Cunning old man
by M1zushiThank you Read for the ko-fi donation!
The Pastry Shop at the Square—
As the clock struck eleven at night, the shopkeeper picked up the “Closed” sign, preparing to hang it.
Ding-ling-ling…
Someone pushed the door open in a hurry, slightly out of breath. “I’m sorry, are you closed already?”
The shopkeeper looked over in surprise. Standing on the floor mat was a white-haired young man. He was lightly rubbing his frost-reddened fingers with his scarf, his nose pinked from the cold—clearly, he had been buffeted by the wind on his way here.
“Step inside a bit more, there’s a heater in here,” the shopkeeper greeted him warmly.
Bai Ling scanned the empty display cases, his heart sinking.
It looks like I arrived too late…
The shopkeeper, an older woman, saw the coupon clutched in his hand and said kindly, “Are you looking for the Thanksgiving cupcakes, dear? We were just about to close; there’s only one box left.”
“That’s fine, one box is okay,” Bai Ling resolutely replied, pulling down his scarf.
“The one that’s left has a very good meaning, though,” she said, retrieving the box from the refrigerated shelf. “Our cupcakes all have writing on them, usually blessings.”
She opened the pale blue box to show him, smiling. “Look, this box says ‘Safe Travels.’ It’s a wonderful wish to give to family.”
Bai Ling: “……”
Why is it this one! It was even covered in cream; how could he have the face to take this back…
Seeing him fall silent, the shopkeeper asked cautiously, “Ah, do you not like it?”
Bai Ling’s cheeks immediately flushed hot. He turned his gaze away unnaturally, stuttering slightly, “It’s… it’s fine. Actually, it’ll work.”
“Shall I wrap it for you?” Without waiting for an answer, she began thoughtfully pulling out ribbons. “We have pink, yellow, green, cream-white—”
Bai Ling hurried to answer, “Green! I want the green one!”
He steadied his nerves, met the shopkeeper’s kind smile, and forced his expression to remain flat. “Can I tie the knot myself?”
Bai Ling never imagined that the [Twenty Ways to Tie a Bow] he had learned in the Omega Virtue class would actually be put to use one day.
Once he finished, the shopkeeper repeatedly praised the bow for its beauty. “It’s just… it seems to be tied a bit too securely?”
Bai Ling didn’t bat an eye. “Mm. Professional habit.”
Carrying the cupcakes, he returned to the secret small door where he had entered.
He crawled through the waist-high opening, and for a moment, he felt as if he were walking into a dwarf’s cottage from a fairy tale.
But when he straightened up, his vision was suddenly filled by that slender silhouette and the lush golden hair. It was as if he had returned to the Little Mermaid theater.
Specifically, the “Little Mermaid: King Max Edition.”
Hearing the movement, the merman naturally let out a smile as he turned his head, his deep green eyes hidden in the shadows of his brow bone. The old, warm-toned overhead light shone down, adding a timeless elegance to him.
As his gaze shifted to the Greek-style cloth wrapped around the merman’s waist, Bai Ling’s heart tightened. He couldn’t help but frown and ask:
“Why did you really stay here waiting for me? Didn’t you go back to change your clothes? The weather is so cold…”
Yu Chen said gently, “I thought, what if you suddenly returned and couldn’t see me? So I stayed here by the waterway for a while.”
A while… It was far more than a while; it had clearly been three hours.
He really was like the Little Mermaid statue, becoming a literal lookout stone.
A flash of guilt crossed Bai Ling’s face. He turned his head and bit his lip. “Please prioritize yourself next time.”
After saying it, he felt it wasn’t enough, so he added firmly, “In the future, if I’m going to be out for a long time, I’ll report my schedule to you.”
An imperceptible trace of pleasure flickered across Yu Chen’s expression.
Reporting the schedule. The returning falcon would provide its landing schedule.
Yu Chen walked toward him, following his sound. Halfway there, the little bird proactively leaned in, his breath warm and close.
“The landing gear hasn’t been retracted yet.” Yu Chen gently rubbed the small feathers that had been blown upright by the wind.
