Chapter 85 Every night holding a handsome man while sleeping
This girl wasn't willing to speak. So, many things couldn't be answered. Even if she (SH) wanted to send her home, she (SH) didn't know where she lived. To facilitate them, Shu Huan gave her a temporarily name, Shang Xin.Shang: reward; Xin: heart
"Shang Xin…"
Here, Shu Huan was trying to find a way to make her open her mouth, who would've known that she just called her once when she (SH) heard laughter coming from behind her (SH)…
"Mute, mute, after being seen stealing melons, catch and beat ruthlessly."
No need to guess. The one who sung such a childish nursery rhyme would be no one else than Gu Xihe.
Shu Huan turned and looked helplessly at him. She saw that he held a white cat in his arms and rushed in from the door. He ran to them, reached out and wanted to pull Shang Xin's hair. The speed was so fast that Shu Huan couldn't stop it.
"Ah…," Next was Shang Xin's shout of pain.
Gu Xihe proudly pulled her hair and said, "Little mute, talk, ah!"
"Little fourth…"
Shu Huan shouted to stop him when she saw Shang Xin turn around, grabbed Gu Xihe's wrist, opened her mouth and bit fiercely on it.
This bite, not to mention Gu Xihe, even Shu Huan draw out a mouthful of air.
It looked very painful!
Gu Xihe's distorted expression and his sharp shout from pain reflected the degree of pain very well. Even the white cat in his arms screamed, jumped down and was gone without a trace.
"Ugly mute, let go!" Gu Xihe's voice seemed to be crying. He pulled even harder on her hair.
Shang Xin humphed from pain but endured it and continued to bite him without any intention of letting go.
Shu Huan wanted to separate the two of them, but the two had already wobbled to the ground and rolled in the mud. She couldn't separate them. She could only yell, "People! Help me separate the two!"
The noise of the courtyard had already alarmed the people inside the room. Two maids immediately ran out after Shu Huan's shout. When they saw this scene, the quickly went up to pull them apart. Only Ji Danqing was standing leisurely at the door. He wore a faint smile on his face and stared gently at this scene as if he was looking at the dogs and cats fighting in his yard.
Two children that were dirty like mud monkeys were pulled apart. They were still unwilling and glared at each other. Ji Danqing gestured at the speechless Shu Huan and said, "Don't bother with them. Come in for tea."
"…"
Shu Huan looked at Gu Xihe who had a red face from anger, whose fists was clenched and seemed to want to rush forward, she asked hesitatingly, "Is it right to not bother…?"
It was a maid who grinned and said, "Second young mistress, it's no big deal. They are just playing!"
Just playing!
Does one play like this?
However, when she saw that the person beside her wasn't nervous and it seemed that she was the only one making a fuss out of nothing, Shu Huan also didn't care anymore. Anyway, she had already persuaded and it looked like that they didn't suffer any injuries. If they fought again, it wouldn't be too late if she meddle in then. She entered the room with Ji Danqing.
This room was simply furnished. All the furniture was made from bamboo. There were three bamboo chairs that would make squeak sounds when you sit on them. The water sitting on the stove made of red mud was boiling. Ji Danqing lifted the pit and made tea at a not slow nor fast pace.
When he pushed a cup of tea to Shu Huan, he smiled and said, "These few days, they fought all day long and wouldn't listen to persuasions. I can only put some medicine on their injuries after the fact. Fortunately, these two children still knew where the line is. They didn't fight two fiercely and didn't leave any serious injuries."
The hand that Shu Huan picked the cup with paused. They fought so fiercely and he still said that they knew where the line was?! It seemed that she had underestimated a child's ability to withstand. She was a bit puzzled and asked, "Fighting all day long? Why haven't I seen it?!"
She came in and out of this Bamboo Pavilion all day long!
Ji Danqing laughed, "You didn't have the coincidence to catch them in act. There were two times where you just went away when they fought. I also don't know why, every time, it was fourth young master who wanted to tease Shang Xin into speaking, but Shang Xin refused to open her mouth. One had a bad temper, the other was stubborn. No one was willing to yield. When they got annoyed, they would use their hands."
This was truly a special way of getting along!
