chapter 31

Xiang Tiange, the initiator of evil, erupted all of a sudden with his expression uninviting and trembling, he couldn’t even hold his hypocritical smile on his face longer.

The man outside started ratting Xiang Tiange out in confession, saying, “He promised me that if I made this successfully, he will deliver me 200 silver coins. So in the thought that this kind of affair isn’t that perilous but somehow unethical. I took the mission immediately. Well, I know I am not that kind of sage, Sure enough, I choose the money.”

“Since I’ve come here, Xiang Tiange arranged me to meet a femina male, I know he is the husband of the Head Villager in your village. Someone named Mei… I am not quite sure.” The man continued to utter.

“Mei Xilin,” Wu Dahu said, trying to remind the man of the name.

“Ah, yes, that’s it. It’s Mei Xilin! You bet, it must be a secret affair between Xiang Tiange and Mei Xilin if you’ve seen how they acted. Disgusting jerks they are!”

In the room, Mei Xilin had already got himself a totally pale look on his face. He didn’t dare to speak a word noticing the indifferent eyes of Wu Pinglang. Shaking his head without a word, he seemed to deny everything just happened.

Song Qinghan frowned and said to the man, “Keep confessing! What happened after you met with Mei Xilin?”

The man thought for a moment and then uttered with his expression mixing with rage and grudge, “And then he informed me how to knock your door and seduce you out. He taught me everything including the injury of Xiaoqing’s femina dad, Qin Aye’s clothes and the accident of Dahu.”

“Fu*k that piece of shit! If I know he is such impotent, I would not have accepted this task!” murmured the man.

As he tried to swallow a bit, he could clearly feel the the blade of the dagger scratching and tearing apart his skin, he couldn’t help but beg again, trembling, “I… I confessed you all the matter, let go of me now! I will give the money back to Xiang Tiange. I won’t come this place again.”

Noticing that Wu Pinglang had already walked out from the room showing up in the yard, Wu Dahu loosened his hands but then tied the man up again, whispering to the man, “It all depends on the Head Villager to let you go or not. But I’d like to warn you in advance, STAY AWAY FROM MY PLACE!”

The warning seemed to work, the man was frightened, trembled. He responded immediately and promised, “I won’t, I won’t come here again. Never, never!”

Wu Pinglang clenched his fists, trying to calm himself down, saying in equanimity, “We should take this guy to the court! I am free this afternoon, I can go with you to the town.”

After that, he turned around staring at Xiang Tiange and Mei Xilin, awating the explanation from this two.

Mei Xilin stepped forward a bit with his hypocritical expression and red-rimmed eyes, trying to grab the hands of Wu Pinglang, but only to receive an ignorance of him. He then used his handkerchief to wipe his next-to-nothing tears, feeling wronged and saying, “If I were sent to the court, probably there will be some physical punishment ahead for me. Do you really like me to suffer from that? What if I die from it?”

Xiang Tiange stepped out and said with hesitation, “We can’t trust this guy since he can not prove himself the truth. And furthermore, we lost nothing from him, did we? Brother Wu, how about we just be generous and let this guy go?”

Wu Pinglang gave a cold glance to these performing clowns, and then pointed at Song Qinghan, saying, “Loss? If there’s something lost, do you think you can afford all of it? Dahu’s husband is going to deliver his baby within months. If something bad happened to him. How do you think you can make him up? He’s carrying a BABY! A fetus alive, not a toy!”

Wu Pinglang continued to lecture since both of the malicious men lowered their heads, “Mei Xilin! How dare you to have done and arranged all these evil matters, just for taking revenge on the matter that Dahu didn’t deliver you the fabrics yesterday? Am I that poor not giving you the happiness? Or do you think you can be that capricious thinking that I am behind your back?”

“And you! Xiang Tiange! I‘ve always respected you because you’re senior to me. I respect you and I call you my brother. But look at yourself, do you think you are the unique dictatorship being as the head of the village, and run yourself riot? There are countless men out there, why are you being so mean and wanting Dahu to marry your son? And dared to hurt a femina male in pregnancy? If that really happened today, and your son marry Dahu as you wish. That’s not a marriage in happiness but a bloody one! Aren’t you afraid being punished by the god up over your head?”

Speaking with rage, Wu Pinglang got himself quite exhausted after lecturing them, he then waved his hand and said tiredly, “Both of you should come with us to the court. I will see all the truth there! If you don’t want the yamen runners to catch you up, then follow me up behind!”

Mei Xilin was whimpering, trembling, without even raising his head up, but still settled himself behind Wu Pinglang.

Xiang Tiange clenched his fists, gritted his teeth and walked out of the door first, nursing a rage in his mind but leaving only one sentence, “Go ahead!”

Wu Pinglang held the end of the rope and pushed the man out. When he passed through Wu Dahu, he spoke to Wu Dahu with such a serious face, “Dahu, don’t worry, I will get you the justice back.”

Wu Dahu nodded but said nothing to him. He only bid farewell to Wu Pinglang after he walked out the yard the last of the line, saying, “Head Villager, take care of yourself!”

Wu Pinglang took a pause hearing that, but did not turn around. He just answered Wu Dahu in a low voice, saying, “I will!”, and then headed out.

Finally, Song Qinghan got himself relieved getting through himself an exhausting and tiring morning. He walked over to by the side of Wu Dahu, patting the man on shoulder, saying, “The Head Villager, he is such a man of kindness as you described. It’s just a pity that his husband isn’t that kind of humble!”

