The brothers had drunk a bit too much and started joking around with Ruan Hu. Ruan Hu violently punched one of the jokers and then continued grilling meat while whispering something to Lu Mingcheng.
Qiu Su pondered. Lu Mingcheng was a scholar, and although his thinking was somewhat eccentric, he still had parents at home. Leaving aside the pride of scholars, his parents couldn't possibly watch him lie beneath a man. Cough cough, she meant that they couldn't possibly allow their son to be homosexual, thus ending the Lu family line. Sigh, this was difficult; sooner or later, there would likely be some kind of forced separation. But then again, how could men... you know... do that?
Qiu Su bit her lip, wishing she could slap herself. This thought was too filthy; if anyone knew, she would be ashamed to face them.
Huang Tao glanced at Qiu Su, who was lost in thought, and waved the glistening, golden-brown skewers of meat in her hand. She smiled and whispered, "Mo Mo, what's wrong with your mother?"
Mo Mo reached out to grab it, but Huang Tao dodged. Mo Mo glanced at Qiu Su, then stared wide-eyed at Ruan Hu, who was sitting across from her across a fire. She just happened to see Ruan Hu stuff several skewers of mutton into Lu Mingcheng's hand, his head bowed very close. Mo Mo pointed at Ruan Hu, grinned, and shouted, "Ruan Huhu is biting Master Hu's mouth!"
Qiu Su's hand trembled, and two skewers of fine mutton fell into the charcoal brazier in front of her. The surroundings instantly fell silent. Mo Mo blinked in confusion, and seeing the mutton fall into the brazier, she hurriedly grabbed her ears and jumped up and down, saying, "Meat, meat, grab the meat. Quick, grab the meat."
An eerie silence followed, and after a moment, everyone pretended not to notice and continued eating and drinking, though their glances at Ruan Hu and Lu Mingcheng occasionally held a sinister glint.
Author's Note: The following is a continuous story; the previous wars were too much of a headache to write about, and they were also quite absurd.
60
60. Goodbye...
Last night was quite terrifying. As usual, Momo fell asleep as soon as her head hit the bed, while Qiu Su worried about Ruan Hu's future for half the night. Every time she closed her eyes, she could see Lu Mingcheng's parents kneeling on the ground, cursing heaven and earth and cursing her. Tsk tsk, that once slow-talking, gentle scholar actually has problems in this area.
It's not really a problem. Who says men have to love women? It's just that the man who looked at her and said, "Miss Qiu, just call me Lu Sheng," has suddenly become Ruan Hu's bedmate. How can this keep me up at night?
What happened next was even more terrifying. When Qiu Su listlessly got up, the sun was already high in the sky. Mo Mo, as usual, woke up very early. When the roosters crowed down the mountain, he was already opening his eyes and fussing to get up, even more punctually than the roosters. Qiu Su was still half asleep and didn't get angry, so Huang Tao carried Mo Mo away.
Qiu Su had a habit of walking around the mountain before eating breakfast, even though others had already started their mornings when she ate breakfast, she could never seem to break the habit. As usual, Qiu Su walked from the back mountain to the front mountain. Just as she stood at the entrance of the mountain path and glanced down, she met a pair of eyes filled with bitterness and resentment.
It was no exaggeration to say that he harbored deep resentment. The man pursed his lips tightly, his face was tanned to a dark brown and seemed chapped, and his eyes stared blankly at Qiu Su, filled with endless accusation.
Qiu Su touched her cheek, smiled, and said, "You're back. He Zhuo was thinking about you yesterday."
Qin Qin bit her lip and remained silent, but the person next to her, whom Qiu Su had met once before, was Tara, who had a good relationship with He Zhuo. Tara nodded to Qiu Su and went up the steps first.
Qiu Su stepped aside, smiled, and said, "Thank you for bringing Qin Qin back. Is everything alright over there?"
"Fortunately, the people of the tribe have moved to another place to settle down. Ji Fan said that once the world is at peace, he will bring his Ataana to come and see you."
Qiu Su nodded, and seeing that Qin Qin was still staring at her fiercely, she pursed her lips and said, "You go first, He Zhuo is in the back mountain."
Tara glanced at Qinqin behind her, nodded, and left. Qiu Su descended the steps, looked into Qinqin's eyes, reached out and took her hand, turned around and pulled her up, finding a stone slab to sit on. "Has Qinqin gone home?"
Qin Qin remained silent, but her eyes reddened.
"Qinqin, are you very tired?"
Qinqin couldn't hold back her tears and burst into sobs. She shoved Qiu Su's hand away and cried out in a hoarse voice, "What right do you have to comfort me? What gives you the right to occupy his heart? He actually abandoned me in the southern borderlands. I traveled for half a year and finally managed to see him. He arranged for me to stay there, and I thought he had feelings for me, but he just left without saying a word. What does he take me for?!"
"Qinqin." Qiu Su pressed her lips together, unsure of what to say. After a long pause, she finally said, "You're a good girl. He must have feelings for you."
"I don't want it anymore." Qinqin shook her head, crying. "Did he ever care about me even a little? When he left, if he had just given me a word, even just a word, I would have had hope."
