Chapter 53 "Li Xiao, are you sick?"
That night, Shen Yun drank wine intermittently, one cup at a time.
I wasn't hungry, so I put down my chopsticks after a few bites.
The room was quiet, with only faint sounds of noise from elsewhere drifting through the open window, giving it an incredibly distant feel.
Even Shen Yun noticed my boredom and suddenly said.
"If you really have nothing to do, then sing me a song."
Hearing this, my face flushed, and I immediately felt extremely embarrassed.
The vast majority of people spend money to come to this place to have fun and relieve boredom. Now, it's really wrong of me to let Chen Yun, a guest, give me trouble. It is indeed my dereliction of duty.
I quickly nodded and said, "Then, what kind of music would you like to hear, Lord Shen?"
Upon hearing this, Shen Yun smiled. He stared at me intently, seemingly quite surprised, and then casually asked, "What other pieces do you know?"
When I heard him use the word "still," I knew he still remembered that little tune from last time.
"besides……"
I recited the titles of several songs one by one, and to be honest, I didn't sing them very well.
—I learned most of it on the spot, and I don’t think I have any talent in this area.
It was Aunt Xun who came up with the idea of teaching the song.
After observing me carefully for several days, Aunt Xun came to a conclusion.
Whether it's appearance, personality, or eloquence, I really don't have any outstanding qualities. As for musical skills, I can't say I'm just average; I'm completely clueless.
This left Aunt Xun completely baffled, and she even thought that the previous manager must have gone mad to leave such a useless piece of trash like me in the building for so long.
Ultimately, my goal was to learn to sing, firstly because it's the easiest skill to pick up compared to others. In Aunt Xun's own words, anyone with a mouth can learn it.
Secondly, Aunt Xun noticed that on that day, Shen Yun specifically asked me to sing for him. Although my performance was less than satisfactory, Shen Yun thought it was good. So, I should try my best to develop my talents in this area, since I only have this one person to serve in the coming year.
Naturally, one must rack one's brains to figure out what others like and then cater to their preferences.
To this end, Aunt Xun hired several teachers who were good at singing to constantly urge me to study.
For several days in a row, I did nothing but study music, even before going to bed. I would have a teacher sit outside the house and sing to me, hoping that I could make rapid progress through long-term, uninterrupted exposure.
Unfortunately, Aunt Xun was disappointed once again.
Based on the different feedback from those teachers, a relatively unified conclusion can be drawn—I am tone-deaf by nature, I sing off-key, and there is basically no hope for me in this lifetime.
"Oh dear, what am I supposed to do if you do this?"
That day, Aunt Xun, having learned the truth, stared at me resentfully for a long time. Her expression was even more sorrowful and desperate than that of the girls in the building who had been abandoned by their unfaithful husbands.
Most of those girls were heartbroken because of love. They gave their hearts away and were swindled out of the money to redeem themselves, losing both their money and their love, and becoming increasingly heartbroken.
Aunt Xun doesn't talk about feelings, so the same amount of silver has the value of two things in other people's eyes.
Seeing my incompetence, she felt as if a large sum of money that she might have earned in the future had suddenly vanished into thin air. She couldn't help but feel disheartened, and for a long time afterward, she didn't appear before me.
I live in this separate room, living a quiet life, with almost no one visiting me except for my three meals a day.
Life seemed to have returned to a few years ago, when I lived alone in the place where I used to live with Mr. Lan.
Every day, all I did was read, write, sweep, occasionally tidy up the things left behind by Young Master Lan, and meet with Li Xiao.
—Yes, Li Xiao was still alive at that time.
Although in the early hours of the day after the Lantern Festival that year, I witnessed Li Xiao being choked by her birth mother without any resistance.
However, at the last moment, Li's mother fainted due to exhaustion. Li Xiao thus escaped death.
I was terrified. In a panic, I lunged forward and actually managed to break free of the invisible restraints on my body, staggering as I ran away.
I stumbled over to Li Xiao and forcefully pulled the boy's shoulders, dragging him to sit up.
Looking at that deathly pale face, I felt my heart almost stop beating.
"Li Xiao, Young Master Li, wake up, say something, don't scare me..."
