Love is More than a Word, Chapter 69: New enemy, Old Regret (6)...

Love is More than a Word《识汝不识丁》Shi Nu Bu Shi Ding
Love is More than a Word, Chapter 69: New enemy, Old Regret (6)...

Tao Mo's fever was recurring, going back and forth and it took about three tries of medicine before it stabilized.

The magistrate's office was so busy that there was already talk among the servants that the Prefectural Magistrate Court wouldn't last another year.

At that time, Lao Tao and Hao Guozi were surrounded by Tao Mo, so they didn't care about the rumors they had heard. As soon as Tao Mo's condition stabilized, Hao Guozi grabbed the roster and started to settle accounts.

The magistrate's office was in chaos again. But the panic has lightened the air of sickness and made it more lively.


Although Tao Mo's fever has subsided, his illness has come and gone like a mountain and his bottom is not going to be repaired for a while, so he can only stay in bed and let Lao Tao and Hao Guozi take turns bringing up the tonic and nourishing soup.

Tao Mo was disgusted by the food but couldn't bear to disappoint them, so he held his nose and poured it down his throat.

After five or six days of this, one day he couldn't resist asking, “Gu-She, never came?”

Hao Guozi, who was helping him cool the medicine with a spoon, looked up in a huff and said, “Who knows. It's been a few days, not a word about whether it worked or not.”

Tao Mo paled, then held out a glimmer of hope, “So does he know I'm back?”

“Of course he knows that.” Hao Guozi, “I'll send the carriage back as soon as I get back.”

Tao Mo was silent for a long time, before whispering, “Oh".

“But,” Hao Guozi paused, his eyes subconsciously darting towards the window.

Tao Mo saw him looking nervous and got nervous too, “What's going on?”

Hao Guozi said: “Although Gu-She didn't come, Gu Xiaojia came two or three times and brought some herbs, saying it was from Young Master Gu. But Lao Tao has sent them all back.”

“Huh? Did he send it back? How?” Tao Mo grabbed his hand nervously.

Hao Guozi's hand shook and the medicine from the spoon spilled out and fell back into the bowl. He was shocked and said, “Don't worry, Young Master. Even though Lao Tao closed the door on him, he still had a sense of propriety. He said he would not get any reward but he didn't hurt his opponent's honor.”

Tao Mo silently retracted his hand, sighed, “He must be uncomfortable being so proud and arrogant.” Gu Xiaojia has been here two or three times, which means he's come back after hitting a nail. For Gu-She, that's a rare thing, isn't it?

His fingers gently scratched the sheet, making three shallow scratches.

“Young Master?" Hao Guozi held out his hand in front of him.

Tao Mo grabbed his hand and said, “Help me prepare the horse for the carriage!"

“Now?” Hao Guozi frowned.

Tao Mo said, “He sent so many herbs and it's only right that I should come to his door to thank him.”

Hao Guozi said: “But Young Master is too ill to get out of bed.”




Tao Mo said, “It's just a small illness but you've made it a big issue.” He said and he was about to take the covers off the bed.

“Then drink the aphrodisiac.” Hao Guozi brought the tonic forward but in his heart he was thinking of a way to stop him.

Tao Mo took the medicine and swallowed it without looking at it.

“Ah, I have other things to do later, so I'll ask Lao Tao to take Young Master.” Hao Guozi, on a whim, threw out the hot potato.

But Tao Mo's plan was to keep Lao Tao in the dark, so he couldn't ruin it. He grabbed him with his back hand and said, “If there's anything we can do when we get back, tell him I'll do it. You go and prepare the carriage." He paused and told him specifically, “Don't let Lao Tao know.”

Hao Guozi was numb, so he went out to prepare the carriage but he regretted his silence.

Tao Mo gets up and puts on his coat.

He had been lying in bed for several days but when he suddenly got out of bed, he felt light-headed and his feet felt like they were on a cloud and he couldn't get up the strength for a while. When he finally got his footing on the bedpost, he saw Hao Guozi coming back.

“The carriage is ready so soon?” Tao Mo was stunned.

Hao Guozi shook his head, “Someone is visiting Young Master."

Tao Mo's eyes lit up, “Gu-She's here?”

“No.” Hao Guozi sighed lightly, “It's Young Master Yiyu. Peng Xiang came several times before, I told him the Young Master was sick and sent him away but this time he came himself.”

“Ah.” Tao Mo hesitated, fumbling back to the bed, whispering, “Invite him in.”

“Is Young Master not going to the Gu Residence?” Having escaped one disaster after another, Hao Guozi can't tell you how he feels.

Tao Mo: “It's the same thing if we go back later. You should invite Yiyu in first.”

