Sheng Yuan remembered that on the day he met Mu Xiaoduo, Yunchuan was experiencing its first spring rain of the year.
Raindrops fell, peppering a ground full of peach blossoms, while the oblique wind swept up the petals, causing them to drift leisurely into the distance before falling right into the center of the Green Lake at Yunchuan University.
He walked past the perimeter of the lake, wrapping his scarf tighter around himself. The cold wind made his cheeks flush with a rosy tint, and a frost-like chill seemed to hang upon the tip of his nose.
With the weekend about to arrive, the teaching district was much emptier than usual.
The MBA forum for the School of Economics and Management had just concluded, and Lu Tingxi was the last one to walk out of the Pioneer Park, the whites of her eyes slightly reddish from eye strain.
Suddenly, her gaze fixed, capturing a familiar figure among the sparse pedestrians.
The cold wind billowed against a single layer of clothing, outlining the boy’s slender and thin silhouette.
Like a fresh and upright piece of emerald bamboo, thin and fragile, Lu Tingxi was afraid a gust of wind might uproot him entirely.
She stood on tiptoe, waving at him from afar.
“Sheng Yuan! Sheng Yuan!!”
“Little Moon Crescent!”
As if completely unaware, Sheng Yuan gently twirled his umbrella in a circle, water droplets flying outward in a ring, looking as though he were in quite a good mood.
Lu Tingxi chased after him, wind at the heels of her shoes, trailing a path of floral fragrance.
She walked alongside Sheng Yuan for a short distance, her small leather shoes stepping into puddles with a pattering sound, yet that person only focused on walking forward, completely unaware that someone was behind him.
Left with no choice, Lu Tingxi lightly tapped his shoulder: “Little Crescent?”
Sheng Yuan was startled abruptly, freezing in place instantly, his eyelashes trembling like a little bird fluttering its feathers.
Only when he turned his head and saw the person coming did he reveal a trace of a smile.
Lu Tingxi slipped under Sheng Yuan’s umbrella, her fingertips lightly tapping his ear as she used sign language: “Is your hearing aid out of battery?”
Sheng Yuan looked slightly surprised, raising a hand to press the buttons on his hearing aid a few times, but there was no response.
“……It’s out of battery,” he said with an embarrassed expression.
Lu Tingxi sighed: “If your ears can’t hear, walking on the road is very dangerous. What if a car darts out and hits you?”
Her ten fingers moved swiftly, changing shapes like casting a dazzling spell: “Did you bring a spare battery with you?”
Sheng Yuan shook his head sheepishly: “……I forgot.”
Helpless, Lu Tingxi fished out two button batteries from the small compartment of her shoulder bag: “Here, for you.”
“Good thing I always keep them ready. If you dare forget next time, I’m never bringing them for you again,” Lu Tingxi gestured fiercely.
Sheng Yuan smiled ingratiatingly: “You wouldn’t ignore me.”
Lu Tingxi put on a straight face and gave a “hmph,” though looking at this pretty face, she couldn’t stay angry either.
Afraid of the cold, Sheng Yuan wore a camel-colored long trench coat paired with a thick, soft dark blue scarf, which further set off his complexion, making it whiter than snow.
A pair of peach-blossom eyes were bright and lively, his amber pupils light and pale, and his long eyelashes, like the feathers of a grey sparrow, extended smoothly forward.
On the outer veranda of the coffee shop, there was a rain-sheltered shed.
Sheng Yuan brushed away the fallen petals from a wooden bench and sat down on one side.
He removed his hearing aid, popped out the dead battery, and tucked it into his pocket.
Then, he pressed the new batteries in one by one. After the indicator light flashed twice, it went dark.
Lu Tingxi crossed her arms, watching him put the hearing aid back on, her voice dropping a fraction: “Can you hear me speak?”
“I can,” a smile bloomed at the corners of Sheng Yuan’s mouth. “Thank you.”
