Chapter 31: Section Ten

What on earth is this silly girl thinking about?

Just now Huang Shi had seen Miss Sun tremble strangely, and a barely perceptible flicker of pain had flashed through her smile. Unknowingly they had already walked several li; Huang Shi had only remembered that a woman with bound feet should not be made to walk too long.

Huang Shi, not yet catching on, said nothing for a moment. The girl’s ears flushed crimson too, and she went on softly: “My lord’s affection fills my heart with gratitude beyond words, but your servant and my maid are still following behind. Besides, I already belong to my lord, so there is no need to…”

By the end her voice had faded to a whisper, both earlobes so red they seemed about to drip blood. The sight of her bowing low, offering herself as if ready to be plucked, made Huang Shi’s heart stop for several seconds, leaving him dizzy and light-headed.

“Is that so.” Huang Shi laughed, stepped forward, and swept the delicate, alluring little figure up into his arms. Miss Sun trembled twice and then stopped struggling, only casting uneasy glances around, afraid that someone might suddenly spring out of the seemingly empty wilderness. Huang Shi carried her in great strides into that ruined temple.

Holding her, Huang Shi sat down on the ground. The girl struggled, wanting to sit on the ground as well.

“Shh, don’t move. After walking so long, I was worried you might be tired, and just now I saw you seemed to be in some pain.”

Miss Sun let out another soft “ah,” her head drooping even lower, her ears turning even redder. So mortified she wished she could bury her head in her chest, she said: “Thank you, my lord, for your care. I am indeed a little weary from walking, but chatting and laughing with my lord made me forget it.”

Huang Shi tightened his arms: “The ground is ice-cold. You’ll fall ill.”

The girl obediently stopped, wriggling slightly in Huang Shi’s embrace: “Many thanks for my lord’s care. I am endlessly grateful.”

“You still call me ‘my lord.’ Change the way you address me.” Huang Shi could not resist teasing the person in his arms.

The girl reached out both arms and wrapped them around his neck, hiding her face behind Huang Shi’s shoulder. After a moment’s thought she said by his ear: “Yes, Master.”

It tickled. The warm, fragrant, soft jade in his arms stirred Huang Shi’s nerves. Just as he was about to take things further, the girl’s gentle voice came by his ear again: “Master, tell me about the ancestors of the Huang family.”

“What made you think of that?”

The girl’s tone seemed slightly surprised: “Master’s forebears are naturally my forebears as well. Of course I wish to know of our ancestors’ glorious deeds.”

“Then let me start with my father. My father was a teacher.” Huang Shi’s father had taught physics — a term that did not yet exist in this era.

“So my father-in-law was a Mr. Teacher.” The girl’s tone seemed a little unexpected. Only then did Huang Shi recall that he had once said he was a beggar and had never explained his background in detail. No wonder the girl had just asked only about the Huang family ancestors and not about his parents — she was probably afraid of embarrassing him.

Seeing that Huang Shi did not continue, the girl wriggled again: “Master, let me down. Allow me to massage your shoulders and legs.”

“No need.”

“Does Master disdain me?” The girl’s tone turned deeply aggrieved.

“Not at all.” Huang Shi laughed in spite of himself and released her. The girl darted lightly behind him and kneaded his shoulders most comfortably. In between, Huang Shi picked out a few childhood anecdotes and stories of his elders to tell. This time the person behind him remained solemn and unsmiling, only occasionally letting out a word or two of admiration:

“Our Huang family’s forebears are indeed extraordinary.”

The fragrant affection that filled the entire temple intoxicated Huang Shi. For the first time since arriving in this era, he felt so at ease that for a moment he was almost ready to let down all his defenses. But in the end he still asked a question he had prepared in advance — a question he himself had been asked countless times, a thoroughly rotten question: “If both I and your father were gravely wounded — the original question was ‘fell into a river’ — whom would you save first?”

The girl behind him hesitated briefly: “Naturally, Master. My mother will take good care of my father.”

“And if only you were there?”

The fingers on his shoulders stopped. After a long while the girl’s tone grew somewhat agitated: “Master’s question is very difficult. Please do not trouble me so.”

