"Wife, I want to eat meat” 《娘子，我要吃肉》Chapter 25

Only, the heavens do not allow people to do as they wish, at Xian Yun Manor where the two martial arts leaders of past and present lived, you had to pay particular attention when climbing walls.

Zhuang Sheng shamelessly raised his hands: “Oh, Hero Han also came to bask in the moonlight?”

Han Yi Fan raised his long pipe, taking two breathes, he cracked seeds between his teeth on the edge of the roof: “Hero Zhuang also came to admire the moon?”

Zhuang Sheng awkwardly laughed twice, in his heart he already knew not to trifle with the other person.

The head of a famous righteous sect, he ought to be solemn, honest, a person whose words and manners should not be easily swayed for personal reasons, this sort of person could not stand a word of slander by someone else, unable to crack a little bit of a smile. As an old fox of the Jianghu, Zhuang Sheng can very easily provoke a man of honour’s weakest nerve casually, then using his style of fallacious reasoning he could confuse the other person so that they wouldn’t even remember the name of their parents, this previous martial arts leader also was not solemn at all, you call him hero, he naturally also addressed you as hero, you say you’re basking in the moonlight, he says the moon is great, not warm, not cold, calm and collected, with one glance you would know he’s a man who has circled the edge of hell, tasted blood and suffered injuries.

This sort of person, appeared to drift with the waves and go with the flow but in fact had quite a bit of principle, their favourite thing to do is to persist until success is achieved. If you say they didn’t have any internal heat, the fire in their heart is fairly exuberant. Looking at that smoking pipe, glowing and dimming, it can sufficiently show their true state of mind. This sort of person already had practiced into a refined monster from an ordinary person, the hardness of their heart is even harder than that of the pangolin in the old forest deep in the mountains

Han Yi Fan was not only smoking a pipe, he was also drinking. When Zhuang Sheng had sat down, he pulled a wine pot from somewhere: “A toast to the bright moon, to the shadows of three people. Hero Zhuang, want a sip?”

Zhuang Sheng again forced a laugh, where were there three people? He thought in his head, his mouth already replied: “Refusing would be impolite.” Reaching out his hand to take it, under the clear, bright moonlight, he clearly saw the distinct pattern of the intoxicated immortal Li Bai on the wine pot. His complexion did not change, in addition he genuinely took two mouthfuls, and giving it back.

Han Yi Fan smiled: “Great courage. You’re not scared of me poisoning it.”

Zhuang Sheng touched his mouth: “As a flower thief well versed in letters and military, my biggest wish is to die under the skirt of tree peony flowers; right now it’s very late at night, the flowers aren’t open, I can only temporarily be a drunkard. A close friend of mine said before, live in the moment, if there’s poison in the wine, then you need to wait until you’ve drank it, before you can speak maliciously of the wine, that way you won’t disappoint the kind feelings of the person who brewed the wine.”

Han Yi Fan took a long mouthful of the pipe, the tip of his foot taping on the roof tiles: “Then the wine has been drank now, do you not need to start appreciating the flowers?”

Zhuang Sheng choked. As expected, Hero Han deliberately came to catch a flower thief, was he worth being pursued relentlessly and beaten! He clearly hadn’t started picking flowers, even if he wanted to pluck them, it also depended on whether Xia Ling Mei underneath the roof was compliant to the scheme, clothes half untied, lying on the bed waiting for him to come in.[1] (┬＿┬)

Before he left the house he should have checked the almanac, today must be a bad day to do anything.

Zhuang Sheng considered for quite a while, before saying: “I’m not going to hide from Hero Han, no matter how people obstruct, Xiao Sheng aspires to have Lady Xia.”

Han Yi Fan said indifferently: “Speak.”

He must have come to Xia Ling Mei’s roof to bathe under the moon because he was bored? Listening to his tone, speak! An expression to allow you to do whatever you wanted, like it’ll come in my left ear and leave my right ear, it really made people want to use his pipe to scald his nose.

“Then I’ll have to speak from my background, I am qian shi tong[2], and my father is wan shi tong.[3] My mother, is the daughter of a small family, my father was away all year round, more than half the year my mother watched over the empty house. She was too weak, like a coloured glass bottle placed in an extravagant house, although she was very beautiful she was very weak. When father thought of her he would return home `appreciate her beauty and have a bit of fun`, tired of her, he would again leave the house to travel around. 

