[Title here]

by Spring Trees

  I hate all of these!

  He had never hated anything, since he had no time for that.

  Like a startled beast that was chased by a hunter, he used up all of his strength to run forward, not even having the time to take a breather.

  Currently, the him who began relaxing, finally had the energy to hate, to resent.

  After not knowing how much time passed, he raised his head at last.

  The tears had already stopped, he only felt a bit dazed in his heart.

  Not knowing how to live from now on.

  The sky was still dark at the moment, maybe it was still midnight, the wind outside blew, even though he was inside, he still instinctively thought that outside would definitely be chilly.

  However, for Nan Ge Er who was currently in emotional turmoil, it seemed suitable—he felt that he needed to calm down.

  Wearing his outdoor clothes, he wobbled as he walked out.

  The winter in this world was always chilly, and yet having no air conditioner1 or feather quilts like those in the modern days; no matter if his body was wrapped in fur coats and cotton yarns, he would still be unable to bear the cold; after being soaked in the palace prison for three years, the core of his body got utterly wrecked; now, even before the late winter arrived, he would start to feel the cold in his body, unable to get warmed up no matter what, incapable of successfully falling asleep every night.

  Since currently in the government office the ability to have a full meal was the result of his efforts, he clearly couldn’t just wishfully hope for a fur coat.

  Placing a few more layers of cotton coats, he pushed the door open and walked out.

  As soon as the door opened, the wind began blasting in, the ferocity almost blowing him away.

  Intuitively, he shrank his neck in and took a few steps back.

  He waited for the gust of violent wind to die down, he then began to walk out of his room trembling, with his hands burrowed in the opposite sleeves.

  It was indeed midnight now.

  With no moon or stars in sight.

  Although the current budget of the government office wasn’t as tight as before, due to cost-saving considerations, there were only two lanterns hung at the door, it was almost pitch dark on the other side of the door—except for the small pitiful lanterns leading to the toilet.

  He obviously had no interest in walking towards the toilet.

  Thus, not caring of the darkness ahead, he just walked aimlessly in a casual and awkward manner.

  Just walking listlessly around.

  The moment when he felt as if he was going to be frozen, he noticed a shadow at the pavilion in front.

  Startled, he was about to run back, but he quickly regained his composure; aside from him, who would be in the government office?

  At the same time, the shadow uttered a beautiful clear voice, “Nan Ge Er?”

  … As expected, it was Magistrate-daren

  Nan Ge Er temporarily forgot his grievous turmoil, and drew the corners of his mouth, “Daren, why are you out here instead of resting?”

  I remembered you waking earlier than roosters and sleeping later than dogs!

  “I.” Mo Shu lightly chuckled as he replied, “Am viewing the plum blossoms.”

  “Hah?” Nan Ge Er answered disbelievingly, while stumbling towards the pavilion where Mo Shu was.

  When he arrived, the government looked poor, but judging from its structure, it could be proven that a lot of thought was put into renovating the government office.

  There was at least some land in the area of the pavilion that contained a fake mountain and a man-made lake, it’s just that it never came in handy.

  “Currently, it isn’t the time for plum blossoms to bloom, right?” Plum blossoms should be blooming in the late winter, shouldn’t it? It was still too early now.

  “Mm” Mo Shu answered, “It isn’t time yet.”

  “…” Then what the heck are you viewing?

  A gust of cold wind blew past him, making him shrink his neck and legs involuntarily; that, coupled with his thick layers of clothes, made him unaware that his left leg had caught his right leg, hence he lost balance and tumbled down.

  However, he ended up being supported.

  “Eh?” He instinctively raised his head in a daze.

  Though he couldn’t see anything in the darkness.

  “…Be careful.” Mo Shu cautioned, while helping him up, holding onto his hand as he pulled him to the pavilion.

  …Daren, your warning was said too “quickly”!

  Nan Ge Er was speechless.

  Truthfully, he was still rather shocked.

  My current distance from Mo Shu’s pavilion was at least ten steps away, so how did Mo Shu realize that I was going to fall and rush over to help me up in time?

  As expected, Mo Shu did know kungfu, and seemed to be rather great at it too.

