Chapter 141 A Historical Novel with a Paranoid Male Lead (Part 3) (1/2)

The days that followed were tough, but Zi Xi lived a fulfilling life under Ji Yanchen's care.

When I open the window in the early morning, I always see wildflowers still covered in dew hanging on the window frame. Sometimes they are pale purple February orchids, and sometimes they are golden dandelions, carefully tied into small bunches by grass stems.

The coarse cloth clothes she hung out to dry in the yard would always mysteriously disappear before a rainstorm, and when the weather cleared up, they would be neatly folded on the threshold, with even the wrinkles smoothed out.

One snowy night, half-asleep, she heard a rustling sound outside the window.

Through the hole in the window paper, she saw Ji Yanchen kneeling in the snow, using his frozen red hands to slowly repair her drafty window frame.

The moonlight shone on his focused profile, showing no trace of madness.

He would always trace her outline with his gaze from where she couldn't see him.

When Zi Xi went to the river to wash clothes, she would always find the reeds downstream moving without any wind. It was Ji Yanchen secretly helping her stop the clothes from drifting away with the current.

When she was weeding her private plot, a thin figure would always flash through the shadows of the trees, disappearing again when she turned around, leaving only the furrows that had been quietly hoeed.

Once, she deliberately left the key to the educated youth settlement on the well platform. The next morning, the key was hanging properly on the lintel, with an exquisite straw cover on it, and soft cotton padding inside, which was the stuffing she had taken out of the tattered cotton-padded jacket she had discarded the day before.

"Comrade Ji."

One day after finishing work, Zi Xi suddenly shouted at the empty fields.

The reeds shook violently, startling several sparrows into flight.

"I saw you!"

"This is a thank you gift."

She suppressed a laugh and placed a bag of peach shortbread made in her small garden on the edge of the field.

She walked a long way before turning back.

The young man who always avoided her was carefully holding the oil paper package, as if it were the most precious treasure in the world.

The setting sun illuminated his slightly upturned lips; there was not a trace of gloom on his face.

The villagers all said that Ji the Madman was terrifying and dared not go near him.

But Zi Xi knew that Ji Yanchen was a very shy and simple person.

But when exactly will Ji Yanchen break the ice and say he wants to date her?

The night Zixi pretended to be asleep, the north wind blew particularly fiercely.

She blew out the kerosene lamp early and lay down on the bed wrapped in a thin quilt.

The cold wind seeped in through the cracks in the wall, scraping her toes like knives, but she stubbornly endured it without moving an inch.

Her fingers quietly clenched the corner of the blanket, her nails almost digging into the flesh of her palm.

She didn't know how much time had passed, so long that she was almost falling asleep, when the door hinges made a barely audible creaking sound.

Someone has come in.

The footsteps were as light as a cat's, each step a cautious, tentative exploration.

Zi Xi could sense that the person paused for a moment in the darkness, as if to confirm whether she was truly asleep.

Her heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was going to burst out of her chest, her eyelashes trembled uncontrollably, but she immediately forced herself to relax.

The familiar scent of herbs drew closer, mingled with the icy, snowy aroma unique to winter. It was Ji Yanchen.

He stopped by the bedside.

Zi Xi could clearly feel a gaze falling on her face, so hot it felt like it was about to leave a mark on her skin.

Then, something gently touched her hair—a finger.

His rough fingertips carefully picked up a strand of her hair that was scattered on the pillow, gently rubbed it, and then quickly released it as if he had been burned.

Her breathing almost became erratic.