Heirloom? Little Uncle?

“Miao’er Laughs? That’s an elegant name.” Pei Yanzhen looked at me, his voice that was not too high nor too low, neither too fast nor too slow, drifting through the wind. A string of accumulated rain slowly slid down along the surface of the umbrella and silently onto the damp mud of the embankment.

“Whoa!” The water buffalo beneath me shook its head and waded onto the bank.

Pei Yanzhen handed his umbrella to a young man and reached out to hug Shen Xiao. Tang Yuan blinked his bright, moist eyes, and like a cat, formed a ball and let Pei Yanzhen carry him off the buffalo’s back. In a small voice, he called out, “Little Uncle.”

Pei Yanzhen gave a start and a slight ripple flitted over the tip of his eyebrows, but his hands naturally swept up Tang Yuan in his arms and wiped away a layer of mist from his little face before putting him down.

Although Tang Yuan was a good boy, he was not very close to anyone except Song Xiyuan, someone with a lot of smiles and tricks, even more so than Pei Yanzhen. I don’t know why he was not afraid of anyone but Pei Yanzhen, a gentle scholar who never raises his voice. Whenever he met Pei Yanzhen, he was like the white cat at home whose whiskers had been cut and claws trimmed, so he did not say much. Later on, Xiao Yiniang felt that it was not quite right and that it was only proper to follow the right line, so she corrected Tang Yuan that he should be called “Little Uncle.”

When Tang Yuan was two years old, Pei Yanzhen gave Tang Yuan a mutton jade pendant. It was a gentle piece of flawless jade but without any flower engraving, only a large “赦“1 was etched in the middle of the pendant that made people’s eyes glaze over. It was as moist as a beauty’s cheeks and whiter than snow.

However, the origin of this object was even more resounding. It could be traced back to the time when the emperor founded his kingdom. It was said that when he was expanding the northern frontier, he was in danger of being killed by criminals. But thanks to a series of brilliant plans offered by the Pei family’s patriarch, not only did he succeed in rescuing the emperor but also enabled him to seize half of the northern frontier without a single soldier or any bloodshed. The emperor was so pleased with his triumphant return that he chose a piece of rare white jade from the seized exotic treasures, stamped “赦” on it, and bestowed it to the Pei family, meaning that if anyone from the Pei family commits a crime in the future, even if it was of a heinous sort that could lead to the extermination of nine clans, this jade pendant would save one’s life. Naturally, the Pei family treated this object like a family heirloom and passed it down from generation to generation.

Naturally, I didn’t want Pei Yanzhen to give such a valuable gift for a mere second birthday. I handed it back to him, nearly breaking the jade in half when my trembling hands didn’t hold it steadily enough. I said that Tang Yuan, as a distant relative of the Pei family, couldn’t accept this valuable gift, and firmly refused it in his stead. However, Pei Yanzhen, wearing a faint smile like a cool autumn breeze, said, “Today, Xiao’er is the birthday boy, so he has the final say.”

Pei Yanzheng asked the little one if he wanted the jade pendant, coaxing him into taking it. The birthday boy timidly looked at me, then at Pei Yanzhen, before stretching out his little hand that was moister than jade to accept the jade pendant. Pei Yanzhen smiled for a moment, like a summer lotus in its first bloom, elegant and pleasant.

I was in a state of fear.

Tang Yuan held the jade pendant in his hand and took off its spike, turning it into only a bare, white jade.

It turned out that Xiao’er had only taken a fancy to the crimson tassel and had no interest in the Pei family heirloom. He handed the pendant back to Master Pei, who had never been so embarrassed in his life, his face in a state of flux.

At that moment, Tang Yuan looked at Pei Yanzhen’s white, cool face and suddenly said timidly, “Little Uncle.”

Pei Yanzhen was stunned by the words. Shortly after, his eyebrows knitted together, a layer of imperceptible sadness filling up in the bottom of his eyes. He looked at Tang Yuan dazedly for a long time, then leaned down and hugged him tightly in his arms. His expression, whether it was a look of sadness, pity, or shame, slowly faded, and a smile of ineffable gentle tenderness formed on his lips while looking out of the window at the horizon, like a smooth silky ribbon, seemingly loving and harmless once entwined but could slowly take people’s lives. I was startled, but when I looked again, the smile had already dissipated.

This was the first time Tang Yuan called Pei Yanzhen “Little Uncle.” Since then, he had not often called him so, just once or twice. As time went on, I discovered that whenever Pei Yanzhen was vaguely angry, Tang Yuan would only call him so, and whenever Tang Yuan threw down the phrase “Little Uncle,” Pei Yanzhen’s hidden anger, no matter how much he had in his belly, would instantly be halved.

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Additional Note:  

My sincerest apologies for the late update again as I was being held up by my exam and NL is bad in shape, currently on bed rest with IV drips. .｡･ﾟﾟ･(＞_＜)･ﾟﾟ･｡.I promise to do a regular release from now on as I got a new helper, toxicella, the most enthusiastic ED! Let’s give a warm welcome to him, shall we? ☆*:.｡.o(≧▽≦)o.｡.:*☆Lastly, to my dearest witch-senpai, thank you as always for helping us <333