Yu Shu ran back with her head down. When she turned her head and saw that the carriage with the petal hair had disappeared, she slowed down and walked back to the tavern.
The table of food and wine was almost finished. Boss Zhou saw that Yu Shu had returned and asked if she had eaten well. He called the waiter to pay the bill. They said goodbye in front of the tavern. Yu Shu did not see the man standing across the street.
After earning five taels this morning, Yu Shu weighed a jin of flower cakes and sugar cakes at a snack shop on the street.
Xue Rui followed behind Yu Shu at a distance and watched Yu Shu enter the snack shop. After a while, she came out with a few bags in her hand and a piece in her hand. She ate as she walked.
This kind of behavior that used to be a bad habit to him, when done by her, seemed to be very natural. He still remembered that time when they went to the Three Purities Gathering together and bought breakfast on the street. That was the first time he ate on the street with people coming and going. Now that he thought about it, that feeling of acting as if there was no one else around was not bad.
He was not in a hurry to greet her. First, he was afraid that she would turn around and run away when she saw him. Second, he was curious to see what she did every day.
At the corner of the street, Yu Shu found a store with a bookshelf. Unlike the stores in Yiyang City, where one had to use a bookplate to enter, this store was just like any other ordinary bookstore. However, there was no place for copying books. If one wanted to read a book, one had to buy it. A while ago, she found a few books here that were suitable for Yu Xiaoxiu. At that time, money was tight, so she didn't buy them. Today, she wanted to see if they were sold.
Xue Rui followed Yu Shu into the shop. Seeing her enter the back room, he pretended to wander around the hall. After waiting for a while, he did not see her come out. After hesitating for a moment, he went in. The book shop at the back of the shop was not big.
The bookshelf behind the Yi Shop was not big. There were four to five rows of bookshelves, and there were a few customers inside. Xue Rui walked a few steps along the side of the bookshelf and saw Yu Shu who was squatting down and rummaging under a bookshelf. He did not approach her but retreated to the back of another row of bookshelves. He randomly picked up a book and flipped through it. Occasionally, he would turn his head and glance at her across the shelf, waiting for her to make her choice.
Xue Rui was not unfamiliar with such a scene. He lowered his head and smiled. Back then, he did something to kill time. Who would have thought that he would still remember it so clearly after such a long time? Should he blame his good memory, or should he blame her for being too unforgettable?
After searching for a while, Yu Shu found the two books that she liked before. She happily patted the dust on her head and took them out to count the money. She did not notice the person who had been standing with her for a long time on the other side of the bookshelf.
After leaving Autumn Osmanthus Lane, there were fewer people on the road. As long as Yu Shu turned her head, she could see Xue Rui walking not far behind her. However, she was busy at the moment. She was holding a bag of snacks under her arm, flipping through a book and holding a piece of cake in her mouth. She did not have the time to look back, let alone look back.
Seeing that there were fewer people around, Xue Rui was not afraid that she would disappear into the crowd and was about to go forward to greet her. Just as he raised his hand, before he could call out, a brown-skinned dog suddenly rushed out of the alley in front of them. When it saw Yu Shu, it stopped on the side of the road and blocked her path with its body, barking wildly, "Woof, woof woof!" Yu Shu was startled by the dog's barking. She moved her eyes away from the book and saw the vicious dog dripping saliva at her four or five steps in front of her. Her whole body froze and her face looked like it was about to cry.
If there was anything in this world that could make her hair stand on end, this was the number one thing in the world.
"Woof woof woof!" "Don't, don't come over."
Yu Shu's legs went weak. She put one hand in front of her and looked around. Knowing that she could not outrun the dog, she aimed at a short tree in front of her. She swallowed her saliva and threw the half-eaten snack in her hand behind the vicious dog. Taking advantage of the time when the dog turned around, she ran forward, stuffing the book into her arms. When she reached the bottom of the tree, she heard the dog's barking behind her. She hugged the tree trunk with both hands and climbed up desperately. In her panic, one of her shoes fell to the ground.