Lu Tingxi gazed at him in silence, always feeling a sour, astringent sensation in her chest that felt entirely unpleasant.
Sheng Yuan was her childhood friend; from the day she met him, he had been deaf.
To be precise, his left ear was deaf, and his right ear was hard of hearing. Through surgery, a cochlear implant was inserted, which, combined with a hearing aid, allowed him to barely get by.
“Seeing you’re in such a good mood, care to share any good news with me?” Lu Tingxi asked.
Resting his chin on his hand and gazing at the puddles on the road, Sheng Yuan said in a relaxed tone: “My boss said that The Dynasties was recently adapted into a radio drama, and he helped me secure an audition opportunity for a role.”
“A major IP! Is it the leading role?”
“A nobody like me has no qualifications to voice a leading role,” Sheng Yuan smiled and shook his head. “A supporting role, probably …… the third male lead.”
“That’s still pretty good. Our Little Crescent is really capable, able to participate in such a major production after only being in the voice-acting circle for a year.”
Lu Tingxi dangled her small leather shoes, rocking them back and forth as she secretly plotted in her mind: “Get me a few autographed copies later. Once you become a dubbing god, I’ll flip them around for a big profit.”
“No wonder you’re an outstanding student representative from the School of Economics and Management.”
Lu Tingxi laughed until she was leaning back and forth, her dense, voluminous waves swaying in the wind and blocking Sheng Yuan’s line of sight, meaning naturally no one noticed the car driving down the main thoroughfare.
It was a high-profile Maybach, entirely pitch-black, with raindrops flowing slowly along the body of the car.
The driver drove with unhurried poise, gliding smoothly toward the coffee shop and coming to a precise stop right in front of the two of them.
The car window rolled down, and the driver turned his face slightly sideways.
The man’s facial features were refined and handsome, the evening glow sliding down the bridge of his high nose, following his neck all the way down into the collar of his shirt.
He wore a high-end, luxurious tailored suit, the top two buttons lazily undone, giving off a moderate, unexcessive air of dissipation and allure.
Sheng Yuan’s expression faded abruptly.
Lu Tingxi waved at him openly and generously: “Older Brother Mu Xun, long time no see!”
“Long time no see.”
“I heard several newly signed artists from your company are currently super popular, with press releases flying everywhere. How is it you had time to come over today?”
Mu Xun raised an eyebrow, casting an imperceptible glance at Sheng Yuan: “To pick up the person next to you.”
Lu Tingxi curved the corners of her lips, taking a roundabout “Oh～”: “Are you two going out to live in your own two-person world?”
Mu Xun smiled without a word, his gaze falling lightly upon the face of the person who refused to speak.
With eyelashes lowered, looking blankly down at the tips of his own shoes, he practically looked as though he could stare a flower out of them.
Long, articulate fingers tapped lightly against the steering wheel, the ring at the base of his finger reflecting fragmented points of light.
His voice was frivolous, carrying a trace of mockery: “That gentleman over there, do you not recognize me?”
Sheng Yuan’s voice was very soft, resembling the rustling of leaves overhead: “What did you come here for?”
“Naturally, to pick up my fiancée after class,” Mu Xun found it amusing. “What else, revisiting old places? This isn’t my alma mater.”
Lu Tingxi poked him twice, urging him: “Go on, if you delay any longer, it’ll be dark.”
Seeing him not moving, Mu Xun said again: “You can’t just park wherever you want on the main road. Do you want to wait for the security guards to come and chase me away?”
Sheng Yuan certainly didn’t believe those words.
Falling silent for two seconds, he bid farewell to Lu Tingxi and stood up to pull open the back passenger door.
With a soft “click,” the car door locked itself first.
Mu Xun looked at him through the rearview mirror: “Really taking me for your driver?”
With no other choice, Sheng Yuan had to walk around to the passenger side, open the door, and get in, fastening his seatbelt without a word.
Mu Xun started the car and left Yunchuan University.
