Married Thrice to Salted Fish

Chapter 40

Lin Qingyu sat quietly on the bed for a long time. For a while he couldn’t tell the difference between the dream and the real world. He looked blankly at his hand, as if he could still recall the feel of the boy’s lower abdomen. But no matter how he tried, he couldn’t remember the face of the person in his dream.

He only remembered that that man was taller than the Lu Wancheng he was familiar with. He was “handsome”, had a better-sounding voice and could easily carry him. And…what else?

His memory of the boy seemed to be covered with a veil. No matter how hard he looked, he could only see a vague outline.

Hua Lu brought over hot water, waiting upon him as he washed his face. He asked, “Did you dream of him last night?”

Hua Lu’s eyes turned red again, and she shook her head.

Lin Qingyu slowly closed his palms. “He came back.”

“What did the Young Master say to Shaojun?”

Lin Qingyu smiled. “He was the same as before, saying nothing serious. He just said some useless nonsense.”

He didn’t even want to tell him his name. The bastard. He should be hanged and given a beating.

But even if all he said was nonsense, the atmosphere of the dream had still been warm, making one feel nostalgic. It was a pity that when he woke up from the dream, there was nothing left.

Lin Qingyu began to collect the things Lu Wancheng had left behind, selecting some that would be buried with him.

There were too many things, so he asked Hua Lu to sift through them first. He picked out the things that Lu Wancheng had used in the past year. Others that were too old could be disposed of at will.

The clothes he’d worn, the jade crown he’d worn, the tableware he had used, the throwing pot he had played with, the books he’d read and…the birds.

During the first half of the year, Lu Wancheng’s health hadn’t been too bad. He collected a lot of strange things and also raised a Hwamei and Myna. Later, his health gradually deteriorated and both the Hwamei and Myna also died of illness. Lu Wancheng personally arranged the funeral for the two birds, humming a cheerful tune to send them on their way. He said that the tune was called the coffin dance meme and asked him if he wanted to learn it. He could teach him and when he died, he could have the people from the Xiong Si play it on the suona as they carried his coffin and sent him off.

At the time, he didn’t feel like paying attention to Lu Wancheng. He simply let him babble outrageous things in his ear and wouldn’t even look at him. Fortunately, Lin Qingyu has a good memory, and even if he hadn’t paid attention at the time, he could still recall many details now.

Lu Wancheng liked fun things that didn’t require him to move much. One day, on a whim, he said that he wanted to know how the people of Dayu sheared sheep. So he asked the steward to bring a sheep from one of the villages. He then ordered them to shear the sheep in front of him.

“If I were that sheep, I would have died from embarrassment.” Lu Wancheng said as he lay on the reclining chair.

This reclining chair was Lu Wancheng’s favorite. He liked to lie on it to bask in the sun, swaying slowly, squinting; just like a lazy cat.

Lin Qingyu followed Lu Wancheng’s example and lay down on the reclining chair. He picked up a book that he been lying by the side and flipped through it.

He remembered this book, a popular crime mystery novel. Lu Wancheng had circled the murderer’s name on the third page, making it so that he couldn’t read it any further. He wrote the word “get lost!” in reply to Lu Wancheng and never revisited this book afterwards. He hadn’t expected for Lu Wancheng to actually reply to him in the book.