“Dad!” Yan Mu shouted in surprise, “You’re awake?”
“Sss……” Father Yan was still a little confused. He covered his head and said, “I feel really dizzy.”
He paused and asked, “Why are both of you covered in blood?”
Yan Mu then briefly explained the wild wolf incident.
Father Yan’s dizziness completely disappeared from the shock. He looked at the two children worriedly and asked, “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine, I’m fine. I had Yu Yuan to protect me,” Yan Mu smiled and said. “Let me call the village doctor to have a look at you.”
As she spoke, she went out to call for him.
After the village doctor came, he found the spot that was furthest away from Yu Yuan to take Father Yan’s pulse. After a while he said, “You’re fine now. It’s just that your body is a little weak, so you need to eat something healthy for nourishment.”
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Mbl vball sq vblx rynjle wr vblka vbkdtp yde byrrkzu oldv bsxl. Zyd Yw nsdvkdwle vs vlzz Wyvbla Zyd ycswv vbl blacp yde okze oszq kdnkeldv, rwpbkdt yzz vbl nalekv vs Zw Zwyd. Geekvksdyzzu, pbl yzps czlo aykdcso qyavp2G nsxxsdzu-wple rbaypl sd vbl Rdvladlv; vs qzyvvla psxlsdl. ycswv bkx kd qasdv sq Wyvbla Zyd.
Mbl vkrp sq Zw Zwyd’p lyap pzktbvzu aleeldle. Gv qkapv bl oyp yczl vs alxykd pkzldv, cwv yp Zyd Yw czlo xsal yde xsal yde bl nswze ds zsdtla clya kv, ps bl tldvzu rwzzle bla pxyzz byde.&dcpr;
Zyd Yw oyp tlvvkdt lmnkvle yp pbl prsjl. Lsv sdzu eke pbl dsv pvsr yqvla Zw Zwyd rwzzle bla, cwv pbl yzps kdvlavokdle bla qkdtlap okvb bkp.
Zw Zwyd rydknjle yde pwcnsdpnkswpzu zssjle vsoyaep Wyvbla Zyd. Nwnjkzu, bl oyp ekpvaynvle cu Zyd Yw’p lmyttlayvksdp yde eked’v dsvknl vblka pxyzz xshlxldvp.
Xdzu vbld eke Zw Zwyd pktb kd alzklq. Tl blze Zyd Yw’p byde zkjl y vbklq yde bke vblx kdpkel bkp pzllhl.
Tkp pzllhl oyp okel ldswtb vs nshla vblka kdvlavokdle bydep.
Gqvla zkpvldkdt, Wyvbla Zyd oyp pkzldv qsa y obkzl clqsal bl prsjl vs Zw Zwyd, “Zsw’al y tsse nbkze, yp usw jdso, Zyd Yw’p xsvbla ekle y zsdt vkxl yts, yde yp y pkdtzl qyvbla, R’hl bye y byae vkxl aykpkdt bla. Rq psxlvbkdt olal vs byrrld vs bla, vbld vbkp wdnzl oswzed’v cl yczl vs zkhl sd.”
After speaking, Father Yan wiped his tears. He looked at Yu Yuan and sincerely said, “Now, you’ve saved Yan Mu and me……from now on, you’re uncle’s own son.”
Yu Yuan froze, then slowly looked towards Yan Mu.
If Father Yan treats me as his son, then wouldn’t Yan Mu and I be……
Yu Yuan felt his head hurt.
Sure enough, Father Yan started to inquire about Yu Yuan’s Eight Characters3生辰八字 (shēngchénbāzì) – in four pairs, indicating the year, month, day, and hour of a person’s birth, each pair consisting of one Heavenly Stem (天干) and one Earthly Branch (地支), formerly used in fortune-telling.
“I……I don’t know,” Yu Yuan lowered his eyes.
Yu Yuan’s mother was ashamed of his birth, so naturally she wouldn’t have celebrated his birthday, and she had never mentioned his birth date. So Yu Yuan only knew that he was sixteen, but he didn’t know exactly which day he was born.
Father Yan was a little surprised, but when he thought of the environment Yu Yuan was raised in, he couldn’t help but sigh a little and didn’t pursue it any further.
“If so……” Father Yan slapped his head and said, “Yan Mu, from now on, call Yu Yuan your brother!”
“Uhuk……” Yan Mu almost choked.
She was clearly the author! Yu Yuan’s real mother! How did she become his sister?
Yan Mu felt that she was a generation apart from Yu Yuan and subconsciously wanted to retort.
