The little boy didn't understand Mu Xiang's words, but the little girl did. At that moment, her mind was filled with the face of the 'man-eating wolf' her mother had told her about. Especially seeing Mu Anxiao's speechless expression, she became afraid.
"Brother, come here." She grabbed the little boy's arm.
Hearing this, Mu Anxiao looked at the little girl who had become defensive of her again. She smiled helplessly, thinking, this child is truly naive.
"Afraid of me?" she asked.
The little girl held the little boy's arm tightly, swallowed, and quickly looked up at Mu Xiang above, "Auntie, save us."
On the tree, Mu Xiang heard the little girl's cry and her body stiffened. She looked down and saw the little girl's face in the light of the lanterns in the courtyard. Just as she opened her mouth to explain that Mu Anxiao was a good person, Ye Yu hugged her. She widened her eyes.
Mu Anxiao looked up at Ye Yu's action of taking advantage of the situation. She cleared her throat, turned to the little girl seeking help, and said softly, "I don't eat people."
The little girl: "Auntie said you eat people."
"If I ate people, I would have eaten you and your brother long ago," Mu Anxiao said. She looked at the little boy's slightly strange expression and his trembling body, and asked, "What's wrong with your brother?"
The little girl: "He wet his pants."
"Wet his pants," Mu Anxiao repeated and beckoned to the little boy, "Come here."
The little boy pouted.
Seeing this, Mu Anxiao squatted down in front of the little boy and said, "Come closer."
The little boy: "Cold... sob sob sob." He showed a wronged expression.
Mu Anxiao looked at the little boy's expression and smiled, "Little rascal, you can even say you're cold." As she spoke, she reached out and felt the boy's pant leg, taking a sharp breath. "They're soaked through." She withdrew her hand.
The little girl watched Mu Anxiao casually touch her brother's pants with surprise. "Don't you think... my brother is dirty?"
"What's dirty about a child?" Mu Anxiao said, looking at the boy's frozen face. "This won't do. If he catches a cold, it will be troublesome."
The little girl listened clearly to Mu Anxiao's words and looked at her brother shivering from the cold. She said, "Give him my clothes to change into. Anyway..." she said, "My parents said my life isn't worth much."
Hearing this from a 'four-year-old' child, Mu Anxiao was startled. She paused her actions, shifted her gaze to the little girl's face, and said softly, "Your parents say this to you often."
The little girl: "My parents just say it casually..."
"Casually," Mu Anxiao said, pulling the little boy into her arms, but her gaze remained on the little girl's face. "Remember, your life is also a life. Your parents say it casually; they don't want to see you die, understand?"
"..." The little girl didn't understand Mu Anxiao's words and was confused.
"Why aren't you talking?"
"What is life?" the little girl asked back.
Life?
Mu Anxiao thought that if the little girl could say such 'selfless' words, it meant she understood everything. It turned out... she was overthinking.
So, she sighed and said, "You don't understand what I'm saying. Anyway, don't say such things lightly in the future. Your small body can't be allowed to freeze."
"What about brother?" the little girl pointed to the little boy Mu Anxiao was holding.
Mu Anxiao: "I have a way." She gently pushed the little boy away a bit, then touched him and found that his top was not wet. An idea struck her, and she looked up at Mu Xiang who was scolding Ye Yu, and shouted, "Mu Xiang, give me the fool's outer robe."
"What for?" Mu Xiang asked while batting away Ye Yu's hand on her.
Mu Anxiao: "Your nephew wet his pants. I need his outer robe to be your great-nephew's pants."
"It's all soaked?" Mu Xiang asked.
"Yes," Mu Anxiao replied.
Normally, Mu Long never let Mu Xiang interact with his two children, so she rarely saw them and rarely cared for them.
But whenever she heard her sister-in-law mention the children being sick, she would also worry. Because in her opinion, children were children, and Mu Long was Mu Long; they couldn't be compared. So, hearing Mu Anxiao say this, she became anxious.
"Give me the outer robe," Mu Xiang said gently to Ye Yu.
Ye Yu smiled, "Wife, you're cold."
"Yes, I'm cold, give it to me."
"Wife, Ye Yu is holding you, you..."
"Hurry up," Mu Xiang said impatiently.
Hearing Mu Xiang's impatience, Ye Yu dared not say anything more. He obediently took off his simple outer robe and handed it to Mu Xiang unnaturally, "Wife, here."
