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In fact, Su Jingyang knew clearly in his heart that he shouldn't blame himself for Xiang Cao's affairs, but the whole thing still had a great impact on him. Even after several days passed, he still felt suffocated in his heart, his whole person was depressed and listless.

Because Xiang Cao was a repeat offender and couldn't have visitors, Su Jingyang couldn't visit or ask him where Xiao Shui was buried. Su Jingyang tried to find himself, but in the end, he couldn't find it. But he believed that Xiang Cao must've chosen a quiet and good place for Xiao Shui to sleep.

Originally, there was still some residual heat from the Ling Li incident in the town, but after the Xiang Cao episode happened, all the enthusiastic discussions in the streets and alleys turned into the Xiang family murder case.

Before, whenever Ling Li went out, there were always some people who looked at or pointed at them with wrong eyes, but now this kind of thing happened less and less frequently. It seemed that Ling Li's business was a little less worth mentioning than Xiang Cao's. Ling Li no longer had to wear drapery to freely enter and leave the Lin Ji pavilion.

Those who had opinions about him wouldn't come to Lin Ji pavilion to eat. Those who come to the Lin Ji pavilion for dinner probably don't care about that. In addition, Ling Li was indeed talented in cooking, plus he was willing to study and cook very delicious dishes.

Their business has gradually recovered some popularity, and they've hired helpers for the kitchen. Although Ling Li was busy he still went out to look after Su Jingyang every once in a while, but almost every time he came out, he would see Su Jingyang still sitting behind the counter, holding his cheeks dazed and lost.

Ling Li was also very uncomfortable about Xiang Cao's affairs, but he knew that Su Jingyang was more regretful than he was uncomfortable, This kind of regret had pierced into his heart, even if it was diluted by time in the future, it would never be forgotten.

Ling Li wanted to relieve him, but he didn't know how to talk to him. It wasn't until a few days later that Rong Ci came to Ling Li's residence, he hesitated for a while before telling Su Jingyang, "When I wasn't at home last night, the chicken ran out in the middle of the night. When I found it, it was... frozen to death."

Su Jingyang held the broom in his hands, he seemed to be rotted on the spot with eyes wide open, staring at him in disbelief for a minute, "Frozen to death?"

Rong Ci nodded silently.

Su Jingyang's eyes quickly dampened, he gradually lost control of his speech as tears began rushing down his face, flowing fiercely, "Actually, died... how do you... how do the ...... froze to death......"

This was the scene Ling Li saw as he exited the kitchen; Su Jingyang holding a long broomstick, standing there crying there with extreme sadness, and eyes full of shock. He immediately wanted to come over and comfort him, but Rong Ci softly gave Ling Li a silent gesture and shook him shook his head.

Ling Li was stunned and immediately understood. He walked softly to Su Jingyang's side, Ling Li looked at his sad expression for a while and stretched out his hand to take the broomstick. He then moved a chair over and sat down to accompany him, covering him with a piece of clothing, letting him sit and cry.

When Su Jingyang cried, there wasn't much movement. He had red eyes, and tears flowed down his tight lips, trickling down his chin. His shoulders twitched and he choked, looking extremely uncomfortable. Even Ah-Xuan, who was playing next to them, ran over and poked his head, asking uncle what's wrong.

The three people surrounded Su Jingyang in the yard, watching him cry. When he felt that the depression in Su Jingyang's heart was almost vented, Ling Li grabbed his hand and softly said to him: "Jingyang, don't be sad. Let's bury the chicken, we'll erect a monument for it, right?"

Rong Ci looked at Su Jingyang's teary eyes, his tone of voice was also rarely soft, "I'm wrong, I was negligent, I'll listen to what you say."

Su Jingyang has stopped crying, his eyes were misty. After a while, he suddenly raised his sleeves and wiped his face fiercely. He let out a long sigh and eased his emotions. He glanced at Rong Ci with teary eyes, and then looked at Ling Li squatting in front of him with a face full of worry. He shook his hand softly, feeling a little embarrassed, "Forget it, it's just a chicken. I'm just, just..."

Su Jingyang didn't say anything and rubbed at his eyes, saying with a hoarse voice: "Don't waste it, let's stew it into soup."

