Special Fondness – Chapter 4

 

            Soon after Tang QiaoYuan left, a maidservant came to deliver breakfast to the room. There were three different kinds of porridge: sweet porridge, lean meat porridge, and fish porridge, different flavors were prepared, but the maidservant was afraid that he wasn’t used to it and said: “The master said, if Madam¹ doesn’t like it and if there is something else you would like to eat, you can tell the kitchen.”

             After Fang Su heard this, he didn’t know how to answer.

             He usually can’t be this picky about what he eats as his family is poor, if there is more rice grain in the porridge, it would already be considered extravagant, if there were any meat dishes on the table, it would of course be given to his half-brother. Now that Fang father sold him to someone else to save his own life, he was initially prepared to face the worst scenario. If he can eat to his fill and wear warm clothes, it would already be considered as a vain hope. Therefore, he was afraid to face this situation, afraid that everything is just a beautiful trap, and sooner or later he would suffer more misery.

             Especially the person who appeared before him and married him, he was the complete opposite of what he had expected, he was soft-spoken and full of affection, he didn’t dare to think about it anymore… it was contrary to his expectation, yet everything was real.

             Fang Su raised his eyes, the maidservant was still waiting beside the table waiting for his reply, he stood up and wanted to get closer, someone came forward to help him. Fang Su sat at the table, everyone in the room was quite relieved and revealed a look of rejoicing, they were afraid that this new master was hard to serve.

             “Then…I’ll have the sweet porridge.” Fang Su replied.

           The maidservant answered “yes”, and carefully scooped a bowl of sweet porridge for him. Fang Su thanked her and took the bowl, the taste of the porridge was slightly sweet, he felt that it was smooth, but he could not tell what else it contained. In fact, it was not just a pumpkin and sweet potatoes porridge, there was also quite a lot of bird nest.²

             He was even more nervous than he first arrived yesterday; although the dinner was quite rich, Fang Su just filled his stomach hastily. After tossing till now, Fang Su was very hungry, the small porridge was also particularly pleasant to the palate, before he knew it he could no longer hold back and ate three small bowls of it.

             The maidservant had a relieved smile and looked after him thoughtfully, she waited for him to finish his breakfast and help him to return to bed, only after did she retreat from the chamber with the other servants.

             The maidservant went to the front courtyard, the spacious courtyard was full of dining tables, and there was an early banquet. Today, Tang QiaoYuan was less hostile than usual and looked more approachable. The maidservant jogged to him, smiled, and greeted him, and said: “Master, Madam is resting, he had three small bowls of porridge, he will surely not be hungry.”

             After hearing this, Tang QiaoYuan’s mood turned very good, he grabbed some silver taels to reward her. The maidservant happily received it, replied a “thank you master”, then returned to the main courtyard.

             The faction of the mansion was very lively, there was no disturbance all day long, everything went smoothly.

             Everybody was very happy, only Fang Su was a little absent-minded, he seldom stepped out of the room during the whole day, and was mostly lying on the couch, sometimes asleep, sometimes awake, he was tossing over the future of his fate and came up with countless possibilities. He was thinking that maybe this kind of treatment was only temporary, and very quickly he might be criticized; then he also thought about the so-called “master” the maidservants talked about, maybe the man who he married will be tired of this new situation tomorrow, maybe he would sell him off to somewhere else…

             But even if that was the case, then where does the affection in those eyes come from?

             The more Fang Su thought about it, the more perplexed he was, but never had he thought that maybe he could be spending the rest of his life with Tang QiaoYuan.

             The daytime wasn’t hard to bear, but when nighttime came, Fang Su could not lie down anymore. After dinner, he refused to return to rest on the bed, he finally got a little bolder. After the maids left, he walked around the room alone and looked at the delicate objects shelved around with novelty.

             There was a desk made of golden phoebe wood in the room, the four treasures³ could be found on the desk, there were also some scrolls and books placed on one side of the desk. Fang Su approached hesitantly, he reached out his hand and touched the row of hanging brushes, he became inexplicably happy, and couldn’t help but take one-off, holding the pen as the schoolteacher did in his memory, he wrote and painted in the air.

              His eyebrows slowly relaxed, he was too fascinated and didn’t notice that someone had entered the room, he moved the pen brush happily as if he had really written two Chinese characters, he read in a low voice: “Fang, Su.⁴”

             That person approached and took him in his arms.

