Her skill at arranging flowers seemed quite remarkable. Ordinary wildflowers, pale and understated in color, took on a noble air in her hands.
Lu Yunyang lifted his gaze and looked at her faintly. “Do you often give peach hearts and flowers to others?”
Although the tone was clearly questioning, Yutao heard it as a confirmation. Her heart trembled, and she immediately explained, “I’ve never given peach hearts or flowers to anyone before. Doctor Lu, you’re the first.”
“Besides, how could you be anyone else?” she added with a bright smile. “We were once betrothed, you saved my life, treated me, and today you even helped me find a beehive. How could I call you ‘someone else’?”
The girl’s eyes were so raw and open that they were impossible to ignore. Yet in Lu Yunyang’s perception, she was not someone naturally friendly toward him.
His gaze, tinged with scrutiny, swept across her face. “I’m the first?”
Afraid he might not see clearly, Yutao nodded seriously, her moist eyes fixed on him. “Of course. Don’t you believe me?”
She had been pretty since childhood, somewhat proud, and in Honghe Village, she had looked down on nearly every boy her age. Even though she had clearly liked Xu Wencai, she had never lowered herself to express it.
Lu Yunyang lowered his eyes to glance at the flower in her hands. His voice was cold. “Don’t casually give flowers to men from now on.”
Then he turned and walked past her.
A surge of frustration rose in Yutao. She had gone through so much effort to pick and arrange the flowers, only for him to dismiss them with a single sentence?
She drew in a breath, turned to glare at the back of the man’s head, and shouted, “Forget it! These wildflowers were just picked with great effort while I was dragging my painful, almost incapacitated leg, almost fell, and accidentally pricked my finger anyway!!!”
“If the person you give them to doesn’t like them, there’s no point keeping them. These wildflowers should go back to where they came from…”
A soft voice lingered in the forest, tinged with grievance. The man turned to see the girl’s small, delicate face, her eyes shimmering with hurt.
“It’s fine, you go ahead. I’ll throw them away and catch up…” The flowers in her hands swayed as if ready to be tossed at any moment.
Lu Yunyang: …
“You worked so hard to pick them. Why would you throw them away?”
The girl pouted, her voice casual. “If the person I want to give them to won’t accept them, why should I keep them?”
Seeing her about to fling the flowers, Lu Yunyang took a step, reached out, and seized them. “Keep them.”
In an instant, her hands were empty; the flowers were now in his hands. Yutao’s lips lifted in a barely perceptible smile.
Lu Yunyang held the flowers, his expression stiff, feeling that his action had been somewhat inexplicably awkward.
He lowered his long lashes to hide the faint embarrassment in his eyes. His voice was deep. “Hold onto your things. We’re descending the mountain now.”
Yutao uttered a small “Ah,” puzzled by his sudden decision. “Why go down now? It’s still early.”
“Not early.” Lu Yunyang glanced at his watch. “It’s two o’clock. It will still take time to get back.”
In the secluded mountains, with just the two of them, the scenery was beautiful and the solitude enchanting. Yutao didn’t want to descend so soon.
“Aren’t you still looking for your herbs?” she tilted her head at him. “Your basket is still empty.”
“We haven’t found any herbs along the way. There probably aren’t any here.” Lu Yunyang’s expression was indifferent; he wasn’t concerned about not finding them.
Yutao smiled. “Then I’ll keep looking with you. It’s still early. We shouldn’t give up so quickly, right?”
“You still want to climb with your leg like this?” He glanced at her injured foot, squinting. “Don’t you care about it?”
His cold tone carried concern. Yutao paused, then lifted a smile at the corner of her lips. “Then you didn’t gain anything today, did you?”
She suddenly remembered something, correcting herself shyly. “No, wait—the wasp nest just now, you picked it. You can take the honey, but the hive belongs to me.”
“It’s all yours now.” The flowers in his hands had nowhere to go. “I kept your flowers.”
He held the bouquet tightly, his expression stiff, as if intimidated by them. Yutao chuckled softly. “Doctor Lu, you really look like a groom holding flowers.”
At her words, Lu Yunyang’s expression blanked for a moment, then his face flushed fiercely, like it had caught fire.
In his twenty-some years, no girl had ever spoken so openly to him.
The sensation felt like being teased.
“Let’s go.” His throat was dry, his voice stiff and unclear. He quickly changed the topic. “You’re walking too slowly. By the time we get home, it’ll be dark.”
He turned and walked ahead, his steps slightly uneven.
“Wait for me!” Yutao quickly followed, noticing how tall he seemed, wondering how the Lu Family had fed him to grow so high.
The man slowed his pace, and Yutao caught up, her eyes tracing his long legs, broad shoulders, narrow waist, and muscular arms. If he had been in her previous life, countless admirers would have envied him.
Her heart stirred, and she couldn’t help but act coquettishly.
“Doctor Lu, what do you usually like to eat?”
“Why are your legs so long?”
“What color do you like?”
“What kind of girl do you like?”
Her questions fired off like a machine gun. He only answered the last one. “I like quiet girls.”
Yutao: …
She deliberately rolled her eyes at him.
They descended the mountain, the girl small, the man like a shadow behind her.
The descent was uneventful, slow but safe, and by five o’clock, they reached the foot of the mountain.
Unexpectedly, Yutao hadn’t yet said goodbye when she encountered her future mother-in-law.
Lu’s mother, Song Meihua, saw them together and felt a surge of irritation rise from within.
