Lan Yin Bi Yue

Capítulo 22

"It's okay," I said, trying to comfort him. "I don't discriminate against disabled people. What's wrong with being mute? At least you don't have a tongue."

The mute man's smile had completely vanished. He stared at me without blinking, as if looking at a monster, his eyes filled with fear and disbelief.

Everything changed at that moment. Just a moment ago I could joke with him, but now I realized that he was, after all, a dangerous person of unknown origin. "Never mind," I thought for a moment and smiled at him, "I have something to do, I'll go first."

...

As a result, the mute man followed me all the way until I couldn't avoid him any longer. I rushed into a teahouse, ran up to the second floor, sat down, and peeked out the window. Oh my god, he was still waiting downstairs and hadn't left.

At that moment, the mute man looked up and saw me. His blank and somewhat bewildered expression immediately changed. He stood up straight, waved his hands at me vigorously, and even smiled at me.

My God—I quickly turned around and sat there speechlessly staring at the sky.

Were these philanderers from the Northern Song Dynasty really that persistent? I am quite self-aware and know that I am not exactly a beauty, especially in the eyes of the ancients. So what does it mean that he keeps chasing after me all this time?

Soon the tea master arrived, placed the teapot on the table, and without doing anything else, peeked out the window.

"The madman is here again," the tea server muttered, turning away.

"A madman?" I replied.

"That's right!" The tea server poured me some tea. "He used to come here often with a young lady, but these past few days he's been alone, and he's been acting a bit crazy."

"He..." I was about to ask a few more questions when someone at the other table called out to me. The tea server responded and left with the teapot.

I carefully moved to the window to peek out, and the mute man was still standing there. He was separated from the teahouse by a narrow street, in a very good location, where I could see everything inside the window with just a glance.

At this moment, the mute man raised his head and looked in the direction of my table, but he could not see me hiding there. Without seeing me, he was expressionless and his eyes were somewhat empty. I was not even sure if he was looking or if he had actually seen anything.

People came and went around him, stopping and starting, but he stood silently, like a stone statue. Except for the occasional slight shift in perspective, he remained almost motionless, displaying remarkable endurance and a strong work ethic. My neck was aching, but he didn't even change from standing at attention to standing at ease.

A waiter dressed in white, with a white towel draped over his shoulders and carrying tea and fruit, walked towards my table. Seeing me peeking out the window, the waiter smiled knowingly and said, "It must be that mute guy again."

"You know him?" I asked quickly.

"How could I not know?" the waiter chuckled dryly. "What would you like to accompany your tea, young lady?"

"Chestnuts, perhaps."

The waiter put down a plate of chestnuts and then advised me, "Husbands and wives may quarrel in bed, but they make up before they fall asleep. Young lady, don't make things difficult for yourself. These past two days you've been away have caused trouble for the mute man and for our teahouse. Why bother?"

I gave a wry smile. "What are you talking about in your sleep?"

The waiter shook his head helplessly. "That's not right of you. If he's leaving, he's leaving. Why make him wait here? You didn't see what happened the other day. You couldn't ask him to leave, and you couldn't chase him away. He stood at the shop entrance like a door god all day long, scaring away all the customers. The shopkeeper was thinking of finding someone to beat him up. It was my idea that led him to go to the street to find you, and I stayed here to keep an eye on things for him. That's how we got rid of him."

So that's how it is. The mute man was indeed looking for someone, but—"Hey buddy, you've mistaken me for someone else, haven't you?"

"Admit a mistake?" The waiter chuckled. "How could I possibly mistake you for someone else? That mute is counting on me to find you!"

The guy finished speaking and left. I felt something was off, so I rested my chin on the table and stared blankly.

I remember Yan Chaohong saying that when he first met me, I was indeed accompanied by a mute person.

I absolutely do not believe him. He doesn't know where I came from. If he did, he would be foolish to say such things.

Therefore, I came to the conclusion that the mute, Yan Zhaohong, and even the young waiter might not have made a mistake. Before I came here, there was indeed a woman who looked exactly like me in front of them. Later, the woman disappeared inexplicably, and I inexplicably traveled through time. That's how it happened. They mistook me for that woman!

Once I understood this, I was no longer confused.

I poked my head out and waved to the mute man who had been lifeless but immediately smiled at me when he saw me, inviting him to come upstairs.

The mute man came to my table. I didn't know if he was awkward or uneasy, but he kept his eyes down and didn't even dare to sit down first.

"Please sit down," I said to him.

The mute man looked up at me, momentarily stunned, then immediately smiled at me and obediently sat down in the chair next to me.

"Have some tea." I pushed a freshly brewed cup of tea in front of him.

He nodded and reached for the teacup.

"Eat chestnuts." I pushed the chestnuts in front of him again, only to suddenly realize my true thoughts at that moment—he was too thin, too thin to be considered fast-paced, and I couldn't help but want to stuff his mouth full and fatten him up.

"What's your name?" I asked.

