Yun A-Hao had been stubborn-tempered since childhood, and as the village chief’s cherished ge’er, he had never suffered this kind of humiliation. He immediately grabbed Chen Yinling and said, “Hmph! It’s just a lousy carriage. We don’t even care about it.”
But Chen Yinling didn’t move.
Yun A-Hao turned around and glared at him, looking exasperated.
“A-Ling, didn’t you hear him telling us to get out? Why are you still sitting here? I really don’t understand what’s so good about Lin Ye. He looks almost like a ge’er, all soft and delicate. What’s wrong with you people? How can you actually like someone like him?”
Chen Yinling still refused to move, but his face grew increasingly pale. He thought bitterly to himself: What do you know? Do you even know what it means to like someone, you spoiled idiot?
Yun Mengyang, who had remained silent all this time, hurriedly stepped in to smooth things over. “Haha, it’s nothing, nothing. Everyone, just sit down. We’re still going to Yuecheng to have some fun, aren’t we?”
But no one paid any attention to him. Everyone’s expressions were unpleasant.
When Yun Jiu heard Yun A-Hao’s words, his expression immediately turned cold. “Lin Ye isn’t weak at all. Lin Ye is very good. If you don’t understand something, don’t say nonsense.”
Everyone in the carriage except Lin Ye froze. No one had expected Yun Jiu to suddenly speak up and contradict Yun A-Hao. Even more surprising was the fact that when Yun Jiu became angry, he actually had such an imposing presence. For a moment, the carriage fell frighteningly silent.
Once Yun A-Hao recovered from his surprise, he instinctively wanted to start cursing. But when he saw Lin Ye’s cold expression, he could only glare at Chen Yinling before getting off the carriage himself.
After that, Chen Yinling didn’t dare provoke Yun Jiu again, but he didn’t exactly give him a friendly expression either.
If it hadn’t been for Yun Mengyang repeatedly trying to smooth things over, Lin Ye really would have kicked them out of the carriage.
Lin Ye simply couldn’t understand where they had gotten the courage to use someone else’s carriage and then make the owner feel unwelcome in it.
Since Chen Yinling refused to be friendly toward Yun Jiu, Lin Ye likewise refused to give him a friendly look. Until they reached Yuecheng, Lin Ye didn’t even spare Chen Yinling a proper glance.
After Yun Mengyang and the others went their separate way from Lin Ye, Lin Ye paid a few copper coins and left the carriage at a place specifically meant for storing horse-drawn carriages and ox carts.
Chen Yinling followed behind Yun Mengyang and the others, occasionally looking back.
Behind them, Lin Ye and Yun Jiu were walking in the opposite direction.
Seeing the sadness on Chen Yinling’s face, Yun Mengyang couldn’t help comforting him. “A-Ling, Lin Ye actually has a pretty good temper. As long as you stop provoking Yun Jiu, he won’t get angry with you.”
Yun Mengyang was telling the absolute truth. As long as Yun Jiu wasn’t involved, Lin Ye really was the kind of person who was easygoing and good-natured.
But the ge’er in Yunjia Village were rather strange. Lin Ye had clearly already said that he wasn’t interested in them, yet they still stubbornly held onto unrealistic hopes.
That included Yun Mengyang’s younger brother, Yun Xiaohua. Recently, however, Yun Xiaohua had finally begun to let go. At least, he no longer spent every day muttering about Lin Ye.
At the last market, Lin Ye had spent nearly sixty taels of silver in total.
After returning home, he gave fifty taels to his Amo. That left Lin Ye with only a little over eighty taels of silver.
Lin Ye handed his entire money pouch to Yun Jiu.
Yun Jiu was immediately startled. He had never seen so much silver in his entire life. Holding the pouch of silver, he stood there awkwardly, completely at a loss for what to do. He couldn’t help feeling as though everyone around him was looking at his money with ill intentions.
Lin Ye was still upset about what had happened on the carriage and deliberately handed the money to Yun Jiu just to see his frightened little expression.
Lin Ye thought that he really needed to help Yun Jiu change his personality. But when he remembered how Yun Jiu had stood up to Yun A-Hao to defend him, he felt that perhaps Yun Jiu wasn’t actually as weak as he seemed.
These things had to happen gradually. Lin Ye knew that changing a person’s personality wasn’t something that could happen overnight. As the saying went, “Rivers and mountains may change, but a person’s nature is hard to change.”
Yun Jiu had already changed so much. All Lin Ye needed to do was stay by his side and slowly guide him. Yun Jiu would surely become better and better.
“I know you’re angry, but I don’t think those things matter. I didn’t feel wronged, so I didn’t argue with them.” Yun Jiu spoke softly, occasionally sneaking a glance at Lin Ye.
Hearing this, Lin Ye immediately said, “But I don’t like seeing you get bullied. I only want to be the one who bullies you.”
The moment he said it, Lin Ye felt that he sounded far too girlish. Why do I sound like some lovestruck girl?
Yun Jiu, however, was delighted. He smiled softly. “Then… then it’s the same for me. I don’t like seeing you get bullied either.”
Lin Ye turned his face away, feeling his cheeks grow warm. He stretched out one hand toward Yun Jiu.
“Let’s go.”
Yun Jiu hurriedly placed his hand in Lin Ye’s. Their fingers lightly intertwined, and Yun Jiu’s face immediately grew warm. He was happy and embarrassed at the same time.
Lin Ye was strikingly handsome, and with him holding the hand of the tall Yun Jiu, many people couldn’t even tell which of them was the ge’er and which was the hanzi.
