Chapter 91 (2/2)

“Will you forget about me?” Lin Wenxi asked. He didn’t think Zhao Yuan would be able to find a way to do so.

Zhao Yuan stood up and wrapped Lin Wenxi’s fist with his hand. He held tight onto his hand and said earnestly, “I promise you that I’ll be the last to ever forget about you! My good… good younger brother…”

Lin Wenxi’s lips trembled and he pulled his hand out of Zhao Yuan’s grip. Suddenly, he pointed to Zhao Yuan and laughed. “Why does this feel like a scene out of a TV show, where the guy would always treat the girl who had a crush on him like a sister?”

Zhao Yuan had more to say but he considered himself a scorpion right now, a scorpion that was pointing its stinger to painfully jab Lin Wenxi’s chest. Before the stinger could come into contact with Lin Wenxi’s beating heart, he chose to restrain himself.

Zhao Yuan had gradually calmed down as the day came to an end. He lost his previous panic and the urge to flee with Lin Wenxi. He knew that abnormal feelings had taken root between him and Lin Wenxi a long time ago. Yet, he also knew that once he pokes into certain issues, things would develop in an unimaginable direction. Perhaps, things would combust until all that was left were ashes. He understood that what would remain was waiting as well as time. If he didn’t want Wenxi and himself to be repeatedly tormented by various issues, he should let everything end now.

He smiled and said, “Look. I didn’t treat you like a sister, did I?” Then, he leisurely hummed, “Sister Lin falls from the sky…” Lin Wenxi smiled but didn’t reply. He picked up a wilted branch and tugged it across the ground. He was neither writing nor drawing—but it was as if he was scribbling someone’s name.

The tiled house built with mud-bricks was warm in the winter and cool in the summer. The window covered with a decorative film allowed light to pour freely into the house. Paper cuttings of the words “Safe and sound”, characteristic to the country folk, were pasted on both sides of the window. They seemed vivid and lifelike.

The underground heating tunnel was covered with dry straw that was harvested last year. In the lower temperatures of the night, the faint fragrance of grass coupled with the smell of earth was both nostalgic and warm. Atop the dry straw was a thin, pleasantly soft cotton-padded mattress that the country folk made themselves as well as a newly-woven mat of reed and bamboo that emanated a faint reed fragrance. Under the heated brick bed was the water storage system. It would turn cold once nighttime arrived. When night fell, the source of light would be a yellowed light bulb covered with a bright red casing fashioned out of paste, the only one in the house. The entire house was quiet and tranquil. Coupled with the steam rising from the underground heating tunnel, they felt like they were on a bamboo raft flowing down a calm and large river. At this point, the skylight on the red-tiled roof with a decorative film fixed on the glass was being moved. The moonlight poured into the house little by little through the skylight, gently and thoroughly encompassing the heatable brick bed.

Even deep into the night, the two of them couldn’t find sleep even as they lay on the bed. Lin Wenxi’s shoulder was pressed close to Zhao Yuan’s. His eyes were wide open.

“Are you asleep?” Zhao Yuan asked softly.

“Not yet.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t dare to sleep. I fear that the night would just pass once I wake up.”

Zhao Yuan couldn’t help sighing.

Like him, Lin Wenxi didn’t know how many days they still have. It would barely take any effort for a person of Hong Xuan’s caliber to find someone in this small village. It was only a matter of time.

The two of them locked themselves in a tight embrace as they unknowingly slip into dreamland.