Chapter 104, Chapter 5: The Lost Manor
"This is your home?"
Li Yufei glanced around the villa and found it wasn't anything special; it wasn't even as nice as her house.
"Mmm." Cheng Yuzhou suppressed the corners of his lips that were turning up, but his eyes couldn't help but sparkle with joy. "This place has preserved what Mom looked like when she was young, exactly the same as before she got married."
"Why? Aren't you buying new things?"
“Because…” Cheng Yuzhou’s voice softened, “because Dad loves Mom very much.”
"Hmm?" Li Yufei took off her shoes and put on the slippers the nanny brought. "Thank you, Auntie, I can wear them myself. I love your mother very much, what does it have to do with you not buying new things?"
Cheng Yuzhou's expression darkened slightly.
This was the first time Li Yufei had seen him with such an expression; half of his face was shrouded in shadow against the backlight.
The secretary who brought the two children immediately replied with a smile, "Mr. Cheng wants to preserve Madam's fond memories."
“We’ve been looking at these old things for over ten or twenty years, what’s so great about them?” Li Yufei asked, puzzled. “Why not buy something new so that Cheng Yuzhou’s mother will be happy when she comes back?”
The nannies in the house were taken aback, and the secretary's eyelids twitched as well.
Fortunately, Cheng Yandong was away on a business trip and didn't hear what he said.
"Haha, our Yufei likes new things, doesn't she?" The secretary quickly changed the subject. "But some people like things they're used to. Madam is a sentimental person."
"So Cheng Yuzhou looks a lot like his mother?"
Before she gave him his first hair tie, he wore the most basic black hair tie every day, and his hairstyle remained unchanged.
I don't know why he takes such good care of his hair; it's such a waste.
The secretary laughed and said, "Yes, the young master and his wife are like two peas in a pod."
Cheng Yuzhou pursed his lips, a hint of melancholy showing between his brows.
Li Yufei asked curiously, "Let me see the photo!"
"Yes, let me see." The secretary pulled out a photo from her phone and showed it to Li Yufei. "Isn't Madam very beautiful?"
The person on the phone is a gentle and beautiful woman.
She was being embraced by someone, but the photo is incomplete and the face of the person embracing her cannot be seen.
The woman's smile was unnatural, veiled by a faint cloud of sorrow.
This subtle, melancholic air marred her appearance; Li Yufei felt she wasn't as pretty as her mother.
She nodded and said, "Beautiful."
Cheng Yuzhou was slightly surprised; he had expected Li Yufei to say something like "It's alright" or "It's nothing special."
"Isn't she beautiful? That's why Mr. Cheng is so obsessed with her and wants to keep everything about her."
Cheng Yuzhou pursed his lips.
He realized that these words were meant to comfort him.
He hated the constant allusions and the way they would seize any opportunity to make fun of his father.
A crisp question rang out beside him: "What if Cheng Yuzhou's father saw an even prettier woman?"
The secretary choked: "In President Cheng's eyes, only his wife is the most beautiful."
Li Yufei disagreed.
She and her mother absolutely must not let Cheng Yuzhou's father see them.
Cheng Yuzhou didn't want to discuss this topic anymore. He tugged at Li Yufei's sleeve and asked, "Want to come to my room to play?"
"Okay, let's go!"
Since Li Yufei beat up Chen Jiahao, the two have been in contact.
Cheng Yuzhou initially didn't dare to speak to Li Yufei at school; he deliberately avoided her, which made Li Yufei unhappy.
She waited until break time between classes, then cornered him at the bathroom door, adopting the demeanor of a school bully: "Hey, I'm talking to you, how dare you ignore me? Give me back my hair tie!"
After that, Cheng Yuzhou realized that Li Yufei truly didn't care about what others thought.
The children's initial enthusiasm faded quickly. As they moved from second to third grade, aside from some gossip and rumors about Li Yufei and Cheng Yuzhou, very few people bothered to make a fuss about him anymore.
They are at an age where they regard their teacher as a sacred law.
When all the teachers praised Cheng Yuzhou, the students were also subtly influenced to believe that "Cheng Yuzhou is excellent."
Cheng Yuzhou was still being egged on, but gradually, the egging was no longer on questions like "Who likes pink?", but on "This is a competition question, who is willing to try?"
He was incredibly intelligent. When he first transferred to the school, he was ostracized and missed the opportunity to participate in group activities. However, he was able to win first place in all individual competitions such as model airplanes, four-wheel drive cars, and electronic technology.
