Chapter 36 Exclude

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Yu Yuan opened the door to reveal Zhou Er Pang standing at the doorway holding a furry wolf skin.

Seeing that it was Yu Yuan who opened the door, Zhou Er Pang’s face stiffened.
He shoved the wolf skin directly into Yu Yuan’s arms, then turned his head and ran.

“Zhou Er Pang,” a cold voice came from behind him, like a frozen lake in winter.

Zhou Er Pang couldn’t help but stop.
He stood still, not daring to turn around.

“Take it back,” Yu Yuan caught up with Zhou Er Pang in a few steps and shoved the wolf’s skin back into Zhou Er Pang’s hands.

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“……Why?” Zhou Er Pang gritted his teeth, “Do you hate me?”

Yu Yuan stood still and didn’t say a word.
After a long time, he sneered, “Is our relationship that good?”

Zhou Er Pang lowered his head, feeling somewhat dejected.
Yu Yuan was right, they really didn’t have any close friendship.

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Holding the wolf skin, Zhou Er Pang turned around and walked home with his head down.
He had just walked a few steps when Yu Yuan’s voice came from behind him.

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“I won’t accept the wolf skin because of Father Yan, it has nothing to do with you.”

Zhou Er Pan was stunned, then he quickly turned his head around.
The early morning light was shining on the teenager’s face, giving him a god-like appearance, and his white skin was almost translucent in the sunlight.

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“I just don’t want you to get the wrong idea, but you shouldn’t think too much about it either.”

After speaking, and without giving Zhou Er Pang a chance to react, Yu Yuan indifferently closed the door.

His back pressed against the wooden door.
He listened to the sound of Zhou Er Pang’s footsteps pacing back and forth outside, then eventually walking away.
He lowered his eyes, then entered the house. 

***************

By the time he got back inside the room, Yan Mu was already awake.

“Why did you wake up so soon?” Yu Yuan’s tone softened a little, his eyes revealing a little worry.

“I had a nightmare,” Yan Mu’s head hurt when she thought back to her dream.  

One moment the teenager was dying in the wolf’s mouth to protect her, and the next, the teenager went to the capital by himself and was never heard from again.
The two dreams continuously repeated until Yan Mu felt like her head was going to explode.

Yu Yuan remained silent for a moment before saying, “I’ll press it for you.”

Press where?

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Before Yan Mu could ask aloud, the teenager had already sat behind her.

Cool fingers pressed on her temples, causing soreness, along with a little comfort.
Yan Mu squinted her eyes.
The teenager’s breath spilled on the back of her neck, bringing a hint of itching within the numbing sensation.

Her fatigue disappeared and her brain gradually cleared up.
Yan Mu shrunk her neck back and put down the teenager’s hands with a smile.

“Thank you, I feel better now,” she said, sighing in relief.

Yan Mu got out of bed, took out a roll of paper, and filled out the outline she’d written earlier in more detail.

“What’s this?” Yu Yuan stood beside her and thoughtfully helped her grind the ink.

“It’s the outline for another storybook3.
I’m expanding it, filling it out in detail before I write the text so that it won’t go off topic,” speaking of her interests, Yan Mu’s eyes lit up.

“Since it’s your outline, I won’t look at it,” Yu Yuan conscientiously excused himself.

There used to be storytellers in the village, and even if they were fellow apprentices of the same master, they were vigilant of each other and wouldn’t let them read their outlines.
So, Yu Yuan knew the importance of an outline to an author and was very aware about the importance of avoiding suspicion.

“It’s alright,” Yan Mu pulled him back and looked at him seriously, “As long as it’s Yu Yuan, it doesn’t matter.”

The girl’s gaze was sincere with no visible hint of deception.
Yu Yuan’s heart seemed to be sharply struck and his breathing briefly stagnated.

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He stepped back and murmured, “Mmm.”

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Due to Father Yan’s injury, Teacher forced the two of them to take a day off.
Yan Mu wanted to go to the capital with Yu Yuan and was already planning for the travel expenses.

So, she decided to finish her new story within these next few days.
She would use a portion of the money as travel expenses, and the rest would be given to the lady boss as the penalty for leaving halfway.

In a quiet time, the two of them, one was grinding the ink and the other was writing, looking extremely harmonious.

Although Yan Mu’s handwriting was bad, there were no cellphones and computers in ancient times, so her attention span lasted longer than it used to in modern times.
As a result, her efficiency improved a lot.

In one afternoon, she wrote two full chapters.
Yan Mu only finished writing when Yu Yuan’s hand was sore from grinding the ink.

She carefully let the ink dry, then rolled the pages into a bundle and stored them in the cupboard.

“You wrote a particularly large amount today,” Yu Yuan said from behind her.
“Is there something on your mind?”

Yan Mu’s hands that were tidying the papers trembled, and she subconsciously glanced towards Yu Yuan.
As usual, his expression looked normal.

Yu Yuan can’t know what’s on my mind, right? Yan Mu pondered.

She really wanted to go to the capital with Yu Yuan, but she was afraid that if she told him, he’d be annoyed.
After all, thinking about it from her own perspective, if there was someone who wanted to follow her wherever she went, she would definitely be bothered.

She didn’t dare to tell Yu Yuan her inner thoughts.
Yan Mu was worried that he would find her troublesome.

So, she forced a smile and said to Yu Yuan, “No, I’m fine.”

