The two n’s gazes locked in mid-air. Yu Minglang bent down, picked up Qian’s shoes, and seriously wiped them with a tissue, with a look on his face that would disgust Zheng Xu for months.
"My girlfriend is just a bit mischievous. Sotis the things she likes are too crazy."
Qian was so angry she could burst into flas.
This shaless guy, his words made it sound like she liked doing god knows what in the mud. Yu Minglang being shaless was nothing new, but she still had her dignity!
She rolled down the car window and stuck her head out. "Zheng Xu, are you here on business?"
"Yes." Zheng Xu’s gaze towards Qian was gentle.
Yu Minglang blocked the window with his body, cutting off Zheng Xu’s line of sight, and waved Qian’s shoe at Zheng Xu, "Brother Xu must be so busy, don’t waste his ti. Brother Xu, you must have plenty of won in the city waiting for your attention, right?"
Zheng Xu shot him a glance and said to Qian, "Mr Chen, I’m going to check out the school. You guys have fun."
Then he disdainfully said to Yu Minglang, "Next ti you take Mr Chen out, I’ll introduce you to so nice spots. If you want to fish, co to my estate instead of this rundown place where people can get hurt. Playing in the mud isn’t fun."
Yu Minglang flipped the bird at Zheng Xu’s car exhaust as Zheng Xu drove into the abandoned school.
After cleaning Qian’s shoes, he opened the car door, trying to mimic a gentleman from the movies by holding her little feet to put on her shoes, but ended up getting a kick to the face from Qian.
"Yu Xiaoqiang, you just go ahead and be ridiculous!"
This ti Yu Minglang learned his lesson. He cut a lot of grass and spread it on the muddy road, holding her hand to walk to the riverbank.
"i, don’t you think this is super romantic, like we’re walking a red carpet?"
Qian turned her head away, refusing to look at him.
Who the heck walks a red carpet looking this disheveled, wearing a man’s pants with the cuffs rolled up like this? From now on, she’d never follow his ideas to run from the city to play in the mud, it was sheer madness.
Yu Minglang was indeed good at fishing. This little creek didn’t have many people fishing, so he caught a bunch in no ti.
She sat by the water, watching him fish, as Yu Minglang chatted away, reminiscing about his youth.
"This river used to be much deeper. After school, we’d co here to play. I used sewing needles from ho as fishhooks, using branches, and always caught a bunch. But then I’d go ho and get beaten by my dad. My old man was the worst, eating the fish I caught and then beating ."
"Why did he beat you?"
"He’d judge how many classes I skipped that afternoon by the number of fish I caught... Sotis being too capable isn’t a good thing."
"Pfft!" Qian imagined Yu Minglang’s aggrieved expression back then and found it hilarious.
"Really, that old man was never ho, and whenever he ca back, sothing would happen. It’s a miracle I wasn’t pumled into crutches."
"You must’ve been really naughty when you were little." Back then, parents were straightforward with discipline; if you misbehaved, you got hit. Of course, soone like Yu Minglang would get hit more often.
Mr. Yu was clearly the responsible older brother, Mr. Yu was obedient and steady, Mr. Yu was a girl, but Yu Laomao was a troublemaker—how could they not discipline him?
"Thinking back, I was quite mischievous, always making my mom deal with complaints, but I did do so good deeds too. I even once got an award for being an exemplary youth."
Before high school, Yu Minglang’s grades were always good, but his conduct was poor, so while he had awards for being an exemplary student, he only once got an award for exemplary behavior.
"I rember Auntie once ntioned it when looking at photos. What did you do back then? Help an old lady cross the street and got spotted?"
"Look around here, do you see any streets? I got praised for leading a firefighting effort."
"Silencing witnesses?"
Yu Minglang glared at her, "Is that really how you think of ?"
"Otherwise, what kind of person do you think you are?" Qian pointed at her own pants, showing how he made her look like a fool in n’s pants; wasn’t this just one of his sches?
"Back then, I was fearless, nearly martyred. Do you see that school behind us? There was a warehouse where they stored sports equipnt—lots of balls and vault horses, all flammable. Then one day, a fire broke out, and I led my guys in to put it out; nearly choked to death."
Yu Minglang thought back to that incident; it was still fresh in his mory.
"At that ti, everyone else was in class, no one noticed. I saw black smoke coming from the warehouse, so I quickly rallied my guys to grab water. We split into three groups: one to inform the teacher, one to carry water. I ran in to see if there was anyone inside; that smoke almost did in!"
Qian thought for a mont and quickly pieced together several facts.
"First, everyone was in class, and you noticed, aning you skipped class. Second, with you, there were just three people, and you really didn’t do much, almost choked?"
Yu Minglang originally wanted to show his girlfriend how brave he was as a youth, but clever Qian saw right through it, leaving him embarrassed.
"i, why can’t you just play dumb for once?"
"Would you even like if I were dumb?"
It wasn’t like she looked down on Yu Minglang; this guy not only was into looks but also disliked dumb won. He was lucky to have t her; otherwise, with his attitude, he’d have a hard ti finding a wife.
"I love my i no matter what, co on, give a kiss~"
Qian pressed his pursed lips flat with her hand, "Hurry up and fish. Catch a big one and maybe I’ll reward you."
He caught quite a few, mostly small fish about a hand’s length, and they all looked the sa: big heads, thin tails, didn’t seem to have much at.
"These are about as big as it gets. We call them ’bighead fish,’ officially known as ’dark-tailed goby.’ It’s not the sa as the bighead carp sold in the market. This river is basically an estuary, producing just two kinds of fish: bighead fish and barracuda. Barracuda are big but can’t be caught, only netted."
"...So, you ca all this way to catch these little things and made fall and hurt myself like that?! They’re useless for barbecuing!"
She thought she’d get to eat the legendary grilled fish for lunch, but these tiny things would just turn to ash on a grill.
Seeing her about to get angry, Yu Minglang quickly explained.
"I brought canned food for a picnic, and a pot. I can make fish soup for you; this fish is great for soup. I’ll catch a bucketful, and you can take it back to your aunt. She’ll think, ’What a reliable son-in-law!’ Plus, they can be made into dried fish!"
Qian massaged her temples, "My mom would be thrilled. Any mom would love a man like you."
Pleased with the complint, Yu Minglang’s smile was dazzlingly white.
"Is it because I’m that good, that thoughtful?"
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