Nan Feng and Ye Ge sat side by side, with Nan Feng still feeling touched. When she was moved, she usually found herself at a loss for words and could only giggle awkwardly.
Contrarily, Ye Ge, calm as ever, said, “I heard from Uncle Nan that you were sick? How are you feeling now?”
Nan Feng swept back her hair: “I had a bit of a fever when I came back last night, but I took some medicine and it’s much better now.”
Ye Ge nodded and responded: “That’s good. The weather is getting colder day by day, take care of your health.”
“Mhm, I will.”
Although Nan Quanyou was dealing with a hedgehog nearby, he didn’t forget to keep an eye on the conversation. Seeing that Nan Feng and Ye Ge had nothing else to say, he called Ye Ge over: “Ye Ge, there’s a freshly boiled concoction in the kitchen stove at my place. Could you help me bring it here for Feng?”
Ye Ge immediately got up to fetch the medicine and very soon brought out the bowl of medicine.
He handed the bowl to Nan Feng, then quietly and gently advised, “Here you go, it’s quite hot, drink slowly!”
Nan Feng took the bowl and saw Ye Ge looking at her. It was a little uncomfortable feeling for her, but it seemed that Ye Ge wouldn’t let his guard down until she had finished the medicine.
So, she lifted the bowl and drank all the medicine in one gulp. As soon as she finished, Ye Ge took the empty bowl from her.
Nan Feng smiled at him, and said, “Thank you, you’ve gone through so much trouble.”
“Don’t worry about it!” Ye Ge also smiled.
At that moment, for reasons Nan Feng herself couldn’t explain, she suddenly blurted out, half-joking, half-serious: “You know? Last night, I felt really helpless up in that tree. I had a lot of thoughts. I was thinking, if someone could rescue me from that dark mountain forest, I would marry him…”
Before she could finish her sentence, the bowl in Ye Ge’s hands suddenly jumped and crashed onto the ground, breaking into two halves.
Nan Feng froze instantly, thinking she must have gone mad to say such a bold thing, and moreover, Ye Ge was clearly frightened!
This was too sudden!
What should she do?
While Ye Ge was bending over to pick up the pieces of the bowl, she hastened to correct herself: “No, no, don’t take it seriously, those were the desperate thoughts of a woman in distress. Now that I’ve been rescued and calmed down, I should also mention that you aren’t really my type…”
She was clearly trying to cover up her embarrassment.
Ye Ge paused for what seemed like a moment.
After a while, he finally sat down again, toying with the broken pieces in his hands. “When people are desperate, they do indeed have all sorts of impulses. Rest assured, I didn’t take it seriously,” he said calmly.
Nan Feng wished she could dig herself a hole and crawl in.
Ye Ge got up: “Since you’re alright now, guess I’ll head back first.”
“Ok….” was all Nan Feng could reply in a weak voice.
Nan Quanyou who had been cutting pork on the side completely missed what had happened. The noise of his chopping drowned out the sound of the bowl hitting the ground. By the time he looked up, Ye Ge had already walked out of the yard.
Nan Quanyou called out to Ye Ge, but received no response as Ye Ge walked away without looking back.
Nan Quanyou could only turn to Nan Feng: “Fengfeng, what just happened? Why did Ye Ge leave so quickly? I wanted to give some of this pork to him to take home. After all, he’s the one who caught it, we shouldn’t eat it all.”
Nan Feng, feeling utterly flustered herself, answered distractedly, “Maybe he has other matters to attend to.”
“…” At that, Nan Quanyou didn’t dare to ask any more questions.
Nan Feng blankly stared at the two broken pieces of the bowl on the ground while repeatedly knocking her head against her knees.
In the past, she had read many stories about men and women who clearly liked each other but didn’t dare to confess their feelings. Nan Feng had always thought those people were overreacting; if they had feelings, why not just speak them out instead of deceiving themselves?
However, she now understood.
Fear of embarrassment, fear of rejection, and fear of not even having the chance to remain friends afterwards.