“Do you still have feelings for me?” Lin Yue asked.
It truly was an utterly baffling question. Still, faced with the very hope of his continued survival, Gu Yun answered cautiously.
“We’re already husband and wife. If I don’t care for you, who else would I care for?”
He tried taking the opportunity to push Lin Yue away, only to discover he could not budge him in the slightest, and so he gave up.
“Do you think I’m troublesome and want to drive me away?”
Gu Yun excelled most at twisting black into white whenever he found himself in an unfavourable position, turning matters around to accuse the other party instead.
“All right,” Lin Yue said.
Mm. For a married couple, it certainly was a good thing for the wife to hold affection for her husband.
Before Gu Yun could process that response, the other man had already ended the somewhat intimate embrace.
Lin Yue walked over to the fire, picked up several dry branches, and placed them atop the weakening flames and growing ash.
“Go to sleep.”
“All right then.”
Gu Yun returned to his “bed”, removed his cloth shoes, curled slightly onto his side, and lay down.
At last, there was finally a place they could live. That thought alone filled him with happiness.
Thinking back over Lin Yue’s words, he realised he had overlooked several details: redeeming the clothes, buying inexpensive but worthwhile necessities, seeing a doctor. Since Lin Yue had listed all those things, it meant he had definitely left aside some money for food as well.
This was practically the life of his dreams. Gu Yun thought so eagerly that he found himself filled with anticipation for the days ahead. And yet, for some inexplicable reason, in this very beautiful moment, he suddenly thought of Zhao-niangzi.
With time washing over the memory, her worn and exhausted face instead became clearer and clearer in his mind.
Every strand of hair, every wrinkle, even the freckles near her cheekbones, the folds in her clothing, the patterns on her silver jewellery, the lines on her palms, all of it became sharply distinct.
Yet she was dead.
She had escaped from one malicious place only to enter the Feng household, a place that devoured people whole, all for the sake of one disgusting man, and there she died for no clear reason.
She even had a child.
A world that ate people alive.
Gu Yun tossed and turned upon the straw mat. In the end, he let out a cold laugh at himself and closed his eyes.
He could barely protect himself, had practically conned food, drink and shelter out of someone else, yet his pity for others was overflowing.
That night, Gu Yun had a dream.
In the dream, he studied endlessly and, relying on the knowledge he acquired, eventually became rich and lived a wonderful life.
He escorted Lin Yue home and was just about to repay the debt of tricking him into working to support him, only to discover the money had vanished.
And somehow, he himself had turned into some sort of rolled pastry… an egg roll?
Expressionless, Lin Yue said, “A swindler who can’t repay his debts looks rather tasty.”
He even picked up a knife and fork.
Gu Yun: ???
Gu Yun turned and fled at once, only to forget he had no legs. He rolled two metres across the ground instead. The moment he regained his senses, Grim Reaper Lin Yue was already standing directly before him, gleaming knife and fork stabbing straight down at him without the slightest warning.
Gu Yun woke with a violent start.
Slowly, his senses sharpened again. A faint rustling patter reached his ears.
What was that sound?
Gu Yun opened his eyes.
The sky was gloomy, thick layers of dark cloud piled overhead like heavy quilts. Tiny silver droplets shot from the clouds towards the earth, making all the surrounding vegetation tremble in the rain.
It was raining.
It was raining!
Gu Yun abruptly sat upright and touched his clothes.
Dry.
The rain had not seeped into the bridge shelter.
Had it only just started raining?
He looked towards the entrance of the bridge, but that thought was quickly overturned. The rainwater had actually been blocked off by a small embankment built from packed mud.
Then he looked upwards.
A bamboo pole had been wedged overhead, with an old oil-paper umbrella propped upon it to block the rain leaking down over his section of the bridge.
There were only a few places above him where water dripped through, and a single umbrella was enough to cover them all. Meanwhile, Lin Yue’s own bedding had been piled over to the right beside the book chest.
There were only the two of them here.
Without needing to guess, Gu Yun knew immediately that all this had been done by Lin Yue.
“Husband?”
He looked around but could not see Lin Yue anywhere. Where had he gone?
Stretching his head out, he peered into the rain.
From the dim distance approached a tall figure wearing a straw rain cape and bamboo hat, his steps steady and unhurried. Within moments he reached the bridge shelter. Damp rain-soaked air swept in with him as he extended one hand and pushed Gu Yun’s protruding head back beneath the bridge.
Gu Yun asked, “Where did you go?”
Lin Yue stepped into the bridge arch and removed his straw rain cape and bamboo hat. Rainwater streamed from both in loud splashes onto the ground. Near the edge of the bridge arch overhead, there were many cracks, and several drops of murky water fell from above towards him.
Seeing this, Gu Yun was just about to drag the rain cape over to shield him.
But Lin Yue spun round and half-pushed, half-guided Gu Yun into the left-hand corner of the bridge arch. It was narrow there, but mostly free from leaks.
