Chapter 59 "I'm not stupid!"...
Chapter 59
In the afternoon, Tan Ming brought Tan Bai to his home, and the once quiet house immediately became lively.
Yu Pan and Tan Bai were assigned to pick and wash vegetables in the backyard. The winter sun was not very warm, but fortunately the wind was not strong today, so it wasn't too cold to work on the small stools in the backyard.
At this moment, Yu Pan was still thinking about the accounts. While picking off the yellowing leaves of the vegetables, he nudged Tan Bai beside him with his elbow and asked in a low voice, "Xiao Bai, let me ask you something. What do you usually do when you make your brother angry?"
Upon hearing this, Tan Bai raised an eyebrow and looked at Yu Pan with disbelief: "No way? You actually managed to make your brother angry?"
In his memory, Shen Yanzhou treated Yu Pan like a precious gem, always granting her every wish.
“Well… I went to Qingyu by myself before,” Yu Pan said a little embarrassedly, her voice even softer, “My brother was really angry at the time, and said… he would scold me when we got home.”
Tan Bai had heard Tan Ming mention this before, and he was shocked at the time. Was this really the Yu Pan he knew?
He still remembered the first time he met Yu Pan. This person would rather hide and stick to Shen Yanzhou's back than be able to get a look at him. Now he actually dares to run a thousand miles alone. It's unbelievable. Tan Bai once thought that Tan Ming was fooling him.
“Hmm…” Tan Bai frowned and started thinking seriously, forgetting to pick the vegetables in his hands. “I feel that even if your brother is angry, he probably won’t be willing to do anything to you, unlike Tan Ming. If he gets angry, he will definitely scold me first, and if he can’t stand it, he will have to beat me up to vent his anger.”
“My brother scolded me,” Yu Pan sighed and said dejectedly, “After scolding me, he said he would settle the score with me when we got home. Sigh, it would have been better if he had just beaten me up. The feeling of waiting for the knife to fall is too painful.”
Seeing his gloomy face, Tan Bai couldn't help but laugh. He put on rubber gloves, turned on the tap, and started washing vegetables. "Just bear with it. What's there to worry about? Anyway, your brother won't really do anything to you."
Yu Pan tilted her head wearily and put on gloves. "It's different. My brother has a special way of disciplining me."
"Hmm?" This piqued Tan Bai's curiosity. "What method? Tell me about it?"
“When I was little, if I did anything to upset him, he wouldn’t let me read,” Yu Pan said, her voice rising with indignation. “He even made me do math problems and memorize formulas! Another time, I was bullied at school and didn’t tell him. He found out himself and punished me for a whole week, making me copy math problems every day!”
"..." Tan Bai fell silent. He recalled how Tan Ming had chased him all over the yard after he failed a test when he was a child. "Can that be called a lesson?"
"Isn't this a lesson? It's like making you memorize the Chinese textbook and practice calligraphy for a whole week!" Yu Pan still feels sad when she thinks about it now. She doesn't know who invented math.
Upon hearing Yu Pan's change of heart, Tan Bai immediately felt the pain, exclaiming, "It's awful! This is truly awful! Your brother has gone too far!!!"
After venting, Tan Ming concluded, "It seems your brother and my brother are indeed different, but I think there are some similarities. If you make a mistake, you have to be more respectful and try to please him more."
After hearing this, Yu Pan thought about her usual interactions with Shen Yanzhou and said, "I... I also tried to please him."
"Then let's try to please him even more? Go all out!" Tan Bai offered suggestions enthusiastically. "I just learned this recently. Like my brother, he likes to smoke a little and drink a little alcohol. If I need anything from him, I'll buy him good cigarettes and alcohol."
At this point, Tan Bai raised his eyebrows smugly, "That's how I got my TV set."
"Your brother finally installed a TV for you?" Yu Pan was happy for him. "Congratulations!"
"Hmm." Tan Ming became even more smug. "Not only did they install a TV, but they also bought me a Famicom to play with. It was so much fun! So, Yu Pan, we need to be strategic when trying to please her. We need to cater to her preferences, understand?"
Yu Pan nodded thoughtfully, and began to ponder in her heart what Shen Yanzhou liked.
Because of his work, Shen Yanzhou inevitably smokes and drinks when socializing, but he never does these things in front of others.
Sometimes, when he came home from get off work smelling of cigarettes and alcohol, Shen Yanzhou would always clean himself up and rinse his mouth before going to keep him company. So, the idea of bringing him cigarettes and alcohol, as Tan Bai suggested, was definitely not going to work.
