The night in Sapporo was very cold.

Lumi’s kiss was also cold.

The two of them looked at each other in the darkness, a long-standing contest. The grievance in Lumi’s eyes scorched a small hole in Tu Ming’s heart. He suddenly leaned forward and kissed her. His kiss carried the chill of Hokkaido, and when his tongue touched hers, Lumi was stunned. Joy surged in her heart, and she didn’t even have time to figure out where the joy came from. Her body moved first, her tongue meeting his, her teeth gently brushing against his tongue. Tu Ming pulled her into his embrace with force.

Her hand was between them, and she didn’t withdraw it as he kissed her. Instead, she instinctively rubbed him lightly, causing Tu Ming to feel dizzy. Until she reached under his clothes, her cold hand moving downward, Tu Ming groaned and stopped moving, his body arching slightly away from her entangling body.

He looked at Lumi in the dim light.

Lumi’s eyes seemed to say: You see, it’s that easy. We should be like this. At least that’s how it seemed to Tu Ming.

Both of them had their own positions, and neither was wrong. Tu Ming didn’t know how to explain it to Lumi. He was at a loss for words. Lumi’s hand was on his body, and she forgot to take it away. Her cold hand was warmed by his body.

There’s no need to be ashamed of one’s desires, Tu Ming knew. He took her hand and moved it away from his body. Lumi’s hand returned from the warmth to the cold, and she even felt uncomfortable.

“Lumi, I hope you understand. Sleeping together is very easy, really. For example, now, at the end of this street is a very good hotel. You and I can do anything. But is that what you want? A fleeting romance? A one-night stand? That’s not what I want.”

“I want clear feelings, a heart that is sincere, where we care about each other and don’t treat feelings as a game. Not to act for the sake of conquering someone, that’s too childish and not responsible enough.”

“Even if I have a physical reaction, I really don’t like this. Even if I completely give up on myself and sleep with you today, I will still hate myself.”

“I don’t know why I’m telling you this. Over the past few months, you’ve done a lot that made me think you’re too cool, too special, too amazing. Even though I’m a few years older than you, I’ve never met anyone like you in my life. I really cherish the relationship between us, truly.”

“I don’t like this kind of primitive loss of control. Do you understand what I’m saying?” Tu Ming asked her.

“Tu Ming, I understand. I’m just like this, I can’t change. Next time, you don’t have to be so tactful. Just say you don’t like me. Like you rejected me last time. Oh, there won’t be a next time. I’m done playing.” Lumi couldn’t describe what she was feeling. She just felt that she and Tu Ming were not on the same path.

She did things directly. If she felt something, she went for it; if not, she withdrew. She never wasted too much energy on one thing. Tu Ming had already been an exception for her.

“I also hope you understand that the feelings between men and women are not a script. They don’t have to reach a certain level to be natural. A relationship that you can see through at a glance is really boring, and I don’t like it.”

“You don’t have the right to refuse to satisfy someone’s needs and still expect them to be friends with you. That kind of thinking is quite annoying.”

“Either you sleep with me, or we never speak to each other again. I’m just like that, either black or white, no middle ground.”

“So be it. It was wrong of me to touch you.”

Lumi turned and left.

She was dejected, even more so than when she broke up with Zhang Qing. She was probably tormented by Tu Ming.

She walked in front, and Tu Ming followed behind. Lumi heard the crunching sound of snow being stepped on and turned around to snap at him: “Stop following me! I’ll hit you.”

“Are you going back to the hotel?” Tu Ming asked her.

“Yes.”

“I am too. In this situation, I think it’s more appropriate to say we’re going the same way. What do you think?”

“Damn.”

For the first time in her life, Lumi felt helpless against someone. This person was immune to both soft and hard tactics, impervious to persuasion, and no matter how she tried to tempt him, he remained unmoved. If you were unreasonable, he ignored you; if you wanted to be reasonable, he had reasons for everything.

That night, she was in a particularly bad mood and really wanted to kill Tu Ming, but she had no justification. When Tang Wuyi returned, he sent her a message: “I brought you some ‘colorful love.’ Come and eat it.”

