Chapter 2: It’s all your fault
Cheng Ye…
Jiang Shi silently repeated the name in his heart, then tried moving his right foot. The moment he moved, pain shot through it.
He let out a soft hiss and raised the flashlight to Cheng Ye’s face again. “Why did you scare me just now?”
Even with the strong beam of light shining at him, Cheng Ye didn’t blink. Hearing Jiang Shi speak Mandarin, he replied in Mandarin as well. His voice was deep, though slightly accented.
“I didn’t scare you.” His gaze shifted past Jiang Shi, to where a dog stood trembling in the dark. The animal seemed afraid of Cheng Ye, shrinking back and not daring to approach. “It was a stray dog from the village.”
Jiang Shi turned to look too, but it was pitch black—he couldn’t see a thing.
He asked again, “Then why are you here?”
Cheng Ye answered honestly: “I heard something and came over. You took the wrong path—this road leads up the mountain.”
Jiang Shi: “…”
The next second, Cheng Ye’s hand landed on Jiang Shi’s ankle.
Jiang Shi instantly jerked his foot back and glared at him. “What are you doing?!”
The moment he pulled away, Cheng Ye froze, drawing back his large frame awkwardly, looking almost at a loss.
“I thought you might be hurt. I just wanted to take a look…”
“Look at what?” Jiang Shi cut him off. “Are you a doctor? Why would you look?”
The more he spoke, the angrier Jiang Shi became. Ever since he’d come with his mother to Xiliu Village, his days had been miserable. With everything that happened today, Cheng Ye was practically begging to be the target of his temper.
He raised his uninjured left foot and kicked at Cheng Ye, venting his frustration through the motion. “What’s wrong with you? Walking around at night without a sound, then running into me like that.”
“…”
Cheng Ye wanted to say he had made noise, even holding a flashlight in his hand. But Jiang Shi had been too frightened at the time—eyes squeezed shut, running blindly forward without listening or looking.
The words rose to his throat—but when he saw the boy opposite, those beautiful eyes shining faintly with moisture born of fear, the words caught at his lips came out as just two simple syllables.
“Sorry.”
After all, it was partly his fault. If he weren’t so big, Jiang Shi wouldn’t have twisted his ankle just from bumping into him.
Cheng Ye spoke again: “Should I take you to the clinic to have it checked?”
“Checked, my ass!” Jiang Shi shot back. “At this hour, the clinic’s been closed for ages.”
He bent down, rolling up his pant leg. Sure enough, his right ankle was swollen in a ring.
Jiang Shi stretched his injured foot out in front of him. “This is all your fault. Now how am I supposed to get back?”
His body hair was sparse; his legs, kept hidden beneath trousers year-round, had developed a fine, pale skin. Under the weak beam of the flashlight, it gleamed like fine white porcelain.
Cheng Ye’s eyelid twitched.
He lowered his gaze, staring at the ankle.
Beside him, Jiang Shi kept grumbling nonstop. He must have been terrified just moments ago—only through this unreasonable scolding and blame could he vent and ease that fear in his heart.
By all rights, any normal person, faced with such unfair accusations, would have lost their temper. But Cheng Ye didn’t. He only kept his head lowered, silent, a little dull—no different from the impression Jiang Shi already had of country folk.
When he’d finally vented enough, Jiang Shi’s reason returned. Seeing Cheng Ye with his head down, not saying a word, he suddenly felt a flicker of guilt. He shifted where he sat, the bare part of his calf flushed red in the cold night air.
As if to prove he hadn’t just been making a scene, he stuck his foot out toward Cheng Ye again. “See for yourself if you don’t believe me.”
A few seconds later, the figure in front of him seemed at last to stir. Cheng Ye’s fingers twitched, his gaze fixed on Jiang Shi’s foot. Before Jiang Shi could react, his hand reached out and pressed against the swollen ankle.
Cheng Ye wore fewer layers than Jiang Shi—whether from rushing along the road or for some other reason—but his hand was noticeably warmer. The moment his palm touched him, Jiang Shi shivered, as if seared.
He couldn’t help lowering his head to look. Cheng Ye’s hand was dark, the bronze color of skin long exposed to the sun through years of labor. His palm was lined and rough. Not only dark, but large—when his fingers closed just slightly, Jiang Shi’s ankle was completely enclosed in his grip.
The stark contrast between their skin tones made Jiang Shi’s heartbeat skip for no reason, a strange feeling creeping into his chest.
Before he could think further, Cheng Ye pressed a thumb gently against the swollen ankle. The touch was light, but Jiang Shi still couldn’t hold back a sharp hiss of pain.
Cheng Ye’s hand remained in place, unmoving. “No bones injured. Rest it for a couple of days and it’ll be fine.”
As he spoke, his grip tightened slightly, the warmth of his palm seeping steadily into the skin beneath.
“Where’s your home? I’ll take you back.”
Jiang Shi found the gesture a little odd. He pulled his foot back and let down his pant leg. “I don’t even know where my home is… Do you know that woman, Jiang Xue?”
Cheng Ye withdrew his hand, letting it fall to his side. Out of Jiang Shi’s sight, his thumb rubbed slowly across the side of his index finger.
“I know…” he murmured, taking the basket off his back. Turning around, he crouched down in front of Jiang Shi. “I’ll carry you home. If you don’t go back this late, Aunt Jiang will be worried.”
The place was pitch black, not a soul in sight. Jiang Shi did have his phone, but Jiang Xue didn’t—and in his condition, he truly couldn’t walk.
He stared at the broad back before him, thinking: he’s a grown man… surely he won’t get carried off and sold, right?
With a hard bite of resolve, he gritted his teeth and climbed onto Cheng Ye’s back.
Even then, he couldn’t resist bluffing. “Hey, I’m heavy. Can you manage?”
