LML Chapter 1

Chapter 1. Rambler Rose

The rambler roses in the garden bloomed so gorgeously, that the imposing grandeur of the flowers could even be felt through the darkness of the night. The swing swayed under the trellises, its ropes wrapped full by vine. Only when one happens upon such a scene, would the boring banquet suddenly seem unworthy of all praise.

Zhang Zi Tuo was surrounded by the heavy scent of floral fragrance. He gazed past the layers of branches and leaves, through the French windows and at the lobby. Fan Chen stood next to the wine table, talking to someone and looking no way in danger.

It was he who was the one in danger.

L’Eau D’Issey Pour Homme

The smell of the Homme perfume got closer and closer, followed by the sound of flowers and leaves being brushed away. As the smell and sound of movement came nearer and nearer, the he who’d been lost in thoughts could no longer come to a correct decision and so naturally turned to flee.

He was nervous to death but could only clench tighter on the rope of the swing, not daring to raise his head.

He’d guessed it was him. It really was him.

The man steadily made his way through the flowers and trees that shrouded the path and walked to stand in front of him.

And he could no longer even swing anymore, could only sit stiff as a plank of wood and listen as the man opened his mouth to talk.

“Why are you avoiding me?”

The “creak” of the swing came to a halt.

Zhang Zi Tuo looked up and gave him a calm smile, “I’m not. Really.”

When his injury had gotten better, he couldn’t decide whether or not he wanted to continue as a bodyguard. However, to thank Fan Chen for accompanying him through those days, he was now always somewhere near Fan Chen and attended banquets with him to protect his safety.

He had never thought that Gu Han Liang would still be in the country and that he would even attend these types of dinner parties.

He was originally unwilling to stay there where lanterns were red, wine was green*, and where the wine goblets and gambling chips laid intertwined*. He simply preferred to be alone at places empty of people. But he hadn’t expected that Gu Han Liang would misunderstand his behavior as deliberately avoiding him.

* 燈紅酒綠 idiom; red lanterns and green wine; a scene of feasting and revelry/debauchery
* 觥籌交錯 idiom; wine goblets and gambling chips laid intertwined; to drink and gamble in a large group

In the dim light, Gu Han Liang silently looked down at him, his gaze deep, as if he had no further intention to speak. His cold, decisive mien made Zhang Zi Tuo let out a hollow laugh. He released the hand that grasped the rope and asked, “Why don’t you go in?”

Gu Han Liang didn’t answer him, just turned and left without a care.

As for him – his palms were wet with sweat and his heart was just about to jump out from his mouth.

The man had been so close to him just now, he could clearly see the man’s handsome and indifferent face and could clearly smell the fresh and spicy scent of L’Eau D’Issey Pour Homme from the man’s body.

He’d once gifted Gu Han Liang a bottle of such a perfume. At that time, Gu Han Liang only thought that the gift was pointless, because with his identity, scents were not something he could use so casually; giving him the perfume was nothing more than a waste.

Then what about now? Who was it that made him again pick up this bottle of perfume?

Zhang Zi Tuo didn’t dare allow himself to get carried away with his guess; he didn’t have the right nor the possibility to fantasize about anything. The natural fresh scent of the perfume slowly permeated through the air and held there, causing even the floral scent of the roses to fade to nothingness. Some time after Gu Han Liang had left, Fan Chen came to find him.

“Zi Tuo?” Fan Chen squatted down, looked up at him, and pinched his face.

“Huh? Going back now?” He – as if he’d just startled from a dream – got ready to stand.

Fan Chen’s grin slipped from his face and he pressed down on his knee to stop him, “I just saw Gu Han Liang come find you.”

“Yeah, he came to talk for a bit.” He smiled and casually stretched out his hand to tousle Fan Chen’s hair.

Fan Chen was his only junior brother and ever since they were young, he had liked to play with his hair like this. Fan Chen looked at his smile, didn’t ask anything else, grabbed the hand ruining his hair and stood up, “Let’s go back?”

 “So early?” He looked at the hall, at the brightly lit room bustling with noise and excitement.