“Okay.”

Lumi wrapped herself in her down jacket and left her room to find Tang Wuyi. The two of them stood at the hotel entrance, with the snowy night of Sapporo outside, very quiet. Tang Wuyi tore open the plastic packaging and handed it to her: “Here, eating something sweet might improve your mood.”

“How did you know I was in a bad mood?”

“It’s written all over your face!”

“Oh!”

The ‘colorful love’ was sweet but not cloying, and Lumi liked it. After finishing it, she reached out to Tang Wuyi for another piece.

“Didn’t you eat dinner?”

“I had a few bites, but I didn’t finish the crab legs before I saw Will.” Lumi told Tang Wuyi about what happened today, but she left out the part where she reached into Tu Ming’s pants.

Now that she thought about it, it was quite embarrassing. She was the type who, when the mood struck, would act without restraint. Even the ice and snow couldn’t stop her from getting carried away. By doing that, Tu Ming probably thought she was particularly bad at controlling herself.

“Wow! It got that bad? Then take it easy for a few days. Hang out with your little brother. I’ll dress up nicely and won’t embarrass you.” Tang Wuyi teased her. He probably understood that these two were not on the same page and would need a lot of time to smooth things out. There would be a lot of smoothing out to do!

Tu Ming stood by the window, watching the two of them chatting intimately at the entrance. Lumi was focused on eating cookies, obviously in a good mood, as if she wasn’t the one who had just had a heated argument with him.

Tu Ming couldn’t understand Lumi. Logically speaking, Lumi should be the most straightforward one, because her temper and thoughts were written all over her face. Yet, when it came to the issues between the two of them, he couldn’t read her.

Tu Ming couldn’t sleep.

Lumi’s cold hand seemed to be pressed against his body, and he actually didn’t know that adults expressed their feelings so directly. His body woke up faster than his mind.

The next day when they gathered, there were faint dark circles under his eyes. The weather in Sapporo was beautiful, and it started to snow.

Lumi wore a colorful ear warmer and stood to one side, with earphones in her ears. A long cord extended from under the ear warmer. She was listening to “Laputa: Castle in the Sky.” Lumi could also be romantic at times. For example, when she came to Japan, she would definitely listen to those old songs.

After a night of self-explanation and mercilessly berating Tu Ming in her heart, she had calmed down by now. She summed up her mindset: The water has cooled.

Today, they were going to take a small train from Sapporo to Otaru, Lumi’s favorite journey in Japan. She could ride it a hundred times without getting bored, just like riding a bike through the Ten-Li Gallery over and over again. This small train ride, she could take dozens of times.

Tang Wuyi also wore earphones and stood beside her, giving off a strong sense of compatibility.

When the small train departed, the passengers saw the snowy city on one side and the boundless blue ocean on the other, and they suddenly became very quiet. Lumi sat on the side facing away from the ocean. Her music happened to play the theme from “Spirited Away.” She was like the little girl, traveling on the sea train. It was rare for her to be so quiet and serious.

It was more like a painting than anything else.

Later, she stopped looking at the city and turned to look at the sea, her face pressed against the window. She didn’t say a word throughout the entire journey. Tang Wuyi sat beside her, like her faceless man.

Tu Ming sat on the side facing the sea. The scenery was too beautiful, but the seriousness around him was out of place with the view.

Wumeng sent him a message: “Boss, are you unhappy?”

“No, thank you for your concern.”

“Then let me take a picture for you.” Wumeng sat opposite and took a picture of Tu Ming. His demeanor blended with the snowy city behind him. Wumeng felt that a small part of her heart had been opened, a secret emotion she couldn’t share with others.

Daisy suggested that everyone take a group photo on the train and waved to Lumi and Tang Wuyi: “Come on, let’s take a picture to remember this.”

Lumi thought Daisy’s EQ was really high, and Jacky’s EQ was also high. She took the initiative to sit next to Tu Ming. The various expressions of life were vividly displayed.

