by Spring Trees
“Time to eat.” Nan Ge Er placed the dishes on the table calmly.—
Is it because I’m in a contrastingly peaceful environment, so my instincts are faulty?
“Mn.” Mo Shu played the fool as well, “I’ll help carry the dishes.”
There was a saying, ‘A gentleman should steer clear of the kitchen’2 in this world too.
It was just that in the office there were only two men with no woman around, and even gentlemen had to eat too, that was why the clumsy Nan Ge Er, who didn’t even know how to cook, had no choice but to ignore the saying.
… Of course, it didn’t matter that it was only reheating food, there was still some slightly dry vegetables that were burnt.
However, even so, Mo Shu still appeared to be fairly cheerful, calling Nan Ge Er over to sit, taking firecrackers out and letting a string of them off, before starting his meal.
—He didn’t even care about praying to the ancestors, getting ready to begin his meal by picking up his chopsticks straightforwardly.
Nan Ge Er looked at Mo Shu in perplexity, “Aren’t you going to pray to your ancestors?”
The custom was similar here, during the New Year’s Eve family dinner, a bowl of rice would be filled, food would be placed in it, and the bowl would be offered to the ancestors to ‘enjoy’— just that.
After a few minutes, the dinner would then finally start.
From what he knew, the tradition basically existed everywhere, no matter which country it was in the world, just that some details might be different.
… But this Mo Shu in front of him didn’t seem to be planning to follow the trend…
“Pray to the ancestors?” Mo Shu looked at Nan Ge Er, “Pray to what ancestors?”
… What the heck is he talking?
Nan Ge Er felt black-striped3 appearing, “Ancestors. Aren’t you going to pray to them?”
Mo Shu glanced at Nan Ge Er’s expression, “Do you want to pray?”
I’m just a wandering ghost now, where can you find any ancestors for me to pray?
I’m already dead in the previous world, so my right to pray has vanished, the me in this world didn’t want such a reincarnation right from the start, I’m not grateful for it, and I don’t want to pray.
Noting Nan Ge Er’s silence, Mo Shu spoke, “See, you don’t want to pray, I don’t want to pray either,” he waved his hands, “Let’s eat, otherwise the food will get cold.”
“Why doesn’t Mo Shu-xiansheng want to pray the ancestors?” Maybe it was the slightly intimate atmosphere that made Nan Ge Er blurt it out.
He immediately regretted it after blurting it out—he shouldn’t have asked such a question.
However, Mo Shu was startled a bit, before smiling slightly, as he replied, “Because my ancestors don’t need my prayers.” He was pleased that Nan Ge Er would have such a conversation with him.
“Huh?” Nan Ge Er blinked.
“They’re all dead anyway, so why should I pray?” Mo Shu smiled. “They wouldn’t know if I prayed or not.”
… This, this…
Don’t tell me Mo Shu is the pioneer of atheism in this world?!
Hearing such a modern way of thinking in this world for the first time made Nan Ge Er widen his eyes.
It was evident that Mo Shu misunderstood Nan Ge Er’s expression, so he laughed as he explained, “My father said that, so I’ve never prayed to my ancestors.” He picked a chopstick-full of fish and placed it on the bowl in front of Nan Ge Er, “Living to your heart’s content when alive, peacefully dying when arriving at death, it should be that way.”
Nan Ge Er looked that the fish in his bowl and unconsciously muttered, “Then, are you content with your current lifestyle?”
“Of course.” Mo Shu smiled faintly. “It’s exactly because I liked it that I stayed here. Don’t you like your current life?” He paused a bit, emphasizing, “Here, life in the government office, don’t you like it?”
He indistinctly felt something was weird from the way Mo Shu spoke, but Nan Ge Er was pondering on Mo Shu’s question, so he didn’t think too much about it. “… I don’t know,” he answered truthfully after thinking for a long time.
“If you took time thinking if you liked or disliked it, that in itself means that you don’t dislike it,” he smiled faintly, pouring a cup of wine for himself, “What do you think?”
The profound meaning in Mo Shu’s words made Nan Ge Er silent for a while, before shaking his head, “I don’t know.”
