Chapter 33. ☆ I Liked You First…

“Brother, are you cold?”

As soon as she finished speaking, Ruan Mengmeng’s mouth was stuffed into her scarf, revealing two watery almond eyes, apologetic and subtly smiling.

He Yiyang was sitting at the back of the van. The door was open and the north wind blew, causing his hair to fall on his face.

Don’t worry about his image. If he hadn’t held on to the railing at the back of the van tightly, He Yiyang would have been thrown off the road in a single turn and would have had a broken arm or leg.

“I’m cold, don’t you know?” He Yiyang said irritably.

Advertisements

Ruan Mengmeng looked at him ingratiatingly, “Brother, you should sacrifice yourself for a while. We will soon enter the village.”

He Yiyang did not want to say another word. After glaring at her, the car leaped over a mound of earth. The carriage tilted and He Yiyang hurriedly grabbed the railing.

Ruan Mengmeng was hit on the head by a box opposite and let out a cry, falling on top of He Yiyang with inertia.

The following parts of the text will be scrambled to prevent theft from aggregators and unauthorized epub making. Please support our translators by reading on secondlifetranslations (dot) com. If you are currently on the site and and you are seeing this, please clear your cache.

Tl Zkuydt oyp iwknj vs tayc vbl zkvvzl qyvvu kd bkp yaxp yde bsze sdvs vbl aykzkdt okvb sdl byde.

“Rp lhlauvbkdt sjyu?” Mydt Jkd, obs oyp eakhkdt kd qasdv sq bkx, pyke, “R’x psaau. Rv oyp aykdkdt y obkzl yts yde vblal olal xydu rsvbszlp, ps R nswzed’v yhske vblx.”

Tl Zkuydt eked’v pyu y osae; bl oyp lhld tlvvkdt bkp vllvb kdvs tlya.

Swyd Yldtxldt bwaaklezu pyv esod yde nzkxcle sdvs vbl cynjalpv sq vbl qasdv plyv okvb csvb bydep, yde pyke yojoyaezu, “Rv’p qkdl, kv’p qkdl. Kwpv eakhl olzz, Jasvbla Mydt.”

Mydt Jkd pbssj bkp blye yde zspv bkp pxkzl.

Gp bl oykvle kd vbl nya, bl pyo Swyd Yldtxldt yde Tl Zkuydt nyaaukdt y zsv sq pvwqq, qszzsole cu y qlo byrru pbsr sodlap. Tl jdlo vbyv bkp hyd oyp tskdt vs cl shlazsyele.

Wkdyzzu, cynj kd vbl hkzzytl, vbl hyd rwzzle wr kd qasdv sq y nsdnalvl rye.

Tl Zkuydt tsv swv sq vbl hyd okvb bkp ‘zsspl yde qall’ bykanwv. Tkp zltp olal ps olyj vbyv bl yzxspv pvwxczle.

Ruan Mengmeng also had a hard time. She had never been in such a bumpy car before and almost threw up on it.

Advertisements

When she saw He Yiyang crouching on the roadside, she guessed he had thrown up. He was so tall and yet, he was sitting in the van, bowing his back, stretching his arms and being blown by the cold wind. Ruan Mengmeng’s heart ached and was warmly moved.

She wanted to go up and hand him some paper, but many children gathered behind her.

“Sister, sister.”

Ruan Mengmeng’s face was pale and her legs were still a little weak, but the children didn’t know that. Their expectant looks and trusting, dependent eyes made her hold back her discomfort and smile gently.

Tang Bin came over to help, “You skinned monkeys. Your noses are quite sharp. Erhuzi, you’re already in fifth grade; aren’t you still ashamed of surrounding your sister?”

The boy named Erhuzi blushed and released his grip on Ruan Mengmeng’s clothes. He waved his hand at the younger children beside him, “Line up, line up!”

There was a child king in every group of children, and it seemed that this Erhuzi was it.

Ruan Mengmeng stroked his head when he peeked over and said encouragingly, “Will you help your sister share the stuff later?”

Erhuzi blushed and patted his chest, nodding his head like a chicken pecking rice.

“Brother Tang!” Ruan Mengmeng shouted to Tang Bin, who was unloading the goods over there.

There was so much stuff in the cart that Tang Bin called two more village people who were passing by to help him unload the goods. When he heard Ruan Mengmeng’s shout, he walked over, “What’s wrong?”

Ruan Mengmeng please said, “Can you and Erhuzi send it. I’m with ……” She pointed to He Yiyang, who was still squatting over there, “Brother blew all the way to the wind and is not feeling well and wants to go back to rest.”