  Mo Shu didn’t release Nan Ge Er’s hands even after bringing him up to the pavilion; he reached out his hands to hold on Nan Ge Er’s hands that were almost numbed from the cold, asking in a slightly concerned tone, “Why are they so chilly?”

  “I’m sensitive to cold.” Nan Ge Er was baffled as he answered, of course, he couldn’t stop his voice from shivering because of the cold.

  Despite standing in such a bitterly cold wind, Mo Shu’s palms remained warm, letting Nan Ge Er’s fingers regained a few of their senses.

  “Tsk” A click from Mo Shu could be heard faintly, before he began rubbing his hands, “Your body is too feeble.”

  Despite thinking that Mo Shu couldn’t see his face from the darkness, Nan Ge Er still instinctively pulled a smile on his face, “Yup, it was accumulated over the years.”

  Mo Shu didn’t continue pestering him about that, probably because he noticed Nan Ge Er was unwilling to continue the conversation.

  “Why were you outside?” Mo Shu rubbed one of Nan Ge Er’s hands a bit, then changed to the other, while shifting as well, to block him from the oncoming wind.

  “I had a dream.” Nan Ge Er replied truthfully, before asking him back, “The plum blossoms haven’t blossomed yet, have they?”

  From his point of view, there wasn’t a single plum blossom in sight.

  “There.” Mo Shu pointed to a particular direction with his chin, “There is a plum tree in that area.”

  After walking in the darkness for quite some time, Nan Ge Er’s eyes had gradually adapted to the dark, so his eyes followed the direction indicated by Mo Shu’s chin.

  … There was only a bunch of branches in the darkness, no flower at all.

  “None.”

  “Mm,” Mo Shu was rather quick in admitting it, before commenting, “By the way, I really wanted to thank you.”

  “Huh?” Not knowing what Magistrate-daren was implying, Nan Ge Er blurted out, perplexed.

  “If not for your arrival at the government office, there wouldn’t even be any firewood today, not to mention wines.” Mo Shu added, “It is quite shameful to admit, but Zhu Xi and I aren’t adept at managing, that’s why everyone in the government couldn’t even have a proper meal, we’re utterly useless.” Zhu Xi was the advisor-xiansheng. He stopped for a while, before continuing, “Your body is frail in the first place, we shouldn’t have worked you to the bone, but there isn’t enough manpower, or enough money…” As he finished speaking, Mo Shu’s voice got lower, “Couldn’t focus on a matter when working on another, really…”

  Noting that Mo Shu seemed to be rather dejected, Nan Ge Er quickly piped in, “…It isn’t actually that hard.” That was the truth, since he wasn’t great at tidying and daily chores, he only did them in a slipshod manner, after that, the kitchen aunty would finish them up when her work was done, hence he didn’t need to do much.

  His usual hecticness was just purely for his own needs.

  It’s just the fact that he couldn’t have a full meal even when he was in the government was indeed rather tragic.

  Mo Shu chuckled softly, then stopped ta
lking.

  After quite a moment of silence, Nan Ge Er couldn’t help but ask again, “Erm, Daren, there isn’t any plum blossoms, so you are…?” He really didn’t get it, in such a chilling day, Mo Shu was outside, looking at the bald plum tree in a daze, euphemistically viewing plum blossoms…

  “I’m viewing the plum blossoms.” Mo Shu laughed lightly.

  Even though darkness blurred his sight, Nan Ge Er, who was slowly adapting to the darkness, could still see his lips raised.

  “But…” There aren’t even any plum blossoms around here, what on earth is that no-brow looking at!2

  “I’m viewing the plum blossoms blooming in the future.” Mo Shu chimed in again.

  “Plum blossoms blooming in the future?” Nan Ge Er got even more confused.

  “There, the neighbor’s plum tree.” Mo Shu laughed, “Not long after, the plum blossoms will bloom, they are white, clustered together, exceptionally graceful and beautiful.”

  “They have not blossomed yet.”

  “Mm, so I said, they are plum blossoms of the future.” Mo Shu laughed.

  “So you are viewing the blossoms from your imagination in such a cold night?” No matter how great Nan Ge Er’s composure was, he couldn’t help but mutter out at that moment, “How would you know what the plum blossoms will look like?”

