The Heart of a Smith

Chapter 42: Three Years

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Three years later.

The second Li Sui and Lu Shang got to the door, they smelled the fragrance of rice dumpling leaves.

On the porch of the front door sat a little girl, dressed in a little goose-yellow colored skirt. The little girl was roughly two to three years old, in her hands was a small bowl. When she saw them walking up, she said, “Dad.”

Li Sui laughed as he gave her the box of toys in his hand. Li Sui scraped the little girl’s nose gently and corrected, “It’s ‘Godfather’.”

“You guys are here? Come in, come in.” Zuo Chao heard the voices outside and hurried to greet and invite them into the house. When Zuo Chao saw his daughter about to throw the bowl away to grab the box of toys, he hurried over to catch the bowl and said, “Dear, you can’t drop this. If you drop this, mummy will be angry.”

“Nice smell.” Li Sui sniffed the air in the house, concluding that the smell came from the kitchen.

“Of course it smells nice, you guys are lucky today,” Zuo Chao lifted his daughter and brought her inside. He then poured them tea, “Yesterday, I went to the pond to scoop up lobsters. YouYou’s (i) mother cooked a huge pot of it. Oh, there’s also rice dumplings (ii).”

T/N:

(i) YouYou is most likely a nickname, her name should be “Zuo SomethingYou” or “Zuo you something.”

(ii) Chinese rice dumplings are triangular cones of rice wrapped in loquat leaves. There are many types, the most common kind have green beans in them and are eaten with soy sauce.

“It seems like we came just in time,” Li Sui helped Lu Shang take his coat off and folded it, he then asked, “By the way, how come I didn’t see the peacocks in the bamboo dojo yard?”

As soon as the question came out, Lu Shang and Zuo Chao froze, they looked at each other briefly.

“Hmn,” said Zuo Chao, scratching his head with a complicated expression, “I took them to the temple as sacrifices…”

“Temple? Is there a temple around here?

Zuo Chao glanced at Lu Shang, as he was not accustomed to lying. He whispered, “Yes, there is a temple of WuZang temple (iii).”

T/N: (iii) Wu (Five/五), Zang (Organ/臟), it’s a Chinese saying, referring to the five main human organs, the heart, the liver, the spleen, the lungs, and the kidney. Basically means the human body. Zuo Chao couldn’t come up with a lie, so he made a joke about it, the peacocks were sacrifices to their body XD.

Li Sui didn’t understand what kind of a temple that was, so Lu Shang put his teacup down and said sincerely, “He is talking about the temple of WuZang, you know the Monkey King Sun WuKong and Tang SanZang (iv).”

T/N: (iv) Characters from a novel called Journey to the West (西遊記). Tang SanZang (唐三藏) is a monk that was going to the west to get Buddhist books. As a punishment of being naughty in heaven, the Monkey King called Sun WuKong (孫悟空) had to accompany the monk on his quest.

Talk about quick thinking on Lu Shang’s part. Wu stands for Sun WuKong, and Zang stands for Tang SanZang.

“Oh, I see.” Li Sui nodded, “I didn’t know there was such a temple.”

Unexpectedly, YouYou seemed to have heard something and suddenly turned around and said, “Peacock, eat.”

Li Sui pinched her little face and teased, “Eat what?”

Zuo Chao facepalmed as he heard their conversation, coincidentally a female voice came from the kitchen, “The meal is ready, are you guys going to eat here or in the living room?”

“Eat here.” Zuo, Chao answered immediately.

A large pot of spicy lobsters was soon served, the lovely fragrant came crashing into their noses like waves, just the smell of it was enough to make saliva drip from their mouths. It immediately attracted everyone’s attention.

“Try the wine my wife brewed.” Zuo Chao poured a full glass for Li Sui. They clinked their glasses together and drank all of it down.

Lu Shang couldn’t drink alcohol, so he peeled a cooked shrimp instead. Seeing that the little girl opened her mouth enthusiastically as Lu Shang fed her the shrimp. She blinked a few times and suddenly cried loudly after eating.

Lu Shang was shocked, he pulled out some paper to wipe the tears off her.

“What’s wrong?” Li Sui asked.

Zuo Chao laughed, “Gluttonous little thing, it burns.”

When YouYou’s mother heard the crying, she came in to pick the kid up. She said while laughing, “She’s too young to eat spicy food.”

“Sorry.” Lu Shang said apologetically.

The little girl twitched her mouth a bit and was crying hard. Even so, the little girl was still chewing the food, refusing to spit the food out. Her greedy and stubborn look charmed all the adults there.

