Step Down, Let Me Come!

Chapter 42: He’s an expert (2)

Shen Tang thought it would be the same as yesterday: she would have to wait in front of the Moonlight Building while giving Motor some sweets.

That being said - 

Why would Motor eat sweets?

With doubts, Shen Tang stroked the smooth and sleek fur of the mule. The more she looked at it, the more she liked it. Motor licked the caramel in her palm clean, but still seemed unsatisfied, arching his head and staring longingly at the pouch on Shen Tang's waist.

Motor was really clever, he knew where the sweets were hidden. 

Shen Tang held Motor’s big face and solemnly said: “No, you can’t eat more! It’s not normal for a mule to be addicted to sweets… you can’t! Acting like a baby won’t help you, licking my face also… WTF, take it easy, don’t stretch your tongue. I don’t want to have your saliva on my face. If you lick me again, I will roast you!”

She evaded a few times, but Motor pursued her.

He tried to lick Shen Tang's face with his tongue.

The shopkeeper came out from the Moonlight Building and by coincidence saw them playing. Apart from smiling, he did not forget to remind Shen Tang that they still had business to do.

He said: “Young lady, please go upstairs”. 

Shen Tang and Motor stopped at the same time.

She patted Motor to indicate she would go in alone. She still had things to do, they could play when she returned. Motor understood and obediently took his reins and went to the wooden pile. Shen Tang said: “Can I come in? We don’t have to go to the tea shop again, right?” 

The shopkeeper said: “Not today”. 

Shen Tang didn’t ask more and followed him inside.

If you ignored the lightly swaying gauze in the room, the ambiguous portraits carved on the leaky windows, the pictures of beauties hanging on the walls, and the questionable powder in the air, at first glance, it looked like an ordinary restaurant.

The Moonlight Building was very quiet during the day, there were no sounds of chattering or laughter. Occasionally, a servant girl would come in and out carrying hot water. The handyman was sweeping tables and chairs with a cloth towel. Everything was happening in order, but there was a bit of unspeakable depression. The stench of makeup and powder in the air was the only sign of the bustle that transpired yesterday. 

Shen Tang looked curiously in all directions. 

After looking twice, she looked back with a lack of interest.

In the main hall of the Moonlight Building, the handsome servant waited for a long time. He led the two of them to the innermost wing room on the second floor, and carefully pushed open the carved wooden door, for fear that the noise would disturb the people in the room. He said in a low voice: “Master is in the room, please come in, both of you”.

Shen Tang stopped her wandering mind.

She went inside and was greeted with a huge circular screen. On the screen was a vast scenery of the desert sunset. Shen Tang was faintly astonished – In a place like Moonlight Building, even if there were screens, there should also be pictures of beauties, right?

Sunset in a desert?

It didn't fit in with the atmosphere here.

What surprised her, even more, was that the room smelled of a subtle fragrance, completely different from the extravagant smell in the main hall. The latter was fragrant, but after smelling it for a long time, it could only feel vulgar. The former was like an orchid in an empty valley, even if the smell wasn’t strong, outsiders couldn’t overlook it.

Across the screen was the “boudoir”. 

Two of them could only sit on the mat in front of the screen.

“Did you paint it?”
 

Shen Tang only just sat down, when the unfamiliar young voice sounded in her ears – shouldn’t it be the youth from yesterday?”

She looked at the shopkeeper suspiciously. 

The shopkeeper was also in the dark, he signaled with his eyes for her to answer. 

Shen Tang hesitated, “ashamedly”: “I didn't draw it, it was my brother. Yesterday, when I went back, he caught and reprimanded me for being too young for those things. Before I could tell the shopkeeper and my employer in time, he had already finished it…”.

There was a moment of silence from the other side of the screen, and after a while, a crisp “pop” sound of a chess piece falling was heard.

The young man said: “Well, the painting is not bad”.

Shen Tang disagreed in her mind. 

Those few paintings of Qi Shan were actually “not badly painted”?    

Sure enough, there was no one with the same aesthetics as her in this world. For a while, she felt a bit lonely and forlorn. A close friend was hard to find.

Shen Tang asked: “Are you satisfied?”

The youth said: “Sa…”. 

Before the remaining "tisfied" could be uttered, the young man began to cough violently. The sound became shorter and shorter, and the movement was so loud that they started worrying that he would cough out his lungs. In such a physical condition, this man still stuck to his post… He was really dedicated and diligent.

Shen Tang’s thoughts quickly started wandering again. 

After a moment, Shen Tang heard the voice of the youth from yesterday behind the screen: “Mister Gu, are you okay?”

The young man replied softly, “It's nothing”.

Shen Tang began to wonder once again. 

So, the young man wasn’t a servant of Moonlight Building, he was a client who came to have fun… Tsk tsk, was this like the situation from the famous quote, dying near the beauties without regret? He was coughing like this as if he was already half a step into the coffin, and he still had some leisure time to come here?

It was really quiet in the room for a while.

A long time passed, and the youth said: “Young Master misunderstood”. 

Shen Tang was confused: “…”. 

Someone said something just now, right?

The shopkeeper showed a similar expression. 

The young man breathed a sigh of relief, and said with a faint smile: “Some words don't have to be spoken to be heard…”

Shen Tang: “…”. 

The shopkeeper still seemed stupefied.

Shen Tang only felt like the tip of the blade was on her back, and the hairs on her face stood up. She was very sure that what the young man said just now was for herself. But the problem was, she didn't speak aloud she kept her mouth shut just now, just muttering a few words in her heart…

[Sh*t, can you hear my mind?]

The youth behind the screen was silent for the time of 3 breaths. 

His tone was weird when he said: “Didn’t your academic instructor tell you what a wenxin holder must learn?”

Shen Tang was convinced that the young man could read her mind, so she stopped nagging and asked, “What?”

The youth said: “Happiness and anger shouldn’t be shown on the face”.

As he said that, there was the unique rubbing sound of the cloth from behind the screen, and as the footsteps approached, the figure on the screen became clearer and clearer.

Shen Tang happened to raise his head, facing the strange young man who walked out from behind the screen. She vaguely felt that the figure of this man was somewhat familiar.

The young man was tall and straight, but his complexion didn't look very good, he looked sick. Although his facial features were handsome, his cheeks didn’t have flesh, his eyes looked slightly tired, and his lips were whitish blue. He looked like he was suffering from tuberculosis and would die young!

When Shen Tang looked at the young man, the young man also used those cold eyes to examine and evaluate Shen Tang.

Even though he was ill, the young man in front of her had a good-looking androgynous look. He had smooth brows and deeper facial features than ordinary people. At first glance, he looked a little exotic.

If you were to describe youth in one word, it probably wouldn't be more appropriate than the four words “youthful and vigorous”.

“Young and vigorous” in the true and literal sense.

The young man was still three or five steps away from her, but she could already feel the fiery energy radiating from “him”, like a dazzling ball of fire that could not be ignored.

He teased and replied: “It is true that I have been suffering from chronic illness, but the fortune-teller said that I can still live on my last breath for twenty or thirty years”.