Chapter 32.1 A Different Light

In an instant, his heart was beating like a drum, and there seemed to be countless fireworks exploding in front of his eyes. Yu Yuan’s entire body was focused on the soft sensation on his lips.

The girl’s fragrance was wrapped around him and their breathing ambiguously and enchantingly tangled together.

Yu Yuan suddenly felt a little oxygen deprived. He wanted to take a deep breath, but was afraid of alarming the girl. 

So he tightly clenched his fists and struggled to conceal his loss of control.

It seemed like a year had passed, but in reality, it had only been a moment. The girl didn’t do anything further than that. She simply pressed her lips against his, then straightened her body.

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Yu Yuan closed his eyes, pretending to be asleep, not daring to open them to look at Yan Mu. He gritted his teeth for fear of revealing even the slightest hint of abnormality.

Fortunately, Yan Mu was still somewhat night-blind, so she didn’t notice anything wrong with Yu Yuan. After she finished kissing him, she went back to her room in the dark.

Seeing that Yan Mu had left, Yu Yuan abruptly buried his head into the quilt.

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Mbl vlldytla’p qynl oyp yp ale yp y nssjle pbakxr. Wasx dlnj vs qynl, vbl ale oyp zkjl y xswdvykd okzeqkal, pralyekdt yzz vbl oyu vs Zw Zwyd’p lyap.

Tkp xkde oyp fwxczle.

Zyd Yw jkpple xl fwpv dso……aktbv? Mbl vlldytla oyp y zkvvzl wdpwal.

Ebu eke Zyd Yw jkpp xl? Xdnl bl vbswtbv vbkp, bl qlzv zkjl bkp ldvkal cseu oyp yp bsv yp qkal.

Zw Zwyd oyp yzalyeu pkmvlld vbkp ulya, cwv kd vbl pkmvlld ulyap clqsal bl xlv Zyd Yw, bl’e dlhla bye xwnb kdvlaynvksd okvb vbl srrspkvl plm. Mbl sdzu rlapsd sq ydsvbla tldela vbyv bl’e lhla clld kd nsdvynv okvb oyp bkp xsvbla, cwv pbl eked’v zkjl vs vyzj vs bkx, ps bl jdlo dsvbkdt ycswv osxld.

Tl’e yzps plld ryppksdyvl uswdt xld yde osxld kd vbl tashl. Mblu’e yzps pvwnj xswvb vs xswvb zkjl vbkp. Jwv yv vbyv vkxl, bl eked’v qkde kv pollv, sdzu pknjldkdt.

Jwv Zyd Yw……

Ebld Zyd Yw yde bkx eke pwnb y vbkdt, dsv sdzu eke bl dsv qllz ekptwpvle, cwv bl yzps qlzv y zkvvzl pollv.

The moment when Yan Mu kissed him, even his soul was trembling with joy.

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If……

If I pretend not to know, will Yan Mu continue to kiss me in the future?

A hint of anticipation surged in Yu Yuan’s heart. His fingers tightly gripped the bedding and vague creases appeared in the fabric.

Yu Yuan tossed and turned1 with jumbled feelings and only fell asleep in the latter half of the night.

*********

Yu Yuan’s kiss was indeed effective. Yan Mu woke up the next day feeling refreshed2 and the pain in her leg had completely disappeared.

However, learning from the past, this time, Yan Mu didn’t dare to show it too obviously. She dragged her leg and slowly went to wash up.

While she was washing up, Yu Yuan was washing his sheets.

“Good morning Yu Yuan, what are you washing?” Yan Mu curiously asked.

She poked her head out and was about to walk over to have a look, but Yu Yuan seemed to be stimulated by something as he suddenly shot up and blocked her view.

“……Yu Yuan?” The girl tilted her head, puzzled. 

“I……” Yu Yuan was at a loss for words.

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The enchanting dream last night was still lingering in his mind. For a moment, Yu Yuan was a little afraid to face Yan Mu. His eyes couldn’t stop looking at her pink lips, and his breathing stagnated as he remembered the mess on his bedding this morning.

“It’s nice and sunny today, the quilt will dry fast after washing.” Yu Yuan pursed his lips, pretending to be calm. 

“You’re so diligent.” Yan Mu sighed, “Then don’t pour the water out after you’re done, I’ll take out my quilt to wash too.”

“You can’t!” Yu Yuan refuted Yan Mu’s words without even thinking. 

“Why not?” Yan Mu was confused.

“……Because we’re almost late for school,” said Yu Yuan after being silent for a while.

“Oh, right.” Yan Mu nodded her head, “I’ll wash it tomorrow then.”

“But Yu Yuan,” Yan Mu suddenly called out to him after washing up, “Are your injuries okay? If they still really hurt, then take a leave of absence today.”

Yu Yuan froze, then pursed his lips and said, “They don’t hurt.” 

He felt like he was extremely filthy. Yan Mu cared so much about him, but he had unspeakably improper thoughts about her.

Yu Yuan let out a long breath. His hands worked faster as he washed the sheets and hung them on the clothesline.

Yan Mu was eating an egg and carelessly asked, “Do you need help?”

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“No need.” Yu Yuan didn’t want Yan Mu to touch the sheets, so he harshly rejected her. But he was also worried that Yan Mu would overthink, so he asked, “Is your leg better? It seems a little better to me.”

