Upon Her Lips - Chapter 37

Chapter 37

The timeline must return to the night before the emergency broadcast.

In a quiet, long alleyway, a slender woman in a black dress walked with a hat covering half her face. Her pale ankles peeked out from beneath the swaying hem of her skirt, and her high heels clicked rhythmically against the stone steps.

It was a scene of striking beauty, one that would normally invite romantic fantasies.

However, this captivating woman was carrying a child in her arms—a girl. The girl’s hair was a bit messy (tousled by Mu Fei), and her small face, traced with tears, rested quietly against the woman’s shoulder. There was an indescribable air of mystery, even eeriness, to the sight.

It was hard to imagine a woman of such a slender build having the strength to carry a growing child so effortlessly with one arm. Moreover, she was so breathtakingly beautiful and looked so young that she didn’t seem like a mother at all. Because of this bizarre scene, passersby felt too apprehensive to strike up a conversation.

When the child on her shoulder lifted her head, any men who had thought of approaching the beautiful adult quickly retreated. The child simply stared at them—a pair of deep, black eyes gazing emotionlessly. Being stared at so unabashedly felt bone-chilling to anyone under her watch.

Only after the inquisitive pedestrians had scurried away did Yuran lower her eyelids again. Her gaze fell upon the small, fine puncture wound on the Lady’s hand. Even in the dim moonlight of the alley, Yuran could see it clearly. Her heart ached with a sour pang; she wished the injury were on her own body. She could endure pain, but she couldn’t stand to see the Lady hurt in the slightest.

“My Lady, Yuran… can… walk by herself,” she whispered, not wanting to be a burden.

Mu Fei stopped at the mouth of the alley where a streetlamp finally provided light. To a human child, the uneven stone steps in the dark were treacherous. She set Yuran down and looked at the little girl’s face, which was flushed red from the cold.

“Yuran.”

“Present!” Yuran looked up tentatively at the Lady’s face, which was as pale as paper.

“That gold coin I gave you—did that person give you change?” Mu Fei suddenly remembered that the coin was made of pure gold; it was enough to buy out the entire shop. She wondered if the little thing had simply handed it over and run back to find her.

Yuran’s body flinched—a physiological reaction to doing something wrong. She remembered: she had taken the cotton candy, handed over the heavy coin, and then… she had run. She had searched for the Lady like a frantic creature. She found her, but the coin was left with the confectioner. The cotton candy had been destroyed, the coin was gone, and she had brought back nothing.

“M-My Lady, I… I…” She began to stutter again.

Mu Fei raised an eyebrow. The little thing was so timid; a simple question scared her into a state of panic. Seeing her expression, it was clear she had given the coin away for nothing. Mu Fei, with her half-merchant nature, felt that a deal where one pays but receives nothing was a bit of a loss.

“My Lady, p-please… please punish me.” Yuran bit her lip and hung her head. She couldn’t bring herself to say she didn’t wait for change because she was desperate to find the Lady; to her, that wasn’t a valid excuse.

Mu Fei looked at the child who was practically begging for punishment. It was hard to tease her; doing so provoked a subtle sense of guilt. But she kept her voice stern.

“How would you have me punish you?”

Yuran’s fingers twisted together, and she looked ready to burst into tears. She knew that if she didn’t offer a solution, the Lady might truly discard her for her stupidity.

“My Lady, I… I can… go to the market… and earn money.”

Yuran knew that although many shops had “No Child Labor” signs to appease the authorities, many still hired children for cheap, hard labor in secret. She could find work, earn back the value of that gold coin, and give it back to the Lady.

Seeing no response, Yuran reached out, wanting to grab the Lady’s dress but not daring to. She gestured frantically in the air instead. “My Lady, p-please… believe me, I… I can…”

Under the streetlamp, the small child stumbled through her list of potential jobs: washing dishes, running errands, mopping floors, shining shoes… every dirty, exhausting job that even adults loathed. She wasn’t joking. She was proving that if Mu Fei said, “Fine, go do that and I won’t discard you,” Yuran would face any hardship to do it.

“Yuran,” Mu Fei called out.

“My Lady…” Yuran looked up piteously, hoping for mercy.

