Chapter 3 (2/2)

Perhaps it was different.

I copied Fang Hua, savoring the flavors of the pieces in my mouth before chewing fiercely. In a flash, I was struck speechless by the incomparably bitter taste. It was extremely distasteful, both harsh and astringent. The only other thing was a fragrant aroma that spread across my tongue.

These were just regular flowers, wasn’t he just making himself suffer? Phooey…the entire root of my tongue turned numb…

His eyes curved.

Bully.

“Does it taste good?”

“Your mom! From the start, this wasn’t fit for human consumption!”

“Correct.” He gently propped up his head with a hand, half-reclining on the tree, the position giving off a feeling of high command as he looked at me. His almond-shaped phoenix eyes, accented by a mark shaped like a single tear, had a certain indescribable charm. “This isn’t fit for human consumption.”

Then, since he ate it…

Wasn’t he mocking himself? Yet he seemed to be expounding on a truth.

In any case, it was hard to say. He looked respectable, and there were no emotions on his face. After looking at me for a while, he suddenly jumped off the tree, scattering crabapple cores all over the ground.

His expression was cold.

Ah…

Esteemed senior, you’re not mad, right? My guaranteed financial support for the rest of my life, my white rice , will I watch as they all leave me like a bird…? If I had offended him, I’d probably need to return to that place where life was worse than death, and suffer the same days of unbearable hunger.

They say being too gutsy only got you bad ends.

Pulling up my robes, I anxiously hurried after him and caught him in an embrace from the back. He was very soft and warm, as well as fragrant… This feeling was like the one I remembered every night, calling to mind many different shades of the past. I cried out a word then that would make us tremble with laughter in the future.

“Mother…”

His body shook, as if frightened by me, and he tried to pry me loose.

I stood dumbfounded, knowing that I was in trouble.

Aye, how shameful. I hugged him tighter.

He seemed fl.u.s.tered, at a loss but unable to cast me aside. Afterward, he could only pat me gently to calm my sobbing before pulling me away. He knelt before me with a helpless gaze in his eyes, both indignant and distressed. “Listen, you can treat this as a home, but I’m not your mother…and also…” His low voice seemed to be mixed with a great effort to conceal something. “And also I’m a male, different from you humans. I am a Beast[3] and you can call me Fang Hua, but don’t call me mother.”

I blinked a few times, raising my head to look at him, and saw that the s.p.a.ce between his eyebrows was weighed down with sorrow.

Sadly, I understood too little back then.

Many years later I came to regret, because in that moment I called him:

“Yifu[4].”

-o- [Most up to date translations for this series can be found on volaretranslations.]

[1] qinggong (轻功）－qinggong, lightness technique, in which a cultivator is able to walk on air and water effortlessly.

[2]Five Grains (五谷) －wugu, in ancient times, the five fundamental cereals that included: rice, wheat, beans and two kinds of millet.

[3] Beast (嘼）－shou, animal, beast.

[4]yifi (义夫) －foster father, adoptive father