"Jingyang, Jingyang, are you okay! Oh my god, what's wrong with your face!!!" Liang Lu started shouting before he even got near. Su Jingyang was touching his face with his hands and dropped his hands after hearing this. The corners of his mouth twitched twice.

Brother, make your voice a bit louder so that whole world can hear you!

Liang Lu strode forward and stretched out his hand towards Su Jingyang's scratched face. Su Jingyang tilted his head and avoided subconsciously, "What are you doing? Say if you have something to say, don't use your hands."

"Alright, I won't touch it, you just let me have a look, just a look... Sure enough, it's all scratched up." Liang Lu's tone was a bit sad, and he held Su Jingyang's shoulders to prevent him from moving, his eyes glued to his face.

Su Jingyang was stared at so closely, warm air hit his face. He only felt his scalp numb, his body kept leaning back but in the end, he couldn't stand it anymore, so he pushed him away with his hands.

Liang Lu had already seen clearly, so he let go of him, his eyes turned to the old lady of the Hao family who was lying on the ground and yelling in pain. His eyes became dark and he laughed gloomily, "Originally I just let you go after losing money, it seems that it wasn't enough, you even dared to hurt my person."

Su Jingyang had a question mark on his face.

——What person? ? ? Who's your person? ? ?

Su Jingyang was about to argue, Liang Lu had led some officer to apprehend the old lady, he then asked Ah-Yuan to go into the shop and took out a long list, handed it to the officer, and began to make accusations on the spot. He pointed to the wound on Su Jingyang's face, not letting the matter slide.

The old lady of the Hao family heard that Liang Lu wanted to make her pay, he wanted her to pay a few taels of silver and put her in a cell for ten and a half months. She was immediately anxious. She struggled to sit up, not to be outdone. She loudly pointed to Su Jingyang and Ah-Yi and said that they wanted to kill her, an old woman. As a result, the officials continued to talk to Liang Lu and ignored her.

In the end, the old lady who was crying and howling was pulled up and taken away. Liang Lu hurriedly said to Su Jingyang that he should go see the doctor, and that everything less would be dealt with tomorrow, he then he patted him on the shoulder and went up to follow the officers. It seemed that he wanted to deal with it personally.

Su Jingyang hadn't looked at a mirror and didn’t know how badly his face was scratched. He only knew that it was hot and painful, but he didn’t plan in going to see the doctor at this time. He went back to the shop to get some cold water and wash it before going home at night to apply some ointment.

The people watching the excitement all around were also gone. Su Jingyang was about to walk inside but found that Ah-Yi hadn't left yet. He stared at him directly, his deep eyes made Su Jingyang a bit stifled.

Su Jingyang said: "I'm so ugly so why are you still staring at me? Self-abuse?"

Ah-Yi looked at him in silence for a moment, then turned his gaze slightly away and said, "That person just now treated you very well. He likes you?"

When Su Jingyang heard him ask this, he deliberately said: "You just helped me, is it possible that you also like me?"

Ah-Yi avoided the trap quickly, cutting of their relationship, "I just happened to be passing by."

"He also happened to pass by here, plus he's my boss. Can he not protect me when seeing that I'm being bullied?"

Ah-Yi let out a long sigh, "Really, protecting his person."

Su Jingyang knew that he had heard Liang Lu’s sentence "You even dared to hurt my person" and misunderstood. At this time, he deliberately used his words to mock him. He didn't bother to explain it and said shamelessly: "Yes, yes, I've been exposed by you again, I'm his person, he likes me to protect me and treat me well, why? Are you unhappy, jealous?"

Su Jingyang thought he would choke back with disdain on his face, but Ah-Yi seemed startled. The curvature of the corners of his mouth gradually fell dowm and he turned his eyes away and let out a low laugh, "Who said I was jealous of him, nonsense."

Su Jingyang was speechless, "I meant you were jealous of me, jealous that someone treats me well. Who said you were jealous of him. You still call me stupid? You can't even understand implications."

Ah-Yi glanced at him with dark eyes, he closed his eyes after a deep breath. The corners of his mouth were tight, the arc was cold, and he seemed to be a little angry.

Was he really angry? Couldn't he get revenge from being called stupid so many times? Su Jingyang's face hurt and he didn't want to talk to him here, so he raised his hand to touch his face and hissed, "Go ahead, I won't talk to you anymore."

Su Jingyang turned around and was about to go inside. After walking a few steps, Ah-Yi called out his name from behind, "Su Jingyang."