“Return earlier to our two-person world.” Fan Chen teased, his tone ambiguous – like a truth, yet like a lie. And so he too responded with the same vague tone: “Sure ~ sure ~ will always go back earlier in the future.”

“You do whatever you want.” Fan Chen pinched his face again, his expression affectionate.

Zhang Zi Tuo suspected that not only was he joking around, but he was also deliberately acting for the someone standing in front of the French windows and looking over at them. He darted a glance over. Gu Han Liang was wearing a black suit, and stood still as a mountain.

Why was he still looking over at them?

Zhang Zi Tuo’s heart was in an uproar, but Fan Chen didn’t give him a chance to think more, and pulled him away; simply not giving him the chance to impulsively go find someone.

But the consequence of that was – that one glance of that figure in front of the window ended up staying in his mind for three days and three nights. Until he again saw Gu Han Liang in the evening three days later.

Right, to meet again so soon; he almost suspected that it was on purpose.

As seeing the man simply agitated him to the point of stomach cramps, he didn’t dare to give himself another chance to be alone with him. And so, Zhang Zi Tuo reluctantly shrank into the darkest corner of the banquet, enduring the noise of his colleagues.

“So you are Zeng Fan Chen’s personal bodyguard! Your boss is very powerful, he started his own business and got big, all at such a young age! Do you get paid well for following him?” The bodyguard sitting next to him undoubtedly looked ruthless and cold, but he was surprisingly talkative and came over to chat just after he had sat down.

“Yeah, not bad.” He casually replied.

“I’ve been in this business for a long time. Haven’t seen you before. You look so young, did you just start doing this?” The bodyguard looked him up and down.

The corner of Zhang Zi Tuo’s mouth slightly twitched. “I’m twenty-five, I’m not young. I used to be abroad and I returned to China after I changed my boss.”

The talkative bodyguard immediately became interested in the life of foreign bodyguards and kept asking questions. After talking for around ten minutes, Zhang Zi Tuo suddenly felt a gaze, a stare pierce straight towards them, sending a chill up his spine.

This kind of oppression was too strong, even the talkative bodyguard felt that something was wrong, let alone him – a natural-born warrior who could immediately sense danger. The bodyguard patted at his arm and whispered, “Hey, that person standing on the second floor? Is he the Winfield Patriarch? Why does he keep staring over here? “

Zhang Zi Tuo didn’t dare to raise his head to look at Gu Han Liang’s expression and only fixed his eyes at some random point in the hall, “How can nobodies like us understand the minds of the big people above…maybe that person was just in a daze, should be nothing.”

“Well, I think there should be something.” The bodyguard hesitated for a while, but still stood up, “I’m going to move nest, you?”

“A trip to the washroom.” Zhang Zi Tuo also stood up. No matter how foolish he was, he was sure that something was not quite right with Gu Han Liang; it was as if he was singling him out. At such a moment, it was better to obediently surrender and look for a quiet place to find out what was wrong. Although he didn’t have much courage, he could be extremely impulsive when doing things. Which was why back then, he’d acted and had nearly strangled Liang Si Wei to death.

And now he very impulsively wanted to cut open Gu Han Liang’s head to see what was it he wanted to do!

He walked through the brightly lit corridor, turned into the bathroom, and subconsciously glanced at the mirror. His face was really one very handsome and masculine face. But the black of Zhang Zi Tuo’s eyes was painted dark, so the contrast between black and white was too clear, too distinct. Too unlike Liang Si Wei’s own; those eyes were brilliant and flowing with enchanting depth. That was probably the biggest difference between him and Liang Si Wei in appearance.

He already hadn’t looked in a mirror for a long time. Every time he saw that face of his, his chest would seem to hurt.

There wasn’t anyone in the bathroom. Zhang Zi Tuo opened the window, allowing the night breeze to blow in and blow towards the Gu Han Liang who had just walked in. He was still the same, sharp and beautiful in appearance; beautiful enough to hurt, but still totally captivating. Gu Han Liang stood there without speaking, but it was obvious that he came for him.

“You have something to tell me?” Zhang Zi Tuo opened his mouth when the man was two meters from him. He could never learn how to twist and turn*, he only knew how to open the door to meet the mountain*.

