Chapter 25 (2/2)
Fu Shen forcefully pressed down the corners of mouth and poked him aith a crutch He took the list with coo off to rest On the sidelines was a big encircling flock of geese – ere enjoying the spectacle and trying to make it worse – as he opened the trunk to inspect the curio Yan Xiaohan had sent
Yan Xiaohan was frequently a ress too quickly and so had to be made, so this selection of presents ithin etiquette It was all co that overstepped boundaries or was anything people could pick the slightest fault out of
Fu Shen sighed in relief, a little inexplicably frustrated, and secretly laughed at hi , he suddenly heard Yu Qiaoting yo-ing ”Weird Are there still wild geese out this season?”
In the first box of ga took one each, the latter exae of wilderness for us out here, so there's no need for any game If I had to say why this shrewd-minded Sir Yan just had to pick all of this to send over, then the whole song and dance was solely for these two geese! Right, Zhongshan?”
Xiao Xun fiercely nodded at the side ”Yep, it was for the geese”
”Why are you oose before? Your futures sure look bright” Fu Shen's voice was cold as snow
Yu Qiaoting did indeed eese? They're being used for the Six Rites, Marquis!”
”Shut it If they were being used for that, wouldn't I know?” Pretending to be nonchalant, Fu Shen pulled his fur cloak higher so that the collar covered up the bottoo and find soift, they'll be sent back in one bunch”
Fu Shen and Yan Xiaohan were going nuts flirting with each other, yet it was Xiao Xun as ultimately out of luck Little General Xiao, quite dissatisfied with this, was detered Yu Qiaoting off with him as his sacrifice
Fu Shen finally fell quiet, slowly letting out a breath of scalding air froans were burning up from the alcohol
He leaned over to look at the other trunk, and, sure enough, he discovered another present under the skins: a pair of hand-stitched fur knee braces
A pair of geese and a pair of knee braces They orth only a few silver The rest of the stuff in the two big trunks was entirely background contrast to these two gifts
Fu Shen didn't knohether he should sigh over howa spendthrift When he thought about it, Yan Xiaohan had consistently been behaving like this, his tender considerations akin to splurges He wouldn't be stingy with the sweetness he gave, but there would only be a tiny bit of his true heart; it wouldn't be overly sweet, all of it hidden in deep and dark corners
However, that true heart was a jade under stone skin – once it had co else around turned to rock
On the fifteenth of January, Yan Xiaohan received a return gift froe heap of northern specialties: some buckskins, and a… truift scared Mister Yan into nearly not being able to sleep, as he gazed at the pendant with unending bewilder what he knew for a while, then thought that Fu Shenthis as a ain Then he had second thoughts about that, his i off on him, and he remembered the decisive expression Fu Shen had when he threw the jade down — he surely wasn't planning on severing all ties between theht?
Yan Xiaohan felt around for the cabinet at the side of the bed, fished out a small sandalwood box from within, and opened it to expose an old jade pendant wrapped in deep red satin It had shattered very thoroughly back when; even if Yan Xiaohan had found the best jeweler, using gold inlays for repairs wouldn't have saved it The pendant looked bumpy, uneven and full of holes — compared to the new one Fu Shen sent, it was a lot more than just a little worse, but Yan Xiaohan had been storing it like a treasure all this time
He could still recall his remorse when he crouched down to pick up the broken jade piece by piece, and his despair when he found that could no longer fit the fragments laid in his palm back into a complete form Were it not for the excellent ht have held regret for this all his life
Seven years ago, not very long after he had entered the Flying Dragon Guard and was still young, he was criticized andmore than how he couldn't just lift his sabre and kill all the rotten scholars in the land It was because of this that he had a rebellious heart with absolutely no bottoon Guard had alorked without scruples, and he followed suit It was unknohether it was fortunate or unfortunate that the first legal case he ever took charge of was Jin Yunfeng's
It was his first ti his own foot as he kicked the iron plate that was Fu Shen
Seven years elapsing, the past was like a shackle binding his foot and spider silk his fate hung by, cutting a distinct and chasmal bottom line for him It made him not step completely into the muck, nor sink too far into it
This piece that was nearly broken into junk, and that he had barely ether as if he had been entrusted with doing so, was buried deep into the bottom of his heart, a yet-humble desire that he couldn't say aloud And that was the apology he owed to Fu Shen
I'm sorry
I didn't want… to cut off all ties with you
The two pendants were placed side by side into the box Whether broken or intact, they both looked exceptionally beautiful and lustrous under the light It was as if they were a wordless consolation co-stored ht-lipped
Thankfully, he would be co 25 and 26 early as an early apology gift for how long 27 and 28 are going to take est chapters in the novel by far at ~95k characters each The average chapter is about half that RIP h-rank title, but not a unique one aenerals