Cover The Sky With One Hand, Beat The Ground With The Other

I just stumbled upon a webnovel that I want to translate. The title is 一手遮天，一手捶地 "Cover The Sky With One Hand, Beat The Ground With The Other" by 容九 Rong Jiu. I will be sharing it here via edited machine translation, so advanced apologies if mistakes are found, but rest assured that I am serious with giving my best for this work. I currently have a day job so I will be to posting one chapter weekly if time permits. Without further ado, here is Chapter 1:

After steaming the rice, I lifted my skirt and crouched on the edge of the threshold, looking hard at the direction of the village entrance. Xu Fang said that in the evening he would buy two big herrings to make soup for me to celebrate my early recovery from a serious illness.

As far as I'm concerned, I've been bothering him for some time. Since the peach blossom season this year, he has saved me from committing suicide at the edge of the cliff, as my life is not going well.

I seem to be suffering from a strange disease. I often wake up and forget everything, including my name.

At that time, Xu Fang had to get up early in the morning, lest I wake up first and panic because of the blank memory. He always took the trouble to say the same reassuring words, even though the next day I would forget everything again.

This situation lasted for a long time until one morning, when I opened my eyes, I squeaked, "Xu Fang, I'm thirsty."

He was stunned for a while before he went to boil water. After a long delay, the hand that was pouring the tea still kept shaking.

Since then, my condition has gradually improved. At first, I occasionally forgot. Recently, I can even read some trivial things very clearly. Xu Fang was in a good mood, so he went out early to earn money.

He really indulged me.

I don't have a good temper, so I dislike the light meals and waited for him to buy dried meat with the coins he had saved. I even began to talk about the neighbor's Sister Wang wearing a new cotton-padded robe.

Xu Fang seldom annoys me. When I was unreasonable, he would listen patiently and try to satisfy me as much as possible, and if he could not, he would hold me and play on his bamboo flute to coax me to listen.

I once asked him, "Why are you treating me so well? After saving me, and found out that I was a troublemaker, you could've just thrown me away, it's not like we know each other in the first place."

I kicked him and he yelled, he pouted for a while and then looked at me and said, "He Feng, because I know the pain of not having memories better than anyone."

He Feng is the name he gave me. In fact, he also chose Xu Fang for himself. He lost his memory when he was picked up by the village head a year ago. The doctor said that when the bruise on the back of his head completely dissipated, he would probably be able to recall the past.

As a matter of fact, selfishly, I don't want him to recover his memory. I often tell him that no matter what you have in the past, you are not allowed to leave me, but even if he promised a hundred times, I have never felt at ease.

While I was being silly, a hand pinched my face, Xu Fang's voice came from the ear: "Whatever are you thinking about? You're drooling". Staring at the herring in his hand again, "Little Fish, your mother misses you so much that her heart is broken."

I gave him a hard push: "You are its mother!"

He arched his eyebrows and said, "You are its mother, I am naturally its father."

My heart was suddenly in full bloom, and I tried to hide the slightly raised corners of my lips. Xu Fang rubbed my head forcibly: "Have you washed the chopping block yet? I'll make you a big herring tonic soup"

I don't know if it was his skill, or the freshness of the fish, but I was satisfied with my meal.

While he was washing the bowl, I quietly gave him a jade flute: "It's for you."

Xu Fang was stunned and asked, "Where did it come from?"

"I bought it."

"Where did you get so much money?"

".....I saved."

Xu Fang put on a gesture of "you can't fool me", and I said in a passive way, "I earned it by washing clothes for the village head's wife."

His eyes were filled with pain, "I, I can't give you a luxurious life at all, but if ..."

I asked, "What?"

He paused for a long time but refused to continue talking. He just took me to sit by the tree and said: "Why don't I play for you?"

The sound of jade played slowly, the breeze was blowing, his black hair was flying, and the oblique glow made him look like a man in a painting.

I couldn't help but be mesmerized.

Life was as calm and comfortable as imagined, just when I thought we would always grow old like this, I accidentally saw a notice on the stone wall of the market.

Missing person notice: Looking for the son of the Marquis of Xiayang, Nie Ran.

As expected of the first of the four great families Nie family. The picture on the notice is so beautiful that no one who has seen the son's real face can't recognize it.

Not to mention the fact that I had spent a lot of time with him. 

When I arrived home, Xu Fang was stir-frying in the kitchen, and the sound of the spatula swallowed all the words I had weighed on the way.