Hao Guozi is out.

Tao Mo leaned on his bed for a while, his eyelids heavy and then he heard the sound of footsteps approaching from afar. He opened his eyes in a trance and a figure dressed in a white brocade loincloth and a verdant sari stepped inside.

Tao Mo widened his eyes.

The pearl and jasper hairpin in Yiyu's bun shone brightly. The makeup he wears today was a bit heavy, and stood out against his features. “You are ill, I came to see you.”

Peng Xiang stood behind him, holding him gently by the waist as she always did and helped him sit down on the chair in front of the bed.




“I'm sorry, I'm sorry for the inconvenience.” Tao Mo tried to sit up.

Yiyu's lips lifted slightly, saying, “You see, how unfortunate you and I are, that either I meet you in bed, or you meet me in bed.”

Tao Mo grins.

Yiyu sighed softly, “Too bad, we never got to lie in the same bed.”

He said it so nakedly, expressed it so openly, that Tao Mo had nowhere to hide but to bow his head and remain silent.

Even though he was madly in love with Yiyu, their contact was limited to a casual touch when they clinked glasses. It is not that he did not know that Yiyu was not innocent, nor did he not know that Yiyu was only a means of seduction but that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with him, so he did not want to get close to him in the place of fireworks and became a mere amusement in his heart.

But he never imagined at the time, that things would take a turn for the worse.

His father was killed by Huang Guangde was killed by a Prefectural Magistrate Huang Guangde to save him from Yiyu!

When he hated, he also hated Yiyu. Hated him for his indifference, hated him for committing himself to Huang Guangde, rather than sinking the boats with him! But hatred is only temporary. It was only after all these emotions had sunk in that it dawned on him that he realized that the pain and hatred were only for his own protection. Because all along, the person he really hated was himself!

If I hadn't been drunk... if I hadn't been a failure, if I hadn't been idle...

His father would not have gone so bleakly, so unhappily, so regretfully!

“Wenwu," Yiyu called softly.

Tao Mo looked up, only to find that tears had somehow covered his eyes and all he could see was a twisted haze.

It was cold on his touch.

He recoiled in shock, wiping his eyes haphazardly, just in time to see Yiyu slowly retreat.

“You...” Tao Mo glared at him.

Yiyu turned to Peng Xiang and said, “Leave your things, you go out first.”

Peng Xiang frowned, a little reluctance on his face but finally put the yellow cloth bag he was carrying on Yiyu's lap and left.

Yiyu's hand touched the bundle lovingly and whispered: “You guessed right. When Huang Guangde wanted to harm you, I knew about it.”

Tao Mo was on edge.

Yiyu said, “But he was not doing it for me and he's not doing it for you. He was doing it for your father's rice business. Do you remember the year of the famine, when most of the houses raised their prices but your father was the only one who didn't raise the price but sold rice at a lower price?”

Tao Mo said, “I remember. I also remember that Huang Guangde gave my father a plaque, 'The Merchants of Goodwill', praising him greatly.”

“Praising? Hey.” Yiyu sneered.” Yiyu sneered, “He praised your father because he did a good deed and won the hearts of the people. You know, among the rice merchants who raise the price, there are many of Huang Guangde's men.”

Tao Mo looked at him in shock.

Yiyu said, “Ever since then, your father has been a thorn in his side, a thorn in his flesh. He's been trying to hurt your father and you're just an excuse to do it.”

Tao Mo's heart beat rapidly and asked a few moments later, “When did you know?”

“I had known from the beginning.” Yiyu, “He has always been a frequent customer of a brothel and frequented me. But he was an official, so he couldn't come openly, so he used to send a sedan chair to pick me up in the middle of the night. At that time, he still needed his reputation and he wanted to become a big official, so he was very cautious. But over the last few years, somehow, he's gotten more reckless.” He paused, looked at Tao Mo, who was speechless from the shock of the facts and said softly, “So, if you want to blame me, if you want to hate me, it's only right.”

“No. I don't blame you.” Tao Mo pressed his palm against the corner of the quilt, letting the tears fall on the surface, the pain in his heart making his words tremble, “It's all my fault, I deserve it, I have no one to blame.” Even if Huang Guangde was only using him to hit his father, he was the one who gave Huang Guangde an excuse after all. Otherwise, maybe his father's caution wouldn't have given him the opportunity to take advantage of the situation.

And here, for the ten-thousandth time, he regretted why he hadn't killed himself! If he had, at least his father would still be alive...

It should have been his father who survived!





Yiyu looked at him, with infinite compassion in his eyes but doesn't know to whom.





~ Love is More than A Word ~



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