Chapter 40

Chapter 40: The Fortieth Chapter

Liufang Pavilion finally welcomed its guest.

Lian Xiusheng came in the dead of night. Lian Pu had Fu Guang heat up a pot of tea for him. After two cups, Lian Xiusheng recounted everything that had happened that evening. Lian Pu, shedding his usual meekness, said sternly, "I have raised you as my own, hoping you would leave behind the past. By casually revealing your background to others, do you think you’ve lived enough, or that the Lian family’s days are numbered?"

"Although Minzi is older than you, he is ignorant of matters. If he knows your background and tells others, do you still wish to live?" Lian Pu slammed the table, stood, and paced back and forth in the hall a few times, his anger and worry finding no outlet. He shattered a vase, then turned back earnestly, "Lian Jiao, do you not realize that your life is not just your own? You bear the blood and tears of twenty-seven families. You are the only surviving bloodline of my teacher. How could you act so recklessly?!"

Lian Xiusheng finished the last cup of tea, stood up, bowed, and took his leave, saying he wanted to go back to sleep.

"..."

Lian Pu was drenched in cold sweat. Trembling, he sent Fu Guang to summon the Third Brother.

Lian Cheng was already comfortably lying in bed. Before lying down, he had hung the Confucius lantern on the window of Lian Xiusheng’s study.

He never wavered in his original intention: as long as he could make the sixth brother a good person, all that talk of massacre and incest was utter nonsense.

But then came a knock at the courtyard gate. Lian Cheng opened his eyes, heard voices. After a while, footsteps approached, and a large shadow stood outside his room. "Young Master, the master requests your presence in his courtyard."

"...Wait a moment."

Lian Cheng didn’t know what it was about, but he hurriedly climbed out of bed. Huqiu came in, dressed him, tied his hair loosely, inserted a hairpin, and they left carrying lanterns.

Fu Guang walked ahead with a lantern. Huqiu asked why it was so urgent to be summoned so late. Fu Guang said the young master would understand once he got there. Lian Cheng saw Huqiu roll his eyes in an exaggerated manner.

At Liufang Pavilion, Lian Pu only let Lian Cheng into his tea room. Huqiu and Fu Guang waited outside. Lian Pu personally closed the door, checked the doors and windows, even tapped the roof with a bamboo pole to ensure safety. Only then did he wipe the sweat from his forehead. He turned to find his son sipping tea at leisure.

"Did the Sixth Brother tell you something important tonight?" Lian Pu asked, feigning ignorance.

Lian Cheng nodded. "He did."

Lian Pu: "Then how can you calmly drink tea?"

Lian Cheng put down his teacup, moved to Lian Pu’s feet, kowtowed, and prostrated himself. "No matter what he told me, no matter his identity or background, I consider him a member of the Lian family and my younger brother. Father, rest assured. This matter will go with me to the grave. But Father, I have one question, and I hope you will enlighten me."

Lian Pu told him to speak.

"Father, when you brought the Sixth Brother home, did he already remember things?"

"He should not have remembered. He was still in swaddling clothes at the time," Lian Pu waved his sleeve, lowering his voice. "But this child is rather... strange... quite precocious, with innate wisdom. He could even clearly recall the plants, fish, and insects in the Cai family's courtyard. As for me, I can only vaguely remember my teacher's appearance."

"I was entrusted by my teacher to save his life and raise him to adulthood. I only wished for him to be healthy, find a good wife, and have many children. But I never expected him to be anything but an ordinary mortal. Once he entered officialdom and won the favor of the present emperor, it became difficult to step down from official life. If his identity were exposed, he might be fine, but our Lian family would surely face disaster." Sweat dripped from Lian Pu's brow. He wiped it with his sleeve and said, "You don't understand. The current emperor upholds loyalty and righteousness. When I confessed guilt and defected back then, outsiders saw our family as enjoying imperial favor, unmatched at the time. But in our eyes, it was like adding fuel to a blazing fire, flowers on brocade—too much of a good thing!"

Lian Cheng looked at his father's fear of death, so similar to his own, and couldn't help but laugh. "The straightest tree is felled first; the sweetest well runs dry first. So Father and Big Brother have been hiding your talents all these years?"

Lian Pu paused, then said, "I do hide my talents, but your elder brother is different."

Lian Cheng laughed outright and flopped onto the ground.

After this exchange, Lian Pu's tense nerves relaxed a little. He also sat down, helped Lian Cheng up, and poured him another cup of tea. He sighed long and said, "I have no grand ambitions; I only wish for you children to be safe and healthy. Since you now know this, just act as if you don't know. Don't tell anyone, especially your young friends like Li Wan—not a single word."

Lian Cheng nodded enthusiastically. "Father need not worry. I will keep my mouth shut on such an important matter."

Lian Pu said, with approval, "You've become more sensible lately and kinder to your siblings. Are you starting to understand your responsibilities?"

Lian Cheng never willingly shouldered responsibilities. Even though he knew Lian Pu was referring to the eldest legitimate son's duty to inherit the family, educate his siblings, and glorify the clan, he pretended not to understand, sipping his tea while his heart stirred with curiosity. He wanted to probe further into Lian Xiusheng's past before entering the Lian family.