“Landing gear?” Bai Ling looked up in surprise, feeling that cool, long finger smoothing down the base of his feathers all the way to his scalp. It felt so good it made him tingle all over.
Damn it… he’s really good at petting.
Bai Ling forced his mind to stay steady and introduced it to him with a straight face: “Feathers aren’t landing gear. Structurally speaking, this is—”
He audaciously raised his lower leg, sliding it between the merman’s two muscular, well-defined legs. He even twisted his knee, giving a slight nudge upward.
Yu Chen grabbed the back of that leg, using the momentum to pull him toward his chest, letting the little bird’s wings spread as he fell into a full embrace.
Bai Ling unceremoniously grabbed the cloth at his waist. “If you keep this up, I’ll tear away your fig leaf.”
Yu Chen’s voice dropped low into his ear. “I have never stopped you from doing anything you want to do.”
Sure enough, Bai Ling let go, his cheeks scalding as he pulled away.
Curse him, the cunning old man. Every word out of his mouth is a trap!
Bai Ling glanced at the time—ten minutes to the hour. He pinched his palm and asked in a tone as normal as possible, “Can you walk out of this room?”
“What is it? Is there something you need me to do?”
“I want to invite you to watch the fireworks—”
Bai Ling shifted to a more formal tone, looking directly into Yu Chen’s eyes as he invited him resolutely: “To share the fruits of victory.”
Yu Chen didn’t have time to ask what kind of victory it was. His little bird had already taken his hand, leading him, this blind man, through the iron bars and thorns, through the small side door, and out into the open.
It seemed that with this thin hand leading him, the vast darkness of the road ahead became much easier to walk.
Yu Chen imagined the day he walked out of the Palace Tower countless times.
Perhaps it would be with his robes trailing behind him, or over a field of corpses.
But he never imagined he would be nudged out by the wing-tip of a little bird while half-naked.
Fine snow drifted between the gaps of his toes. The air at the bottom was cold and turbid.
Yu Chen couldn’t help but take a deep breath; he felt a strange sense of grounding, as if his soul had returned to its place.
“The view from the roof should be pretty good,” Bai Ling said. “I’ll lead you up.”
Three minutes later, the two of them climbed onto the snow-covered roof, casually brushing away the accumulation.
But this roof had rotting tiles; Bai Ling accidentally stepped on a weak spot and nearly fell through. Yu Chen, quick-eared and fast-handed, followed the sound of the wind and caught him.
Losing their balance, the two of them rolled onto the broken tiles.
Bai Ling blew away a strand of golden hair stuck to his lip, straddling Yu Chen’s lap as he propped up his upper body.
He looked down at that elegant, handsome face for a moment before raising his hand to seriously brush away the snow on the golden hair, as if polishing an old relic.
Yu Chen chuckled, took his hand, and rubbed the calluses formed from holding a gun before sitting up with him.
Bai Ling buried his nose in his scarf, his lashes trembling as he stared at the man’s pale collarbone.
The naked Majesty, and me, wrapped in warmth.
Bai Ling bit a corner of his scarf, silently took off his own coat, and draped it over Yu Chen’s shoulders. Then he pulled open his warm down jacket and quickly burrowed into his embrace, lying back to gaze at his sharply defined jawline.
This is fine.
He knew the merman was a deep-sea creature and didn’t fear the cold.
But the merman had said he could do anything he wanted.
Yu Chen didn’t refuse; he only moved his arms, pulling Bai Ling closer.
The little bird smelled of gunpowder and a chaotic mix of alpha pheromones.
However, he could smell that those pheromone molecules were mostly filled with anger and terror, likely traces left over from the “competition.”
Aside from that, there was a faint sweet-and-sour scent.
Yu Chen involuntarily leaned in for a breath, only to have something suddenly stuffed into his arms.
Bai Ling’s voice was a bit muffled. “Cupcakes. For you.”
Yu Chen felt the smooth cardboard and the meticulously tied ribbon. He couldn’t help but smile. “Are these the fruits the little bird brought back? I thank nature for its bounty.”
“It’s a green ribbon. The one you like.” The mechanical, cold voice spoke these sweet, adorable words without any attempt at concealment.
