FW (Eng)

Chapter 53: New Year's Celebration

Wen Kexing did as he had promised. He had mounted that large boulder there, made a pleasant-sounding claim that he wanted to take his time writing an epitaph for Old Master Long, and actually "took his time"--like he was embroidering, he carved only ten or so words every day, and even had to scrutinise them from all directions. The lines had to rhyme, the words had to be even and straight, and the script had to be sophisticated. Once he was done writing, he even had to take a few steps back to admire it on his own--with his hands behind his back, his head bobbing in self-affirmation, it was as if he thought himself a living Li Bai or Du Fu.

And then there was actually taking a look at what he had written. He had written plenty, but had gone to town with his creativity and wandered tens of thousands of miles off topic--if he were writing up a contract to purchase a donkey, not even a single hair of the animal would be mentioned within its three long-winded pages. Even Zhang Chengling, upon seeing it, thought that Senior Wen had most probably been too focused composing this epitaph, to the extent that he had forgotten about Old Senior Long.

Zhou Zishu had started wandering the jianghu at a young age, and had always been built tough, able to withstand a beating. After two days of being weak and frail, he resumed his liveliness, and tortured Zhang Chengling by making him train along the tops of walls in the small courtyard of this manor in the mountains. The hardship was beyond words, but the little youth, for fear that his shifu declared his injury healed and that they leave, dared not to gripe one bit.

But it was most likely that this winter was too cold. Even Shuzhong had frozen over, its humans and critters alike a little too lazy to move, and Zhou Zishu had really forgotten about the matter of leaving.

They celebrated the Laba as it passed, then the Lesser New Year[7]. Even though there were only three people in this massive manor, every day was still abound with noise and tumultuous commotion.

When Zhou Zishu had curled up in Wen Kexing's embrace for half the other night, he had scared Wen Kexing into over-cautiousness on the second day--Wen Kexing knew that Zhou Zishu had to be tormented by his injuries, but he had not known that he was tormented this severely. Now, as this heart of Wen Kexing's started to ache on his behalf, he treated Zhou Zishu like a porcelain doll, and didn't dare to tussle nonsensically with him any more.

Yet, after two days of frightfully cautious observation, he discovered that this "Porcelain Doll Zhou" was remorseless to a degree, and was someone who did not keep these instances of agony in mind at all. At the break of dawn every day, once the pain had passed, he seemed to have forgotten it like a critter with a memory span of however short it took to set its paw down--he made fun of others when he should, and cursed when he should. It was as if washing his face could too wash away the exhaustion on it; at breakfast, he was brimming with energy as usual, and his chopsticks continued to fly. He was not the slightest bit stingy in taking food, and was completely operating as per normal.

At that moment, Wen Kexing understood that some people were not fated to lead a pampered life. Coddle him, and he might as well go coddle a pig; what a waste of his feelings.

When Long Xiao had been alive, there had been villagers at the foot of the mountain delivering supplies to the manor every month. Greatly suspicious of others, Long Xiao would work the puppets to retrieve the items and pay, but did not personally meet the villagers.

In a flash, the new year was around the corner. Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing spent most of the day studying the puppet, during which the both of them had battled numerous rounds with their words. After they had each garnered about five different appellations based around the main subject of "good-for-nothing", they finally discovered that the puppet did not listen to just anybody's instructions. Thus, Valley Master Wen had to condescend to find his way around with a map in order to collect the festive goods.