Shu Huan was very speechless. She held the cup of tea and looked at the white smoke. Then, she sneaked a glance at outside. She saw that the two children weren't fighting anymore. One was sitting on the threshold, the other was sitting in the shadow of the bamboo. They let the maids pat away the dirt on their clothes. She didn't know from where the white cat of before appeared again. It lay in between them and sunbathed with squinted eyes.
She felt that it was funny after seeing such a situation. She vaguely understood why Gu Xihe went less frequent to Japanese Rose Building. It turned out that the moment he was idle, he would come to this Bamboo Pavilion!
It was not surprising. Since young, he didn't have many playmates. Even if he had maids and manservants of the same age to play with him, but because of their identities, how would they dare to go against him like this? They always yielded to him. He also probably felt that it was boring. It was understandable that after he met Shang Xin who had a wild temperament, he couldn't help himself from teasing her. It just wasn't the right way. He obviously wanted to play with her. In the end, it became him bullying her.
If it truly was like that, then Ji Danqing wasn't wrong. The children had their own way of getting along. They didn't need to meddle in!
Shu Huan regained her senses, lowered her head and took a sip of the tea.
The water used the make the tea here was the dew on the bamboo which was collected early in the morning. The very light fragrance of the bamboo melted into the fragrance of the tea and slowly spread in her mouth and lingered on the tip of her tongue. There was sweetness in the bitterness.
While she was drinking tea, Ji Danqing reached out to look at the painting that was put on a side. He asked laughingly, "You painted it last night?"
"Mm," Shu Huan nodded. "Suddenly, I felt like painting and painted it in one breath. I also don't know whether it is good. That was why I brought it here to seek advice from you."
Ji Danqing rolled the painting out. Before, he could say whether it was good or not, he was surprised first.
Shu Huan had been paying attention to his expression. Seeing him like this, she couldn't help but ask anxiously, "Did I paint it too clumsily?"
Ji Danqing didn't spoke yet when Gu Xihe rushed in from the outside. While he reached out to a cup of tea, he shouted, "So thirsty! So thirsty!"
Him shouting like this was like he was referring to his foible with self-deprecating humor. Seeing that no one bothered with him, he suddenly felt a bit of anger. He went to Ji Danqing and looked at the painting. Unconsciously, he read the words that Gu Xiran put on the painting, "Every night…a handsome man while sleeping, why…privately…"
It was not that he stuttered. He didn't know two of the thirteen words and he recognize one but he wasn't sure about it!
If this thing happened on someone else, he would probably scold: Which uncultured one wrote this? So many wrongly written words! However, Gu Xihe had never studied seriously. When he saw words that he didn't know, his intuitive reaction was, "Second sister-in-law, how boring were you?! You just wrote two poems, why did you use such uncommon words. Could it be that you want to imitate that big cousin sister of mine and pretend to have a profound knowledge?
Shu Huan was shocked, "Poem?"
She didn't write anything! She knew that her handwriting wasn't well; how could she personally expose her shortcoming?!
Gu Xihe was still looking at her painting while shaking his head. He pointed at one of the words and said, "Is this the word 'should'? It seemed to be wrongly written…"
His words just fell when the painting had been snatched by Shu Huan. It was just that she wanted to snatch, but Ji Danqing hasn't loosened his hand yet. The rice paper was not strong and had been torn into two pieces!
Shu Huan went blank. She felt annoyed and pity. However, when she looked down at the painting, these emotions had been instantly thrown into the Java island.
On the half of the painting that was held by her was written: every night holding a handsome man…
She was shocked and grabbed the other half. She finally put the two lines of the poem together…
Every night holding a handsome man while sleeping, why should they meet privately?
The poem was full of ridicule. There was no need to ask. It must be from Gu Xiran. However, the handwriting wasn't the same as the one she had seen before. It wasn't neat, beautiful and tiny. Instead, it was free, easy and unconstrained!
However, this was not the point. The point was that the three words that Gu Xihe didn't understand was written in simplified Chinese!Simplified Chinese hasn't been introduced until 1950s. Simplified Chinese has less strokes than traditional Chinese. Hence, Gu Xihe thought that the words were wrongly written.
TLnote: Finally Gu Xihe is back. It’s like all of you had guessed. Gu Xiran also time-traveled. It seemed that you all are Sherlocks. When I read this book, I didn’t have the slightest idea until this chapter. Seems like I’m not that smart, sigh.
I only managed to translate till this chapter this week. Till next week.