ATAFBS Chapter 11

Yu Juan had inadvertently put forward many requirements these past few days.

Since he wasn’t making a promise, he didn’t remember clearly– whatever he said would be forgotten right after saying it. They would no longer see each other once summer was over and their enmity was resolved, anyway.

However, Zhou Huiyue’s memory was very good. He actually remembered all the things Yu Juan had said clearly.

Yu Juan stood a few steps away, his hands hanging to the side and his fingers slightly curled up. There were a few red marks on his fingertips from carrying the heavy wheelchair, but Yu Juan was rather absent-minded– he seemed to be quite doubtful: had he really said so many things? Or was this person right here trying to deceive him?

Zhou Huiyue looked at Yu Juan calmly as the latter was in a trance, then waited until Yu Juan blinked and looked at him before saying as a friendly reminder, “The ninth requirement is that celery isn’t allowed to appear in any situation since you dislike it.”

It was something he had just said two days ago because Zhou Huiyue had made celery dumplings for lunch that day.

Yu Juan was surprised for a moment and made sure that the other party wasn’t actually deceiving him.

Was it necessary to be this conscientious?

This might likely just be the protagonist’s competitive spirit.

When Yu Juan thought of that, he moved a bit closer. Some water dripped down his hair, and just as he lowered his head, it also fell on Zhou Huiyue’s shoulder. Probably because he realised an injured person with a weak body shouldn’t touch cold water, Yu Juan lifted his head and looked at Zhou Huiyue in the eye. “Then this will be the tenth requirement.”

Zhou Huiyue nodded– this time, though, he didn’t only simply agree and specifically said, “I’ll keep you company.”

Yu Juan downloaded the digital manual and sent a copy to Zhou Huiyue.

After Zhou Huiyue roughly glanced through it a few minutes later, he supported himself with his arms and shifted to the new wheelchair without asking for Yu Juan’s help.

Once he pressed a button, the wheelchair smoothly and steadily crossed the stairs and reached the first floor he had not seen for a long time.

The front door was opened. The sunlight was dazzling, and there was lush greenery as far as the eye could see.

It wasn’t the same shade of green as Yu Juan’s eyes.

For some reason, whenever Zhou Huiyue would see a shade of green these days, he’d always be reminded of Yu Juan’s eyes.

Looking across the tall shade trees, Zhou Huiyue saw the iron gates at the end of the path.

All of a sudden, he remembered his past of more than a decade. At that time, he was living on the second floor. There was nothing much to do whenever he’d wake up day after day, but there was also nothing much he could actually do. So he’d look at the door, wishing he could push it open– wishing he could go past it and leave.

But that was impossible.

Zhou Huiyue had thought he had already forgotten about all these things, but it turned out that he hadn’t.

Until the moment Yu Juan came here, to this place. It was just like a coincidence.

After Yu Juan came downstairs, he walked to Zhou Huiyue’s side.

Zhou Huiyue seemed to have lost interest in those gates and instead tilted his head to look at Yu Juan.

Yu Juan asked in a low voice, “Just when will you be getting better?”

Zhou Huiyue realised that Yu Juan was unusually persistent about this matter. “Yu Juan, is there a time limit for this requirement of yours?”

Yu Juan shook his head.

*

On the evening of that same day, Sun Qibai drove his car over.

When he saw an express delivery of such size in the surveillance camera, for fear there was something troublesome inside, he went to search for it online. Although he was less nervous when he found out that it was a mountain bike, he was still worried.

Yu Juan was downstairs at the time Sun Qibai arrived, carefully examining his new bike. He didn’t even look up when he heard someone coming in.

Sun Qibai walked inside and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that there was nobody else but Yu Juan, then asked in a probing manner, “Young master, the weather’s this hot, yet you bought a new bike?”

Yu Juan was still as completely uninterested as before– it was like he felt that staying here was like staying in prison. “It’s really too boring here, I want to go out for a stroll.”

Sun Qibai didn’t want Yu Juan to go out since it’d just be another problem if something were to happen.

However, it was useless to try to persuade Yu Juan otherwise since he would never agree.

Sun Qibai, who was a cautious person, went to the second floor to look around. However, unless he were to turn the house upside down, he would naturally not find the wheelchair that Yu Juan had especially wanted to hide.

