Are You Mad?

Shen Rui'an hadn't noticed Su Tingbai's stunned expression. Seeing the veins bulging on his arm, he couldn't resist reaching out to squeeze his muscles. "Huh? They're hard!"

Hadn't people said muscles were soft too?

He looked at Su Tingbai in confusion. "Why? Shouldn't they be soft?"

He'd heard they were soft.

Faced with those knowledge-seeking eyes, Su Tingbai had no idea how to answer and fled in disarray.

Shen Rui'an had no idea how things had turned out like this. Su Tingbai had suddenly run off, leaving him and Baisui staring at each other.

"Baisui, is Su Tingbai mad?" Shen Rui'an muttered as he slowly headed toward the tent.

When Shen Rui'an reached the canopy, he found the grill empty. Only Little Zhu and a few others were playing cards.

Su Tingbai wasn't here. Where had he gone?

Xing Ying spotted Shen Rui'an right away and pulled him over. "An'an, come on, play cards with us. The loser has to do push-ups."

Shen Rui'an was pressed into a seat, but he kept looking around distractedly. "Where's Su Tingbai?"

Xing Ying and the others looked at one another. "Huh? I remember he went after you."

After him?

Shen Rui'an scratched his head. "He took the camera, turned off the livestream, and left just now."

"Huh? No way, right?" Huo Heng slapped his thigh, frustrated at Su Tingbai for failing to meet expectations. He'd let such a perfect chance slip away?

"Was he angry?" Shen Rui'an tilted his head and asked sincerely, "I squeezed his arm just now, and then he ran away. Did I make him mad?"

As Shen Rui'an spoke, he suddenly felt wronged. He hadn't even done anything.

After hearing Shen Rui'an's account, everyone looked at each other as a giant question mark slowly rose over their heads. Huh?

He ran away just because someone squeezed his muscles?

Ran away?

What was Su Tingbai doing?

"I know! Does Su Tingbai not like being touched?" While everyone else was thinking, Shen Rui'an suddenly realized. He didn't like strangers touching him either. Was Su Tingbai the same?

Shen Rui'an rarely reflected on his own behavior, but he still felt a little wronged. He had only poked him lightly, not even with much force. It shouldn't have hurt. Was Su Tingbai really angry over that?

Shen Rui'an was unhappy. Su Tingbai had even held his hand earlier!

If that was the case, then he should keep his distance from Su Tingbai from now on.

For no apparent reason, Shen Rui'an felt a trace of discomfort in his heart. He wasn't good at hiding his emotions, and Xing Ying and the others could tell what he was thinking just by looking at his face.

"I'll apologize to him later," Shen Rui'an said dejectedly.

Xing Ying didn't know what to say. He didn't think that was the reason, so he and Huo Heng tried to comfort him. "Could this be a misunderstanding? Old Su probably isn't mad."

Given how unusually Su Tingbai treated Shen Rui'an, he wouldn't get angry just because Shen Rui'an touched his arm, would he?

Could Shen Rui'an have gotten it wrong?

Huo Heng gathered the cards, shuffled them, and dealt. "Old Su really does dislike being touched by others, but I don't think he's mad at you."

Mad about what? That guy looked like he wanted to devour Shen Rui'an with his eyes. If he'd suddenly run off, it was more likely because he'd gotten hard from being touched. He couldn't exactly run away saying he was embarrassed, could he?

?!

Huo Heng jolted and shot Xing Ying a meaningful look.

Xing Ying understood. No way? Shy? Why did that word sound so ridiculous when applied to Su Tingbai?

Little Zhu and the others eagerly offered their opinions too. "Maybe something suddenly came up?"

"Yeah, yeah. The boss's temper isn't great, but he's not actually that bad."

"Once you get to know him, he's actually pretty easy to get along with."

Comforted by everyone's overlapping words, Shen Rui'an felt much better. But when he looked up, Su Tingbai had returned after changing into a shirt somewhere. His arms were completely covered, wrapped up tightly.