The Maybach drove smoothly onto the cross-river bridge, the shimmering water light beneath the bridge resembling shattered gold.
Soothing light music played inside the car, but the atmosphere could hardly be called harmonious.
Sheng Yuan kept his head turned toward the window, staring at the mottled raindrops on the glass pane, unwilling to spare even half a glance for the person beside him.
“Throwing a face the moment we meet, did I piss you off again?!” Mu Xun asked. “Ever since our engagement, you either hang up on me or block me. What on earth are you throwing a tantrum about with me?”
When he waited in vain for an answer, Mu Xun cast a sidelong glance, a light, breezy look that almost made him laugh out loud in exasperation.
This little deaf person had actually taken off his hearing aid of his own accord.
Sheng Yuan’s expression was as detached as snow, wordlessly rejecting people from a thousand miles away.
“You really know how to piss someone off.”
Mu Xun reached out and snatched the hearing aid, pressing it unceremoniously right back onto the little deaf person’s ear.
“Hiss”
Sheng Yuan shrank his shoulders in pain, his pretty brows furrowing together.
Mu Xun didn’t know his own strength, rubbing the pale white skin behind his ear until it turned crimson.
“Listen properly to what I have to say,” he said impatiently, his voice sounding like a warning.
Sheng Yuan didn’t dare to make a sound, pressing his lips into a straight line, nervously picking at his fingers.
He was very sensitive to sound, always feeling that a loud voice meant someone was angry, and he was deeply afraid of others getting angry.
A brief silence fell inside the car.
Mu Xun’s profile was cold and hard, his gaze landing intermittently on Sheng Yuan’s face.
Those long eyelashes covered Sheng Yuan’s eyes, causing Mu Xun’s attention to concentrate on his upturned nose and rosy lips, his fair skin draped in a thin layer of sunset glow, resembling a delicate oil painting.
He suddenly felt his mouth go dry.
“Uncap a bottle of water, I don’t have a hand free while driving.”
Reluctantly, Sheng Yuan unscrewed the cap and, afraid the water would spill, protected it with his hand: “You use your other hand to take it.”
Mu Xun not only refused, but deliberately drank straight from his hand.
The knuckles holding the bottle tightened instantly, his nails turning white from exertion.
That hand was fair and slender, yet the base of his fingers was bare.
Mu Xun’s thumb brushed across a bead of water on his lips: “Why aren’t you wearing the ring I bought for you?”
“……Don’t want to wear it.”
“Such a little heartbreaker,” a chuckle escaped Mu Xun’s nose. “I’ve been wearing mine honestly all along, haven’t taken it off since the engagement. Look.”
Mu Xun flashed the ring on his ring finger, the platinum setting embedded with a circle of bright, tiny diamonds that refracted countless points of light like ice crystals.
Sheng Yuan averted his eyes silently.
“……Tsk,” a nameless fire surged within Mu Xun’s heart.
As the esteemed eldest young master of the Mu family, who didn’t bow and wag their tail when they saw him?
He had lowered his status to coax the little deaf person all the way, yet he was met with a cold reception and ungratefulness.
“Are you really that reluctant to marry me!?”
“I’m the one who should be asking you …… why of all people is it me?” Sheng Yuan’s voice carried a trace of a tremble. “……You clearly know I don’t like you.”
Sheng Yuan hadn’t expected that words he spoke with the expenditure of all his courage would actually cause Mu Xun to laugh out loud.
He heard Mu Xun say with immense amusement: “You wouldn’t happen to think I’m marrying you because I like you, would you?”
Sheng Yuan looked dazed, his body feeling as though an invisible crack had been shaken open by the laughter, the pouring wind blowing away his composure.
The Mu family held immense power and no longer needed to expand capital through an interfamily political marriage; his parents were very open-minded, allowing him to freely choose a spouse from the remaining families.
