Lu Yixin was woken up by a slap.

When she opened her eyes, the sensor light turned on, and she saw Fang Yongnian’s darkened face.

Falling asleep on the floor felt cold, and in her sleep, Lu Yixin instinctively hugged Fang Yongnian’s arm, mumbling unclearly, “Fang Niannian!”

Fang Yongnian: “……”

She only woke for half a second. Probably because seeing Fang Yongnian made her relax, she shifted slightly and soon fell back asleep.

Her head rested in his palm, and both her hands wrapped around his waist.

The worries of an adult that had filled Fang Yongnian’s mind in the elevator a moment ago suddenly seemed absurd. Past eleven at night, he sat on the floor, his palm supporting Lu Yixin’s face. She quickly entered her snoring state again, her mouth half-open, her soft lips exhaling damp breaths that brushed against his palm.

His palm felt itchy.

“You’ll catch a cold sleeping here.” He moved his hand slightly, and Lu Yixin’s young, soft face followed the motion, pressing closer.

Fang Yongnian’s eyes darkened.

The sensor light turned off again. In the darkness, he lifted his free hand and aimed it at Lu Yixin’s forehead—smack.

The sensor light came back on.

Lu Yixin woke up too.

Lu Yixin: “……”

“Try pretending to sleep again.” Fang Yongnian’s expression was blank.

She had clearly already woken up just now; her lips were nearly touching his palm. Did she think she was a baby? How could a normal person sleep that deeply!

Lu Yixin covered her forehead, pouting: “……”

“Don’t fall asleep, the floor’s cold.” Fang Yongnian patted her head, but he himself stayed leaning against the corridor wall without moving.

Lu Yixin turned her head to look at him.

Half of him was hidden in the shadows, his brows furrowed, wearing a dark gray shirt, looking exhausted.

Lu Yixin wanted to take out her phone to check the time. When she lowered her head, she realized her jacket had no pockets. She let out a quiet “eh?” and started crawling around on the floor to look for her phone.

Before the sensor light went off again, she finally found the phone she had kicked into a corner. Turning it on, she gasped softly, “It’s twelve o’clock already!”

Fang Yongnian hadn’t said a word.

Leaning against the wall, his gaze stayed fixed on Lu Yixin.

She had a kind of vibrant energy in her, full of life. Even when she looked like a little beggar—wearing pajamas, hair a mess, sleeping sloppily in the corridor—she still shone.

Her movements, her expressions, her voice.

It had been nearly a week since he last saw her. He had agreed to her, but in truth, he rarely took the initiative to contact her.

Partly because he was truly busy. But more than that, he simply wasn’t used to it.

He still wasn’t used to thinking of Lu Yixin as a woman. He also didn’t know, as her boyfriend, what he was supposed to do.

During breaks at work, he would occasionally think of her. When he did, he would smile.

But he rarely had the urge to contact her, because he didn’t know what he would say or do once he did.

He did like her, that was certain. In his entire life, he had never kept anyone so close to his heart.

The bond between them was surely deeper than mere liking.

He thought, perhaps this was all his love amounted to—just like himself, lacking warmth and lacking passion.

But this kind of love, for a girl like Lu Yixin, was far too unfair.

She deserved a love that burned hotter.

Fang Yongnian reached out and touched Lu Yixin’s soft, fluffy head.

He didn’t ask her why she was sleeping at her doorstep in pajamas in the middle of the night, nor why she was staying out even though it wasn’t the weekend.

He hid in the shadows, waiting for the sensor light to dim—so he could hide his helplessness and exhaustion along with it.

He couldn’t even manage the simple act of waking her properly—he had to first sit down on the floor just to be able to touch her face.

And once he sat down, standing up again would only make him look more disheveled.

So he simply chose to stay where he was, watching as Lu Yixin, having found her phone, crawled toward him on all fours like his fat cat at home.

She furrowed her brows, looking very serious.

“You…” She stared at him with her round eyes, her tone full of annoyance and exasperation. “You’re not about to ask me again whether I really won’t regret it, are you?”

Fang Yongnian: “……”

He had thought she would complain that he got off work too late, or maybe tease him about his dark circles again, like last time.

He never expected her to be this sensitive.

A faint ache rose in his chest.

Lu Yixin used to be such a careless girl—her father, Lu Boyuan, used to fear her wearing skirts the most, because she once tucked the hem into her underwear and walked around all day before realizing it.

Such a careless girl could now, in a dark corridor where she could barely see his face, precisely catch the hesitation in his eyes.

She really, truly cared about him.

Fang Yongnian lowered his head and looked at Lu Yixin’s hands braced on the floor.

Small hands, once tanned from military training but now much fairer, with slender fingers and slightly rounded palms, curled into childish fists.

He reached out and covered her little fist with his hand.

His hand was almost twice the size of hers.

Lu Yixin froze.

All the complaints she had prepared vanished with that gesture, along with the grievance that had welled up inside her when she sensed his hesitation again.

She mimicked his posture, half leaning against the wall, resting her head on his shoulder.

Their hands slowly intertwined, fingers locking tightly together.

“I once watched a short video.” Lu Yixin’s voice was clear and crisp. “In the video, there was a female demon who really liked a peddler.”

“The peddler thought that someone as beautiful as the female demon must be a trick, so he refused her many times. In the end, he even asked a Daoist priest to get rid of her.”