“Has anyone ever told you that when you talk, you look like a little squirrel? A squirrel that makes a lot of gestures.” Mu Fei leaned down, her face suddenly close to Yuran’s, staring into those pure eyes.

Startled, Yuran dropped her hands to her sides. “If… if My Lady likes… squirrels… then I want to… to be a squirrel.”

Hearing such a guileless response, Mu Fei’s “cold old face” finally broke, and she let out a laugh. She took off her own hat and placed it—somewhat heavily—on Yuran’s head.

“Remember this, Yuran: I, Mu Fei, never break my word. I said you could be willful tonight, so you shall. It was just one gold coin; even if it were a hundred, I wouldn’t punish you. Be at peace.”

Mu Fei’s slight smile left Yuran dazed. The Lady’s smile always had that effect on her.

Mu Fei pointed to the sweet shop. It was closed, but the old man at the cotton candy cart was still there, packing up. “Let’s go. If he doesn’t acknowledge the coin, we’ll buy from another place.”

…

“Oh! You’re back, little one! I was waiting for you!” the old confectioner exclaimed the moment he saw Yuran in the oversized hat.

Yuran looked at Mu Fei, who gave her a gentle nod.

“I know what you’re going to say,” the old man laughed, pulling the shining gold coin from a box. “When you gave me this, I didn’t notice because of the crowd. I thought it was just a regular coin. You gave me quite a shock!”

He handed the gold coin back to Yuran, then reached into a glass case and pulled out a perfectly preserved, giant marshmallow shaped like a squirrel. “No child should go without their sweets, especially when they’ve been crying. This is the last one; consider it a gift.”

Yuran looked at Mu Fei for permission. The Lady nodded. Yuran took the giant squirrel with both hands, her face lighting up with a joy that made Mu Fei feel a sense of relief.

“Is the shop behind you also yours?” Mu Fei stepped forward to talk to the kind old man.

He explained that the shop sold chocolates, but he made the marshmallows himself to make the children happy on festival days.

“In that case, I would like to use this gold coin to buy a bag of chocolates,” Mu Fei said.

The old man hesitated. The coin was worth far more than a bag of chocolates. “But I have no change…”

“No change is necessary. It is what you deserve.” Mu Fei placed the coin on the cart and led Yuran into the shop.

Inside, the warm lights illuminated rows of exquisite candies. Yuran was mesmerized. Her eyes were drawn to a set of round chocolates, each carved with a cartoon face. She saw one of a “Queen” in a hat and thought it looked just like Lady Mu Fei.

The confectioner explained these were limited edition hand-carved pieces. He usually only made one set a day.

“Do you like this set, little one?”

Yuran nodded happily. Mu Fei walked over, curious about the child’s taste. She looked at the five round chocolates.

“This one… looks like Aunt Dai. This one is like Mr. Dao Lei,” Yuran said excitedly.

Mu Fei looked coldly at them; she didn’t think they looked alike at all.

“This one is so cute… like Teacher Han Sheng.”

When did that old man Han Sheng become “cute”? Mu Fei felt a strange, subtle flicker of annoyance.

“And this one… is like Sister He Rui (the gardener)…”

Mu Fei was about to have the man pack them up just to get the child to stop talking.

“But… My Lady… this one… is the most beautiful.”

Yuran shyly pointed to the last chocolate—the one with the hat. Mu Fei raised an eyebrow. It was the most beautiful one in the set.

“Pack these for us, please,” Mu Fei said to the confectioner, her voice remarkably kind.

…

That night, after returning home, Yuran happily distributed the chocolates to their “look-alikes.” Aunt Dai, Dao Lei, Han Sheng, and the gardener all received their gifts with surprise and joy.

In her study, Mu Fei listened to the sounds of laughter echoing from downstairs—a rare sound in her somber mansion. She wasn’t annoyed. Instead, she sat with her book closed, waiting.

She was waiting for Yuran to bring her the chocolate that looked just like her.

Little did she know, Yuran considered that specific chocolate so precious that she had hidden it away in a secret spot as a memento.

Mu Fei waited all night, but the gift never came. The next morning, a heavy pair of dark circles appeared under her already somber eyes. She looked even more terrifying than usual.