NH chapter 035

Chapter 35 Tea Egg

Probably because it was no longer just him bearing everything alone as before, not long after, Huo Ye noticeably relaxed a lot.

He regained some energy, lazily leaned close to Shen Tingyu’s ear and said, “Young Master, I don’t want to try anymore. Just carry me to the top of the mountain like this, and call me when we get there…”

Shen Tingyu abruptly stopped in his tracks. Hearing that tone, he felt like the worried person from earlier had turned into a fool: “Get down!”

“I can’t walk, I can’t get down.”

Huo Ye tightened his grip around his neck and elongated his voice as he spoke.

Shen Tingyu furiously laughed, “Huo Ye, so you’re just trying to trick me into carrying you, right? Who’s the young master here?”

“Of course, it’s you.”

“Then hurry up and get down!”

Shen Tingyu was always sharp-tongued, but he had no intention of letting go, still firmly supporting Huo Ye’s knees.

Huo Ye said he wouldn’t get down, but it was just a joke, and he was actually the first one to loosen his hold.

He dropped back to the ground, rummaged in his pocket, then clenched both fists and placed them in front of Shen Tingyu’s eyes. Shen Tingyu reflexively pulled his face back to avoid making eye contact: “What’s this again?”

Huo Ye nudged his fists, “Guess what’s inside.”

“…You’re quite childish.”

Shen Tingyu grabbed his right fist, “I want this one.”

Huo Ye opened his right hand, palm facing up, where a small White Rabbit milk candy lay.

“Ugh, what is this? I don’t like sweets.”

Shen Tingyu picked it up and casually began to unwrap it.

Halfway through, he paused, “Wait, aren’t you the one with low blood sugar? Why give it to me?” He looked at Huo Ye in confusion.

Huo Ye smiled slightly, then opened his left hand, revealing another White Rabbit milk candy lying in his palm.

Shen Tingyu: “……”

“Enough, you clearly have candies in both hands.”

Huo Ye closed his fingers around the candy, “Exactly, so no matter how you choose, I won’t let you go empty-handed.”

Shen Tingyu fell silent for a few seconds, quietly unwrapped the candy and stuffed it whole into his mouth along with the transparent wrapping. He didn’t throw the wrapper away, but rather discreetly slipped it into his coat pocket when Huo Ye wasn’t looking.

Huo Ye indeed had a bit of a low blood sugar issue; this part he wasn’t lying about to Shen Tingyu, always keeping some candies on him just in case.

“Doesn’t it taste bad? The White Rabbit isn’t cheap.” Huo Ye said seriously while sucking on the candy, “I still have those fruit candies in my pocket, different colors and flavors, just one cent each, I didn’t give those to you.”

Shen Tingyu also chewed away, responding with a bland expression, “Thanks, without this candy I would’ve starved to death.”

“……”

Huo Ye helplessly said, “Do you have to speak like that?”

Shen Tingyu glanced at him, the corners of his lips lifting slightly, rarely revealing a warm smile, “It’s too sweet, my teeth hurt.”

“Do you still want it?”

“Want.”

Around 7:10 in the morning, the mist in the mountains began to drift away with the wind, as if a thin veil was lifted, the peaks appeared interconnected, rising and falling, the golden morning light painting the world with a bright and magnificent color. Look, the sun is out.

On the mountaintop, there was a small pavilion for tourists to rest. Huo Ye leaned on the stone railing, gazing at the red clouds on the horizon.

As dawn peeled away the clouds to reveal the sun, how far could dawn be?

“Shen Tingyu.”

“Hmm?”

“What university do you want to apply to?”

Shen Tingyu didn’t think much about it and replied calmly, “Finance, I guess.”

“You want to study finance?” Huo Ye asked.

Shen Tingyu was about to nod affirmatively but was interrupted as Huo Ye asked again, “Do you want to study it, or does your mom want you to study it?”

Shen Tingyu paused for a moment.

Finally, after careful consideration, he replied, “My mom.”

In his eyes, Huo Ye saw a hint of emptiness, which was certainly not the gaze of a top student with outstanding grades.

Huo Ye had once been fortunate enough to share an examination room with a student who ranked first in their class and had witnessed many academic elites displaying that confident demeanor during exams.

What was directly visible was ambition. They were so clear about their goals, steadfast, and idealistic, yet grounded.

They never wished for high scores but estimated how many points they might lose.

An arrow must have a target to be shot with full force.

But these qualities were all absent in Shen Tingyu.

He had no goals, no ideals, and no target.

Huo Ye bit his lip, no longer asking Shen Tingyu, but turned his gaze away and initiated a conversation about himself, “I want to study law.”

“Law?” Shen Tingyu furrowed his brow, “Don’t you have any other options?”