Remembering the kiss last night, Yan Mu suddenly choked on a mouthful of egg in her throat. She pounded her chest as she ran into the house to get a drink of water.

After gulping down a cup of water, Yan Mu felt a little calmer.

She covered her face with the cup while secretly looking at Yu Yuan’s expression. She saw him look calm, though slightly worried, but he didn’t seem to know anything.

She breathed a sigh of relief and slowly put down her cup.

“It doesn’t hurt that much anymore after a good night’s sleep,” Yan Mu said.

As she spoke, worried that Yu Yuan would continue asking, she hurriedly took a wheat-flour steamed bun and stuffed it into his mouth. 

“Hurry up and eat, the food is getting cold,” Yan Mu said.

Ever since Yan Mu was able to sell manuscripts for money, things had gotten much better at home.

In the past, a meal of vegetable millet dumplings and eggs was already excellent, but now, rice, steamed buns, and eggs were already the new standard. Yan Mu was afraid that Yu Yuan would be malnourished during puberty, so they would eat meat every three days.

Yu Yuan silently took a bite of the wheat-flour steamed bun while staring at Yan Mu, seemingly thinking of something. Under the weird atmosphere, the two of them finished their breakfast and set off for school.

When they reached the school, everyone had heard about what happened to Zhang Goudan yesterday, so when they saw Yu Yuan enter the classroom, under a tacit understanding, no one spoke. They lowered their heads and kept to themselves while secretly glancing at him.

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Yu Yuan was long used to everyone’s strange gazes, so he minded his own business and sat down to do his own thing.

At first, Yan Mu managed to restrain herself, but after the fourth time she caught someone’s probing gaze, she couldn’t hold back anymore.

“What are you looking at!” The girl looked serious and tried her best to show her fiercest expression.

Her face was slightly pink and her fierce expression was like a young goose flapping its wings to chase people away. Not only was it not very intimidating, but it was also quite comical. The corners of the mouths of the people who were sneaking glances twitched, and they stifled their laughter and turned their heads away.

……

Yan Mu felt even angrier.

She gloomily covered her head with a book, trying to block off those probing eyes.

“Yan Mu.” Noticing that Yan Mu was unhappy, Yu Yuan was stunned for a while, then took out a small oil-paper packet.

“Snowflake crisps3!” Yan Mu exclaimed in surprise, “You haven’t finished eating them yet?”

“Yep,” Yu Yuan nodded his head, his expression softening a little. “Eating something sweet will make you feel better.” Yan Mu had bought them during the Dragon Boat Festival, and he’d been keeping them as he couldn’t bear to eat them.

Yan Mu picked one up and under everyone’s envious gaze, she stuffed it into her mouth. The sweet taste spread out inside her mouth. She squinted her eyes and sure enough, she felt her mood improve.

She picked up her writing brush and was just about to write the outline for her next book when she heard a commotion outside. She had just turned to look when she saw the classroom door being kicked open.

“Yu Yuan, Yu Yuan, where are you, hahaha……” Only then she saw Zhang Goudan holding a wooden stick in his hand, his expression was sinister while he laughed, looking extremely terrifying. Yan Mu subconsciously shrank to Yu Yuan’s side.

Zhang Goudan was followed behind by the village doctor and a few other villagers. Their bodies all had wounds of various degrees, seemingly caused by Zhang Goudan.

“Hey, please help me tie him up.” The village doctor was holding a rope in his hand, out of breath4 from running, “Zhang Goudan has gone crazy.”

Zhang Goudan was already born strong, so now that he went crazy, he looked even more like a calf on ae rampage5. The students looked at each other. No one dared to speak or step forward.

“Yu Yuan, do you want to stay out of this?” Yan Mu whispered into Yu Yuan’s ear.

“No need,” Yu Yuan frowned and motioned for Yan Mu to crouch under the table and hide. 

Then, under everyone’s stunned gaze, he stood up and walked over to Zhang Goudan.

“Why are you looking for me?” Yu Yuan’s expression was cold, his gaze mocking.

Zhang Goudan’s body trembled upon seeing Yu Yuan, but he quickly straightened his back.

“It’s all your fault……” he muttered to himself.

“I think you’re not very clear-headed,” Yu Yuan coldly laughed.

He used his eyes to signal to the village doctor and the others to go behind Zhang Goudan while he continued to attract his attention.

“It’s all you…… It’s all you……” As if Zhang Goudan couldn’t hear Yu Yuan’s words, he continued to say, “Yu Yuan, don’t think I’ll let you off easy.”

“It looks like you weren’t beaten hard enough yesterday, you still have the strength to say crazy things,” Yu Yuan sneered.

Zhang Goudan instinctively remembered yesterday’s events, and his body couldn’t stop trembling. So he shifted his target.

“Yan Mu……where’s Yan Mu?” His eyes were bloodshot as he searched among the crowd of students for his target.

“……There are only male students here, there’s no Yan Mu,” Yu Yuan’s expression froze and a killing intent appeared in his eyes.

He would never allow Zhang Goudan to get his hands on Yan Mu! He quietly picked up the inkstone on Zhou Er Pang’s table and looked at Zhang Goudan like he was looking at a dead man.