As Hu Ruosong was leaving, he was still sighing inwardly that the two of them were bound by fate. Yet he never expected that no sooner had he gotten into the carriage; before it had even turned onto Zhengyang Street, Fang Zesheng would already change his tone.
“Do not misunderstand.”
Sitting in his wheelchair and looking straight ahead, he said, “If I am not mistaken, you and Hu Ruosong were discussing my affairs. Therefore… it was only right that I help you repay this favor.”
Fu Jingxuan pushed him through the middle courtyard of the outer residence, up a slope, and along the waterside pavilion and lotus pond toward the inner courtyard. Along the way, Fang Zesheng kept defending himself, wishing he could take back every single word he had just uttered, terrified that Fu Jingxuan would overthink it and create unnecessary misunderstandings.
Fu Jingxuan paid him no mind. He halted, circled around to stand before the wheelchair, and lounged casually against the ebony corridor railing; what people called a “Beauty’s Lean.” Clad today in a water-toned long robe and reclining against the railing, the Second Master brought a touch of brightness to the otherwise stone-gray courtyard.
Fang Zesheng glanced at him, then shifted his gaze away as calmly as possible. Having spent years indoors away from the sun, his skin was naturally fairer than most; following his recent serious illness, his exposed nape and fingers possessed a soft glow against his white robes. Fu Jingxuan regarded him from the corner of his eye. If not for the sight of Fang Zesheng’s well-defined hands resting on his knees; tightening, loosening, then tightening and loosening again in an unsteady rhythm, he might truly have believed the man’s inner composure matched his outward calm.
Fang Zesheng maintained a frozen, stoic expression, but his heart was already in a state of total upheaval.
What “repaying a favor”? It was all nonsense.
He shouldn’t have let the mute uncle push him to chase after them just because he saw Fu Jingxuan and Hu Ruosong heading out together.
Even more so, he shouldn’t have spoken those words, allowing the feelings that should have been severed to entwine once again.
Seeing him pursing his lips with a face full of regret, Fu Jingxuan suppressed a smile and asked, “Why did you look at Hu Ruosong twice just now?”
Fang Zesheng was still angry with himself and said sullenly, “When did I look at him twice?”
Fu Jingxuan said, “When the tea was being served, you looked at him once, and then you looked at him again.”
Fang Zesheng asked, “How do you know?”
Fu Jingxuan performed a flourish with his hand while twirling the jade-ribbed folding fan he had just bought yesterday, and said grandly, “Of course; it’s because you, Young Master, shine like a clear, radiant moon, so captivating that my eyes have nowhere else to turn but to remain fixed on you.”
“You…”
Fang Zesheng originally wanted to rebuke him for being frivolous, but before the words could leave his mouth, the tips of his ears turned red first. For a moment, he couldn’t decide whether to speak or stay silent so he could only turn his wheelchair to face away from him. “Master Hu has come from afar; I must naturally observe proper etiquette and should not be rude to him.”
Fu Jingxuan stood up, crossed the corridor, and sat down opposite Fang Zesheng, insisting on asking him face-to-face, “You seem to have disliked Hu Ruosong since you were a child. How did he ever provoke you?”
The flush behind Fang Zesheng’s ears had not yet faded; looking at the folding fan in Fu Jingxuan’s hand, he silently turned his head to the side.
Speaking of which, both Hu Ruosong and Tao Xianzhi were considered Fu Jingxuan’s friends. Tao Xianzhi was even closer to the Second Master Fu; while they might not have shared a bed, they had shared drinks from the same cup and meals from the same bowl. In comparison, Hu Ruosong was more distant, having at most pestered Fu Jingxuan for lessons during their youth; and those lessons were entirely about how to stir up trouble and mischief.
One might ask: who would deliberately set out to learn how to be bad?
Fang Zesheng had thought so then and still believed it now; that Hu Ruosong had taken a liking to Fu Jingxuan’s virtues and was seizing any excuse to draw near to him. What he didn’t realize was that Hu Ruosong, long used to obedience, had genuinely only wanted to seek Fu Jingxuan’s advice on how to earn himself a “proper” beating from his father.
