Salted Fish Chapter 77: Extra 1: Wedding

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

 

When Duan FeiZhou woke up in the morning, Z was dressing.

His back was to the bed, bowed. His metal spine reflected the faint morning light, his smooth, toned muscles undulating in and out with his movements. Like the rest of his body, his back was covered with countless old scars, but there were a few new ones, scratched by nails, still fresh and bloody.

Duan FeiZhou’s face was hot. He knew better than anyone how the scars came about.

“You come here.” His voice was hoarse – of course because of last night.

Z twisted his head to look at him, and a teasing smile slid across his handsome face. “What? You weren’t satisfied last night? Want it early in the morning?”

Duan FeiZhou whispered and scolded him for being shameless. He said without humor, “To heal your wounds.” 

Z didn’t seem to perceive the injury on his back until then. He turned his back and touched it, but he didn’t flinch or show any sign of pain.

“No need. It’s not like it’s a major injury,” his tone was light. “A scratch from a cat might be worse.”

He didn’t care about them, not because he was painfully dulled. His pain senses had been restored long ago by Miss Margaret Möllen. He could certainly feel the vague stinging pain in his back, but he liked the feeling.

He had been wounded many times, and combat had left him with countless scars (Some called them warrior’s medals. Z decided to reserve his opinion). Those were painful scars. But the wounds on his back were different now – they were sweet wounds. It was a mark left on him by his lover.

Sweet scars were never too much.

Duan FeiZhou bristled with displeasure. Next time he should scratch a little harder. He asked, “You’re not planning to go to the wedding with those, are you?” 

Z shrugged. “No one will notice if I’m wearing a coat anyway.”

Duan FeiZhou sighed. He struggled to get up, but the soreness made him let out a hiss, and fall back down again.

He and Z had been together for a year, and Z had gradually eased up from the initial demand.

In the beginning, the guy was like a beast that hadn’t had enough to eat for 800 years, and every night he wanted to skin him, bone him and swallow him. He knew how to make his lover happy, but he himself had to have fun before he would let go of his lover.

This led to Duan FeiZhou often being tossed by him until his body fell apart.

But after a while, Z gradually became less aggressive. Of course, this may also be due to their increasingly busy work schedule. Duan FeiZhou was much busier than Z. After all, as the contact person, Z was the most busy person in the world. As a liaison, Z’s main job every day was to sit in the office and read reports, unlike Duan FeiZhou who often had to run to the field. He appreciated his lover’s hard work and was willing to reduce the number and intensity of his requests.

(When Duan FeiZhou heard him say this, he wondered, Isn’t it just the right thing to do? Do I have to thank you?)

Duan FeiZhou almost thought he would not live to see the sun tomorrow…

…Maybe that was Z’s real purpose. Half-kill him at night so they didn’t have to go to the wedding the next day.

“Can’t you get up?” Z put on his shirt, and asked lazily.

“…I’m up!” Duan FeiZhou gritted his teeth and climbed up. He endured the soreness in his body to dress and wash, during which he had to endure Z’s unabashedly provocative stares. While he was in the washroom fixing his face, Al arrived. As always, the teenager carried a basket with small loaves of bread, bringing a source of life to the two fools who couldn’t even cook.

“Good morning, Master!” The teenager shouted genuinely. When his eyes turned to Z, he was not so polite. He said with a crumpled face, “Good morning Mr. Z.” 

Al still didn’t understand why this detective had moved in with his master. He didn’t look so poor that he couldn’t afford to rent a house, so why did he have to rent his master’s house? He suspected that the guy said something like “there are good people among the occultists, we can’t knock over a boatload of people”, but his heart is still afraid of his master. In order to keep an eye on the master at all times, he moved in with him.

The teenager told his mother about this. The knowledgeable seamstress, Mrs. Vilyuy, listened to her son’s story and her expression became a bit strange.

“Al, you have to show a little respect in front of that detective gentleman in the future. There are some things we can say behind our backs, but you can’t say them in front of others. Especially not in front of Mr. Chester.”

“Why?” Al didn’t understand.

His mom shook her head. “You are still young, when you grow up you will understand…”

She turned back to cutting the cloth, as she chanted, “So Mr. Chester is that kind of person… There are really all kinds of people in the world…”

Al set the breakfast on the table. Today was a big day, and to celebrate, he had made cream cupcakes for his master. The master had a sweet tooth, and he thought the cupcakes would certainly win his master’s heart.

However, the teenager’s expectations were not met. As soon as the master sat down at the table and saw the cream cake on the table, his face became extremely odd.