But then she had another thought. Currently, Father Yan still didn’t know about Yu Yuan going to the capital. If he really recognized Yu Yuan as his own son, then in the future, she might be able to go to the capital with him.
Yan Mu felt like her plan was simply brilliant. So she happily raised her head and cheerfully shouted at Yu Yuan, “Brother!”
“……Just call me by my name,” Yu Yuan couldn’t bear it and turned his head away.
“Oh,” Yan Mu looked at him, puzzled.
“It’s alright,” Father Yan happily said to smooth things over. “Yan Mu is used to being alone. It’s just a title anyway, you’ll still be uncle’s son no matter if you’re called brother or not.”
After speaking, Father Yan suddenly remembered Yu Yuan’s unspeakable father. Worried that he would be traumatized by the word ‘father’, he then added, “From now on, just call me uncle. There’s no need to think too deeply.”
Yu Yuan lowered his head and softly replied, “Mmm”.
It was late and the three of them hastily went to bed once they reached home. The next day, remembering the dead wild wolf, the three of them got up early and set out.
But when the three of them arrived at yesterday’s place, they searched all over the field but still couldn’t find the wild wolf’s carcass.
Yan Mu was a little disappointed. Wolf meat was a good tonic to warm one’s body, so she had been planning to nourish Father Yan’s body with it.
Father Yan was a farmer, his knee joints weren’t in good shape and they always hurt when it rained. So she had also wanted to make knee pads for him with the wolf’s skin.
“There’s no trace at all. It doesn’t look like it was taken away by wild beasts,” Yu Yuan said, after he’d searched around and come back. “It looks like it was picked up by humans instead.”
“We got up at dawn, who could’ve been earlier than us?” Yan Mu exclaimed. “Could it be that the wolf was taken last night……” Yan Mu frowned, carefully thinking about it.
Yesterday, only the village doctor and Aunt Zhou knew about the wild wolf incident. The village doctor had had many patients and he was busy the whole night without taking a break, so it couldn’t have been him.
Could it have been Aunt Zhou?
Yan Mu had just looked up when she found that Yu Yuan was also looking at her.
“Yu Yuan,” Yan Mu leaned over and whispered, “Do you also think that it’s Aunt Zhou?”
“Yeah,” Yu Yuan nodded, “Do you want to tell uncle?”
“……Let’s wait a little longer,” Yan Mu said, after hesitating for a while. Aunt Zhou was very attentive to Father Yan, so if he had feelings for her, wouldn’t he be sad if he knew?
Yan Mu sighed and decided not to reveal it for now.
Unable to find the wolf carcass, the three of them weren’t in very high spirits. They had just reached home when they met Zhou Er Pang who was knocking on the door while holding something.
“Yu Yuan!” Zhou Er Pang was very happy to see Yu Yuan, “I heard that you were injured, so I stopped by with a bowl of meat.”
After speaking, he looked at Yan Mu with a few hints of shyness, “Yan Mu, you’re not injured, right?”
Because of Zhou Er Pang’s defense of Yu Yuan last time, Yan Mu felt like he was more pleasing to the eye, so she greeted him with a smile.
“What’s this?” Yan Mu asked curiously.
“Yesterday, my mum said that a wolf was bitten to death, so she asked me to go pick it up with her,” Zhou Er Pang said, scratching his head.
“Pick up?” Yu Yuan sneered, “Aunt Zhou is really good at picking things up.”
“What do you mean?” Zhou Er Pang sensed that something was wrong and was about to ask further when he saw Aunt Zhou catch up to him.
“Aiya, you child, who told you to come over!” Aunt Zhou was so angry that she wanted to pinch Zhou Er Pang, but she didn’t dare to be that bold in front of Father Yan.
“Aunt Zhou, what’s going on here?” As slow as Father Yan was, he’d also noticed that something was wrong.
“Well……” Aunt Zhou stammered for a long time, but still couldn’t say a word.
“Aunt Zhou, you were the one who picked up that large wild wolf we’d killed, right?” Yan Mu asked.
“So what if I picked it up?” Aunt Zhou argued. “I was worried that it would spoil, so I picked it up.”
Aunt Zhou stubbornly refused to admit fault, but the more she tried to be brave, the guiltier she felt. She secretly glanced at Father Yan.
She saw Father Yan faintly sighed before he turned around and said, “Just take it.”
Aunt Zhou was delighted, but then she heard Father Yan continue, “A wolf to repay your fish, we’re even. In the future……you don’t need to send fish over anymore either.”
