Chapter 33: No Thanks

At the dinner table, Qiu Tang asked Jiang Mingzhi and Pei Jinyang how their afternoon went.

Jiang Mingzhi was still chewing her food and didn’t get a chance to respond when Pei Jinyang spoke first:
“She went off with Guan Jingxu alone.”

“Oh?”

Qiu Tang had thought her daughter and Guan Jingxu were just academic acquaintances. She’d only invited two more kids today to keep things from getting awkward.

Jiang Mingzhi, knowing her mother wasn’t aware of the complicated dynamics between the younger generation, didn’t bother to lie. She nodded and said,
“We went jet skiing and surfing. Pei Jinyang and Sheng Qiaoxi didn’t come with us.”

Pei Jinyang raised an eyebrow with a mocking smile.
“School may not ban early relationships, but you two should still be more careful.”

Jiang Mingzhi’s expression tightened. She resisted the urge to throw her chopsticks at him.
“If anything, you should be the one being careful.”

Seeing that the two were about to start arguing again, Pei Zhaohua and Qiu Tang both quickly changed the subject to smooth things over.

After dinner, they walked back to the hotel along the coastline.

The streetlights shone brightly. The sea had shed its daytime clamor and now hid quietly in the dark, endlessly rolling in waves.

For this newly blended family, a post-dinner stroll was a rare chance to enjoy each other’s company.

Although Pei Zhaohua and Pei Jinyang walked ahead, not looking particularly close, Jiang Mingzhi and Qiu Tang walked behind them, arms linked, appearing much more affectionate in comparison.

Jiang Mingzhi tilted her head to look at the sky above the sea, where a few tiny stars were scattered.

“Mingzhi,”
her mother’s voice murmured in the wind.

“What is it, Mom?”

Qiu Tang hesitated for a bit before finally saying,
“I’m not against you experiencing a beautiful relationship, but you must always put yourself first.”

Jiang Mingzhi paused for a moment, then laughed lightly.
“Mom, you’re overthinking. I’m really not dating anyone, and I don’t plan to.”

In her eyes, those boys were all too childish.

She’d have to be truly out of her mind to catch feelings for any of them. Even in college, she’d have to think twice about it.

At least for now, she had no interest in raising another boy or teaching one how to love her.

Call her once bitten, twice shy—or just wiser after learning her lesson.

This time around, she felt that as long as she had her mother and kind Uncle Pei, that was enough.

She believed that as long as she didn’t self-destruct, good days would eventually come.

Qiu Tang saw how firm her daughter was and didn’t press further. After all, she wasn’t pushing her daughter into dating—she just didn’t oppose it.

She patted the back of her daughter’s hand, comforted.
“Alright. Mom knows you’re sensible.”

Her daughter had been away for so many years, and Qiu Tang had worried there might be distance between them. But unexpectedly, her daughter naturally grew close to her again.

It was a pleasant surprise—and perhaps proof that blood ties truly run deep.

Her daughter was once part of her flesh. Even after all those years apart, that mother-daughter bond remained unbroken.

——

While Jiang Mingzhi had a peaceful evening, dinner for Guan Jingxu turned into a full-blown interrogation.

Three women in his family took turns grilling him about the girl from school.

His aunt and grandmother had only seen Jiang Mingzhi once; most of what they knew came from Xu Hong’s descriptions.

His grandma said,
“Tiantian’s always been popular with little girls—even back in kindergarten, he’d come home with a pocket full of candy every day.”

His aunt added,
“Then he grew up and stopped playing with girls, got obsessed with airplanes and tanks instead.”

Xu Hong chimed in,
“That girl even brought back local specialties for Axu when she visited her hometown. She looks like a well-mannered young lady.”

His aunt continued,
“She’s pretty too. A girl like that must have a lot of boys chasing her. Axu, you better act fast.”

Guan Jingxu: “……”
He was done.

“Auntie, please don’t say stuff like that. There’s really nothing going on between us.”

The three women chattered on regardless.

“You didn’t even want to come to Sanya at first, but I bet you’re glad you did now.”

“Young people never listen to the older generation. Regret always comes too late.”

Guan Jingxu was completely numb.

Xu Hong said,
“Next time, find a chance to give her a gift in return. When’s her birthday?”

Guan Jingxu: “……”
He honestly didn’t know.

