Blooming Romance Chapter 25

Really sorry for taking so long yet again! My new school semester started and I’m still trying to adjust to the new schedules and all! And just a heads up, for now, whenever I miss an update in a week, I will try to make up for it in the next week (2 updates) unless I really don’t have the time to do so (シ_ _)シ (Will see if I can be done with the second one by tmr!)

t/n (hover over the number to read the note without affecting your reading/clicking will bring you back here):
1. Song Jiang (宋江) – the leader of a group of outlaws who lived during the Song dynasty of China who was fictionalised in Water Margin.
2. Water Margins (水浒传) – a Chinese novel attributed to Shi Nai’an and is one of the Four Great Classical Novels in Chinese literature. It is also translated as Outlaws of the Marsh, Tale of the Marshes, All Men Are Brothers, Men of the Marshes or The Marshes of Mount Liang.
(taken from wikipedia)

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It was a five-minute-ride from the villa to the horse farm.

Lin Yanchen raised four horses, one pure black, one pure white, and two spotted ones. Each horse is charming, well-proportioned, healthy and has powerful thin legs. They have dense lush manes, elf-like ears, and almond-like bright eyes.

Chu Xun had only ridden a horse with dimly-coloured fur and short thick legs once when he travelled to a scenic spot. When he saw these horses, he wondered if he had been deceived back then. Maybe it was a donkey he rode instead.

The black horse’s mane was carefully braided and the horse had a gold-plated harness on, looking extremely handsome. Chu Xun wanted to touch it, but he didn’t dare to, so he asked Lin Yanchen, “What’s the breed of this horse?”

Lin Yanchen introduced, “Friesland’s black pearl, Friesland horse. Is this your favourite horse? His name is Jay and he’s a boy.”

“They’re all beautiful. I don’t really know horses.” Chu Xun continued, “The white horse looks good too.”

“This is a Lipizzan. Her name is Shirley and she’s a girl.”

Chu Xun nodded. “I remember Song Jiang¹ in Water Margins² has a snow-white horse. It has a nice name. I remember that it’s called Jade Lion. Foreigners are still bad at naming.”

Lin Yanchen immediately announced, “Alright then, her English name shall be Sydney and her Chinese name shall be Jade Lion from now on.”

Chu Xun side-eyed Lin Yanchen. “You can rename them?”

Lin Yanchen realised his mistake due to a moment of pride. He corrected while grinning, “I’ll find her owner and suggest this to him. He’ll certainly agree to such beautiful names.”

Are you kidding me? Chu Xun unwillingly accepted the lie Lin Yanchen came up with. He looked at two black-spotted piebald horses, pointed to them and said, “Then are they the children of these two horses? Patches of black and white.”

Lin Yanchen couldn’t help but laugh. “Hahaha, Appaloosa just looks like this. And these two are already sterilized. Which horse do you want to ride?”

Such tall horses intimidate people. “Which horse is the most docile?” Chu Xun asked.

“That will be Jay then.”

Chu Xun was surprised. “I thought the white horse is the most gentle one.”

“You can’t judge a horse by its looks. She’s a bad-tempered girl. She loves freedom and hates people riding on her back. Even I almost fell off her back before.”

Chu Xun touched the black horse’s smooth and neat braided mane while Jay obediently bent his neck and rubbed against Chu Xun’s palm. So cute.

Lin Yanchen taught Chu Xun how to get on the horse as the older climbed up shakily.

He held onto the reins, leisurely guiding the horse around the field and chatting with Chu Xun who was sitting on the horse’s back. “Don’t worry, I’m beside you.”

These few horses were chosen, bought back home, named and raised up till now by him, so they were very precious to him. It depended on the horses and his mood whether he wanted to lend the horses to his friends, unlike how it was for Chu Xun. Chu Xun could ride whichever horses he wanted, with Lin Yanchen personally guiding him around.

The warm winter sunlight fell on them.

The crisp and pleasant warbling of the birds was like the knocking of glass beads, entering their ears from the tree tops from time to time.

Chu Xun surprisingly enjoyed such a gentle atmosphere. There wasn’t any sweet-talking, just Lin Yanchen walking in front of him to guide the horse, frequently unable to resist the urge to look back at him. As he was sitting on the horse, Lin Yanchen had to raise his head slightly to look at him. The sunlight shone down on Lin Yanchen’s face, making the younger look as though he was shining gently, so handsome that it was blinding.

Chu Xun had always known that Lin Yanchen was handsome, but the younger looked especially handsome today.

He stared at Lin Yanchen till the younger started feeling embarrassed. “What are you looking at?” Lin Yanchen asked.

“Come here.”

Lin Yanchen walked over to Chu Xun as the older bent down while still sitting on the horse. Thinking that Chu Xun was going to kiss him, Lin Yanchen’s heart skipped a beat.

