Peach Blossom Land On Longyin Island Chapter 9
byAccompanying An Le
“Apologies, I am a bit busy right now.” An Le had only taken half a step when he heard An Xiaoyu’s polite yet somewhat cold refusal.
Tsk, even the excuse was so perfunctory. Driven by curiosity, An Le unconsciously stopped and turned to look.
An Linmian’s smile froze for a moment, then quickly returned to normal. She pressed, “What is it? I can help you.”
“I have something to discuss with him, and it’s not convenient to bring you along,” An Xiaoyu said, pointing toward An Le.
Seeing An Xiaoyu point at him, An Le guessed that the other party was using him as an excuse to refuse without being direct.
An Xiaoyu was determined to leave and had no future with the people here. An Le considerately stopped and turned to face An Xiaoyu, signaling that he would wait for him.
An Linmian had been rejected but showed no intention of backing down. She said, “Then I’ll wait until you two are finished talking.”
“After we finish talking, it will be time to sleep,” An Xiaoyu said, pausing briefly, then pointing at An Le again, adding, “Sleeping with him.”
An Le: “…….”
An Le felt the intense, teasing gazes around him and awkwardly explained, “Just regular sleeping, regular sleeping.” Yet, he felt like he was only making things worse. Within a few sentences, many villagers had gathered to watch the spectacle, and bursts of jeering erupted from the crowd.
An Le: “……”
An Linmian seemed completely oblivious to An Xiaoyu’s hidden meaning. She lifted her head and continued to press, “If you’re busy tonight, what about tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow is also busy.”
“Doing what?”
“Accompanying An Le.”
“Then the day after tomorrow?”
“The day after tomorrow is also busy.”
“What are you busy with?”
“Accompanying An Le.”
“Then three days from now!” An Linmian seemed to grow bolder with each refusal, determined to secure the date, and her voice grew uncontrollably louder.
An Xiaoyu’s tone remained as calm as ever: “Accompanying An Le.”
An Linmian: “…….”
An Le: “…….”
An Le hadn’t said a word, yet he felt like the third party caught between the two. More and more people gathered, and the jeering grew louder. An Le wished he could immediately burrow into the ground and escape.
It wasn’t just to avoid the onlookers’ stares. More importantly, An Le sensed that An Linmian’s patience was rapidly draining. Over the past six months, he had come to understand her personality: bold and unrestrained, but also uncontrollable. Being repeatedly rejected dozens of times in front of so many people—if it were him, he would be furious, let alone a proud girl like her. An Le vaguely anticipated the coming storm.
An Xiaoyu, may you find good fortune. I’m slipping away first. An Le silently prayed for An Xiaoyu and began to move, intending to quietly leave. Just then, An Linmian indeed exploded in anger, shouting through gritted teeth, “You’re going to spend ten days straight playing with him! You’re not even husband and wife! Even a married couple doesn’t spend time together like that!”
“You’re lying! Sister-in-law Xiaoyu and Brother are husband and wife!” At some point, Su Su had squeezed through the wall of people. She stood panting between An Xiaoyu and An Linmian, hands on her hips, pointing at An Linmian, and yelled in a fierce, childish voice, “You’re not allowed to steal Brother’s wife!”
“Oh, no, Su Su,” An Linmian instantly reverted to a gentle demeanor when facing a child. She bent down and spoke softly, “Su Su, Sister Linmian and Brother Xiaoyu have adult things to discuss. Why don’t you go play with Sister Linlin and Sister Yaya?”
“No! You’re stealing my brother’s wife! You’re a bad person! I won’t call you Sister anymore!”
“Ah, I, I’m not.” Being misunderstood and accused of being a bad person by a small child, An Linmian suddenly became flustered. She hastily explained, “Su Su, listen to me. I just asked, and your brother personally said that he and An Xiaoyu are not husband and wife, nor lovers—”
“You’re lying! Sister-in-law Xiaoyu is Brother’s wife!” Su Su pouted, looking like she was about to cry.
