Meng Yanxi was caught a little off guard. He hadn’t expected that just touching the stuff would trigger an allergic reaction.

Come to think of it, President Meng, so pampered and high above, really hadn’t had much chance to come into contact with this sort of thing. Besides, he’d been rinsing off under the water just now and hadn’t noticed the itch in his hand.

A miscalculation.

Jin Zhao didn’t even wait for him to make excuses and asked directly, “Where’s the antihistamine?”

The first time she and Meng Yanxi went on a date, they ate seafood. At the time she said anything was fine, and he’d gotten a little upset, telling her not to accommodate anyone. She said then they’d eat seafood; he said he was allergic to seafood, and the very next second, he’d said in a careless, offhand way that he was just messing with her.

She could understand it too. After all, the young master had just bragged, and then immediately admitting he was allergic to seafood would’ve been too embarrassing.

But after that, they ate it several more times, and he never said a word.

There was no need to ask—he must have been carrying antihistamines with him, secretly taking one each time he accompanied her to eat seafood.

Jin Zhao’s face went cold as she reached for his jacket pockets.

Nothing on the left. The right was empty too.

Meng Yanxi had never had a lie exposed to his face like this in his life. He became especially honest, with a very good attitude. “In the car.”

Facing his girlfriend’s not-so-good expression, Meng Yanxi explained, “You were watching too closely just now. I didn’t have time to put it in my pocket. I was planning to find an excuse to go downstairs later. I didn’t expect this stuff couldn’t even be touched.”

Jin Zhao didn’t say anything. She took the car keys and went downstairs to get his antihistamine.

Meng Yanxi obediently sat on the sofa waiting for her to come back, obediently taking the water she handed him.

His girlfriend’s expression didn’t look very good. Meng Yanxi skillfully put on a bit of a pout; as she handed over the pill, he opened his mouth.

Jin Zhao: “……”

He definitely knew that acting cute worked—now he did it without even thinking.

In the end, Jin Zhao still put the pill into his mouth, but she didn’t speak to him. She turned and went into the kitchen.

Let him stay outside and properly reflect on his mistake.

Jin Zhao didn’t know how Meng Yanxi reflected. Anyway, the end result was that when she went out again, Meng Yanxi was gone.

She searched around and found that the man had taken a shower and was already lying on her bed.

Jin Zhao: “?”

Meng Yanxi looked quite fragile. He coughed lightly and said, “I might be having a pretty bad allergic reaction—feeling dizzy. I’ll lie down for a bit.”

Jin Zhao: “……”

It was her youthful ignorance back then that had made her think this person was aloof.

With Meng Yanxi dizzy and unable to walk, that night he had no choice but to stay over at his girlfriend’s place.

When Jin Zhao finished showering and came out, he seemed to already be asleep. When she turned off the lights and got into bed, a warm, firm chest immediately pressed against her back.

The new place looked nice, but everything about it was unfamiliar. Only this person holding her tightly at this moment was utterly familiar to her, letting her draw warmth on a cold winter night.

Over the years, she had moved house many times—dormitories, rental apartments… frequently moving from one place to another, always alone. At the most frequent, she moved three times in a single month.

In fact, the conditions had gotten better each time. Like this apartment—an unexpected delight—she could see the footprints of her own step-by-step progress. But sometimes she still needed time to adjust to a bed, and she especially disliked winter, when the feeling of drifting without an anchor grew heavier.

But tonight, perhaps because of this person’s unreasonable persistence, she didn’t feel that way at all. And because of the companionship and the embrace at this moment, she strangely felt a warmth that belonged to home.

Jin Zhao’s heart softened, but she deliberately asked, “Weren’t you dizzy? Why aren’t you sleeping?”

The man behind her nuzzled affectionately into the hollow of her neck and said indistinctly, “Mm. I was dizzy just now. Now I’m feeling a bit cold again.”

Jin Zhao fell silent for a moment, then turned over and took the initiative to hold him.

“Don’t do this again in the future,” she murmured softly in his arms.

“Aren’t I just afraid you’ll dislike me?” Meng Yanxi let out a self-mocking laugh. “Think about it—on our first date, you wanted to eat seafood. If I told you I was allergic and you broke up with me on the spot, what then?”

Jin Zhao laughed at him. “Is it really that exaggerated? You could’ve said it later too. After that I kept going to eat it, and you never said anything.”

Meng Yanxi said, “Jin Zhao.”

“Mm?”

Meng Yanxi said, “I don’t like letting people know my weaknesses.”

Jin Zhao was silent for two seconds, then asked sincerely, “Is it because you have too many weaknesses?”

Airheaded, green-tea type, poor alcohol tolerance, afraid of spiders, can’t eat seafood… for now, she didn’t know if there were more.

Meng Yanxi: “……”

Jin Zhao thoughtfully spared her boyfriend the embarrassment and took the initiative to change the topic. “Hungry?”

This man had really gotten carried away with the act. At first he hadn’t even planned to eat dinner, but Jin Zhao dragged him up, and he ate a few bites “delicately and weakly.”

