Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Little deaf boy, why don’t you follow me…

Suddenly, the sound of short and powerful footsteps came from far away, and it was obvious that it was not an ordinary person.

Biezhi was shocked, and her eyes glanced at the entrance to the backyard vaguely.

"I knew you were here!" A cute and crisp voice sounded, breaking the momentary silence in the backyard. A tall and slender woman leaned in. Her eyes swept across the silence meaningfully, but then fell on her friend, "I heard that you were returning to Beijing today, but I haven't seen you for a long time. I knew you were here without thinking."

"It's so hard to be away from home. Of course I have to reward myself well after returning to Beijing." Biezhi breathed a sigh of relief, her eyes trembling with smiles, and she stretched out her hands to catch Fang Tingzhi who was throwing herself into her arms. But Fang Tingzhi was a head taller than her, and the two of them stood on tiptoe while the other bent over, hugging each other in such a weird posture.

Fang Tingzhi clicked her tongue and pushed her away: "What's the reward?"

Biezhi glanced at Jiran's back as he was sweeping the path, "Of course, feasting your eyes is a reward for yourself."

As far as she could remember, she had never met a man more handsome than Jiran. Although his figure was not as strong as his colleagues in Xianyun Tower, Biezhi liked his slender and well-proportioned figure. Everything was just right.

Fang Tingzhi glanced at Jiran and shook her head in confusion. She still preferred men with strong and muscular figures.

But she didn't come here today to discuss men with Biezhi. "I heard from Master that you are planning to take on another mission?"

"Yes." Biezhi understood her intention as soon as she heard it, and her eyes were fixed on Jiran who put down his broom and lowered his head to trim the branches. "You are idle anyway, and you would be a fool not to make money."

Fang Tingzhi frowned. Although she was affiliated with Shanju, she had known Biezhi for many years and naturally understood the difficulty of her mission. Not only did she have to endure what ordinary people could endure, but she also had to do things that ordinary people could not do.

"Don't you have five hundred taels for this trip?"

This trip to escort the Dali Temple Shaoqing out was worth eight hundred taels, so Biezhi could get at least five hundred taels.

"Before leaving Beijing, I went back to Lijia Village. It happened to be raining heavily, and the dirt road back to the village was so muddy that it was difficult for me to walk, let alone the elderly villagers." Biezhi planned to pay for the construction of a stone road in Lijia Village. "I asked, and it costs six hundred taels for a hundred feet of stone road."

Moreover, she couldn't show up in person, so she needed to ask others in Xianyun Tower to do it for her or find help from outside. It was natural to pay people for troublesome work, and then there were the craftsmen, which would probably cost hundreds of taels in total.

"It's indeed a large expense." Fang Tingzhi knew her friend's situation and didn't stop her plan. She just watched as Biezhi had been in Qingyin Pavilion for nearly five years. She had received more than twenty commissions, if not a hundred. However, most of the money she received was used to repair Lijia Village, and she didn't keep much for herself.

Fang Tingzhi was silent for a few breaths before trying to dissuade her, saying, "You should also think about yourself."

"I know." Biezhi knew she was thinking about herself, but—"I have to do something to repay everyone's kindness to me."

Biezhi was found by her grandmother by the river, and it was said that she was only two months old at the time.

Grandmother had lost her husband and son at a young age and had been raising her on her own for nearly half her life. After finding Biezhi, the two depended on each other for survival. Grandmother found the only seven-year-old boy in the village who knew some poetry and literature and named her.

'The bright moon on a branch startles the magpie, the gentle breeze in the middle of the night makes the cicadas sing.'

Thus, she became famous.

However, fate was not kind to Biezhi. When she was two years old, her grandmother passed away, leaving her once again an orphan with no one to rely on. Fortunately, she met only kind people at that time. The villagers of Lijia Village, though illiterate, were incredibly kind-hearted.

After her grandmother's death, Biezhi grew up eating at hundreds of homes, one meal today, another tomorrow, never missing a day.

However, the good times didn't last. When Biezhi was six years old, she was working for a family when she encountered a dying matchmaker pretending to be begging for water. When she went to get water, the matchmaker knocked Biezhi unconscious.

When she woke up, Biezhi had arrived in the capital.

The matchmaker had already negotiated a deal with a restaurant in the brothel, but she wasn't satisfied and was about to go out and ask if there were other restaurants with better offers.

Unbeknownst to the matchmaker, Biezhi had a unique talent from childhood:

she was born with extraordinary strength.

Though young, Biezhi possessed the strength of a grown man, even lifting rocks that the village men couldn't.

After a struggle, she knocked the matchmaker unconscious and escaped.

Biezhi painted her face black and wandered around.

She begged for food in restaurant kitchens, climbed over piles of filth in street corners, and climbed over walls to steal fruit from other people's yards.

The only time Biezhi climbed over a wall was when she was caught red-handed by the young master of the family. It was during this climb that she met her master, Ling Feng.

From then on, she entered Xianyun Tower.

Life in Xianyun Tower was not easy, but she had enough food and warm clothes, which was enough. She

returned to Lijia Village in the year of her coming of age.

After choosing her future destination, the master and Qingshan, who was beside the master, mentioned it, and within half a day, Biezhi got a ten-day holiday and was able to return to Lijia Village.

When she galloped all the way to the outside of Lijia Village, Biezhi hesitated.

Her identity was no longer the same as before, and she was prepared for more and more enemies. Of course, she could not have anything to do with Lijia Village, so as not to bring them unnecessary trouble.

