The Taming of the Ruffian Hero

Lin Wenxi fell on the ground, and his face twisted in agony. He was a little out of breath.

“What’s wrong? You’re still so lively earlier!” Zhao Yuan felt Lin Wenxi’s forehead.

“I feel... weak all over,” Lin Wenxi said with great difficulty. 𝒇𝑟𝐞𝐞w𝐞𝑏𝙣𝑜vℯl.co𝑚

“Eat something first.” Zhao Yuan then went off to look for Lin Wenxi’s knapsack everywhere, only to find some of the food items and commonly-used tools soaked. The tent had already flown god knows where. It turned out that this pit was a large slope. When he looked down, he saw a muddy marsh with a sign erected atop: “Danger. Do not enter.” Having experienced falling down a waterfall, Zhao Yuan wouldn’t try and force it. However, there was no way for Lin Wenxi to consume those things.

Worried, Zhao Yuan propped up Lin Wenxi and tried to help him walk upward. Lin Wenxi dropped to a squat. “Make the call and tell them I’m giving up. I don’t want to walk anymore. Just let me stay here.”

“Are you that weak?” Zhao Yuan couldn’t help feeling both anger and urgency.

“Didn’t you say that I have to beg you? I’m not going to.” Lin Wenxi held his head with a frown. The pain that he was feeling was unbearable.

“Fine, I don’t need you to beg me anymore. Let’s climb up together!” Zhao Yuan said.

“Okay,” Lin Wenxi said.

Zhao Yuan was stunned. “You sure reply quickly this time!”

“Ugh...” Lin Wenxi groaned.

The two of them walked to the slope. Evidently, Lin Wenxi was in no state of climbing up. Zhao Yuan frowned as he racked his brain and then took a rope out of his knapsack. He tied Lin Wenxi’s hands and thighs to his shoulders and abdomen respectively. Upon second thought, he made two loops around his back. Lin Wenxi felt that his four limbs were much more comfortable now and couldn’t help feeling warmth in his heart. Zhao Yuan the jerk was being so thoughtful.

Zhao Yuan inhaled deeply until he garnered enough oxygen. Then, he used the strength to run five to six meters to charge up the slope and climbed left and right. When he grabbed onto a protruding rock, the rock failed to sustain their weight and broke off. Zhao Yuan and Lin Wenxi fell down together. In midair, Zhao Yuan spun around and fell to the ground with a loud thud. Even though the drop was only about two meters high, this time Zhao Yuan suffered a jolt in his heart and lungs. For a long time, he lay on the ground without moving.

Guilt inevitably stabbed Lin Wenxi. To him, Zhao Yuan could very well climb up first, toss him a rope, and slowly pull him upward with the slope acting as the buffer. What he didn’t know was that Zhao Yuan had considered this but chose another method, thinking that he was so weak that he couldn’t bear the pain of being pulled upward.

“Zhao Yuan, are you okay?” Lin Wenxi asked softly.

“I won’t die from this,” Zhao Yuan replied.

“Why don’t you climb first and pull me up?” Lin Wenxi made his suggestion cautiously.

“Who knows if you’ll die by hanging in midair? Do you even have any strength in your current state?” Zhao Yuan said as he rose to his feet.

“I think I’m feeling a little better,” Lin Wenxi said.

“Save the nonsense. I can do it.” Without another word, Zhao Yuan placed the end of the rope in his mouth and clenched his teeth. He summoned all of his strength and suddenly unleashed them at one go. With two explosive steps, he firmly grabbed onto another rock and propped himself with both feet with force. He inevitably felt a stabbing pain in his fingers but he forcefully suppressed it. He used his remaining strength to reach the top and climbed up with incredible difficulty. He lay on the ground, unable to move even a single step.

Quite some time passed. Lin Wenxi felt somewhat anxious and asked, “Hey, Zhao Yuan, are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Zhao Yuan lay on his stomach without moving.