  “I don’t know, do you?” Mo Shu laughed as he asked back.

  “How would I know.” Nan Ge Er felt deadpanned.

  “That’s it.” Mo Shu muttered faintly, “No one knows how the plum blossoms will look like when they blossom, even they themselves wouldn’t know, only knowing when they bloomed. However, this can’t stop me from guessing what they will look like in the future, can it?”

  “Eh?” Nan Ge Er was dazed, he felt that Mo Shu’s words seemed profound, but he couldn’t quite figure it out.

  “That’s why, I guess that it will continue blooming beautiful white flowers, like those from the previous year.” Mo Shu calmly commented, “At least, at this moment, I am viewing the scenery that I guessed.”

  … Your method of blossom viewing is too incomprehensible to a layman like me.

  “And so what if I can’t see them this year? Next year, or the subsequent year, I will still be able to view the blooming of plum blossoms one day.” Mo Shu laughed, turning to face Nan Ge Er.

  Although he couldn’t see Mo Shu’s expression well in the darkness, Nan Ge Er could feel Mo Shu’s gaze falling onto him.

  Nonetheless, he just looked at Mo Shu in a daze, letting a sluggish voice out. “Huh?” He still couldn’t understand what Mo Shu meant.

  Even though at the moment, he was able to gather that Mo Shu did mean something profound, but he still couldn’t comprehend it.

  Mo Shu curled his lips, turning back to look at the plum tree again, “How wonderful, plum tree.”

  Nan Ge Er hadn’t reacted to it yet, concentrating on thinking about Mo Shu’s words.

  The seemingly elegant Mo Shu added, “The plum blossoms can be viewed, the plums can be eaten, what a great deal.”

  “…” Nan Ge Er felt that he must have gotten his head stuck in too many doors to consider the guy elegant.

  * * *

  1. Air-conditioners in Asia comes with heating functions as well.

  2. Part of the sentence was a pun :“眉（梅）毛都没有”, literal translation -there weren’t any “hair” of (plum blossoms)”brows” around. “毛都没有”was a casual way of saying nothing at all, with “毛” meaning hair/fur on its own. Since the”眉(mei)” in眉毛(eyebrow)sound similar to 梅(mei)(plum), thus the author included as a “眉毛”pun. Tracy the pun master helped me with the sentence =D

  Chapter 8

  * * *

  The next day, after Nan Ge Er got out of bed, he shockingly found Magistrate-daren, who should’ve already left the government office to cruise around outside, was in the hall, looking thoughtfully at the fake mountain.

  Nan Ge Er, as he held onto the dirty laundry, was stunned, before he stopping in his tracks. What kind of wind was blowing today?

  Hearing Nan Ge Er’s footsteps, Mo Shu turned his head over, smiling towards him, “It’s Nan Ge Er. Good morning.”

  “Ah…” Nan Ge Er replied dully, “Good morning, Daren.”

  “Are you going to wash the laundry? Place it there, I’ll wash it later.” Mo Shu told him naturally.

  “Uh…” Nan Ge Er twitched the corner of his mouth, “Well erm, I had arranged with Aunty Wang who should be cooking today, she will be helping to wash the laundry today.” Observing Mo Shu’s expression, he quickly added, “Erm, I will give her a few more dou1 of grains.” He knew that Mo Shu disliked taking advantage of the townspeople, so he explained accordingly.

  Of course, actually, to the affluent townspeople, a few dou of grains didn’t mean much, and couldn’t really be considered a payment; their reason for helping was more to help Mo Shu, the few dou of grains was just casually given as payment, insignificant.

  Nonetheless, Nan Ge Er’s reply made Mo Shu somewhat satisfied, he stopped focusing on that question, and asked Nan Ge Er back, “Is there enough grain at home?”

  “Enough to last till the new year.” Nan Ge Er roughly estimated, “That is if Daren stops giving reliefs out freely.” He emphasized on the sentence.

  Truthfully, he felt that in the entire town, the one that needed relief the most was this Magistrate-daren.

  Mo Shu gave a slightly awkward smile. “Well, the weather’s cold, don’t stroll outside, quickly get back in.”