Dizzy from being manoeuvred about, Gu Yun steadied himself and realised he had nearly been pinned against the wall in the left-hand corner.
Lin Yue stood before him, holding the rain cape and bamboo hat as he brushed aside several strands of damp hair.
“I went to help Old Man Lin.”
“Old Man Lin?”
“The old man who sells bamboo goods of all kinds.”
Gu Yun remembered him at once. He was the old man who had previously told them to fetch sweet well water from his place. “What happened to him?”
Lin Yue said, “His son suddenly fell gravely ill, and he needed someone to help carry him into the county town. I was waiting for the rain to ease before going to buy an umbrella from him so we could head into town. He sells umbrellas as well, and I happened to run into him, so I went to help. The umbrella over there belongs to him too. I’ll return it once the rain stops.”
As he spoke, Lin Yue pointed towards the oil-paper umbrella inside the bridge arch.
Gu Yun’s nose was full of Lin Yue’s scent. It was unlike his usual smell, a heavy warm fragrance so strong it was almost choking. Covering his nose, he pushed Lin Yue slightly away, slipped out of the corner sideways, and darted beneath the umbrella.
Lin Yue lifted his eyelids and glanced at him.
Only after the warm fragrance faded from his nose did Gu Yun feel alive again. He asked, “Where did you pick up such a strong scent?”
“At Old Man Lin’s house,” Lin Yue replied. “They were smoking bamboo with fragrant herbs to make baskets. Part of my clothes got wet, so I sat by their stove for a while.”
Gu Yun wrinkled his nose.
Lin Yue shook out his sleeve. “The smell will fade after a while.”
Gu Yun accepted the explanation. So long as he did not get too close, he could not smell it anyway.
Then he asked, “It’s raining today. Are you still going to work? Working in the rain like that, won’t you catch a chill? The loss outweighs the gain.”
Having learnt quite a few characters, Gu Yun could now even use idioms like “the loss outweighs the gain”, phrases he rarely would have said before.
Lin Yue replied, “Of course not. The employer already said before work started that we wouldn’t work if it rained.”
“Then this…” Gu Yun pointed at the oil-paper umbrella. “Why are you buying an umbrella?”
Lin Yue said, “If it doesn’t rain tomorrow, then the day off they planned to give us will no longer happen.”
Gu Yun instantly understood. “You mean we’re renting a place today?”
“Shall we go?” Lin Yue asked.
Gu Yun longed to have a clean, tidy place to live as soon as possible and immediately agreed. The only problem was that Lin Yue was already using the straw rain cape and bamboo hat, while the umbrella was occupied covering the “bed” and book chest. Gu Yun himself had nothing to keep out the rain.
Lin Yue said, “We don’t need the straw mat anymore. I’ll carry the book chest into the county town. I finished the assignments last night and left them at the bookshop. When Bi Laosan needs them, he’ll send his pageboy to collect them.”
“Doesn’t the bookshop charge storage fees?”
“It’s Bi Laosan’s own shop.”
“How do you know?”
Lin Yue merely smiled without speaking. Only after Gu Yun became annoyed did he finally answer, “I noticed it from the details.”
Thinking back on the way Bi Laosan behaved in the bookshop, Gu Yun understood. “And he’s not afraid his family will find out.”
Lin Yue handed the things in his arms over to Gu Yun, slung the book chest onto his back, put the rain cape and bamboo hat back on, and gestured that it was time to leave.
At first Gu Yun had been brimming with excitement over renting a house. Yet when the time truly came to depart, after taking down the umbrella propped overhead, he suddenly became worried they might fail to find a suitable place.
In the end, he stuffed the umbrella into Lin Yue’s hands, stubbornly carried the straw mat into the left-hand corner of the bridge arch, and only then finally set off.
Along the road, the rain eased somewhat.
Their journey became much easier, and before long they arrived in the county town.
After scraping the thick mud from their shoes and depositing the book chest at the bookshop, Gu Yun immediately began quietly urging Lin Yue to hurry and look for a place to rent.
Lin Yue said, “Before we rent a place, we need to find someone. Without him, things won’t go especially smoothly.”
“Master Yue?” Gu Yun guessed.
“It’s him. He’s local and knows the area well,” Lin Yue replied.
The two left the bookshop and headed for Master Yue’s house. Lin Yue had previously heard him mention where he lived while they were working.
The roads in the county town, even the smaller side lanes, were much flatter than country roads and far easier to walk upon.
They quickly arrived at Master Yue’s home. His house stood in an old alley lined on both sides with spacious single-courtyard homes.
Lin Yue knocked on the courtyard gate. At once, a burst of disorderly noise arose.
The sounds did not come from inside the courtyard, but from outside the alley.
Gu Yun turned his head and saw two yamen runners in straw rain capes and bamboo hats hurrying forwards.
They quickly blocked the path of a young man carrying an umbrella, circled round to inspect his face, then immediately looked disappointed. Saying “Not him”, they waved him away and continued onwards.
“What are they doing?” Gu Yun had not yet figured it out when the courtyard gate opened.