So, this chicken who experienced all kinds of love and hatred with Rong Ci, still couldn't escape fate and ended up at the dinner table.

After eating dinner together, Rong Ci heard Su Jingyang muttering lowly as he washed the bowls, "I told him not to call you Yangyang, don't name it Yangyang. What now that you've frozen to death? Inauspicious!"

Rong Ci saw his indignation and knew that his long depressed mood had been released and returned to normal. He lifted his chin and said lightly, "Then what do you want?"

Su Jingyang raised his head and told him with a serious face that he needed a red envelope¹ to suppress the bad luck.

Rong Ci really gave him a red envelope early the next morning. Su Jingyang took it and opened it, its contents were... a hundred taels of silver in notes? ? !

Su Jingyang was stunned. He was just asking for auspiciousness, he wasn't really asking for money. What's more, he gave one hundred taels on the spot, Su Jingyang could buy two small houses with this.

Su Jingyang hurriedly returned the money to him, saying that it would be fine to just give some copper coins.

Rong Ci paused and said to him: "I don't have such a small unit of money." Finally, Su Jingyang let Rong Ci exchange the silver for the corresponding number of copper plates, and then let Rong Ci put a copper plate into the red envelope. Only then did he accept it.

Rong Ci was amused by him, staring at his satisfied look and whispered: "I haven't seen anyone fussier than you." Rong Ci felt that he always liked to be stubborn and hard-headed on small things.

Su Jingyang closed the red envelope, when he heard what he said, he stared at him with a displeased expression: "If you didn't give the chicken that name, there would've never been a fuss in the first place, it's not wrong to blame you!"

The two quarrelled for a while like children. Rong Ci finally had to leave because of business, Su Jingyang went to Lin Ji pavilion with Ling Li and Ah-Xuan. Ling Li found that Su Jingyang really was much better, the stone in his heart finally fell to the ground².

Su Jingyang only needed to collect money after he hired the Xiao Er in the store, sometimes he would personally help when it's too busy. The past few days, he was in a daze behind the counter thinking about things.

Although Ling Li was definitely still in the unpopular category in the town, it was much better than the previous situation. Even without him, the Lin Ji pavilion could definitely be maintained. With Liang Lu's care, Ling Li will surely be rich and worry-free in the future.

According to Su Jingyang's original plan, it was time to set off to find the protagonist of the book, but since Ling Li said that his wish of this life was to be with him for a lifetime, Su Jingyang couldn't go.

Is it possible to resell the Lin Ji pavilion, and then travel with Ling Li? But Ah-Xuan still needed to go to Rongcheng to continue treatment, what should he do?

Su Jingyang's worries hadn't fermented for long when two very special guests suddenly arrived in his shop. Su Jingyang, who had read countless romance books before, immediately sat up straight, his big eyes shining with hope! ! !

To be the protagonist of a book, what was the most important thing?

Appearance.

Regardless of the genre of books that he's read, or the novels discussed by his female colleagues in the original world, the faces of the male protagonist and the female protagonist must all be good-looking; at least they must be elegant, so as to arouse the desire of readers to continue reading.

As the protagonists of a danmei novel, one must be a man and the other must be a duo.

Su Jingyang stood behind the counter and covered his face with a book, revealing only a pair of dark eyes. he suppressed his heart full of ecstasy, secretly looking at the two young men sitting at the table that seemed to be a match made in heaven.

Wearing a light purple blouse with flowing robes, with hair dark as ink, skin white as snow, he had extremely delicate facial features, and a beautiful and dazzling light in his eyes. Just now when he was being served the food, Su Jingyang saw a red mole on the palm of the purple-clothed man. He was a duo.

The other had a dark blue tight-sleeved shirt wearing his black hair up. Although he was wearing just a simple swordsman uniform, his person exuded a special luxury. With clear eyes and a calm temperament, he looked younger than the person in purple.

Although the two of them were sitting separately, the blue-clothed young man looked back from time to time to stare at the man in purple, seemingly wanting to speak, but after being glared at by the man in purple, he didn't dare to speak. He then slowly retracted and lowered his head aggrievedly. Even after a long while, the food in front of him wasn't touched. Su Jingyang got more excited as he watched it; it was here! He did it! At first glance, these were people with stories! This must be the protagonists, right! ! !

