Chapter 65 - Ashamed
Chapter 65 Ashamed
When Gu Xihe was venting out, Gu Xiran silently watched at a side. He looked at Ji Danqing treat Shu Huan’s injury and didn’t say anything. Only when Gu Xihe had calmed down and sulked while sitting on the grass, he slowly spoke, “Enough?”
His tone was very calm like his expression. One couldn’t hear whether he was happy or angry. It was as if he had just asked about the weather.
Gu Xihe was surprised, then he stubbornly turned his head and ignored him.
Gu Xiran didn’t mind and continued to say calmly, “My body is weak; hence I am practicing martial arts to keep fit. Why do you follow me in the training?”
When he asked this, he didn’t expect to get an answer. Hence, when he saw Gu Xihe tightened his lips in a tight line, he answered for him, “You are doing it for fun. You wanted to learn martial arts to show off! However, you didn’t expect that practicing martial arts is so toilsome and dangerous, right? Hence, you feel like retreating in your heart, but you couldn’t pull down your face to say so…”
“That is not it!” Gu Xihe furiously interrupted him. His whole face was red from anger.
Gu Xiran raised an eyebrow, “Angry from embarrassment?”
“No!”
“Then why are you angry?”
“You know and still ask me?” Gu Xihe angrily contradicted him. “I’m angry that you don’t care whether I am alive or dead!”
Gu Xiran raised an eyebrow and retorted with sarcasm, “Not care whether you are alive or dead?”
“Yes! You left me alone on the cliff and didn’t care about me!”
“First, you have to make one thing clear,” Gu Xiran raised his voice a bit. “It was you who said you wanted to practice martial arts. That was why we let you go climb the cliff. Could it be that you think that if you sit here doing nothing, the martial arts will run to you?”
“It also couldn’t be trained like this!” Gu Xihe said extremely angry. “If by chance I slipped, fell down and died, what use did the training have?”
Gu Xiran laughed, “Then, did you fell?”
“No…,” Gu Xihe was dumbfounded. “But I mean if by chance! That I didn’t fell, and die was because I’m lucky. What if I was unlucky?”
Gu Xiran didn’t say anything and reached out to take a string of roasted grasshoppers from Du Qiu. He took a bite while frowning. He chewed two times on it and swallowed it. He put that string of grasshoppers in front of Gu Xihe, “Do you want a bite?”
“No!” Gu Xihe raised his hand and pushed that string grasshoppers on the ground. “Is this something humans would eat? It’s a miracle that you could bite it!”
“That’s right!” Gu Xiran turned the string of grasshopper in his hand and said faintly, “If it wasn’t because Du Qiu was afraid that you would slip and fell, he would’ve long gone to other places to hunt wild animals. By then, would there be a need to catch grasshoppers nearby? Do you think he loves to eat this?”
After those words fell, Gu Xihe’s eyes immediately widened. His gaze showed that he was very much surprised.
He turned and looked at Du Qiu. He saw that, that wooden face of Du Qiu still didn’t have much expression. Aside from flipping the roasted grasshoppers, he didn’t even have any unnecessary movements.
After Gu Xiran said everything that he wanted to say, he also ignored him (GXH). With his hand behind his back, he lay on the ground and stared at the gradually darkening sky.
Silence.
Gu Xihe didn’t know what to say facing such situation. He just had his mouth slightly open and was sitting in daze.
At this time, Ji Danqing already smashed some herbs and put them on Shu Huan’s ankle to relieve her pain.
Shu Huan was in much pain. She used her sleeves to wipe to sweat on her forehead. She looked once at Gu Xihe and said, “Just admit it. You are narrow-minded.”
Gu Xihe wasn’t angry at her. Hence, when he pushed her in anger and hurt her, he felt a bit guilty. However, the word ‘narrow-minded’ wasn’t pleasing to the ears. He still muttered dissatisfied, “How am I narrow-minded…?”