“I recall that one year the Tao family hosted a banquet and invited all three households as guests; you even stepped out of character and had a bit of a contest with Hu Ruosong.”
At the mention of this incident, Fang Zesheng’s calm expression became difficult to maintain.
At the time, they were just twelve or thirteen, accompanying their fathers to the Tao residence for tea.
Fang Zesheng had originally been following Fang Changru to pay his respects when he accidentally spotted Fu Jingxuan and Hu Ruosong standing by the lake talking while pointing at a tall, sturdy old scholar tree. Talking was one thing, but they were actually being hands-on? Fu Jingxuan was swaying and tugging at Hu Ruosong’s sleeve as if acting spoiled. Seeing this, Fang Zesheng felt both angry and annoyed; he marched straight toward the two of them and asked what was going on.
Fu Jingxuan hadn’t expected him to come over. He let go of Hu Ruosong’s sleeve and gave Fang Zesheng a frantic series of meaningful looks and winks.
Fang Zesheng was in the heat of his anger, so how could he possibly understand what those looks meant? He turned to Hu Ruosong and asked again, “What exactly is going on?”
Hu Ruosong looked up at the large tree and said awkwardly, “Jingxuan said his peace lock fell into the bird’s nest and asked me to help him get it down.”
Fang Zesheng nodded, immediately shed his outer robe, and tossed it aside. “Then let us have a contest to see who can climb up and retrieve the peace lock for him.”
“Ah? But I don’t know how to climb trees. How can I compete with you…”
Before Hu Ruosong could finish his sentence, Fang Zesheng, who was dressed in his white inner robes, had already gripped the tree’s trunk. Fu Jingxuan hadn’t expected him to move so quickly and hurriedly shouted a warning, but Fang Zesheng turned a deaf ear, summoned all his strength, and scrambled up onto a branch.
There was indeed a bird’s nest on the branch, but it was entirely empty. Forget a peace lock; there wasn’t even half a bird’s egg in sight.
Fang Zesheng frowned, and just as he was about to tell Fu Jingxuan the situation above, he felt a sudden wave of dizziness and nearly fell from the height.
Fortunately, Fu Jingxuan had felt a twinge of unease; he moved swiftly to follow and offered a steadying hand.
Thinking back on it now, the peace lock was merely a lie fabricated by Fu Jingxuan to trick Hu Ruosong into climbing the tree so that when he couldn’t get back down, Fu Jingxuan could look up and laugh at his plight.
“In the end, it was the two of us who ended up sitting in that tree, roasting in the sun for two hours.”
If it had been just Fu Jingxuan, he could have climbed down on his own, but Fang Zesheng suffered from a fear of heights; once he realized where he was, he sat dazed on the tree branch, not daring to move an inch.
At that time, he felt that sitting in the tree was actually fine; it was far away and undisturbed, so he didn’t have to follow his father to pay respects to the elders of various families nor did he have to watch Fu Jingxuan running around wildly with others.
There were only the two of them in the tree; he held his hand, and he spoke only to him.
Through the corridor, Fang Zesheng saw a scholar tree planted in the courtyard. That tree was very similar to the one by the lake at the Tao residence; both were lush with foliage and towered into the clouds.
But now… he could never go up again.
“Fu Jingxuan.”
“Hmm?”
“I am grateful that you have carried me this far out of our childhood friendship, yet I am no longer a whole man. You do not need to tie yourself to the Fang family just to help me.” Fang Zesheng withdrew his gaze and looked quietly at his two useless legs on the wheelchair, saying in a low voice, “If you meet someone you truly love in the future, do not have any reservations. I will write another letter of divorce to give to you.”
He spoke these words without inflection, yet they were exceptionally strained. Before he could finish speaking, a jade-ribbed folding fan tapped lightly between his eyebrows.
Fu Jingxuan had approached him at some unknown moment; he kissed the bit of green jade resting against Fang Zesheng’s brow and said with a smile, “There is no one.”
“Other than you, there is no one else I love.”
