Chapter 27 People like Li Xiao are definitely more likable if they are mute.
My feat of gulping down a bowl of medicinal soup in one go shocked Li Xiao.
He opened his mouth, as if it took him a long time to find his voice.
"Don't you... feel bitter?" When he asked this, the boy's expression was distorted, especially his eyebrows, which were almost twisted into a knot.
I know why Li Xiao acted so exaggeratedly, because he has an extreme sweet tooth.
A person who has been accustomed to sweetness since childhood will naturally be unable to tolerate any bitterness.
I've never really eaten sugar, nor do I particularly like it. When I was little, out of curiosity, I dipped my finger in some sugar from the jar and put it directly into my mouth without thinking. I choked on it right away.
Before I could spit it out, the sugar had already melted in my mouth.
I had no choice but to drink a large glass of well water. I forgot that rinsing my mouth directly would have been the same, and as a result, I drank too much and had a stomachache all afternoon.
She was scolded by her mother for this.
Later, as I grew older, life became increasingly difficult. Forget about sugar; we couldn't even afford a bite of bran or wild vegetables. When I was extremely hungry, I also dug up tree roots and gnawed on tender tree leaves.
She ate candy again after she came to be with Young Master Lan.
He not only has candy, but also all kinds of snacks to enjoy in various ways.
When it comes to snacks, Young Master Lan never restricts me, but there is a point to remember: eat within your limits and don't overeat or get an upset stomach.
But I found that I don't actually like eating desserts that much.
Unlike many children my age, I don't love sweets. In fact, because of a mistake I made when I was a child, I have always had a slight phobia of overly sweet foods.
Moreover, I prefer the feeling of fullness to the taste of food itself, which has been a symbol of life security for a long time and continues to this day.
Taste is not actually important; it can often be tolerated or even ignored for a higher purpose.
For example, it can enhance physical fitness and promote growth; for example, it can help with disease recovery; and for example, it can simply help maintain a state of being alive...
I thought about it and told Li Xiao the truth: "Actually, it's not that hard."
Upon hearing this, Li Xiao picked up the bowl with some skepticism, brought it close to smell the dregs of the medicine, and immediately sneezed uncontrollably several times.
Then, pinching his nose, he placed the bowl far to the side and pushed it away with his finger.
The comical movements resembled a cat carefully fiddling with a ball of yarn.
"Why is this medicine even more pungent now that it's cold than when it's hot?!" Li Xiao said indignantly.
I thought to myself, "It's clearly because you got too close."
—Because it stopped smoking, they let their guard down and deserved to suffer the consequences.
Just as I was thinking this, Li Xiao suddenly sneezed again.
"How could this be..." The boy rubbed his nose in distress, his eyes turning red as if he had just been crying.
Hmm, she looks a bit like a pear blossom in the rain, pitiful and endearing.
Unfortunately, all of this was just an illusion.
The next moment, Li Xiao turned her reddened eyes to me, all traces of vulnerability and pitifulness vanished. All that remained was a fierce, demanding interrogation.
"Were you just cursing me in your mind?"
"ah?"
I thought to myself... How did you even manage to find out?
On the surface, she maintained an innocent and sincere expression: "Young Master Li, what are you... saying? How come Pipa... doesn't understand?"
"Otherwise, why would I sneeze for no reason?"
"You were just... weren't you choked?" I answered cautiously.
“Before was before; I was referring to the time after I put down the bowl,” Li Xiao said seriously.
I was getting curious listening to this: "Is there... a difference between different sneezes?"
“Of course,” Li Xiao said decisively.
Strangely enough, he even seemed a little proud of himself as he spoke.
"I've always been particularly sensitive to this since I was a child. If anyone around me is secretly cursing me in their heart, I can catch them every time."
In this respect—does it mean the aspect of being secretly cursed by others in their hearts?
Judging from that, they do seem quite experienced... However, I'm really curious, is there really any need to deliberately bring this up and boast about it?
Hmm, I don't quite understand. But... whatever, as long as the young master is happy.
I still considered another possibility: "Is it possible that no one is actually secretly cursing you, and Young Master Li is just—"
Before I could finish speaking, Li Xiao sneezed twice more.
This time, not only were his eyes red, but his face, which had been quite pale since the beginning of winter, turned red all the way from his cheeks to his collar.
When Li Xiao sniffed and looked at me, her eyes were a little dazed.
"What were you trying to say?" he asked, his usually clear voice sounding a little hoarse.
Okay, now it's basically confirmed.
"You must have caught a cold while you were outside, and now it's acting up."
"..."
— Li Xiao is indeed sick.
He looked very depressed.
