Chapter 32: Section 11

"Did you sneak out today without telling your father?"

"Is my lord mocking your humble servant?"

Hopefully she acted on her own, Huang Shi consoled himself inwardly. If this was Sun Degong's plan, then once she went back and described everything, he would be in danger.

A voice kept urging him in his heart — draw some words out of her, then do some things she would be too ashamed to speak of.

Miss Sun was still just a young girl after all, far too easy for Huang Shi to coax words out of. After chatting a while longer, she began to pour out her innermost thoughts. Among these secrets, what displeased Huang Shi was this: the girl truly had not liked those shoddy stories he told at the start, but the tradition of a proper lady meant she absolutely would not let her future husband be unhappy. According to her mother's teaching, no matter what a husband said, a wife must listen with keen enjoyment — even if her husband praised his concubine's beauty, she herself must chime in and agree.

But Miss Sun clearly had not fully heeded her mother's instruction. When Huang Shi felt the moment was ripe and prepared to make a move on the girl, she absolutely refused to submit obediently no matter what. Letting him kiss her face a few times was no problem, and hugging and holding were also acceptable, but the moment Huang Shi touched her sash, she struggled with all her might.

Perhaps the timing was not yet right. After Huang Shi stopped, he continued to build up the atmosphere, and the girl returned to her state of total compliance. But when Huang Shi judged the moment was about right, he once again met fierce resistance.

The resistance made it impossible for Huang Shi to carry out his veiled "silencing," and this left him faintly uneasy. Besides, he was also beginning to lose face. No matter what, when a man made a request and a woman refused, it was a grave wound to his dignity.

When Miss Sun saw Huang Shi's face lengthen, her tears immediately welled up. This mistress and her servant are both very skilled at wielding this weapon, Huang Shi thought, and had no choice but to console her: "I'm sorry, it was my fault. I shouldn't have been so forward with you."

The girl, sobbing, said: "No, it is my fault. It is all my fault."

"Your fault? What fault do you have?"

Miss Sun was still in Huang Shi's embrace at that moment, but her whole body had shrunk into a tiny ball, both sleeves covering her face: "It was my improper conduct that made my lord misunderstand my intentions. I truly deserve a beating. And moreover, I still could not satisfy my lord — I deserve an even harsher beating!"

The logic in this made Huang Shi roll his eyes. From the very beginning, this girl had never taken the initiative; it was all his own step-by-step pressing. Yet in the end, all the fault still fell on her. No wonder in this era, when women were violated, they always resigned themselves to misfortune and refused to report it. But since the words had reached this point, Huang Shi could hardly do anything more. He could only pat the young girl in his arms, who was so eager to admit fault, and indicate that he forgave her and would not pursue the matter further.

As soon as he finished speaking, the girl's tears instantly turned to smiles. She stretched out her body and leaned against him, saying sweetly: "My lord is magnanimous. Your humble servant is endlessly grateful."

I underestimated this little wench, Huang Shi thought with a jolt in his heart, realizing he had been played for a fool again.

As if seeing through Huang Shi's thoughts, the young girl murmured in his ear: "Your humble servant will sooner or later be my lord's person. After we are wed, I will serve my lord with all my might and properly make amends."

A temptation he could see but not taste, paired with a beautiful promise for the future. Huang Shi felt that although the times had changed and moral customs were vastly different, the methods clever women used to handle men were still the same — old-fashioned but also extremely effective.

Miss Sun's performance this time did somewhat ease Huang Shi's hidden worries. Since it was impossible to go any further, he lost interest in staying: "We've stayed here too long. Let's go back."

"Yes. My family must be getting anxious from waiting. I must hurry home as well."

"Ah, that's right." Only then did Huang Shi remember that the Sun family members were still waiting in front of some temple: "Look, I'd completely forgotten, and you didn't say anything earlier."

The girl looked at Huang Shi, her large eyes brimming with laughter, the thick tenderness and sweet affection nearly turning into droplets about to flow out: "My lord had not yet enjoyed himself fully — how would I dare mention the word 'leave'?"

After the two stood up, Miss Sun immediately crouched down to tidy Huang Shi's clothes. No matter how Huang Shi tried, he could not pull her up, and only heard the girl say softly: "This is all my proper duty."

If she was sent by Sun Degong, then nothing Huang Shi said would matter, and one more sentence would make no difference. After all, he could only assume now that she had come to secretly meet her betrothed of her own accord: "Today's matter is a secret between the two of us. Don't tell your mother."

Understanding that this was Huang Shi's instruction to her, Miss Sun seemed somewhat surprised, but still shyly agreed.

"Promise?"

"Yes."

Once they left the ruined temple, they saw Guai Baobao and Yang Luhuo waiting far off to one side. Yang Luhuo had spread his cloak on the ground for Guai Baobao to sit on, and stood upwind to block the wind for her. When Huang Shi drew near, he saw that Yang Luhuo was already frozen blue in the face.

Why be so good to a mere maid? As Miss Sun walked past, Huang Shi turned his face away from the others, not letting anyone see his dark expression. A possibility had just struck him again — could it be that both this young lady and her maid were impostors?

Impossible. What family would let their own daughter show her face in public like this? Besides, doing so would mean the other side had known from the start that the marriage was definitely off. His own paranoia made him laugh self-deprecatingly.

Huang Shi lifted Miss Sun onto his own horse. Yang Luhuo immediately led his horse over. Huang Shi told him to take the horse to Guai Baobao. After Yang Luhuo obeyed and led the horse over, Guai Baobao could not climb up. Yang Luhuo stood at the front holding the reins and did not even offer to help her, acting as if it were none of his business.