Mu Xun had explicitly chosen Sheng Yuan, the illegitimate son of the old master of the Sheng family a deaf person whose background could not be brought into polite society.
Why of all people was it Sheng Yuan?
Weak, obedient, easy to manipulate, and moreover, an unliked deaf person.
Mu Xun was naturally dissolute, like a gust of wind that no one could rein in.
He knew what his parents were thinking they wanted to use marriage as a restraint to make him settle down and become family-oriented.
Therefore, he had to pick the softest persimmon.
The primary choice was bound to be Sheng Yuan.
Although this meant Sheng Yuan would never be able to be with the person he liked, Mu Xun did it anyway.
Of course he knew this was malicious.
But …… who would care?
To the Sheng family, Sheng Yuan was an indelible stain. They couldn’t wait to chase the deaf person away as quickly as possible, the farther away the better, ideally never to be seen again for a lifetime.
The Mu family members were proud and haughty, naturally looking down on Sheng Yuan, whose social standing didn’t match theirs, and they couldn’t even be bothered to spare him a straight glance.
No one would care about a deaf person.
The coldness seeping from his chest thoroughly soaked through Sheng Yuan, and he turned his face away, remaining silent all the way.
Mu Xun took him to attend tonight’s charity banquet, located at the Zige Wei Manor in Yunchuan.
A white castle lay nestled against the mountainside, looking from afar as solemn as a church situated in the mountains.
This banquet was packed with nobility, and upper-class elites commonly used the pretext of charity to expand their networking circles.
The castle was brightly lit, doors wide open, luxury cars everywhere.
Mu Xun parked the car in front of the door without rushing to get out.
A moment later, the manor steward, dressed in a well-pressed suit, trotted out to welcome them, pulling open the driver’s side door and bowing with graceful etiquette: “Young Master Mu, you’ve kept us waiting.”
The steward glanced toward the passenger seat, a flash of surprise crossing his eyes before he spoke calmly again: “You may bring your partner inside first, I’ll have the driver park the car for you.”
Due to his sordid background, Sheng Yuan had always been kept well hidden by his family.
Others only knew the Sheng family had a mysterious “Second Young Master,” yet had never seen him attend any public occasions.
Mu Xun had required him to change into a high-end designer piece of the same brand, the upper body featuring a silk mandarin-collar shirt with delicate lace embedded along the collar and cuffs, studded with tiny diamonds.
His slender waist could be spanned by a single grasp, gracefully tapering into long trousers, and his face was exquisite and pretty, resembling a slowly unrolled portrait of a beauty.
The clothes were very thin, and when the cold wind blew, his body trembled slightly in the fine rain.
Mu Xun held an umbrella as he walked toward Sheng Yuan, sizing up his fiancée with considerable satisfaction: “Very pretty, matches me.”
He bent down to take Sheng Yuan’s hand, placing it onto his own forearm before covering it with his palm, his body temperature transmitting to the other person through their touching skin.
His protruding knuckles curled within the palm of Mu Xun’s hand, feeling somewhat abrasive.
Sheng Yuan frowned, instinctively wanting to pull his hand back, but was locked firmly in place by the other party.
“I don’t want to……”
“Sheng Yuan, don’t be ungrateful.” Mu Xun’s voice was very low, mostly drowned out by the sound of the rain.
Sheng Yuan’s body stiffened, his dark eyelashes trembling, water pooling in his eyes: “……Who on earth are you putting on a show for?”
Mu Xun didn’t answer, driven by some impulse to stroke his cheek, the tactile sensation slightly cool, like cold jade soaked in water.
He curled his index finger to lift the other’s chin, pressing down on his tightly bitten lips: “Let go.”
A trace of a bloodstain on his lower lip added a touch of vibrant color to the delicate whiteness.
“I need an obedient and sensible wife, and you are my most ideal candidate.”
Mu Xun’s tone was as gentle as moonlight, yet his eyes were icy and chillingly damp: “My patience is limited, don’t always make me angry.”