When Tao Xiuping said these words, his tone was gentle, his eyes sincere, and he even carried a certain inexplicable insistence and testing the waters, as if Jiang Qihuai dared to say no the next second, he would directly kick him out of the house the second after.

Tao Zhi stood by, pursing her lips, looking at Tao Xiuping, then at the person next to her, her face aching from holding back laughter.

Although she very much wanted to see Jiang Qihuai do the swan arms with her dad, watching him stand there woodenly, Tao Zhi inexplicably found it somewhat pitiful.

Just as Jiang Qihuai swayed slightly and was about to walk over, Tao Zhi finally couldn’t hold back and let out a soft burst of laugh.

She grabbed Jiang Qihuai’s arm and pulled him directly upstairs: “Alright, Boss Tao, play by yourself. I’ll take him to see my bedroom.”

Tao Xiuping shot her a sidelong glance: “What’s so interesting about your pigsty?”

“This is his first time here, he should see what his girlfriend’s boudoir looks like.” Tao Zhi said without blushing or her heart racing.

Tao Xiuping couldn’t be bothered to expose her, hummed a couple of laughs, waved his hand, got off the yoga mat, stepped into his slippers, and turned off the TV.

Tao Zhi, expressionless, dragged Jiang Qihuai upstairs. To make it seem realistic, she kept muttering: “You don’t know which room is mine, right?”

Jiang Qihuai: “…En.”

Tao Zhi glanced downstairs and said loudly with affectation: “This one here is mine, the one next to it is Ji Fan’s.”

Jiang Qihuai sighed.

Tao Zhi pushed open the door and pulled him inside. Her room was almost no different from before, except there were fewer messy dolls—those plush toys Jiang Qihuai had already seen at her current home, placed on the sofa and chair backs, and the clothes draped everywhere were gone too.

The desk was clean, the books on the shelf next to it were neatly arranged. The review materials, textbooks, and practice tests from high school had been replaced by reading materials and photo albums on fiction and photography. On the wall on the other side of the desk, there was a photo wall.

Jiang Qihuai’s steps halted when his gaze fell on that photo wall.

He stared at it, somewhat dazed. It occupied only a very small section of the wall space next to the desk, with photos and sticky notes pasted on it. In the middle was a small corkboard pinned with a few photos using thumbtacks.

Tao Zhi didn’t notice his gaze. She leaned by the door, peeked downstairs again, then pulled her head back, closed the door, and turned around.

Jiang Qihuai’s gaze had already shifted away.

Tao Zhi leaned against the door panel, looking at him, and said leisurely: “Nostalgic, first love?”

Jiang Qihuai lowered his head, licked his lips, and smiled: “Quite nostalgic.”

Tao Zhi stood by the door, not speaking.

Although Jiang Qihuai had only been here once, for a long time, Tao Zhi occasionally felt that this bedroom was filled with traces of him everywhere.

In the corner were the snacks he had stored, on the bookshelf were the figurines he had arranged. Sometimes, when Tao Zhi woke up early in the morning, her sleepiness lingering, her mind still foggy, and opened the wardrobe, in a daze, she would unconsciously recall the boy tumbling into the wardrobe, his face blank and startled as he looked at her.

And now, he was truly standing here once again.

Tao Zhi’s fingertips resting on the door panel twitched. She straightened up, walked to the bed, and sat down, saying with some regret: “It’s a pity we don’t need to sneak around anymore. It just feels like… something exciting is missing.”

“……”

Jiang Qihuai glanced at her: “How exciting do you want it?”

Tao Zhi thought for a moment and said: “Like Romeo and Juliet. Two people in love who can’t be together, but can’t help being wildly attracted to each other’s hormones, so they secretly meet in their rooms late at night.”

She grew more enthusiastic as she spoke, all sorts of messy thoughts tumbling out, her words becoming unrestrained: “And then there’s that kind, you know, those little erotic stories—Mom and Dad are both home, but my brother and I are in the room—”

Tao Zhi paused, didn’t continue, just looked at him meaningfully.