This is not a reliable person. The warmth in Huang Shi’s heart gradually cooled. Without any change of expression, he pulled the girl back into his arms. He intended to soothe her, lest she go back and repeat these words that should not have been spoken to Sun Degong. As Huang Shi held her, he noticed that the girl’s hands were repeatedly flexing and extending. He seized them and looked — her fingers had gone pale from massaging him, and in the current temperature there were already signs of cramping.

Tenderness surged through Huang Shi’s chest once more. The decadent, backward feudal society truly crushed women — no wonder women demanded liberation. How could they not demand it? He could not resist kissing the girl. The cheek he had taken liberties with swiftly drained of all color, becoming so translucent it seemed transparent, and then immediately turned the color of a ripe rose.

“All right, just looking at your hands tells me the answer,” Huang Shi smiled. “Actually, I was only asking casually. From now on you are a member of my Huang family, and in my selfish heart I always hope you will hold the Huang family dearer than your maiden family.”

“Mm. Once married, follow the husband — that is the proper principle.” The girl leaned bashfully and limply against Huang Shi’s chest, her eyes already closed.

Just as Huang Shi was beginning to feel somewhat relieved, the girl unexpectedly added: “But there is also the saying ‘any man can be a husband’ — that is the completely opposite principle.”

The phrase “any man can be a husband” entering his ears made Huang Shi start in shock. Such words should not come from a virtuous young lady’s mouth. He probed: “What did you say? ‘Any man can be a husband.’”

“Yes, ‘any man can be a husband.’” The girl used the phrase without the slightest shame, opening her eyes and asking quizzically: “Does Master not know this phrase?”

“I don’t. Tell me about it.” Huang Shi lied without blushing and with a steady heartbeat.

The girl immediately recounted the classical allusion. The protagonist in the story was someone Huang Shi had never heard of — it seemed to be a family tragedy from the Zuo Commentary. A son-in-law plotted to murder his father-in-law, and the daughter was torn apart by grief. In her confusion she asked her mother: Between father and husband, who is closer? Her mother answered: Any man can be a husband, but a father is only one — how can they be compared? The daughter then exposed her husband to her father, and in the end her father struck first and slaughtered his son-in-law.

After finishing the story, the girl was already downcast: “That woman was very pitiful. To have to choose between her old father and her husband — it was too painful.”

“Do you think she did the right thing?” This story sent cold sweat down Huang Shi’s spine. It was practically a fable tailor-made for him. In the society of his previous life, “any man can be a husband” was not used this way, but in the Ming dynasty era the phrase had clearly not yet completed its evolution.

The girl shook her head: “Master, please do not ask me questions that I need not consider. Just now when Master asked that question, I immediately thought of ‘any man can be a husband.’ I do not wish to think about such painful questions.”

Now that the two were much closer, Huang Shi’s words carried far fewer reservations, and he brought out some jokes from his previous life that he had shared with disreputable friends at the drinking table. The girl’s complexion shifted constantly between snow-white and bright red as she listened, but since their status was already settled, she could not flare up at her husband, nor could she commit the “wifely defiance” of covering her ears. In the end she could only cover her face and giggle.

So playing the rogue could be this exhilarating! This spiritual striptease without any inhibitions was thoroughly enjoyed by Huang Shi. After all, in theory she was to spend her whole life with him, and Huang Shi reckoned that if he insisted on taking her, she probably would not dare risk displeasing her husband.

But the story the girl had just told made Huang Shi inwardly wary. The Zuo Commentary’s verdict on that unlucky son-in-law was: “He consulted with a woman — he brought disaster upon himself.”

And Huang Shi now thought: In an ancient era where the rotten feudal Confucian ideology of filial piety held sway, the act of consulting someone about how to betray his or her own father was undoubtedly a very foolish act. If it were modern society, where Old Man Confucius had been toppled and trampled under ten thousand feet, such a matter would undoubtedly be far easier to handle.

“Cultivate the atmosphere a bit more, then take her first,” Huang Shi secretly resolved.