Before long, Zhao Yuan tried his best to get back on his feet. He tried to use his phone to call someone but there was no signal whatsoever. He couldn’t help heaving a drawn-out sigh. He then slowly walked with Lin Wenxi on his back. Zhao Yuan advanced for another thirty meters before taking a left turn. There, he found a junction where their dorm mates and the group of girls would certainly walk past. This way, Lin Wenxi would be able to get something to eat.

Zhao Yuan dragged his feet in taking several heavy steps. Lin Wenxi said, “Zhao Yuan, I think I’m feeling better.”

“Save the nonsense! Moreover, can you not poke my ears when you speak?” Zhao Yuan retorted impatiently.

“I think your ears are cuter,” Lin Wenxi replied.

“Your whole family is cute!” Zhao Yuan couldn’t help mumbling to himself.

Zhao Yuan took several more steps but found himself truly overwhelmed with exhaustion. He must have hurt himself somewhere in the fall earlier. His entire body was unspeakably sore.

“Hey, Zhao Yuan.” Lin Wenxi poked Zhao Yuan on the neck.

Zhao Yuan stopped walking. He felt as if a little universe was about to burst forth in his heart.

“Speak...” Zhao Yuan said in a deep voice.

“I’ll tell you something, but you mustn’t get angry at me,” Lin Wenxi said quietly.

“I won’t get angry. But can I hit you?” Zhao Yuan said helplessly.

Lin Wenxi gave it some thought before replying, “You can hit me but you can’t shout at me or scold me.”

“Okay.” Zhao Yuan perked up his ears, waiting to hear what kind of secret Lin Wenxi was keeping.

“Well, I tricked you earlier. I was just fine,” Lin Wenxi said.

“I can carry you. Don’t you put on a wretched show for me?” Zhao Yuan thought Lin Wenxi was trying to lie to him in order to get him to put the latter down.

Lin Wenxi struggled on Zhao Yuan’s back with force. He laughed, saying, “I’m telling the truth.”

Zhao Yuan was instantly stupefied. He then frantically undid the rope and shook his back with force, firmly loosening Lin Wenxi’s hold on his back. He walked away in large strides without looking back.

“Ouch...” Lin Wenxi crouched on the ground, head in his hands. His face was etched with misery.

“What’s wrong with you?” Zhao Yuan couldn’t help returning to him with a worried expression.

Lin Wenxi immediately leaped up from the ground and said energetically, “I’m fine!”

Fuming, Zhao Yuan turned around and kept moving forward. When he heard Lin Wenxi’s pained cry coming from behind him, he had no choice but to return to him again. “Don’t you know the story of the boy who cried wolf?!”

Lin Wenxi nodded. He stood up and raised his head. Tears cascaded down his cheeks from both eyes.

The rage displayed on Zhao Yuan’s expression was instantly extinguished. He then said helplessly, “What... What exactly is wrong with you? Tell me the truth, won’t you, so that if I’ll at least know why I’m dying!”

Lin Wenxi kept sobbing and whimpering.

He had seen how bloodied Zhao Yuan’s ankles were, as well as how the latter’s palms were dyed dark red. He knew that Zhao Yuan had exerted an unspeakable amount of effort to climb up from the slope. Zhao Yuan’s injuries were clearly not light and his pain must be great, yet he never once turned around to let Lin Wenxi see them. Lin Wenxi didn’t even know if Zhao Yuan was in so much pain that he was frowning. Moreover, he had repeated his trick earlier. Even if Zhao Yuan was tricked, he had no choice but to helplessly come up to him.

Many thoughts had crossed Lin Wenxi’s mind.

