Chapter 137: Chapter 123, Awkward_1
“I’ve caught up with you!”
Xiao Yeyang passed by Daohua with a smug look, giving her a provocative glance along the way.
They had been climbing for roughly over half an hour now. Daohua wasn’t very tired. Seeing Xiao Yeyang’s punchable expression, she graciously competed with him for a while.
But it wasn’t long before Daohua’s pace slowed down, and eventually, she simply climbed a bit and rested for a while.
“You can’t handle it, huh? You’re running out of energy so quickly, and we still have a distance to go to reach the top of the mountain!” Xiao Yeyang stood on the mountain stairs, laughing as he looked down at Daohua.
Daohua looked at him and massaged her legs without speaking.
Earlier, she had been so focused on chasing Xiao Yeyang that she didn’t pay attention and overexerted herself. She reckoned she would need to rest for a couple of days after returning.
Xiao Yeyang touched his nose. She’s tired? He then looked at Defu beside him with a questioning gaze.
Even though Defu was a delicate-looking eunuch, his martial skills were not inferior to those of a bodyguard.
Defu lowered his head, sighing inwardly, My Prince, you, a martial man, are stubbornly competing with a young girl, and even if you win, what’s the point?
Couldn’t you just let her win!
Look, the girl doesn’t want to play with you anymore, right?
If it were up to him, it’s deserved!
Even he, a martial artist, was a bit short of breath, let alone a delicate young girl.
Of course, these were thoughts he dared only entertain in his mind, never daring to say them out loud.
Seeing that Daohua had stopped climbing, Xiao Yeyang found it boring to climb alone, so he simply stopped too, waiting for her.
Daohua snorted inwardly at this, considering that he hadn’t given her any slack just now.
Moving her gaze away, Daohua continued to rest. She did not move until Dong Yuanxuan and a few others caught up. She waited until Zhou Jingwan slowly arrived before turning around to continue.
This time, everyone noticeably felt the pace had slowed down quite a bit.
Watching Xiao Yeyang climb a bit and then turn back to look, everyone was holding back their laughter.
Usually, they were the ones accommodating this little tyrant. This time, it was his turn to taste the flavor of yielding to others.
“Are you still up for it? You are too slow!”
After climbing for a while, Xiao Yeyang couldn’t help calling out to Daohua who was behind him.
Daohua replied without hesitation, “I can’t climb anymore, you go ahead!” Like she had a bump on her head to continue competing in mountain climbing with a boy older and stronger than her!
“You…”
Xiao Yeyang was a bit frustrated, but found he had nothing to say to urge Daohua on.
At that moment, unable to bear it any longer, Defu decided to salvage his master’s dignity: “Little Prince, Miss Yan is only ten years old.”
Who knew that Xiao Yeyang would retort with, “Well, I’m only thirteen, not that much older than her!”
“Uh…”
Salvage attempt failed, Defu decided to shut up, to keep from being needlessly implicated.
Xiao Yeyang waited for a while, and seeing that Defu was keeping his head down and staying silent, he hesitated and then said, “I’ve already slowed down a lot, how can she not keep up?”
Defu thought for a moment: “The young girl lacks physical strength. Look, of those who started climbing with us, how many are left? Even some men have given up. It’s quite impressive that Miss Yan has persisted up to now.”
Looking down, Xiao Yeyang noticed that on the mountain stairs, only Daohua and Zhou Jingwan were left among the women. He pursed his lips: “Girls are just frail.”
Defu decided, once again, to remain silent.
Seeing Daohua moving intermittently, Xiao Yeyang grew anxious; at this pace, who knows how long it would take to reach the peak.
Suddenly, his gaze caught a dried-up branch. He immediately said to Defu, “Go, pick up that branch for me.”
Defu immediately did as he was told.
While Daohua was busy counting the steps, a tree branch suddenly appeared in front of her. Puzzled, she looked up to see Xiao Yeyang awkwardly holding the branch.
