Nie Siran X Su Ruhe (4)
“Su gongzi, the iced mung bean soup at this place tastes quite good. Gongzi loves mung bean soup most. Shall we go in and try it?”
Su Ruhe had finished a new storybook and handed it to the bookboy to deliver to the bookshop. He himself went to the grain shop next door to buy some rice. On the way back, they passed a teahouse. Seeing that sweat had broken out on Su Ruhe’s brow from the heat, the bookboy wanted him to sit down and rest a while.
“Mm, let us go.” Su Ruhe happened to be thirsty and entered the teahouse with him.
The teahouse was doing fine business today. The first floor was filled with people. He lifted his foot and went to the second floor. All the quieter and cooler seats had already been taken, and only the seat with the strongest sunlight remained unoccupied.
Su Ruhe walked over and lowered the bamboo sunshade. At once, the sunlight was greatly cut back, leaving only strips of light slipping through the gaps and casting bars of brightness and shadow across the tabletop.
“What would the two guests like to drink?” the waiter asked warmly.
Su Ruhe sat down and said gently, “Two bowls of mung bean soup. My thanks.”
“Very good. Please wait a moment, guests. The iced mung bean soup will be here at once.”
The mung bean soup was brought quickly. The bookboy was so overcome by the heat that he immediately picked up his bowl and drank deeply. After finishing one whole bowl, he wiped his mouth with his sleeve, looking utterly satisfied. “The weather is truly hot. Once a bowl of cool soup goes down the throat, it feels too comfortable.”
As he spoke, he lifted his head to look at Su Ruhe.
Su Ruhe had taken two sips. The cool sweetness spread through his mouth, instantly smoothing away the irritability brought on by the weather. A trace of a smile even appeared between his brows.
“Will you have more? I will have the waiter bring you anoth...” Su Ruhe lifted his left hand, his long knuckles pointing vaguely toward the stairway. Before he had finished speaking, a bamboo fan the color of green jade lightly pressed against his wrist.
Then the fan traced half a circle around his wrist, making a dense little tingling rise over his skin as it moved upward, until the fan was pressed into his palm. At a glance, it looked almost as though his hand had loosely closed around the handle of the fan.
Su Ruhe’s fingertips stilled briefly, and he raised his eyes toward the owner of the fan.
Nie Siran looked down at him from above, smiling in the eyes. His gaze swept across Su Ruhe’s slender, fair fingers, and then he turned with calm leisure to the bookboy and said, “I would like to reminisce a little with your gongzi. Go downstairs and drink there. This treat is mine.”
The bookboy made himself scarce with impressive speed.
Su Ruhe withdrew his hand. Nie Siran walked over and sat down. His gaze passed over the sheen of thin sweat on Su Ruhe’s brow, and he pushed the folding fan toward him. “Fan yourself a little. It will be cooler.”
Su Ruhe did not accept it.
“Many thanks for Young Master Nie’s good intentions, but I am not hot.”
How could Nie Siran fail to see the coldness in him? His lips lifted. “This one truly wishes to befriend Vice Minister Su. Will Vice Minister grant me a chance?”
Su Ruhe was drinking his mung bean soup. Hearing this, he cast him a strange glance, then quickly lowered his head again and continued drinking with full attention.
Nie Siran let out a disappointed sigh with a smile. “It seems Vice Minister Su has no wish to grant that chance.”
Su Ruhe set down his bowl and raised his eyes to say seriously, “This humble one merely feels that Young Master Nie need not waste so fine a time upon someone like me.”
“If Su’s former conduct displeased Young Master Nie, Su is willing to apologize.”
Nie Siran fixed his gaze on those eyes of his. That face, perpetually still, seemed not to have even one expression more than necessary. Looking back upon it, he realized he had rarely ever seen him smile.
Suddenly, he flicked open his folding fan. As it moved, wave after wave of cool breeze blew toward Su Ruhe.
Nie Siran said, “An apology alone will likely not suffice.”
Su Ruhe paused.
Without the slightest change of expression, Nie Siran tilted the fan leaves toward him and said leisurely, “This one has not returned to the capital for a long time. Since Vice Minister Su harbors a mind to make amends, Why not spare a day and accompany me for a stroll?”