Jiang Qihuai looked at her numbly: “In the room doing what?”

“……”

Tao Zhi was somewhat speechless: “Don’t you understand romance? Leaving it blank here is more evocative.”

Jiang Qihuai tilted his head calmly and said quietly: “So what is it.”

“……”

Tao Zhi, expressionless, sat on the edge of the bed and beckoned to him: “Come here.”

Jiang Qihuai walked over.

He was wearing a black turtleneck sweater today, no tie. Tao Zhi scanned him up and down, somewhat unsure where to start. Frowning, she thought for a moment, then raised her hand, her fingers tangling in his sweater and pulling down.

“Lower yourself a bit,” Tao Zhi directed him.

Jiang Qihuai obediently bent down.

Tao Zhi held him with one hand, her spine straightening and lifting slightly upward, raising her neck to kiss his lips.

Her woolen dress clung to her body, outlining the girl’s slender and graceful curves. Her chin was tilted high, her slender neck elongated.

Perhaps due to the innate instinct of a man, Jiang Qihuai braced one hand on the bedside and leaned down, his other hand unconsciously cradling her head, pressing upward.

Their lips and tongues lingering drew close, then parted. Tao Zhi’s fingers tangled in his sweater gradually softened. She retracted her numb tongue, swallowing with difficulty, and leaned back slightly, wanting to create some distance.

For every bit she retreated, he advanced, leaving almost no room to breathe.

Tao Zhi lay back into the soft large bed, her slender fingers clasped and pressed into the down comforter by strong knuckles. The sound of lips and tongues kissing made low, ambiguous noises in the quiet bedroom.

After a long moment, Jiang Qihuai lifted his head, his panting rolling near her ear, warm and deep.

Tao Zhi licked her numb lips, her mouth slightly open as she took small breaths to calm herself. Her pinned leg instinctively lifted slightly.

Her knee had just bent.

“Don’t move,” Jiang Qihuai said hoarsely.

Tao Zhi’s movement paused, and she obediently put it down, the back of her knee hooked on the edge of the bed, her calf hanging down.

“This is it,” she said softly, her voice soft.

Jiang Qihuai was somewhat distracted, his voice low: “Hmm?”

Tao Zhi raised her arm, hooked it around his neck, and gently pulled him down, whispering in his ear: “Things done in the room.”

Her soft, moist lips pressed against his ear, and then she distinctly felt the man pressing down on her entire body become even stiffer than before.

Tao Zhi felt a strange sense of satisfaction from having succeeded. She pursed her lips, relaxed, and looked up at him from below, blinking twice: “Jiang Qihuai, why aren’t you speaking.”

Jiang Qihuai’s eyelids twitched, and he closed his eyes.

Tao Zhi continued: “Why are you ignoring me.”

Jiang Qihuai suddenly opened his eyes, narrowing them as he looked down at her from above, his eyes deep and black.

“Just like this?” he suddenly said hoarsely.

Tao Zhi was a bit slow to react: “Huh?”

“The things done in the room,” Jiang Qihuai looked down at her from above, against the light, his brow and eyes shaded in shadow, his voice low and slow, like a dangerous hint, “is just this enough?”

Tao Zhi couldn’t help but shrink her neck.

Seeing that he seemed a bit provoked, she quickly admitted defeat: “Enough, enough. Even if it’s not enough, the time and place aren’t appropriate now.”

“…”

So you know it’s not appropriate.

Jiang Qihuai looked at her expression of wanting to settle things peacefully after causing trouble. After a few seconds of silence, he suddenly lowered his head, buried it in the crook of her neck, parted her collar, and bit down gently on her delicate neck as if venting.

Tao Zhi felt a chill on the side of her neck, followed by a sharp, tiny pain. She let out a small “ah,” covered her neck, pouted, and said discontentedly: “Why are you biting people?”

