CH 77

Back to the Countryside

Chapter 77: 同门

( Fellow Sect Disciples)

Qi Yue walked to the door of his house in a hurry, but when he saw the carriage parked there did not belong to Zheng Yue Feng, his face sank. At the time when the man in the carriage jumped down and bowed to him to salute him, the look in his eyes had become somewhat frightening.

He had not been able to calm down when he was examining the village chief’s grandson, always thinking of his little Fu Lang at home, for fear that he would be disobedient and bumped into something.

He didn’t expect that there would be other unexpected situations. He narrowed his eyes, ignored the man and went into the house. Xiao Yu Heng, this guy’s mouth really couldn’t be trusted. He really wants to get beaten! 

When he entered the hall, he saw a harmonious situation, three people sitting around the fire and chatting happily. Do these two really think they are here to visit a friend? 

The cold breeze that came in when the hanging curtain was lifted made them feel cold, so they subconsciously looked towards the door. When Yun Su saw who was the person standing there, Yun Su subconsciously stood up and called out, “Shi Xiong!”

Shen Juming was a little calmer than him, and slowly stood up to give him a nod, “Long time no see.”

“Xiang Gong, you’re back!” He Ling also stood up, holding his back and wanting to walk up to greet him.

Qi Yue took a few steps to his side and held him in place, softening his expression, “You can just sit there. Why do you want to get up?”

Both of them who had been ignored did not dare to speak freely; giving them the cold shoulder here meant that the other man was angry and it was better for them to be quiet. However this was the first time they had ever seen such a ‘tender and soft as water’ look (deeply attached to sb) from their Shi Xiong. Before this, even when he was smiling, it never reached the bottom of his eyes.

“How is it today? Have you listened to my words and stayed at home honestly?” Qi Yue helped him to sit down and touched his bulging belly.

He Ling looked at the two people who were still standing there so he tugged at his sleeve and said, “Xiang Gong, the guests are still here!”

Only then did he give them a look that was neither salty nor light, enough to make people feel terrified, “Sit down! Why are you guys still standing? You guys are the guests.”

[Neither salty nor light here means he is giving them unemotional look or didn’t care about them kind of look. ]

Who would dare to sit if he spoke like that? Shi Xiong was indeed the same Shi Xiong, not having worn off his awe-inspiring aura just because he had lived in the countryside for a while.

He Ling felt that the way they were interacting with each other was strange, not at all like close friends, but rather like seniors with juniors. If he had heard correctly, just now Yun Su had called him Shi Xiong, right?

When Qi Yue saw his puzzled gaze, he sighed lightly and said, “They were my fellow disciples Shi Di when I was studying medicine, you don’t have to be too formal.”

As he said this, he also gave them a warning sweep, the meaning of which was clear that they should not say anything more. 

“So that’s how it is!” He Ling understood, no wonder they always had an indescribable respect when they faced Xiang Gong, it turned out that he was slightly senior in generation. 

“I’m sure you all know who he is, from now on you must call him ‘Xiong Fu Lang’!” Having explained it to him, Qi Yue then looked sideways at them. 

“Xiong Fu Lang’!” Both of them called out at the same time and cupped their hands in salute.

He Ling was uncomfortable and flustered, not knowing what to do. How could he afford such a serious and earnest greeting!

Qi Yue pressed his shoulders and patted it, waved for them to sit down and said, “Did that guy tell you that I was here?”

Even though he didn’t mentioned his name, Shen Juming knew who he was talking about and didn’t hesitate to sell the other man out, “Exactly, I met him by chance and learnt about this from his mouth.”

He knew it, that person would not sincerely and honestly keep his secret. Last time, he should have just left him there to emerge and perish on his own, by saving him and bringing him home would only create difficulties for him. 

“Since you guys are here, then both of you should stay here longer for several days, so that you guys can talk and reminisce (about the past) with Xiang Gong.” He Ling did not understand the twists and turns between them. He only thought that it was rare for Xiang Gong’s old acquaintances to come, therefore they should get together more often.

Both of them did not dare to answer randomly, but looked at Shi Xiong’s expression and they did not utter any words. 

Of course, Qi Yue meant that both of them could leave now, but his little Fu Lang was so excited that he could not afford to throw the cold water on him, “There are still rooms at home. You guys can stay here for now.”

The family had two more guest rooms and since they were staying here, both of them asked the carriage driver to drive the carriage back to the town while he (the driver) waited there.