Watching coldly from the side, Huang Shi suddenly spoke: "Yang Luhuo, give her a hand."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Yang Luhuo's mouth dropped open and he stared over. Guai Baobao also stopped trying to climb onto the horse and stood there in a daze. Huang Shi heard the person on the horse behind him as if tugging at the corner of his clothes. When he turned back, he saw Miss Sun leaning forward with an apologetic expression: "I have been lax in discipline. Please punish me, my lord. This maid has followed me for ten years. I beg my lord, for my sake, to forgive her."

In this era where men and women must not touch hands, Huang Shi reckoned that his words just now carried the implication of wanting this maid driven away. He coughed and leaned close to Miss Sun, saying quietly: "I meant nothing else. You know I come from humble origins and don't understand these rites and protocols."

Miss Sun's expression was still somewhat uncertain and suspicious. She asked hesitantly: "Does my lord dislike her? If my lord detests her, I naturally would not dare bring her as part of my dowry."

"Hasn't she followed you for ten years? Of course it's up to you. I only thought she was having a hard time mounting the horse."

Miss Sun carefully studied Huang Shi's expression for a moment and saw nothing unusual. She pondered that Huang Shi still wanted to give that maid a warning, only he was unwilling to state the reason. But it didn't seem to be anything too serious; she would just tell the maid to be more careful in the future. She signaled to Guai Baobao, who hurriedly ran over and profusely begged Huang Shi for forgiveness.

Huang Shi casually brushed it off with a couple of words, indicating he forgave Guai Baobao. Then he wanted to lead the horse for his fiancée, but this drew a startled cry from Miss Sun: "How could that be allowed?"

Once again, everyone was left blushing bright red. In the end, Yang Luhuo led the horse, and Guai Baobao followed behind with her head drooping. Huang Shi himself rode the other horse, observing that as the maid walked behind the horse the whole way, both Guai Baobao's and Miss Sun's expressions remained perfectly natural and normal.

It was only when they were about to part that Miss Sun's expression turned odd. Huang Shi saw her signal to Guai Baobao several times, and the way Guai Baobao now looked at him was like a mouse looking at a cat.

He had made plenty of blunders today; one more wouldn't hurt. Huang Shi sighed and walked directly to Miss Sun's side, quietly apologizing that he truly knew nothing, and if there was something, it would be best to say it plainly. The girl listened but still seemed somewhat doubtful and unconvinced. Huang Shi immediately invoked the great principle — the great principle that husband and wife are one body — and pressed it upon her, finally managing to figure out what the girl wanted to do.

It turned out the girl wanted some kind of keepsake. Whether this was a custom of the era or a custom from the romance novels she had read, in such a situation the male lead was supposed to give some token, or what was called a love token, at parting. Huang Shi knew that in later ages this had evolved into photographs, but the problem was he currently had no camera on hand.

Huang Shi did have a saber on his person, but giving that as a gift seemed rather improper. In normal human dating in the future, he had never heard of giving a pistol or a hand grenade. Beyond that, he had some loose silver and copper coins in his bosom, but in this feudal dynasty, those were even more obviously unsuitable to present. At this time, the radiance of human nature was still suppressed by the decadent and backward Confucian ideology, so proper young maidens were not in the habit of anything like compensated dating.

When Huang Shi presented a plum blossom he had spent ages picking out, he saw another flicker of disappointment in the girl's eyes. Her skill at concealment could not yet be called utterly flawless. Having discovered a problem, he naturally had to get to the bottom of it. Though the girl repeatedly assured him that she absolutely adored this gift, Huang Shi by now would not believe a word of it.

In the end, he finally figured out that in this era, giving flowers was not really in vogue either, and in such a situation one was generally expected to give something that could be preserved for all time. Something that could only last a few days or a dozen or so days made the girl feel it was somewhat inauspicious. When she had no choice but to speak the truth, she seemed rather mournful: "The plum blossom will wither very soon."

Huang Shi could only stand there tongue-tied.

"My lord is truly blessed. The Sun family's young lady is indeed refined in bearing and dignified in appearance." After they parted, Yang Luhuo immediately congratulated Huang Shi. Having followed Huang Shi for a long time, he was even more unbridled as he winked and said: "My lord talked with the Sun family's young lady for so long — you must have enjoyed yourselves thoroughly."

Did he think people couldn't tell what was on his mind? Huang Shi felt that Yang Luhuo's smile, which usually looked so humble, now appeared utterly lecherous: "It really was just chatting."

"Oh — " Yang Luhuo drew out the sound, then swiftly shot back: "Then did this subordinate say something wrong?"

"Mm — mm, no." As they bantered, Huang Shi recalled an anecdote from the late Qing. Spending three hours every day fooling around in Tieliang's daughter's boudoir — hadn't that been explained away as demonstrating rifle drills? "If I said I was demonstrating swordsmanship the whole time, would you believe it?"

Yang Luhuo gave him an odd look for a long while. "Since my lord says so, this subordinate naturally believes it."

"My lord is indeed of extraordinary physique, so wielding a great blade for several hours is no problem at all! A full two hours — my lord is truly a stout fellow!"

After Yang Luhuo finished speaking in an exaggerated tone, he even raised his thumb. This made Huang Shi burst into loud laughter, and the faint unease in his heart was washed away by the laughter.

This personal guard was clearly one of his own. That being the case, he absolutely would not dare gossip recklessly with others. And if he really wanted to spread rumors, he would absolutely never dare mention his lawful wife; he would only say that his master was as strong as an ox, visiting a brothel for four hours straight and emerging still able to ride a horse at full gallop without changing expression. That sort of talk, when spoken of, still brought a man face.

But there was still one misgiving that had to be dispelled.

Perhaps it could also be put to use.