Chapter 102: The Republican-Era Young Lady Stops Making a Fuss 13 – He Dusheng Didn’t Know Whether to Laugh or Cry

A woman?

The matter of the Gorgon Fruit Cake still wasn’t clear, so where had another woman suddenly come from?

He Dusheng’s mind was in a haze.

Yet the wife before him had her willow brows drawn tight, her cherry lips pressed together, and a faint flush of anger on her cheeks.

Her gaze was sharp, clearly determined to make him explain himself.

But in He Dusheng’s eyes, this display held a touch of coquettish grievance, and a touch of jealousy.

His heart swayed, and he really did let out a low chuckle.

He reached out to pull her over, but she twisted away from him.

He didn’t dare force it, and stood up himself.

His tall frame completely enveloped the sulking woman.

Laughing softly by her ear, he asked, “What nonsense have you been hearing now, that you’d get mad at me over it? It’s not as if you don’t know. Just taking care of you is already more than enough for me to handle. How could there possibly be anyone else?”

Song Xuange knew perfectly well that this anger of hers had come out of nowhere. How he treated her, how could she not know?

Maybe it was because of the pregnancy. The moment she heard those words just now, she hadn’t been able to stop herself from losing her temper.

Now that he had coaxed her a little, more than half her anger had already faded.

Still, she refused to look at him. Twisting her fingers together in front of her, she said sullenly, “I didn’t treat you well before. How am I supposed to know whether you’ve found some sweet, understanding confidante outside?”

These words weren’t the sharp, heated outburst of someone in the middle of a tantrum. They were what she truly thought.

He Dusheng released her, then moved around to stand in front of her, forcing her to lift her head and look at him.

“The way I feel about you, do you truly not know it at all?”

The disappointment and sorrow in his eyes at that moment scorched Song Xuange’s heart. She immediately reached out and hugged him, burying her face in his chest, no longer willing to quarrel with him.

“I know, I know. No one else could ever treat me the way you do.”

He Dusheng sighed softly and stroked her back, patting it slowly.

“Xuange, my lady…”

The two of them stayed wrapped in each other’s arms like that for a moment. Then He Dusheng led her back to sit down and brought up the earlier matter again.

Song Xuange said, “Someone told me about it. They said you were the one who went around saying that the thing you loved most in your life was the Gorgon Fruit Cake your beloved made for you, that you liked it so much you’d even skip meals and eat piece after piece of cake instead.”

He Dusheng didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

How bored would someone have to be to make up such nonsense just to smear his name?

Yes, He Dusheng considered this deliberate slander against him.

He swore to heaven and launched into a long explanation that the whole thing was completely fabricated, then pressed her on who had told her such a thing.

Naturally, Song Xuange couldn’t possibly sell Lu Zhu out. Judging by the way He Dusheng looked right now, he might actually go confront her face-to-face.

Just imagining a husband-and-wife spat being dragged out in front of outsiders was enough to make Song Xuange’s face grow hot.

Nanny Wen called everyone to eat.

Lu Zhu came running back cheerfully, hugging her notebook in her arms. When she saw He Dusheng, she switched to walking instead.

He Dusheng casually asked about the progress of the design sketches, which also served as a greeting.

Instinctively, Lu Zhu tucked the notebook behind her back and gave a sheepish grin. “I’m drawing it, I’m drawing it.”

He Dusheng had seen her sketching earnestly in the courtyard earlier, so he nodded at her rather gently now, as a sign of approval.

Song Xuange watched the whole thing and said nothing.

Ever since becoming pregnant, Song Xuange usually slept whenever she felt sleepy, and sometimes that meant she couldn’t sleep at night.

That night was the same. She woke up in the middle of the night.

But knowing that He Dusheng was a light sleeper and that getting up would definitely wake him, she could only lie there staring at the ceiling without moving.

Then she noticed that the person beside her seemed to be breathing a little too fast, and immediately felt that something was wrong. After all, He Dusheng was the model sleeping companion, no snoring, and he even kept the same posture he’d had before falling asleep.

Song Xuange reached out. In the darkness, she touched his neck, and her hand came away covered in hot sweat.

She hurriedly switched on the bedside lamp and looked at He Dusheng again. His whole head was covered in sweat, and beneath his closed lids his eyeballs were moving rapidly. He was clearly having a nightmare.

Song Xuange shifted over and shook him. She had to call his name several times before she finally woke him.

He Dusheng opened his eyes and let out a long breath.

Seeing Song Xuange beside him, he asked, “What is it, are you thirsty? Want some water?”