When it was time for lunch, Qi Yue rolled up his sleeves and went to the kitchen. Only then, both of them couldn’t sit still, letting their Shi Xiong to cook for them, they were afraid that they would be poisoned! Therefore, they went over and tried to help. However, in the end, only Shen Juming was left there to help since he still had some common sense but Yun Su, whose his ten fingers didn’t have to wet in the spring water (十指不沾阳春水; figurative for leading a pampered life), better let it pass ba! 

“Is Shi Xiong usually the one who does all the cooking?” Yun Su, who had been driven back to the hall, looked at He Ling, who was embroidering something and asked him since he could not hold back his curiosity.

“Earlier it was us doing it together, since I got pregnant, he doesn’t let me get involved in the family matters. He takes care of everything inside and out.” When He Ling saw him seeking to speak to him, he put down the work in his hands.

So there are times when Shi Xiong is so gentle and considerate! 

All Yun Su could recall was the image of being severely punished by the other party when he had misremembered a prescription. He immediately felt a cold shiver run down his spine as he looked back on those bitter past memories. 

“Did both of you and Xiang Gong know each other from the time when you guys started to learn the medicine?” He had only heard it mentioned that they had known each other for many years, but he didn’t know exactly what kind of the situation it was.

“Actually, we have known each other since childhood!” Qi Yue was already in the valley before Yun Su was even born, “Because his family … had suffered a reversal of fortune so he was taken into our family at the age of five. He has been my Shi Xiong for as long as I can remember. Shen Shi Xiong started a little later.”

He quietly spat out his tongue and almost let his mouth slip, but luckily he stopped in time, otherwise his Shi Xiong would not have spared him.

When he heard him say that Qi Yue had started studying medicine when he was five years old, He Ling remembered that he had lost his parents at that age and that was the result of the abolition of his family clan ba! He was already learning such complicated things at such a young age and he was somewhat sad for him. 

“How about Xiong Fu Lang? How did you and Shi Xiong end up getting married?” Yun Su was particularly curious about this matter, very curious to know how his impressive Shi Xiong was taken down!

“Me and him ah …”

He Ling skipped over the feud with the He family and told him briefly about how they got to know each other. Looking back on it now, it seemed like a dream.

Yun Su was speechless for quite a while. Based on his story, it sounded like Shi Xiong had been charmed by the other party’s beauty like a Dengtu Zi! He had only met him for several times, yet he had urgently or anxiously beseech him to marry him. However, it was like something he would do.

[Who is 登徒子/ Dengtu Zi? He is a famous lecherous character / lecher / skirt-chaser]

Shi Xiong, this person’s character seemed to be a gentle person who was indecisive but actually he was cold in nature, resolute and very determined. Once he had made up his mind about something, he didn’t hesitate at all. He acted quickly and seized it firmly on his grasp. It must be the same with the way he treated the person he loves!

However, on the other hand, the other person who only knows how to hold medical books with both of his hands and read it to death, is like a thousand-year-old rotten tree. No matter what you do, he still didn’t get it, particularly making people upset! 

And this rotten wood, at the moment he was in the kitchen, rolling up his sleeves and helping Qi Yue choose the vegetables.

“Is Shi Fu (Teacher), the old man (老人家: polite form) still well?” Qi Yue lifted the lid of the pot to taste the chicken soup and asked him without looking back.

“Still well, it’s just that Shi Xiong …” Shen Juming stopped moving his hands, raised his head and said, “He has been retreating in these recent years. You, however, suddenly disappeared like this. I’m afraid he will be disappointed in his heart.”

Qi Yue stirred the soup in the pot, his expression unperturbed, “I said at the beginning that I had no intention to be the head of the valley, so why should he be obsessed with me? It’s just adding to his worries.”

“There are many Shi Xiong and Shi Di in the valley now, but which one of them is as good as you? It is understandable for the valley master to have the intention to entrust it to you!” Shen Juming let out a long sigh as he pinched off the withered and yellowed part of the vegetables’s leaf, “Besides, he also wants to entrust Yun Su, who has reached the right age (to get married) but now you already have a Fu Lang. I’m afraid this matter won’t be possible. However, can’t you really take the position as the master of the valley?”

“Could it be that you’re here as a lobbyist on behalf of Shi Fu?!” Qi Yue put down the soup ladle and went to the table to cut vegetables, “As you said, there are so many disciples in the valley, there is always someone more suitable than me. I think you are good.”

