"What are you doing?!"
Yui Yuigahama was startled by Bai Yuze's actions. After breaking free from his embrace, she immediately crouched down to check on his "injuries."
Looking at Tuanzi, who was still concerned about him even after being scared, Bai Yuze smiled and then consciously pulled his pant leg up a bit.
"Huh? Where's the wound?"
Yui Yuigahama searched for a long time but couldn't find the bite mark from Sabre, which confused her. But when she looked up and saw Bai Yuze's smiling expression, she immediately realized she had been tricked!
"Xiao Ze, you big meanie! I'm not talking to you anymore!"
Yui Yuigahama stomped her foot in anger. Originally, she wanted to step directly on Bai Yuze's foot, but in the end, she just stomped her own.
Yui Yuigahama turned to leave but was stopped by Bai Yuze.
"Where are you going?"
"Home!"
"You can go home, but please pay the money."
"Money? What money?"
When Yui Yuigahama saw Bai Yuze's mischievous expression, she immediately felt a bad premonition! She felt like she was about to fall into an abyss.
"Do you really think the tissue I gave you was free? Pay up!"
"Alright, alright! How much?"
Yui Yuigahama was so exasperated by Bai Yuze that she spoke through gritted teeth.
"Not much… just a hundred million!"
Bai Yuze thought for a moment, then set the price.
"How much? A hundred million? Is this tissue diamond-studded? This is forced buying and selling!"
"You can't say that. Think about how many pieces of paper there are in the world? I found a unique piece of paper among them to wipe your tears. Is it too much to charge you a hundred million?"
Bai Yuze had the expression of a cunning merchant, while Yui Yuigahama stomped her foot and questioned him.
"Well, people are all unique too! You wiped the tears of a unique me, so it cancels out!"
With that, Yui Yuigahama tried to push past Bai Yuze and leave, but Bai Yuze wouldn't let her succeed.
"No money, just my life."
Yui Yuigahama simply gave up. Against a scoundrel, one must be even more of a scoundrel. She wasn't going to acknowledge the debt!
"That actually reminds me."
"What are you doing? Ah!"
Bai Yuze directly scooped Yui Yuigahama up in a princess carry.
"A unique person used to offset a unique piece of paper… very reasonable!"
"You jerk! How is that an equivalent exchange?!"
Out of shyness, Yui Yuigahama began to struggle. Seeing this, Bai Yuze immediately said in a flustered tone.
"Don't move! I'm about to lose my grip!"
With that, he deliberately pretended to lose his balance, scaring Tuanzi into quickly wrapping her arms around his neck.
"You absolutely must not let go!"
"Where do you live? I'll take you home. Your leg is so injured, how can you walk so far?"
"You can follow Sabre… it can take you home…"
Bai Yuze smiled, then carried Tuanzi out of the alley. Sabre, waiting at the alley entrance, saw them approach, glanced at Bai Yuze, and unhurriedly walked ahead to lead the way.
Bai Yuze always felt that Sabre's gaze meant, "Are you done?" But he smiled and didn't pay it any mind, after all, their success was entirely due to Sabre's assistance.
Bystanders, seeing such a scene, couldn't help but whisper and discuss. Tuanzi, hearing the chatter around her, couldn't help but cover her face with her hands.
As long as she couldn't see, then the embarrassed person wasn't her! People weren't talking about her!
At this point, she also saw through Bai Yuze's lie. If he really couldn't carry her, how could he have walked so far without falling?
However, she didn't expose him. After all, she didn't have to walk and could rest for a while, so why not?
— — — — — —
On a beautiful day, the air was sweet, and the cats and dogs on the roadside were all in pairs. At home, the village elder sighed as he ate alone, with only one or two small dishes on the table. The cooking utensils in the house were upside down on the stove, as were the pots, bowls, and ladles.
They had been left like that since they were bought. Although the village elder would clean them when bored, they had never actually been used. Only a pair of somewhat faded, cleaned chopsticks remained in the village elder's hand.
He had lived such a dry, dull, and solitary life for six years. His colleagues had long since coupled up, and even the children of his juniors called him 'uncle', yet he was still alone to this day…
The radio was still playing that melodramatic romance story. After turning off the radio, he silently lit a cigarette. He had once sworn that he would quit smoking as soon as he found his other half. As a result, his cigarettes were almost piled up to fill the whole house, but his other half was still nowhere to be seen.
He was a bit annoyed. He threatened the paired cats and dogs, scaring them away, and then didn't forget to flip them off, muttering.
"Baka yarou!"
Seeing his cigarette almost at an end, he decided to go out to buy more. But the moment his foot touched the street, he saw a couple exuding an aura of youthful romance, being affectionate with each other. The girl was practically hanging off the boy!
The village elder was silent for a moment, then turned around and went back into his house. Soon after, shouting could be heard from inside the house…
"Huh? Did someone just swear?"
Yui Yuigahama released her hands. She seemed to have heard someone cursing the god of love, and in a very unpleasant way!
"Who knows?"
The two of them didn't know how much their actions had hurt a long-single Japanese office worker, after all, seemingly intimate gestures were just everyday occurrences for those in relationships…
Led by Sabre, Bai Yuze carried Yui Yuigahama to the front of the Youbihama family home.
"I'm home, you can put me down now!"
Yui Yuigahama's feet finally touched the ground. She glared at Bai Yuze. She was sure Bai Yuze had taken advantage of her when she was getting down!
Bai Yuze expressed his helplessness about this. He wasn't ready yet, and she was in a hurry to get down. He couldn't help it if he accidentally touched her behind! He couldn't just drop her, could he?
"Aren't you going to invite me in for a drink of water?"
"Hmph!"
Yui Yuigahama huffed and somewhat unsteadily went to open the door.
"I'm home!"
"You're home? Sabre was very playful today, wasn't it? You walked it for so long!"
Tuan Ma was a little surprised. Usually, walking Sabre only took about an hour, and that included the round trip! Today, it took two and a half hours!
Although she knew her daughter wanted to spend more time with Sabre, when did her daughter's physical fitness become so good?
She had just poked her head out when she froze. She saw a handsome young man standing outside the door. After ruling out the possibility of Sabre turning into a human, Tuan Ma immediately realized that the person who had come to 'dig up' her little cabbage, which she had nurtured for many years, had appeared!
But why did it feel like the roles were reversed? It seemed the other person was the cabbage…