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Yu Yuan looked straight at her.
He kept looking until Yan Mu felt uncomfortable only then did he lower his head and softly reply, “Mmm.”

Yan Mu felt that Yu Yuan was a little unhappy.
She subconsciously wanted to ask him what was wrong, but was afraid that the topic would be switched back to her again.

The two looked at each other in silence.
This strange atmosphere lasted until the next day at school.

As usual, Yu Yuan first took a stack of books to ask Teacher questions about.
Yan Mu wanted to go with him, but she didn’t understand any of the questions he asked, so it would be quite awkward even if she went.

So, she carried her little backpack and went to the classroom herself.
She’d just pushed open the door when the bustling classroom suddenly went silent.

Almost everyone was in the classroom, except for Zhou Er Pang.
However, everyone was used to the fact that he liked to arrive last minute and be late.

Yan Mu felt that everyone was acting a little strange.
She looked at them with some confusion, then found her seat and sat down. 

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With a “thump”, Yan Mu sat on the ground.
A snort of laughter came from the silent classroom.

Yan Mu grimaced in pain with her hand over her butt, feeling like her bum must have broken in three.
She supported her waist and shakily got up from the ground.

Yan Mu carefully examined the chair and sure enough, she found traces of it having been sawed. 

Who would be so wicked! 

Yan Mu was extremely angry.

“Who did this?!” Yan Mu put her hand on her hip like a teapot and looked around with the fiercest look of her life.

No one answered, and everyone read with their heads down.
For now, she really couldn’t tell who’d just laughed.

Yan Mu stood pitifully in place for a long time.
She looked at the impassive crowd, and although she felt like it was childish and didn’t want to, there was only one way to deal with this situation—— tell the teacher.

She shoved her little pink bag into the drawer and was about to go find Teacher to tell him what had happened when she noticed something furry squirming on her hand.

“……” Yan Mu had a bad premonition as she slowly took her hand out of the drawer.

As expected, a dark caterpillar was happily wriggling on her delicate little hand.
And it was a caterpillar with spines.

Yan Mu felt her hand beginning to itch.
She quickly looked up and sure enough, she saw a student snickering.

Yan Mu had never been bullied like this since she was a child.
Although she was soft-natured, her heart was ablaze.

She picked up the caterpillar and went over to the student who had snickered earlier.

“W-what are you doing?” The student was a little surprised, as if he hadn’t expected the soft-natured Yan Mu to get angry.

“Did you put this caterpillar in my desk?” Yan Mu glared at that person and shouted, “If you lie, you’ll never be able to pass the imperial exam and become a Xiucai4!”

The boy laughed, seemingly speechless at such a childish curse.
But in front of so many people, lying showed that he didn’t dare to take responsibility for his actions, so the male student still straightforwardly admitted it.

“So what if I did?” he asked with a mischievous smile.

“……Why are you doing this?” Yan Mu was puzzled, “I’ve never offended you.”

“Because you’re with Yu Yuan,” the male student’s gaze flickered for a moment, then he looked at Yan Mu and seriously said, “There’s a rumor in the village, Hunter Zhang’s family were all harmed by Yu Yuan.” 

“……” Yan Mu didn’t speak.

“Yan Mu, how much do you know about the matters of Hunter Zhang’s family?” the male student asked.

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“Who told you this rumor?” Yan Mu asked, “What makes you believe it’s true?”

“Before, I didn’t know that Yu Yuan knew medicine, so I didn’t consider it.
Now that I know that he does, many things are now clear.” The male student smiled, “Hunter Zhang smoked addictive flowers, and Zhang Goudan first broke his leg, then inexplicably went crazy…… don’t you think it’s strange?”

“This time, Hunter Zhang bullied Yu Yuan and he took revenge against them.
Next time, if we accidentally offended him, I’m afraid he’ll take revenge on us too, right?” the male student asked.

Yan Mu was silent.

She actually knew about everything that had happened to Hunter Zhang’s family.

But what did it matter? Obviously they were the ones who bullied Yu Yuan first.

Can’t you get back at someone for bullying? Just because that person is Yu Yuan, he can only accept the beatings and scolding and can’t fight back?

Yan Mu felt even angrier.
She grabbed the caterpillar in her hand and placed it on the male student’s desk under his look of surprise.

“You sawed my stool and put a caterpillar in my drawer.
It would be impolite to not return the favor5, let me give you something too,” Yan Mu indifferently said.

“……?”

The male student looked puzzled and was about to speak, but then he saw Yan Mu pick up a book.

“Bang!” 

Yan Mu hardened her heart and directly slammed the book on the chubby caterpillar.

The classroom went dead silent6 and everyone was stunned.
The male student stared at the book, and imagining the sticky lump beneath it, his entire body froze in place.

Yan Mu threw the book into that person’s arms and coldly said, “There’s your worm back!”

With that, she turned her head and walked away.

Her hand was swelling up like a steamed bun.
Yan Mu restrained the urge to scratch it and walked towards Teacher’s room.

Just as she reached the door, she heard Teacher speak in a serious tone, “Yu Yuan, the incidents that happened to Hunter Zhang’s family, were those because of you?”

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The author has something to say:

Actually, both of them were thinking about each other. 

Yan Mu wanted to go to the capital with Yu Yuan, but she was afraid that he would get sick of her; Yu Yuan wanted to ask Yan Mu to go with him, but he was worried that she couldn’t bear to leave the village.