CH 50

The very next day, Xia Yi woke up with Kirin licking him enthusiastically. He woke up in a dazz, pushing the enormous dog aside, he looked beside him with half-opened eyes, no one was there. Looking outside the window, the sun had already risen to the very top. It was nearly noon when he woke up. After getting up and washing himself, he walked around in the yard and found that no one was there. However, he found the breakfast left by Gu Wen Zhu on the table.

He lifted the cover to see three buns and porridge, steaming, with a crunch dish of salted duck egg on the side of those. He could tell these were made by Gu Wen Zhu just by looking at them. One bun weighed a full 4 ozs, looking like a small ball.

Right after he had put the bowl down, Gu Wen Zhu walked in from the yard. One of his hands carried a hoe on his shoulder, and he had a tray in his other hand. Some tidily folded clothes were on it. From those familiar colors and patterns, Xia Yi could tell that those were one of those uniforms of Qi Shan. Small drops of sweat were spreaded over Gu Wen Zhu’s forehead, the clothes were soaking in sweat on his back. He must have been returning from the farmland.

“Zhu. Have you been farming Liu Si Qian’s medicine garden?” A mouthful of bun stuck in Xia Yi’s throat.

Bad wife. No matter how much our house has, how many onions we have, we cannot afford you going farming everyday. We will need to compensate and lose everything.

Gu Wen Zhu was taken aback for a moment, then he immediately explained, “No. I walked around in the morning and met a few fellows. They were in the crowd yesterday with your fellow apprentices and they knew me right away. Then they told me about a piece of land at the foot of the mountain and said that I can farm there. So I spent the whole morning opening up 25 points of land, so that I can prepare food for you.”

After that, he put the tray on the table and took the Qi Shan uniform, “And I met Liu Si Qian. He gave me some clothes to change.” He said after thinking, “I will make him a set of clothes when he comes over to our world.”

Next, he went into the lavatory to wash himself. Xia Yi exhaled in relief and continued to eat. It was fortunate that he was not farming at the medicine garden.

When Gu Wen Zhu walked out from the lavatory with the Qi Shan uniform on him, Xia Yi was stunned. He was chewing a bun in his mouth, with his hand holding a bowl of porridge, staring at the man in front of him, stupefied. The clothes that Zhu had been wearing usually were the kind of clothes that everyone in the village loved wearing, with simple cutting and fabric, dark blue if not navy blue.

But he was tall, slender, and handsome. He looked good even with the normal farmer clothes on. He did not expect that, with different clothes on, he could look even more distinct and good-looking. As if he had changed from his school uniform, blue with white strips, loose, to a suit. That simple and sleek line of cutting and outline was showing Gu Wen Zhu’s perfect body. A belt with patterns was tightened on his waist to show his strong and slim figure.

Gu Wen Zhu saw Xia Yi staring, beginning to feel uneasy. He was suspecting if he was wearing it wrongly, so he pulled his sleeve discreetly. Xia Yi put down the bowl of porridge in his hand. He swallowed the bun in his mouth. Then he picked up the cloth on the table to clean his mouth at moderate speed, and had a sip of tea.

He looked calm and unruffled.

It was just that he was staring at Gu Wen Zhu in the whole process. The eyes were becoming brighter and brighter. Those eyes were full of light.

This familiar expression…

Seeing Xia Yi’s eyes switch to look at that bed with carvings, Gu Wen Zhu thought that things were not right. Then he saw him smiling warmly at him. That smile was full of sweet alluring scent. Gu Wen Zhu could not help but glanced at the sun outside the window, he became nervous.

Without waiting for that honey-coated voice saying ‘Zhu, Let’s play in bed,’ Gu Wen swiftly stepped up, holding Xia Yi’s shoulder, he said seriously, “Yi. Let’s do something meaningful. Let’s go and farm.”

Fa, farm? Xia Yi could not give a response with all the improper content in his brain.

