Toon Chapter 3

3

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The pond Lian Sheng mentioned was west of Zhou Lingchun’s house. It was quite large, with wide patches of emerald lotus leaves swaying gently under the sun. Pink lotus flowers were blooming, and the water in the pond was clear enough to see small fish swimming below.

A breeze blew past, filling the air with the fresh scent of lotus leaves.

“I want the lotus pod right in the center of the pond, the one that looks the biggest. You have to remember that,” Lian Sheng said as he walked along the bank. He held a freshly snapped lotus leaf over his head with one hand and pointed toward the pond with the other, before Zhou Lingchun grabbed his arm, afraid he might stumble and fall in if he wasn’t watching where he was going.

Lian Sheng was wearing the light green qipao they had bought in town, a much paler shade than the lotus leaves in the pond. His shoulder-length hair was tied up with a wooden hairpin Zhou Lingchun had carved for him. The qipao hugged his fair, moist body, his hips round and full, making him walk like an enticing kitten.

He was already beautiful, but when he first arrived, his short hair made him look somewhat masculine. Now that his hair had grown out, the masculine features were barely noticeable unless one looked closely.

This wasn’t Zhou Lingchun’s request; the man would have preferred Lian Sheng not to look so alluring in the village, attracting unwanted attention. The other men in the village naturally wouldn’t dare touch Lian Sheng, but they couldn’t control their eyes. They were all men, and a few lingering glances at the exposed white skin were enough to reveal the dirty thoughts in their minds.

Lian Sheng didn’t care about any of that. Since Zhou Lingchun wouldn’t let him work, he spent all his excess energy on making himself look good and keeping himself happy.

Dragonflies flapped their transparent wings, landing sometimes on a lotus bud and sometimes resting on a lotus leaf, moving with great agility. In the distance, birds were chirping high in the trees.

Watching so many dragonflies flying around, Lian Sheng became excited. He tossed the lotus leaf aside, pulled free from Zhou Lingchun’s arm, and lunged a few times toward where the dragonflies were flying, but when he opened his palm, there was nothing. Frowning in annoyance, his bright black eyes fixed on a dragonfly resting on a lotus leaf, ready to pounce again, when a strong arm suddenly wrapped around his waist.

“Be careful!”

Zhou Lingchun scolded him in a low voice. This behavior was too alarming; he had lunged toward the pond several times. If he wasn’t more careful, he would fall in and plunge headfirst into the mud.

Lian Sheng was tired anyway. His excitement came and went quickly, and he didn’t want to walk anymore. He quietly told Zhou Lingchun that his knees hurt and that his underside was chafing, asking Zhou Lingchun to go ahead, row the boat over, and pick him up.

His tone was sticky and sounded as if he had been wronged, making Zhou Lingchun wonder if he had been too harsh just now.

He reached out and snapped a large lotus leaf, placing it over Lian Sheng’s head. “Stay here and be good. I’ll catch a dragonfly for you later.”

Zhou Lingchun went ahead and rowed the boat over. Standing in the boat, he reached out and lifted the person waiting on the bank. The difference in their skin tone and physique was too obvious. Lian Sheng, like a mischievous child, wrapped his legs around Zhou Lingchun’s waist and refused to get down, giggling and deliberately swaying left and right, making the boat unstable. The lotus leaf on his head fell into the pond.

“Hmph, that’s for yelling at me! I’ll shake you into the pond!”

“Stop messing around.”

The man laughed too, his chest rumbling. Seeing Lian Sheng’s cunning expression, he couldn’t resist slapping his butt once before pulling him down and setting him on the deck. He casually plucked a lotus pod and a lotus leaf, scraping the thorns off the stem with his hand. He placed the fresh lotus leaf back on Lian Sheng’s head and handed the pod to Lian Sheng, letting him shell and eat the seeds first.

Lian Sheng was overjoyed. Chewing on the sweet lotus seeds, he leaned over the side of the boat, splashing the clear water with his hand, his body in a rather undignified posture. Zhou Lingchun glanced at him, then used the pole to push the boat toward the center of the pond, parting the layers of lotus leaves, heading first to find the specific lotus pod Lian Sheng had requested earlier.

Ripples spread out behind the stern of the boat.

The pond was huge, and there were so many lotus pods, yet Zhou Lingchun truly remembered which one Lian Sheng had asked him to note.

Lian Sheng felt he wasn’t playing enough with the water, so he sat on the edge of the boat, took off his shoes, and dipped his feet in. The water reached his calves, and his feet paddled back and forth. In his hand, he held a lotus flower he had snapped off at some point. After a few shakes, several pink and white petals dropped onto his green lapel.

“Hahaha, Zhou Lingchun, look how fast I’m rowing the boat like this! Like a duck! Aren’t I amazing?”

“Amazing.”

While rowing, Zhou Lingchun picked some unopened lotus flowers for Lian Sheng to put in a vase when they returned home. He recalled the faint blue marks that would appear on Lian Sheng’s knees—he was so delicate, even though he hadn’t knelt for long. So, when they reached a dense area, Zhou Lingchun would first push the lotus leaves aside, worried that thorns might scratch Lian Sheng’s legs.

Reaching the center of the pond, Zhou Lingchun found the target, snapped off the “biggest” lotus pod, and then scooped Lian Sheng up by the waist with one arm, lifting him back onto the boat. “Here’s the lotus pod you wanted.”

“Zhou Lingchun, you actually remembered!” Lian Sheng had long forgotten which one he had asked for, but he believed this must be the one. He hooked his arms around the man’s neck and kissed him, saying in the local dialect, “My man Lingchun is truly amazing!”

Zhou Lingchun, a rough country man, was truly captivated by Lian Sheng’s tricks. The words made the man’s heart flutter, though he maintained a composed expression. If one looked closely, they could see a hint of pride and feigned composure on his sun-reddened face.

The two sat together in the boat, shelling and eating lotus pods. The boat drifted slowly with the current in the pond.

“Eat.” Zhou Lingchun shelled the lotus pod Lian Sheng had chosen. The seeds were a bit hard; they were too old to eat. He squeezed them with his hand. Seeing Lian Sheng open his mouth expectantly, his pink tongue peeking out, Zhou Lingchun felt a rush of desire but still placed the seed in Lian Sheng’s mouth.

“Ptooey! Ptooey!” Lian Sheng chewed twice, then frowned and spat the seed into the water. His tongue was bitter.

“Waaah, I give you such sweet things to eat, couldn’t you tell that one was old?” He whined like a puppy, sticking out his tongue for a while. The sky was already showing an orange-red sunset, reflecting behind Lian Sheng and making his face look slightly flushed.

Zhou Lingchun smiled and gave him a sweet lotus seed to chew, helping to wash the bitterness away.

“All better?” Zhou Lingchun pinched his chin, seeing a bit of green still on Lian Sheng’s tongue, so he sucked on the tip of the tongue and licked it clean. He didn’t taste any bitterness.

The bitterness was gone, but his tongue felt a little numb. This man was always trying to take advantage of him. Lian Sheng looked at the culprit’s face and narrowed his eyes. Today, he was going to teach his man a good lesson.

With no one else around, he curled his lips, flipped over, and sat on Zhou Lingchun’s muscular waist, making the small boat rock a few times.

A rustling sound came from the lotus patch.

Both of Lian Sheng’s pale, tender thighs were exposed. He slipped one hand into Zhou Lingchun’s trousers, grabbing the part that had already reacted, while using the other hand to push a few of the old lotus seeds toward the man’s mouth.

He threatened, “Eat quickly, or you’ll have hell to pay!”

The threat was enough to make a few petals tremble and fall from the lotus flowers in the pond.