When she finished crying, YouYou’s mother held her up to feed her milk. Unexpectedly, the little girl refused to obey and tried with all her strength to crawl back to Lu Shang instead.

“How dare you compete against me for your Godfather.” Li Sui ruffled her hair with a smile.

YouYou was not admitting defeat as she pushed Li Sui’s hand away, she snuggled into Lu Shang’s lap skillfully, occupying the most comfortable position. YouYou said, “godfather” in a childish voice. Earning a laugh from Lu Shang as he reached out his hands to guard the little thing’s head.

Lu Shang usually wore formal suits and leather shoes, and his personality was somewhat too placid. He seemed a bit unapproachable, sometimes it was almost like he had a barrier around him. But right now, he was getting all tangled up with the kid, not to mention looking like he didn’t know what to handle her. It was a huge contrast from his usual serious image.

Li Sui watched them both, the big one hugging the tiny one, and he felt his heart turning into a fluff of cotton.

The little girl seemed to be particularly close to Lu Shang, no matter who approaches her, she would only let Lu Shang hold her. Zuo Chao chirped in, “Look, even I have to stand aside. This child is terrible. She just took one glance and immediately knew who the richest amongst us.”

Lu Shang helped YouYou wipe her mouth and said with a smile, “I am the poorest now. I have lost all my control over financial matters.”

Zuo Chao froze and asked, “Did you really transfer all the shares of Tong Yan you have to Xiao Li Zi? So, you are just not going to care about the company anymore?”

Speaking of that, Lu Shang’s face showed a touch of fatigue, “I want to, but there are the other shareholders…… Now, it’s more like I want to leave but can’t. Transferring shares requires the approval of the other shareholders. They won’t let me go so easily.”

Li Sui held Lu Shang’s hand under the table and comforted him by saying, “Don’t worry.”

Zuo Chao frowned deeply.

Liu XinTian was not a fool. Although Lu Shang and Li Sui were on the same front, who owned the shares meant a huge difference. Tong Yan was originally founded by the Lu family, so it could be used to threaten Lu Shang, but it could not threaten Li Sui. Li Sui was young, capable, and uncontrollable. If the shareholders try to force Li Sui’s hand, he could just sell the company off directly. Although he was obeying Lu Shang now, who could tell about the future? This was a time bomb for them.

There was another point of headache about Li Sui for Liu XinTian. In the past few years of Li Sui working in Tong Yan, he obviously noticed that Li Sui did not care about Tong Yan, he only cared about Lu Shang. The reason why he was willing to work for Tong Yan was entirely because of Lu Shang. There seemed to be only one extra layer, but it was in truth miles apart. If Li Sui took over Lu Shang’s shares, Liu XinTian would completely lose control of Tong Yan, something he would never allow.

“Well, anyway, you take good care of yourself. There will be a lot ahead of us, we’re not afraid of them, let’s see who’d live longer. Right, Xiao Li Zi?” Zuo Chao said.

Li Sui smiled, and they clinked their glasses together again.

The pot of spicy lobsters and shrimps were cleared out clean in no time by them. Li Sui wanted to stop Lu Shang from eating spicy food but considering that he seldom had the chance to eat the things he liked throughout the whole year, Li Sui’s heart softened.

Since Li Sui drank alcohol, it was not convenient for him to drive. In the evening, the two of them simply decided to stay in the bamboo dojo. YouYou’s mother tidied up the traditional-styled guest room for them. She also prepared a big wooden barrel for them to have a Chinese Mugwort bath.

Fortunately, it was early summer, so it was neither cold nor hot. At night, there were light breezes in the bamboo forest, making the environment cool and comfortable.

When Li Sui entered the room with a plate of rice dumplings and milk, Lu Shang was leaning against the window, taking in the scenery and enjoying the light wind. Li Sui walked over, placing his hand on Lu Shang’s stomach with a smile, then handed Lu Shang the glass of milk, “Is your stomach all right. Here, have a drink.”

His action was mainly teasing instead of meaningful. Lu Shang held Li Sui’s hand back and let it stay in his palm for a while before asking, “Where did you go?”

Whenever night came, Lu Shang won’t be able to see, so he gave up on wearing glasses altogether. Whenever he needed something, he would just call for Li Sui, since he was never far away.

“I went to get something from the car,” Li Sui led Lu Shang to the wooden barrel and tested the water temperature, “Shall we take a bath together?”

