Li Qiyu saw a dog hole on the ground. Only one person could pass through it at a time, which meant that one of the two had to stay behind to deal with these strong men.
She said to Zhou Donglin, "You go back quickly and call for reinforcements."
Of course, Zhou Donglin refused to leave.
"I don't want to. I'll protect you, Master."
"Protect my foot." Li Qiyu mercilessly rapped him on the head. "At a time like this, a disciple should listen to his master."
"Master, why do you keep changing your mind?"
"I'm just such a hot - tempered person. Have you just met me today?"
As Li Qiyu said, she was about to kick Zhou Donglin's butt to kick him into the dog hole. At this time, the bullies had surrounded them. Li Qiyu didn't have time to chat with Zhou Donglin. She kicked the wall for leverage, leaped into the air, grabbed the horizontal clothes - drying pole on the wall, and was about to pull out the bamboo pole as a weapon for a heroic one - against - many fight.
And at this moment, Zhou Donglin under her took out a token.
"I'm the son of the prime minister, and this is the daughter of the general. This is the gold medal bestowed by the emperor on our family. Open your dog eyes wide and see clearly. How many heads do you have to dare to touch us?"
Those people really stopped in their tracks. They looked at each other, and no one dared to step forward. Among them, those with good eyesight took a glance at the gold medal and said cautiously, "It doesn't seem to be a fake. Big brother, we seem to be really in trouble."
Hearing that these two kids had noble identities and it wasn't right to bully children, the strong men looked at each other, exchanged glances, and finally decided to—run away.
Seeing them running away, Li Qiyu, still hanging on the wall, shouted, "Hey, don't run away! Come back to me!"
Zhou Donglin looked up at her and said, "Master, don't pursue a defeated enemy. Forgive when you can."
"What are you talking about!"
Li Qiyu, hanging on the bamboo pole like a piece of cured meat, was now in a dilemma.
"What I mean is for them to bring me a bamboo stool so I can get down! You let them go. Who will help me?"
Zhou Donglin: "..."
Finally, Zhou Donglin used the gold medal to mobilize the neighbors around and rescued Li Qiyu.
On the way home, while rubbing her sore arms from hanging for too long, Li Qiyu asked, "How did the gold medal end up in your hands?"
Zhou Donglin told the truth without batting an eyelid, "I stole it."
"Stole it?"
"Yeah. I've been causing trouble with you outside every day. I was afraid that one day something like this would happen, so I stole the gold medal from home."
"Didn't your father beat you?"
"No. The gold medal is enshrined in the ancestral hall. They usually don't look at it. I made a fake one and put it there. I've had this thing for months, and they haven't noticed."
Li Qiyu immediately looked at this little disciple in front of her with new respect.
"Hey, I didn't even notice. You're actually quite smart, little disciple?"
Zhou Donglin took the opportunity to say, "Yeah, I'm very capable. I can protect you, Master."
"Well, you're a teachable lad!"
As they got older, Zhou Donglin found that whenever Li Qiyu called him her disciple, he would solemnly declare, "Don't call me your disciple from now on. I won't call you Master either. I'll call you Li Qiyu."
At first, when Li Qiyu heard this, she would mercilessly rap Zhou Donglin on the head. But seeing that no matter how she beat him, he insisted on changing the way of addressing, gradually Li Qiyu had to compromise.
After all, they were both big kids. They couldn't just fight whenever one was disobedient like they did when they were kids.
"Okay, then I'll call you Zhou Donglin?"
"No good." Zhou Donglin shook his head and said, "Only common people call me that. You're not a common person. You're special to me."
Li Qiyu didn't catch the hidden meaning in Zhou Donglin's words at this time. She just thought it was funny and joked,
"Oh, it seems I should feel honored. I'm the special one?"
"Of course. Isn't this self - evident?" Zhou Donglin thought this should be a tacit understanding between them.
Li Qiyu asked with a smile, "Then what should I call you?"
"Just call me Yunhe."
"Yunhe?" Li Qiyu wanted to laugh when she heard the courtesy name he gave himself. "What, do you really want to be a care - free cloud and an idle crane?"
Zhou Donglin looked at her, nodded, and thought to himself, "As long as I can be with you, I'm willing to be the most hard - working tenant farmer, let alone a care - free cloud and an idle crane."
At this time, Zhou Donglin just simply thought that this obsession was just because of the intimacy of growing up together in their youth.
It's said that girls mature earlier than boys, but in the case of Zhou Donglin and Li Qiyu, the situation seemed to be reversed. Zhou Donglin's mind became more and more delicate, while Li Qiyu just grew taller. Her mind was still like a child's. She still put her arm around Zhou Donglin's shoulder, dressed in men's clothes and caused trouble on the street with Zhou Donglin, only regarding Zhou Donglin as a brother.
Actually, it wasn't Li Qiyu's fault. There wasn't a single woman with femininity in her family. General Li and Big Brother Li, who were both military men, needless to say. Even Li Qiyu's mother was someone who could go to the battlefield to kill enemies. She was more enthusiastic about teaching her daughter martial arts than embroidery and housework.
There was no good example at home, and she was raised like a boy. Naturally, Li Qiyu couldn't learn the gentle and virtuous ways. She also started her enlightenment much later than normal girls.
But this made things difficult for Zhou Donglin.
As they got older, Zhou Donglin gradually found that his feelings for Li Qiyu were no longer as simple as in his youth. When he saw Li Qiyu, he would blush, feel shy, and couldn't help but look at her. What was worse, his body would have reactions.
This reaction made Zhou Donglin feel ashamed. It was a desecration of Li Qiyu and their pure and beautiful past as childhood sweethearts.
Zhou Donglin didn't dare to see Li Qiyu anymore and would subconsciously avoid her.
Fortunately, Li Qiyu was going to go on an expedition with her father.
On the day Li Qiyu set out on the expedition, Zhou Donglin came to see her off shyly and wrote her a long letter. Li Qiyu, who didn't like reading much, felt a headache when she saw the letter. She endured and finally finished reading it in three days. Only then did she find that Zhou Donglin was so wordy. He just told her some trivial things in life, such as not causing trouble outside and taking good care of herself without him around. At the end of the letter, there was also a sentence: "I'll wait for your triumphant return. For me, please take good care of yourself!"
For some reason, when Li Qiyu saw this letter, the image of Zhou Donglin as a shy young wife holding a handkerchief flashed through her mind.
"How sissy. People who deal with words are so pedantic."