Chapter 56 Window Paper: It turns out, he was the same way.
The sun was shining brightly today. Lin Wen'an arrived at the yamen. To avoid the glare of the sun, he kept his eyes slightly lowered as he walked, only looking at the brick and stone ground three steps in front of him.
He walked until he was very close, right in front of the Yao family's door, and then he noticed that among the four or five painted-face women who turned to look at him, there was a very familiar one mixed in with the folding chair that was laid across the rain ditch.
Hmm? Ruyi is here too.
Lin Wen'an paused for a moment. She had been reclining on a couch, her face covered in flower petals, enjoying tea and sunshine with several aunties from the alley.
When she saw him coming from afar, she hurriedly sat up and smoothed her hair.
Lin Wen'an saw that her face was covered with layers of petals, which looked somewhat comical, but it made her almond-shaped eyes appear even darker and rounder, like a little deer, and gave her a unique kind of beauty.
Lin Wen'an lowered his eyes and nodded slightly when his gaze met the women on the couch. He bowed halfway to them.
Although he held an official position, he was still a junior compared to Aunt Yu and the others in terms of age, so he should pay his respects first.
The women on the couches, having seen him from afar, had already abandoned their lazy postures. Seeing his humility and lack of airs, they all straightened up, first avoiding his greeting, and then bowing back in return.
Aunt Yu added with a smile, "Lord Lin left the office early today."
Lin Wen'an replied, "I've had some free time lately." After answering, his gaze naturally fell on Ruyi's face, lingered on the few apricot blossoms for a moment, then casually turned away, asking, "Is Uncle Cong here?"
Yao Ruyi opened her mouth but then closed it again. She didn't dare to call him by his name in front of outsiders, so she vaguely omitted the first half of the sentence and said only, "Uncle Cong hasn't gotten up yet. The students of Zhixingzhai have been studying late into the night lately. He didn't rest until after midnight last night, so I told him to sleep more during the day and not to get up in a hurry."
"That's fine then, let's not bother him any longer." Lin Wen'an nodded, without saying much, and turned to Lin Sanlang and Lin Silang, who were craning their necks to peek at their younger sister, and said, "Today's work is tight, and you've been so tired that you haven't even had lunch. Go home now." He paused and added, "From now on, it'll be the same. Once you enter the alley, you'll no longer have any work to do. You don't need to follow those rules of the government office anymore. Go and have fun as you please."
Lin Sanlang and Lin Silang were twelve and fourteen years old, respectively, the kind of age that even cats and dogs wouldn't want to see. They were originally making faces at their younger sister and mother behind Lin Wen'an's back when they were suddenly called out. They immediately stopped their playful smiles, straightened their clothes, and bowed deeply: "Yes, sir."
These two boys used to playfully call Lin Wen'an "Uncle," and Lin Wen'an never corrected them. But ever since they followed him into the palace to serve, they have stopped and bowed to Lin Wen'an whenever they see people in the palace wearing gauze hats and brocade robes. They no longer dare to act presumptuously.
Seeing that someone could finally control the monkey in the house, Aunt Ying suppressed a laugh and called her two newly dressed sons over, whispering with concern, "Lord Lin even bought you new clothes?"
The two boys immediately became smug, not knowing how to be discreet, and lifted up their bright satin robes for Aunt Ying to see: "Mother, feel it, it's tribute satin! Lord Lin took us to the clothing and hat shop today, and even our undergarments, shoes and socks are new, and they still have yellow labels attached when we brought them back."
Lin Wen'an looked away, still not correcting the exaggerated words of the two teenagers.
He knew that Lin Si Cao's family was struggling financially and that they were too proud to ask him for help. Only when Ru Yi asked would the two Lin children follow him. So he divided his own salary into two parts and gave Lin San Lang and Lin Si Lang the same salary as the clerks. He also used his own money to buy them some nice clothes from the palace.
It was called tribute satin, which looked impressive from the outside, but in reality, this type was leftover from the palace's clothing and hat workshop after careful selection. It was specially supplied to minor officials in the government offices and didn't even count as official robes. You could get two sets for a fee. However, Lin Sanlang and Lin Silang were still his "private staff," which was different from minor clerks like Shen Hai who had been recruited through examinations.
Aunt Ying, however, was unaware of all this. She only thought that the stitching and the fabric looked wonderful. She reached out and touched it; the satin was cool and refreshing, making her afraid to apply any pressure. She thought to herself, "Such fine clothes are such a waste on these two monkeys."
