WJ Chapter 107

When the Rooster Crows (5)

And so, Ah Ku’s wooden house — which never took in outsiders — was, for the very first time, decided by its owner to house Ye Ru for a few days.

And Yun Changliu discovered that what Ah Ku had said — “disliking him and being willing to save him are two different things” — was entirely true.

Although Ah Ku was indeed wholeheartedly tending to Ye Ru’s illness, and not merely treating the fever he had caught from the cold, but also taking care to nurse his body back to proper health, as though genuinely showing great concern and attentiveness…

…if provoked to annoyance, he would still open his mouth and berate the boy as usual, and sometimes deliver a kick or two — neither light nor heavy.

The force was cleverly calibrated to a degree that would not truly injure Ye Ru, yet was enough to send him trembling with fright.

Toward this, Yun Changliu once again found himself unable to comprehend.

And many years later, Ye Ru would smile a smile grey as dead ash as he reminisced with the Sect Leader: “Do you know… after being frightened by the Protector Daren for so long when I was small, whether I was sent back to Medicine Gate or later dispatched to a branch hall, whenever I encountered truly wicked people, I found I was not really afraid of them anymore. How strange…”

But that is a digression.

After a few days, Ye Ru’s fever had completely healed.

That morning, Ah Ku had steamed a basket of bean buns, and was carrying them out into the morning sunlight when Yun Changliu happened to walk in.

The two had just sat down at the table and had not yet begun eating, when they heard a most disharmonious rumbling sound — gululu.

The Young Sect Leader and Ah Ku turned their heads simultaneously to see Ye Ru on his knees to the side, on the verge of tears, pressing his hands over his stomach, yet unable to stop the gulu gulu protest of his hungry gut.

Ah Ku looked at him with amusement. Knowing that Ye Ru’s recovered body had finally registered its hunger, he felt like teasing the little medicine-person. He leaned back in his chair, crossed his legs, and raised an eyebrow. “Ru Ru, do you know how to ask for something to eat?”

Ye Ru’s face flushed red. He performed the gesture he had often been made to perform at Medicine Gate. He shuffled forward on his knees and knocked his head to the floor. “This slave begs Daren to spare a mouthful of food…”

Ah Ku’s expression immediately turned cold. He reached into the basket, took out a bean bun, and tossed it onto the floor in front of Ye Ru. “Eat.”

…He still disliked seeing this little medicine person debase himself so willingly.

Even though, in his heart, he knew one could not blame Ye Ru for it. A child that small, subjected to years of blood-nourishing and blood-drawing, ground down year after year in order to survive — whatever backbone and spirit he had once possessed had long been worn away to nothing.

But Ah Ku was simply displeased by the servility he saw in the boy, and especially when he thought that this was someone the Young Sect Leader had saved, and yet the boy was so utterly without mettle… it only made him more displeased.

Ye Ru had no idea of any of these thoughts passing through Ah Ku’s mind.

To him, picking up food that had fallen on the floor was a matter of everyday routine. Even being made to eat cold or spoiled food would not count as much of a hardship.

He had been drinking medicine and thin porridge all this time, and was terribly hungry. The freshly steamed bean buns smelled sweet and fragrant, and were enormously tempting. Though Ah Ku’s expression frightened him, the little medicine person swallowed a mouthful of saliva and was about to bend down and bite into the food off the floor.

Yun Changliu suddenly spoke, in a composed tone. “Do not eat that.”

Ye Ru started in alarm and looked up at the white-robed Young Sect Leader.

Yun Changliu glanced at Ah Ku’s cold expression with a mild look of resignation, then unhurriedly reached into the basket, took out a fresh bun, and extended it in the direction of the small medicine person, his expression perfectly calm. “Eat this one.”

Ye Ru shook his head in fright, stammering, “No, no… this slave does not dare, this slave is unworthy of eating clean food… daren’s willingness to spare this slave a single mouthful is already more than this slave can express gratitude for…”

Yun Changliu still held the bun extended steadily forward without moving, waiting there patiently.

Beside him, Ah Ku’s expression darkened. He raised his hand and slammed his palm down hard on the table with a resounding bang, barking angrily, “Stand up! Cowering like this — what kind of manner is that? You cannot even receive the Young Sect Leader’s kindness!”

That did it — Ye Ru was frightened into crying out with a tearful ah. He scrambled to his feet in a tumble, ran over and took the bean bun from Yun Changliu’s hands, then scrambled back into the corner and huddled there, trembling.

Yun Changliu said placidly, “After all these days, do you still not understand? The more you diminish yourself, the harsher he is with you.”

Then the Young Sect Leader rose gracefully, and walked toward the bean bun that had been tossed on the floor.

Under Ye Ru’s disbelieving gaze, Yun Changliu gathered his snow-white robes, crouched down, and picked up the bun. He pulled away the small bit of the surface that had touched the floor in the most natural manner, and bit into the bean bun.

Ah Ku frowned. “Young Sect Leader!”

Yun Changliu sat back down beside Ah Ku. He chewed and swallowed that mouthful at leisure, and then leaned close to the blue-robed young man’s ear and said quietly:

“Look at you… if you want to bully someone, just bully me. Why must you keep frightening such a small child — and waste food on top of it?”

