MTMIO Chapter 104

Chapter 104: Children Argue Over This

Chapter 104: Children Argue Over This

Lu You took a picture of the red envelope Yue Shao gave her, along with its auspicious meaning, and posted it on her Moments.

Soon, a little red dot popped up. Clicking on it, she saw she had already received over a dozen likes, with a string of repeating comments below.

Li Can: [Yo yo yo, one in ten thousand! Teacher Yue is actually a 0?!]

Jian Yan Zhi: [Ya ya ya, one in ten thousand! Teacher Yue is actually a 0?!]

Chen Feifei: [Tsk tsk tsk, one in ten thousand! My goddess is actually a 0?!]

Yun Zhu: [Hahaha, one in ten thousand! Old Yue is indeed a 0!!!]

Zhong Mi: [Wow wow wow, one in ten thousand! What is a 0?]

Contrasting with them, Zhong Shuyun’s [nose picking] comment at the end was particularly conspicuous.

It was unclear whether it was expressing dissatisfaction with them leading Zhong Mi astray, or if it had another meaning.

In any case, it scared the others so much that they all hid in the Big Dipper group, throwing out emoticons and exclaiming: [Who started it?]

Li Can: [Who started it isn’t important, what’s important is!]

Li Can: [Teacher Yue is a 0?!]

Yun Zhu: [Where does she have the aura of a 1?]

Chen Feifei: [My goddess is better than you?!]

Chen Feifei: [But I steadfastly believe that our Lu Bao is a 1.]

Jian Yan Zhi: [Um… shouldn’t the important thing be, what does Teacher Zhong’s [nose picking] mean?]

Li Can: [Oh right, my bad, my mind wandered again. Wait, why wasn’t Mimi shielded! Teacher Zhong is going to come and question us!]

Zhong Mi: [Question mark] Why should I be shielded?]

The group suddenly fell silent.

Lu You rubbed her forehead, and after reading it, couldn’t help but laugh. “Do you know what Li Can and the others are saying?”

Yue Yunxi lightly raised the eyebrow on her side. “What?”

“Saying you’re actually a 0.” Lu You clutched her stomach, laughing uncontrollably. “I’m so impressed, such a good meaning, one in ten thousand, and they can understand it like this.”

Yue Yunxi was infected by her unrestrained laughter and couldn’t help but smile too. She tapped the steering wheel with her knuckles, casually but rhythmically. “How can you use ‘actually’?”

Light and airy, without much force, like a flirtatious admission, tinged with a hint of coyness.

Or like a bewitching retort, mixed with a bit of annoyance.

——”Because you’re working so hard to be a 1, then it’s okay for me to cooperate and be a 0.”

Lu You remembered the way Yue Yunxi looked when she said this, very similar to now, both alluring and assertive.

Recalling how Yue Yunxi lost control to the rhythm in her hands before their conflict, her whole body seemed to be rouged, pinkish-white, her sweat-dampened curly hair truly like seaweed, casually brushed aside, the air filled with a salty, humid scent.

And at the end of the muddy fingertips, soft flesh quivered as if blood vessels were throbbing.

That embarrassed and visually stimulating scene.

At that time, it was no exaggeration when she was teased as a “pillow princess,” a natural-born pillow princess.

When her thoughts became impure, she easily got a dry mouth. Lu You picked up the water from the storage compartment in the car door, a bottle of orange soda she bought on the plane.

She tilted her head back and drank, her gaze falling on Yue Yunxi’s hand holding the steering wheel.

That hand was slender and elegant, white as mutton-fat jade, the nails neatly trimmed, the fingertips exposed to the sunlight, dyed with a faint crimson hue.

Bubbles danced on her tongue, splashing memories of Florence.

Restrained, gentle, absurd, wicked… all kinds of Yue Yunxi, bringing her memories that involved all her sensory experiences.

She knew very well that in this regard, Yue Yunxi was far more open and knew far more than her.

If she hadn’t been injured, there would probably be even more tricks.

Lu You thought of the little toy and evilly thought that her experience probably all came from pleasuring herself.

“What are you thinking about?” Yue Yunxi asked her.

Lu You gathered her thoughts, dragging out her words with a bit of teasing: “Thinking…”

Her teeth ground against the bottle opening, and she sat up straight and asked: “Seriously asking you, which role do you prefer to play?”

Yue Yunxi glanced at her, signaled, and parked the car on the side of the road. She turned to face her, reached out, and stroked her hair: “Seriously answering you, only children argue over this.”