We need to tell them to take it off quickly, iron it properly with the bottom of a copper teapot, and then hang it up.
She'd have to ask Madam Cheng or Aunt Kui for detailed advice on how to wash such precious fabric… Aunt Ying was already starting to worry. These two children wore it every day; it wasn't just about their appearance, but also about Lord Lin's. She couldn't let it get ruined.
Lin Sanlang and Silang were still touching their clothes and shaking their heads smugly.
Although they usually complained about how hard and tiring it was to study, the sudden dropout and separation from their former classmates, seeing them still carrying their books into the school every day while they were like two chickens separated from their flock, made them feel somewhat anxious. They couldn't sleep at night, worrying about what would become of them.
However, once they actually followed Lord Lin into the palace office to work, the two of them broadened their horizons and long since put their worries behind them. The two monkeys secretly exchanged glances, wishing they could find their former classmates to brag to as soon as Lord Lin entered the room.
Although I've bragged about it to my friends and classmates several times before, how can I not brag about it again today since I just received my new clothes? I wish I could tell Wangwang and Dahuang the same thing.
However, they only dared to show off their clothes and talk about the big-faced fox in the palace and the few cranes that were fatter than geese; they dared not say anything else.
They signed a death contract before they joined the weapons supervision department!
Leaking secrets is punishable by death. It is said that not only the two of them, but their entire family will be arrested and beheaded at Caishikou.
After signing the contract, the two were so scared that they didn't dare to sleep alone. They insisted on squeezing into their older brother Lin Weiming's room to sleep on the floor. They tossed and turned until they finally fell asleep, but were woken up in the middle of the night by their older brother's series of farts. Xiao Shitou was so sleepy that he didn't even open his eyes. The smell made him roll off the bed and fall directly on the two of them.
They almost threw up their leftover dinner from the night before.
However, they later heard from Fu, the eunuch serving Lord Lin, that everyone working in the palace had to sign and affix their seals, and no one had ever been beheaded. As long as they kept their mouths shut, it wasn't a big deal. As time went on, Lin Sanlang and Lin Silang gradually calmed down.
They now work alongside Fulai and Cailai, taking care of all the affairs of Lord Lin in the yamen. Fulai and Cailai are illiterate and can only do odd jobs. Although they are not very good at studying, they are literate and have a sweet tongue. Within a couple of days, they have become familiar with the clerks in the nearby document room and can help them deliver messages, run errands, and even organize documents.
Lin Wen'an also felt that having these two brothers was a good thing. After all, he wasn't a talkative person; he assigned tasks meticulously and clearly. His subordinates would inevitably complain that the work was difficult, but he rarely explained, because he couldn't understand it. In his eyes, the work could have been done by the time they had spent complaining.
But when Lin Sanlang and Silang went to deliver messages, they spoke very softly, even to the minor officials, they greeted them with smiles, addressing them as "Your Excellencies": "Thank you for your hard work, Your Excellencies," "Your tea is cold, let me get you a new cup," "I'll come back for it when you're done," "We Your Excellencies have no choice, the higher-ups are pressing us so hard, and the Three Departments often come to investigate us under the guise of auditing, sigh! It's tough..."
Later, when Lin Wen'an needed to find the head of the clerk's office, he passed by the room where the clerks were doing their accounts. He heard the abacus clicking and clattering inside. Several clerks were working overtime to do the accounts, cursing the bastards of the Three Departments for always finding fault. They stopped complaining about him and found it quite amusing.
These two kids are quite clever.
After this incident, he decided not to treat them as mere servants or errand boys. A couple of days ago, on a whim, he even casually gave them a simple math problem to solve:
"Suppose there is a city gate tower at the border that is 92 feet high, and a fierce oil tank is placed on it. The craftsman uses a copper nozzle to spray oil at an angle towards the outside of the city. The oil column falls 36 steps away from the base of the wall, and one step is equivalent to five feet. It is known that when the oil leaves the nozzle, its momentum can be multiplied by the sine and cosine of the angle of elevation to obtain the horizontal and vertical velocities. After the vertical velocity is cleared, the horizontal velocity still exists."
Q: If the nozzle is moved to a 40-degree elevation angle while maintaining the same outlet direction as before, how many steps from the foundation of the wall should the kerosene fall if the height of the tower remains unchanged?
As a result, Lin Sanlang and Lin Silang got dizzy from calculating, chewed up several pens, and began to see double. They couldn't figure it out even after several days.