“What’s wrong master, not to your taste?” Al’s hands twisted the corners of his coat uneasily.

Duan FeiZhou averted his eyes with difficulty. How to explain to this innocent and never poisoned teenager? The sight of these creams reminded him of… er…He felt his cheeks burning.

Z, on the contrary, came and forked up a piece of cake with his fork and brought it into his mouth.

“It’s not that your master doesn’t like it, Al.” He had a meaningful smile on his face, “It’s really that he got tired eating too much cream last night.”

“…Shut up.” Duan FeiZhou gritted his teeth.

Last night Z forced him to eat many, many creams, and just eating was not enough. Z also put his fingers into his mouth, stirring his tongue and juices. The cold metal penetrated his throat again and again, and he was in tears, but he unconsciously sucked and licked.

Who knew that this would provoke Z’s desire for possession. The result was that not only was the top of his mouth filled with cream, but the bottom was also forced to eat until it held cream… If the temperature of his skin at the moment was converted into steam engine energy, he could make an airship sail all the way around the world.

Al unhappily puffed up his cheeks, like an angry puffer fish.

This Z..bullying his master every day! Even if that wasn’t enough, he also wanted to steal his work! He was responsible for his master’s meals, so why did Z make his master a midnight snack? Well, let him try,  Alfred Velyuy knew where to put his face!

The young man silently decided to practice his cooking skills in the future, so that he could beat Z to the punch!

Duan FeiZhou did not know what ambitions his little servant had set. If he knew, he would probably be so embarrassed that he would gouge out a grave in Westminster Abbey on the spot.

He didn’t eat any of it for breakfast, and pushed the cake away without any appetite. Al looked like he was about to cry. Meanwhile, Z swept the food off his plate and smacked his lips at the end of it.

That look made Duan FeiZhou’s body sore…and hot again.

After breakfast, Duan FeiZhou changed into his suit and Al carefully helped him fix his hair.

Z also finished grooming. He was never fussy about his clothes, so much so that Duan FeiZhou had basically only seen him dressed in two ways – either in a police nightman’s uniform or nothing at all.

Today he changed into a fine tuxedo, and wore a dark purple silk tie in four hand form, which particularly set off his jade-like eyes. The silver hair was tied in a regular bundle at the back of the head, also with a purple hairband, much fresher than usual.

Duan FeiZhou surveyed him from head to toe, could not help but feel that the guy dressed up really eye-catchingly. Even for his face, it was worth living with him for the rest of his life.

Duan FeiZhou’s gaze involuntarily moved down. Well, in other places Z was certainly very good…

It was occasionally too good.

“Let’s go.” Z looked at him askance, and held out his arm.

Duan FeiZhou cleared his throat, pretended he wasn’t daydreaming things, and took his arm. They went downstairs where a carriage was already waiting for them.

Boarding it, they drove straight to St. Thomas Church. There was to be a big wedding there that day. The wedding of Lord Perlilla and Louisa, Miss Lynn.

How those two people came together, Duan FeiZhou still couldn’t understand. According to Lady Edith, Lord Perlilla fell in love with Miss Louisa at first sight. This was not surprising, because Lord Perllila fell in love very easily with a damsel in distress (or any other creature that looks like a “damsel in distress”) at first sight.

After the great battle at the Perlilla estate, His Lordship’s family and the Royal Special Mining Company’s contract had problems. It was because in the contract the company took control of the Ether crystals mine, and the Ether crystals of the Pelilla Manor, but had all disappeared with the recovery of the Great Lord of Light. Therefore, after a lengthy lawsuit, the contract was eventually voided, and the large fortune that Lord Pelilla had managed to get his hands on flew away.

This was once the topic of conversation in the major English newspapers. Lord Perlilla was expected to be among the richest aristocrats in the country with that deal, but it was not to be. Not only did he get nothing, but he also had to repair the tragic destruction of the estate. This added to the already poor family’s woes. He had to sell some properties to pay off the loan.

Lord Perlilla thought that after this serious injury, the Lynn family must not see him as a poor nobleman. However, one day he went to an antique store to sell some of the family’s assets, and coincidentally saw a wonderful set of porcelain there.

It was the set of porcelain that he had intended to give to Miss Lynn, but because of the accident it fell to pieces. Then the pieces were left at Lynn’s house, and he didn’t ask for them back. After all, it had become a pile of pieces, and was basically garbage. However when he saw the set of porcelain in that antique store, the fragments had been reassembled by highly skilled craftsmen with metal glued up. The metal also carved additional patterns, so that the original crack in turn became a beautiful and unique decoration. ¹

The antique store owner told Lord Perlilla, this was a Miss Lynn who sent it to be repaired, and after repair, the lady also wanted to take it back. Such a high quality repair was naturally expensive, but Miss Lynn took out her own personal money.

