Jin Zhao waited expectantly for a while. She didn’t know what she was expecting, but after Meng Yanxi liked the post, he disappeared, and she felt a little disappointed again.

Was she still being too subtle?

No wonder he always said she was dull.

Actually, many times she wasn’t completely unaware. It was just that she might not be able to respond to the extent he wanted.

For example, Moments.

He had been persistent all day, even resorting to acting coquettish. Of course she knew he wanted to make it official. But her personality determined that she couldn’t openly post something very straightforward on Moments.

Speaking of which, let alone openly showing affection on social media—back when she confessed to him, she had been roundabout too, going in circles and even starting with the school’s ethics and professional conduct.

Posting a Moments update felt even more like doing a reading comprehension question.

But it wasn’t hard to understand, right? After all, the three words “I like you” were that direct.

She thought uneasily.

She had only slightly used an object as a metaphor.

Wind and snow like you, I also like you.

It’s not that wind and snow like you—it’s that I like you.

Soon, several comments appeared under that Moments post. Jin Zhao didn’t see Meng Yanxi and, somewhat disappointed, exited, but she couldn’t hold out for even three seconds before tapping back in again.

The Moments feed refreshed automatically, and Meng Yanxi’s Moments appeared above hers.

Like hers, it was paired with only one photo. Unlike the speed and ferocity of him in her perspective, like an eagle striking through the vast sky, his perspective was much gentler.

It was her last practice of a Frontside 360. On the descent, she used the inertia of the snowboard to rotate inward 360 degrees. The board edge scraped across the snow, kicking up a thin mist of snow, like shattered jade rising into the air. Beyond the hazy white fog, the girl wore a snow outfit in taro purple and cheese white, the helmet pressing down hair that refused to fly free.

In the foreground of the frame, the man’s hand reached out toward her. Every cell in her body was radiant with vitality as she naturally extended her own hand to him.

The man’s palm was broad, the back of his hand traced with sexy veins. As he closed his palm, the frame froze.

The caption was the same four words as hers—I like you too.

With photos and caption echoing hers, his was even more direct and fervent than hers.

The two Moments were posted only six minutes apart, stacked one above the other, like two lines of poetry that had always belonged together—subtle restraint meeting bluntness, stirring up even greater fervor.

Wind and snow like you.

I also like you.

He was saying the liking she hadn’t said aloud for her, and it was also as if he were responding to her liking.

Jin Zhao’s heart was beating very fast.

She suddenly felt that, in terms of literature, Meng Yanxi seemed even more skilled than she was, and naturally so. Every time she racked her brains, anxious and hesitant, while he needed only a single moment to effortlessly bring the climax.

Luo Heng was already asleep. He had driven over from Suiyi early in the morning, skied all day, and even acted as the follow cameraman. Lawyer Luo was utterly exhausted. On top of that, he was naturally easygoing—after showering, the moment he touched the bed, he fell asleep within three seconds.

The phone ringtone woke him.

He ignored the first ring; very quickly, the phone rang again.

He thought it must be something important. Still half-asleep, he fumbled it out to take a look—and instantly got so angry he just wanted to curse like a dog.

Meng Yanxi: 【Go like my girlfriend’s post.】

Meng Yanxi: 【And like mine too.】

Luo Heng: “……”

He didn’t even need to open Moments to guess what the two of them had posted.

Just seeing that proud peacock holding up his phone and stubbornly shooting all day was enough to know that what he’d said that morning must have hurt him quite badly. President Meng, who was always ruthless and cold-blooded and didn’t even know what self-proof was, had ground his girlfriend into posting on Moments—and was even afraid others wouldn’t notice, specially sending a message to remind him.

Pressing down the voice message bar, Lawyer Luo replied in a sleepy, hoarse, and irritated voice: “Meng Yanxi, are you not childish?”

Meng Yanxi’s reply was concise and to the point, the voice message only one second long.

“Like.”

Luo Heng: Having you is truly my blessing!

He suspected that if he didn’t like it, this childish peacock could bombard him with messages all night.

But in fact, Lawyer Luo was overestimating his own importance.

Peacock Meng could only spare him one second. After that second, he went to find his own girlfriend.

Before going out, he even prudently flipped through the suitcase.

When the doorbell rang, Jin Zhao’s heart gave a sharp thump. The next second, she had already thrown off the covers and run out quickly.

Just like the man outside the door, she was also a little impatient tonight.

