Chapter 57: CH 57

The temperature had been dropping drastically in a short amount of time. A few days ago, it was still possible to dress without any extra layers, but now even when you talk, you would breath out visible puffs of air. Chen Miao Ping was cozying up underneath the blankets on the bed and couldn’t help but sniff a few times. It was going to be completely painful when he has to patrol again as it will most likely be snowing in a few days.

The inside of the house was kept warm with a fireplace, and it was so warm that it made people sleepy. Fu Lin opened the door to bring the boiled medicine in and brought with her a breeze of cold frosty air. Xie Yu Zhi was originally sitting behind the desk, looking at his defensive plans, and he lifted his head up to ask,

“What did the physicians say?”

Fu Lin poured the hot herbal medicine into a celadon bowl and put it on the table. 

She said, 

“The physician said perhaps it was because Gu-Ye had worn too few layers these past days and a cold had seeped into his body. Thankfully it is not serious so there is no need for overly strong medicine. This prescription should be fairly mild and paired with a slow healing process in a warm environment, it should pass after a while.”

Medical skills in the ancient eras were not great and a tiny cold could become the death of someone, so Chen Miao Ping was more rigorous than most in drinking the medicine on time. When he saw Xie Yu Zhi come in with the bowl, he was about to reach for it, but the other avoided his hands.

Chen Miao Ping: “???”

Xie Yu Zhi lifted up his robe before sitting down by the bed and explained, 

“The bowl’s too hot. I’ll feed you.”

Chen Miao Ping didn’t believe it and his face unreservedly showed his suspicions, 

“Yesterday’s bowl was hot too. Why didn’t you feed me then?”

Xie Yu Zhi didn’t speak, only using a spoon to swirl around the dark liquid medicine. In the midst of the clangs of the spoon against the bowl, wisps of steam rose up. Until the temperature of the bowl started to cool down in his hands, Xie Yu Zhi finally smiled and said, 

“You have helped me apply medicine so many times now. Just pretend that my conscience has finally appeared and I want to take care of you this once, ok?”

Chen Miao Ping chuckled in response. His long slender finger stroked his chin, 

“Second Master is the first human being that said he would take care of me. But this medicine is just too bitter. I won’t be able to take it one spoonful at a time, so I will drink it myself instead.”

And then snatched the bowl of medicine away from Xie Yu Zhi’s hands and chugged it all down in one go.

Xie Yu Zhi didn’t mind it and instead took the empty bowl back to set it aside. He switched to a different topic at hand, 

“The emissaries from the Liao Empire will be leaving tonight. And that Grand Military Commissioner, Sun Tong…… He will soon pass the armies under his management over to my father.”

Chen Miao Ping didn’t understand why Xie Yu Zhi was telling him this and thought about it before saying, 

“These past few days, His Majesty should have made him hand back his tally, but he’s only been making many excuses to delay it. He must not be willing to give up all that military power in his heart.”

“……He is indeed not willing from the bottom of his heart.”

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Chen Miao Ping continued, 

“If, Second Master, if you die, I will take these banknotes and escape out of the country. I will buy some land and find another person to live the rest of my life with. Every new year I will burn up some paper money for you.”1

Xie Yu Zhi ignored him and opened the mechanism to head out. Following that was the loud groan of the bookshelf slowly shutting itself. It immediately quieted down.

Chen Miao Ping maintained the posture that he was in, staring at that entrance for a very very long time, until his neck was frozen and aching in pain. That was when he suddenly came back to life and started to look around in more detail.

If the neighbour didn’t want to care for him, or if that man did not have that bit of conscience and never accepted him back into his family, then how could Chen Miao Ping, as a six year old boy, continue to keep living?2

There was no one who was born with an iron heart. He had gone through the phase of blissful thinking, remembering and yearning for that woman, before he reached the age of ten.

Sometimes he would always think whether it was that his mother ran away and didn’t want him, or did she perhaps marry another man that was better and birthed another son?

Many things and many thoughts clouded him, leading him to draw many conclusions that went nowhere.

But he realized in the end, one must always think in the positive.

And so Chen Miao Ping guessed that she might have died on the road to work.

Only this kind of conclusion would make that hatred inside him burn a little less. Only that would make his heart feel just a bit better.

Chen Miao Ping’s thoughts returned to the present, and he realized then that Xie Yu Zhi had prepared everything for him. Money, an escape path, a life after……

Everything that he could do, he did. Everything he could think about, he thought about.

Notes:

*1 When a person dies, you need to “burn” up paper objects as that is the only currency/things you can be given (by your living lineage) and use in the afterlife, such as houses, money, clothes, etc.

*2 If you refer back to Chp 52, when Chen Miao Ping was reminiscing, I’ve clarified it to be not the neighbour but as the man who sired him/his birth father who took him in. This also means that the old lady was his blood-related grandmother, which hopefully is more clear here and also in the edits of Chp 52.

TL’s Tidbit:

Alright, we are on the homestretch for volume 2 (about 4 chapters before we say goodbye to Chen Miao Ping and Xie Yu Zhi (｡•́︿•̀｡) )! As much as Plum and I hated how much Chen Miao Ping bullshitted with no limits in the beginning, we’ve come around. I mean, for me I guess, I found back the love for the volume as I did when I read the raws :p

But for Plum… as a teaser, they really liked the ending and thought this volume was so cute (they are very biased now for volume 2 over volume 1 (๑꒪▿꒪)*). But take that as you will when this Plum thought Lu Qi was vicious for blinding a dude to save his life, but is like oh Chen Miao Ping, you need more~ it’s not fair~ (¯―¯) For what Plum wants Chen Miao Ping to have more of, we’ll see in the upcoming week~ >: ) (although we are still dying in editing phase to get it done before the deadline… (ﾉ´ｰ`)ﾉ)

On that note though, a small notice that we will be taking another break after this volume, to give ourselves another needed break from all this research and frying our brains… ｡ﾟ(ﾟ´(00)`ﾟ)ﾟ｡ and of course, also for Christmas/end of the year/New Year  More details will be released later (as we’re still in discussion about it), probably when we finish the rest of the chapters in this volume 

Have a beautiful and cozy weekend, Galactic judges! See you Monday ✧⁺⸜(●′▾‵●)⸝⁺✧

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