How Ridiculous

When Ji Yue brought Jiang Qi back, Grandpa Wu was playing chess with two old friends in the yard.

Seeing them return early, Grandpa Wu was slightly surprised. Just as he stood up, he saw Ji Yue holding Jiang Qi's hand, and the smile on his face immediately bloomed.

"Back so early? Did you have fun?"

Hearing his grandfather's question, Ji Yue recalled what had just happened, and his face immediately fell. He replied, "Very fun, fun to death. If we had played any longer, Jiang You would have lost his hand."

Grandpa Wu frowned reflexively. What nonsense was this kid talking about, completely unreserved. Immediately after, he saw Jiang Qi's hand.

"Oh dear, what happened here? Pricked by jujube thorns?" Grandpa Wu hurriedly went to Jiang Qi's side to inspect, glaring at Ji Yue as he spoke. Taking his boyfriend out to play and letting him get hurt, how useless.

Ji Yue didn't care about Grandpa Wu's glare. He hurriedly let go of his hand. Only at this moment did he realize he had been holding the other's hand the entire way.

His right hand gently opened and closed, feeling a bit hot.

The elderly men playing chess couldn't sit still either, surrounding Jiang Qi to ask questions.

"How did it get so badly scratched?"

"Little You, be good, it won't hurt. Grandpa will get you some candy."

"Told you not to climb trees, but you did anyway. Now you're hurt, serves you right."

Seeing his injuries, Ji Yue didn't feel good either, but that didn't stop him from lecturing Jiang Qi. He even wanted the three elderly men to lecture him together.

"Alright, shut up," Grandpa Wu patted Ji Yue's back. "Hurry inside and get the needle and the medicine box."

Some of the small thorns could be pulled out, but some had gone deep into the fingers and needed a needle to be extracted. The elderly men had poor eyesight, so they obviously couldn't do it.

They hurriedly urged Ji Yue to get the needle to extract the thorns for Jiang You.

Previously, Ji Yue's health wasn't good, so the elders didn't let him climb trees. However, he had seen many friends get pricked by jujube thorns, crying miserably during the extraction. Ji Yue also had a bit of a trauma regarding thorn extraction.

"I've never extracted thorns before. Grandpa, you do it," Ji Yue said to Grandpa Wu as he brought the needle and medicine box out of the house and set them on the table.

"We old men have poor eyesight. Do it quickly, don't dawdle."

Seeing the elders' insistence, Ji Yue muttered a sentence and had to raise his head to tell Jiang Qi to sit down at the stone table with him.

After sterilizing the needle, Ji Yue signaled for Jiang Qi to reach out his hand.

Jiang Qi curled his lips, giving a hum of assent.

What are you smiling at? It's going to hurt like hell in a moment, Ji Yue thought.

Jiang Qi placed his hand in Ji Yue's. The fair hand was covered in small scratches, like a piece of fine jade that had cracked, making one's heart ache.

Seeing this, Ji Yue frowned, his expression turning serious. He took a clean wet cloth and wiped the dirt off Jiang Qi's hand.

The wet cloth wiped back and forth like a feather brushing against Jiang Qi's hand, very gently, so gently that Jiang Qi didn't feel any pain. Seeing Ji Yue being so careful, his heart felt warm. "You don't have to be so gentle, it doesn't hurt."

Right now, Ji Yue hated hearing Jiang Qi say it didn't hurt the most. His hand was already in this state, and it didn't hurt? Who was he fooling?

"Yeah," Ji Yue replied perfunctorily, but his movements remained very gentle.

After cleaning the hand, Ji Yue held Jiang Qi's hand closer to his eyes.

"How many places were pricked?" Ji Yue only saw one spot on Jiang Qi's thumb, but he always felt he hadn't found them all.

Jiang Qi blinked, his face full of bewilderment. He no longer felt anything now.

