MTMIO Chapter 99

Chapter 99 Heart Like a Winter Fire

On the seventh day, Lu You, following the steps taught by Yue Yunxi, arranged for a doctor from the private hospital to come and check on the wound’s recovery. She scheduled the removal of stitches and obtained a prescription for scar-fading cream.

In the afternoon, Elena arrived with fruit and pizza to visit. Upstairs, settling into her usual spot by the fireplace, she remembered to ask Lu You, “Have you learned to trill your ‘r’s yet?”

Lu You pursed her lips, thinking, “If you hadn’t mentioned it, I would have forgotten all about it.”

“I’m sorry.” She covered her face with her hands, feigning shame, and promised in a very serious tone, “Next time, definitely.”

“Next time” always meant “next time.”

Yue Yunxi instantly understood, covering her mouth with a soft chuckle. The air escaped from her nose, unfiltered, seeming unrestrained.

Lu You opened her fingers slightly, glancing at her through the cracks.

*Seeing through it but not saying it, at least be more discreet!*

Immediately following this silent communication, the corners of Yue Yunxi’s lips straightened. It wasn’t entirely because of Lu You’s warning glance.

It was also because Elena comforted Lu You, saying, “There are no students who can’t learn, only teachers who can’t teach.”

Lu You was momentarily stunned, then burst into laughter, giving Elena a thumbs-up: “That’s absolutely right!”

Her ears twitched slightly.

A heavier breath came from her side.

Like her laughter just now, it was tinged with a sigh, creating a feeling of indulgence.

Lu You washed blueberries and strawberries, halved kiwis, placed them on a plate with small spoons, and carried it upstairs, heading towards the small living room by the fireplace. From a distance, her gaze met Yue Yunxi’s.

She heard Yue Yunxi telling Elena, “You need to use more Chinese to speak it better.”

Lu You’s lips couldn’t help but curve upward.

“…Okay, but your Chinese is really too tongue-twisting. Where was I?”

Elena didn’t need any reminder, she tapped her head twice and remembered on her own.

“Oh, thanks to your good graces, the old woman contacted me. She said she’ll come here before the concert to finish the performance with me. God knows, the last time we played together was when I was nine, before they got divorced.”

Lu You paused slightly, then walked over to put down the fruit plate.

“A mother-daughter duet after twenty years, that’s very meaningful.”

“That’s how they’re promoting it now.” Elena shrugged, took out two concert tickets from her bag, and handed one to each of them.

When handing the ticket to Lu You, Elena said, “If she’s still not available by then, you have to come, okay?”

Yue Yunxi leaned her head on Lu You’s shoulder, saying sourly, “There’s an old Chinese saying, ‘Marry a chicken, follow a chicken; marry a dog, follow a dog.’ If I’m not available, she definitely won’t be available. Only if I’m available, will she be available.”

Elena made a “black person confused” face. “Too confusing! Are you two married? When? Where did you get married? What ‘marry what’?”

Yue Yunxi: “…”

Lu You laughed uncontrollably, joining in the fun. “Are you the chicken or the dog?”

Yue Yunxi lowered her head and bit Lu You on the shoulder.

The subtle pain in her shoulder was amplified into a tingling sensation that spread throughout her body. Lu You stiffened her spine, then caught the sound of Yue Yunxi’s suppressed voice.

“Awoo.”

Lu You felt as if she had been poked hard at her most sensitive spot, and her shoulders softened.

Elena couldn’t stand watching their display of affection anymore and poked her arm with a “Ew~”.

This farce finally ended with Yue Yunxi unceremoniously kicking Elena out.

The two of them saw Elena downstairs.

Feeling her phone vibrating in her pocket, Lu You watched Elena leave and closed the door. She took out her phone and looked at it.

Her lawyer contacted her, saying that Li Rui and his gang had complied with the requirement to publicly apologize in relevant media outlets for 90 days, and had paid the damages.

Lu You casually opened an app to take a look.

The few people who spread the most rumors had issued apologies. Li Rui had posted an apology video.

Afraid of being scolded by netizens, he closed the comments section in advance.

Lu You cursed in her heart and scoffed.

Yue Yunxi asked her, “What’s wrong?”

“Those scumbags who spread rumors apologized to you.” Lu You stopped and stabbed at her phone with intense dissatisfaction, spending money to promote the apology video.

“They’re not sincere at all, they can’t even compare to the class monitor and the girl who took the photos yesterday.

