Click the links or go to the menu to go to the shop.
On the second day after the new students enrolled, military training began. Busloads of freshmen were taken directly to the training base, where they would be confined for an entire month.
When their phones were collected upon entering the base, and the moment they were finally returned a month later, Lu Yixin was almost moved to tears.
There were barely any messages on her phone. Her parents, who had long been used to letting her grow wild, were downright delighted to have thrown this mischievous monkey into military training. They didn’t even bother to send her a single WeChat message of daily concern.
Zheng Ranran had messaged her a few times, mostly to show off food—she had become completely independent, having signed an agreement with her parents. They would transfer her a fixed amount every year during her college years, and everything else, she would have to handle on her own.
So she rented a place and started learning to cook.
Most of what she made looked, smelled, and tasted terrifyingly bad, but Lu Yixin felt that Zheng Ranran seemed quite happy. Her parents, with whom she shared blood ties, had both found new happiness. She didn’t want to destroy the happy memories of the past, so she chose to stay away.
“Keep your distance. Get together for a meal during holidays, and everyone can still smile.” — those were Zheng Ranran’s exact words.
She needed family affection, but when that affection abandoned her, she chose to distance herself—so as not to ruin the memories, and not to degrade herself.
She had always been strong, like a female version of Fang Yongnian.
As for Fang Yongnian, ever since that day when she had mustered the courage to praise him for being “so cute,” he had been busy like a dog. Later on, in many of their conversations, he would use nothing but a period to express his unwillingness to talk.
She smacked her lips and opened Fang Yongnian’s WeChat chat box: Fang Yongnian, I’ve been released!
She stared at his silhouette in her chat list, narrowed her eyes, and smiled.
She really missed him.
When Fang Yongnian’s call came through, she was still staring blankly at his avatar. Behind her were her fellow students leaving the training base, and in the distance were parents coming to pick up their children. Cars lined up in a long queue.
“Where are you?” Fang Yongnian’s voice was slow and low.
Lu Yixin was a bit puzzled. “…At the base entrance.”
Her heartbeat suddenly sped up, because of a certain sixth sense unique to women.
“Walk forward another two hundred meters. The intersection’s too jammed, I can’t drive in.” Fang Yongnian’s tone was still unreadable, speaking in the most ordinary, casual way.
“…You came to pick me up?” Lu Yixin’s voice trembled a little as it rose.
A passing classmate gave her a strange look.
“Mm.” Fang Yongnian responded simply.
“…Why?” Lu Yixin tried to suppress her wildly pounding heart.
She knew that Fang Yongnian had agreed before, and she could also feel that his attitude toward her wasn’t quite the same as before.
But the tenderness he had already shown was more than enough. He replied to her messages, answered her calls, and whenever she wanted to see that fat cat’s photo, Fang Yongnian would take one for her—though his photography skills were often awful.
Still, she thought, that was already enough.
More than enough.
Yet he actually came to pick her up.
“Your dad’s on a business trip.” Fang Yongnian finally answered, his voice carrying a trace of laughter.
“Oh…” Lu Yixin nudged the straps of her backpack.
“Actually… even if my dad were here, he wouldn’t necessarily come to pick me up,” she couldn’t help it again and exposed him in a small voice.
Her dad would say, this place would definitely be jammed—taking a few extra steps out to hail a cab would be faster than him coming to get her.
Fang Yongnian was silent for a moment.
“Mm.” He responded.
Lu Yixin froze.
So—it was because he wanted to come pick her up.
“I… I’ll be right there.” Lu Yixin felt like she was about to cry again.
“Mm.” Fang Yongnian answered once more, then hung up.
Lu Yixin stood there dazed for a while, then quickly took out her phone and pressed a shortcut key.
“Ranran, hurry and save me!” she shouted hoarsely.
Zheng Ranran: “?”
“Is there any way to turn white quickly?!” She must have shouted too loudly, because the classmates passing by looked at her as if she were an idiot.
Zheng Ranran: “…Ah?”
“Fang Yongnian is just two hundred meters away, but I’m as black as charcoal now!” Lu Yixin raised her arm and took a glance, then wailed and corrected herself, “Not charcoal—coal.”
She shouldn’t have been lazy and skipped sunscreen just because she was too tired.
“…Oh.” Zheng Ranran turned into a monosyllabic animal.
“…There’s really no way?” Lu Yixin whimpered.
“…Why don’t you rub some lime powder off the wall to save yourself?” Zheng Ranran said very sincerely.
“This is the army. If I rub against the wall, someone might shoot me.” Lu Yixin missed the point entirely, gave up, and hung up the phone.
What should she do…
She remembered that Fang Yongnian liked fair skin…
She was doomed…
୨୧ ⏔⏔⏔⏔♡⏔⏔⏔⏔ ୨୧
Before running to Fang Yongnian’s car, Lu Yixin wrapped her face with her clothes. Out of habit, she opened the front passenger door—but her hidden face wrinkled slightly. She silently closed it again, went around to the back seat, and sat down very discreetly.
Fang Yongnian watched the entire process and once again marveled at his own nearly perverse taste…
Why on earth had he—after just two hugs from her—completely surrendered?
“I got tanned,” Lu Yixin said pitifully from the back seat. “I’ll let you see me again when I’m white.”
“Sit in the front.” Fang Yongnian glared at her through the rearview mirror.
