He leaned down, bracing both hands on either side of her chair back and half-enclosing her in the camping chair.
The distance between them was a little too close for comfort.
So close that the ends of his lowered hair nearly brushed her forehead, so close that she could smell the faint, clean scent of grass and trees mingling around the collar of his sweatshirt.
His warm breath brushed lightly against her ear. Ye Yunche took a deep breath and worked up the courage to speak.
Then his phone rang.
This time, it was his own phone.
The caller was still Ye Yunjin.
Ye Yunche pressed a hand to his chest. Could it be that his brother had sensed him because his emotions had been running too high just now?
Damn it!
He decisively declined the call.
But the phone rang again.
Zhu Liuyue, on the other hand, looked perfectly relaxed. Her eyes held the unmistakable delight of someone watching a show, and the corners of her lips curved into a smile that made him want to grind his teeth. As she ate fruit, she gestured at him with her eyes, clearly urging him to answer.
Ye Yunche picked up.
“Hello.” His voice was stiff, and his expression was sour.
Ye Yunjin’s voice was much gentler. “Yunche, when are you coming back? Mom and Dad miss you.”
“Hmph!”
As if they missed me. You just want to get me out of here.
Ye Yunche knew exactly what was going on.
Ye Yunjin knew it too. He chuckled and deliberately twisted the knife. “You haven’t made your sister-in-law angry lately, have you?”
The corners of Ye Yunche’s lips lifted slightly. With a sly grin, he said, “Zhu Liuyue and I haven’t said a single word to each other. We haven’t eaten together, we haven’t taken a walk on the hillside behind the mountain, and we certainly haven’t watched the sunset together…”
Silence came from the other end of the line.
Ye Yunche continued his assault.
“She also hasn’t eaten the chicken leg from my bowl, and I haven’t tasted her saliva.”
A finishing blow!
“…” The call ended.
Ye Yunche lowered the phone from his ear and glanced at the screen, where the call had ended. He could no longer suppress the curve of his lips.
He cast a sidelong glance at Zhu Liuyue, his amber eyes brimming with the smug satisfaction of someone asking, Aren’t I impressive?
His chin was slightly raised, making him look like a large dog that had just won a fight and was waiting to be praised.
Zhu Liuyue stared at him speechlessly.
“Could you be any less clear? You ate the chicken leg after I’d taken a bite out of it. That’s all.”
Ye Yunche gave her a wicked smile. “My brother’s smart. He doesn’t need an explanation. He’ll figure it out.”
Would he really figure it out?
Of course he would. Ye Yunche had said it that way on purpose.
Ye Yunjin would probably toss and turn all night, thinking about that one sentence.
Zhu Liuyue pulled out a tissue and calmly dabbed at the corner of her lips. While the brothers had been trading barbs, she had quietly polished off most of the platter of grilled skewers.
She rose slowly and said brightly, “I’m finished. The barbecue was delicious.”
With that, she turned to leave.
“Hey, wait… Zhu Liuyue, I worked so hard setting all this up, and you’re leaving the moment you’ve finished eating?” Ye Yunche raised his voice slightly, putting on a pained expression.
“Mm. Was there something you wanted to say?” Zhu Liuyue stopped and looked at him.
“I…” Ye Yunche drew a deep breath and was just about to speak when the principal’s voice came from the distance.
“Doctor Zhu, Doctor Zhu, are you here? Two students were fooling around in the dormitory and accidentally bumped into each other…”
“Coming.”
Zhu Liuyue turned her head, glanced at him, and walked away with light, brisk steps.
The setting sun cast a pale pink reflection over her carefree silhouette. Ye Yunche clenched his fists and thumped his thigh, annoyed that someone always managed to interrupt him at the crucial moment.
…
By the time Zhu Liuyue walked out of the infirmary, the sky outside was completely dark.
The two mischievous students had only scraped their foreheads. It hadn’t taken long to apply medicine and bandage them up.
She headed toward the teachers’ dormitory alone.
