Don’t Be a Kept Man

Chapter 136: Peony Pavilion

The entire mess at the Min estate had somehow become the way for Xiao Feng Wu’s name to be spread, increasing his reputation and bringing in quite a lot of business to the normally silent Hui Chun Tang; generating what would normally be half a year’s income in just a few days.

After Xiao Feng Wu sent away the last patient, he rolled his needles back up into a pouch and said to Qian Lang-zhong, 

“Since we have the income, fill up the medicine cabinet.
Everything’s growing mold in there.”

For him, whether one was poor or rich was not a factor in whether the patient gets looked at or not; instead it depended on whether he himself wanted to or not.
If the injury was too heavy or just not for the eyes, he tossed them all to Qian Lang-zhong as he wasn’t really cut out as a physician after all.
He had the skills but not the attitude.
If it was not because he needed money to live, he wouldn’t even hold consultations.

Qian Lang-zhong laid back on his rocking chair, swaying back and forth, tapping the smoking pipe in his hand.
His face was full of wrinkles, and his eyes flashed with an expression of chasing old memories as he said in a tone that revealed his old age, 

“Truly, should always be afraid of these youngsters.
You’re stronger than your grandfather, as he, at your age, didn’t have much of a reputation.
When you open an apothecary later on, the name will attract customers from all over the place.”

Xiao Feng Wu kept mashing medicine as he said, 

“Open what apothecary.
When I have saved enough money, I won’t become a physician.”

Qian Lang-zhong immediately straightened up from his chair upon hearing this, but for whatever reason, he slowly laid back down, knocking his pipe quite loudly as he did, evidently a bit agitated, 

“Young man, for all the skills you possess, don’t squander it.
Is it not good to save someone?”

Xiao Feng Wu poured the medicinal powder into bottles and replied with disinterest, 

“It’s too gross.
Blood bubbles, thickens, and flows, nothing of which I even want to see.
If the injury’s on their body, it would be okay, but if it’s on their feet, am I going to have to stuff my nose into a stinky foot?”

And then stuffed the bottle into his sleeves before walking out.

Qian Lang-zhong sighed several times, but then upon seeing De Gui carefully weighing medicine on the counter, his heart felt some sort of relief.
He thought to himself, Xiao Feng Wu, this bastard has still not suffered, and really does need a good life lesson, a good one indeed.

Sheng De Lou had an act playing everyday, but Xiao Feng Wu did not climb over the walls anymore, instead choosing to pay and walk in legally.
He picked a seat on the ground floor that directly faced the stage. 

The sign that displayed the theatre piece to be performed for the day read <> by Qin Ming Yue.
Thinking back to the beginning, this piece was what propelled Qin Ming Yue to stardom, and even now, there were no empty seats, and even more crazy still were the never-ending pendants and hairpins being thrown up by all those wealthy wives.

On the stage, playing the part of Du Li Niang, in all her glory and beauty, Qin Ming Yue was singing all the way to Garden Dream, and his voice was swirling as if they were all in a dream, sending everyone who heard it into a trance, almost as if they were drunk.

For whatever reason, the more Xiao Feng Wu heard, the more sleepy he became.
His eyelids were beginning to fight a battle, and as his seat was further back, Qin Ming Yue did not spot him.
When the curtain came down, Qin Ming Yue returned backstage and that Chen Xiao-ye was still there, eagerly following behind.

“Ming Yue—-“

Qin Ming Yue turned around at the call and seeing that it was him calmly retracted his gaze, 

“Ah, it’s Chen Xiao-ye.
Thank you for coming to support me, but as it can be very messy and crowded backstage, you should avoid coming in here and save yourself from being bumped or hit.”

How could Chen Zi Qi not notice his cold dismissal, yet even though he had the desire to go closer, he could only retreat in fear of gaining the other’s dislike.

Xiao Feng Wu had just woken up and, seeing that there was a new play on stage, he patted his head and then walked towards the backstage.
Qin Ming Yue was currently brushing his hair in front of a mirror, having wiped the paint clean off his face already.  Seeing him like this, Xiao Feng Wu pulled out a jade hairpin out of his sleeves and slipped it into the other’s hair to hold it up.

The hairpin was simple, without much decoration, but it was unique in how it was in the shape of a curved moon.

Surprised, Qin Ming Yue turned his head around in reflex, but upon seeing that it was Xiao Feng Wu, his eyes subconsciously widened, 

“Why are you here? Jumped over the wall again?”

Xiao Feng Wu dragged a stool over to sit beside Qin Ming Yue and shook out his robe as he did so, 

“I’m afraid I’ll have to leave you disappointed as today I came here through the entrance by paying.
Too bad huh, I wasn’t able to hear half of your performance.”

Qin Ming Yue turned back towards the mirror and took a look at the jade hairpin in his hair.
His hands stroked the moon-shaped jade in small motions before he casually asked, 

“Why couldn’t you?”

