Chapter 25

Chapter 25

The road back from Songyun County to the village was long, longer than any road Zhong Yizhu had ever walked before.

By the time the last trace of daylight faded, the two of them finally made it back to Willow Mountain Village.

Zhong Yizhu had stood for half the day at the stall and then walked this great distance. Even though his constitution had improved greatly since he first came to the village, he still found himself exhausted from the ordeal.

Pei Mu told him to go inside and rest first, and he didn’t object. He sat on a chair for a good while, catching his breath, until his arms and legs felt like they belonged to him again.

He rubbed his sore lower back, got up, and went to the kitchen. Pei Mu had already got the fire going and was toasting the buns.

Good thing Pei Mu had the foresight to buy a bag of buns on the way out of the city; otherwise, they’d still be making dinner now, and who knows when they'd actually get to eat.

Pei Mu turned the buns over and looked up at him. “Hungry?”

Zhong Yizhu shook his head. “Not really.”

The kitchen was dim, lit only by a single candle, the red glow from the stove flickering on Pei Mu’s face. Outside, it was pitch black, and only the little space around him was lit up.

Zhong Yizhu grabbed a little stool and sat beside Pei Mu to keep him company. The smell of toasted bun crust filled his nose, and he swallowed. A bowl got pushed into his hands, and a golden-brown bun dropped into it.

“Eat up. Careful, it’s hot.”

Zhong Yizhu blew on it carefully, then picked up the bun but didn’t take a bite first. He tore it in half and held a piece up to Pei Mu’s mouth. “Here, you eat too.”

Pei Mu paused, his eyes dropping to the bun near his mouth and the hand holding it.

In the firelight, the slender, fair fingers looked as delicate as warm jade, even the nails a pretty pink.

Without any expression, he opened his mouth, bit the edge of the bun, nudged it with the back of his hand, and shoved the whole piece into his mouth.

Zhong Yizhu ate daintily, nibbling slowly on the remaining half. Neither of them said much, just sat by the fire, sharing and finishing more than a dozen buns.

Of course, most of them ended up in Pei Mu’s stomach.

After the buns, the water on the stove was hot. Zhong Yizhu washed up and went back to his room first. Pei Mu used the leftover water to wash up, then checked that both the front and back doors were locked before heading to the bedroom.

When he pushed the door open, Zhong Yizhu was sitting at the table counting coppers, looking really happy.

Zhong Yizhu had brought eighty-six incense pellets to sell today, each for twenty-three wen, and eight sachets for ten wen each. In total, he sold everything for two thousand and forty wen.

Some customers who bought a lot haggled, so he gave them a discount. The pellets cost about ten wen each to make, but since he'd bought the spices earlier, he didn't count that as a cost.

These two strings of cash were basically pure profit. Even though he'd spent over three taels on spices today, he still felt pretty satisfied. This wasn't just two taels of silver; it was his craft, his livelihood, his way forward.

Zhong Yizhu was so focused on stringing the coins that he didn't notice Pei Mu come in until a clay jar landed on the table. He looked up with a smile.

Zhong Yizhu looked at the jar, then at Pei Mu. “What’s this?”

Pei Mu slid the jar toward him. “You can take whatever silver you need out of this.”

Zhong Yizhu was stunned. He looked at the scattered silver pieces in the jar—some new, some old, clearly saved up little by little. Pei Mu pulled the silver he'd earned from selling today's game pelts out of his pocket and added it to the jar.

He looked at the silver in the jar, his voice emotionless. “The war at the border went on way too long. The court didn't have much money to pay the soldiers. After I spent what I had on Hunter Wang's funeral and fixing up the house, there was nothing left. This is what I've made from hunting this year. It's not much. You need capital for your incense business, so take what you need. No need to tell me.”

On the second day after Zhong Yizhu married into the family, Pei Mu had already shown him where the petty cash was kept. There were plenty of copper coins there, enough for daily household expenses for months.

But now that he was starting a business, Pei Mu was giving him all his savings.

Zhong Yizhu looked at the man before him. “Pei Mu, businesses can lose money.”

Stockpiles piling up, competition from peers, or worse—natural disasters or human misfortunes. Even though his first sale of incense pellets had gone smoothly, it didn’t mean he was guaranteed to make a profit.

Pei Mu said, “I know.”

When he first married Zhong Yizhu, Pei Mu had done it to repay a debt to Zhong Er Ye.

He had never been close to anyone in his life, hated noisy, crying children, and had never planned to marry. He had taken Zhong Yizhu in only to give him a place to stay, to help him out of his temporary predicament.

He knew Zhong Yizhu didn’t belong to this small mountain village. With him, Zhong Yizhu was free to come and go as he pleased.

If it were just about repaying a favor, this step would have been enough.

But when had things started to change?