Li Yufei had heard him say that he was the class monitor at his old school.
At first, she found it unbelievable, but after entering the third grade, she realized that Cheng Yuzhou might not have been lying to her.
He was indeed intelligent, polite, and handsome. Just as a rose was barely worthy of her, Cheng Yuzhou was barely worthy of being her friend.
Li Yufei accepted him as her follower.
The two lived in the same neighborhood. Someone told Li's parents that she and Cheng Yuzhou had become friends, and they immediately asked Li Yufei to bring Cheng Yuzhou to their home.
She had already taken him to her home several times, and today she finally came to Cheng Yuzhou's home as well.
"You have two cell phones, a tablet, and a TV all by yourself—my goodness, you even have your own computer!"
Upon entering Cheng Yuzhou's room, Li Yufei ignored all the furnishings and went straight to his computer desk.
"Where's the power button!" She sat down in the only computer chair and excitedly fumbled for the computer case.
Cheng Yuzhou paused for a moment, glancing out of the corner of his eye at the cabinet on the other side of the room.
He prepared beautifully illustrated princess fairy tales for Li Yufei, along with some hair accessories and bracelets, but he didn't expect Li Yufei's attention to be on the computer.
"Here it is." He knelt down and opened it for her. "Would you like to play a game?"
"No, I want to watch 'Born to Love You'."
Li Yufei and her younger brother share a tablet, and the siblings have waged countless battles over that tablet.
She is indeed powerful, but even lions have their moments of weakness. The time she has to grab the tablet is always limited, and she can't watch all the TV series.
"I want to start watching from episode 20!"
"What is that?" Cheng Yuzhou had never heard of this drama before.
"It's very good, you'll see when you see it."
Cheng Yuzhou moved a chair and sat down next to Li Yufei.
Li Yufei watched with great interest, and he would glance at her from time to time.
From the side, Li Yufei's eyes looked like glass marbles, crystal clear, reflecting the colorful screen.
They were sitting so close together, their elbows almost touching, as they were looking at the same computer screen.
A vase of roses, prepared in advance by Cheng Yuzhou, sat on the windowsill. In the sweltering heat, the room was filled with the cool, delicate fragrance of roses.
She stared intently, then suddenly let out a soft breath.
Cheng Yuzhou then snapped out of his daze, blushing as he shifted his gaze from Li Yufei back to the screen—and there he saw the kissing male and female leads.
He opened his mouth, his reason telling him he couldn't let Li Yufei see this kind of thing, but his reason also clearly knew that if he tried to dissuade her in a rigid manner, it would definitely upset her.
But they're still children; they really shouldn't be watching this kind of thing...
While I was feeling restless and conflicted, the kissing scene quickly came to an end.
As the episode ended, the two of them breathed a sigh of relief.
Cheng Yuzhou was relieved, while Li Yufei was still feeling unsatisfied.
“Cheng Yuzhou,” she turned to him and asked, “have you ever kissed him on the lips?”
"W-what!" he exclaimed in surprise. "Of course not!"
Don't you have a girlfriend?
Cheng Yuzhou shook his head repeatedly: "No."
Even Cheng Yuzhou, such an outstanding student, had never been in a relationship, so Li Yufei immediately boasted proudly, "I have, I have two!"
Cheng Yuzhou was taken aback.
As Li Yufei's rumored boyfriend over the past year, Cheng Yuzhou had no idea that Li Yufei had another boyfriend.
"Is that so..." He couldn't express his feelings. "Who is it? From another class?"
“You don’t know them? They’re my kindergarten classmates.” Li Yufei listed them off as if they were old friends. “One was the most handsome in our kindergarten, he looks like Leonardo DiCaprio; the other was the richest, his dad drives a Maybach. They both liked me, so I made them take turns being my boyfriend.”
"You have no idea, they like me so much, they all want to pursue me..." She spoke with great enthusiasm, her expression beautiful and lively, but Cheng Yuzhou felt inexplicably uncomfortable.
He suddenly spoke up, "My dad, my dad also has a Maybach."
Li Yufei was getting into her story when he suddenly interrupted her: "Huh?"
He lowered his head slightly: "Although I... don't look like Leonardo, my family still has other Mercedes models."
"So what!" Li Yufei had already forgotten the initial setup after recounting how Leonardo DiCaprio and the richest man's son fought over her. She said unhappily, "What's so great about a Mercedes? You're so low-class. Why are you suddenly showing off your wealth!"
