Chapter 18 – A Red Flower in a White Head of Hair (1/2)
Chapter 18 – A Red Flower in a White Head of Hair
Part 1
August 19. Late Morning.
Ingot awaited death, but even after waiting for quite a long time, he didn’t died.
Gao Tianjue’s hand still gripped him tightly, the icy palm slowly seeming to grow warm, just like an iceberg floating on the north pole since ancient times that had begun to melt.
Icebergs will eventually melt, as will flesh and blood people.
Ingot laughed.
“I knew you couldn’t bear to kill me,” he said. “How could you have the heart to kill someone as charming as me?”
Gao Tianjue showed no reaction.
It seemed as if he weren’t there, as if he had slipped deeply into a sweet and dark snare. It was like someone had taken distant dreams of the past and weaved them into a trap.
Ingot stroked his hand, then sighed.
“Such a good-looking hand. You should have been able to use to to do a lot of happy things for yourself and others. Why turn it into a murder weapon?” He couldn’t help but ask: “Why can’t you be like other women, and do the things women are supposed to do?”
Gao Tianjue’s hand and body suddenly became icy cold and rigid.
“How did you know I am a woman?”
“I just do,” said Ingot. “I knew a long time ago.”
Gao Tianjue suddenly flipped her hand around and grabbed his wrist. Angrily, she said, “You knew I was a woman, and you dared to treat me this way?”
She suddenly changed. Now she seemed as if she could kill at any moment. Her hand was now a murder weapon.
But Ingot didn’t look scared at all.
“It’s because I knew you were a woman that I treated you so,” he said. “Because I really have felt bad for you this entire time.”
“You feel bad for me?” Fury filled her hoarse voice. “You dare to feel bad for me?”
“Why can’t I?” he replied. “You have no family, no friends. Your life throughout these years is more painful and lonely than anyone else’s.” He sighed. “To be frank, not only do I feel bad for you, I like you.”
Gao Tianjue looked as if she had just been chopped with a sword. Her sharp fingertips had already stabbed into Ingot’s skin.
“What did you say?” she said angrily. “What did you just say?”
“I said I really like you,” said Ingot, sounding a little angry. “Don’t tell me I can’t like you? Don’t tell me you believe yourself unworthy to be liked?” The more he spoke the more angry he got. “Don’t tell me you think I’m trying to trick you by enticing you? By seducing you? If you really think that, then just kill me now, and if you don’t, then you’re a real bastard.”
***
Who would dare to speak in such a way to Gao Tianjue? Even Ingot knew that no one dared to.
Therefore, he closed his eyes again and awaited death.
Part 2
“Congratulations? You’re congratulating me?”
Big Boss Tang couldn’t hold back from letting out a scream. Her throat seemed like it would split apart at any moment.
But Grand Miss Lei just continued on happily: “I am congratulating you.” She repeated herself again: “Congratulations, congratulations! I wish you good fortune and great rejoicing.”
“I was sitting at home minding my business, when suddenly a weird old bastard dragged me here. Then you, you ***** old granny, stripped me, rendered me half dead. And then you congratulated me?” Her voice hoarse, she asked, “What’s wrong with you?”
Her voice not the least bit angry, Grand Miss Lei said, “There’s nothing wrong with us, neither is there with you. I can guarantee your body doesn’t have anything wrong with it whatsoever.”
“I’ve always been that way.”
“So because you have nothing wrong with you, I’m congratulating you. I needed to check to see, and that’s why I had you brought here.”
“There are a lot of people in the world. Why couldn’t you go see if some of them have something wrong?”
“Because they aren’t you,” said Grand Miss Lei cleverly. “It’s because you aren’t someone else that we selected you.”
“Does me having something wrong or not have anything to do with you?”
“Of course it does.”
“How?”