Was it when Zhong Yizhu clumsily got up early to make him flatbread? Or when Zhong Yizhu stood up for him, scolding Pei Shui and Tian Shi? Or perhaps it was just some ordinary moment when Zhong Yizhu smiled and talked to him…

He found himself unable to stop caring, unable to stop worrying, willing to break his own principles for him, and willing to give him all the silver he had saved.

He didn’t want to think about why.

Silver could be earned again. Once Zhong Yizhu left, his life would return to how it was before.

He would continue living unhappily, continuing to make the Pei family unhappy too.

Zhong Yizhu touched the clay jar with great care. He looked at Pei Mu, his expression carrying a hint of affectionate coaxing, like when he was a child and had done something wrong in front of his parents.

He leaned forward slightly, tugging at Pei Mu’s sleeve. When he looked up, his eyes were pitiful and innocent, his voice cautious. “Pei Mu, I want to tell you a secret. Promise you won’t be angry, okay?”

Pei Mu looked down at the hand gripping his sleeve. “Mm.”

“My father gave my mother a silver note as a betrothal gift, and my mother gave it to me. It’s hidden in the bracelet I brought.” Although Pei Mu had agreed not to be angry, such concealment was inherently a sign of distrust. Zhong Yizhu knew he had been right to protect himself from the start, but he also feared it might hurt Pei Mu’s feelings toward him.

Pei Mu stood still for a moment, stunned.

It wasn’t until Zhong Yizhu called him again, a little uneasy, that he looked up.

“If that’s the case, then the day you leave Willow Mountain Village isn’t far off. Don’t worry, you can have the letter of divorce whenever you want.”

Pei Mu had thought that Zhong Yizhu’s incense business was just starting and might need more time to accumulate capital to run a shop. But since he had a silver note and now a skill to rely on, along with the ambition to grow his business, the predicament that had led him to marry was already resolved.

Zhong Yizhu, however, felt like he hadn’t understood. “What letter of divorce?”

He looked at Pei Mu in confusion, trying to read his face, but Pei Mu’s expression was still cold and hard, his half-lowered lashes hiding his eyes. It reminded Zhong Yizhu of the stranger he had first met, distant and indifferent.

Pei Mu said, “You married me out of necessity back then. I owed Zhong Er Ye a favor, so I gave you a place to stay. Now that you’ve broken free of your constraints, you can go live somewhere better. You can even choose a good husband and live a stable life.”

Zhong Yizhu stared at Pei Mu, stunned.

Too shocked, he didn’t know what expression to make.

“You… owed my father a favor?”

Pei Mu responded, briefly telling him what had happened.

Zhong Yizhu, however, couldn't take it in anymore.

His mind was in chaos, his heart even more so; he didn't know how things had suddenly become like this, nor how he should respond.

He dazedly let go of Pei Mu's sleeve, pushed the earthenware pot back in front of Pei Mu, wanted to say something, but then closed his mouth in bewilderment.

The whole world had turned upside down. Dazedly, Zhong Yizhu climbed into bed and tightly wrapped himself in the quilt his mother made.

Pei Mu stood by the table, staring at the pot that had been pushed toward him, for a very long time.

So long that the candle on the table burned out and darkness fell, so long that he thought Zhong Yizhu must have fallen asleep, before he turned around and climbed into bed in the darkness.

Darkness always gives rise to many bad thoughts. He closed his eyes, trying to force himself to sleep, but the covers beside him suddenly shifted.

Zhong Yizhu's voice was hoarse; he had been crying under the covers for who knew how long, his sobs carrying a damp, humid quality.

"Pei Mu, do you already have a girl or a guy you like, and once I leave, you're going to marry them?"

Pei Mu abruptly sat up and looked in Zhong Yizhu's direction. The room was very dark; he couldn't see clearly, but he could feel Zhong Yizhu's damp breath.

"No," he said.

His mind was in turmoil. He fumbled for his sleeve and used it to wipe Zhong Yizhu's face. The night was silent, so his voice was very soft: "What's on your mind? Why are you crying like this?"

"Then what if I don't want some fine husband, what if I want you?" Zhong Yizhu sobbed, as if he'd suffered a terrible injustice.

When he heard that, Pei Mu held his breath for a moment. His mind buzzed, and a sharp ringing briefly filled his ears.

Instinct awakened before reason. He pulled back the quilt and picked up the grievance-crumpled figure, patting his back to soothe him as he'd seen others do.

His voice was hoarse: "Don't cry. Anything you want is fine."

Zhong Yizhu wiped his tears on Pei Mu's shoulder, but new ones spilled out immediately.

He was truly aggrieved. With Pei Mu saying that, he only felt that these past days he had been like a fool, mistakenly thinking that Pei Mu's kindness was affection, but he was only repaying a debt and would cut ties with him later.

But what about the heartstrings he had been moved by?

The anger, worry, fear, reassurance, and joy that he had caused—were they all to be treated as if they didn't exist?

"I want you to like me," he said.