While busy with his work, Lin Wen'an noticed them scratching their heads for several days and asked, "Is it that difficult? Doesn't the Imperial Academy also offer a mathematics course? Haven't you learned the Pythagorean theorem from the 'Zhoubi Suanjing' and the 'Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art'? 'Multiply each right triangle by itself, add them together, and take the square root to get the hypotenuse.' Have you learned that?"
Although mathematics was not a core subject, Lin Wen'an could calculate the Pythagorean theorem when he was around seven or eight years old.
But the two Lin brothers still shook their heads at him with long faces.
Lin Wen'an had no choice but to settle for second best and tentatively asked, "...Have you studied the 'method of cutting and patching' by Liu Hui, the great mathematician of the Wei and Jin Dynasties?"
The two brothers looked at him in silence.
If they could read and write, would they still drop out of school, Uncle?
Besides, they're still young!
Looking at this question, I doubt even their eldest brother could solve it.
Later, Lin Wen'an seemed to have figured this out as well. He initially rolled up his sleeves, ready to teach them himself, but when he picked up the brush, dipped it in ink, and just as he was about to suspend his wrist, he stopped in mid-air.
He didn't even know how to write out the intermediate steps for this problem. Wasn't the answer obvious at a glance? In the end, he simply wrote down "about two hundred feet, rounded to forty steps" on the paper.
Afterwards, Lin Wen'an and the two Lin brothers stared at each other for a long time, both feeling hopeless. Finally, Lin Wen'an sighed and said, "I'll call someone to teach you."
Before long, a short, stout clerk named Shen Hai came over to teach them how to calculate. He spent a long time calculating, writing three pages of calculations, and even made a mistake once in the middle. Finally, he came up with the answer of forty steps.
The two of them and Shen Hai stared blankly at the page filled with writing, and then fell silent.
Thinking back to this, Lin Sanlang and Silang shuddered in fear, secretly glancing at Lin Wen'an, wondering to themselves: Why hasn't Lord Lin gone inside yet? If he doesn't leave, the two of them dare not actually go play in front of him.
However, aside from having to do exams, working in the palace was wonderful in every way, especially since the meals there always included meat!
The two brothers were already quite satisfied. Last time, the palace had stewed mutton, and they were given a delicious and fragrant mutton soup with flatbread. The meat toppings in the palace soup with flatbread were large, solid chunks of mutton, stewed until tender, unlike the ones sold in the night market outside, which were chopped into small pieces or had only a few thin slices of meat floating in the soup. After eating them, you wouldn't even know if you had actually eaten any meat.
The mutton in the palace was sprinkled with coriander and served with pickled garlic. One bite of soup noodles and one bite of meat was an extremely satisfying meal.
They've only been there a few days, and they don't look as much like the monkeys from Mount Emei anymore. Their mother says they've gotten a lot fatter and now look like big-faced monkeys from the Western Regions. They vividly described to their mother that there were big-faced foxes from Tibet in the palace, and their mother thought that all the livestock in the Western Regions probably had big faces.
Nowadays, when I get angry, I often call them big-faced monkeys from the Western Regions.
Aunt Ying knew her son's character very well, and quickly bowed deeply to Lin Wen'an, saying, "These two wretches have really caused you trouble. If they do anything wrong, please feel free to scold or beat them, and don't worry about our relationship."
Lin Wen'an waved his hand, exchanged a few polite words, and then indicated that he would be leaving first. He and the group of women went through another round of tedious greetings, avoidances, and return greetings before he reached out to take the things from the hands of the third and fourth sons of the Lin family, stepped over the threshold, and went back.
Yao Ruyi only realized why he had been looking for Uncle Cong when he saw him about to leave. Since Lin Sanlang and Lin Silang had both missed lunch due to their busy schedules, he must have missed it too!
She quickly stood up, greeted her aunts, and then followed them inside.
The bamboo curtain was lifted with a rustling sound. The women on the couch outside the courtyard looked at each other, but since Lin Sanlang and Silang had not left yet, they could only communicate with their eyes. One tilted her head and winked, another covered her lips with a handkerchief, and after a while, they all laughed silently.
Aunt Yu, always the most mischievous, leaned over and whispered to Aunt Ying, "Just you wait, let's make a bet. At the latest next year, or at the earliest this year, there will be another wedding feast in our alley. Counting your new little girl, these two years will be doubly blessed!"
Aunt Ying chuckled, swatting away her two sons' fingers that were poking their sister's cheeks, and said in a low voice, "Look at the two of them, they're looking at each other like this, they're just one step away from breaking the ice. We outsiders are getting anxious. Why hasn't Lord Lin asked a matchmaker to come over yet?"