As he spoke, he threw back the covers and started to get out of bed.

Song Xuange caught hold of him.

“I’m not thirsty.” Then she asked, “Did you have a nightmare?”

He Dusheng sat on the edge of the bed for a while before recovering. He was breathing heavily, as if utterly exhausted.

Song Xuange leaned toward him, but he dodged away. “I’m covered in sweat.”

He stood up. “I’ll go wash my face.”

The sound of rushing water came from the washroom. Not long after, He Dusheng came back out.

Song Xuange reached out to touch him. This time he didn’t avoid her. Instead, he pulled her into his arms and even kissed her on the forehead.

His temperature had gone down quite a bit, and his hair was a little damp.

Song Xuange asked, “What kind of nightmare did you have?”

He Dusheng pressed his lips together, the corners of his mouth flat. After a long while, only when Song Xuange urged him again did he finally say in a hoarse voice, “I dreamed that you didn’t want me anymore. I woke up and found that all the happiness these past days had been fake. You looked at me coldly and wanted to divorce me. You told me you didn’t want any ties with me, and you didn’t want our child.”

Song Xuange’s heart ached in tight, dense waves, as if countless needles were stabbing into it without pause.

She had never expected it to be something like this.

These past days, the way He Dusheng treated her was no longer as cautious and polite as it had been at the beginning. She had thought that the wound between them, the one she herself had once torn open, had slowly begun to heal.

Only now did she realize that the wound had healed only on her side.

For He Dusheng, perhaps what it had left behind was an ugly scar that could not be ignored.

Perhaps, deep down, he still had never fully believed in her change.

Song Xuange wrapped her arms around the man in return, almost winding her whole body around him.

“I’m not leaving you, never, unless I die, unless you say with your own mouth that you don’t want me.”

He Dusheng said nothing.

Song Xuange tilted her face up halfway. “Listen carefully. The man I, Song Xuange, love is called He Dusheng. I held a wedding with him in a church, and I also wore phoenix coronet and embroidered bridal robes¹ to bow to heaven and earth with him. Whether before the gods of China or before God, we are one whole that cannot be separated. My man treasures me like a jewel beyond price. In my heart, no one else could ever compare to him. As for how I treat him…”

Song Xuange paused, then said with self-mockery, “I let him down for a long time. Only now am I starting to learn how to love him…”

He Dusheng’s gaze burned as he held her tighter and tighter, burying his face in the hollow of her neck. “You don’t need to learn, you don’t need to learn. Just stay by my side and let me love you properly.”

Song Xuange didn’t argue with him either. There was no point in saying more. The ravines in his heart would need time for her to slowly fill in.

“Xuange.”

“Mm?”

“I mean it. I took your words seriously.”

Song Xuange felt both heartache and amusement. She lifted her face again. “I wasn’t lying to you. Besides, what would I gain from tricking you?”

“I don’t know. If you are tricking me, then please trick me a little longer. Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you… even my life.”

Song Xuange was about to say something else, but he suddenly bent down and sealed off the rest of her words.

When he kissed her, there wasn’t a trace of gentleness. From time to time, he bit her lips and the tip of her tongue until they throbbed with pain.

It was very uncomfortable.

Song Xuange reached out to push him away.

He Dusheng lowered her onto the bed, his large hand pinning her slender wrists above her head so she couldn’t move at all.

Unable to do anything, Song Xuange could only protest during the gaps when she managed to catch her breath.

“Mm… it hurts…”

The man propped up half his body and looked at her.

Song Xuange seized the chance to breathe, looking back at him with wet, glistening eyes.

His breathing grew even more uneven.

After watching her for a while, he released the hand that had been restraining her and bent down, inch by inch, kissing and soothing her reddened, swollen lips as if in worship.

A moment later, their noses nearly touching, he coaxed her in a breathy voice that invited all kinds of dangerous thoughts, “It’s already been four months. Doctor Wu said it’s fine now.”

His warm breath spread across her face, making it itch slightly. It was also a little embarrassing, and Song Xuange turned her face away.

The man let out a low laugh. He didn’t turn her face back, and instead followed the motion, pressing his lips to the earlobe she had exposed by turning away.

His voice was like a devil’s, drilling straight into her ear.

“I’ll be gentler?”

Song Xuange’s heart was beating so fast. At such close range, she could hear another heart, beating just like hers.

When he got no reply, the man urged her again.

“Mm?”

Then something warm, soft, and wet slipped into her ear, and a current exploded from that spot, sweeping through her entire body.