As I spoke incoherently, I frantically patted Li Xiao's face. When there was no response after a few pats, I tried to pinch the boy's philtrum, just like I remembered seeing it done.
This time, however, my hand was grabbed halfway through its reach, and the person who grabbed me was none other than Li Xiao.
I was stunned and speechless, just staring at the boy opposite me.
I don't know when Li Xiao opened his eyes, but now he is staring at my face with a deep gaze. After looking at me for a long time, he sighed and said weakly.
"It's not too late for you to call me that when I die someday."
When I heard that Li Xiao was still in the mood to joke at a time like this, I was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly I felt a surge of anger.
Li Xiao was weak when I suddenly pushed him.
The boy fell backward onto his backside in disbelief, his eyes wide and his pale face filled with disbelief.
"You... cough cough cough, cough cough cough, cough cough!"
Just as Li Xiao was about to say something, he seemed to catch his breath and started coughing violently.
—Serves them right.
This guy doesn't deserve any sympathy.
With that thought in mind, I stood aside, watching coldly without saying a word.
But Li Xiao coughed for a long time and showed no signs of stopping.
This makes me a little worried that he might accidentally cough up his lungs.
Moreover, Li Xiao often coughs frequently, so it's possible he really does have this problem...
I finally couldn't resist taking a step forward. As I leaned closer, I hesitantly asked, "You didn't—"
Before he could finish speaking, a hand suddenly reached out and grabbed his arm. Then the scenery in front of him flipped and spun around like a carousel. Before he could come to his senses, he had been dragged and thrown to the ground.
To be precise, he and Li Xiao wrestled together.
My arm was caught in his neck, and his shoulder bumped into my chin.
It rained lightly last night, and the ground is still wet, leaving clear watermarks on the corners of the two people's clothes as they were tangled together.
But Li Xiao seemed to be in a good mood, as if he had shaken off his previous haggardness and fatigue, and watched with great interest as I scrambled up from him in a disheveled state.
"Is it fun?" Li Xiao asked knowingly.
I glanced at him but didn't say anything.
Li Xiao grabbed my arm, preventing me from getting up, and insisted that I answer his question.
“If Young Master Li thinks it’s fun, then it’s fun.” I replied somewhat stiffly, keeping my eyes down and not looking at him.
Li Xiao raised an eyebrow, stretched out his arm and pulled me back, then turned my head so I would look at him.
"But you don't look like you find it fun."
Li Xiao mumbled to himself, sounding somewhat aggrieved.
His hands were so cold, and without even a greeting, he kept touching my face.
I held back, but in the end I couldn't resist.
Finally, for the first time ever, he cursed, "Li Xiao, are you sick in the head?"
To everyone's surprise, Li Xiao laughed instead of getting angry when he heard this, and seemed even happier than before. Then he suddenly pressed my face against his, forehead to forehead, and rubbed my face against his own.
I:"……"
I really can't find the words to describe how I feel right now.
Li Xiao readily hummed in agreement, admitting, "Yes, I am indeed sick."
"..."
Seeing my stunned expression, the boy's smile deepened: "Not only that, our whole family is sick."
As he said this, Li Xiao's expression suddenly became hesitant and uncertain.
"You won't look down on me because of this, will you?" the boy suddenly asked cautiously.
The jade-green eyes shimmered in the gradually brightening morning light, reminding one of a shimmering spring lake just awakening from a long slumber.
As I watched the boy change his expression faster than flipping through a book in just a few words, a question with a mark in his mind popped up: "Huh?"
No, it's not about disliking or anything...
Using such words between him and me, or suggesting that I dislike him, just doesn't sound right.
I suddenly felt a little dizzy. The Li Xiao in front of me seemed different from before. Maybe... he had just walked through the gates of hell, so he had become particularly sentimental?
Faced with this situation, I finally remembered my duty.
At the same time, I belatedly realized that Li Xiao was actually my guest.
Since that's the case...
Even though my head was still being held in Li Xiao's hands, I shook my head very slightly, firmly indicating that such a possibility was absolutely impossible.
"That's good." Li Xiao smiled again, as happy as a carefree child.
