Fang Yongnian, who had been forcibly kissed twice in one night, shut his mouth.

He was persuaded.

After the car accident, he had actually been gloomy all along, but he hadn’t seen Lu Yixin become any less lively because of his gloominess.

Lu Yixin really didn’t have the brains to handle problems the way he did. That night, she actually dared to turn around holding a rock, and that kind of foolishness really shocked him.

He had taught her for so many years to use her brain in everything, to stay calm when facing matters, but when it really happened, she was still Lu Yixin, not a single hair changed.

He told her not to be impudent, yet now she dared to go right up to his face and rub it.

He told her he still had psychological barriers, and she just drank wine and poured it straight into his mouth.

Whether she was ten, eighteen, or nineteen, her promises were never worth much, charging ahead recklessly without care, and after causing trouble she would just act spoiled toward him.

Anyway, he indulged her.

He spoiled her before they dated, so there was no reason not to after they started dating.

So he gave up on this topic, which might actually be very important in an adult relationship. Amid the crackling sound of burning firewood in the fireplace, he leisurely patted her head, held her in his arms on the sofa, and recalled the molecular formula he had just been studying.

“You helped me ask for leave from the dorm?” Lu Yixin, who was looking down fiddling with her phone and preparing to announce to her dormmates that she wouldn’t be returning for the night, raised her head.

“Mm.” Fang Yongnian slightly furrowed his brows, thinking whether there was a problem with the conditions under which that molecular formula could form.

“Ehh……” Lu Yixin dragged out the sound, very disappointed. “I was planning to show off our affection.”

But Fang Yongnian had simply sent her roommate a WeChat message saying she had something to do and would be staying home for the night, completely emotionless.

The molecular formula in Fang Yongnian’s mind got stuck, and he gave up, following Lu Yixin’s line of thought: “A freshman staying out overnight with her boyfriend isn’t exactly something to boast about.”

“Tch.” The new-era woman Lu Yixin sneered. “Do you know how many young couples are living together in the rental houses outside the school gate? You have to spend day and night together when dating to deepen the relationship, so it can blossom and bear fruit.”

Fang Yongnian decided not to ask further what kind of flowers or fruits she intended to produce.

“Do you plan to take the postgraduate entrance exam?” He changed the topic. This was actually the second thing he planned to talk about tonight if Lu Yixin hadn’t gotten drunk.

Lu Yixin frowned. “If I say no, will you think I’m aimless and that my education level doesn’t match you, the academic genius?”

“No.” Fang Yongnian suddenly remembered a question he had long been curious about. “Speaking of that, why did you insist on applying for atmospheric science in the first place?”

He only found out after they got together that this girl knew absolutely nothing about atmospheric science.

With her grades in senior high school, she actually could have chosen a much better major.

“At the start, it was really because of you.” Lu Yixin wrinkled her nose, thinking of those days when she chased him while he ran away.

Fang Yongnian also thought of that and smiled bitterly, kissing her forehead.

The nose-wrinkling Lu Yixin’s fur was smoothed.

“Later, I found out that my mom was really happy.” Lu Yixin smiled. “She was truly, genuinely happy. After knowing my choice of major, she kept calling various relatives and friends, even reconnecting with many classmates she hadn’t contacted for hundreds of years who still worked at the school.”

“My mom really loves her job. In these past years, she actually had opportunities to transfer to a more relaxed position, but she discussed it with my dad several times and in the end decided to give it up.”

Maybe because of that, her mother always felt she owed her something.

“Her job isn’t like yours or my dad’s—it doesn’t sound that grand. For ordinary people, meteorological forecasting is something they usually just mock as being inaccurate. Every time there’s a yellow warning, nothing happens; when there’s no warning, something happens. My mom used to joke about how shabby her job was. When she said she worked at the Meteorological Bureau, the question she was most often asked was whether it would rain tomorrow.”

Fang Yongnian laughed.

When he first learned about Liu Miqing’s job, he too had wanted to ask her whether it would rain tomorrow.

“Because I chose this major, my mom bragged to my dad in private that her work was finally being recognized, at least her own daughter understood her.” Lu Yixin looked up, smiling with curved brows and eyes. “So I chose it.”

“I’m not like you guys. I don’t have such a clear dream.”

“My dream is just for the people around me to be happy. As long as I can make you all happy, I’m happy.” She lifted the corners of her lips, her round face turned toward Fang Yongnian. “And now that I’ve studied for a semester, I think it’s pretty fun. The more I learn, the more I seem to understand my mom.”

To understand why her mother was so fascinated by atmospheric science, why she paid so much attention to natural disasters, why such a family-loving mother could never be home with her when the seasons changed every year.

When she said these words, she was still childish.

Under the dim yellow light of the guesthouse room, her childishness at that moment was astonishingly beautiful.

“Your dream is very good.” Fang Yongnian wondered if he had been intoxicated by that mouthful of fruit wine Lu Yixin gave him, he actually felt his eyes sting again.

The second time today.

Such a pure dream, very good.

Such a pure Lu Yixin who also placed him among the people around her, very good.

He stroked her cheek, and in that instant, suddenly felt something real.

The woman in his arms was his.

Such a lovely girl, now wearing the pajamas he bought, the underwear he bought, and smelling of the shampoo he bought.

Delicate and small.

“Close your eyes.” His fingers touched her eyelids. “I want to kiss you.”

Perhaps a closer, more intimate touch could make that sense of reality more tangible, could give all the overflowing feelings in his chest a place to escape.

When he leaned in to kiss her, he told himself that.

Since they started dating, they hadn’t been alone together often; moments of such intimacy could be counted on one hand.

He remembered every single time clearly, and he always knew exactly why he wanted to touch her.

