Chapter 12: Blowing Out the Candle
Cui Jingkong’s fall was so sudden, it was remarkably similar to when his own brother, Cui Ze, had collapsed from the snake venom.
Feng Yuzhen watched him fall, frozen in place for a moment, her hands hanging limply, her face instantly turning deathly pale.
The fear from that time came rushing back, instantly reminding her of Cui Ze’s purple lips as he lay in his coffin. Feng Yuzhen scrambled to her feet, no longer caring about the proprieties between a brother-in-law and sister-in-law, or whether the floor was clean.
She rushed forward and knelt beside the young man. Her hands, trembling like a sieve, reached out to help him up, but she didn’t know where to start. Her voice was choked with tears. “Kong… Kong’ge’er, what’s wrong with you? Don’t scare me…”
The anxiety and worry in her voice were plain to see. Although he was already agitated and restless, Cui Jingkong’s mood was surprisingly good. He even had the presence of mind to comfort her in a low voice, “Don’t be afraid. I just have no strength.”
In her panic, her movements were inevitably clumsy. First, she tried to grab him under the arms to drag him to the bed in the side room. She couldn’t just let him lie on the floor.
But Cui Jingkong was a real man. Even though he usually looked frail, he had broad shoulders and a narrow waist, with firm flesh tightly wrapped around his frame. He was not light at all. She could only barely lift his upper body before her strength gave out.
Her hands unintentionally touched Cui Jingkong’s shoulder, collarbone, and forehead. All the places she had pressed against tingled with a lingering numbness.
Like a nimble fish in water, she lightly brushed past his waist. Cui Jingkong, who had been motionless no matter how she moved him, suddenly shot out a hand and grabbed her forearm.
“Trouble Sister-in-law… to help me up.”
Following his instructions, Cui Jingkong supported himself against the wall with one hand, while Feng Yuzhen put his other arm over her shoulder. They swayed unsteadily, barely managing to stand up. After just a few steps, his body slumped again.
He almost lost his footing again, but fortunately, Cui Jingkong propped himself up with his elbow in time. Feng Yuzhen’s other arm inevitably swung forward with the momentum.
With a great force, her back hit the wall. Her vision blurred, and her brother-in-law was suddenly in front of her, his hands braced on either side of her, his breath hot. The distance between them was no more than a fist’s width. He had almost fallen on top of her.
She couldn’t help but feel a wave of discomfort. Fortunately, Cui Jingkong in front of her looked like he was about to collapse. Her heart tightened, and she quickly supported his arm again. After much effort, they finally reached the west side room, and she placed him directly on her bed.
Cui Jingkong’s hair had long since become disheveled in the commotion, a far cry from his usual neat and tidy appearance. A strange tide of passion, like a woman’s rouge, stained his cheeks and thin lips with a vivid color, forcibly invading a face that seemed to be above worldly matters.
A miscalculation, he thought. Days ago, Cui Jingkong had meticulously consulted medical books, repeatedly confirming the effects of the two drugs: the green spirit flower contained an aphrodisiac, while sage would cause the user’s nerves to be paralyzed, leading to mild poisoning and immobility.
The combination of the two would result in both arousal and physical weakness, amplifying the originally negligible effects of the drugs several times over.
He had played along with their plan, but he hadn’t expected half the dose to be so potent. It was clear how much hatred Zhong Changxun and his group harbored, wanting to nail him to the pillar of shame.
His thoughts were interrupted by a cool hand on his sweaty forehead. He almost let out a soft moan instinctively. The woman’s delicate palm lingered for only a moment before moving away.
Feng Yuzhen withdrew her hand, holding the lit candlestick. Seeing his flushed face, a far cry from Cui Ze’s near-death state, she felt a little calmer. “Kong’ge’er, did you catch a cold and get a fever? Can you hold on?”
But the young man on the bed didn’t speak. He just stared at her with dazed eyes, or more accurately, at the hand she had just placed on his forehead to check his temperature.
Fearing he was delirious from the fever, she remembered that she had brought some herbs down from the mountain. But Cui Ze had been the one to prepare them when he was alive. They could treat some headaches and fevers, but she only vaguely remembered the details.
The sun had already set, and it was too late to rush to town to call a doctor. Just as Feng Yuzhen was about to turn and look for the medicine, her wrist was suddenly gripped tightly.
“Don’t go…” Cui Jingkong held her slender wrist, his tone so soft it was almost a plea.
Feng Yuzhen thought he was seriously ill and was acting like a child. Although it was extremely rare for her brother-in-law, she was surprised but said patiently, “I’ll be right back. If you’re afraid of the dark, I’ll leave the candle here.”
But he paused, then told her directly, “I don’t have a fever. I’ll be fine by tomorrow morning at the latest. Sister-in-law need not worry.”
“Then what is it?”
Seeing that he was still lucid and had no intention of explaining further, she was puzzled but didn’t dare to press him. She went outside and scooped a cup of water from the water vat, holding it to the young man’s lips for him to take a few sips.
“Sister-in-law, can you blow out the candle? It’s too bright.”
His behavior and speech tonight were very much like that of a frank and naive child. It reminded Feng Yuzhen of her younger fourth sister, who would throw a tantrum for candy when she was sick. She felt a surge of affection for her brother-in-law on the bed, like that of an elder caring for a junior.