"Woof woof woof!" Yu Shu climbed up the tree and hugged the trunk. She was still in a state of shock as she looked at the ferocious dog that was baring its teeth at her. Her forehead was covered in sweat. The dog raised its two front legs and tried to jump on the tree several times. It couldn't jump up. Finally, it lowered its head and bit Yu Shu's shoes that fell to the ground to vent its anger.
When the nearby Xue Rui saw this scene, he'd already started laughing to the point his shoulders shook. However, when his gaze moved and saw Yu Shu who was shivering on the tree, he realized that she was really afraid, so he restrained his smile and walked over with large strides.
"Do you need help?" Yu Shu was worrying about how to get rid of the mangy dog when she heard a voice asking her a question. She looked up and saw a person walking towards the tree. When she saw the person's face, she felt as if she had forgotten to look at the almanac.
She saw him leave in the carriage with her own eyes. Why did he appear again? Was An Ling city so small?
It was funny that the brown dog was fierce to Yu Shu, but when it saw Xue Rui walking in front of it, it just turned its head to look at him and then lowered its head to bite Yu Shu's shoes.
Yu Shu looked at this irritating scene and asked in a muffled voice, "You, why are you here?" "I'm doing something nearby and happened to pass by," Xue Rui said with a serious face. After all, it was not a gentleman to follow a woman.
Yu Shu looked at him doubtfully. Suddenly, she thought of the handsome "gentleman" who was with him in Sun Ji Tavern. A strange smile appeared on her face, "Oh, you're doing something."
Xue Rui saw her strange smile and knew that she was thinking of something bad. When he was about to say something, the big dog beside him suddenly jumped up and down the tree and barked fiercely, "Woof woof woof!"
"Ah!" Yu Shu was so shocked that she almost fell from the tree, and she hugged the tree trunk tightly with both her hands and legs. From Xue Rui's angle, he just happened to be able to see her left foot that had lost her shoe. Half of her snow-white sock had fallen off, revealing her small and round ankle. It was trembling, and that smear of white dazzled him.
Xue Rui coughed lightly. Even if he was a gentleman, he would still avoid her gaze. With this interruption, he no longer had the mood to tease her. His face darkened as he stomped on the ground and shouted at the dog that was barking madly, "Go away!
This dog also bullied the weak and feared the strong. When it saw that Yu Shu was afraid of it, it chased after her. When it saw that Yu Shu's nose was fierce, it turned around and ran away with Yu Shu's shoe in its mouth.
After driving the dog away, Xue Rui looked up at the tree and said, "It's okay. You should come down quickly. Don't fall again when you climb so high." Yu Shu stuck out half of her head, and when she saw that the dog had disappeared, she heaved a long sigh of relief. She looked at Xue Rui who was under the tree, and she wasn't sure if he had seen her embarrassing appearance of being chased by the dog and fleeing in a sorry state.
"Can't you get down?" Xue Rui stretched out his hand and happened to touch the tree branch. "Come, let me help you." Without the dog, Yu Shu's alarm was lifted. What was there to be afraid of? She waved her hand to him and said, "No, you can walk to the side."
Xue Rui looked at her disdainful gesture and smiled. He obediently took two steps back and saw Yu Shu's hands hooking onto the tree trunk. She nimbly flipped over and slid down like a monkey. Her hands loosened and she steadily landed on the ground. With her back facing him, she tidied up her clothes and turned around to thank him. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." He followed her on the spur of the moment. Seeing her running away in a panic was enough to make him laugh for a few days.
Xue Rui put on a friendly face. If Yu Shu knew what he was thinking, she probably wouldn't thank him.
