The Protagonist Pursues Me Relentlessly – Chapter 24

The voices in the room stopped at the same moment, except for the bubbling sound from the steamer and the sound of water flowing vertically from the faucet, tirelessly circulating.

Jiang Mo didn’t notice everyone’s gaze falling on him. His breath couldn’t disperse the redness on Chi Yu’s fingertips. Chi Yu suddenly brought his ring finger and pinky finger together, loosely encircling Jiang Mo’s thumb.

Jiang Mo was momentarily stunned and raised his eyes to meet Chi Yu’s scrutinizing gaze.

The corners of Chi Yu’s phoenix eyes curved downward, and the subtle creases of his double eyelids deepened. Light-colored pupils were filled with the warm shadow of sunlight, and his own shadow.

Chi Yu was laughing at him.

Jiang Mo’s heart skipped a beat, and blushing, he let go of Chi Yu’s hand. He let go, but their hands were still touching, and this time it was Chi Yu who held his hand.

“I… your hand… it’s hot, too hot… blow, blow on it…” His heart was racing unbelievably fast, and with the realization that there were many cameras focused on him, Jiang Mo nervously stumbled over his words. He buried his head, wishing he could hide it inside his sweatshirt.

It was so embarrassing.

How could he dare to do such a thing!

“Well, thank you,” Chi Yu’s voice contained a smile, and the corners of his mouth curled up even higher without restraint.

“Hand…” Jiang Mo wanted to pull back his own hand. He tried once but it didn’t move, and he didn’t dare exert too much force, afraid that Chi Yu’s hand would hurt.

Chi Yu seemed to not hear him and continued to hold his hand.

“Hand… hand…” Jiang Mo raised his voice a bit. Chi Yu was so close to him, he should have heard, but Chi Yu still didn’t let go.

Jiang Mo cautiously lifted his head, and Chi Yu had been looking at him the whole time, his smile even brighter than before.

Jiang Mo: “…”

“Aren’t you going to blow on it for me?” Chi Yu asked.

Jiang Mo: “…”

The redness on his face spread to his ears, and Jiang Mo lowered his head, hurriedly placing his hand under the flowing water.

The cold water of winter extinguished the fiery connection of their fingers, but it couldn’t extinguish the burning sensation on Jiang Mo’s cheeks and ears.

[“You pervert! I thought you had changed your ways.”]

[“Jiang Mo, toughen up. You’re asking for it with this kind of behavior!”]

[“Jiang Mo is so attentive. Only he noticed that Chi Yu got burned. Does he like Chi Yu?”]

[“Nonsense, of course Jiang Mo likes Chi Yu. He knows that Chi Yu got burned because he’s always paying attention to him. It’s a great opportunity for Jiang Mo to create more hype.”]

[“Some people, stop speculating blindly, okay? If Jiang Mo really wanted to create hype, he could have done it yesterday when he went on a date with Chi Yu or today on the bus. He had so many chances to interact with Chi Yu, but he only spoke when Chi Yu initiated it.”]

[“Someone said Chi Yu annoys Jiang Mo to death. Is this what Jiang Mo looks like when he’s annoyed? I’ve never seen Chi Yu smile so happily before.”]

Lu Xuan had stopped pounding the rice cakes as soon as Jiang Mo held Chi Yu’s hand. He, like everyone else present, was confused by Jiang Mo’s actions.

Jiang Mo’s behavior was clearly inviting criticism, but if it was because he was worried about Chi Yu getting hurt, then there wasn’t much to fault him for.

In comparison, when Chi Yu hadn’t held onto the lid properly, he had asked if Chi Yu was okay, and Chi Yu had said he was fine, so he didn’t pay much attention to it.

Now, in this comparison, he knew which side the audience’s hearts would lean toward without even looking.

It was Jiang Mo again.

Lu Xuan took a deep breath and hammered the soft rice cake with the wooden mallet.

Because of Jiang Mo’s actions, Chi Yu swept away the previous gloom. Before Jiang Mo could cry out in shyness, Chi Yu released his hand and let Jiang Mo run back to Lou An’s side like a turtle.

