Chapter 243: His Kiss

Zhu Yuan looked at the snake clutched in his hand, still shaken, and as soon as she heard him say "Brother Snake," she was certain he had overheard her muttering just now.

Yet she didn't feel the slightest bit embarrassed or shy; it wasn't shameful to be afraid of snakes!

"Since you were already here, why didn't you step in sooner? You nearly scared me to death."

Pei Ling stared straight into her eyes. "I wanted to see what you could chat about with it. But it's dead now, so being stewed into soup counts as dying for a worthy cause."

Zhu Yuan swallowed hard. "I'm not drinking it!"

"If you aren't drinking it, why are you swallowing?"

"I'm scared."

"Hah." Pei Ling straightened his waist and tossed the snake aside, feeling absolutely no guilt for his broad-daylight "corpse-dumping" act, and looked at Zhu Yuan with composure. "Is there anything else you're afraid of?"

"Not everyone is as mighty and imposing as you, Brother Pei." Zhu Yuan glanced at the snake out of the corner of her eye; it died just from that flick Pei Ling gave it?

It couldn't be feigning death, could it?

Without waiting for Pei Ling to say anything, she raised her hands to push him. "Let's go, let's go."

What if that snake woke up and attacked them?

Pei Ling was pushed back a few steps by her, then turned to walk beside her. "With me here, could I let it bite you?"

Besides, the snake was already dead through and through; how much did she doubt his strength?

Zhu Yuan didn't want to discuss the snake with him anymore; the moment it was mentioned, she recalled how it had coiled on the ground like a mosquito coil, and she immediately got goosebumps all over, involuntarily quickening her pace.

"Why are you walking so fast?" Pei Ling reached out to grab her arm.

"Ah!" Zhu Yuan shrieked. "You just touched a snake!"

Pei Ling had just switched the basket to his other hand, and the hand grabbing her arm was the one that hadn't touched the snake.

But he was intent on teasing her. "It's not poisonous."

Yet the grip on her arm only tightened; Zhu Yuan was on the verge of tears, her scalp tingling. "Even if it's not poisonous, it's disgusting. Let me go, I'll just walk slower."

"I won't." Pei Ling didn't give her a chance to refuse, holding her arm and leading her home.

He had bought a detached small courtyard in this little town, planted full of flowers and fruit trees, with a three-story building.

Watching Pei Ling lead Zhu Yuan home by the arm, to the neighbors, they looked so loving.

Once inside the courtyard, Pei Ling let go of Zhu Yuan, carried the basket of fruit toward the courtyard's water basin, set the basket aside, and first washed his hands with hand soap and disinfected them before starting to wash the fruit.

"Second Master, let me do it," Pei Li said from the side.

Pei Ling ignored him, washed a peach, and handed it to Zhu Yuan.

Zhu Yuan sat in a rocking chair under a large tree to cool off, took a bite of the crisp, sweet peach, and squinted contentedly. "The peaches I bought are just sweet."

"Isn't it because I washed them sweet?" Pei Ling finished washing a few pieces of fruit, shook the water off his hands, and without intending to listen to what Zhu Yuan said, turned back to instruct Pei Li, "Tell a few people to go to the roadside outside and scatter some Medicine to repel snakes."

"Yes." Pei Li immediately took some men and went out.

Zhu Yuan closed her eyes, leaning against the rocking chair, eating the peach bite by bite.

Suddenly, she felt her skirt hem being lifted.

At first, she thought it was the wind, but the next instant, a cool touch lightly brushed her ankle.

She snapped her eyes open and saw Pei Ling squatting in front of her, one hand holding her skirt hem, the other touching a scar on her ankle that had turned pink.

Although it wasn't ancient times now, and she wasn't a very traditional person, she still found it hard to accept being touched on the ankle like this by a man.

Just as she prepared to pull her foot back, Pei Ling gripped it tighter, looked up at her, his expression unexpectedly earnest in a way she had never seen before. "Does it still hurt?"

Zhu Yuan shook her head. "It stopped hurting a long time ago."

She hadn't even paid much attention to that scar; it felt like a long time had passed since the doctor cut her ankle open that day to remove the chip.

Gusts of cool wind blew, and the dense leaves rustled in the wind.

The loose hair hanging by her ears was also lifted by the wind; just as Zhu Yuan squinted, a sudden warmth touched her ankle, and she stiffened in shock.

She looked in disbelief at the man squatting before her, the one seen by outsiders as the coldest and most heartless.

Pei Ling lowered his head and kissed the scar on her ankle.

Zhu Yuan hurriedly pulled her foot back, planting both feet on the ground; the peach rolled from her hand, tumbling to Pei Ling's feet.

She lowered her head to pick it up, but Pei Ling grabbed her wrist. "If it's dirty, don't eat it."

Actually, it wasn't that Zhu Yuan had to eat that dirty peach; she just didn't know what to do or what to say. She knew Pei Ling liked her, and he hadn't hidden it in the slightest, even warning her that she should just be herself.

But his actions just now exceeded her expectations.

It caused a ripple in her stable state of mind—not a flutter of the heart, but a weight she couldn't bear.

Especially when Pei Ling looked at her seriously, that gaze was enough to drown a person. She moved her hand, but couldn't pull it away from his grip, so she did her best to ignore the sensation of being held by him. "You don't have to come here often. I'm doing very well here, and the neighbors are very kind to me too."

Pei Ling stared at her evasive eyes, chuckled, and let go of her wrist. "I come whenever I want; what's it to you?"

"Who would dare to manage you..." Zhu Yuan's inner thoughts slipped out, but meeting Pei Ling's warning gaze, she hurriedly changed her words. "This is the house you bought, you can come whenever you want. It's not that I don't let you come, but aren't you very busy?"

"Can't I come if I'm busy?" Pei Ling stood up, picked a few blueberries from the fruit he had just washed, and handed them to her.

Zhu Yuan took them. "Thank you."

Without even looking, she popped a blueberry into her mouth, then suddenly her little face scrunched up. "So sour!"

Pei Ling looked down at her face, scrunched up like a steamed bun from the sourness, a hint of a smile spreading across his eyes and brows. He leaned over, pried open her fingers, took a blueberry from her palm, and tossed it into his own mouth.

Not sour.

Very sweet.

After night fell, Pei Ling accompanied Zhu Yuan for dinner.

However, Zhu Yuan noticed that Pei Ling ate very little; he only touched one dish in front of him, didn't touch the rest at all, and didn't eat many mouthfuls of rice either.

After dinner, Pei Ling went off somewhere. Zhu Yuan looked at Pei Li not far away, hesitated for a moment, then walked over and called out to him.

Pei Li immediately approached. "Miss Zhu, are you looking for me?"

Zhu Yuan nodded. "Is Second Master sick?"

Otherwise, as a man in the prime of his life, how could he eat so little, even less than her, although she was currently eating quite a lot.

But Pei Ling's appetite was not normal.

Pei Li was taken aback, but he quickly realized that given Second Master's temperament, it was impossible for him to let Miss Zhu know about his illness.

The wind howled outside the window, carrying with it the faint, chilling scent of snow.