Aunt Yu rolled her eyes at her: "What do you know? Ruyi is quite shrewd in business, but she's a bit silly when it comes to this. Lord Lin is so meticulous, I'm afraid we'll have to wait for her to figure it out on her own."
"What's there to wait for!" Aunt Ying said, shooing away her two troublesome sons as if they were flies. She lowered her voice and said, "You're all perfectly capable people with mouths. If you don't use your mouths, what are you going to do with them? Why wait? Just open your mouth and say it, and Ruyi will understand everything."
"You...sigh...you!" Aunt Yu pointed at her with her hand, "It's obvious that Lin Si Cao is not the husband you chose yourself. When it comes to marriage, you have to choose your own husband and understand him in your heart before you can marry him."
Back then, Aunt Yu herself chose Yu Shouzheng. When she was still a young woman, the matchmaker sent five or six marriage proposals, all of whom were well-matched in terms of social status. Her parents were overwhelmed with choices and didn't know which one to choose, so they secretly arranged for her to meet several suitors at temple fairs and lantern markets.
Aunt Yu secretly observed several times, and even pretended to bump into Yu Shouzhen during a Wan family transaction, exchanging a few words and having tea at the same tea stall. Finally, upon returning home, she told her parents, "The Yu family is the one." Her parents disliked Yu Shouzhen, finding him listless and incompetent, believing he had no future.
Aunt Yu, still a young woman, instead advised her parents, "Is your daughter a celestial being descended to earth?"
The parents immediately shook their heads.
She then asked, "Isn't your daughter gentle and virtuous?"
The parents shook their heads violently.
She spread her hands: "Then that solves it?"
Sure enough, she made the right choice. Yu Shouzhen's face wasn't this long when he was young; he was tall, had a rather refined appearance, and wasn't bad-looking. Moreover, she valued his timid and good-natured nature; he always followed her around like a puppy, asking her about everything, big or small, and had never dared to say a harsh word to her in all these decades, let alone take a concubine.
When going out for drinks with colleagues, I don't dare to ask them to sing.
Aunt Ying's family wasn't always so open-minded. She gently rocked her daughter's cradle and said with her eyes downcast, "Of course, my parents chose me. Before the wedding, I didn't even know if my husband was round or flat, tall or short, fat or thin. If I had known he looked like a hairless, skinny monkey, I wouldn't have married him! I would have preferred to marry the guy who sells wontons in front of my house, who is muscular, strong, and handsome."
Aunt Yu laughed heartily, pointing to the Lin brothers running, jumping and playing in the distance: "Make sure your son hears you making such a fuss about Lin Si Cao."
Aunt Ying laughed along with her.
Before long, the women started chatting about other trivial matters.
Ah, springtime, how restless people are!
Yu Jiuwan smiled and shook his head, then leaned back on the straw pillow, closed his eyes, and pretended to doze off, continuing to bask in the sun.
Now, let's talk about the Yao family's courtyard.
Hearing the footsteps chasing behind him, Lin Wen'an lowered his eyes, his lips curled up almost imperceptibly, and slowed his pace, pretending not to hear and not turning around.
Yao Ruyi caught up with him in a few steps and asked in a low voice, "Did you not have lunch?"
Lin Wen stopped in his tracks and waited for the girl, who had forgotten to remove the flowers pasted on her face, to run up to him before pretending to calmly shake his head.
"How can you not eat? What if you hurt your stomach?"
Lin Wen'an suppressed a laugh and listened quietly to her rambling.
These days she's always like this. In the past, when she spoke to him, she always addressed him as "Second Uncle." Now, she seems to find it awkward to call him by his name, so she often omits the title when speaking to him. But Ruyi's change doesn't displease Lin Wen'an; on the contrary... whenever he notices this, he feels a little pleased.
Yao Ruyi was oblivious to the gentle gaze falling on her, already engrossed in pondering.
The family's midday snacks had already been used up, so there wasn't any left over from making less today. Besides, she had just delivered all the wheat flour from the shop to a nearby steamed bun stall this morning, agreeing to ask that couple to get up early on the morning of the imperial examination and deliver a few hundred more chicken strip and pork sandwiches and stir-fried chicken and pork sandwiches.
These were ordered by the students.
The breakfast set meals she previously offered sold out every day. Many students were used to the steamed buns made by the couple, and they were even less willing to change their meals on the day of the imperial examination.
