Chapter 13 Wine and Sugar "She's very troublesome."
"Ouch?"
The boss exclaimed in surprise, "Xing Ze?"
Mu Tingyu suddenly turned her head and saw Xing Ze nod slightly to the boss.
Her gaze swept between the two of them, then she suddenly realized: "You two know each other?"
"How could I not recognize him?" the shopkeeper chuckled. "He's a regular customer here."
After saying that, he suddenly realized, "Young lady, so the landlord you're talking about is him?"
Just as Mu Tingyu was about to speak, Xing Ze's voice rang out first.
"landlord?"
"Oh? Isn't that right?" The boss looked at the two of them with interest. "That's what the young lady just told me?"
Mu Tingyu quickly replied, "Yes, it's him."
Xing Ze strode towards her, placed the things he was carrying on the wooden table, and looked down at her: "What are you doing here?"
It's here, it's finally here! The soul-searching questions it's asking have arrived, albeit belatedly!
Mu Tingyu remained calm and said, "I'll buy some wine."
Xing Ze's expression remained unchanged as he calmly said, "What are you doing drinking, kid? Let's go."
Mu Tingyu: "......???"
ha?
Was she being underestimated...?
What's with the "little kid" thing? Does she really look like a minor?
"Hey, don't rush off!" The shop owner hurriedly crawled out from behind the counter. "Stay a little longer and chat with me, I'm so bored!"
"I'm not talking anymore, I have things to do at home."
"What do you want? You always have something to say, and you never say anything nice. I hate people like you who are so quiet!" the boss complained repeatedly, then moved closer to Mu Tingyu. "Come on, don't worry about him, let's continue our conversation. Where were we...?"
Fearing that this seemingly unreliable boss would bring up their recent discussion about Xing Ze, Mu Tingyu quickly reminded him, "Boss, it seems like ten minutes have passed!"
The boss waved his fan: "No, no, let's chat for another five minutes!"
Caught between Xing Ze, who was eyeing her, and her boss, who could help her complete the hidden mission, Mu Tingyu was in a dilemma. She desperately wanted to split herself in two: one to chat with her boss, and the other to go home with Xing Ze.
Xing Ze asked, "What ten minutes?"
"Ah," Mu Tingyu scratched her cheek, "it's just..."
"Why are you meddling so much!" the boss suddenly said angrily. "I never expected you to be hiding such a pretty little girl in your house! I can't even chat with her for a while! Even a father wouldn't interfere like this!"
Mu Tingyu was so shocked by this sentence that she almost slipped and fell to the ground, and hurriedly grabbed the wooden table.
Xing Ze was clearly used to his boss's sudden erratic behavior, and explained casually, "The volunteer teachers from outside are staying at my house."
"She can stay here, so what! Why are you so nosy about her!" The boss pointed at him. "I just heard everything, she..."
"Boss!" Mu Tingyu, fearing he might utter something shocking again, quickly interrupted loudly, "I suddenly don't feel like buying wine anymore! How about I come back another day to chat with you? Goodbye for now!!!"
"Oh?" The shopkeeper glanced at her, his tone laced with sarcasm. "Didn't you just say you absolutely wanted my wine? Now that he's here, why are you in such a hurry to leave? You didn't come here just to buy him wine, did you?!"
Mu Tingyu: ""
Xing Ze lifted his eyelids and caught a glimpse of Mu Tingyu's petrified expression. He raised an eyebrow imperceptibly.
"No, no..." Mu Tingyu struggled, "I really want to drink it myself..."
The boss snorted and got up to walk into the inner room: "Just wait."
Suddenly, only Mu Tingyu and Xing Ze remained in the wine shop.
Mu Tingyu hung her head, looking somewhat dejected, and was deeply reflecting and examining herself.
Why does something always go wrong whenever I try to prepare a surprise for Xing Ze?
Xing Ze looked at the flour sack on the ground and asked, "Did you carry this over yourself?"
Mu Tingyu followed his gaze and said weakly, "No, it had wings and flew over after me."
Xing Ze's lips curved slightly.
Despite being so thin, he's surprisingly strong.
"Does your hand hurt?"
Mu Tingyu unconsciously moved two fingers: "It doesn't hurt, I didn't touch it."
The girl had her head down, her hands resting on the bench, her knees tapping together unconsciously, looking listless.
Xing Ze suddenly felt that the scene before him seemed familiar.
It seems that Mu Tingyu got up early that day to cook porridge, and when he came back from outside, he had this expression, exactly the same as now.
A thought struck him, and he asked in a low voice, "You came to buy me wine?"
"Hmm?" Mu Tingyu raised her head, her expression already detached. "Who said that? I want to drink it myself."
Xing Ze: "......"
The owner came out of the inner room, holding a glass jar in his hands. The jar contained golden wine, with a thick layer of osmanthus flowers floating on top.
Xing Ze raised an eyebrow as soon as he saw the wine.
"What are you looking at?" the boss said irritably. "It's for the young lady, you're not allowed to drink it."
Xing Ze watched as Mu Tingyu carefully took the jar of wine and asked in a low voice, "What did you have her do?"