“Because our Young Master 9th took a liking to you, and wants to marry you,” said Grand Mistress Lei. “So of course I had to take a good close look at you. People with problems cannot marry into the Dragon Family.” [1]
Big Boss Tang finally understood. And yet she couldn’t help but ask a question to clarify: “Your Young Master 9th is that clown?”
“He’s not a clown, he’s an ingot,” she laughed. [2] “The great Ingot who everyone loves.”
***
Big Boss Tang’s face grew red, burning red.
“How do you know he wants to marry me?” She mustered her gumption, then asked again: “Just how do you know?”
“How could we not know?” laughed Grand Miss Lei, sounding even more happy. “We know everything you said and did last night in the bedroom.”
Big Boss Tang’s face grew even more red and hot.
How could these people know about everything she had said and done last night?
“We aren’t the type of people to stick our noses into the affairs of other. We haven’t done so for many years. But when it comes to Young Master 9th’s affairs, we had to get involved; we had no choice.”
“Why?”
“Because of what we owe his father.”
Big Boss Tang started to get angry again. “He’s out causing mischief and stirring up trouble, why don’t you get involved with that?”
“Those things we don’t get involved with,” said Grand Miss Lei. “Actually, his father can’t control him, so even if we wanted to, we couldn’t.” She spoke in a very straightforward manner. “As long as you don’t bully him, then he can do whatever he wants, and we won’t get involved.”
“And what if he bullies others?”
“He’s a good boy. Good and kind-hearted. Why would he bully people?” Her voice was filled with love. “Even if sometimes it seems like he’s bullying others, it’s not a big problem.” Then her voice grew hard. “But if he wants to do some bullying, so be it. We’ll just pretend we don’t know. And if he tries to, but fails, we will step in to help out.”
Big Boss Tang listened, shocked.
She didn’t understand how someone could say such preposterous things.
“As of now,” said Grand Miss Lei, “I know you have no defects, so you are qualified to marry him. Of course I should congratulate you.” Then she asked, “Now do you understand?”
“I don’t.”
“You still don’t understand?” said Grand Miss Lei, shocked. “Are you an idiot?”
“I’m not an idiot,” said Tang Lanfang. “But I’m old.”
“You’re not the least bit old.”
“I’m at least ten years older than him.”
“So?” she said, sounding both very open-minded and also very earnest. “Married couples and friends are the same. As long as they both are happy, what does a bit of difference in age have to do with anything.”
Tang Lanfang gaped.
She had never heard anyone say such things before, nor had she ever dared to think about them.
Yet now, she was forced to. Her heart started to beat, quickly.
Then she heard the voice of the old man coming from outside: “Can I come in now?”
“You dare!” cried Grand Miss Lei angrily. “If you dare to come in, I’ll dig out your eyeballs.”
He seemed to heave a sigh.
Grand Miss Lei muttered curses: “Old pervert.” As she cursed, she put Tang Lanfang’s clothes back on. Afterwards, she shouted, “Get the hell in here!”
***
Finally, Tan Lanfang could see the two of them clearly.
The husband, furtive and ancient, incredibly skinny and short.
The wife, even more furtive, more ancient and more skinny, and at least twice as tall as her husband.
Her age was far beyond that of “Grand Miss.” She was at least old enough to be any grand miss’s grandmother.
And yet she wore the clothes that a grand miss would wear. And what she wore was even more gaudy than any grand miss would put on.
She wore makeup on her gaunt face, and a large red flower was stuck into the white hair on her temples.
Tan Lanfang had never seen people as laughable as this. And yet she didn’t laugh.
She couldn’t.
However, the old man laughed. Looked at her and laughed.
“Do you know why my wife just said what she did?” he asked her. “Why she said that an age difference shouldn’t matter between married couples?”
He quickly answered his own question, apparently afraid his wife would forbid him from saying it: “Because she’s a dozen or so years older than me.”
Tan Lanfang felt it was all very strange.
What was strange was not what he had said, but the fact that after he said it, he didn’t receive a slap in the face.