"I didn't..." Cheng Yuzhou hesitated, looking rather helpless, like a scholar encountering a soldier.
After a long pause, he cautiously asked, "So, are you still seeing them now?"
"Of course not, we haven't been in contact for a long time."
Cheng Yuzhou's eyes lit up, and the gloom that had just appeared immediately dissipated.
His lips curved into a smile, and his mood suddenly brightened.
"Why?" He wanted to hear more from Li Yufei. "Is it because they knew they weren't good enough for you, so they gave up?"
Li Yufei hadn't intended to say that; instead, he offered her a new idea.
She nodded in agreement. "That's pretty much it."
"They gave up so easily, they're not worth remembering," the handsome boy said solemnly. "Li Yufei, don't think about them anymore."
“I wasn’t thinking about them.” He interrupted her, and she forgot what she was originally going to say. “I was going to say that I don’t have a boyfriend right now, and you don’t have a girlfriend either—so let’s kiss.”
Cheng Yuzhou's smile froze, and his whole body stiffened in the chair.
"What, you're not happy about it?"
"No, no, but we're all just kids, we can't do this..." Cheng Yuzhou waved his hands frantically.
"It's okay, kissing without taking off our clothes won't get you pregnant." Li Yufei blinked. "Aren't you curious?"
She was incredibly curious; every time she watched a TV series, she wanted to know why lovers kissed and what would happen after they did.
"I'm not curious." Cheng Yuzhou shook his head vigorously, stammering as he tried to dissuade him, "You can't kiss before you're eighteen."
Who made that rule?
"...The law?" Cheng Yuzhou wasn't quite sure either.
"I don't believe it!" Li Yufei immediately opened a search engine. "Let me search to see if there's any law that says this."
She found it, raised an eyebrow, and revealed a canine tooth: "Look, it says here, 'From a legal point of view, there is no specific age limit for kissing.'"
Cheng Yuzhou said urgently, "But it also says here, 'Anyone who has sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of fourteen, regardless of whether the girl consents, shall be punished for rape.'"
"I wanted to kiss, not have sex!" Li Yufei first sternly denied, then asked blankly, "What is 'sexual intercourse'?"
She kept using the word "sexual activity," making Cheng Yuzhou's brain bubble with heat.
He rarely raised his voice at Li Yufei: "Kissing is sexual intercourse!"
"No way!" Although she wasn't sure if it was true or not, she was definitely right. Li Yufei pointed at the computer, "If you don't believe me, let's search it again."
She searched on the search engine: "Does kissing count as sexual intercourse?"
Among the various answers that popped up, the top-ranked AI-generated answer was:
"Kissing, when used purely as an expression of affection, does not constitute sexual behavior."
"Haha, I won!" Li Yufei clapped her hands happily. It seemed that she was the smartest one, and Cheng Yuzhou was just a bookworm.
“But…” Cheng Yuzhou retorted anxiously, “But it just can’t be.”
Who made that rule?
"...No means no."
Li Yufei said unhappily, "Cheng Yuzhou, I didn't expect you to be such a sore loser. Forget it, I'll just find someone else to kiss."
"No!" Her wrist was suddenly grabbed tightly, and he pleaded frantically, "Li Yufei, don't kiss other people..."
He found it difficult to utter the last word and spoke it very softly.
Li Yufei said impatiently, "You're not close to me, but you care whether I'm close to others or not?"
"I want to kiss you!" Cheng Yuzhou said eagerly, "I want to kiss you."
"Really?" Li Yufei asked skeptically. "Then close your eyes quickly."
Cheng Yuzhou closed his eyes, but when he felt Li Yufei approaching, he hurriedly opened them again: "Can we kiss a little later?"
"What time is 'later'? In the evening? I need to go home for dinner tonight."
“What I mean is…” he looked away guiltily, “in four years, when we turn fourteen.”
"Kiss me or not, it's up to you!" Li Yufei snapped, easily pulling her hand away. "I'm going to kiss Wang Shenghao instead."
"No, no!" Cheng Yuzhou quickly closed his eyes. "I'll give you... Li Yufei, I'll give you a kiss."
"Don't open your eyes again!" Li Yufei warned him. "You're not allowed to move until I say yes."
"OK."
He closed his eyes and couldn't see her, but he could feel her breathing getting closer and closer.
