Mochou woke up extra early or rather he barely slept and decided to give up and get up out of bed. He wasn't sure if it was excitement to finally start making money or being able to see Yichen again.
"I wonder if he has had a chance to eat? Even if he did he'll be traveling after, I should prepare him a snack. Argh! Why is my kitchen so bare. If I at least had flour I could make buns." Mochou cursed as he bustled about in the little kitchen area.
"The best I can do is give him some warm tea before he departs and a little baggy of oleaster berries." Mochou muttered his lips pressed tight in a pout as he looked at the pitiful table of ingredients.
Thinking about how he always managed to feed Zi Ruo well even in the apocalypse but couldn't do the same for Yichen in the ancient world made his heart hurt.
"I'll have to dry some meat jerky as a snack so I can offer him something more substantial next time." Mochou decided while looking at the rabbits in the yard.
After some time passed Mochou noticed the sun begin to rise in the distance.
"He should be here soon." He thought with a delicate smile.
Mochou wasn't wrong not ten minutes later Mochou could here the sound of someone approaching.
"Strange it sounds like two people?" Mochou pondered as he walked over to the door. To his surprise when he peeked outside the door he saw not only Yichen but an older man.
Bang!*
On instinct he immediately shut the door. His heart beating loud in his chest.
"Mochou, don't worry. This is my dad. He's here to meet you." Yichen called out after giving his father a nasty glare.
Mochou heard what Yichen said but before he could answer he was hit by a fierce headache.
"Ugh... Not now!" Mochou begged as lights flashed before his eyes.
...
| "No! Please don't kill me. I'm sorry."
Mochou was thrown into the moment when the young boy was being attacked by his crazed mother.
It started with her using a knife but the blood made the blade slippery and she quickly dropped it.
Mochou tried to crawl away. His body bloody as he begged for her to stop.
"I'm sorry. I'll be good. I'm sorry I was born a GER. Please, mother don't kill me!"
"Don't call me mother! You parasite. You... you ruined my life." His mother shouted back fiercely.
The little boy tried to get away but she grabbed his ankle and pull him close. Her nails digging into his flesh.
"No!!!" The boy wailed as he dug his hands into the floor boards in an attempt to escape. His fingernails breaking in the struggle.
The woman no longer had the knife but it didn't stop her. Using her own nails she continued to attack the young boy. Her sharp nails tore away at the flesh on his face and neck.
"What use is there for a GER to be beautiful. It is nothing but a waste. A parasite like you should be ugly and ashamed of himself for being born!" She shouted as she continuously attacked the young boy.
Mochou desperately wanted to fight back on behalf of the boy. But he was reminded of his own death. The face of the woman overlapped with those of the zombies who ate away at his flesh. Desperate he called out.
"Fight back! Don't give up." They were the same words he told himself as he succumbed to the attacked of the zombies.
His life might not have been the greatest but it didn't mean he wanted to die. He wanted to live. To live and to someday find someone he could share the joys and sorrows with.
Despite his cries to fight back the boy only coward in fear. Mochou could feel the skin tear and the life draining from his body.
"Maybe this is for the best?" The boy thought as his mother aimed to kill him.
"Stop! What are you doing? You cannot kill your child!" A man shouted as he burst through the door.
The boy barely turned his head to look at the man that had come to his rescue. Mochou saw the man and noticed a resemblance with Yichen.
"Is that Yichen's father?" Mochou wondered. As he observed the man. He looked similar to the person who accompanied Yichen to his little hut before he collapsed, although he was younger.
The boy lay there watching as the man shouted for another young man who was accompanying him to get a doctor.
"He also looks like Yichen, but not quite. His eyes are sharper, colder." Mochou mused as he watched him leave the house to get a doctor.
"Chan Juan, how could you attempt to kill your own child? Have you lost your mind? Where is Bo Cheng?" Yi Peng shouted as he grabbed a quilt and began wrapping Mochou's limp body.
Mochou's mother fell to the floor in tears. It was clear she had reached her limit. That her mind had snapped.
Mochou looked at the woman the boy called mother with disdain. The relationship he had with his own mother wasn't great but she never tried to hurt him. When his parents found out about his preference for men his mother shouted and cursed him for being a deviant. His father shouted and hit him a few times before throwing him out the door and disowning him. The situation wasn't great but he never felt like his life was at risk. Unlike for the young boy he had possessed.
"Poor kid." Mochou whispered as the pain returned and light began to flash before his eyes. |
...
"Mochou! I'm sorry my dad suddenly came. Can you come out?" Yichen shouted.
"..."
Yichen didn't hear his response and became increasingly worried. He grabbed the wall and prepared to jump over it.
"What are you doing?"
His father grabbed Yichen's arm to prevent him from jumping.
"Something's wrong. I need to check on him." Yichen said.
"You cannot trespass in an unmarried GER's home no matter the circumstances." His father warned.
"Dad, Mochou has collapsed twice since I first met him. I can't ignore him." Yichen said while breaking free from his father's hold.
When Yichen opened the door it was as he expected. Mochou was collapsed on the ground feverish. Following behind him was his father.
"Do you know what ails him?" His father asked.
"Not exactly. The situation changes each time. The first time I think it was most likely caused by overexertion, the second was heat exhaustion, this time I don't know?" Yichen answered as he checked Mochou's condition.
"You've studied with your uncle for years. What can you do to help him?" Yichen asked.
