Special Fondness – Chapter 18

　　Early in the morning, light footsteps could be heard in the corridor of the mansion.

　　Bai Ping had picked up her skirt and was trotting all the way, a while ago a maid from the main courtyard came to deliver some words, saying that the master was looking for her for an urgent matter, and she right off had a bad foreboding.

　　From Bai Ping’s perspective, Tang QiaoYuan hardly ever uses the word “urgent”, hence she immediately put down what she was doing, ran over, slightly out of breath.

　　However, it turned out that the person who gave out the order was not that impatient, Tang QiaoYuan was confused when he woke up this morning, his mind seemed to be empty yet it also felt like there was a clutter of images, it made him bewildered and confused, so after he inadvertently said the word “urgent” he was also inexplicably surprised.

　　Bai Ping ran over to the main courtyard, she seldom entered the bedchamber without asking for authorization first, she opened the bead curtains and stopped her steps. The breathing of this girl was uneven, she paused after raising her eyes, seeing that Tang QiaoYuan did not raise his head to look at her but sat silently at the table, his head lowered, looking at the object in his hand, absent-minded.

　　“Master.”  Bai Ping slowly walked over, put her hands at her waist to greet him.

　　Tang QiaoYuan returned to his senses after he heard her, turned his head to look at her, not able to tell if it was a question or a statement, he slowly opened his mouth to speak: “I am already married.”

　　Bai Ping was stunned, at this moment, she finally saw the empty bed, a thought vaguely floated through her mind, a bit astonished and a bit bewildered.

　　Tang QiaoYuan turned over the object in his hand, looked at the slightly rough embroidered character on it, and tentatively read it aloud: “ ‘Su’…… Fang Su?”

　　Bai Ping did not answer, she couldn’t make any heads and tails, at this time, besides feeling surprised and puzzled, the only thing left was nervousness, it was hard for her to encounter something that she completely couldn’t understand, it had a taste of something that she could not take.

Tang QiaoYuan’s frown gradually relaxed.

　　After that person woke up this morning, it was like he had a very long dream, fragments of this dream were in his mind, however, they were vaguely separated by a thin layer veil as if he was watching others perform.

　　In fact, Tang QiaoYuan did not forget the many details in this half-month, only that now, he felt that it was unreal, his chest was heavy and stuffy, not knowing what these feelings were.

　　Tang QiaoYuan was silent for a while, then looked at Bai Ping, suddenly asked: “I really like (him)?” and saw that Bai Ping was silent, then felt himself acting odd, shook his head and continue, “Qin MeiWan gave me love poison, due to a strange combination of circumstances, it became what it is now.”

　　Bai Ping suddenly realized, widened her eyes, countless thoughts popped in her mind, and thought about that woman who did know what was good for herself, dared to be absurd to this point, it made her gnash her teeth in anger. And at last, a slightly disappointing thought came up: could it be that she took a stake in Fang Su, she was thinking really too simply…

　　“Then Master’s meaning, how should the lady cousin be dealt with?”

　　“We will talk about it later,” Tang QiaoYuan shook his head, “I can’t completely fail to take into consideration Uncle’s side.”

　　Now that elders were mentioned, Bai Ping naturally could not refute and could only ask again: “Then Madam…” her sentence was half-spoken, waiting for that person to think for himself. 

　　“Madam…” Tang QiaoYuan whispered it a few times, unsure of what he was thinking about, shook his head and slightly smiled, then tied the purse in his hand at his waist, responded, “since it is madam, then we need to pick them up, the ceremonial bowing and the wedding is real after all.”

　　Bai Ping’s eyebrows slightly moved, made a respectful bow, said: “This maidservant will send people to search inside and outside of the city.”

　　“No need,” this person thought about it, although his memory was like floating and seemed unreal but he could easily remember, he gave out an order, “Prepare the car to go to the East of the city, also, don’t allow Qin MeiWan to leave the Jade courtyard, wait until I have time…before thinking how to deal with her.”

　　“Yes,” Bai Ping’s eyes revealed a smile, without canceling her personal resentment, she readily replied, “This maidservant will make sure to have people encircle the courtyard.”

