An Air of Foolishness
However, no matter what kind of guess it was, once she met Fang Anyu’s gaze, there was no room left for suspicion. His eyes were too pure, so pure that they carried an air of foolishness.
Jun Yue reasonably suspected that he was not only deaf and mute, but that his brain probably did not work very well either.
Jun Yue did not speak to him again. Fang Anyu had apologised to her, and she did not continue teasing him. She only shook her head, indicating that it did not matter anymore.
Fang Anyu began staring into the flowerbed again, while Jun Yue stared at Fang Anyu. She rarely stared at a person like this, because no matter who the other person was, if you stared at them like that, they would misunderstand. They would think you were interested in them. Besides, Jun Yue had never met anyone as pleasant to look at as Fang Anyu.
He really was pleasant to look at. She did not know what it was about him, but looking at him made a person feel calm from the inside out. Jun Yue knew that he was coveting her adorable succulent. Combined with that greenhouse of his, it was not hard to guess that this dignified eldest young master, who had gotten himself all filthy, liked flowers and plants.
Seeing that his eyeballs were practically about to fall out from staring, yet he still did not make a sound, Jun Yue only found it funny. When Fang Anyu noticed that Jun Yue was staring at him, he would smile at her from time to time. Jun Yue sat beside him and watched. By the time Father Fang and Mother Fang came out, Fang Anyu had smiled at her a total of five times.
But even when Mother Fang pulled him up and prepared to leave, Fang Anyu still did not write in his little notebook to ask Jun Yue for a single leaf from the succulent.
Jun Yue found him a little fascinating. Among all the people she had known since childhood, there had never been anyone with Fang Anyu’s kind of personality. He was so soft that people could not bring themselves to pinch him.
“Our Anyu offended you earlier, Yueyue, but you mustn’t take it to heart. His father and I have already apologised to your grandfather. It was because we failed to discipline him properly…”
Jun Yue tilted her head and fiddled with her beautiful long dress. In a faint voice, she said, “Apologised to my grandfather? Shouldn’t you be apologising to me?”
Mother Fang’s movements paused. After meeting Jun Yue’s gaze, she immediately reached out to snatch the little notebook from Fang Anyu’s hand. “Anyu didn’t apologise to you? We…”
“Stop snatching. He apologised!” Jun Yue frowned as she watched Mother Fang’s rather rough actions. For no reason, a burst of anger rose in her. What right did she have to treat him like this?
These so-called relatives—what right did they have to like whoever they wanted and mistreat whoever they wanted according to their own wishes?!
Mother Fang was stunned by Jun Yue’s shout, but she did let go. Jun Yue remained seated on the edge of the flowerbed and did not get up. But compared to Mother Fang, who was standing, Jun Yue’s slightly raised head only made her look even more domineering.
“Why doesn’t he go to school?” Jun Yue asked.
Mother Fang was already somewhat unhappy, but on the surface, she still pretended to be kind and gentle. She said, “Yueyue, you’ve seen it too. Isn’t it inconvenient for him? We’ve hired tutors for him at home.”
Jun Yue was actually very uncomfortable with this unfamiliar woman calling her “Yueyue” the moment they met, but she did not say anything. A flash of mockery merely passed across her face. “My younger sister is disabled too. It hasn’t stopped her from going to school. Her grades are excellent.”
The second young miss of the Jun family was a little paralysed girl who could only sit in a wheelchair. This was something everyone in Qiuhai City knew. But it truly was not the same as Fang Anyu’s disability. Fang Anyu could not speak or hear at all, and his reactions were frighteningly slow. Mother Fang was worried about it too.
They had changed so many teachers. Lip-reading, sign language—everything had been taught to him. Yet he learned while forgetting at the same time. At his level, it was truly difficult for him to accept the knowledge that his peers took for granted.
Actually, it was not such a big deal. The Fang parents were, in truth, proud people in their hearts too. Even if their eldest son really could not learn anything, it did not matter. After all, the Fang family still had Fang Anyan, their clever and steady younger son. Besides, the Fang family had money. Supporting one person was not difficult.
This eldest young miss of the Jun family really was as annoying as people said. Mother Fang felt very uncomfortable. Even her expression nearly failed to hold together, sinking slightly. Jun Yue had been scolded by too many people before, so she was far too familiar with this kind of look. She smiled disdainfully and looked away.
