The lights in Jinyan Tang stayed on until morning.
When Chan Yi came in to bring water for him to wash his face, she found Xu Hang actually fell asleep sitting at the table. He was still wearing the same clothes as yesterday, and the candles on the table had all burned out.
“Head of the Household?” She called softly, and Xu Hang woke up.
He raised his head suddenly, rubbed his eyes, and asked, “Is he back?”
“Who? Commander Duan?” Chan Yi put down the washbasin. “No, he didn’t come last night.”
Xu Hang looked out and saw that the sun was already up. He felt something was wrong and walked out. Chan Yi shouted, “Head of the Household, you have not washed your face yet, where are you going?”
The shout snapped Xu Hang back to reality, but he quickly turned around, grabbed the medical bag from the shelf, stuffed it into his bag, and ran off again. No matter how much Chan Yi called after him, he didn’t look back.
Xu Hang hailed a rickshaw and ran all the way to Xiaotong Guan. The guards let him in without stopping him. He ran to Duan Yelin’s room and even wanted to push himself in without knocking, but the door was locked.
Duan Yelin never locks the door.
He could only knock on the door instead. After a while, he heard a click from the lock, and the door slowly opened. Duan Yelin, dressed neatly, raised his eyebrows in surprise when he saw Xu Hang. “Why are you here?”
Xu Hang stepped into the room sideways, grabbing Duan Yelin’s sleeve and trying to pull it off. Duan Yelin stepped back repeatedly, holding Xu Hang’s hand with a smile. “What are you doing? Are you here to fight me so early in the morning?”
“What did you do last night?”
“I went to Fourth Uncle Qiao’s place to reminisce. It was too late, and I didn’t want to disturb your sleep, so I didn’t go to Jinyan Tang.” Duan Yelin said as he took out the butterfly pendant from his pocket, “You came here to get this, right? Keep it well and don’t let anyone see it.”
Xu Hang really wanted the butterfly pendant, but his purpose at the moment was not this. He pretended to reach out to take it, but just before he touched it, he changed direction, grabbed Duan Yelin’s shirt, and then pulled it hard!
Swish—!
The shirt was torn, exposing a hastily bandaged wound, with blood seeping through the fabric, clearly a fresh injury. Xu Hang’s pupils shrank for a second, as if he had expected it: “Sure enough, my guess was right…”
Duan Yelin was taken aback that Xu Hang had seen through his disguise, quickly reaching out to cover his torn shirt in panic. Xu Hang pushed his shoulders, pressing him back onto the seat, and retrieved the medical bag from his arms. “Take it off, I’ll rebandage you.”
With a long sigh, Duan Yelin reluctantly removed his torn shirt, and Xu Hang carefully untied the old bandage. Duan Yelin turned his back to him and asked, “How did you know?”
“You told me about that Fourth Uncle Qiao before.” Xu Hang carefully cut open the areas that were difficult to tear and saw that the wounds appeared to be caused by whipping with a rattan stick. There were twenty or thirty marks, both large and small. Although the injuries hadn’t reached the bones, the skin and flesh were badly torn.
“You mentioned that your fourth uncle was a wanderer in his youth, involved in all sorts of things like cheating, deceiving, and stealing, before eventually joining the army. Your father entrusted you to his care before he passed away, and your fourth uncle remained very loyal. He kept a strict watch over you, and if you made any mistakes, he would punish you physically.”
Duan Yelin had originally told Xu Hang about this as a casual conversation. If it weren’t for Qiao Daosang’s frighteningly dark face last night, Xu Hang would not have remembered this.
With the old man’s experience in the underworld, how could Duan Yelin’s small tricks escape his sharp eyes? Not confronting him directly was, firstly, to protect his shortcomings, and secondly, to teach him a lesson in private.
However, Xu Hang was still a little surprised that the opponent would use such a heavy hand.
Duan Yelin smiled and said, “Fourth Uncle was worried that I might become too protective and lose my sense of propriety, so he wanted to discipline me. Don’t be fooled by the scary wound; he was very careful when he hit me. It doesn’t hurt, and it’s nothing serious.”
Xu Hang sprinkled powder on the wound and said coldly, “I’m a physician, I know how serious the wound is.”
Duan Yelin, feeling frustrated, remained silent as Xu Hang treated all his wounds, both big and small, before wrapping them with fresh bandages. To tie the bandages, Xu Hang asked Duan Yelin to extend his arms, then moved from his back to the front. He squatted in front of him and, reaching behind his back to tie the knot.
In this position, Xu Hang’s chin lightly rested on Duan Yelin’s shoulder. He whispered in Duan Yelin’s ear, his voice barely audible, “…I’m sorry.”
All the wounds seemed to itch, and the three words felt like ants, crawling along the auricle and into Duan Yelin’s body, sending a jolt through him. This was the first time Xu Hang had apologized to him, and it took him a moment to convince himself that this wasn’t just an auditory hallucination.
He clasped his hands together and used the position to pull Xu Hang tightly into his arms. The two of them pressed close, their hearts beating in sync against each other.
“Did you come here because you were worried about me?” Duan Yelin buried his head in Xu Hang’s neck and took a deep breath, like a big cat rubbing against people.
“I’m the one who caused you trouble. You didn’t have to suffer.”
“Because you like it,” Duan Yelin kissed his neck, pecking it lightly. “I will try my best to give you what you want if I can.”
Xu Hang came out of his arms and stared into his eyes: “You don’t even know why I did that. Don’t you doubt me?”
Duan Yelin touched his face, his eyes clear enough to let people see into his heart without any obstruction. He said frankly, “Didn’t you say that you hope I won’t ask you? I don’t doubt you.”
Xu Hang’s heart felt as though it had been struck by a bell, the sound lingering for a long time. He looked at Duan Yelin with a questioning gaze, searching for any hint of hypocrisy, but… there was none.
He lowered his head and held Duan Yelin’s wrist, trembling slightly, as if he was challenging something. When he looked up again, his hand loosened.
He said, “That is an accessory my late mother once wore. It was brought from her mother’s home. When Shucheng was in chaos, her home was looted by warlords. This might have been given to the Japanese as a gift.”
“So, that’s why you kept looking at Kuromiya Keiko last night?”
“En.”
Duan Yelin laughed, it turned out that he was jealous of a pendant for nothing, but he was even happier because Xu Hang told him some of his past for the first time. Even though it was just a small part, he felt like it was a blessing.
He hugged Xu Hang and said, “You can tell me, and I will find a way to get it back for you.”
Xu Hang replied, “I don’t want others to know, so this is the best way.”
Duan Yelin laid Xu Hang horizontally on his legs. Xu Hang struggled for a while: “Wound…”
“Don’t worry about him.” Duan Yelin hugged him tightly, not feeling that it was a waste at all that Qiao Daosang had angrily beaten him the night before. Now, he was able to make Xu Hang open his heart a little, something he had been longing for over the past four years.
Xu Hang accepted Duan Yelin’s favor and stayed still. After a while, he remembered another thing: “Who wanted to kill you last night? Did you catch him?”
“Not yet. I’ll just keep investigating. Something will show up eventually.”
In troubled times, there are dangers everywhere. It doesn’t matter who holds the knife. What matters is whether you can withstand all the cold arrows and open spears or not. Duan Yelin now has a weak spot, so he must be impeccable.
However, Xu Hang kept one thing to himself. Last night… he recognized one of the killer.