Wu Dahu nodded, holding Song Qinghan’s waist and guiding him back to the room. And then he placed the dagger on the table, saying after settling Song Qinghan on a seat, “It’s you being smart! You can’t expect the consequence if you don’t pay attention!”

Although it was not a quite suitable question for asking now, Song Qinghan still couldn’t help but ask, “What if they frame me successfully? What would you do?”

Wu Dahu took a pause, answering, “They can’t make it.”

Song Qinghan was not satisfied with the answer and continued to ask, “How do you know they can’t make it? If I lost my mind and got myself trapped by their tricks. At that time, they would force you to divorce with me!”

Wu Dahu insisted, “They won’t succeed.”

The two answers were echoing, and definitely showing no difference from each other, which suddenly irrigated Song Qinghan. If his answers weren’t that perfunctory, or said something, like, “I will investigate it myself.”, that would be much better than that. But since Wu Dahu got no other answers, Song Qinghan had to get him a respond, frustrated one, “Fine, fine! It’s my fault to ask some silly questions like that!”

“I won’t believe them, so they won’t succeed.” said Wu Dahu.

Song Qinghan was stunned the words of suddenness uttered by Wu Dahu. And then he regained his attention and found out what he meant, he got his face blushed all of a sudden, whispering, “So you mean you will trust me no matter what they said?”

“Of course!” Wu Dahu answered without hesitation. Song Qinghan was inspired, the happiness was in full bloom. He then delivered a naughty squint to Wu Dahu, complaining, “Why did you give me this answer at first. Go cook now, I am starving!”

Noticing the intermittently changeable mood of Song Qinghan, Wu Dahu struggled to figure it out the reason, but he failed. He only knew that he probably dodged a “disaster”, then nodded and walked outward.

After lunch, Song Qinghan noticed that Wu Dahu had regained his own energy, so he suggested, “It’s still early right now. Why don’t we pick some fructus momordicae fruits and illicium verums back?”

Wu Dahu nodded, and then he took the tools and went into the mountain again with Song Qinghan.

It happened that Wu Dahu took a pause picking up the fruits and then informed Song Qinghan that he would leave for hunting in the inner woods.

This wasn’t a big deal for Song Qinghan because every time when Wu Dahu leaf for a hunting, he wouldn’t leave far, just stayed within a certain area. So he never felt insecure at all.

The night almost fell while Song Qinghan had already picked two bag of handful fruits and illicium verums. Wu Dahu came back from the woods with a pile of preys.

At the moment Song Qinghan caught a glimpse of Wu Dahu, he noticed a trace of blood showing up on Wu Dahu’s cheek. Worrying that something happened to him, he asked worriedly, “Did you get hurt?”

Wu Dahu smiled big, as if the hunt had dissipated all the grudge and bitterness clustering in his mind. And then he shook his head, saying, “No, I didn’t. I promised you that I will take care of myself.”

Song Qinghan got himself released hearing that. Seeing the stuff on Wu Dahu’s back, he sighed, saying, “I can’t bear many since the pregnancy, if not I could help you out.”

Wu Dahu was about to comfort Song Qinghan trying to pat him on his back, but he had to give it up since he carried a pile of preys on his hands. He consoled Song Qinghan, “Don’t worry about me. I got enough strength to carry these two baskets. It’s not a big deal. Even if you’re not pregnant, I won’t let you carry them.”

Hearing that, a trace of warmth flowed right in Song Qinghan’s mind. He walked slowly and carefully, that was what he could do now: To try to relax Wu Dahu in mind.

When they got home, Song Qinghan took a handkerchief bedewed with water and helped wipe the blood off Wu Dahu’s face. Staring at the charming face of Wu Dahu, Song Qinghan exclaimed, “It would be perfect if our child spit image of you.”

Song Qinghan turned to a face of awkwardness after he realized what he had just said, he turned his head around and pretended to wash the handkerchief. He prayed, he wished, he would hope that Wu Dahu didn’t notice what he said.

Well, the face was that Wu Dahu listened every single word, he just smiled, saying, “Why will it be perfect? I think it will be just perfect if he looks like you.”

There was nowhere to hide anymore, Song Qinghan had to face it, he then turned around again and said in a serious tone, “No, I doubt it over that. He must be charming as you are. If he is spitting image of me, like, being another me of cowardliness. Madness will surely drive me crazy.”

It arose a bit anger for Song Qinghan since he himself described himself of cowardliness.

He had looked at himself from the inverted image. That was a delicate appearance, sure enough! He would even believe that he was just a total woman if he didn’t get a bulge underpants. Here, everybody exclaimed and praised over his good look. But as for him, a man with such a feminine appearance possessed no aesthetic beauty at all. A man should be wild and rough as Wu Dahu, especially his figure…

Wu Dahu looked at Song Qinghan surprisingly, saying with a teasing tone, “Hey, your mouth’s watering and dripping. Are you hungry? I will cook now.”

Song Qinghan rubbed his mouth awkwardly, nodding.

This must be the effect of pregnancy! In the past, he had not been as infatuated as before. He would only indulged himself in the thought but never brought it up on his expression. What was wrong with him now? Mouth’s watering? Hell no! If Wu Dahu figured out what he was thinking about, he probably would believe he had married a fool.