Then Li Xiao added, "Don't call him 'Young Master' anymore, and don't call him by his name either."
"What's it called?" I asked, following his lead.
I've gradually gotten used to Li Xiao's occasional whims, and I'm even starting to feel a bit numb to them.
“Ah Xiao,” Li Xiao said, her eyes crinkling into a smile, “I like it when someone calls me that.”
“Ah Xiao…”
I murmured the name softly, and for some reason, I felt a strange sense of familiarity. Perhaps it was because I had heard Young Master Lan call Li Xiao this way before.
My mind grew increasingly foggy; I knew it was probably a belated wave of drowsiness creeping into my brain.
—It was dawn, and I finally felt sleepy.
"Are you tired? You should be. After all, you haven't slept all night and have seen so many upsetting things. You should get some rest."
Li Xiao finally got up from the ground, and then pinched my face with his cold hands, his voice sounding unusually gentle.
Hearing him say that reminded me of the scenes that had happened in this courtyard not long ago. When I looked around again, I found that there was no one else besides us.
“I went back a long time ago. My mother is not in good health, and my husband would never let her stay outside for long.”
When Li Xiao talked about his parents, he seemed completely unconcerned, as if everything that had happened that night was nothing out of the ordinary.
"Your parents..." I hesitated, unsure how to begin.
"Isn't it strange?" Li Xiao said it for me.
He remained indifferent, as if the boy who had made up his mind to surrender his life was someone else entirely.
“I’ve said it before, my whole family is sick, and I’m not entirely joking.”
As Li Xiao spoke, a hint of reminiscence flashed across his eyes. Then, as if he had come back to his senses, he looked down at me and smiled: "But this is a long story. Let's find a place to change our clothes and get a good night's sleep first. Otherwise, if things continue like this, I'm afraid I won't even be as good as a block of wood and will only be a bean sprout."
After saying that, he mischievously ruffled my hair a couple of times, revealing a childishly smug face.
—Then, feeling trapped and frustrated, I bit my hand.
The good news for Li Xiao is that my front tooth, which was knocked out by Li Xiao with a copper coin wrapped in a dumpling during the winter solstice, has not yet fully healed.
The bad news is that even newly grown teeth can be quite dangerous.
So, despite being half-dead, Li Xiao managed to scream like a pig being slaughtered.
I didn't hold back when I took the bite, and only after I let go did I feel a bloody taste lingering between my lips and teeth.
—I don't know if it's his or mine.
"You...you're like a dog, aren't you? Your bite hurts so much!" Li Xiao said, waving his hand.
I stood silently to the side, rubbing my cheek... It turns out that forces are reciprocal.
As much as Li Xiao's hand hurt, my teeth ached.
Li Xiao hadn't eaten anything all night and was starving, so he ordered someone to prepare some food and bring it to his room. Then he turned to me and asked if there was anything he wanted to eat.
I shook my head and yawned, indicating that I would eat whatever he ate, and that if I could, I would actually prefer to take a nap first.
Then I suddenly realized something: as dawn broke, the once deserted mansion suddenly became lively.
As I watched the two maids who had just received their orders and left, I vaguely felt as if I had seen this scene somewhere before, but I couldn't quite place it.
So, still a little confused, he turned to Li Xiao and asked, "Are all the people in your family really not mushrooms turned into?"
"..."
Li Xiao looked at him like he was an idiot.
I was still not giving up and pressed on, "Then how come I didn't see a single one last night, but now they've suddenly appeared out of nowhere?"
"It's precisely because we're living, breathing people that we need to sleep. What do you think we got back at last night?"
"But--"
"No buts."
Annoyed by my questions, Li Xiao suddenly pinched my mouth shut with her thumb and forefinger.
Seeing that I made two whimpering noises but couldn't break free, the boy finally showed a satisfied expression, and then smiled at my current state.
"It looks like a little duck."
"Mmm mmm mmm."
"But the ducklings are too noisy, I don't like them. The puppy is much cuter."
Mentioning dogs seemed to unlock some secret within Li Xiao, and a thoughtful look suddenly appeared in his eyes as he looked at me.
"They say a dog that bites doesn't bark, but it doesn't seem that way at all."
"..."
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