Chapter 38 – Birthmark

It felt as if the teenage boy’s clear and clean gaze could purify her thoughts. Li Man suddenly felt as if her emotions weren’t as unsettled as before.

Seeing that her expression was gradually improving for the better, Li Hua gently smiled. “Alright, don’t have any wild thoughts. Rest for a bit. I’m going to go prepare lunch.”

Seeing him turning around to leave, Li Man grabbed his hand in panic. “You still haven’t told me what happened.”

“Huh?” Li Hua turned his head to look at her.

Li Man pointed at the words that she had previously written, then she hand the branch to him. “Tell me.”

Li Hua seemed to be internally wrestling with what to tell her. Perhaps, it would better if she didn’t know the truth. And so, he wrote out, “It was just a dispute between neighbors. It didn’t have anything to do with you. It’s already been resolved.”

A dispute with a neighbor? Li Man thought about what she had witnessed. His answer seemed reasonable enough. When that woman had come over last night, her appearance and manner had seemed quite improper. Today, she had grabbed hold of her on the path with seemingly ill intentions. After that, that woman had fought with Li Shu, and they ended up going to that old man’s home at the end.

Right, it was just a dispute between neighbors. Since she was a member of this family, she naturally got dragged into this argument and suffered too.

Thinking of it like that, Li Man felt relieved. She looked at Li Hua again. He was only wearing a thin, round-collar inner robe that was heavily patched up. It looked a bit too small for him. Almost half of his arms were exposed, and the collar was ragged. It seemed that the belt couldn’t be properly tied on either, so the inner robe was only loosely tied, and his thin and delicate clavicle was exposed. There was a cinnabar mark on the left side of his clavicle. The mark resembled a blood-red flower petal.

“What’s wrong?” Seeing that she was staring at him, Li Hua couldn’t help feeling a sense of uncertainty.

Li Man hastily looked away. She handed over the outer robe that he had wrapped around her. “You can have this back, thank you.”

Suddenly seeing her radiantly snow-white arm, Li Hua’s eyes felt hot, and his attractive face flushed red. The cinnabar mark on his exquisite collarbone looked increasingly eye-catching.

“It’s okay, you can wear it.” Li Hua took his outer robe and draped it over her body again. Although he didn’t meant to, his trembling fingers accidentally touched her soft, snow-white skin. He panicked as if he had gotten an electric shock and lost his grip on his robe. The outer robe slid down.

Simultaneously, they bent over to pick up the robe. A whiff of a delicate fragrance entered Li Hua’s nose, and he felt light-headed for a moment. Li Man had already picked up the clothing. However, she quickly stuffed it back into his hand and said, “You should wear it. I have other clothes in the wardrobe.”

Li Hua suddenly felt as if he didn’t dare to keep looking at her. Hugging his outer robe to his chest, he fled the hut in panic.

Why was he running way? Looking at his anxiously feeling figure, Li Man found it a bit funny. She opened the wardrobe and took out another upper garment.

As she was taking off her ripped top, she notice that her arm had a cinnabar mark on her right arm too, but it wasn’t in a pretty shape like Li Hua’s.

No wonder the mark had felt somewhat familiar. Did all members of Li family have a similar birthmark?

—

Right after Li Hua excited the hut, he saw that his oldest brother, third brother, and youngest brother were all waiting by the door.

Li Mo asked with worry, “How is she?”

Li Hua felt as if his throat and mouth were dry. By the time he pursed his lips and was about to reply, Li Shu had already walked to his side and suspiciously asked, “Why is your face so red?”

“Eh?” Li Hua unconsciously touched his face. “Is it? It’s probably because it’s too hot today.”

T/N: P.S. By word count, we’re less than 5% of the way through the novel. After chapter 163, the length of each chapter will become much longer.