Chapter 53: 40

Chapter 40 - Taking a bite out of someone else’s loyal dog.

We lived peacefully in Yun Garden for more than a month, when Ye Tan’s injuries had completely recovered, he was able to get out of bed and pull someone along to practice martial arts with, as a result, he was meditating almost every time as I went to sleep, and he was still meditating when I woke up. I urged him over and over again not to push himself, but he stated that this intensity was only one-tenth of what it was at the Nightrunner originally. I didn’t really understand, but he just left it at that.

The first time Ye Tan invited Ye Xiao to exchange blows, he was defeated after a dozen or so moves as the sword in his hand was sent flying. Ye Tan still hadn’t said anything, but Ye Xiao suddenly burst into loud cries after stifling his sobs for a long time, I knew he felt sorry about Ye Tan’s current strength gap and I could really sympathise, so I held him and also cried bitterly. Ye Tan had no choice but to pull the two of us off the ground, saying: “You don’t have a lot of opportunities left to win against me, why not take advantage of these few months and appreciate it while you can? In the future, there will be times where you will really feel like crying.”

When Ye Xiao hear this, his crying became even more terrible.

Qiqi was frying chilli oil with her sleeves rolled up, she stood at the door of the kitchen and threatened me: “If you two keep being so noisy I will make candied haws for the main course tonight! Whoever doesn’t finish it will still have to eat it tomorrow!”

I was so frightened I immediately didn’t dare make another sound and I covered Ye Xiao’s mouth with my hand.

These days, I helped Qiqi cook garlic and scallions from the garden daily, I corresponded with Jun Luoshu and sent him a few silver taels from time to time, and I invited a teacher to come and teach everyone in the Garden how to write during our spare time. Ye Xiao was unable to sit still and he would slip away every time, heading further and further along the illiterate and mentally-handicapped road; Ye Lan couldn’t remember a single character even after a month, so every day he would crouch in a small corner of the corridor and practice on his own; my ugly writing caused the teacher to wring his hands in lament and faint with anger, and finally Ye Tan was the only one that seriously listened to the teacher’s lectures and practised until he could write properly.


During this period of time, occasionally people form the Jianghu would drop in trying to take away the sword, but countless times they would kick away the Small Dull Sword arranged at the entrance of the door as well as the sign that read “This is really that precious sword” that I left for this specific purpose, and would mention Ye Tan’s black Han sword by name. In the end, everyone was basically shovelled out the door and sent flying by Ye Xiao.

Due to these people, I had the opportunity to see Ye Lan in action for the first time.


That time there were a few more people than usual, Ye Tan and Ye Xiao were both in the middle of fighting, and there was an empty space by my side, soon afterwards, a man with a sabre rushed towards me. I was preparing to move to Ye Tan’s side, when suddenly another figure leapt up in front of me. I have sharp ears and keen eyes, and my reaction time is very fast, but even I was unable to clearly see when Ye Lan landed. His movements were entirely different from his usual slow and sluggish manner, he only attacked without defending, destroying indiscriminately, his ten fingers covered in flickering, chilling light like a silver blade as he thrust his bare hands into his opponent’s chest. His expression was unfocused and scattered, and he didn’t have the least bit of killing intent, he was totally unfeeling as he held a person’s life in his hands, and it made him appear even more eerie and terrifying.

I jumped in fright, luckily Ye Xiao was by my side, stopping him without delay before he had the chance to gouge out the enemy’s entire heart. Even though Yun Garden fought often, we had never taken anybody’s life, everyone else was also stunned by this cold and deadly move and for a time no one dared take action, I hurriedly called for the residence’s doctor and carried the victim inside for treatment.

I assured them again and again that we would cure him and send him back, so they made arrangements and left.

I didn’t know if he was dead or alive in there, and I was so restless waiting for news I could only go around in circles inside the courtyard. Ye Xiao constantly peered at Ye Lan, looking like he wanted to say something but stopping every time, and he could only sigh heavily. I knew Ye Lan was always difficult to communicate with, and that he might not necessarily remember instructions, which made things complicated for a while.

Ye Lan really didn’t know the disaster he had caused, but he sensed Ye Xiao’s mood, staring blankly for a long time and suddenly pulling on Ye Xiao’s sleeve, asking in a soft voice: “Did I mess up?”

Ye Xiao tried to smile, patting him on the shoulder, wanting to comfort him as usual, but before the words came out, he forcibly suppressed them.

In the past when people came to steal the sword, it had always been small-scale, if we really killed someone this time, later they would have the same deadly animosity—it was the same kind of principle as when I was being held captive before and the other side looked after my life. Although it was a common saying that walking the path of the Jianghu was like licking blood off the edge of a knife1 , is there someone who really liked adding to the slaughter.....?

I have been here for so long, and so far I still haven’t experienced another person’s death.


Ye Xiao uncharacteristically did not console him, and Ye Lan’s consistently absent-minded expression showed a bit of rare panic, he bowed his head for a moment as he held onto the hem of his coat, waiting for his response, while frantically asking: “Did I do something wrong? I.... what did I do wrong? Gui Mao2 .... say something.....”

Seeing him so distressed, my heart was also a little soft. Ye Xiao pursed his lips and said: “How many times have I said it, my name is not Gui Mao anymore. We have a master now, I’m called Ye Xiao, you are called Ye Lan, can you remember?”