Yao Ruyi only just learned that there were many unwritten rules before the imperial examinations. For example, one could not wash one's hair or take a bath before the exam, for fear of catching a cold and affecting the exam. One also dared not eat anything new or unfamiliar, for fear of getting a stomachache due to nervousness during the exam. Wearing new clothes, shoes, and hats was also taboo, for fear that the shoes would hurt one's feet or the clothes would chafe one's skin. In short, everything had to be old to be appropriate.
Therefore, the students who were used to eating at her place begged her to prepare more food that day, since the imperial examination was an important matter, and she readily agreed.
However, the couple didn't have enough wheat flour in stock, and if they asked the stall owner to go out and buy more or grind it fresh, they were afraid of buying stale wheat. So Yao Ruyi emptied out all the wheat flour in her shop to make it, which was safer.
So now, even the cereal in our house is temporarily sold out.
However, she quickly remembered that there was another dish in the shop and asked, "How about I cook you a bowl of clear soup with silver thread? Pick some freshly planted spinach from the sorghum, fry an egg, and then cut some tender pork to blanch it. It'll be delicious."
Although he had some selfish motives, Lin Wen'an didn't want Ruyi to be tired, so he frowned and said, "Wouldn't it be too troublesome to make it fresh? Just boil some mixed vegetables."
"The mixed vegetable stew just sold out this morning, and we haven't made any new ones yet. It's no trouble at all; cooking the silver thread will be quick." Yao Ruyi said, rolling up her sleeves, turning and going into the shop. She then turned back and pointed at his eyes, instructing him, "Find a secluded spot under the eaves to sit, and I'll have it ready in no time."
Lin Wen'an did not wait as instructed. Instead, he put the basket of apricot blossoms and the cakes he had brought back from the palace on a small table under the eaves and followed her into the shop.
Yin Suo is the name used in Bianjing (Kaifeng), while in the south it is usually called Mi Fen or Mi Lan, and it comes in both dry and wet varieties.
Sun-dried rice noodles are called rice flour noodles, and they can be stored for quite a while without spoiling.
This rice noodle is also a common food in the rice-producing areas near Jiangnan West Road. Lin Wen'an recalled that when he was in Fuzhou, his family would cook rice noodles into soup every few days, with pickled cowpeas and fried peanuts, and pour on lots of chili sauce. It was so delicious that people would slurp it up and sweat all over.
Uncle Cong also discovered a "rice noodle philosophy"—when going out to buy rice noodles, he would only buy rice noodles from Zongshan.
This is quite rare in Bianjing (Kaifeng).
People in Bianjing love noodles and don't eat this kind of food often. Even if they have silver threads, they mostly use them to wrap steamed buns or stew chicken, rarely cooking it in clear broth like the soup noodles Yao Ruyi described. Especially since the capital city has all kinds of delicious food available every day, even if they have such food on hand, they never think of eating it.
Cooking silver thread into "soup noodles" is the most common way to prepare it in the south.
However, he remembered that Ruyi and her husband were also from Changsha County, Tanzhou, and that the area around Jinghu Road was famous for its delicious rice noodles, with many varieties. He had heard that the thick, round rice noodles from Changde were the most famous, made with a clear broth simmered from pork or beef bones, topped with shredded meat, sour and spicy sauces, and other rich toppings, resulting in a flavorful and authentic taste. There were also many mixed rice noodles there, popular in Shaoyang and Yongzhou, served with tofu, bean sprouts, wood ear mushrooms, and minced meat sauce, which were fragrant, spicy, and rich after being dry-mixed.
Huaihua has duck meat rice noodles, and Chenzhou, rich in fish products, also has fish rice noodles.
It's not surprising that Ruyi brought it up today.
Although he and Ruyi were not from the same hometown, they seemed to have a lot in common when it came to food. He thought to himself, and just as he stepped over the threshold, he saw Yao Ruyi holding onto the shelf, standing on tiptoe to reach a tightly bound oil paper package on top. He thought to himself, "Just as I thought."
Although he had to go to the yamen to work every day and was not always at home, Lin Wen'an still remembered her habit of organizing things, as he had helped Yao Ruyi look after the shop and organize the goods a few times.
She usually kept this kind of food, which wasn't sold often, to her shelf. Normally, she could reach it by standing on tiptoe, but this bag of rice noodles seemed to be stuffed too far in, so she couldn't quite reach it.
Lin Wen'an quickly stepped forward, stood behind her, said "I'll do it," and raised his hand to take the package down.
