“Well…you know, for someone like me who’s been despised as a beggar all my life, suddenly being told I look good makes me feel really happy inside! I can’t wait for them to praise my looks more!”
“Is that so?”
Shu Wuxi’s tone lifted at the end, and Lu Xiaochan couldn’t fathom his joy.
Or perhaps Shu Wuxi simply had no emotions at all.
“Let’s go! Let’s go! The sugar figurine artist is just up ahead!”
Lu Xiaochan tugged on the bamboo branch, and Shu Wuxi continued walking forward. He didn’t mention plucking out people’s eyes again, which allowed Lu Xiaochan to breathe a sigh of relief.
In front of the small sugar figurine stall, a group of children had gathered.
They were all spinning a wheel.
It cost one copper coin for each spin. The wheel was painted with a circle of monkeys, little birds, butterflies, dragonflies, and the like. When the wheel stopped, Old Chen would scoop up a ladle of syrup and draw whatever the pointer indicated.
The children didn’t have spare money every day, so most of them just watched from the side.
Lu Xiaochan called out loudly. “Old Chen! I want to spin the wheel. Draw one for me!”
Old Chen, who was cooking the sugar, looked up and saw a young man dressed in a green robe.
Because Lu Xiaochan had been begging all along, eating irregularly, he looked smaller than other youths his age. At sixteen, he appeared more like thirteen or fourteen.
His fair face had a pair of large eyes, as bright as if all the stars in the sky had fallen into a mirror lake. His nose was pointed, giving him a bit of a mischievous air. The corners of his mouth were turned up, and while it was clearly a smug smile, it also exuded a sense of unrestrained innocence.
Just one look at him made you want to take two more.
“Oh, where does this young master come from? Are you here in Lushu Town for sightseeing?”
Lu Xiaochan blinked and pointed at himself, saying, “Old Chen, look closer! It’s me, the blind little beggar!”
“What?” Old Chen rubbed his eyes. “You… is this what you really look like?”
“Then… what should I look like?”
Old Chen thought to himself, indeed… this little beggar had always been disheveled, with a dirty face. People didn’t like to get close to him, so who had ever carefully observed what he really looked like?
“You look very good now…How did you…suddenly become so…”
“So clean?” Lu Xiaochan looked proud and tugged on the bamboo pole beside him. “My family came to find me! Hahaha!”
“I see!”
“Let me spin once. Don’t cheat me on what it lands on! I know butterflies and dragonflies use less syrup! My family is watching from the side!”
“If you really spin the flying dragon, I’ll definitely draw it for you!” Old Chen laughed.
He had long since rigged this wheel. No matter how one spun it, it would only land on things like little birds or butterflies. It never landed on the flying dragon that required a whole ladle of syrup to draw.
Lu Xiaochan seriously gripped the wheel with both hands and gave it a push downward.
“Has the wheel stopped yet?”
“Not yet,” Shu Wuxi answered.
“Has it stopped now?”
“Not yet.”
“Why hasn’t it stopped?”
Old Chen was stirring the syrup with a ladle. When he looked up, the wheel had finally stopped.
Looking at where the pointer landed, the old man nearly threw out his back.
“What did I spin?”
“A flying dragon,” Shu Wuxi answered.
“Great! I got a flying dragon for just one copper coin! Quick, draw it for me!”
Lu Xiaochan was certain that this time his luck had truly turned. With Shu Wuxi by his side, his luck seemed exceptionally good.
Lu Xiaochan rested his chin on his hands and crouched in front of Old Chen, waiting.
Although Old Chen felt the pain of using a whole ladle of syrup, he still drew a flying dragon for Lu Xiaochan.
Lu Xiaochan clutched it in his hand and called out, “Shu Wuxi, help me pay one copper coin, will you?”
“Mm.” Shu Wuxi reached out and placed a silver bean in Old Chen’s hand.
Old Chen was stunned. “Young master…this is a small business, I can’t make change for…”
But Shu Wuxi acted as if he hadn’t heard anything and followed behind Lu Xiaochan as they walked away.
Lu Xiaochan tugged on the bamboo branch and turned back to ask quietly, “Did you give him one copper coin?”
“I don’t know,” Shu Wuxi replied.
When Lu Xiaochan heard this, he nearly exploded. “You gave it without knowing? Then how much did you give?”
“A silver bean.”
“A…a silver bean?” Lu Xiaochan’s eyes nearly fell out. “You must have a lot of money, right?”
“Mm, wealth to rival a nation,” Shu Wuxi answered.
“Really?” Lu Xiaochan’s eyes widened.
“That’s what you used to say.”
“I said… you have wealth to rival a nation?”
“Mm.” Shu Wuxi replied calmly.
Lu Xiaochan swallowed. It seemed his luck really was good!
“You… you’re so rich that… you have no concept of money?”
“I only know that a thousand gold pieces can’t buy your happiness.”
This sentence, spoken in Shu Wuxi’s unique voice, had a heart-trembling quality to it.
It was like being frozen in an icy world for a long time, then suddenly having someone warm your hands by pressing them to their chest.
“You… who taught you to sweet-talk like that?”
“You.”
“Me? When did I ever teach you that?”
