Back to the Countryside

Chapter 69: 探望

(To visit) 

 

With a snap, He Zhen slapped the servant girl’s face, causing her to fall to the ground, “If you can’t even do this little thing properly, what’s the use of having you?”

 

The maid covered her face and didn’t dare to say a word. She had done everything according to his order, so she never thought the plan would fall through and be exposed so quickly.

 

He Zhen rubbed his hand that was being used to slap the maid and sat down on the stool, thinking that even if he couldn’t drive them out of the village this time, at least he could make them feel bad for a while. But now, it was the same as if he hadn’t done anything at all.

 

He covered his dizzy head. His complexion looked very ugly. His illness was getting worse by the day, but he could not find out the cause. The landlord did not stay for the night at his place these days. All of these made his temper more and more irritable.

 

Every day he had to endure the pain of medicine to keep up his appearance. Now he had to suffer from this kind of ailment, and also rack his brains1 to please an old man. How about those who have wronged him? He was soaking in a honey pot2 , pampered by an outstanding man, enjoying the happiness he could never be able to obtain!

 

With a fling of his hand, he scattered all the things on the table to the floor. The flame of resentment and jealousy burned in his eyes with a madness that wanted to destroy everything. His hands gripped the servant girl who was sitting on her knees, “Go, prepare some gifts for me!”

 

The maid’s shoulder was aching from being grabbed by him and she frowned, “What gifts should I prepare?”

 

“A ‘tonic’, naturally. My cousin has been pregnant for some time, so I should come to visit him, right?” He pushed her to the side as he stood up straight again.

 

The maid shivered at the sudden smile on his face. Not daring to ask anything more, she got up from the floor and left the room.

 

He Zhen held in his smile while inside his eyes something was shining. He and the other party hadn’t seen each other for a long time. For so long, both of them had been living in a dream. The only difference was that he had a nightmare and He Ling obtained a beautiful dream! Since God was unfair, without any better option, he had to find some justice for himself, he could not always let someone live a beautiful life for too long.

 

By the time the maid returned and had all the things prepared, He Zhen had already changed his clothes. His hair was neatly combed and he had put the gold hairpin on his hair. Apparently after he covered his face with rouge, his complexion looked much better.

 

When he saw her enter, he didn’t ask her what she had prepared, but got up first from the stool in front of the bronze mirror and said, “Let’s go!”

 

The carriage ride from Shang Zhuang Village to Gu Shui Village took less than half an hour. During that time He Zhen did not say a word.The silence was so frightening that the maid who sat beside him dared not even to breathe.

 

When he passed by the He family, he did not even lift the curtain of the carriage to take a look. The family was now no more than strangers in his eyes, not worth mentioning.

 

The horse neighed and stopped in front of Qi Yue’s house. The maid helped He Zhen out of the carriage and turned back to get the things in it. He straightened and tidied up the hem of his somewhat wrinkled coat and looked up at the closed gate in front of him. His eyes darkened. Previously, there had been many times when he had cut a sorry figure and had been turned away in front of the door, to be ignored like a stray dog.

 

He Zhen let the maid go up and knocked on the door. After waiting for a while, there was a creak sound. The door was opened from the inside. The person who opened it was He Ling. He was dressed in white, and seemed a little surprised to see him, his eyes widening slightly.

 

This person was still so beautiful, so beautiful that he wanted to tear his face apart! He Zhen smiled and took a few steps forward, saying: “Cousin, I haven’t seen you for a long time, how have you been?”

 

His attitude was as familiar as if he was really a relative who came to visit, causing He Ling to wrinkle his brow as he withdrew his hand that was still resting on the door. His expression was unsympathetic, different from his, “What are you doing here?”

 

“I heard that my cousin is pregnant, so I purposely came to visit you!” He Zhen looked at his face and said with some sadness, ” Previously, this younger brother (Di di) was immature and hurt my cousin’s heart. Cousin, are you still blaming me?”

 

“He Zhen, why are you acting like this?” Their previous relationship had already been a fire in the water (two things diametrically opposed to each other) for a long time. Both of them knew it very well.

What was the point of his being like this?