Lin Ye didn’t care what anyone thought. He simply took Yun Jiu from one shop to another.
The first thing they chose was their wedding attire. Since Yun Jiu was quite tall, finding suitable wedding clothes was somewhat troublesome. In the end, Lin Ye simply bought two sets meant for hanzi. For Yun Jiu’s outfit, he additionally chose an embroidered belt to serve as decoration.
Throughout the entire process, the owner of the clothing shop kept trying to figure out what their relationship was. The two were both so tall that it was genuinely difficult to tell which one was the ge’er. The shopkeeper even wondered whether they might both be hanzi.
Lin Ye took a liking to several light-colored outfits. He had the shopkeeper bring them all over and held each one against Yun Jiu to see how it looked. Then, with great decisiveness, he bought every single one.
Yun Jiu watched Lin Ye buy clothes for him and felt extremely distressed about spending so much money. He was completely unwilling to take out any silver himself.
Unlike Lin Ye, he had known what it was like to be desperately poor.
When Yun Jiu heard that all the clothes together cost nearly nine taels of silver, his expression immediately turned terrible.
Lin Ye reached out to grab the money pouch, but Yun Jiu quickly clutched it tightly, his face full of pain. “Why don’t we buy fewer things? In the town, even the most expensive clothes only cost a hundred or so copper coins. Aren’t the clothes here way too expensive?”
The young shop assistant couldn’t help saying, “Your husband is so handsome. How can you be so stingy? Be careful that your husband leaves you and runs off with someone else.”
Lin Ye and Yun Jiu both froze.
When Lin Ye realized what the shop assistant had assumed, his brows immediately furrowed. “Who told you I’m the ge’er? I’m the hanzi in this family, hmph.”
The moment Yun Jiu heard that little “hmph,” his head immediately drooped. He pursed his lips and reluctantly handed over his little money pouch.
The shop assistant looked as though he had been struck by lightning. He stared back and forth between Yun Jiu and Lin Ye, then whispered, “Such a handsome hanzi… with such a burly ge’er?”
The shop assistant thought to himself: He looks like someone who just lives off others. Otherwise, who would be blind enough to choose a ge’er like that?
Seeing Lin Ye and Yun Jiu fighting over the money pouch, the shop assistant became even more convinced of his assumption.
After paying, Lin Ye carried all the bags of clothes, lifted his chin, and stormed out of the clothing shop.
What’s the point of being this handsome if everyone keeps mistaking me for a tall ge’er?
Yun Jiu trotted obediently behind him, looking every bit like a little wife following her husband.
After buying the clothes, Lin Ye took out the shopping list his Amo had prepared. They bought a pair of red wedding candles, along with some other red candles. Then they bought all kinds of snacks, peanuts, longans, and so on. They also bought plenty of chicken, fish, and meat, though Lin Ye planned to buy more of those from the nearby town later.
Then there were firecrackers, large red wedding characters, a red wedding quilt, red silk ribbons, and various other things.
Before long, the two of them couldn’t carry anything else. They had no choice but to bring the carriage over and load everything onto it.
Since this was the first market after the New Year, the streets were packed with people.
Lin Ye told Yun Jiu to wait beside the carriage while he quickly went to buy the remaining things. He promised to be back soon.
What Lin Ye hadn’t expected was that the moment he turned and walked away, someone would set their sights on Yun Jiu and the goods in the carriage.
Besides Lin Ye and his group, quite a few people from Yunjia Village had also come to Yuecheng. Some weren’t familiar enough with Lin Ye, while others had disagreements with him over various matters, so they hadn’t been shameless enough to ask to ride with him.
Among them were Yun Xiaoshu and Yun Xiaohua, although the two of them didn’t speak much to each other.
Most of these people were ge’er from the village. They had come together on someone’s ox cart, so they arrived later than Lin Ye and Yun Jiu.
Several of them were chatting excitedly when one particularly sharp-eyed ge’er suddenly tugged at the person beside him and pointed toward the carriage ahead.
“Eh? That carriage looks familiar. Isn’t it Lin Ye’s?”
The ge’er immediately turned to look. Sure enough, amid the bustling crowd stood a very familiar carriage.
Lin Ye’s family carriage had several colorful strips of cloth tied around it by his Amo. The carriage curtain was light purple, making it particularly eye-catching and easy to recognize.
Curious, several of them walked over. Soon, they spotted Yun Jiu standing alone beside the carriage.
Seeing that Yun Jiu was the only one there, the expressions of several ge’er immediately darkened.
If it weren’t for Yun Jiu, perhaps one of us could have been sitting in a carriage like this.
The more they thought about it, the more displeased they became with Yun Jiu. They were just about to go over and make trouble for him.
Yun Xiaohua had been in a bad mood lately. Every time he saw Yun Jiu, he couldn’t help feeling irritated. He turned around, intending to walk somewhere else, but several ge’er grabbed him and wouldn’t let him break away.
Yun Xiaoshu hadn’t intended to pay any attention to Yun Jiu either. But when he noticed the clothes Yun Jiu was wearing, they suddenly seemed painfully conspicuous to him.
The clothes Yun Jiu was wearing belonged to Lin Ye. The moment Yun Xiaoshu thought about Yun Jiu now wearing Lin Ye’s clothes, he couldn’t help imagining that perhaps Yun Jiu and Lin Ye had already consummated their marriage.
The thought made Yun Xiaoshu unbearably uncomfortable.
Lin Ye was such a gentle person. Even when it came to something like that, he would probably be gentle and tender, wouldn’t he?
Moonlightjie On RUHIP Chapter 025
Ugh here they come 😤