Lu You narrowed her eyes. “Are you saying I’m a child?”

“Are you?” Yue Yunxi countered.

Before she could answer, Yue Yunxi’s hand stroked from the back of her head to her slender nape, controlling the distance, tilting her head and kissing her, tasting the sweet orange soda in her mouth.

This kiss wasn’t long, but it was extremely intimate.

The underlying color of the memories that had been stirred up hadn’t faded, Lu You was kissed dizzy, her eyes hazy. She felt the lips that were teasing her wandered to her ear, stirring her desire, her tongue caressing her ear cartilage.

And the other person’s gentle, smiling voice blew into her ear, “Of course you’re not.”

As adults, of course, they want both.

—

The car started again, Lu You buried her face in her scarf, licked the root of her tongue, and after a long while, looked down at her phone, whose screen was always on during the kiss.

In the silent group, Zhong Mi sent an angry stamping-foot emoticon.

Yun Zhu simply jumped out to change the subject: [Speaking of which, let’s go watch Little Deer’s competition in a few days. After her competition ends, let’s go eat skewers, I know a barbecue restaurant there that’s super delicious, and they also have mutton hot pot!]

Zhong Mi instantly forgot the previous topic: [Drooling] Yay! I want to eat grilled rabbit!]

Jian Yan Zhi: [Do they have roasted whole lamb?]

Li Can: [Do they have seafood hot pot?]

Chen Feifei: [Good heavens, you’ve all started ordering? It’ll be fun if Youyou and Teacher Yue say they want to have a romantic time alone after the competition.]

Lu You summarized the chat history for Yue Yunxi and asked her if she wanted to eat barbecue or have a romantic time alone.

Yue Yunxi sighed with a smile: “With Li Can and Yun Zhu around, don’t even think about having a romantic time alone.”

Lu You “tsk”-ed, “Doesn’t matter, I’ll just reply to them that we’re having a romantic time alone, to scare them.”

As a result, as soon as she sent it, Li Can sent a message: [Hmph hmph, Yun Zhu and I have already studied the venue, there are only two exits, we’ll block two people at one exit, and another person will block the restroom, let’s see where you two run.]

Lu You: “…”

So ruthless.

After replying to the message, the car also arrived at the gate of the small villa. Through the gaps in the iron fence, she could vaguely see Grandma crocheting in the yard.

Lu You put away her phone and reached out to the steering wheel, tapping Yue Yunxi’s arm.

Yue Yunxi lowered her hand and glanced at her with amusement, listening to her honking the horn twice.

Lulu, who was sunbathing by the old lady’s yo-yo, immediately ran to the door, raising its head and barking straight, its tail turning into a fan.

Grandma raised her head, took off her reading glasses, and stood up to see the car outside clearly, but she was stunned in place.

Lu You leaned half her body out of the passenger seat window, looked at Grandma who was stunned in the yard, and said with a smile, “Little flower~ What are you doing standing there? Hurry up and open the door.”

“Bah, no respect for elders.” Grandma spat, but she was smiling all over her face. She stepped forward and opened the yard door.

After Lu You pulled her body back, Yue Yunxi drove the car into the small courtyard.

Grandma closed the yard door, watched the car park steadily, stepped forward and asked: “Why did you come back so early? Why did you come back so early? Didn’t you say you’d be back in the evening?”

“Didn’t I miss you, so I booked an earlier flight.” Lu You didn’t mention Tao Xin, and playfully pinched the old lady’s cheek.

The elderly have looser skin and muscles, and it felt very soft to the touch.

The old lady slapped her hand away good-naturedly. “You didn’t even notify me in advance, Little Liu didn’t cook many dishes, and the chicken soup isn’t even stewed! I don’t even know if there’s enough food.”

With that, Grandma left them both and went straight into the house, calling “Little Liu” and hurriedly ordered: “Quick, quick, stir-fry two more dishes.”

Lu You leaned on the car door, turned around, glanced at Grandma’s back, her gaze shifted to the corner of her eye, the eyebrow on that side raised slightly.

She didn’t know when Lulu went to cling to Yue Yunxi, but at this moment it was being held in Yue Yunxi’s arms.

The sunlight shone on its milky yellow sweater, knitting warmth into the stitches.

The two looked at each other and smiled when they heard Grandma complaining to Aunt Liu that they didn’t call to give her a heads up before ambushing.

She felt something in her heart was also knitted into a warm melting sensation.

–

After lunch, Lu You and Yue Yunxi accompanied Grandma to sunbathe in the sunroom.