             Fang Su’s fingers shook, the brush fell on the table, the smile that had originally floated on his lips disappeared instantly, and his heartbeat stopped for an instant.

             Tang QiaoYuan looked at his frightened expression, smiled, and kissed the top of his head, his arm went around him, picked up the pen again, and asked: “There are papers on the table, why didn’t you write on the paper, uhm?”

             Fang Su did not reply, he looked down at the hand, which was holding the pen, and did not dare to take it. Tang QiaoYuan waited for a long time and didn’t get a response, he pulled Fang Su’s waist and turned him slightly to his sideways, glanced at him, and saw that the corners of his eyes were slightly red, he had actually been scared by him.

             “Did I scare you?” Tang QiaoYuan frowned, his voice became softer.

             Fang Su unconsciously nodded, then immediately shook his head, then looked up at him, particularly at a loss.

             As if his heart was scratched by something very soft, Tang QiaoYuan sighed, and loosen his hold on Fang Su, he then took him to stand behind the desk, coaxing him: “Come on, write whatever you want on the paper.”

             Fang Su looked at the pure white rice paper, his beating heart gradually calmed down, he lingered for a while and replied: “I don’t know how to.”

“Hm?” Tang QiaoYuan stretched out one hand to grind the ink and asked with a smile: “Weren’t you writing your name?”

             “I have never written it on paper”, Fang Su replied, after speaking up, he dared to talk more and explained, “I never went to a school when I was a child, I always had to walk a long way to come to Lin City and eavesdropped outside the window of the school. The schoolteacher was very nice, he discovered me very early on, later when I went there, there would always be a small chair outside the window…”

             Tang QiaoYuan waited for a long time for him to be willing to speak, now that he could hear him speak so many words at once, he was so happy in his heart but did not dare to show it, for fear that it would scare Fang Su again, he only followed up with a simple question: “Which school?”

             “The one in the east of the city, the teacher’s surname is Wāng, he is a very good person.”

             Tang QiaoYuan nodded and noted that in his heart, the arm he had around Fang Su’s waist tightens a little: “Then what about afterward?”

             When he heard that question, Fang Su was silent for a moment, his following words lost the faint happiness he felt earlier, and said in a disappointed voice: “Later, my mother was gone, my father had a second wife, second mother didn’t allow me to go the city all day, so I haven’t gone there for many years.”

             Tang QiaoYuan did not continue to ask, the words stopped here, he tilted his head and dropped a kiss on the side of Fang Su’s neck.

             Fang Su’s long hair wasn’t combed together, the silky black hair was scattered on his shoulders, covering a large area of his skin, the pair of lips merely kissed the skin through his hair so he could only feel a faint sensation. But even so, he was still stunned, his neck seemed to burn a little, and the heat from that spot spread up, and his cheeks were burning red.

             Fang Su bowed his head in embarrassment, his thoughts were no longer stuck on sad things.

             Tang Qiao Yuan has already finished grinding the thick ink, smiled and dipped the brush in the ink, and said: “I will write it for you.”

             Fang Su silently nodded.

             That person’s brush style was vigorous, but he concealed it with supple strokes, writing his name patiently and meticulously. Fang Su observed and thought silently, his handwriting seemed to be even more beautiful than the school teacher’s.

             “What do you think about it?” Tang QiaoYuan put down the brush and asked.

             Fang Su nodded and replied honestly: “It looks beautiful.”

             His reply drew deep laughter, Tang QiaoYuan put the pen brush in Fang Su’s right hand, tipped the brush into new ink, and coaxed him: “Try writing it, once you are used to writing it on paper, you will be able to do it.”

             A drop of ink fell, and it soon smudged the white paper. 

             Fang Su’s heart stirred, he was looking forward to writing, just next to the two characters that Tang QiaoYuan had just written, he learned the strokes and wrote down his name.

             Fang Su only tried to draw on the ground with a tree branch, he had never really held a brush before today, after all. Now that he is writing on rice paper for the first time, the character’s font was inevitably immature and not nicely shaped.

             But Tang QiaoYuan liked it and praised him: “Su Su wrote so well for the first time, if you practice more, I don’t know how beautiful your writing can be?”

             Fang Su paused, his ears were hot after hearing these two words, in his memory, he has also been called like this before, but his memory was very vague, it was a term of affection that he only heard when his birth mother was still around a dozen years ago.

