Chapter 58: I Didn’t Mean To Hide It From You
During dinner, looking at Lu Chengjing’s face, Shi Tou and Xiao Huan held back their laughter until their shoulders shook nonstop.
It wasn’t that they had low thresholds for laughter, but the spot where Yuan Yuan stamped was really tricky.
Such a fine beauty, under the effect of the black seal, not only had a darkened forehead but also eyes that looked like they’d been punched, with two dark patches. Because it was stamped twice in a row, the color was especially heavy, really amusing.
Shang Wan had no choice but to, in order to let the two eat properly, carry Lu Chengjing to a stone by the wellside, wet a handkerchief, and wipe it off for him.
“Close your eyes.”
Lu Chengjing obediently closed his eyes, but his left hand lifted to tug at Shang Wan’s sleeve hem, explaining in a low voice, “I didn’t mean to hide it from you.”
“It’s a bit hard to wipe off, bear with it a little.” Shang Wan used a bit more force, and only after the skin under the handkerchief turned red did she barely wipe off the black mark on his forehead.
Lu Chengjing didn’t get a response from Shang Wan, his long lashes trembled slightly, and he wanted to open his eyes, “I really didn’t…”
“Don’t move, or the water will get into your eyes in a bit.” Shang Wan lifted the man’s chin, leaned in closer to wipe his eyes, “Don’t let Yuan Yuan play like this in the future, it’s hard to wipe off.”
Warm breath sprayed on his face, his nose filled with a faint fragrance, Lu Chengjing uncomfortably pursed his pale lips, his ear roots tinged with a light red, and the fingers gripping Shang Wan’s clothing hem unconsciously tightened a bit more.
The skin around the eyes was thin, Shang Wan thought she’d wiped him painfully, and coaxed, “Bear with it a little, it’ll be done soon.”
With Shang Wan coaxing him like this, Lu Chengjing felt even more uneasy, but the hand gripping her sleeve didn’t let go.
His brows lightly furrowed, he explained in a low voice: “I just had my doubts, wasn’t sure it was that person, wanted to wait until I was certain before telling you, you… don’t be angry.”
“I’m not that petty.” Shang Wan scratched Lu Chengjing’s chin like teasing a cat, “I said, whether you want to tell or not is up to you, everyone can have secrets.”
Lu Chengjing pursed his lips, “I…”
“All clean.” Shang Wan let go of him, tossed the handkerchief into the small wooden bucket, “Go back to eat, still need to continue building the shed later.”
Shang Wan carried Lu Chengjing back to his seat, Yuan Yuan tilted her little head curiously watching her own parents, did Mommy laugh or not?
Shang Wan pinched her cheeks and continued feeding the little one.
Shi Tou and Xiao Huan also picked up their chopsticks, talking about building the shed later.
Lu Chengjing ate absentmindedly, glancing at Shang Wan from time to time.
Shang Wan: ?
Why was her fox being tsundere again?
“Eat properly.” Shang Wan picked a chopstick of meat from the fish belly into Lu Chengjing’s bowl, thinking his left hand wasn’t as convenient with chopsticks as his right, so she picked out the bones in advance.
Looking at the fish meat in his bowl, Lu Chengjing opened his mouth to give thanks, but remembering Shang Wan had said “don’t thank with words,” he swallowed the “thank you” back down.
“Meat!” Yuan Yuan anxiously stretched out her small hand to tug at her mommy’s sleeve, Daddy had some, the cub wanted some too.
Shang Wan subtly raised a brow, picked a small piece of fish meat and removed the bones, feeding it into the little one’s mouth.
“Ah!” Yuan Yuan stuck out her tongue from the spiciness, her little face red like an apple, big eyes watery, glaring accusingly at her mom.
Shang Wan poked her red cheek, feeding her water while saying, “Good cub, remember this: even things given by the closest people, don’t eat them casually, you have to learn to judge for yourself.”
Yuan Yuan was an ability user, her senses sharper than ordinary people, fully capable of avoiding some dangers this way. Since the little one was lazy and didn’t use them, as her mom she’d teach her well, and eating a loss would make her learn the lesson.
