rose ashes

After a long time, no one spoke behind him. Ye Gu felt something was wrong. He turned around and saw Luo Yang looking at him leisurely.

Luo Yang smiled, "Who made the young master so angry?"
She rarely had the habit of joking with others, but Ye Gu was an exception. His reactions always made Luo Yang feel very funny.

Ye Gu stiffened his neck, feeling a little guilty, and spoke in a firm tone. Without even looking at Luo Yang, he handed the phone over.
"Look, I accidentally saw it. A younger brother sent you a message."

Finally, he added: "It wasn't intentional."

Luo Yang looked at him, laughing in his heart, and without looking at his phone, he deliberately asked: "Brother? I don't have any brother."

Ye Gu: “…” I’ve never seen her so tactless before.

"Maybe you have too many brothers and you can't remember them all." Ye Gu slowly stood down from the display cabinet, rolled up his sleeves, and casually placed the black cufflinks on the display cabinet.

Hearing him say this, Luo Yang just chuckled, then returned to normal and went along with him.
"Yeah, what you said makes sense. With so many people around, I really can't remember clearly. I guess I need to familiarize myself with it again later."

When Li's mother came upstairs to deliver the fruit, she heard the door of the cloakroom slammed shut. She was startled and stroked her chest slowly: "What happened..."

Inside the door, Luo Yang was pressed against the door with both hands.
She was calm, her eyelashes trembling slightly, but her voice remained steady.
"what happened?"

Ye Gu leaned close to her ear and gritted his teeth: "What's wrong with me?"
She always had the ability to ignite him with just one move, it was like that in the past and it is still like that now.

She just smiled and turned her head away.
"He is just a former student of Ms. Yang. That's all. You should understand that if there was a possibility between him and me, we wouldn't be here now."

Ye Gu sneered, this made him look like a grown man but petty-minded.
But he was just angry, so he couldn't calm down, and his temper inevitably flared up, but he still remained patient with her.
"But now that you're married, you should try to keep your distance from people who have ulterior motives towards you, don't you understand?"

Luo Yang took a deep breath and said, "I understand."

"Can you do that?" Ye Gu's eyes fell on her mobile phone.

Luo Yang didn't argue with him, but just nodded: "Okay."

Finally, he released her hand, and the faint finger marks on the wrist bones slowly disappeared as the movement relaxed.

Luo Yang did not leave immediately. He just laughed and stared at a rose pattern on the carpet. After a few seconds, he murmured, "Can you do it too..."
Will you keep your distance from others?

Ye Gu didn't hear clearly, "What?"
Luo Yang recovered quickly and shook his head, "Nothing, don't think too much, go take a shower."

The little episode that happened tonight made both of them worried, and they stayed awake all night. It was a rare occasion that Luo Yang woke up earlier than Ye Gu in the morning. When he went downstairs, Aunt Li was making breakfast.

Luo Yang looked at the bright sunshine outside and decided to go out for a morning run on a whim.
In fact, she is not a person who likes sports. She just often suffered from insomnia during the years she was abroad. The doctor refused to prescribe sleeping pills for her, and she became immune to coffee. She had no other choice but to rely on exercise to consume physical energy and force herself to fall asleep.

When it was serious, I worked non-stop for three days without any sleep.

/ / /
The person on the bed turned sideways and hugged the person next to him. When he opened his eyes in a daze, there was no one around him. For a moment, he thought he was awake from a dream, and Ye Gu suddenly sat up.

After a long pause, looking at Luo Yang's water cup and lipstick on the table, I was sure that I was not dreaming and she was still there.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and when he gradually opened them his eyes became clear again.

downstairs--
When Li Ma brought him breakfast, she found out that Luo Yang had gone out for a morning run.

"Young Master, you don't have to get up so early every day. It's okay to sleep in occasionally. Don't be so hard on yourself."
Mother Li advised earnestly that since the two children got married, Ye Gu was always the first one to wake up in the family. Even if it was late, he would at most wake up with Luo Yang. It had never been like today.

Ye Gu murmured, "I'm afraid I'm dreaming..." Then he smiled vaguely, "It's okay, Aunt Li, I'm used to getting up early, it's nothing demanding."

After breakfast, seeing that Luo Yang had not come back yet, Ye Gu could not sit still any longer. He changed his clothes and was about to go out. As soon as he opened the door, he ran into Luo Yang with a rosy face.

Although it was morning, the temperature was not low today. Fortunately, I changed into thin sportswear before going out, but I still sweated.

As their eyes met, Ye Gu's ears turned slightly red and he coughed lightly. His arrogant and conceited temperament began to show up again.

"You went out so early and didn't see your brother?"

Luo Yang was puzzled and frowned slightly: "Where did my brother come from for a morning jog?"

Luo Yang changed her shoes and went straight into the house. She felt uncomfortable with the sweat all over her body, so she planned to take a shower before having breakfast.

"Didn't you talk to your brother last night?"

Luo Yang’s patience is good, but it is also limited. He already had something on his mind, and now it is completely stuck in his heart and he can’t let it out.
She raised her voice rarely, and her voice became a little colder.
"Mr. Ye, you should stop. It's harmful to your health if you are not happy in the morning."

Ye Gu has been feeling resentful for a long time and is very stubborn. He won't give up until he gets the reason.

