the ground, all of them filled with Huangfu’s neat handwriting.
She originally planned to let Huangfu write the letter by himself, asking Chi Shao to please come back. But Huangfu wouldn’t write it no matter what, and pretended that it had nothing to do with him. So poor Bao Chun had to write the letter herself, running to Huangfu every time she encountered a word she didn’t know how to write, coaxing him to teach her how to read and write, and then going back to her room and copying it onto her letter. But it turns out that out of the three hundred words, she didn’t know how to write two hundred and eighty-seven of them!
But thanks to this incident, Bao Chun learned a lot more words.
She took the medical book out from under her pillow, finding that she could read more and more of the characters, and knew that she was close to finding out Huangfu’s full name. She made a mark on all the pages with medicinal herbs that looked like the ginger that Huangfu showed her last time. After some elimination, there were only ten or so possible herbs left, out of the several hundred she started with.
“Huangfu’s name is in here!” Bao Chun giggled as she smiled her silly smile and hugged the medical book.
“Big sister Bao Chun.” Ruo Xia knocked on her door, bringing Bao Chun back to reality, and she quickly opened the doors for Ruo Xia.
“What happened to your face?” Ruo Xia laughed at her and said, “You’re like a little piece of charcoal.”
Bao Chun looked at herself in the bronze mirror. Huh? Who’s that woman with the pitch black face? She looked really familiar ….
“Oh my!” Bao Chun called out softly. It was probably from when she was writing the letter, but the stain was kind of a little too big. Other than her eyes and her lips, she looked like she had just crawled out of a pool of ink.
Bao Chun wrung out a wet towel to clean herself up, her skin was once again back to their original fresh and delicate pink hue.
“Big sister Bao Chun, you’ve gotten a lot prettier.” Ruo Xia sat by the bedside and fiddled with her hair. Of course, Bao Chun’s looks were still not as beautiful as hers, but her smile gave off an air of feminine charm.
“Really?” Bao Chun laughed. “Isn’t it all the same, two eyes and a mouth.”
“Of course your facial features didn’t change much. Yes! What’s changed is that you now give off … this feeling of happiness.” Ruo Xia stared at Bao Chun for quite a while, then stroked her cheeks and remarked, “Your skin’s gotten much smoother as well.”
Bao Chun caressed her cheeks with her own hands, the smooth sensation was evident. These results were all thanks to Huangfu, forcing her to eat a bottle of fine pearl powder each night, along with a variety of medicinal herb liquids for her to rub on her skin.
“I have to thank Huangfu for this.”
Ruo Xia seems to be deep in thought, and Bao Chun was starting to feel a little embarra.s.sed being stared at by her for so long. When she remembered to ask Ruo Xia why she was staring, Ruo Xia spoke first instead and asked, “It seems that Huangfu Gong Zi[2] treats you very well, am I right?”
Ruo Xia is neither dumb nor stupid, she understood very well the ineffable relationship between Bao Chun and Huangfu.
“I guess he’s pretty good to me.” Bao Chun replied. There’s only the occasional teasing and making fun of her, treating her like a toy, satisfying his need to escape from his boring life.
“Do you like him?” Ruo Xia asked pointedly.
Bao Chun was stunned. Of course the answer was yes, she was attracted to Huangfu the moment she saw him. Although in the beginning she was simply lost in his impeccable smile, but after being with him for a while, she fell in love with every facet of him. Be it the happy Huangfu, the angry Huangfu, the smiling Huangfu or the cold and indifferent Huangfu …. To her, they were all unique.
“I could tell just by looking at your face.” Ruo Xia chuckled, her face was beautiful like the blooming peach blossom. She raised one of her slender eyebrows and said slowly, “I also like him.”
“Huh?” Bao Chun was caught off guard and could only stare blankly at Ruo Xia’s serious face, when she finally found her voice again, she asked in a tiny, barely discernible voice, “What … what did you say?”