"Mmm," Mu Xiang replied, took the outer robe, her eyes flashed, and she deliberately threw it down. She knew Ye Yu looked foolish, but he was actually very clever, so after throwing the robe down, she deliberately leaned forward, then pretended to be startled and hugged the tree.
Seeing this, Ye Yu quickly grabbed Mu Xiang's arm, "Wife, are you okay?"
Mu Xiang turned to look at Ye Yu, who was concerned about her, frowned, and once again doubted... was he really foolish?
Ye Yu: "Wife, you..."
"Are you pretending?" Mu Xiang asked all at once.
Hearing Mu Xiang's words, Ye Yu suddenly fell silent.
Seeing Ye Yu's sudden silence, Mu Xiang frowned, a strange feeling arising in her heart. She didn't speak, waiting to see what he would do!
Below.
As Mu Anxiao caught the robe with one hand, the little girl and the little boy giggled.
Above, when Ye Yu heard the laughter of the little girl and boy below, he also started laughing.
Hearing this, Mu Anxiao tutted, put down the robe, and looked up to speak to Ye Yu. Ye Yu stopped laughing and said very normally, "You saw through me."
"Normal now," Mu Anxiao was surprised.
The little girl: "Brother is cold." She tugged at Mu Anxiao's arm.
Hearing this, Mu Anxiao withdrew her gaze from above and began to solve the little boy's "cold" problem.
On the tree, Mu Xiang frowned, "Why are you pretending?"
Ye Yu: "Only by being foolish can one avoid being bullied."
"Only fools get bullied, what kind of logic is that?" Mu Xiang narrowed her eyes.
Ye Yu: "You are a kind girl, just like that Ouyang Ye said." He smiled at Mu Xiang.
Mu Xiang looked at Ye Yu's smile and thought about his previous state. Her mind suddenly became a bit chaotic. "You're not really foolish."
"You can pretend, can't I?" Ye Yu leaned forward and met Mu Xiang's eyes.
Mu Xiang met his gaze without flinching, and said, "How did I pretend? You..."
"You might not know it yourself, but I know, you," Ye Yu said, "are not as stupid or useless as you seem."
"Do you know me?"
"Yes, I have a very powerful trait, which is..." Ye Yu smiled, "I can guess what kind of person someone is just by looking at them. I already understand you."
Mu Xiang: "..." In her opinion, Wan Sha was already smart enough, and so were Mu Anxiao and the others. But... none of them had seen through Ye Yu's pretense of foolishness. Because of this, she had the idea of staying away from Ye Yu.
"Why aren't you talking?" Ye Yu smiled.
Mu Xiang swallowed and turned her face away.
"Are you afraid of me?" Ye Yu asked.
Mu Xiang: "I am afraid of you. Can you stay away from me?" She looked at Ye Yu.
Ye Yu's eyes darkened. He suddenly remembered his sister who had passed away a few years ago. He let out a wry smile, "As expected, everyone hates my normal side."
"..." Mu Xiang frowned and turned to look at Ye Yu.
Ye Yu continued to smile wryly, and as he smiled, he choked up. "My sister died a few years ago. Do you know... why she died?" He looked at Mu Xiang.
"Why?" Mu Xiang frowned.
"She married badly."
"Married badly?" Mu Xiang followed Ye Yu's topic.
Ye Yu nodded. "Yes, my sister married a bad man. That man was very promiscuous and would go to those places with those women every night. She..."
"Those women, what kind of women?" Mu Xiang asked, confused.
Ye Yu looked at Mu Xiang's foolish expression and smiled, "I don't know. My sister said those women were very beautiful, very beautiful."
"Beautiful..." Mu Xiang's eyes darkened. She thought, I'm also quite beautiful?
Ye Yu looked at Mu Xiang's face and smiled, "You are very beautiful."
Hearing this, Mu Xiang felt awkward.
Ye Yu continued, "In short, that man was a scumbag, terrible, and disgusting. My sister did everything for him, but he divorced her."
"Divorce... your sister," Mu Xiang said cautiously, "was sent back to her parents' home."
"Yes, when my sister returned, she told me all this. I was very angry after hearing her complaints, so I showed my normal self, and then," he said, choking up, "I comforted my sister. When my sister heard me, she showed a scared expression, just like yours. At that moment, I realized my sister told me those things precisely because I was a foolish person who could keep secrets. It was also at that time that I understood my mother's words." He supported himself with both hands on the tree trunk, lowered his head, and tears fell drop by drop.
