As soon as the words fell, Ji Huai turned around and headed toward the backyard, holding the flowers.

Lin Heyu stood frozen in place, his mind seemingly lost in thought, his eyes shifting unpredictably.

Ji Huai had already taken a few steps but didn’t hear the steady footsteps of the young man following him. With his back to the bright sun, he turned his head slightly, his narrow fox-like eyes glancing sideways at Lin Heyu. His slightly puzzled voice fell on Lin Heyu’s ears like heavenly music.

“Not coming? Worried my cooking won’t taste good? As long as it doesn’t make you sick, that’s fine. Hurry up and follow me. Don’t think you can just sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labor you have to help out.”

A faint curve suddenly appeared at the corner of Lin Heyu’s lips. This person, even when showing concern, had to say it in such a roundabout way. His beautiful fox-like eyes were filled with the dazzling sunlight of a summer noon, dazzling enough to make one’s heart flutter, leaving one’s gaze with nowhere to settle.

Lin Heyu narrowed his eyes, slightly blinded by the light. He remained standing where he was, unmoving.

He didn’t understand what Ji Huai meant.

Seeing Lin Heyu standing there dazed, Ji Huai sighed softly, turned back, and walked over to him. Freeing one hand, he grabbed Lin Heyu’s arm and pulled him toward the backyard, saying as they walked, “Usually, you’re as sharp as a monkey. Why are you so sluggish today?”

Lin Heyu didn’t resist. Lowering his eyelashes, he watched the slender, fair fingers gripping his arm. The stark contrast between the pale hand and his wheat-toned arm felt inexplicably provocative. Ji Huai’s hand was simply too fair, with a few specks of mud from the Chinese bellflowers clinging to it, like flawless jade forced to bear the touch of dust.

Frowning at the sight, Lin Heyu’s other hand uncontrollably reached out and brushed over Ji Huai’s hand, wiping away the specks of mud with a bit of force.

“?”

Ji Huai turned back to look at him, his face full of confusion.

Lin Heyu pursed his lips and, under Ji Huai’s puzzled gaze, glanced around guiltily. After a moment, he finally managed to squeeze out a single word from his throat: “Dirty.”

Unable to free his hands to hit him, Ji Huai could only glare. “So many annoying habits.”

He thought Lin Heyu was calling him dirty.

Soon, the two of them arrived at the backyard, where Ji Huai usually lived.

Though the backyard wasn’t large, it had everything one needed. The kitchen and bedroom, though small, were neatly organized. Ji Huai released Lin Heyu’s wrist and went back to the bedroom first, leaving Lin Heyu with only a casual “Make yourself at home.”

The warmth on his wrist vanished abruptly, replaced by the sweltering heat of summer. It was as if Ji Huai’s departure had taken with it a trace of coolness from Lin Heyu’s side. Lin Heyu rubbed his wrist, savoring the lingering sensation of those jade-like hands.

A moment later, Lin Heyu snapped out of it. Wide-eyed, he stared at his own perverted act of rubbing his wrist and relishing the memory, feeling a chill of disgust. He abruptly let go of his hand, stretching both arms far and straight, as if afraid they would uncontrollably intertwine again.

So perverted… What on earth was I thinking? Lin Heyu narrowed his eyes in frustration, wishing he could melt away in shame under the scorching sun.

After placing the clay pot inside, Ji Huai came out of the room and saw Lin Heyu’s bizarre pose. He burst out laughing and teased him, “What are you doing, Lin Xiaoniao? Practicing ‘White Crane Spreads Its Wings’ here?”

As Ji Huai laughed, the captivating allure in his fox-like eyes instantly faded, replaced by a touch of warmth and familiarity.

Lin Heyu wasn’t annoyed by the teasing. Today he felt quite different from usual he didn’t argue with the Teacher and didn’t lose his temper easily. In front of Ji Huai, he became exceptionally well-behaved.

Enduring Ji Huai’s laughter, Lin Heyu lowered his hands, his face slightly flushed from either the sun or embarrassment. He cleared his throat softly, licked his lips somewhat awkwardly, and met Ji Huai’s gaze directly. His tone was unprecedentedly calm, even carrying a hint of anticipation and an unnoticed flutter. “Teacher, why did you ask me to stay?”

Hearing this, Ji Huai raised an eyebrow and glanced at him quizzically, not quite understanding Lin Heyu’s meaning. He chose his words carefully, trying not to hurt the boy’s fragile self-esteem.

“I was afraid you’d skip class this afternoon. I’ll watch you eat myself, and then you’ll go review your lessons.”

There wasn’t a trace of warmth in Ji Huai’s words, yet Lin Heiu somehow detected a poorly concealed concern beneath them. His heart swelled with delight, and he pressed his lips together, gazing at Ji Huai with curved eyes.

Ji Huai felt unnerved by Lin Heyu’s stare. He rubbed his nose, shot Lin Heyu an uncomfortable sidelong glance, and said in a slightly flustered tone, “Aren’t you going to come help?”

“Coming!” Lin Heyu responded loudly, striding to stand behind Ji Huai. His tall frame blocked the scorching sun for Ji Huai, casting a shadow that enveloped him.

Ji Huai wiped the sweat from his forehead, oblivious to Lin Heyu’s hidden thoughts, and hurried back into the house.

He hated the heat. Having arrived in this ancient era without electricity or internet, Ji Huai had no idea how he would survive the sweltering summer.

Though troubled, since he was here, he had to find a way to endure.

Fortunately, Ji Huai knew how to cook with firewood, but he wasn’t used to the stove and struggled to gauge the right amount of wood. After painstakingly lighting two pieces of dry grass with a flint and stuffing the stove full of large logs, thick smoke soon filled the small kitchen. It choked Ji Huai, making him cough violently as tears streamed down his face.