Ah Ku gave a snort and reached out to snatch the bean bun from Yun Changliu’s hand. “Is the Young Sect Leader jealous that even those who get bullied by him have been usurped? Jealous enough to not even care about his usual aversion to dirt?”

“It is no longer dirty,” Yun Changliu said, evading the grab and composedly refuting him, “and I do not like to be jealous.”

Ah Ku made two more snatching attempts and still did not succeed. He gave up contending with the Young Sect Leader, simply shook his head, sat properly, and took a fresh bean bun to eat in small, unhurried bites.

He stopped causing a fuss, which was unlike him, and fell into a somewhat absentminded silence.

…Why had Yun Changliu picked up that fallen, dust-touched food?

It was because the other two people in this house were both lowly medicine people.

Something that had fallen to the ground — only if Yun Changliu, this noble Young Sect Leader, picked it up and ate it, would the act be stripped of any meaning of humiliation or degradation.

It was such a minute, subtle detail that perhaps no one else would have given any thought to.

Neither Ah Ku nor Ye Ru would have thought so deeply about it. Yet Young Sect Leader Changliu, who was an outsider to their world, had been this careful, and this persistent, in quietly trying to protect two young medicine people as best he could.

Ah Ku’s expression softened, little by little, growing warmer. He stole a sideways glance at Yun Changliu beside him, and felt the sweetness of the red bean paste filling melt open on his tongue, leaving a lingering fragrance.

…His little Young Sect Leader was so good. So very, very good.

All of a sudden, a thin sound of sobbing rose from the corner.

Ye Ru was gnawing at his bean bun with muffled, choked cries. He was weeping so hard his whole face had crumpled. He was trying hard not to make too much noise, and only let teardrops fall one by one onto the wooden floor of the house.

He was not as quick-witted as Ah Ku, and could not think as deeply.

He only knew… the Young Sect Leader had not let him eat the food that had fallen on the floor, yet had eaten it himself.

…

Two days later, when the two of them walked Ye Ru back to Medicine Gate, the small child took one step and looked back, then another, gazing at the Young Sect Leader again and again with reluctance to part… and then a single cold look from Ah Ku sent him scrambling away.

The two stood side by side outside Medicine Gate. Ah Ku had not been here in a long time. He looked thoughtfully at Ye Ru’s retreating figure. “Young Sect Leader, this child will be thinking of you, at the very least, for five years. If it goes on longer, it may very well be for the rest of his life.”

Yun Changliu did not understand. “Why?”

Ah Ku sighed. “You truly do not know how good you are… You saved Ye Ru’s life twice, and you saved his heart as well. With the kind of person you are, you are apt to compel others to give their entire lives away to you — and for those like Ye Ru, who have never been cherished by anyone, it is all the more so.”

Spring was nearly spent, and early summer was approaching. A breeze drifted in from the south, stirring the hair of the two young men, carrying a pleasant warmth.

Yun Changliu blinked in puzzlement. He only felt that Ah Ku was the best of all, and did not quite understand what kind of person he himself was supposed to be. When it came down to it, the Young Sect Leader only cared about one thing. “Is that sort of person… not to your liking?”

Ah Ku shook his head. He pressed his lips together and smiled at the Young Sect Leader, his eyes bright. “I like it very much. Young Sect Leader, you are so good — you ought to be revered by ten thousand people. I love seeing you draped in honor, adored and longed for by all… When you become Sect Leader one day, I will kneel to you.”

Yun Changliu was just about to say he did not want Ah Ku kneeling to him, when he heard Ah Ku murmur quietly to himself, “Besides — everyone longs for you, yet in your heart you think only of me… watching them want what they cannot have, dying of envy over me… would that not be delightful?”

And so Yun Changliu, moved by those words, bowed his head with a quiet smile and took hold of Ah Ku’s wrist. “Very well. I shall think only of you, always, and let you be as delighted as you please.”

But Ah Ku looked at him deeply, his voice going soft. “When you become Sect Leader one day, you will have your own rear chambers, with a wife and four concubines. When that time comes, you must not…”

The blue-robed young man bit his lip and looked away, restraining his embarrassment with some effort. “You must not let your heart turn to those women. You must treat me more dearly than all of them. You must make them envy me too.”

“I won’t!” Yun Changliu felt an inexplicable flutter of panic in his chest. He grabbed Ah Ku’s hand tightly. “You… don’t you know by now that I dislike being close with anyone else? I will absolutely not take a wife or concubines. I — I only want to hold you!”

“…Nonsense!”

Ah Ku didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He may have lived in that otherworldly house in the peach grove, but he went down the mountain often enough, and at his age had begun to understand certain things. “Young Sect Leader, you truly do not know what you are saying!”

Yun Changliu looked confused and reached out to pull Ah Ku into his arms. “Not this kind of holding?”

Ah Ku burst out laughing and said agreeably, “Ha — yes, yes, exactly this kind of holding.”

He laughed, and as he did, he lifted his eyes to look at the golden light of the sun flickering through the Young Sect Leader’s dark hair, and at Yun Changliu’s clear, long eyes, which held a faint and gentle bewilderment.

And he felt that this moment in time was moving by so, so slowly.