TAMW CH4

Yuqing led the way, with Zhou Xiao following closely behind him, trailed by several servants.

The old master was named Zhou Yuzhang, and Zhou Xiao was his only son. Now over fifty years of age, illness had completely sapped his vitality. Resembling a blinking corpse, he lay woodenly upon a nanmu wood bed tinged with the scent of decay.

Yuqing asked, “Has the Master taken his medicine?”

Housekeeper Deng replied, “He is waiting for you.”

Old Master Zhou suffered from an incurable illness. Because of his stubborn refusal to see Western doctors, the traditional physicians who felt his pulse could only state that his days were numbered. Breathing was difficult for his congested lungs, and upon waking, he possessed very little energy.

Yuqing took the medicine bowl from the servant’s hands, kneeling gracefully beside the bed to attend to the old master’s medication.

“Father, the Young Master has come to see you.” Keeping his back straight, Yuqing gently fed him the decoction.

The old master exhaled a heavy breath, a murky, raspy sound escaping his throat: “Mm…”

Unable to swallow all the medicine, some began to dribble out. Yuqing caught it with his hand, retrieving the handkerchief beside the jade pillow to wipe it clean bit by bit.

Zhou Yuzhang was clearly accustomed to such pampering, wearing a comfortably entitled expression.

Standing to the side, Zhou Xiao stared fixedly at those hands.

They were as white as freshly bloomed jasmine flowers—the very same hands that, merely from patting Major Chen during yesterday’s grand wedding, had left that man utterly enchanted for so long!

And yet…

To think he would casually catch the medicinal spittle oozing from his father’s decaying mouth. Zhou Xiao felt a surge of nausea.

Far from showing any disgust, Yuqing spoke with gentle warmth: “Father, the Young Master and I are already married. Can your mind finally be at ease?”

The old master’s eyelids lifted slightly. The housekeeper instructed several servants to help him sit up. His voice was drained of strength, weighed down by profound fatigue: “This… is good…”

“Entrusting him to you brings me peace of mind. Yuqing, ah…”

“Father, I am right here. Please speak.” Yuqing leaned in close.

Watching his father’s withered hand nearly brush against Yuqing’s fingertips, Zhou Xiao felt utterly repulsed, sickened, and furious. At such an advanced age, barely able to lift himself from the bed, how dared this old man use his son’s name to bring someone new into the manor?!

This old thing had married wives and taken concubines in his youth, and even now, lying bedridden like this, he still refused to be decent!

“The scent on you is different from usual,” his father remarked.

Kneeling by the bedside, Yuqing lowered his head slightly: “Replying to Father: I switched medicines today and prayed to Guanyin. Yuqing will certainly not let you down—”

Smack!

A crisp, sharp slap landed across Yuqing’s face.

Yuqing’s head tilted slightly from the blow. As he turned his fair face back, the smile on his lips had not faded in the slightest. “Father, please do not agitate yourself and ruin your health.”

“Insolent fool!” Zhou Yuzhang violently shoved his hand away. “Did I give you permission?! How bold of you! Cough, cough—cough—!“

The medicine bowl in Yuqing’s hands shattered onto the floor, splashing dark medicinal liquid in all directions.

Gasping for breath, the old master raised his hand to strike him again. Yuqing did not dodge, but Zhou Xiao caught the old man’s wrist just in time.

In Zhou Xiao’s eyes, this was merely the old fool’s senseless temper. Ever since he could remember, his father had been this way—unpredictable and volatile, a stubborn trait he would never change in this lifetime.

“You forced me to marry him, and I did. Is it your place to strike him now?” Zhou Xiao held the old man’s arm firmly. “Focus on resting your body, lest the two of you waste all the effort you put into staging this elaborate charade!” He simply despised the rigid hierarchies of these old aristocratic manors. “All people are created equal! You are lying in bed waiting for him to wait on you hand and foot, so save your breath and conserve your energy!”

Lying on the bed, the old master looked at his son. His cloudy gaze gradually cleared, murmuring his name: “My son… you have grown up.”

Yet before long, a violent fit of coughing overtook him once more.

After taking his medicine, the old master’s spirits plummeted; after only a few words, he drifted off to sleep.

Only then did the two step outside. Housekeeper Deng hurried after them from behind: “Young Mistress, please hold on.”