Chi Yu curled his fingers, and the burning sensation on his fingertips eased a bit from the impact of cold water. The staff, belatedly, handed him a tube of burn ointment. He turned off the faucet and accepted the staff’s kindness.

With fair skin, it was easy to confuse the visual appearance, and the burn on his hand didn’t look as severe. He could continue working. Taking advantage of this reason, Chi Yu lazily slacked off.

Knowing that Jiang Mo had retreated into his shell, Chi Yu restrained himself from getting closer to him within the narrow space.

It wasn’t only him silently paying attention to Jiang Mo; Jiang Mo was also secretly observing him.

Jiang Mo only had a tiny bit of courage, and it was for him that he dared to approach him in front of the camera. If he provoked him again, Jiang Mo would definitely cry in front of the camera.

Chi Yu leaned against the wall, seemingly unaware that his fingers were smeared with sticky ointment. He gently rubbed his fingers as if he could still capture Jiang Mo’s lingering presence. The freshly applied ointment spread, and his gaze remained firmly locked on Jiang Mo.

Now, seeing Jiang Mo standing with Lou An, the odd feeling in his heart vanished.

Lou An liked Lu Xuan. What was there for him to worry about? He was foolish in his previous thoughts.

Lou An took care of the first half of the work, while Jiang Mo snatched the latter half. One reason was that he didn’t want to do nothing, and the other reason was to divert attention.

He hadn’t fully recovered from his earlier embarrassment, feeling dizzy in his head. Now, he just wanted to be alone quietly, preferably without anyone noticing him.

Jiang Mo curled up in a corner, facing the wall, pounding the rice cakes, as if he had done something wrong and was reflecting on it.

[“Haha, I finally understand why Chi Yu is so concerned about Jiang Mo. I didn’t pay much attention to him before, but now that I look, his little actions are so cute!”]

[“Hahaha, why do you always show us the back of your head on the show?”]

“That’s enough.” Lou An returned from Lu Xuan’s side and quickly stopped Jiang Mo before he smashed the rice cakes.

“Oh.” Jiang Mo stopped, the room’s door tightly closed, and the window only slightly opened for ventilation. The indoor temperature was high, and the rice cakes were still steaming hot after being taken out of the steamer.

Freshly made rice cakes were edible right away. Lou An put on disposable gloves and picked up a small piece of rice cake from the cutting board.

“Give it a try.” Lou An handed the rice cake to Jiang Mo.

In this situation, could it be…

Chi Yu’s eyelids twitched, and he saw Jiang Mo grab a disposable glove from the box and accept the rice cake handed to him by Lou An through the glove.

Jiang Mo delivered the rice cake from his hand to his mouth, and Chi Yu quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

“Senior, I’m done. Would you like to try it?” Lu Xuan cut the finished rice cakes into equal portions and packed them into a container. He walked over to Chi Yu with the container, and in his other hand, he thoughtfully held a pair of gloves.

“No need, I’m not hungry right now.”

Lu Xuan seemed a bit disappointed. “Even if you’re not hungry, you can still taste it. It’s still hot since it was just made. It’ll need to be processed again when it gets cold.”

The camera was facing them, and there was no concrete evidence to prove what Lu Xuan said to Jiang Mo that made him avoid him. Chi Yu didn’t want to give a junior a hard time for no reason.

He received the glove with his uninjured hand and put a small piece of sliced rice cake into his mouth.

“How is it? Is it delicious?” Lu Xuan, who was about 1.78 meters tall, had to raise his head to face Chi Yu. At this moment, his eyes were shining with anticipation and caution.

Chi Yu chewed expressionlessly. He had acted with Lu Xuan before and spent several days together, so he knew what Lu Xuan was usually like.

The same posture, and now Lu Xuan was imitating Jiang Mo?

“Not bad,” Chi Yu said, then bypassed Lu Xuan and threw the glove into the corner’s trash can.

[“This complicated love square has me rooted to the ground.”]