“The female demon and the Daoist both ended up badly injured, and at the very end, she looked at the peddler.”

“She said, ‘What will it take for you to believe me?’” She spoke slowly, her tone rising and falling; Fang Yongnian found himself drawn in.

“The peddler said, ‘I can’t see your heart.’” She looked at Fang Yongnian. “Then the female demon reached out and pulled out her own heart.”

“She said, ‘Look!’” Using her other hand, she imitated the female demon’s gesture, smiling as she reached it under Fang Yongnian’s nose. “This is my heart.”

Fang Yongnian was so startled he stopped breathing.

The sensor light came on because of the loudness of her last line.

Under the cold light, Lu Yixin’s round, smiling face was very close; she was still holding up her hand. In her palm was a blue mint candy.

For a moment, Fang Yongnian saw it as red.

That eerie, sorrowful yet vivid story almost made him mistake Lu Yixin, in this late-night hour, for the kind of demon who would cut open her own heart.

“You…” He pulled down the hand she’d placed under his nose, completely at a loss for words.

Lu Yixin just giggled and leaned back against his shoulder again.

“Too bad I’m not a demon…” she said softly, softly.

Too bad she wasn’t a demon—she couldn’t take out her heart. She could only watch Fang Yongnian hesitate again and again, and worry that he would still leave her in the end.

Fang Yongnian waited until the sensor light dimmed back into darkness before quietly closing his eyes.

“You…” he repeated, but he still didn’t know what to say next.

He didn’t know what the emotions surging inside him were. His chest hurt, his eyes stung, and his mouth was dry.

He loosened his intertwined fingers with hers, stretched his arm, and pulled Lu Yixin—who had been leaning on his shoulder—into his embrace. Then, from the sleeve of his jacket, he found her hand again and held it tightly.

“When I stand up later, don’t look,” he said in the dark, finally speaking his first complete sentence.

Lu Yixin responded by hugging him tighter, her fluffy head pressed against him.

“We’ll take it one step at a time.” He closed his eyes.

Starting from his moment of weakness, one step at a time.

“I’m still learning.” He lowered his head and very lightly kissed Lu Yixin’s forehead.

Lu Yixin froze.

After the kiss, Fang Yongnian immediately raised his head again—so quickly that Lu Yixin went from touched, to shocked, to doubtful in half a second.

“You just…” She widened her eyes.

Would it sound strange if she asked?

She swallowed back the rest of her words and reached up to touch her forehead.

He did kiss her, right… that feeling should’ve been lips… right…

Could it be that he only brushed her hair aside with his hand…

But if it really was what she thought!

Then this night, this moment right now, was the highlight of her life that deserved to be framed!

She kept touching her forehead, eyes wide open, torn between whether or not to ask him about it.

If she asked, would it ruin the mood?

And if it wasn’t real…

That would be way too embarrassing…

Although she had already embarrassed herself plenty of times in front of Fang Yongnian, this would still push beyond even her limits of shamelessness.

Fang Yongnian sighed.

This girl was forever switching between making him angry and moving him to tears, without any pause in between—he’d have to slowly get used to it.

He first snapped his fingers at the air.

When the sensor light turned on, he pulled down Lu Yixin’s hand from her forehead, lowered his head, and pressed his lips to her smooth forehead.

One second…

Two seconds…

Three seconds…

Then he moved away.

Lu Yixin stared blankly.

“You know how to snap your fingers?” Her first question went completely off to the Arctic Ocean.

That move he did in the dark just now—snapping his fingers—was so cool it split the heavens. Too bad she didn’t record it.

Fang Yongnian: “……”

Lu Yixin reached up and touched her forehead.

“I think…” she muttered, “this spot is going to catch fire.”

Those three seconds—too long, yet too short.

The feeling of Fang Yongnian’s lips on her forehead was too real. This time, she didn’t have to wonder whether he really kissed her or not.

“Did you just count the seconds?” she asked, still touching her forehead.

She could swear she heard the ticking of a clock—exactly three beats.

“I’m going to write a diary entry today.” Her mouth wouldn’t stop moving, though her posture stayed stiff, her hand seemingly glued to her forehead.

“Do I start talking nonstop when I’m nervous…” She frowned at Fang Yongnian. “Every word I’m saying right now is ruining the mood, but I can’t stop.”

Her heart was beating too fast. She felt that if she didn’t talk, she might burst a blood vessel.

“I’m such a coward!” she was about to die of frustration with herself.

Just a kiss on the forehead, and yet she lost all composure like this.

Even her fingertips were icy cold from excitement.

“Fang Yongnian…”

“Mm?”

“I can’t stop… why don’t you kiss me again?”

“……”

“Maybe two negatives will make a positive…”

“……”

“Hurry up!” The girl’s coquettish tone was so sweet that even the corridor’s sensor light couldn’t stand it and went out completely.

“It’s better when it’s dark,” Lu Yixin breathed out a sigh of relief.

It must have been because of Fang Yongnian’s gaze that she turned out like this.

It was killing her. This old man was really too good at teasing…

“Um…” She shrank back into Fang Yongnian’s arms in the darkness, whispering softly, “You’re learning really well!”

He had said it himself—step by step, he was learning.

So good…

Every step was so sweet…