“These are the keys to the storeroom. The Master said that now that you have crossed our threshold, they are yours to keep.”

Zhou Xiao paused in his tracks, glancing back in utter disbelief.

The Zhou family was not of bureaucratic lineage like the Ruans. Though their ancestral manor had been bestowed by the previous imperial dynasty’s emperor, their clan had engaged in trade for generations. Back then, they operated pawnshops; every pawnshop in Baizhou was registered under the Zhou family’s name.

Nowadays, they were called pledge houses.

However, after the fall of the empire, people turned to paper banknotes as currency, making the use of gold and silver scarce. The Zhou family’s businesses had already begun their downward spiral back when Zhou Xiao first left to study abroad.

Having returned this time, he still had no idea what the family’s true financial standing was.

Yet even if business was failing, the wealth accumulated from generations in the pawnshop industry remained astronomically immense.

Any random artifact from the Zhou family storerooms was worth a thousand gold pieces.

Zhou Xiao finally understood why Ruan Yuqing had been willing to surrender his body to him last night!

Turns out it was all for money—for these vulgar worldly possessions!

“Hmph!”

Just as Ruan Yuqing took the keys, he heard Zhou Xiao’s disgruntled snort. Yuqing merely said, “I am only safeguarding them on the Young Master’s behalf. If the Young Master wishes to revive the family business in the future, Yuqing will hand them over with both hands at any time.”

Ruan Yuqing looked at him with a soft smile. The morning sunlight shone upon his fair skin—skin that looked as though it rarely saw the light of day—making it dazzlingly white.

True to his name, Yuqing favored the color of celadon, wearing a sky-blue long robe.

Nowadays, more people on the streets wore Western suits and dresses. Baizhou City had universities, so many young women in blue student uniforms could be seen carrying their book bags along the avenues.

Turning the corner away from the Zhou ancestral mansion felt like stepping into an entirely different era, as electric streetcars clanged their bells and smoothly glided past.

Inside the Ford, Zhou Xiao hadn’t expected his departure to go so smoothly.

Yuqing was dressed lightly, wearing only a thin long robe. His neatly combed long hair was gathered over his left shoulder, cascading down to his waist. When he remained silent, he carried a slight air of detachment. His long eyelashes and the tiny beauty mark beneath his eye made him appear remarkably youthful.

Only now did Zhou Xiao realize that, aside from knowing Yuqing was named Yuqing, he knew absolutely nothing else about him.

Remembering how that bedridden old man had struck him at will, and how Ruan Yuqing had still served him so attentively, an inexplicable surge of fury flared in Zhou Xiao’s chest.

“What is the matter, Young Master?” Sensing his gaze, Yuqing turned to look at him.

Zhou Xiao took off his suit jacket and draped it over Yuqing’s shoulders, believing himself to be the epitome of a gentleman. “You are so young, yet you intend to spend your life trapped in the Zhou Manor? Are you truly content serving an old man?”

“Hmm?” Ruan Yuqing looked somewhat puzzled.

He was a shrewd person; whether in business or within aristocratic households, people preferred subtle, unspoken undertones. Someone who spoke so bluntly was actually rather endearing.

“The old man didn’t take you into the manor himself because he is over fifty years old. Taking a man into his bed would spark endless scandalous gossip outside. He made me the scapegoat so that people would only remember that I married a man. Ruan Yuqing, he treats you with such utter contempt—are you truly doing this willingly? Serving a half-dead geezer in his fifties?”

Yuqing stared blankly at the suit jacket draped over his lap, the corners of his lips curling upward slightly. “Since I have married the Young Master, serving Father is my duty.”

“In my youth, I had the fortune of receiving the Master’s grace when he saved my life and brought me into the manor. Offering my life and body in return is only natural.”

“For the rest of my life, I will remain in the Zhou family to repay the Master’s life-saving grace. Even if the Master passes away in the future, Yuqing will manage the household properly on the Young Master’s behalf.”

“Yuqing lacks the Young Master’s extensive education and knows you returned with grand ambitions of your own. All I can do is settle the domestic trifles of the inner quarters for you, ensuring you have no worries back home while you work out in the world.”

“If the Young Master finds me embarrassing, Yuqing simply won’t step outside. The wedding was not held on a grand scale,” he tilted his head with a light smile, “so outsiders know very little. In the future, if the Young Master finds a woman who holds your heart and brings her home as a concubine, Yuqing will raise no objections whatsoever.”