The mute man raised his teacup halfway, but upon hearing my question, he didn't drink the tea. Instead, he put the cup down, reached out and dripped some water from it. His fingers were dirty, with dirt clinging to the tips. He slowly turned to the side, and from my angle, wrote on the table: Savage.

"A savage?!" I was taken aback. "No, I'm asking for your name."

The light in the mute man's black eyes had completely disappeared, replaced by a bloodshot hue that suggested he hadn't slept day or night. He stared at me with those eyes for a while, then slowly shook his head, still pointing to the two words on the table—"savage."

"Your name is Wild Man?" I finally began to understand his way of thinking and asked him tentatively. After a long while, he finally looked up and nodded at me.

How could he call himself a savage? Looking at him up close, I couldn't see any connection between him and savagery, wildness, or Tarzan. His white clothes, though somewhat tattered and unkempt, were still relatively normal; he seemed a little eccentric, but not completely insane. His face was dirty, his hair was messy, and he had some stubble on his chin, but no matter what, I couldn't imagine why he would insist on calling himself a savage.

So I told him, "My name is Sun Qingshan."

He looked at me and nodded.

"My name is Sun Qingshan." I repeated tentatively, and he lowered his eyes, paused for a moment, and then nodded.

“My name is Sun Qingshan!” I emphasized this time. “You really know me? Are you sure you haven’t mistaken me for someone else?”

The savage's hand, which was resting on the table, suddenly trembled.

His eyelashes drooped, obscuring his vision. If you only look at the relatively clean left half of his face, you can tell that his skin is very fair, milky white. The lines of his profile are very beautiful when he lowers his head. Unlike Mingming's resolute yet somewhat childlike curves, his are softer and more pleasing to the eye.

“Your name is Yeren, and mine is Sun Qingshan.” I could only mutter to myself, trying to put on a show for two people by myself. “Actually, our names are quite a good match when put together.”

After I finished speaking, I turned to look at him. He still had his eyes down, his hands were under the table, and he was sitting still, like the stone statue that had been downstairs and had now been moved upstairs.

I was helpless. I didn't know him well. Although I instinctively felt that he shouldn't have any ill intentions, I didn't dare to provoke him. I admit that I had the courage to provoke Yan Chaohong and Xu Xiaoming, but I didn't have the courage to provoke this extremely strange mountain savage in front of me. Because when I saw him sometimes avoid eye contact, his eyes didn't show any emotion, such as joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness. They were completely empty. When I saw him like that in front of me, I would feel a stomachache.

So I stopped looking at him, picked up the tea beside me and blew on it. The tea had actually gone cold, but I held my breath and blew hard, looking out the window at the scenery. I didn't understand what was wrong with this world, why everything was so unclear. I woke up from a nap to find myself surrounded by strangers, the dynasty I had fallen asleep in history class, savages, and Yan Chaohong, who had just shared a bed with me but was now becoming distant and blurry.

I was completely baffled as to what I was closer to. But having a silent, unmoving savage sitting next to me made me feel more at ease facing all this inexplicable chaos.

Then, while I was lost in thought, I didn't expect that the savage would suddenly reach out and gently pat my arm. I turned my head and saw that he pointed to a small plate on the table, in which were plump chestnuts that had already been peeled.

I paused for a second, then picked up a chestnut, put it in my mouth, chewed it a couple of times, and commented, "Completely tasteless."

The savage's movements as he gathered the remains suddenly froze. He turned to look at me—"Sun, Qing, Shan," I clearly saw him utter those three words, followed by three more—"Why?"

Rivals meet

As the sky turned a fading crimson, I walked side by side with the wild man in a sparsely populated alley. Then I turned back to watch the last rays of the setting sun disappear over Chengdu.

"Do you really have to follow me?" When I turned around, the savage looked at me from nearby.

He lowered his head and nodded.

But I don't know you!

Instead, he shook his head violently. He reached out to take my hand, but I refused. He gestured as if he wanted to say something, very urgently, in a way that seemed irrational—when I didn't ask him anything, he wouldn't say a word on his own initiative, but now he was suddenly very anxious, lip-reading an incredibly long sentence in front of me, but it was too long for me to understand.

After gesturing for a while, seeing my growing impatience, he smiled, seemingly self-deprecatingly, slowly lowered his hand, and silently said two words to me: "Let's go."

When I arrived at the small courtyard that Yan Chaohong had rented, I was surprised to find that the two people were actually in the courtyard.

While Mingming was rolling up his sleeves to remove fish scales, Yan Chaohong squatted beside him, chopping firewood half-heartedly.

Upon seeing me return, Yan Chaohong immediately dropped her firewood axe and pounced on me.

“Little Green Mountain…” Yan Chaohong approached, wrapped her arms around my waist, and kissed me seven or eight times on the face.

He pretended not to see anything, sat in front of the large wooden basin, and continued to remove the fish scales.

I was disgusted by Yan Chaohong's spittle all over my face when I suddenly paused, remembering the savage who had been following me.

