Chapter 18 – A Red Flower in a White Head of Hair (2/2)
Not only did Grand Miss Lei not seem inclined to do anything, she actually looked at her husband with a warm, meaningful glance.
“He was born in the year of the sheep,” she said, “and he always assumed I was too. That would make me twelve years older than him. Except, I was actually born in the year of the tiger, which makes me nineteen years older than him.”
“You thought I didn’t know?” said the old man with a loud laugh. “You thought you could trick me?”
“You knew?”
“Of course I knew,” said the old man, looking immensely pleased. “I knew even before we got married.”
“Then why did you ask me to marry you?”
“Because I love you,” the old man told his wife, his eyes filled with sweet, tender affection. “Even though you’re seventeen years older than me, I still wanted to marry you.”
“Really?”
“When did I ever lie to you?” he said with a wink. “If I ever did, it was only because I didn’t want you to get angry.”
Grand Miss Lei chuckled, a laugh that truly sounded like a grand miss.
“Now, you’re not allowed to lie to me,” she said, her face suddenly very serious. “After you married me, did you regret it?”
“Why would I regret it?”
“Not only am I older than you, I’m fierce and rude and get jealous easily.”
“You’re fierce because you want the best for me. You get jealous because you love me, and you’re worried I’ll go after a younger woman. If you didn’t love me, I could go chase eight hundred women, get on my knees and beg you to get jealous, but you wouldn’t.”
He suddenly clasped his wife’s hand, just like a young man clasping the hand of his first love. “Let me ask you, after all these years, would you say our lives have been happy?”
Grand Miss Lei nodded her head quietly. “Every day since the day we got married has been very happy. If God could let me live them all again, I would still marry you.”
She then turned her head and looked at Tang Lanfang: “I bet you think we are sickeningly amusing.”
***
Tang Lanfang didn’t respond. She didn’t need to. She was sure that they could see how she felt. Right now, if anyone said they were sickeningly amusing, she would slap them across the face.
Originally, she had thought this couple to be laughable, but now she just wanted to cry.
Like a person who had been stuck in a dark room for a very long time, and then suddenly saw the bright sunny sky, green mountains and trees, red flowers and spacious land, tears streamed from her eyes.
“You’re crying?”
“I’m not crying.”
“You’re obviously shedding tears.”
“Shedding tears isn’t necessarily crying,” said Tang Lanfang. “And crying isn’t necessarily shedding tears.”
“You should think an old granny like me, made up like a little girl, is quite laughable. Why are you crying instead?”
“I don’t know,” said Tang Lanfang. “I really don’t know.”
***
Actually, she did know, she just didn’t want to say. So the old man said it for her.
“If you believe yourself to be young, who would dare call you old?” he said to his wife. “If you believe yourself to be old, you can dress yourself up however you wish, and no one will think it laughable.” He continued: “The determining factor in being old is not one’s age, but rather one’s heart. Therefore, some people who are eighteen years old are already old, but some people who have lived to eighty are still quite young.”
Grand Miss Lei laughed, then lightly pinched Tan Lanfang’s cheek. “If I’m not old, then how can you dare to call yourself old? Come! We must go back.”
“Go back?” asked Tan Lanfang. “Go back where?”
“Back to your little clown!”
She grabbed her to leave, but Tan Lanfang, her face growing red, said, “Wait a moment.”
“Wait for what?”
“There’s something else I want to ask you.”
“What’s that?”
“Maybe he wants to marry me, but do I want to marry him?” she asked, her face scarlet. “Regardless of anything, you should at least ask me first.”
She had to muster a lot of bravery to say this. And yet, to Grand Miss Lei this question didn’t seem to even count as a question.
“Of course you want to,” she said. “Who knows how many women want to marry a talented young man like him. If they lined up, the line would stretch all the way to Kaifeng.” [3]
“There are really that many women who want to marry him?”
“Of course there are.”
“Then why don’t you let one of them marry him?”
“Why would I let someone else marry him?”
“Because I’m not someone else,” said Tang Lanfang, her face straight. “Other people want to, but I don’t.”
Grand Miss Lei laughed again. “I know, I know. Women are like this. With their lips they say they don’t want to, but in their hearts they 1000% want to.”
It seemed she was already completely decided on the matter, unwilling to change her mind at all. Even if Tang Lanfang said more on the subject, she wouldn’t listen.
Tan Lanfang could only go along with her.
Dealing with a person like this, what else could she do?
***
It was an enchanting, sunlit spring day. Flowers bloomed. Some bloomed a bit early, and some a bit late, but eventually, they all bloomed.
Flowers that bloom late are always more colorful and beautiful.
Some people’s lives are like late-blooming flowers. Just when they think that no more flowers will bear fruit in their lives, heaven will send them an unexpected surprise. Flowers will again bloom, bringing happiness.
As long as one is alive, there is hope.
Part 3
Tan Lanfang’s heart beat rapidly. The closer they got to her house, the faster it beat.
What would happen after she saw Ingot? How would he treat her? How would she treat him? She still didn’t dare to think about it.
The little scoundrel had only said those things after he was drunk. Who knows how many times in the past he had said similar things to girls. Maybe he had already forgotten what he said.
But this old couple took what he said seriously, as if he had formally proposed to her according to the three letters and six etiquettes. [4] It seemed they were ready to send them to the nuptial chamber. When she thought of that, her heart beat even faster.
She liked Ingot, really liked him. But not enough to marry him instantly.
She had never even thought of marrying someone.
But if Ingot, in all seriousness, admitted to what he had said, she might not be that angry.
—How could a thirty-four year old woman suddenly start acting like a little girl?
She really wanted to give herself two strong slaps across the face.
***
What about Ingot? Had he woken up to find her gone? Was he worried about her?
***
The old man had been looking at her this whole time, laughing to himself, as if he could see into her heart. He suddenly said, “Don’t worry, he won’t run off. Even if someone tried to beat him away with a broom, he wouldn’t leave. I know that he loves you, and he’ll wait for you to come back.”
Tang Lanfang ignored him.
The old man continued to mess with her. Deliberately, he asked, “You know who the ‘he’ I’m talking about is, don’t you?”
Deliberately, she responded, “No, I don’t.”
“You really don’t know?”
“Nope.”
“Well then I’ll just have to tell you,” he said with a wink. “I’m talking about that clown, your future husband.”
Tan Lanfang’s face grew red, and the old man clapped his hands, laughing. He laughed so hard it seemed as if his one remaining tooth might fall out.
Grand Miss Lei also looked quite happy. Even the big red flower in her white hair seemed to be laughing happily. Tang Lanfang wanted to be angry, but just couldn’t make herself.
When life is so wonderful, what reason would they have to be upset? What justification to be angry?
And so they were happy. Because they had no idea what had happened to Ingot.
Even if someone told them, they probably wouldn’t believe it.
***
What had happened to Ingot, even he himself could scarcely believe.
**
[1] And finally here is the connection to 7 Killers!!! Remember Dragon 5th of the Dragon Family? As of now, we know that Ingot is Dragon 9th, assumably Dragon 5th’s brother.
[2] A bit of wordplay here. If you take the first character of the word ingot and change it to another character, it makes the word for a clown or a funny person.
[3] Kaifeng is a city in Henan province.
[4] Ancient China had some pretty complicated wedding customs.