Ever since watching him ski on the mountain, she had felt a warm flutter at the tip of her heart. All the way down, after eating and showering, the restlessness still hadn’t subsided. After posting on Moments, her heart had been pounding even harder; later, seeing the Moments he posted, that restless heat in her chest reached its peak.

The heavy solid-wood door was pulled open. The two met each other’s gaze, and there was a watery sheen in Jin Zhao’s eyes as she looked at him.

Someone was still pretending to be upright and proper, standing outside her door and performing a reason he had come up with in three seconds: “I think I might have a bit of altitude sickness. I can’t sleep.”

Jin Zhao: “……”

President Meng could perform skiing with ease on a snow mountain over two thousand meters above sea level, yet once back at the hotel at the foot of the mountain, he suddenly had altitude sickness.

But Jin Zhao didn’t expose him, and didn’t even answer him.

She pulled him inside.

Before the door could even automatically close, she rose on tiptoe, took the initiative to hook her arms around his neck, and kissed him.

……

From the entryway to the bedroom, their clothes scattered all the way, tangled together in disarray.

But someone really was good at pretending.

The soft bed made ambiguous creaking sounds under the light as it was pressed into, the fair, tender body sinking deeply into it.

He covered her, staring at her intently, his breathing hot and heavy.

In those pitch-black eyes was nothing but desire, yet with his mouth he still put on an upright air as he asked, “You played all day—are you too tired?”

Jin Zhao looked into his eyes, her hand reaching into the pocket of his pants.

She didn’t say anything, pulling out a box of condoms from inside.

He was the one whose intentions were laid bare.

But Meng Yanxi was always very composed. Aside from breathing a little fast, he still looked quite calm, nodding. “I’m just preparing ahead of time. After all, people easily develop a taste for it.”

Jin Zhao suspected he was trying to shift the blame onto her. Amused, she raised her brows and asked back, “Who’s developing a taste for it?”

The girl beneath him was delicate and radiant, her fair skin seeming to glow under the light, looking at him with watery eyes. Meng Yanxi couldn’t maintain any upright pretense at all.

He didn’t even wait for her to finish saying “taste” before he bent down and kissed her again, deep and heavy.

It was him. He was the one who had developed a taste for it.

He didn’t want to be separated from her for even a moment.

……

He felt he was being fairly restrained. Considering it was only their second time, and she had skied all day, he had originally planned to do it just once.

There was plenty of time ahead; they could take it step by step.

But he wanted her far too much. Coming out of the bathroom, Jin Zhao had barely hugged him and softly said a couple of words when he felt that he especially liked the number two.

Doing it a second time—then make it a pair.

Seeing that she still had the energy to talk, he pulled her in for a second round.

It started raining in the latter half of the night.

At the hotel at the foot of the mountain, the rain couldn’t turn into accumulated snow. Drip, drip, it beat down—sometimes lingering, sometimes intense, lasting for a very, very long time.

Later on, his girlfriend finally fulfilled his wishes and no longer had the energy to speak.

His own energy, on the other hand, was abundant. She was already asleep in his arms, yet he was still infatuated, kissing her again and again, and couldn’t help mocking himself: “How am I supposed to sleep once we go back, without you?”

Jin Zhao was disturbed awake by him and hazily half-opened her eyes to look at him.

Her cheeks were flushed, there was still moisture in her eyes, but her gaze was unfocused. She didn’t know if she had heard clearly, or if she had just heard him speaking and instinctively gave a response.

A hoarse, muddled sound came from her throat, very soft: “Mm?”

Meng Yanxi was softened beyond measure by her like this. He bent down and kissed her brow. “Go to sleep. I won’t disturb you anymore.”

The two of them slept until late the next morning, the sun already high in the sky.

Luo Heng and Si Tian had gone to bed early last night, and early in the morning had gone up to ski again. This time, with tacit understanding, they didn’t come over to act as light bulbs and interrupt.

Meng Yanxi waited for Jin Zhao to get up and took her to the restaurant to eat.

It was almost noon anyway, so they might as well have lunch.

Once someone had set their heart on something, it was hard to suppress it. They would always circle back to it, not stopping until they achieved their goal.

“Do you still want to ski this afternoon?”

Meng Yanxi ladled her a bowl of soup.

Jin Zhao shook her head. “No.”

She was really too tired.

Last night she had also been completely captivated by this man, her head heated, when she actually should have rested properly.

