Finally Being Snatched Away at My Wedding by My Ex-Boyfriend - Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Summer Finale

The sky was very blue, and the sunlight still wrapped around the branches like honey, not changing in the slightest because of Su Yuan’s unhappiness.

He gripped Pei Xing’s wrist, burying his head and walking away recklessly. Pei Xing let himself be led, and they didn’t stop until they reached the lakeshore.

The verdant mountains cast their reflections into the lake.

Su Yuan stood by the shore, more silent than the green hills. Pei Xing took hold of his wrist in return and led him to sit down by the water.

Su Yuan sniffled, his voice rasping. “Pei Xing, did you know from the very beginning that this banquet would be terrible? Is that why you didn’t want to come?”

Pei Xing looked at Su Yuan’s cheeks, which were slightly puffed with anger. “That wasn’t a banquet. At most, it was just a feast.”

Su Yuan, feeling teased, looked up and gave Pei Xing a huffy glare.

“Don’t be angry anymore,” Pei Xing really wanted to touch his face. “Okay?”

“I’m even angrier…” Su Yuan yanked up a handful of weeds beside him. “It’s all because of me that you came here.”

Pei Xing smiled, leaning back on his hands. “Well, you got that part right.”

Hearing this, Su Yuan threw the shredded grass at him. “I’m angry with you! Why aren’t you angry?”

Pei Xing didn’t dodge; he simply brushed the leaves off his face. “Right. Because you are being angry with me, I’m not angry anymore.”

This single sentence felt like a cool breeze blowing against Su Yuan’s burning eyes.

Su Yuan put down the dirt, patted his hands, and shifted closer to Pei Xing. Watching Su Yuan whose temper came fast and vanished just as quickly Pei Xing couldn’t help but laugh again.

The two sat side-by-side by the lake. Watershield leaves carpeted the surface near the shore, occasionally swaying and bumping into one another like souls meeting.

Pei Xing spoke slowly: “After my parents died, the compensation money went to my maternal grandfather. At my parents’ funeral, the mourning team had barely left the courtyard before they started discussing how to split the money.

“My mother had two brothers. My grandfather put that ten thousand yuan on the table and said whoever raised me could take half; he and my other uncle would split the rest.”

Looking at Pei Xing’s calm expression, Su Yuan felt increasingly distressed. “Weren’t they sad at all?”

“Families that value boys over girls are like that.”

Pei Xing waved away the mosquitoes swarming around Su Yuan. “My younger uncle took me home. That night, my grandfather took my eldest uncle’s tricycle; it flipped into a pond, and because they had both been drinking, they drowned on the spot. Not long after, my younger uncle also drank himself to death. So, the people in the village call me a ‘jinx’ (sangmenxing).

“They wouldn’t let other children play with me. Only Pei Wen stood up for me when others bullied me. Whatever my aunt shortened me in terms of food or clothes though he didn’t quite understand it he would share his with me if he saw my clothes were thin or my school lunch box had no meat.

“My aunt… I can understand her. I have no blood relation to her, and the family had lost its source of income. Raising two children was very difficult, but she at least let me live. She didn’t exchange me for money like those families back then who sold their children.”

Su Yuan suddenly understood why Pei Xing had agreed to let Zhao Hui give the money to Pei Wen for school that night by the wall. Even knowing Zhao Hui had withheld half the rent, he hadn’t lashed out.

“They called me ‘Jinx’ and ‘Unlucky star’ for nearly ten years. Once I started getting more scholarships in high school and the family’s conditions improved, the people around me shut their mouths. After the Gaokao ended, the villagers changed instantly they became so friendly. But I have never changed, have I?”

Pei Xing looked at Su Yuan.

“I’m also curious. Am I still not”

“No.”

Su Yuan shook his head firmly. “Pei Xing is nothing like what those bad people say.”

He was once again amused by Su Yuan’s earnestness. “Truly an innocent young master; to think I’d hear such a high-level insult as ‘bad people’.”

Su Yuan thought for a moment. “Bastards?”

“Mm, that one’s a bit better.”