“I’m not lying! If you don’t believe me, ask An Le. An Le, hurry up and explain to her!” An Linmian was red-faced with anxiety, pulling An Le over to explain.
An Le looked at the two with a headache, sighed, and crouched down, speaking gently to Su Su, “Su Su, An Xiaoyu is not Brother’s wi—”
“Wuwu—” Before An Le could finish, Su Su suddenly burst into loud tears. Crying, she wrapped her arms around An Le’s neck, sobbing intermittently, “Brother, don’t—dislike—Sister-in-law Xiaoyu—”
In the past six months, An Le had never seen Su Su cry, especially not so heartbreakingly. Tears and snot ran all over his neck. An Le had no experience dealing with crying children. Panicked, he forgot everything else and just wanted to comfort her quickly. So, while clumsily patting Su Su’s back, he went along with what she was saying.
“Don’t cry, don’t cry. Brother doesn’t, Brother doesn’t dislike An Xiaoyu. Brother was talking nonsense this morning.”
However, once Su Su started crying, she couldn’t stop and couldn’t listen to reason. She just clung to him and wailed, completely ignoring An Linmian’s words. An Le could only try to comfort her while searching the crowd for Father An and Mother An. But the crowd was packed tight, and An Le couldn’t find them. In his helplessness, he turned his pleading gaze toward An Xiaoyu.
Yet, An Xiaoyu, upon receiving the distress signal, showed a momentary hesitation.
“An Xiaoyu!” An Le was frantic and commanded loudly, “Hurry up and comfort your lifesaver!”
Hearing this, An Xiaoyu finally looked at him, crouched down, and took Su Su into his arms. At the same time, he whispered into An Le’s ear, “Apologies, I need a reason to stay.”
An Le froze. Before he could react, An Xiaoyu had already moved away. Su Su clung to An Xiaoyu’s neck, crying even more intensely.
“Wuwu—Sister-in-law Xiaoyu, I want you to be Su Su’s sister-in-law—”
“I know, I know,” An Xiaoyu gently patted Su Su’s back, soothing her warmly, “Su Su, don’t cry. Sister-in-law promises you, I will be Su Su’s sister-in-law and Brother’s wife.”
“Yes, yes, yes, don’t cry, don’t cry. Brother promises you too. Whoever you want as your sister-in-law can be your sister-in-law. Don’t cry, don’t cry.” An Le agreed repeatedly without thinking.
“Really?” Su Su actually stopped crying. She lifted her head from An Xiaoyu’s shoulder, her eyes wet and red, and looked at the two of them for confirmation.
“Really, really.” Seeing the crying stop, An Le breathed a sigh of relief, inwardly noting that children must be coaxed, not reasoned with. Just then, Father An and Mother An finally arrived, having been delayed, and reached the group.
“What happened?” Mother An gently asked while wiping the tears from Su Su’s face, “Su Su, why were you crying?”
Unexpectedly, Su Su suddenly grinned. She wiped her tears with her sleeve, looking utterly delighted, completely unlike the child who had just been crying hysterically. She beamed and said, “Mother, Brother said he’s going to marry Sister-in-law Xiaoyu.”
Father An and Mother An looked bewildered: “Huh?”
“Hah?!” An Le was shocked, “I didn’t—”
“An Le,” An Xiaoyu interrupted An Le’s explanation with a slightly raised voice. An Le looked at An Xiaoyu blankly, then suddenly understood the meaning of the words the other person had whispered in his ear.
An Xiaoyu wanted to use the identity of his wife to stay!
“An Le, Xiaoyu, what is going on?” Father An and Mother An looked even more confused, hesitantly asking the two, “Is Su Su acting up again?”
An Le slowly blinked, unsure how to answer. Should he explain that this was a misunderstanding? Then watch An Xiaoyu be thrown into the sea when the deadline arrived? Or should he pretend to accept it for now, helping An Xiaoyu buy some time?
An Le hadn’t decided yet, but he heard An Xiaoyu speak first.
