Heart Protection

HEART PROTECTION: CHAPTER 2

Because of her heartbeats, Yan Hui was dumbfounded for a long time.

But what was puzzling was that Yan Hui had already snapped out of her long spell of absent-mindedness, yet the youth was still blankly staring at her.

Yan Hui thought about it and was immediately filled with astonishment. Could it be......this boy was also touched by her?

But if she remembered correctly, earlier she was soaked, and then she rolled around in a hay pile. Who knew how sorry of a figure she was cutting. Would the young man really be moved by her?

Yan Hui secretly thought it was because her face was too entrancing.

However Yan Hui gradually realized something was wrong with the boy's eyes......

The light in his eyes was too intense. He stared at her like a hawk staring at a rabbit, like a hungry wolf staring at an easy prey, like a prisoner on death row staring at the key unlocking his cell.

"Hey." Yan Hui called out to him. It seemed like she woke him up from a dream. The young man blinked a few times, scattering the intense light. His eyes turned away, no longer meeting Yan Hui's gaze.

Yan Hui actually never looked away from him: "Are you that Old Lady Xiao's grandson?"

This young man looked at most 15 years old. He was slim. His complexion, whether it was because of sickness or malnourishment, was pale. His lips even had a blue tinge. He looked down and focused single-mindedly on the things in his hands. His calm look was completely different from before.

The youth ignored her. Minding his own business, he walked in holding some bowls in his hands. He knelt down in front of Yan Hui and placed three bowls one by one on the floor.

Yan Hui was confused. Wasn't Old Lady Xiao's grandson an idiot? But just earlier the light in the guy's eyes looked......

Why were there so many twists?

"Hey......" Yan Hui's voice just got out when the young man finished putting down the bowls and got up to leave.

Yan Hui blanked for an instant. Her gaze swept over the rice porridge, pickled vegetables, and mantou. She immediately panicked, forgetting everything else. She hurriedly yelled at the youth's back: "Wait, wait! That's it? I'm still tied up! You want me to put my face in it?"

Leaving after throwing the food there, did he think she was a pig?!

The youth's footsteps paused. He thought for a minute and then walked back. He knelt down in front of Yan Hui. Then he grabbed the bowl of rice porridge and placed it by Yan Hui's mouth. Yan Hui was starved; when the youth tipping the bowl, she gulped it clean. Then she rudely ordered: "Stuff the mantou with the pickled vegetables."

The young man's eyebrows jumped slightly due to the yelled instruction.

Right now, Yan Hui had no patience to spare. She was preoccupied with the things in the bowls: "Hurry up!"

The young man didn't say a word. He only crouched down and did as she said. The pickled vegetables were stuffed into the mantou and fed into Yan Hui's mouth.

Yan Hui didn't pay any particular attention to the man and wolfed down two mantous. She waited until her stomach was no longer starving. Only then did she spare the effort to look away from the food. She chewed and shot a glance at the youth whose hand was outstretched, holding a mantou in front of her. Right now his gaze was dull. It was hard to say if he was an idiot or not, but at least it wasn't the terrifying intense gaze from before.

Right now he looked like an ordinary youth from a village, ordinary to the point that Yan Hui thought she imagined the light in his eyes.

It was unavoidable for Yan Hui to have an impression of the youth in her heart. However no matter what impression she had, she couldn't deny he was indeed pretty.

Moonlight shone in overhead through the cracks in the wood planks; it fell upon the young man's head. Yan Hui took the food he offered in his hand and ate it in one bite.

She felt apprehensive. She had studied alongside Chen Xing Mountain's countless male disciples since childhood. From that experience, she knew when the young man grew up, having mature features and a healthy body, he would be a first-rate male beauty.

Kidnapping the young herdsman would fetch a good price......

"Ahem." Yan Hui cleared her throat. "Boy, your grandmother bought me from a heartless human trafficker to be your wife. Did you know?"

Seeing that Yan Hui stopped eating, he put the remaining half of the mantou back into the bowl

"Your grandmother is old and seems pitiful. I can't get mad at her, but dealing with traffickers will bring down Heaven's vengeance. For the sake of your grandmother, release my bonds. Let me go and let's be done with this."

The youth dipped his head and continued to clean up.