“Pei Xing is nothing like what those bastards say…!” Su Yuan said indignantly. “Pei Xing is wonderful. Because of Pei Xing, I’ve been so lucky this summer, doing so many things I’ve never done before.”

Pei Xing sat cross-legged, elbows on his knees, propping up his face. “Mm. I also feel this summer has been very lucky.”

Su Yuan looked at him, his gaze sincere and certain. “Pei Xing will become a very powerful adult in the future. When you meet annoying bastards, you won’t have to shake hands or drink with them. You can stand directly in front of them, like this”

Su Yuan crossed his arms, tilted his chin, and looked down his nose at people. “‘I’m not interested in what you have to say.’ Then walk away coolly.”

Pei Xing cooperatively rubbed his chin. “Mm. To become such a powerful adult, I will work very hard.”

Su Yuan finally laughed, like a pale purple Japanese iris swaying in the wind, softer than the petals themselves.

As the sun moved slowly, Pei Xing helped Su Yuan up before the rays reached his face, catching a grasshopper for him to play with along the way. The two walked slowly toward home.

A black official car was parked at the courtyard entrance.

Secretary Wang, who had been waiting to the side, ran toward Su Yuan in a flurry, his face wearing the same apologetic smile Mayor Liu had worn earlier.

Without waiting for Su Yuan to speak, Pei Xing took the grasshopper from his hand and entered the courtyard first.

Pei Xing didn’t know exactly how rich or powerful Su Yuan’s family was, nor was he interested. Perhaps this “lack of interest” was merely a well-disguised sense of inferiority.

But at least, the disparity in status would not happen this summer.

He placed the grasshopper on the persimmon tree in the yard, looking up at the fruit that was beginning to turn red. He calculated they would be edible in another month.

Before long, Secretary Wang came in, toasted him with water instead of wine, and quickly retreated from the courtyard to drive away.

Pei Xing looked at Su Yuan and raised an eyebrow.

Su Yuan picked up a peach Pei Xing had just sliced, shrugged, and sauntered upstairs.

…

That night, Su Yuan made another set of clothes for the Little Crested Ibis so it could have a change of outfit. Pei Xing sat at the table, watching Su Yuan stuff the cotton and dried jasmine liner into the ibis’s belly.

“Be gentle.”

“…” Su Yuan grabbed a piece of fabric and threw it at Pei Xing’s face. “I’m its ‘birth mother’; would I hurt it?”

Pei Xing smiled and put away the dressed-up Little Crested Ibis.

At night, Su Yuan stood at the bedroom door, staring unblinkingly at Pei Xing; Pei Xing stood by the living room door, seemingly preparing to leave.

After a moment of eye contact, Pei Xing closed the door and walked toward the bedroom.

Su Yuan smiled and lay back on the bed, turning on the floor lamp to continue reading.

Pei Xing set up the floor bed and sat beside him. “What are you reading?”

The person on the bed in pajamas didn’t answer. Clutching the book, he rolled off the edge of the bed. Pei Xing reached out to catch him; Su Yuan shifted and leaned against his shoulder, spreading open the dark purple hardback cover.

“Maugham’s The Painted Veil.” Su Yuan looked up at him. “Want to read together?”

Pei Xing felt a bit helpless as he wrapped his arms around Su Yuan. “You’ve already rolled down here.”

Su Yuan gave a perfunctory “Mm-mm-mm.” “If you won’t hold me, I just have to come to you myself.”

Su Yuan pressed the book into his hands. Pei Xing held the book, and whenever Su Yuan poked him, he turned the page. Soon, Su Yuan’s pokes became lighter and slower, until finally, they stopped altogether.

Su Yuan leaned against his shoulder, sleeping quietly. He had no weight, like holding a breathing feather.

Pei Xing didn’t close the book immediately. After placing the rose-colored bookmark, he continued reading.

“I only wanted to make you less unhappy.”

“I have so much work to do; I don’t have much time to think of you.”

Walter’s duplicity made him somewhat annoyed, yet he understood everything he did deeply.

He closed the book.

Pei Xing put Su Yuan back on the bed, tucked him in, and lay down properly on the floor. After a quiet moment, he turned to look at Su Yuan. The moonlight falling on Su Yuan’s face arrived with the night; thick eyelashes steadily guarded the eyes that would shed tears for him.