Advertisements

Tang Bin realised that having the mountain wind blowing on him for an hour in the cold winter of the twelfth lunar month was no laughing matter. If it was changed to someone with poor physical fitness, it couldn’t be said that they wouldn’t faint when they got out of the car .

He said, “Then you guys hurry up and rest. Tell my mum to boil two bowls of ginger soup, so you two can sweat a little.”

“Thank you.” Ruan Mengmeng returned.

 “You’re welcome. You two bought all this; I have to thank you for these leather monkeys.” Tang Bin laughed.

These days, not every successful person who made money remembered to give back to their homeland.

He Yiyang squatted on the side of the road. He didn’t vomit, but his stomach was cold and uncomfortable. Ruan Mengmeng came over and reached out to touch his forehead, “Brother, you are so kind; let’s go back first.”

He Yiyang put his arm around her shoulders to stand up. By the way, he touched her face, and it was cold and refreshing!

Her face suddenly pulled down and counted, “You give money. Is it not the same? Must you buy things?”

 “It’s not the same ……”

Ruan Mengmeng said halfway. Her nose was itchy and she sneezed.

“Brother and sister.”

A clear childish voice came from behind them, and the two turned back in unison.

Advertisements

The child stood in a row holding a brand new treasure blue down jacket, bending and bowing, “Thank you.”

There were innocent and contented smiles all over their faces.

Ruan Mengmeng had tears streaming down her face, biting the corners of her lips. She wanted to laugh and cry, waving her hand repeatedly to show that there was no need to thank her.

He Yiyang took one look and immediately turned back, a faint touch of warmth at the end of his cold, narrow eyes.

Ruan Mengmeng leaned against He Yiyang and kept gazing up while they walked down the road.

“What are you doing?” He Yiyang, as soon as he finished speaking, hugged her to avoid a brick, “Don’t you even need to look at the road?”

“No, hahaha.” Ruan Mengmeng laughed in a silly, goofy way.

“…… Look at the road! Stupid!” He Yiyang raised his eyebrows and uncomfortably shook his head. The tips of his exposed ears were reddening.

“Oh.” Ruan Mengmeng was obedient.

She no longer looked at him. She just laughed all the time.

A little girl with half of her heel falling off her foot looked at He Yiyang’s back for a long time. Then, with her hands clenched in fists and her courage, she ran over to smoothly caress He Yiyang’s back and asked, in a small voice, “Brother, do you want some water?”

He Yiyang visibly stiffened for a moment, resisting the urge to immediately wave off the little girl’s hand, and said quietly, “No.”

Advertisements

The indifferent voice still bruised the little girl, and she returned to the group with her head hanging in despair.

Ruan Mengmeng knew the details. He Yiyang’s cleanliness was not so bad as to be a symptom, but it was not small either. In particular, he had an aversion to physical contact with strangers.

The little girl touched him, and he didn’t point his nose at her, brush her off, or swear at her, which was already very dignified.

On New Year’s Eve, He Zhenhua and Ruan Hai’s family of four ate at a table.

The village chief’s daughter-in-law brought Ruan Mengmeng a fish and a bowl of dried plum vegetables with buckled pork, as well as marinated pork feet.

Ruan Mengmeng made the rest of the seven dishes herself, to make up a good symbol of the ten perfections.

After the meal, the two adults went out again, leaving He Yiyang and Ruan Mengmeng to stay at home.

The Spring Festival Gala was playing on the TV, and Ruan Mengmeng brought out a big bowl of fruit salad from the kitchen, while He Yiyang sat lazily on the sofa, his right hand spinning his phone in boredom.

“Brother,” Ruan Mengmeng handed over a fork, “eat some fruit.”

He Yiyang tilted his head and opened his mouth.

Ruan Mengmeng: “You can do it yourself.”

He Yiyang copied his hands, “Then I won’t eat.”

Ruan Mengmeng was speechless, looking at him for a long time without moving.

 “Ai~” Ruan Mengmeng sighed, choosing to give in as always, “Hey, have a piece of orange, to take the edge off.”

There was internet in Haipo village, but the signal was not good. The two watched the Spring Festival dinner for a while. After finding it uninteresting, they played a single game on their phones.

No one said a word as they played each other shoulder to shoulder. Apart from the background sound of the Spring Festival dinner, they could occasionally hear the barking of a dog or the crying and laughing of children outside the house.

He Yiyang suddenly recalled a line from the language textbook “The Moonlight in the Lotus Pond” – the fun is theirs, I have nothing.

In fact, it was not always the case. It was also interesting to be close to the hustle and bustle.

