Chapter 044 “storytelling” (06/12)
After the doctor took care of his open wound, Xie Chenyang stayed in bed under Fan Wenze’s strict orders.
Whenever he wanted to leave his room, he was discouraged by Yan Yan’s sentence: “Her Excellency said that if you go out, she won’t see you for a month”.
[Dad, am I still hurt? I’m going to rust.]
You Huang: “Two more days will be fine.”
[I’ve been lying down for almost ten days.]
You Huang: “Two more days.”
Xie Chenyang sighed.
Zhao Xiaofeng and Shen Shu accompanied him in the room, and when they heard him sigh, they looked at each other.
Zhao Xiaofeng scratched his head, failing to come up with any good ideas to relieve the Lord’s boredom. He looked at Shen Shu for help.
Shen Shu said without haste, ”Is Lord Yu bored? In fact, there are many things that you don’t need to be upright to enjoy. Do you have something that you want to do? I know a little about zither, chess, calligraphy and painting. I can ease your boredom.”
“Does the calligraphy …… have a fire-preventing pattern?”
Shen Shu blushed slightly. “Not really.”
“Then do you know how to draw one?” Xie Chenyang looked at him with interest.
Shen Shu spoke with difficulty, “This one has never…drawn it.”
“Try?”
Shen Shu struggled inwardly, but this was his master’s order; he took a deep breath and looked about to agree, but Xie Chenyang said, “Forget it.”
Shen Shu: “Master……”
Xie Chenyang became interested. “Go get a brush, paper, and ink. I’ll dictate and you write for me, to compose a storybook.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Shen Shu breathed a sigh of relief and walked towards the door.
Hearing that the Lord wants to write a storybook to relieve boredom, Yan Yan and Yan Yu immediately moved the desk and set up the ink, paper, and ink stone.
You Huang: “Yang Yang, ah, what are you going to write?”
[Recently, in order for me to learn my lesson, Ah-Ze has been refusing to let me close. I have to wait for my injuries to heal before I can get close. I’ll write a short story to vent about it.]
Shen Shu sat in front of the desk and wrote.
Zhao Xiaofeng helped him grind ink clumsily, with an excited and curious face.
Yan Yan and Yan Yu moved the items, then left, not daring to stay in the Lord’s room.
Xie Chenyang rested on a soft pillow and cleared his throat. “There was a man named Ze. One day, he met a man named Chen; at that moment, the two men’s hearts throbbed, and they fell in love with each other at first sight, as if meeting the lover of their past lives.”
Shen Shu: “……”
It seemed that there was ‘Ze’ in the Lady’s name and ‘Chen’ in the Lord’s name?
Was this the Lord’s way of writing a story about him and the Lady?
Shen Shu’s hand holding the brush stiffened before he slowly lowered it.
When he wrote that it turned out that Ze was actually dressed as a woman, a drop of cold sweat crossed Shen Shu’s forehead.
Was the Lord angry with Her Excellency and deliberately writing Her Excellency as a man?
This……
Just write it, he was the Lord’s man.
“Chen’s kiss is domineering and deep, and he directly kissed Ze to the point of breathlessness. His energy was vigorous, causing Ze to be unable to get out of bed for three days and three nights……”
Shen Shu transcribed them all with a blush.
Zhao Xiaofeng also hurriedly lowered his head to hide the scarlet flush on his face and concentrated on grinding the ink.
“Chen domineeringly pressed down Ze……”
“He bowed slightly……”
Xie Chenyang described it too graphically, and while Shen Shu was writing, it was as if he was experiencing it himself, and awkwardly, he had a slight reaction.
Shen Shu wiped his sweat and continued to write.
Xie Chenyang licked his lips. “Okay, that’s it for this first part. Shen Shu, you call up Yan Yan. Take it and sell it, just remember not to let Yan Yan see the contents.”
Shen Shu was surprised. “Master?”
He thought that Lord Yu just wanted to write it for himself to enjoy as a pastime and vent his frustrations.
Surprisingly, he wanted to sell it?
“Be sure to remember that even if you put money forward backwards, you have to make it sell big.”
Shen Shu slightly trembled as he put down his pen and said with difficulty, “Yes, my lord.”