"I've given him herbs to help but there is no quick fix. He needs proper rest and nutrition. He needs me by his side." Yichen said as he lifted Mochou off the ground and placed him on the thin cot.
"I remember when his mother gave him those scars. She was never kind to him always shouting and blaming him for everything wrong in her life. His father was no different. Yichen, if you are serious about being his husband, you need to devote everything you have. Anything less will only cause him more pain." His father revealed.
"I'll do it. I promise to devote my whole life and everything I have to him." Yichen swore as he gently swept the hair from Mochou's forehead.
"In that case you need to gather the animals and prepare to leave for town quickly." Yichen's father said.
"I need to stay here and take care of him." Yichen was determined not to leave Mochou who was lying in bed feverish and with s look of pain on his face.
"Those rabbits are his way of earning money and providing for himself. If you don't go now you will be costing him hard earned money." His father said.
Yichen didn't want to leave Mochou's side, but his father was right about him needed to go to town.
"I'll stay here and watch over him." His father added when he noticed Yichen's reluctance to leave Mochou's side.
Despite his father's promise Yichen still felt uneasy about leaving Mochou alone. Not only alone but with his father who had clearly scared him.
"Do you not trust your father?" He stressed when he noticed Yichen glaring at him.
"It's not like that."
"Then why are you hesitating?"
"You scared him. What if you scare him again? You could make his health worse." Yichen said without guilt.
"I'll be sure to not scare him. Now hurry and go before you miss the morning market." Yichen's father said as he rushed his son out the door.
Yichen hated to leave but his father was correct. He needed to get as much money as possible in exchange for Mochou's rabbits and quails the more money he made the more he could help Mochou in the long run.
...
Mochou woke up. His head was pounding like an intense hammering that lasted longer than the previous times he had the dreams. In pain and feeling lightheaded Mochou slowly turned in bed.
He could hear someone moving in the kitchen. Expecting it to be Yichen he smiled and slowly turned to look.
???!!!
Mochou didn't have time to consider who the strange man was. His instincts kicked in and he shot backwards so hard he hit the wall.
"Ouch!*
"Calm down. I am not here to hurt you." Yichen's father said.
Mochou stared at him like a cornered animal. His eyes watching every movement; his ears twitching anxiously at every sound.
"You're..."
"I'm Yi Peng. I work as the village leader and I am the proud father of Yichen the young man who proposed to you. We've met before but I understand if you don't remember. At the time you were injured and much younger." Yi Peng explained in a calm reassuring tone.
"You stopped my mother from killing me." Mochou muttered nervously.
"That's correct. How are you feeling?" Father Yi Peng asked.
"I'm okay. Where's Yichen." Mochou asked as he looked around the room.
"I sent him to town to sell your catch." father Yi Peng answered.
"I... I forgot to ask him to buy me a shovel or some kind of rake." Mochou muttered. After thinking about it all night he decided getting a rake to help garden was a priority.
"If there are tools you need I can arrange some for you." Yichen's father offered.
"I'll pay." Mochou said. He began to calm down and moved to get out of bed.
"You should lie down. You have a fever."
"I'm fine. There's a lot to do. I can't stay in bed all day." Mochou said as he stood up.
"Forcing your body will only cause more harm than good." Yichen's father warned but Mochou didn't listen. He headed for the pot of water to get a drink.
"What are you in such a hurry to do? If you tell me I could help." Yi Peng offered.
"No need. You should go back. I'm sure you have a lot you need to do. I'll be fine alone." Mochou said.
"If I leave and something happens Yichen will be angry with me." Yi Peng said.
"I'll explain it to him when he comes back." Mochou said as he drank some water from his cracked teacup.
"Very well, I will leave but before I go. I wish to ask you a few questions." Yi Peng requested.
Mochou wasn't surprised. He could tell Yi Peng had something he wanted to say. In fact he would have been surprised if the man didn't want to ask him questions. After all he was Yichen's father.
"Ask me anything you want." Mochou said before sitting down to talk.
"Very well. What kind of future to you imagine having with my son Yichen?"
"I'm not sure. In the past whenever I tried to imagine the future things never went as planned. I had given up on finding a husband. Your son has rekindled the hope I thought died a long time ago." Mochou said. It was a question he had asked himself several times since Yichen proposed marriage.
"What do you expect from my son?" Was Yi Peng's second question.
Mochou went quiet. He hadn't thought about it. No... that wasn't right. He had thought about it but he was afraid it wouldn't be what Yichen's father wanted to hear.
"If I say the wrong thing will he forbid Yichen from marrying me?" Mochou wondered.
"Do not worry I am asking out of curiosity. I won't stop this marriage." Yichen's father said when he noticed the panic in Mochou's eyes.
"Are you really okay with our marriage?" Mochou asked.
"I have four sons. They are all intelligent and respectable men. Of the four of them the one I have always worried about the most is Yichen. He has a curiosity that is both a blessing and a curse. One that I believed would lead him to an unstable life. Today seeing his concern for you I can finally feel at ease." Yichen's father patiently explained.
Mochou went red. His eyes were darting back and forth because he was thrown completely off guard. He wanted to give Yichen's father an answer but he couldn't think of the right words.
"Sir, I... I think marriage should be a partnership. I want to share my life with someone. No. That's wrong. I want to share my life with Yichen.
"I'm glad to hear it." Yi Peng said.
Mochou couldn't bear the fluffy atmosphere and decided to escape.
"Sorry, I need to use the washroom," Mochou said before darting out of the little hut to go to the small outhouse.
...