Ruo Xia gave her a firm and proud smile, “I, also, like, him.” She put emphasis on each word and repeated herself unapologetically. “You saw it too, when he saw me the other day he was very nice and polite to me, I think he probably likes me.” She has a lot of confidence in herself.
It’s true, who doesn’t like the beautiful Ruo Xia? Who doesn’t like a confident and delicately charming beauty?
This was something that she understood ever since she was fifteen years old, but why does her heart still ache? Bao Chun’s mind wandered off.
“Big sister Bao Chun, you’ve said it yourself that you don’t plan to get married, didn’t you? So, can you let me have Huangfu Gong Zi?” Ruo Xia affectionately held Bao Chun’s hands and asked as she whined cutely. She knew very well Bao Chun’s easily convinced, soft-hearted nature, along with Bao Chun’s love for her, no matter what she asked of Bao Chun, she never failed to get what she wanted.
“I ….” Bao Chun hesitated. She never hesitated before to give her sister any of her things, even though their family wasn’t well off, but if there were new clothes, good food, or anything else that she was able to provide her with, she would never refuse her requests. But Huangfu ….
“Say yes, say yes!” Ruo Xia lightly swung their hands from side to side as she held Bao Chun’s hand in hers, and coyishly asked.
“Well ….” It’s not up to her to decide whether or not to let her have him.
“Big sister Bao Chun, don’t you think I’m a better match for Huangfu Gong Zi?”
“Yes, you’re right, but ….”
“Stop saying but, I know you love me the most, right?”
“Yes—” Bao Chun was about to say, “Yes, but it’s hard to give you an answer” to politely decline. However, a loud bang rang out and interrupted the conversation between the two sisters, causing the two to turn heir heads in frightened surprise.
The poor door was lying on the ground resentfully, the door murderer was standing in front of the recently created gap in the wall, eyes almost spewing flames.
Having never seen Huangfu so furious, Bao Chun and Ruo Xia huddled together in fear, forming a ball.
“Liu Bao Chun, repeat what you’ve just said.” Although he was obviously angry, but the words that came out of his mouth were cold as ice and frosty like snow.
Bao Chun was so frightened that she tried to hide behind Ruo Xia, too bad that Ruo Xia had the exact same idea, so the two of them could only retreat step by step, into the corner of the bed.
Huangfu reached out with his large palm, accurately picking up the back of Bao Chun’s collar, dragging her out from the corner of the bed.
“Don’t! Don’t hit me! I’m sorry! I was wrong! I didn’t do it on purpose!” Bao Chun covered her face, unsure of what Huangfu was angry about, so she continuously fired out apologies.
He’s so scary, is he going to beat her up ….
“If you have the guts, then repeat for me what you’ve just told her!” Huangfu’s shouting almost broke Bao Chun’s eardrums, in addition to that, he was also violently shaking her.
“I don’t have the guts! I don’t have the guts … I really don’t have the guts ….” Bao Chun murmured on and off. Who has the courage to debate with a crazy lion? She didn’t know, but at least she didn’t!
“No?! You dare to give me away?! You dare to abandon me?!” Just now, he was looking for Bao Chun to go with him and play with the snow geese, but he didn’t expect to hear the conversation between them that drove him crazy. That ignorant woman was actually willing to give him away to her sister!
That “yes” Bao Chun had just uttered drove all the reason he had out of him.
What did she take him for? An item? A dispensable person? A man that she could generously give to others without feeling an ounce of heartache?
And to think, all the thoughts and effort he had put into her, going out of his way to make her happy, trying to keep her by his side. But it turns out, it was all one-sided, it’s all him and only him!
Ruo Xia saw the veins that almost popped out of Huangfu’s forehead, and patted herself on the chest, trying to calm her frightened heart. Her mind got to work and thought to use her feminine charms to divert Huangfu’s attention. So she forced out her most beautiful smile and said, “Huangfu Gong Zi ….”
“Beat it!” Huangfu shouted without thinking, unwilling to spare her any extra attention.