Jiang Qihuai rolled over and got up, stood by the bed, glanced at her, his expression as if saying: You know very well why.

Tao Zhi knew why, but on the surface, she showed no sign of it. She pushed herself up from the bed, sat up, without a trace of guilt, pointed further inside the bedroom, and kindly reminded: “The bathroom is inside, Your Highness, feel free.”

Jiang Qihuai: “…”

When Jiang Qihuai came out of the bathroom, there was already no one in the bedroom.

Dinner was almost ready downstairs. Tao Zhi had gone down first. When Jiang Qihuai pushed the door open and went downstairs, he saw her wrestling with Ji Fan by the sofa.

To say they were wrestling wasn’t entirely accurate. Tao Zhi was holding a long, thin python-shaped plush toy, and Ji Fan was holding a pillow, hitting her with it while deftly avoiding the plush python she was trying to loop around his neck to strangle him.

While fighting, they were also insulting each other: “As soon as you come back—you hit me! You might as well not have come back!”

Ji Fan: “If I had known—you were force-feeding dog food at home! I would have frozen to death outside!”

Jiang Qihuai: “…”

Tao Zhi saw him come down. While desperately hitting Ji Fan with the doll, she found a moment to turn her head: “You’re down. Come eat dinner.”

The pillow in Ji Fan’s hand was grabbed by Tao Zhi and thrown aside. He nimbly pressed against the sofa and grabbed another pillow, rejoining the fray.

The living room was filled with flying pillows, blankets, and plush toys. Probably because Jiang Qihuai was present, Tao Xiuping finally couldn’t stand it anymore. He walked over and knocked each of them on the head: “You’re both well over twenty, still acting like teenagers? Go wash your hands, now! Come eat!”

Tao Zhi’s python was snatched away and tossed aside. She pouted, ran over, pulled Jiang Qihuai, and headed towards the dining room: “Come eat.”

She seated Jiang Qihuai in the spot next to her, then got up to help the auntie bring the dishes to the table.

Seeing him go over, Tao Zhi also bounced up, volunteered, and ran to the kitchen to fetch the bowls and chopsticks.

This meal was unexpectedly harmonious.

Jiang Qihuai was naturally quiet. He showed no reaction as he listened to Tao Zhi and Ji Fan fooling around while eating, only answering when Tao Xiuping asked him questions.

While talking with Ji Fan, Tao Zhi also paid attention to his situation. Tao Xiuping didn’t ask anything about his family or similar matters, only chatted about work and some harmless everyday topics, his attitude very normal.

He didn’t say a single word that Tao Zhi had worried about.

They finished the meal peacefully. Tao Zhi breathed a sigh of relief. After dinner, she stood at the kitchen doorway, watching Jiang Qihuai help the auntie collect the bowls and chopsticks into the kitchen, then get shooed out by her.

Seeing him pushed out, Tao Zhi joked: “Why are you stealing our auntie’s work?”

“A bit unused to it,” Jiang Qihuai said flatly.

After he said this, both of them almost simultaneously paused.

Tao Zhi hadn’t thought much when she said it, and neither had Jiang Qihuai. It was just that this was his first time being up close to her usual living environment, and all the taken-for-granted care in her daily life felt instinctively uncomfortable to Jiang Qihuai.

In the kitchen, the auntie put the bowls and chopsticks into the dishwasher, the sound faintly audible. Tao Zhi lifted her head, looking at Jiang Qihuai standing in the shadows near the dining room liquor cabinet, his eyes lowered, his expression faint.

She pressed her lips together, slowly raised her hand, and took his finger: “You don’t need to get used to these.”

Jiang Qihuai looked up.

Tao Zhi held one of his index fingers, her fingertips gently squeezing the soft pad of his finger. The tips of her ears were slightly red as she whispered very softly: “Anyway, from now on, you’ll be washing all the dishes at home.”