When Yu Juan saw Sun Qibai coming down, he let go of the bike and stood up straight before lazily saying, “If you’re really that free, you can come give me a ride everyday. I won’t have to take the bike then.”

Sun Qibai smiled as he said, “Surely you jest. I’m busy with work everyday, there’s no free time at all.”

He could only hope that Su Li would send Yu Juan away earlier.

Sun Qibai looked around twice and didn’t find anything unusual. Just as he was about to go out, though, he received a phone call from an unfamiliar number.

His tone was bad because of the stalemate situation with Yu Juan. “Who is it?”

There were a few seconds of silence, as if the other party had been frightened. “It’s Zhou Zhi.”

Sun Qibai was taken aback for a moment, then there was a complete turn in his attitude right afterwards. “My apologies, my apologies, so it’s the young master. May I know if there’s anything I can help you with?”

Even though Su Li had never talked about her private family affairs, Sun Qibai knew that, to work on someone’s behalf, especially when it involved such a dishonorable and shameful secret, he should be well-informed to avoid being tricked by others due to his ignorance.

Zhou Zhi smiled when he realised that the other party knew his identity. Since he didn’t have to explain much, he just directly said, “So you must be the person taking care of Zhou Huiyue, right?” [Just a note, SQB uses polite ‘you’ while ZZ doesn’t]

Cram school had just ended and Su Li wasn’t here, so he asked his mother’s attendant for the phone number and called immediately.

Once Sun Qibai heard him mention such a thing, he knew right away that nothing good would come out of this. “That’s right, I’m responsible for taking care of the Eldest Young Master in Zijin Mountain Villa.”

Zhou Zhi said, “I plan to visit Zhou Huiyue in a few days.”

Sun Qibai smiled apologetically, “What would you be coming for? It’s so hot here in the summer, and there’s also nothing interesting. The young master of the Yu family feels bored to death everyday and keeps on saying he wants to go back.”

Zhou Zhi sneered, “He and I aren’t the same. I won’t be staying for that long. You don’t have to be nervous, I simply want to see Zhou Huiyue. My older brother got hurt, yet I can’t even come visit him for a bit?”

Sun Qibai had no other way and could only directly say, “The Madam wouldn’t allow you to come here.”

Zhou Zhi didn’t take this person seriously at all. “I’ll definitely come. I heard that place’s in a remote mountain with a thick forest. Since I don’t know the way, and if you aren’t willing to come pick me up, I can only look for someone else.”

He then directly threatened, “This can be regarded as a dereliction of duty on your part, no? In that case, my mother will also definitely think that you aren’t doing your job properly. Taking care of a disabled person shouldn’t be hard, so replacing a caretaker should also be very easy.”

“It really just depends on what I say.”

Zhou Zhi issued an ultimatum.

After hanging up, Sun Qibai’s face was red as he cursed.

One wasn’t even fully dealt with yet, but another one came.

These two were indeed different. Yu Juan had a bad temper and an even worse mood, but the person who called him just straight up looked down on him.

*

While the mountain bike was mainly bought to hide the wheelchair, Yu Juan did have some genuine interest in it.

After all, there was nothing else he could do. Yu Juan had thought of going to Anshan Village again, but it was regretfully too far away. If he had a bike, however, it wouldn’t take him that long.

The only problem was that he didn’t know how to ride a bike. As long as he could learn it first, though, it should be just fine.

Zhou Huiyue wanted to follow him downstairs, intending to comply with the requirement Yu Juan had put forward– the one where he had to keep Yu Juan company.

Yu Juan didn’t disagree.

So the two people went downstairs together.

It was windy outside today, and it looked like it might be raining soon. When Yu Juan was about to reach the first floor, the lower hem of his t-shirt was lifted up by the wind.

After leaping off the last step, he heard Zhou Huiyue call out his name. “Yu Juan.”

Yu Juan asked, “What is it?”

Zhou Huiyue said, “Your shirt is too big.”

He then continued, “Whose shirt are you wearing?”

Yu Juan was a bit confused about why Zhou Huiyue would ask that. The shirt he was wearing, wasn’t it his own?

So he turned around, intending to debate this with Zhou Huiyue, when he bumped right into the person who was staring at him. They then looked at each other.

There was a tiny mole on the side of Yu Juan’s neck. With how loose the collar was and how pale his skin was, it was especially noticeable.

Zhou Huiyue, however, didn’t bring it up at all. Instead, he casually asked, “Is it mine?”