Sang Zhi didn’t know what had happened between the two of them, nor did she understand why Qian Fei was so angry. Feeling confused, she changed the subject, “Brother Qian Fei, why did you come? Where’s my brother?”

Facing Sang Zhi, Qian Fei’s anger subsided by half. “Your brother said he had something to do.”

Sang Zhi nodded and didn’t ask further.

The three of them left the airport and got into the car Qian Fei had parked outside.

Sang Zhi automatically sat in the back seat, while Duan Jiaxu took the front seat. She pulled out her phone and continued searching for hotels for Duan Jiaxu, sending him options via WeChat as she found suitable ones.

It was almost 1:00 AM by this time, but since Sang Zhi had slept on the plane, she wasn’t very tired.

Soft music played in the car, and Duan Jiaxu and Qian Fei chatted sporadically. Perhaps to avoid making Sang Zhi feel awkward, Qian Fei refrained from teasing them about being together.

45 minutes later, the car arrived at Sang Zhi’s building.

Duan Jiaxu got out of the car with her, habitually giving her a few reminders and only returning to the car after watching her enter the building. He re-fastened his seatbelt and heard Qian Fei ask, “Hey, where are you staying?”

Hearing his question, Duan Jiaxu glanced at his phone and mentioned the name of a hotel.

Qian Fei said, “Why book a hotel? Just stay at my place.”

“Forget it.” Duan Jiaxu smiled. “It’s not appropriate.”

“What’s inappropriate? Well, okay.” Qian Fei chuckled. “A week, huh? It wouldn’t be good if you heard anything. By the way, I heard from Sang Yan that you moved again?”

“Mm.”

Qian Fei frowned, nagging like an old mother, “How many times have you moved in the past few years? Just buy a place and settle down. Otherwise, you’ll take all that money to the grave?”

“I don’t want to stay in one place for too long and I don’t plan on staying in Yihe forever.” Duan Jiaxu paused, then added, “Speaking of which, help me keep an eye out for any new housing developments in Nanwu, around this area.”

Qian Fei was taken aback. “In Nanwu?”

“Mm.”

“Are you planning to come back here?” Qian Fei suddenly understood. “Is it because of Sang Zhi?”

Duan Jiaxu smiled and nodded. “She’s quite attached to her family.”

“I’ll ask around later.” Qian Fei said, “But, are you sure about it? What about your work? Didn’t you invest in that company using your technical skills? And it’s doing pretty well, right? What did you agree on back then?”

Duan Jiaxu didn’t answer his barrage of questions. Instead, he suddenly said, “I’ve been thinking about something lately.”

Qian Fei asked, “What?”

They happened to arrive at the hotel and Duan Jiaxu didn’t say more. He unbuckled his seatbelt, opened the car door, and casually said, “Nothing, I’ll think about it some more.”

———pr


Not wanting to wake Sang Rong and Li Ping, Sang Zhi moved carefully. After taking off her shoes, she didn’t even dare to put on slippers and didn’t turn on the lights, using only the light from her phone to find her way back to her room.

Sang Zhi thought she hadn’t made any noise, but she still ended up waking Li Ping. Just as she closed the door and was about to relax, it opened again.

Li Ping’s face still showed signs of sleepiness, but upon seeing Sang Zhi, her drowsiness quickly faded. “You scared me! This girl, didn’t you say you’d be back tomorrow morning?”

“……” Sang Zhi scratched her head. “The flight was too late, so I didn’t want you to wait up for me.”

“Have you eaten? Did your brother bring you back?”

“I’ve eaten. It wasn’t Brother who brought me back.” Sang Zhi didn’t lie and honestly explained, “He seemed to have something to do, so Brother Qian Fei brought me back. I’m going to take a shower and go to bed. You should go back to sleep too.”

They hadn’t seen each other in a while, so Li Ping stared at her for a moment, reached out to touch her face, and sighed, “Why do I feel like you’ve lost weight again? You haven’t been home in over half a year……”

Sang Zhi shook her head. “I haven’t lost weight. I’ve gained two pounds.”

“I’m always worried that you’re not doing well over there and that you won’t tell Mom.” Li Ping couldn’t help but say more, “I feel more at ease when you’re here with me. When you look for an internship in the future, why not find one close to home?”

To avoid waking Sang Rong, Sang Zhi agreed, lowering her voice to reassure Li Ping. It took her quite a while to finally coax her mother to go back to sleep.

Sang Zhi quickly took a shower and returned to her room.

She messaged Duan Jiaxu on WeChat to check on him, chatted for a bit, and then tossed her phone aside.

She closed her eyes, trying to fall asleep, but not long after, Sang Zhi opened her eyes again.

Suddenly remembering something, she got out of bed and pulled out the cardboard box from under the bed.

