Chapter 12 The truth is that Mulan is a girl
It was a foregone conclusion that Liu Guifang had taken the down jacket. Xu Sirui felt nauseous all day, as if he no longer recognized the world. He couldn't help but suspect that Zhu Yingning also knew about this matter, and that she had played dumb that morning just to protect her mother. After all, if even the seemingly submissive Liu Guifang could take it for granted to steal someone else's things, it seemed just as reasonable that Zhu Yingning had hidden evil intentions.
He wanted to find a chance to talk to her alone, to test her opinion and see if she knew about this matter. But the room was crowded with people, including Liu Guifang, and he finally managed to find a chance to talk to her alone while she was taking a shower, so he dragged her in without thinking.
However, things did not develop as he had imagined.
Or rather, completely different.
Because Zhu Yingning actually screamed, like an offended little girl, she covered her eyes, quickly turned her back, and shrank into the corner, not even daring to look at him.
"...What are you doing?" He felt puzzled.
She trembled for a long time before she managed a stammering response through her teeth: "I was just about to ask you what you were doing!? Why...why aren't you wearing any clothes...?"
He asked curiously, "What the hell? Have you ever seen anyone taking a bath and putting on clothes?" "But...but..."
"But what's going on? What's wrong with you for no apparent reason?" Xu Sirui frowned and grabbed her shoulders, trying to pull her over. "Forget about that for now. I have something to ask you. Didn't you say you would help me find a down jacket? How's your search going? Do you have any ideas?"
Zhu Yingning's shoulders were like steel bars. He tried to bend them but failed. Unconvinced, he tried again. She shook her shoulders violently and shook his hand off.
Xu Sirui stood there puzzled and waited for a while, hoping that she would say something about his question. However, after waiting for a long time, she neither looked back at him nor spoke a word. She just kept hiding her head like a turtle and pretended to be dead.
His patience quickly ran out. "Why don't you say something? If you don't, I'll think you're guilty."
The threat was delivered, but she still showed no reaction.
Xu Sirui tutted his words, "Do I really think you're guilty? Don't say I didn't give you a chance to explain yourself."
After waiting for a while, the man seemed like a stone statue, taking root on the spot.
"……Hold."
Xu Sirui was a little angry. He took a step forward, trying to use brute force to twist her over. But almost the moment he stepped forward, she trembled, and used all her strength to press herself against the iron shed. She stopped him loudly in a trembling voice: "...Don't come over here!"
Xu Sirui was stunned for a moment.
The tone and timbre of the words, "Don't come over here," were so girlish that a terrifying suspicion slowly formed in his mind. He lowered his head and saw Zhu Yingning hunched over, her shoulders clutching her lips. The pupils of her eyes, visible through her palms, trembled violently, the black and white swaying into a clear pool stained with ink, the misty waves vast and the raging waves surging.
Looking down further, you will see her ears.
The mountains offer abundant sunlight, and the skin of those who live there is generally a light tan, and she was no exception. But perhaps because the base of her ears is shielded from direct sunlight, that area of her skin is noticeably paler than the surrounding area. Because of its paler color, its redness is particularly noticeable. That red smear spreads from her ears, like vibrant blood, visibly staining the surrounding skin.
Cheeks, neck, collarbone...
She was as red as a ripe shrimp.
Xu Sirui felt his entire forehead buzzing, as if a bell was ringing in his mind, shaking his brain into pieces.
He thought there must be something wrong, someone must be playing a joke on him, how could it be possible, how could it be possible... ?
He wanted to resist and fight against the truth, so he raised his hand to pinch her chin, squinting his eyes to look at her face carefully, but the more he looked, the colder his heart became.
Although she is not pretty or delicate enough, she is definitely a girl from her bone structure to her skin.
God, why on earth would he think she was a man?!
He'd assumed her crisp voice was due to her still-changing voice, and her thin stature was a matter of genes and the food she ate. Now that he thought about it, it was no wonder she and the people around her reacted so strangely sometimes. He'd actually let a girl carry him on her back through the mountains, slept with her for a week, changed his pants in front of her, and now dragged her straight into the bathroom.
...I can't recall it anymore. He was so scared that he quickly threw his hand away.
The shock of the truth made him no longer care about his down jacket. Xu Sirui staggered back two steps, his eyes went dark, and he almost fainted on the spot.
But don't get dizzy yet.
Realizing he was still naked, he hurriedly snatched the pajamas from Zhu Yingning's arms and covered himself with them. His lips trembled for a long time before he uttered a trembling word: "...You get out."
Zhu Yingning didn't dare to move. She heard the sound of him putting on his clothes, but she was not sure how far he had put them on. She was afraid that if he turned around, he would be visually shocked again.
The two of them were deadlocked for a long time. Finally, Xu Sirui spoke first, and there was a hint of tears in his voice: "...Get out, get out!"
Zhu Yingning was stunned. She didn't know why he was crying. It seemed she should be the one crying. But her mind was in a turmoil, and she couldn't fathom the truth any further. She just said, "Okay, okay, I'll go out. I'll go out." Then, imitating the crab walk, she moved sideways toward the door.
After finally reaching the iron gate, Xu Sirui suddenly grabbed her hand from behind. She was terrified and blurted out, "What are you going to do now? Xu Sirui, you're a pervert!"
