Su Mu might have seen that Su Shiyue was trying to foster a relationship between the two, and so words might have been exaggerated, but the danger Fu Shinian faced alone on the other side was real. She glanced back, and eventually, succumbed to her own soft heart, handing the paper-cut window decoration to Su Shiyue:
"You take care of this side."
Su Shiyue gleefully agreed, almost dancing with joy, "Don’t worry, I guarantee the task will be completed."
Su Mu looked at Su Shiyue, quite helpless, yet unable to ignore the situation, she walked over to Fu Shinian. Standing beside him, she hesitated for a few seconds before reaching out to gently support his leg.
Fu Shinian stopped what he was doing and looked down at her:
"Worried about ?"
Su Mu did not look at him, "Today is New Year’s, I don’t want your injury to ruin the mood."
Fu Shinian smiled slightly without saying a word, and continued his task while Su Mu also carefully supported him. They moved from the far left of the sliding door to the very right, and at the end, one of the hooks beca loose. Fu Shinian was caught off guard and flinched. Su Mu also got startled and instinctively hugged Fu Shinian’s leg tightly.
Once Fu Shinian steadied himself, Su Mu’s hands had yet to let go, as if fearing that he would fall the mont she did. Fu Shinian looked down at the woman standing on the ground, his eyes filled with an intense softness that could not be dissipated, his words harsh, yet his actions betrayed him to anyone.
Although she enjoyed the atmosphere, it couldn’t go on like this indefinitely, or she’d feel embarrassed when Su Shiyue and her grandmother would speak up. She smiled slightly:
"How long do you plan to hold on to ?"
Upon hearing this, Su Mu realized sothing and slightly loosened her grip. Seeing that he was standing steady on the chair and that her reaction was perhaps an overreaction, she took a step back, made sure he was all right, and turned to leave. But Fu Shinian stopped her:
"I haven’t hung up the last one. Aren’t you worried I might fall again?"
Su Mu stopped and turned back to look at him:
"Would Mr. Fu allow himself to make the sa mistake twice in one place?"
"Many things don’t just happen because you don’t want them to." Fu Shinian looked at her, "When I was a child hanging lanterns, I thought I was perfectly fine, yet I ended up falling off the ladder."
As soon as Fu Shinian said this, Su Mu truly couldn’t take another step. It wasn’t that she couldn’t leave, but what if an accident really happened? How worried would the old lady be? With such thoughts, it didn’t seem especially difficult for Su Mu to turn back.
She stood in front of Fu Shinian again, reminding him aloud:
"Hurry up."
Fu Shinian raised an eyebrow, "Considering the recent mishap, I think it’s better if you hold onto first."
Su Mu glared at him:
"I can judge for myself. If I see you about to fall, I will help you stabilize."
"With such a difference in body size between n and won, are you sure you can catch before I fall and not get hurt by , ending up falling together?"
Su Mu looked at him for a few seconds without speaking, but eventually, she compromised, stepped forward, and emulating her earlier action, hugged his legs tightly. At that mont, she heard the faint laughter from Fu Shinian above her head, which made her feel like she was being played:
"Are you going to hang it or not?"
"Of course we have to hang it, but could you possibly lower your hand a bit?" Fu Shinian bent down and leaned close to Su Mu’s ear, whispering, "If you keep this up, I’m going to start reacting."
Upon hearing this, Su Mu reflexively thought to let go but didn’t expect Fu Shinian to choose this mont to stand on tiptoes, adding casually, "Hold steady, I’m about to hang it."
He tid it so perfectly that it was simply impossible for Su Mu to let go at that mont. She just moved her hand a little lower, although the position from before wasn’t ambiguous; it was just slightly down from his hip. But with his words, Su Mu felt even her current posture had beco ambiguously unclear.
Once he finally finished hanging it, Su Mu turned to leave, but Fu Shinian leaped down from the chair and quickly grabbed her arm:
"Since it’s all hung up, don’t you want to take a look at the result?"
Su Mu awkwardly responded, "I don’t want to look."
"I want to look." He pulled her back to his side, "Stand with ."
Just as Su Mu opened her mouth to refuse, he pressed the switch. The next second, the star-shaped fairy lights along the top of the floor-to-ceiling windows began to twinkle. Although it was still bright outside and they couldn’t compare to the stars in the night sky, Su Mu found them very pretty to look at.
It was just like when she was a child at ho, fussing for her father to hang up the festive lights. She couldn’t wait for it to get dark before plugging them in and could sit under the lights for a very long ti, as if they represented her entire starry sky.
Fu Shinian’s attention wasn’t on those child-like fairy lights; his gaze was fixed on Su Mu’s slightly lifted lips the whole ti. He could tell how much she liked them.
"If you like it, we can leave these lights up all year," he said.
Su Mu’s smile faded after his words. She fell silent for a few seconds, then slightly averted her gaze, responding to Fu Shinian indifferently:
"That’s unnecessary; I won’t have much opportunity to see them anyway."
Fu Shinian wanted to say sothing else, but Su Mu had already turned and walked toward the elderly lady.
After hanging the coloured lights and pasting the paper-cuts on the windows, a big red lantern had also been hung at the entrance of the old house. Even An Le was dressed in bright red pet clothes by Su Shiyue, running back and forth in the living room, making the atmosphere more festive. When Su Shiyue ca down the stairs in a red outfit, she eagerly asked everyone to complint her beauty like a child.
Su Mu took her cara and captured the ’festive atmosphere’. At this mont, Su Shiyue stood in front of her, twirled around, her skirt creating a beautiful arc mid-air, and looked at Su Mu expectantly:
"Sister-in-law, do I look pretty?"
"Mhm, very pretty."
This praise from Su Mu was sincere. The contentnt that ca with Su Shiyue’s age was harder to achieve than a child’s but far simpler than what was required for Su Mu and her peers.
"I bought you a set too." Su Shiyue said as she handed the shopping bag she just brought down from the couch to Su Mu, "Change into it, and then let’s go set off fireworks together."
Su Mu looked at the shopping bag in front of her, hesitating for a mont, ready to reach for it, but Fu Shinian beat her to it, taking it instead:
"What’s the point of wearing exactly the sa clothes? Do you think everyone is like you, still a kid who needs new clothes for the New Year?"
Before Su Shiyue could argue back, Fu Shinian had already turned to Su Mu, cutting off her response:
"Go check the kitchen and see how long Auntie Wang will be."
Su Mu gave a light smile and nodded, "Okay."
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