The Eldest Brother is Handsome but Sick. - Chapter 3

In the end, Yan Jin failed to soothe the boy’s temper. No matter how much he pestered him, Su Huai kept his door firmly shut.

By the time Su Huai finally emerged the following afternoon, Yan Jin had already departed with the herb transport caravan.

It was a rare day of “sunny snow.” As the warm sunlight spilled into the rooms, the courtyard echoed with the cheerful whines of Little White Plum.

Su Huai sat at the stone table beneath the jujube tree, nodding off in a daze. Beside him were wicker trays filled with various aromatic spices. He had to keep an eye on the overly curious Little White Plum to ensure the dog didn’t roll around in the ingredients. With Yan Jin away, Xia Qingyan had decided to use her free time to make some calming incense to sell for extra cash.

“Didn’t sleep last night? You look exhausted,” Xia Qingyan said with a smile, placing her supplies on the table. “I brought some books; I thought you might like them.”

Su Huai opened his eyes; his expression still clouded with fatigue. He was about to rise and thank her when she added, “Eldest Senior Brother bought these specifically for you.”

Immediately, his relaxed brow knit back into a tight knot.

Seeing this, Xia Qingyan sat beside him and asked gently, “Did you and Senior Brother have another falling out?”

“It wasn’t a fight. He was looking for trouble,” Su Huai huffed, turning his head away.

Xia Qingyan’s eyes curved into crescent moons. “I heard, the brothel indenture contract?”

At those words, Su Huai’s lips thinned into a straight line, and he refused to say another word.

During the year Su Huai had been missing, he had tried to escape numerous times. Each time, he was caught and subjected to countless beatings. His final escape occurred at the end of spring.

Another late spring.

Su Huai had dragged his injured leg into the mountains, running almost non-stop for days. Even when he tumbled down slopes, he didn’t dare rest for long. Deep in the mountains, there were no beautiful flowers only weeds, wild trees, and a lonely, unmarked grave. Yet, he still remembered the eyes that had peeked out from behind the begonia tree the first time he met Yan Jin.

“Yan Jin…”

He felt as though he were dying, and the memory of those begonias was fading.

Suddenly, a rustle came from the nearby bushes. The sound grew louder and closer—the unmistakable crunch of footsteps on dry branches and wild grass!

His heart hammered against his ribs.

“…Found him.”

That voice had echoed in Su Huai’s mind countless times over the past year. He held his breath sharply and, just as he had during their first meeting, looked over with cautious trepidation.

The last obstructing branch was cleared. Behind the mountain ridge was a sea of torches and the echoing cheers of a search party.

Yan Jin dropped the sickle in his hand. Under the firelight, his eyes brimmed with warmth and relief. “Using the sky as your blanket and the wolves as your companions, quite the carefree lifestyle you’ve led, Little Physician Su.”

Su Huai had promptly lost consciousness. He never learned exactly how Yan Jin had found him, but when he woke up, he was already at Sansheng Hall.

The people of Jingning Town were mostly simple and kind, and since Su Huai was handsome, he was looked after wherever he went. In that sense, his life was much the same as before.

The only difference was that Yan Jin was no longer the lonely soul who shared his fate; he was now the Eldest Senior Brother of Sansheng Hall. He wasn’t as free as he had been at the Su family clinic and was often too busy to be seen. Consequently, the newly returned Su Huai was left in the care of Xia Qingyan, who was better suited for minding children.

For six months, he didn’t bother to discipline me once, yet now he’s worried I’ll grow distant and leave. How ridiculous, Su Huai thought.

“Junior Brother, you’re packing too many herbs! Senior Brother is gone; has your heart flown away with him?”

Xia Qingyan’s teasing laughter brought Su Huai back to reality. He looked down to see that the palm-sized sachet was stuffed so full it looked ready to “vomit.”

He hurriedly picked some out, but then he noticed the dosage in Xia Qingyan’s hand and blinked. “Sister, that dosage is much heavier than the other sachets.”

“This one is for Eldest Senior Brother,” Xia Qingyan explained. “He often struggles with insomnia. A standard dose does nothing for him.”

“I’ve been trying some new formulas for calming incense lately, but with little success.” She looked back at him playfully. “Want to help me develop it? If we can make a truly potent incense, we’ll be able to keep him perfectly well-behaved.”

Su Huai knew she was trying to bridge the gap between him and Yan Jin. He was reluctant the knot in his heart couldn’t be unraveled by mere incense but he found it hard to refuse. He sat there, his thoughts twisting into a convoluted mess.

Just as he opened his mouth to speak, a thunderous knocking echoed from the front gate.

A man stood outside hunched over, dressed in coarse purple cloth, with a palm-sized peony flower hanging from his waist. Everyone in Jingning recognized that flower; it was the symbol of the “Peony Pavilion,” the local brothel. The man was a servant from the house.

Su Huai looked down at the fawning man, and a sudden realization made his face turn ashen. Sure enough, the servant rubbed his hands and said, “Little Physician Su, right? Physician Yan and Boss Chen had a few too many drinks at the Peony Pavilion. Our mistress is worried he’ll run into trouble getting back to Sansheng Hall alone, so she’s asked you to come fetch him.”

