“N-No, it’s not like that…” The youth could not accept this truth, lowering his gaze as he did not know what to think.
He knew that the words spoken by the person in front of him were much closer to reality, yet he refused to accept them. He remembered nothing, and everything around him was completely unfamiliar; only by holding tightly onto the man before him could he find peace of mind.
In his memory, when the man helped wipe his hands, his movements had been exceedingly gentle, making his heart tremble and causing a tingling numbness throughout his entire body every time he recalled it. Even if they were truly just in a simple savior-and-saved relationship, he didn’t care he craved this shred of warmth, and he was going to keep this person by his side…
Having figured this out, he suddenly looked up, a stubborn glint bursting within his eyes, “A life-saving grace should be repaid by offering oneself. Brother, marry me, alright?”
Though phrased as a question, his tone actually brooked no room for rejection.
Xu Wen scratched his head. “Hold on, stop calling me brother, I am not your brother. Oh, and as for marrying or whatever—you’re a man, you should be with a woman, and a life-saving grace isn’t repaid like this. Is this supposed to be revenge or repayment… You’d be better off giving me ten thousand taels of gold as a reward later on. Forget it, this isn’t getting through to anyone right now; it’s getting late, you should go to sleep first.”
Xu Wen made a hasty escape, wanting to flip over onto the other bed, but because the two beds were positioned right next to each other, the youth was sitting with his blanket hugged around him right at the dividing boundary between the two beds.
As Xu Wen rolled over, he brushed past the youth’s shoulder almost directly, his falling strands of hair grazing the youth’s cheek and causing him to freeze up for a moment.
Xu Wen quickly lay down on the bed, turning his back to the youth.
The youth tilted his head, staring at that motionless back. A faint, bitter fragrance of the man seemed to still linger around his nose, and his pitch-black pupils held a desire for possession that could make one’s heart race with apprehension, while he pleasantly narrowed his eyes.
Brother did not deny liking men after all…
He was very happy.
His first proposal having been rejected was well within the youth’s expectations. According to Brother’s logic, they had only just met, and Brother couldn’t possibly grow to like him this quickly.
He just needed to be a bit more clingy and build up his presence in front of Brother.
Then, little by little, he would make Brother’s world consist of only him.
Xiao Yu lay down, content and satisfied as he hugged his blanket. Yet when his spine made contact with the hard wooden board, he frowned slightly; nevertheless, the joy in his heart allowed him to ignore the poor conditions as much as possible, and staring at Xu Wen’s back, he slowly closed his eyes…
What he failed to notice was that the man facing away from him had his Adam’s apple rolling, a thin pair of lips curved upward, and his eyes filled with teasing amusement.
Fair is fair: the male protagonist’s looks were entirely to his taste. The very first moment he saw him down at the bottom of the cliff, Xu Wen had felt that this person ought to be the wife lying beneath him.
Yet his runaway rationality reeled itself back in the moment he learned the other person was the male protagonist.
As the grand male protagonist in a male-centric web novel, how could anyone be willing to willingly submit below another? Xu Wen had no desire to carelessly mess up the plot either, and could only forcibly suppress those little schemes bubbling up inside his heart.
But who could have predicted… that the male protagonist would happen to lose his memory at a time like this?
Mistaking his previous actions, the other had assumed he was someone worthy of trust and had actually taken the initiative to throw himself right into his arms.
Dear Heaven, this was your own precious biological son making the first move of his own accord, so it had nothing to do with him.
From now on, during this period of the male protagonist’s amnesia, he would take, good, care, of him.
Inside a single room, two people together could conjure up sixteen hundred schemes.
At the break of dawn the next day, when the youth woke up, he heard voices conversing outside the door.
“You need to head to town this early, Jiashi. Would you like to eat breakfast before you go? Mother can whip something up really fast.”
“No need, Mother, you rest. I’ll cook it; once it’s done, I’ll head straight to town to collect the reward money. This is the money from selling your handkerchiefs, keep it safe, Mother.”
“Jiashi, you should keep it. When you go to town, you need to have some money on hand. Is it enough? If not, Mother can go back inside the room and get a bit more?”
“It’s enough, it’s enough. I’m just going to town to buy some rice; our household seems to be running low on rice anyway, so we don’t need that much.”
The subsequent voices lowered a bit, making what the youth heard muffled and unclear.
He only gathered that the other party was likely inquiring about his condition.
Recalling how he had been on guard against an unfamiliar environment yesterday and seemed not particularly friendly toward Brother’s family members, he grew worried.
No, he mustn’t let Brother grow to resent him…
Thinking thus, the youth hastily scrambled out of bed. Having long lost track of where his own shoes were, he could only walk out barefoot and push open the half-ajar door.
“Brother, I’m going with you.”
Xu Wen’s gaze dropped to a certain spot. “Why aren’t you wearing shoes?”
Answering his question were a pair of slightly shifting toes.
The youth’s skin was translucent white everywhere, and the clear vein patterns visible across the instep exuded vitality and strength.
The emotions in Xu Wen’s eyes grew heavier, only to vanish the next instant.
He walked past the youth and returned to the room, emerging shortly after carrying a pair of cloth shoes.
Understanding what he meant, the youth’s lips curved in a pleased smile as he reached out to take the shoes.
However, the man in front of him dodged his outstretched hand, and the very next action he took left the youth standing frozen in place.
Xu Wen bent his knees, resting his left knee right against the dust-covered ground, and placed the cloth shoes down. Without looking up, he simply said, “Steady yourself.”
His voice was clear and pleasant to the ear, prompting the youth to instinctively reach out and steady himself against the nearby doorframe.
Xu Wen first lifted his left foot, whose sole had already picked up some dirt, and gently used the corner of his own clothing hem to meticulously wipe it clean before slipping on the cloth shoe. Then he repeated the exact same process with the right foot.
As he lowered his gaze to diligently help him put on his shoes, the meticulous gentleness evoked the exact same emotional waves as when his hands were wiped last time, stirring ripples in the youth’s heart.
Meanwhile, the third person present also sensed the peculiar atmosphere.
“Your name is Xiao Yu, right? Is your head still hurting? I’ve already scolded that scoundrel of a boy about yesterday’s incident; I hope you won’t hold a grudge, Xiao-bao was just being careless.”
Xu Mother stepped in, shattering the bizarre atmosphere between her eldest son and this unfamiliar youth.
Xu Wen stood up with his expression returning to normal, while the youth couldn’t help stealing a furtive glance at him before obediently replying, “Auntie Xu, my head feels much better. I know little brother Xiao-bao didn’t mean it, I haven’t taken it to heart.”
The youth softened his tone, yet it carried a slight stiffness that prompted Xu Wen to cast a sideways glance at him.
That’s right, after all, no matter what circumstance the male protagonist was in, the original book described him as someone possessing a face-slapping, awe-inspiring persona.
Yet Xu Wen happened to relish this sort of quirky pleasure, watching a arrogant, formidable fierce dragon obediently curl its tail and shrink into a cute little snake.
“Xiao-bao is the same age as you, you don’t have to call him little brother.”
Xu Wen said calmly.
Right here, the male protagonist only needed to have a single family member: him.
Actually, counting it up, Xu Xiao-bao was also seventeen years old, though his birthday fell slightly later, and furthermore his mental age didn’t truly exceed five or six years old, so calling him “little brother” wasn’t technically wrong.