[“Alright, the father-son CP is complete, not even a hint of it!”]

[“Are you guys crazy? Lu Xuan didn’t do anything, why are you targeting him?”]

[“Just speaking the truth, we didn’t say anything excessive. Why are you all so worked up?”]

[“We’ll ship who we ship, no need for you to keep emphasizing thank you! Can we respect each other, please?”]

[“Respect? Jiang Mo didn’t do anything, so why are you targeting him?”]

[“Blaming the wrong child is the fault of both parents. Why blame the child? Jiang Mo is also a victim. Mr. Lu’s fans are truly crazy, how long have they been criticizing Jiang Mo for this? When you praise and criticize, have you ever thought about Jiang Mo’s feelings?”]

[“I’m a hater, I’ll say it straight. I’m not targeting specific individuals, I’m targeting everyone. When Jiang Mo used to cling to Chi Yu all the time, I criticized Jiang Mo just like this. Now I just don’t want to treat them differently.”]

[“Are you a hater of Chi Yu? Intentionally stirring up trouble for Chi Yu?”]

After throwing away the trash, Chi Yu didn’t return to Lu Xuan’s side but went straight to the corner where Jiang Mo was staying.

“Is it delicious?”

As he approached, Chi Yu noticed that Jiang Mo’s right cheek was puffed up by a big chunk of rice cake, and his fingers started to itch again.

Jiang Mo indeed had a skittish temperament. Every time Chi Yu approached him suddenly, he would startle. This time was no exception.

Jiang Mo was like a hedgehog with its tail touched, on guard all over his body. He stopped chewing when he looked up, with some undissolved brown sugar at the corner of his mouth. He instinctively stuck out his tongue and licked away the brown sugar from his lower lip and corner of his mouth. His mouth was full of rice cake as he covered his mouth, muffling his voice. It sounded muffled when he spoke, “D-delicious.”

Why did he look so guilty, like he was caught stealing a bite?

Chi Yu found it amusing as he glanced at the unevenly cut pieces of rice cake in the box, with a bag of mixed brown sugar and osmanthus sesame next to it.

Chi Yu: “You know how to eat.”

Jiang Mo blushed.

Chi Yu: “Can I have a piece?”

Jiang Mo nodded and hurriedly handed Chi Yu the glove next to him.

Chi Yu didn’t move, lazily drooping his eyelids. His voice was a bit weak, “My hand hurts.”

“Ah?” Jiang Mo didn’t react.

Chi Yu: “My hand hurts. I can’t take it.”

“T-then what should we do?” Jiang Mo suggested, “S-should we wait until your hand doesn’t hurt before you eat?”

Chi Yu: “…”

Chi Yu almost laughed out of frustration. When he spoke, his voice still maintained its weakness, “By the time my hand doesn’t hurt, it will be cold.”

Jiang Mo: “I… I can heat it up for you.”

Chi Yu: “…”

This idiot.

Chi Yu: “Why don’t you feed me?”

Jiang Mo: “…”

Chi Yu raised his arm, and his reddened fingertips waved in front of Jiang Mo’s eyes.

“I’m so hungry, I want to eat hot rice cake.”

Jiang Mo: “…”

Jiang Mo took off his glove and put on a clean one. He picked up a piece of rice cake and asked, “D-Do you want brown sugar?”

Chi Yu’s lips curled slightly, “Mm, sesame and osmanthus too.”

“Oh, okay.” Jiang Mo nodded and rolled the sticky rice cake in the mixture of brown sugar and sesame and osmanthus.

Jiang Mo raised his hand, and as if he had been waiting for this moment, Chi Yu lowered his head as Jiang Mo raised his hand. His fingertip accidentally brushed against Chi Yu’s lower lip, and even through the thin glove, he could feel the softness and warmth of Chi Yu’s lips.

Chi Yu seemed oblivious and opened his mouth, biting down on Jiang Mo’s finger halfway.

It didn’t hurt because he quickly let go.

Jiang Mo’s entire hand seemed frozen, not even realizing when Chi Yu had bitten off all the rice cake from his hand.

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