“It’s too hard. Really, it’s too hard. It takes me a year to travel back and forth. How many years do I have to spend on the road? He’s the dragon of Qingfeng Village. I’m just an ordinary person from the foot of the mountain. How can I be worthy of He Xiaolong? I was stupid and didn’t listen to my father.”
Don't think like that.
Qin Qin shook her head, covered her face and choked up for a long time. She wiped her face and said, "I just came to say goodbye to him. As for how you want to bother me in the future, that's your business."
Qinqin stood up, looked at her dirty clothes and her much rougher hands, and smiled through her tears at Qiu Su, saying, "Look, my hands are so rough now, and even my face feels like tree bark. What do I have left? Even if I did, I don't want it anymore. Sister Qiu, could you let me take a bath and wash my face? And look at these clothes, shouldn't we throw them away?"
Looking at Qin Qin's smile, Qiu Su felt a lump in her throat. See, not all relationships are perfect. Just when she thought He Zhuo had feelings for Qin Qin, Qin Qin smiled and told her she was there to say goodbye. How many disappointments, how many missed opportunities, and how many times have I given up, not because I didn't love you?
For some reason, Qiu Su thought of the bamboo kite that had turned into a mound of yellow earth.
Qin Qin took a thorough bath, carefully washing her hair and applying face powder. Qiu Su sat in the outer room, chin in hand, lost in thought, unsure how to face what was to come. Personally, she still hoped Qin Qin could be with He Zhuo, not for any other reason than that it wasn't easy to win He Zhuo's heart. He Zhuo wasn't young anymore, and she couldn't bear to see him suffer alone, nor could she bear to see Qin Qin wait so many years only to have it end before it even began.
Traveling alone to southern Xinjiang requires more than just courage. If it were her, she might silently mourn the feelings that weren't meant for her, and then stay in Pingcheng waiting for the next chance encounter. Looking back years later, she might frown at those missed opportunities, regretting not having fought for them, but she wouldn't think of putting in any effort at the beginning.
Qinqin tried hard to wipe her face, but couldn't make it as smooth as it had become from being exposed to the wind and sun all the way. She looked in the mirror for a moment, grinned, and then turned to Qiu Su, who was staring at her, saying, "Sister Qiu, actually, whether this face is beautiful or ugly doesn't matter at all; he won't even notice. But tell me, why am I still nervous when I see him? Liking him doesn't necessarily mean I have to be with him, right?"
Qinqin ran her fingers through her black hair, sitting opposite Qiusu for a long time until her hair was half-dry before carefully combing it. Pushing open the door, she saw He Zhuo already sitting casually on a rock not far away. Qiusu felt indescribably heavy-hearted. She looked at He Zhuo, then at Qinqin, and turned to leave.
This was the man who gave her the courage to search so hard, even if it meant running herself ragged, and he was also the one who dealt her the heaviest blow. Before she secretly left home, her father told her that feelings couldn't be forced, and that he would arrange for her to marry into a scholarly family. What she once thought she couldn't accept even if she died, now seemed acceptable. Perhaps she should live a peaceful and respectful life with that young master.
He Zhuo jumped off the pile of stones, unsure of how to begin. After hesitating for a while, Qin Qin smiled and spoke first: "How long have you been back?"
"It's been three or four months."
"That's great." Qin Qin's smile remained unchanged. "You still like Sister Qiu, right?"
He Zhuo scratched his forehead, frowned as he looked at the stone in front of him, and said, "It's none of your business."
Qin Qin nodded, "I know, it really has nothing to do with me. Thank you for leaving me in the southern border region, so that I can see some things clearly."
"I was in a hurry at the time..." He Zhuo hurriedly retorted, but realized halfway through his sentence that it seemed unnecessary.
Qin Qin's eyes flickered, and when she saw him interrupt her with a hint of impatience, her eyes instantly dimmed.
"He Zhuo, I've come to say goodbye."
"Where are you going?" He Zhuo looked up.
“Go home. I’ve been away for so long, my dad must be worried. Before I left, he arranged a marriage for me. I’m going back to see if I can get married.”
He Zhuo opened his mouth, then frowned and asked after a long pause, "Which one?"
Qin Qin shrugged and turned to look elsewhere. "I forgot. I didn't ask back then."
"You're going to marry someone you don't even know?"
Qin Qin smiled at He Zhuo, her eyes slightly narrowed. It was more like she was afraid that if she opened them wide, tears would accidentally fall.
"Yes, but my dad said he's a good man. Look, I'll have someone to marry too. I wanted to wait another five years for you, but I can't wait any longer. Sister Qiu has a family now, so you should come out soon too. There are plenty of good girls in the world. Even though I'm not the one for you, you'll find someone eventually."
He Zhuo remained silent, while Qin Qin kept her mouth wide open, trying her best to smile. The two stared at each other for a long time. Qin Qin took a deep breath, raised her hands to rub her cheeks, and laughed self-deprecatingly, saying, "You see, I used to think I was very pretty, but after all this time, I realized that my previous beauty was all cultivated. If I had been traveling for months, I would have turned into a dark-skinned ghost girl."