If I were to put myself in the teenager's shoes, I would feel a little fortunate despite my frustration. At least it shows, from one perspective, that he wasn't as disliked as I had originally imagined.
Although this is not the case.
Finally, Li Xiao gave up struggling and called two attendants up.
He simply couldn't stand unfamiliar people wandering around in front of him, and having his own people come up to look after them was the limit of what he could accept.
As for why only two out of so many people were called...
It's entirely because...
"They take up too much space."
These are Li Xiao's original words.
Of course, I think the boy might also have another consideration: he never wanted to repeat the awkward situation of being caught between two men in Lan Gongzi's room.
Especially... those towering men, who on their own look like ordinary tough guys. But when they're around Li Xiao, they inexplicably start to radiate a kind of maternal glow.
—It's contradictory, yet somehow perfectly natural.
It's so captivating that you can't help but glance at it again and again. And the more you look, the more your worldview seems to melt away and be reshaped.
As for what melted it, it was of course the tender, passionate love that the loyal and unyielding subordinates had for their young master.
As I watched the men bustling about in the room, repeatedly measuring the temperature of the herbal medicine for Li Xiao, cutting the fruit in the plate into animal shapes, and sticking toothpicks into each one, I couldn't help but feel admiration.
It's unbelievable that such a wide and thick hand could cut out such a lifelike little rabbit in the blink of an eye, and even arrange it so exquisitely on a plate...
I looked at the scene before me in surprise, and even more surprised that I was involved in it.
I was taken aback for a moment, then met the kind smile of the tall, burly man with a wild beard.
After hesitating for a moment, I reached out and took the white rabbit closest to me from the fruit plate that was pushed in front of me.
Then, somewhat reservedly, he bowed his head and thanked him.
Then a hearty laugh was heard from the bearded man.
"Oh, no thanks, no thanks, don't be shy. Just pick whatever you like and eat as much as you like. Otherwise, our young master can't eat much by himself..."
"Alright, it's so noisy, can't people even eat?" Li Xiao interrupted the bearded man impatiently.
Upon hearing this, the bearded man slapped his forehead, as if he had suddenly remembered something: "Right, right, I was so busy talking that I forgot about the important matter."
As he spoke, he turned to the brother who was fiddling with the medicine pot and asked if the medicine had cooled down yet.
The latter gave a no-questions-asked gesture, and the bearded man immediately stopped Li Xiao from stuffing a melon into his mouth.
With a serious expression, he said, "Young Master, please wait. Let's drink the medicine first, otherwise you definitely won't be able to drink it."
Li Xiao looked at the piece of golden melon, hesitated for a moment, and gave the bearded man a somewhat forced smile: "Can't I... not drink it?"
I saw a fleeting moment of reluctance cross his sharply defined, bearded face, but after only a moment of hesitation, he hardened his heart.
"cannot."
The two cold words struck Li Xiao's face, and the rare hue that had risen on his face due to the cold instantly returned to its usual pale color, even his lips were deathly white.
How much does he resist taking medicine?
Seeing his young master looking so lifeless, the bearded man sighed and changed his tone to earnestly persuade him.
"Although this medicine really doesn't taste good, young master, you should still drink it. The sooner you get better, the less you'll suffer. Look at you, your body is already weak—"
The bearded man's words came to an abrupt halt, stopped by Li Xiao's sudden action of picking up the medicine bowl.
Then, with a resolute expression of a warrior's heart breaking, the latter pinched his nose and brought the bowl to the edge. Then, he closed his eyes, tilted his head back, and gulped it all down.
The bearded man and the other attendant present seemed to be seeing their young master drink medicine so readily for the first time, and they were both stunned on the spot until Li Xiao slowly put down the bowl.
"Are you really done drinking it?"
The bearded man peered closer at the empty bowl, then showed it to his companion. They exchanged a glance, their eyes simultaneously reflecting the joy of watching their son grow up.
Judging from their posture, if there hadn't been a distance between them, they probably would have held hands and looked at each other with tears of emotion.
"As expected of our young master, he's really different now that he's grown up, Sixth Brother!"
"That's exactly what I'm saying, Ninth Brother!"
That's when I learned that the bearded man was called Lao Jiu, and the other companion present was Lao Liu.
I don't know if it's because their names contain numbers or if it's just a simple number, but just looking at their imposing, towering figures, the two of them really do look a bit like brothers.
Although not all of it, I could vaguely glean some insights into Li Xiao's upbringing from the exaggerated expressions of these two individuals.
Although we don't yet know the specific ways Li Xiao interacts with his other family members, it's no wonder that... the boy developed such an arrogant personality, given that he's been pampered and protected by such a group of people since childhood.
