Chapter 39 The man asked her under her skirt.
A kiss landed on his brow.
"Aa ...
The dodder stared wide-eyed, grinned so hard it fell backward to the ground.
"You can apply it yourself, but why did you put a flower on my forehead?" He seemed a little out of it.
Anyway, Leng Cuizhu couldn't understand what he was saying.
She glanced sideways at the person on the ground: "Go back by yourself later."
The dodder didn't answer her, but just kept nodding, gazing absently at her flushed cheeks. No matter how much she covered her face, she wouldn't touch the area between her brows.
Her lip print was still visible on that patch of skin, bright red and eye-catching.
She shook her head.
Silly child.
In the afternoon, Leng Cuizhu continued playing.
After the performance ended, the waiter came backstage carrying a basket of copper coins.
The old musician's eyes widened: "Wow, that's a lot of money today!"
"Yes, yes, it's rare to have a full house today."
After the old musicians finished grabbing money from the basket, the shop assistant handed the basket to Leng Cuizhu: "Madam, grab some. This is the amount for everyone in the troupe; everyone gets a share."
"Ah, thank you." She placed the pipa on her lap and reluctantly picked out a few coins, stuffing them into her pocket.
Before the waiter had even left, he pulled a red agate bracelet from his sleeve: "This is for our guest, a bonus for your good fortune."
The bracelet had several perfectly round and translucent agate beads, along with a few purple pearls and jade. She rarely saw such a beautiful bracelet.
"Is it really for me?"
"That's right, the guest praised your pipa playing."
She was surprised.
It turns out that I can gain praise just by my abilities, without having to sacrifice my looks.
It felt good; it was like being pulled out of a deep pit—violent, but effective. For the next few days, she wore the agate bracelet while playing the pipa.
These past few days, the opera troupe has been giving out extra tips, a whole basketful each time. She's slowly starting to learn from the old musicians and try to grab even more.
With the coins they caught, they would go to the street to buy all sorts of pastries to take home for the children to eat.
They call them children, but none of them are really children.
Yuen is nowhere to be seen all day, and even when she's home, she doesn't eat much. Leng Zhen likes to eat, but she's much slower than Tu Si Zi, so Tu Si Zi always eats most of the pastries.
Whenever Leng Zhen wondered why the pastries were consumed so quickly, she would make up the excuse that there were mice in the house.
If you really don't believe me, just say it was fed to glutinous rice.
"By the way, are you really going to... keep Nuomi alive forever?"
Leng Zhen nodded: "It's still a young snake with no survival skills. It won't eat unless I feed it to its mouth. It can't survive without me."
"Then when you have free time, teach it how to survive..."
Why should we teach?
Leng Zhen said indifferently, "Once you've mastered it, you should abandon me. It's better if you're completely useless."
“If I keep spoiling it, it will feel like it is still a baby snake. In this way, it will never grow up, will always need to depend on me, and will never leave me to find its real parents.”
The cold green candle made my back feel cold.
How could Leng Zhen be so heartless?
So, Yin Yuan treated her the same way... Why are they so similar in this way of thinking? It's true that father and son are not similar in appearance but similar in spirit.
A type of filthy goods.
She clasped her hands together and unconsciously began to rub the bracelet on her wrist.
Leng Zhen glanced down at him.
"Did Yin Yuan give this to you?"
“It’s not him.” She shook her head. “I don’t want to accept his things.”
His brows furrowed suddenly, his eyes darkened, and after a long while, he remained silent.
The opera troupe takes a half-day break every five days. During the break, Leng Cuizhu has nothing to do. She doesn't want the musicians to go to the gambling den, so she carries her pipa home.
When I returned, Dodder was swinging on a swing in the yard.
He listened to her and put on an outfit carefully, the one she had prepared for him beforehand: a yellow robe and blue boots.
“This,” she walked up to the swing, “where did this swing come from?”
The dodder swayed higher and higher, its loosely combed hair flying everywhere, turning into a chicken coop.
"Your son built it!"
"This is so much fun, host, do you want to play? I'll come down and push you..." He jumped forward before his feet even touched the ground, and then lost his balance and fell towards Leng Cuizhu.