So she did as he asked, blowing out the candle. The dim room was filled with the faint moonlight. Feng Yuzhen knew she couldn’t be of much help. She moved a stool to the bedside, planning to wait until Cui Jingkong was sound asleep and his breathing was steady before going to the main room to spend the night hunched over the table.
The room was silent, with only the sound of their two breaths. The moonlight cast a long shadow of Feng Yuzhen on the wall. She almost thought her brother-in-law was already asleep and was about to tiptoe out when the person on the bed moved and suddenly spoke. “…Was that Auntie Qian who came today?”
If he hadn’t brought it up, it would have been fine. Feng Yuzhen’s expression became awkward again. She really didn’t know how to tell him about this.
That day, when they returned from town, Qian Yongshun had insisted on bringing the table down, saying it was an apology to Cui Jingkong. Although Feng Yuzhen knew about the conflict between them, she didn’t dare to guess her brother-in-law’s thoughts and didn’t dare to make a decision, so she could only watch as he carried it into the house.
And Qian Cuifeng’s visit today was a complete coincidence. They had happened to see each other while washing clothes by the stream. The other woman’s face had lit up with joy upon seeing her, and Feng Yuzhen had been inexplicably pulled home by the arm.
Auntie Qian had first tried to subtly inquire about her brother-in-law’s marriage prospects. Feng Yuzhen knew that Cui Jingkong was destined to marry a princess and would be of noble status, but she couldn’t say that, so she just brushed it off by saying she didn’t know.
But the other woman hadn’t given up. She had changed the subject and turned to her. It was a man from the town—Qian Yongshun’s master carpenter’s senior apprentice, a steady and hardworking man. She had asked her what she thought.
It turned out to be the man with the scar on his face, the one she couldn’t help but stare at!
This had shocked her. The last time someone had tried to be a matchmaker for her was when Cui Ze had proposed, which was about ten years ago, counting both her lives. Feng Yuzhen had hastily waved her hands, shaking her head like a rattle drum, the word “no” practically written all over her face.
Only then did she realize the strange behavior of the Qian mother and son these past few days. But before she could say anything, she had been blocked at the door by Cui Jingkong.
But of course, she couldn’t tell him everything. Not only was it embarrassing, but it was also against the rules of propriety. A widowed sister-in-law remarrying was one thing, but to not even avoid her brother-in-law, and to discuss it in detail with him?
So she stammered and glossed over it. “Auntie Qian came a few days ago. She said her third son had a conflict with you when you were children, and she wanted to put the past behind you. She brought you a table and pickled vegetables, but you weren’t here these past few days, so I got all the benefits.”
After explaining the cause and effect, she was afraid that Cui Jingkong would dwell on the matter, but he didn’t react. He turned over, from lying on his back to his side, facing her. “Sister-in-law is at home alone. What do you usually do?”
Perhaps it was because she couldn’t see his expression clearly in the dark, or perhaps it was because of the rare vulnerability he had shown tonight, but she felt a little bolder. She just assumed that Cui Jingkong was feeling unwell and couldn’t sleep, and wanted to hear her chat for a while.
“My leg was bothering me the past two days, so I sewed a few pouches in my spare time. I went to town to buy some rice, oil, and salt, and also sold the pouches. These two days, I’m thinking of fencing off a part of the backyard to raise some chickens. That way, we’ll have eggs to eat every day after a while, and I can also sell them…”
The woman’s voice was deliberately soft. Cui Jingkong sneered inwardly. What does she take me for now? A child who needs to be coaxed?
Just by showing a little weakness, he had easily tricked her into letting down her guard. She was really easy to fool. But on second thought, he wasn’t happy. He felt he had to keep a closer eye on her. It had only been half a month, and already, flies were buzzing around her when he wasn’t looking.
Feng Yuzhen was still talking slowly, but Cui Jingkong no longer had the energy to listen. His breathing was undeniably heavy, his Adam’s apple bobbed, and his eyelids were hot.
His body was forcefully trying to drag his reason down with it into depravity. This was what Cui Jingkong hated most. No matter how calm and detached he was, he was still bound by his mortal flesh.
He would be thirsty without water, his stomach would ache if he didn’t eat on time, and his thin skin would bleed if it was scraped. Not to mention the pain caused by the prayer beads, which was deeply carved into his bones and blood like the rings of a tree, inseparable.
But today, he realized that the overflowing passion was completely different from all the pain he had ever felt. It was both numb and itchy, both swollen and painful.
It wasn’t that there were no classmates in the academy who were knowledgeable about such matters. For a while, they had secretly passed around a book of erotic art, winking at each other. He had also opened it without knowing what it was.
But he had lost interest after flipping through a few pages expressionlessly. The two naked bodies were ugly, their ugliness dominated by bestial desires on full display. Not to mention arousal, he didn’t even feel a flicker of emotion.
But now, the originally boring pictures had suddenly been replaced by a face that was always submissive. And so it was out of control, burning his reason to ashes.
His moon-like face was pressed against the widowed sister-in-law’s pillow. The faint scent of bitter orange from the pillow lingered at the tip of his nose, as if he were holding her in his arms. He suddenly opened his eyes, and beads of sweat rolled down from his thick eyelashes. The calm surface of the lake was stirred into ripples that spread out in circles.
The considerate, gentle widowed sister-in-law had no idea that in the darkness, the corners of Cui Jingkong’s eyes were red, his gaze locked on her gentle, rounded features, like a starving wolf.