Su Ruhe’s calm face nearly split apart. He clenched his fingers. “After that one day, will all former grievances be written off with one stroke?”
Looking at his earnest little manner, Nie Siran could not help the laughter surging in his heart. He truly still innocently believed that the reason he, Nie Siran kept coming to find him was because he minded those storybooks written about himself.
Nie Siran’s thoughts turned quickly, yet none of it showed on his face. He even nodded and assured him, “Naturally. This one is not a small-minded person. So long as Vice Minister Su is willing to accompany me for one day, everything from before will scatter with the wind.”
Su Ruhe pinched his fingertips. The tips of his ears showed a faint flush not easy to notice.
These ordinary words, once they came from Nie Siran’s mouth, always sounded a little strange. Su Ruhe cast aside the odd feeling in his mind and decided that this bargain was quite reasonable, and so he agreed.
“Very well. Then let it be tomorrow.”
From across the table came a clear and pleasing laugh, like the mountain wind at dusk, carrying the freshness of blue mountains and green waters, thread by thread drilling into his ears and leaving a tingling numbness behind.
“As commanded, Vice Minister Su.”
Su Ruhe felt that there was something different hidden in that laughter, yet before he could examine it closely, Nie Siran had already risen. Walking toward the stairs, he waved at him without turning his head.
“Tomorrow is a fine day. This one will wait for Vice Minister Su at the mouth of Wutong Lane. Vice Minister Su must by no means break your word.”
Su Ruhe sat there holding his bowl, staring blankly after the gradually disappearing figure.
The bookboy saw downstairs that Nie Siran had left and hurried back up to find his gongzi.
“Su gongzi? Gongzi?” The bookboy waved a hand before his face.
Su Ruhe came back to himself and seized the bookboy’s arm. “What day is tomorrow?” he asked.
“Tomorrow?” The bookboy’s mind stalled for a moment, then his eyes lit up and he said excitedly, “Su gongzi, tomorrow is the Qiqiao Festival. It will be very lively. Does gongzi want to come out and enjoy it?”
Su Ruhe’s eyes went blank for an instant, and then his expression turned a whole array of colors, while his body gradually stiffened.
The next day, when the sun was already well above the horizon, he still dragged his feet before finally going out.
When he reached the mouth of the lane, he unsurprisingly saw Nie Siran waiting beneath the wutong tree. Today he wore a rarely seen robe of cloud-blue with broad sleeves, standing there like a jade tree before the wind.
The young man was handsome in countenance and already particularly eye-catching by nature. Moreover, today was the Qiqiao Festival, and the number of women who passed by him and stole glances at him was even greater than usual.
Standing in a corner, Su Ruhe watched the steady stream of women offering flowers to Nie Siran, and in his heart Heaven and man were at war.
Before even the tips of his feet could turn and retreat, Nie Siran had already seen him. Politely and gently refusing the flowers offered him, he strode toward Su Ruhe beneath the eyes of all those present.
Su Ruhe tightened his grip on his sleeve. Within his heart there rose a tension that he himself did not even know the cause of. In the end, he attributed that tension to discomfort at so many people around.
“What is the matter?” Nie Siran walked over. Seeing him with lowered head and lips tightly pressed together, he looked somewhat out of sorts.
At the sound of his voice, Su Ruhe suddenly loosened his fingers. Ignoring the concern in the words, he lifted his head and asked, “Where does Young Master Nie wish to go?”
Nie Siran did not much care. His gaze carefully moved over Su Ruhe’s face for a long while, and only after seeing that he truly seemed to have no particular problem did he say, “Anywhere is fine. You may decide everything.”
Su Ruhe brought him to wander through the eastern and western markets all morning. At midday, a servant from the Nie residence suddenly came looking for him, saying that Nie Chouwen had matters requiring him.
Nie Siran had originally meant to bring Su Ruhe to eat the midday meal. Seeing this, however, he could only cancel it. They had walked about all morning, and at this point it truly was rather hot.
Seeing the flush of red rise on Su Ruhe’s fair face, he said, “Go first to a winehouse and eat. Rest away the summer heat. This afternoon, let us meet again by Feng River. Once I am done, I will come find you.”