Only after Shen Shu held the manuscript and left with a weak step did Xie Chenyang snicker. “Look at that courage. Xiao Feng, pour me a cup of water.”
Zhao Xiaofeng poured a cup of water and handed it to the bed, saying with a slightly red face, “My lord, won’t Her Excellency be angry if you write her as a man?”
Xie Chenyang calmly took a sip of water. “She loves me so much, how could she be angry with me?”
Zhao Xiaofeng curiously said, “Can a man and a man…also be together?”
“Why not?”
“It’s a violation of yin and yang……”
“Bullshit.”
Zhao Xiaofeng didn’t dare to retort, took the cup of water, and whispered, “Lord, is she…truly a man?”
Xie Chenyang raised his eyebrows. “What do you think?”
How could Zhao Xiaofeng dare to answer that? He silently prepared himself to ask Shen Shu again in private later.
Shen Shu was so smart, he must know.
Two days later, Xie Chenyang’s injuries were healed.
That night, he forced Fan Wenze to stay in his room. “After you’ve trapped me here for so long, and I’ve recovered from my injuries, you’re still not staying to make it up to me?”
Fan Wenze knew that he had anger in his heart during this time and didn’t struggle. He reached out to hug Xie Chenyang, softly saying, “I’m also doing this for your own good. With your nature, if I don’t restrict it, would your injuries even heal?”
Xie Chenyang bit him on the shoulder and said fiercely, “You go on official business every day, leaving me alone in my room and preventing me from going out. Isn’t that too unreasonable?”
Fan Wenze stroked his head. “That’s also for the sake of finishing Lanzhou City’s affairs as soon as possible and bringing you back home.”
Xie Chenyang kissed his neck.
Fan Wenze tilted his head slightly, felt the knot of his throat being gently bitten, and whispered, “Wait until we are married before…”
“I know, I won’t do it.” Xie Chenyang moved up and kissed the corner of his lips. ”I just want to kiss you.”
Before going to sleep, Fan Wenze whispered in his ear, “The person who will replace me should be on the way; even if you want to back out, it’s too late.”
Xie Chenyang pressed him into his arms with sleepiness. “No regrets, not even in death.”
Fan Wenze laughed silently and closed his eyes.
Fan Wenze took advantage of the time Xie Chenyang was resting; the things that needed to be dealt with were pretty much taken care of. It was just a matter of waiting for the people from Yao Kingdom to arrive and hand things over.
Therefore, when Xie Chenyang invited him to take a stroll on the streets the next day, he agreed without hesitation.
[Dad, make sure it’s all being circulated, okay?]
You Huang: “…… en.”
Xie Chenyang took Fan Wenze to a restaurant with great purpose.
Fan Wenze: “Is the food in the mansion not to your liking?”
Xie Chenyang: “No. It’s just that my mother and father used to bring me to this restaurant, and I haven’t eaten it for a long time.”
Fan Wenze’s eyes tinged with pity as he led him upstairs and sat down. “What do you want to eat? You can order them all.”
Yan Yan and Yan Yu as well as Shen Shu and Zhao Xiaofeng also followed and sat at the table beside them.
Xie Chenyang looked at the menu and casually ordered a table of dishes and a pot of wine.
Shen Shu and Zhao Xiaofeng were a bit reserved, but it was Yan Yan and Yan Yu who ordered a table of dishes with a comfortable demeanor.
Xie Chenyang propped his head up to look at the lobby below.
They came in time.
It seemed that the storyteller had just gone to take a break in the center, only to come up again.
The storyteller was a good looking youth with a rich, mellow voice: “Just now we talked about how Duke Ze saved Duke Chen, and Duke Chen fell in love with Duke Ze at first sight and wanted to give his body to him…”
At this time, a woman came to only interrupt his words. “This disgraceful storybook–I did not expect the Sunset Restaurant to also use the script. It’s better to change to another one, shame!”
The young storyteller wore a smile. “You are all welcome to listen to whatever I offer; if you don’t want to hear it, just leave.”
The other guests echoed his sentiments.
“That’s right, we’ll listen even if you won’t.”
“How touching is the love story of Duke Chen and Duke Ze! This affection crosses the boundaries of life and death, and transcends the differences between men and women!”