The sunlight at this time was particularly abundant, like mellow champagne, poured lightly into the cup-shaped courtyard.

The shadow of the yarn knitting needles in Grandma’s hand was the long-handled spoon of a bartender, and Lulu, who was sleeping by Yue Yunxi’s feet, was a drunken old dog.

Lu You stretched out her arms and supported the soft yarn, watching Yue Yunxi pulling the thread and slowly wrapping it into a ball, while telling her about her experiences in Florence.

She said that there was a Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral there, both charming and elegant.

It would remind her of Lady Wan Hua’s appearance when she was young in the old photo album.

Yue Yunxi was curious and wanted to see it.

So Grandma put down the yarn and brought the old photo album, flipped out a yellowed black and white photo, Lady Wan Hua wearing a Beijing-style cheongsam, a hollowed-out shawl, standing slenderly in a field of ten thousand flowers, looking back and smiling, all the colors of the world were like dust.

“How is it?” Lu You put her arm around Grandma’s neck and asked Yue Yunxi with a smile, “Isn’t she very beautiful, our Lady Wanhua.”

“Yeah.” Yue Yunxi nodded with a smile.

“What’s beautiful about it, there’s no color, can you even see the beauty?” Grandma covered her face. “I’m old now too.”

“Don’t you know there’s a saying that time never defeats beauty?” Lu You said. “You’re still beautiful now.”

Grandma chuckled. “Beautiful my foot, the community came to take pictures of the elderly the other day, the old men and women, each one was uglier than the next, am I also ugly?”

“Take pictures?” Lu You frowned. “What pictures.”

Grandma rummaged through the small notebook in the yarn basket and showed Lu You the photos clipped inside. “This one, there’s also a digital version, Little Liu put it away. This thing is for funeral portraits, I told Little Liu, I don’t want this for my funeral portrait, I want a pretty picture from when I was young.”

Lu You shook Grandma. “Don’t say that.”

“Okay, I won’t say it.” Grandma turned a page in the photo album and asked Yue Yunxi to look at Lu You as a baby. “Her eyes were beautiful since she was a child, rolling around.”

Yue Yunxi’s fingers pressed on the slightly curled corners of the photo, tilting her head to look carefully at the eyes of Little Lu You in the photo.

Like grapes, the eyelashes were thick and long.

Looking at the pair of clear and bright eyes of the person standing in front of her, which had barely changed, a bit cold when spacing out, a bit stubborn when angry, and most charming when staring at people with watery eyes.

Further back, there was a photo of Little Lu You holding a pacifier, crying loudly, her face wrinkled together.

“This is when she wet the bed–”

“Hey hey hey!” Lu You snatched the photo album back from Grandma and hugged it in her arms. “I don’t want face!”

She glanced at Yue Yunxi, who was staring at her with a smile in her eyes, the dark eyes deepening the smile in a somewhat meaningful way.

——”I should be glad that this sandwich quilt has been slept into a bed sheet by you, otherwise, if you ask to change the sheets below at this time, I would think…”

——”Think what?” She was so muddle-headed by the hands playing the cello and the little toy that her brain wasn’t clear.

——”Think that our Youyou…”

The last two words overlapped with Grandma saying “Oh my, who hasn’t wet the bed as a child.”

Lu You’s face burned, scaldingly hot, both embarrassed and irritated. She couldn’t stay here any longer and turned to leave.

The old lady leaned close to Yue Yunxi’s ear and lowered her voice, “She wet the bed, and was crying there, thinking the pacifier was in the way, so she took it down herself, crying like a kettle.”

Yue Yunxi couldn’t help but laugh.

“Ah!! I can hear you!” Lu You leaned on the door frame, looking resentfully at Grandma.

Grandma also laughed: “Okay, okay, I know your ears are good.”

Lu You left with a straight face and went to complain to Aunt Liu, asking Aunt Liu not to give Grandma fruit in the afternoon.

Aunt Liu laughed uncontrollably, while saying “Okay, okay,” and preparing the afternoon fruit for the old lady.

“Having an old person at home is like having a treasure, what treasure? A living treasure!”

Lu You muttered and put the photo album back in the drawer of the living room TV cabinet, dragged two suitcases, and returned to the sunroom.

At that time, the old lady was telling Yue Yunxi some interesting anecdotes about her childhood.

For example, she saw morning glories at her old home and found them very beautiful, disliking that Grandma called her “Youyou” and crying and making a fuss, asking her mother to change her name to Lu Morning Glory.

