CH 52

The inside of the carriage was a bit cold, and that cold was starting to seep in through their clothes, making them shiver. From outside, Xie Yu Zhi could hear the sounds of the whip, spurring on the horses, and he could hear the bumps the carriage was going over. But none of those noises were louder than the beating of his own heart, beat by beat, each sounding loud enough to burst his eardrums.

Chen Miao Ping snuggled up against Xie Yu Zhi’s neck, biting occasionally, sometimes hard, sometimes soft. Xie Yu Zhi was in a rare state of patience, even lifting up his head to better accommodate Chen Miao Ping. His eyes, however, were swaying off elsewhere, and his fingers were tightened on Chen Miao Ping’s shoulders. His nose was tinged with a blush, and his breath was slowly quickening.

A horse carriage, after all, was not a good place to do certain activities, and so after a while, the racket inside was quietening down. The two of them rested their foreheads against each other, linking their breaths together. Xie Yu Zhi blinked as he reached out to slowly touch Chen Miao Ping’s ear. He suddenly felt the urge to yank him hard by the ear, and there was an itch to his hand that made it hard to resist.

Chen Miao Ping seemed to sense something and raised his eyes to look at him warily. He pointed out, 

“Yanking the ear is what only girls do.”

“…..I’m a man. Of course I won’t do such girlish things.”

Xie Yu Zhi paused for a second, and then he pretended that nothing ever happened and retracted his hand. He lowered his eyes and stuck his hands in his sleeves, saying,

“If there was ever a person who made me unhappy, I would just greet them with my sword. That is called upholding my reputation as a general.”

Chen Miao Ping made a face at him discreetly and turned his head away. His ears twitched before bowing down to the power of martial arts, 

“Ok ok ok. I’ll let you yank- let you yank. Go ahead. I won’t say anything, alright?”

“I don’t want to!”

The horse carriage was just slowly coming to a stop when Xie Yu Zhi pushed him away. He then immediately flung open the curtain for the doorway and jumped down. Seeing this, Chen Miao Ping followed him and laughed heartily, 

“Ah ah ah, what are you angry for? How old are you? How could your attitude be so much like that of a child’s?”

Xie Yu Zhi’s feet did not stop, 

“I’m bigger than you.”

Chen Miao Ping’s mind had not processed the sentence fully yet and he blanked out at what it meant, 

“Huh? Bigger than me? Where are you bigger than me?”

One look at him and one could see what he was thinking. Xie Yu Zhi turned red from embarrassment, knowing that Chen Miao Ping was misinterpreting his words and angrily said, 

“Bastard, of course it’s age. What did you think it was!”

It was the same curse over and over, but Chen Miao Ping had a thick skin and didn’t feel any shame or embarrassment. He shook his head and walked ahead of Xie Yu Zhi, 

“What Second Master thought it was, that’s what I thought it was.”

Xie Yu Zhi quickly grabbed his shoulder, but Chen Miao Ping was faster and pulled Xie Yu Zhi forward by his hand. Waiting for Xie Yu Zhi to fall into his embrace, he then bent his waist and piggybacked the other, hooking his arms onto his legs. Chen Miao Ping shuffled him up and said, 

“If you wanted me to piggyback you, then just say it. Why are you so shy, Second Master?”

Notes:

>> Editted a sentence of when Chen Miao Ping was reminiscing his past and to make it clearer that it was not the neighbour who took him in, but the man who gave him his part of DNA was the one who took him in (so the old lady in the family is most likely the grandmother)