Time flew like sparks from a blacksmith's forge: they flashed and vanished, and before long, another year had passed.
Just like that, two years had gone by.
Wading Village was still the same little place, full of the smell of chicken shit and earth.
Old Buck's snores still shook the heavens, and Aunt Martha was still as loud as ever. Only the man and woman in the blacksmith's shop had changed.
Su Li was now a true blacksmith.
His hands were covered in calluses, and the skin between his thumb and forefinger had grown thick and tough.
The pale skin he'd once had was now thoroughly bronzed by the forge. With muscles that looked carved from stone, he had the kind of presence that made him a walking heartthrob.
But his nature hadn't changed. He was still lazy.
If he could sit, he wouldn't stand; if he could lie down, he wouldn't sit.
Aside from when he was working at the forge, focused like an artist, he spent the rest of his time sunbathing on a recliner in the courtyard like a beached fish.
Even so, all the young women and newlywed wives in the village still loved coming by.
Unfortunately, they no longer had a chance.
Because Sena had changed.
As the saying went, a girl changed dramatically as she grew up.
The freckle-faced, scrawny little blond girl who'd been like a bean sprout two years ago was gone.
Sena wasn't a peerless beauty now, but she was undeniably pretty. The freckles that had once made her look so unappealing seemed to have filled in with all the good food she'd had over the past two years. Her skin was fair and smooth, with a healthy glow.
Most striking of all was her figure.
Maybe it was the good food Su Li had brought home, or maybe she'd simply come of age. Either way, Sena's body had filled out like a balloon.
The loose linen dress she used to wear now hugged her tightly.
She was slim where she should be, and curvy where it counted. As she walked, her figure swayed, making onlookers' hearts leap.
(The cover image is Sena.)
The girl was much more confident now.
She used to be too shy to look Su Li in the eye. Now she dared to stare straight at him.
The awkwardness in their room had long since disappeared.
In fact, she was a little too comfortable around Su Li.
One evening,
Su Li had just returned from the forge, drenched in sweat. He pushed open the door, intending to grab a dry towel and wipe himself down.
Inside, Sena was changing with her back to him.
The setting sun slipped through a crack in the window and fell right across her smooth, bare back.
Her skin was dazzlingly fair, and the hollow of her spine formed a lovely curve. Her shoulder blades appeared and disappeared as she moved.
She held the shirt she hadn't put on yet, moving slowly.
When she heard the door, Sena didn't panic or cry out.
She only turned her head slightly and glanced at Su Li out of the corner of her eye.
There wasn't a trace of shyness in her gaze. Instead, there was a hint of something hard to describe—something challenging, and even a little expectant.
"You're back?" Sena asked. Her hands kept moving at the same leisurely pace, and she even thrust out her chest on purpose, showing off her profile to its best advantage.
Su Li stood in the doorway, his Adam's apple bobbing twice.
That girl really didn't see him as a man.
Or did she see him as too much of a man?
"Mm." Su Li replied without looking at her, walked over to his bedroll, grabbed a towel, and headed back outside. "I'm going to wash up."
A faint laugh came from behind him.
Sena sounded rather pleased with herself.
Su Li went straight outside and poured a bucket of well water over his head.
The cold water streamed down his back, finally quelling the heat stirring inside him.
"Good grief."
Su Li wiped the water from his face and let out a long sigh.
For the past two years, he'd practically been living like an ascetic.
In his previous life, Sena would've been too young for him to even consider.
Even if she was certainly tempting now.
More than tempting, in fact.
Su Li shook his head, banishing those messy thoughts.
That evening,
it was story time as usual.
Leaning against the wall, Su Li told the tale of Wu Song fighting the tiger from Water Margin.
Sena sat on the bed with her knees hugged to her chest, staring unblinkingly at Su Li's profile.
Truthfully, she hadn't taken in how many bowls of wine the man named Wu Song had drunk, nor did she care how the tiger had died.
She only cared about the storyteller.
The lamplight flickered.
Su Li's shadow danced across the wall with the flames.
As Sena watched him, she began to feel warm. The heat seemed to seep from the very marrow of her bones, crawl up her veins, and leave her parched.
"...And then the tiger was beaten to death."
Su Li finished the story.
He yawned and blew out the oil lamp.
"Go to sleep."
The room fell dark.
Outside, the insects chirped one after another, an irritating racket.
Su Li lay on his bedroll with his hands behind his head, listening to his heartbeat.
It was stuffy tonight.
There was no wind.
After a while,
just as Su Li was starting to drift off, he heard someone turn over on the bed.
There were only two people in the room: him and Saina.
That sound had to have come from either him or Sena.
Su Li raised his head and looked toward the bed. Sena was alone, leaning against the wall with only her head showing, her eyes meeting his.
Su Li froze. Why wasn't she asleep yet?
He gave Sena a look, telling her to go to sleep.
Not long after Su Li lay back down, the sound of someone turning over started again.
It was the sound of the blanket rustling.
Every muscle in Su Li's body tensed.
That little brat.
Did she really not care that he was the only man in the room?
Or was she doing this on purpose?
He turned over, facing away from the bed.
He closed his eyes and silently recited the multiplication table.
One times one is one, one times two is two...
At that moment, she desperately hoped Su Li wouldn't be able to resist getting into bed.
Su Li couldn't sleep. He was torn over whether to let things go on this way in this life.
If he accepted her, he'd have to take responsibility.
That night, the moon over Wading Village was especially round, making him feel restless.
Early the next morning,
Su Li was woken by the sound of someone washing clothes.
He rubbed his aching temples and climbed off his bedroll.
He felt more exhausted than after a whole day at the forge.
He glanced at the bed.
No one was there.
The blanket was gone, too.
Su Li pushed open the door and stepped outside.
The courtyard was dim in the first light of dawn.
Sena was crouched beside the well, with the thick cotton blanket soaking in a huge wooden tub.
Her sleeves were rolled up, revealing two pale forearms as she scrubbed the blanket with all her might.
The blanket had soaked up the water and grown heavy. Scrubbing it was clearly a struggle, and beads of sweat had formed on the tip of her nose.
Hearing footsteps, Sena turned around.
Her fair face instantly flushed bright red.
Her gaze wandered, and she couldn't bring herself to meet Su Li's eyes.
"Um..."
Sena wiped her hands on her apron. Her voice trembled a little, like a child caught doing something wrong.
"I... I was drinking soup last night..."
"I accidentally spilled some on the blanket."
"Mm." Sena nodded emphatically, as if trying to convince herself. "It was all soup... So I... I took it out to wash."
Su Li stood on the steps, watching the girl with her head nearly buried in the tub.
He didn't call her out.
It was an outrageously bad excuse.
Who drank soup under the blankets in the middle of the night?
But he only smiled, the gentle expression laced with the knowing mischief of someone who saw through it but chose not to say so.
"Take your time washing it."
Su Li stretched and rolled his stiff neck.
"Be careful next time you drink soup."
"Don't burn yourself."
With that, he turned and headed for the blacksmith's shop.
Behind him.
(Next chapter: dinner, qwq)
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