They don’t really realize their mistakes at all, they’re just scared!

They think closing the comments section will stop them from getting flamed?

Dream on!”

Listening to her mumbling, Yue Yunxi tilted her body like a roly-poly toy, cocked her head, and saw her operations. “The verdict is out? Did they pay money?”

“They paid.”

“How much did they pay?”

Lu You frowned and glared at her. “Don’t tell me you’re going to forgive them if they pay a lot.”

“How could that be possible?”

“They paid 30,000 yuan.”

“Then… spend more money on promotion, it comes from them anyway.”

“Is that how that saying is used?” Lu You complained, then laughed, “No, you’re so bad.”

Yue Yunxi reached out to hug her, laughing along. “Is this the first day you knew? I told you a long time ago, I’m not a good person.”

She had said this many times, always filled with icy reminders like ominous trailers, always giving Lu You a sense of unease.

This was the first time, containing laughter, in a relaxed tone, like a glutinous rice ball coated with the sweet sesame powder called “flirting”.

Lu You turned around and hugged her waist, kissing her lips. “I like it.”

“Like what?”

“Like you, the good you, the bad you, the complete you.”

ˉ

On the eighth day, Chen Feifei posted a photo in the Big Dipper group chat.

It was snowing in her hometown.

In the photo, the little motorcycle that had carried her was covered with a thick layer of snow, and the little ducks sculpted with snow clamps were neatly lined up on the seat.

Soon after, Jian Yanzhi also posted a photo, showing the sycamore-lined path of the Nanquan Conservatory of Music, with the gray-blue sky painted between the gaps of the bare branches.

Yun Zhu: [What is this?]

Jian Yanzhi: [This is snow.]

Chen Feifei: [??? Excuse my poor eyesight, where?]

Yun Zhu: [Is it snowing in Nanquan too?]

Jian Yanzhi posted the photo again, circling a small area.

Lu You zoomed in on the photo, her eyes almost drilling into the screen, before she could faintly see the tiny salt-like specks inside the red circle.

She couldn’t even tell if it was rain or snow.

Lu You sighed, “Sure enough, it’s Nanquan. The first snow is always sleet.”

At the same time, the Internet was also experiencing a reverse storm due to the spread of apology and clarification statements.

[The people who bullied in school have grown up and started bullying online again.]

[@IHaveACamera this girl has a video of lr peeping in the women’s restroom and getting caught by yyx.]

[When I was a kid, I peeked at girls going to the bathroom, and when I grew up, I spread rumors about women and incited cyber violence. What are the advantages of the Y gene?]

[I kind of like this young lady, she bravely stood up to stop incorrect behavior when she was a child, and now she uses legal weapons to protect herself in a domineering way. She didn’t give up on herself even when she was bullied at school [crying], she also plays the cello and is still a professor!]

[Yes, yes, she is our professor, super awesome, and very beautiful, people from other majors come to listen to her class every time.]

[Her girlfriend has also come to listen [covering mouth and laughing]]

[[Picture] Taking a selfie in front of the glass window of the teaching building, accidentally captured [Moon] Teacher taking a picture of her girlfriend, the two are a perfect match, especially sweet.]

[What can you do with a CP but hurt yourself! One is a mistress, one is cheating, I really admire you for shipping this.]

[@11 posted the timeline in this account, it is [Peach] who has the problem, [Deer] did not cheat, and [Moon] is not a mistress. Be careful with the lawyer’s letter warning for spreading rumors!]

[I went to see 11’s revelations, saying that only four sentences of the song ‘Feeding’ were written by Tao, the chorus was written by Yue, and the rest was written by Xigua, is it true [covering head]]

[Just see if she dares to sing ‘Feeding’ in the “Sing To You” finals tonight.]

The Internet was in an uproar, and the keywords Tao Xin, Chen Xiguan, and Sing to You were successively topped on the trending searches.

Lu You didn’t pay attention to it, so she didn’t know anything about it. Her attention was all on the fireplace today.

The hotel butler called and sent someone to light the fireplace.

After eating lunch, Lu You waited expectantly, having no mood to do anything else. But instead, she received a phone call about a delayed delivery.

“Aren’t you supposed to wash your hair? Go take a shower first, and maybe they’ll deliver it after you’re done,” Yue Yunxi said.

“Good idea,” Lu You said.

