Page 16

"I don't know."

Though Mushroom still did not quite understand, he had learned a few things over the past few days. "But I just feel like you'd really like hearing it."

Shi Changyuan's steps paused slightly.

Lin Ling sensed his movement and stopped as well. He tilted his head up to study Shi Changyuan's profile carefully before reaching a conclusion. "You're very happy, aren't you!"

Shi Changyuan smiled helplessly and admitted it. "Mm."

There were far too many interesting little trinkets at the temple fair. Lin Ling wanted a pinwheel here, then a straw grasshopper there.

"Can you carry so many things?" Shi Changyuan asked.

"I think so." Lin Ling looked at the little trinkets in his arms, unwilling to put down a single one, and began arranging them in an orderly manner.

"When I return to the wilderness, I'll settle down somewhere dark, damp, and out of the sun. Then I'll stick this pinwheel in my little flowerpot and hang this straw grasshopper from the little branch beside it."

Hearing this arrangement, Shi Changyuan seemed to be in a poor mood, yet he did not object. On the contrary, he bought nearly everything Lin Ling wanted.

"Young master, would you like to take a look and see if there's anything you need?"

The two came to another small stall. This vendor sold fans and jade pendants. Mushroom seemed rather uninterested in those things, but Shi Changyuan spotted a little fox mask.

Little Mushroom's pretty face was simply too eye-catching. Along the way, quite a few young women had even tossed scented handkerchiefs and silk flowers at him, which made Shi Changyuan unconsciously irritated.

Covering it up did not seem like a bad idea.

If it was covered, no one else would be able to see it.

Except him.

"Take this."

Shi Changyuan picked up the mask with one hand. Just as he released Mushroom's hand with the other and prepared to pay, a commotion suddenly broke out behind them. Someone was galloping on horseback through the densely packed crowd, knocking over quite a few vendors' stalls.

Everyone hurried to get out of the way, and the scene descended into chaos. Even Lin Ling, sheltered in Shi Changyuan's arms, could not avoid being bumped and jostled.

Shi Changyuan's expression darkened.

In a dark alley not far from the two, several shadow guards suddenly appeared. One of them said, "The master's orders: someone must have been behind this. Investigate!"

"Yes!"

The shadow guards Shi Changyuan had brought immediately sprang into action. They dragged the man riding through the market off his horse, threw him into prison, and easily uncovered the one behind it.

"It was the vice minister of revenue's son. Though he didn't do it on purpose, Master has long wanted to deal with that family. What perfect timing."

The two shadow guards looked at the man who had already fainted in his cell and chatted. "He was unlucky too, interrupting Master's date."

After leaving the crowd, Shi Changyuan led Lin Ling toward a safer place while also sending several people to check whether anyone had been injured and provide aid.

"Where did you get hurt?"

After they left, Shi Changyuan's first words were a question.

Lin Ling blinked, twisted his arms, moved his legs, and felt himself over from side to side before answering, "I don't think I got hurt."

"It doesn't hurt."

Shi Changyuan stared darkly at Lin Ling's lower back. He vaguely remembered someone bumping into that spot, but Mushroom had not cried out in pain, so it was not convenient for him to check.

"Are you really all right?" Shi Changyuan asked again.

"I'm fine!" Lin Ling bounced up and down where he stood, trying to prove that he was perfectly healthy and whole. "Didn't you still have something you wanted to buy earlier?"

"The crowd has thinned out a little now, and it looks like someone is restoring order. Should we go take another look?" Lin Ling stood at the mouth of the alley, peered outside, and asked what Shi Changyuan thought.

"Mm."

Having received Shi Changyuan's approval, Lin Ling's eyes brightened, and he happily ran toward the alley exit—

But before two seconds had passed, he turned around and came back, stopping in front of Shi Changyuan.

"What is it?" Shi Changyuan asked in confusion.

Looking at the person before him, Lin Ling took the initiative to extend his hand toward Shi Changyuan, equally puzzled. "Aren't we holding hands anymore?"

"Such a good boy."

Shi Changyuan praised him and very naturally took Lin Ling's hand.

When the two returned to the previous stall, Lin Ling discovered that the thing Shi Changyuan had wanted to buy was also for him.

"Do you like it?"

Shi Changyuan held the mask he had chosen earlier out before Lin Ling.

But Shi Changyuan's question was unnecessary. No matter what someone gave Little Mushroom, Lin Ling would happily accept it.

The stall owner kept explaining his wares from the side, saying that it had a clasp design and guaranteed quality.

There would absolutely be no situation like in storybooks, where a hero wore a mask while robbing the rich to aid the poor, dodged every open and hidden attack, only for the mask to fall off on its own.

"A clasp?"

Mushroom placed the mask over his face. With one hand, he gripped the straps and brought them around to the back of his head, but he could not fasten them no matter what.

"Could you help me?"

Little Mushroom's fingers were not nimble enough, so he could only ask a human for help.

After thinking for a moment, Lin Ling added a form of address. "Big brother."

Shi Changyuan chuckled, taking the mask from him. "All right, I'll tie it for you."

He gently pressed the mask against Lin Ling's face, then drew the straps across Lin Ling's ears and around behind them.

Lin Ling felt the pressure against his face. Through the eyeholes of the little fox mask, he could only see half of Shi Changyuan's face.

Lin Ling stared at that face for a long while before belatedly realizing that they seemed to be standing a little too close, close enough for their breaths to curl around each other's necks.

"Is it, is it done?"

Lin Ling instinctively wanted to retreat, but using the straps as an excuse, Shi Changyuan loosely enclosed Mushroom in his arms. His right hand landed on the back of Lin Ling's head, preventing him from moving back even half an inch.

It was an intensely possessive posture.

"Click."