Though he had expected it, the confirmation sent a surge of fury through Su Huai, like boiling tea lifting the lid off a pot. Without a word, he readied the carriage and followed the servant to the Peony Pavilion.

The night was as black as ink, and the snow fell thicker, trapping the entire street in a dense, white curtain. Even the lanterns along the road were mere blurry silhouettes. As soon as Su Huai stepped off the carriage, a flower was tossed from above. He looked up to see a group of women laughing and teasing each other.

“The little physician is finally here! Why don’t you come up and play? We sisters love shy little brothers the most.”

“Don’t worry, your Senior Brother is right here. We won’t eat you.”

Su Huai handed the flower to a passing street urchin. He looked up to see a man and a woman walking out of the Peony Pavilion with Yan Jin. Two of them were flushed—clearly quite drunk.

“The snow is too heavy to travel. Wait a while,” the woman said, her brows slightly knit. Even in the dim light, she was breathtakingly beautiful. This was the mistress of the Peony Pavilion, known to all as Sister Qi.

“Psh, why can’t we go? I’ll show you right now.” The other man was Boss Chen from the South Street apothecary. Having spent the day transporting herbs with Yan Jin, he tried to stumble forward but was yanked back.

“Behave yourself. In your state, you’ll freeze to death in the street. I’ve already sent someone to fetch your wife.”

Boss Chen wasn’t convinced, slurring his words: “Sister Qi, you’re just too fussy.” He turned and threw an arm around Yan Jin’s shoulder. “Our Physician Yan is a man of grand spirit. I love doing business with men like him honest and straightforward!”

Yan Jin had been standing with his hands tucked in his sleeves, staring blankly at the snow. He had been drinking and felt too dizzy to speak, so he ignored the man.

The wind began to pick up, blowing snow in front of him. Yan Jin watched it dizzily, puffing out a breath of air in a vain attempt to blow the flakes away.

In the swirling white, he caught sight of a figure. The snow was so thick he almost thought it was a drunken hallucination a person standing alone in the freezing cold, holding an umbrella under the faint, warm glow of a lantern.

Yan Jin hurried forward. He pulled Su Huai’s cloak tighter and squinted as he tried to brush the snow off the boy’s shoulders. He missed twice, so he gave up.

Up close, the smell of alcohol on him was pungent. Su Huai grabbed Yan Jin’s wrist to check his pulse. His dissipated anger surged back, and he said coldly, “If you drink this much again, I’ll just wait to collect your corpse. I won’t bother with you.”

“Mhm, mhm, mhm.”

Yan Jin didn’t hear a word; he just watched the boy’s lips move and found it fascinating. As they say, wine provides “liquid courage.” In his drunken state, he actually reached out and cupped Su Huai’s face, his eyes curving into smiles. “Oh my, you’ve frozen into a little ice cube.”

Su Huai choked on his words. He realized how foolish it was to argue with a drunkard and opted to haul him onto the carriage instead.

“Regarding the herbs and the New Year supplies for the villages. I, Yan Jin, thank you both for your generous contributions!” Halfway into the carriage, Yan Jin suddenly turned back and cupped his hands in a formal salute. “Let’s drink again sometime!”

Boss Chen didn’t hear him clearly, slurring back, “What? You have a wife too?”

Sister Qi slapped him. “What nonsense are you talking? That’s Little Physician Su, Physician Yan’s Junior Brother.”

Inside the room, the snow outside was silent. The candlelight flickered, casting long, intertwined shadows. Su Huai carried the drunkard, who kept sliding toward the floor, toward the bed.

Yan Jin was usually a quiet sleeper, even when drunk, but the jostling of being carried had woken him up slightly. In his half-lucid state, he liked to grab things; his arm naturally wound around Su Huai’s waist, pulling the younger boy down onto the bed with him.

Warm palms pressed through Su Huai’s clothes. The breathing by his ear was steady and long, and the warmth brushing against the back of his neck sent a faint shiver through him.

“Yan Jin, get up.”

Su Huai’s brow furrowed, but his body was stiff and he didn’t dare move. Yan Jin loved incense and often carried calming sachets; his body always held a faint floral scent. Though masked by the alcohol, it was still detectable up close. In that moment, Su Huai’s heart raced, and the tips of his ears burned.

Feeling an encroaching sense of unease, he scrambled off the bed.

A heater and hot water were already prepared in the room. The rising steam made his head spin. His heart was in his throat when he caught sight of a smear of red on the collar of Yan Jin’s cloak—likely rouge left by one of the girls.

Su Huai: “…”

He took a deep breath and, with trembling hands, stripped Yan Jin of his cloak and outer robes. The flickering candlelight danced across Yan Jin’s pale neck, making Su Huai’s vision blur. He blamed these strange reactions entirely on Yan Jin, feeling a spark of irritation though he couldn’t tell if he was annoyed with Yan Jin or himself.

Suddenly, a hand caught his wrist. Su Huai looked up to meet Yan Jin’s eyes; he seemed a bit more sober than before.

He spoke in a tiny voice, requiring Su Huai to lean in to hear: “You know perfectly well, those ten taels of silver weren’t my fault.”

The once-compliant drunk had grown moody. His voice was thick with a soft, slurred grievance, completely unlike his usual self.

Su Huai’s breath hitched. Then, he heard Yan Jin ask: “Why do you have to hate me so much?”