Chapter 28 (2/2)

Feng Ning swallowed her saliva, and shook her head. “Even if I eat this it won’t be enough. Rather than having two people starving, why not just let you be full. You’re sick, so you should be eating something. I’m fine, I’ll just wait until tomorrow morning and there will be food.”

Long San held onto the spoon without moving. “I only want to eat a bit of something, so we’re going to split this porridge into two portions.” Feng Ning’s heart felt sweet, and she swallowed the porridge at her mouth. She took the bowl and said, “Let me hold it, so you won’t be tired out.”

“Do your legs hurt?” Long San ate a spoonful of porridge, and asked. Feng Ning lowered her head to look at her own knees, and ‘hehe’ laughed. “No problem, I’m very durable.”

“You carried me while walking such a long distance. Tomorrow you probably won’t be able to lift your legs.” Long San fed her some porridge, and spoke.

“Then there’s nothing to be afraid of. We have a place to stay here and food to eat, compared to the cave it’s a lot better. You’re getting better, and my legs are fine. In the worst case, I’ll just accompany you in recuperating tomorrow.” Feng Ning thought this kind of ‘you one bite, me one bite,’ made the sweet potato porridge a delicious delicacy.

In this night, the two of them tidied up, changed into the clean clothes Aunt Ma provided them, and squeezed onto the hard stone bed[6] to sleep. They nestled together, and covered under the same blanket, the exhaustion and pain from Feng Ning’s entire body flowed out. Being close to Long San, she felt his body sweating and his temperature was normal, but she felt like this stone bed was really warm and comfortable. In the darkness, there were no other sounds, only Long San’s and her own breathing.

Feng Ning quietly held onto Long San’s hand, but she didn’t expect Long San to actually not be asleep, and he suddenly said, “I haven’t heard Hua Guniang[7] sing a lot of ballads.”

Feng Ning blanked for a moment, then awkwardly ‘hm’ once, and did not speak.

Then Long San said, “I have also never bitten any other guniang’s ears.” This time Feng Ning couldn’t “hm” in response, but Long San continued, “No other guniang has carried me before.” Feng Ning anxiously said, “So from what you’re saying, if another guniang were to carry you, you would bite down.”

“If any other guniang were to encounter such a situation, I’m afraid they would’ve only been wiping their tears or ran off to find some soldiers for help.” Long San tightly held onto Feng Ning’s hand. “They’re not as foolish as to carry a heavy man and walk ten li (roughly 3.11 miles).”

Feng Ning blinked, and snuggled a bit closer to Long San. She could hear Long San speak again, “They also wouldn’t always make me laugh, and wouldn’t starve themselves to give the only bowl of porridge to me to eat.”

Feng Ning felt very moved. When she was doing those things she didn’t think too much about them, and naturally just did them. Now that he’d pointed them out, she couldn’t help but also feel that she was really amazing.

“They also wouldn’t twist the situation, mislabel me and curse me as a pig.”

“Humph.” Feng Ning was dissatisfied. Long San wanted to laugh again.

The two of them were silent for a while. Feng Ning seemed to hesitate for a little bit, wanting to speak but did not say anything. Long San kneaded her hands, “What’s up?”

“Nothing.”

“Say it.”

Feng Ning didn’t want to say it, but when she heard Long San say those two simple words she couldn’t resist the gentleness, and dazedly followed his command. “I was just thinking, if we had just met now it would’ve been great.”

Long San’s heart was startled, because just now he was also thinking the same thing.

“Feng’er…” Long San turned his head around, and looked into her pure, confused childlike eyes. He couldn’t resist lifting his hand and touching her face. “I’m the one who’s doing wrong by you, Feng’er.”

Feng Ning softly let out an “ah”, and said, “It’s who I was in the past that did wrong towards you, that’s why you don’t dare to treat me too well, right?”

“I’m really afraid. If you change back to the person you were, what should I do?”

“Then if I never change back, what should I do?” Feng Ning tightly pulled on his hand. “I’m also afraid.”

“Feng’er…”

Feng Ning suddenly widened her eyes till they were round. “Why are you calling me Feng’er?”

“Hey, aren’t you called Yang Feng Er?” Feng Ning’s ability to suddenly change topics was something Long San was already used to, so he amazingly coordinated with her words.

“Yang Feng Er?” Feng Ning ‘hehe’ laughed. “This name isn’t bad.” She thought about it, and laughed again.

Long San tugged at her hair. “What about the name you gave me? How are you planning to call me, Zhu what? We should correspond, so tomorrow we won’t expose ourselves in front of Uncle Ma.”

As Feng Ning heard this, she couldn’t help but ‘haha’ laugh and grew happy. She proudly and satisfyingly said, “You’re called Zhu Long San.” She deliberately kept the ‘Long’ word m.u.f.fled as she spoke, so at the first listen it sounded like, “Pig Head San (Zhu Tou San).” After she finished speaking, the more she thought of it, the more she found it funny, and she couldn’t stop being amused.

Her happy expression was sort of cute, and Long San couldn’t help but laugh as well. No matter what happened, and no matter how poor the circ.u.mstances were, she was always able to make him laugh. Long San felt that there were some things that couldn’t be changed, and that his defenses were not as strong as he thought they were.

“Long San, of the things that I’ve done in the past, which one was the one you couldn’t stand the most?”

[1]Popo; original text is 婆婆 (popo). Means husband’s mother, mother-in-law, or grandma. The Chinese have specific t.i.tles for different family members depending on who’s addressing who.

[2]Death by a thousand knives; original text is (殺千刀) (shā qiān dāo). I think this is the right way to translate it, but it pretty much means someone who deserves to die.

[3]Uncle, Aunt…; original text is 大叔，大嬸 (dàshū, dàshěn). They are not really Feng Ning’s relatives. They can be used in familial situations, but are also a general form of address towards strangers as well.

[4]Gongzi; original text is 公子 (gōngzǐ). Polite way to refer to men who are often n.o.bles or sons of officials. I guess it’s sort of like sir?

[5]Jin Chuang Medicine; original text is 金創藥 (jīn chuāng yào). Mentioned back in ch. 26. I have no idea what the actual name is, but it’s pretty much medicine for wounds.

[6]Stone Bed; original text is 土坑 (tǔ kēng). Literal translation is earthen pit. I don’t know if the author left out a word, but I decided on stone bed because it would make more sense this way 土坑床 (tǔ kēng chuáng) which is an actual thing. Image here.

[7]Guniang; original text is 姑娘 (gūniang). It generally means a young girl or young lady, and can be used as a form of address.

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