Lu Yunyang returned the girl’s bag and instructed, “Your foot isn’t badly injured, but apply cold water when you get home. Try not to move around and rest at home.”
Song Meihua’s expression darkened. She had many opinions about Yutao. Yutao decided to head home and give them space.
After Yutao left, Song Meihua finally vented her frustration. She looked at Lu Yunyang, frowning. “Why did you come down the mountain with her?”
“We met on the mountain.” Lu Yunyang’s face remained calm, revealing nothing.
Song Meihua didn’t believe him. “Lu Yunyang, don’t lie. You said yesterday you’d visit classmates. Which classmate lives on a mountain?”
Lu Yunyang frowned slightly. Without hesitation, he lied, walking while speaking. “I returned there long ago.”
Song Meihua had watched the two descend the mountain, seeming unusually at ease, even chatting more comfortably than before. She felt uneasy.
Although a month had passed, the village gossip had not stopped.
She followed him. “At times like this, you should know what to do. Don’t let everyone laugh at the Lu Family!”
Lu Yunyang turned to her, gaze deep. “Let them say what they want. Why should we live according to their opinions?”
“That’s easy for you to say.” Song Meihua’s voice trembled with anger. “I won’t mention others, but what if one day Su Yutao tries to harm herself because of you?”
Lu Yunyang paused, brow furrowed slightly. “She won’t. We’re not betrothed, so what’s there to worry about?”
“You still walked with her.” Song Meihua said, “If you’re not betrothed, don’t get so close. If rumors spread or something happens, it’s our responsibility.”
Lu Yunyang pondered briefly, murmuring almost inaudibly.
Back at home, he naturally took the bone-setting liquid from his medicine cabinet, intending to give it to her, but paused.
After thinking, he went to the door and called to Lu Yunzhao in the courtyard. “Come here. I need to tell you something.”
Lu Yunzhao set down his work and entered the room.
Lu Yunyang handed over the bottle. “Give this to Su Yutao.”
“What did you say?” Lu Yunzhao’s ears barely believed him. “Give it to whom?”
“Su Yutao.”
Hearing her name, Lu Yunzhao felt uneasy. “Why give it to her? If she needs it, why doesn’t she come herself?”
Song Meihua’s words echoed in Lu Yunyang’s mind. He didn’t want unnecessary conflict. “She asked me before and I kept forgetting to give it.”
Lu Yunzhao, still unhappy about Su Yutao, grumbled. “Then wait until next time she comes to you.”
He glanced at the bouquet in the basket and his eyes lit up. He bent down. “I can deliver it too, and this bouquet is for me!”
“No.” Lu Yunyang took the flowers back without hesitation. “Do you want to earn the delivery fee or not?”
Lu Yunzhao froze at the sudden opportunity. She looked at the bouquet, thinking the arrangement was nice, but these wildflowers were abundant and not worth a single yuan.
Her eyes questioned him, as if wanting to ask more. Lu Yunyang said coldly, “Don’t overthink. I’ll keep these flowers for medicinal research.”
Lu Yunzhao had lived in Honghe Village for nearly seventeen years. She could detect the scent of any plant burned to ash. She’d never heard of these flowers being medicinal.
Besides, he’d been a doctor for five or six years. How could these wildflowers have any medicinal value worth studying? And why arrange them so beautifully?
At her age, a young girl’s imagination easily wandered, and her mind inevitably leapt to more suggestive thoughts.
Lu Yunzhao thought the flowers Lu Yunyang paid a yuan for had to be special, probably from his future sister-in-law.
Her craftsmanship was exquisite.
If revealed, it would shut up the village gossipers forever.
Lu Yunzhao laughed, took the bone-setting liquid, and thought, “A yuan is a yuan. I don’t need your flowers.”
When she reached the Su Family, she found Su Yutao in the kitchen cooking the beehive.
Lu Yunzhao was speechless. She remembered the Su Family wasn’t poor.
Yutao’s feet still ached, and she wasn’t in the mood to entertain her. She asked after a long pause, “Why are you here?”
Lu Yunzhao handed over the bone-setting liquid. “My brother gave this to you.”
The small bottle was filled with brown liquid, labeled neatly “bone-setting liquid.” Yutao immediately understood.
He had been thinking of her injury!
Her eyes glimmered as she accepted the medicine, lips curved into a smile. “Doctor Lu is so kind.”
Lu Yunzhao saw her smile and praise her brother. She suddenly felt cautious. “Even if my brother is good, he belongs to someone else. Don’t get any ideas.”
Yutao sensed a hint of danger. “Impossible. When has your brother belonged to someone else?”
Lu Yunyang shouldn’t have a romantic interest. In the book, when they were betrothed, nothing like that was mentioned.
Lu Yunzhao was taken aback by her sudden expression but continued confidently. “How is it impossible? You already gave flowers. What’s impossible about that?”
Yutao nodded. “What flowers?”
The ones she gave today?
“Just flowers.” Lu Yunzhao left it at that. “Anyway, we’re no longer betrothed. Don’t visit my house unnecessarily to avoid misunderstandings, got it?”
Her words were clear. Yutao, even if slow, could guess she meant the bouquet she had arranged.
Whatever had just happened, it seemed a misunderstanding.
She smiled at Lu Yunzhao. “To be worthy of Doctor Lu, that ‘other girl’ you mentioned must be kind-hearted and beautiful.”
Yutao: I am serious about my self-praise!