Xiao Feng Wu sighed, and with a sleepy haziness to his voice, he said, 

“Fell asleep.
If I knew, I would have just chosen to jump over the wall again.”

“Peh!” Qin Ming Yue became mad and turned around to glare at him, “Why are you here if you aren’t going to pay attention.
No one has ever dared to sleep when I sing!”

Xiao Feng Wu laughed and pointed at himself, 

“I dare.”

And then he tugged Qin Ming Yue’s hand over to his lips and kissed it as he smiled at him. 

He pulled a bottle out of his sleeves and scooped up some of the paste inside to apply on Qin Ming Yue’s burn wound as he said, 

“Do you like it? When I first saw it, I immediately thought it would suit you.”

Speaking of that hairpin.

Qin Ming Yue didn’t say anything, only silently watching him with a face that made it hard to tell what he was feeling.
Just when Xiao Feng Wu was thinking about whether the other was angry at him for sleeping while he was on stage, he felt a sudden warmth on his face.
He lifted his eyes and was immediately rendered defenseless against Qin Ming Yue’s sneaky and smart fox-like eyes.

Xiao Feng Wu quickly reacted; his mouth tilted slightly upwards and his hands brought Qin Ming Yue into his embrace.
There was no change to his flowery playboy behaviour as he tilted Qin Ming Yue’s delicate chin up as he said,

“Quite bold of you.
Aren’t you afraid of being seen?”

There was still an actor beside them that was just pretending to fix up their makeup.

Qin Ming Yue turned his head to the side, sending a glower at all those inquisitive stares.
He turned his head back to ask Xiao Feng Wu, and perhaps it was because he had just sang, but his throat still sounded a bit hoarse,  

“You think I’m afraid?”

“Truly, I like you more and more,” 

Xiao Feng Wu seemed to really love his personality and held Qin Ming Yue’s face, biting a few times on his white dainty ear and whispering in a low tone, 

“When we head back tonight, you’ll be afraid then……”

Qin Ming Yue’s eyes seemed dewy and his expression confident, saying not a single word in reply and only laughing as he smiled against his neck.

Only a cloth curtain separated the back from the theatre atrium and at this time, the corner was flipped open and from the crack, the person could clearly see them being so intimately close, as if they were kissing.
Chen Zi Qi’s hand was tightly gripping on the curtain and had gone almost completely white, to the point where tight crackling sounds from his bones could be heard.
The expression on his face leaked out the viciousness inside him and it was only after a long while did he finally let go, hatefully flipping down the curtain and leaving.

The summer season was almost at its end, and there was a big pond in the middle of the courtyard where the lotus flowers had already started to bud.
Birds would occasionally fall onto the tiny leaf petals, generating splashes and splashes, and even still, with the bedroom door and window tightly closed, nothing could block the slight moans and gasps coming from inside.

Qin Ming Yue sat in Xiao Feng Wu’s embrace, face to face with the other.
His clothes were in disarray and his pearlescent like skin was slowly being covered with a thin layer of sweat.
He bit on the tips of his fingers, swallowing down his moans that were about to escape his mouth, his lips so red it looked like blood was about to drip down from them.

Xiao Feng Wu wiped the tears dripping out of the corners of his eyes and folded Qin Ming Yue’s small and thin body into his embrace.
Like the strings of an instrument, he plucked them over and over, but unfortunately this man would gasp and cry but he would not let out his voice.

“Six….Sixteenth Master……”

Qin Ming Yue’s voice was trembling terribly, broken, and in their movements, his hair was let loose, tumbling all the way down.
Dark, black inky hair laying on his shoulders creating a picture that was so beautiful that it could not be described.
The tip of Xiao Feng Wu’s tongue slightly passed over the other’s Adam’s apple before he flipped them over to change to a different position.
Not expecting what just happened, Qin Ming Yue’s eyes immediately widened and he let out a loud groan.

“Sh—-“

Xiao Feng Wu covered his lips, his voice playful, 

“Qin Lao-ban’s voice is too loud, don’t scare the neighbours.”

Qin Ming Yue’s eyes and face couldn’t hold in their trembling, his thick eyelashes so thick they were the envy of anyone who saw them.
He used his long and lean legs to hook around Xiao Feng Wu’s waist, forcing them to be closer, tighter, and as if he was a seductress, he stuck out his tongue and licked Xiao Feng Wu’s palm.

Xiao Feng Wu let go and plundered into Qin Ming Yue’s lips.
Forcing through the barrier of teeth, tightly intertwined, letting out suggestive moans and teases.
With no more strength in him, Qin Ming Yue took in large stuttering breaths as he lay in the other’s embrace.
His fingers gently hooked up Xiao Feng Wu’s chin, arrogantly raising up his eyebrows and saying, 

“Sixteenth Master, it seems as if you wanted to eat me just now.”