             Now that he suddenly hears it again, he was at loss on what to do.

             There was an unknown thing that was faintly moving in his chest, Fang Su was silent for a long time, then asked in the quietest voice: “What is your name?” An embarrassed expression on his face. 

             Tang QiaoYuan’s eyes showed joy and without taking a pen, he took Fang Su’s hand which was still holding the brush and led his hand to write down three distorted characters. 

             “Táng qiáo yuan⁵”, he said, “This is my name.”

            Fang Su looked at the few characters, his eyes were warm, after looking at them for a while, he let out a faint smile without knowing it.

             Because it was the first time that he came into contact with brushes and paper, Fang Su wasn’t tired and played with it for a long time with great interest. The person behind him was very patient, he taught him and coaxed him, only persuading him once it was late at night: “Let’s write again tomorrow, alright?” His words were careful, he didn’t want to spoil his mood.

             Fang Su was satisfied, he was happy in his heart, he doesn’t know when he forgot to be on guard toward Tang QiaoYuan. He nodded happily and put down the pen brush in his hand.

             He didn’t come back to his senses until he was suddenly picked up.

             Earlier, Tang QiaoYuan was standing behind him the whole time and it was difficult to see him; now, seeing him in red clothes, Fang Su suddenly remembered that today is their wedding day.

             The restlessness he felt during the daytime returned, Fang Su was sat on the side of the couch, he saw Tang QiaoYuan walking to the table and fetched two small silver cups containing wine, sat beside him, and said: “We already bowed to Heaven and Earth, now we just have to join our cups.”

             Fang Su took it, although he was nervous, he was still obedient, he drank the cup of wine without saying a word.

             He had never drunk alcohol before and he was choked on the spicy wine, Tang QiaoYuan patted his back, smiled, and said: “Why did you not drink it slowly?”. Then, after seeing that he still hasn’t calmed down, and his tears were about to spill out, he suddenly bowed and kissed his lips. Fang Su was stunned, the smell of alcohol was mingling in his mouth, the tip of his tongue was sucked by that person and his thoughts were wandering.

             After a long while, Tang QiaoYuan let him go, and stroked his hot cheeks deliberately, “Is it better?”

             Fang Su didn’t know if he should nod or shake his head, his whole body was stiff, with “wedding festivities⁶” in his mind, he didn’t dare to think deeply.

             Unexpectedly, Tang QiaoYuan did not make any more intimate gestures, he got up and put down the wine cups on the table, after turning back, he squatted down to help him take off his shoes and socks and lie down on the bed.

             “Your foot injury hasn’t healed, I will apply medicine for you first, for today just freshen up and go to bed early.”

             Fang Su nodded, very puzzled.

             The red candles were slowly burning, Tang QiaoYuan who was dressed in red sat beside him and rubbed his ankle as if tending to a treasure.

             The candlelight hit the side of his face, Fang Su looked at him with his lips pursed, all of a sudden, an uncleared expectation bloomed at the bottom of his heart.

             Breaking through the rocks, just like bamboo shoots that would spring up after the rain.

 

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Notes:

1. The maidservant is really using “Madam” despite Fang Su being a man, lol
2. Bird nest isn’t actual bird nest but an edible swallow nest, click on the link for more info. Chinese believe that it has high nutritional value and is good for the body, it is extremely expensive.
3. The Four treasures of the study: The brush, the ink stone, the ink stick and paper.
4. Fāng sù (方素), his surname is 方 which is same as is ‘square’, his name 素 means ‘simple/plain’
5. Táng qiáo yuān (唐桥渊), 唐 as in Tang Dynasty, 桥 means ‘bridge’ and 渊 ‘deep’.
   Their names are quite the opposite and quite fitting to their characters.
6. Wedding festivites or 洞房花烛 (Dòngfáng huāzhú), which is just a nice way to say couple going through the wedding night/sleeping together

YELP, when I’m on editing mode the font is just super small? But it’s just fine on the website. I can’t turn the font larger, it’s super hard for me to proofread and edit the article before posting, and the font became Times New Romans?? TT

This chapter was proofread! My friend (@wildgeminigirl) volunteered to do proofreading when she has time and maybe will be helping me to translate the future chapters (or maybe other projects?) It doesn’t actually make things faster as we know negotiate on how to translate certain terms lol

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