Lu Liu was busy too. Seeing Li Feng drinking, he kept picking dishes for him.
He still remembered to pour water—after serving Li Feng, he had to serve his older brother.
Then he remembered how his brother always protected his own; once he’d served his brother, he had to serve his brother-in-law too.
When he picked food for his brother-in-law, he startled him so badly that the man dropped his chopsticks.
Lu Liu blinked, pretended nothing had happened, and picked food for Shun-ge’er instead.
Then he served Lin-ge and his brother-in-law.
That left only Zhao Peilan.
He’d actually left the elder for last…
Lu Liu was so ashamed that he aggressively piled food into Zhao Peilan’s bowl, stacking it into a little mound in no time.
Zhao Peilan was completely dumbfounded.
Lu Yang burst out laughing. “All right, all right, stop running around already—your Zhuangzhuang is starving!”
Lu Liu really was hungry.
He’d never seen eggplant stir-fried so beautifully.
His mother made eggplant too, but it never looked as good as his brother’s—glistening with oil, the color of the eggplant still vivid. Just looking at it was appetizing; the fragrance alone made his mouth water. All that was missing was a bite.
Lu Liu ate both versions of the eggplant, his eyes shining as he ate.
Eggplant was delicious!
He wanted to learn!
“Brother, brother—teach me how to cook eggplant!”
Lu Yang agreed. “Eat properly first. Stop picking food for everyone.”
Lu Liu smiled in pure contentment and ate in pure contentment.
Then he leaned over and said to Lu Lin, “Lin-ge, you already know how to do business. I want to learn from you—one day I’ll be a big shopkeeper too!”
Lu Lin didn’t even know when he’d become someone who “knew how to do business.” He waved it off, saying no, no, but the smile on his face wouldn’t go away.
Everyone liked hearing kind words, and he truly did want to become a big shopkeeper. Lu Yang had said that if he trained for another year or so and gained more experience, he’d be ready.
The future looked bright.
Laughter and chatter filled the table. After a few cups of wine, even Zhang Tie could manage a couple of sentences.
He liked life as it was now—busy, but full of hope.
Lu Lin and Zhang Tie didn’t stay the night; they had to return to the shop before curfew.
After everyone finished eating and the gathering was about to break up, Lu Yang raised his cup again.
“To good days, and to good hopes!”
Zhao Peilan, who’d been eating quietly, raised her cup as well and clinked glasses with everyone.
“To good days, and to good hopes!”
—
It was Lu Liu’s first time staying in the county town.
There were two rooms in the east wing. Shun-ge’er shared one with him, while Li Feng slept alone in the other.
It was also Shun-ge’er’s first time staying in the county, and he examined the small guest room again and again.
It was a bedroom meant for a couple to live in alone, a bit larger than ordinary rooms.
He looked at the stove in front of the kang several times, then paced back and forth, measuring the space.
Lu Liu was drowsy after eating and sat on the kang nodding off.
When they’d been burning mugwort in the main hall earlier, he’d been sitting next to his brother and could still chat a bit. Once he got back to the room, though, he was done for.
Li Feng helped make the bed on the kang and hung up the mosquito net. Lu Liu sat there unable to move, getting shifted left and right as Li Feng picked him up and repositioned him.
If Shun-ge’er hadn’t still been there, Li Feng would’ve stripped off Lu Liu’s clothes and shoes, wiped him down, washed his feet, and hauled him straight into the quilt. As it was, he could only coax him a little, tease him a bit, and get him to move on his own.
Lu Liu also wanted to measure the room—if it was suitable, they could use this as a reference later.
Li Feng had talked with Xie Yan and explained it to him. “Normal houses aren’t like this. This one’s close to the private academies—besides the academy Xie Yan attends, there are two others nearby. Scholars often share lodgings here, one room per person, with the kang connected to the stove. They usually take turns cooking. We won’t need that. When the time comes, we’ll just find a regular residence.”
Lu Liu refused to accept that. “We should find a place near an academy too. Then Zhuangzhuang can play with the little scholars later.”
Li Feng laughed when he heard that. “All right, we’ll find a place like that then.”
Lu Liu was satisfied.
Li Feng went back to the kitchen to bring over hot water.
There, he ran into Xie Yan.
