Repudiating a Good Wife Is Out of the Question

99. A Hairpin

Translator: Sissy That Walk

“Mo, we are guests here, we gotta behave.” Xiao Yi had no idea why Cao Mo stopped Qin from leaving.

“Qin, you’ve dropped something!” Cao Mo picked up a hairpin on the ground and handed it to him, “Here you are, I heard you are interested to see the plays and little gimmicks that I’ve made, nothing complicated really, just some stunts and some wire, don’t worry, I will teach you, I think you will bring those stunts to a greater height of development.”

Qin took the hairpin, but Cao Mo had caught a touch of regret in Qin’s eyes, Qin said, “You are flattering me, Young Madam. You just said you’ve mixed me up with someone else, the feeling is mutual, somehow I found you very familiar.”

“Young Madam!” with that Qin suddenly kowtowed to Cao Mo, “Please save me, please save me from singing for a living!”

Cao Mo was transfixed, he had no idea Qin wasn’t enjoying what he was doing, and he didn’t know why Qin was willing to trust him.

Xiao Yi stepped forward and said, “Qin, you better depend on yourself than ask for help from others.

Tears streamed down from Qin’s eyes, Cao Mo noticed something different about Qin, it turned out Qin had two pupils in each eyes!

Cao Mo was so transfixed that he forgot to withdraw his hands, he comforted Qin, “Please don’t cry, you can achieve anything as long as you have faith.”

“Oh? Is our Young Madam an old friend of Qin’s? Look at them, this is such a loving scene, hmm, it’s hard to tell whether it’s Qin or Qin’s performances has captured our Young Madam’s heart.” Auntie Lu was here as well, she said that in a voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Second Aunt, I don’t appreciate your joke.” Xiao Yi’s brows furrowed as he noticed Auntie Lu’s facial expression.

Xiao Yi cast a glimpse at Cao Mo who was still holding hands with Qin, he cleared his throat unnaturally and said, “Mo, that’s enough, Qin still needs to get ready.”

Hearing that, Cao Mo had to withdraw his hands and walked back to his seat.

Qin lowered his head in disappointment, he deliberately put the hairpin back into his hairdo when he walked past Xiao Yi.

Xiao Yi found that hairpin oddly familiar, but he was too occupied to think further about a hairpin, he kept staring Cao Mo and it looked like he was not happy about Cao Mo and Qin striking up a friendship with each other at the first meeting.

Xiao Yi leaned towards Cao Mo and blocked him from making any more eye contact with Qin, “Mo, we have performers in our manor who can sing Worshiping the Moon, you don’t have to stare at Qin like this.”

“Hehe, but our performers don’t have double pupils”, Cao Mo explained with a dry smile, “That’s why I keep staring at him, I haven’t see anyone like him before.”

“Double pupils?” Xiao Yi’s face darkened.

Cao Mo nodded and took hold of Xiao Yi’s hand, “Haven’t you noticed that just now? Well, I guess you can always visit him in the backstage after the show.”

“Mo!” Xiao Yi squeezed Cao Mo’s hand, “This is no laughing matter, you know what does that mean? A person with double pupils?”

“It means he’s got some sort of eye problem.”Cao Mo muttered, “No wonder I found him unusual at the first sight, it’s his eyes.”

“No! In history, people with double pupils are either big villains or opulent childes, no way is he a performer, stay away from him!” Xiao Yi looked dead serious.

“That’s superstitious!” Cao Mo’s lips twitched, but deep down he knew there were a lot of things were hard to explain from a scientific perspective, take himself for an example — a time traveller from the 21st century who thrived in this dynasty — he figured he better listen to his husband.

A beauty mounted the stage in full regalia amid the overture of gongs and drums, it was Qin’s cue, Cao Mo took a deep breath and told himself not to over think, just try to enjoy the performance.

But soon he realized there was something wrong, he whispered at Xiao Yi’s ear, “This is not Qin!”

Xiao Yi couldn’t tell the difference, “Mo, it’s the makeup.”

“No, it has nothing to do with the makeup, just look at his eyes.” Cao Mo countered.

Auntie Lu saw the intimacy Cao Mo and Xiao Yi shared as an eyesore, ‘Two brats who have no disciplines!’

Cao Mo and Xiao Yi said goodbye to the host after the show for they needed to visit Big Third Madam soon.

Xiao Yi just arranged a big carriage because he knew Big Third Madam had always been a bit self-abased because they were merchants, so he didn’t want to go in for ostentation.

Cao Mo felt there was someone staring at him from behind when he mounted the carriage, he turned around abruptly and saw a man hiding in the alley, somehow he knew for sure that man was Qin, but that figure had disappeared when he was about to shout out Qin’s name.

Xiao Yi had noticed that as well, he wasn’t happy to see how much Cao Mo cared for Qin.

“Yi, I saw there was someone hiding in the alley.” Cao Mo broke the silence in the carriage.

“It’s dark outside, maybe it’s nothing.” Cao Mo replied.

It was already late at night when they had arrived at Zizhu Alley, Cao Mo fell asleep at dinner table and he had no recollection at all what had happened after that.

Xiao Yi and several servants carried him back to the carriage and somehow the carriage jolted abruptly on their way back home, Cao Mo woke up.

“What’s going on?” Xiao Yi asked.

“There’s a man lying in the middle of the road, I didn’t see him…” replied the carter.

Xiao Yi coaxed Cao Mo back to sleep and he jumped out of the carriage to have a look.

The poor man’s face was disfigured, he was covered with wounds and blood all over, no way you could tell who he was any more, but Xiao Yi gasped when he noticed this man was wearing the same outfit as Qin’s from the afternoon.

“Are you Qin? What has happened to you?” Xiao Yi asked with concern.

The man wrote something on the ground with blood, Xiao Yi’s countenance changed in fear, he soon stomped on the writing and he asked two servants to take the man to the Charity House.