FDFH | Book 1 | 005

Ahhhhhhhhhh…….

This guy deserves to die, he’s playing me again.

I opened my eyes wide and looked at him. “You’re not allowed to spit it out.”

JUNE 20, 2016RUYI

Chapter 5: Drunk on Wine

I never knew the differences between shou (beasts) and humans.

Could it be that the differences were humans ate the Five Grains while a Fang Hua Beast understood tasting the flavors?

Yifu was nicer to me than any other person in the world. He was a Fang Hua Beast, but was prettier than any mortal girl.

Every year on the tenth day of the tenth month, yifu would always go by himself somewhere and return tired and sleepy. His snow-white boots would be caked with yellow mud as well as a thick odor of incense wood.

And then he’d spent an entire day in his room alone to drink away his sorrows.

At that time, he remarkably resembled any one of many lovesick, spurned young men.

But I enjoyed seeing him drink, because only then would he resemble an ordinary person, wanton and self-indulgent.

Yifu really was pretty.

A small lamp emanating a pale yellow light, yet still gentle and mild.

The cinnabar mole beneath the corner of Fang Hua’s eye was red like fire. The shadow of his eyelashes covered up his pupils, while the space between his eyebrows tried its best to conceal his worry. Like this, he poured himself a cup of wine to enjoy, each movement filled with unrestrained refinement.

I remember someone once told me that a mole beneath the eye shaped like a teardrop meant that person would have a life full of misfortunes and frustrated feelings.

Fang Hua’s alcohol tolerance was not good.

But even so, he talked more after he became drunk.

“Isn’t there a saying among mortals? That one moment of drunkeness can separate you from 1,000 woes? Why can’t I get drunk even after 1,000 cups?”

He swayed and tried to point at me, but found that he couldn’t stay still. So he waved his sleeve and gave up the useless motion, continuing to pour the jug of wine in his mouth.

His clothes were already soaked.

He still has enough face to call himself sober, I scoffed.

I used my chopsticks to pick up a piece of radish[1] and wrapped it in a mantou, before placing it in my mouth. Lifting my eyes, I spared him a glance before knocking against the table. “Yifu, why are you wasting wine? It took so much effort to brew half of that jug.”

He froze, stupefied, but it took a long time before he understood and sat down with the wine jug in a protective embrace. Two pupils swept over me in an overwhelming moment of sorrow. “You smelly rascal, I raised you for two years, but it still looks like you’re not even worth this jug of wine.”

Tch.

You keep drinking.

You who raised me for two years, but still didn’t know I was a girl.

I shook as I gave him a skewed glance. He was blabbering loudly with one foot on the bench, body stretched out as he raised his sleeve to pick up a giant piece of meat with his chopsticks and bit a vicious mouthful of mantou to stuff his mouth.

A lady doesn’t lower herself to the same level as a drunkard.

Suddenly a pair of jade-slender hands shot out to press down upon my sleeves. Before I could react, he groped downwards. Startled, goosebumps rose on my skin and–

–loudly cried out, “Not good!”

Those delicate, completely flawless jade hands wrapped around my chopsticks.

His sudden tug caused my body to hit the corner of the table, the impact right on two areas of flesh. The pain made me draw in a deep breath.

… … …tears.

Will this affect how much I grow?

I already looked like a tomboy.

I glared at this precedent of bad luck[2].

“For two years you’ve ate this and that, aren’t you fed up with it by now?” He knitted his eyebrows and looked. Fang Hua was drunk, and after staring at the meat for awhile, lowered his head with open mouth to stare the chopsticks, before putting that oily thing in his mouth.

Ahhhhhhhhhh…….

This guy deserves to die, he’s playing me again.

I opened my eyes wide and looked at him. “You’re not allowed to spit it out.”

His expression changed to one of extreme sullenness.

In any case, he still swallowed it.

What a joke. Who knew how expensive the price of meat was nowadays.

“… …it still tastes this bad.”

“A flower-eater like you shouldn’t try to eat meat like me. If you’re not used to it, don’t snatch it from me the next time your drunkenness gets the best of you.”

“Actually, in the past people fed me this,” he threw the chopsticks aside and plopped onto the bench. With his sleeves fanning out, his body lied onto the table, and his voice lowered to a slight, subtle sound. “The taste didn’t seem as hard to stomach as now.”

Ah.

A heaven-shattering announcement.

I swooped over to ask, “Yifu, who was it that fed you then?”

He raised his head in disappointment, a slack look in his eyes. “It’s been a very long time, long enough for me to already forget that person.”