Originally, when the antique store owner saw the porcelain that was so badly broken, he advised her to give up on repairing it, as the cost of the repair was enough to buy a new set. However, Miss Linn said nothing. She just liked this set of porcelain. Other porcelain was flawless and beautiful, but she didn’t like it.

Asked whether this set of porcelain had any important significance to her, Miss Lynn said shyly, “Because this is the gift a brave gentleman gave me.”

After he listened to the owner of the antique store, Lord Perlilla immediately understood that Miss Lynn was also interested in him, and rushed to the Lynns’ house to propose to her directly.

Mr. and Mrs. Lynn were taken aback. They originally didn’t agree to the marriage. Since ancient times, there were only a few marriages between noblemen and commoners, and most of them ended in misfortune. How could they let their precious daughter end up in that situation?

Besides, although Lord Perlilla’s family was a noble family, they were now in a strained financial situation. Mr. Lynn was always a man of vision. The industrial revolution had brought such a huge change to the world that in the future, if the nobles did not find a way to keep up with this unstoppable trend of the times, they would sooner or later sit on their laurels.

But Miss Lynn still insisted on marrying Lord Perlilla.

“Albert has figured it out, and he understands that he can’t sit on his laurels. He plans to go to the New World to develop,” Louisa said to her parents after prying into His Lordship’s situation. “He doesn’t look down on people in business like other nobles do. He is willing to put his head down and learn! Don’t you always say that it’s never too late to make an effort, no matter when you start?”

Since their daughter had said this, Mr. and Mrs. Lynn had no choice but to agree. Mr. Lynn only had one request, that all contracts signed by Lord Perlilla in the future should be given to him to be the gatekeeper. If it was him, he would never make a mistake like “there are no Ether crystals in the Ether crystal mine so no payment”.

Duan FeiZhou and Z were naturally among the invited guests. There were also many familiar figures.

“Aiyaa, boss, you are also glowing today!” Xenophon stepped towards them with the pace of six relatives. He was one of the people who participated in the incident at the Perlilla Manor in the first place, so naturally he was also invited.

Although Z was no longer serving as a police superintendent now, Xenophon still couldn’t change his tone. He narrowed his yellow eyes, and his derisive gaze flicked over the two men, then poked Z in the ribs with his elbow. “Passing on Miss Acheson’s instructions. ‘Don’t stay up too late at night, it will affect your work the next day.’”

Z looked strange. “I don’t think my day job suffers, huh?”

Xenophon looked at him lovingly. “Boss, you do not even need a chaperone to exercise in bed?”

Duan FeiZhou covered his face. Shit, was it that obvious? Z had overdone it once the other day, causing him to have trouble walking the next day. Miss Acheson asked him what was wrong, and he had to say it was an attack of hemorrhoids. At that time the whole office except Miss Acheson looked at him a little strangely.

He thought Miss Acheson was an unmarried virgin girl, and would not understand this aspect of things. He hadn’t thought…She wasn’t ignorant, she was just born with facial paralysis.

Z glanced at the young man in the suit beside him, and the corners of his lips raised subtly.

Duan FeiZhou thought he would say ‘I know, I’ll restrain a bit in the future’ and didn’t expect him to just say, “It’s the poor physical condition of the trainer. I will train him well in the future.”

Xenophon looked at him with admiration. “It’s the first time I’ve met someone who is so good at telling lies with his eyes wide open!”

“Who asked me to be blind before?” Z said lightly.

As they chatted, they walked into the church. Immediately, a servant came and guided them to their respective seats.

Duan FeiZhou looked over to his seat and spotted another familiar person next to him, “Uncle …Mr. N!”

The man whose code name was called, turned to him and gave a smile. “Gee, it’s been a long time!”

Mr. N had officially resigned from the Abnormal Case Investigation Division last year, then he retired from the Frances Square store and went on a trip. He had never told anyone his true identity, and the only one who knew he was Joseph Chester at the moment was Duan FeiZhou.

This was the last little secret that Duan FeiZhou didn’t tell Z. He decided to keep this secret for the rest of his life, even if Z tortured him in bed he would not say. Let Z guess. He could not guess that the colleague he had known for ten years was the former owner of the Trading House.

As far as undercover agents were concerned, Mr. N was still better.

“What brings you here?” Duan FeiZhou sat down next to Mr. N.

Z and Xenophon were also surprised to see their old colleague here.