Su Jingyang gave a reflexive 'eh' and turned his head. If he remembered correctly, this guy was calling his name for the first time, right?

"What else do you want?" As soon as Su Jingyang's words finished, Ah-Yi threw something at him, Su Jingyang subconsciously caught it. When he lowered his eyes, he saw a cracked celadon¹ medicine bottle.

Before opening the bottle mouth hesitantly, Su Jingyang was still guessing whether there was a bug in it to tease him. But... there was really a light green ointment with a refreshing smell inside.

This... was it for his face?

Su Jingyang raised his head, still unable to suppress the suspicion in his heart, he narrowed his eyes and asked Ah-Yi: "It's not poison/drug, right?"

"It's poison/medicine²." Ah-Yi smiled, "Poison you to death."

After speaking, he turned and left. Su Jingyang glanced at his pretty back, then he looked down at the medicine bottle in his hand and muttered, "Sure enough, nothing nice can come out of his mouth."

Su Jingyang went back to the shop and washed his face with water, he took a look at himself in the basin and found two long red marks on one side of his cheek, which looked shocking. Ah-Yuan leaned over to observe his face and told him that not only was it red, but there it was also bleeding in some places. He had just washed his face and there was new blood oozing out again.

"That old lady is too ruthless. She scratched your face up, how can you marry someone!" Ah-Yuan was also a duo and spoke with empathy.

Su Jingyang heard the word "marry" and a vein in his forehead jumped twice.

Su Jingyang opened the medicine bottle given by Ah-Yi and sniffed it. The guy just had a broken mouth, and he wasn't going to poison him with the medicine.

Su Jingyang scooped some with his finger and was about to wipe it on his face. Ah-Yuan said, "I'll help you, I'll help you!" He snatched the medicine bottle and dipped his finger in the ointment to help Su Jingyang, he carefully applied it on the wound..

Ah-Yuan asked him if it hurted as he applied, Su Jingyang shook his head. The ointment was cool and his face finally didn't feel like it was covered in pickled chili.

"But..." After he finished applying medicine on Su Jingyang, Ah-Yuan smiled happily, "Even if you hurt your face, we believe that boss won't dislike you. After all, we all know that he treats you so well."

Su Jingyang yelped a loud voice, still a bit in a daze, "What did you say?

Ah-Yuan replied: "Our boss, doesn't he like you? We all know that he's good to you and wants to marry you."

"...There's nothing like that!" Su Jingyang almost choked to death with his own saliva. These people usually looked at the dull and silent, but they were all gossiping about him in private. Liang Lu did want to marry him before, but he was good to him now to compensate for what he did to him that night after drinking. Su Jingyang couldn't explain it well, so he could only deny it repeatedly.

Ah-Yuan's expression was a little skeptical, so Su Jingyang said that he would quit his job in two days and wouldn't work here anymore. Only then did Ah-Yuan express regret and say that it was a pity.

Su Jingyang saw that the skin besides Ah-Yuan's eye was also scratched, so he also helped him apply some ointment.

Su Jingyang put the medicine bottle away and prepared to return to his position, but Ah-Yuan followed him with red ears and asked him: "By the way, who's the person who helped you just now? He looks really good, and his style's also chic and neat. He suddenly appeared and stopped that nasty old woman! So handsome!"

"He's..." Neurotic.

Ah-Yuan suddenly laughed again. Su Jingyang scared by his laugh. He realized that he must be thinking about something bad, and as expected, he said, "He must be your friend, right?"

Su Jingyang's footsteps stopped abruptly, his hands loosened— tightened then loosened. He finally couldn't help but hold his forehead and let out a long sigh, he felt it was very ridiculous and replied in a loud voice, "No- yes."

Ah-Yuan said again: "I saw everything just now when he gave you ointment. When you turned around to come in, he looked back at you. He cares about you so much, he must like you, right?"

Su Jingyang vetoed indifferently, "Of course not, he just wanted to see if I was poisoned, or... he just wanted to tango suddenly."

It's impossible to like him, what nonsense!

"Tang... go?" Ayuan didn't understand, he realized that he didn't want to say more, so he stopped questioning him, he just smiled, shook his head and left.

Neither is this, nor is that, could it really be that he had a chance?

_____

1- Picture of cracked pottery with a celadon glaze

Picture of a medicine bottle

2- Usually traditional Chinese doctors view medicine as poison and poison as medicine, because too much of something can kill you, and a bit of something that could kill you makes you stronger. Anyway it's all in the herbs