When their eyes met, Su Tingbai looked slightly evasive. He instinctively adjusted his clothes, then only approached after making sure he looked neat.

Shen Rui'an's gaze landed on the black shirt. It was a black satin long-sleeved shirt. Su Tingbai had undone two buttons, revealing glimpses of the silver necklace around his neck. He had rolled up the cuffs to expose his wrists, while the rest of him was covered tightly by the shirt.

Shen Rui'an withdrew his gaze and lowered his eyes, refusing to look at him. So he really was angry, wasn't he? Because Shen Rui'an had touched his arm, he had hurried off to change into long sleeves. Su Tingbai must have changed because he hated being touched by others, right?

The thought made Shen Rui'an feel stifled, and he resolved to keep his distance from Su Tingbai.

He just had to be more careful from now on.

He just wouldn't touch him anymore, okay?

Shen Rui'an remembered that before coming here, Su Tingbai had seemed less than welcoming. It had only been after his family had called in favors and asked Grandpa Su to speak up that Su Tingbai had reluctantly accepted his arrival.

Shen Rui'an felt even more stifled. Things had been fine these past few days, yet because of what he'd done just now, he had made Su Tingbai angry?

He felt a little sad. When he was young, because he was frail and sickly, some people had considered him unlucky. They wouldn't let him touch them or play with them. Over time, he became unwilling to go out and only played at home by himself.

The Shen Household villa was huge, and they had built him a children's playground. But playing alone was ultimately boring. Sometimes, he would ask his family to take him somewhere crowded, where he would quietly watch other people play from a corner.

It would have been a lie to say he hadn't envied them.

Shen Rui'an remembered visiting an older boy's home when he was little. That older boy had welcomed him warmly, but later, the boy had to go to school, and Shen Rui'an rarely visited other people because of his health.

Later, the older boy's face had blurred from his memory, but Shen Rui'an remembered that he had been a very kind person.

Unfortunately, not everyone was like him and didn't mind Shen Rui'an's frail health.

These past few days, Shen Rui'an had been having so much fun he'd forgotten to go home. They hadn't treated him like fragile glass, and Shen Rui'an had begun to feel that he was no different from anyone else.

But Su Tingbai's reaction just now had reminded Shen Rui'an of the past.

Was Su Tingbai angry because he thought Shen Rui'an had no sense of boundaries when he squeezed his muscles, or because... he thought Shen Rui'an was an unlucky, sickly burden who had touched him?

Shen Rui'an couldn't figure it out, but he felt sad. For no apparent reason, the sadness made his nose sting.

When he noticed Su Tingbai coming over, he silently moved his chair a little farther away. That way, he wouldn't upset him, right?

When Su Tingbai saw Shen Rui'an move his chair away from him, the smile on his face froze. Why was he sitting so far away?

The others sensed the awkward atmosphere, and Huo Heng laughed it off as he dealt the cards.

Shen Rui'an stared blankly at the cards on the table, remembering his eldest brother's reminder. People said that when you were under someone else's roof, you had to bow your head. His eldest brother had told him to rein in his temper.

Shen Rui'an suddenly felt that his eldest brother had been right.

Su Tingbai had no obligation to indulge him the way the Shen Household did.

He had been blinded by how well he'd been treated these past two days. In truth, Su Tingbai was no different from anyone else. He had disliked Shen Rui'an from the start.

The more Shen Rui'an thought about it, the worse he felt. It was as though an invisible hand had tightly clenched his heart, making it hard for him to breathe.

After barely enduring one round, Shen Rui'an felt so stifled that he gave up his seat. "I'm not feeling well. You guys keep playing. I'm going to the river to clear my head."

He stood, picked up Baisui, and headed toward the stream.

The moment Su Tingbai saw Shen Rui'an quietly move his chair away from him, he had already struggled to remain seated. Now, seeing Shen Rui'an run off with the corners of his eyes slightly red, he immediately stood as well.