Su Jingyang was about to find an excuse to insert himself. The purple-clothed man turned his head and just met Su Jingyang's line of sight. Su Jingyang put down the book in his hand and smiled at him.

The person in purple also smiled, his eyes full of moving beauty.

Su Jingyang took advantage of the situation and ran over to serve tea, but before he even started talking, the man in purple took the initiative to ask him to sit down and began conversing with him with a very familiar attitude.

Only then did Su Jingyang know that the purple-clothed man was called Xu Mei.

Su Jingyang subconsciously glanced at the blue-clothed boy at the side table. The blue-clothed boy nodded slightly at Su Jingyang, "Mu Jin."

Xu Mei's slender fingers tapped the table twice and he couldn't help laughing: "Look, look, no one asked him, but he took the initiative to come over."

Mu Jin wasn't angry about it either, he only turned his head with a dull face.

Su Jingyang thought that the two of them would hide their identities more or less while they were out, but they were very honest and both reported themselves. Mu Jin was the youngest son of Full Moon Villa, and Xu Mei was the son of Xu Long, a wealthy businessman in the south of the Yangtze River. Mu Jin was nineteen and Xu Mei was twenty-nine.

Su Jingyang stared at Xu Mei's tender babyface and couldn't believe it. When he saw him just now, he thought he was just in his early twenties at most.

Xu Mei touched his face, he stopped eating and said angrily: "I only look young, in fact, I'm an old man who's almost 30 years old. This is something that can't be changed anyway ."

Mu Jin whispered to him, frowning.

Su Jingyang's eyes widened, he stared at Xu Mei's lonely face for a while and found that he wasn't sighing pretendingly, but truly cared about and was disgusted at his age from the bottom of his heart.

Xu Mei should have liked the dishes at Lin Ji pavilion. He would come to eat at noon and night almost every day. Mu Jin has always been like a shadow, basically speaking rarely and seldom leaving Xu Mei's side.

Xu Mei seemed to want to have a close relationship with Su Jingyang. Although they had known each other not long ago, he was open-minded and would tell him everything.

Su Jingyang has been in contact with him for a few days and discovered that his personality didn't match his charming and exquisite appearance. He was in fact very simple and pure, even a little naive.

Sometimes when he accidentally ate too much at night, Xu Mei would be in tears and worry that he would gain weight, ruining his current figure and becoming a potbellied old man.

After Su Jingyang became acquainted in a few days, he finally pieced together the story between Xu Mei and Mu Jin.

It turned out that Xu Mei visited the Full Moon Villa as a guest when he was nineteen years old and met the nine-year-old Mu Jin. Mu Jin told Xu Mei that he would marry him as his wife when he grew up. Xu Mei naturally took the child's remarks as a joke but still thought that his serious appearance was very funny, so he teased him and said, "When you become the number one swordsman in the world, I'll marry you."

Xu Mei never thought that this child would be that stupid. He remembered his joke and treasured it in his heart, striving to master the sword painstakingly to become the world's number one swordsman and propose marriage. Xu Mei married his favourite man two years later, leaving Mu Jin completely behind him.

It's just that Xu Mei's sweet days didn't even last for a year, his mother-in-law was very dissatisfied with him because he still wasn't pregnant, Xu Mei quietly went to see the doctor and realized that he couldn't have a child. His mother-in-law quickly changed her face when she knew it and began to make trouble with his husband.

Even after two years of seeking remedies, even after Xu Mei drank countless pills, his stomach continued to be silent. His husband finally couldn't bear the pressure at home. He reflected on Xu Mei's endless difficulties and then agreed to take a concubine. He fed all his vows before and after marriage to the dogs. Xu Mei was disappointed and his heart went cold, resolutely proposing a divorce.

His husband still loved him and refused to agree, but his mother-in-law was furious. In the end, instead of agreeing to the divorce, she forced her son to write a letter of annulment to Xu Mei. The reason was that Xu Mei still bore no child even after three years of marriage. Xu Mei, who was humiliated in front of everyone, immediately lost all his face.

