"Let’s go home," he said, while stooping down to fill in the cave.
Ruan Jiaojiao couldn’t keep things to herself and asked him on the way back, "Brother Xi, what else did you put inside? Why do I feel like I smelled the fragrance of fruits?"
Ruan Jiaojiao’s sense of smell was not as sharp as it had been in her past life, and the cave’s earthy scent made it difficult to be certain, although she was suspicious.
Xiu Xi, who was holding her hand, stiffened.
This was clearly a sign of guilt, and Ruan Jiaojiao became even more suspicious.
However, she didn’t dwell on it much, assuming it was his own stash of food. After all, he’d had a hard life before, and he might still lack a sense of security, wanting to hide some food to ensure his future livelihood.
If it really was fruit, then he must have picked it when he went to the front mountain.
She shook his hand and whispered a negotiation, "Brother Xi, I won’t eat your fruit, but next time you go to the front mountain and see any fruit trees, could you dig up a few small ones for me? I want to plant them in the yard. That way, when they grow up, I will have lots and lots of fruit to eat."
As she spoke, Ruan Jiaojiao’s voice lifted with joy, her eyes squinting happily as if she could already see the blissful days ahead with a bounty of fruits.
Xiu Xi in front of her stopped.
He halted in front of the rear door’s threshold, turned his head to look at her with a serious expression, and a touch of hurt.
"What’s wrong?" Ruan Jiaojiao’s heart skipped a beat when he gazed at her, and she blinked, reconsidering her recent words, which didn’t seem to have been wrong.
"Don’t you want to?" Ruan Jiaojiao asked, biting her little mouth, feeling downcast but still said, "It’s okay then, if Brother Xi doesn’t want to, no worries."
"No, it’s not that I don’t want to," Xiu Xi hastily explained, seeming to have something he didn’t want to say, but seeing Ruan Jiaojiao misunderstanding him, thinking he didn’t want to share his private stash of food with her, appeared somewhat hurt.
He had no choice but to reveal the secret he’d been keeping.
"There are fruits inside, many of them, given by monkeys," he confessed.
It turned out that long, long ago, even before the monkeys had abducted Ruan Jiaojiao, the monkeys from the front mountain had been bringing fruits for Ruan Jiaojiao. Each time, they were delivered to the Ruan Family’s backyard and never encountered by the family members, as he would intercept them.
He was naturally carnivorous and not interested in fruits.
But he didn’t like other creatures bringing her food to eat; that was his prerogative. So he buried all the fruit.
He hadn’t expected those monkeys to be so bold as to abduct her later on.
After he brought her back, those monkeys continued to bring her fruit, but he still hid them away...
And yet, he never anticipated his carefully guarded secret of several months would be spilled during a casual compliment from Ruan Jiaojiao when she said "I like you the most."
Ruan Jiaojiao stared blankly at Xiu Xi, taking a good while to digest what his words meant.
"Don’t be mad," Xiu Xi urged, looking at her worriedly.
She wasn’t angry, she was just too shocked.
First, she hadn’t expected those monkeys to continue to bring her fruit, apparently treating her as one of their own young, although she thought her body was quite beautiful, nothing like a monkey.
Second, she hadn’t anticipated Xiu Xi to hoard the fruit like that.
She could actually feel that this little antagonist’s concern for her seemed to be... going off track...