There was a large area of wasted land at the foot of the mountain at its back, one small piece of land had been opened up by Gu Wen Zhu. With a slight hint of pity on his face, he said towards Xia Yi who was standing beside him, “It was a pity that the fellow I was asking told me that there was no cow or plow in their sect. Or else I could open up even more. I have already turned up the soil. I have also fertilized it with grass and wood. You can now rest under the tree on the side. I am bringing water over. This land had been unused and needed to be fertilized. Do you not love boiled corn? We will plant some corn when the land is fertilized enough.”

After saying so, Gu Wen Zhu pulled the sleeve towards his waist, then he went to a well not far away to fetch water.

“Why are you fetching the water? Can’t you control water just like the king of the dragons under the sea? Why don’t you just pull the water over here?” Xia Yi stopped him immediately and said.

Gu Wen Zhu thus stood there and concentrated. In the next moment, some sounds rang from the well on the side of the road, a silver waterspout shot straight into the sky.

That waterspout stood steadily in the air, then it turned towards the two. Next, it stopped on top of the land, slowly spreading itself to become a layer of water that covered the whole area.

At the end, it became countless drops of water, raining over the land.

Zhu is amazing. Xia Yi was surprised to witness it, feeling both happy and shocked.

Gu Wen Zhu turned as well, he stared at him deeply with his eyes, “Look. We should do something meaningful under broad daylight, say, farming. There are things that should be done at night, so that everything could be more meaningful.”

Xia Yi was still watching the artificial rain and he just nodded casually when he heard Gu Wen Zhu. After a while of digesting the information, he finally came back to his senses. What does he mean? What do we do at night to make it more meaningful?

He turned sluggishly in doubt, then he eyed Gu Wen Zhu thoroughly.

With the side of his vision seeing Xia Yi’s stare, Gu Wen Zhu pretended to be calm. He stared at the front with an expression as if nothing had happened, but his hands were in fact holding tightly to form a fist.

Xia Yi smirked coldly, making Gu Wen Zhu feeling nervous. His eyes were fixed to look at the front, Gu Wen Zhu subconsciously asked, “Yi. Why are you looking at me?”

“Looking at you made me want to do something meaningful.” Xia Yi said expressionlessly.

Gu Wen Zhu, with stuttering lips, was showing his struggles against temptation on his face, “Yi, I, I…”

Xia Yi extended his fair finger to pull Gu Wen Zhu’s belt lightly. He narrowed his eyes, his long eyelashes lying on them, half covering his misty eyes, making him look even more alluring. He blew a breath beside Gu Wen Zhu’s ear and looked satisfactorily at him, who was having goosebumps on his neck in an instant. Then he asked with a hoarse voice, “So are you doing it or not?”

Gu Wen Zhu exhaled deeply, his teeth gritted, “I am.” Then he turned to walk towards their house.

After a couple of steps, he saw Xia Yi standing on the spot and laughing, so he went back to carry him on his shoulder. He embarrassingly patted Xia Yi’s tight bottom, and said fiercely, “We are going back.”

The rain had stopped and the sky had unclouded. Xia Yi lazily lay in Gu Wen Zhu’s arms, playing with the strand of hair which hung in front of his chest. Xia Yi rolled over with his back facing upwards, he looked at Gu Wen Zhu curiously, “Zhu. Were you a particularly serious kid when you were little?” 

Gu Wen Zhu frowned to remember, “I guess I was alright. I just did not like playing with the boys the same age as me in the village.”

“Then what did you usually play?”

“I got up everyday before dawn, went to the school in the neighboring village to learn. After school, I would farm with my dad, or feed some chickens and goose for my mom.” That mom Gu Wen Zhu was talking about, a.k.a. his stepmother, was Xia Yi’s aunt.

“Such a good kid.” Xia Yi sighed, “I was naughty when I was small and always made my mom and dad angry.”

When it came to this, Xia Yi felt a slight pain in his heart. The scenes in his past passed through his mind involuntarily. Due to his misbehaving, his teacher needed to see his parents. So he lowered his head when he arrived at home but his father only patted his shoulder. He thought that he was lucky enough to escape being scouted, but then he was hit by the feather duster. After being punished, his father brought him a bowl of noodles with two sunny eggs side up while he was still crying.