Nan Ge Er’s honest expression seemed to make Mo Shu elated; he smiled, “It’s alright if you don’t know, anyway, you have a long time to live, it will be enough for you to figure out.” Holding up his wine cup, he slowly drank the wine.
He kept feeling that those words made him oddly warm inside.
Nan Ge Er thought for a bit, shaking his head again, “Mn, I don’t know, but, uh…” he wanted to say something, but couldn’t find the right words.
He kept feeling that the words he wanted to say couldn’t be spoken by his current self, and his current self wouldn’t be able to bear them.
“See?” once Mo Shu began to drink wine, his eyes would become particularly bright; he glanced at Nan Ge Er, with a smile as gentle and clean as a spring wind, “You don’t have to hurry.”
“Mn.” Nan Ge Er nodded his head, smiling, wanting to confirm to himself again, so he nodded again before looking at Mo Shu, “Let’s eat, let’s eat.”
Mo Shu smiled faintly, pouring another cup of wine again.
* * *
1 Yamen runners (Recap from chp 2): government employees in charge of general services for the government more info:http://www.yamenrunner.com/runner
2 A nobleman should steer clear of the kitchen: idiom from Mencius. More info: (the part on ‘Mencius asks the king (King Xuan of Qi):’) http://warpweftandway.com/eichmann-arendt-milgram-and-mencius/
3 black-stripe/black-striped: emoticon (=.=”)
Chapter 15
* * *
Although Nan Ge Er’s health wasn’t too good, in an unexpected turn of events, due to a peak of interest, he took a sip of wine when Mo Shu was away—though in fact, it was a total force of habit.
He almost always drank during all of his past New Year’s, hence it became natural for him this time to take Mo Shu’s wine cup and gulp a mouthful down…
In the end, that mouthful made him regret it awfully…
It wasn’t apparent at all on the surface, that the wine Mo Shu drank was strong and tasted terrible.
When the wine reached his throat, Nan Ge Er could feel his whole body burning up, and especially his mouth; he felt as if he had really swallowed knives, it practically rendered him speechless, only causing a spicy burning sensation.
Nan Ge Er’s face was burning red; he hurriedly grabbed a cup of water and chugged it down ferociously.
Mo Shu, who got back from the kitchen, instantly spotted Nan Ge Er chugging down water, red-faced. He was a little confused at first, but when he detected a faint smell of wine on his breath, he immediately understood what had happened.
He hastily walked out.
Nan Ge Er had no time to care about what Mo Shu was doing; he was already busy with his own affairs—he was about to spit fire!
He drank water while coughing desperately—it was so spicy!
How unbelievable; Mo Shu was actually drinking such wine all the time.
The wine doesn’t smell strong, so why is it so horrifying when it is drunk?
It is surprising that Mo Shu can actually drink it with ease, that thing is practically a spirit!
Mo Shu only left for a short while, coming back immediately with a porcelain jar in his hand; he handed the jar to Nan Ge Er, “Drink up.”
Nan Ge Er was almost choked to tears, his vision blurred terribly by the wetness in his eyes; though he knew that Mo Shu was handing something to him, he just couldn’t grab it properly, his trembling hands kept swinging wildly.
He finally got hold of it, b
ut somehow he couldn’t put the jar to his mouth properly, so he spent quite some time gesticulating wildly.
Mo Shu simply push Nan Ge Er’s chin up, pouring the contents of the jar into his mouth.
… It’s honey!
Nan Ge Er could only make out the taste after drinking half the jar, smacking his lips as he did so.
Putting aside how Mo Shu was able to get ahold of something only rich people could afford, the fact that such a sweet item could get into his mouth was shocking on its own.
Mo Shu had an extreme fondness for sweet food, after all!
Noting that Nan Ge Er finally looked better, Mo Shu began to speak, “… Your health isn’t great now, so you can’t have that kind of wine.” Nan Ge Er didn’t raise his head, thus he missed the worry in Mo Shu’s eyes.
Nan Ge Er’s body’s condition wasn’t great at all now that he secretly drank wine. It truly couldn’t be predicted if his condition would worsen this night.
