But…

“Ew…” She shivered her shoulders. “Saying it face-to-face is so mushy…”

Fang Yongnian: “…”

“Next time let’s just talk on WeChat!” She happily made her decision, pattering toward the door, then turned back.

“What about that cat?” Lu Yixin tilted her head. Fang Yongnian would still be busy for another half month, and by then she would have gone back to school.

“I’ll come get it tomorrow before I leave.” He put the cup away and wiped his hands dry. “Someone from the company will come feed it.”

That cat was used to being alone. Even when he was home, he often didn’t see its shadow. As long as it had food and water, it could stay proud all on its own.

A cat quite fitting for him to raise.

“That cat’s just like you,” Lu Yixin said, recalling how her face had been slowly stepped on four times—each paw once, very evenly. “Even the expression’s the same.”

So arrogant.

Fang Yongnian: “…”

“I’m going now!” She waved at him, her slightly round, apple-like face smiling like a Maitreya Buddha.

Right before the door closed, she turned again.

“This!” She took off the blanket around her shoulders and handed it to Fang Yongnian.

“Actually…” Lu Yixin lowered her head for a look at herself and confessed honestly, “there’s really nothing much to see…”

In fact, front or back, there wasn’t much difference…

“I’ll drink more papaya milk from now on.” She didn’t even know if she was comforting him, but she said it sincerely.

Fang Yongnian: “…………”

“I’m really, really going now!” Lu Yixin said with squinted eyes and a bright smile, waved at him again, changed her shoes, and closed the door.

Fang Yongnian didn’t move until the door of the room across from him opened and closed again, and the motion-sensor light in the hallway returned to darkness.

The living room was very bright. Lu Yixin liked brightness. Every time she turned on the lights, she liked to press down every switch on the panel all at once.

The sweet smell of the hot cocoa she’d drunk lingered strongly. Even though the cup had been rinsed clean, the room was still filled with a sweetness completely mismatched with Fang Yongnian.

Her Maitreya-like smile also seemed to freeze in the night, filling the bright living room to the brim.

“Really…” Fang Yongnian murmured to himself, his tone helpless, but the corners of his lips were raised.

So noisy, not a moment of quiet.

So lively…

He stood up and, under the glaring lights, walked into the bathroom.

When the phone rang, he was brushing his teeth. It was almost three o’clock. He frowned as he picked up the phone.

It was Lu Yixin.

As always, her messages flooded the screen rapidly, each sentence followed by a row of flashy emojis.

“I can’t sleep!”

“That hot cocoa was so sweet. I drank such a big cup, must’ve gained five pounds.”

“It’s really nice that you came back!”

“You’re really nice!”

“Hehehehehehehe.”

“You must be brushing your teeth right now. Don’t read after brushing, hurry up and sleep!”

“Good night.”

In the end, just like before, she sent a voice message on WeChat. Her voice soft and light, as if she were right by his ear.

Fang Yongnian held his phone and dazed out for a while.

Girls these days… really know how to flirt.

Clenching the toothbrush between his teeth, he typed quickly: “If you can’t sleep, then come over. I’ve got a few university advanced mathematics textbooks here.”

Lu Yixin: ???

Lu Yixin: I’m sleeping! Right now! Immediately!!

Lu Yixin: What you’re seeing now is just my sleep talk!

The phone finally went quiet.

Fang Yongnian turned his electric toothbrush back on. When he looked into the mirror, he realized his features had softened so much that even he found them unfamiliar.

He was a little dazed.

Why did he like her?

Why did he agree to her?

It seemed this really wasn’t a question worth thinking about anymore.

In this world, besides Lu Yixin, there was probably no one else who could, at three in the morning, tease him wide awake.

He felt a bit regretful about the fruit shop he’d thought about for so long.

He’d originally believed that in a small shop filled with the fragrance of fruits, he could forget the smell of medicine.

Forget it.

He spat out the foam.

Even fruit rots eventually. No matter where one hides in this world, there will always be good and bad.

He couldn’t possibly let Lu Yixin, after graduating from college, open a cake shop next to his fruit store. He already had enough reasons for Lu Boyuan to want to strangle him, there was no need to add another.

Lu Yixin was very well-behaved. From how she acted tonight, she was even more measured than he’d thought.

She had always known her limits. Even when she messed around, she did so within the range adults could accept.

She was already giving him a buffer period, she hadn’t forced him.

So he needed to think carefully about how the road ahead should go.

For someone whose limbs were incomplete, wanting to live life together with another person was, in truth, a kind of luxury.

He knew too well how much pain hid behind such a luxury. He was much older than Lu Yixin, and he didn’t want the radiant, sunlit Lu Yixin to bear any of it.

So, he needed to have enough strength to bear both shares himself.

But actually, it wasn’t that hard.

He had already walked the hardest roads, and seen the ugliest sides of people’s hearts.

To live with something to pursue was always better than to live with nothing at all.

He had always been someone with pursuits. Even opening a fruit shop, he would plan for years in advance, from suppliers to shop location to fruit varieties.

He washed his face with cold water and looked at his beard in the mirror.

That girl…

His beard was almost growing into one whole patch, yet she could still look straight at this face and say good night to it.

