An Ordinary Life: :2

Lan Guang had been older when she'd married. Eight and twenty and a hopeless spinster according to her family and the rest of the village. She'd never been opposed to marriage itself, she loved the idea of a lifelong partner with which to share everything, but one summer watching over her younger cousins had destroyed any interest in offspring of her own.

She still had nightmares about that summer a decade later. Not even her mother's constant complaints could budge her and as the years wore on, her parents had visited less and less, more interested in seeing her siblings that had given them a multitude of grandchildren.

Lan Guang loved her family, but she loved the peace and quiet as well.

And she loved her darling, often confused, but always willing to try husband.

Lan Pei had been sold to the army by his parents when they'd no longer been able to feed him. He'd been the luckiest of his siblings, as his older sister had been sold to brothels and his younger brother had died of starvation and been eaten before he could be sold.

Lan Pei had been in the army from the time he was fourteen until he was twenty-six and had finally paid off his service and saved enough to establish a life for himself somewhere else.

Lan Guang had met him by accident, literally. She been avoiding an over amorous fruit seller who was convinced she should be his fourth wife when she ducked around a corner and run straight into Lan Pei, taking them both to the ground.

If she gave a damn about her reputation, she'd been worried about the compromising position they'd ended up in, but she didn't, so she'd just found it hysterical.

So had Lan Pei. Who'd been angry enough at the world at that point not to care either.

She'd bought him pork buns at the good stall hidden behind the school as an apology and then taken him home when he'd proven to be decent company.

He'd never left.

And Lan Guang had gotten herself a husband at eight and twenty who didn't want children and wished for nothing more than quiet days and nights spent with Lan Guang and no one else.

Her parents had given them the farmland when they'd finally given up hope of grandchildren and now moved back and forth between their other children, leaving the work of the rice fields to Lan Guang and Lan Pei.

This year's harvest hadn't been great, but they'd made enough to tide them over until next season, but they definitely didn't have enough to feed a child. Never mind the correct food for an infant.

Lan Guang was certainly not lactating.

The Yi's just down the road had lost their youngest to fever two summers before, they might be willing to take in a baby.

Lan Pei caught up, he was getting faster and pried open the door.

Lan Guang peered over his shoulder as he stepped inside.

"Please don't be a baby. Please don't be a baby." She muttered.

Nothing in the shed had been disturbed at first glance.

"Doesn't look like she took anything," Lan Pei muttered and then he stopped so suddenly Lan Guang ran into his wonderfully solid back.

"Ow, what's wrong?" She rubbed her nose and peered around him.

In the back corner of the shed, on the barrels of rice they'd prepared for the winter, was a bundle of red silk. It matched the wedding robes of the girl sneaking through their fields and this close Lan Guang could see that it was even more expensive than she'd thought.

The embroidery thread was literally made of gold.

And the bundle was definitely big enough to be a day's old baby.

"Oh no." Lan Guang groaned as her husband reached for the cloth.

If the girl's family had the money for wedding robes stitched with gold, they definitely had the money to care for a bastard.

Probably even enough to fix her reputation if word ever got out.

"Please don't be a baby," she breathed one last time as Lan Pei pulled aside the edge of the cloth and revealed a small dog.

~ tbc