* 彎彎繞繞 phrase; describing a road with it’s twists and turns; here it is describing a manner of speaking, to not directly approach the subject; i left it as is because it’s more poetic XD
* 開門見山 idiom; open the door to see the mountain; to get right to the point

Gu Han Liang’s thin lips slightly parted. It was rare that it hadn’t curved into an icy or piercing arc. “I will return to the United States the day after tomorrow.”

Then he said the second sentence:

“You still have a lot of things to take away.”

Zhang Zi Tuo supposed he understood. This was Gu Han Liang cleaning everything up, dusting off his hands, and leaving? Gu Han Liang should indeed have returned to the states long ago; he had stayed in China long enough already. Even if he didn’t say it, Zhang Zi Tuo still knew the meaning behind those words; which was that if nothing else happened, he would never return to China again.

The only thing he couldn’t understand was why Gu Han Liang still cared about the things he left behind? Why didn’t he just throw them away? Did he so deliberately meet with him today, just to say farewell to him?

Zhang Zi Tuo was about to open his mouth to ask, when he caught the scene from outside the window in his peripheral vision. The people lying low in the garden seemed very familiar, almost as if they were from the same organization as those that had already attacked Fan Chen several times.  Strange….Fan Chen was very clean when handling business, was even a bit slick and evasive; it was impossible for there to be an enemy that would want his death. But recently, this group of people still tightly pursued, wanting to take Fan Chen’s life.

“Wait a bit.” With a hurried explanation to Gu Han Liang, Zhang Zi Tuo turned, flipped over the ledge of the window and slipped into the garden. This was probably the first time he had ever asked Gu Han Liang to wait for him. After he had turned away, what kind of expression did Gu Han Liang have on his face? Was he surprised?

Unwilling to make too much noise, he only used a hand knife to rapidly stun the group unconscious, before he forced the last member to clean up the scene, restoring it to its original, tranquil state.

Zhang Zi Tuo stood in front of that last conscious member, in front of that person whose hands had been damaged by him and just as he was just about to ask who his master was, he suddenly felt that the person’s face was a bit familiar.

Not just a bit, but very familiar. He’d always remembered clearly every person who followed Gu Han Liang, even the mere driver.

His heart a mess, Zhang Zi Tuo didn’t realize that there was still someone lying in ambush by the wall. He only roused when the bullet was already by his side. He leaned to the side, slanting away his vital points. While the bullet only grazed over the side of his ribs, the fierce power behind it still left his chest shaking.

Not caring that he himself was losing blood, he rushed to the wall to finish off the one who shot him. Suddenly he was glad he was wearing black; it was hard to tell even if he bled a lot.

Rushing forward had caused the bleeding to increase. Knowing that he himself was about to faint, Zhang ZI Tuo headed straight to the hall. Thankfully, Fan Chen just happened to come out to look for him and so they met at the door. Otherwise he’d have had to enter the hall to find Fan Chen. The invaluable young misses and young masters in there would have been scared half-to-death by the metallic scent of blood on him.

Fan Chen knitted his brows at the smell. Zhang Zi Tuo didn’t forget to jokingly kiss him on the face, smiling as he asked, “Still won’t hurry and take me back to turn clouds and make rain?”*

* 翻雲覆雨 idiom; to produce clouds with one turn of the hand and rain with the other; to make love

Fan Chen swept him into his arms and left. As he walked, he also turned around and told someone to help him take his leave. Zhang Zi Tuo’s wound hurt, but it still wasn’t bad enough for him to pass out. The blood was flowing everywhere even before Fan Chen carried him into the car and yet he only wanted to laugh.

Was Gu Han Liang still waiting in the washroom? For someone like him, that type of Son of Heaven*, probably been a while since he last tasted the flavor of being stood up?

* 天之驕子; saying; Son of Heaven; unusually lucky person, an extremely superior being

When he woke up again, he was in a familiar room.

Zhang Zi Tuo patted his face, making sure that he was not dreaming. How strange. He stared at the familiar ceiling for a long time, before he tentatively called out, “Gu Han Liang?”