It was just that—watching him ski and watching him confess—she had been stimulated too much and hadn’t been able to hold herself back.

Jin Zhao felt a little embarrassed and randomly found an excuse. “I still have classes tomorrow.”

“Then shall I take you back to school this afternoon?” As Meng Yanxi said this, he asked very casually, “Is your dorm fixed yet?”

Jin Zhao: “……”

Guess what—if he hadn’t said it, she would’ve forgotten.

On December 31, the water pipe upstairs had burst and flooded her dorm. When she hastily rescued her important materials and went to stay at a small hotel, the logistics staff were in the middle of emergency repairs, and she didn’t know how the repairs had turned out.

After that… she’d been entangled with him all the way until now.

There was probably still a whole mess waiting for her back at the dorm.

She thought for a moment and said, “Let’s leave a bit earlier this afternoon.”

She might still need to go back and tidy things up.

Meng Yanxi didn’t say whether that was fine or not. He was silent for three seconds, then the expression on his face suddenly carried a hint of melancholy as he said, “I’ve been a bit tight on cash lately. Didn’t I turn one of the rooms in the Shanshui City place into a bedroom? I’m planning to rent it out. Do you think you could rent it?”

Jin Zhao: “……”

He really was Zhao of Sima Zhao.

Jin Zhao said awkwardly, “The place in Shanshui City is too expensive. I don’t have money.”

Meng Yanxi said, “Don’t you have a subsidy? If it really doesn’t work, you can use the subsidy to rent my place, and I’ll give you a rebate—half back?”

Jin Zhao: “?”

Leaving aside whether this was Sima Zhao or intentions laid bare, Teacher Jin—who had strictly followed the rules since childhood—asked back with a perfectly upright expression, “If I use the school’s subsidy to make money from you, wouldn’t that be a violation?”

Meng Yanxi: “……”

His girlfriend really was a model teacher.

“Brother Yanxi!”

The shout suddenly came, tactlessly interrupting the ambiguous yet amusing back-and-forth between the two of them.

Meng Yanxi lifted his eyes; Jin Zhao turned her head.

The person who came was Wu Guo.

Dressed in snow gear, carrying a snow pack, ski goggles pushed up on his head, he recognized Meng Yanxi from afar and greeted him in surprise. “The world is way too small, running into you even here!”

Jin Zhao wasn’t very adept at social niceties. She simply didn’t like anyone from the Wu family except Wu Nian. As Wu Guo stepped forward to exchange pleasantries with Meng Yanxi, she naturally turned her gaze toward the window.

Meng Yanxi was a shrewd one in this regard. Just one glance at Wu Guo’s brand-new set of gear was enough for him to know this wasn’t a coincidence.

Very few beginners go skiing alone.

A beginner, skiing alone, and just happening to run into him—those odds were practically zero.

“Something up?” Meng Yanxi asked.

“Brother Yanxi, I came to ski.” Wu Guo smiled and blinked. “Want to go together?”

Jin Zhao wasn’t adept at social maneuvering, but she understood her boyfriend fairly well. Just from hearing the name “Meng Yanxi,” she could tell the other party was here for him—most likely having seen the Moments he posted last night.

She didn’t know what had happened to make Wu Guo come looking for him here on New Year’s Day. Though she didn’t like Wu Guo, she respected her boyfriend.

“I’ll go to the restroom.”

Jin Zhao said this to Meng Yanxi and stood up to leave.

Meng Yanxi was quiet for a moment, then nodded.

As soon as Jin Zhao left, Wu Guo moved to sit down, but Meng Yanxi lifted his eyelids slightly. “Pull over another chair.”

Wu Guo held a half-squatting posture for a second, then stood up and went to get a chair.

“Brother Yanxi, help me!”

When he sat down again, the smile on his face was gone, panic impossible to hide in his eyes. He tried to grab Meng Yanxi’s hand, but a single look from Meng Yanxi stopped him.

Wu Guo withdrew his hand, trying to sort out the sequence of events.

Meng Yanxi, however, seemed to know everything—or perhaps, from where he stood, news both big and small naturally found its way to him.

He interrupted calmly, “I never interfere in other people’s family affairs.”

Wu Guo was blocked, fell silent for a long while, then suddenly asked, “Then what about Jin Wenhui? If you truly never interfere in other people’s family affairs, then why did Jin Wenhui, who was riding high back then, end up like this today?”