DLMSWSHH Chapter 37

Tl: Hua

Chapter 37: Sewing

Li Yizhi stood in the corridor with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall. He watched the two people crouching on the floor in front of him, whispering as if plotting something, and narrowed his phoenix eyes slightly.

“I can’t help but feel like you two are hiding something from me.”

He tapped his fingers against his arm.

Zhong Ming remained indifferent. Half-kneeling on the ground, he acted as if he hadn’t heard Li Yizhi. He held an iron hammer in his right hand, staring intently at the floor. Beside him, Ye Qing held down a corner of the wooden flooring that had buckled upward, her expression tense.

“Is… is that it?”

“Mm.” Zhong Ming nodded, his gaze sharp. “I think this’ll work.”

Ye Qing exhaled, saying nervously, “Then be careful not to hit my hand.”

Zhong Ming nodded. In the next instant, he held his breath and focused. The hammer in his right hand swung down with a thud and successfully hit it crooked.

The buckled corner was still there, but now the other side was dented inward.

Zhong Ming & Ye Qing: “…”

Ye Qing pulled her hand back. “…This is what you meant by ‘having a handle’ on it?”

Zhong Ming frowned. “Let’s try again.”

At that moment, a sigh came from behind them.

“Alright, alright, move aside—” Li Yizhi shoved them away, grabbing Zhong Ming by the back of his collar to haul him back. He snatched the hammer and grumbled as he knelt down. “A young master and a young lady… what can anyone possibly expect from you two?”

Zhong Ming and Ye Qing were forced to retreat. They watched as Li Yizhi swung the hammer clang, clang, clang and in a few strokes, he perfectly leveled the floorboard they had spent half an hour debating. The stubborn corner submitted under his hands, returning to its place as smooth as new.

Zhong Ming & Ye Qing: …Wow.

Li Yizhi stood up, tilted his head toward them, and shook his head with an exaggerated sigh.

“Four limbs do no labor, five grains cannot be told apart.[1]”

He said with a world-weary air: “I really wonder where all that schooling of yours went.”

Zhong Ming and Ye Qing had no rebuttal. They could only stare as Li Yizhi pivoted on his heel and sauntered over to Zhong Ming, hooking an arm around his shoulder.

“What are you two kids plotting? Why don’t you tell me about it?”

Hearing this, Ye Qing’s shoulders trembled, and a flash of panic crossed her eyes. Fortunately, Li Yizhi wasn’t looking at her; although his words were addressed to both, his eyes were fixed on Zhong Ming’s face.

Zhong Ming, held by the shoulder, looked pale as snow. He turned his head slightly and lifted his eyelids to look at him.

“We are researching the relationship between ancient European wooden structures and the humanities.”

Zhong Ming arched an eyebrow, asking with slight surprise, “Are you interested?”

Li Yizhi: “…”

He narrowed his eyes, and the hand gripping Zhong Ming tightened slightly to pull him closer. He leaned down to whisper in his ear: “Do you think I don’t understand anything?” Li Yizhi raised his voice. “I went to school too!”

He sounded very much like someone trying too hard to prove a point.

Zhong Ming looked up at him. “Primary school?”

Li Yizhi cocked an eyebrow. “Middle school.”

Zhong Ming: “And high school?”

Li Yizhi: “…”

Zhong Ming wore a look of realization. Ye Qing, who had been panicked, lowered her head and couldn’t help but let out a “pfft.”

Li Yizhi shot her a cold glance. Ye Qing froze and hurriedly explained: “N-no! I didn’t mean to mock your education! It’s… it’s just that I find your conversation very amusing.”

Li Yizhi turned back, staring at the smiling Zhong Ming for a few seconds. Suddenly, he reached out and pinched Zhong Ming’s snowy-white cheek.

“Don’t think you can fool me just because I haven’t read as many books as you.”

Zhong Ming calmly brushed his hand away. “I have no such intention.”

Li Yizhi let go of him, narrowing his eyes meaningfully as he said to Zhong Ming: “Who knows what that little head of yours is thinking about every day?”

Zhong Ming smiled but said nothing.

After the previous batch of players was cleared out, the haunted house returned to its usual tranquility. Time in the valley gradually moved into late autumn. The most comfortable part of the season had passed; the crisp, sunny days turned into incessant rain. The temperature dropped, the sky turned a leaden gray, and a persistent dampness clung to the mansion’s wooden floors.