She might as well carry her rudeness through to the end. In any case, who knew how this woman was secretly cursing her in her heart?
No matter what Mother Fang was like, she still had to preserve some dignity in front of a junior. Seeing Jun Yue like this, she angrily pulled Fang Anyu away.
Jun Yue, meanwhile, broke off a piece of the succulent Fang Anyu had been staring at the whole time and played with it in her hand. Fang Anyu was pulled along very quickly by Mother Fang. When they were about to leave the little garden, Fang Anyu indeed turned back to look at her.
Or perhaps he was looking at the little succulent.
Jun Yue’s ruined mood suddenly lifted. She stood up and directly threw the succulent leaf in her hand toward Fang Anyu.
The little thing hit Fang Anyu. He was not quick enough to catch it, but it fell by his feet. When he saw that it was the succulent he wanted, his eyes instantly widened.
He broke free from Mother Fang, picked up the little succulent, then turned around and gave Jun Yue a big smile. He even waved goodbye to her.
When Mother Fang saw this, she was angry that her son was so disappointing. But she could not communicate properly with Fang Anyu either. Fang Anyu was not obedient like Fang Anyan. It was not that he was not well-behaved, but rather that he was too well-behaved. He never asked for anything, like a closed-off clam, leaving people no way to approach him.
She let go of Fang Anyu somewhat petulantly and walked two steps ahead. Fang Anyu looked back and smiled at Jun Yue. Jun Yue truly felt that he was an idiot.
But this idiot’s smile really was beautiful. Jun Yue stood beneath the shade of the trees, while Fang Anyu stood in the sunlight. The sun was blazing bright, and Jun Yue felt that his smile was so dazzling it hurt her eyes.
This brief little interlude passed without causing any waves. Jun Yue went to school as usual, and everything was no different from before.
However, one day, when Fang Anyan blocked her at the school entrance and asked what exactly she was trying to do, Jun Yue was completely confused.
“Soaking my homework, pouring glue on my chair, tearing missing pages out of my textbooks,” Fang Anyan said. “Jun Yue, you’re not that young anymore, are you? You’re still playing these elementary-school tricks? What exactly are you trying to do?!”
Jun Yue stood on the tree-lined path in the school grounds. She opened her mouth, wanting to say, Are you an idiot? She was busy going out and having fun. Today was Saturday—where would she find the time to provoke Fang Anyan?
They were not even in the same class. Besides, Jun Yue had not seen him many times in an entire week.
But Fang Anyan was standing in front of her, frowning as he rather domineeringly blocked her way. Jun Yue moved her lips but did not rush to say anything. Instead, as if she had thought of something, she took out her phone and called Wu Zhenfei.
“Did you help me vent my anger?” Jun Yue asked directly.
Wu Zhenfei picked up the phone, his voice sounding very cheerful. “Huh? Oh… you mean Fang Anyan? He made you lose so much face, so I just taught him a tiny little lesson. I didn’t get physical. My dad said that when dealing with people, you should always leave a way out…”
Jun Yue hung up. She did not know whether Fang Anyan had heard it or not. Jun Yue also had no intention of clearing her name. After all, everyone knew that Wu Zhenfei was her lackey. So she only pursed her lips and looked toward Fang Anyan, whose figure, for someone their age, counted as tall with long legs as he stood there. Through him, she seemed to see another person.
They were brothers after all. Some parts of them looked very similar. It was just that their temperaments were complete opposites.
Jun Yue stared at Fang Anyan for a while. Suddenly, a playful mood rose in her, and she said, “Nothing much. Isn’t today Saturday? Are your parents home?”
Fang Anyan froze for a moment, and his expression darkened even further. “What exactly are you trying to do? Jun Yue, don’t be so childish.”
“Answer me first. Are your parents home?” Jun Yue said. “Then I’ll tell you exactly what I’m trying to do.”
Fang Anyan glared at her. After a while, he said, “No. They’re on a business trip.”
Jun Yue smiled and dialled one of her girlfriends’ numbers. “Hey, what are you doing? Go beg that old-father-like big brother of yours. Let’s go to Fang Anyan’s house to do homework together!”
The other side happily agreed. Only then did Jun Yue seem to remember Fang Anyan and ask him, “Is that okay? Going to your house to do homework.”
Fang Anyan looked at her. Forget books—she had not even brought a pen. He was almost angered into laughing.
