Extra 2 – Gold and Jade Alliance (2)
A-Yu did not want to be this close to her. Although she was an elder, he had never met her before. Under the alienation, it added a point of awkwardness.
A-Yu’s eyes were also slightly red when she mentioned the matter of the Marquis’ family.
The second mistress told them to stay for a meal, saying they should wait for Master Ban to return.
A-Yu knew that Ban Yuren still had things to do. Moreover, since the Ban family was not close to him, staying was unnecessary.
He shook his head.
When it was time to leave, the second mistress couldn’t help but grab A-Yu’s sleeve again. She lowered her voice to a whisper and asked, “Yuren said something bad about me, didn’t he?”
A-Yu pursed his lips and did not answer.
The second mistress hastily and fearfully said, “You guys shouldn’t believe him…… He……” She choked and couldn’t help but squeeze a broken voice out of her throat and said, “He is born to be bad.”
A-Yu broke away from her.
Out of the Ban family, Ban Yuren went to do business and asked the coachman to send A-Yu back to the manor alone.
When he arrived outside the city gates.
He vaguely saw a female dressed as a married woman with a figure extremely similar to his elder sister. He grasped the carriage’s curtain, but in the end, he did not shout out.
A-jie did not recognize him, and A-jie naturally had her plans.
If A-jie were still alive, she would definitely come to find him…… When this thought came together, A-Yu suddenly froze. He could not help but think in another direction that he had never thought of—
Ban Yuren picked him up to go home to prevent people from laying their hands on him.
Or was he…… using him to guard a tree stump and waiting for rabbits*?
*Guard a tree stump, waiting for rabbits (idiom): waiting idly for opportunities.
And could the “rabbit” be his A-jie?
This idea was really shocking.
He pressed it down desperately.
But on the second day after he met the woman suspected to be A-jie, he saw her again.
He found an excuse to buy pastries to eat on the side of the road.
Ban Yuren laughed. “Is A-Yu pent up?”
Ban Yuren told him to stay there, then turned around and went to a pastry store.
A-Yu stood still and waited until a note was tucked into his palm.
He firmly clutched the note in his palm, clenching it until his palms became sweaty without loosening a single finger.
After buying the pastries and going back.
Ban Yuren followed him back to the courtyard, so he couldn’t help but say, “I want to eat by myself.”
Ban Yuren was unmoved.
A-Yu had to unwrap that pastry first, pinch a piece, and feed it to Ban Yuren’s mouth.
Ban Yuren paused, lowered his head, and took a bite.
A-Yu said again, “I want to eat it myself.”
Only then did Ban Yuren leave.
A-Yu settled down at the table and carefully unfolded his palm to see the words on the note.
[A-Yu, A-jie will come to save you. A-Yu, don’t be afraid].
He didn’t have to seek her.
Instead, A-jie was coming to save him.
A-Yu was creeped out for a moment and couldn’t sit still.
Suddenly, His door was knocked on again, and he hastily curled his fingers and clutched the note.
The door was pushed open from the outside, and Ban Yuren entered carrying a teapot. Sitting before A-Yu, he said, “A-Yu, that snack is a bit choking. You need to drink some hot tea.”
A-Yu eyed him as he poured himself a cup of tea.
A-Yu couldn’t show traces for him to notice, so he had to reach out his other hand to hold the cup of tea.
He had just held the tea cup when Ban Yuren suddenly stretched out his hand, clasped his left wrist, and dipped his powerful fingers into the gap between A-Yu’s fingers. Then, irresistibly and slowly, he opened his fingers little by little.
A-Yu’s strength was no match for him, and after breaking out in a cold sweat, he couldn’t break away from Ban Yuren.
At that moment, looking underneath this man’s gentle yet strong movements, it seemed like a vicious wolf was hiding underneath.
But he could not be allowed to see the note.
A-Yu broke the teacup.
The hot tea made him hiss.
Then he got up abruptly and sat on Ban Yuren’s lap at once, planting himself in his embrace. His body leaned on the table’s edge, firmly blocking Ban Yuren’s line of sight.
Ban Yuren’s hands immediately loosened the force.
He wrapped his arms around A-Yu’s waist.
Time seemed to freeze for a moment.
Ban Yuren did not open A-Yu’s fingers again or make a sound.
After a while, A-Yu carefully withdrew his hand.
Only then did Ban Yuren grab his right hand and ask, “Scalded?”
A-Yu nodded lightly.
He said, “Then it should be treated with medicine.”
Ban Yuren kept watch and gave him medicine before leaving.
The note in A-Yu’s hand was crumpled by now. He breathed out softly, his eyes red as he stared at the line, going back and forth and reading it twice before burning it.
He didn’t want to be seen as behaving differently.
He ate most pastries with the tea, but who knew he would get a toothache in the middle of the night? He felt he had suffered for nothing from that imperial doctor’s prescription. While thinking of his parents and elder sister…… he could not help but silently shed a few tears.
If this were a tiger’s den, how could he let A-jie come to save him?
A-Yu wanted to escape on his own.
But from this day onwards, Ban Yuren did not even take him to the Imperial Court of Judicial Review.
He was always followed by three to five maids.
Ban Yuren had started to put him under house arrest.
He knew Ban Yuren should still know about the note despite his efforts to cover it up.
Even if he did not see what was written on it, Ban Yuren could guess.
Since he had already been exposed, why should he pretend anymore?
He charged into the discussion hall and slapped Ban Yuren.
Ban Yuren laughed and asked him to hit him again.
Ban Yuren did not mention the note to him but smilingly said: “When you were unhappy as a child, you only knew to use the mouth without full-grown teeth to bite me. When you were unhappy today, you knew to use your hands to hit.”
In fact, Ban Yuren didn’t remember what A-Yu was like as a child.
He slowly began to retrace his memory only after he marked this person in his heart; surprisingly, he could pick out a lot. There was a time when A-Yu chased after a lantern at a festival night because he liked the color red. Another time was when he embraced a broken peony pot and cried loudly. There was also a time when A-Yu wanted to be carried by him, but he coldly refused. Then, A-Yu climbed up his thigh……
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