Huo Ye ignored him: “I want to become a lawyer in a marriage law firm, specifically dealing with divorce cases.”

“……”

Shen Tingyu: “Have you heard the saying?”

“What?”

“It’s better to let people physically harm someone rather than teach them to avoid their wives.”

Huo Ye smiled, but his gaze was cold, shaking his head: “Unhappy marriages should end; if there’s no love, why stay together?”

Shen Tingyu was momentarily at a loss for words.

This indeed touched on his knowledge blind spot.

“Love and lack of love are all things that happen before marriage. A man’s promises are just like eating lettuce, all nonsense. Even if before marriage he treats you like the most cherished treasure, after seven years of itchiness, he realizes that the relationship has already rotted, although they strive to cover it with cling film, cling film cannot preserve something that has changed in quality.” Huo Ye stated with a cool tone, impassive.

Shen Tingyu listened for a long time and finally managed to retort: “Why does it sound like you’re not a man—”

“Yeah, so what.” Huo Ye smiled subtly, looking deeply at him, “But men can also lie to men, right?”

It’s true, but Shen Tingyu always felt that something was off, as if it hinted at someone.

However, Huo Ye quickly provided an answer.

“During my first return to my hometown, which is here, I happened to hit the Spring Festival travel rush in 2008. All the train stations and buses were completely packed. My dad barely managed to snatch two tickets for the bus back home.”

“Two tickets, only two seats; at that time, my sister hadn’t been born yet, and I had just turned six. My mom held me in the window seat while my dad sat on the outer side shielding against the flow of people.”

“You probably haven’t been on that kind of bus, right? Usually, it’s limited to 42 seats, but at that time it was hard to get a ticket, and so many people wanted to go home for the New Year. The driver secretly opened the door, and as long as you paid, you could get on, shouting loudly to make us squeeze in a bit more. I never counted precisely, but considering every inch of air was filled with people, the actual capacity must have been doubled.”

Shen Tingyu certainly hadn’t been on one, and this was the first time he heard about it, his expression reflecting a kind of naive bewilderment.

At the same time, it was the first time he felt that he and Huo Ye seemed like two worlds apart, clearly close yet not sharing the same sky.

“That year, my dad went bankrupt due to business failure, being plotted against, burdened with hundreds of thousands of debts, and to avoid jail, he had to rob Peter to pay Paul, seeking loans from unscrupulous people in the underworld. He said he was going home for the New Year, but in reality, he was already in dire straits, needing to take the whole family back to the village to hide for a while, for fear of loan sharks coming to find us.”

The wind scattered his words, Huo Ye spoke flatly as if recounting someone else’s story, “When my mom married him, there wasn’t even a feast; they just took one cheap wedding photo that cost a block of money.”

“My mom gets motion sickness; during nearly a twenty-hour journey, stopping and going, however long it bounced, she threw up for however long. Halfway through the trip, the driver stopped, giving everyone ten minutes to use the restroom. In that service area, there was someone selling tea eggs; due to Spring Festival, the demand exceeded supply, prices were severely inflated, but even at the highest price it was only eight yuan each. My mom watched others eat and swallowed hard.”

“Seeing the bus was about to leave, she asked me if I wanted to eat. I hadn’t had anything to eat the whole journey and was starving. I said I did. So she gathered her courage to ask my dad if he could give her eight yuan to buy one tea egg.” At this point, Huo Ye suddenly asked him.

“Shen Tingyu, those eight yuan may mean nothing to you, but do you know what it meant to us?”

“……It’s just a tea egg.”

Shen Tingyu replied awkwardly, unsure of how to continue the conversation.

“Yeah, just a tea egg.” Huo Ye looked down momentarily, concealing the fleeting sarcasm and pity, “But in front of everyone on the bus, my dad slapped her to the ground, saying people like us, so worthless, couldn’t even afford an eight-yuan tea egg?”

Shen Tingyu fell into complete silence. However, Huo Ye smiled it away, all previous emotions turning into distant clouds, subconsciously returning to the main topic: “So, I want to study law, to become a weapon for expelling the unhappy. I want those men who cannot provide happiness for their wives to lose all legitimate grounds, and those fists and violence aimed at loved ones will become my evidence.”

“What I said isn’t for the sake of sentimentality, nor to earn anyone’s sympathy.” Huo Ye coaxed gently, his eyes glimmering with encouragement, “I just hope you understand, don’t let your parents’ wishes dictate you forever. Do what you truly want to do.”

At this point, the sun had completely risen.

The sky, clouds, and mist seemed to have all opened up at once.

“Shen Tingyu!”

Shen Tingyu suddenly regained his senses, but Huo Ye had already turned around, leisurely walking down the mountain, casually waving his hand back at him: “Let’s go—”

“It’s bright now; we’re going home.”