Love from the Male Protagonist’s Harem

Chapter 22-Sleeves Embroidered With Red Maple

Translated by Snowfall77

The cold, crisp scent of sandalwood hit the nostrils.

A falling porcelain wine cup was caught between two jade-like slender fingers.

Wine rippled in the cup, the fragrance of the peach blossom brew intertwining with the sandalwood, giving one an unbearable feeling.  Fragile-seeming wrist emerging from white and red sleeves, the hand appeared purer white than the porcelain it held.  Exquisitely embroidered red maple leaves hovered right before the eyes.

Having bent her body low to catch the wine cup, the young lady now straightened her back.  Gaze ice-cold, elegantly dressed, she seemed to have flown in like some beautiful dream.

Xia Ge somewhat stiffly raised her head.  From her angle, all she could see was a snow-white neck and the graceful curve of a chin.

Her mind was utterly blank.

……what, what was this?!

Found at the scene?  Skipping school to go play and being caught red-handed?!

No, the situation might a bit worse than that……

Their two bodies were very close.

With a cold and almost unworldly temperament, the young lady put the wine cup she’d rescued back onto the mahogany table.  The instant the cup landed on the wood; Xia Ge’s eyes met the other’s indifferent black pupils.

Or did Xia Ge detect a slight shadow in them?

In order to add a touch of refinement, the tavern had put budding peach blossoms in small celadon vases on their tables.  Now the blossoms only served to accentuate the young lady’s jade-like beauty.

“……Senior……Senior Sister, good evening.”

Her confidence having taken a hit, Xia Ge’s tone was diffident: “I haven’t seen you for a few days, have you lost some weight……”

Ignoring Xia Ge’s asinine chatter, Gu Peijiu tucked her hand back into her red and white sleeve, then stared deeply at Xia Ge with two pitch-black eyes.

“Why didn’t you come?”

Sweat trickled down Xia Ge’s back.

For fuck’s sake, shouldn’t Danfeng’s great disciple be busy the whole day long?!  Senior Sister had enough leisure time to hunt down an insignificant disciple skipping class?!

She had that much free time on her hands?!

Suffocating!

“Haha.”  Xia Ge fall back on her old standby of playing dumb, “What?  Didn’t come to what?”

Not liking what she’d heard, the expression in Gu Peijiu’s eyes turned a little murderous, but she simply swept the tavern with a detached gaze.  Any curious, searching, or strange looks from other patrons immediately withdrew.  Nevermind that the second Gu Peijiu had arrived, the tavern had fallen completely quiet.

Keeping her voice soft and slow, Gu Peijiu answered: “Suxi Pavilion.”

Xia Ge: “……”

Tone neutral, Gu Peijiu added: “Xia Wuyin, I was waiting there for you for three hours.”

Xia Ge: “……?”

Xia Ge: “???!!!”

Shit, you only wait that long if it’s for your lover!!  Three hours?!!  Usually wouldn’t you usually only wait an hour?  No, a half hour, and then if they don’t come, you leave!  What the hell was three hours?!

“……damn, that’s a really long time……haha, I mean, Senior Sister, won’t you please sit down?  Drink with me……keep me company and let me apologize.”  Xia Ge found the situation tortuous, well aware that everyone else in the tavern was covertly watching, weighing the subtleties—-

(Fuck you all!!  What?!  Looking at me like I’m some unfaithful lothario!!   I’m only thirteen years old!!!)

Watching Xia Ge, Gu Peijiu’s pupils were deep wells of black, neither accepting or rejecting Xia Ge’s offer to sit down.

Xia Ge regarded her motionless, ethereal and refined Senior Sister, who might as well have just descended from the heavens, so disharmonious was she with their earthly surroundings.  Heart profoundly bitter, Xia Ge sighed, and with her right hand, pushed the wine cup toward the empty seat opposite herself: “Senior Sister, I really do owe you an explanation—but please sit down first.  It’s a long story and I’ll tell you slowly, alright?”

Gu Peijiu eyed the young disciple whose truancy was undeniable.

Dressed in hemp like all the other outer disciples, his long black hair was lazily tied back with a green ribbon, a stray strand hanging on either side of his face.  Before she, Gu Peijiu, had shown up, the boy had had one leg crossed over the other, and the small wine cup in his right hand, left hand hidden in a sleeve.  All in all, he’d been the picture of languid contentment.

After she’d appeared, he’d gotten so scared he dropped his wine cup.  The expression on his face when Gu Peijiu had caught the cup for him had been both panicked and oddly sophisticated.  Now he was stealing sideways glances, black cat-like eyes frustrated, yet slightly amused.

Even when he encountered many unhappy things, even when his face was pained, his eyes always seemed a little smiling.

Living his life wise to the ways of the world, but heedless of it all the same.

Since it was like that……

She’d listen to his explanation.

Looking at her expressionless Senior Sister sitting down across from her, Xia Ge inexplicably had a sudden and strange image pop into her head.

—-The cold and proud maple leaf had fallen into her hands.

“Explain.”

Gu Peijiu’s tone was nonchalant.

Xia Ge: “……”

Her sudden mind image didn’t matter!  What mattered was passing this cute little test!

Xia Ge: “Haha.  Ummm……where to start……You want all the details, or should I make a long story short?”

“Make a long story short.”

Having the celestial practically flown down from heaven now seated on her table, Xia Ge felt no desire to create a disturbance.  Thankfully, the tavern was recovering its liveliness, the other patrons talking and laughing amongst themselves again.

Yes, the establishment’s cheerful atmosphere had returned.

Now it was just the air between herself and Senior Sister that was unhappy, cold and stiff, making it hard to breathe.

Siberia in the heart of winter was probably less suffocating.

“Mmm, a few days past, a demon puppet surprise attacked……my little hut.”  Xia Ge planned to act suave and tender to the young lady at her table, make like friends and share drinks affectionately.  She’d tell Senior Sister a sob story of sickles plummeting from the night sky, of a star-crossed love between a poor youth and his laboriously-obtained money, sad enough to make listeners weep.  And the capper would be the beleaguered youth having to sell his beloved Liuli tree.  But before another word could come out of her mouth—-

“I know.”

Senior Sister’s voice was crisp like a clear spring.

One little sentence blocking all of Xia Ge’s planned conversational branches.

Xia Ge stared blankly at Gu Peijiu.  You……you know what?

She knew Xia Ge’s dilapidated hut had been practically sliced in two by a demon puppet’s sickle?  Or that Xia Ge had ran around begging for help to get her roof fixed?  Or maybe Senior Sister knew Xia Ge had bought candied hawthorne with what coin she had left after paying for repairs?  Or was it that Xia Ge refused to sell the sickle, preferring to use to ward off evil spirits, and was therefore even poorer?  Well, there was one thing Senior Sister clearly did know for sure.  That Xia Ge had run off to Mojia village, three miles away, in order to drink their cheap peach blossom brew!

And now Xia Ge had been caught skipping lessons!  Where was the justice?!

System: [……]

Ai!  The more Xia Ge thought about it, the more aggrieved she felt……

Then, just when Xia Ge felt her heart stifled beyond endurance, her mind unable to clear……

Gu Peijiu’s eyes quietly rested on Xia Ge’s left hand hidden in her sleeve, and her voice was filled with a soft warmth.

“I know that you’re injured.”

桃花运[táo huā yùn]

good luck in adventures with women

桃花táohuā

peach blossom / (fig.) love affair