Special Fondness – Chapter 24

　　Time passed.

　　It wasn’t yet dawn, the morning sun was rising, Fang Su who was asleep for a long time woke up slowly.

　　Tang QiaoYuan was holding up for so long that his eyes were cloudy, and at the beginning, hadn’t returned to his senses yet, until Fang Su’s eyes were half-opened half-closed, after his vision became clearer, turned to look at him. 

　　In an instant, Tang QiaoYuan returned to his senses, his throat was too dry, he opened his mouth but couldn’t make a sound, and held on to his hand tightly. 

　　Fang Su didn’t know for how long he was asleep, only felt a sense of fatigue after waking up from a long sleep, the wound on his forehead was throbbing, reminding him of what happened before he fell unconscious. The scenes flashed in his mind one by one, he suddenly felt uneasy again, subconsciously held Tang QiaoYuan’s hand, although he didn’t have any strength, but regarded it as the only atonement, and called out in a whisper: “QiaoYuan…”

　　Tang QiaoYuan has been sitting like this for two days, at this time, he was lying with his clothes on, just removed his shoes, and hugged him separated by the quilt, coaxing him with a hoarse voice: “Don’t be afraid Su Su, at our home… It’s fine now, it’s good that you are awake, I waited for quite a long time……” 

　　His speech was disorderly, Fang Su listened to it, only then did he realize, looking at the familiar curtain, and finally had the luck to escape from death. 

　　However, the surprise and the stupor that suddenly rose in his heart was not for this reason, but because of the familiar tone he just heard. He made an effort and turned sideways, the appellation that rang in his ears hadn’t dispersed, and warmed his heart. 

　　Fang Su stretched his hand to stroke Tang QiaoYuan’s haggard face, looked at him in the bright candlelight, his sight fell on the eye-catching oddity on the top of his hair, asked: “What happened to you……”

　　“Hm?” Tang QiaoYuan couldn’t see his own appearance, covered his warm hand with his own one, and gently caressed it. 

　　He didn’t get the answer, but Fang Su didn’t look away, his eyes were still stuck in that place, and was even worried that his vision was hazy, thus narrowing his eyes a little bit. Seeing him like this, Tang QiaoYuan had some doubts, following his gaze, he reached out and held up a strand of hair, and unexpectedly saw a few strands of silver-white mixed in it. 

　　After being surprised, he couldn’t help but laugh softly and moved forward a few inches, his dry lips kissed Fang Su’s eyebrows, all the way to the bridge of his nose to his lips, the warm stayed for a while, then replied in a low voice: “My Su Su refused to wake up……I was bored alone, and could only let my mind wander, and ponder the questions in my heart…..pondering like this I was too entranced that even some strands of my hair have turned white. 

　　Fang Su didn’t know how impatient Tang QiaoYuan was when he was unconscious, couldn’t help but feel very distressed: “QiaoYuan…What were you thinking about so that you’ve become like this?” 

　　Tang QiaoYuan’s words stopped for a moment, looking at him with a smile in his eyes.

　　“I was thinking, with the love poison in my body at that time, what exactly made me love you.” 

　　These words were unexpected, hearing this, Fang Su’s body stiffened, and for a while, he couldn’t hide the tension and sadness in his eyes. Tang QiaoYuan took him along with the quilt in his embrace and hugged him tighter, sighed then asked: “Did I love you more back then than now?”  

　　As he stopped talking, the room was silent. 

　　Fang Su’s mind and ears were ringing, and that one question was repeated in a loop several times before the meaning hit his heart. He couldn’t help his eyes from heating up, his nose becoming sour and uncomfortable, his wound was already swelling with pain, under the simulation of the moment, he was having a splitting headache, it was sweet yet intolerable. 

　　“QiaoYuan…”

　　He had his heart filled with words and didn’t know where to start, but Fang Su only whispered his name. And that man didn’t say much either after confessing, with a lot of affection, he dropped light kisses on the corners of his brows from time to time, the atmosphere was tranquil and wonderful.