Cheng Ye slid one hand under Jiang Shi’s thigh, the other holding the basket, and stood up with ease.
Jiang Shi leaned against his shoulder with the flashlight in hand. The beam wavered with his movements, the road ahead hazy and unclear. But Cheng Ye walked without the slightest falter, each step steady and sure.
“Not heavy,” he answered Jiang Shi’s question. “You’re very light.”
After all, when he worked, carrying two hundred jin on his back was nothing.
Jiang Shi: “…”
Why did this guy act like a block of wood?
Then came the sound of rustling behind them again. The hair on Jiang Shi’s arms stood on end. “It’s here again!”
Cheng Ye turned his head and muttered a sharp command in dialect toward the darkness. The rustling grew fainter, then disappeared completely.
Jiang Shi turned to look as well, but still couldn’t see a thing.
“Was it really a dog? How come I can’t see anything?”
Cheng Ye kept walking forward. “It was a dog. My eyesight’s a little better than most—I can see clearly even at night.”
Jiang Shi instinctively glanced at his eyes, but all he could see was the hair that nearly covered them.
Jiang Shi: “…”
After a pause, he said, “You’re pretty emo, huh.”
At the time, that style was all the rage. His old classmates would practically cover both eyes if they could.
Before Cheng Ye could reply, Jiang Shi asked again, “Are we from the same place? Just now I heard you call my mom… Aunt Jiang.”
“We’re from the same place. My house is just…” Before he finished, Cheng Ye stopped in his tracks and looked ahead.
Up ahead, flames lit half the mountain. With the light came a clamor of voices, echoing loudly.
Jiang Shi jumped in fright. “What’s that?”
Cheng Ye stood still, listening for a few seconds, then said, “They’ve come looking for you.”
“Wha… what?”
—
At ten o’clock that night, the Jiang household was brightly lit.
Jiang Xue carried a kettle of hot water, pouring tea for the villagers sitting in the courtyard. As she filled their cups, she kept thanking them: “Sorry to trouble everyone—dragging you out so late at night. I didn’t know he’d gone into town. He just got here, doesn’t know his way around, and I was so worried something might happen to him.”
The men accepted the tea with understanding, sipping as they glanced inside the house.
The boy half the village had just gone out searching for was now sitting quietly in a chair. The village’s folk doctor pressed at his ankle, and the boy’s brows knitted tightly in pain.
The bulb overhead wasn’t very bright, its hazy glow casting the figure inside like a flower in the mist, a moon reflected in water.
More and more eyes turned toward Jiang Shi. Gradually, people began persuading Jiang Xue:
“Don’t be angry with him. I don’t think the child did it on purpose. There are so many paths around here—it’s only natural he’d get lost.”
“Exactly, exactly. And look, his foot’s injured. Don’t scold him anymore.”
“He’s just switched identities, come to a completely new place. It’s normal for him not to adapt right away… you need to give him time.”
“Aiyo… Jiang Xue, this son you’ve just acknowledged really is good-looking. Is he engaged yet? My daughter—”
Jiang Xue: “Out, out, out…”
After sending away the crowd of gawkers, Jiang Xue finally returned to check on Jiang Shi in the room.
The folk doctor rattled on at Jiang Shi, who didn’t understand a single word. He reached over and poked Cheng Ye beside him. “What’s he saying?”
Cheng Ye explained, “He says it’s not serious. Just don’t go walking for the next couple of days. Tomorrow morning he’ll bring over some herbs to apply.”
“Oh…” Jiang Shi said. “Does he even have a license? If I use that stuff, will I—”
Cheng Ye suddenly stood up. “Aunt Jiang.”
Jiang Shi looked up, realizing Jiang Xue had somehow come to stand beside him.
He immediately fell silent.
Jiang Xue asked the folk doctor, “How is he?”
The doctor repeated what he’d said before.
Hearing this, Jiang Xue finally breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Uncle Zhang. Tomorrow morning I’ll come to you for the medicine—and when market day comes, I’ll buy some wine for you.”
After sending the doctor off, Jiang Xue turned to Cheng Ye to thank him again. “It’s really thanks to you tonight. If not for you, I don’t even know what would have happened…”
After struggling with the local dialect all evening, this time Jiang Shi managed to half-guess, half-piece together Jiang Xue’s meaning.
He immediately protested, “If he hadn’t run into me and made me twist my ankle, I wouldn’t have been stuck out there in the first place.”
Jiang Xue shot him a glare.
Even though the two had only just reunited not long ago, the authority carried in her bloodline was nothing to underestimate. With just that one glare, Jiang Shi instantly quieted down.
Jiang Xue said, “Xiao Ye, I really can’t thank you enough. I’ve cooked a meal—tomorrow, remember to come by and eat.”
Cheng Ye reflexively tried to refuse. “That’s not necessary…”
Jiang Xue continued, “It’s been raining the past few days, and I’ve been busy plowing the fields, often away from home. Now Jiang Shi’s sprained his ankle and can’t go anywhere. He’s just arrived here, not familiar with the place. You two are the same age—do me a favor and come keep him company for a couple of days, help him get used to things.”
This time, it was Jiang Shi who objected. “I don’t need it.”
Jiang Xue ignored him completely.
Cheng Ye glanced at Jiang Shi. The bulb was brighter than a flashlight, illuminating his face more clearly—and making it look even better.
Heat flared across his palm. Staring at that face, Cheng Ye found his gaze reluctant to move away. After a brief pause, the words slipped out of his mouth before he could stop them.
“Okay.”
Jiang Shi: “…”
Wait a second—wasn’t anyone going to ask him for his opinion?
**TN
Oh dang. This has already been picked by someone. I swear it wasn’t there when I searched NU today. Bye. This keeps happening to me. LOL