“Aunt,” An Xiaoyu’s tone was very serious, “I want to be Su Su’s sister-in-law.”
At this, Father An and Mother An looked even more bewildered. They opened their mouths but remained silent for a long time. Not only Father An and Mother An, but the surrounding crowd was also confused. Silence suddenly fell over the area.
“Le, Le Le,” After a long pause, Mother An finally spoke, her voice trembling. She looked at An Le in disbelief, stammering, “Are you… are you two… serious?”
Serious! My! Foot!
An Le’s vision went dark. He took a deep breath, glared fiercely at An Xiaoyu, suppressed his anger, and forced three words through his teeth: “Yes, it’s, true!”
“Ah… it’s… true?” Father An murmured, slow to react, and exchanged glances with Mother An.
“Uncle, Aunt,” An Xiaoyu spoke again, his tone even carrying a hint of shyness and inferiority, “I know I am a man and cannot bear… children. So… please don’t worry. Even if An Le marries me, he can still marry others.”
Following his words, after a brief moment of stunned silence, An Le let out a earth-shattering roar: “Hah?!!”
Father An and Mother An’s reaction wasn’t much better than An Le’s. They were too shocked to speak for a long time, only snapping back to reality when they heard An Le’s shout.
“Ah, no, no, Xiaoyu, Xiaoyu,” Mother An hastily and flusteredly explained, “Aunt didn’t mean that, didn’t mean that. It’s fine if you can’t have children, it’s fine. As long as you are healthy and alive, that’s enough. Aunt has no other demands. If you two like each other, that’s all that matters. It’s fine, it’s fine, not being able to have children is fine. Don’t worry, Le Le is a good boy. He won’t marry anyone else. Aunt won’t let him marry…”
An Le slapped his forehead, wondering if he was hallucinating. How could these ancient people be more open-minded than people in his modern era? In his time, homosexuality was still not widely accepted, yet here, they didn’t even care about passing on the bloodline?
Right, in this Great Harmony society, who cares about that nonsense!
“Thank you, Aunt.” While rubbing his forehead, An Le heard An Xiaoyu thank her in an extremely well-behaved manner, presenting himself as a shy, obedient prospective daughter-in-law.
An Le had nothing left to say, adopting a resigned attitude of ‘whatever happens, happens, it’s not my loss anyway.’
Yes, it wasn’t his loss. Thinking this, An Le felt relieved. He watched the three people on the ground exchange polite and affectionate words with forced smiles, accompanied by Su Su’s excited cheers, and the whistles and jeers of the surrounding villagers. The only person present who was as helpless as he was, having been completely ignored, was An Linmian.
An Le deliberately turned his head, avoiding An Linmian’s frequent, murderous glares aimed at him.
“Le Le is going to marry Xiaoyu?” The village chief, An Mu, walked through the noisy crowd and stopped beside An Linmian, asking.
“Yes,” A hint of awkwardness appeared on Father An and Mother An’s faces. Father An rubbed his nose, sheepishly saying, “Village Chief, well, we didn’t expect the two of them to be serious. We were shocked too.”
Mother An continued, “That’s right. Although Le Le and Xiaoyu are both men, since the two children like each other, and we also like Xiaoyu, we don’t want to stop them from getting married. Village Chief, you know Le Le’s situation. I just want him to live out his life happily. We don’t demand anything else.”
Village Chief An Mu nodded slightly, looked at An Xiaoyu, and asked, “Do you truly want to marry Le Le? Once you marry, you will truly become a Longyin Village resident, you must abide by the Longyin Village rules, and never leave the island. When you first arrived, you said you were worried about your family outside and wanted to return, which is why I agreed to prepare a boat for you. Are you sure you want to stay and never return to your hometown?”
An Xiaoyu lowered his eyes and said, “Yes.”
“Xiaoyu.” Village Chief An Mu suddenly called An Xiaoyu’s name with an authoritative voice. His cloudy eyes shone with wisdom as he gazed at An Xiaoyu and asked again, “Do you truly like Le Le, and sincerely want to marry him?”