The scent of roses from her hair wafted over him. Unlike the light, subtle fragrance on his mother, Li Yufei's scent was aggressive and overwhelming, leaving him nowhere to hide and causing his heart to race.
Cheng Yuzhou was so nervous that he broke out in a light sweat. He waited anxiously in the darkness, and then he heard a "pop" sound as the lid was pulled off.
Li Yufei, who had just approached, stepped back and said, "Wait a minute, I need to put on some lipstick."
"Okay, okay."
She applied her lipstick, then "popped" the cap back on, rustled it back into her pocket, and slowly approached again.
She was the one who suggested the game, but as the game drew to a close, Li Yufei inexplicably felt a little nervous.
Upon closer inspection, she was shocked to discover that Cheng Yuzhou's skin was even better than hers.
He always carried an umbrella when he went out; his face was fair and delicate, and his eyelashes were long, thick, and curled.
Cheng Yuzhou looked different from usual from this angle. She looked at him curiously for a while and noticed that his face was getting redder and redder and his eyeballs were trembling.
She'd been watching for a while, and Cheng Yuzhou urged anxiously, "Are you done yet?"
His voice was dry and thin, accompanied by a tremor.
"Almost there, almost there." Li Yufei held his shoulders and gave his lips a critical look.
It's not very red, more of a pale pink, and there's no peeling.
It's alright, barely acceptable.
Li Yufei swallowed hard and grabbed Cheng Yuzhou's shoulders. "I want to kiss you."
Cheng Yuzhou gave a trembling "Mmm".
A soft sensation on their lips. The two teenagers held their breath simultaneously.
After sticking it on for three to five seconds, Li Yufei quickly stepped back.
"Alright!" she commanded, "Open your eyes."
Cheng Yuzhou immediately took deep breaths.
He covered his mouth, the lipstick residue lingering on his lips, a lingering aftertaste of the kiss. He was so ashamed he didn't know where to look.
Li Yufei pursed her lips, savoring the moment before shaking her head in disbelief. "It's so strange, why do they kiss all the time?"
What's so interesting about that?
She never wants to kiss again.
Seeing that she had lost interest, Cheng Yuzhou felt both relieved and dejected.
Is kissing him really that boring...?
Perhaps it wasn't just about kissing; compared to the vibrant and energetic Li Yufei, he seemed dull and uninteresting.
"Li Yufei," Cheng Yuzhou asked anxiously, "Do you think I'm boring?"
"Hmm?" Li Yufei had already started playing the next episode of the TV series. "It's alright. Although you're not very interesting, you're quite pleasing to the eye."
"Then Wang Shenghao and I..." "Don't speak! It's starting!"
The words that were about to come out were forced back down, and Cheng Yuzhou turned his head to look at Li Yufei, who was focused on her work.
She was sitting in his room.
This feeling made Cheng Yuzhou both nervous and secretly delighted, as if in a world where everyone believed in gods, he was the only one who had seen the wings that the gods had left behind.
He thus possessed the treasure.
As they exchanged gifts, the two children grew closer.
Li Yufei's parents provided a great deal of help in this process.
After learning that their daughter had become friends with Cheng Yandong's only son, the couple tried every means to foster a better relationship between the two children.
They invited Cheng Yuzhou to come over and tried their best to get Li Yufei into Cheng Yuzhou's school and class.
Li Yufei felt a little awkward because of her parents' overly eager attitude, but Cheng Yuzhou was a very convenient friend.
She had no pocket money, but Cheng Yuzhou did.
She didn't want to do her homework, so Cheng Yuzhou did it for her.
She was reluctant to practice makeup on her own skin, so Cheng Yuzhou obediently let her do it.
It always felt prestigious to ride in Cheng Yuzhou's car.
The students who directly entered No. 3 Middle School from the affiliated primary school were basically the same group from primary school. Everyone had long been used to Cheng Yuzhou's long hair and the way he carried an umbrella.
The teenagers broadened their horizons and learned that it doesn't mean anything for a man to have long hair.
In the increasingly fierce academic competition, Cheng Yuzhou's abilities became more and more prominent, completely overshadowing his minor, harmless difference in personality.
He was still not allowed to participate in sports and remained outside of group activities, but his stable grade ranking alone made the students around him worship him.
He had made friends, and many people wanted to talk to him, but Cheng Yuzhou's gaze still couldn't leave Li Yufei even for a moment.
As he entered puberty, he knew they should avoid each other. This thought popped into his head more than once, only to be shattered without exception.
