Romance
Ye Yuanyin suddenly retracted the upturned corners of his mouth. Afraid of being teased again, he raised his hand embarrassedly and stroked his hair that he had just messed up in a disguised manner.
The people on the mountain shouted again, "No more watering, come up."
When Chendi'an reached the steps, the hot water had already carved a path, revealing its original color. Although some snow had not yet melted, it was basically passable.
Zheng Youshan was not happy to be the first to step forward, so he took a step forward and said, "Boss Shen, you are not familiar with the mountain road, so let me lead the way."
"Okay."
In order to show off his strength, Zheng Youshan took a few steps and rushed up five or six steps. After he stopped, he pinched his waist and was about to laugh out loud. When he turned around, he saw Chen Dian'an extending his hand to Ye Yuanyin and said in a gentle voice, "Let me help you."
The temperature in the mountains was cool and refreshing, and it seemed as if a string of nerves in his nasal cavity was pulled. He turned his head and sneezed, and then coughed several times.
Suddenly, he felt a warm touch on his palm. Ye Yuanyin placed a box of medicine for treating seasonal allergic rhinitis in his palm, and soon her fingers left.
"I'm used to walking these roads. I don't need help."
She walked in front and stepped onto the stairs. Chen Yan looked at the aluminum foil in her hand, and a strange feeling welled up in her heart. It turned out that she really bought medicine from the village doctor.
Zheng Youshan watched the interaction between the two and cried silently in his heart. He thought that this profiteer named Shen was using all kinds of tricks to steal his sweetheart.
He rushed down the stairs and said angrily, "Ayin, why are you walking so slowly? If we don't hurry up, we won't be able to get down the mountain. Come! I'll pull you along."
Ye Yuanyin nimbly avoided his outstretched arm and said, "Go and pull the people behind."
Zheng Youshan obediently stretched out his hand and looked innocently at Chen Di'an behind him.
"That's not necessary." He was still smiling leisurely, and simply threw down these four words and walked to the front calmly.
The mountain was steep, the rocks towering, and only a single line of spaced lines, like the lines in a Word document, separated it from the sky. Ye Yuanyin couldn't help but wonder: were there really people on the other side of the mountain? Or would they enter another parallel world after climbing over this mountain?
Chen Dian arrived first and climbed up the last step. The mountain was very open and the narrow lines suddenly turned into blank pages.
Four or five men stood there, with a big pot beside them. Firewood was burning in the clay furnace. The flames opened their mouths wide and licked the edge of the iron pot. Clouds of white mist gurgled out, and it was as ethereal as a fairyland.
The man in the lead was called Tie Sandeng. He was short and thin. Beneath his unassuming appearance, his eyes were piercing and sharp, looking into people's hearts and lungs.
Because he had read a lot of books and was resourceful, he was known as the "Rival of Zhuge Liang" in the village and was also the leader of the dozen or so households in the mountain who refused to move.
Seeing Zheng Youshan at this moment, he laughed loudly and said in a loud voice: "Oh, who did I think it was? It turned out to be Youshan. How is your father?"
"Okay, I'll invite you down for a drink when the weather clears up."
"Good boy, you're so sweet." He laughed heartily, turned his head and glanced at Ye Yuanyin, and asked, "Why is Xiao Ayin here too?"
Ye Yuanyin's father was a son-in-law who married into the family. The villagers always liked to gossip about him behind his back. His father-in-law looked down on this weak scholar, so he gave him a hunting rifle and asked him to hunt deer. He didn't catch the deer, but he almost fired the wrong shot and took Tie Sandeng's life.
After that, the two of them got to know each other through fighting. After a few rounds of fighting, they found that they had similar personalities and could talk to each other. Later, they liked to discuss the big and small things in the village.
Ye Yuanyin called out "Uncle Wait," and introduced the people around him to him, "This is Mr. Shen from KZ Technology. We are here to do research."