He wasn’t a taxi driver.
Lu Yixin blinked her eyes.
She really wanted to, too.
After opening the car door, in the enclosed space, she again smelled the tobacco scent on Fang Yongnian, mixed with the very clean fragrance of soap.
She wanted to move closer too, but…
“I look really ugly right now…” she sincerely revealed a small part of her face to him. “Don’t you like fair skin? What if I show you and you change your mind?”
Fang Yongnian: “…”
He decisively turned off the engine, crossed his arms, and said nothing.
Who told her he liked fair skin…
“You once… in the laboratory, when you were talking with others, said you liked lighter skin,” Lu Yixin said, somehow accurately reading his body language.
Fang Yongnian frowned slightly.
Had he said that…?
“…That was because…” He instantly shut his mouth.
He remembered now. Back then, the guy beside him was obsessed with Western adult films, all with Black actors, and insisted on sharing them with him. He had just casually made an offhand comment.
Lu Yixin’s big eyes blinked again, filled with reproach.
“Sit in the front.” Fang Yongnian’s voice was rough and gruff.
“Oh.” Lu Yixin climbed pitifully into the passenger seat, then carefully exposed most of her arm to show him. “See, it’s that dark.”
Tanned purely under the blazing sun, the color truly wasn’t very flattering.
Fang Yongnian pulled away Lu Yixin’s piece of clothing that she used for covering, glanced at her once.
Indeed… very dark.
The bridge of her nose and cheekbones were especially tanned, even starting to peel.
“Where’s your sunscreen?” He frowned as he started the car.
“I couldn’t get up in the morning, there was no time to put it on.” Lu Yixin pulled down the sun visor in front of the passenger seat, flipped open the mirror, and looked left and right.
“Isn’t it ugly?” she scrunched her nose.
“Mm.” Fang Yongnian remained motionless, utterly honest.
He had originally planned to drive her straight to dinner, but now he made a detour, intending to first find a pharmacy.
He wasn’t sure if this place sold the same aloe gel that the pharmacy in Hecheng carried, it worked quite well.
“You…” Lu Yixin hesitated for a moment.
Fang Yongnian had been too good to her lately—so good that she wanted to push her luck, feeling a faint itch to tease him.
“At times like this, a boyfriend should have a sense of self-preservation,” she said very solemnly. “How can you just admit I’m ugly? Luckily, I have a good temper—otherwise, what if I got mad? You’d still have to apologize to me.”
She spoke fluently.
By the end, she got a little carried away, then quickly restrained herself and quietly glanced at Fang Yongnian.
She was checking whether he was angry.
He said he needed time to adjust, had she pushed him too hard again?
Fang Yongnian suddenly wanted to reach out and touch her hair.
Ever since she was little, she had always been good at reading adults’ expressions. Although Lu Boyuan and Liu Miqing had done their best, in the end, they couldn’t always be there for her.
The people who stayed by her side weren’t family. Even he had once been annoyed by her, he only took care of her because of Lu Boyuan’s sake.
She actually understood that very well.
When she was young and acted spoiled or threw little tantrums, it was never without restraint—she would always secretly glance at the adults’ expressions.
“You look nice.” He was driving, and it wasn’t convenient to reach over and touch her hair, so after hesitating for a moment, he still said it out loud.
At her age, she looked good no matter what.
“Ah?” Lu Yixin, tanned like a piece of charcoal, stared at him blankly.
Such words were too mushy to repeat, so Fang Yongnian said no more and focused on driving.
Lu Yixin quietly sniffled.
“Fang Yongnian…” She called his name in one of her countless tones. Each time the “nian” at the end of his name lingered with a soft, sticky sweetness.
“Actually, I’m already really satisfied, but…” Her voice sounded pitiful.
“I’m afraid I won’t be able to hold back.” She turned her head to look at him from the passenger seat. “I definitely won’t be able to.”
“Hold back from what?” Fang Yongnian knew he shouldn’t have asked, because the expression on her face right now looked far too mischievous.
“Getting married! Sleeping together! Having babies!” Lu Yixin raised three fingers, her eyes shining with excitement.
Fang Yongnian’s face didn’t move.
Expressionless, he pulled the car over into a roadside parking spot, expressionless, unbuckled his seatbelt.
Then he turned to her and reached out to cover her face.
His palm was still warm and dry, pressing lightly against her nose as he pushed her back into the seat.
“Sit properly.” He didn’t even bother to scold her. “I’m going to buy something.”
“Buy what?” Now that she was so tanned, it was impossible to tell whether she was blushing.
Lu Yixin resisted the urge to touch her nose; the place where he’d touched felt as if butterfly wings had brushed across it.
Fang Yongnian ignored her.
His back was straight, his walking posture perfectly standard.
Before his accident, he used to drag his steps when he walked—lazy and unhurried. If he could sit, he would never stand.
But after the accident, his posture had become flawless.
Only Lu Yixin knew how much sweat lay behind that perfection.
She had once seen him during rehabilitation, drenched in sweat as he removed his prosthetic limb—soaked to the point that water could be wrung from the joint.
“Getting married! Sleeping together! Having babies!” Lu Yixin silently repeated again.
Watching Fang Yongnian push open the pharmacy door, she looked through the glass at him standing before the shelf of after-sun products, frowning slightly as he compared aloe gels.