Lin Heyu, who had been assigned to wash vegetables in the shaded courtyard, looked up and saw thick smoke billowing from the modest kitchen.

Without a second thought, Lin Heyu dropped the half-washed greens and dashed like the wind into the smoke-filled kitchen, shouting, “Ji Huai, are you trying to burn the kitchen down? Where are you?”

The dense smoke obscured his vision, and in his panic, a warm body collided with his chest.

Lin Heyu found himself holding an armful of indigo-blue fabric.

Ji Huai, unable to open his eyes from the smoke, groped his way toward the door based on memory. Stumbling along, he abruptly crashed into someone’s embrace.

Squinting, Ji Huai lifted his head, his dirt-streaked face meeting Lin Heyu’s worried eyes.

“I cough, cough, cough ”

The moment Ji Huai opened his mouth, he was seized by a fit of violent coughing. His entire body trembled like a young bamboo in a storm, shaking uncontrollably in Lin Heyu’s arms.

Lin Heyu quickly wrapped an arm around Ji Huai’s slender waist and swiftly moved them both away from the smoky area.

“Cough, cough, cough ”

Ji Huai’s coughing showed no signs of stopping. Bent over, he allowed Lin Heyu to support him.

Lin Heyu gently patted Ji Huai’s back to soothe his breathing, her bright eyes fixed unblinkingly on his grimy face. Her fingers itched with temptation, and her thumb unconsciously brushed against a smudge of soot beneath Ji Huai’s eye, leaving her fingertip coated in black ash.

This was Lin Heyu’s first time touching Ji Huai’s cheek smooth, firm, with the texture of a man’s skin.

Ji Huai’s coughing finally subsided gradually. He clutched his chest, waiting for the pain to slowly fade, completely oblivious to Lin Heyu’s subtle gesture, assuming it was unintentional.

Lin Heui’s touch stirred restless thoughts within her. This was different from the girls she had touched in Prosperous Capital their faces were pale and tender like fragile tofu, while Ji Huai’s felt like a dust-smeared mutton fat jade, translucent and enduring to the touch.

Ji Huai’s painful gasps snapped Lin Heyu out of her reverie. She refocused her attention on him and asked, “Feeling better now?”

Ji Huai tugged at the fabric over his chest and nodded with difficulty.

…Clearly, he wasn’t doing well at all.

“If you can’t cook, why push yourself? Just stay put and behave,” Lin Heyu clicked her tongue, openly teasing him.

Ji Huai wanted to retort, but his words dissolved into faint coughs. Sitting under the tree shade, he felt utterly drained.

Watching Ji Huai sitting obediently on the ground, silent and unresisting, Lin Heyu found him incredibly endearing. The traces of soot on the tip of his nose and under his eyes, combined with his beautiful fox-like eyes misted over from coughing, made him appear so docile that it stirred her heart whether out of affection or satisfaction at seeing him in such a disheveled state, she couldn’t tell.

After another glance at the meekly seated Ji Huai, Lin Heyu dashed back to his bedroom, poured a cup of water, thrust it into his hands, and then raced like the wind back to the kitchen.

Ji Huai stared blankly at the cup in his hand, then glanced at Lin Heyu’s retreating figure disappearing into the thick smoke. A strange feeling welled up in his chest.

Having been single for over twenty years, Ji Huai had secretly admired the English teacher from the neighboring class but was too shy to confess. Who would have thought that before he could even hold a girl’s hand, he’d drop dead at the lectern and end up in this unfamiliar place? In just a few days, he’d performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on a student, held hands in a cemetery at midnight, and now caused a kitchen fire followed by embraces all the things he never got to do with a girl, he’d experienced with this half-grown boy.

Ji Huai felt a wave of exasperation. That strange feeling from moments ago transformed into resentment. By this count, that kid Lin Heyu had stolen his first kiss.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. As a straight man, he had no romantic interest in the same gender, yet he hadn’t resisted Lin Heyu’s closeness.

Ah, he must be going mad. Ever since arriving in this world, he hadn’t been himself. Could it be the influence of the original host?

Ji Huai pondered this endlessly, unable to find an answer.

Meanwhile, Lin Heyu, busy in the kitchen, had no inkling of the turmoil in Ji Huai’s mind. While scoffing at his cooking skills, she deftly pulled the unburned logs from the stove, relit them with dry grass, and gradually nurtured the flames with slender twigs.

The smoke in the kitchen slowly cleared, and the fire began to rise.

At some point, Ji Huai had wandered in. Watching Lin Heyu’s skillful maneuvers, he couldn’t help but marvel, “Lin Heyu, you can cook too?”
Lin Heyu crouched before the stove adding firewood, her tone tinged with pride: “Of course. I spent so many years in the military there’s no task I haven’t tackled. Cooking is a piece of cake.”

“The military?” Ji Huai now genuinely viewed Lin Heyu in a new light. So this young woman had actually served in the army.

Ji Huai’s feelings toward Lin Heyu grew more complex. He had initially assumed she was simply an orphan living alone, never imagining she’d joined the military to survive.

In ancient times, many enlisted precisely because they couldn’t secure enough food to live joining the army at least guaranteed meals, and if they fell in battle, it would count as dying for their country.

Ji Huai’s gaze toward Lin Heyu deepened with sympathy. He truly couldn’t fathom what this young woman had endured parentless yet resiliently independent, enlisting at such a tender age. One could only imagine the hardships she must have suffered.

The look he directed at Lin Heyu gradually softened into something paternal and pitying.

Lin Heyu, who’d been involuntarily cast as “parentless,” shuddered slightly. Meeting Ji Huai’s gaze with bewilderment, her mind flooded with question marks.