‘A thousand gold pieces can’t buy your happiness’ and such… how did it sound so much like a rich man coaxing a young woman?
“One day, you packed a bag, filling it with gold beans and gold leaves. I asked you why you were taking those things. You answered me saying, ‘A thousand gold pieces can’t buy your happiness.'”
Lu Xiaochan choked for a moment… Was he a money-grubber in the past?
“You wouldn’t just let me take all your gold beans and gold leaves like that, would you?” Lu Xiaochan asked.
“Mm, you were smiling very happily while hugging the gold beans.”
Lu Xiaochan pressed his hand to his head. Why couldn’t he remember the things Shu Wuxi remembered?
Since Shu Wuxi had wealth to rival a nation, he surely wouldn’t care if Lu Xiaochan walked away with a bag of gold beans.
He couldn’t remember past events, but now he had to salvage his image in front of Shu Wuxi.
“Um, Shu Wuxi, it’s not the gold beans that make me happy.”
“Then what is it?” Shu Wuxi asked.
“It’s because of your willingness to give to me.”
Lu Xiaochan tried his best to make his expression look serious, certain, and believable.
At that moment, the bamboo branch in Lu Xiaochan’s hand trembled slightly.
“Mm.”
Shu Wuxi responded softly, seemingly without much inflection, but Lu Xiaochan knew that Shu Wuxi liked hearing him say that.
“Let’s go! Time for pig blood soup!”
Since Shu Wuxi had money, he was going to order a double portion of pig blood!
Unfortunately today, Old woman Wang who sold pig blood soup hadn’t opened her stall. The reason was that the butcher in town hadn’t slaughtered any pigs today, so there was no pig blood.
Lu Xiaochan sighed regretfully, but then smiled. “It’s okay! After all, I got the flying dragon today!”
“Aren’t you going to eat it?” Shu Wuxi asked.
“I want to look at it more.”
“You can’t see.”
“I just want to hold it like this. Once it’s eaten, it’ll be gone.”
Lu Xiaochan suddenly grew quiet.
He suddenly felt a bit afraid, afraid that Shu Wuxi would melt away like the sugar figurine, would shatter if dropped on the ground, would disappear when he woke from this dream.
He had never been loved before, so he didn’t care whether others were kind to him or not.
But in just these few hours of interaction, Shu Wuxi seemed to have given him everything Lu Xiaochan had occasionally fantasized about.
“Lu Xiaochan, why have you stopped talking?” Shu Wuxi asked.
Lu Xiaochan found it strange. “Why do you always want me to talk? Don’t you get annoyed if I talk non-stop?”
“When you talk non-stop, I know you’re still here.”
Shu Wuxi’s voice was always very calm.
But beneath this calmness was a subtle carefulness that wasn’t easily noticeable.
Perhaps others couldn’t hear it, but Lu Xiaochan could feel it.
“Then don’t stay too far from me either. I can smell your scent, so I know you’re here.”
“Alright.”
Shu Wuxi led Lu Xiaochan into the Wusi Tavern.
The waiter guided them to sit by the window. Just as Lu Xiaochan was about to reach for the chopstick holder, Shu Wuxi pushed it in front of him.
Lu Xiaochan grinned as he placed the flying dragon in the chopstick holder, then felt for a pair of chopsticks and handed them to Shu Wuxi. Though his expression was ingratiating, it didn’t seem sycophantic, but rather childlike.
Shu Wuxi accepted the chopsticks.
The waiter spoke warmly. “You two aren’t locals, are you? Our most famous thing here is the wine…”
“Waiter! You don’t even recognize me! Me! Me! Me!” Lu Xiaochan pointed at himself excitedly.
“Have I seen you before? Your voice does sound familiar…”
“I’m Lu Xiaochan! The beggar who sits under your tavern’s window!”
The waiter was stunned, nearly stumbling.
“What? You’re…you’re the little beggar? Is this what you really look like?”
“What do I look like?”
“Handsome and good-looking! If I had known, you should have cleaned yourself up before coming out to beg! Maybe Ren Erniang would have been willing to keep you! She’d treat you like her precious darling every day, how could she bear to let you get beaten on the streets!” The waiter pretended to wipe the table while bending down to whisper to Lu Xiaochan.
Lu Xiaochan had been despised all his life, but now even the waiter was saying he looked good. His heart felt as if it had been filled with a large bowl of honey.
“If even you say I look good, then I must really be good-looking!”
Just then, there was a “crack” sound, as if chopsticks were being snapped.
Lu Xiaochan felt for another pair of chopsticks from the holder and handed them across the table.
“But why are you mentioning Ren Erniang out of nowhere? That crazy woman…”
“Let me tell you, Ren Erniang is sitting diagonally across from you! Since you came in, her eyes have been fixed on you! She’s been sending flirtatious glances several times. It’s only because you’re blind that you haven’t noticed!”
“I am blind after all… Has Ren Erniang eaten a bear’s heart and leopard’s gall? How dare she stare at another man, won’t her husband beat her to pieces?”
(TL: eaten a bear’s heart and leopard’s gall=extremely bold or audacious)
At this moment, almost all the guests in the tavern had noticed Ren Erniang looking at Lu Xiaochan with a face full of spring-like emotions.