Xie Yan was there to fetch water too.
The two men faced each other in the kitchen, neither saying a word.
When it was time to leave, Li Feng lifted two buckets of water; Xie Yan lifted one.
Li Feng let out a short laugh.
Xie Yan: “…”
Training really couldn’t be neglected.
Slack off, and you’d get laughed at.
Xie Yan went back to the room and told Lu Yang about it.
Lu Yang rubbed his slender arms, then even gave his thin legs a squeeze.
“I just like you like this.”
After being teased, Xie Yan actually laughed.
Truth be told, the bedroom wasn’t small. It only felt cramped because the long table inside was huge, set on one side opposite the kang.
Lu Yang read books and wanted to learn painting too, so he kept the table and even added another chair.
At night, he and Xie Yan would lean over the table together to read, write a bit, and draw for a while.
After washing up, while Xie Yan went out to pour out the water, Lu Yang had already ground the ink. When Xie Yan came back, he could dip his brush and start writing right away.
Xie Yan beamed as he finished the day’s assignments first.
Lu Yang, meanwhile, was thinking about types of business and scale, jotting down notes on the paper now and then.
He didn’t waste paper the way Xie Yan did. When he wrote, it was just to capture an idea—he didn’t spell everything out.
By about the right hour, they put out the lamp and went to sleep.
Only after the lights were out did the couple have a bit of intimate time, whispering flirtatious words.
Xie Yan didn’t like the word “flirtatious.” Lu Yang said the two of them were completely unrestrained—their sweet talk was always about the kang. If they weren’t proper people, then what they said counted as dirty talk.
Xie Yan accepted that, reluctantly.
They whispered back and forth, and before they knew it, fell fast asleep.
On the other side, Lu Liu was whispering with Shun-ge’er too.
He wasn’t used to this kang yet, and also wasn’t used to having someone sleeping beside him.
He was usually very straightforward, and this time he didn’t hold back either, muttering things that left Shun-ge’er at a loss for words.
“Then should I go swap my big brother over here?”
“No need,” Lu Liu said. “It’s your first time staying in the county—you’re probably scared. I’ll let you have this tonight. Next time we come, you’ll have to sleep in a room by yourself.”
Then he chuckled. “If there’s a next time, maybe you’ll already be married, with someone sleeping in the same bed as you.”
Shun-ge’er: “!”
“You husbands are all so annoying!”
The thinner-skinned the young lad was, the more fun it was to tease him. Lu Liu wanted to ask what kind of person he liked, but Shun-ge’er covered his ears, refusing to listen.
Lu Liu talked for a while, got no response, and gradually grew sleepy himself. Before falling asleep, he still said, “If you ever have thoughts you want to share, tell us. Having someone you truly like by your side every day is better than having someone you don’t like constantly in front of your eyes.”
Shun-ge’er didn’t even know what kind of person he liked, but that sentence hooked him, and he lay awake for half the night.
The nights in the county were quieter. There were no insects chirping, no frogs croaking, no mysterious echoes drifting from the mountains. Only after long intervals could you hear the night watchman’s call.
Muffled and distant, carried through darkness and streets, it sounded unreal to the ear.
Lu Liu said he wasn’t used to it—and he really wasn’t.
He slept heavily for a while, then woke up in the middle of the night.
As a responsible elder sister-in-law, he didn’t abandon the child and sneak off to find his man. Lying there awake in the quiet night, his mind wandered through all sorts of thoughts.
Da Feng was going into the deep mountains again, for at least a month this time.
In the latter half of the year, he’d have to make multiple trips to the prefectural city to deliver goods—he’d be away often.
Lu Liu would have to get used to sleeping alone. He couldn’t rely on someone too much.
He thought about going home and setting aside a thin quilt, to hold while sleeping from now on.
He also wondered whether his brother would often go to the prefectural city. It was too far; the back-and-forth travel was exhausting. His brother’s body hadn’t fully recovered yet—running between two places like that wouldn’t be good for his health.
Then another thought struck him: if they were going to set up a stall in the prefectural city later, would that mean they’d all have to move there?
Someone would need to collect goods at the mountain stronghold, someone to watch the shop in the county, and someone to tend the stall in the prefectural city. Only by covering all three could the business truly grow. Would they be going to the prefectural city?