Washing her hair alone in this weather was too painful, so Lu You simply took a shower and dried her hair while wrapped in warmth.

When she came out, the fireplace was already lit, with a basket of wood next to it.

The inside had just been lit, and the firewood had flickering flames buried within, not yet fully ignited. Only when she got closer did she feel the heat that was higher than the room temperature.

Lu You’s mood was as elated as the little flame that was peeking out.

She didn’t see Yue Yunxi around.

Lu You wandered around on the second floor, unable to find her anywhere, so she touched her phone and made a call.

The ringtone was very close. Following the sound, she returned to the fireplace.

On the coffee table, the ringing phone was vibrating on top of the tablet.

After hanging up the phone, Lu You caught the sound coming from downstairs. She ran to the staircase and saw Yue Yunxi holding a glass bowl filled with fruit, with two cans in her hand.

Lu You walked down the stairs, taking the glass bowl from her hand. “You didn’t even bring your phone.”

“I thought I wouldn’t need it at home.”

Lu You said, amused, “This is a hotel.”

“Staying here with you every day feels too much like home.”

Upstairs, after putting the fruit bowl and drinks on the coffee table, Lu You saw clearly that the two cans were orange soda.

“Where did you get the soda?”

“The hotel butler sent it as compensation for the delay. They originally sent wine, but I went downstairs with her and exchanged it for soda. There were a lot of flavors, so I picked orange for you.”

Lu You smiled and kissed her cheek. “Thank you.”

Wanting to be closer to the fireplace, Lu You grabbed a pillow and sat directly on the carpet in front of the fireplace, leaning against the armrest of the sofa, with the pillow supporting her waist. She stretched out her hand to grab the orange soda on the coffee table.

She couldn’t reach it.

Yue Yunxi picked up a can and also handed her three small orange tangerines from her pocket.

Lu You’s eyes were lit up by the shiny tangerine peels, and she smiled happily, “You know me so well.”

“There’s a question I’ve always wanted to ask you,” Yue Yunxi asked, “Why do you like orange-flavored things so much?”

Lu You put the soda can aside for the time being, juggling the small tangerines like a circus act, “Actually, I didn’t like it very much at first. There were too many seeds! A tiny segment, how could there be so many seeds, and the seeds were so big! And it was so sour!”

Yue Yunxi asked with a smile, “How did you come to like it later?”

“Do you know a anime called ‘Citrus’?”

“I know.”

“The first time I watched it, it was in autumn. When I saw the name, I thought, this name is so nice. As I thought about it, I suddenly felt like there was really a scent coming out of the screen. It’s so strange, the tangerines I’ve eaten are obviously sour, but when I watched that anime, I imagined it as sweet. That made me really want to eat tangerines, so I dragged Grandma to buy some.”

“…Such a glutton,” Yue Yunxi laughed at her.

Lu You also found herself very funny. “That day, Grandma picked them. They had thin peels, lots of juice, and few seeds. They were very delicious, juicy, and very sweet, and the tangerine peels were especially fragrant.”

“Oh, yes, Grandma also taught me how to make roses with tangerine peels… Wait for me.” Lu You stood up and found some flower branches and transparent tape left over from making the musical score bouquet.

While peeling the tangerine, Yue Yunxi suddenly said to her, “Today is Friday.”

Lu You stuck the tangerine peels on the artificial tree branches and didn’t think much about it, only asking about the thing she cared about. “I remember recommending that you have your stitches removed tomorrow. Is the hospital open on weekends?”

Yue Yunxi paused, then smiled and said, “Private hospitals are open.”

“That’s good then.”

After a brief silence, Yue Yunxi hesitantly opened her mouth. “I wanted to tell you, the show has started.”

“?” Lu You raised her face, “What show?”

Yue Yunxi moved her lips, but stopped herself.

Lu You suddenly remembered that Friday was the day of the “Sing to You” finals. “You want to watch it?”

“Don’t you?”

Lu You narrowed her eyes and stared at her, “If I say I want to, will the candy turn into eggs soaked in vinegar?”

Yue Yunxi didn’t say anything for a moment, as if she was seriously considering the question and struggling with whether or not she should do that.

Lu You laughed, “Why are you still so insecure?”

Yue Yunxi leaned back on the sofa, hugged a pillow, tilted her head slightly, and looked at her quietly with lowered eyes, without saying a word, as if acquiescing.