His aunt clutched her chest in despair. “You seriously don’t know? Ay, why are you so careless? Girls like that have to be fought for! Don’t be like your cousin—didn’t date at twenty, wasn’t anxious at twenty-five, now he’s thirty and still single!”

His grandma added, “Next time, invite her over to our place.”

Guan Jingxu: “……”

Please don’t scare her away.

Seeing her son looking like life had lost all meaning, Xu Hong laughed and stepped in to stop the teasing. “Alright, that’s enough. They’re still young. It’s perfectly fine for them to just be classmates and friends and slowly build a bond.”

Only then did Guan Jingxu’s expression ease up a little.

Xu Hong said, “Actually, none of us are against you dating. We just know that whether you date or not, you’ll always take your studies seriously. But you can’t guarantee the same for the other person. So, out of respect for them, I think it’s better to take things slow. After all, you’re still young, and there’s a long, wonderful youth ahead of you.”

Guan Jingxu nodded, taking her words to heart.

Right now, he really didn’t have any plans to take things further with Jiang Mingzhi.

He just thought the way things were now was already pretty great.

But lying in bed, his mind refused to stay quiet. It kept replaying the scenes from earlier that day—every moment with her.

He tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

—Boom, boom, boom—

Fireworks exploded outside the window, bursting across the night sky in dazzling colors. The flashes slipped through the gap in the curtains, catching the boy’s eye.

He got out of bed, slid open the balcony door, and took a photo with his phone to capture the moment.

The beauty of fireworks is fleeting—but preserved in his photo album, frozen in time. He opened WeChat and sent the photo to Jiang Mingzhi.

[Fireworks by the sea. Can you see them from where you are?]

Suddenly, he felt a little melancholy. He hadn’t taken any pictures during the day. All those beautiful moments he shared with her—he could only replay them in his head. There was nothing he could share with others.

Under the fireworks, the boy thought recklessly and freely about a girl.

He wanted to compare her to summer.

To the blazing sun, the howling sea breeze, the cloudless blue sky, the endless crashing waves, and the cool fizz of a soda bottle just popped open.

They’d faced the sweltering sea wind together, the orange twilight draped over the palm trees.

Her face had been dappled with light and shadow—it made him want to sink into her forever.

Everything about it had been unrestrained and exhilarating.

As the fireworks show ended and darkness returned, only smoke and the scent of gunpowder lingered in the air before the wind blew them away.

Guan Jingxu felt like he had to share this with someone. He couldn’t let that bit of vivid color in his heart vanish silently into the night.

He called Zhuang Heyang.

The phone rang a long time before it was answered. A sleepy voice came from the other end: “Moshi moshi… What do you want…?”

Now that someone was finally there to listen, Guan Jingxu didn’t know where to begin.

After a long pause, he managed to squeeze out, “You’re still awake too?”

A giant question mark popped over Zhuang Heyang’s head.

???

Wasn’t he the one who had been woken up by Guan the dog’s call? What do you mean you’re still awake?!

He had just encountered the real-life version of “I’m awake because I missed you.”

Before he could explode, Guan Jingxu said, “I ran into Jiang Mingzhi in Sanya.”

Zhuang Heyang: “Yeah, so? Isn’t that something everyone already knows?”

The day before, both of them had posted pictures of the same sea on their Moments feed. Anyone who followed both of them would know.

“Bro, did you really call me in the middle of the night just to say that? Do you know I’ve been climbing a mountain all day?! My legs were shaking on the way down! Are you just here to show off? You are, aren’t you?! Guan Sweetie, I hate you!!”

Zhuang Heyang practically had a breakdown on the phone and was so frustrated he wanted to cry.

Why was it that other people got beautiful girls and beaches for vacation while he had to climb mountains with old men?

Life really wasn’t fair.

Guan Jingxu tried to comfort him. “It’s actually really hot here—I got sunburned.”

Zhuang Heyang’s frustration eased slightly, but then—

Guan Jingxu continued, “And Jiang Mingzhi was super intense with the jet ski—I almost got thrown into the ocean. Then we had a surfing competition, and I lost, so I bought her a drink.”

Zhuang Heyang screamed over the phone: “WHO ASKED YOU?! No one cares that you rode a jet ski with her! NO ONE CARES what drink you bought her!!”

Fuming, he hung up and yanked the blanket over his head to sleep.

The next day, after sleeping in and regaining a bit of his rational mind, Zhuang Heyang suddenly realized just how weird Guan Jingxu had been last night.

And then it hit him: Holy crap, the iron tree is blooming!