FMT 18

Chapter 18 Mid-Autumn Full Moon

Liandan was indeed clever, and also because the first chosen characters were simple. On the very first day, he remembered more than ten characters. He could not only recognize them but also write them.

It was just that he was not skilled at holding the brush. His characters came out crooked, and the paper often bore blotches of uncontrolled ink drips.

Compared to the model characters Chen Shuangning wrote for him, his writing looked even worse. Liandan blushed with embarrassment as he wrote, but he did not stop. He gritted his teeth and practiced stroke by stroke.

Late at night, only after Chen Shuangning urged him twice did he finally put down the brush.

After tidying up and lying down, Liandan could not sleep for a long time. His bright eyes stared at the dim ceiling above the bed. He turned over again and again before finally yawning and drifting into sleep.

Chen Shuangning did not teach like a private tutor, starting from the Three Character Classic or Hundred Family Surnames. The book he bought for Liandan was a picture book meant for small children just starting to learn. There were many pictures and few words, and most of them were everyday phrases, immediately useful once learned.

After ten or so days, Liandan could already understand the whole book and could roughly write more than half of the words in it.

When he finally recognized them all, he excitedly took the book to Xiaodan, performing the story from start to finish with vivid gestures and voice.

Xiaodan was now almost five months old, plump and round, bigger than most babies of the same age in the village. His little face was rosy and very lively.

He could already lift himself on his stomach for a while. When his dad proudly held the picture book and told the story, his bright phoenix eyes followed the pointing finger across the page. From time to time, he even answered with an “Ah,” as if he truly understood.

This delighted Liandan so much that he could not stop laughing. He instinctively turned his head and met Chen Shuangning’s gaze.

Startled, his bright smile showing white teeth softened into a shy and reserved smile, but the joy and pride in his eyes could not be hidden.

He tried to hold back the words in his heart, but they slipped out anyway.

So Liandan ended up boasting to Xiaodan’s other blood kin: “Look how clever our Xiaodan is, how amazing he is!”

By the window, Chen Shuangning watched the pair on the bed. Something flickered in his eyes but disappeared too quickly to be seen clearly.

After a while, he finally said slowly, “Xiaodan is amazing, you are amazing too.”

….

After Liandan fully learned the picture book and could write all the characters, Chen Shuangning came home one evening carrying another picture book. Along with it, he brought a jade bracelet of visibly poor quality.

He had hidden this bracelet for many days. Only today, using a reward as an excuse, did he finally give it out.

Liandan did not scold him for wasting money. Instead, he looked at the bracelet in his hand for a long time, tears falling in a stream.

Chen Shuangning did not mistake his feelings. He could see the joy in his eyes.

“You are happy?” Chen Shuangning asked.

Liandan, embarrassed, wiped his face, cheeks red, looked at Chen Shuangning, nodded, and said, “Thank you.”

He put the bracelet on his wrist, then, unable to hide his emotions, added in shy honesty, “This is the first gift I have ever received.”

Chen Shuangning’s eyes narrowed slightly. Liandan suddenly squeezed his wrist once, said “Thank you” again, then turned and ran off.

Chen Shuangning stood where he was, staring in the direction he had run, then lowered his head to look at the wrist that had been held.

….

The next day at Lingyun Temple, several subordinates noticed that the Sect Leader seemed to be in a good mood.

After business was concluded, Chen Shuangning was about to leave.

Before he stepped out of the temple gates, he glanced at a subordinate. Without a word spoken, the man immediately understood, quickly presenting the thirty copper coins he had already prepared.

Chen Shuangning lowered his eyes to look, but did not take them. Instead, he said slowly, “Mid-Autumn is near.”

Liandan had said he planned to buy mooncakes and pork, and also send some gifts to his sister’s home seven or eight li away.

The subordinate was momentarily stunned, not understanding. Liu Shuqi was quick to add another twenty copper coins from his own pouch. Only then did Chen Shuangning accept the money and leave.

Back at home, he handed over the fifty copper coins to Liandan.

Liandan, surprised, asked, “Why so much today?”

Expressionless, Chen Shuangning said, “Today’s employer was generous.”

Liandan happily accepted them.

….

The day before Mid-Autumn, some villagers went to town to celebrate with relatives. Liandan gave one piece of mooncake and asked them to deliver a basket of food to his sister’s house.

On Mid-Autumn Day, Liandan placed the remaining four mooncakes on the table.

That day, he rarely allowed himself to take out the hidden copper coins, counting several dozen before going out to shop.

He spent eighteen wen at the grain shop in the village to buy one jin of fine flour without stones, and then went to the butcher’s to cut half a jin of pork for seventeen wen.

Since it was the festival, the pork was two wen more expensive than usual. Liandan felt the sting but still clenched his teeth and bought it.

That evening they made dumplings.

The pork filling, mixed with sesame oil and seasonings, gave off an especially fragrant smell, which made the drool run long down Xiaodan’s chin as he lay strapped on Liandan’s back.