All the repairs done for Lijia Village were done by paying for help.

This time of repairing the stone road was no exception.

Hearing her brisk yet resolute tone, Fang Tingzhi sighed helplessly and said, "Tell me when you're short on money. While the bounty at Shanju isn't as high as at Qingyin Pavilion, I've saved quite a bit."

"I don't need that much." Biezhi lived frugally, living in the courtyard. Her only interest was visiting the shop to see the handsome man and eat dumplings. She had no other expenses, and—

her almond-shaped eyes flickered, reflecting rays of light.

"This mission, right now, will be mine."

Fang Tingzhi's mouth parted slightly, then closed again at her friend's confident expression.

She said, "When you need our help, just ask."

Biezhi smiled and patted her head: "I knew you were the best."

Fang Tingzhi, whose hair was messed up, hissed, glared at her, and slapped her hand away: "Don't touch my hair."

"Here, here, here." Biezhi leaned forward: "I'll touch mine for you."

Fang Tingzhi was not one to indulge her, and she ruffled her hair neatly. Biezhi heard the subtle sound of the broom falling, and she raised her eyelids slightly, meeting the man's clear and deep pupils, with a hint of a smile.

Biezhi stared in confusion.

Ji Ran raised his hand, and his clean, bony fingertips lightly touched his own hair.

Biezhi was stunned for a moment, and looked at herself in the pool water.

The girl's hair reflected in the pool was messy, no different from a chicken coop.

Biezhi: "..."

Fang Tingzhi stuck out her tongue and quietly took a half step back: "You told me to do it yourself, if you don't believe me, ask him."

"He can't hear you." Biezhi pulled up the corners of her mouth into a smile, stretched out her ten fingers, and sharpened her knives towards her friend.

Fang Tingzhi: "..."

Biezhi smiled and rushed over. Fang

Tingzhi turned and ran.

Biezhi chased after him directly, and when she turned around, she suddenly bumped into the man's arms. She heard a clear groan, with an indescribable pleasantness.

She looked up hurriedly, and saw Ji Ran frowning slightly, and asked hurriedly: "Are you okay?"

The next moment, she remembered that Ji Ran couldn't hear, so she directly grabbed his collar. When she was about to pull it down, her hands were covered by the man's warm big hands, and he was prying her knuckles one by one.

Biezhi raised her head in confusion.

When she saw the man's eyes dodge, she blinked in confusion. When her eyes trembled, she suddenly saw his earlobe that seemed to be stained with blood. She looked at her hands that were pulling at the man's clothes belatedly, and pulled it down unconsciously.

Suddenly, the man's fair shoulders came into view, with beads of sweat dripping down above his slender collarbone, gleaming faintly in the mottled light and shadow.

She took a breath.

If she pulled it down a little more, she could see his chest!

Biezhi's fingertips moved, and her reason told her that she couldn't pull it down any further, otherwise it would be difficult to end.

She blinked and let go.

Ji Ran quickly straightened his collar.

For a moment, the two looked at each other in silence.

Biezhi's eyes seemed to rise, and when they met his eyes, they quietly looked away.

After going back and forth twice, her fingertips touched his chest through his clothes, and his seemingly slender body actually had some elasticity!

Biezhi covered her lips and coughed, then retracted her hand and gestured the scene just now, "Does it hurt?"

Ji Ran looked at her fingertips intently, and it seemed that it took him a while to react before he understood what she meant.

He shook his head.

Biezhi breathed a sigh of relief, then she remembered the forgotten Fang Tingzhi. She glanced sideways and saw her good friend standing under the shade of a tree.

Fang Tingzhi looked at the scene with joy.

The man was handsome and the woman was pretty.

They looked like they came out of a storybook, even their heights were a perfect match.

Fang Tingzhi looked at Ji Ran seriously for the first time and sighed.

What a pity, he is deaf.

They have known each other for many years, and Biezhi saw what she was thinking at once. She frowned and glared at her, her mouth slightly opened. Before she could speak, a bamboo comb appeared in her sight.

Biezhi's eyes followed the man's knuckles upwards, pointed at the bamboo comb and then at herself, "Is it for me?"

Ji Ran nodded.

He reached out and picked up a strand of hair beside Biezhi's ear, combed it down half an inch, and the messy hair became smooth again. He took back the bamboo comb and handed it to her.

Biezhi's eyelashes trembled slightly.

She raised her hand to take the bamboo comb.

The polished bamboo comb was very smooth and not prickly at all. A quick look told you that he had spent a lot of effort and time to make it.

Biezhi raised her eyelids slightly and looked at the man with a slight smile on his face.

She tightened her grip on the bamboo comb and said, "Thank you."

Ji Ran didn't reply, just smiled at her.

Biezhi had asked the shopkeeper here and knew that he was born deaf. Because he couldn't hear, he naturally didn't know how to make sounds, let alone distinguish other people's words through their lips.

For example, right now, he didn't understand the meaning of a simple thank you.

And it was precisely because he couldn't hear that he didn't know how many people looked down on him. Fortunately, he couldn't hear, so he was isolated from those people's dirty words. The fact

that the shopkeeper took him in and gave him a place to live was something that others couldn't match. How could he possibly have a conflict with the guests because of him?

Biezhi had only known him for two years, but she had already heard countless people mocking him. When she first met him, it was because of the foul language they used. Even as a bystander, she couldn't stand it, but the waiters at the Wuwei shop said it was just normal. Their

eyes met for a moment, and she curled her eyes.

"Little deaf boy, why don't you just follow me?"