“Shi Xiong, don’t be ridiculous! You also know that I am more expert in the art of healing and inferior in poisoning, the difference between us is too far!” He liked medicine more than poison. The one who could hold the position of Master of the Valley should have both. Moreover, he had no interest in that position.

“You are not good at using poison, but Yun Su is the expert on it, so in the future if you marry him, you guys will be able to  complement each other.” Qi Yue wasn’t just saying that haphazardly, he genuinely did think that this Shi Di was a good candidate.

“I have always treated Yun Su as my younger brother and he treats me as his older brother. Shi Xiong, it’s really absurd that you say this!” Shen Juming put the selected vegetables in the basin, clapped his hands and raised his eyes to look at him, “If he hears you, he will be angry again.”

Qi Yue laughed lightly and said meaningfully, “You are not yet enlightened, huh?! Yun Su Shi Di is seriously going through a lot of hardship.”

Shen Juming who was washing vegetables in the water jar, after he heard what he said, he frowned and asked, “Shi Xiong, what do you mean by that?”

Qi Yue did not say another word anymore. The only sound that remained was the sound of chopping vegetables. This Shi Di of his was mature and stable in nature, dependable in handling matters. There was nothing that could make people worry about him except that he was so absorbed and set his heart on the medical books that he did not listen to anything outside the window (he did not care about anything outside or the affairs outside). When it came to relationships, he was never enlightened. He often made Yun Su hopping mad without even realizing it. 

Seeing he didn’t respond to him, Shen Juming didn’t take it to heart. He hesitated for a while before then he asked him specifically “Shi Xiong, have you ever told Xiong Fu Lang about your past?”

Qi Yue’s hand stopped moving for a while as he looked in a trance for a moment, then he put down his knife and looked back at him, “There is nothing to discuss, and you guys should not say anything either.”

Shen Juming also followed after him and stopped moving, met with his eyes that seemed to be suppressing something and sighed, “Since Shi Xiong has chosen him to spend the rest of your life with him. Don’t tell me that you want to hide it from him for the rest of your life?”

Regarding this matter, Qi Yue’s heart was actually very conflicted. He felt guilty for hiding it from the other side, but he was also afraid that by telling him, this would make the other side afraid. Every time he met with his eyes that treated him like he was his everything, he couldn’t bear to let the other side know how cruel he used to be.

“In fact, I think that even if Xiong Fu Lang knew about those things, he would still be able to understand you.” Shen Juming had never seen such a torn expression on his face before. He felt that he seemed to be unchanged, but actually he was different from before. Once you had someone you care about, there were more things you care about.

The person he knew when he entered the valley at the age of ten was a gentle masked man who treated his many Shi Xiong and Shi Di with great care. He believed at one time that that was his true form.

[Mask here, not literal mask lah, but I think it refers to how he deals or treats other people on the surface.]

Until one day, he passed by the other man’s medicine room and heard a scream coming from within it. The sound was so miserable that he could not hold back his curiosity and looked in through the window gap.

There was a man who had long since lost his human form, curled up on the floor, rolling around in pain; his flesh and blood decaying as fast as he could see, until the white bones of his body were revealed. Qi Yue was standing in front of him, still smiling, so delighted as if he was breathing in the fresh air. 

At that moment he realized how terrifying this only fourteen youngster was. The moment the other party’s full of smiling eyes looked over, he fled from that place in a panic. 

Shi Xiong he met afterwards still remained gentle and polite, as if what he had seen that day was just a dream. He deliberately forgot about that incident and did not recall it. But he was always filled with veneration when he faced Shi Xiong. He always rejected the idea of using poison and could never learn it well. In the end, he simply put all his energy into learning medicine. 

But even that kind of Shi Xiong would now be hesitant because of one person’s thoughts, making him couldn’t help but sigh. ‘Because of love comes fear, due to love comes sorrow’, that was what it meant ba! 

“A Ling always thought that I had redeemed him, but it’s me who was really redeemed by him.” Even now, Qi Yue remembered that when the other party panic-strickenly looked up at him. Those eyes, which seemed like stars at the ends of the earth, seemed to calm his heart at once.

Shen Juming suddenly felt that perhaps this kind of life was what really suited Shi Xiong. At least he would see his true emotions as he did at this moment, not like the old days when he was always separated by a false mask, making people difficult to figure out (what he was thinking about). 

The translator’s Note :

It’s difficult for me to put on the footnote or whenever I edit the post so bear with this new format until I figure out how to fix the error problem when editing the post. 

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