His heart was both silent and clamorous.

It was as if the “strange person” had shifted from Walter to himself.

…

The reeds in the wetlands had grown a section taller in the sunlight of these two months.

Su Yuan craned his neck, peering through the gaps in the stalks at the Crested Ibises nearby. Just as the person beside him stood up, Su Yuan grabbed him and whispered, “Where are you going?”

“The ‘Little Bird’ is turning into a giraffe,” Pei Xing said. “I’m going to find another rock to sit on.”

Su Yuan nodded.

A Crested Ibis stood still on the shallows, its long black beak pecking at the water like a fired arrow. A fish was caught, and the bird quickly flew from the shallows, landing less than five meters away from them.

Su Yuan held his breath.

The ibis’s toes looked like sharpened red jade piercing the fish’s belly; the red on the tip of its beak was indistinguishable between blood or its natural color. Su Yuan watched with wide eyes, then turned his head, pretending he couldn’t smell the fishy scent wafting toward him.

Not far away, two Crested Ibises flew in one after the other. The one behind had a slightly smaller left wing, its flight posture tilting slightly.

Su Yuan felt a sudden premonition and stared at it intently.

The moment it landed, that light gray mark on its back appeared unexpectedly before Su Yuan’s eyes. It spread its wings as if showing off.

Xin Xin.

Su Yuan forgot to move, his mind going blank as he stared at the ibis he had been searching for for three years.

The congenital spinal defect of “Xin Xin” made it limp as it walked, yet it always kept its neck and crest high. It spread its wings, flapped them fiercely to drive away the “owner” of the fish, then snatched the fish and flew away without looking back.

Wow, “Xin Xin,” you’re so mean.

Pei Xing returned with the rocks, stacking two firmly. Still uneasy, he took Su Yuan’s hand and placed it on his own shoulder, whispering, “I’ll bring a chair for you next time.”

Su Yuan looked at him, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

“So happy?”

It was strange Su Yuan loved to smile, but Pei Xing could tell that his smile right now was different from usual. “Did you see another ‘Xin Xin’?”

Su Yuan thought for a moment and shook his head. “No. It looks like I’ll have to come back to look again next time.”

With summer coming to an end, “next time” became extremely subtle.

Pei Xing smiled. “Okay.”

…

As they headed home, the sun was setting behind them, but the light was as bright as a sunrise.

Su Yuan was looking down, lost in thought, when the person beside him suddenly said, “I’ll take you somewhere.”

They rode their bicycles, weaving through the country lanes. Finally, Su Yuan followed Pei Xing to a three-way junction.

There were few people and even fewer cars on the road.

He wasn’t unfamiliar with this place nearby was the jasmine cultivation base. The jasmine on his windowsill was picked by Su Yuan from here. However, he still didn’t understand why Pei Xing had brought him here.

After a short wait, a small blue truck drove toward them.

Pei Xing stepped on his bicycle pedal and tilted his head toward him. “Follow behind me, and keep a safe distance from the truck.”

Su Yuan still had doubts but nodded okay anyway.

The moment the truck drove past, Su Yuan smelled an intense fragrance of jasmine. The truck was filled with an entire load of jasmine flowers; the wind from its movement blew through the blossoms, and the snow-white petals flew toward him like a rainstorm.

Su Yuan looked at Pei Xing ahead of him and suddenly understood.

The blue truck laden with jasmine drove toward the sunset. As they cycled, chasing the last sunset of summer, they were drenched in a white rain.

“Pei Xing, I don’t feel like this summer has any regrets.”

“Even if there were, it doesn’t matter. There’s always next autumn.”

“I should have been the one to say that.”

Su Yuan laughed, the moonlight appearing incredibly ambiguous on his cheeks, like pure white jasmine. “In autumn, it’s time for you to come to Huaicheng to find me.”

Pei Xing dazed slightly, then soon laughed too and nodded. “Okay.”

“Su Yuan, wait for me to find you in the autumn.”

Pei Xing did come to Huaicheng to find him whether it was the autumn six years ago or six years later, Pei Xing had come.