　　The morning light suddenly brightened, the darkness outside of the windows suddenly reflected a flash of crimson. 

　　Fang Su looked at it out of the corner of his eyes, his joy was uncontrollable, what disasters and dangerous situations, all of them were left behind. He thought about back then when he met Tang QiaoYuan while dressed in red, drinking the nuptial wine cup, until now that they gained a thorough understanding, all these things happened not long ago, but it was as if they already went through a thousand hardships and ten thousand calamities, only after then, did they really deserve to possess. 

　　To really have it.

　　Fang Su didn’t need to worry the least about personal gains and losses, not only because Tang QiaoYuan had voiced it out loud, but because he suddenly thought that, he was afraid that in this world there was nobody who loved Tang QiaoYuan more than he did. 

　　He felt fully deserving of Tang QiaoYuan’s sincerity and also deserving of Heaven’s blessings. The past disasters could be regarded as a test of fate, letting him have the courage to stay together… 

　　The person lying next to him slackened his mind and body, in a blink of an eye, he was tired but fell asleep peacefully, Fang Su stretched out his hand toward him, and softly grasped a strand of his hair, holding it in his hand to look at it carefully, his feelings were complicated. 

　　After a while, after the daybreak, the sound of footsteps came from the courtyard. 

　　The room’s door made a light sound, the one who walked into the room was still Bai Ping. The young woman was holding the medicine, walking forward, and stopped her footsteps in surprise when her sight fell on the bed. Fang Su turned his head to look at her, held a finger to his lips, and crinkled his eyes in a smile at her. 

　　Bai Ping carried the bowl of medicine and stood still on the spot for a moment, shortly afterward, smiled with emotion, walked closer, and then put the bowl of medicine on the low table, greeted, and said in a low voice: “Madam only had very little liquid food while being unconscious, this servant is going to the kitchen to make a bit of porridge.” 

　　Fang Su was indeed hungry, gratefully nodded, let out a soft “alright”. 

　　After the young woman left, he slowly sat up, the simple movement took all his strength, after sitting up, the vision even turned black. Fang Su covered his forehead for a while to recuperate, covered Tang QiaoYuan with the thin quilt, carefully crossed over him to get the medicine soup and drank it. 

　　The medicine was bitter but it was just right to quench his thirst. 

　　After Fang Su finished drinking it, he sat leaning against the head of the bed and didn’t have the slightest sleepiness, but because of the fatigue, he didn’t want to get off the bed. His stomach was empty and was thought that he was this weak probably due to starvation.

　　He just thought about it for a while when Bai Ping came back into the room, carrying in her hands a bowl of egg drop sweet soup¹, carefully handing it to him: “Madam can pad the stomach first, the porridge is going to take some time.”

　　“Many thanks to miss Bai Ping…” Fang Su had drunk the warm medicine soup, his throat felt more comfortable, and sincerely thanked her, then asked, “Miss Bai Ping, how long was I asleep?”

　　“Longer than a day.” Bai Ping straightened her brows and replied, and made a joke, “Why is madam now not as close to this servant as before?”

　　Fang Su’s hand was holding the porcelain bowl, hearing this, his face turned red in embarrassment. 

　　Bai Ping found it quite interesting, but didn’t tease him anymore, knew how shy he was, so she didn’t really wait for his answer and silently bowed and withdrew.

　　Fang Su looked up to see her shadow leaving, then lowered his eyes to look at the steaming sweet soup, curved his lips in satisfaction. 

　　When the day was getting close to the shēn time*, Tang QiaoYuan finally made up for a good night of sleep. 

*(approximatively from 3-5 pm)

　　Tang QiaoYuan looked for Fang Su after opening his eyes, but seeing no one on the bed, his heart suddenly tightened, abruptly lifted the quilt, and got off the bed. The room was quiet, and Fang Su’s figure wasn’t there. His heart was torn with anxiety, and couldn’t care less if his clothes were messy, and was about to walk out when he suddenly heard the sound of curtains moving. 