She had wrapped it with another layer of tape.

Sang Zhi grabbed a utility knife and cut it open again.

In the dim light, Sang Zhi slowly took everything out of the box. The most space-consuming items were the plush toys— there were several of them. She placed them on her desk, planning to toss them into the washing machine tomorrow.

She took out the milk bottle filled with stars and put it back on the windowsill.

Digging further, Sang Zhi found the photo she had secretly taken of Duan Jiaxu. The edges had already turned yellow, but although the resolution wasn’t high, the man’s appearance was still clear.

Back then, Duan Jiaxu had a very youthful vibe, wearing a white sweater. He was looking down while holding a black game controller, which made his skin look even fairer. The smile on his face hadn’t changed much over the years.

Sang Zhi could barely remember how she felt when she took this photo.

But there was still something quite magical about it.

The man she had fallen in love with at first sight.

The person she had liked from her youth until now.

From finding excuses to get close to him, secretly hiding her feelings, wanting to leave a mark in his life, to distancing herself, and trying to forget him with all her might.

And then, because of their reunion, everything had reignited.

In retrospect, it seemed rather beautiful.

She was now with her first love, the person she had secretly admired for so long.

But Sang Zhi thought she would probably never tell Duan Jiaxu about this.

She would never let him know.

She had once tried so hard, with all her courage, to offer her heart, but in the end, fear and helplessness made her hide it deep within.

Hidden so deep that it felt like it had disappeared.

So deep that even she couldn’t find it anymore.

And she would never let him know that with just a single gesture, her heart would start racing, ready to leap out at any moment.

Those so-called hidden feelings, in front of him, became impossible to conceal.

———pr


The next morning, after finishing breakfast, Sang Zhi returned to her room. When she noticed the plush toys on her desk, she suddenly remembered them. She gathered them all up and walked out of the room, calling out, “Mom, I want to wash these.”

Li Ping and Sang Rong were sitting on the sofa watching TV.

Hearing Sang Zhi’s voice, Li Ping looked up and glanced at the toys in her arms. “Huh? Didn’t you put those away? Why did you take them out all of a sudden?”

“I just happened to find them.” Sang Zhi mumbled, not knowing how to explain, “I figured they don’t take up much space anyway.”

“Just put them in the basket. I’ll toss them in the washing machine for you later.” Li Ping didn’t ask further, patting the spot next to her. “Come here and watch TV with your mom and dad for a bit.”

Sang Zhi nodded and walked over to sit down.

They said they were watching TV, but mostly they were asking her about her vacation and what had happened recently. Sang Zhi answered honestly for the most part, but she skimmed over the questions she felt she couldn’t answer.

Taking advantage of a brief pause while Sang Rong and Li Ping were chatting, Sang Zhi pulled out her phone from her pocket. She happened to see a message from Duan Jiaxu, 【Awake?】

【Sang Zhi: Yes.】

【Duan Jiaxu: 1532.】

【Sang Zhi: ?】

【Duan Jiaxu: Room number.】

Sang Zhi: “……”

【Duan Jiaxu: Feel free to come pamper me if you have time.】

Sang Zhi felt speechless but couldn’t help laughing as she replied, 【Maybe in a couple of days.】

She was about to send another message when she suddenly heard Li Ping calling her. Sang Zhi instinctively turned off the phone screen and looked up, dazedly responding, “What is it?”

Li Ping smiled and asked, “Who are you chatting with? You look so happy.”

Sang Zhi casually replied, “A classmate.”

Li Ping half-jokingly teased, “Are you in a relationship?”

Hearing that, Sang Rong also looked over. “Zhizhi, are you dating?”

“……” Sang Zhi licked her lips, feeling a bit uneasy, and murmured in affirmative.

Since Li Ping felt Sang Zhi was at an age where it was normal, Li Ping wasn’t too surprised and just asked, “When did it start? I called you so many times and you never mentioned anything.”

Sang Rong frowned. “You’re really dating?”

Sang Zhi whispered, “It hasn’t been long.”

Seeing her discomfort, Li Ping reassured her, “It’s okay to date, but you should be careful and protect yourself.”

Sang Zhi nodded.

Li Ping then asked, “What’s your boyfriend’s name? Where’s he from? Is he from your school? What’s his major? His personality—”

Sang Rong gestured for Sang Zhi to come over, his expression disapproving. “Zhizhi, wait until after you graduate to find someone. If you date now, won’t you have to settle down over there? Is this boyfriend of yours willing to come to Nanwu with you?”

Sang Zhi, feeling overwhelmed, abruptly stood up and dashed to her room. “That’s all, I’m going to take a nap!”

She could still hear Sang Rong asking behind her, “Who is she dating?”