Madam Mary ordered the menservants to collect every item the players had used such as sheets, duvet covers, pillowcases, towels and pile them in the backyard to be burned.

Zhong Ming watched the soft, fine cotton fabrics catch fire, feeling a pang of wastefulness. He turned to ask Li Yizhi: “Why must they be burned? They could still be used after a wash.”

Li Yizhi tossed a garment into the bonfire. Zhong Ming recognized it as the clothes worn by the male college student who had died. The hoodie with the large black logo fell into the flames and was quickly reduced to ash.

Zhong Ming looked a bit dazed.

Li Yizhi turned back and said, “Madam Mary says these things carry the ‘evil influence’ of the players, so they must be burned.”

Zhong Ming remained silent, somewhat speechless. Madam Mary had her own set of theological theories.

The blazing fire in the backyard chased away some of the dampness.

When Archie brought out the clothes worn by the man named “Chengcheng,” Ye Qing’s expression changed. Zhong Ming signaled for Archie to stop for a moment and asked Ye Qing: “Ye Qing, you—”

Zhong Ming didn’t know how to ask. He paused and softened his voice: “If you want to keep them as a memento, I can ask Madam Mary.”

Ye Qing looked at the clothes vacantly. Her lips parted and closed, and after a long while, she finally spoke: “Forget it.”

She looked at Zhong Ming and gave him a small smile. “The person is dead; what use is talking about this? Burn them.”

Hearing this, Zhong Ming nodded. Archie threw the clothes into the fire. When a person dies, the flame goes out; love, hate, and grudges are all wiped clean.

Li Yizhi looked at Ye Qing, scanning her up and down. “Don’t you hate that guy?”

Upon hearing this, Ye Qing paused, then looked at him. “Hate… it’s not that I don’t hate him.” She bit her lip. “But the person is dead. Hate is useless now.”

Li Yizhi looked at her, then shifted his gaze back to Zhong Ming and let out a snort.

Zhong Ming inexplicably felt a hint of offense in his attitude. He looked up at him, frowning. “What is it?”

Li Yizhi put on a smile. “Nothing.” With that, he reached out and patted Zhong Ming’s hair. “Our Xiao Zhong is such a gentle baby.”

Zhong Ming heard a trace of perfunctoriness in his tone. The man seemed to be praising him sincerely, yet it also carried a condescending scrutiny.

Like a predator raised in a “survival of the fittest” jungle looking at a penned-in lamb, thinking its fleece was lush while despising its weakness.

Zhong Ming let him muss up his hair and looked at Li Yizhi, suddenly asking: “If it were you, what would you do?”

The movement of Li Yizhi’s hand paused. Then, the smile on his face shifted in meaning.

“Me? He wouldn’t have gotten off with dying just once.” He traced a finger through the air. “Naturally, I’d grind his bones to ash first, then curse him never to be reincarnated.”

He was clearly a man who paid back every slight. Unlike Zhong Ming and Ye Qing, good children raised in “ivory towers” and love, he believed in the law of the jungle and held a certain level of contempt for social morality.

Zhong Ming withdrew his observant gaze, lowered his eyes, and said softly: “Is that so?”

Thinking he had scared him, Li Yizhi immediately put on his glib persona, leaning down to profess to Zhong Ming.

“But I would never be like that toward you.” He said with full tenderness, “Darling, even if you cheated on me, I’d be the one kneeling down to slap my own face twice.”

Zhong Ming’s eyes widened slightly, and he let out a laugh at the joke.

On the other side, Ye Qing was dumbstruck, utterly shocked by the extent of Li Yizhi’s shamelessness.

The fire in the courtyard burned all day. It wasn’t until dusk that it slowly died down, turning into a pile of warm ashes. The sun set to the west of the mansion, and a long, fine drizzle began to fall from the clouds, soaking into the soil.

In the basement, Ye Qing stood under the pale, cold fluorescent lights. She looked up shyly at the two boys and shifted uncomfortably.

“Does it look strange?”

In front of her, Li Yizhi stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the doorframe, his phoenix eyes narrowed. Zhong Ming stood beside him, his gaze on Ye Qing, his brow slightly furrowed.

Li Yizhi was silent for a few seconds before opening his mouth. “Deadly ugly.”

Ye Qing’s face collapsed instantly. She reached out to cover her face, feeling crushed.

