Chapter 39

Chapter 39: What Responsibility Should You Take?

Huo Zheng stepped forward little by little until she had to back away. He asked in a low voice: “You tell me, what responsibility should you take?”

Chun Zhi kept retreating until her back hit the wall and she could not move farther. Flustered, she said: “I drank too much last night. I don’t remember anything.”

He studied her and asked: “You really don’t remember?” The corner of his mouth curved as he added softly: “Then I will help you remember.”

He caught her wrist and said: “How you pulled me onto the bed, how you wrapped yourself around me and undid my belt…”

She cut him off at once and said quickly: “No, no need!” Forcing herself to steady her voice, she went on: “We both drank last night. We were not thinking clearly, so we did that. But in the end, it was mutual. I won’t ask you to take responsibility, and you shouldn’t make me take responsibility either.”

His long, narrow eyes narrowed further, and a dangerous look flashed there.

She pushed herself to keep speaking: “Just treat it like a one-night flirtation, like morning dew that dries up. After we wake up, we forget it.”

His grip on her wrist tightened as he asked: “Is that really what you think?”

She made a small sound of agreement.

Her face was still rosy like a peach flower, but her eyes were clear. [I only want a child of my own.] [I do not want to be tangled up with a man.] So she would not keep him, and she could not take responsibility either.

“Fine. Very good,” he said at last.

He let go of her wrist, opened the yard gate, and walked out.

“Huo Qi,” Chun Zhi called after him: “You haven’t eaten breakfast yet. Where are you going?”

He did not look back.

She rubbed her sore wrist, sat at the Eight Immortals Table, and drank her porridge. The buns he bought were still warm. [How did he walk so far on that injured leg?] [How did he keep the buns warm all the way back?]

With Huo Qi gone, she had little appetite. She ate two buns and half a bowl of porridge and could not eat any more. She wrapped the rest of the buns in the oil paper again and put the bowl she had ladled for him back into the pot to keep warm. [When he comes back, he should still get something hot.]

She did not make tofu today. She kept waiting for him, and time felt extra long. She did not close the gate, leaving it half open the way it was when Huo Qi left.

Sitting in the yard, she used some extra cloth to make clothes for Huo Qi, glancing out at the gate from time to time to see whether he was back yet. She waited from morning until afternoon before she finally heard footsteps outside.

Thinking it was Huo Qi, she set down her needle and thread and hurried to the gate.

But a young woman in a rush stood there, and her face looked familiar. As soon as the girl saw her, she rushed into Chun Zhi’s arms like a swallow returning to its nest and cried out: “Sister Chun Zhi.”

Chun Zhi blinked and asked, puzzled: “You are…?”

“I am Yu Zhu,” the young woman said, hugging her tight. Her bright eyes were wet as she asked: “Sister Chun Zhi, don’t you remember me?”

Chun Zhi stared in surprise and said: “Yu Zhu? You look so different from before. I almost didn’t recognize you.”

As a child, Yu Zhu had been a pretty little doll. Now she had grown up into a slender beauty with fair skin. If they had met on the street, Chun Zhi would not have recognized her.

Yu Zhu was one year younger than Chun Zhi and had lived to the east of the Lu Residence. They had been neighbors. When Chun Zhi was nine, Lu Jing Yun took her into his home. The nearby children bullied her for being small and thin. Only Yu Zhu played with her and even taught her how to sew.

Yu Zhu’s family had once been well-off. Four years ago, her father died at the hands of bandits while doing business far from home. Her mother fell seriously ill. There was only a twelve-year-old younger brother left, and he still needed to study. Even after selling their house and belongings, Yu Zhu still could not pay for the medicine, so she sold herself into a wealthy household as a maid. Since then, Chun Zhi had not seen her. She never thought Yu Zhu would arrive at her door today.

Chun Zhi led her into the yard and said warmly: “Four years passed in a blink. How are you now? Let’s go inside and talk.”

Yu Zhu followed her in, but kept looking back, as if afraid someone was trailing her. She lowered her voice and asked: “Sister Chun Zhi, can you close the gate first?”

Chun Zhi had planned to leave it open while waiting for Huo Qi, but hearing Yu Zhu’s request, she went and shut it.

She poured a cup of hot tea. They sat in the yard to talk. Chun Zhi asked gently: “Why did you suddenly come back? Did something happen?”

Yu Zhu hesitated. Tears glimmered in her eyes.

Chun Zhi soothed her and said: “If you don’t want to say, then don’t. Are you hungry? I’ll make you something.”

Yu Zhu answered in a small voice: “Hungry.”

Chun Zhi served her a bowl of porridge and opened the oil-paper bundle of buns from Li’s Bun Shop. Yu Zhu truly was hungry; she ate three buns in a row and finished the whole bowl of porridge.

“Eat slowly,” Chun Zhi said kindly. “If that’s not enough, there is more.”

Yu Zhu rubbed her stomach and said: “I’m full.”

From her clothes, Yu Zhu did not look like someone who could not get enough to eat. Chun Zhi wanted to ask what had happened, yet she feared touching a painful memory. At last Yu Zhu spoke on her own: “Sister Chun Zhi, may I stay here for a while?”

The little yard had only two rooms. Chun Zhi lived in one, and Huo Qi lived in the other. There was no extra room for Yu Zhu. But if Yu Zhu had somewhere else to go, she would not have come here.

Chun Zhi thought it over. In other people’s eyes, she and Huo Qi were already married. If she gave Huo Qi a room alone and shared a room with Yu Zhu, word would spread and their fake marriage might be exposed. If she gave Yu Zhu a room and shared one with Huo Qi, then after what happened last night, they were no longer truly innocent either…

Seeing Chun Zhi still silent, Yu Zhu asked carefully: “Is it inconvenient?”

It was inconvenient. But Chun Zhi nodded and said: “Sit and rest for a bit. I’ll tidy a room.”

Yu Zhu stood right up and said: “Sister Chun Zhi, I’ll help you.”

“No need,” Chun Zhi said gently. “Sit and rest.”

She also did not want anyone to know that after marrying, she and Huo Qi slept in separate rooms. She changed the bedding and pillow in Huo Qi’s room and arranged for Yu Zhu to sleep there for now.

As Yu Zhu passed the window, she saw that Chun Zhi’s room had Double Happiness Cutouts on the wall and a red gauze canopy over the bed. She paused and asked in surprise: “Sister Chun Zhi, did you get married?”

Chun Zhi nodded and said: “Just a few days ago.”

Yu Zhu had only just returned to Linshui Town today. She had not yet heard that Lu Jing Yun became top scholar and married someone else. So she asked in confusion: “You married Brother Lu? Then why isn’t your wedding room at the Lu Residence?”

Chun Zhi opened her mouth to explain that she had not married Lu Jing Yun, when the yard gate pushed inward from outside.

Huo Qi stepped in, leaning on his cane.

Yu Zhu turned and came face to face with him. She asked politely: “And you are?”

Chun Zhi walked forward and said: “He is my husband, Huo Qi.”