“Ruo Xia, save me ….” Bao Chun peeked out from her slightly opened eyes, saw a pale and terrified Ruo Xia running off in terror, and attempted to beg Ruo Xia to take her along.
Huangfu kicked with his right foot and the door on the floor immediately flew up, refilling the gap in the wall, as well as blocking off Bao Chun’s last possible escape route.
Huangfu pushed her roughly against the lounge chair, his angry face close to hers.
“Don’t, don’t be so angry … it’s bad for your health ….” Bao Chun swallowed her fear and tried to calm him down.
Huangfu sneered, “You still care about my health? What for? Didn’t you just generously give me away? Why would you care about whether I’m dead or alive?”
“Of … of course I care.”
“Oh wow, I guess I should be grateful! Should I cry my eyes out to express my grat.i.tude? Appreciate you for your kind and charitable ways, and to thank you for your selflessly affectionate spirit, huh?” Huangfu lifted up her chin maliciously, although he didn’t like seeing the look of fear on her face, but he was so full of anger that he had to let it vent.
Bao Chun bit her lower lip, enduring all the mockery from Huangfu without talking back.
“Tell me, am I also something that you can easily give away to some other woman?”
“She … she’s not some other woman, she’s my younger sister.”
“What a wonderful big sister you are! Giving your little sister everything she asks for!” Huangfu said as he gritted his teeth. He really wanted to strangle her! Then cut open her skull and see what in the world she’s storing up there! “What about me? Did you ask the ‘item you are giving away’ whether or not he wants to accept your sister?”
“Do … you?” She asked timidly.
The taut string of sanity immediately snapped.
“DO, I?! You are actually asking me this? Do I? You don’t know what I want?!”
Huangfu’s hands held on to her shoulders, wanting to push her away. But at the same time he also wanted to hug her tightly in his embrace, trapping him in a dilemma.
“How … how am I supposed to know ….” It hurts, his grip was so tight that it’s almost crushing her bones.
Huangfu’s eyes darkened, a cold smile spread across his face.
Enough! He’s had enough!
With a dull ripping sound, Bao Chun’s outer coat was instantly reduced to shreds, falling on the floor all around her. Her eyes widened with terror as she watched Huangfu approach her, laying his hand on her inner gown, letting her know that it too will suffer the same fate as her coat.
“No—” Bao Chun clutched her collar tightly, not letting his hand trespa.s.s any further. Although she hasn’t yet lain with a man, she understood that she wasn’t supposed to let other men see or touch her body.
“Or perhaps I should just take you by force, and make you understand, WHAT, I, WANT!”
His eyes revealed his insistence, and his actions showed his determination. He wants to keep her, even if he has to resort to such vile and despicable means and force her, he will make her willingly become his!
Bao Chun was terrified!
She desperately tried to pry open his hands, but they won’t budge no matter how hard she tried. Huangfu clamped down on her wrists and secured them above her head, his right hand easily ripping away her last line of defence.
“No, don’t do it! Don’t do it! I’m so afraid ….” She cried and pleaded pitifully, her cried stabbed at Huangfu’s guilty conscience, slowing down the hand he held at her nape.
“Sniffle … sniffle … I’m so afraid ….” Her kitten-like weeping was an accusation towards his brutality.
Huangfu released his grip, Bao Chun immediately moved her body to the inner side of the lounge chair, her tightly close eyes were no longer able to hold back her fears, tears overflowed and flooded down her cheeks.
“Don’t hurt me … I beg of you ….”
Seeing how Huangfu was about to make another move, Bao Chun was startled and moved to cover her face with her hands. However, Huangfu simply turned around quietly and took out a new outer coat from the closet, draping it over her shoulders. He glimpsed over at the medical book lying peacefully on the table, turned a few pages and ripped out a page from the book, then took it to the candle fire, letting the flames devoured the piece of paper.
She doesn’t even want him anymore, what need is there for her to know his name!
Bao Chun stared blankly and watched his every movement.
Why was he only burning that one particular page? Oh no! That’s the page with the herb that Huangfu was named after!