Lu Shang nodded, Li Sui waited for him to finish drinking the milk, then took the glass away. Li Sui carefully undressed him and helped him get into the herb water. The barrel was large enough to accommodate two people at the same time, Li Sui looked at Lu Shang’s fair skin and swallowed. He got undressed and soaked in as well.

The water was boiled with Chinese Mugwort leaves, and most likely with some other medicinal herbs as well. It had the smell of Chinese medicine, but it did not smell bad. In the beginning, Li Sui was seriously just massaging Lu Shang’s acupoints, but as things progressed, the atmosphere changed, and his fingers circled on Lu Shang’s ankles teasingly.

Lu Shang could not see. He could only locate people by following their breaths. As a result, as soon as he turned his head, his chin was lifted up and his lips sealed.

Unlike the gentleness Li Sui usually exhibited, the kisses today were very aggressive. Li Sui pressed him up against the barrel wall with one hand, while the other hand wrapped around Lu Shang’s waist to keep him from moving. Lu Shang couldn’t stand it, he was feeling dizzy from the kisses alone. During the brief dizziness, he didn’t even notice that a finger was already buried into his lower body.

“Is it all right today?” Li Sui bit Lu Shang’s ear and asked softly. His eyes were filled with desire, and his manhood was already stiff. Li Sui rubbed the bulging mass between Lu Shang’s legs as he asked.

Lu Shang couldn’t possibly have the heart to say “no” with how Li Sui was now. Lu Shang also didn’t find it strange that Li Sui got like this. For a long time, Li Sui was busy with work. Whenever Li Sui returned home, Lu Shang had already fallen asleep. Now that Lu Shang was counting, he did realize that the two of them hadn’t been having sex for quite a while. Li Sui was still at a hot-headed age, after all, having to sleep with him every day, only looking but not able to eat, he was bound to be extremely “hungry.”

Fortunately, he was in good health recently. Lu Shang gasped slightly and nodded.

The water in the bucket stirred as Li Sui turned Lu Shang around, placing him on his lap. Li Sui stroked the rigid tip of Lu Shang’s erection for a while, then lifted his hand out of the water, getting a bottle of lubricant from the pile of clothes beside him. Li Sui squeezed a bit on his fingers, then continued to expand Lu Shang’s insides further.

Lu Shang felt the familiar sense of coolness and just understood what Li Sui got from the car just now. So this was what he had to retrieve from the car, Lu Shang found that a little funny.

“What do you laugh at?” Li Sui raised his head up to land a kiss on the corner of Lu Shang’s mouth. His eyes were also soaked with a smile by Lu Shang’s laughing.

“Do you carry that with you wherever you go?” Lu Shang laughed.

Li Sui felt a little embarrassed as he rubbed his head against Lu Shang’s neck in a coquettish manner. Li Sui answered truthfully, “Whenever I’m with you, I’ll always bring it with me.”

Seeing that Lu Shang was going to laugh again, Li Sui said in a low voice, “I’m afraid of hurting you.”

Lu Shang reached his hand out to touch Li Sui’s face in the darkness, he found the location of Li Sui’s lips and went in for a kiss. Lu Shang said as he gasped slightly, “Come in.”

The temperature of the water was rather hot at the beginning, after soaking in it for a while though, the temperature was just right. It was the first time for Li Sui to enter the water. Li Sui raised Lu Shang’s body up a little to avoid choking Lu Shang by accident. He then circled his arm around Lu Shang’s waist while the other hand positioned Lu Shang at his own erection, he entered Lu Shang slowly.

After soaking in hot water for so long, their skin was flushed, and their bodies were getting more sensitive. Lu Shang arched his neck up and closed his eyes, feeling the sense of intrusion in detail. During the whole process, he firmly grasped onto Li Sui’s shoulders. In the darkness, that was the only thing he could feel, and he refused to let go of him no matter what.

Li Sui embraced him back, patting his back lightly as comfort, then reaching the deepest point at one go. Their burning breaths entangled, and both of them were very engrossed in it. Li Sui waited for Lu Shang to adapt then moved his lower body slightly. Because of the presence of buoyancy, stronger movements were needed to get pleasure when they were in the water, so he gradually increased the strength of his thrusting.

Lu Shang couldn’t see, and he didn’t have any strength, plus they were in the water, so even moving was difficult. Lu Shang completely gave up resisting, he relaxed his body and let Li Sui penetrate him from different angles. The herb boiled water flooded out the barrel to the ground along with the rhythm of the thrusts.