He is the noble son of the Marquis of Xiayang, even if he does not mind, how can his family tolerate me, a wild girl of unknown origin?

However, what is about to come can't be avoided after all. When I woke up the next day, Xu Fang didn't sit by my bedside as usual.

I searched the whole house in a panic, but there was no sign of him.

Until I heard something in the front yard.

I tiptoed up to the door and saw the people kneeling in the courtyard, all with frightened expressions on their faces. Xu Fang was standing among them, and his light voice conveyed a sense of authority: "Go back."

The elder in the lead said with trepidation, "Your Highness, the Marquis and Madam have been looking for you, and the young lady as well......."

Xu Fang glanced at him coldly, I had never seen such a look on his face, from my angle, it looked like anger

"If I don't go, you still want to escort me back?"

Those people were immediately silent and kept kowtowing and begging for mercy, Xu Fang waved his sleeve impatiently and said, "That is all, I will go back to Xiayang in a few days to ask my father for forgiveness."

It was not until the group left that Xu Fang turned around and saw me standing by the door and panicked, "He Feng, why are you awake?"

I was stunned.

I stared at him: "When did you restore Nie Ran's memory?"

Xu Fang's expression changed slightly. "You know all about it? You......"

I interrupted him: "You have a wife?"

Xu Fang can't go on.

My tears trickled down: "You want to go back and be reunited with her?" Xu Fang came and took my hand. I shook it off and said, "If you want to go back, go back. I don't want your pity."

Despite my struggles, Xu Fang hugged me hard and said hurriedly, "He Feng, how could I not want you ... her? She and I I haven't officially paid homage yet. So you, don't be mad at me"

I shook my hands and rubbed my eyes, and Xu Fang kissed away my tears: "He Feng, I don't like her. I will go back and tell my father that you are the one I want to marry. If they refuse, I will take you away. The sky is big and the earth is big, where in this world can't we call our home?"

He looked at me brightly, and I cried for a while before I recovered: "Don't lie to me."

When he heard me say this, he took off the jade flute from his waist, put it on my hand and said, "If I change my mind, will you hit me hard on the head with this jade flute?"

I rubbed jade flute and pouted, "Wouldn't that be cheaper for you?"

Xu Fang simply picked me up and turned around a few times, laughing while turning. At that moment, I really thought that no matter if he was Xu Fang or Nie Ran, he would always love me and spoil me as much as he does now.

Three days later we set off for Xiayang.

Xu Fang hired a horse-drawn carriage. I complained about the amount of money he had to pay for it. He also seemed to think it was a bit wasteful: "If my father wants me to marry someone else, I'll have to steal some of my mother's jewelry before I run away. This way, my fugitive will be more calm. "

I heard him say so, but I was still a little unhappy. "Your father is very fond of that girl?"

Xu Fang shook his head. "In recent years, His Majesty's body is ill, the Crown Prince is young, Princess Xiangyi assists the government. The dynasty must be in turmoil at this time. I am the son of the Marquis of Nie, while she is the daughter of the Prime Minister Zhao, if the two families can marry, then......"

I don't care about that, I just asked, "You were childhood friends?"

Xu Fang denied: "I just think of her as a little sister."

I said: "When you first saved me, you also told outsiders that I was your little sister."

Xu Fang solemnly said, "It's true that the first time I saw you, I was in love with your beauty, otherwise it's none of my business if you jump off the cliff or not."

I punched his carriage and shook it.

When we arrived at Xiayang, Xu Fang put me in an inn, he changed into a clean Confucian robe, handed me all the silver and told me to wait for him at the inn for one night. He told me to wait for him at the inn for one night, and he'll come back and talk to me tomorrow.

I had never spent a night alone ever since I lost my memory, so I tugged on his sleeve to keep him from leaving but he wouldn't let me follow. Xu Fang said he would never let me get hurt, and he could not guarantee what would happen if he will rashly take me back to their house.

I condescended to sit aside. Xu Fang poured a cup of tea and said with a smile: "If I don't come back tomorrow, you don't have to be afraid. It's probably because my father has detained me. I always have a way to take you away. If he finds you, I'm afraid he'll send someone to persuade you. You should turn a deaf ear to it. Don't leave like the weak girl in a play"

I finally loosened his cuffs and said, "Well, I'll stick to the end."

He kissed my earlobe: "Don't be afraid, I'll be with you, He Feng."

Later, I often dream back in the middle of the night and regret countless times why I let him go that evening.

