Chapter 341: Self-Inferiority

Before departure, everyone packed the necessary items and food into their backpacks.

Once everything was ready, they all set off together toward North Mang Mountain.

Lin Xinyuan walked beside Qin Nanfeng, wearing a sun hat on her head and a thin coat draped over her shoulders, mainly worried about the sun being too harsh at noon.

Perhaps when she was still a guy, she didn’t care about this, and rarely even brought an umbrella for shade.

But now her sense of chastity was different—not only was she worried about her skin darkening, but her constitution had always been poor, making her prone to heatstroke…

The first half of the mountain path was relatively gentle, though they still climbed stone steps for quite a while.

Mainly, although the mountain wasn’t very tall, the entire mountain area was indeed quite large, with winding and branching roads. If not for the signposts, it would be easy to get lost.

Soon it was noon, and they had only covered most of the journey. The remaining last stretch was even harder to traverse, with the slope noticeably steeper.

The four men were only a bit tired, so they could certainly keep going, but obviously Lin Xinyuan and the others were already struggling—especially Lin Xinyuan, who had the weakest constitution and was already panting heavily.

So after discussion, they found a shaded pavilion and decided to rest for a while.

This way, they could also avoid the hottest period of the day, and once the sun weakened a little, they would continue forward.

Just as he sat down on the pavilion bench, Qin Nanfeng set down his backpack, pulled out two cups of instant noodles, and raised an eyebrow at Lin Xinyuan: “Want some?”

At that moment, Lin Xinyuan was wiping the fine sweat from her forehead with a tissue, her face somewhat pale.

Hearing this, she looked over and saw it was Master’s Spicy Beef Noodles.

Originally, she didn’t really have much of an appetite—she couldn’t stomach bread or anything like that—but spicy food was a different matter.

Her heart warmed involuntarily, and she silently glanced at a certain someone. Seeing the smile on his face, she still nodded: “Mm…”

Qin Nanfeng smiled, didn’t say anything more, and directly tore open the packaging, took out his thermos cup, prepared the instant noodles for his wife, and handed them over.

After Lin Xinyuan took them, she set them aside, then subconsciously glanced at the others, noticing they were either eating bread or chewing on beef jerky.

She turned her head to continue looking at the yellow-haired brat, only to find that this guy was already eating his bread.

She said nothing, just quietly watched the man, her gaze unconsciously drifting.

“Want some?”

Qin Nanfeng had only eaten half when he saw the noodles with bite marks handed over to him.

Lin Xinyuan stared at the teeth marks on them, thought for a moment, and finally accepted them without much concern.

She took dry, small bites, and although she felt a bit nauseous from having no appetite, she still silently finished it.

Then, Lin Xinyuan waited for the noodles to steep, but after only eating a small portion, she couldn’t continue due to the greasiness.

She silently handed it over to a certain someone, turning her face away without saying a word.

Seeing this, Qin Nanfeng found it quite amusing, and just like his wife had done earlier, he took it and cleaned up the leftovers, not even leaving the soup behind.

After finishing, he threw the trash into the public bin beside the pavilion.

Qin Nanfeng sat back down and suddenly leaned close to Lin Xinyuan’s ear, whispering: “Mm… Xiaoyuan’s food tastes really good…”

“Oh.”

Lin Xinyuan’s tone remained flat, but when she lowered her head, her fair, delicate little earlobes were already completely flushed.

This guy… if you’re eating, just eat…

Why does he always say such strange things…

Too easy to misunderstand…

As for the others, they appeared to be eating and chatting at the same time, but occasionally they did pay attention to Lin Xinyuan and Qin Nanfeng’s side.

Especially the three girls, Li Tang and the others—compared to their respective boyfriends, they noticed the current dynamic between the two more clearly.

Actually, since yesterday…

No… it might even go as far back as several months ago when Yu Xiaowei went to the hospital to visit her—she had already sensed something unusual.

These past two days, they hadn’t refrained from probing indirectly, only to find that Lin Xinyuan wasn’t willing to explain and would always smile and brush it off.

But at the same time, they also felt that apart from Lin Xinyuan not being as enthusiastic toward Qin Nanfeng as before, nothing else seemed different?

Therefore, they figured this might just be the difference between being married and dating, and they stopped paying attention afterward.

