Chapter 40.1 - Scorching (1/4)

Translator: Superbulat

Song Mo was a butcher, a rough man.

When he was a child, after just two years of school, he followed his father to learn to slaughter pigs, sharpen knives, and weigh meat, becoming his father’s assistant. When he grew up, his parents passed away one after another, and he lived alone by relying on his ancestral craftsmanship. Because of his dull temperament, he basically had no friends. So he didn’t know the love stories of the scholars and beautiful women in books, and he didn’t know what a vow of eternal love was.

His understanding of the love between men and women only came from his childhood memories of his parents and the lyrics on stage shows.

His father was a rough man and often made his mother angry. For example, when his father made sucking noises when drinking porridge, when he forgot to wash his feet before going to bed, at that time, his mother would reprimand his father. When his father was in a good mood, he would laugh and be obedient, and occasionally he would talk back to his mother when he was in a bad mood, which would turn into a quarrel. But Song Mo remembered clearly that even though his mother was angry, when his father went out, she would prepare the things that he should bring early on. She would cook whatever his father liked, and she would not ignore him just because she was angry.

Once Song Mo went out with his father, they encountered a married couple quarreling. While scolding the husband for drinking, the wife patted the man’s back. His father looked at them for a while and told him with a smile that to know if a woman had placed you in her heart and treated you well, you shouldn’t just listen to what she said, but see what she did. Some women’s words were sharp as blades, but their hearts were soft as tofu. While some women could say flowery words, they were not willing to do things for you. He also told Song Mo that when he looked for a wife in the future, he should not only look at the woman’s face but also at her temperament.

When Shui Xian kept saying that she liked him, Song Mo thought she was a bad person and ignored her. It was not until she sent two vegetarian dishes over to him that noon that Song Mo really believed that she cared about him, no matter how much.

And the stage shows had taught him that a good woman would not serve two husbands, that a woman should keep her chastity for a man, and that when she was bullied by a bad person, she would rather die than be humiliated alive.

Before when Shui Xian flirted with other men, he naturally regarded her as a bad woman. Until she gave him her innocence , he only knew that her socialization was not out of choice, and only then did he realize the hardships of being a widow.

Then today, she jumped off the cliff in front of him, just because Lin Peizhi had seen her chest. When she jumped, she even told him loudly that she liked him.

She was a good woman, a very good woman. She liked him so much that she was not afraid of getting hurt or die for him.

No one in this world would treat him better than Shui Xian, but how did he treat her before?

Scolding her, threatening her, and even if he had already liked her back, he refused to be nice to her just because of his silly pride…

“Shui Xian!”

He ran to the shore of the lake and shouted her name.

No one answered him, only the roaring sounds of the waterfall crashing into the lake.

Song Mo immediately tore off his jacket that was in the way. He wanted to go down to find her. The lake was so deep; maybe she was still alive.

Lin Peizhi didn’t know how to swim. Seeing Song Mo’s actions, he tugged Song Mo’s arm and said, “I’ll go downstream and have a look lest she be washed down the stream. Song Mo, we are both consenting parties, and we were just acting for fun just now. I didn’t know that she cares about you so much, let alone what tricks she is playing. Even if something happened to her today, it has nothing to do with me. You-”

“Get lost!”

After turning around and giving him with a heavy punch on the face, Song Mo dived into the lake and quickly swam down. She’d better be fine! If something happened to her, he wanted Lin Peizhi to pay with his life!

Lin Peizhi wiped the blood from the corners of his lips, cursed his bad luck, and ran downstream.

By now, he had given up on Shui Xian. No matter how sincere or insincere her feeling for him was before, whether she was teasing or using him, now that she had gone too far. Even if she was still alive, he did not want to get involved with her anymore. If he had known that she was so stubborn, no matter how beautiful she was, he would not hook up with her. If she died…

Only Song Mo knew about this matter, and there was no evidence. With the influence of the Lin family, Lin Peizhi was not afraid that Song Mo would report him.

He came down to find her because of that little conscience still left in him, but he would not do anything more than that, like calling other people over to help. Why would he be eager to help for no reason? If this matter became a bigger deal and words spread to his elders, he should forget about being as carefree as he was now.

The sun went down, and the valley suddenly became dark.

Lin Peizhi ran back breathlessly, just in time to see Song Mo rising to the surface to breathe. He immediately shouted, “Song Mo, have you found her? I don’t see her downstream. She must still be in the lake!”

Song Mo paused when he heard his words. Hearing that Lin Peizhi hadn’t found her either, he immediately dived down again.

Looking at the surface of the lake that was swept up by the surging waves of the waterfall, and watching the lake calm down as it went more and more outwards, Lin Peizhi sighed helplessly. More than two hours had passed since she jumped off the cliff. If she was still in the lake, she must have died already.

Lin Peizhi didn’t want to put himself in trouble because of a dead person, so he left in a hurry, deciding to rush back to the capital overnight.

One left, and the other dived to the bottom of the lake to look for Tang Huan. There was no one else on the shore.

On an old tree several meters away from the lakeshore, Tang Huan quietly laughed. As the sky got darker and darker, she jumped down when Song Mo once again dived into the water, stealthily walked to the mouth of the river where the lake water was divided, and dived into the water. After her entire both was drenched wet, she climbed to the shore again and lay on the river bank with her upper body. On her right was a big rock that prevented her from being washed down by the waves, while her body below her waist was soaked in the water, pretending to be unconscious.

It was impossible to see underwater anymore.