"Don't go!" Yan Hui clenched her teeth and said, "I'll tell you the truth. I'm cultivating to become a celestial. I pursued an 100-year-old snake demon here and injured it. He couldn't have gone far. It's very likely he is hiding in this Tong Lou Mountain's nooks and crannies. Who knows when he'll turn into a villager and mix amongst you all, absorbing your qi. If you don't let me go, no one else can defeat him. When things go bad, don't blame me for not warning you."

The young man briefly stopped cleaning up the bowls. His eyes flashed for a brief moment. Then, like nothing was heard, he started to walk away.

There was no reaction at all. That made her more annoyed than anything he could have said. After being tied up for a day, her fiery temper that she had been suppressing flared up: "Hey! Are you an idiot, or are you dumb!"

Like before, there was no reaction. Yan Hui angrily berated: "Hold it! This girl is still hungry!" [1]

The young man halted and slightly thought it over. Contrary to expectations, he brought back the remaining half of the mantou, knelt down in front of her, and offered it to her just like before. Yan Hui looked at his face. Then she looked at his hand. She opened her mouth and bit down.

The youth's hand slightly jerked. It looked like he wanted to withdraw but in the end stayed still. He let Yan Hui bite his thumb and the mantou.

Yan Hui bit down hard. Her voice was muffled but forceful: " 'et meeh go! Or efs, I bife if off!" She leaned back her head while biting his hand to get a better look at his expression. However, unexpectedly.......

The youth's expression was as placid as ever. He looked down at her. Maybe it was the angle, but in his eyes there was a whiff of dislike.

That's right. Dislike.

Actually, right now Yan Hui also really disliked herself. In the past, no matter how dirty the fight was between her and Zi Yue, she never resorted to childishly biting someone's hand to resolve a problem. But now......

Yan Hui's expression hardened. From the depths of her heart, she abandoned her pride.

"Aw'll willy bife if off!"

Right now, the only thing Yan Hui was happy about was that this was probably the only place that wasn't involved with Chen Xing people.

Yan Hui regretfully sighed. She used to be so brilliant, yet here she was, biting someone's hand. She was biting down for so long her mouth was getting sore, but her victim hadn't uttered a sound.

If her senses weren't wrong, then the metallic taste in her mouth was blood from the young man's thumb and not her gums! How was this seemingly fragile and delicate youth actually able to endure so much pain?!

It's said the fingers were linked to the heart! Why doesn't it link to your heart?! Why don't you feel pain?!

Yan Hui was almost bored to tears when at that time, the young man's hand suddenly moved. Surprisingly. he wasn't trying to force himself free. Instead he used his fingers on the hand Yan Hui was biting, aside from his thumb, to stroke Yan Hui's cheek.

The moment his fingertips touched Yan Hui's cheek, Yan Hui felt like she had been touched by lightning. The tingling heat rushed into her heart.

"Ba-thump."

She heard her own heartbeat again.

"Won't let you go." He finally opened his mouth to say a sentence. The young man's voice was pleasant, like a chilly mountain spring. However his tone had a hidden darkness. There was a weird feeling in the contrast between his voice and his age.

The youth withdrew his hand and wiped his thumb on Yan Hui's clothes. He said: "Grandmother won't let you go."

When he said this, yet again Yan Hui felt like something was different from before. He seemed to change from something sinister to something ordinary.

But wait......

"Why did you wipe the blood and spit on me!"

The young man glanced at Yan Hui. This time, Yan Hui was sure didn't see wrong. His eyebrows were slightly raised and he had a faint look of derision: "Weren't you the one who bit it?" Finished talking, he picked up the bowls and walked out the door.

Yan Hui looked at the once again shut door and muttered: "This boy is definitely not an idiot! Definitely not! He even knows how to be sarcastic!"

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Putting the empty bowls in the kitchen, the young man looked out the window at the bright moon in the sky. His expression was still a bit dull. His eyes seemed impenetrable to moonlight; they were like a hidden bottomless abyss where demons and beasts lived in purgatory.

He looked down at his thumb which was injured by Yan Hui's bite. Suddenly, he coldly laughed: "Leave? But you are my......"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the youth left, Yan Hui pondered upon this very enigmatic person, but right now she really didn't understand his circumstances. She really couldn't come up with anything. While mulling over it with no answers, she started to drift off. However, she didn't sleep well.

