“What do you mean, ‘and then’?!”
Huo Yunshen was like a cat whose tail had just been stepped on. He instantly bristled, and his face darkened completely.
“That’s exactly what I was thinking! I’m not making excuses!”
He felt that if he stayed there any longer, he was going to catch fire under this woman’s gaze.
With that, he abruptly straightened, grabbed the axe from the windowsill, and strode out with his long legs.
No matter how he looked at it, his retreating figure seemed rather flustered.
But when he reached the doorway, he suddenly seemed to remember something. His footsteps stopped, and he abruptly turned around.
He glared fiercely at Lin Peiru, as if he could glare away that infuriating smile on her face.
“And one more thing!”
“From now on, call me Comrade Yunshen!”
Seeing his intimidating yet obviously nervous appearance, Lin Peiru wasn’t frightened at all. Instead, her smile grew even sweeter.
She obediently nodded, her voice soft and sweet enough to melt anyone’s heart.
“Okay, Comrade Yunshen.”
“I’ll call you that from now on. Is that okay, Comrade Yunshen?”
She deliberately called him that again and again. Each time she did, Huo Yunshen’s face grew a shade redder.
“Comrade Yunshen, why is your face red again?”
“Comrade Yunshen?”
“Comrade Yunshen, answer me. Comrade Yunshen?”
“You…”
Huo Yunshen felt as though his tongue had tied itself into knots. How could he possibly be a match for this little city girl?
In the end, he practically ground his teeth as he forced the words out through clenched teeth.
“Don’t call me that for no reason!”
Before his words had even finished, he was already carrying the axe and charging into the courtyard without looking back.
He moved so quickly that he was practically fleeing for his life.
Even in the courtyard, he could clearly hear Lin Peiru’s clear, bell-like laughter coming from the east room.
It was carefree and unrestrained, with an unmistakable hint of smug triumph.
Huo Yunshen was instantly filled with regret.
He stomped his foot hard, feeling unbearably irritated.
How had a grown man like him ended up completely defeated by a little city girl?
Unable to contain his frustration, he turned his head and glanced toward the east room again.
And with that single glance, he froze.
Lin Peiru was standing prettily in the doorway, smiling brightly, her eyes curved into lovely crescents as she watched him flee.
Beneath the eaves in front of the house hung an old kerosene lamp, its dim yellow glow gently enveloping her.
Behind her, the bright moonlight poured through the newly repaired window, outlining her figure with a hazy silver halo.
Amid the interplay of light and shadow, she looked almost like a fairy who had descended from the Moon Palace, untouched by even the slightest trace of worldly dust.
“Thump! Thump! Thump!”
Huo Yunshen’s heart suddenly began pounding violently without warning, as though it were about to burst free from his chest.
An indescribable emotion he had never experienced before suddenly rose from the deepest part of his heart and instantly swept through every inch of his body.
He couldn’t describe what it was.
He only knew that, for the first time, a trace of panic had emerged deep within him.
His chest felt as though something was wrong with his heart.
It was pounding wildly without stopping. It felt a little sour, a little bitter, and… somewhat astringent.
He even wondered whether he had somehow developed the same heart condition as his mother.
But no, that couldn’t be right.
Although his chest felt sour and bitter, there was no pain in that strange sensation.
Instead, intertwined with the sourness and bitterness was a faint… inexplicable sweetness.
It was so sweet that it made his heart feel restless.
He knew his illness wasn’t the same as his mother’s.
His condition seemed more like… his heart had simply stopped obeying him.
Yes!
It had stopped listening to him!
That realization startled him badly. He felt as though some wild beast had locked onto him, making every hair on his body stand on end.
He didn’t dare look at her again.
He abruptly turned around and lifted his foot, intending to rush back to his room in the west wing.
“Thud!”
A dull impact rang out.
He had been walking too quickly and wasn’t watching where he was going. In his panic, he slammed his forehead solidly against the low doorframe.
“Ow!”
Huo Yunshen groaned in pain and instinctively covered his forehead.
“Pfft—”
Behind him, that bell-like laughter finally broke free, as though she could no longer hold it in.
“Gigglegiggle…”
She laughed even more joyfully, her whole body trembling with laughter, completely unrestrained and filled with undisguised teasing and delight.
Huo Yunshen felt his entire face, from his forehead all the way down to his neck, instantly turn into a blazing inferno.
Embarrassing!
This was far too embarrassing!
He no longer had the time to argue with her, nor did he care about the pain in his forehead. Practically stumbling over himself, he rushed into his room.
“Bang!”
He swung the door shut behind him with tremendous force, as though he wanted to completely shut out that detestable woman and her infuriating laughter.
He threw himself heavily onto the bed, making the wooden boards groan under the impact.
He grabbed his stiff pillow and hugged it tightly against his chest. His other hand involuntarily moved to the left side of his chest.
“Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!”
That disobedient little heart was still pounding furiously, each beat striking against his palm until it tingled.
The usually cold, rigid, and solemn young man finally realized, belatedly, on this quiet night—
This strange feeling in his heart, which was sour, bitter, and sweet all at once, seemed to be…
Because he had fallen for that shameless city girl who insisted on staying at their house.
He had fallen for her?
When those two words clearly surfaced in his mind, Huo Yunshen felt as though his breathing stopped for a moment.
Immediately afterward, the “thump, thump, thump” of his heartbeat became even more violent, even more frantic, like the pounding of war drums, making his eardrums buzz.
He… how could he…
How could he possibly have feelings for that woman…
He suddenly sat upright, his mind a complete mess.
He thought of Lin Peiru’s fair, clean face.
He thought of her expressive eyes.
He thought of the two shallow dimples that appeared at the corners of her mouth whenever she smiled.
She could simply stand there without doing anything, and she looked like a little fairy untouched by the mortal world.
But what about him?
Huo Yunshen instinctively looked down at himself.
He was wearing old clothes that had been washed until they were faded white, and there were still spots of mud on his trousers from the work he had done that afternoon.
He was nothing more than a poor, unrefined country boy from an ordinary family, so poor that even the wind could practically whistle through their pockets.
What right did he have?
What could he possibly offer her?
A tremendous, indescribable sense of inferiority washed over him like an icy tide, instantly drowning him completely.
The heart that had been pounding wildly just moments ago because of his sudden realization slowly sank.
It felt sour and bitter.
Not a trace of sweetness remained.