　　Tang QiaoYuan is someone who is used to protecting his shortcomings, he just smiled, pretending not to be aware of her selfish motives. He let it pass and stood up, on the way, he also squeezed the purse on his waist, although his mind was in shambles and confused, but he inexplicably felt comfortable for no reason.

　　After heavy rain fell yesterday night, the season completely changed, after the rain, the sun shined brightly, the weather got hotter.

　　Children were making noises in YingJuan private school, it happened to be at rest time, teacher Wang was carrying the scrolls and slowly pacing in the courtyard, a moment later, he saw a familiar carriage parked outside the school.

　　Teacher Wang stopped his steps, narrowed his eyes, and looked over, waiting for the guest to lift the curtain and get out of the car.

　　Tang QiaoYuan curved his lips into a shallow smile, after entering the courtyard, he walked toward him, did not even ask if Fang Su was there, remembered to give a late greeting, and bluntly said: “Sorry to disturb teacher, this one is here to take my wife back to the mansion.”

　　Teacher Wang who got a greet yesterday, got another greeting today¹, hearing this, he stroked his beard and pondered for a moment, sighed helplessly, the scrolls in his hand pointed toward the direction of a side of the courtyard, he shook his head and smiled: “It is not easy to find someone you get along with.”

　　“Teacher is right.” Tang QiaoYuan did not explain, he added a “many thanks”, and walked toward the side of the courtyard.

　　Without the need to walk too near, he could already faintly hear voices that came from inside. It seemed to be an old woman, patiently advising about something, Fang Su would occasionally answer in a low voice, or give simple answers.

　　“Things that are to be sold-ah, cannot be compared to things that are used at home, how can it be resistant only, it also needs to be sophisticated and pretty… Your needlework is not good enough, let me teach you.” As the old woman was speaking, she took over the needlework in Fang Su’s hand, after a while, felt distressed and exclaimed, “But also, it is a bit of an effort for a boy to do these things… The traveling expenses you need, the old man could give it to you, you previously donated quite a lot to the school, but you did not want it…”

　　Fang Su looked down at her hand movements, he did not complain about her being long-winded because of her old age, shook his head, and said: “Shi Niang², those were not the money that I donated to the private school.”

　　After hearing this, the footsteps of the person who was about to walk closer paused slightly, then continued forward while hearing the old woman say, “very stubborn” and appeared in front of both of them.

　　Fang Su felt that there was someone, couldn’t help but turn his head to take a look, his expression froze when his eyes landed on them.

　　He did not sleep for a night and was originally slightly dazed, a part of him couldn’t believe it, doubting whether the person in front of him was real. Fang Su wanted to call out his name, but when he was about to speak, he didn’t know how he should address him.

　　But in this instant, he also thought about a lot of things. He thought about why Tang QiaoYuan still remembered him, why did he come to find him, did he hate him to the core, did he come in person to drive him out of LinZhou city…

—— If not, could it be that … the medicine Qin MeiWan gave him was fake?

Read the original translation at milkteatranslations.wordpress.com

　　His thoughts were particularly messy, his gaze inattentive, he didn’t even have the time to think it through that this person walked in front of him, looked at him, and stretched out his hand.

　　This action couldn’t be more familiar, it was like when he was about to get off the sedan back then, the warm hand palm he saw underneath the red wedding veil.

　　Fang Su was stunned, his instinct wanted to respond, his hand reached out and stopped mid-way before he hurriedly wanted to retract it.

　　Tang QiaoYuan could see it, he stepped closer and took the initiative to hold that hand, got him to stand up then nodded in greetings to the old woman aside.

　　The old woman stopped what she was doing, she also saw that person once before, therefore she wasn’t puzzled, she happily smiled and sent them away. She didn’t know the truth, but her words were particularly warm, thinking that both of them had a conflict and was afraid that Fang Su would still be angry, her mouth full of words of consolation.

　　Tang QiaoYuan only replied with “yes”, holding Fang Su’s hand in his own, surprisingly found this sensation very familiar, silky and soft, very satisfying.

　　Fang Su bewilderedly followed him, forgetting the worries that ran through his mind.

　　In the front yard, Bai Ping was still waiting and when she saw them, her eyes curved into a smile, she turned sideways toward teacher Wang, smiled and made a respectful bow: “Our madam and master had a small quarrel, many thanks to teacher for looking after him…”

Teacher Wang simply smiled and bowed.