Beautiful things always attract people’s gaze, she was too easy to entice, also beautiful and weak things are even easier to destroy. She wandered between father and her lover, after she gave birth to me, father asked her `who’s child is this?`, the next day, she took her own life.

Pity on my father, he knew the parents of all the children in the Jianghu, in the end he didn’t know if he was the father of his own son.

I roamed far and wide with him, after I understood a bit more, I then became aware not every man will only have one wife and child, and not every woman is loyal to their husband.”

“That’s why you became a flower thief?”

Zhuang Sheng spread out his hands: “Have I really plucked flowers?” He asked, tilting his head looking into the distance. A thread of smoke twisted and turned in the air dissipating, like the struggles in someone’s life time, in the end still turning into dust and returning to the dirt.

“I approached those women’s bedroom, hearing their first involuntarily shrieks, the second time losing their heads out of fear, the third time they were already capable of talking to me, the fourth, fifth, sixth times, after ten, twenty times, they are certain I am a man of honour. 

Amongst them, some people would utter my name in their sleep, some people would light a 

lamp every day, every night, waiting for my figure to fly past their windows; some people, their complexions would contain lust, promptly waiting on their beds enthusiastically and bashful, waiting for me to once again open their window…” Zhuang Sheng laughed bitterly. 

“Those were some frail flowers!”

Han Yi Fan lifted his clothes arranging them, his entire body lying down on the roof, the flame in his pipe seemingly roaring more and more.

Zhuang Sheng on his own initiative took the wine pot from his hand, taking large mouthfuls: “I originally thought, women in the entire world were the same, how did I know, during a dark and windy night, a not too big, not too small nail would almost crack my skull open. I met the shrewish, outspoken, brave and scheming, wise and resolute Lady Xia.”

Han Yi Fan asked him: “Where did you make out she’s resolute?”

Zhuang Sheng made a fist: “Since I’ve known her, she has rejected Lord Wang’s proposition to be together one hundred and fifteen times.”

Proposition? How did Han Yi Fan not know of Wang Yun Feng was so shameless.

“She even rejected the hundred and forty eight marriage proposals introduced by the matchmakers.”

How can the criteria for a daughter of the Xia family to choose a husband be so easily attained. That year, Wang Yun Feng even if his head smashed open still only wanted to marry Xia family’s second wife’s daughter, he didn’t even have the qualifications to marry the third wife’s.

“That’s it?”

“No.” Zhuang Sheng looked up at the sky sighing deeply, “when she rejected other people, she also rejected my love, three or four times! That sort of unwavering woman is rare in this world, I want to have her! Ah----“ just as he finished speaking, his head was in great pain, the end of Han Yi Fan’s pipe even-handedly hit him right on the forehead.

“Just on those basis, it’s far from enough.”

Zhuang Sheng in unbearable pain covered his head spoke with melancholy: “I know it’s not enough, that’s why all along I’ve never asked anything of her.”

Han Yi Fan understood very well: “You want her to repay you for saving her.”

“Right.”

“The only way to repay kindness is by devoting their live to you.”

“Right.”

“But you’re afraid she’ll refuse, so you want to confront her improperly at the manor, then while everyone is watching you will declare with the dignity of righteousness you won’t 

marry anyone but her. Under the situation of where her reputation may suffer she can only marry you with deep gratefulness.”

“Right.”

“Oh dear,” Han Yi Fan heaved a sigh, “Youngster, you’re dreaming.”

Zhuang Sheng could not help but jump up: “Excuse me, hero, don’t use such a calm and 

collected appearance to say such cruel things!”

Han Yi Fan continued calmly: “The truth is cruel.”

“Then I will continue to persist with great effort, until she promises to marry me.”

Han Yi Fan continued unhurriedly: “You should wake up from your dream.”

Zhuang Sheng dejectedly said: “I’m going to rest.”

Han Yi Fan nodded: “Lady Xia is just underneath, aren’t you going to go and greet her?”

“Oh, no!” Zhuang Sheng refused to listen in pain.

Down below, Xia Ling Mei sat in the middle of the garden, Xia Fen filled with suspicion the wild leopard’s eyes revealed an ominous glint as he stared at him.

Zhuang Sheng, could he live to see another day?

Zhuang Sheng wanting to live buried his head in the sand and pretended to have seen nothing, stealthily climbing down from the back of the house, the mother and son in front of the house had already coldly said together: “Flower thief, come down.”

Zhuang Sheng covered his ears: “Xiao Sheng is not a flower thief.”

Together: “Come down!”

