"I love gossip!" Gu Youyou said with justifiable pride.
Uh, well, it’s natural for women to love gossip, and Youyou is no exception.
"Do all women love gossip this much?" he asked.
"How so?" Gu Youyou raised an eyebrow.
Women do love gossip, she can ruin her own image by admitting she loves gossip, but she won’t allow others to say it, especially men.
Jin Zijin calmly said, "Women in the village are just like you."
Gu Youyou: "..." When did you get to know the women in the village so well?
But what she was more concerned about was not that, but that Jin Zijin was comparing her to the women of the village.
In Gu Youyou’s mind, the women of the village were like Gu Family’s aunts and grandmas.
How could she be like those women?
Are you kidding me, Jin Zijin?
Gu Youyou’s face darkened, and she said, "Are you saying I’m like a country girl?"
"You are one." Jin Zijin felt it was self-evident, completely unaware that Gu Youyou was starting to get angry.
Of course, he might have noticed but pretended not to.
Did he want to deliberately anger her, to experience the sharp claws of a provoked little cat?
"Nonsense." The little cat was enraged and loudly retorted.
She was not like that at all, Gu Family’s old lady was just unreasonable and insufferable.
Jin Zijin raised an eyebrow and put down the rattan in his hand, "Is that not the case?" A village girl, a girl from the village.
"Of course... I am!" Gu Youyou’s escalated volume suddenly dropped, warily looking at Jin Zijin.
What are you up to now?
She glared at Jin Zijin with a dark face, grinding her teeth, "Talking to you requires utmost caution, you’re always intentionally or unintentionally setting traps for me."
Still not giving up, still want to pry my origins? Too bad you wouldn’t believe my origins even if I told you.
You’re a Taoist, what if you decide to exorcise ghosts... What if you turn me into an actual wandering spirit? The thought made her appear somewhat guilty.
"That’s because you have a guilty conscience." Jin Zijin, seeing her guilty look, was all the more inclined to rile her up.
Gu Youyou was startled for a moment, then suddenly burst into laughter. "As if you don’t have a guilty conscience," she said. "We’re both in the same boat, so let’s not point fingers at each other. But I’m not as petty as you; if you don’t tell, I won’t ask."
Jin Zijin narrowed his eyes. She was smart, had she deflected the blame again? How dull!
After fussing for a while, Jin Zijin finally finished the rattan chair, but it still had no legs.
Gu Youyou was startled, watching how he would turn this legless rattan chair into something miraculous.
Jin Zijin gave her a mysteriously smug smile, then unleashed on her a devastatingly charming hair-ruffle, before turning and going inside.
Watching his suave departure, Gu Youyou subconsciously reached up to touch the top of her head, where the warmth of his large hand lingered, as if it were still there, prompting an irresistible urge to touch and confirm.
Of course, there was no warm hand on her head. Gu Youyou stuck out her tongue and her cheeks flushed slightly red.
Having lived two lives, she was no longer a girl with first love’s innocence, yet she harbored a young girl’s feelings. She felt she shouldn’t be —maybe it was this body’s maidenly hormonal impact influencing her.
...What sort of jumbled theory is that? She shook her head.
Gu Youyou watched as he brought out some wood and started tinkering away incessantly.
After a while, it began to take shape.
He was making a wooden frame, and the legless rattan chair wasn’t meant to be placed on the ground; it was supposed to hang from the frame.