She reacted quickly, turning to the side to prevent the dodder from falling on her.
The dodder seed fell to the ground, landing face down.
Now I'm completely drained of energy.
"Waaaaah...it hurts so much, my face is all bruised..." He lay on the ground crying, covering his face with his hands.
Leng Cuizhu sat on the swing, gazing at the clear sky and bright sun: "Dodder, I want to play, you push me."
He, who had just been complaining, immediately got up from the ground, hopped over behind her and pushed her, his face still covered in dust.
"Do you want something exciting or something comfortable?"
Leng Cuizhu teased him deliberately, "Oh, can't you have both?"
“Let’s go to the room, or it’s not bad to stay here. It’ll be more exciting here.” His knees buckled, and he half-squatted as if to kneel down.
She knew what the child meant, reached out and tugged at his collar, saying, "Get up. Don't talk about this kind of thing during the day, and I won't do it."
"You really have to be like a dog all the time to feel at ease... When are you going to stand up? At least stop kneeling all the time."
"You didn't tell me I could stand there..."
"Oh, stand up."
Dodder stood up, and she helped him brush the dust off his knees before letting him go back to push the swing.
The days grew warmer and warmer. She was basking in the bright sunshine. After a while, she got a little hot and took off her coat, placing it on her lap.
Dodder said, "Um, I'll put it back for you."
"No need, I'll need to put it back on if it gets cold later." She didn't turn around, but noticed the movement behind her had stopped. "Why did you stop pushing it?"
"Then I'll put it on the stone table over there for you."
"No need, I'll just put it on my lap."
"Then I'll fold it for you."
"No need, I can fold it myself."
"Then I..."
Annoyed by his questions, she turned and threw her coat in his face.
He tilted his head back, his entire face covered by the lotus-pink fabric of his robe, and remained silent. His right hand gripped the corner of his outer garment so tightly it seemed as if he were trying to make a flower, and even his wrist bones were straining.
He just stood there, neck stiff, looking completely dazed.
Why did you hit me?!
He was asking a question he already knew the answer to.
Leng Cuizhu crossed her arms and stared at him, the bracelet on her wrist sliding down to her forearm.
“…Little hooligan.”
"I'm not playing anymore," she said, getting off the swing, taking off his outer garment from his head, and holding it in her arms. "I'm going back to my room to rest. You can play as much as you like."
“Hey, don’t…” Dodder hurriedly followed behind her.
The two walked towards the room, one after the other.
As I was walking along the bluestone path, I happened to see Leng Zhen carrying a basket on her back, coming out from the corner of the wall.
"Xiao Du?"
Leng Zhen gritted her teeth and went closer to examine the dodder.
Dodder originally wanted to hide, but after looking around, it found there was nowhere to hide, so it hurriedly hid behind Leng Cuizhu.
Leng Zhen also slipped behind Leng Cuizhu.
"Where did you come from? Why are you wearing my clothes?"
"I...I..." Tu Si Zi suddenly threw herself into Leng Cui Zhu's arms, "Mom, help me..."
He had been killed by Leng Zhen once before, so it was impossible for him not to be afraid. Not to mention that Leng Zhen was holding a sickle now. If she were to cut him with it, his delicate skin would not be able to withstand it!
"Help! Help! Mom, help!"
Leng Cuizhu helplessly hugged him, patting Tu Sizi's back to comfort her while advising Leng Zhen: "Zhenzhen, Xiao Du is just here to play, don't be so fierce."
"Why is he wearing my clothes? Mother, did you put them on him?" Leng Zhen pointed at the yellow robe on Tu Si Zi's body. "These clothes were a gift from Mother to me on my birthday. Why should he wear them?"
Enraged, he grabbed at the hem of the dodder plant's clothes: "Take it off! Get out of my house!"
Dodder buried its head even deeper, wrapped its arms around her waist, and snuggled into her embrace: "Waaah... Cold Mama, help me..."
"You're not allowed to call her that! You're not allowed!"
Leng Zhen was so angry she was about to cry. With each word she spoke, her body trembled even more, as if she were shaking a sieve to shake all the tears from her eyes.
"Mother, say something! I'm clearly your biological child, how can you be so biased towards an outsider?"