That in the morning of Chinese New Year every year he could find a big red pocket under his pillow. His mother’s eyes were not good, but she still knit him a gray sweater under the desk light. They had a family photo on the wall of their dining room. There was also his award for the Teenage Drawing Competition. He never thought that all these little things everyday would come to a halt mercilessly and suddenly one day.

Xia Yi turned, covering his face with his hands, but tears stormed out from his eyes and sobs that he could no longer suppress rang from his throat.

Gu Wen Zhu sat up, nervously moved away Xia Yi’s hands which were blocking his face, saying anxiously, “Yi. Yi. What’s wrong? Are you feeling sick?”

Xia Yi closed his eyes and shook his head, tears rushing out continuously.

Gu Wen Zhu stared at him, unable to hide the nervousness in his eyes, “Yi. What’s going on? Can you tell me? Don’t make me worry.”

Xia Yi said with scattered words, “I’m just, just, missing, missing my parents.”

“You are really just missing your parents? Is there anything wrong apart from that?” Gu Wen Zhu confirmed with him.

“No.” Xia Yi nodded.

Gu Wen Zhu lifted his upper body and used the blanket to cover him. He held him horizontally like a baby in his arms, and he used his hand to pat him, “Didn’t I tell you before? For twenty years, you had your parents to spoil you, but I will take it the next eighty years.”

“But I, but I just miss them.” Xia Yi said in his sobbing tone. Then he buried his head against Gu Wen Zhu’s chest and began to cry loudly. He cried loudly like a child. His cramping fingers locked onto Gu Wen Zhu’s arms with all his force, his back and his shoulders were trembling fiercely. Tears wet the clothes which his face was burying in it in an instant.

That year, he experienced the heaviest loss in his life. Since the death of his parents and up until the end of the funeral, he never shed a tear. He contacted the montary, bought the land for the grave, informed the relatives, went through the burial… Everything happened accordingly.

The pain, loneliness, and sadness were pushed deep down in his heart. Although the funeral ended and he was on his own arriving home, he did not let himself remember it. This was the only way for him to carry on.

On this day, in the arms of Gu Wen Zhu’s, he finally put down that layer of armor. Let that person who was standing in front of the grave, head lowered, looking at the box containing the ashes of his parents covered by shovel after shovel of soil, failing to shed one tear, finally be able to cry out loud in front of his lover.

Gu Wen Zhu held Xia Yi tightly, hearing him crying, making him feel like there was a wound in his heart so painful that it made him shiver. The only thing he could do was to kiss Xia Yi’s head over and over again. He patted him on his back, said word by word, with red eyes, “You can cry today, but cry no more from now on. You have me. I will always be with you.”

Kirin opened the door with his head, walking in without a sound. It obediently lied beside the bed and put its chin on Xia Yi’s thigh. Then it used its head to slightly push Xia Yi who was inside the cocoon formed by the blanket. It looked at him gently, worried.

In his mind, 179 was sobbing.

Xia Yi was slowly calming down. He sobbed. After a while, he raised his head again. Seeing a large area of Gu Wen Zhu’s chest was wet, he could not help but feel a little embarrassed.

“Zhu. I have my dad and mom in this world too. They are just like my parents. I want to go see them.” Xia Yi said hoarsely, with heavy nostril sounds.

“You have a dad and mom here too? What do you mean?” Gu Wen Zhu could not figure out what he was talking about.

Xia Yi’s eyes and nose were still all red, his eyelashes froze on his lids.

“Do you remember that time we picked mushrooms on the mountain? I said I saw my mom and dad. Actually, I had been transmigrated for a short while at that time, and I met two people who looked like my mom and dad. They called out to me. On this side, I am their son. And my name is also Xia Yi. Ever since I came here, that Xia Yi who belonged to this world, could not be found anymore. I felt that I am him and he is me.”

“So this is how it is.” Gu Wen Zhu murmured, “Okay. Then let us meet them. Let us meet your parents.”

Then he straightened the chaotic hair on Xia Yi’s head affectionately, “Get changed. Let’s go now.”