The door opened at once and the master of the room entered.

“Why are you here?” Zhang Zi Tuo was truly taken aback.

Standing at the door of the room, Gu Han Liang languidly replied, “I thought this was my home.”

Zhang Zi Tuo quickly changed his words: “Erm, I mean, why am I here?”

Gu Han Liang was silent for a while, then he seemed to have decided to tell the truth: “I found Van and requested he bring you here.” Van was the English name that Fan Chen used.

“Requested” he bring you here? Zhang Zi Tuo understood the meaning of this sentence. “You threatened him?”

“Yeah,” Gu Han Liang nodde, and magnanimously admitted. Striding forward with those slender, powerful legs, he walked to the side of the bed and sat down. “Doesn’t matter, in any case, you are here now.”

Zhang Zi Tuo smiled, “What are you looking for me for? To rekindle old emotions?”

Gu Han Liang didn’t answer, just very naturally pulled away his covers and pressed his right hand against his injured side. His temperature scorched through the clothing and almost seemed to reach the heart that was not much further away.  It was rare for Gu Han Liang to show such a limpid expression. Zhang Zi Tuo guessed that he must have felt the lively jump of his heart.

“Does it hurt?”

Hurts. Really hurts. Especially when he saw that weak expression in those eyes of his. Was it real, or was it fake? Please, he was Gu Han Liang, the man who almost shot him dead. So why was it that at such a time he could still so slyly reveal such an expression?

Perhaps it was because his own expression was too obvious, but Gu Han Liang didn’t pursue an answer and instead changed the subject, “Van has a good relationship with you?”

“He is my junior disciple.”

“Your relationship doesn’t seem to be that simple.”

It seemed that Fan Chen’s joking behavior had indeed been misleading. “We were just playing around, not real lovers,” Zhang Zi Tuo replied with a smile

Gu Han Liang nodded, looking as if he didn’t believe his words. But he didn’t say anything, just gave him one profound glance, removed the hand on his side and said: “You take a rest, I will see you at night.”

“Oh.” His mind still a blur, Zhang Zi Tuo only nodded like a fool, and watched Gu Han Liang walk out and the door close.

Wait – what was this situation!?

Even though he had talked with Gu Han Liang just as normal, how was it that not one useful word came out. Zhang Zi Tuo still had no idea of what was going on, and still couldn’t understand why Gu Han Liang wanted him there. It couldn’t really be to rekindle old emotions, right?

Whatever! His wound was still painful, so he would just wait for Fan Chen to come rescue him. Although Fan Chen wasn’t good at martial arts, but he had heard that their Master was around. In any case, Fan Chen could just invite their Master as his reinforcement.

Zhang Zi Tuo laid calmly on the bed, his eyes slowly sweeping across every corner of the room. So familiar. Even though it’d been an year since he left, he had still lived here for as long as two years. There was his wardrobe, the wallpaper he liked, the desk he often used and on the drawer of the desk, was the combination lock he had bought.

The combination lock was really child’s play, even he – an impulsive person who was no expert with locks – could easily open it within a minute. Displaying the lock over there, was simply a physical manifestation of a wish. A wish for Gu Han Liang to respect him, to not look through the contents of the drawer. Anyways, if Gu Han Liang really wanted to look at something, even if it was secured by the ten most difficult locks in the world, he would still be able to look at it.

Zhang Zi Tuo got up and got out of the bed, walked barefoot over the carpet and cracked open his lock. Everything in the drawer was as before, the various bits and bolts tidily arranged, without any sign of having been touched. Gu Han Liang was right. He did have a lot of things left here; traces of his existence and his past state of mind.

Gu Han Liang would return to the United States tomorrow. If he asked him for this house, Gu Han Liang would generously give it to him, right?

He locked the drawer, he crawled back to the bed, pulled the quilt and opened his eyes wide, telling himself to be calm and not to feel too much. About an hour was passed in this way, but the outside of the door remained as calm as his presence of mind; nothing had happened at all. Unexpectedly, no one had came to rescue him.

Could it be that he was sold by Fan Chen?