Forgive me.

My face can’t hold back from its scornful look anymore.

He suddenly gave me a crescent-shaped smile, and gathered himself together. Spreading out his sleeves, he scooped me into his lap. That drunkenness must have been contagious, because even I was a little giddy. Fang Hua’s head rested on my neck, his shiny, crow-black hair messily scattered over my form, but his voice was gentle and soft like a woman’s. It was like an ancient spring breeze that had birthed life for a long time, whose caresses stirred my heart. His eyelashes trembled with laden sorrow, and the cinnabar mark beneath his eye was like a teardrop, startling.

He said, “This expression of yours, is very similar to his… …”

He’d never used this sort of voice to speak to me before.

His arms held me tighter, his warm breath brushing past my face, carrying an intoxicated scent of sweetness. It felt as if my ears were burning, and I could only hear my heart thumping from the body he held in his arms.

Fang Hua must have been grieving right now. Who was he trying to reach through embracing me… …?

Suddenly, I felt ever more anxious than before.

“Yifu, you’re drunk.” I don’t know where I found my burst of strength to push him away.

There was the sound of a chair falling over.

He fell on the ground and laughed. His teardrop-shaped mole quivered, and Fang Hua laughed until his breath caught, before unintentionally betraying an expression weighed down with sorrow. “… …nonsense, if it’s me, I can drink 1,000 cups without getting drunk.”

My heart felt a little unbearable.

I didn’t even know what had provoked him in the first place.

I knelt down with the intention of pulling him up.

But he pulled me instead and flipping over, the two of us fell on a long and narrow couch bed[3].

Ahhhh

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!

He hugged me and said in a quiet, lonely voice, “Stay with your yifu in bed for a night.”

I swallowed a few times and stared at his pretty, exceedingly beautiful woman-like face.

My heart beat wildly, and my eyes hurriedly looked elsewhere. My fists clenched and unclenched, full of sweat.

Really… …it was just sleeping?

However, with this undeveloped body, the most I could be was a long pillow for him.

As it turned out, he closed his eyes and kept a stubborn hold on me.

For a long time, his breaths were long and even, as if he really was falling asleep.

“Yifu, can you bring me with you on the tenth day of the tenth month next year?” I tugged at his sleeve, raising my head to look at his face.

“Un,” was the soft, one-word reply, but that too was a promise.

The color of the moon was like tidewater pouring on his body, and a fragrant aroma mixed with the smell of alcohol to fill the room. The man next to me was my yifu, whose looks rivaled an entire city.

But… …

The only thing I forgot about him was that he tended to forget things with his low alcohol tolerance.

I’ve never seen such a ethereal-looking person sleep so unwell. He tossed and turned me back and forth, squashing me against the wall the whole night, pain wracking my entire body while he had nightmares the whole time.

The next day he woke up with me in his arms.

I lifted my eyelids to look at him, waiting to see his reaction, and explanation, on forcing an underage youth into the criminal act of sleeping with him.

As it turned out, he gave me a side glance and said carelessly, “I don’t like coming in contact with people.”

After saying this line, he said nothing more beyond maintaining his embrace. It was as if he meant to make it clear that next time, you shouldn’t slip away from me.

I was furious!

“Yifu, you can’t tolerate alcohol and that’s why you dragged me to bed.” I rolled my eyes.

“Nonsense again.” He pushed me aside and slowly got up, shaking his head with the expression of an Elder who had no choice but to speak to a brat.

I was so shocked I could only stare tongue-tied.

With a frosty face, he grabbed a bronze mirror and began to comb his hair. Suddenly leaning in, he stuck a finger out from his spacious sleeve to rub at the shiny gloss on his lips.

He thought for a bit before slowly turning his body, propping his head on a hand and speaking uncertainly. “Shao’er, how many times have I told you? The next time yifu drinks wine, don’t make me eat meat.”

… …(blank).

I just want to beg you, don’t snatch my meat to eat next time… …

“What kind of expression are you making? Yifu wouldn’t instruct you with no reason. Wrong things are wrong.”

I had no words.

Tears… …

“Also, why do I smell like alcohol?” he stood up, sniffing his sleeves, his face as luminous and cool as the full moon. However, the look in his eyes was a bit less doting. “Shao’er, this would be you in the wrong. Although we have a lot of fermented glutinous rice[4], you shouldn’t trick me by bathing in it… …”

I suddenly stood up and kicked a stool.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… …this person deserved to die…. …

For Mother’s sake,

I’d rather call myself Piao[5] instead of Shao before I brew wine for you next time!

-o-