“After all, as you said, having a male wife does not sound pleasant to the outside world. Even during the imperial dynasty, such arrangements were quietly passed off as study companions. If you feel it stains your reputation, should you truly meet someone you love in the future, as long as I may remain in the Zhou family, Yuqing is willing to step down and become a concubine.”

“What are you saying?!” Zhou Xiao interrupted sharply. “Am I really the kind of man who chases after carnal desires?! Would a man serving as a concubine be any less embarrassing?!”

“Besides, you and I have already…”

Already… already… cooked the rice into porridge!

“I don’t understand why you insist on staying in the Zhou family, walking on eggshells around him just to survive. Is it truly for the fortune locked inside the Zhou family’s storerooms?”

Yuqing answered him, “Yes. Marrying the Young Master ensures a life of wealth and comfort. Fulfilling filial duties on your behalf is a burden I bear with pleasure. Yuqing comes from humble origins; being able to marry the Young Master as your wife is already more than I could ever ask for.”

Zhou Xiao felt only profound pity for him.

A grown man—even one with frail health—should never be so utterly devoid of backbone.

Flattering the old master, and now putting on a smiling face to fawn over him… why bother?

To be so meek as to willingly degrade himself into a concubine or a side-mistress just to stay in the Zhou family?!

What kind of mind-poisoning draught had that damn old man fed him?!

At a loss for words, Zhou Xiao didn’t know what to say to overturn such entrenched, traditional thinking.

All he could manage was a frustrated sigh: “Forget it.”

“Is the Young Master heading to the port?” Yuqing asked.

“The Li Residence,” Zhou Xiao said, turning his head away.

Yuqing nodded, and the driver up front immediately turned the car around, shifting course from the port toward the Li family estate in the western district.

“Is this your classmate from France? I heard the Second Young Master of the Li family only returned last year…” Before he could finish, Zhou Xiao cut him off: “We’ve barely married, and you’re already prying into my affairs?”

Yuqing lowered his head compliantly: “Understood. Then Yuqing shall pry no further.”

So obedient and docile—had he been a woman, Zhou Xiao feared he would have had zero resistance.

The car fell silent for a while before Zhou Xiao turned to gaze out the window. “We merely studied abroad in France together. Different schools, different majors. Even if I told you, you wouldn’t understand.”

“Indeed. Yuqing never attended school and is completely illiterate; naturally, I am nowhere as exceptional as the Young Master.” He pressed his lips into a smile. Hearing his voice, Zhou Xiao turned his head back, noticing that beneath the beauty mark under his eye, a small dimple appeared when he smiled.

This man’s looks… made Zhou Xiao want to use the word “gorgeous” to describe a man for the first time.

He possessed the ethereal grace of a jasmine blossom, and his soft, gentle speech sounded remarkably soothing to the ears.

Arriving at the Li residence, the Ford pulled up to the front gate.

The Li family resided in a grand mansion. As soon as the courtyard gates swung open, the housekeepers and maids rushed out to greet them, with servants running upstairs to alert the Second Young Master Li.

“Since this is the Young Master’s classmate, Yuqing will not step out of the car to show his face, lest I spoil the Young Master’s mood.” Yuqing smiled softly, instructing Zhao Fu in the front seat to unload the luggage.

Zhou Xiao didn’t know what else to say to him. He thought to himself: For the rest of my life, I will likely be locked in mutual disdain with a male wife I neither know nor love.

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Author’s Note:

Future Mini-Theater:

Yuqing: Shall I bring in a few concubines for you? There are still matters at the port waiting for me to handle…

Zhou Xiao (Roaring frantically): What do you mean by that?! Is money and all that vulgar worldly trash really that important?! What am I to you?! Ruan Yuqing! You were the one who provoked me first! I won’t be like that pedantic old fool filling the courtyard with a crowd of people—when I want someone, I want one person for an entire lifetime! [rambles on endlessly…]

Yuqing: Lift your head out from between my thighs before you speak…

Zhou Xiao: Why should I?! You are my wife; I can bury my face wherever I want! [furious] Besides, you smell so good. Aren’t you supposed to let me smell you?! [furious] Who else are you planning to let smell you?! [furious]

Yuqing: (Facepalms)[melts]