He couldn’t eat seafood; there were only two vegetarian dishes he could eat.

After a long silence, Meng Yanxi asked, “Tell me—where are you hungry?”

Jin Zhao: “……”

The use of the word “where” had a lot of soul to it.

But this so-called language master was only bad-mouthed. Knowing that she really had been tired this holiday—first time, skiing, moving house… that night he simply held her and slept, properly and honestly.

After New Year’s Day, Spring Festival arrived quickly. With many end-of-year matters, the two of them became busy on separate fronts again. Meng Yanxi would occasionally come over to stay the night, and they would cook together.

It had to be said that President Meng really did have talent when it came to learning. With finals often requiring invigilation, sometimes Jin Zhao would come home late. When she walked in, she’d find the dining table filled with delicately prepared dishes; Meng Yanxi would come out from the kitchen and call for her to wash her hands.

The man was tall, with long legs, his brows and eyes gentle.

At that moment, Jin Zhao felt very grounded.

-♥︎ ྀི◟ ͜ ◞♥︎ ྀི◟ ͜ ◞♥︎ ྀི

During Spring Festival, Meng Yanxi was going home for three days, and he probed around, wanting to bring her back with him.

“I said I’m dating someone. My dad asked if my girlfriend is a real person or a digital human.”

“……”

“My grandpa asked whether I’m a man or a woman… Tell me, how is it that people can have so little trust in each other?”

Jin Zhao could actually understand his Sima Zhao–level intentions, but she still felt it was too fast. Especially since it would be the Meng family. She still vividly remembered the psychological shock of her first visit to the Meng household. And now, although ten years had passed, she was still far from ready.

Even regarding this relationship, she often felt a sense of floating uncertainty in her heart.

Jin Zhao went back to Jinjue Town for the New Year.

Her mother’s grave was in Jinjue Town. She returned on New Year’s Eve, first bringing fresh flowers and offerings to the grave, then went to see her grandparents in the afternoon. She also had the New Year’s Eve dinner with them. After the meal, the three of them sat together watching the Spring Festival Gala for a while, and afterward Jin Zhao went back to stay at a hotel.

Jinjue Temple had a constant stream of worshippers all year round, driving the tourism industry in Jinjue Town to flourish in recent years. There were many hotels and guesthouses, and on the road Jin Zhao even ran into Wang Nan and several other teachers from school.

“Why are you here?” Wang Nan was pleasantly surprised to see her, grabbing Jin Zhao’s hand. “Did you come early to grab the first incense too?”

Jin Zhao smiled and said, “No, my hometown is here. Are you planning to go offer the first incense tomorrow?”

Wang Nan said that people were already lining up now and there was no way to get in. They were planning to go worship after daybreak tomorrow, and she pulled Jin Zhao along as well.

Jin Zhao had originally planned to go anyway, so the next day she went together with her colleagues.

On the morning of the first day of the lunar new year, there were many worshippers. Jinjue Temple had a long history, and Jin Zhao became a guide for her colleagues, the group worshipping and sightseeing as they went.

Some people made their wishes in very soft voices; others made them very loudly. Jin Zhao heard a young male teacher loudly making a vow to the gods, asking the Buddha to bless him to get one SCI paper accepted. If his wish were fulfilled, he vowed to publish five more SCI papers in return for the Buddha’s favor; if not, he would bring a pretty, gentle, kind, and considerate girlfriend to come repay the vow together.

He was laughed at and scolded by the others for being too shameless.

An older teacher glanced at Jin Zhao and, with a knowing smile, said, “Teacher Zhou, who exactly are those words meant for? So hard to guess.”

Teacher Zhou scratched his head and laughed, his gaze falling on Jin Zhao.

The young woman had fair, delicate skin, clear and gentle features, like the sun just rising, like a flower just beginning to bloom.

She was a teacher Wang Nan knew; they hadn’t had much interaction before, and he didn’t know that Jin Zhao had a boyfriend.

With the atmosphere pushed to this point, the young male teacher was also good at seizing the opportunity and went along with it, asking, “Teacher Jin, are you a local? Jinjue Town has many famous historical sites and intangible cultural heritage. I’d like to come back next time for a more in-depth trip. Would it be okay to add a contact? I’d like to ask Teacher Jin to be my guide.”

Jin Zhao was made rather embarrassed by the fuss and was just about to politely refuse when a cool, detached voice came from behind: “Teacher Zhou, add me. I count as a local now too.”

Jin Zhao suddenly turned her head.

The ancient temple lay at the foot of the mountain, surrounded by peaks. The midday sun emerged from the mountains, refracting rainbow light off the upturned eaves. Beneath the eaves, the copper bells swayed gently in the wind, emitting soft, tinkling chimes.

Meng Yanxi was wearing a black outdoor jacket, one hand in his pocket, looking like a youth as he walked toward her in the sunlight.

His outstanding appearance immediately drew everyone’s attention.

“And this is…?”

Recalling the last time this man had bluntly said, “Teacher Jin’s boyfriend,” Jin Zhao took the initiative to answer, “My boyfriend.”