The flickering candlelight shone on his face, Bao Chun couldn’t bear to look at his lonely expression, but didn’t dare to go and talk to him, fearing that if she’s not careful she might anger Huangfu once more.
He sat back down next to her and lowered his head, allowing his silvery strands hide half of his face.
After quite a while, Huangfu’s barely discernible voice sounded like it came from somewhere far away. “So, was this how you managed to be selfish for my sake?”
He turned his head slowly and looked into her eyes, letting Bao Chun see clearly the emotions hidden behind his.
What she saw in his eyes was deep hurt.
“Liu Bao Chun, I don’t care for it. Your selfishness, I—don’t care for it.” His voice was so very soft, like the illusory and unreachable clouds.
Oh G.o.d! She hurt him! Bao Chun came to a startling realization and desperately clutched on to his hand, she’s not letting him drift further and further away from her!
“I didn’t give you away to Ruo Xia, I didn’t! I didn’t say I don’t want you! Huangfu, don’t be like this!”
He continued to show Bao Chun a sense of being abandoned, but she didn’t! How could she ever abandon him?
Huangfu pulled his hand away from her soft palms with an air of indifference.
In the heat of the moment, she lunged forward and clung to his arm. “I’m not letting go! I’m not letting go! I won’t let go no matter what! You didn’t even finish hearing the conversation I was having with Ruo Xia, you can’t declare me guilty! I can give anything to Ruo Xia, anything except you! I won’t let go, even if you really like Ruo Xia! I didn’t say yes to her! I was just about to refuse when you came in! I wasn’t going to say yes to her, I would never say yes to her, you are mine!”
She growled and poured everything out, each and every word was a display of her affection and first love in front of his eyes. She thought that she could never be selfish, but she just wasn’t that great!
She selfishly wanted him!
Huangfu’s mood slowly returned to normal. He probably scared her pretty badly, that’s why she’s so emotional in explaining everything.
He no longer pulled away at her touch, he quietly and attentively listened to her feelings and stored them in his heart.
“Don’t get me wrong …. Don’t say that you don’t care for everything that I do, if you don’t care for it then what should I do? I’m really dumb and really slow, just tell me what you want me to do, don’t make me guess, don’t let me make silly a.s.sumptions, I’ll never guess it and never know …. I’m just an illiterate country girl who doesn’t know much about the ways of the world, I don’t have the brains to understand those complicated thoughts. Just tell me what you want me to do, as long as I can to it, I will do it ….”
His distance and indifference made her feel like she has fallen into a deep abyss, a simple “I don’t care for it” almost dug her heart out.
Huangfu lightly stroked her hair, just like he used to.
“I don’t want you to guess, or to make a.s.sumptions. I thought I was making it obvious enough.” He’s made so many exceptions for her. What kind of sensible person couldn’t see and understand his feelings? Everyone but her, she’s such a fool. “You like doing charity, you like to give, you like to be kind, and you like to be selfless, I could stand all of these. But when it comes to me, you have to have absolute ownership and be absolutely selfish. I don’t care how much your morals tell you that it’s better to give than to receive, and that helping people is the basis of happiness. When it comes to me, you have to be selfish.”
He cupped her face between his hands and demanded seriously.
He didn’t care about how soft hearted and kind Bao Chun was, and how much he disliked those traits. But she has to understand, she doesn’t have to be selfish when it come to other things, but when it has to do with him, she just has to be.
“If anyone wants you to give me up, you have to speak loudly and tell her that, ’Huangfu is mine, don’t anyone dare to take him away from me!’ like how you’ve just told me.” He loved it when she told him, “You are mine!” He loved it to death.
“You’re not angry anymore?” Bao Chun asked gingerly as she studied his face, and saw the familiar bantering and gentleness she was used to.
“Yes.” Who could stay angry at her after listening to that heartfelt confession? “Did I scare you?”
