“This year on my birthdate, my family again called in a wanderer said to be a Divine Physician of exceedingly high skill. After checking my pulse, he declared that I will not live past seventeen. The residence also called in a so-called expert, and that one said my lifespan is not short — that I am in fact a person of fortune.” Su Mingya laughed lightly. “I don’t believe either of them.”
In his urgency, Gu Xiaodeng grasped his hand. “Believe the expert! You’ll definitely be fine. You’ll live safe, healthy, and the most comfortable, happy days. When you want to play the flute, you can play it to your heart’s content. Do whatever you want to do…”
Su Mingya started coughing lightly again, making Gu Xiaodeng flustered into spinning in circles. He merely coughed lightly and stroked Gu Xiaodeng’s crown. “To become a physician… your family’s private school doesn’t teach that. How would you do it?”
“There’s nowhere to learn now, but maybe later there will be.” Gu Xiaodeng leaned into Su Mingya’s palm. “I’ll learn solidly, and bring real skill to heal Young Master Su.”
Su Mingya laughed. His hand, always hard to warm, stroked from the top of Gu Xiaodeng’s head to his face, rubbing affectionately like he was caressing a beloved pet. “You’d be better off learning from Jinyu first. It would probably bring results sooner.”
“I am.” Gu Xiaodeng grinned. He had a dimple on his left cheek but not on his right. At that moment, the single dimple showed all alone. Su Mingya looked down at it, thinking he should wrap that dimple in his palm, but left it like a painting left to dry.
Gu Xiaodeng tilted his head against his hand and smiled as he closed his eyes. “If I hadn’t thought about it, I wouldn’t have known. It turns out he’s already clearly in my head. Give me a little time, and I can imitate him in fine detail.”
He mulled it over for a bit. His grin stretched into a smile that was a smile but not a smile. Then he opened his eyes, cast his gaze down, and focused his spirit. His expression became cold and weary, his lips curled as if with a hint of a smile, coldness and disdain about to burst out. In an instant, he had peeled Gu Jinyu’s standard expression right off and stuck it onto his own face.
Su Mingya hadn’t expected him to imitate it so well — so well that it burned like fire. Without hesitation, he released his hand as if scalded.
That face, so cute and pitiful moments ago, now became detestable and repellent. Facts proved it: no matter how good-looking a face was, once it wore Gu Jinyu’s expression, it became this revolting. Gu Jinyu’s soul was impure.
“See, Young Master Su? I look like him, right?” Gu Xiaodeng adjusted back to his own expression, grinning as he gave himself a thumbs-up. “I can mimic his gestures and movements too, but those are all surface-level. Jinyu’s cleverness and talent are something I can never hope to match in this life.”
“…”
Very well imitated. Next time, don’t.
But Su Mingya didn’t say that in the end. Instead, with an inexplicable, unnameable sense of competition, he asked lightly, “Then can you imitate me?”
Gu Xiaodeng’s mouth fell open. He was clearly about to laugh and say the word “Yes,” but he managed to twist it back himself. Pretending to be serious, he shook his head and changed his tune. “Not yet. I still need to watch Young Master Su much, much more — watch him from afar, watch him up close, watch him from above and below, left and right. Watch him moment to moment, day to day, month to month, year to year. Stare at him like that, gaze wide-eyed at him — maybe one day then I’ll be able to imitate him.”
Su Mingya’s spirit stirred at the word “watch,” repeated over and over, and at Gu Xiaodeng’s repeated watching.
Gu Xiaodeng was clumsy, and yet cunning. It was undeniable: he was very interesting, especially fun.
Su Mingya lowered his head, his line of sight level with Gu Xiaodeng’s. His tone carried a doting he himself didn’t notice. “Mm. Then take a good, long look.”
Gu Xiaodeng looked into his eyes from that close distance, blinking and watching him for a good while. Then he clutched his heart like he’d been shot.
After Gu Xiaodeng started wearing the flower medicine sachet, sure enough, no one bullied him anymore. Not only did the vile, bag-over-the-head kind of bullying stop, but even the idle gossip that had always circulated openly disappeared. Though the looks others gave him grew more complicated by the day, he was indeed safe.
It was just as Su Mingya had said when he agreed to shelter him: he would serve as his only friend. And Gu Xiaodeng truly had only the sick beauty as his one friend.
Leaving others aside for the moment, Ge Dongchen and Guan Yunji also distanced themselves from him. The former was no longer as keen and warm as before — more often, he watched him with a thin, ambiguous anger. Guan Yunji was the same as ever, wearing a sour face as if Gu Xiaodeng owed him eight million.