Su Ruhe parted his lips, then stopped as though wishing to speak yet holding it back.
In truth, he wished to say that if Nie Siran had matters and could not come, then he need not come at all, and the trouble would be spared.
Today was the Qiqiao Festival. By afternoon, there would be more and more people in the streets. For two grown men to wander here and there through the streets... he would rather stay home and write.
Yet earlier he had already promised to accompany him for the whole day, and words once spoken could not be broken. In the end, Su Ruhe still said nothing, only nodded in answer and turned to enter the winehouse.
After the meal, he went home once. By the time he hurried to Feng River, Nie Siran had already been waiting there.
Beside him were also Prince Li and the Prince Consort.
The two groups sat briefly in the cool pavilion, then parted ways, not wishing to disturb Their Highness and the Prince Consort’s sweet tryst.
They went to a teahouse to eat. From the second floor, they happened to see the figures of the Prince Consort and the others enjoying themselves below. Su Ruhe found it charming, and so he took out his little booklet and charcoal pencil and lowered his head to begin writing and drawing.
Once the drawing was finished, he turned his head and saw the brilliant street below, bright with lantern light. Strains of silk and bamboo music drifted inward. The lovely evening of Qiqiao had already descended.
Nie Siran invited him to go watch the performance upon Feng River.
Su Ruhe refused.
Looking at the lively streets and the surging crowds, Su Ruhe thought to himself that arranging to meet on this day had truly been a tremendous mistake.
At once he rose and took his leave, walking down the stairs.
Nie Siran quickly followed after him, staring at the back of Su Ruhe’s black head. “We agreed that you would accompany me for the whole day. Is the little vice minister regretting it now?”
“Young Master Nie, this afternoon Su was hindered by affairs, and in the evening as well… it is no longer suitable to continue strolling. Better that on another day I shall accompany Young Master Nie for a full day. Let us leave it at this for today.” Rarely did he say so many words in one breath.
This time, however, Nie Siran fell into an unusual silence.
Hearing no more footsteps behind him, Su Ruhe took it for silent agreement and continued onward.
He had not brought the bookboy with him today, giving him a day off. Alone, he went against the flow of people toward Wutong Lane. Behind him, laughter and cheerful talk continued unceasingly, while the vendors at the roadside stalls cried out even more vigorously. The whole great avenue of Ye Jing blazed with lights, lively as broad daylight.
After turning through several streets and gradually leaving the great avenue of Ye Jing behind, the surroundings instantly quieted. By the time he reached the mouth of Wutong Lane, it was so still that even the sound of wind itself seemed to have ceased.
Today being Qiqiao, nearly all the vendors of Ye Jing had gone to the main street. The ones who normally set up stalls at the mouth of Wutong Lane had likewise disappeared without a trace. No one was anywhere around. Only darkness shrouded him on all sides, and by moonlight Su Ruhe slowly walked toward his home.
Halfway there, an extremely slight sound suddenly came from behind him.
At the very instant he heard it, Su Ruhe sprang up and ran. Yet he was a weak scholar with no martial skill to defend himself, and in the end his way was still cut off.
A sharp sword lay across his neck, and pain at once came from the skin.
“There were too many people this afternoon, and Vice Minister Su slipped away. Now you cannot run any farther, can you?” In the darkness, a coarse voice showed not the least attempt to conceal its malice.
Su Ruhe spoke steadily. “Are you one of the Deposed Crown Prince’s men?”
A grotesque burst of laughter came out. “If you say so, then let it be so. This old man did not come here to waste words with you. Today is a fine day, so I have come personally to send Vice Minister Su on his way.”
The instant his voice fell, the sword was nearly upon Su Ruhe’s face.
Su Ruhe closed his eyes.
With a crisp clang, a clear sound rang out beside his ear.
Immediately after, sounds of fighting came twice from the darkness, followed by a muffled groan and the thud of some heavy thing falling to the ground. After that, the surroundings fell silent once more.
Su Ruhe opened his eyes.
In the black night, thick as ink, one man stood there holding a beautiful flower lantern and quietly looking at him.
✧ A Word from the Author ✧
Thank you very much for everyone’s support. I will continue to work hard!
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