Mu Xiang didn't know how to comfort Ye Yu, so she remained silent.
Under the tree.
The little girl looked down at the small pants and shoes Mu Anxiao had thrown on the ground, then at the little boy who was completely wrapped in the outer robe, and smiled, "He looks like a zongzi."
"Add a string to tie it, and it will look even more like one," Mu Anxiao said. Ye Yu's tears dripped onto her head. She then reached up and touched her head, hugged the little boy, and looked up at Ye Yu who was crying with his head bowed, asking, "What's wrong with the fool?"
Mu Xiang: "It's nothing. Look after the children. He won't be smiling anymore." She glanced at Ye Yu.
Mu Anxiao was confused, "But he's crying."
Hearing this, Ye Yu shouted at Mu Anxiao, "Shut up." He then sniffled and raised his head.
Mu Anxiao was startled and looked down at the little boy who was smiling at her, saying, "Aren't you cold anymore?"
The little girl: "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Mu Anxiao said, looking at the little girl, "This way, I can eat your brother."
The little girl took her seriously. "You..."
"Just kidding," Mu Anxiao said, then turned to the little boy who was pouting and said, "You're so dramatic." As she reached out to pinch his face, she suddenly remembered that children's faces shouldn't be pinched, or they would drool, so she withdrew her hand.
The little boy laughed heartily.
The little girl also smiled.
Mu Anxiao didn't know why they were laughing, but seeing them laugh, she also started to laugh and asked, "What are you laughing at?"
"You're hilarious," the little girl replied.
Mu Anxiao's face turned cold. She then picked up the little boy, glanced at the scene they couldn't see, and thought it might take a while.
The little girl blinked her eyes. "What are you looking at?"
Hearing this, Mu Anxiao withdrew her gaze, looked down at the little girl, and said, "Do you want me to carry you?"
"You're so short, it's best not to," the little girl said directly.
Mu Anxiao's face stiffened and she said, "I won't stoop to your level." Then, she looked up at the two people above with strong negative energy and said, "Let's go over there. The fools up there are too fierce."
"Mmm," the little girl agreed.
"Let's go," Mu Anxiao said, carrying the little boy and holding the little girl's hand, and walked a bit further away.
On the tree, after stabilizing his emotions, Ye Yu said in a low voice, "When my sister found out I was normal, she committed suicide. She was already very ashamed of being divorced, so her family said she had fallen ill."
Mu Xiang's eyes deepened. "Your sister committed suicide?" She hadn't heard of this, but hearing Ye Yu say it now, she was also surprised.
Ye Yu: "My sister jumped into the lake. I saw it and jumped in to save her. In the end, I lived, and she died." His eyes began to water. "From that day on, I didn't want to pretend anymore. Sometimes I was normal, sometimes foolish. Those who didn't know said it was because I was heartbroken over my sister that my mind had improved."
"Do they know you're normal now?"
"Only you know," Ye Yu wiped his tears with his hand and looked at Mu Xiang.
Mu Xiang was stunned. "Why do only I know?"
"Because you showed the same expression as my sister, and," Ye Yu said seriously, "you are my fiancée. Some things, you will know eventually. Rather than that, I hope you know them now."
In fact, Mu Xiang didn't want to know this. Because in her opinion, the most important thing now was not getting married, but following Wan Sha. Ye Yu's words stirred up a sense of rebellion in her heart.
"I will not marry you. I will never marry in my life," Mu Xiang said stiffly.
"I came this time to marry you. If I can't marry you, I won't go back," Ye Yu said indifferently.
Mu Xiang sneered. She thought of Ouyang Ye. "Don't you think what you're saying is ridiculous?" she said to Ye Yu.
Ye Yu frowned.
"Just a little bit more, and I would have married that Ouyang Ye. Where were you at that time? Of course, setting aside where you were," Mu Xiang said, "would you have come to snatch the bride?"
"Yes," Ye Yu said seriously.
Mu Xiang snorted coldly.
Ye Yu said seriously, "I'm prepared to fight with them. Believe it or not, look." He then took out a dagger from his embrace.
Mu Xiang smiled helplessly when she saw it. "Fortunately, the situation has changed, otherwise, you wouldn't even know how you died," she sighed.