“Come on, Lumi! Quickly!” Daisy waved at her and Tang Wuyi. The two of them moved over, with Lumi sitting on the edge and Tang Wuyi beside her, his hand resting on the windowsill behind her.

They took a casual photo like this.

As they passed through Asari, Lumi and Tang Wuyi exchanged a glance, their thoughts quietly stirring. Both of them wanted to get off the train. But since they were out with the group, they couldn’t cause trouble. Lumi understood this.

So she asked the tour guide: “You said, if we get off at Asari to play for a while, will it delay us going to the ‘colorful love’ factory to pick up the customized cookies?”

“It won’t delay us.”

“Then why don’t we get off at Asari? Since we’re here, don’t you think…” Lumi’s words amused the tour guide: “I’ll ask Will.”

“Let’s get off.”

Before the tour guide could ask, Tu Ming agreed. Such a small matter wasn’t worth hesitating over. Asari was beautiful and worth getting off to explore. Trusting Lumi’s judgment in matters of eating, drinking, and having fun was usually not wrong.

The unmanned station was covered in snow, and in the heavy snow, it was surprisingly indistinct. Lumi put on her hat and ran into the snow, squatting down by the sea to build a snowman.

Tang Wuyi followed her, and the two of them knelt on the ground like mischievous children. It wasn’t long before their noses were red. The snowman they built wasn’t very good-looking, but Lumi wrapped her scarf around it, her hands in her down jacket pockets, smiling as she took a photo with the snowman and the sea.

When they were ready to leave, Tu Ming stood behind her and saw the snow on her shoulders, so he reminded her: “Brush off the snow before you get on the train.”

Lumi turned to look at him, almost blurting out, “None of your business,” but she managed to hold it back. She brushed the snow off her shoulders, but she couldn’t reach the snow on her back. She tried to stretch her arm back in vain. She was about to ask Wumeng in front of her for help when she felt a hand gently patting her back. She turned around to see Tu Ming, his eyes lowered, with an expression that said he would help if it were him.

“Thanks,” Lumi said to him and quickly ran a few steps to stand behind Tang Wuyi, helping him brush the snow off his hat.

Tang Wuyi glanced at Tu Ming and whispered to Lumi: “He’s trying to be nice to you!”

“Who cares!” Lumi retorted and boarded the train to Otaru.

She was in a particularly good mood throughout the journey, adhering to the principle that no grandchild should ruin the trip, and kept her distance from Tu Ming until they reached the hotel.

The hotel Tu Ming chose amazed everyone. He chose the most expensive hot spring inn in Otaru, surrounded by mountains and the sea, with mist rising everywhere.

“Traveling with the boss is really too happy.” Serena couldn’t help but exclaim: “He’s generous and has excellent taste.”

“I just heard that the hotel’s hot spring is the best. Shall we open it and soak tonight?” Daisy asked.

“The rooms for the ladies have private baths, so you can soak to your heart’s content. The gentlemen will have to make do with the public baths.” Tu Ming said this. He remembered the concerns of the group and also understood that girls liked to take photos of themselves soaking in the private baths, revealing their beautiful shoulders, with the distant mountains and the nearby sea and snow, which made for very good photos. He didn’t want to disappoint his employees, so he had the inn coordinate for a long time.

Everyone was very happy and clapped their hands lightly in pretend applause. When they went to their rooms, Lumi heard Daisy say to Serena: “Although Will is divorced, I really think marrying him must be very happy.”

“Me too!” Both of them were a little excited, because of this trip, they were quite moved by Tu Ming.

Although they were just talking, Lumi saw the change in Wumeng’s expression behind them. Lumi felt as if she had glimpsed some secret, but she said nothing.

“I’m going out later, Lumi, are you coming?” Wumeng asked her.

“Where are you going?” Lumi asked.

“Just… anywhere…”

“I’m not going, I’m tired.” Lumi yawned.

“Then I’ll go first, see you at the factory later.”

“Okay.”

Wumeng opened the door and left. After a few seconds, Lumi also went out and stopped at a corner, watching Wumeng leave.

After a while, Tu Ming also left.

???