With that question alone, it was clear he had truly come for Tuan Yun.
Tuan Yun was speechless, stammering.
Cui Jianying waited for his response.
Left with no choice, Tuan Yun moved his lips again, his voice small and thin. “We… didn’t agree. You made the appointment but I never answered.”
Not answering meant not agreeing.
It was clearly a desperate, crooked attempt at sophistry.
Yet Cui Jianying accepted it. “Reasonable.” After saying that, he laughed. “Madam.”
He called once, the laughter fading. “Then if tomorrow I wish to meet with Madam, what would Madam say?”
“…”
What could Tuan Yun say? Timidly, he lifted his eyes. “I… I will come.”
Cui Jianying was satisfied. At last he no longer blocked Tuan Yun’s way.
Tuan Yun let out a breath of relief. Having space again, he found himself even less steady, a wave of weakness surging through his legs.
No blades were drawn, no insults spoken and yet one person could make another feel so frail and frightened.
Steady yourself.
Tuan Yun called out toward the door. “Someone come.”
A servant entered. Tuan Yun instructed, “Escort the Second Young Master to my room.”
The servant glanced at him with disapproval but stepped forward to support Ji Zhiwei.
Tuan Yun’s thoughts were a mess. He did not bother guessing what calculations the servant might be making. Going along with the moment, he added, “Please have the kitchen prepare some honey water. The Second Young Master drank heavily, he’ll feel unwell in the morning.”
Those words brought him trouble.
What should have ended quietly took an abrupt turn. Once the servant left, Cui Jianying suddenly pressed Tuan Yun back against the door.
“Your cousin treats you so harshly yet Madam remains unchanged in heart, faithful from beginning to end.”
Cold sweat broke out across Tuan Yun’s skin as Cui Jianying asked, “It was clearly he who actively sought to marry you. Now he claims you clung shamelessly to him and took advantage of his unguarded state to force a marriage.”
“Everyone curses you, twisting right and wrong like this and yet, Madam, you feel no hatred toward him at all?”
Cui Jianying even knew this.
Tuan Yun’s throat was dry. He murmured, “Husband and wife… even one day as husband and wife…”
“One day husband and wife, a hundred days of grace?” Cui Jianying finished for him. “They say Madam is illiterate. I think Madam understands quite a great deal.”
He stopped speaking of Ji Zhiwei then, shifting the topic. “Madam, you and I are also a fine pair of spouses. I came from far away with sincere intent, shouldn’t Madam give me a token in return?”
Once a token was given, it would bind them in an entanglement difficult to sever. At last, the tears in Tuan Yun’s eyes fell.
He knew it could not be done yet he had no way out.
Through blurred tears, he reached up to his head. “I only have the hairpin I’m wearing.”
“If the hairpin leaves your hair, your hair will be disordered. How could I bear to let Madam take such a risk?”
With what he called kindness, Cui Jianying said, “Your undergarment will do.”
“…”
Tuan Yun looked up at Cui Jianying, as though seeing a heavenly hound opening its vast jaws, blotting out the sky.
Looking again, it was still Cui Jianying, brilliant and imposing, unmistakably Cui Jianying.
His hands trembled as he reached for his belt. His heart pounded so violently it felt as though it would leap to Cui Jianying’s feet. For a long while, he could not bring himself to act.
Cui Jianying was exceedingly gentle and considerate, like a gentleman. He took Tuan Yun’s hand and soothed him. “Madam, it’s a small matter. I am willing to help.”
By the time they returned to Tuan Yun’s courtyard, his entire body felt as though it had been thrown into boiling oil, skin and flesh burning.
Ji Zhiwei was placed on the bed after his outer garments were removed. Tuan Yun stood there blankly for a long while, then removed Ji Zhiwei’s inner robe as well. He himself undressed most of the way and lay down beside him.
In the deep darkness of night, Tuan Yun touched the two fresh marks on his chest and thought: ‘I have truly summoned a living Yama.’
Morning came.
As expected, chaos erupted.
When Ji Zhiwei awoke, his head split with pain. Upon seeing the situation around him, he flew into a rage.
He had never wanted closeness with Tuan Yun. His words were sharp and unpleasant, hardly befitting a refined young noble raised on poetry and books, nothing like the man others described and nothing like the bright, open youth Tuan Yun had once known.
Under ordinary circumstances, Tuan Yun would have been hurt or at least frightened yet this morning, as he watched Ji Zhiwei rage beside him, his heart was strangely calm. He felt as though he were standing apart, watching a play.
Ji Zhiwei could make him anxious and afraid but compared to Cui Jianying, he was nothing.
Tuan Yun had been thinking constantly about how to find an excuse to leave the house.