This posture gave her a sense of pride in the silence, lonely, and proudly raising her slender, fair neck, maintaining her clear dignity.

In the fireplace, the firewood burned with a crackling sound.

Lu You sat on the sofa, tilting her head, and went to kiss her neck.

Yue Yunxi’s breath stagnated, suddenly becoming heavier. She rolled her throat, lowered her face, and went to find her teasing lips.

Lu You took the opportunity to hug her neck and said, “I’ve already chosen one path. How the scenery is on the other path has nothing to do with me, so it’s okay whether I watch it or not.”

Yue Yunxi raised her eyebrows. “Then let’s watch it.”

Seeing that she couldn’t suppress the upward curve of her mouth, Lu You finally realized, “…Alright! You deliberately wanted me to feel sorry for you, using both the beauty trick and the martyr’s trick!”

“No way.”

“If you don’t look in the mirror and look at yourself, it’s all written on your face!” Lu You laughed.

“Then… should I use the escape tactic?”

Lu You picked up the pillow she was using as a backrest and hit the one Yue Yunxi was holding in her arms.

After some playful fighting, Yue Yunxi opened the tablet and fiddled with it for a while, opening the live broadcast of “Sing to You.”

Now it was an unfamiliar singer singing, and the live broadcast was a bit laggy because of the network delay.

During the lag, Lu You finished making a tangerine peel flower and shook the twig in front of Yue Yunxi, noticing that she was using her phone to browse Weibo and was not really watching the show.

Yue Yunxi’s gaze fell on the tangerine peel flower. She took it from her hand, admired it carefully, and praised, “It’s beautiful.”

“What are you looking at?” Lu You asked while eating a tangerine, and gave her a segment as well.

“Looking at her company’s account, her manager’s account, and the trending searches.”

“How is it? Have they issued a statement about ‘Feeding’?”

Yue Yunxi shook her head.

In the screen, the camera cut to Chen Xiguan, still the same as usual, sitting silently in the corner, quietly listening to her competitors singing, her emotions not showing on her face.

Therefore, it was impossible to tell what state she was in.

After that, the camera cut to Tao Xin, in contrast to Chen Xiguan, she was obviously not in the right state.

Eating a segment of tangerine, it was a bit sour.

Lu You quickly picked up the soda can, opened the tab, and raised it to drink, when she suddenly heard Yue Yunxi murmur, “Eleven?”

Eleven?

Isn’t that Tao Xin.

Lu You turned her head to look at Yue Yunxi. In the time it took to space out, the orange soda failed to go into her mouth and spilled most of it on her body.

It was cool and icy, like an ice cube falling on her skin.

Lu You gasped and sat up straight, instinctively moving her hand holding the soda can away, and tugged at her neckline with the other hand.

The orange droplets were still dripping down.

The hand suddenly loosened, and Yue Yunxi took away the half-empty soda can.

Lu You raised her eyes to look.

Yue Yunxi’s gaze moved up from her neckline, meeting her eyes.

The firelight in the fireplace reflected in her dark eyes, her eyes a seed of passion, her heart a seed of desire.

Lu You couldn’t help but flutter her eyelashes.

It made one think of moth wings fluttering under the candle flame, eager for the wick, resting on the porcelain lamp.

And she had just glimpsed another kind of orange wax dripping on softer, whiter jade.

Yue Yunxi suddenly felt the sensation of her neck being kissed earlier climb back up.

A slight itch in her throat.

Almost completely controlled by a certain lust, she leaned over and dropped a kiss.

It landed on the collarbone stained with orange soda.

Lu You was stunned, involuntarily leaning her head back following her strength.

In the next moment, she gasped, trembled, and stood up suddenly.

The soda can fell on the carpet, making a dull sound, and the orange juice stained the white carpet yellow.

It was probably unintentional.

It may have also been intentional.

In short, the result was that half of the remaining can was poured on her skirt, still in the most awkward place.

The not-so-thick gauze skirt quickly soaked through the orange soda.

Yue Yunxi didn’t plan to stop because of this little interlude, and got up, cupping her face and kissing her again.

Along the traces of the orange soda, the amplitude was small, very light.

A heart like the fire of a winter fireplace, burning half of the room into spring.

Yue Yunxi’s hand touched her waist and sat on the sofa.

And she was holding Yue Yunxi’s shoulders, her toes against the sofa, her soft abdomen rising and falling with the touch and breath.