Right next to the woodshed in the hen house, the chickens started to crow at one o'clock in the morning, cock-o-doodle-dooing and clucking. It was so noisy Yan Hui was getting agitated and couldn't sleep.

It wasn't that Chen Xing Mountain didn't have chickens, but rather they could be counted as part celestial chickens. They were aware of their status and would only seldom cry out, not like these lousy chickens......

Yan Hui burrowed her head into the hay pile and covered it up, but the hay couldn't block out sound. She started to secretly hate the chickens. When the opportunity came, she would definitely stew that nest of chickens into soup!

After the sky lightened, the chickens didn't call out as much anymore. She went back to sleep but was once again woken up. This time by a withered, coarse hand touching her......

Yan Hui opened her eyes and saw a face full of wrinkles with muddy eyes. Its body was covered in an overwhelming scent of ash that almost choked Yan Hui. She shivered and retreated back: "Go away. I don't want to see you I don't want to see you."

Before Yan Hui entered the xian sect, she would see strange things since she was little and was always terrified. After she was accepted into Ling Xiao's sect, Ling Xiao drew a talisman for her which repelled common minor demons. Adding on the skills she cultivated, she was no longer scared after meeting them. It was just that in the early morning something crawled on her......it still made Yan Hui break out into a cold sweat.

She buried her head into the hay, but then heard an elderly sigh: "Little girl, did I scare you?"

Hearing this voice, Yan Hui looked over and suppressed her fear. She used her shoulder to rub her face: "Old lady, you bought me to be your family's daughter-in-law, but you're always touching me......what's the idea?"

Old Lady Xiao laughed: "Happiness. This old lady is happy, my grandson's wife." When she said this, the wrinkles on her face were laughed into curves. Yan Hui looked around. Past the woodshed's door, she could see the sunlit back of the youth just standing there. It looked foolish and completely different from yesterday's sarcastic and shrewd manner.

Yan Hui cleared her throat: "Old lady, buying a wife won't work. You're lucky the one you tied up was me. I'm tough and can withstand pain. If it was another girl, then today you would be seeing her dying breath. This business transaction isn't virtuous. Don't do it. I'm also not the marrying type. Release me from these bonds and let me stay a few days to recover. Once I get my strength back, however much money you gave the traffickers, I'll take it back from them."

When the conversation got to this point, Granny Xiao sighed and coughed twice: "I know. This old lady knows this business isn't virtuous, but, girl, take pity on me. If it wasn't for these old bones being at their limit, cough, cough......"

Yan Hui could see Old Lady Xiao's life didn't have much left. Her death aura was too thick, to the point Yan Hui felt like choking.

"If it wasn't for the fact that there is no one else to care for A'Fu, then no matter what......cough, no matter what Granny wouldn't commit such a sin! But if I don't sin, then what about A'Fu? Little girl, just have pity on me and let your mind be at ease and stay. A'Fu is naive. When he gets used to you, he will treat you well."

Yan Hui's mouth twitched. Setting aside the matter if A'Fu was really naive or not, she said: "Granny, your family is pitiful, and your family's A'Fu is pitiful, sure. But you can't force me to be pitiful along with you two. Furthermore, you're hoping that I'll care for him......it would be better if you hope for the Heavens to drop meat pies daily for him to live off of. It's more realistic."

The old lady was silent. Then she sighed. Finally she patted Yan Hui's hand: "I invited the villagers tonight, so you two can do the wedding ceremony."

Wha......

Yan Hui was shocked and yelled at the granny's retreating backside: "Do you know my name? Do you know my Four Pillars of Destiny [2]? Why don't you calculate it! What if I beat him!"

The youth, A'Fu, expressionlessly closed the woodshed's door. The moment the door closed, however Yan Hui swore she saw through the cracks that fool, A'Fu, looking down upon her. He was quirking his mouth. It was an extremely slight yet evil sneer.

He......was laughing at her?

Fuck, was the entire village of Mt. Tong Luo blind?! This was an idiot? This was an idiot?!

The entire village were idiots!

Yan Hui was furious beyond belief. She scooted over and kicked the door with her two feet: "Bring breakfast before leaving!"