Xu Fang never came back for me.

I stayed at the inn for two days, thinking he was really under house arrest by his father, so I often wandered into Nie's house pretending to be a passerby, until one day I saw a tall, blue-robed man come out of the house.

He wore a high crown of hair. Elegant and handsome to the extreme. And in his arms, he is holding a beautiful woman, walking slowly, as if he were afraid of hurting her if he walked too fast. 

It's Xu Fang.

I didn't cry, and I didn't rush forward. At that time, I was lucky to think that Xu Fang was just acting for his father.

I followed them for a long time. It was not until I saw the woman go into a clothing store to choose clothes that I saw the chance to stop Xu Fang.

When he saw me rush out suddenly, there was a look of doubt on his face. I asked, "Xu Fang, why didn't you come to me?"

He showed a look of clarity: "I'm afraid the girl has the wrong person." After saying this, he turned around.

Got the wrong person? I stalled him in disbelief: "Xu Fang, what are you talking about? Don't scare me."

Xu Fang stepped back respectfully: "I'm not the one the girl is looking for. My last name is Nie."

I was so anxious that I tied my tongue. "I know your last name is Nie, you are Nie Ran, and you are also Xu Fang......"

Perhaps because I was so excited that many passers-by stopped to watch, Xu Fang waved me away and scolded, "Please respect yourself, girl."

I froze.

Xu Fang, he would never talk to me in such tone.

At this time, the woman came out of the clothing store, looked at me casually and asked Xu Fang, "Brother Ran, who is she?"

He glanced at me coldly, then turned to the woman and said gently, "I don't know."

The bottom of my heart was cold, and helplessness and fear welled up all over my body.

I suddenly remembered that once, I deliberately pretended not to recognize Xu Fang, which made him almost mad. He was so anxious that he almost freaked out, and then I couldn't hold back my laughter. He only realized that I was just joking. He was so annoyed that he ignored me for half a day.

This time, he said he had forgotten me.

How I wish he will suddenly bend down, laugh and say, Hey, you've been deceived.

But I know he wouldn't.

I looked at him with indifference, alienation, and a hint of disdain.

That's not the way Xu Fang looks at He Feng, it belongs to Nie Ran, I don't know Nie Ran.

He really forgot about me.

I looked at their backs and thought, if it just ends so simply, then I'm not He Feng.

Xu Fang absolutely does not want He Feng to be wronged. In that case, He Feng, which is not guarded by Xu Fang, will never tolerate the slightest grievance.

I slowly clenched my fist and called Xu Fang: "Young Master Nie."

He and the woman were about to turn around at the same time, and Xu Fang frowned: "this girl, I said......"

I held out two fingers and said, "One year, can Master Nie still remember the memory of this year?"

He stayed for a while, and then his face changed. "What does that mean, girl?"

"Young Master Nie knows exactly what I mean."

Xu Fang looked at me darkly and was about to say something when the woman next to him said, "What are you talking about? My brother was seriously injured and was in a coma for a year. How can he remember it?"

Her shrill, whiny voice seriously disturbed my thinking, and I had to reassess her: "Are you the daughter of the Prime Minister, Zhao Yanran?"

She stared at me in surprise: "I am......"

"You said earlier that Young Master Nie was in a coma for a year, so did you know that if ordinary people don't wake up for a year, they will look haggard nor would his slow movements change because his meridians are not yet allowed to be activated?" I stared at her. "Do you still think Mr. Nie was in a coma for a year now?"

Zhao Yanran stopped talking for a moment and didn't know how to refute it, just when I thought things had taken a turn for the better, Xu Fang interrupted gravely and angrily, "That's enough. If there is no Yanran to take care of me in every way, how can I wake up? How can you, an outsider, be free to sow discord between me and her? This girl, no matter who sent you, you are trying to hinder our marriage or some other plot. If you continue with your scaremongering, don't blame me for ignoring the fact that you are a woman!"

He put down his words and turned to take Zhao Yanran away, from the beginning to the end did not look back at me.

I stood dumbfounded on the weaving street, allowing passersby to point at me.

In fact, I had no idea what they were talking about.

In my mind, Xu Fang's last voice echoed over and over again, like countless sharp knives plucking at my heart one by one.

I suddenly missed Xu Fang, I wanted to have a word to him.

I wanted to say, "Xu Fang, I really, really tried hard not to let anyone hurt me."

Unfortunately, that person is you.

That, even He Feng, who was not afraid of anything, can't do anything about it.