“Even though they’re both men, so what? They love openly!”
“Besides, if you haven’t read it, how can you think it’s degrading?”
“That’s right.”
The woman saw that there were also women among those who responded. She immediately answered, exasperated, “Since ancient times, men and women have been in harmony, what are you…saying?”
“I’ll say it again–if you don’t want to listen, leave.” The young storyteller snorted coldly, then said, “In fact, Duke Chen is not the kind of person who would give his body to someone just for saving his life, but when he first saw Duke Ze, it was as if he had seen his destined lover, and it was as if heaven’s will in the underworld had told him that this was the lover of his past life.”
Upstairs.
The corner of Xie Chenyang’s lips slightly hooked up.
“Duke Ze is aware that he is a man; at first he did not agree to bring Duke Chen back to the house. Who would have known that Duke Chen only said forlornly that he would be alone in that future?” the young storyteller said with a smile. “Duke Ze then agreed to take him back to his residence. Duke Ze seems to be gentle, but in reality, he is a cold person. However, he has felt distressed for Duke Chen, why is that? The reason is because, in their past lives, they should have had a karmic relationship.”
Fan Wenze: “This…”
Xie Chenyang pressed his hand, went over, and whispered, “This is someone else’s restaurant. They can say whatever they want to say. What do you want to do?”
Fan Wenze already heard wrong: “She is clearly talking about…”
Even if there were similarities, it was improbable that both people coincidentally carried the same name as they did, right?
Xie Chenyang held his hand. “Stop it, keep listening.”
“Duke Chen decided that Duke Ze was the man of his destiny, and as soon as he returned home, he wanted to be close to him. It was at this time that Duke Ze confessed his identity…”
“But why would Duke Chen care about that…”
“The intimacy between the two seemed as if it was intrinsic to their lives…”
The more Fan Wenze listened, the darker his face became. When he said it was similar, but slightly different, it was just like the different postures of intimacy, which he and Xie Chenyang clearly had never had!
Fan Wenze gritted his teeth and said, “I’ve controlled Lanzhou City for some time, but I didn’t know that the people here were so open! It’s…unrestrained in public!”
“That’s right, unbridled!” Xie Chenyang pinched his hand. “See how I punish him!”
You Huang: “?” Wasn’t this something you had people do?
He also wondered for a moment what kind of lunacy Xie Chenyang was thinking.
Xie Chenyang stood up and looked downstairs. “Have you been authorized by the person who wrote the book to tell the story here?”
The young storyteller was speaking with vigor before he was interrupted, becoming very upset. “Why do I need her permission?”
The storytellers in the restaurant either integrate the stories they had heard from outside sources and then present them, directly read from the book, or write their own stories.
As long as you had the knowledge, you could tell it. Where was the need to obtain other people’s consent?
“This is your offense,” Xie Chenyang said righteously. “Someone else has worked hard to write a book and you just tell it for free. Everyone would’ve heard it already, so who is going to buy their book?”
Young storyteller: “……”
“You’re clearly cutting off people’s livelihood,” Xie Chenyang snorted coldly. “It’s freeloading! You use this storybook to attract customers and get paid–how do you think the person who wrote the book wouldn’t be infuriated by your behavior.”
“I’m not–”
“You are not using it to attract customers, not using it to get paid for it?”
“So what? Everyone–”
“Imagine, if one day your past experience is exposed, and it’s used to write a book. In order to attract money, it’s used to make your story known to thousands of unrelated people, would you be angry?”
Then naturally, he would be angry.
The storytelling youth quieted his heart. “You are not the one who wrote the book–besides, there is not only one restaurant telling it.”
“Why am I not?” Xie Chenyang raised his chin. “I’m the one who wrote it!”
Shen Shu couldn’t bear to look at him and turned his head away to look at the wall.
Zhao Xiaofeng also opened his mouth wide in surprise.
Fan Wenze……Fan Wenze held anger in his eyes.
You Huang: “Son, what exactly are you doing?”
[Of course, it is for the benefit of fellow citizens.]
Xie Chenyang was able to receive the plot and memories, You Huang was of course also aware of it.
He searched and fell silent.
Edit: Krone
Proofread: Choux_choux