She was stunned. It wasn’t until Zhou Er Pang tugged at her clothes that Aunt Zhou finally came back to her senses.
“Mum, did you bully Yan Mu?” Zhou Er Pang wasn’t stupid, he understood his mother’s mind.
He also knew that his mother hated Yan Mu. But just like it was going to rain, his mother was determined to remarry4天要下雨，娘要嫁人 (tiān yào xiàyǔ, niáng yào jiàrén) – inevitable; sure to happen; unavoidable, plus he hadn’t interacted much with Yan Mu before, so he felt like it didn’t matter.
But now, he had some confusing feelings towards Yan Mu, so seeing his mother bully her, his heart felt uncomfortable.
“How did I bully her?” Aunt Zhou scolded. “You, however, don’t care for your own mother, but dote on that little vixen instead! You even secretly sent meat to them.”
“Mum! Yan Mu isn’t a vixen!” Zhou Er Pang said discontentedly, “And the wolf we picked up was such a big one, we can’t finish it by ourselves.”
“Go home!”
Aunt Zhou knew that she was in the wrong, so she angrily pinched Zhou Er Pang then turned around and left.
***********
Once Yan Mu got inside, she was so angry that she rolled on her bed.
“How infuriating, infuriating!” Yan Mu buried her head in the quilt while Yu Yuan was standing on the bed, setting up the mosquito net for her.
“Yu Yuan,” Yan Mu rolled again, hugging Yu Yuan’s calf and looking up at him.
“What is it?” Yu Yuan lifted his leg, trying to shake off the ball stuck onto it.
He was afraid of hurting Yan Mu, so after shaking a few times but still unable to shake her off, he just let her be.
“Yu Yuan, we’ll always be together, right?” Yan Mu suddenly asked.
“Why are you asking this all of a sudden?” Yu Yuan’s hands paused and he looked down at Yan Mu.
The girl’s eyes were shining like a little puppy’s as she looked up at him.
“I want you to go to the capital, but I don’t want you to go now.” Yan Mu was distressed. She also couldn’t remember when the male supporting character, the Second Prince, came to Qingshui Village, so she could only hope that he’d come quickly, or else Yu Yuan would be taken away by Teacher.
At her words, Yu Yuan’s face softened a little. After setting up the mosquito net, he sat down next to Yan Mu.
The white mosquito net hung down around the two of them, creating a small isolated space. For a moment, it seemed like there were just the two of them in the world.
“It’s not something urgent,” Yu Yuan held Yan Mu’s hand. “At the very least, I’ll wait until uncle’s health has recovered before I go.”
Moreover, he also couldn’t bear to part with Yan Mu. This thought, the teenager hid on the tip of his tongue and didn’t say aloud.
He covered Yan Mu with her small pink quilt and gently said, “You woke up early today, get some sleep.”
After speaking, he was about to get down from the bed, but Yan Mu pulled him back.
“Don’t go.” Yan Mu was anxiously afraid that Yu Yuan would run away when she wasn’t looking. “Stay with me.”
Yu Yuan was stunned.
“What?” Heart beating like a drum, the tip of the teenager’s ears gradually turned pink, “Say that again.”
“I said, stay with me,” Yan Mu’s gaze was so frank and sincere that for a moment, Yu Yuan thought that he must be overthinking things.
“How should I accompany you?” Yu Yuan’s body was frozen, and even his tongue didn’t feel like his own.
“Just sit on the side.” Yan Mu yawned sleepily, then reached out her hand to pull the hem of Yu Yuan’s clothes.
Yu Yuan let out a long sigh and sat at the edge of the bed as he was told. He reached out his hand and patted Yan Mu’s back, like he was coaxing a baby.
The girl’s lips moved as she mumbled and Yu Yuan turned his head sideways to listen.
“Yu Yuan, don’t go……” The words were mumbled very softly.
The teenager’s eyes darkened and he slowly straightened up.
He picked up a cattail leaf fan5蒲扇 (púshàn) – made from a whole Chinese fan palm leaf
Image of it: 
and fanned Yan Mu. She was sleeping soundly and her small face was pink like a little bun.
Yu Yuan couldn’t hold back and reached out to poke it. Yan Mu grumbled and Yu Yuan was so scared that he immediately withdrew his hand.
He held his finger still and observed Yan Mu for a long time. Seeing that she was really asleep, he sighed in relief.
Yu Yuan gently pulled the hem of his clothes out from the girl’s grip and was about to leave when he heard a knocking on the door from outside the courtyard.
Edited by: Gaze
Thank you for the update 🙂
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