“I received an invitation.” Mr. N waved the wax-stamped wedding invitation.

“But…” Duan FeiZhou hesitated.

Who had invited him? He had nothing to do with Lord Perlilla’s family, so it could only be the Lynn family who sent him the invitation. If he was open about Joseph Chester’s identity, it would make sense for the Lynn family to invite him, since he was a good friend of Mr. Lynn. But “Joseph Chester” was dead in plain sight, so how did Mr. N. get the invitation?

“Huh? Don’t you know?” Mr. N raised his eyebrows, “I know Mrs. Lynn well. She said her daughter was getting married, so she sent me the invitation.”

“…There is such a thing?” Duan FeiZhou couldn’t figure out how those two could have crossed paths.

“We both studied cooking at the same culinary school.”

Duan FeiZhou, “…”

Good man, was your place a cooking school or a killing school? Did you take a poison making course? If that school had produced only one “outstanding graduate” in Mrs. Lynn, it would have been justifiable. Maybe she was gifted, and it wasn’t the fault of the school. However, to add a Mr. N…

Best to let Miss Acheson check out that cooking school. For the sake of world peace, that place must be outlawed.

A commotion came from the back of the church. A man in a fedora was thrown out by a servant of Lord Perlilla’s house.

“What’s wrong?” Duan FeiZhou asked in a low voice.

“A reporter.” Mr. N smiled. “Haven’t you noticed that there are many reporters outside the church?”

“I didn’t even know Lord Perlilla was so popular.”

“Oh, those reporters are not here to support His Lordship. They’re all vultures who smell blood, and are just looking for a gimmick. Don’t you see that there are hardly any nobles among the guests?”

Duan FeiZhou scanned the church and could tell the class of the guests by their attire. Most of them were dressed similarly to himself, indicating that they were all ordinary middle-class people, probably friends and relatives of the Lynn family. There were indeed very few with aristocratic factions.

Mr. N snorted disdainfully. “Many nobles think it’s unbecoming for a lord and a commoner to join in marriage. I heard that they deliberately found excuses not to attend, since they felt degraded.”

“Humph, it’s their own loss if they don’t come,” Duan FeiZhou bristled.

“I also heard that a number of nobles intend to invite the newlywed Lord and his wife to be their guests. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not because they are hospitable. They intend to use the elaborate etiquette of the nobility to put Miss Lynn in a downward spiral, so that the couples who don’t follow the rules of the noble game will make a fool of themselves. “

“….Are they nobles all so boring?”

“They aren’t productive every day, of course they’re that boring.” Mr. N shrugged. “But Lord Perlilla is still smart. He plans to take his bride to the New World for her honeymoon the day after the wedding, and then never return. That way he can escape those boring social engagements.”

The guests were almost there. An old, gray-haired priest came to the altar and announced in a hoarse but majestic voice that the two couples were about to be united in the presence of God.

Duan FeiZhou felt that the best man’s duty was not to hand him the ring later, but to prevent him from fainting. The band played the wedding march and everyone looked back in unison.

The church doors opened and Miss Lynn, in a white wedding dress, walked into the church with a bouquet of flowers and her head bowed. She was holding her father’s arm. Mr. Lynn was proudly carrying his big belly, but his eyes were red, as if he had just cried. He led his daughter to Lord Perlilla and solemnly handed her hand to the bridegroom. Mrs. Lynn, who was sitting in the front row, let out a loud sob.

The next part was the step-by-step exchange of wedding vows and rings. The best man handed the two rings to Lord Perlilla, who looked at him openly and asked in a whisper, “Which one is hers?” 

The best man, with a look of helplessness, pointed to the smaller but more ornate ring.

Lord fumbled to put on the ring for the bride. Many people on the stage laughed.

“I now pronounce Albert Midlothian and Louisa Lynn officially married!” The old priest said in a loud voice.

The wedding was followed by a wedding banquet. Duan FeiZhou was glad that the banquet chef His Lordship hired wasn’t from the same school as Mrs. Lynn, otherwise the wedding banquet might have turned into a strange death case. The groom came to toast the guests with his bride on his arm.

“I heard that you are planning to go to the New World in the future?” Duan FeiZhou asked Lord Perlilla.

“Yes.” Lord Perlilla’s face flushed slightly. Duan FeiZhou didn’t know whether it was because he had drunk too much wine or because of the big day. “I plan to get serious about business, and now that I have a family, I have to work hard to plan for my family as well.”

Duan FeiZhou nodded his head. Since Lord Perlilla had said so, he was also willing to give Lord Pelilla a little practical advice.