Zhuang Sheng looked to the left, looked to the right, wanting Han Yi Fan to help him explain, looking attentively, a cold wind rustled through the roof top, where was the silhouette of that previous martial arts leader’s pipe smoke.

The heavens want me to die!

Just as he touched the ground, the small leopard Xia Fen bared his teeth, yelling at him: “Beast!”

If the two words `hat and clothes` were added in front of that, Zhuang Sheng’s position in Xia Fen’s heart would be on par with Jiu Fang Xi. But, what made him more depressed was, he had personally taught Xia Feng that phrase dressed up animal. What goes around comes around, appropriate retribution.

Xia Ling Mei stood up, fixing her eyes on him: “Zhuang Sheng, can I trust you?”

Zhuang Sheng forced a smile: “To say the least, up to now I haven’t done paid you any lip service, never hurt you, what’s more never hurt your heart.”

Xia Ling Mei pacified the restless Xia Fen in her embrace, muttering to herself irresolutely: “That’s because I never placed my heart in your trust. Without the heart, naturally you cannot be broken-hearted.”

Zhuang Sheng stubbornly kept smiling for a while, involuntarily recalling the time at Wang residence. The him at that time, all that was in his eyes was her silhouette, and yet her heart still remained with Wang Yun Feng. Before falling off the cliff, the two people in the confusion had seen Wang Yun Feng’s alarm, compared to his and Xia Ling Mei dying together, Wang Yun Feng must be very unsatisfied? This time it happened like this, what about next time?

Maybe, the peace Xia Ling Mei had felt after arriving at the manor, is also because she’s thinking over the same question.

Wang Yun Feng and Xia Ling Mei, skimming over their complicated status, with regards to 

their natural talent, are they really incompatible?

One was the Wei Zheng[4] of the cultured government officials, the other is the Mu Gui Ying[5] of the rich young ladies; one shifted with the movements of the imperial court, one was the phoenix of the highest heavens in the grasslands. Their talents were as different as the sky and earth, even though they would eventually meet, but no one could truly enter into the other’s embrace.

“Maybe, you can experience a bit of change.” Zhuang Sheng said, the opposite of his usual sloppy self, a sincere and concentrated expression: “Although I cannot reach your high expectations in choosing a husband, but I can accompany you to travel the world. If you’re happy, I’m happy; if you’re sad, I’ll make you happy; if someone bullies you, I will stand up for you; if you bully others, I will be your hands and feet; if you want elaborate clothes and gourmet food, I will rob the rich to aid our deficiencies; if you want to be free and at leisure, I will take you to the grasslands to graze livestock, catch fish in shallow seas, set traps deep in the mountains to catch tigers; if you miss your relatives, I will hold your hand home even if its tens of thousands of miles away; if you prefer handsome and talented men, I will build an enormous Epang Palace for you, if you want to dally with anyone then dally with anyone. 

Debauchery doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter if you blow hot and cold…”

“What about Xia Fen?”

“Ao----“the small leopard had taken a bite of the other persons shoulder, his whole body wrapped around his head as if he was continuing to think where the most tender meet is.

“He, naturally is my lifeblood. Ao----ao, ao” Zhuang Sheng lifeblood hurts so much. %>_<%

While Zhuang Sheng’s happy cries continued unceasingly to cause a disturbance in Xian Yun manor, the pipe in Han Yi Fan’s hand had already extinguished.

This Zhuang Sheng, unexpectedly did not unyielding force Xia Ling Mei to devote herself to him, it showed he is smart, and a man who truly used his heart with Xia Ling Mei. Qian shi tong,[6] such a talented person like this was truly rare in such a huge Jianghu, to the imperial court which has always sneakily manipulated the Jianghu, he is also a very good chess piece.

Giving his heart wholeheartedly without reservations, what Xia Ling Mei wants is also only this.

“Master.”

“Yes?” Han Yi Fan pinched some tobacco in his hands in a good mood.

“Outside the manor, the imperial censor Lord Wang asks to see you.”

The spark ignited, and the smoke, seeming to be there but not, once again dispersed, the pupils of the former martial arts leader could not be seen clearly in the flames.

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[1] Literally “to copulate with a concubine (of emperor)”.

[2] Know a thousand things.

[3] Know it all.

[4] Tang politician and historian, notorious as a critic, editor of History of the Sui Dynasty.

[5] female warrior and heroine of the Yang Saga.

[6] Know a thousand things.

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T/N: ZS or WYF? ZS is bearing his heart but XLM seems to be disregarding the devotion he can offer her...