Chapter 34: Boy
After a small climax in the movie, Zhao Yeqing came back to his senses and noticed the man who had been standing next to him for an unknown period of time.
Mu Xi was leaning against the wall beside the gate. The sun was strong outside and the light was against her. She couldn't see his expression clearly and was about to ask him what he was looking at.
Mu Xi spoke first, with a half-smile on his face.
"Didn't you say to leave some for me?"
Zhao Yeqing looked down at the leaf at hand in a daze. It was empty, but the purple residue on his fingertips proved that he had done it.
She was a little embarrassed. After all, they hadn't seen each other for so long. She had worked hard to pick some fruits early in the morning, but she ate them all.
"How about I pick some more for you?"
Mu Xi leaned lazily against the wall and said, "Forget it. I didn't have any hope in the first place."
...
Zhao Yeqing walked past Mu Xi to the kitchen and washed the purple stains on his fingers in the sink. In just three months, calluses had formed on his hands and the color had seeped into his hands, making them difficult to wash off.
Mu Xi's gaze paused on it again, and this time she noticed it. He lowered his head and looked at his fingers, "Some time ago, wild boars came to the vegetable garden to dig up potatoes. Do you remember the forest of Chinese toon? There were a few big trees over there. There were traces of bears on the trees. I was a little worried, so I cut down the trees and built a fence."
She felt a little ugly, so she hid her fingers behind her back and pretended to be relaxed, "I cut down ordinary fir trees, the ones next to the house, which are not protected species. And there is a reason for it. You won't arrest me again, will you?"
Mu Xi seemed not to hear her next sentence, "Knowing there were wild boars and bears, why did you dare to run north? Just for a few mushrooms?"
Zhao Yeqing confessed honestly, "The mushrooms were a pleasant surprise. I was originally looking for tea trees, but I didn't find any."
Mu Xi sneered and took out a waist basket from the corner. It was the one that Zhao Yeqing dropped when he rolled down the slope yesterday.
"Your surprise."
The Matsutake mushrooms were at the bottom and didn't fall out, so they were still intact. However, the Tiger Paw Mushroom was a little broken and had been there for a long time, so it must have become bitter, so Zhao Yeqing simply discarded it.
"Wow! Look at this matsutake mushroom. It's quite big. It costs nearly 200 yuan in the city."
"What a great idea." Mu Xi turned to look at his herbal tea. "You can cook this surprise into a dish today as a way to repay me for saving your life."
Zhao Yeqing had never cooked for him before, so she seemed a little surprised that he didn't question her cooking skills and let her cook with confidence.
Then I heard him say, "You have lived this long without being poisoned to death by yourself. I am lucky."
What this means is that at least the food you cook won’t be poisonous enough to kill people.
Zhao Yeqing...Thank you.
-
In order to avoid the hottest sunlight at noon, Zhao Yeqing placed a fan in the living room and let Mu Xi take a nap there first.
There is no electricity there, and it would be very uncomfortable to take a nap without a fan in this temperature.
Mu Xi did not refuse. He took the cooked herbal tea and the pot down, placed it by the water to cool, and wiped his face at the same time.
Back in the living room, Zhao Yeqing sat on a bench leaning against the wall looking at his phone, and the bench was left for him.
Mu Xi woke up at dawn in the morning. There was a breeze and the air was flowing, so the house was no longer stuffy and he just felt warm. He put his hands under his head, closed his eyes and fell asleep in a short while.
Zhao Yeqing heard his breathing become even and his eyes moved from the screen, which was not unlocked at all, to the person's face.
Only now did she take a closer look at the face.
A familiar strangeness.
I shaved today and finally had a good sleep last night. The blues under my eyes have faded and I look much more energetic.
She carefully searched every part of this person's body for a sense of familiarity, her eyes resting on the scar on his neck.
That was when she was ten years old. She wanted to eat bayberries, so Mu Xi took her to pick them. She had never climbed a tree before, but for some reason she insisted on climbing the tree that day.
Mu Xi was so annoyed by her that he had to climb up with her on his back. As soon as he sat on the branch and raised his hand to pick bayberries, he saw a black caterpillar with long hair crawling next to him.
She screamed and was about to jump under the tree in panic, but Mu Xi pulled her over, turned her around, and fell off the tree himself.
Zhao Yeqing was fine, but Mu Xi, who was lying underneath him, had his neck pierced diagonally by a branch.
She cried and shouted for help. Fortunately, the bayberry tree was located near the foot of the mountain. The villagers who were picking wild vegetables heard it, picked up Mu Xi and ran to the hospital.
She was so scared that she locked herself in her room, not daring to go out or see Grandpa Mu or Grandma Mu. Every day she would watch from the window to see when Mu Xi would come back.
What if he died? If he didn't die, he would definitely hate her to death.
She didn't know how many days she had been worried. She didn't dare to come out until she saw Mu Xi return home.
Grandpa Mu and Grandma Mu came back and told her at the door that they didn't blame her and asked her to come out, but she didn't listen and just kept crying.
Until finally, Mu Xi's voice was heard at the door, his voice was very soft, as if he couldn't speak loudly.
"Zhao Yeqing, I don't blame you, come out quickly."
...
"Really, don't cry."
"Why are you crying? I'm hurt and you're crying, so I have to comfort you." The boy's voice was filled with laughter.
Zhao Yeqing finally believed it. She opened the door and saw Mu Xi standing at the door with a white bandage around his neck. Her eyes turned red again.
In fact, the injury on Mu Xi's neck was not serious. It was just that the skin was punctured, and the branch inserted diagonally looked scary, but in fact, it hardly hurt the throat and trachea.
She thought Mu Xi's neck was broken, and she cried even louder.
Four old men came in upon hearing the noise. Poor Mu Xi still had a wound on his neck, and his butt was slapped by Grandpa Mu.
"I told you not to blame your sister. You made her cry."
Later, Mu Xi ordered Zhao Yeqing to run errands for him in various ways, such as fetching water cups, serving food, fanning, and massaging his legs...
It wasn't until the bandage on his neck was removed that she realized his neck was not broken.
Mu Xi said that he deliberately asked her to compensate him. At that time, Zhao Yeqing felt that this person was both good and bad.
-
Zhao Yeqing stared at the man's neck in a daze.
Now that I think about it, he was probably afraid that he would feel guilty.
She was left to be raised by her grandparents since she was a child. Her parents got together impulsively and gave birth to her, but then regretted it and lived their own lives after their divorce.
Since I can remember, I have hardly ever heard from my parents, and my grandparents don't let them come back.
But she has never lacked care since she was a child, and she has five elderly people who grew up with her.
And there is Mu Xi, who is almost like her biological brother.
When she grew up, she saw some videos in which the daily quarrels and sharp words between siblings were indeed consistent with the normal situation when she and Mu Xi interacted with each other as a child.
After high school, he was going to college and finally stopped bullying her. However, after two years in college, he seemed to have joined some secret organization and there was no news from him for several years.
-
She swallowed subconsciously in her sleep, and her Adam's apple slid up and down, bringing her back to her senses.
Afraid of being discovered, I took a quick look and found that the person was still asleep, with his eyes still closed and his brows furrowed in his sleep.
She thought she knew what had changed about him.
The youth's flamboyance and willfulness are gone.
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