The two laughed with a sense of abandon that didn’t care about her life or death.

“…” Lu You sighed and took out souvenirs for the old lady one by one, which stopped the two from continuing to tease her.

Yue Yunxi, as before, introduced them to the old lady one by one, marking them with a pen.

Grandma glanced at the suitcases from time to time, tentatively asking them what their arrangements were for the afternoon.

“Staying at home with you, and after dinner, going back to her place.” Lu You nodded her chin in Yue Yunxi’s direction.

Grandma said disappointedly: “You’re not coming back to stay?”

“The competition is coming soon, I have a long time practicing the piano now, I’m afraid it will be noisy for you to rest.” Lu You said, pulling up the suitcase zipper, “I’ll come back after the competition.”

“I don’t mind the noise, listening to the music can also cultivate my mind. Come back to stay.” Grandma patted the back of Yue Yunxi’s hand and said in no uncertain terms, “You come over to stay too, don’t be alone there.”

Yue Yunxi said with a smile: “Then I’ll go back to pack up later, I might be a little late to come over, I have to go to my mother’s place.”

Lu You didn’t know what she was going to do at Yue Shao’s place, maybe she was still worried about Yue Shao on Lanwan’s side.

The news of Tao Xin cutting her wrist would spread sooner or later, it was estimated that there would be another storm of public opinion. It was nothing for gossip reporters to squat, but she was afraid that some crazy fans would also come to her door.

“I’ll go with you.” Lu You said.

Grandma asked, “Are you still coming back for dinner tonight?”

“It depends on the time, I’ll tell Aunt Liu in advance whether we’ll be back or not.” Lu You was worried that Grandma would be disappointed again, and coaxed, “Even if we don’t come back to eat, it’s just today.”

Grandma “hmmphed” twice: “It’s not just today, there’s also the day of your competition.”

“Oh my~” Lu You teased, “That’s amazing, our old lady can’t leave me for a day.”

“Then go listen to Youyou’s competition together.” Yue Yunxi suggested with a smile, “After her competition is over, let’s go eat barbecue together.”

Grandma’s eyes lit up, and she was very excited about the previous arrangements, but she felt that the barbecue arrangement was not good. “That thing is unhealthy, with heavy oil and salt, I can’t eat it well.”

“There are other dishes in the store, mutton hot pot, home-style stir-fries, you can request a light flavor.” Yue Yunxi said softly, “If not, we can borrow a kitchen, and Aunt Liu and I will cook two dishes for you.”

Lu You blinked. “Shouldn’t it be you and me?”

Yue Yunxi also blinked at her.

Lu You: “?”

“The dishes you cook don’t taste good.” Grandma said.

Lu You: “…”

Grandma suddenly thought that if she could follow her wishes, she would have followed her long ago, and there were probably other people, so she asked: “Besides us, are there other people going?”

“Feifei and the others, those few little ones who went to Xicheng for tourism are all going.” Lu You said, “I’ll let Li Can bring her grandma too, your old sisters can also get together.”

“She won’t go.” Grandma said.

Lu You didn’t believe it and contacted Li Can, and soon received a reply.

Li Can: [Laughing to death, just after saying that, Grandma started picking out clothes.]

Lu You waved her phone in front of the old lady: “Look~”

The old lady snorted. “Show off.”

When Lu You retracted her phone, the hand model repairer sent the express delivery number.

The hand model of the elf holding the deer appeared in her mind.

Lu You closed her eyes, hesitating to say: “Wait for me to come back… make another appointment… with that person.”

She still couldn’t say the “title” directly, and even the name still had an astringent taste.

“That person? Which person?” Grandma was a little confused.

Lu You rolled her throat and said with difficulty: “…Zhang Wenyin.”

Grandma was sorting out an empty yarn basket to put the souvenirs Lu You and the others bought, and when she heard Zhang Wenyin’s name, her movements stopped, and her expression was blank for a few seconds.

Lu You didn’t notice her subtlety and said to herself: “I heard from Aunt Yue that I was hidden away, that’s why she didn’t get custody.”

Grandma’s hand holding the yarn basket began to tremble, she took the basket to her lap, put the beautiful gold-carved ring in it, and when her fingers touched the yarn, she realized she had taken the wrong basket, she had taken the basket containing yarn.

And the ring was already hidden in the ball of yarn.

Hearing Lu You mention Yue Shao, Yue Yunxi raised her eyelashes, her gaze moved away from Grandma’s eyebrows and eyes and fell on Lu You’s face, lost in thought.

