Ye Qisheng was still waiting for his response, only to be thoroughly startled by his sudden tears.
She quickly stood up, walked over to crouch down before him, and asked in complete disarray, “Why are you crying? …Did I put too much pressure on you? It’s okay—if you don’t want to, it doesn’t matter! I was just bringing it up offhandedly. If you want to keep living in the cave, just stay in the cave. Just pretend I didn’t say anything at all!”
Raphael shook his head vigorously. His tears splashed onto the ground following his movements, sinking into the parched earth and leaving behind small, brownish spots.
Clutching his continuously heaving chest, he exerted great effort before finally keeping his emotions in check. He said in a trembling voice, “No, I am willing! It’s just that the villagers view me as an ominous person. If you get too close to me, you will inevitably be affected as well… When that time comes, they will view you as an anomaly too…”
By the end of his words, likely embarrassed by crying like this, he lowered his head and turned to the side, not daring to let her look directly at his disheveled state.
Never expecting that his hesitation stemmed from concern for her, Ye Qisheng was stunned. She opened her mouth, but her throat felt choked by something. An indescribable ache surged from the depths of her heart straight to her throat, blocking her from speaking.
In a split second, she felt as though her soul had been seized by something.
His expression of uncontrollable sadness struck straight into the depths of her heart, and the tears falling from his eyes felt as though they were dripping onto her heart as well, striking again and again, almost scalding her.
She had always believed that tears were the most useless thing in the world, and she looked down most on people who cried at the drop of a hat, firmly considering it an incompetent vent for the weak and defeated.
Take her biological mother, for example. Every time she lost a power struggle against the women in her father’s harem, she would return home, throw a massive tantrum, hurl things everywhere, and ultimately end the farce with an unbridled, weeping fit.
Having seen too much of it, she had grown numb, becoming increasingly disgusted whenever people shed tears in front of her—whether sincere or hypocritical, she loathed them all.
However, Raphael was completely different from those people before. She felt no impatience, nor any revulsion.
On the contrary, she felt only heartache and pity.
In him, she saw her childhood self—lonely and helpless.
Although they originally belonged to different worlds, in certain aspects, they were extraordinarily alike.
For instance, both of them were homeless right now.
With a quiet sigh, she subtly adjusted her emotions, reached out, and gently clasped his hand resting on his knee.
Feeling a slight tremor in his hand, Ye Qisheng smiled softly. Looking up at him, she said earnestly, “I don’t care how other people see me. All I know is that when I was so hungry I almost felt dizzy and faint, you were the one who gave me food!
They say you are ominous and bring disaster, but I don’t see it that way at all! To avoid putting Physician Xu in a difficult spot, you took the initiative to move to the mountains to live. That alone proves you are a kind-hearted, good person who proactively considers others!
May I ask: how could a good person genuinely bring disaster to others? Even if misfortune strikes this village someday, that would be brought on by natural or man-made disasters—it certainly wouldn’t be caused by your subjective intentions!”
She deliberately softened her voice to a gentle murmur like a babbling brook, singing softly and pleasantly, causing one to involuntarily let down their guard.
Raphael turned his head slowly, his tear-filled, hazy eyes meeting her gaze with a dazed expression.
Suppressing the urge to help wipe his tears, Ye Qisheng cleared her throat, changing to a cheerful tone to mock herself: “Besides, as you’ve seen, my self-care skills are basically zero! I can’t even slaughter a chicken and only know how to eat ready-made food served to my mouth!
Leaving aside the fact that your bringing disaster is utter nonsense, even if I did care, I would still have to beg you to live with me just to survive! Otherwise, I really can only wait to starve to death!”
Raphael stared at her in dazed astonishment, his eyes flickering back and forth as if waging a struggle within.
Ye Qisheng tightened her grip on his hand slightly, straightened her posture, and pressed on, “Raphael, I really need you! You can find it troublesome and decline my invitation to live together, but please don’t reject me out of fear of causing me trouble! Because to me, aside from the matter of life and death like filling my belly, everything else isn’t worth mentioning!”
Her eyes were exceptionally sincere, her words fast and urgent—she truly didn’t care in the slightest.
Raphael remained dazed, though his tears had stopped at some unknown point. Only after a long time did he murmur in a raspy voice, “Is that true? Do you really… not mind?”
“Not at all!” Ye Qisheng shook her head without a moment’s hesitation. “Those villagers can’t feed me anyway. Whatever they want to think, let them think—I don’t give a damn!”
A glow gradually crept into Raphael’s eyes, but as a thought crossed his mind, he grew flustered again, stammering softly, “But I am a man, and physical propriety dictates that men and women should remain distant. Our cohabiting under one roof goes against both reason and propriety. If the villagers see us, they will still gossip endlessly… Maybe they’ll even grab us to throw into pig cages…”
That was actually true. Ancient times were like this—men and women could only live together after marriage. There was no such thing as a pure, platonic cohabitation or room-sharing between men and women, nor was there any buffer zone for dating and living together before marriage.
Ye Qisheng scratched her hair in frustration, saying in annoyance, “Then what should we do? Don’t tell me we actually have to get married just to live together?”
Raphael blushed slightly. Pressing his lips together, he remained silent for a long moment before replying in a voice barely louder than a mosquito: “It seems that is the only way.”
Ye Qisheng’s sharp ears caught it. Furrowing her brows to ponder for a moment, she suddenly slapped her thigh and bounced up from the ground.
Raphael was startled and asked stammeringly, “W-What’s wrong?”
Ye Qisheng’s eyes crinkled into a smile as she proposed playfully, “How about this: let’s pretend to be husband and wife! That way, they’ll have nothing to say!”
Raphael widened his eyes slightly, hesitating, “But… will that work? They probably won’t believe it, right?”
“As long as we establish a solid backstory and align our stories in advance, it will definitely work,” Ye Qisheng said enthusiastically. “For example, you are my husband who went missing two years ago. Everyone in my family said you were dead, but I refused to believe it. I traveled across mountains and rivers for thousands of miles to search for my husband, and finally, heaven rewarded my efforts—I found you right here! So your memory returned, and we were able to resume our relationship.”
Raphael listened in complete bewilderment. Once he carefully digested her words, he too felt somewhat tempted.
In any case, both of them were outsiders, and none of the villagers knew their true backgrounds. Wasn’t it entirely up to them to fabricate whatever story they liked?
However, if they actually carried out this plan, it would be a bit of a grievance for Ye Qisheng. If they moved to a place where no one knew them in the future, it would be fine; but if she lived in this village forever, she would be tied to an ominous person like him for the rest of her life.