 

“Cousin, as expected, you really do have some grudges towards me…”

 

He Zhen’s expression was sad again as his eyes were slightly red, “It is because I have done so many wrong things that I have made my cousin to be like this. But this time, I am really sincere in coming to visit.”

 

At this point, he stopped to wipe away the tears that had rolled down on his face, “Now that I have married into a landlord’s family, I seem to be in a good position, but in reality, I have a lot of pain that I can only swallow. In that place, I have seen a lot of people’s attitude towards another changing with the latter’s social position3. Therefore, the more and more I miss the goodness of my family. This time, I really want to make up with my cousin. I hope that you will give me a chance.”

He said it sincerely so He Ling was somewhat emotionally touched by this but in view of what had happened in the past, he was silent and did not say a word.

 

“Cousin, is it possible for you to forgive me?” He Zhen took a few more steps forward and tried to take his hand that was hanging by his side.

 

He Ling shrank back to avoid him, but seeing his face full of tears, he didn’t have the heart to do it, so he moved sideways and made a way for him and said, “You can come in first, then we can talk about it! It’s not nice to stand here.”

 

He Zhen hurriedly nodded his head and asked his maid to take his things and bring her into the house.

 

Once inside the central room, he sat down and looked around for a few moments before asking, “Is cousin’s husband not here?”

 

“Xiao Hu was wounded a few days ago so he went over to give the wound another look.” He Ling said, picking up the kettle on the table and got up again, “I’ll go to the kitchen to boil some water and make a pot of tea.”

 

“Cousin, let the maids do such trivial things!” He Zhen snatched the kettle away and let the little servant girl put the things on the table, then he sent her off to boil the water, “You are pregnant now, it would be better for you to rest properly!”

 

Seeing that the young servant girl had already run out with the teapot, He Ling didn’t insist anymore and sat back on the stool.

 

“I didn’t know what would be good for a pregnant person to eat, so I bought some of the things that nourish the body!”

He Zhen flipped through the things he had brought, showing them to the other party one by one.

 

He Ling casually looked at them twice, somewhat lacking in interest, “Xiang Gong has bought a lot of these things to prepare at home. I don’t lack any of these at all so you don’t have to take a lot of trouble over this.”

 

He Zhen’s hand that held some stuff paused, after that he remained calm and collected, continued to fiddle with the things for a while before he took out a greasy paper packet, opened it and said: “I heard that pregnant people like to eat something sour. I specially bought some plums for you as a snack. Cousin, would you like to try it?”

 

Looking at the plums that were brought to his eyes, He Ling reached out, twirled one with his fingers before he put it under his nose and sniffed it, then put it back, “No need! I don’t really like the taste.”

 

He Zhen’s eyes flashed for a moment before he smiled and put the plum aside, “It’s okay. If you don’t like it, then don’t eat it. Cousin’s taste is the most important!”

 

“Did you go to He Family’s house when you returned today?” He Ling raised his eyes and asked as if he hadn’t thought about it.

 

He Zhen didn’t know what he meant by that, so he paused before saying, “As soon as I returned to the village, I rushed to my cousin’s place. I didn’t have time to go home yet.”

 

He Ling nodded his head and said, “You should go back and take a look. These days, they’ve had a lot of trouble, and I’m afraid they’re also concerned about you.”

 

“I know! I’ll go and visit them when I leave. You don’t need to worry, cousin!”

Concerned? He Zhen gave a cold humph in his heart. They must be hating him to death right now!

 

The two of them chatted for a short while before the maid returned with a teapot. He Zhen got up to take it and told her to go and wait on the carriage. He poured a cup for He Ling himself. “Cousin, please drink it! Be careful, it’s hot!”

 

When he finished talking, he poured himself a cup, before putting the teapot down, picking up the cup, blowing lightly on it, taking a sip, exclaiming in admiration and said: “The tea bought by ‘cousin husband’ is much more fragrant than the tea in the landlord’s!”

 

“If you like it, drink more of it.” He Ling also picked up the cup, blew away the few tea leaves floating on the surface, and took a light sip.

 

He Zhen stared down at the tea in the cup, unable to see his expression, and only heard him say, “It’s really nice to be able to sit together, drink tea and chat with my cousin like this!”