No wonder Lu You’s face looked bad when she came out of the tea room.

It turned out that she was talking about Zhang Wenyin.

“But even if there was a reason why she didn’t get custody, she hasn’t come to see me in so many years, and I haven’t received a reply from her.” Lu You paused, still unable to fully let go, took a deep breath and said, “I want to hear the truth, listen to what other difficulties she has about these things.”

She lowered her head, awkwardly and anxiously turning the new pinky ring, her line of sight fixed on the scar that was faintly visible under the pinky ring.

Therefore, she didn’t notice that when Grandma heard her words, her face turned pale, her expression was unnaturally twisted with pain, and it slipped out of her hand and fell to the ground.

Hearing the movement, Lu You suddenly raised her head and saw Grandma rubbing her forehead, her face ashen. She hurriedly got up and frowned, “Grandma! Do you have a headache? Or are you uncomfortable anywhere?”

“…I,” Grandma’s throat choked, she closed her eyes and said, “I feel a little dizzy.”

Yue Yunxi called Aunt Liu.

“It should be the onset of vertigo.” Aunt Liu directed Lu You to take Grandma back to bed. “Did you talk about any anxious or irritating topics?”

Lu You directly picked up Grandma, thinking that Grandma had participated in the deception plan before, wanting her to meet with Zhang Wenyin, so she didn’t think much about it, “No.”

“That’s because the nap was late. It’s okay, just take a nap and rest more.”

Yue Yunxi walked ahead and opened the door to the room.

Lu You walked into the room with Grandma in her arms, her gaze inadvertently swept across the Wanhua ceramic jar that Grandma had made in the Xicheng ceramic store, which was placed on the mahogany dressing table.

This dressing table was brought from her old home and moved from Lanwan to the small villa.

Grandma said that this was the dowry that her great-grandmother left her, and the thing she loved to do most when she was young was to sit in front of this dressing table and dress up.

Now that she was old, she didn’t love beauty as much as when she was young, there were fewer cosmetics on the dressing table, but she still loved the beautiful jewelry and interesting decorations, and she piled up a lot of them.

She also remembered that after bringing this ceramic jar back, one time Lu You heard Aunt Liu complaining that Lu Huai’an came back to visit the old lady and actually buried that the jar that the old lady pinched by herself looked like an urn.

When Lu You heard this, she directly made a phone call and scolded Lu Huai’an.

Now when she thought of this, she couldn’t help but roll her eyes at Lu Huai’an in her heart.

Grandma clearly used it to put treasures.

After settling Grandma in bed, Lu You bent down to tuck her in, when her wrist was suddenly grabbed.

“…Youyou,” Grandma murmured, holding her hand, “Grandma used to…”

“Yeah?” Lu You squatted by the bed.

“…was not good to her.” Grandma closed her eyes.

Maybe she was too sleepy to open them, maybe she didn’t dare to open them.

Lu You was stunned for a moment and reacted slowly. “She” was referring to Zhang Wenyin.

In fact, Lu You could feel it more or less from Grandma’s previous contradictory and tangled remarks.

——When feeling guilty about Zhang Wenyin, Grandma would tell her that Zhang Wenyin was a little depressed after giving birth, and it was not easy for her.

——When she still had hope for her son, Grandma would forget her daughter-in-law’s hardships, scolding Zhang Wenyin, telling her not to think about her mother, and to take care of her father in the future.

She could also understand.

After all, the son was her own.

Lu You tried to make her tone as relaxed as possible: “An evil mother-in-law?”

Grandma didn’t speak.

“Are you afraid that she’ll tell me bad things about you?”

The old lady’s eyelids lifted up, a little moisture seeping from the corners of her eyes.

Lu You stroked her fingertips to soothe the old lady’s unease: “Don’t worry, Youyou and Grandma are the closest in the world.”

The old lady blinked her eyes, her turbid, light-colored pupils reflecting her face, slowly filling with water, her throat seemed to be blocked by something and she couldn’t speak, she could only pat the back of her hand to show that she remembered.

“Sleep, we’ll be back when we’ve handled things.”

Watching Grandma fall asleep in the room, listening to her breathing becoming long, Lu You and Yue Yunxi exited the room.

The light in the corridor was squeezed into a long thin strip, and as the door seam grew smaller and smaller, it dragged from the wall on top of the dressing table to the jar placed on the outside.

The lid was not closed properly.

Inside, there was only a folded pink letter.