Chapter 37: Love Idiot

“Sister Mu, is it good news?” Xie Yi asked with a smile on his face, looking at Su Mu.

Su Mu smiled and said: “I guess it’s good news. Yan Ruyu has been sent to the countryside by the Yan family. Although she’s not very smart, it’s quite annoying to hear her say unpleasant things in front of me from time to time.”

However, thinking about it, Yan Zhujun originally didn’t like this father and daughter pair, but had to maintain appearances due to family relations. It wasn’t an easy thing to drive them out of the Yan family mansion.

Now that she had passed the provincial examination, Yan Zhujun could use this as an excuse to kick them out.

But Yan Ruyu and her father weren’t pushovers either. Over the years, they had secretly pocketed quite a bit of money. Yan Zhujun probably hadn’t discovered it yet, and by the time he did, it would likely be too late.

In this life, without her help to fill those deficits for the Yan family, she wondered how long they could last.

“Sister Mu’s status is different now. The Yan family sent her to the countryside because they’re afraid of offending you,” Xie Yi said.

Su Mu nodded: “Perhaps. Let’s not talk about this anymore. Did you have insomnia again last night?”

Xie Yi covered his eyes, his gaze evasive: “Did I?”

“Mm.” Su Mu nodded: “And it’s very obvious.”

There were a few red blood vessels at the bottom of his eyes, and his demeanor was slightly tired. Even with a smile on his face, there was a sense of forced cheerfulness.

She gently caressed the corner of his eye: “It seems I need to get you some medicine to calm your mind. How can you keep having insomnia like this?”

“It’s nothing, just… just because I was too excited yesterday knowing that Sister Mu passed the provincial examination,” Xie Yi said hurriedly, lowering his eyes. His thick, slightly curled eyelashes brushed her fingers like a small brush, tickling her.

“Is that so? That’s good then.” Su Mu pursed her lips at his words.

She had confidently thought he couldn’t sleep because he was too excited about her confession, and she even felt a bit proud about it. But it turned out… she had thought too much.

“Sister Mu, I’ve already prepared breakfast. I’ll go bring it to you now,” Xie Yi said.

Su Mu nodded, hiding a trace of disappointment: “Go ahead.”

Watching Xie Yi bustle about, Su Mu propped her chin on her hand. She had thought that after confessing, they should be entering a sickeningly sweet period of dating. Why was it different from what she had imagined?

If anything, Xie Yi seemed even more reserved towards her than before. What was going on?

Could it be that he didn’t like her?

Then why did he hug her last night? Could it be that he didn’t dare to refuse due to the ‘pressure’ of her status as a provincial examination graduate?

Su Mu tightened her collar, her expression somewhat grave. If that was really the case, then she had been too impulsive. She had confessed hastily without confirming the other party’s feelings, making both of them extremely awkward.

“Knock, knock, knock,” three knocks came from outside the door.

Xie Yi opened the door. It was Qiao Zhufu. Come to think of it, this was the first time he had taken the initiative to visit.

“Congratulations, Lady Su. Yesterday there were too many people coming to your door to celebrate. I saw they were all important figures, so I didn’t dare to come. That’s why I dared to visit today. Please don’t blame me,” Qiao Zhufu entered with his daughter Qiao Yue, followed by two servants carrying a bunch of things.

Su Mu stepped forward to welcome them: “Not at all, we’re all neighbors.”

Qiao Zhufu sat down opposite her with a smile: “You’re now the only provincial examination graduate in our Juancheng besides the county magistrate. I heard you even ranked first in the exam. To tell you the truth, when my relatives heard that I’m your neighbor, they were all very envious. They said I’ve been blessed by your light.”

“You’re too kind,” Su Mu said with an official smile. Xie Yi also stood obediently behind her.

“Oh, Little Yi, didn’t you sleep well last night?” Qiao Zhufu’s sharp eyes caught the faint dark circles under Xie Yi’s eyes.

Before Xie Yi could speak, he warmly took Xie Yi’s hand and said, “My wife-master brought back a lot of nourishing supplements from outside last time. You must try them.”

Xie Yi hurriedly withdrew his hand: “It’s too precious, I can’t accept it.”

Although he had gotten along well with Qiao Zhufu before, he had never seen him so fawning. Xie Yi understood that the reason for Qiao Zhufu’s dramatic change in attitude was all because of Su Mu. The higher Su Mu’s status, the better treatment he would receive as someone close to her, just like the fox in the story of the fox borrowing the tiger’s might.

Seeing Xie Yi’s embarrassed look, Su Mu shielded him behind her and asked directly, “Qiao Zhufu, do you have some business this time?”

“Nothing can escape your eyes,” Qiao Zhufu covered his mouth with a silk handkerchief and chuckled lightly. “My wife-master has bought a lot of land outside, and the annual taxes are frighteningly high. Hearing that you passed the provincial examination, she wants to register these lands under your name. Of course, there will be benefits for you.”

Besides the right to become an official, provincial examination graduates also had the rights to be exempt from corvée labor and tax exemption for four hundred mu of land under their name.

Therefore, every year many farmers or merchants tried various ways to register their land under the names of provincial examination graduates to legally avoid taxes. Even if the graduate couldn’t become an official in the end, just the share from the land’s harvest would be enough for the graduate to live comfortably and support numerous servants.

