Chapter 20 "You stuck out your tongue, didn't you? I think..."
Leng Cuizhu stayed at You En's place that night.
She arranged an empty room for Eun, in a secluded backyard where few people came.
Eun didn't pick and choose, and obediently helped her make the bed and bedding.
The bed was smaller than the one in her room; it was barely big enough for two people to sleep in.
However, they had to hold each other tightly, almost seamlessly.
The two hugged each other without speaking. After the kiss, Leng Cuizhu couldn't fall asleep. After thinking for a while, she started making small talk.
Confessing one's feelings is something young people do; someone her age should be more pragmatic.
"Have you slept with other women before?" she asked Eun, looking up at him.
"Of course not." The man frowned.
"You don't have a mother?"
"……have."
"Didn't you sleep with your mother when you were a child?"
She exclaimed, "She's so independent! Zhenzhen was eight years old and was afraid of thunder, so she insisted on sleeping with me."
"I will sleep with my mother, but... not when I was a child."
"Will you still sleep together when you grow up?"
"I didn't have a childhood; I've always been this big."
"Oh, is your mother still alive?"
"……exist."
The man silently closed his eyes and hugged her even tighter.
His mother, that's her.
She was the one who used to tell him to call her "Mom," saying it was strange to call him "Master" and that he should just call her "Mom" whenever he wanted. Now she's completely forgotten all about it.
Leng Cuizhu breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, he's still alive, otherwise I would have touched a nerve, just like I always touch Yin Yuan's sore spots. That man seems to be covered in sore spots.
Afraid of saying something she shouldn't, she chose to keep quiet and nestled peacefully in the man's arms.
Such intimate gestures were something she and Yin Yuan had never done before.
Yin Yuan was not affectionate, and he always kept a distance from her when they lay in bed together. Even after they had made love, he would lie on the side of her without paying any attention to her or moving. Sometimes she even suspected that Yin Yuan was dead, and she would get up in the middle of the night to check his breathing.
Fortunately, she no longer had to endure the days of sleeping with a corpse.
The man's chest, though wrapped in a bathrobe, was still burning hot. She buried her face in it, and after a while, she lifted her flushed face and asked, "Will you change back tomorrow?"
"If you turn back into a crow tomorrow morning, won't you get crushed by your clothes? And the blankets too?"
Eun Raven was very small, about the size of her hand, and not even as big as a piece of dodder's chicken breast.
Dodder always accuses her of favoring him, but how could she not be? This child is so thin and small, but his human form is quite…
Eun: "Okay."
He sat up, first loosened his belt and then took off his robe, his long silver hair falling from his back onto the bed.
Leng Cuizhu also sat up, watched him take off his clothes, took the robe he had taken off, folded it and placed it on the bedside table.
She turned to the man beside her and said, "Okay, go to sleep."
She closed her eyes and felt something brush against her cheek, tickling her skin. She could also smell a cool, refreshing fragrance that reminded her of the red plum blossoms in the courtyard.
"May I?"
"……Um."
The next morning, the golden rays of dawn shone in.
She was still half asleep when a Phalaenopsis orchid appeared in her palm, which the crow had picked for her.
"Where did you find these flowers? I've never seen them before." She didn't recognize the palm flower, only remembering that Yin Yuan had given her the same one, but the one You En gave her was prettier than Yin Yuan's.
She smiled and pinned the flower to the crow's head before getting up and dressing.
"Qingluo Lake".
“There was an old man selling flowers by the lake, and he gave me one.”
The crow straightened its silvery-white wings: "I might not come back often during the day from now on."
She blinked: "Huh? Why?"
"You've gone out to help support the family again?"
The crow nodded.
"Then be careful... don't get caught when you're taking things. Ordinary stalls probably won't bother with a bird, but just in case, try to avoid those jewelry stalls. I don't need any jewelry."
In fact, Eun doesn't spend much money at home. She only spends on a few clothes and a few grains of rice each month, which is less than what Dodder spends on a single meal. Keeping a pet naturally requires the owner to spend money; she has never seen a pet earn money to support its owner.
However, it was excellent that he had this thought, so of course she wouldn't refuse.
She raised her hand to touch the crow's head, leaned down, and kissed the smooth feathers on its forehead.