　　Fang Su was coming from outside and made eye contact with him, and blinked in a daze: “QiaoYuan, you are awake?”

　　Tang QiaoYuan’s heartbeat was hard to calm down, he walked forward and took him in his embrace, tightly putting his arms around him, relaxing his mood, and asked: “Where did Su Su go?” 

　　Fang Su crinkled his eyes and returned the embrace, but was too embarrassed to answer, and was a bit hesitant. 

　　“Just…went out for a little while, how could I know that you would wake up.”

　　Tang QiaoYuan couldn’t rest assured, unaware of Fang Su’s awkwardness, and still asked: “Where did you go?” Looked at him while he spoke, with worry in his eyes.

　　Fang Su couldn’t bear to make him worry, and couldn’t help but answer with a red face: “Told people to boil water, my body…has an unpleasant smell…” 

　　Tang QiaoYuan was stunned, after he reacted, he couldn’t help but let out a low chuckle, and even sniffed his neck on purpose, looked at his red face, said: “How come you still smell so good?”

　　Fang Su pushed him but didn’t really use any force.  

　　Tang QiaoYuan felt happy, after a moment he saw the red fade into a blush, immediately hide his smile, and got nervous: “Not feeling good?”

　　Fang Su closed his eyes and shook his head negatively, leaned his body forward, snuggled up to him to rest for a while, pretended to be relaxed, and replied: “No worries, it’s just that I still feel a headache.” 

　　Tang QiaoYuan felt his heart ache after hearing that, stroking the white gauze on the back of his head, and slightly moving his body sideways, to avoid pressing on the wound on his forehead. At this moment, he was reminded of the danger of the other day, up to the present moment, he still didn’t know what Fang Su was faced with all alone, but he didn’t dare to ask it out loud, and was only afraid that Fang Su would remember the fear he felt. 

　　He had concerns in his heart, thus was silent and did not speak, only slowly stroking the back of the head of the person in his arms, but who knew that not long after, Fang Su took the initiative to mention this matter to him.

　　“QiaoYuan, I killed two people…” was what Fang Su said after speaking up, although it was different from the breakdown and terror he felt that day, however, his tone was still low, both at a loss and dispirited.

　　Tang QiaoYuan heard it clearly, shook his head, and was not afraid of talking too viciously: “Even if you were not the one to kill, they would have died in my hand.” 

　　Fang Su was silent and seemed to ponder something. 

　　Tang QiaoYuan thought that he had a hard time accepting it, thus waited patiently, but after a moment, he heard something that made him very surprised, but was calm and wasn’t frightened. 

　　Fang Su said: “Thinking like this, it was better… that I did it with my own hand. It can lessen your worries, and not feel like I am extremely vulnerable…” As he said that, he lifted his head to look at Tang QiaoYuan’s eyes, “At least, believe that I can also protect myself, feel less preoccupied, and have less white hair.” 

　　His words were affectionate, making Tang QiaoYuan’s chest warm as if a warm ray of the sun spilled into his heart. 

　　After a short while, Tang QiaoYuan smiled and kissed his cheeks, gentle but firm, and replied: “I believe that you can protect yourself, but cannot let down my guard, from now on, I will make sure to protect you even more carefully. How could trivial things such as a few strands of white hair count as something? In later life, we will be guarding each other day by day, and one day I will guard you until your hair turns white.”

　　Black hair turning white has never been a desolate matter, these countless ties are the result of lingering affection. 

　　Fang Su heard these words of affection, crinkled his eyes, and revealed a smile, feeling quite happy.

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Notes:

1. Also known as Egg Tong Sui (ji dan tang shui), a Cantonese cuisine dessert its name is literally ‘egg sugar water’

　　

Caught up to post another chapter this week so I can post the final chapter at the end of the month just as scheduled! This chapter hasn’t been proofread either, so let me know if you find any mistakes.

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Milktea

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ToC