“Invest in the power industry, Lord Perlilla,” he said slyly. “And movies.”

“…What’s that?”

“You won’t regret it.” Duan FeiZhou patted Lord Perlilla’s shoulder.

The wedding banquet was served with unlimited drinks, and everyone was slightly drunk.

After nightfall, the court was lit up. The band played cheerful dance music, and men and women entered the dance floor hand in hand.

Duan FeiZhou still didn’t understand the rules of dancing, but everyone in the room seemed to know more than he did (even Xenophon got up to dance). As long as the upper class was around, from birth, dance was a mandatory course, and you had to learn this collective dance, in order to even participate in the social circle of qualifications.

After the group dance was a waltz of two men and women. The lead dancer was of course the couple of the day. Mr. Lynn invited Lady Edith to dance and Mrs. Lynn partnered with her old classmate Mr. N. Duan FeiZhou always felt that the two of them were secretly discussing some kind of new recipe (toxin) that could poison all of humanity.

Duan FeiZhou did not know how to dance this kind of social dance (no one had taught him!) Even if he could, he couldn’t find a partner. If he dared to partner with any girl, he was afraid that before he entered the dance floor, he would be stabbed to death with an angry glare by Z.

(And at night, Z would poke him again with one of the few parts on his body that hadn’t been replaced with machinery.)

But he really wanted to take Z’s hand and walk onto the dance floor. Let everyone know that he has such a handsome lover. Even if the surroundings were singing and dancing, his lover’s affectionate gaze never left him for a moment.

What a perfect match they were. Of course, he couldn’t. If he dared to do so, he would have to meet Z in the cells the next day.

He had to stand by and drink glass after glass of champagne. He hiccuped and his face grew hot.

One song ended and the band started playing a new one. He put down his empty glass and planned to go out into the garden to blow off some steam. The moon was beautiful today. The sound of laughter was coming from across the dance floor, but the garden was silent. He hiccuped again.

Someone behind him coughed coldly. He was startled and the hiccups stopped instantly.

Z approached him through the flowers. He had untied his hair at some point, and his silver hair flowed over his shoulders, brighter than the moonlight.

“Why don’t you go dancing?” Z smiled and asked, his voice had a knowing tone.

“I can’t,” Duan FeiZhou said.

“I can teach you.” With that, Z grabbed his hands, holding one tightly in his own, and letting him put the other on his shoulder. He wrapped his own arm around Duan FeiZhou’s waist and swayed his body slightly to the distant sound of music.

They couldn’t dance arm-in-arm in public, but here, where no one knew, they could dance as long as they wanted.

Duan FeiZhou stepped on Z’s feet, and Z didn’t get angry, just smiled every time he stepped on him. The two of them jumped and jumped, and their bodies were close to each other.

Duan FeiZhou could smell the faint perfume on Z’s body and feel the heat …… and hardness coming from his body.

“The wedding was so nice.” Z looked down at the person in his arms, and said in a soft voice. “I want to have a wedding with you too.”

Duan FeiZhou felt his heart miss a beat. Was that… just a proposal? His mouth unconsciously grinned, almost to the root of his ears. He thought that with Z’s personality, he would never be able to say such a thing in his life, but he didn’t expect that…

He didn’t want Z to know he was so happy, so he simply buried his face in Z’s shoulder.

“And then we both go to jail?” he said in a jarring voice, as he tried to hold in his laughter.

“I’d love to go to jail if I could be with you.” Z’s fingers combed through his hair with a hitch.

Duan FeiZhou retrieved a brass ring from his finger, took Z’s left hand, and pushed the ring onto his ring finger. He lowered his head, and stared at the ring, but didn’t dare to look Z in the eye. He was afraid that he would fall on the spot with just one look.

“Put on my ring, you’re my man,” he said vaguely. “In the future, you are not allowed to go out and make love.”

He was glad that the night was dark enough to hide the blush on his cheeks.

Z flexed his metal fingers, as if to make sure the ring wouldn’t interfere with his activities.

“I’ve never been a womanizer,” Z said. “You’re the only womanizer who’s out there.”

“No, I don’t.”

“What about the poet, the council president…”

“They’re all my friends! Ordinary pals…”

Before the words were finished, Z kissed him fiercely.

Duan FeiZhou was kissed dizzy by him, and almost fainted from lack of oxygen. However, Z still refused to let him go. He took his last breath, and only let go when he was about to suffocate. However, he had just caught his breath for a few moments and before he could recover, Z kissed him again on the lips.

The moonlight was bright. The shadows of the two people gradually merged into one.