Xu Mei's life experience was good on paper, but in fact, he was just the son of a concubine. There were almost 20 brothers and sisters in the family, and the main wife had an iron fist. Children of concubines were the same as ants and they didn't even dare try to get the limelight. After Xu Mei's marriage was annulled, he tarnished his family's reputation and naturally couldn't go home, so he took his savings and travelled to Jianghu³ to relax.

Mu Jin had been paying attention to his movements silently. After being the first to hear the news, he began to look for Xu Mei non-stop and finally found him. Since then, he hasn't returned home, since the age of fifteen, he has stuck to Xu Mei. In these four years, Xu Mei couldn't drive him away no matter how hard he tried.

Su Jingyang's first feeling after hearing this was... Mu Jin- this baby bro- was really precocious!

As for the second feeling, Su Jingyang realized that Xu Mei had been bitten to death but still refused to agree to Mu Jin. The reason wasn't that he didn't have feelings. In fact, he kept repeating: "I've been married, but I was driven out." "I'm an old man." "He's still young, he'll definitely regret this in the future." "He'll be pointed at by others." "I'll be laughed at." "I- I can't give birth to a child. His parents will surely be dissatisfied, why is he so stubborn and refuses to listen."

Su Jingyang felt that although Xu Mei looked beautiful, there always seemed to be unconfidence deeply rooted between those lines. After listening to him specifically about the situation at home, Su Jingyang probably understood some of the reasons for this. There were two sisters born from the main wife. They were domineering and jealous of his beautiful appearance, so they often attacked him verbally and devalued him. As he grows older, Xu Mei's cognition became deeply affected. Although he looks cheerful, he felt inferior in his heart. He always feels that he's really not good enough for others to like.

Su Jingyang touched his chin and squinted, the cautious thoughts in his stomach began to bubble.

The jokes and promises when they were young, the misses and reunions when they grew up; this was just like the plot in the story! Pairing them up must be detrimental to the plot.

Planning ten thousand steps in advance, even if they weren't the protagonists, he could still gather energy if they have a good marriage.

Needless to say, Mu Jin's infatuated eyes were almost constantly sticking on Xu Mei's body, and Xu Mei, Su Jingyang could see that he actually has affection for Mu Jin secretly, not as indifferent as he wants the world to see. Likewise, his line of sight will always pretend to land on Mu Jin inadvertently. After so many years of being accompanied and guarded silently, it should be difficult not to be moved.

The two of them were actually secretly in love with each other, but Xu Mei has too many worries, right now he needs to push him.

Xu Mei lived in an inn, and it wasn't very troublesome to come to Lin Ji pavilion every day to eat. Xu Mei and Su Jingyang were already very familiar with each other, so he pulled on Su Jingyang's sleeves and begged: "Boss Su, why don't you open an inn? I'll live and eat there, how convenient would it be. I'll just sleep with you at night! Alright?"

Su Jingyang got along with him, plus he's also suspected to be the protagonist, how could Su Jingyang not care. He immediately decided to create a bed and breakfast for Xu Mei and Mu Jin. When work was over at night, they can return to the box on the second floor. As a result, Xu Mei curled his lips and said that he didn't need to prepare for Mu Jin, he just wanted to sleep here alone.

Mu Jin went to live in the inn by himself at the end. When they left, the tall man was dejected and looked a bit pitiful. Xu Mei looked at his back and propped his cheek, sighing slightly sadly. After finishing work that day, Su Jingyang laid out a bed for Xu Mei and provided him with clean towels and hot water for him to wash.

Xu Mei sat on the side of the bed, looking at Su Jingyang with a look of yearning: "Boss Su, you're so kind, I'll fall in love with you, what do you think of getting together."

Su Jingyang knew that he was joking and didn't care too much, he just said: "I'm the same as you."

Xu Mei's black eyes flashed as he stared at him for a moment, he suddenly laughed out loud, "I know, but men can be with men, and women can be with women. They can be together, naturally, a duo can also be with a duo. It's just that these are all forbidden romances, but forbidden romances are also romances. Whatever others say."

Su Jingyang packed up and replied, "Yes, shouldn't love be tough in face of hardship? No matter what others say, you think the same way when you consider Young Master Mu, right?"