  Nan Ge Er asked curiously, “Daren, you aren’t planning to go out today?”

  “Mm,” Mo Shu nodded, “I can’t keep doing work outside, there are also quite a few major and minor things for me to take care of here, I can’t constantly rely on secretaries either.”

  …You did know that, as a magistrate, you shouldn’t keep cruising around?!

  Nan Ge Er rebuked in his heart.

  He sincerely felt that the methods of managing work in Guang Tian differed too much from others.

  It wasn’t really free of emergencies, but whenever one happened, Nan Ge Er would only see the concerned party rushing into the government office to report on the matter, and then rushing back, not even waiting there.

  The next day, the matter would somehow seemingly be resolved…

  If there weren’t any emergencies, Mo Shu would usually flip through the documents and pen the situation down after getting back at night, then write an official report.

  Anyways, he was truly curious about how Magistrate-daren resolved all those major and minor matters.

  “Probably after winter and spring.” Mo Shu contemplated, “I’m usually outside during summer and autumn.”

  “Is there any reason for that?” Nan Ge Er opened his eyes wide. Was it because there was lots of farm work, so Mo Shu paid calls directly outside?

  Mo Shu looked at Nan Ge Er strangely, “I will go out whenever I want to go out for work. It is boring to keep on sitting around.”

  Nan Ge Er drew up the corners of his mouth, speechless – this guy was just purely hyperactive.

  Simple townsfolk, you were all fooled by his facade.

  “I’m going to deliver the laundry.” He didn’t even want to say a word more to Mo Shu, turning and walking away.

  “Mm, be careful, don’t stay outside for too long, your body is frail.” Mo Shu reminded, before he continued viewing the fake mountain that was pretty much destroyed.

  After a few steps, Nan Ge Er couldn’t help but turn around, asking, “Daren, what are you looking at?” Was there a unique artistic conception in the fake mountain that only someone who had a tranquil state of mind like Mo Shu could see?

  Mo Shu slanted his head and looked at Nan Ge Er, “What am I looking at?” He surprisingly questioned Nan Ge Er back.

  Nan Ge Er instinctively felt that he probably overestimated Mo Shu, but he still held some hope, scratching his chin, “I saw you looking at the fake mountain.”
/>   Mo Shu nodded, “Is that so, so you noticed it.”

  Listening to Mo Shu, Nan Ge Er thought he possibly misunderstood Mo Shu, perhaps he really was musing on something.

  “So the direction where I was gazing at was towards the fake mountain.” Mo Shu murmured.

  Though the volume wasn’t loud, Nan Ge Er was near him, so he naturally heard it.

  He felt speechless, turned and walked away. “Daren, if you are that free, why don’t you work on the government documents?” He threw the sentence to him.

  “Because I’m still not adjusted to it.” Mo Shu grumbled in dissatisfaction, “It’s so boring to just be in one place.”

  …I’m wrong, why in the world do I keep thinking that the guy is deep? I’m a total idiot!

  Even though there wasn’t much interaction between them, as compared to other townsfolk, Nan Ge Er could be considered having quite a bit of knowledge about Mo Shu’s character.

  He believed that Zhu Xi probably knew the guy’s empty-headed nature, but just didn’t say it out loud.

  As for the yamen runners, police and various government workers, along with the townsfolk…

  They seemed to have their eyes covered by bullshit, the Mo Shu they saw with their eyes was totally a saint.

  No matter what that guy did, their eyes would beautify it subconsciously, overlooking the imperfections, endlessly magnifying the strengths, and then letting the best image of him appeared onto their eyes…

  Nan Ge Er believed that even if he spilled out Mo Shu’s true colors, everyone would still rationalize it, before solidifying Mo Shu’s saintly image in their hearts again.

  Anyway, Nan Ge Er didn’t really plan on doing such an impractical thing.

  “Ah, Nan Ge Er.” Advisor Zhu Xi was in front of him, walking towards him. He looked rather anxious, only calming down a little after noticing him, and then greeted him, “Good morning.”

  Nan Ge Er nodded, “Good morning, xiansheng.”

  “Look at your small stature.” Zhu Xi walked the few steps over to Nan Ge Er and started tousling his hair, “Have you seen Mo Shu?”