Wuxia Tale: Hua in Bloom

Still Together

(MEI)

"My cousin? How is Dayu?" I asked Captain Wang while frowning at him.

This afternoon, Jiang and I decided to visit the Wang Estate. Jiang will travel again the day after tomorrow and before he went away for a two week business travel, he wanted to have a word with Captain Wang.

But I worry when Dayu didn't greet us this afternoon. He always does that, welcome me and my family into their home. Even our children, ShuYin and ZhouLin asked after their Uncle Dayu.

"He is resting," Captain Wang said dismissively, "We had...a long night to say the least." He gave us a knowing look and smile that explained why they slept late last night. Or is it this morning?

Jiang groaned, "Are you boasting now?" He asked his friend.

Captain Wang laughed, "No. Because we also took some time last night to argue and settle our differences after Dayu tried to carve me like I'm a roasted duck,"

Jiang and I stared at Captain Wang in amazement. My cousin's lover chuckled amusedly detailing a story of what happened last night. A story about an out of place jealous Dayu with a dagger in his hand.

By the end of the story, Captain Wang's good humor had melted and he realized now that the story sounded more dangerous than amusing.

"Do you have anything to do with the way your cousin acted, Mei?" Captain Wang asked me in a grim tone. "Dayu and I argued about Dao's departure from our home and I avoided him to save ourselves of frustrations and fighting. But last night, Dayu tried to take my heart."

"Well..." I winced at Captain Wang and my own lover who eyed me intently. I sighed and decided to be honest. "I might have shared to Dayu what I will do to Jiang in case my Captain decided to stray from our bed."

"Yes," Captain Wang hummed, "Dayu had relayed that much to me last night,"

Jiang's mouth slacked though, "You told your cousin about...you..." he cannot complete his sentence from utter amazement. "Why would you do that?"

"I thought Dayu needed a distraction from thinking too much about Dao, so I pushed his mind to focus on Captain Wang instead. Besides, Dayu is being complacent about their private intimate relationship. Dayu is obssessing with their children so I gave him something else to think about. But what happened last night, that I didn't predicted." I said in defense.

"You didn't anticipated your cousin, a former assassin, taking a dagger and try to slice me open when he got mad?" Captain Wang frowned at me.

"I thought it's farfetched. He loves you," I replied to Captain Wang nonchalantly. "And besides, I thought you will not be unfaithful to Dayu. You will not do that to him. So I said to myself that I shouldn't worry about anything because there will not be one circumstance that Dayu will need to do what he said he will do if he confirmed that you are having someone else on the side."

"But your cousin really did it," Jiang pointed out to me.

"And Dayu is an adult who can think for himself. He decided to take that action. He must have felt threatened that's why he acted that way," I narrowed my eyes on Captain Wang, "You are not having a sexual affair with anyone else, right?"

"No!" Captain Wang indignantly growled at me. "Damn it, Mei! I love your cousin. You know what we had gone through to get here,"

The disgust on Captain Wang's face assured me. "Then Dayu was wrong. I hope he apologized nicely to you, Captain. And I will implore your forgiving heart to excuse my cousin's mistake." I said serenely as I sip more tea.