According to Tu Si Zi, Yin Yuan left in the middle of the night last night, leaving his fox fur coat on the bed and only drinking half of his tea.
Leng Cuizhu: "Where did this tea come from?"
She didn't make tea for Yin Yuan, but she remembered there was a pot of cold water on the table that had probably been sitting there for a long time and was now covered in frost.
...Did he drink half a pot of ice water by himself last night?
Her fox fur was damp with water from who-knows-where. She brushed the red plum petals off the fox feathers and said to the crow on the table, "He must have forgotten that he left his clothes here, just like before."
"Keep this fox fur coat for you to wear when you go out in the future."
"What about me? What about me!"
The rooster flapped its wings: "Host, do I have any?"
Leng Cuizhu: "No."
"I looked after your little rabbit all night!"
"Uh, no, not really."
"Why does Eun deserve it? He didn't do anything, you're being way too biased towards him!"
"It's clearly a friendship between three people, but I'm always the extra one... Anyone else would have given up on you two by now!"
“He did do something.” She started to say, but then swallowed her words back.
They kissed for a long time last night, and her lips were still numb and tingly. This was something she absolutely couldn't tell Dodder; Dodder didn't seem very old, after all, a chicken couldn't be that old.
Anyway, we can't let the children be led astray.
"...This fox fur coat is too big for you. I'll go to the market another day and buy you some peach shortbread. Be a good girl."
"Okay, okay!"
"Where's the rabbit?" she sighed helplessly. "I remember there were some cabbages stored in the kitchen, which we can give it to the rabbit to eat."
The rooster chuckled, "Hehe, I didn't know it was stolen this morning."
"..."
Leng Cuizhu suspected that the dodder had eaten the rabbit, but she couldn't find any evidence, so she had to give up.
For the next few days, Yin Yuan didn't come even once, and she was in an extremely pleasant mood.
Leng Zhen took care of most of the housework during the day, and You En stayed by her side at night. After a few days, her complexion became much rosier, her steps became lighter, and she was no longer depressed all day long.
After the New Year, snowfall became less frequent, so she took Leng Zhen to the market to buy wood, planning to build a swing in the yard.
Let's start building swings now, so we can swing and play in the spring.
When the two lived in the small house, Leng Zhen had always wanted a swing. Now that the house is spacious and they have plenty of money, Leng Cuizhu put this matter on the agenda.
Who's in front?
Leng Cuizhu and Leng Zhen looked in the direction of the sound and saw a sandalwood carriage parked behind them, accompanied by two strong white horses.
The curtain was slightly lifted, and it sounded like people were talking inside the carriage.
Although Leng Cuizhu didn't understand the ins and outs of the carriage, she could tell from the carriage's appearance that the owner was a wealthy person.
She made eye contact with the maidservant beside the carriage and realized that it was a carriage from the Yin family.
The person in the car, judging from the voice, is a woman.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
"Ah," the little maid smiled at the carriage window, "they're just passersby."
"Tell them to make way, are we just going to keep blocking the road like this?"
"Is this old donkey pulling a millstone? It's so slow... If we don't hurry back to the manor, the whole manor will be smashed to pieces. It must be out of its mind. This place is like the countryside, the roads are so narrow, and there's a bunch of lowly country bumpkins."
Leng Zhen, who was holding a wooden plank, bit her lip and frowned slightly.
"Mother, let's make way and let the carriage go first."
"Huh?" She snapped out of her daze. "Oh, okay."
Leng Cuizhu and Leng Zhen stepped aside to let the carriage go first.
She stood on the steps, twisting her handkerchief tightly in her hands, her thoughts drifting far away, leaving only an empty shell standing on the roadside steps.
She recognized the voice; the woman in the carriage was most likely Madam Yin from the Yin family.
Madam Yin just said, "The entire mansion has been smashed to pieces."
...Who's smashing things? She felt inexplicably uneasy.
It shouldn't be Yin Yuan; he doesn't have that kind of personality.
Could it be some kind of thief? If the Yin residence was ransacked... is Yin Yuan still alive? Will he still send her silver notes next month?
But in reality, Leng Zhen is currently working, and You En is also helping to supplement the family income. In addition, the money she has saved over the years is enough to live on, but only enough.
She now loathes Yin Yuan to the extreme, and can't even enjoy using his money.
