My Miao Sweetheart - Chapter 1

At first, I didn’t understand what my guide meant.

Not until he turned up at the door, beaming, with a whole crowd in tow.

His face red, the young man held out a booklet with gold lettering on a red cover and said shyly,

“These are the betrothal gifts I’m offering to marry you, Sister.

“Have a look. If anything’s missing, tell me, and I’ll—I’ll go back and add it.”

The little guesthouse courtyard was crammed with people, all talking at once.

At a loss, I took a step back. The young man, whose earlobes were red enough to drip blood, gathered his courage and took another step toward me.

“Have you got the wrong person?

“I… don’t know any of you.”

I extended one finger and gently pushed away the red booklet being held in front of me. BETROTHAL GIFTS was written on the cover.

The beautiful young man wasn’t annoyed. He simply smiled at me, his eyes curving into crescents.

Thinking I’d forgotten, he quietly reminded me that we’d met at the festival yesterday.

It came back to me, and I nearly ground my teeth.

“I remember you.

“You ran all that way just to step on my shoe. You did it on purpose!”

White shoes were a nightmare to clean. I’d been scrubbing mine all morning.

His eyes shone as he gazed straight at me, excitement creeping into his voice.

“Yes! Yes, that was me!”

I was furious.

But there were so many of them, and they kept glancing over at me. Every look made my heart sink.

I took a deep breath, pulled the young man aside, and lowered my voice.

“Was that really necessary? I only stepped on your foot a few times. You actually brought your family?”

His gaze dropped to the hand I’d used to pull him over, and the roots of his ears grew warm.

The moment our eyes met, he hurriedly lowered his, stumbling over his words.

“Of—of course.

“You stepped back on mine. Several times, really hard. My parents take that very seriously.”

That frightened me into deciding I had far too much to lose to argue. Pale-faced, I apologized.

“Please don’t bring your family over, or try to give me lists of betrothal gifts. You’re scaring me.

“I admit there was an element of revenge in the way I stomped on your foot yesterday. I’m sorry!”

I bowed deeply to him.

The young man went rigid.

The noise around us abruptly died. Everyone had heard my loud apology.

After a long moment, the beautiful young man in front of me seemed to realize something. He spoke haltingly.

“You… you stepped back on my foot all those times because I stepped on your shoe? You were getting revenge, not answering my confession?”

Now I was confused too.

“Huh?”

He saw that the expression on my face didn’t look feigned.

His throat tightened. The words caught on his lips, and for ages he couldn’t say a thing.

Eventually, he explained in a hoarse voice, looking deeply aggrieved.

“My name is Lan An.

“Here in our Miao village, we have a particular, discreet way of confessing our feelings.

“At a festival, you step on the foot of the person you like. If they’re not interested, they walk away.

“If they feel the same, they step back on yours to say yes. The harder they step, the more they like you.

“Yesterday, you were in such a hurry to step back on mine that I thought you were urging me to come and propose. That’s why I rushed here with my family and the list of gifts.”

What an enormous misunderstanding!

I backed away, waving both hands.

“That wasn’t what I meant.”