Yet, Chu Xun only reached out to touch Lin Yanchen’s left earlobe, saying, “I just realised you have a small mole behind your ear. So cute.”

The earlobe that Chu Xun touched lightly seemed to be scalded, turning red instantly. Lin Yanchen subconsciously reached out to grab Chu Xun’s hand when the older wanted to retract it. Grabbing Chu Xun’s hand, he couldn’t help but kiss the back of the older’s hand, as well as his fingers.

Chu Xun laughed, not understanding what was happening. “What are you doing?”

Lin Yanchen simply stared at Chu Xun with those bright eyes, not blinking at all. He looked like he wanted to share about the overwhelming tender feelings in his heart but didn’t know where to begin. He tried to keep them in for a while, then ended up dumbly saying, “I like you.”

Putting aside sweet nothings, young people’s love is always passionate and genuine, like a stream heated up by the sun, clear and warm. This made Chu Xun feel that his heart, which had been trampled on in all sorts of manner, has been aptly soothed.

He suddenly understood why he took a fancy to Xiao Lin back then. The person with a young and clean look.

Lin Yanchen couldn’t see Chu Xun’s expression clearly with the sunlight shining down from behind. Chu Xun said softly, “I know. You said that many times already. Why do you keep saying it?”

“That’s it?” Lin Yanchen asked discontentedly.

Love makes people greedy, pushing their luck.

Chu Xun avoided the question and pretended that he didn’t hear what Lin Yanchen, then said, “Xiao Lin, didn’t you say you’re going to teach me how to ride a horse? Are you going teach me from down there or on the horse?”

Lin Yanchen’s attention was diverted just like that. He climbed onto the horse which already had a saddle attached for two people to ride. It was his original intention to ride with Chu Xun anyway.

Getting up on the horse, Lin Yanchen’s arms moved to the front to hold the reins from both sides around Chu Xun, making it looked like he was hugging the older as he was half a head taller than the older.

The horse sneezed loudly the moment he got on the horse. Chu Xun stroked the horse’s neck and said to it, “He’s heavy, isn’t he? You poor thing.”

Lin Yanchen: “…” He thought it would be very romantic!

In the past, when his friends tried to hook up girls, they would take the girls to ride horses. They told him he could bring girls to do that when on a date too, but he would turn down their suggestion every time. He didn’t expect himself to do something so silly one day.

Chu Xun excitedly commanded, “Can we ride faster? Let him run.”

“We can but…” Lin Yanchen answered hesitantly.

“What’s the problem? Is it very dangerous? Don’t let him run too fast, just jog. It’s too boring to walk this slowly.”

“No, it’s just that if you sit in front, it will be very cold when the wind blows. Why not you sit behind and hold onto me? I’ll block the wind for you.”

Chu Xun turned back in surprise and found Xiao Lin’s handsome face close at hand. He planted a kiss on that young cheek. “Xiao Lin, why are you so detailed and cute? It’s okay, just like this is fine. Your chest is very warm too.”

Lin Yanchen blushed and kissed Chu Xun back, then felt shy.

When they first met, Xiao Lin was good at sweet-talking. After they got familiar with each other, he would instead end up feeling shy at times.

Lin Yanchen recalled a sentence in English: Love is a touch and yet not a touch.

He spurred the horse to start trotting, not daring to let it go too fast.

How dangerous.

It’s nothing if he falls, but he can’t let Ah Xun fall.

On the contrary, Chu Xun was anxious. “Hurry up! This is considered a jog?”

Lin Yanchen could only make Jay run faster, the horse’s hooves making a series of crisp “clack clack clack clack” sound when they touched the ground. Chu Xun was finally satisfied and started laughing, then very fearlessly commanded Lin Yanchen, “Can he jump over that railing? Go over! Let him jump over that!”

Since Chu Xun already said so, Lin Yanchen couldn’t embarass himself. He sucked in a deep breath and made the horse go faster. He frowned in concentration as the speed picked up, staring straight at the railing in front. Jay rushed towards the railing without fear, jumped up and got to the other side gracefully and easily.

Lin Yanchen breathed a sigh of relief, tugged the reins and stopped the horse. “Are you happy now?”

“Happy!” Chu Xun replied contently.

Then he added, “You’re amazing.”

Lin Yanchen was modest. “I did learn this before, so…”

Chu Xun laughed and said, “Haha, I’m praising this black horse.”

Lin Yanchen: “…”

They rode round the field twice and returned to the stable.

Lin Yanchen dismounted the horse first while Chu Xun took off his riding helmet and accidentally hit his glasses’ temple, knocking it off. “Ah.”

“What?” Lin Yanchen asked. He moved half a step away and felt himself stepping on something, followed by a clear “crack” sound.

Chu Xun: “You crushed my glasses.”

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