Chapter 54 – Stubborn

It looked as if she was washing that bowl to death. Li Yan finally couldn’t stop himself. He approached her and interrupted her thinking by asking, “What are you thinking about?”

“Ah?” Li Man felt as if her heart and soul had almost jumped out in alarm. With a clank, the bowl in her hand fell into the pot. It fortunately didn’t break from being dropped.

Li Yan crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the cooking range. His brow was slightly furrowed, and he looked at her with a somewhat amused expression. “Why are you so easily scared?” She had seemed pretty carefree and lively during the past few days, so he had thought she would be quite courageous.

Li Man looked at him as if she was seeing a ghost. Her hand was placed over her chest, in the spot where her heart was palpating wildly.

“What are you doing here?” She stared at him with wide eyes. She did her best to ask her question using the local dialect in order to give herself some confidence.

“Hey, you’ve improved a lot.” Li Yan raised an eyebrow. Delighted, he asked, “What else can you say?”

“Eh?” She understood the first part, but what did the latter part mean?

Li Yan’s gaze drifted towards her hair. “Where’s the hairpin?” As it turned out, she had taken it off as soon as he had left the kitchen. He hadn’t seen it during dinnertime either.

Li Man knew that he was talking about the hairpin. Originally, she had been worried about what to do, but now that he had come here of his own accord, she could just return it to him.

She hastily took out the hairpin that she had tucked inside her clothes and handed it to him. “For you.”

Li Yan narrowed his eyes. “You don’t like it?”

Seeing that the smile in his eyes being immediately replaced with icy gloom, Li Man felt as if her little heart was trembling again. Sure enough, appearance was truly the most deceptive thing. She had originally thought this person had the most gentle and warm temperament based on his looks. His smile had been the most assuring one. But now, she realized that while his smiling face looked very good, he could also look quite scary once that smile disappeared from his face.

Li Man pretended that she couldn’t understand his words. She put down the hairpin on the cooking range and quietly said, “Thank you, I don’t like wearing this.” After saying that, she hurriedly turned around to resume washing bowls again.

However, before she could finish washing even one bowl, he took the cleaning rag out of her hand and clamped his other hand down her shoulder. He forced her to turn around so that she was facing him again.

Finally feeling annoyed, Li Man glared at him and asked. “What are you doing?” She turned her face towards the doorway. She hoped that someone would see this scene and put a stop to it, but at the same time, she was also scared of someone seeing this ambiguous scene. She felt unbearably panicky.

Li Yan deeply stared at her. His gaze was firm and overbearing.

Face with such a gaze, Li Man gradually lost her ability to resist. She uneasily asked, “What exactly do you want to do?” It was just a hairpin. Why did it look as if he wanted to swallow her alive?

Once she gradually stopped trying to resist, Li Yan finally took one hand away to pick up the hairpin and inserted it back into her hair.

Li Man secretly rolled her eyes. This person was really stubborn. Fine, it was just a hairpin. She’ll keep it.

“Wear this for now.” Seeing that she was stubbornly keeping her head lowered and refusing to look at him, Li Yan slightly curved his lips. He lifted her chin to make her look up.

“You?” Li Man felt slightly angry, but then she saw a long cut on his finger. It looked like an injury from a sharp blade. She suddenly thought of the lovely woodgrain on the hairpin. Could he have gotten hurt when he was carving the hairpin?

Li Man raised his finger and asked in concern, “Did you injure your finger?”

Li Yan couldn’t understand all of the words that she had said, but he could hear the concern in her voice. The concern in her gaze was even more apparent. The smile reappeared in his eyes, and he gently stroked her hair with his injured finger. In a confident voice, he promised, “I’ll give you a better one in the future.”

Li Man instinctively tilted her head to avoid his hand. By doing so, she happened to see that Li Mo was standing in the kitchen’s doorway. His face looked like an ice sculpture, and his expression seemed livid.