In the room, the lustful atmosphere gradually ascended. Li Sui was preparing to ram into him even harder when, there was some movements outside the door, it sounded like something was scratching the door. They were in the mountains, after all, so Li Sui ignored it at first, thinking that it was some small animals. After a while though, the sound grew louder, and it didn’t sound like wild animals anymore, so Li Sui stopped and held Lu Shang in his arms. He gasped and asked, “Who is it?”

“God…godfather……” A soft, sleepy voice said.

Both of them froze dead in their tracks, Lu Shang leaned on Li Sui’s shoulder and laughed softly, even the shaking transmitted to Li Sui’s chest.

Li Sui was embarrassed but also helpless, he could only try sweet-talking to the little girl, “Is that YouYou? Your Godfather’s asleep. Go back to sleep with your mom.”

The little girl obviously ignored him and continued to relentlessly scratch the door.

Li Sui was completely lit up by their previous activities already, he was desperate. After waiting for a while, seeing that the little girl was not leaving, he moved impatiently in the water. Lu Shang was sticking to him, he was comfortably stimulated and cooperatively gave a light hum. Li Sui’s possessiveness was dragged out thoroughly, and he was not letting go, no matter what.

As Li Sui pulled out and thrust back in, he thought selfishly, you won’t be able to snatch your Godfather from me, even though you are my Goddaughter. You are going to lose tonight. Your Goddad’s manhood is still buried in your Godfather’s body after all.

Lu Shang was blushing all over and tingling from Li Sui’s touch, but he was still slightly worried. It would be bad to let the little girl listen to them having sex after all. Besides, it was not safe to be out so late in the evening. Lu Shang had to speak up and advise her to go back through the door, “YouYou, go back to sleep… Ah… I will play with you… tomorrow… Hmm…”

The sound of scratching outside stopped. The little girl recognized Lu Shang’s voice, and obediently ran away with her little feet.

With a sigh of relief, Li Sui hugged Lu Shang fiercely and made one last violent thrust. When Li Sui reached the end, he took the back of Lu Shang’s neck in his mouth. The two men embraced each other and released at the same time.

This prolonged sex was a bit too long, so both of them were tired. Li Sui brushed away Lu Shang’s sweat-soaked bangs and kissed his eyes. After letting Lu Shang rest for a while, Li Sui slowly withdrew from him, pulling out silky white strands of fluid along the way.

Although Lu Shang could not see, he could imagine that the situation of his lower half must be extremely erotic. He could feel Li Sui’s breath tremble when he saw the white liquid spilling out of his hole, and he almost got hard again.

Before now, Li Sui always wore a condom or released outside of Lu Shang, as he was worried about Lu Shang’s health, he refused to release it inside. If he did that, cleaning would be too troublesome, and Lu Shang might get sick, so this was the first time.

“Lu Shang…” Li Sui held him tightly, then kissed him again and again behind his ears, seemingly apologetic, with a trace of excitement.

Perhaps, in their bones, every man had the desire to make a ritualistic mark, and Li Sui was no exception. Lu Shang was so tired that he was completely out of breath, he buried his face on Li Sui’s shoulder, letting his fingers slide in and out his back for cleaning.

Being in the water had an advantage, it was easier to clean. When the two of them finished cleaning up and came out of the bath, the water was already cold.

Li Sui worried about Lu Shang getting a cold. After wiping him clean and dry, Li Sui put him on the bed. He then turned to the kitchen and poured a glass of hot water. On the way, he went to YouYou’s room and checked her out, making sure that the little girl had climbed into bed and sleeping. After that, he went back to feed Lu Shang the warm water. That night, they fell asleep while hugging each other under the blanket.

When YouYou got up for breakfast the next day, she kept clapping and mumbling.

Li Sui found it strange and turned to Zuo Chao to ask, “What is she talking about?”

“I don’t know either. She probably heard something last night, she was clapping her hands like that ever since she got up this morning.” Zuo Chao didn’t take it to heart and said, “She likes to imitate everything she sees and hears. It’s all right. Don’t worry about it.”

Li Sui was shocked, and his face showed a flash of embarrassment. He looked at Lu Shang, and the other obviously felt the same thing as Li Sui, as Lu Shang was covering his mouth by raising the cup up.

“Come here, let’s eat rice dumplings,” Zuo Chao invited them. “This is the rice dumplings with meat fillings we made just last night. It’s delicious.”

Li Sui unwrapped the leaves and handed it to Lu Shang. Then he took another and ate it himself.

“Is it delicious?” Zuo Chao asked.

Li Sui nodded his head. When nobody was looking, he leaned to Lu Shang’s ear and whispered with a small laugh, “Not as delicious as you’re.”