Smiling, Liandan reached back to wipe the fat baby clean. He called toward Chen Shuangning, who was feeding firewood into the stove, “The minced pork in the pot should be about ready.”

Chen Shuangning wiped his hands, lifted the pot lid, and took out the bowl of minced pork to cool.

Liandan let Xiaodan watch, patting his little bottom to soothe him, saying, “Don’t rush. Once it cools, you can eat. Eat full, grow strong.”

In the swaddle, Xiaodan kicked and wriggled in delight, drooling even more.

Chen Shuangning watched them, his gaze calm, expression at ease.

Just then, his look suddenly changed. He glanced toward the courtyard gate, but Liandan did not notice.

A little later, someone outside called, “Selling eggs, eggs two wen each!”

Liandan heard and took out ten copper coins from inside. “That price is fair. We happen to be out of eggs. Let’s buy a few.”

Chen Shuangning answered, took the coins, and went outside.

In the yard, a hunched old woman carrying a basket stood at the gate.

Chen Shuangning gave her the coins and said, “I’ll buy five eggs.”

The old woman’s wrinkled face lit with a smile as she carefully counted the eggs and set them into the bowl he held.

“Who told you to come?” Chen Shuangning’s voice was low, his tone flat, but clearly displeased as he watched her hands.

When the “old woman” spoke again, the voice was that of a young maiden. She bent slightly and said, “Today is Mid-Autumn, it is the Sect Leader’s bir—”

Chen Shuangning’s eyes narrowed, a faint red spreading through them.

Disguised as an old woman, Xueming shut her mouth at once. Her expression was hidden by her disguise, but the shine of tears in her eyes could not be hidden.

Chen Shuangning’s thin lips moved, warning: “Do not act on your own.”

Xueming lowered her head, bent slightly again, and said, “This subordinate knows her mistake.”

Chen Shuangning asked in a deep voice, “How goes the antidote?”

Xueming replied, “It still needs some time.”

His brows furrowed slightly. “Too slow.”

Xueming quickly raised her eyes to him, then glanced toward the house, and said softly, “I thought…”

“What did you think?” Chen Shuangning asked.

Xueming did not answer for a moment.

After a while, she pulled out a large bowl from the basket, covered with a cloth. She bent to set it on the ground, stepped back two paces, bit her lip, and finally spoke the words in her heart. “Liandan is good. So long as you wish it, he will never know. From now on, this can be your home.”

Chen Shuangning was angry. He did not shout, he did not even make a sound, but his gaze was such that no one could bear to meet it.

Xueming’s shoulders trembled faintly.

Inside the house, Liandan was feeding minced pork to Xiaodan. Chen Shuangning had been gone for some time. Curious, he glanced toward the doorway, then wiped the baby’s little mouth with a cloth.

Xiaodan ate one mouthful after another, eating eagerly.

Liandan smiled, soothing him. “Eat slowly. Save some. Later, when your father comes back, we’ll eat the meal together.”

Though Chen Shuangning did not eat food and only took those pills, sitting together at the table still counted as a meal.

At the courtyard gate, the killing intent in Chen Shuangning’s eyes suddenly faded into calm.

He turned his back, ready to return.

“Take what’s on the ground,” Chen Shuangning said. “Do not say such things again.”

Xueming bit her lip and answered, “Yes.”

Before leaving, Chen Shuangning spoke again. “He is an innocent person, dragged into this by accident. He is my responsibility. What a husband should do, I will do my best. The rest…”

What else, he did not continue. He stepped away and walked back.

Xueming bent to pick up the bowl. The wind lifted the cloth slightly, revealing the sticky rice cake inside, white and glutinous, dotted with osmanthus flowers.

It was the same as in those past years, the fragrance nearly unchanged. But the people were different. The memory was too painful to bear.

….

That night, the full moon hung in the sky.

Old Madam Chen, expression blank, once again appeared in the house and carried Xiaodan away.

After the door closed, Chen Shuangning came almost soundlessly to the bedside.

On the bed, Liandan’s face was flushed. His clothes were in disarray as he turned restlessly.

A black memorial tablet had fallen onto the floor.

Chen Shuangning looked down at it for a moment, then bent to pick it up. As before, he set it face-down on the table.

When he reached out, Liandan stirred, opened his eyes a slit, and pulled that hand into his embrace, rubbing against it with his cheek in yearning.

Chen Shuangning pulled his hand back firmly, lifted his robe calmly, and after applying ointment simply completed the act.

During it, Liandan was impatient, several times reaching to hold the young man above him, but each time was avoided.

Not until Liandan’s sleeve slipped down and the bracelet on his wrist touched the side of Chen Shuangning’s neck, cool to the skin, did he turn his head.

His gaze fixed on that bracelet of poor quality, and in his mind rose the image of Liandan’s expression when he had received it.

His eyes shifted to the other’s lips, small, a little blush of red, smiling timidly.

After staring for a long time, Chen Shuangning tilted his head back, his throat bobbed, and once again he avoided the embrace of the one beneath him, moving quickly instead.