It caused a small misunderstanding, but fortunately it was subtle enough. Everyone laughed and brushed it off.

At noon, Teacher Jin’s boyfriend accompanied Teacher Jin and her colleagues to eat together. In the afternoon, the group went their separate ways.

The young couple avoided the crowds and deliberately walked toward places with fewer people. Jin Zhao asked, “Why did you come? Today’s the first day of the new year, shouldn’t you be at home celebrating?”

The man didn’t speak. His dark eyes fixed on her, and he suddenly asked, “Didn’t you see the post I made?”

Jin Zhao froze for a moment and took out her phone.

Last night had been the lunar New Year’s Eve, a day of family reunion. Far more people had posted to their Moments than on New Year’s Day—friends, students, leaders, colleagues were all posting, and she hadn’t paid attention to scrolling through them.

She scrolled down for quite a while before finally seeing Meng Yanxi’s post—

“Kind of miss you, only you can see.”

The accompanying image was fireworks bursting in the sky.

Jin Zhao stared at those characters, her heart giving a light bump.

Fireworks on New Year’s Eve were, in themselves, an ordinary image—but because their first night together had been beneath fireworks.

Unavoidably, intimate scenes of the two of them surfaced in Jin Zhao’s mind, and her face quietly flushed.

Especially since he had posted it at midnight.

It was hard not to think of that final moment of the night, with the sound of the New Year’s countdown echoing in her ears.

“I didn’t see it,” she explained softly. “After video calling you last night, I went to sleep.”

Meng Yanxi didn’t say anything. He suddenly asked, “You seem to quite like the surname Zhou, don’t you?”

Jin Zhao: “?”

Meng Yanxi: “The last one had the surname Zhou too.”

Jin Zhao took a moment to react before realizing he was probably talking about that male teacher from the School of Artificial Intelligence.

Looking at her boyfriend, who had started acting proud again, she held back a laugh and said seriously, “It’s okay. Zhou sounds pretty cultured as a surname.”

Meng Yanxi raised an eyebrow and asked, “Then what about Meng?”

Although she didn’t want to let him get smug, Teacher Jin, adhering to an academic attitude of seeking truth from facts, still answered honestly: “A gentleman like jade upon the path, unmatched in the world.”

Only then was he satisfied. A smile flowed from his dark brows and eyes. Lowering his gaze to look at her, he asked, “May this gentleman kiss his girlfriend now?”

On the first day of the new year, the sunlight was excellent, and the wind over the open fields was gentle and lingering. Meng Yanxi had driven four hours early that morning, and in the deserted mountains and wilderness, he quietly kissed his girlfriend.

……

The two of them went back on the second day of the lunar new year. Before the seventh day, Meng Yanxi was basically staying at Jin Zhao’s place. The little lovebirds were inseparable—just very wasteful of condoms. At most, they used seven in one night.

Jin Zhao was glad in her heart that hers was a top-floor corner unit, but she still cautiously asked around. Only after confirming that no one lived below or next door did she finally relax.

Otherwise, given Meng Yanxi’s level of addiction, she really worried they might be heard.

After the holiday, Meng Yanxi went on a business trip. Jin Zhao also finalized things with Sui University and was set to give an academic report there when the semester started. Those days, she stayed home preparing the content of the report.

Wu Nian’s sudden explosion in popularity also happened during those days.

A harem intrigue revenge drama aired during winter break became wildly popular. As the female lead, Wu Nian dominated the trending searches for half a month straight.

Jin Zhao knew that revenge drama—it was the one Wu Nian had joined during the National Day holiday. She hadn’t expected it to air so quickly, nor had she expected that what Wu Nian had said was just a named supporting role would end up becoming the female lead.

Right after Wu Nian’s rise to fame, news broke that she had a brother who had been arrested for intentional homicide.

Wu Nian’s brother… Wu Guo?

The sudden news made Jin Zhao unable to resist scrolling through related topics on her phone.

Then she suddenly saw a piece of explosive gossip: Wu Nian herself was Wen Ying!

Wen Ying was the female lead of that revenge drama.

The tipster claimed: “Back then, Wu Nian was ruined by her stepmother and stepbrother and left with nothing. Those ten-plus years were miserable. By chance, she obtained evidence of her stepbrother’s crimes. Her father is Wu Liang, and what her stepbrother did also touched Wu Liang’s interests, so Wu Liang was investigating as well. Wu Nian was originally the female No. N. She used the evidence as a bargaining chip, letting her stepbrother help her snatch the role of the originally designated female lead, and she herself went to Wu Liang to take the blame in her stepbrother’s place. Wu Liang therefore severed the father–daughter relationship with her. No one expected that Wu Nian would secretly keep a trump card—after she became explosively popular, she turned around and handed the evidence over to the police.”

Jin Zhao suddenly recalled that night at Lanshan Garden, when Wu Nian had beaten Wu Guo so badly. In the end, the two sides had actually reconciled, and soon after, news came out that Wu Liang had issued a statement publicly severing the father–daughter relationship with her.

At the time, she had been completely confused. Now, everything connected.