Yu Chen then remembered that today seemed to be Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving… a distant, foreign word. He lowered his eyes, hiding the complex emotions within them.
Yu Chen rubbed his palms together vigorously until they were warm, then placed them over the little bird’s cool forehead, tenderly smoothing the feathers ruffled by the wind.
“Thank you, darling.”
After a long silence, the myriad of words in his heart were filtered down and settled into that single sentence.
Bai Ling grabbed the merman’s fingernails, guiding him to untie the ribbon, unwinding it loop by loop. “Two cream ones, four frosting ones. You can eat them all.”
Yu Chen recalled for a moment and asked, “Are these the Thanksgiving cupcakes where the four frosting ones have writing on them? What words did you choose?”
Bai Ling denied it quickly with a blank face, “No words. Just eat them.”
“You bought my favorite ribbon; I imagine you chose the words too.”
Bai Ling: “……”
Sometimes he really wondered if this man was actually blind or just pretending.
Why was he always right? It was scarier than an electronic fortune teller.
Bai Ling was forced to admit it. “…Yes.” He quickly added coldly, “But I didn’t buy them on purpose. A friend gave me a coupon and I arrived too late; this was all that was left. I’m really not hinting at anything, so please don’t overthink it.”
Yu Chen picked up a cupcake, his expression serene. “Hinting? I didn’t think much of it. Though, eating ‘Safe Travels’ covered in cream is indeed a good idea.”
Ignoring his scalding neck, Bai Ling answered solemnly, “You can, but I’ll have to trouble you to lick it clean yourself.”
“You said it yourself: we shouldn’t waste food.”
Tit for tat. Subordination in name only.
Yu Chen was slightly stunned, then gave a soft, low laugh. Truly his fierce little bird.
“I’ll add your request to the list,” he said, affectionately pinching Bai Ling’s small earlobe.
Adding it to the ‘Little Bird’s Menu.
To be honest, the taste of the cupcakes from a mom-and-pop shop wasn’t breathtaking, but Yu Chen savored them slowly and carefully. As he tasted them on the tip of his tongue, surrounded by the flavor of the frosting, the simple satisfaction provided by the sugar surpassed all the delicacies in the world.
Furthermore, he knew the layout of the cupcake box.
Three on top, three on the bottom; the four frosting ones on the left, the two plain cream ones on the right.
So, he only ate the top row and cherished the rest by closing the box.
Just then, a dazzling burst of giant flames erupted in the night sky. The “playground” far away in the starry sky was destroyed in a brilliant explosion. Like the fleeting glory of a setting sun, it briefly and intensely illuminated the land.
It also illuminated the joy in Bai Ling’s eyes.
It actually hit. It wasn’t intercepted mid-way.
Thinking back on his journey in this life, everything seems to have gone remarkably smooth. As if the Goddess of Fate was watching over him, or as if someone in the shadows was forcefully intercepting every disaster on his behalf.
Bai Ling turned his head, wanting to describe the exhilarating thrill of the “fireworks” to the blind merman. But in those forest-green eyes, which should have been as silent as stagnant water, he saw a reflection of brilliant, golden waves.
Bai Ling looked at the box in the man’s hands and knit his brows. “Why aren’t you eating? You probably didn’t eat dinner either, did you? You waited all this time for me, then swam that huge lap with me on your back. Aren’t you hungry?”
The merman’s voice was deep and mellow, warming Bai Ling’s racing heart. “I ate the ‘Travels.’ But I’ll leave the ‘Safety’ for you.”
Author’s Note:
Old Merman: I ate the ‘Travels.’ But I’ll leave the ‘Safety’ for you.
Little Bird: Eat my creamy cake!
Old Merman: ?
That piece of seafood trash must have died quite “happily,” right? (Cackles)
translator’s note:
i forgot how good this chapter was. I love stories with good worldbuilding where everyone has a chance to shine, even the common people. i also like when authors allow mcs to do whatever they want and achieve their revenge with their own hands and experience instead of having to rely of their mls to accomplish personal revenge
also BL’s mourning for his past homeland is so sad and i like that author uses the past/present governments as foils to each other.
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