“Zhenzhen, I’m thinking of finding a job in a few days to help support the family, so that you can have an easier time.”
Leng Zhen glanced at her and said indifferently, "Mother, it's hard to find work these days. Even men in their prime can't find jobs to support their families. Nobody wants a married woman."
"Unless you have some very strong connections."
"Ah... okay, never mind then." She lowered her head.
Seeing her mother's disappointment, Leng Zhen looked up at the clear blue sky and smiled with furrowed brows: "Mother, if you feel bored staying at home all day, help me pick herbs. We can split the profits."
"OK."
Although Leng Cuizhu verbally agreed to Leng Zhen's request, she was still unconvinced.
For the past ten years or so, she has been confined to her home, long since disconnected from the world. Leng Zhen may be right; a woman in her thirties who has already given birth to children has long lost her value, and her best destiny is to stay at home, be a wife and mother.
But she just couldn't accept this arrangement.
Conventions are not necessarily without question.
So she took out the chicken-wing wood pipa that Yin Yuan had given her and played it whenever she had free time, hoping to revive the skills she had forgotten for more than ten years.
"It sounds so good!"
The rooster chuckled with delight: "Host, you're practically Yang Guifei reincarnated! Play another tune!"
Leng Cuizhu: "No."
She looked at the starry sky outside, then kicked the rooster toward the door: "It's late, go back to sleep."
"No..." The rooster lingered by her legs, refusing to leave. "How about we sleep together?"
"You let Eun into your room, but why won't you let me in? We're both your good friends, why are you treating me so badly?"
"Am I just an ordinary friend to you? And he's not just an ordinary friend? Ugh, this is unfair treatment!"
Leng Cuizhu was speechless: "...When did I say we were friends?"
While she was asking questions, the rooster twisted its body and went into the house, finding a spot near the brazier to roost.
"..."
She knew that Dodder had a terrible temper and would go on and on without end, so she couldn't be bothered to argue with a chicken.
I closed the door, went to bed, and took off my coat to hang it on the rack next to the bed.
"Don't giggle when you wake up tomorrow morning."
"I know, I know!"
Before she could even get up in the morning and hear the rooster crowing, she frowned and broke out in a cold sweat in the middle of the night.
She seemed to be weighed down by something.
Unable to move.
Even opening their lips is a struggle.
That intense, cold sense of invasion spread from her toes to her brain, enveloping her entire body.
Yet, she couldn't hear the whispers so close to her; her sweat-drenched face seemed veiled, isolating her senses from the outside world.
She was terrified, wanting to cry but unable to, her upper and lower eyelids stuck together, her eyelashes trembling and rustling.
After practicing the pipa all night, my hands and arms were sore that reaching out to touch them was simply impossible.
With all his might, he managed to utter a cry from between his clenched teeth: "Help..."
"……save?"
"Who do you want to save?"
"You want him to come and rescue you?"
Her mouth, which she couldn't open, was suddenly pried open.
"Am I a bad person in your eyes?"
"Speak."
Her tongue was gently pinched, and the clear liquid was smeared on her lips, moistening her dry lips.
"When you kiss him, is your tongue positioned like this?"
"You stuck out your tongue, didn't you? I saw it. I can't wait."
"They kissed for a long time..."
"It's been so long that I'm afraid you'll get pregnant."
"At the time, I just wanted to go in and take a closer look to see how far you had come."
"Like this."
Something cold entered her body somewhere, she couldn't tell; pleasure filled her whole body, but pain gathered in one spot.
The dense, throbbing pain was constantly being stirred, dug out, and spread.
"Um."
"At least not tonight."
She was suddenly embraced, the pressure making her chest ache, unable to breathe, and her ears ringing.
"That night, I wished it was just a hallucination."
"He must be a ghost, or a monster, right?"
"Is it right?"
“You should tell him—yes, I’m willing to betray my husband for you, and I’m willing to hurt him for you. A kiss, or anything else… I can give you anything, but I don’t feel happy when I’m with you. I just don’t want to be alone, I’m just afraid of loneliness, I’m just bewitched by you.”
"I don't really hate him."
"Lingniang, this is a test."
"Do you really want to be lured away by him, leaving me alone in this world without you?"
Yin Yuan naturally dared not gamble.
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Author's Note: A red envelope (cash gift) will be given away in this chapter! [Milk Tea]
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