The tablet standing on the sofa was still playing the show. Due to network issues, the live broadcast was very laggy, and the songs the people inside were singing were intermittent.

In the gaps, she seemed to hear the female host announcing that the next singer to take the stage was Tao Xin, who would be bringing her newly created song, called “Trio.”

All of Lu You’s attention was frozen on Yue Yunxi’s actions.

–She was licking the orange soda off her body bit by bit.

When Tao Xin appeared on the show, Yue Yunxi lay flat on the sofa and told Lu You to lift her skirt and sit over.

“……”

Lu You’s face was hot, and she could hardly tell whether it was because she listened to Yue Yunxi too much and did such an embarrassing thing, or because the fire in the fireplace had already burned to its peak.

In the tablet, Tao Xin’s voice came. Her voice was very distinctive, and you could recognize it after hearing it once.

In a moment of distraction, she was bitten lightly.

Lu You groaned and almost cried out, having no time to listen to what key this song was in or what lyrics were written.

She was facing the fireplace, kneeling on the sofa, not sitting down completely, and unable to sit down.

The gauze skirt was like a blooming flower, blocking all the scenes, but lowering her eyes, she could see Yue Yunxi’s long, curly hair, like seaweed, spreading out from the edge of the long skirt.

Like it could transmit electricity, the bent steel wire gave her a scalp-numbing sensation from her vision.

Without thinking, she picked up the strand of long hair and asked in a trembling voice, “Yue Yunxi, what are you doing?”

Yue Yunxi could only answer her in the space she made, “…Teaching you to trill your ‘r’s.”

The flames in the fireplace crackled, and the red flames kept burning upwards.

That cluster of fire seemed to burn up her body.

Lu You’s legs were kneeling softly, and she sank down a notch.

She thought of going to the gym once and learning yoga with the coach, and the difficulty of the movements gradually increased.

At that time, Chen Feifei was addicted to reading some colored novels, and when she went to class, when she couldn’t do the frog pose, she told her a dirty joke.

Saying that it was suitable for being…

That word was stuck in her throat and not said by Chen Feifei, who still wanted some face.

But now, it was being done by Yue Yunxi.

The hot, bright flames gently swayed in the furnace, like a snake’s tongue, licking the firewood.

The show in the tablet had reached the most critical moment, and the scoring and voting began, with the background music deliberately chosen to be impassioned to mobilize people’s emotions.

The female host took a deep breath and let out an exclamation.

Lu You’s muffled groans, almost like crying, were almost completely covered up.

The moment the result came out, she rolled over onto the soft carpet, accidentally hitting the tablet.

The tablet fell next to her hand.

She lay on the ground like this, with her forearm covering her burning face.

Like a fish stranded in a puddle on the beach, her body was wet, but she felt extremely dehydrated.

Lu You moved her hand, glanced at it, and reached out to hold the sofa.

Yue Yunxi gave her a hand.

Lu You sat back on the sofa, leaning against the backrest with exhaustion, and said in a hoarse voice, “I want to drink water.”

Yue Yunxi leaned over to kiss her.

Her breath was still hers, and Lu You’s face immediately burned up. She pushed her away irritably, “Not that water!”

Yue Yunxi smiled, “I’ll pour it.”

“Is your wound okay?” Lu You hugged her.

“Of course it’s okay.” She lay there well, how could anything happen.

Lu You said in a low voice, “It’s really crazy.”

“What?” Yue Yunxi looked at her with an innocent expression.

It was obvious that she knew what she was talking about, but she was pretending not to understand.

Lu You curled her lips, reached into her mouth, stirred it up, and finally, pinched her soft tongue, and said, “I said, no wonder you can trill your ‘r’s, you’re so nimble.”

Seeing Yue Yunxi’s ears turn red with shyness as she wished, Lu You smiled with satisfaction.

Yue Yunxi pinched Lu You’s cheeks and said, “Your skin is getting thicker.”

“I learned it from you.”

They leaned their foreheads against each other, laughing like a spring breeze.

On the screen, silver sequins fell on Tao Xin’s head like a blizzard, she was standing on the stage a section shorter than Chen Xiguan, holding the silver trophy that marked second place, holding the microphone, lowering her head, and in the blink of an eye, tears fell into the trophy.

Finally, she took a deep breath and said, “Regarding the rumors on the Internet, I have posted the truth about the matter on my alternate account. My alternate account is called Eleven.”