That day, when he insisted on going under the sun, Zhao Yuan was clearly trying to tell him: “Don’t be an idiot.” Instead, what came out of Zhao Yuan’s mouth was: “Have you gone mad?” He recalled that it was Zhao Yuan who helped him get out of a predicament on the first day. Whenever he was in trouble, the one who was the most anxious was unexpectedly Zhao Yuan. Since when did Zhao Yuan start treating him this way? When did he start covering his face when confronting a guy’s naked upper half and unexpectedly wanting to take a peek through a slit? When Zhao Yuan kissed him on the face, he had evidently felt his heart throbbing. He felt absolutely no hatred for Zhao Yuan.

Earlier, when he had his legs wrapped around Zhao Yuan’s sturdy abdomen and felt the latter’s breathing, when he lay on Zhao Yuan’s wide-as-mountain and grandiose back and placed his hands around the latter’s neck, when he heard the sound of Zhao Yuan’s heavy breathing next to his ears, he felt a sense of deja vu. All the fear, loneliness, and hardship he experienced in his childhood seemed to have vanished into smoke.

He was like a piece of white paper that had come across Zhao Yuan, allowing the latter to add washes of ink and paint the most beautiful landscape known to the world.

However, he had ultimately hurt Zhao Yuan. He had tricked Zhao Yuan. Perhaps his initial plan was to win their dispute earlier, yet he had unexpectedly caused Zhao Yuan to bear injuries all over his body. Who knew if it was Zhao Yuan’s body or heart that was hurt?

When Lin Wenxi thought of this, he couldn’t stop himself from weeping in grief. How many years had it been since he last cried? It had been so long. To think that he would feel such joy yet such cutting pain when crying!

“That’s enough. Don’t cry anymore. I’m not angry, okay?” Zhao Yuan squatted down, trying to console Lin Wenxi with words.

Lin Wenxi leaned on his knees and asked tearfully, “Does it hurt?”

“No. Such minor injuries are nothing.” Zhao Yuan sat on the ground, leaning against a mountain rock. He felt a sudden urge to caress Lin Wenxi’s head but he didn’t know where to place his hands. He ended up crossing them behind his head. He and his father only had each other since he was young. The days of them hunting on the mountain was still fresh in his mind. How could one or two words describe the various injuries and illness he had suffered? Later on, he was sent to a sports college to learn martial arts, went to live in seclusion in the countryside, became the apprentice of a well-known mixed martial arts master, and received an extremely harsh training. The pain he had suffered then was no less than what he had experienced today. He had wanted to go into battle and fight on stage, yet was sent to Jifu University by his master and requested to make a name for himself here. How could he bear it if this was the will of heaven?

“Zhao Yuan, you’ve been treating me very well since we started university. You helped me get out of a predicament, you took me to tour the campus, you insisted on eating with me even though you were already full. Did you think I was blind to all these? You helped me fasten my buttons and gave me your portion of water. Did you think I didn’t know? But why did everything change after? You purposefully acted like a hooligan to make me angry and purposefully spout nonsense and make sarcastic remarks to force me to rack my brain to retaliate. You said you want me to act a little normally, yet I’m acting very abnormally. I’ve never behaved this way. But aren’t you yourself acting abnormally? Why did you act like a hooligan? Isn’t everything just fine at the beginning of the beginning?” Lin Wenxi cried so hard that tears were streaming down his cheeks like rain.

Zhao Yuan was thoroughly stupefied.

He tried thinking about it. He had always been unwilling to treat Lin Wenxi that way. He was merely acting according to Chen Wanxin’s instructions. However, when something happened to Lin Wenxi, he had always felt terribly impatient and wanted nothing more than to suffer in Lin Wenxi’s place. Since when did he start feeling this way?

“Maybe, on the first day I saw you, I already felt a sense of familiarity from you,” Zhao Yuan said.

“Zhao Yuan, I’m sorry.” Lin Wenxi was sobbing so hard that he could barely make a sound.

“It’s nothing. I... I’m willing to do so,” Zhao Yuan replied in a quiet voice. He couldn’t stop himself from reaching out to gently caress Lin Wenxi’s hair. The two of them trembled at the same time as if there was an electric current was slowly flowing between them without them being aware of it.