Gu Xiaodeng still couldn’t understand what these two were sulking about.
What’s the matter, you two sour-faced lads?
The bond they’d shared that day drinking Green Plum Wine together had rushed away like a tide that no longer rose.
Gu Xiaodeng was utterly baffled, and his heart felt regret. When he thought of something, he didn’t suppress it. He came back and gesticulated excitedly in front of Su Mingya.
Su Mingya only smiled as he listened. He reached out and stroked the back of Gu Xiaodeng’s neck, his cool fingertips lightly tapping the tooth marks that had faded somewhat. “No matter. If they ignore you, aren’t I here? Tonight, I’ll accompany you in drinking Green Plum Wine.”
Gu Xiaodeng shook his head like a rattle drum. “You can’t drink with the Asthma Affliction!”
“The little one can drink. The little one wants to drink.” Su Mingya gently pressed his head still, manually stopping the rattle drum. “I won’t drink. I’ll just stay with you. That’s enough.”
“But I’ll get drunk.”
“I won’t. Perfect for looking after you.”
Gu Xiaodeng hadn’t originally thought of drinking. But after a few exchanges like that, he was both moved and full of sympathy. He figured Su Mingya probably felt a sense of regret at not being able to drink and wanted to see him drunk. So he agreed.
That night, their curious little drinking table was set up. Gu Xiaodeng cradled his cup and took tiny sip after tiny sip. Su Mingya, however, held his medicine bowl and drank medicine as if it were water. Its level of strangeness far surpassed the night of shared drinking with Ge and Guan.
The more Gu Xiaodeng thought about it, the more fantastical it felt. He clinked his cup against Su Mingya’s and, before even speaking, had himself laughing. Halfway to drunk, as if in a dream, as if in wine.
Just as he was growing tipsy, a servant reported to Su Mingya from outside the door: “Young Master, the Gu family’s Fourth Young Master has come to pay you a visit.”
In Gu Xiaodeng’s hazy mind, a sudden clarity burst forth. The self-restraint cultivated these past days by following Su Mingya vanished without a trace. He also forgot his foot still hadn’t completely healed. All he knew was to put down his cup and bounce up, pattering toward the door.
Today was the sixteenth. They always said the moon on the fifteenth is at its fullest on the sixteenth. He didn’t have time to look up to check whether the moon was waxing or waning, but he knew the moonlight was full.
Gu Jinyu stood under the Flower Trellis in the courtyard, his shoulders mantled in moon brilliance, his eyes gleaming darkly like ghost fire.
Gu Xiaodeng jumped down the steps and shouted to him in wild joy: “Senqing!”
He couldn’t run a straight line, but his heart was straight.
He crashed and rushed forward, almost like he was barging right up to Gu Jinyu. Without thinking, he wanted to throw himself on this good brother just released from prison. Who knew Gu Jinyu would step back and press a hand against his shoulder.
“Huh?” Gu Xiaodeng looked up at him, panting. Perhaps the tipsiness kept his mind from being clear, but his body was honest and took the lead. Tears streamed down.
Gu Jinyu said nothing, but Gu Xiaodeng could feel he was also angry.
Belatedly, it dawned on him. Yes, yes, Gu Jinyu would be angry. After all, he’d warned him several times to stay far away from Su Mingya. But this was Young Master Su — the sick beauty he’d thought and thought about from the very first meeting. So gentle, so pure and noble a sick beauty.
Gu Xiaodeng clenched his two fists to pump himself up. His best brother didn’t like the one his heart was set on. That was very difficult, but with effort, it could always be worked out.
Just as he was about to speak, Gu Jinyu’s voice came low and hoarse. “Gu Xiaodeng, Zhu Mi says you’ve sided with Su Mingya. Everyone in the academy also says you’re a copycat imitating me. Which side are you actually on?”
Gu Xiaodeng was lost. “Huh?”
His brain couldn’t keep up. Puzzled, he wondered — he hadn’t acted like he was imitating Gu Jinyu in the academy. At the same time, a very strange saying flashed through his little head: brothers are like limbs, a wife is like clothes.
It was as if Gu Jinyu was asking him whether he wanted to be missing an arm and a leg or to run around stark naked.
Eeek, too bizarre.
The hand Gu Jinyu gripped his shoulder with gradually tightened. In the end, he said in a deep, low voice: “I’m not going to bother with you anymore.”