“Sis, Yuan Yuan is only one year old.” Xiao Huan couldn’t help reminding her, what could a one-year-old understand?
Shang Wan said: “Teach from young, so she won’t suffer losses when grown up.”
Xiao Huan: “…”
One year old was a bit too young, right?
Shang Wan pinched Yuan Yuan’s chubby cheeks, “Got it memorized?”
The spicy taste on her tongue had just faded, Yuan Yuan glanced at the fish meat on the table, nodded her little head with lingering fear, “Got it!”
“Such a good girl.” Shang Wan continued feeding the little one vegetable congee.
After dinner, Shang Wan and Shi Tou continued building the wooden shed, while Lu Chengjing held Yuan Yuan sitting by the fire watching the account book.
At first the little one’s eyes were wide round, watching more seriously than Lu Chengjing, but soon she got bored and fell asleep, nestling in Lu Chengjing’s arms snoring softly.
Xiao Huan brought the medicine over, and while Lu Chengjing drank it, she carried Yuan Yuan to the little bed made nearby with bedding and a wooden board, patted her gently twice, and the little one fell soundly asleep again.
The moon was bright, stars faint, night breeze gentle.
Lu Chengjing closed the book, lifted his hand to pull his cape over his shoulders, covered his mouth with a yawn, exhaustion tinting his eyes and brows.
He lightly rubbed his brow, turned his head to look at the three still busy.
The wooden shed was basically built, but time was short so it was a simple version. Shang Wan was doing the final reinforcement, with Shi Tou and Xiao Huan helping to hold it steady.
Shang Wan bent down to crawl into the wooden shed, reached out to shake various spots twice, feeling it sturdy enough then crawled out, smiling: “Pretty stable, no problem sleeping in it tonight.”
“Great.” Shi Tou sat down on the ground from exhaustion, both hands full of fine cuts and a few blood blisters.
Shang Wan saw it and exhorted: “When you apply medicine to your brother-in-law later, remember to apply some to yourself too, careful not to be unable to lift your hands tomorrow.”
Shi Tou agreed.
“Sis, there’s hot water on the stove.” Xiao Huan pointed to the small space in the kitchen corner that she enclosed with a wooden board and cloth curtain, “I tried it, pull up the cloth curtain and you can’t see.”
In their current situation, bathing conditions couldn’t compare to before, but sis and Shi Tou had a lot of wood shavings stuck to their skin, prickly and itchy, sleeping like that for sure wouldn’t be comfortable, rinsing with hot water would feel much better.
“No need, Shi Tou go wash.” Shang Wan patted the wood shavings off her clothing hem, “I need to go into the mountain, no need to wait for me.”
With that said, without waiting for their reaction, her figure flickered and she was gone.
“Splash—” The pool splashed up a small spray, Shang Wan adapted to the icy pool water temperature for a bit, swam two laps in the water, then started scrubbing off the wood shavings on her body.
The original host’s skin was delicate, wood shavings stuck on not only uncomfortable but reddened a large patch, Shang Wan had endured it all day, now soaking in the pool water finally felt good.
She washed her hair too and wrung out the water, Shang Wan leaped out of the pool, took clean clothes from her space and put them on, then headed to the wolf den.
Tie Dan lay in the middle of several wolf cubs, all around warm and cozy, sleeping soundly.
Shang Wan wrapped him up with a cape, carried him racing down the mountain.
The Lin Family still had lights on, voices of arguing coming out. Shang Wan listened for two ears, nothing useful.
She put away the cape, placed Tie Dan on the ground in front of the gate, pinched the kid’s nose, and when he couldn’t breathe and was about to open his eyes, flew away.
Tie Dan sneezed, rubbed his eyes and sat up, subconsciously looking for someone, “Dad? Mom?”
No one responded, all around pitch black, no wolf cubs with him, the child immediately burst into frightened wails, alarming the neighbors who all came out to check.
“Seems like Tie Dan’s back.”
“Oh, the stinky boy finally came back.”
“As long as the child is fine.”
“Tie Dan!” Zhou Shi pulled open the door and rushed out, hugging her son and weeping with joy, “Son, where on earth did you go? You scared Mom to death!”