Whenever he heard Li Yufei's voice, whenever Li Yufei appeared in his sight, he would approach her as if possessed.
His soul was drawn to her radiance, and she grew more stunningly beautiful each year.
Several times, he caught a glimpse of her in the bright sunlight, and each time he was momentarily stunned.
Perhaps Li Yufei is truly not a person of this world.
She is a goddess from heaven.
"Li Yufei, what exactly is your relationship with Cheng Yuzhou?"
After evening self-study in the second year of junior high school, Cheng Yuzhou was called away by his math teacher to fill out a competition form.
He rushed back and saw that Li Yufei's schoolbag was still in the classroom, and breathed a sigh of relief.
Her bag was still there, but she was no longer in the classroom.
Cheng Yuzhou went out to look for it, and as he passed the restroom, he paused and overheard those words.
“Just friends.” Li Yufei washed her hands at the sink, her voice muffled by the sound of running water. “What other kind of relationship could we have?”
"Hehe, I don't believe in pure friendship between men and women."
"Are you kidding me?" Her laughter rose as the sound of the water stopped. "He's so short. You'd date a guy who's half a head shorter than you?"
Cheng Yuzhou was taken aback, slowly withdrew his front foot, and retreated behind the wall.
“That’s true,” her friend’s voice rang out. “Since you don’t like him, don’t you feel uncomfortable when everyone is gossiping about you two?”
"Do you think Vivien Leigh would care if people fantasized about her being their wife?" Li Yufei shook the water off her hands and said nonchalantly, "This is something I was born to bear."
"Holy crap, hahaha. So, are you going to say yes to Wang Shenghao? He's not shorter than you, and he's good at basketball too."
"He's alright, but I don't really feel anything about him, and he's not as generous as Cheng Yuzhou."
"If that's your standard, then no one in the whole city is more generous and richer than Cheng Yuzhou."
The two girls walked out of the restroom and headed towards the classroom.
"Are you still going to date in junior high? Half the time has already passed."
"I do want to, but they're all the same old faces I've seen since I was a child, I'm tired of them."
"Then let's choose Wang Shenghao."
Li Yufei picked up her schoolbag and glanced at Cheng Yuzhou's seat.
His bag is still there, hasn't he come back yet...?
"Okay." She walked out of the classroom without turning off the lights. "If Wang Shenghao confesses his feelings to me, I'll consider it."
They walked away, and Cheng Yuzhou slowly emerged from behind the corner.
The students had all left, leaving only the white light on the stairwell in the corridor. He stood silently in the dim shadows.
She didn't like him—of course, of course, that's perfectly normal; no one is worthy of Li Yufei's affection.
Cheng Yuzhou would never have such delusions; he had basic self-awareness.
No one in this world is worthy of her.
...
"Li Yufei".
Over the weekend, in Li Yufei's room, as Cheng Yuzhou looked up at her and asked her to draw his eyebrows, he suddenly said, "You shouldn't date Wang Shenghao."
Li Yufei pinched his chin, focused on tracing the shape of his eyebrows, and casually replied, "I'm not dating him."
Following her lead, Cheng Yuzhou tilted his head to the left, his long hair swaying slightly: "What if he confesses to you?"
"Then I'll agree."
He is not good enough for you.
"Yes, I know."
"Then why do you still want to..." "Hey, don't talk!" She clicked her tongue, pinched his chin, and focused on drawing. "I just want to have a relationship. I'm not going to marry him. If I don't like him, I can just break up with him."
She gripped his chin with a bit too much force, causing a slight pain. Cheng Yuzhou took her warning and sat down in his chair without saying a word.
Li Yufei was completely focused on Cheng Yuzhou's eyebrows. He had a light-colored face, which made him very versatile in terms of makeup and styling, and she especially liked to use them as a model for her makeup.
The girl's breathing was shallow when she was concentrating, and her wide-open eyes, round in the middle and upturned in the corners, had pupils that were as clear as smoky quartz under the makeup light.
She was so close to him, her attention was entirely on him, yet her eyes were clear and innocent, completely devoid of him.
"Am I really not good enough...?"
Li Yufei changed the color and leaned over to draw on Cheng Yuzhou's face, asking, "What's wrong?"
"I will grow taller." Her wrist was suddenly grabbed, and the gentle and beautiful boy under the eyebrow pencil pleaded with her, "Li Yufei, I will definitely grow taller. Please don't date Wang Shenghao, talk to me... talk to me, okay?"
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