Glancing at the Omega, Ji Yue pursed his lips, lowering his head to hold the silver needle, his other hand supporting Jiang Qi's thumb, his gaze focused.

Jiang Qi wasn't worried at all about Ji Yue being clumsy. He looked up at Ji Yue's deep, focused dark eyes looking at his hand, as if holding the rarest treasure in the world.

Fearing he would hurt Jiang Qi, Ji Yue was extremely careful. The weather outside was very cool, but sweat gradually appeared on his forehead, trickling down his cheek.

Jiang Qi stared at the sweat on Ji Yue's face. It wasn't until Ji Yue breathed a sigh of relief that Jiang Qi knew the thorn had been extracted.

Ji Yue didn't let go of Jiang Qi's hand, turning it over two or three times, and found two more places pricked by thorns.

Ji Yue glared at Jiang Qi. He didn't know whose hand this was, seeing how the owner didn't care at all.

Jiang Qi pursed his lips and smiled.

After extracting all the thorns and ensuring none were left, Ji Yue felt relieved. He used iodine to disinfect all the scratches on his hand, including the three wounds where the thorns had just been extracted, not missing a single spot.

"Done." Ji Yue let go of Jiang Qi's hand. As soon as he looked up, he met his eyes, which were filled with laughter.

"What are you laughing at?" Ji Yue pretended not to care as he put away the needle and iodine, his ears flushing red. Why did this Omega have to smile so beautifully at him!

Jiang Qi shook his head and smiled, his voice gentle. "Brother Ji, you are so gentle."

"Hmph, praising me won't do you any good." Ji Yue stood up, turning his head to see three kindly smiling faces beside him, his voice halting.

The elderly men were very tactful, warmly instructing Jiang Qi a few words before pulling each other into the house to continue playing chess.

Ji Yue: ...

Don't think he didn't see his grandfather grinning and giving him a thumbs-up!

Having no energy to explain the elders' misunderstanding of his relationship with Jiang Qi, Ji Yue turned to look at Jiang Qi. "Let me go wash some jujubes for you."

Hearing this, Jiang Qi's eyes lit up. He had never eaten jujubes before.

The deep red jujubes were like red pearls, very eye-catching in the water.

"Washing them twice is enough?" Jiang Qi looked at the jujubes on the plate, raising his head to ask.

"Actually, washing once is enough. There are no pesticides, these things aren't dirty," Ji Yue said casually, turning off the faucet. "It was only to pamper this young master that he had purposely washed them twice."

Jiang Qi gave a hum of assent, walking over to turn on the faucet. Under Ji Yue's puzzled gaze, he took one out of his pocket, washed it, and handed it to Ji Yue.

This was the only jujube Jiang Qi had picked earlier.

Looking at the jujube in his hand, Ji Yue was temporarily speechless. He hadn't expected him to still keep it, and even remember to give it to him to eat.

Ji Yue took the fruit, wiped it lightly, and put it in his mouth.

Very sweet.

The plate of jujubes Ji Yue washed was held in Jiang Qi's arms, eaten one by one.

"Eat slowly."

Jiang Qi gave a hum of assent, spitting out a pit. "Is yours finished?"

Ji Yue sucked on the pit in his mouth for a long time without spitting it out. "Yeah."

When jujubes were ripe, even the pits had a sweet taste and could be sucked on for a while, but no one sucked on them without spitting them out like Ji Yue.

Jiang Qi tilted his head, reaching down to take two or three more jujubes from the plate and handing them to Ji Yue. "Want more?"

Ji Yue gave a hum of assent, taking the jujubes from Jiang Qi's hand. Taking advantage of his distraction, he wrapped the pit he had just spit out in a tissue and stuffed it into his pocket, then casually put the new fruit into his mouth.

Completely unaware of what had just happened, Jiang Qi only ate the jujubes to try them out, stopping after a while.

"Are the grandpas eating?" Jiang Qi asked.

"No," Ji Yue, thinking of the pit in his pocket, replied casually. "They don't like these things."