 

He Ling put the cup down and did not say a word. If only the two of them had gotten along well since they were young, perhaps this would have been a common occurrence. There would not have been a lot of hatred and desire for revenge too.

 

“Don’t you think so, cousin?” When there was no reply, He Zhen looked up at him, smiling brightly.

 

Sighing softly, He Ling opened his mouth to say something, but instead he suddenly reached out and covered his abdomen. The expression on his face became very painful.

 

“What’s wrong with you cousin?” He Zhen stood up and walked over to him, holding his body that had fallen crookedly on the table, and said with great concern, “Are you all right? Where are you not feeling well?”

 

“Sto…stomach…” He Ling seemed so sad that he was unable to speak.He arched his back and covered his abdomen tightly, “Xiang Gong… Call him…”

 

“You’re asking me to help you find Cousin’s husband? Then of course…” He Zhen leaned in close to him and pressed his lips to his ear, “Can not!”

 

He Ling turned his head to look at him in surprise, when he met his smiling eyes, it was as if he understood something, “It’s you?! You put something in the tea!”

 

He Zhen let go of his hand holding him and took out a handkerchief to wipe his hands, while saying: “That’s right, it’s me! In fact, you are still wary of me. You’re afraid I’ll put the medicine in the plums, so you won’t eat it.”

 

He sat down on a stool and put his hand on his chin, admiring his pained appearance, “But you are held in Qi Yue’s heart and do not understand the danger of the human heart. Still foolish as hell. Do you think that because I drank the tea, it will be safe? You are pregnant, many medicines if I take it I’ll be fine, but you are different. You’ll lose your baby!”

 

“You … are shameless!” He Ling gritted his teeth, his eyes red with pain and grievances, “Don’t you fear retribution for doing… so many bad things?”

 

“Retribution?” He Zhen sneered at this, he disliked these two words so much, “If there is really a retribution for me from God, then He should open His eyes even more and see how much injustice has been given to me!”

 

Seeing that he was so unrepentant, He Ling turned his face away, unwilling to look at him again.

 

Instead, He Zhen reached out and cupped his chin, making him look directly into his eyes, “Now, are you in despair? Very much in pain? When I had nothing at all I was a thousand times worse than you!”

 

Shaking him off, He Zhen stood up, looked around the house and added, “You didn’t understand at all what I was living like when you were living in ease and comfort, enjoying your peaceful life here!”

 

“Now too!” He turned his body and looked at him from above, “I have to endure my illness and force myself to smile at an old man, while you, without having to do anything, have a lot of good things brought to you!”

 

He Ling propped his hands on the table as he seemed to have lost the strength to argue with him. He only looked at him with ‘an impervious to reason’ gaze.

 

“I thought that those rumours would drive you away from here. At the very least, it would have gotten you spurned by the villagers!”He Zhen put his hand on his forehead which was a little dizzy again, and rubbed it before saying : “I didn’t expect that Qi Yue would settle this thing so quickly!”

 

“What’s the purpose for you to do such a thing?” He Ling couldn’t understand. Was that not good for them to live their own lives? Why did he need to do so many schemes and calculations?

 

“I’m happy! I’m happy to see that you’re not well!” He Zhen opened his hands and let out a little crazy laugh, “Hahaha … you are now like this, I am very happy! You don’t know, right? Lin Xiaohu’s case is also my doing. A child, just give them something good to eat and something fun to play with, then let them help me to bully someone. It’s really such an easy thing to do.”

 

“He’s still a child!” He Ling clutched the tablecloth under his hand, his husband had already guessed about the rumours, but he himself hadn’t thought that He Zhen was the one who was responsible for this matter too!

 

The thought of Lin Xiaohu’s appearance, lying pale on the bed made him feel very guilty, such a well-behaved and understanding child, all because of him, he was hurt by others.

 

Translator’s OS : Again, I couldn’t stop worried about He Ling while reading this. Man… Shakes head~ ~~Why He Ling is still so naive?~~

Sorry He Ling I misunderstood you…

1

(idiom for to take great pains to think sth through)

2

[Honey pot : figurative meaning for comfortable living conditions]

3

[人情冷暖 (rén qíng lěng nuǎn) : Men’s feelings are changeable. / fickleness of human nature / fickleness of worldly relationship between man and man]