“Yeah, I thought you were going to hit me ….” Bao Chun shuddered at the thought and spoke haltingly. When she was younger, she saw the uncle next door beat up his short and thin wife. His huge fist mercilessly fell onto her pale weeping face and body, and knew that some men will use violence to make women fear and submit to them …. She couldn’t help but to hug her shoulders.
“I will never hurt you.” Huangfu radiated with his signature smile, and took the opportunity to b.u.t.ton up her coat for her. He didn’t take advantage of her at all, back there when he ripped her clothes off, he hadn’t seen or touched a single inch of her skin that’s not supposed to be exposed.
“But you’re so scary when you’re angry …. How many times have you gotten angry like this?”[3]
“How many times have I gotten angry? Well, you can count it with one hand.” He fiddled with Bao Chun’s fingers.
“Three times?”
“That’s rare enough right?” Huangfu was as proud as a peac.o.c.k.
Seeing how complacent he was, Bao Chun didn’t have the heart to say anything to him, she hasn’t even gotten angry once in her entire life.
“Do, do you always strip people’s clothes off when you get angry?” It’s a really strange habit.
Huangfu threw his head back and laughed. Does Little Bao Chun take him for a pervert? He isn’t interested in doing the same thing to his long dead grandfather and that unworthy sister of his!
“I also strip people’s clothes off when I’m not angry!” Huangfu bit at her earlobe, looking like he’s up to no good, and declaring his dominance.
“You perverted cat!” Bao Chun tried to keep him away with her hands pressed up against his chin, trying to keep this furious lion turned perverted cat far away from her. But Huangfu easily snuck back to her side, and the only thing missing was him meowing.
Huangfu’s large palm snuggled up to her neck and ran along the skin of her nape, wiping away the mist of sweat condensed on her skin.
“Little Bao Chun, you’re sweating a lot ….” He chuckled and said.
“Of, of course! It’s really hot … don’t keep on sticking to me!” Bao Chun called out in protest. Every time Huangfu leaned against her, she always felt really uncomfortable. She knew it wasn’t because of the temperature, but she doesn’t understand where these desires came from, so she couldn’t free herself from its grasp.
Sweat soaked through her clothes, Bao Chun half closed her watery eyes, her red lips slightly ajar, exhaling hot breath ….
Huh, it’s not right, why is it especially hot and especially uncomfortable today?
She turned her head.
“Ah!” Bao Chun pointed to where she had put the pile of cotton paper she had just cleaned up, raging flames were burning away wildly. “Huangfu, fire! There’s a fire!” She screamed and pushed at Huangfu, seeing how the fire was growing larger and larger, spreading from the cotton papers to the closet.
“How did the fire start?” It’s not dry or anything, how did it catch on fire for no reason? A confused Huangfu sat by the lounge chair and rubbed his chin as he thought.
“Somebody come quickly!” Bao Chun was hopping around in the room like a gra.s.shopper.
Huangfu happily slammed his fist onto his palm, “That’s right! It’s the page of the medical book that I burned, and then, I threw it aside randomly.” Now they finally know the culprit that started the fire!
“Help!” His laughter was mixed in with the sound of Bao Chun’s cry for help.
Translator’s Notes:
I was away at an event and came back super late, but here it is, the next chapter. I have a feeling that someone’s going to get a lot of hate in this chapter. I hope you guys have fun reading!
As always, please like, comment, and follow if you’ve enjoyed reading!~ Ciao! <>
1 It originally says 巴豆 in Chinese, which is the name for Purging Croton Fruit, a medicine used as a laxative. I opted to use laxative instead of its actual name for ease of reading, since most people know in Chinese that 巴豆 is a laxative but not everyone knows that Purging Croton Fruit is a laxative. Click here to read about it —>LINK.
2 Gong Zi or 公子 in Chinese, used to be a way of addressing the sons of dukes or princes. It is later used to address the sons or n.o.ble families and a general term to address other people’s sons, but more commonly, it’s a way to address young men politely.
3 I added a sentence right here since I believe the online text was missing a line, the whole thing didn’t flow right without a line here