"Go back to your room and rest." Ji Yue stretched. "Sleep for a bit, and I'll call you for dinner. Tomorrow I'll take you up the mountain again. Ah, right, take the jujubes back to your room to eat."

Jiang Qi planned to refuse, but thinking of something, he agreed, carrying the plate back to his room.

Seeing Jiang Qi's figure disappear from sight, Ji Yue slowly stood up, looked around, and seeing no one, ran quickly to the faucet.

Fearing Jiang Qi would find out, Ji Yue had hidden it very quickly, but the wrapping was extremely sloppy.

Ji Yue squatted beside the faucet, opening the tissue. Inside was the jujube pit. Ji Yue carefully washed it with water, but there was still some residue on it. Ji Yue didn't care, carrying the pit out of the house.

Uncle Chen next door was drying herbs, humming as he busily turned them over.

Seeing Ji Yue standing at the door, Uncle Chen was slightly stunned, then smiled and said, "Little Yue is here, what's the matter?"

"Uncle Chen, can you make me a bracelet out of this?"

Ji Yue opened his hand, and in his palm was the jujube pit. Uncle Chen was very good at carving, so making a bracelet was very simple for him.

"Sure, I can do that." Uncle Chen visualized it in his mind and said, "How about adding a few more pits? I have some at home, I'll make it for you."

"No need, just this one pit is enough." Ji Yue declined Uncle Chen's kindness.

Seeing that Ji Yue really didn't want any other pits, Uncle Chen understood something and smiled.

"Does Little You want a bracelet? A jujube pit bracelet has a good effect on sleep."

Ji Yue froze, scratching his head. "I'll ask him later. Sorry to trouble you, Uncle Chen."

Uncle Chen smiled warmly. "No trouble at all."

Seeing Uncle Chen's smile, Ji Yue immediately understood, whispering, "Don't worry, Uncle. In the future, I'll report Uncle Zhao's situation to you at any time." For example, some dark history...

On the way back, Ji Yue's steps were exceptionally light.

This pit was obtained by Jiang You risking injury to get it for him; its commemorative significance was too great.

Consider it... a witness to their friendship.

If Jiang You had no feelings for him.

Ji Yue suddenly froze.

Tomorrow, he must absolutely confirm Jiang You's feelings!

"A bit sour, but very sweet."

Jiang You tried a jujube and commented.

"So you got hurt for this?" Jiang You looked at his right hand, which smelled of iodine, his face expressionless.

In his subconscious, Jiang Qi shamefully spoke the truth: "No, I only got one, and I gave it to Super Cutie to eat."

The situation at the time was a bit unexpected, and Jiang Qi felt his performance was terrible, not wanting to tell Jiang You the details.

"So you got hurt, but gave the only jujube to Ji Yue?"

Jiang You seemed to understand.

"It turns out you like Ji Yue that much."

Jiang You said this softly, but it made Jiang Qi explode. Facing himself, Jiang Qi had never been one to speak kindly.

"Yeah, that's right. I really like Super Cutie. He's as cute as a dog."

If someone else had said this, it would just be a normal comparison.

But for some reason, perhaps due to tension or another reason, Jiang Qi said this in a casual, playful tone, and his phrasing and intonation were strange.

Although it sounded odd, Jiang You, knowing the bad personality of his sub-personality, immediately associated it with unpleasant things.

"You treat him like a pet? He's a human being." Jiang You frowned disapprovingly, realizing he couldn't feel what kind of mood Jiang Qi was in when he said this.

Jiang Qi didn't mean it that way, but he didn't explain either, only giving a careless hum of assent.

Jiang You put a jujube into his mouth, silent and somewhat bewildered.

Ji Yue regarded Jiang Qi as a friend, but Jiang Qi regarded him as his pet.

How ridiculous.

But, I'm just an outsider, it has nothing to do with me.

Jiang You told himself in his heart.