• From the assassin leader, Zhi Wei learned that it was the ink monkeys that saved Chun Yu’s life. The assassin leader wanted to tame the ink monkeys for himself but the ink monkeys would not part from Chun Yu so he ended up letting Chun Yu live for the time being and instead chose to poison Chun Yu. Zhi Wei turns the assassin leader over to the white robed physician who used him to figure out a way to help Chun Yu. After three days, Chun Yu slowly regained his reasoning and his taste started to normalize but he will probably never reclaim his tastebud completely. This caused some sadness in Zhi Wei when she thought of how young Chun Yu is but thankfully Chun Yu is not one to dwell on such thing and devours his food with so much enthusiasm that no one would expect anything to be amiss with him…until one watches him munching away happily at a piece of raw ginger thinking it is a piece of BBQ pork instead. 

The white robed physician left after treating Chun Yu but he did give Zhi Wei a package before leaving and tells her that is the cure for the Minnan Eye. Zhi Wei promptly sent men to deliver it as soon as possible to Minnan.   

After a few days, a smiling Yan Huai Shi comes back from delivering grain provision to Minnan. Pretending to be extremely tired as he fiercely wipes away imaginary sweat, Yan Huai Shi puts an exquisite looking box in front of her and winks “Hey! A gift from a certain someone!” 

Zhi Wei glances over at the box and silently wonders why her face feels warm underneath the mask. Keeping her expression and her voice bland, Zhi Wei casually takes the box and says “Brother Yan, thanks for bringing it all this way. You must be tired after transporting the grain provisions, go rest.” 

Yan Huai Shi sneaks a peek at her, suppresses a smile and takes his leave. Bumping into Hua Qing outside, Yan Huai Shi grabs her and says “Official Wei looks quite well, you don’t have to greet her. It’s better not to interrupt her at this moment.” 

Hua Qing looks puzzly at Yan Huai Shi who breaks out in a chuckle as he finishes speaking. 

A smiling Yan Huai Shi says “Hmm… I discovered that this Brother Wei of mine, when he is truly happy he gets extra stoic and official sounding. People, no matter how smart and wise they are, they still get all childish and awkward when it comes to love. But then this is when he actually looks like a 16 year old.” 

Hua Qing looks over at him and says with a laugh “What are you joking around about? They are two men, what’s all this talk about love?” 

“Who cares about men or women?” Yan Huai Shi says with a hint of a smile “You have not been across the ocean so you don’t know in some nations there are especially open about these things. When I was ten I went with my third uncle to a country where the men and women would hug each other then dance around right in the street.”

“Really?” With a hint of longing on her face, Hua Qing exclaims “I would like to go see that.” 

Seeing a few drops of sweat on Yan Huai Shi’s face, Hua Qing’s heart softens and takes out a handkerchief to wipe away the sweat. 

Still in the middle of talking excitedly, Yan Huai Shi suddenly feels something soft on his face. His heart skipped a beat and instinctively moved back. His action caused Hua Qing’s hand to pause. Catching himself the next instant, Yan Huai Shi quickly smiles and reaches out a hand to take the handkerchief “You are with child yet you still need to take care of me. Let me do it myself.” 

Returning his smile, Hua Qing hands him the handkerchief.

Yan Huai Shi half heartily wipes his face a few times then asks with some hesitation  “Mother asked when we should hold our wedding, what do you think…”

“Let’s discuss it after the baby is born.” After a few moments of silence, Hua Qing replies “With your status right now the wedding will have to be elaborate with lots of guests. It wouldn’t look great for me to have a big pregnant belly.” 

Looking relieved, Yan Huai Shi gives her a grateful smile “That’s good too. At that time we must give you the biggest and the best wedding so we can repay you for what you did for us in front of the ancestry chapel.” 

“Huai Shi.” Hua Qing suddenly raised her eyes and fixed her bright eyes on his “Between us, is there only gratitude?” 

