Tang Yuanyuan felt that she had said too much at that point. As she turned around to look at Yuchi Yishu, she realized that he was looking at her in silence. However, there was not an ounce of reproach in his expression.
Tang Yuanyuan was a little stunned. She was sure that what she had said was out of line, and she even felt like a hypocrite. Nevertheless, Yuchi Yishu remained silent.
“Yishu?” She bit onto her lower lip and asked softly, “Were my words… too harsh?”
Yuchi Yishu chuckled as he pulled Tang Yuanyuan down to sit on the snow with him. “How so?”
“Weren’t they over the line?” She felt that she had unconsciously said a tonne of ill-hearted things about An Qian.
“Nah.”
After some thought, Tang Yuanyuan looked at Yuchi Yishu sideways and asked, “Yishu, what if someone else had said all of that about me instead?”
As soon as she asked, she felt his expression turn cold instantly. “Who said that?” he asked.
“Nobody!” She waved her hands, dismissing his question. “You said my earlier words did not cross the line, so I was merely curious that if someone said those things about me, would they not be crossing the line too?”
“Of course it’s different.” Yuchi Yishu lowered his head to meet her gaze as he spoke. “The place you hold in my heart is miles apart from that of any other person. It is completely normal for you to confide in me about your feelings and opinions. But, if someone were to talk bad about you to your face, that’s a whole other story.”
Am I making things up or did he have an underlying meaning to what he just said? But how could it be? He doesn’t know about what happened last night. Besides, Chufeng already took care of the situation, so it’s highly unlikely that he’ll tell anyone.
Thinking of this, Tang Yuanyuan breathed a sigh of relief. She spoke lightheartedly, “With you protecting me, surely no one would dare to speak ill of me.”
She then pulled out her phone and wanted to ask Yuchi Yishu to take some photos together.
Before she could say anything, however, she thought about the photos that they took yesterday, with her face being too fat. She swallowed her words, and started to capture photos of the scenery instead.
After watching her take a few pictures, Yuchi Yishu suggested, “Let me take a few shots of you. Once we get back, I’ll have the photos developed.”
“Huh? No, don’t!” Tang Yuanyuan refused immediately. As soon as she saw Yuchi Yishu taking out his phone to take some photos of her, she covered her face with her hands, not willing to take any photos.
Seeing her reaction, Yuchi Yishu couldn’t help but feel suspicious. He bit on his lip as he contemplated between confronting her about her sudden change in attitude and letting the matter slide.
She has been trying so hard to keep up this façade. Do I really want to expose her?
Yuchi Yishu sighed inwardly as he recomposed himself and said to her, “It’s alright if you don’t want to be photographed. Let’s build a snowman and we’ll take pictures of it instead.”
Hearing his intentions to build a snowman and photograph it instead, Tang Yuanyuan finally eased up and agreed.
Tang Yuanyuan was still a little upset when they started to work on the snowman. As their masterpiece started taking its form, her sorrows eventually melted away with the simple joy of having built a snowman, although her tiny hands were almost frozen to the bone.
After taking several pictures of the snowman, it suddenly hit her that this was the first time she had built a snowman. Feeling somewhat embarrassed, she handed her phone over to Yuchi Yishu as she asked him, “Would you please take a picture of me with the snowman?”
As they built the snowman earlier on, she had intentionally piled up extra snow around the face in a vain effort to make her own seem smaller.
“Alright.”
The first thing Tang Yuanyuan inspected as she looked at the photo taken by Yuchi Yishu was that her face was indeed not that big in comparison to that of the snowman’s.
Feeling somewhat pleased, she saved the photos on her phone.
After that, Yuchi Yishu and Tang Yuanyuan did not head back for the whole day. Instead, they had their lunch and dinner outside before making their way back to the accommodation after nightfall.
The streets were illuminated by lamp posts all the way, their light casting long shadows of them onto the pavement. My shadow looks so thin. If I lose weight, is this how good I will look next to Yuchi Yishu? Tang Yuanyuan kept those thoughts to herself and decided to keep them stowed away in the recesses of her brain.
Tang Yuanyuan had her mind set on a new goal; she will start losing weight upon their return!
She knew that her brother is outstanding in every way, so she must not hold him back!
Come to think of it, she should start losing weight from now on. But knowing Yuchi Yishu, he would not let her get away with starving herself, so she decided that her effective weight loss plan should commence once she returned to school.
She knew that telling her best friend Meng Kefei about her intention to lose weight would be a good move. She would definitely stand by her, supporting her all the way.
Knowing that she has set her mind on something and watching her work hard for it would surely make Meng Kefei pleased.
Unfortunately, naïve little Tang Yuanyuan had no clue about the painful reality check that lay ahead of her. The blow would surely jerk her back to reality.
“Yishu, we’ve been away the whole day; do you think Chufeng would be mad at us?”
“Of course not,” Yuchi Yishu said lightly. “He has his cousin to keep him company, while I have you. There is nothing for him to be angry about.”
“Oh,” said Tang Yuanyuan, feeling rather relieved. However, she couldn’t help but think if the two would quarrel.
By the time Yuchi Yishu and Tang Yuanyuan went back to their accommodation, it was relatively late. The landlord greeted them with the same enthusiastic smile. Learning that they already had dinner, she poured them each a glass of milk tea.
“Drink up, and go to bed early.”
Tang Yuanyuan stared at the cup of milk tea, and thought about it’s high calorie content. She’d better not drink it.
Tang Yuanyuan pushed the cup of milk tea away from her. “Thank you, Madam, but I don’t drink milk tea anymore. A glass of water would be just fine.”
“What’s the matter? Is the milk tea not to your liking, dear?”
“No, not at all, Madam. It’s just that I am parched, and I’ve heard that sweet beverages cannot quench thirst.”
Her cheeks flushed red and she played with her fingers, courtesy of the white lie she had just told. Although the landlord had her reservations on Tang Yuanyuan’s reasoning, she decided not to press any further and served her a glass of water instead.
“Okay, if water is what you want, then water you shall get. Here you go!”
“Thank you, Madam.” Tang Yuanyuan finished the glass of water meekly and followed Yuchi Yishu upstairs.
The landlord sighed as she watched Tang Yuanyuan walk up the flight of stairs.
“This little girl here must have been the reason for the commotion earlier today.”
“Huh?” That husband of hers was oblivious to the situation.
“I’m referring to that An Qian girl. She must have said something about Yuanyuan, which made things tense between them. Look at the girl, she had a good appetite when she first came here yesterday. But now, she dare not even drink a cup of milk tea, and in the morning, she only ate a piece of pastry.”