"Fuck, I'm not a pervert!" Xu Sirui felt like he couldn't clear himself even if he jumped into the Yellow River. He quickly let go of her hand as if he had been scalded, and explained incoherently, "I held you because I wanted to explain something to you... I wanted to say... Shit! I didn't know you were a woman! I always thought you..."
While he was explaining, Zhu Yingning had already hurriedly opened the iron gate. It was not known whether she heard what he said, but she slammed the door shut and ran away faster than a rabbit being chased by an eagle.
**
This marked a significant chapter in Xu Sirui's short fourteen years of life. He had no idea how he took the bath. He rubbed and dried himself mechanically, as if he was washing a pig to be slaughtered. He even tripped over the threshold when he went out.
Yang Ji and the others were chatting and gossiping under the awning behind the house. They were having a good time when Xu Sirui ran over and asked frantically, "Where are the videos from the past few days? Are they still with you?!"
"What?"
"I'm asking where you stored the videos from the past few days, a memory card or a hard drive? Give it to me! Give it to me quickly!" As he said this, he lowered his head to grab the crew's camera.
Everyone was stunned by him. The cameraman instinctively protected his camera, but Yang Ji stopped him and asked, "What are you crazy about? The footage for this episode has been saved on the hard drive and sent for editing."
"What did you say!?"
Xu Sirui roared so loudly that it stung Yang Ji's eardrums. He bared his teeth and covered his ears, twisting Xu Sirui's arm in anger. "What the hell are you doing?"
Normally Xu Sirui would have gone berserk, but now he was like a frightened child, stupid and dazed, not even reacting when being pinched.
Yang Ji was a little worried and reached out to touch his forehead: "Do you have a fever?"
"Can you still recover the hard drive?" he asked absentmindedly.
"You're kidding! They've all been sent to the provincial capital. How do you expect me to get them back?"
“…”
Xu Sirui fell silent, frozen in place with a blank stare. After a full two minutes, he suddenly came to his senses, as if possessed by a spirit. He squatted in front of the camera and said with a complicated expression, "I want to clarify something."
Everyone looked at each other.
He said solemnly to the camera lens, "I just found out that Zhu Yingning is a woman. Did you record it? Record it clearly, make sure you record it clearly for me! You must edit this sentence into the next episode! Got it?"
After he finished speaking, everyone fell eerily quiet.
An indescribable silence flowed among the crowd.
Five seconds later, laughter broke out.
Xu Sirui hadn't expected this reaction from them. His face flushed red from their laughter. He stiffened his neck and glared at everyone, his voice sounding a little weak: "What are you laughing at?"
Yang Ji laughed so hard that tears came out. He held his stomach and wiped the corners of his eyes with his fingernails. "No, my God! How could you think she was a man?"
"She cut her hair so short, who could have guessed she was a woman?!" Xu Sirui immediately began to shirk responsibility, but at this point, his curiosity was piqued. "Why would she, a girl, shave her head?"
Yang Ji shrugged: "Go ask her yourself."
"...I don't know how to talk to her now." He touched his neck uncomfortably.
As a result, this sentence somehow tickled everyone's funny bone, and the laughter that had subsided a lot surged up again like a rising tide.
Not only did they laugh, but they also made faces and exchanged knowing glances. Xu Sirui, still a child after all, couldn't resist the vulgar teasing of these old-timers. Their laughter infuriated him, and he cursed and shouted at them a few times. Finding no one listening, he vented his anger by kicking the awning support and fled.
**
Xu Sirui hadn't lied when he said he didn't know how to talk to Zhu Yingning. Forget talking; he felt awkward even looking at her. The northwest wind blew outside for a long time until it was dark, and the village lights went out one by one. Only when Liu Guifang came out to persuade him to go to bed did he reluctantly return to the house.
However, when he saw the kang, he felt unwell again.
After knowing that she was a girl, Xu Sirui really couldn't accept sleeping with her again, but he also couldn't accept sleeping next to Liu Guifang or the old lady.
After a moment of conflict between his conscience and his desires, he turned around and took out a stack of clothes from the suitcase, rolled them up into a long strip, and stuffed it between his and Zhu Yingning's beds.
Zhu Yingning was equally embarrassed. She forced herself not to think about it, but as soon as she closed her eyes, she recalled the scene in the iron shed. However, no matter how embarrassed she was, it couldn't withstand the shock of the mountain of clothes suddenly appearing around her. She peeked out from under the quilt and asked him in a muffled voice, "What are you doing?"
"The 38th parallel." He pointed at the mountain of clothes and said fiercely, forcing himself to maintain his presence. "Don't cross this line, you hear me!"
Zhu Yingning was speechless: "Are you being unreasonable? I sleep very well, okay? Usually you put your hand on me..."
"Enough! Stop talking." Xu Sirui stopped her in a whisper. His handsome face instantly flushed with blood, and in the moonlight, it turned red like a lantern. "Do you know how to be ashamed, Zhu Yingning?"
She wanted to argue a few more times, but when she saw his fiery red face, she didn't know why, and that heat was like a contagious virus, inexplicably spreading from his face to hers. She gritted her teeth, pulled the quilt higher, turned her back to him, and stopped talking.
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