I pushed Yan Chaohong away and turned to look, but unexpectedly I didn't see the wild man. I thought maybe he had already realized what was happening, or maybe he found me disgusting. In any case, I thought he had left. I turned around at the entrance of the courtyard and was about to walk in when I heard a strange sound from not far away. I glanced to the side and saw the wild man bent over under a small tree, vomiting.

"Are you alright?" I asked the wild man, handing him a handkerchief I had taken from Yan Chaohong's body.

The savage had vomited most of it. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve, turned his head to look at me, his face as white as paper pulp. He didn't take the fine silk handkerchief from my hand. Before I could, he silently said, "It's... nothing."

"It's good that you're alright," I said awkwardly, withdrawing my hand. "If you're alright, come over here quickly, let me introduce you."

...

In the courtyard, Mingming went to the water vat, scooped up two ladles of water to wash his hands clean, and then immediately lined up next to his son, waiting for me to introduce him.

"What's there to introduce!" Yan Chaohong waved her hand. "We've all met before." After saying that, she looked at the wild man and pulled me to his side. "I'm sorry," Yan Chaohong pointed at me and explained to the wild man, "Little Qingshan fell and hurt her brain, so she doesn't recognize you. Don't take it to heart. I'll try to persuade her these next few days and see if she can remember you."

The savage looked at Yan Chaohong until he heard the last word, then lowered his eyes and slowly nodded.

“Also,” I said, walking up to Xu Xiaoming, “his name is Mingming, or you can call him Xu Xiaoming. He’s a very nice person, a Buddhist, and he doesn’t kill living beings except people—ah!” Yan Chaohong stomped on my foot hard. I glared at him, but Mingming looked at me seriously and said, “I killed that fish just now. Does Miss Qingshan prefer it steamed or braised?”

I laughed, "Isn't everything you do for your young master? Why are you asking me? You just do whatever your young master likes, right, Little Red?"

Yan Chaohong glared at me and said, "Of course, my husband is clearly a great cook. He only relies on my taste to judge his dishes. How could he not serve my palate well?"

So Mingming said even more earnestly, "Thank you for your praise, young master."

I looked helplessly at the two people beside me, their homosexual tendencies were very obvious.

However, going a step further, the savage remained motionless, maintaining the posture of bowing his head from beginning to end. I suddenly felt that I had gone a bit too far. No matter what, the savage was looking for his little lover. Although that person was not me, he had set his sights on me. And I deliberately acted intimately with Yan Chaohong in front of him. Actually, I wanted him to understand that people may look similar, but that's all.

He couldn't see through it. Perhaps he was feeling sad inside. As a mute, he didn't utter a sound when he was sad, which made people feel very uncomfortable.

“Savage,” I walked up to him and asked, “are you really going to stay here?”

He looked up and said something. He spoke slowly, and I was watching him intently, but his well-shaped lips couldn't make out what he was saying.

Without thinking, I reached out my hand, and then it finally dawned on me why the savage had been trying to grab my hand—he wanted to write on it! He couldn't speak, so he wanted to write, and every time he came close and tried to touch my hand, I would think he was a pervert and avoid him, thinking he was trying to molest me.

Helpless, I smiled and watched him stare blankly into space. He looked at my palm slowly, but made no move to extend his own hand.

“What do you want to say?” I moved my palm closer to his face. “You can write it down.”

The wild man looked up and met my gaze. From the moment he entered the courtyard, he had been reacting very slowly, always a beat behind in everything, as if he was still in shock and couldn't come to his senses.

I waited for him quietly. He slowly raised his hand, grasped my fingertips with one hand, and interlocked the four fingers of his other hand, extending his index finger. His somewhat rough fingertip slowly traced across my palm, writing: "Do you fancy him?"

"What?" I blurted out, then froze, completely stunned. It was English?!

"Savage, you can speak English?! Could it be that you—" No longer caring whether they knew each other or not, she grabbed his hand and shook it violently. "Could it be that you, savage, are also from another time? You can speak English, so you—"

Before I could finish speaking, the savage who had traveled through time suddenly looked up and met my gaze. My legs went weak, and I abruptly let go of his hand.

The savage looked at me fiercely this time—I instinctively felt that this was a gaze that should never appear in his eyes, along with anger. A voice in my head kept reminding me—how dare he get angry at me?! Has he become so bold, so incredibly audacious?!

However, the savage's eyes, besides being somewhat aggressive, also held a kind of heartache as he looked at me, a heartache that showed utter disbelief at how unteachable I was—of course, this was still a metaphor.

Suddenly, the savage shook off my hand, turned around, and strode out of the courtyard.

"Wait a minute!" I chased after him, but he walked too fast. I really suspected he knew kung fu. He could disappear right under my nose as soon as he stepped out the door and turned around.

"What happened?" Yan Chaohong followed after them. "Wasn't that mute man an old acquaintance of yours? Why did he leave with such resentment?"