Chapter 25: From Wild Dog to Loyal Dog, Evolution Successful

After seven days of recuperation, Xie Yi’s body had greatly improved. Although the wound had not fully healed, it no longer bled, and a thin layer of scab covered the surface, allowing him to move freely.

Su Mu had also bought a small house in Lanqing Lane in the west city and moved there. The house wasn’t big, but it had high courtyard walls, a square layout, and once the door was closed, it offered excellent privacy.

There was also a small well and a water channel in the backyard, making it convenient to fetch and dispose of water. Just a few turns out the door led to a bustling market street, convenient for buying anything, truly a quiet place amidst the hustle and bustle.

Because she had passed the imperial examination to become a scholar, suddenly many matchmakers appeared to arrange marriages for her. She was overwhelmed with annoyance. She had originally thought to wait until Xie Yi’s body was better before moving, but now it seemed unnecessary.

She brought Xie Yi to the front of the newly bought house. Xie Yi was as excited as a homeless child who suddenly had a home, curiously examining the new house despite his wounds.

“Sister Mu, is this our home from now on?” Xie Yi tugged at her sleeve, his green eyes like a wheat field brushed by a gentle breeze, sparkling brightly.

Su Mu nodded with a smile: “Yes.”

She led him to the room she had already prepared for him. It was fully furnished with tables, chairs, and a bed. Even the bedding was newly bought, filled with freshly pulled cotton, lying on it felt like being wrapped in a cloud, light and soft. Mosquito nets were essential in the South due to the abundance of insects. Su Mu had also prepared a new gauze curtain for him, lighter and prettier than a mosquito net.

“Do you like it?” she asked, seeing Xie Yi’s dazed expression.

Xie Yi opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to say something, but instantly closed it, as if many words had been forcibly swallowed back.

“What’s wrong? Don’t you like it?” Su Mu asked.

“No, I like it very much.” Xie Yi shook his head, his bright eyes like dewdrops on reeds in the early morning, wet and glistening, evoking pity with just a glance.

He was just too happy, or more accurately, too grateful.

Grateful that he had recognized his own heart early on. The moment he decided to stay, he had already prepared himself for decades of hardship with Su Mu.

It’s laughable, he who was once so mercenary and snobbish, would one day willingly live the life of the poor he once despised most, even if it meant facing decades of poverty with no end in sight.

If Xie Miaorong saw this, he would surely mock him to his face, saying that after all his choosiness, he ended up with a woman with no power or influence, and then throw his gold and silver hairpins in his face, ostensibly to help him, but actually to humiliate him.

If his parents were still alive, they would surely be shocked, knowing how mercenary their son was, to see him blinded by love.

But thinking that person was Su Mu, he didn’t feel any bitterness, nor did he feel it was a humiliation. Instead, he trembled with excitement, feeling honored. For Su Mu to allow him to stay by her side was already the greatest blessing for him.

From being rescued from Li Scholar’s husband to the precious care these days, just thinking about it made Xie Yi feel as if he was in the midst of a scorching sun, trembling from her care, his skin about to melt from the heat.

Night after night, Su Mu appeared in his dreams, never absent for a single night.

Perhaps even Su Mu herself didn’t know that on nights when she was awakened by nightmares of the past, he would squat outside her room door, falling asleep to the occasional soft sound of her turning in bed.

The next morning, when he heard her getting up, he would hurriedly rise, ignoring his legs numbed from squatting all night, and rush to the kitchen to light the fire and cook.

She always praised him for getting up early. Every time she tried to get up earlier than him, she never succeeded.

She had no idea.

Ever since she brought him home and tore up the deed of sale, her every smile, every word and action, had attracted him as if bewitched.

Reason told him that he couldn’t stay here, that he should return to his hometown, so when she suggested he return to the desert, he agreed without hesitation.

But the regret that followed surged over him like a tidal wave, the taut string of suppressed emotions stretched to its limit.

Until the moment he carved his heart with a knife, all his persistence crumbled. The locked emotions rushed forth under the collapsed dam, and at that moment, he could no longer suppress himself, willingly and wholeheartedly submitting to her.

He was grateful that he had submitted to Su Mu early on. If it had been a day later, in Su Mu’s eyes, he might have been just like those mercenary types who heard she had passed the imperial examination and wanted to climb on her coattails.

Perhaps he wouldn’t have received such preferential treatment now. She would have rejected him outright, just as she rejected Lin Xiaoxing’s proposal.

Just thinking about that day, when she rejected Lin Xiaoxing, though her words were gentle, her eyes showed no warmth, it gave him a feeling of having narrowly escaped disaster.

Although the scab had formed on Xie Yi’s wound, Su Mu still didn’t dare let him do heavy work, fearing it might tear the wound open.

But Xie Yi obviously didn’t take her words to heart. He was full of energy doing chores every day, taking on all the work in the courtyard by himself. When she tried to help, he would push her away.

He said: “Sister Mu’s hands are for writing poetry, not for doing these rough chores. I can do these just fine.”

It was almost identical to his previous life.

No matter how much he was bullied outside, or how much anger he suffered from Yan Jiyue, as soon as he returned to Luofeng Garden, she could be a hands-off boss, with clothes and food at her beck and call. Even when eating grapes, Xie Yi would peel them for her.

Living like a decadent emperor.

She thought about whether to hire an old man to help him with the housework, as it was quite tiring. But as soon as she mentioned this idea, Xie Yi’s eyes turned red, and he asked her pitifully: “Does Sister Mu think I’m not doing a good job?”

Well, Su Mu could only comfort him and never dared to mention it again.

She remembered when she first brought him home, Xie Yi did chores like an ordinary servant, trying hard to appear as a diligent and uncomplaining worker to secure his place under her protection.

But now, he was even more diligent with washing clothes and cooking than before. And he didn’t have that miserable air of being forced to work hard under the boss’s oppression.

Instead, he was full of vigor, exuding a sense of ‘this is my home, I must clean it until it sparkles.’ One might think he had been subjected to workplace bullying.

He would even laugh out loud while doing chores.

How could there be a happy worker? And one working while ill at that.