Tie Sandeng glanced at Chen Dian, who was standing beside her, with a look of intense hostility on his face. He asked, "What research?"
There were some unscrupulous reporters in the past. Ever since that incident happened at home, they have been like maggots attached to the child's bones, asking questions over and over again, torturing the child to the point of unbearable pain.
Chen Yan'an, who didn't know the truth, was about to speak, but Ye Yuanyin, who was observing his expression, pulled his sleeve and said with a smile: "Nothing, Uncle. How is Xiao Ruan?"
"Same old thing."
"Uncle, tomorrow the weather will be fine, and the children will all go to school, right?"
Tie Sandeng laughed heartily and said, "You're becoming more and more like your father. You're even controlling me with both hands."
"I'm asking this on behalf of Teacher Hu. Are you going or not?"
"Go away, go away. You're so nagging and act like your mother. Who would dare to marry you in the future?"
Zheng Youshan grinned and pointed at himself. Ye Yuanyin didn't give him a chance to speak, "Uncle, can we meet Xiao Ruan?"
"Who?" Tie Sandeng's face darkened instantly. He cast a wary gaze over Shen Ji'an, as sharp as an untamed wolf. "Ayin, you're one of us. I'm at ease. But I won't see any outsiders."
With his high position, Xidian'an naturally left coordination to the administrative department. After all this idle small talk, without even seeing the child, he felt the village's bloated and inefficient administration all the more acutely. So, with a touch of impatience, he asked, "Didn't Secretary Long tell you? We're here to get the child better treatment. We shouldn't be categorized as 'outsiders'."
"Treat? Treat whom? I don't have any patients at home!" Tie Sandeng snorted a few times and said arrogantly, "Humph, even if Long Yan comes, he has to show some courtesy to me. You are so arrogant, young man. I can tell you are not from here. I don't care who you are outside, but you have to know the rules of our mountain."
When you live under someone's roof, you have to bow your head.
Ye Yuanyin came to the rescue and said, "Uncle, Mr. Shen is a practical man. He is different from those who come here to hunt for novelties. He really wants to do something to help the children in the village. Please don't be prejudiced against him."
Chen Dian looked at her in surprise. He had never expressed his ambition publicly, nor had he discussed the prospects of this project with her in depth.
With her thin body, she stood on her side in vain, as if sacrificing herself for her ideal.
"I don't see his sincerity. The path on the mountain is slippery. Please go ahead!"
This was clearly a sign of sending the guest away. Ye Yuanyin looked at Chen Di'an, who had an unhappy expression, and thought that perhaps this was the first time he had hit a wall. But sometimes, even the most noble people had to bow their heads and abide by some local "rules".
"Then, let's come to see Xiao Ruan next time." Ye Yuanyin pulled Chen Dian'an down the mountain.
Zheng Youshan was afraid of being left alone, so he hurriedly followed them.
This trip had gone through so much trouble but ended in vain. Dian Yan, a man who placed a high value on efficiency, felt slightly dissatisfied and said, "Just leaving like that? You didn't even get to see the child. Aren't you a competent guide?"
This is somewhat critical.
It's not that Ye Yuanyin couldn't hear his displeasure, but she knew Tie Sandeng's temper very well, so she had to explain: "Even if I begged, he wouldn't let us see the child. Insisting on it would only lead to conflict."
"How do you know?" Chen Yan said, his demeanor and dominance typical of a decision-maker, completely inconsiderate of others' feelings. "You don't even have the will to try."
Ye Yuanyin suddenly stopped and asked him with a hint of pride, "Try? Do you know how far I walked from here to Ancheng just to 'try'? But what was the result? Your city isn't friendly, and I can't fit in there."
Xiandian had never been contradicted like this before. His expression darkened like a cloud, and after a long moment he finally said, "Can't you get up after falling? You're not a three-year-old child."
"How do I crawl?" Ye Yuanyin fought back the tears in her eyes, but still met his stern gaze. She said in a choked voice, "That's—even if I cut open my heart a thousand times, swallowed my pride, and cried and begged, there's no way to change it... That's someone else's intention."