Nan Ge Er’s face had just slightly recovered its colors, before immediately turning red again—
Sure enough, I got caught…
So embarrassing, for me to actually steal a sip of wine—and it’s even more tragic that I got caught red-handed.
Nan Ge Er’s awkward expression slightly calmed Mo Shu’s nervous look.
He reached his hand out to pat Nan Ge Er’s head, “If you like, do you want me to get Aunt Deng from the distillery to make some distillers’ grains for you next time?” Mo Shu asked before continuing, “It’s great, tastes sweet.”
… Not everyone is like you, thinking that sweet is great, alright?!
If not for his embarrassment just now, and that his current condition wasn’t that great, Nan Ge Er almost wanted to diss him again.
But for now, he could only be silent.
He remembered that he could hold a bit of liquor in the past, but he had forgotten that it was during the time when he was a prince, and it had been three years since; probably because he hadn’t trained for a long time, and considering the degeneration of his health condition, he wasn’t used to any types of wine any more.
And the main point was that, the “spirit” Mo Shu drank wasn’t something a typical person could bear.
Mo Shu lowered his head to observe Nan Ge Er’s expression, “Are you feeling better?”
Nan Ge Er looked down as he nodded—he felt too ashamed to look at anyone.
“Alright, let’s eat.” Mo Shu held his laughter as he spoke, patting his head, getting ready to sit.
His buttocks hadn’t even touched the chair when Nan Ge Er, who was sitting obediently across from him, stood up suddenly before covering his mouth as he rushed out clumsily.
“Hey!” Mo Shu knew that the thing he was afraid would happen became a reality when he looked at Nan Ge Er’s pale and nervous expression.
As soon as Nan Ge Er reached the door, he began retching with a ‘wa’ sound.
Of course, it wasn’t because he was drunk or anything like that, it was only because his body hadn’t recovered yet, and his stomach wasn’t able to get used to such a stimulus, so he vomited.
Since he had only drunk a mouthful, it didn’t matter how ridiculously strong it was.
All of a sudden, his hands were caught, he was supported and had his back patted after that to make him feel better.
Nan Ge Er couldn’t care less, leaning onto Mo Shu, with half of his body weight supported by him, as he focused on vomiting his stomach clean of those few mouthfuls of food he had eaten.
In the end, after Nan Ge Er, who had emptied his stomach, vomited quite a bit of acid water, the terrifying nausea finally subsided.
However, he didn’t even have the energy to stand up.
Mo Shu dragged him, and helped him to lean on a chair, “I’ll go get some clothes.” Though Nan Ge Er’s clothes weren’t tainted by any filth, his cold sweat still drenched the inside of his clothes; he might get cold if he let it be, which would then easily worsen his condition.
“But…” Nan Ge Er croaked feebly with a hoarse voice, “I don’t have a dry change of clothes.” He had only two sets of clothes himself, one wasn’t dried yet, and the current one he was wearing that was drenched in sweat…
“Wear mine for now.” Mo Shu reached out to Nan Ge Er’s forehead to check his temperature, leaving to get the clothes after confirming that the other party didn’t heat up.
The cold sweat from Nan Ge Er’s body still came in fits and starts. Nan Ge Er leaned on the back of the chair, feeling cold and uncomfortable, as his consciousness began to fade; his vision shaking non-stop, flashing blacks and whites, his mind blank, his heavy eyelids began to droop…
Not knowing how much time had passed, he felt that his body was cold, after that, something was wrapping him up with a rustling noise, and after yet another while, something warm came over to him; he instinctively leaned in, not long after, that warm thing began to wrap around him.
He smacked his lips rather contently, trying hard to shrink his body, wanting to make himself smaller, curling up to that warmth.
How tiring, I’m sleepy.
With one hand, Mo Shu hugged Nan Ge Er, who was entirely leaning on his body, holding on a wine cup in the other; he lowered his head to look at the fellow who was coiling in his arms, trying to curl himself up into a ball.
He had checked just then, Nan Ge Er wasn’t in any danger at all, his slumber was probably because his physical stamina couldn’t catch up, and he got too tensed; it should be fine after a good night’s rest.
