Chapter 10: All I Need Is A Beauty To Spend The Night With.
In the twinkling of an eye, the number of pedestrians in the street became less and less. At this moment, Bian Zhonghua began to collect the stall slowly.
Qi Ci, who had been waiting dryly on the side, asked: “Are you going back to resume your duties?”
Bian Zhonghua replied with a smile: “Yes, what are you going to do now?”
As Qi Ci looked at the setting sun in the distance, he said softly: “I want to go to the Capital.”
“What do you want to do in the Capital?”
“I was framed and sold into a brothel. To put it even worse, all my belongings were taken away, and my mother’s belongings were there too. I want to get my things back.”
The words were said lightly, but the Capital was so big already, so where should Qi Ci even begin to look for someone?
However, Bian Zhonghua didn’t question Qi Ci, he simply smiled gently and then said: “Well, along the way, we can go there together.”
Qi Ci came forward and helped Bian Zhonghua fold up the heavy wooden frame of the stall and put it away: “I can’t go with you, I don’t have any travel expenses. I’ll have to save my money to go to the Capital.”
At that instant, Bian Zhonghua gave all the silver gained from the talismans to Qi Ci: “Here, I’m giving this to you. It’s enough for you to travel.”
Qi Ci held the silver, frozen in place for a long time. Once he snapped back to reality, he said: “Thank you…. I…. I will repay it.”
Bian Zhonghua laughed out loud: “How will you repay me? I don’t lack money, and I don’t care about power or high status. All I need is a beauty to spend the night with. So how will you repay me?”
Qi Ci’s face blushed bright red as he choked for a long time before he could say: “I…. I…. If you want to….”
Bian Zhonghua interrupted him: “No, I don’t want to.”
For some reason, Qi Ci’s heart suddenly tightened.
Before Qi Ci could realize why he felt this way, he saw that Bian Zhonghua had a calm and light-hearted expression on his face as he continued to say: “Although I’m not a gentleman, I still don’t want to take advantage of others. By the way, do you have anything you want to do before going to the Capital?”
“I want to go pay respect to my mother.”
…
The two men came to a dilapidated wooden house at the foot of a hill in the outskirts of the city. Behind the hut, there was a piece of green bamboo planted on the ground. As the soughing breeze passed by, the moonlight illuminated the scene.
The small and dilapidated wooden house was covered with dust as well as bottles and jars smashed on the ground. Qi Ci lit a candle on the table whose wick was almost touching the bottom, and then proceeded to look around the room as he murmured softly: “I knew the money was taken away….”
Bian Zhonghua glanced at the broken pinwheel lying in a corner, and as he picked it up, he asked: “Is this yours?”
Qi Ci shook his head: “No, that’s A-Li’s.”
“Who’s A-Li?”
Qi Ci’s hands, which had fallen to his sides, slowly clenched into fists.
Although it had been more than three years, Qi Ci still remembered that day, when the sun set in the west and the smoke coming from the kitchens rose everywhere in the town. Qi Ci, who was a 16 years old whose mother had been dead for four years, relied on his neighbors’ help to live on his own.
On that day, he wrote a dozen letters for Master Liu from the Eastern side of the city. After he collected the silver, he passed by the town’s hospital and heard a noise.
A teenager the same age as him, holding a 12 or 13 year old girl in his arms, was being coaxed out by the people in the hospital: “Go away, what do you need a doctor for if you don’t have any money? How much do you owe already? And you still want to keep burrowing?”
The teenager knelt and kowtowed, crying: “I’ll pay it back, I’ll pay it back. So please save my sister.”
The cry was heartbreaking and spread from one street to the other.
Qi Ci picked up the teeneager, bought medicine with the silver he had just obtained, and took the teenager with his sister home. Then he decocted the medicine for his sister, who was already on her deathbed.
The teenager’s name was Xu Run, and the girl’s name was Xu Li. They lived in Qi Ci’s house for three years.
Xu Run told Qi Ci that they came from the outskirts of the Capital, and that his parents were killed by robbers. He and his sister escaped and fled all the way here.
Xu Li has always been a sick child with extremely poor health. She was always coughing and taking medicine every day, but she was well behaved and understanding, not only did she not add to the burden of her two brothers, but she would also keep the house clean.
Xu Run, in order to cure his sister’s illness, went to work as a permanent worker in a landlord’s house day and night, and even though he was tired to the point of collapsing several times, he would continue to work after he recovered. No matter how many times Qi Ci tried to persuade him, it was useless.
The three of them went from strangers living in the same home, to depending on each other, growing together, getting to know each other in heart and soul as close as siblings.
After listening to Qi Ci’s story, Bian Zhonghua raised an eyebrow: “What happened later?”
“Later….” Qi Ci focused his eyes on the dilapidated pinwheel in Bian Zhonghua’s hands. The wooden handle of the pinwheel was wrapped with a red headband. The red headband was covered with dust, and its color had long faded away looking dull, like those who had been working hard under the warm sun, but now it was too unpleasant to see.
Later, Xu Li suddenly became seriously ill to the point where she started to cough up blood. Then, she fell into a coma. The town physician said that he couldn’t save her, and that she should go to the Capital to find a renowned physician.
The three didn’t have that much money, and Xu Run, in a desperate state, collapsed for three days. Then, he took away Qi Ci’s mother’s belongings, drugged Qi Ci, and sold him to the brothel.
Akdhskdja why is BZH always like “Ugh!! I WISH some BEAUTY would fall on my ARMS! Ah what a wonderful thing would THAT be, huh, huh?!” *looks at Qi Ci intensively*
Qi Ci: “Do you want me to…?”
BZH: “No! Gosh ??”
????