Ye Lan stood blankly for a long time, stumbling as he apologised: “I.... I will try my best.... I will surely remember, I’m sorry, Gui Mao, don’t be angry.... I will spend some time again, I will be able to remember.... I will.....”

Ye Xiao still didn’t say anything, and Ye Lan muttered for a long time, his expression becoming increasingly more frantic, until he suddenly ruthlessly beat himself on the head with his fist. The sliver sheen on his hand hadn’t left when he brought his fist down, and it was dripping with blood. We stared in alarm, and Ye Xiao hurriedly restrained both his hands. The thin red blood gradually flowed down his eye socket, but Ye Lan only pleaded in a daze: “I can’t remember, Gui Mao, what should I do.... I can’t remember.... why can’t this head remember.... Gui Mao....”

I hurriedly tore my clothes and used them to cover his wound, and sent Qiqi to get bandages and medicine, then turned to Ye Xiao and said: “His actions today were also to protect me, he had good intentions, don’t blame him....”

Ye Xiao frowned: “Today wasn’t so bad, but if he still can’t remember, what are we going to do if he gets in real trouble?”

Ye Lan heard that my tone had softened, so he clutched at his last hope as he pulled me and pleaded: “Master, help me persuade him, don’t be angry at me.... I was wrong, please persuade....”

Ye Xiao found this laughable: “If you really knew where you went wrong, the one you should be apologising to should be Master, why are you concerned about me?”

When he heard this, Ye Lan knelt on the ground, repeatedly kowtowing towards me and apologising. He injured his forehead and I hurriedly went to stop him, but his strength was a hundred times better than mine and I couldn’t stop him. Ye Xiao was determined to make him learn his lesson, so he clenched his fists and didn’t make a sound, it was actually Ye Tan who understood my thoughts and hurried to help him stand up.

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“What are you scaring him for! Scaring him isn’t going to make him remember!” My heart had originally already been in enough distress for tonight, and this series of accidents had simply poured oil on the fire. Ye Tan patted me on the shoulder and said: “Master, don’t worry, this subordinate will have a few words with Ye Xiao.”

I was concerned about Ye Lan’s head wound, so I nodded and left him to it, only dragging Ye Lan with me into the room to bandage him up. With every step, Ye Lan turned his head and looked back at Ye Xiao, so it was incredibly difficult to walk just a short distance away. Inside the room, I made Ye Lan sit down, then cleaned his wound, applied medicine, and bandaged it. I couldn’t help but ask: “Does it hurt?”

Ye Lan nodded: “Hurts.”

When he spoke, he also covered his chest with his right hand, on the place right on top of his heart, and said softly: “This place also hurts.”

Hearing this was even more difficult to bear, and I didn’t know how to comfort him, so I grabbed a plum candy and gave it to him: “Eat this and it won’t hurt, be good.”

Ye Lan sucked at it for a while, and nodded: “It really got a bit better.” Then he tilted his head and thought for a moment, holding onto my clothes and pulling them back and forth: “Master, I’m sorry, I don’t know what I did wrong.... I don’t remember.... I’m really sorry.....”

“You can remember that I am your master, you’re already doing very well.” I stroked his head and sighed, I was so used to it, it wasn’t until now that I realised I didn’t know just how much effort he had to put in to be able to accomplish this.

“Am I? I.... I’m doing well?” When he heard me, Ye Lan’s eyes shone.

“Yes. Wasn’t this dried plum candy a reward?” He was coaxed surprisingly well, and I let out a breath, “You remembered that I am your master, and today you protected me once, so I should give you another one.”

Ye Lan shook his head and declined: “Wait until next time I do well and you can reward me again.”

Ye Tan knocked on the door frame, letting us know he was coming in. Ye Lan turned his head and saw Ye Xiao and immediately stood up, nervous, as he began to apologise. Ye Xiao coughed unnaturally, and simply said: “Let’s go back and talk later.” As he spoke, he waved and turned around before leaving. Ye Lan hurriedly closely followed after him, the view of their backs reminding me of a master taking his akita3 out for an evening walk.


Ye Tan leaned on the door frame and looked at the jar of candy in my hands, he also didn’t speak.

“A-Tan, do you want one?” I handed it to him.

Ye Tan shook his head: “This subordinate didn’t have any accomplishments today, so Master shouldn’t reward me.”

I guess he heard what I said just now, but I was still confused: “What do you mean?”

Ye Tan just said: “What I just said.”

I was baffled: “All of my things are also A-Tan’s, so what do your things.... have to do with a reward?”

Ye Tan was stunned: “You think so?”

“That’s right, I also told the others this before. This garden is mine and it’s also yours, so everything inside the home belongs to you, the guards and the servant girl were all bought to look after you. Did you forget?”

I weighted the candy jar in my hand, thinking that it was really insignificant, and not knowing why he was bothering with such a trivial matter, so I asked: “So, do you want to eat one or not?”


Ye Tan didn’t speak again.

After a long time, he turned his head and said in a wavering tone: “.....it’s very late, let’s, let’s go to sleep first.”

 

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1 刀頭舐血 a metaphor for something that is very dangerous. Top.

2 癸卯 this name probably comes from their cycle at the Nightrunner, the Gui-mao year is the 40th year of a cycle in the traditional chinese calendar, with 癸 being the 10th Heavenly Stem and 卯 being the 4th Earthly Branch. Info for those interested. Top.

 

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