Because she made his heart ache, because she was too cute, because she was too mischievous, and also because… she loved him too much.

Only this time, when he kissed her, he thought of nothing.

His nose was filled with the scent of floral water; his lips brushed against hers—Lu Yixin, as usual, clenched her fists, nervous yet full of anticipation.

Her lips were soft; though she was always chattering, when kissing she would instinctively press them tight.

This time, he patiently held her lips, gently tasting and sucking them, until she loosened them herself for breath.

He invaded bit by bit, somewhat gentle, somewhat firm.

When the mind goes blank, the senses become abnormally sharp.

So he tasted the toothpaste he had bought himself, and realized Lu Yixin’s tongue was small—and tasted sweet.

Her courage was small too. She timidly brushed against him once, then quickly pulled back.

As Fang Yongnian kissed her, the corners of his lips lifted slightly. He pulled away just a little, smiling as he commanded Lu Yixin, “Don’t dodge.”

Lu Yixin, who had the courage of a thief but not the guts of one, flushed red all over her face, completely flustered.

Fang Yongnian once again kissed her without thinking. Simply because, right after that last kiss, her lips were flushed a vivid red.

Then, things got a little out of control.

He told her not to dodge, and she really didn’t.

After one or two tentative tries, she grew bolder, following Fang Yongnian’s lead by instinct, imitating his movements.

Lu Yixin was wearing the pajamas he had just bought online, a white cotton dress. It was the only item in that bag of toiletries he had clicked open to read the details about; its texture was better than he had imagined—pure cotton, very soft.

She had never been thin, had a bit of flesh, petite in height with a small frame. Every time she leaned close to him, her posture was completely trusting, without any distance.

She learned quickly. The night was quiet. When Fang Yongnian suddenly hit the brakes, the tips of his ears were so red it looked as if blood would drip from them.

“I…” His voice was hoarse; he cleared his throat. “I’m going to the bathroom.”

Lu Yixin looked a bit silly, her eyes sparkling as she looked at him, her face also slightly red.

Fang Yongnian couldn’t help but reach out and pat her head, his gaze full of gentleness.

So warm.

Lu Yixin felt so shy she was about to explode, grabbing a pillow to cover her face.

Halfway covered, she remembered she hadn’t replied to him yet, so she buried her face deeper into the pillow and nodded. “Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead.”

She said it in one breath.

Fang Yongnian chuckled softly and rubbed her head.

“Since you’re covering it, don’t peek. It’s kind of obvious.” Fang Yongnian’s voice was still hoarse; the sound of it was so alluring that Lu Yixin broke out in goosebumps all over.

She nodded again inside the pillow.

She listened to Fang Yongnian stand up, she listened to him walk toward the bathroom, and then she secretly peeked one eye out from behind the pillow.

Fang Yongnian was leaning against the bathroom doorway, turning his head to look at her.

He stood there lazily, leaning to one side, with the air of someone just waiting for her to lift her head.

Lu Yixin: “……”

She quickly ducked back behind the pillow again, letting out a soft, embarrassed little sound.

“Told you not to look.” Fang Yongnian’s voice carried a smile; he knew she wasn’t that obedient.

“If you don’t go in, I’ll take a picture!” Lu Yixin, embarrassed and angry, kept her eyes squeezed shut and raised her phone, threatening him fiercely.

Fang Yongnian laughed aloud and finally walked into the bathroom, closing the door.

Lu Yixin quietly lifted her head.

“Take a shower while you’re at it,” she said, her face red. “The shower room’s pretty big.”

And she had placed a small plastic stool inside; when she sat down to shower, she found it quite handy.

She had also arranged all the toiletries on the shelf within arm’s reach while sitting, and laid out the non-slip mat that the guesthouse had put away.

She thought that Fang Yongnian had probably planned to just make do for the night, because in that bag of items, there was nothing of his.

“There’s a bathrobe in there. I checked, it’s clean.” She chattered on. “After you take a shower, just wear that.”

“I’ll go to bed first and cover my eyes. After you come up, turn off the light, and then I won’t be able to see anything.” She started coaxing him again, her tone rising bit by bit like she was coaxing a child.

As she spoke, she walked toward the bed, narrating her every move live.

“I’m getting on the bed now.”

“I’ve covered myself with the blanket!”

“I’m using the pillow to cover my eyes. This time I promise, I won’t look at anything.”

“Sleeping comfortably is important. Don’t wear a shirt and pants to bed, you won’t sleep well like that!”

“Lu Yixin.” In the bathroom, Fang Yongnian didn’t know why his tone came out through gritted teeth.

“Ah?” Lu Yixin, who had been hiding her face under the pillow, couldn’t resist poking her head out again.

“Do you even know what I came to the bathroom to do?” Fang Yongnian, caught between speechlessness and exasperation, chose calmness. “All those books you read were for nothing.”

Lu Yixin: “Huh?”

“…Forget it.” Fang Yongnian gave up. “Shut up.”

“Then are you taking a shower?” Lu Yixin immediately went back to her earlier concern.

“…Yes.” She had prepared everything so carefully, of course he had to wash.

He just felt a bit of heartache. She had secretly learned so much about caring for people with disabilities—about bathing, about things he had never told her, including the prosthetic socket.

“Then I’ll wait for you!” Lu Yixin said happily at once.

And once she was happy, she started to get cheeky: “I’ll be waiting for you in bed!”

“Shut up!” Fang Yongnian said helplessly.

But the corners of his lips stayed lifted.

When it came to these things, he didn’t actually feel that embarrassed.

Just as her mother categorized disability as something external, his own family, strangely enough, also viewed it as something quite normal.

He was merely someone who found it inconvenient to move around while showering. He was merely someone whose one leg was made of metal.