୨୧ ⏔⏔⏔⏔♡⏔⏔⏔⏔ ୨୧ 

Ever since realizing she liked Fang Yongnian, Lu Yixin’s whole focus in life had always been him.

Her choice of college major had been influenced by thoughts of Fang Yongnian’s phantom limb pain; her entrance exam results were largely driven by her determination to prove that her love was something good, something worth it.

To get close again to the Fang Yongnian who had completely blocked her, she spent her whole summer busy looking for housing in Huating, busy trying every possible way to appear before him.

So she hadn’t paid much attention to her own college life.

Unlike most freshmen who, after being admitted, felt their lives had taken on a new beginning, for Lu Yixin, the start of the semester simply meant moving into the dormitory—which meant that for a whole week, she couldn’t live across from Fang Yongnian.

Especially now that Fang Yongnian had already completed the “BE” filing, and would soon be going to and from work on schedule. Being forced to stay in the dorm felt like her heart was bleeding.

But her mother, unfortunately, was very strict about this: in the first year, she had to live on campus. She could only go back to the rented apartment on weekends to stay with Lu Boyuan and Liu Miqing.

“I’m already so sociable, why do I still have to live a collective life?” Lu Yixin tugged on her suitcase, starting to argue logically with Liu Miqing.

“How are you sociable?” Liu Miqing exposed her without mercy. “After all these years of studying, you only have one good friend.”

“…Quality over quantity when it comes to friends!” Lu Yixin grew anxious enough to use a proverb.

Liu Miqing put down the clothes in her hands. “Why are you always finding excuses not to live in the dorm?”

Lu Yixin: “…”

“I just think it’s a bit inappropriate that you rented a place right across from your Uncle Fang.” Liu Miqing frowned. “You’re not planning to live there just so you can bother him every day, are you?”

Lu Yixin: “…”

She was wrong. She shouldn’t have been so stubborn.

She clearly could have sneaked out from the dorm to look for Fang Yongnian anyway.

“Yixin.” Liu Miqing’s tone turned serious. “When you were little, you’d chase after Uncle Fang saying you wanted to marry him and give him little monkeys—I went along with your jokes.”

“But now you’re nineteen. If you still cling to him every day like a child, it’s really not appropriate.”

Lu Yixin sniffled.

“Ever since your Uncle Fang moved to Huating, every time you went there he deliberately avoided you. I used to think it was because you were preparing for the college entrance exams and he didn’t want to distract you—but thinking about it now, maybe he was just really tired of you.”

Lu Yixin opened her mouth, looking miserable.

“Think about it…” Liu Miqing gently stroked her daughter’s hair. “Your Uncle Fang went through so many things. Your father never once spoke up for him back then.”

“He not only doesn’t blame your father, now they’re even working in the same company. Your father said that whether it’s business or personal matters, he’s always very helpful to him.”

“He’s a very good person. You’ve grown up now, and you really can’t keep clinging to him just because he’s kind and easy to talk to, treating him like your personal babysitter.”

“He needs to have his own life. You can’t keep following behind him and holding him back.”

Lu Yixin lowered her head.

“Did you hear me?” Liu Miqing raised her voice slightly.

Now that she thought about it, even when they were looking for a place to rent, Fang Yongnian had deliberately avoided them.

Their family couldn’t take advantage of Fang Yongnian’s good temper and kind heart, depending on him every day. He had already acted as Lu Yixin’s caretaker for so many years—conscientiously and responsibly. Now that he wanted to keep his distance from her, they should have enough self-awareness to let him.

A man in his thirties, who would want a clingy little snot trailing behind him every day?

Especially one as mischievous as Lu Yixin.

“Mom…” Lu Yixin could only suffer in silence.

“He’s not your real uncle, after all.” Liu Miqing tapped her daughter on the head. “Don’t act spoiled, it won’t work.”

“I’ll have to ask your father how long the lease for that apartment is. Once you’re in your second year, we’ll move you somewhere else.”

“Huh?” Lu Yixin’s mouth fell open.

“What ‘huh’?” Liu Miqing had already made up her mind and stopped paying her any attention. “And don’t go back there all the time, especially at night. If you see your Uncle Fang bringing someone home, don’t go nosing around after them, got it?”

“Ah??” Lu Yixin’s mouth opened even wider.

Liu Miqing sighed.

“Your father said your Uncle Fang and that Yu Hanfeng… is it Yu Hanfeng?—might have something going on.”

Normally, gossip like that wasn’t something she’d tell her daughter.

But Fang Yongnian really should have someone by his side.

Yu Hanfeng was capable, decisive, and independent. She was a good match for him.

She couldn’t let Lu Yixin accidentally mess things up.

“In short, if your Uncle Fang starts dating someone, you must not get involved. Understood?” Liu Miqing raised her voice on the last word.

That meant the topic was over.

Lu Yixin stood there dumbfounded, gripping her suitcase so tightly she nearly broke the combination lock.

While her mother went out to fetch something, she pulled out her phone and started typing furiously.

“Fang Yongnian! You’re not allowed to cheat!”

“You promised to wait for me!”

“Wait for what! I’m already here, what exactly are you still waiting for!”

“If you dare to cheat, I’ll tell my parents everything!!”

After a long while—

Fang Yongnian: “? Are you sick?”

He actually even added a question mark at the beginning, completely disregarding grammar…