Speaking of Li Xiao, I realized that he had been unusually quiet since the beginning. Normally, he would have impatiently spoken up to stop him long ago.
I couldn't help but turn to look at Li Xiao, only to see him still in the same position as when he put down the bowl, his head down and expressionless, seemingly lost in thought.
Looking at his originally pale face, which now seemed to have a bluish-white tinge, I couldn't help but feel a little worried.
"...Young Master Li, are you alright?" I asked tentatively.
Upon hearing my question, Li Xiao moved.
He slowly raised his head, turned his face to look at me, and said weakly, "What a joke, do you think there could be anything wrong with me?"
"..."
"It's just a bowl of medicine, do you think I'd lose to you? Hmph, really, you're overthinking it."
If the boy's eyes hadn't been so lifeless, or if he had whimpered more forcefully, I might have believed him.
—Speaking of which, where did this person get this inexplicable competitive spirit from?
The original intention of taking medicine is to cure the disease, so why does Li Xiao make it sound like it's a competition to see who is better?
Besides, what is there to compare between him and me...? Whether I win or lose, it doesn't really matter.
But Ah Liu and Ah Jiu didn't seem to think that way. They seemed to attribute the credit for Li Xiao taking the medicine to me, and their gazes toward me became strangely eager.
It's as if I'm some kind of panacea that can cure all kinds of intractable diseases.
I felt a little uncomfortable being stared at, but I was too embarrassed to say anything.
It was Li Xiao who spoke up and kicked the person out.
"Alright, I've taken my medicine. I want to sleep for a while. You guys can go do whatever you need to do," Li Xiao said, waving his hand.
Ah Jiu, with his thick beard, hesitated upon hearing this: "But young master, you're still ill. If we're not there to take care of you, what if..."
“There’s no such thing as ‘what if’,” Li Xiao interrupted A Jiu decisively.
Ah Jiu clearly realized that what he had just said seemed to have brought bad luck, so he silently shut his mouth, a trace of self-reproach clearly showing on his dark face.
Seeing this, Li Xiao softened his tone and reassured her, "Alright, I'm really fine. Don't forget who I am. If I can't even handle a little cold, I'll be too embarrassed to tell others that I'm a member of the Li family."
This was the first time I had ever seen Li Xiao speak so calmly; he looked so innocent, as if he had been blessed by a highly virtuous monk in a temple.
So why do we say that true beauty lies in the bone structure, not just the skin?
Despite having the same pale face, her expression changed subtly, and her overall demeanor seemed to subtly shift, even making her smile more captivating.
I knew before that the boy was handsome and refined, but this was the first time I had ever genuinely felt that he was beautiful.
As we were talking, the boy suddenly looked at me, his azure eyes curving upwards and his smile deepening.
"Besides, isn't there another unlucky guy here with me? I've heard that passing your illness on to someone else can make you recover faster, so this is a good opportunity to give it a try."
"..."
--All right.
I should have remembered this sooner: people like Li Xiao are definitely more likable if they are mute.
When Ajiu heard Li Xiao say that, he glanced at me apologetically, looking somewhat embarrassed. He didn't say anything, but his meaning seemed to be, "Young Master has always been like this, please bear with him."
Before leaving, he nodded in this direction and then gave a slight bow.
I smiled slightly in the direction the two of them had left, but when I turned around, I met Li Xiao's probing gaze.
"What are you laughing at? You look so silly."
I seriously doubt whether this person can even speak properly anymore.
...However, who can blame him but the eldest son of the prestigious Li family? Anyone else would probably have drunk the Meng Po soup more than once.
I lowered my eyes, concealing my thoughts, and inadvertently noticed the snow-white sugar pear rabbit placed beside me.
So he casually made up a story: "This is the first time I've seen such amazing knife skills. I find it so amazing that I don't even know where to start eating it."
I told him half the truth, and Li Xiao believed me. He scoffed, "It's just a swordsman's basic manners."
I detected a hint of sourness in Li Xiao's words, and couldn't help but find it somewhat amusing.
So, was he saying this because he was jealous of A-Jiu's swordsmanship?
But speaking of swords—
I couldn't help but think of that long, black sword and the black-clad boy who wore it at his waist.
Her dark hair was tied up high, a red rope swayed, and there was a sword tassel that looked just like a plum blossom.
Why did that boy suddenly appear here...?
Then I suddenly remembered that in yesterday's heavy snow, it was he who rode his black steed to escort Young Master Lan's carriage back to the front of the building.
—If that's the case, then he probably came today to find Young Master Lan.
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