The clothes were a bit too large, so they seemed somewhat loose on Nan Ge Er’s body. Mo Shu was afraid that he would catch a cold, so he hugged Nan Ge Er when he was half-conscious.
Unexpectedly, he adorably leaned in.
He revealed an eager expression that was usually impossible to see, while slowly moving over; it was seriously extremely enamoring.
His body frail, his pale complexion… he had various ranges of scars, and those on his body were rather terrifying; he appeared to be more atrociously ugly than being pitifully cute.
However, strangely enough, everyone seemed to think that he was weak, and needed protection.
Of course.
Mo Shu finished the wine in his cup, lowering his head again, looking at Nan Ge Er who had his face almost fully buried into his chest; he put his cup down, reaching out with a finger, poking him.
I think that he is really adorable, and likable too.
Competent yet clumsy, sensitive yet thick, smart yet childish, materialistic yet a little imaginative, his impenetrable expression containing a simple, fragile heart that craved warmth.
Contradictory, but extremely cute.
A child floated over with the currents, his heart filled with despair and numbness, but like a gift from the heavens, he made my life zestful.
So, I hope that the child would be the same as me, having a zest for living.
The fellow in his arms seemed to be muttering something, his head moving a bit, as if trying to avoid Mo Shu’s finger, but it was obviously in vain, he couldn’t evade Mo Shu’s harassment at all; he could only knit his brow, rubbing his entire face on Mo Shu’s chest.
The corners of Mo Shu’s lips raised slightly, smiling, reaching out with his finger extended to dip into his cup. The fingertip dipped in wine was then placed on Nan Ge Er’s dry and rather chapped lips, “Get well soon, and then…” he didn’t continue on, only stroking his lips.
He continued hugging him while he ate and drank.
The two of them spent the New Year’s Eve silently, as they welcomed the arrival of a brand-new year.
Chapter 16
* * *
There was something warm and fluffy, with a somewhat peculiar roughness.
Nan Ge Er nuzzled it, then suddenly opened his eyes.
What kind of freakish sensation is that?!
The moment his eyes opened, they immediately met with Mo Shu’s.
He was still drinking wine, his eyes were as shi
ny as stars at the moment, looking bright, yet swift and stern; like a sharp sword that had just been unsheathed.
His lips glistened with wine; dewy, soft and rosy.
It was as if he was a completely different person.
Nan Ge Er stared blankly at Mo Shu’s face—where has the celestial-like Mo Shu gone to, who is this fiend in front of me?
His forehead was lightly knocked on, “Eat some porridge if you are awake; it’s near the stove, just bring it over.”
Nan Ge Er instinctively stood up, before subconsciously looking out the window, seeing that the sky was starting to get brighter. Though the dishes on the table had not been touched, the jar that was previously full of wine had already been emptied.
I remember it wasn’t even dawn when I lost consciousness, right?!
Drinking, drinking, drinking…
Did he just drink the whole night?!
Who are you kidding, even if your tolerance for alcohol is shockingly high, don’t you still have to go to the toilet?!
Nan Ge Er’s freaked-out expression made Mo Shu chuckle lightly, “What?”
Ugh…
Nan Ge Er shook his head, “Nothing.” He lowered his head, attempting to conceal his burning hot face.
As expected, this guy really had exceptionally outstanding looks; his usual disposition was too otherworldly, so his perfect appearance was neglected as a result; conversely, he currently looked startlingly charming, and even a slight smile from him could easily make others stare in a daze.
“Go and have your breakfast, your stomach is empty, so you at least need to eat something.” Mo Shu seemed uninterested in pressing on, casually pointing to the small earthen pot near the stove.
“Mn.” Nan Ge Er took a deep breath before getting porridge from the pot.
Why in the world was he being hugged the whole night by Mo Shu, and when in the world had Mo Shu made the porridge…
He really didn’t have the courage to ask him.
There was suddenly cracking noises of firecrackers coming from the door, accompanied by little children’s laughter, “Nan Ge Er, Mo Shu-xiansheng, messengers of Cai Shen1 have arrived!”