He had not expected Cui Jianying’s reach to be so all-encompassing.
Before Tuan Yun could even figure out how to make a single outing possible, Cui Jianying had already arranged everything, along with countless future meetings.
First came news that the lady of the house was unwell.
Then a Daoist immortal was invited into the residence. After calculating the birth charts of all the inner household members, it was determined that Tuan Yun’s fate was compatible. He was assigned to go to the rear courtyard of a Buddhist temple in the capital to chant sutras and pray until the lady recovered.
The matter began in the morning. By noon, Tuan Yun was already being escorted by carriage to the temple and installed in a new residence.
For two years he had been unable to leave. With a few maneuvers by Cui Jianying, the door opened effortlessly, satisfying all sides.
The Earl’s household did not like Tuan Yun to begin with. It was convenient for Cui Jianying to act as he pleased and for Tuan Yun himself, living outside was something he welcomed.
If he could eat his fill either way, then living in a temple was far freer and more comfortable than the rigid, oppressive grounds of the Earl’s residence.
Tuan Yun’s status was low. He was given a small, single-courtyard dwelling with side rooms.
To those accustomed to noble mansions it would have seemed shabby but to Tuan Yun it was perfect, better even than the dream home he had secretly imagined.
The temple grounds were quiet and serene, which Tuan Yun liked. He spent the afternoon cleaning and organizing by himself, staying busy enough that his mind was occupied. Only when evening came and he finally stopped did he think of Cui Jianying and his heart immediately leapt into anxious knots.
When they met, Cui Jianying would surely…
He was not wrong.
Cui Jianying came that night. He did not eat, removed his outer robe and went straight to embrace Tuan Yun.
Tuan Yun did not know where he had come from. Besides the smell of dust, there was the scent of blood on him.
There was a large bed in Tuan Yun’s room but Cui Jianying refused to use it. He hoisted Tuan Yun and carried him into the smaller inner chamber, where an incense altar stood with a small golden Buddha enshrined upon it.
The golden prayer cushion was small, barely enough for one person to kneel.
Never in his life had Tuan Yun worshiped Buddha like this. Never had he done such things while worshiping Buddha.
He was ashamed and terrified, begging endlessly.
“No, no!”
Tuan Yun sobbed, tears falling onto the back of Cui Jianying’s hand.
Cui Jianying said one thing and did another, coaxing him gently. “Don’t cry.”
And yet he did not stop.
“But… this place…” Tuan Yun could only cry, crushed beneath a mountain’s weight.
“If you believe in gods and Buddhas, then where can you steal from them without being seen? And if you don’t believe, then what does it matter if you steal right under their eyes?”
“I do not revere Buddha. The work of the Tianshu Guard, those who revere Buddha cannot look at it for even half a day.”
Cui Jianying was always eloquent. No peddler Tuan Yun had seen in the village, no storyteller in the city, had a mouth as capable as his. Tuan Yun could not even think of arguing, just listening left him astonished.
He could only continue crying.
Cui Jianying wiped his tears twice. After that, he stopped, letting him cry.
At one moment he said, “Madam looks exceedingly beautiful when she cries.”
At another, “I wonder when all that water in his body will finally run dry.”
The madness lasted until dawn. Tuan Yun fainted several times. Cui Jianying never spared him.
He had said last time he would exhaust himself and he truly did. Tuan Yun felt as though he were dying, then living, then dying again. His mind collapsed. He even cursed him.
“I think you’re especially detestable!” His voice was hoarse, curses breaking into sobs.
Once he finished cursing, clarity returned and he was so frightened he dared not move.
Cui Jianying was not angry. Instead, he laughed.
Holding him so closely there was not a shred of space between them, they fell asleep together like inseparable lovers.
✦ ✧ ✦
Fleurveil
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
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☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
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ChaptersChapter 1 · How can you, so crude and vulgar, be a match for me?Chapter 2 · Children don’t just appear out of thin air if you want themChapter 3 · I also grew up reading the classicsChapter 4 · I am willing to dress up as the Goddess of MercyChapter 5 · If Cousin Ji doesn’t like me, do you not like me either?Chapter 6 · He actually summoned such a YamaChapter 7 · Am I not worthy of your attention, Madam?Chapter 8 · I think Lord Cui likes you very muchChapter 9 · Dragon and phoenix twinsChapter 10 · I will never allow anyone to belittle or despise you againChapter 11 · If that’s true, then marry your wife to meChapter 12 · Well, it really is true that one thing can subdue anotherChapter 13 · Extra 1Chapter 14 · Extra 2Chapter 15 · Extra 3Chapter 16 · Extra 4