How could she make someone who was so different from her love her? And how could she make someone who ignored her feelings stop pestering her?
Ye Yuanyin had tried very hard not to show his weak and humble side in front of him, but the scarlet eye circles and trembling lips still revealed the turmoil in his heart at the moment.
Chen Yan watched from the side, his eyelids twitching slightly.
Seeing that A Yin was forced to tears by him, Zheng Youshan thought to himself, as a man, how could he allow his woman to be bullied?
He was furious and blocked Ye Yuanyin behind him. He stiffened his neck and said loudly, "Boss Shen, you are an outsider and you are not familiar with the situation in our village at all! Uncle Tie San has such a strange temper, and you just keep asking questions! If you make him angry, do you believe he will pour that pot of hot water on you?!"
Even when he was angry, Chen Dian still smiled, which made people feel slighted. He asked Zheng Youshan, "So, how long do we have to wait?"
He was considering the entire team behind him. Time is money, especially in their industry. Even if they waited one more second, the same project might have been launched online.
"Do I need to find a different cooperating village to conduct these surveys?"
Ye Yuanyin felt a burning sensation in his heart when he heard his unkind words. He said coldly, "Then go change it."
She left this sentence and went down the mountain without looking back.
Zheng Youshan looked at both ends, estimated the severity of the situation in his mind, exerted force with his feet, and chased after Ye Yuanyin.
Dian Dian was thrown into the "hard to climb" part of the mountain. He stopped and looked around. The flowing clouds and mist covered the green that had already sprouted in the forest.
The mountains were vast and boundless. Looking up, all he could see was nothing but stones. He suddenly felt cramped and hit a wall. He had left the familiar battlefield of the city, where he was restricted everywhere and had no room to maneuver.
*
When Ye Yuanyin walked into the house, her mother heard the sound of the door knocker and came out with a frying pan. She chased after her and asked, "Why did you come back alone? Where is Mr. Shen?"
"Who wants to care about him?" Ye Yuan hid in his room out of anger.
"He's unfamiliar with the place. If he gets lost, how will he explain to your uncle?"
She said through the door: "He is so powerful, he can't be lost."
It was almost dinner time when Chen Dian returned to the Long family.
When he first came to Jiutao Village, he had a purpose and ambition, and only had a superficial impression of everything in the village. He wouldn't stay long anyway, so why bother to worry about it? Therefore, everything that Ye Yuanyin was concerned about was not within his consideration.
On the way back, several neighbors who knew him not only greeted him but also kindly gave him directions. Out of courtesy, Dian Dian stopped for these simple people more than once and had irrelevant conversations with them. Although he wasted a lot of time, he was still sent back by these enthusiastic old people.
Aunt Long had been waiting for him to come back for so long that she reached out to hold him, looked him up and down, and said, "Oh my God, thank goodness you're back safely. Otherwise, I would have gone out to look for you."
Sediment gave her a reassuring smile and said, "I'm fine."
Ye Yuanyin didn't come down for dinner. Chen Yan thought, they hadn't seen much of each other before, so he hadn't known this girl had such an unyielding temper. From this, it seemed likely that You Jing had suffered a lot from her.
The thick fog dissipated at night, and the moon and stars showed their faces.
There was a layer of snow on the rocking chair in the yard. If you look closely, you can see cat paw prints left by the Spring Equinox.
Ye Yuanyin took a wet rag and wiped it one layer, then turned to the kitchen to get a dry cloth and wiped it again before sitting down.
Her body swayed leisurely in the rocking chair.
The brightest star in the sky is called the North Star. In the past, everyone, whether city dwellers or country dwellers, would see it and chant about it. Later, it disappeared from the eyes of city dwellers, and only country dwellers still had it in their hearts and eyes.
Swaying and swaying, the stars gradually became blurred in her vision.
Ye Yuanyin recalled the first time he met Chen Yan.
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