"If there's nothing else, I'll leave. Don't you have something to do? Go quickly. See you later." Yu Shu waved at Xue Rui as if nothing had happened. Before he responded, she turned around and was about to run away. She had just taken a few steps when she heard laughter behind her: "Wait, are you going back like this?" …
Yu Shu's footsteps came to a halt and she turned around to look suspiciously at Xue Rui. She followed his gaze that seemed to be pointing at something and lowered her head to examine her feet. When she saw the sock that was about to fall off, only then did she realize that she was missing a shoe. With a 'whoosh', she pulled her foot back to the back of her thigh, and her eyes darted around in embarrassment as she cursed in her heart.
Now, could it be that she had to go home barefoot?
"Wait for me here. Don't run around." Seeing her embarrassment, Xue Rui didn't tease her. He turned around and walked back the way he came from.
Yu Shu couldn't run even if she wanted to. If she really went home barefoot, not only would it be inappropriate for passersby to see her, but if Yu Xiaoxiu found out about it, he would definitely nag at her incessantly.
Seeing that Xue Rui had walked far away, she leaned against a tree and pulled up her sock. When she saw passersby, she pretended to take out a book to read and hid her foot behind her. She waited like this for a long time, but he didn't come back.
"He can't be playing with me, right?"
Yu Shu muttered. She did not intend to wait any longer. She thought that if she walked two streets ahead, there would be a tailor's shop. She would go there and buy a pair of shoes to wear. She tucked the scroll into her belt and walked forward, one foot at a time.
She deserved it. As soon as she reached the entrance of the alley, she ran into a family that came out to pour dirty water. A basin of water splashed out from the door. She couldn't react in time and jumped back two steps. Just as she was about to fall to the ground, someone caught up with her from behind and stretched out a hand to steady her shoulder. Just then, she heard a light reprimand from above her head, "Didn't I tell you to wait for me?" She tilted her head backwards and saw Xue Rui's handsome face that was slightly panting. Her gaze swept towards the fine sweat that appeared on his forehead, and from the angle of the sunlight, she saw the half-inch scar that was faintly visible on his forehead. The old matters of Yiyang surged into her mind, and this face that overlapped with her memories suddenly caused her heart to skip a beat.
Xue Rui didn't notice Yu Shu's strange expression. He helped her to stand against the wall and handed the paper bag under his arm to the woman, "Put it on." When he found the tailor's shop, he realized that he didn't have any money with him. He was afraid that she would be anxious, so he ran to the pawnshop in Autumn Osmanthus Lane to buy a jade pendant to exchange for money. That was why he was delayed for half an hour. He was afraid that she would run away, but she still ran away.
Yu Shu came back to her senses and suppressed the panic in her heart. She took the paper bag from him, turned around, and put on the shoes with her back facing him. Unexpectedly, she found that the shoes he bought fit her feet very well. They were neither too big nor too small.
Noticing this detail, she suspiciously turned her head and asked him, "How do you know how big my shoes are?" Xue Rui couldn't say that he just saw her feet on the tree, so he knew, so he joked, "How big a girl's feet can be, you can see it with one look." Who would have thought that this joke would be taken seriously by Yu Shu, and she only saw him as a romantic person. Thinking of his illustrious family background, and the handsome "young man" she saw in the restaurant today, she felt that it was more and more true.
With this, she felt relieved. She secretly felt that it was funny just now. In terms of age, she was actually older than him by seven or eight years. She was really getting confused by a young man.
"I've spent all my money on me. I'll return you the money for the shoes another day." As Yu Shu said this, she wrapped up the only shoe she changed into a paper bag and said goodbye to him with a natural expression, "The sun is about to set. If you have something to do, go do it quickly. See you later."
When Xue Rui saw that her expression was natural and that she was no longer evading him like before, he vaguely felt that something was amiss. However, he could tell that it was really late at night, so he didn't look into it in detail and nodded at her. The two of them walked with their backs to each other, one to the east and the other to the west. After walking for more than ten steps, Xue Rui suddenly turned around and shouted at Yu Shu's back, "Ah Shu, don't hit my head with the money pouch next time." Not far ahead, Yu Shu stumbled. Her steady steps suddenly turned into a jog, and she disappeared in a flash.
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