Zhang Zi Tuo looked at the clock on the bedside table, jumped down from the bed, pulled on his old pajamas from the closet, and ran to the door. However, as soon as he pulled the door open, and stuck his head out, he immediately gave up the idea of running away.

A corridor full of black trench coats! Even if he had wings, it’d still be hard to get away.

The one next to the door respectfully spoke, “Please return back to the room and rest.”

“I’m hungry.” Zhang Zi Tuo patted his stomach.

“If Mister would please wait just a moment, I will bring food immediately.”

Zhang Zi Tuo glared at him, “I’m going to eat downstairs.”

“I dare not bear the consequences of letting Mister downstairs.”

Zhang Zi Tuo stood at the door for a while. He couldn’t fall asleep, and he wasn’t willing to return to the bedroom to wait by himself. “You are very polite. I don’t want to fight you.”

The bodyguard at the door hesitated, “If Mister could please return to the room. We dare not hurt Mister.”

“Don’t dare my ass!” Zhang Zi Tou snorted “Don’t think I can’t see it. The ones who’ve troubled my junior disciple are from your group. You’ve already hurt me and now you say you don’t dare to, don’t be so fake.”

The bodyguard was silent.

Zhang Zi Tuo took a step forward and was blocked.

He was really not a patient person and he also wasn’t pleased that they had bothered Fan Chen; he simply flashed past the bodyguards and darted down the stairs. No one was able to stop him. To him, this corridor of black trench coats was the same as the combination lock; a mere decoration.

Zhang Zi Tuo had no parents, it was his Master Zhan Chen who had collected him from the orphanage. But after Zhan Chen had taught him martial arts for five years, he wasn’t able to teach him any more. That was because he was the rare once-in-a-century martial arts genius and being born in modern times seemed to make him destined to become a legend. He himself didn’t feel much about that, but when compared to Fan Chen and the little junior sister Su Ye, he was always able to learn something better than them in a much shorter time frame. Later on, he had followed Zhan Chen to visit various martial arts masters and absorbed the best of each. And now, he was confident that no one in the world could beat him by relying only on fists and feet.

By the time the group of black coats had rushed downstairs to stop him, Zhang Zi Tuo had already finished ordering from Chef Chen and now sat at the dining table waiting for his meal.

It was strange; Gu Han Liang had never really liked eating Chinese food and had previously kept Chef Chen only to cater to his taste. He didn’t think that after a year had passed, Chef Chen actually hadn’t been dismissed and still stayed to work.

Zhang Zi Tuo said, “I’m already downstairs, it’s impossible to be forced up by you guys. You guys can do as you will.”

The bodyguards did not speak, but dutifully blocked the doors and windows.

He laughed at them, “Relax, I don’t plan to go by myself, I’m waiting for someone to come be the hero to save the beauty.”*

* 英雄救美; idiom; a hero saving a damsel in distress

Translator has something to say: Sorry for the late update guys!!!! I really didn’t want to just leave you with just the prologue, but I just couldn’t be satisfied with the drafts ☹ Lemme first say that every chapter of this novel is at least this thick and dense. OTL

So, why did I pick this novel to translate? Mostly because of the title. I came upon it some weeks ago, translated it in my head, nodded, told myself “Ah, what a nice title, too bad not my cup of tea. Next.” And then, this past week, I….suddenly couldn’t stop thinking about it?!? I admit, the plot has some holes. But the title. Everything is started by and completely wrapped up by that title. Author did such a good job with that, I just had to share.

Also, maybe some of you would have noticed, but the author uses “he” a lot; so I’ll first say that that is really what’s written, that’s not me being all creative with editing. I tried not to replace them, because I felt like the use of “he” was what made the prologue somewhat special, but do drop me a comment if it gets too confusing.

SBHA is my current priority, but author of LML has a more artistic writing style, so I am much more careful with it. I hope I can capture the author’s voice, as well as the voices of the characters. I also apologize if my updates are slow, but I will only post a chapter when I am somewhat satisfied with it.

See you all (hopefully) next week ~~~~~ (flying kiss)
Comments appreciated ~ (shy) ~

Prologue

Chapter 2