"So how long have you known each other?"
Luo Yang didn't indulge him anymore, and every word she said was powerful: "I haven't calculated it, but it's been a long time anyway." Ye Gu laughed angrily, okay, you are so cruel.
"You guys have been in touch?"

Luo Yang simply sat down on the sofa, put his hands in his pockets and didn't even look back.
"So what if it is, so what if it is not."

Ye Gu sat down opposite her and took off his outer clothes, revealing a white T-shirt underneath. His arms were cold, white and strong, and it was obvious that he had been exercising.
"Are you just trying to fool me now?"

Luo Yang: "How dare I?"
She is also a bit arrogant and temperamental. Even though gentleness is engraved in her bones, she is just an ordinary person with emotions and desires, so naturally she will get angry sometimes.

Ye Gu was surprisingly persistent about the above question, and asked without giving up: "Did you keep in touch when you were abroad?"

Luo Yang subconsciously paused for half a second, with countless thoughts flashing through her mind, as if a twisted mind was playing tricks on her. She clearly knew what the real answer was, but she was as rebellious as if she had deliberately tampered with her application during the college entrance examination. She changed the answer that was about to come out.

"Occasionally in touch."
As she finished speaking, she clutched the blanket beside her tightly in her hands. The guilt was like a knife hanging over her heart, about to fall, but she was still tied by a thin rope so that she could barely breathe smoothly.

Ye Gu was silent for a while, his eyes seemed to be soaked in ice and snow, and they were as cold as ice water, but the smile on his lips never faded, but became more and more obvious.
His voice was hoarse and heavy, and every word was as sharp as a knife: "Oh, that's really me. We were worrying about nothing and ruined your beautiful life."

Finally, Ye Gu stood up and passed by Luo Yang. She opened her mouth to say something, but all she heard was a self-deprecating sentence: "I am redundant."

The tip of the knife fell and pierced into his heart. Luo Yang felt like there was something stuck in his throat. He turned around and saw only the last corner of Ye Gu's clothes by the door, which also disappeared as the door closed.

No, she wanted to say no.
She didn't know what emotion drove her to give such an answer just now. She was shocked for a moment when she said it.

But it seems that she has been doing things that will make her regret. She always regrets leaving without saying goodbye and telling lies now.
Ms. Yang will be disappointed when she sees this. Until now, she still can't say what she wants to say, and she is afraid every day.

Luo Yang stared at the door for a long time before he murmured something. Perhaps because his mouth had been dry for a long time, even his voice was a little hoarse.
"You are not redundant... but I am afraid that I am the redundant one..."

/ / /
After the unpleasant ending that day, the relationship between the two people seemed to have returned to the pre-liberation era overnight.

Luo Yang talks as little as possible. The two of them are just sleeping in the same bed but having different dreams. Every time Ye Gu comes back to the room after taking a shower, Luo Yang is already asleep.

Looking at her thin shoulders, he finally retracted his outstretched hand.
If only he hadn't been so stubborn that day, if only he hadn't seen her phone that day.

"Doctor Xi, am I too greedy?"

Xi Jinzhou felt very tired when he saw Ye Gu drinking milk tea with a worried look on his face.
He rubbed his brows, "Ye Gu, you weren't like this before."

"So what am I like?"

Xi Jinzhou tapped the table and said, "Whatever you saw before, you were determined to get it. In order to get it, you would destroy it to make it your own."

Ye Gu glanced at him unhappily, "These are two different things."

Xi Jinzhou raised his eyebrows and said indifferently: "What's the difference? They are both what you want."

Ye Gu's face was serious and dignified, his eyes fixed on Xi Jinzhou, "She is not an object, and she will not belong to anyone. You should be careful about what you say."

Xi Jinzhou stared at her without saying anything. The two of them faced each other for a long time. After a while, Xi Jinzhou smiled and said, "This is the first time you dare to talk to me like this. Now that you know the importance of this, don't say things that are not in line with your heart."

Ye Gu turned his head and looked around the apartment.
"Tell me, if I had rented this house to Shen Fan at that time, would she be happy?"

Xi Jinzhou suddenly realized, "You are jealous. You went through so much trouble just because of this brother?"

Ye Gu acted as if he didn't hear him and continued talking to himself.
"Well, I am three months younger than her, so I can be considered her younger brother. How am I inferior to him?"

Xi Jinzhou was so blocked that he couldn't speak for a moment. Ye Gu in front of him looked as aggrieved as a puppy. If the scene were real, he would have just whimpered twice.

He cleared his throat, held up the phone, and asked in a rare cautious tone, "Are you doing this for love? To be honest, it's a bit like what people call... a dog licker."

Ye Gu: "...If you don't know how to talk, then don't talk. I'm very annoyed now and don't mind a fight."

Xi Jinzhou knew when to stop, so he stepped forward and patted his shoulder, saying meaningfully, "If she were in front of you now, what would you say to remedy the consequences of your quick words?"

Ye Gu pushed his hand away with disdain, turned the chair, and leaned the middle of his back against the center island with a proud expression.

A few seconds later, Ye Gu was defeated as Xi Jinzhou had expected. He sighed, looked at Xi Jinzhou, and said, "The younger brother outside is not as good as the younger brother at home. The younger brother at home only cares about you and calls you sister, while the sister outside is everywhere in the world."
"Do you think it's not nice of me to say that?"

Xi Jinzhou looked heavy-hearted, and the next second, laughter came from the phone.

"That's a good point. Why don't you call me sister?"

(End of this chapter)