Caught off guard by her unexpected and very direct question, a suddenly flustered Yan Huai Shi opens his mouth but no words would come out. The woman across from him has delicate features that might not be considered that of a beauty but the frank manner she holds herself sets her apart from others, completely not what one would expect to be a woman raised by a common poor scholar teacher. According to what he knows of her since his youth, she is a worthy match to any man in this world. At seven years old, that was when he first found out where his mother was and ran all night to the nunnery. After banging on the nunnery door all day to beg them to let him see his mother, he finally broke down in loud sobs when they still refused. Lured over by his crying, the then eight year old her, ordered the students in her father’s little school to bring over a ladder. In broad daylight, she led him to climb over the wall to go see his mother. As he sobbed with his mother, she sat on the wall to keep a watch for them. At nine years old, he was grounded, forbidden to leave the house after it was discovered that he often sneaked off to go see his mother. His mother was gravely ill then and wanted to see him. She came all by herself, climbed over the wall and found the storage room. Wielding a cleaver, she broke the door lock and without saying a word pulled him out of the door with her. At twelve years old, the nunnery was ordered by the clan leader to forbid him to visit his mother and there were increased men guarding the nunnery. With a shovel in hand, she widened the dog hole in the west wall of the nunnery and ordered him to crawl through. Feeling embarrassed, he refused, earning a prompt kick in the behind from her as she angrily told him, “A man should not fret over details. If you are too good for a dog hole today then tomorrow you are good for nothing. From this point on you will not get as much as a piece of burial plot even if you die in Yan clan!” (Meaning he will not have a place among Yan clan and they will not even bother to waste a clan burial plot on him when he dies.) He crawled through that dog hole for many years to see his mother. It was only a long time later that he found out she had been crawling through that dog hole for much longer than he had. Before he found his mother, it was she who would come to bring his starving mother food every couple days. He has always respected her, trusted her, grateful to her. That day in the ancestry chapel when he heard her brave declaration and her question of “Marry me or not!”, his answer came bursting out of him without any hint of hesitation. Marry her, of course he has to marry her, it was the right thing to do. She is his wife, he has decided so he hasn’t given it any more thought. However, now that this question is suddenly thrown in front of him, he feels lost. Marry her is a duty, it is a moral requirement, it is what the situation requires, then…what else? They are not innocent young lovers who grew up together. They are a couple who were pushed together by clan conflicts. In his past twenty plus years, his mother has countless times reminded him that he is the offspring of a noble bloodline from two great clans. The two clans were descendants of royalty, noble and distinguished so that means only a woman from an equally noble background is worthy to be his wife. Those are words he has heard countless times until it becomes as if that’s the way it should be. Meeting the gaze of the woman in front of him, in that instance, his mother’s words and memories of their past both rushed into his mind. Blinking blankly, he is unsure of how to answer. 

Before he has figured out what to say Hua Qing is already laughing as she gives Yan Huai Shi a push “It is really a silly question. No wonder it stumped you. What’s wrong with me, we are getting married soon, why am I even asking these things.” 

“Yes,” Yan Huai Shi blindly wipes his face again with the handkerchief and mutters “We are getting married soon, getting married soon…”

“You must be busy, go ahead.” Hua Qing gives him another push and watches as Yan Huai Shi hurried away, making his escape. 

Standing in the hallway for a long moment, Hua Qing looks up at the cloudy sky then watches as Zhi Wei hurriedly grabs the box by the window, carefully cradling it in her arms before promptly closing the window, seemingly afraid the rain would get to the box. After a long while, Hua Qing finally lets out a soft laugh.

Our hero shows up next week! Our two leads obviously won’t be physically together in the same scene since he IS in the middle of fighting a war but it will be plenty sweet I promise. I know some of you might be impatient with scenes where our two leads are not together but in my opinion the next few translation posts are vital to the development of the story especially since they are very different from the drama so hang in there with me.

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