Yao Ruyi was standing on tiptoe, straining, when unexpectedly, a tall shadow suddenly enveloped her, and a warm breath instantly drew near.
She was stunned, almost too afraid to turn around.
The aisles between the shelves were narrow, barely wide enough for two people to pass sideways. When Lin Wen'an reached for something, the two inevitably had to get closer. She tensed up, staring at the wooden partition so close to her, and could clearly feel the body heat coming from behind her on the back of her neck.
His hand slipped over her shoulder, and the sleeve gently rested on her shoulder. The fabric brushed against the stray hairs behind her ear, and his chin was just a hair's breadth away from the top of her head. The hem of his robe even brushed against her ankle, tickling her a little.
She could even hear his steady heartbeat and calm breathing.
And his aura was warm, with a lingering medicinal scent, like dried mugwort mixed with the fragrance of soapberry, enveloping me in a warm embrace.
So close, it felt as if... he was hugging me from behind.
But that was only for a moment.
In the blink of an eye, Lin Wen'an brought the things down, and Yao Ruyi immediately became nervous and wanted to run away, but unexpectedly, Lin Wen'an did not move.
As she turned around, her nose nearly collided with his collarbone.
Startled, she took a half step back, her back pressed against the shelf, before instinctively looking up at him.
At this moment, Lin Wen'an silently took half a step back, lowered his eyes, and asked, "Is this what you need?"
Yao Ruyi took the rice noodle and suddenly caught a glimpse of her reflection in his pupils. Her face was still covered in flower petals and was a mess!
Heavens above! She'd completely forgotten to peel off her "face mask." She'd been talking to Lin Wen'an looking like this the whole time…
But with the person right in front of her, Yao Ruyi didn't want to be looked down upon. So, while irritably plucking the apricot blossoms off her face, she pretended to be calm and whispered, "Yes... thank you..."
Just as she was so ashamed and angry that she wanted to tear her own face off, a hand rose up, its fingertips brushing against her warm skin, and pinched the dried petal stuck to her face between its fingers.
"Don't rush."
The warmth of his palm seeped through her skin, and Yao Ruyi felt as if the air around her had frozen. She stared blankly as Lin Wen'an bent down slightly and peeled off the apricot petals that hadn't been picked off for her.
The two were only inches apart. In the backlight, she could clearly see the fine shadows cast by Lin Wen'an's eyelashes under his eyelids, a small mole on the tip of his nose, the Adam's apple on his neck gently bobbing, and his earlobes slowly turning a light red.
A ray of sunlight peeked through the window, and dust motes danced in the beam of light.
In the cramped and familiar grocery store, the shelves stood in rows, not only blocking the view of the world, but also making the light dim.
In this place, so similar to her grandmother's small shop from her previous life, in this little shop she had earned with her own hands, she clutched the oil paper package in her hand, and surprisingly, a strange courage welled up within her.
Her gaze lingered once again on Lin Wen'an's earlobe.
Her normally pale skin had turned a rosy hue, as if frozen, which peeked through her thin ear skin.
But... Yao Ruyi inexplicably raised her hand to touch it, and sure enough, it wasn't frozen, it was warm.
Lin Wen'an's hand, which was about to remove the flower from her cap, paused immediately. In an instant, his deep gaze turned down. But this time, even Yao Ruyi herself was surprised, as she did not look away.
She met his gaze.
When their eyes met, the ripples in his eyes were like well water with a pebble thrown in, deep and spreading out in circles. Yao Ruyi saw her reflection trembling in his pupils, and suddenly she didn't want to hide anymore.
It turns out that he wasn't entirely indifferent.
It turned out that she wasn't the only one in the midst of the chaos, not the only one who was upset, and not the only one whose chest would feel a dense itch and palpitations when she recalled every little thing about him late at night.
So, he was the same way.
As if to confirm something, she grabbed his sleeve and, mustering her courage, gently pressed her face against his chest.
Without needing to think further, she could hear his heartbeat quickening through his clothes, and his arms tensing up almost the instant she approached.
Yao Ruyi simply let herself go, wrapping her arms around his waist. As soon as her arms tightened around him, she felt his whole body tense up like a taut bow. Listening intently to his increasingly uncontrollable heartbeat, she smiled with a mischievous triumph, burying her face deeper and closing her eyes to laugh quietly.
Stop pretending, she caught you.
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Lin Sanlang and Silang: Why do we still have to study after dropping out of school? [crying emoji]
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