A white figure suddenly emerged from the shadows of the trees, as though she had been waiting there for some time.
Zhu Liuyue paused.
It was Bai Shurou.
She wore a white knitted cardigan and stood in a patch of shadow untouched by the streetlamp. Her phone was clutched in her hand, its glowing screen illuminating the hesitation on her face.
“Um…” she said, taking the initiative to speak.
“What is it?”
Bai Shurou’s fingers rubbed repeatedly along the edge of her phone. Her gaze drifted toward the dark mountain forest in the distance.
“I just asked some of the other male teachers. They said Ye Yunche still hasn’t come back.”
After saying this, she looked as though she herself couldn’t understand why she had gone out of her way to tell Zhu Liuyue. Her cheeks grew slightly warm, and she turned around, walking away in quick little steps.
Ye Yunche still hadn’t returned?
Zhu Liuyue glanced at the time on her phone. It was already after ten at night.
Was he still sitting on the hill behind the mountain, letting the cold wind blow over him?
At the thought, she turned back.
In the darkness, the mountains seemed even more silent. The star-shaped lights blinked brilliantly.
A lonely figure sat with his back to her in a camping chair, gazing into the distance as though lost in thought.
Zhu Liuyue walked toward him one step at a time and stopped behind him.
“It’s so late, and you’re still not back at the dormitory. Are you sitting here in the cold wind because you think you’re invincible?”
Ye Yunche didn’t turn around.
His voice came from somewhere in front of her, muffled and gloomy.
“I thought you didn’t care about me anymore.”
Zhu Liuyue deliberately said, “That’s right. I couldn’t be bothered to care about you. If you weren’t Yunjin’s younger brother…”
Before she could finish, the figure in the camping chair suddenly sprang to his feet.
The movement was so abrupt that the force of his rising sent the chair sliding half a step backward.
Ye Yunche spun around, rounded the camping table, and crossed the distance between them in a single stride.
The space between them shrank from several steps to less than half an arm’s length.
They were standing very close.
Zhu Liuyue could see the tip of his nose, reddened by the night wind.
He lowered his head to look at her, her reflection visible in his pupils.
“If I weren’t Ye Yunjin’s younger brother…”
“Would you still care about me?”
The two questions came out of nowhere.
Zhu Liuyue lifted her head, her gaze colliding with the stubbornness and hurt in his eyes—two emotions tangled tightly together.
“I thought you’d like everything I prepared today…” His voice dropped even lower, plaintive and pitiful.
He looked like a dog left behind, its tail drooping as it gazed up at you with damp eyes, unable to understand what it had done wrong.
Zhu Liuyue gave him an earnest evaluation.
“The barbecue was delicious. The fruit was delicious. The star-shaped lights were beautiful. I liked all of it.”
A faint light returned to Ye Yunche’s eyes.
He leaned a little closer. A few strands of hair, tousled by the night wind, fell over his forehead and partly obscured his brow.
He pointed at himself.
Then, cautiously, he asked, “What about me?” He raised a hand and tapped his knuckles against his chest. “Do you like me?”
Zhu Liuyue fell silent.
Ye Yunche’s lashes trembled, and the corners of his mouth drooped.
“See? Whenever you get a difficult question, you go quiet again.”
Zhu Liuyue raised her hand.
Her fingers first landed on the few strands of hair the wind had tousled across his forehead and gently smoothed them down. Her fingertips then traced the curve of his cheek to his jaw, where she pinched his face and carefully studied him.
With her fingers holding his cheek, Ye Yunche froze completely, his spine going rigid.
His Adam’s apple bobbed uncontrollably.
His long lashes quivered.
She was like an imperious queen, carefully admiring his handsome face.
Her slender, graceful fingers moved upward inch by inch.
Then the pads of her fingers came to rest on his lips.
Her voice was low, carrying a hint of seduction.
“I really like it.”
Ye Yunche’s pupils contracted slightly. His heart seemed to be seized in a fierce grip, then released.
It began pounding violently against his chest.