He was just about to refuse when Jun Yue said, “Last time I visited your house, I didn’t even get to properly look around. This time, let me go do some homework there, and I guarantee no one will bother you, top student Fang, from studying properly again. It’s a good deal.”
Those little things Wu Zhenfei had done truly did not have a major impact. They could only count as pranks, but they were extremely irritating. Fang Anyan did not want to keep entangling himself with this bunch of idiots. He found it very childish. After thinking it over, he finally decided to let them go.
He thought Jun Yue and the other girls were merely curious. In any case, it was only one afternoon. Nothing would happen.
But he did not know that Jun Yue’s sudden whim was not because of their villa’s painfully gaudy mix of Western and Chinese decoration. Rather, she was curious whether Fang Anyu had managed to keep that little succulent alive.
“Inviting a wolf into the house” might not be the most fitting phrase here, but when Fang Anyan was surrounded by a group of chattering girls asking him to explain questions, while they clearly were not even looking at their textbooks, his head buzzed in waves. He only felt that he had fallen for the enemy’s trap. Jun Yue had done this deliberately.
Jun Yue had indeed done it deliberately. These girls all liked Fang Anyan. Not only had she brought them over, she had also charged them money. The chance to get close to their male god was three thousand per person.
Fang Anyan had been sold by her for more than twenty thousand. As for how they would spend this half day, that had nothing to do with Jun Yue.
From the very beginning, Jun Yue had used the excuse of going to look around the courtyard and slipped out. She had also used the money she earned from selling Fang Anyan to buy a phone, preparing to “take from the people and use it for the people.” She planned to give it to Fang Anyu to replace his little notebook and pen.
Of course, it was not that the Fang family could not afford one. It was that Fang Anyu’s ability to accept new things was too weak. No matter how they taught him, he could not learn. It was not that Jun Yue lacked the money to buy Fang Anyu a phone and therefore had to take such a roundabout route. This counted as a little feeling of hers that others would find difficult to understand.
Why should Fang Anyan be able to go to school in such a bright and glamorous way, be admired by girls, and have such an exaggerated birthday banquet, while Fang Anyu had to stay tucked away in the greenhouse, not even daring to show his face?
Fang Anyan’s phone was the latest model. The one Jun Yue had bought by selling him off was a limited edition. It was the same brand as Fang Anyan’s, but this one was priceless and hard to find. She had specially asked an uncle to buy it back for her.
She only felt that this mindset of hers was, subconsciously, her standing up for her former self, who had repeatedly fallen behind Jun Yu. She was pitying Fang Anyu.
A young girl did not yet understand the shape of love. She did not know that many feelings began from inexplicable attraction, from thinking about someone, and even from pity.
After Jun Yue ran out, she first went to the greenhouse and searched around, but unexpectedly did not see Fang Anyu. She then circled back inside the villa. Even from downstairs, she could hear Fang Anyan’s collapse from inside the room. The two Fang adults were not home, and the servants in the house did not dare interfere with these young masters and young misses. Jun Yue went up the stairs, wanting to ask Fang Anyan where Fang Anyu was.
But when she passed by a door that was left slightly ajar, she saw a corner of greenery inside.
She pushed open the door and saw that there was a pile of flowers on the balcony. Among them was a very inconspicuous little flowerpot, inside which was planted a succulent with only one corner peeking out. Jun Yue hooked up the corners of her lips and closed the door behind her.
This was Fang Anyu’s room!
After Jun Yue closed the door, she did not see anyone in the living room. She went straight to the bedroom beside it and pushed. The door opened.
The hot midday weather always made people drowsy. Jun Yue thought Fang Anyu might be taking an afternoon nap.
Unexpectedly, the moment she opened the door, she saw Fang Anyu standing in front of the wardrobe, seemingly searching for clothes.
Originally, there was nothing much about that. Wasn’t he just standing with his back to her, looking for clothes?
But Jun Yue, who considered herself very thick-skinned, instantly flushed red as if fire had swept over her.
Fang Anyu seemed to have just finished showering. His youthful, slender back had smooth lines, with glistening droplets of water still hanging on it. Even more fatal was that sunlight was spilling in through the window, and from head to toe, he did not even have a bath towel wrapped around him. His porcelain-white skin made it impossible for her to look away.
Leave a Reply