“I knew it—”

Zhong Ming frowned, turning to look at the disgusted Li Yizhi. “Shut up.” Then he turned back to Ye Qing. “Don’t listen to his nonsense. It’s not ugly; the problem is mainly the dress.”

Ye Qing stood in the open space of the corridor. She was wearing a long, grayish-black dress, the same style Madam Mary often wore. It had a high collar fastened at the throat, its hem dragging on the floor, wrapping her body tightly.

To be fair, this kind of dress looked quite good on Joan and Madam Mary. This was mainly because they were tall with slender necks, and they always kept their backs straight with perfect posture.

While Ye Qing was pretty, she had a round face, was less than 1.6 meters tall, and was generally petite with a timid aura. The dress on her looked like a giant black shroud, completely hiding her curves and making her look even shorter.

Ye Qing tugged uncomfortably at the hem, looking like a dusty little mouse as she gazed piteously at Zhong Ming: “Is… is it really that bad?”

Hearing this, Li Yizhi immediately opened his mouth, about to say “It really is,” but Zhong Ming clamped a hand over his mouth. He looked at Ye Qing and gave her a reassuring smile.

“It’s fine. It’s just a tailoring issue. I’ll fix it for you.”

So, the three of them went up the stairs to the fourth floor and arrived at Zhong Ming’s attic room. Ye Qing sat cross-legged on the thick carpet, looking up at Zhong Ming. He had his eyes lowered, holding a needle and thread in his right hand. The black dress was spread across his lap. He picked up a corner of the dress and skillfully drew the needle through the fabric.

The charcoal in the attic fireplace burned quietly. The air was filled with the fresh, pleasant scent of Zhong Ming’s detergent.

The firelight cast a glow on Zhong Ming’s calm profile. Ye Qing watched the shadow his thick eyelashes cast on his cheek and suddenly said: “Zhong Ming, you’re just like a Mommy.”

Zhong Ming’s hand paused, and he looked up at Ye Qing.

Sitting by the window, Li Yizhi, who had been staring outside in boredom, turned around and burst out laughing.

Ye Qing realized she had misspoken and hurriedly explained: “No, no! I meant like a Daddy—”

Then she looked at Zhong Ming’s exquisite and beautiful face and choked. She couldn’t possibly say that Zhong Ming was like her balding father who had developed a beer belly in his thirties.

“Hahahahaha—”

Li Yizhi clapped his hands with laughter, stepped down from the windowsill, walked up to Ye Qing, and pointed to himself with a smile.

“What do you think of me being your dad?” He then pointed at Zhong Ming. “And he can be your mom.”

Ye Qing’s lips moved; she instinctively wanted to ask how she could have a father who hadn’t even finished high school, but Li Yizhi was terrifying. She didn’t dare say it and had to swallow the words.

Perhaps her eyes betrayed a hint of rebellion, because Li Yizhi narrowed his eyes dangerously.

Just then, Zhong Ming’s faint sigh was heard.

“Stop talking.” Zhong Ming finished the final stitch, snipped the thread, and held up the dress to inspect it. After confirming the needlework was secure, he said to Ye Qing, “Try it on.”

Ye Qing jumped up and ran into the bathroom to change.

A moment later, she stepped out, and the dress she was wearing had been completely transformed.

Zhong Ming had shortened it slightly, leaving it an inch below the knee to satisfy Madam Mary’s conservative aesthetic. He had made minor adjustments to the neckline, sewing several small white flowers with white thread to make the high collar, which almost entirely enveloped Ye Qing’s neck, look less jarring.

“Wow!”

Ye Qing twirled in front of the mirror, then turned back to Zhong Ming in pleasant surprise. “It looks so good! Mo—Zhong Ming, you’re so incredibly skilled with your hands.”

Zhong Ming paused, feeling as though his role in Ye Qing’s mind was becoming somewhat problematic.

He decided to pretend he hadn’t heard her slip-up. Watching her spin around in the dress, he smiled slightly. “It suits you very well.”

Li Yizhi squinted at Ye Qing critically. Just as he was about to speak, Zhong Ming shot him a glare, and he immediately pivoted. “Not bad,” Li Yizhi said, a polite smile instantly surfacing on his face. “Much better than before.”

Looking at Li Yizhi’s fox-like grin, Ye Qing wanted to tell him that if he didn’t want to smile, he didn’t have to. She stepped behind Zhong Ming, eyeing Li Yizhi with suspicion and a hint of hostility.