Song Xuange bit her lip, forcing down the cry that had nearly escaped her in that instant.

The man wreaked havoc as he pleased, leaving her unable to cope. In the end, she simply lifted her arms and wrapped them around his neck.

Getting a response, the man was satisfied, and he let out a muffled laugh.

She heard him say, “Good girl…”

…

He Dusheng left, taking Lu Zhu with him to Changzhou.

Leaving behind a despondent Song Xuange.

She hadn’t even been able to get out of bed when he left that morning.

By the time she had slept her fill, the sun was already high.

What a waste, when she had even told him last night that she would see him off and that he should wake her before he left.

Yet when she got up, the whole room was pitch-black, without a single sound.

It was obvious at a glance whose handiwork this was.

Song Xuange lay in bed for quite a while before finally getting up listlessly. After turning on the light, she discovered the bedsheets had been changed. The original sheets had long since disappeared, and she had no idea how he had dealt with them.

Her face was still a little hot, and she decided not to think about that anymore.

Rarely, Song Pingzhang was actually home today, though he looked rather dispirited too.

Song Xuange asked curiously, “Why are you home today? Your classmates stopped taking you out to play?”

“Of course not.”

Song Pingzhang told her that the Foot-Binding Release Society he had joined went out yesterday to give a promotional speech, and he had gone along too.

“At first, no one came to listen to our speech at all. It was only because the president had people call out in the residential area that anyone who stayed through the entire talk would get a free box of matches that it drew a crowd.

“People did come, men and women both. But either they weren’t listening seriously and kept whispering to each other, or they interrupted the president halfway through to ask when exactly the matches would be handed out. Quite a few even started cursing after finding out what the speech was about, saying the president and the others were trying to lead girls astray. Most of the people doing the cursing were women too.

“In the end, an argument broke out and the whole scene turned chaotic. I went to help break it up, but once the audience found out I was part of the society too, they started cursing me as well, saying I had no shame, that I was rotten to the core, caring about women’s feet at such a young age…”

Song Pingzhang didn’t say the even uglier things they had called him.

Only then did Song Xuange realize that this boy hadn’t just been fooling around outside after all.

She asked Song Pingzhang, “Then what do you think about it yourself? Are you still planning to continue?”

“Continue, of course I’ll continue!” Song Pingzhang clenched his fist. “The president said those people weren’t doing it on purpose. It’s just that the limits of their environment and understanding keep them from knowing what they’re doing. They’re only acting on instinct. And the reason our society exists is to let those people who have been disciplined and conditioned know that the world is not what they think it is. This is something meaningful!”

Seeing that he had already talked himself into feeling better, Song Xuange said nothing more.

She muddled through the entire day at home in utter boredom, feeling only that time passed far too slowly.

By evening, as she sat on the swing in the courtyard and swayed lightly, she wondered what He Dusheng was doing at that moment. Had his visit to the Chief Manager gone smoothly?

Changzhou City.

The He Dusheng Song Xuange was thinking about was currently being lavishly entertained at a banquet.

As the host, the Chief Manager introduced the newly served dish to He Dusheng with a genial smile. “Manager He has come from afar, so you absolutely must try this restaurant’s signature dish, duck stewed with gorgon fruit. The broth is fresh and sweet.”

At that, Lu Zhu, who had accompanied him, lit up with sparkling eyes. She sniffed the air, saliva nearly flooding her mouth.

She picked up her spoon, eager to begin. She was only waiting for her boss to take the first bite before following suit.

The soup tureen was set close by, and she had already picked out a particularly tempting piece of duck by eye.

Only, why wasn’t her boss making a move no matter how long she waited?

The Chief Manager noticed He Dusheng’s reaction as well.

So he asked, “Is something the matter?”

He Dusheng rose and apologized. “The Chief Manager is treating me, and I really shouldn’t refuse. It’s just that, for certain reasons, I truly cannot eat gorgon fruit. I have failed to live up to the Chief Manager’s kindness.”

With that, he lifted his cup and drained it in one go.

To show his apology.

The Chief Manager burst into hearty laughter.

“I was wondering what it was. If a guest’s dietary taboo appears on the table, then it is I, the host, who have failed in my hospitality. Please don’t blame me, Manager He. This place has plenty of other signature dishes.”

With that, he called for someone to remove the duck soup with gorgon fruit and began introducing the other dishes instead.

Off to the side, Lu Zhu could only watch helplessly as the duck she had her eye on flew away right before her eyes…

Translator’s Notes