He yelled at the dodder, "Don't you have a home? Don't you have a mother? Where did you come from, you worthless bastard?"
“Waaah,” the dodder replied, turning around, “Brother Leng Zhen, Mother Leng is my mother. I don’t mind being your brother.”
"But I want to be the younger brother and you be the older brother, okay? I look younger than you."
"You, you, you..." Leng Zhen pointed at him, her anger rising, and she fainted.
It fell to the ground, and the white python in the basket crawled out.
"ah--"
The dodder suddenly broke free from her embrace and jumped, landing as a chicken with only a few pieces of clothing left on the ground.
The rooster ran into the haystack and found a place to hide.
Leng Cuizhu stood there, looking at the mess on the ground, and rubbed her forehead.
"Hiss hiss hiss..." The white snake coiled on the ground, flicking its pink tongue to lick the weeds, and even rubbed the tip of its tail against Leng Zhen's hand.
"Dodder, figure out how to deal with these two yourself. You're the one who had to provoke him, so it's your job to deal with them." She put on her outer garment and walked into the house. "Anyway, if you don't deal with them, Leng Zhen will just kill you like a chicken to vent his anger when he wakes up."
A sound came from somewhere: "Giggle giggle woo woo woo giggle..."
From then on, the dodder rarely transformed into a human form, at least not during the day, and at night it would only climb into Leng Zhen's bed after she had gone into the house and locked the door, when it was free from all worries.
However, he didn't succeed many times; most of the time he was locked out and couldn't get in.
After all, she preferred Yuen to sleep with her rather than dodder.
It's quiet and doesn't move around much.
"I never expected to get a reward for playing the pipa. I thought I would only get that fixed amount of one hundred coins."
She raised her hand and waved it in front of Eun: "This was also a gift from a guest."
The bracelet was a bit long; she wrapped it around her arm twice, but it was still loose. If she wasn't careful, it would slip down to Eun's face, and the purple pearl would hit the man's nose.
"Oh, I'm sorry." She quickly withdrew her hand and gathered the bracelet on her arm.
"Is your nose... alright?"
Eun shook his head with a smile.
"It seems that the lady really enjoys this job."
"Yes, at least I have something to do..." She was still worried, so she reached out to touch the red mark on the man's nose and asked softly, "Does it hurt? Should I put some medicine on it?"
The man grasped the back of her hand and said, "Hmm... a little dry."
"Then," she said, her ears turning red, "what should we do?"
The man closed his eyes and began to carefully devise a solution.
After a long pause, he looked up and said, "Sit down?"
She pouted.
He really did mean what she thought. Leng Cuizhu thought she had misunderstood him and was angry at herself for having such wicked thoughts and always thinking about such bewitching and sorcery.
So he said those things on purpose.
That's terrible.
This time she didn't hesitate. She lifted her skirt and sat down, finding the right angle to rub against his high nose bridge. She placed her hands on the man's chest, grabbed his collar, and a few strands of his silver hair broke off in her hands.
When their love flowed like a gentle stream, she was already half-undressed, her hands clutching a handkerchief as she gathered her piled-up clothes, bringing them to her fragrant, stained shoulders, her hair bobbing wildly at her temples.
"Have you been wearing this bracelet all along?"
The man asked her under her skirt.
"Ah...yes," she said, feeling dizzy and wiping away sweat with her hands, "I've been wearing it the whole time."
The woman wearing the other bracelet slowly slid backward, covering the man's eyes.
The pearls and jade ornaments on her wrist jingled softly.
Looking back afterward, she realized that Eun must have been bothered by the bracelet.
The reason is unknown, but it certainly wasn't because of a red mark; he's not that petty.
But the bracelet was indeed beautiful, and she felt at ease whenever she wore it.
So she still wore it, but took it off at night and put it in her makeup box.
Later events proved that her choice was correct.
One day, she was tuning her pipa in the audience seats and was about to go backstage when someone called her back.
"...Emerald Candle?"
That voice was all too familiar to her.
-----------------------
The author says: "Half-opened lotus pods, heavy with dew, lean precariously; deep within the green lotus leaves, turtles swim." — Su Shi
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