The smile on Li Yizhi’s lips faltered. He badly wanted to roll his eyes, but he held back for Zhong Ming’s sake. Maintaining his fake smile, he gave Ye Qing a refined nod. “I’ll leave you two to chat, then. I’ll be… heading back.”

He only wanted to be alone with Zhong Ming. He decided he would sneak back up later when no one was around.

After Li Yizhi left, Ye Qing sat down next to Zhong Ming like a happy little bird. “Zhong Ming, how are you so good at sewing? You’re even better than my mom.” Her expression dimmed for a moment as if remembering something, and she whispered, “My mom only ever tells me I’m too fat.”

“You aren’t fat at all.”

It was the truth. Ye Qing simply had a round face; in Zhong Ming’s eyes, she was actually on the thinner side. Regarding her earlier question, Zhong Ming thought for a moment and replied, “When I was a child, the nuns at the convent taught us how to sew our own clothes.”

“A convent?” Ye Qing was stunned.

Zhong Ming explained, “I’m an orphan. I grew up in a convent.”

Ye Qing’s eyes widened in surprise. She never expected Zhong Ming to be an orphan. He was so gentle, thoughtful, and moved with such grace and poise that he seemed like a child raised in a very well-bred family.

Zhong Ming looked at her. “…Do you know where there are many convents in China?”

Ye Qing thought about it. “In China… Liangguang region and Hong Kong were the first areas to come into contact with overseas missionaries. There would be more convents there. But they exist in other places, too.”

She asked, “Do you remember anything else?”

Zhong Ming lowered his eyes and rubbed his temples, his brow furrowed. He said with some uncertainty, “I seem to… remember the smell of a sea breeze.”

He recalled the air that lingered in the convent of his dreams. It carried the saltiness of seawater and the fishy stench of rotting shrimp. It seemed like a warm place; in the summer, the sun would be brilliant, the air inside the convent would be stifling, and even the sea breeze blowing through the window felt cool.

“Then it should be one of those two places,” Ye Qing said.

Liangguang or Hong Kong. Zhong Ming frowned; he had no memory of either name.

“Zhong Ming, you still couldn’t remember anything from your past?” she asked curiously.

Zhong Ming dropped his hand from his temple. He didn’t say anything, merely shaking his head. “It’s nothing.”

–

Madam Mary made no comment regarding Ye Qing’s altered maid uniform, much to Ye Qing’s relief. Because she was a girl and couldn’t handle much heavy labor, Ye Qing spent most of her time with Zhong Ming inside the mansion doing clerical work.

One day, in the archives.

Tao had his feet propped up on the desk, his hair slicked back to a glossy shine. He turned a page of the newspaper in his hand. Hearing a soft thud, he looked up from the paper at Ye Qing, who had accidentally dropped a register on the floor.

“Hey, newbie, move a bit faster.”

He frowned, watching Ye Qing squat down to frantically gather the scattered papers. He clicked his tongue and shook the newspaper, grumbling irritably under his breath, “…Why did they let this kind of trash in?”

Then, he saw Zhong Ming, who had been categorizing books at the shelves, stop his work and walk quickly over to Ye Qing to help her pick up the papers.

Tao’s brow furrowed in immediate dissatisfaction. He snapped the newspaper shut with a loud thwack and raised his voice. “Hey, Xiao Zhong, don’t help her.”

Zhong Ming turned a deaf ear to his words. He kept his eyes down, gathered the scattered papers, and handed them to Ye Qing. Ignoring the girl’s grateful, teary-eyed expression, he stood up and walked back to the bookshelf without a word. He began sorting the books according to the newly re-sequenced numbers.

Seeing that Zhong Ming had completely ignored him, Tao’s frown deepened. He stood up and strode over to Zhong Ming’s side.

“Hey.” Tao crossed his arms, his dark gaze falling on Zhong Ming’s pale profile. “You’re not even listening to me now?”

His tone carried a hint of danger.

Zhong Ming didn’t flinch. He picked up a book and placed it back on the shelf according to its number. Once certain he hadn’t made a mistake, he shifted his gaze and glanced at Tao. “You’re still the same as ever.”

Tao blinked, confused by the remark. Before he could ask what it meant, Zhong Ming looked away and picked up another book, saying softly, “I just remembered that when I first arrived, you treated me the same way.”