But even so, Li Tang and the others all believed Lin Xinyuan was quite different from before.

How to put it… it felt like their friend’s emotions had become heavier, and she was also colder…

Since she wasn’t willing to talk about it herself, and it didn’t seem like a big problem, they naturally wouldn’t keep asking…

They rested until after 2:00 PM before everyone started heading up the mountain again.

As they continued forward, they could clearly feel the number of other tourists gradually decreasing.

That was normal, after all—this trek was quite tiring, and most people couldn’t hold out anymore and just gave up.

Take Lin Xinyuan at this moment, for example.

Although she had rested for over an hour along with Qin Nanfeng and their friends, she hadn’t recovered like they had.

Her innate weakness was difficult to compensate even with后天 cultivation, and even though she’d taken so many tonics over the years and had been nursing her health all along.

Not to mention that she’d given birth to Xiao Yiyi, which made her physical flaws even more apparent.

Her legs were unbearably sore, her head felt dizzy and groggy, and her eyes stung from the brightness.

It wasn’t like she was carrying any weight either…

Thinking this, Lin Xinyuan subconsciously glanced at a certain someone, only to find that Qin Nanfeng, who was carrying a large backpack, seemed only slightly short of breath apart from some sweat on his forehead.

It was like he was completely fine…

I… am so weak…

Lin Xinyuan thought, and her whole body felt even more exhausted, almost ready to collapse onto the ground.

Qin Nanfeng naturally kept his attention on Lin Xinyuan the whole time.

Seeing that his wife finally couldn’t hold on, he reached out and grabbed her arm, giving her support, then looked at the others: “Let’s rest for a bit.”

Hearing this, the others finally looked over.

Seeing that Lin Xinyuan’s face was indeed frighteningly pale and her breathing was severely erratic, they naturally nodded in agreement.

It was already 5:00 anyway, but there wasn’t much distance left to the summit—probably less than half an hour away.

Resting a bit wouldn’t hurt, as long as they got to the top before dark.

Finding a clean spot to sit down, Qin Nanfeng handed his wife a bottle of mineral water.

Lin Xinyuan was exhausted beyond words, her throat dry.

After taking it, she twisted open the cap and was about to chug when the man stopped her: “Drink slowly.”

Hearing this, Lin Xinyuan was stunned for a moment, but she obediently stopped and began taking small sips.

After resting for a while longer, she finally slowly recovered.

But thinking about her frail body, and then thinking about how she’d delayed everyone’s time, she felt her heart clench, and her expression inexplicably sank.

She hung her head low, her face somewhat dazed, the corners of her mouth drooping, completely silent.

However, at that moment, a familiar large hand gently rested on her head.

Lin Xinyuan instinctively looked up, confusion surfacing in her eyes that held self-inferiority: “Hm?”

Qin Nanfeng smiled softly. As the person who understood Lin Xinyuan best, he naturally knew what his wife was thinking.

She was probably unconsciously spiraling into self-consumption again…

But he didn’t directly call it out, just silently comforting her.

At that moment, his gaze seemed as if it could melt frost and snow, causing Lin Xinyuan’s originally flat expression to soften considerably.

“I’m here.”

Just three words, only the two of them could hear, but unexpectedly, she felt an incomparable power within them.

In an instant, the self-inferiority and depression that had just been pulled up by “her” in her heart almost vanished in the blink of an eye.

Staring at the man before her, Lin Xinyuan’s chest couldn’t help but ache, feeling terribly sour.

It was her self-mockery at being unable to control her emotions.

She really wanted to cry, but catching a glimpse of her friends in her peripheral vision, she could only grit her teeth to barely hold back the tears about to fall from the corners of her eyes.

She quickly lowered her head, at a loss for words.

But she had already reached out, gripping tightly to Qin Nanfeng’s clothes, her body trembling slightly and almost imperceptibly, her expression unclear.

Before long, Lin Xinyuan’s emotions finally calmed down.

But just as she raised her head, a large hand suddenly appeared before her eyes.

The man’s lips curved with a smile, his features handsome and clean, his eyes filled with tenderness and encouragement: “Let’s go, keep moving forward.”

At that moment, the young woman’s face was briefly stunned, but soon the corners of her lips curled upward, tears shimmering in her radiant eyes.

“Mm! Thank you… Feng Ge…”