“Isn’t that it?” Shu Huan said. “Let alone master Du, is you second big brother so stupid to take you out and not bring you back in one piece? When I combed his hair just now, I noticed. Although, he said that he didn’t care about you, but he had been taking glances at the cliff. If something really happened to you, I think both of them would rush to save you. It’s clearly that you are narrow-minded. You can’t feel it when others are good to you. You get angry for nothing and say that people don’t care about you being alive or death!”
“…”
Every time, she said a sentence, Gu Xihe’s head lowered a bit. At the end, his head was almost on the ground. For the first time in his life, he got to know what ashamed and unable to show one’s face meant.
It seemed that he had truly misunderstood…
However, he is afraid of heights! Du Qiu is an outsider. Forget that he didn’t care about him (GXH). But even Gu Xiran didn’t care about him and he (GXR) even said that being afraid of heights was no big deal. It would be fine if he (GXH) climbed the cliff a few times. After he (GXR) said that, he climbed down and left him (GXH) alone on the top…
This action truly angered him!
Ever since young, all the love he got was from the elders. Although, he had many siblings, but none of them had a good relationship with him. He even found his big sister from the same mother Gu Yun long-winded and boring. He rarely bothered with her. Hence, he only had two playmates: Ranmo and Diyan. It happened that they were study companions. There was a difference in identities. The etiquettes between a master and servant was unavoidable.
It wasn’t easy for him to discover that second big brother who had been ill all year long and who never left the room was so interesting. He (GXR) wasn’t the eldest son like eldest big brother who was born with the right to inherit, favored by master and make him (GXH) dislike him (GXT) instinctively. Therefore, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of intimacy. A whole day, whether he had something to do or not, he liked to run to Plum Flower Pavilion at least two times before he felt satisfied.
Being abandoned by someone he wanted to get close to was undoubtedly one of the most painful things in this world. Not to mention that this person was his family and the only big brother he liked in the household…
In summary, Gu Xihe felt that he was reasonably angry. Hence, his words and action of just now left no leeway for others. He didn’t expect that he would become ashamed because of some words that Gu Xiran and Shu Huan said. Now, the one who was embarrassed was himself.
“I…,” He truly wanted to apologize, but he had never lowered himself to anyone before. He felt very awkward, especially when he thought about how he let Du Qiu to get lost. He didn’t know whether the other party would accept his apology. If he didn’t accept it, then wouldn’t he be more embarrassed?
However, compared to being embarrassed, he was more afraid that Gu Xiran would get angry and would no longer bother with him. Then, there would be no one to take him out to play. At this point, he walked to Du Qiu and apologized with a red face, “Master Du, I…I said some not so pleasing words just now. Don’t…take them seriously…”
“Pfff,” Shu Huan was afraid that the herbs on her ankle would fell and was wrapping her ankle with a handkerchief when she heard his indirect stuttering apology. She then remembered the first time she saw him. At that time, he had an incomparable playfulness and arrogance. She couldn’t help but laugh.
She didn’t expect that this laughter helped Gu Xihe out of the embarrassment. There was someone who paid attention to him. Even if it was laughing at him, it made him feel less embarrassed. Hence, he turned and looked angrily at her, “What are you laughing at?!”
“I’m laughing that you don’t even know how to apologize!” Shu Huan laughed. “A teacher one day, a father forever. Your actions of just now could be considered unfilial and disgraceful. You should at least kneel and kowtow three times at master Du. Then, the apology could be considered sincere!”
Had to kneel? And kowtow!
Gu Xihe frowned. Originally, he wasn’t very willing, but his eyes happened to fell on Shu Huan’s swollen ankle, the guilt in his eyes couldn’t help but get heavier. He then saw that Gu Xiran was lying there with his eyes closed and didn’t look at him. He braced himself and lifted his robe. He said, “Master Du, I was wrong. Please, forgive me…”
While he talked, he wanted to kneel. He didn’t expect that Du Qiu reached out and stopped him. He said faintly, “There no need to apologize. I have said, since I take your family’s money, you can order me to do anything.”
This was for the best. The silver settled the bill. There wouldn’t be any favor owned.