Upon hearing this, Tao suddenly stopped. He immediately recalled his terrible attitude towards Zhong Ming when they first met.

Zhong Ming lowered his gaze, his eyelashes trembling slightly. “You were very mean to me back then.”

Tao stiffened. Looking at Zhong Ming’s cold profile, his Adam’s apple bobbed. “I… I wasn’t that mean, was I—”

The tension in his voice betrayed his own guilty conscience.

Zhong Ming didn’t look at him or respond; he just silently organized the books in his hands.

Tao stood there in a stalemate for a long while. Seeing that Zhong Ming had no intention of acknowledging him, he started to panic.

“Fine, I was wrong.” Tao’s shoulders slumped. His tall frame seemed to shrink as he looked at Zhong Ming, appearing quite helpless. “Are you… are you still holding a grudge about me hitting you?”

Zhong Ming continued to ignore him.

Beads of sweat formed on Tao’s temples, and his expression behind his rimless glasses turned slightly distorted. He desperately wanted to travel back in time and slap his past self! If he had known this day would come, how could he have treated Zhong Ming like that?

He admitted that, initially, his interest in Zhong Ming was purely carnal; he wanted to leave his mark on this beauty who was as delicate as white porcelain. That was why he had subjected Zhong Ming to all sorts of humiliations.

But it was different now. Tao looked at Zhong Ming’s exquisite yet distant profile and thought: It’s different now!

“Sweetheart, you have to give me a way out. I’ll do anything as long as you aren’t angry.”

Tao hunched his large frame, coaxing him almost timidly. “Everything in the past was my fault. What gift do you want? When I passed the jeweler the other day, I saw they had a new ring—”

He was cut off by a cool look from Zhong Ming.

Following Zhong Ming’s gaze, Tao saw the dumbfounded Ye Qing standing nearby and understood immediately. “Don’t worry, I won’t give her a hard time anymore.”

Zhong Ming looked away and lowered his eyes. “I don’t want anything right now.”

Tao took the hint and said immediately, “Then take your time thinking about it. Just tell me when you’ve decided.”

Zhong Ming remained silent.

Taking his silence as tacit agreement, Tao leaned in, rubbing his hands together as he carefully studied Zhong Ming’s expression. “So… can you forgive me for the mistakes I made before?”

Tao was genuinely terrified that Zhong Ming wouldn’t forgive him. He knew that a wife bringing up old debts was a major threat to domestic harmony; no matter how tough a man was, if he was in the wrong, he had no choice but to kneel and beg for mercy.

Zhong Ming placed the last book back on the shelf. He looked at Tao for a moment before giving an almost imperceptible nod.

Tao was overjoyed. He raised his hand but dared not do anything out of line. He restrained his affection and put his arm around Zhong Ming’s shoulder, giving him a light hug.

Ye Qing stood to the side, watching Zhong Ming’s expert “dog-training” techniques. She filed every detail away in her prefrontal cortex, thinking that if she ever got out of here, she could help him write a book.

Work in the archives didn’t finish until evening. With the help of Ye Qing’s extraordinary memory, the reorganization of the bookshelves had progressed rapidly, and most of the documents had been returned to their original places.

“We should be able to finish tomorrow morning.”

Zhong Ming and Ye Qing walked out of the archives. He rolled his head to soothe the stiffness in his neck from looking up all day.

Ye Qing stretched. “Ah… I’m exhausted. I just want to go back and sleep.”

Zhong Ming looked at her. “The work here is quite heavy, isn’t it? Is it too hard for you?”

Ye Qing looked at him with surprise. “Huh? Not at all.” She said, “I used to work 996[2] back in the lab.” She turned to look at the beautiful sunset on the horizon and said gratefully, “It’s nice to get off work before dark.”

Zhong Ming: “…”

#When the monster boss is more worker-friendly than humans#

No matter how he thought about it, it felt ironic.

The two walked out of the archives chatting and laughing, heading toward the main hall. However, as they approached, the sound of a noisy crowd drifted from the hallway.

Hearing the noise, the smile on Zhong Ming’s face faded.

Ye Qing frowned in confusion. “What’s that sound? It sounds like a lot of people—”

Zhong Ming lowered his eyes and said softly, “New players have arrived.”

[1] An idiom criticizing someone who never does physical labor.

[2] 996 refers to a controversial work schedule in China that requires employees to work from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM, six days a week, which totals 72 hours per week, far above the standard 40-hour workweek.