Hence the saying, “Poor scholar, rich provincial graduate.” Although this was a common way for provincial graduates to get rich, Su Mu wasn’t in such a hurry, so she politely declined Qiao Zhufu’s offer.

Qiao Zhufu seemed not to have expected Su Mu to refuse, and continued: “Lady Su, if you’re not satisfied with the price, we can negotiate further.”

Su Mu tactfully declined again and returned the gifts he had brought along.

Unable to figure out what Su Mu was thinking, Qiao Zhufu quickly grabbed Xie Yi, who was seeing him out, and stuffed the bracelet he was wearing into Xie Yi’s hand: “Little Yi, this bracelet is made of the finest jade. Help me persuade Lady Su.”

Xie Yi looked at the bracelet stuffed into his hand. Did he think he was the kind of person who would be dazzled by money? He wasn’t inexperienced; the jewelry given to him by the women who used to surround him was much better than this.

This kind of thing didn’t even catch his eye, let alone accepting his things to persuade Su Mu. If Su Mu was unwilling, she naturally had her reasons. A man shouldn’t interfere in a woman’s affairs.

He smiled faintly and politely returned the bracelet to Qiao Zhufu’s hand: “Brother Qiao, how can I, as a man, make decisions on this matter? When Sister Mu changes her mind, she will naturally contact you.”

Qiao Zhufu smiled and said: “Look at how modest you are. Who doesn’t know that you’re Su Mu’s darling now? You’re the only man around Su Mu who can have a say.”

The title ‘darling’ made Xie Yi pause slightly, involuntarily recalling yesterday when she gently took his hand and softly kissed his knuckles. He became absent-minded, not even knowing how he got back to the courtyard.

It wasn’t until Su Mu waved her hand in front of him, her cool green sleeve like a rain-soaked flower branch, exuding a damp coolness.

“What did Qiao Zhufu say to you just now that made you so distracted?” Su Mu asked while eating breakfast.

Xie Yi came back to his senses and shook his head: “No-nothing.”

Seeing his obvious concealment, Su Mu bit the tip of her chopsticks, feeling that the sense of distance and restraint between them had become even stronger than this morning since yesterday.

She gradually confirmed her thoughts in her heart. She didn’t want to force others.

She put down her chopsticks and said solemnly: “What I said yesterday, if you’re unwilling, just pretend I never said it.”

Xie Yi raised his head, his deep green eyes gazing unfathomably. His hands, properly placed on his knees, were clenched to the extreme, the veins on the back of his hands bulging, his bones trembling uncontrollably.

Did she regret it? Regret saying those words to him yesterday?

Those were all her momentary impulses. Now that she had sobered up, she wanted to take it back. No wonder she didn’t want to touch him last night. It seemed she had already regretted it from that time.

Only he was still immersed in that ecstasy, falling from heaven to hell in an instant, more cruel than always being in hell.

Su Mu took a deep breath and continued: “I can see that you haven’t been happy since yesterday. I don’t want to force you… But my words last night were sincere. If you have no feelings for me, it’s fine for us to be an adopted brother and sister. In the future, I will also—”

“I will also find you a good family to marry into,” these words hadn’t been spoken yet when Xie Yi interrupted.

“I don’t want to be brother and sister.” Xie Yi tremblingly grasped her hand, his moist and trembling eyes burning with an abyss-like heat: “I want to be your man, I only want to be your man.”

“But you don’t look happy. I can see it. You’ve been avoiding me since this morning,” Su Mu said.

Xie Yi shook his head: “Because… because you don’t want me.”

“How could I not want you? If I didn’t want you, I would have driven you away long ago.”

Xie Yi shook his head more vigorously, whether due to nervousness, fear, or excitement, his chest was heaving heavily, with hints of unshed tears in his eyes: “Not that kind of… it’s…”

He bit his lip hard, it was red and about to bleed. His expression seemed extremely ashamed, as if he was about to cry. He simply closed his eyes, tilted his head up, and kissed her lips heavily. Due to his inexperience, he didn’t even dare to breathe, just pressing tightly against her until he was almost suffocating before releasing her lips.

“Because you didn’t take me last night… Sister Mu, I know my status is lowly. I don’t ask for a formal position. Being able to stay by your side and serve you already makes me very happy and content. But you sent me back to my room last night. I thought you were disgusted because I didn’t do well enough yesterday. I thought I had annoyed you.” He mustered up all his courage and said it all in one breath, his face flushed with shame and anger.

Su Mu blinked in confusion, finally understanding that the ‘want’ she thought of and the ‘want’ in Xie Yi’s mouth were not the same thing. He was probably referring to the indescribable aspect.

“…Pfft,” she burst into laughter.

Under Xie Yi’s teary gaze, Su Mu cupped his face and gently kissed him, her delicate kisses trailing from his forehead to the corner of his mouth: “Just because I didn’t touch you?… It’s my fault.”

Xie Yi was kissed into a drunken daze, the soft sensation stopping at the corner of his lips before deepening.

He opened his eyes hazily, let out a brief ‘mm’, then tremblingly wrapped his arms around her waist, falling into a state of passion and confusion.