"What are you doing!" the boss said angrily. "I just asked the young lady to chat with me for ten minutes, and you ruined it!"
Xing Ze glanced at him: "You're really that kind?"
"What are you doing? Just because I refused to give it to you several times before doesn't mean I can't give it to others, right?"
Xing Ze remained silent.
The boss stood to the side with his arms crossed, and suddenly said in his dialect, "The way you're protecting your tenants doesn't seem like a typical landlord-tenant relationship... Is this a case of an iron tree blooming?"
"......"
Xing Ze lowered his eyes and watched Mu Tingyu bring her face close to the glass jar, staring intently at the tiny osmanthus blossoms floating in the golden liquid, her eyes as pure as a fawn deep in the forest.
She seemed to shake off her earlier gloom and become happy again, fiddling with the wooden stopper on the jar with her fingers, her movements still somewhat childlike.
After a moment, he chuckled and replied in his dialect, "He's just a kid, why would he drive?"
The boss chuckled and teased, "Do you even believe that yourself?"
Xing Ze stared at Mu Tingyu's beautiful, pure eyes for a while, then casually said, "—We have to protect her."
"She's very troublesome."
Mu Tingyu tried to get closer to the lid to smell the osmanthus wine, but was suddenly poked on the forehead by Xing Ze.
"They're gone."
"Oh, oh." She was about to pick up the miscellaneous bags on the table when Xing Ze stopped her.
"Go and hold it." Xing Ze pointed with his chin at the osmanthus wine. "Your trophy."
Mu Tingyu picked up the glass jar, and her ears suddenly felt hot.
Why are you talking about spoils of war? That's so childish!
Xing Ze picked up all the remaining items, gestured to the shopkeeper, and said, "Let's go."
The shopkeeper smiled and said goodbye to Mu Tingyu, "Little girl, come back to visit next time."
"Okay—" Mu Tingyu turned around and said in a clear voice, "Goodbye, boss! I'll definitely come back next time to chat with you properly!"
The boss stood at the door, watching Xing Ze block Mu Tingyu on the inside of the road, while the latter followed closely behind him.
He chuckled, "That kid got off easy..."
.
Mu Tingyu stood in front of the bicycle, perplexed.
A bunch of small bags are easy to put in the front basket; flour is also easy to put in, just tie it up and drape it over the back seat.
But what about the wine?
She held the wine jar as if it were a hot potato.
This glass jar is so fragile that it would break if you bumped or knocked it, so I don't dare let it rattle around in the bicycle basket.
Xing Ze put the pile of things he was carrying on his bicycle, and when he turned around, he saw Mu Tingyu still standing in the same spot.
"What's wrong? Is it heavy?"
He reached out to take it, but Mu Tingyu dodged him.
"Not heavy at all."
She frowned, looking at the bicycle up and down, as if trying to find a suitable place: "Where am I going to put this thing? It's so fragile. What if it breaks halfway through the ride?"
"This is a privately brewed wine; it sounds very precious..."
in particular......
She looked up at Xing Ze, then lowered her head again.
This was prepared for him; he should at least taste it. It can't be spilled halfway through.
Seeing that she seemed reluctant to put it down, Xing Ze walked over to her bicycle basket and said, "Come here."
Mu Tingyu looked up and saw that he was holding a piece of wide black rope.
She walked over and handed him the wine jar. She watched as he tied the jar tightly together, then threaded the rope through the gaps in the basket and secured it firmly in the middle of the basket.
The rope looked very elastic. Mu Tingyu tugged at it a couple of times and then shook the basket, but the wine jar didn't budge.
"Impressive," she gave a thumbs up, "I won't dare mess with you again, lest you tie me up and beat me up."
Xing Ze: "......"
"Are you hungry?" Mu Tingyu rummaged through his bicycle basket. "It's almost lunchtime. Do you want to grab something to eat on the street before you go back?"
I'm not hungry.
"I don't believe you. You didn't seem to eat much this morning."
When she came down, Xing Ze had only eaten less than half of his bowl of porridge. Then he was busy treating the burn on her finger, so he barely ate any more.
Mu Tingyu rummaged through the bag of osmanthus candy, grabbed two pieces, popped one into her own mouth, and then handed the other one to Xing Ze.
"It's delicious, would you like to try some?"
Xing Ze didn't like sweets and was about to refuse when Mu Tingyu took a step forward and held the candy to his lips.
She said with a serious face, "Eat one, so you don't get low blood sugar, it's awful."
"......"
The girl's hands were delicate, fair, and smooth, with a healthy red hue at the fingertips.
Xing Ze stared at the candy for two seconds, then took it with his hand.
Seeing that he had eaten, Mu Tingyu patted the frosting off her hands and said with a smile, "If you're not going to eat on the street, why don't you go home? You can make a bowl of noodles quickly then. I'll make some dumplings this afternoon so we can eat them tonight, and put the rest in the refrigerator."
With a single sentence, she had arranged the entire schedule for the next half day. She looked up with satisfaction and found Xing Ze staring at her without saying a word.
"What's wrong?" She tilted her head. "Is there something on my face?"
"It's nothing." Xing Ze looked away, his voice low, "...Go home."
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