The bruises and teeth marks on his shoulders could prove that this was not just something he made up.

Xiao Feng Wu didn’t know why he was like this either, but upon the other’s words, his long and lean fingers lightly massaged Qin Ming Yue’s waist from the back, making the other moan once.
Only then did he lazily say, 

“Perhaps it is because you were born as a creature so seductive that even I cannot hold on.”

And then he rose up, grabbing his outer robe to get out of bed.
He went to the back kitchen to fill a tub of bath water before heading back and lifting Qin Ming Yue up.
He threw the other into the bath as part of a joke, but who could have thought that he would be the one to suffer from his own joke instead, splashing himself a bucket’s worth of water.

Lying on the edge of the bathtub, Qin Ming Yue was laughing so much he was trembling all over.
But then he saw droplets of water slide down from Xiao Feng Wu’s face, looking so much like it was carved from jade, so ethereal and pretty, sliding all the way from his throat down into his clothes, and he became dazed.

Xiao Feng Wu wiped the water off his face and then Qin Ming Yue came back to his senses.
He grabbed Xiao Feng Wu’s hand, and like before, he brought it into the water.
Xiao Feng Wu lightly chuckled and bent his body, holding onto the other’s waist.
He could see Qin Ming Yue’s thin eyebrows furrow and then loosen, loosen then furrow again and he wondered if it was from delight or pain.

Xiao Feng Wu smiled with something behind the expression, 

“Why are you still unable to learn how to take care of yourself?”

Qin Ming Yue was getting better and better at igniting a fire in Xiao Feng Wu.
He leaned against his embrace and whispered into his ear, 

“No matter what, I cannot learn.
Sixteenth Master, you have eaten me up so thoroughly, should you not take care, clean up the mess you made.”

His voice was slightly hoarse, shapelessly seductive.

Qin Ming Yue said, 

“Hoh, you have ruined me like this.
I will not be able to sing on stage for many a day.”

“Wah-La—-“

Xiao Feng Wu pulled him up from the water, 

“If you don’t want to sing, then don’t.
I can provide for you for the rest of your life.”

Upon hearing this, Qin Ming Yue wrapped his arms around the other’s neck, not willing to let go.
Burying himself in his embrace for a very long time and not making a noise.
Xiao Feng Wu could only sit on the edge of the bed with Qin Ming Yue in his embrace and pull a thin blanket over his body.

After a long time, Qin Ming Yue’s quiet quiet voice rang out, 

“Is Sixteenth Master speaking only of the truth?”

Xiao Feng Wu’s lean and long fingers floated around Qin Ming Yue’s body, but it held no sexual desire.
Instead it was more to comfort, 

“Lies.
Don’t believe them.”

The moment his voice dropped, he felt a sharp pain at his waist.
Qin Ming Yue lifted his head up from his embrace, and as if in revenge, pinched him again before settling back on his shoulder.
Very lovingly and in a trusting sort of way, he nuzzled against Xiao Feng Wu and quietly said, 

“Truthfully, I don’t even want to sing…… Since I was young, I had to practice and warm up my throat, and if I didn’t do well, I would get a whipping from my master.
It was so painful that I would cry immediately, but if I did, I wouldn’t get food.
I could only hold a brick on top of my head as I completed exercises held in a horse stance.
At that time, I had really wanted to die, but at the end of it all, humans are meant to live…… In the end, it was by that mentality that I was able to survive all the way up until now.”

Xiao Feng Wu swirled his fingers around Qin Ming Yue’s injured, broken finger, and he brought it to his lips and kissed it.
Qin Ming Yue lifted his eyes, a smile on his face and looked at him, 

“Weren’t you always scared and disgusted by injury wounds.
Why are you kissing one now.”

Xiao Feng Wu held onto his hand and then kissed it a few times, 

“I don’t despise you nor find you below my class.
This should comfort you now hmm.”

Qin Ming Yue was a bit embarrassed, and the tips of his ears were blushing red, but he was also not willing to pull his hand back.
He leaned closer into Xiao Feng Wu’s embrace and said quietly, 

“Sixteenth Master, I would still be willing even if you tell me to die right now……”

Xiao Feng Wu patted him, 

“Life is yours to live.
It’s the norm to live well.
If you die, then nothing will be had.”

Qin Ming Yue pushed him onto the bed and lay himself right by him, 

“That is true.
If I am dead, who would spend so much energy on making dumplings for you, to feed you…… Tomorrow, I’ll make some for you, how about that?”

Xiao Feng Wu lazily said, 

“Not singing tomorrow?”

Qin Ming Yue said, 

“The district magistrate has a banquet for an esteemed guest tomorrow and forced us to sing at his estate.
I said my throat wasn’t in the best condition so I cannot go and Fan Yun Fang will take my place.”