　　The horse carriage drove from the East of the city and returned to the mansion, Fang Su sat cramped in the carriage, next to him was the person he was the most concerned for but also a miss Bai Ping, making it hard for him to speak up.

　　The person sitting opposite to him seemed to have changed, not as affectionate as before, but still looked at him with a gentle smile, additionally, his gaze showed some doubt and interest compared to back then.

　　Tang QiaoYuan could see that Fang Su had something to say but yet, he did not ask, looking at him feeling tormented, he secretly found the sight lovable.

　　He waited until they finally returned to the main courtyard of the Tang mansion, and both were alone when Fang Su asked with his heart pounding: “You…have healed?”

　　Tang QiaoYuan paused when he heard it, then lowly chuckled, suddenly feeling that it was quite good like this, this time the cause and effect were absurd, but the wife he married by mistake was really cute.

　　While thinking like this, he nodded and answered: “Already healed.”

　　While speaking, he also walked toward the desk. Fang Su was a few feet away, kept hesitating and not getting closer, he stood at the same place and followed him with his eyes.

　　Tang QiaoYuan pretended to turn a blind eye, he stroked the drawing on the table, the ink was already dry, on the paper were painted well-behaved animals, something he dislike painting before, he raised his eyebrows, raised his eyes to look at Fang Su, then dropped them on the little things on the paper, and thought that they were really quite a few of similarities. (between the drawings and Fang Su)

　　Tang QiaoYuan silently curved his lips, thinking about the intimacy yesterday when he hugged Fang Su to draw, his heart was subtle and itchy, after a while, with a smile in his voice, spoke without warning: “ ‘The tree demon had a secret affection for the scholar, blessed him so he couldn’t get hurt by others demons, but because of this, they had to leave him’… did I stop there yesterday?”

　　The room was silent for a while, Tang QiaoYuan patiently waited, after what seemed to be a long time, he finally heard that voice hesitantly replied: “Then…what happened after?”

　　He couldn’t help but drop his eyebrows, eyes staring at him, said: “in order for the scholar to live, the demon resolutely left, to ensure the scholar’s safety, he did not mind suffering. After that, the scholar forgot everything and had a happy life, however, the tree demon roots withered, and his leaves fell off, not a lease of life.”

“Isn’t that very tragic…” Fang Su couldn’t bear to listen to it.

Tang QiaoYuan nodded with a small smile.

　　“It is, a tree planted by oneself ended up desolate, did it harm others or harm itself? The ending obviously didn’t need to be like this, that scholar is not an ordinary person, is it even difficult for him to protect a single tree?”

　　Fang Su was dumbfounded, in hindsight, he finally realized that this person exaggerated the ending, meaning to imply something…

　　He hadn’t replied yet, Tang QiaoYuan walk from behind the desk to him and stretched out his hand, caressed his face with the back of his hand, just like the day of their wedding, said: “As Tang QiaoYuan’s wife, you should just stay by my side for me to protect, you don’t need to feel unhappy in your heart, since you have trusted me one, how about trusting me once again?”

　　After it was spoken out loud, Fang Su’s eyes rims slightly turned red, each word and sentence sinking in his ears.

　　“Even if it wasn’t love at first sight, why can it not be love developed over time…… Fang Su, stay by my side.” 

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Notes:

1. The original sentence goes like “汪先生昨夜才受一礼，今日又受一礼” and I wasn’t too sure how I should translate it as “礼” has diffent meaning in Chinese. It could be a ‘respectful greeting/salute’ but it can also be a ‘gift’, but I’m pretty sure they are not talking about any gift here.
2.  师娘 (shī niáng): Wife of one’s teacher or master.

I can’t believe that… my translations are copied to another website. I only realized when I saw some of the views were coming from that website, I am trying to disable copy/paste and right click but I can’t make the CSS function correctly and I am honestly just … pissed off. I don’t have a team, I am working alone on this project, it takes me dozen hours of work, checking spelling mistakes etc. for one single chapter, I’m not doing that so someone or a bot can copy my work and post that somewhere else.

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Milktea

Your support is greatly appreciated!

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