Chapter 13 Nightfall Intimacy

He turned and walked away, leaving Kate looking at his cold, indifferent silhouette. She stomped her feet in frustration as she swore darkly, “Hmph! I’ll just keep pestering you until you take me as your student.” When Bradley met with Samuel again, they talked about developing the medicinal wine. After that, he went back to the village. It was already afternoon when he reached the village. As soon as he got back home, he passed the new cell phone to Emily. Emily held the new phone in her hand and said excitedly, “Brad, where did you get the money from? This phone is really nice.” However, Craig didn’t seem too excited about it. “Brad, what kind of herbs are you actually selling? How could it be worth so much? You’d better not be doing anything illegal now.” “Relax, Dad! After spending such a long time in jail, I’ve understood the ways of life and will never get myself into illegal dealings ever again,” Bradley reassured. Still, Janice continued worryingly, “There has been a lot of gossip around the village. I think I need to find you a wife as soon as possible.” Bradley felt a headache slowly creeping up on him so he commented, “Mom, don’t worry about these petty things. Marriage is all about fate.” Upon hearing that, Emily scrunched her nose. “Brad, when you say fate, do you mean you and Erin?” Truth was, the words just spilled out of her mouth without much thought. “Emily, none of that nonsense! Can you imagine the kind of scandal that you would have caused if someone were to hear that?” Janice scolded. “Since it’s still early, I’m going to go up the hill for a while. You guys don’t have to wait for me for dinner.” With that, Bradley took the spade and left for Erin’s house. When Erin saw Bradley appear in her courtyard, she called out cheerfully, “Brad, you’re here! I haven’t seen you the whole day, so I figured you went into town.” “I did make a trip there.” Bradley took out the new cell phone from his pocket and passed it to her. “I bought this for you. Do you like it?” Looking at the phone, Erin was touched. Even though she had no idea how much the phone cost, nonetheless, it was a gift from Bradley. She stared at the phone for a long while before saying, “Brad, this is too valuable. I can’t take it.” With that, she pushed the phone back into his hands. In this feudal village, gossip would arise if a man and woman were to get too friendly with each other. However, Bradley placed the phone back in her hand. “Erin, you don’t have to care about what everybody else thinks. While some people may think you bring misfortune, I think that you are a gentle and kind ordinary woman.” Deeply moved by his words, she kept the phone. “I’m sure you’re not here to just give me a new phone, right? What do you need my help with?” “Erin, the last time we picked that Soul Sunweed herb, where does it normally grow?” he asked. “Ah, you’ve come to the right person then. There’s a whole lot of it at the back of the hill of my house. I’ll take you there in a bit,” she happily replied. After she had kept the phone in the house, she took a spade and led Bradley to the back of the hill. As they were walking toward the hill, they bumped into Julia and a few other villagers. “Oh my! Brad, where are you taking Erin to? Could it be…” One of the villagers, Aaron, saw them walking toward them and asked ambiguously without finishing his sentence. “We’re just going to the back of the hill to pick some herbs,” Bradley replied coldly. Tom, a fellow villager, quickly chimed in, “There’s quite a lot of aphrodisiac herbs there; getting some would be good.” “Exactly! Young people should know how to replenish their bodies,” said Julian, looking at them meaningfully. Erin’s face turned scarlet as she lowered her gaze, and the two men drooled at the sight of her blushing face. Bradley reached out to tug at Erin’s hand. “We better hurry up! It’s getting dark soon.” The tittle-tattle of the villagers never bothered him, but as he looked at the quiet Erin, he remembered that these villagers used to bully her from time to time and for some reason, it angered him greatly. Even though they had walked quite a distance, they could still hear the chatter of the villagers. As such, Bradley pulled Erin and fastened their pace. There were a lot of Soul Sunweed growing at the back of the hill, but it looked messy as no one was taking care of it. At that moment, Bradley was contemplating whether to bring the Soul Sunweed back and transplant them at home. It was as though Erin read his mind. “Brad, I may not know how valuable this herb is, but I just want to remind you, you shouldn’t reveal too much information about this herb. Not many people in the village have their hearts in the right place.” Upon listening to her advice, Bradley immediately discarded the idea of bringing the herbs back home. It was not time for him to reveal the benefits of the Soul Sunweed herb. He could only wait until he had found a land big enough to grow and cultivate the herb. It was slowly turning dark when the both of them returned. “Why don’t you have dinner at my place before you go back?” Erin offered. “I have some fresh eggs at home.” Bradley’s stomach grumbled at the thought of food so he nodded eagerly. “Sure! I look forward to trying out your cooking.” As Erin pushed open the door, she switched on the lights. To her dismay, the lights that had been working fine yesterday had now completely stopped working. “It was fine yesterday; why is it not working now?” she asked anxiously. Bradley walked over and said, “Let me have a look at it! You can go ahead and cook for us. This is a man’s job, so of course you wouldn’t understand.” Feeling moved and grateful, Erin pulled a bench over. “I’ll help you hold the bench. Could you check and see whether the bulb has burned out?” Standing on the bench, Bradley changed the light bulb. When the lights turned on, his eyes that had just gotten adjusted to the darkness were suddenly pierced by the bright light, causing him to lose his balance and fall down from the bench. “Argh!” He felt a throbbing pain from his leg and let out a grunt of pain. But suddenly, he realized that the pain was from hitting the bench. Come to think of it, he didn’t actually fall onto the ground; he had landed on top of Erin. “Brad, are you okay? Are you hurt?” Erin’s soothing voice rang out. It was at that moment that Bradley realized that they were in an awkward position, with Erin still lying on the ground. Nervous, he tried to explain, “I didn’t mean to, Erin! Did I hurt you?”