It's not a big deal if you don't think about it carefully, but once you do, Yu Pan herself is a little stunned.
It seems that, whether in the past or now, most of Shen Yanzhou's life revolves around him.
When he was a child, Shen Yanzhou would take him up the mountain to chop firewood, down to the river to catch small crabs for him, and sit next to him by the kerosene lamp to teach him to read.
Now that he's grown up, Shen Yanzhou spends almost all his time outside of work on himself, caring about his studies, taking care of his daily life, holding him to sleep at night, helping him get dressed and washed in the morning, and taking him to school...
If we had to pinpoint something Shen Yanzhou particularly liked, would taking care of himself count?
The thought popped into Yu Pan's mind, but could asking someone to take care of her be considered a form of "pleasing"?
That sounds a bit strange.
"Alright! Done!" Tan Bai had already finished washing the last vegetable, turned off the tap, picked up the drained vegetable basket and stood up. "I'll take the vegetables in to them first."
"Me too..." Yu Pan quickly emptied her water and followed with the empty basin.
The kitchen was steaming. Tan Ming turned around and saw Tan Bai carrying a potted dish in. He casually said, "Oh, you two are here so fast?"
"Two people picking out this little bit of vegetables, of course it'll be quick." Tan Ming pulled off his gloves. "Where do we put them?"
Shen Yanzhou was chopping a chicken for worshipping gods at the chopping board when he heard this. He gestured with his chin toward the hook by the back gate and said, "Just hang it there to dry."
"Brother, where do we put this basin?" Yu Pan also came in carrying a basin.
Shen Yanzhou looked up and saw Yu Pan wearing yellow plastic gloves and carrying an aluminum basin, dressed like a little housework expert, and couldn't help but laugh.
He put down the knife, washed his hands, took the basin from Yu Pan and placed it aside, then helped him take off his gloves and asked softly, "Are your hands cold?"
Yu Pan looked up at Shen Yanzhou's smiling eyes, and suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck her.
He seems to... know what Shen Yanzhou likes.
"Are you frozen stiff?" Seeing that he didn't speak, Shen Yanzhou asked again with a smile, rubbing his face with his fingers.
Yu Pan shook her head, placed her hand on his neck, and smiled, "Look, it's still warm."
"Alright, alright, this is none of your business," Tan Ming shouted from the side. "Don't get in the way, go out and play, just wait to be served!"
Yu Pan and Tan Bai exchanged a glance, then tactfully withdrew from the scene and returned to the living room.
The television was playing a festive Spring Festival special program, which was lively, but it didn't hold much appeal for them.
Tan Bai randomly flipped through a few channels with the remote, but finding it uninteresting, he took out a Nintendo handheld console from his backpack and asked Yu Pan to play with him.
Yu Pan shook his head; he wasn't very interested in the game. "You play, I'll just watch."
Tan Bai didn't force him, and nestled into the sofa, quickly immersing himself in the game world.
As dusk fell, as in previous years, after having their New Year's Eve dinner, the group drove to the riverbank to set off fireworks.
This time, Yu Pan didn't just burn sparklers; he personally lit two large fireworks.
While the fuse burned, he covered his ears and ran quickly back to Shen Yanzhou's side. Immediately afterwards, fireworks shot into the night sky with a whooshing sound and burst open, illuminating them all on the ground.
By the time all the fireworks we brought were set off, it was almost ten o'clock.
Tan Ming's family just bought a new house this year, and according to the customs of their hometown, they have to stay up all night in the new house to celebrate the New Year.
After exchanging "Happy New Year" greetings on the riverbank, the two families got into their respective cars and went home.
From the moment she got on the bus until she got off, Yu Pan's mouth never stopped; she excitedly chattered about her experience with the amplified fireworks.
After Shen Yanzhou unlocked the door, Yu Pan followed him inside. Suddenly, she changed the subject and her tone became exceptionally sincere, "But I'm most grateful to you, brother! If it weren't for your hard work in earning money, I probably wouldn't have been able to afford such big and beautiful fireworks in my entire life!"
Shen Yanzhou found this hilarious and, after turning on the light, pinched Yu Pan's cheek, saying, "You're so good with words."
Yu Pan chuckled, and as soon as the door closed, he lunged forward, wrapped his arms around Shen Yanzhou's neck, and clung to him. "I'm so tired, I can't walk anymore. Carry me to the shower!"