He Yiyang lowered his eyes while Ruan Mengmeng, leaning against him, was squinting and dozing.

He pulled up the heater quilt from the stove and placed it over her shoulders. Then he pulled out the hand that was being leaned on to take her into his arms.

He had lost his parents last year and had left the familiar city to return to his hometown. 

But he did not feel a deep loneliness because his heart was not deserted.

It was also a mistake. He Yiyang had always thought that Ruan Mengmeng liked him, and that being cared about would make him feel like he had a place to return to, a warmth.

That day, stimulated by Lu Zhengyuan, he himself forcibly kissed Ruan Mengmeng, and his inner shock was not small. Looking at her shocked gaze, He Yiyang’s last self-deceiving cloth of shame was mercilessly ripped off.

In the beginning, he was the one who fell in love with her first.

It was just a matter of not admitting it.

When he told her to close her eyes, he was not deceiving himself once again.

The good thing was that Ruan Mengmeng’s blush afterwards and the furtive trance-like gaze rekindled hope.

He Yiyang believed that between the two of them, it wasn’t just “brother” ……

There was a bang, the sound of firecrackers and the whistling of fireworks rising into the sky. Outside, the house was instantly buzzing as the host of the Spring Festival Gala began to say “Friends of the audience ……”

Ruan Mengmeng was awakened, “Let’s go out and set off fireworks too!”

He Yiyang: “Didn’t we give them all to the kids?”

“There’s still a box of firework sticks that I secretly left behind,” Ruan Mengmeng looked in the TV cabinet, muttering under her breath, “Oops, where did it go? It’s almost zero.”

Seeing her anxiety, He Yiyang followed suit and searched for it. “This one?”

“Yes!” Ruan Mengmeng said happily, “Let’s hurry, there’s only one minute left to make a wish at zero.”

The fireworks stick had one firework, a pure flame the colour of bright yellow.

Ruan Mengmeng took it and scratched the words in the air, a faint smile on her lips as she wrote one stroke at a time with care.

The devotion in her eyes was evident in the silent blessing in her heart.

He Yiyang leaned against the door with one hand in his pocket and could see clearly that the flames of the flowers were writing his name.

He walked over and wrapped his arms around Ruan Mengmeng from behind, bending his head down and brushing his lips against her ear.

“Ruan Mengmeng, I’m only going to say this once, so listen up.”

He Yiyang’s low words knocked open Ruan Mengmeng’s heart word by word, allowing no room for half-measures, barging in and taking over all the dominance.

“I’ve liked you since the summer night when I was fourteen and I had a spring dream.”

Ruan Mengmeng didn’t understand at first. There was a question mark on her face.

He Yiyang let out a chuckle, his eyes suddenly immodest. He took Ruan Mengmeng’s waist and pressed it hard onto his lower half.

“Get it?”

Ruan Mengmeng’s brain exploded into fireworks as well. She pushed He Yiyang away as hard as she could, her memory flying back to that night before.

That summer was exceptionally hot. Ruan Mengmeng and He Yiyang, who had returned for the summer, often went to the lotus pond to play in the water.

Sometimes other little ones would join in and just dive into the water to play and swim ……

She was a bit raw in the front and there were no female elders around, so she didn’t know she had to wear a bra yet ……

One morning, when she got up, the sky was just dawning, a deep and translucent dark blue. In the courtyard, He Yiyang was standing there with a pair of his white underpants in his hand!

Yes, it was that day that He Yiyang went back to H City the next day, and his attitude towards her became increasingly strange. He never came back for the summer!

It turned out that …… Ruan Mengmeng’s face burst into red and her head hung low. Her mind was in chaos.

That what …… if you like me, don’t be a hooligan. You don’t have to say it so clearly. It’s okay!

“Mengmeng,” He Yiyang wrenched her face and locked it with his own, “it seems you have a good biology.”

Ruan Mengmeng: “……” Her face is so hot she could fry an egg! Please don’t say that again.

He Yiyang’s long, narrow eyes were filled with laughter. He had once been ashamed of that incident, but in fact it was just cowardice.

It was good to say it now, to see her blush and try to escape, but the way she was held tightly in his arms screamed ‘I’ve earned it back’.

He Yiyang: “Kiss me, respond to me.”

Ruan Mengmeng: “Ah, this this this ……” What rhythm is this again?

He Yiyang: “You don’t want to be responsible for me?”

“Not me ……” Ruan Mengmeng’s heart was pounding hard.

Unable to wait for her dilly-dallying, He Yiyang lifted her chin and his lips crushed it forcefully.

The author has something to say: cough ……