Seeing that Daohua didn’t move, Xiao Yeyang had no choice but to speak, “Grab it. I’ll pull you up.”
Upon hearing this, Daohua’s eyes immediately lit up, and with a beaming smile, she reached out and grabbed the branch, “Make sure you hold on tight, don’t let me fall.”
“I’m already doing you a favor by pulling you up, and you’re still complaining!” Seeing Daohua smile again, Xiao Yeyang felt relieved, but then he scolded himself silently. He was the Little Prince. Shouldn’t Daohua be the one accommodating him? Why had it turned out the other way around?
Glancing at Daohua, who was grinning as she let herself be pulled along, Xiao Yeyang thought that it would be fine to just leave it at that. If this girl really didn’t want to climb, could he actually command her to do so?
Behind them, Dong Yuanxuan and the others watched as Xiao Yeyang slowed down to accommodate Daohua, and now he was directly pulling her along, which left them somewhat amused and bemused.
Yan Wentao saw this and his eyes lit up; he quickly picked up a branch from the nearby woods and handed it to Zhou Jingwan.
When Zhou Chengye looked back at his sister, he saw this scene and said with a laugh, “Wentao certainly catches on fast.” After that, he didn’t pay it any further attention.
At this moment, the people around them didn’t have many other thoughts on the matter.
Daohua and Zhou Jingwan were too young. As little sisters, wasn’t it only right for their older brothers to protect them?
And just like that, Daohua was pulled to the top of Xiangxia Mountain by Xiao Yeyang.
Pulling Daohua up was exhausting for Xiao Yeyang.
As they were climbing the last few steps, Daohua pulled the branch with force, and then, taking advantage of Xiao Yeyang’s pause, she stepped ahead and reached the top first.
“I win!”
Daohua looked somewhat smugly at the stunned Xiao Yeyang, then waved at Zhou Jingwan, who was still on the stairs, “Jingwan, we won! Remember to ask them for a reward!”
At this outcome, everyone was a mix of amused and bemused.
Xiao Yeyang glared fiercely at Daohua, but seeing her smiling at him with open arms, somehow he just couldn’t bring himself to verbalize his irritation.
“Hand it over, my reward.”
“No!” Xiao Yeyang huffed and walked away briskly.
Daohua stiffened her face, furrowed her brows, and thought, it was just a joke, was there really a need to be angry?
She didn’t go after him. When Zhou Jingwan arrived, Daohua just took her to look at the scenery.
The scenery from the mountain peak was even more magnificent and beautiful.
Watching Daohua and Zhou Jingwan playing and laughing, Xiao Yeyang felt a bit frustrated but entered a nearby pavilion and sat down without a word.
Dong Yuanxuan’s group stood outside the pavilion, all of them somewhat troubled, hesitating whether to go over or not.
What were these two troublemakers up to now?
From afar, Zhou Jingwan pulled on Daohua, “Is it really okay to just leave the Little Prince by himself in the pavilion like that?”
Daohua widened her eyes, “What do you mean I left him there? He went there by himself.”
Zhou Jingwan replied, “Anyway, I think it feels a bit wrong.”
Daohua glanced at Xiao Yeyang who was sitting alone in the pavilion, thought for a moment, then compromised, “Alright then, I’ll go and ask him if he wants to enjoy the view with us, okay?”
In the pavilion, Xiao Yeyang saw Daohua approaching hesitantly and his stiff expression softened a bit. He thought to himself that maybe his attitude had been somewhat inappropriate.
But for him to apologize first, that was a blow to his pride.
After all, there were so many people around!
“Xiao Yeyang, there’s a really tall and big maple tree over there, do you want to come take a look?” Daohua decided she shouldn’t be upset with a little brat who was used to being pampered, so she smiled and walked into the pavilion.
Xiao Yeyang gave Daohua a look, his expression still a bit awkward, “I’ve barely made it up here; of course, I want to look around!”
“Then let’s go!”