"Okay, okay." Shen Yanzhou responded, slightly bending his knees to lift Yu Pan up by his bottom. He glanced at Yu Pan's feet, clicked his tongue, and said, "You didn't even take off your shoes."
"Brother, help me take it off," Yu Pan said, her voice muffled as she rested her head on Chen Yanzhou's shoulder. "I don't want to move anymore, I have no strength left."
Shen Yanzhou took off his shoes, picked him up and carried him up the stairs, teasing him on purpose: "Okay, I've taken off your shoes for you, do you want me to give you a bath while I'm at it?"
“Okay, okay!” Yu Pan immediately seized the opportunity, swinging her toes, “We haven’t washed together in a long time, I can help you wash.”
The last time they took a bath together was in December. Later, in Qingyu, he injured his knee, and Shen Yanzhou only wiped his body every day and didn't let him take a bath at all.
Once the wound had healed a little and he could take a shower, Shen Yanzhou helped him throughout the process, making sure it was quick and efficient, and then urging him to go back to bed after he finished showering.
“Okay,” Shen Yanzhou patted his thigh, “Let’s go upstairs, don’t move around.”
Yu Pan wrapped her legs tightly around Shen Yanzhou's waist, clinging firmly to him, "Okay!"
Back in the bedroom on the second floor, Shen Yanzhou put Yu Pan on the sofa and went to the bathroom to turn on the electric water heater.
Yu Pan nestled on the sofa, watching Shen Yanzhou's back as he stood in front of the wardrobe looking for clothes. Her gaze then returned to the electric water heater, which Shen Yanzhou had specially taken time out of his busy schedule to come back in early December and have installed.
Before this, Yu Pan had never imagined that taking a bath in winter would not require boiling several kettles of hot water in advance or shivering while adding cold water. She could simply turn on a tap-like device and hot water would flow out continuously.
Since installing it, even taking a shower in winter, which is usually the most difficult time, has become a pleasure.
While waiting for the water to heat up, the room was quiet. Yu Pan leaned against Chen Yanzhou on the sofa, swinging her legs idly.
Only the small, warm yellow ceiling light next to the sofa was on in the room, casting a soft, dim glow that made Yu Pan feel drowsy.
“Panpan,” Shen Yanzhou suddenly spoke.
They've arrived.
Yu Pan's heart tightened, and half of his sleepiness vanished. He remained calm, turned his head, and replied, "Hmm?"
Shen Yanzhou wrapped his arm around him and pulled him closer to his chest. "Do you know what I was thinking when I heard your shouts and ran over that night in Qingyu?"
Yu Pan nestled against him, and began to recall that thrilling night. Thinking of Shen Yanzhou appearing like a god, she hesitated for a moment and whispered, "You were very scared... and very angry."
"Yes, I was terrified." Shen Yanzhou tightened his arms, holding Yu Pan tightly in his embrace, his chin resting on the top of Yu Pan's head, his voice filled with lingering fear, "I... ever since then, I've often dreamed that I wasn't fast enough and couldn't catch up..."
Yu Pan was stunned. He looked up at Shen Yanzhou's face. He had never imagined that his actions would have such a profound impact and cause Shen Yanzhou such unease.
“At that time, I thought, if I lost you, what would be the point of my life?” Shen Yanzhou’s deep eyes locked onto Yu Pan’s eyes. “Panpan, do you know, to me, you are everything.”
Yu looked at the emotion in Shen Yanzhou's eyes that almost overwhelmed him, and his heart ached and felt numb. For some reason, he remembered the feeling he had when he couldn't wait for Shen Yanzhou to return or find him after the terrible landslide in Baixi Town. It was a kind of despair as if the sky had fallen.
He opened his mouth, wanting to tell Shen Yanzhou, "You are my everything! Without you, my life has no meaning."
But for some reason, his throat felt blocked, and he couldn't say a word. He could only nod his head vigorously, and his eyes began to burn uncontrollably.
They grew up together; they are family and the most important person to each other.
Shen Yanzhou raised his hand and wiped away the tears from the corner of his eyes, his voice gentle, "So I want to know, do you understand... what does our usual way of getting along, kissing, hugging, and all of this I do for you mean?"
"I'm not stupid!" Yu Pan sniffed, suppressing the soreness in her nose, feeling wronged by being looked down upon. "I knew it all along! Only couples, lovers, can kiss and hug like that!"
-----------------------
Author's Note: [Cathead] Panpan [Cathead]: Don't underestimate me! Damn it! [Angry][Angry][Angry]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