But Lian Pu clearly didn't want to say more. He only made it almost explicit: if the day came when Minzi denounced Lian Xiusheng, or leaked this matter, he would do everything in his power to protect Lian Xiusheng. He said he would sacrifice even the entire family's life if necessary.

Lian Cheng bowed and took his leave. On the way back, only he and Huqiu were there. Huqiu walked beside him with a lantern and asked what the Master had said inside that took so long.

"He said good and evil are always repaid, just a matter of sooner or later."

Huqiu laughed. "Heaven's justice works in its own time. That's only natural."

-

After the Lantern Festival, the street lanterns were taken down, and every household packed up their things to start the year's endeavors.

Lian Cheng had to report to other government offices on the twentieth, so his holiday wasn't over yet. Despite that, he didn't remain idle. He sneaked out again, alone with Huqiu, to visit Xia Shutong.

This time he didn't bring much silver to the imperial prison. Several tens of taels each time would drain even a wealthy family. So he only gave each gatekeeper five taels, but he didn't forget to bring a food box filled with cooked meat, fruit, and wine. The two guards let him in. They already knew he was a young master of the Lian family and a generous spender.

When he entered, Lian Cheng asked why the punishment was over and he had been imprisoned for nearly half a month, yet he wasn't released yet. The two guards equivocated, saying it was orders from above, and they dared not speculate.

This time, Lian Cheng brought not only a change of clothes for Xia Shutong but also various medicines. The prison was a cesspool of disease and filth, where many succumbed before their release. Xia Shutong hugged the bulging bundle and wept incessantly, kowtowing to Lian Cheng repeatedly. "My father abandoned me. Minzi has given me a new lease on life. If I ever see the light of day again, I swear I will repay you!"

Lian Cheng's heart ached. He didn't stay long. Leaving the prison, he wandered through the bustling streets and turned into a bookstore. Seeing that most titles were rare, he went on a buying spree.

Huqiu was barely literate, but he firmly believed his young master was a reincarnated literary star who naturally needed to read many books. He took whatever his master pointed at, filled with admiration, until he looked up and saw a picture of a man and a woman making love. Next to it was something even more shocking—a painting of two men undressing and embracing in a waterfront pavilion!

"Young Master..." Huqiu's face alternated between red and pale. "What... what is this... erotic books... you shouldn't..."

Lian Cheng glanced at him, knowing what he was thinking. He casually picked up a contemporary opera collection. "It's not all that. Appreciating both the refined and the vulgar."

Huqiu warned, "One piece is enough for appreciation. Why did you take two kinds?"

"I need to understand matters of intimacy, so I naturally take some of each," Lian Cheng said with perfect reason.

Unable to argue, Huqiu eventually conceded, slowly thinking that his master's reasoning was sound.

In truth, Lian Cheng wasn't very interested in that sort of thing. When he read books and poems, he savored the flavor and human sentiment. But this time was different. This time, he was researching physical intimacy for Lian Xiusheng's sake. He knew the stories of Mizi Xia sharing a peach and Emperor Ai cutting his sleeve, but he didn't understand what kind of feeling that was, or what the pleasure was.

In other words, know yourself and your enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles. He wanted to understand Lian Xiusheng's thoughts and feelings.

He read very fast. Treating the storybooks as study materials, he also practiced calligraphy. He finished reading a complete illustrated story while standing at the bookstore counter.

The story told of a man who favored young male companions, spending a fortune to find them. His wife constantly quarreled with him, so he dressed up his beloved young male companion as a woman and brought him home as a concubine. When the man's identity was exposed, the husband and the companion were beaten by the wife with a stick and fled.

The companion could no longer stay at home. The husband gave him silver, packed his clothes, and sent him away on a boat. Several years later, the husband and wife traveled with their son to a water town and met the companion again. The man had now tied his hair and worn a cap, used the silver to start a legitimate business, married, and had children.

The epilogue described how the two families reconciled, and whether men or women, they all became friends.

After reading, Lian Cheng only felt that life's twists and turns were fickle. As for love or not, he couldn't quite taste it.

But if men who loved men could work it out that way, then Lian Xiusheng should also sit back and watch himself get married and have children, maintaining a brotherly respect.

Then again, Lian Xiusheng might not necessarily marry or have children. He had never thought about marriage. What he thought now naturally didn't count.

Lian Cheng thought for half a day, went home, and read another half day under the window. When Old Master Guan returned from teaching at the community school, Lian Cheng hurriedly swept all the recreational books into a chest and laid out the Annals of Lü Buwei, frowning as if pondering the world's problems, his expression extremely serious.

After Old Master Guan had nodded in satisfaction and left, Lian Cheng took out the books again and kept reading. He found no clue. Moreover, he saw no younger brother who liked men and would therefore go after his own elder brother.

The books held no antidote, and most of them described the intimacy between two men in terms of elegance and extreme beauty.

How outrageous. Wasn't this corrupting children? As an elder brother, he reported it.

Thus, Lian Cheng had no choice but to spread out paper and write. Those book compilers had done a poor job. He would write his own—a story of fallen blossoms and blood-drenched love.