“How would I know?” Li Ping responded with a laugh. “It’s probably a classmate she met over there.”

Sang Zhi wanted to take her time, gradually revealing everything to them.

Sang Yan’s reaction had left her still a bit shaken.

But after thinking it over, Sang Zhi felt that Sang Rong and Li Ping wouldn’t react as strongly as Sang Yan did. They were surely going to be more understanding. Besides, in her opinion, there wasn’t anything to criticize about Duan Jiaxu.

Sang Zhi stayed home with her parents for a few days. If she wasn’t being dragged out by Li Ping to go shopping, she was accompanying her parents to visit relatives, leaving her no time to meet Duan Jiaxu.

But it seemed he had also been busy, catching up with some of his old university friends, so he wasn’t idle either.

During this long holiday, Sang Zhi didn’t see Sang Yan return home at all.

Every now and then, she would hear Li Ping grumbling about him, saying that he was always irresponsible and that now he had even lost his conscience, turning into an ungrateful son. That whenever she met with friends, they all assumed she only had a daughter, and that whenever they heard she had a grown son, they would be shocked, asking if she had adopted him recently.

Every time Sang Zhi heard it, she would thoughtfully pass the message on to Sang Yan through WeChat.

This finally forced him to come home one evening.

As a result, at dinner that night, Sang Zhi was no longer the center of attention and didn’t have to struggle to answer the barrage of questions from Li Ping and Sang Rong.

Sang Zhi silently ate her meal, thoroughly enjoying listening to Sang Yan being lectured by Sang Rong and Li Ping in turn.

This went on for over ten minutes before Sang Yan couldn’t take it anymore and said emotionlessly, “Are you going to let me eat or not?”

Li Ping, following his words, started scolding again, “So now I can’t even say a few words to you?”

“……”

Sang Yan took a deep breath, then nudged Sang Zhi with his elbow, signaling her to help him out.

Sang Zhi turned her head to glance at him, sighed, and said, “Brother, you’re wrong for this. You really hurt Mom’s feelings.”

“……”

Sang Rong added, “You’re an adult now, but still not as considerate as your sister.”

Sang Yan raised an eyebrow and said coldly, “If she’s so considerate, she’d probably spend both the long and short holidays at home with you.” Pausing, he then looked at Sang Zhi, “Right?”

Sang Zhi was at a loss for words.

As soon as he brought this up, both Sang Rong and Li Ping turned their attention back to Sang Zhi. Once again, the entire table’s focus was on her.

“……” Sang Zhi regretted fanning the flames and reluctantly said, “Let’s just eat.”

After dinner, Sang Yan didn’t stay long before heading out again after receiving a call.

Li Ping, sitting on the sofa, saw him getting ready to leave and started, “Aren’t you staying for a few days? You’re leaving right after dinner?”

“Mom.” Sang Yan had been scolded so much that he had lost his temper. “I’m an adult now. What kind of person stays home all day?”

Li Ping was displeased. “Didn’t you just got back? How did it become staying home all day?”

“……”

Li Ping continued, “Where are you going?”

Sang Yan walked to the entrance, changing his shoes as he said, “Qian Fei called, we’re going out for some late-night snacks.”

“Drinking again?”

“No drinking.”

Sang Zhi, who had been sitting on the sofa eating fruit, raised her head when she heard that and casually remarked, “Barbecue? I want some too.”

Seeing through her intent, Sang Yan smirked and kindly reminded her, “You can order delivery.”

Sang Zhi pretended not to hear him, jumped up, and ran to her room. “Wait for me, I’m just going to change clothes.”

As she expected, Sang Yan didn’t wait for her. By the time Sang Zhi came out of her room, he was already gone.

Sang Zhi hurried to the entrance, putting on her shoes as she called out, “Mom, Dad, I’m heading out!”

Li Ping was stunned, watching her in confusion. “Zhizhi, are you really going?”

“Yeah.”

“You can just order delivery, or your dad and I can go with you.” Li Ping said, puzzled, “You never used to like going out with your brother and even said you don’t know him.”

Sang Zhi didn’t know how to explain, so she pretended to be in a hurry, saying quickly, “I’ll be back soon, don’t wait up!”

With that, Sang Zhi didn’t wait for Li Ping to say anything else and quickly opened the door and left.

Sang Yan was still waiting for the elevator when she came out. Seeing her, he sneered. “Barbecue?”

“……”

“Why does this feel so familiar?”

Sang Zhi didn’t feel guilty at all and responded confidently, “It’s not the first time I’m going out for a barbecue with you.”

“I just remembered something.”

“What?”

“Back when I was a junior at university, you offered to help me move dorms.” Sang Yan turned and looked at her meaningfully. “Was that also because of ‘barbecue’?”